Monroe Co. Iowa Jan 23d 1861 J.R.C.

Dear Cousin

We received your letter a few days ago. We were glad to hear from you although you are entire strangers to me and those of the family younger than myself[.] I was born in South Carolina but h[ave] no remembrance of [MS illegible] I would be glad to see you all and become acquain[ted] with all of my relations and should have paid you a visit long ago but for one thing and that is I felt as though I could not enjoy myself w[h]ere the liberty of speech was gagged and prohibited. And knew well that I would be mobed if I were once in the land of rash aristocrats. For I believe in having my constitutional rights though the terms be tar and feathers. I don't wish to start an argument to prove whether slavery be right or wrong. You yourself will acknowledge that it is an evil and so says the whole civilized world. And no one will be so dishonest or are so ignorant as not to acknowledge or see that it is a curse to our country. Examine the census taken by our government and you will see that the wealth population power enterprise and intelligence of the nation is found in the north where we live up to the principles of the declaration and constitution of our republican government that all men are born free and equal and believe in a common huma[n]ity for all races for all nations and races of men. The people of the north think it no degradation to be caught laboring with the hand for a support. Honest old Abe dident. The election of whom has scared the lordly tyrants of the South into a terrible great big little fit.