Martin Stowell, from Nebraska City, Nebraska, is writing to Reverend Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Stowell and other members of his company from Massachusetts had been driven out of Kansas Territory. Fortunately, none of them had been placed under arrest. Stowell had just returned from Lexington, Kansas Territory, and writes that he had "left Brown there in as comfortable circumstances as I could." The identity of Brown is unclear. The "Plymouth men" in Lexington had stolen their flour and tools which they had hidden in a neighbor's haystack. Stowell inquires about the news revolving around the upcoming Presidential election and other news from the East.