Samuel Cabot, a member of the New England Emigrant Aid Company Executive Committee, wrote to James Abbott about Abbott's upcoming trip to St. Louis, in which Abbott would claim some stolen rifles on behalf of Cabot. Cabot included another letter to St. Louis attorneys Knox and Kellogg, which named Abbott as his official agent in the matter. Cabot recounted that "Highwaymen" of Lexington, Missouri, had stolen the rifles the previous spring.