Joseph Denison wrote from Cincinatti, Ohio, to Isaac Goodnow, who was also traveling in the East. Denison had been traveling in the Midwest as part of an effort to raise a relief fund for citizens of Kansas Territory who had suffered as a result of a severe drought. He reported his fellow churchmen and abolitionists were eager to help, as they believed that "the recent Republican victories are due in great part to the settlers and sufferers in Kansas," and his belief that "if the Mission Committee fail to do for the Preachers of Kansas they must be helped outside or they will be starved out of the Territory."