From North Elba, New York, Salmon Brown writes R. J. Hinton regarding his father's (John Brown's) role in the Pottawatomie Creek killings of May 24, 1856. Reportedly, Gov. Charles Robinson had told James Redpath that John Brown had confessed to him that "he helped kill the Doyles" but "if Gov. R said so he lies." Brown would not have confided in Robinson, according to his son, since he had not "put any confidence in Robinson after that Lawrence treaty" (which ended the Wakarusa War in December, 1855). Salmon doesn't answer the question about his father's role in the killings. He portrays the killing of "those spies" as the heoric "first blow with the sword against Slavery in this county" and insists the killers "were life preservers and they saved Kansas."