Oscar Learnard wrote his father, S.T. Learnard, that he was disappointed in the attitude of people in Vermont and throughout the North who continued to support the Pierce administration. If they did so because they were Democrats, they should learn from Andrew H. Reeder, J. H. Lane, William Y. Roberts, and others who had seen the light. Learnard admitted "a few cases" of free state retaliation "upon their oppressors," and then gave some "facts" about the "Patawotamie" incident, while not mentioning John Brown by name. Learnard believed that the reports about mangled bodies were untrue.