John Doy writes from Lawrence, Kansas Territory, to Reverend Thomas W. Higginson of Worcester, Massachusetts, relating the struggles of Doy's family and other matters of interest in the Kansas Territory. Doy writes that he had to sell the last of his corn crop and his pig just to make ends meet during the winter. He also briefly mentions the Central Committee, stating that he did not ask them for relief funds or provisions, because recently they had acted improperly towards some ladies. He also informs Higginson of an altercation at Lecompton, Kansas Territory, where Missourians shot a storekeeper named Mr. Shepard, and "Sherrard their Bully late of Virginia was shot and died in a day or two." In addition, Doy comments on the "bogus officers" and their work in the territory.