This printed letter was written by Thaddeus Hyatt to B. F. Camp of Albany, New York. Hyatt's eloquent plea for assistance spoke of the drought and famine in Kansas during 1860 and 1861. The letter included personal experiences, and excerpts from Kansas settlers' descriptions of the conditions in their area. For instance, a local physician wrote that "starvation stares us all in the face." The letter also provided agricultural statistics from Kansas Territory, beginning in 1859, to demonstrate the hard facts about this drought.