Letter from Rachel B. Stevens, dated 1861-11-24

[Text in top margin, written upside down] I have been waiting very impatiently for a full length photograph of the. I am very anxious for one, though I do not know as thee can get a chance to have one taken. Have you sent yours to the [?]? Pleaswe write very soon. Love to Henry and all the boys. love, lover, lovest to thee Ann

[Text in top margin written downward] "The Saints in Heaven were Fanatics on Earth." "La verité est eternelle."

[Text normal] Although hidden under the dust of superstitious bigotry; sunk beneath a deep ocean of hatred or shrouded with clouds of ignorance and jealousy, yet the day surely comes where the dust is wiped away by the hand of Religion, the ocean reveals the treasures in its depths, and the cloud disappears before the [says?] of Enlightenment, then the diamond, the pearl and the star shine, but [?ntly], soft and beautifully. Truth which is an attribute of Him, who created time and [?] Eternity, like the whole of which it is a part, can never perish. Darkness may envelop it, but the suunshine will at last break through; [strikethrough] and [/strikethrough] rain may obscure but it only starts the seed and nourishes the flower.

The advocates of truth and right were despised and [persecuted?] at the time they lived, but the next generation acknowledged them as just men and holy. Those, who in this century are [accounted?] as fanatics, may in the following be honored and respected by the advanced people who will see the truth with clearer eyes and weigh the good and evil with sounder judgement.

What was long ago spurned as falsehood has become the truth of the to day and the dead boughs of error fall

away, that the living virtue may gry grow freer and [further ?], [During?] all ages those [some?], who have since been thought to have been benefactors of their [race?] were unknown angels and their deeds and words met scorn and ridicule. The Christian [Examiner?] wrote that book which, now, is classed next the Bible, while in a loathsome prison and surrounded by bitter enemies, He passed through the Valley of [Humiliation?] to the Land of Beulah and the celestial City. The Derby Dates [ on air?], and the "brave peacemaker", were scorned, reviled and imprisoned, yet now, their memory and prnciples are honored and respected by many who still keep their [?] air and friendly speech, and they haveentered the joy of their Lord. [INSERT: The man or woman who steps out of the [?] truck, to do a deed however worthy, is always [misunderstood?], Even Florence Nightengale, was no exception, a delicate woman who was in spite of her [unsympathizing?] friends and the [uncheering?] world went to the far Crimea, suffering what a woman must necessarily endure in such a place, with her motives misconstrued and her endeavors unappreciated she faithfully performed her mission, [binding?] the bleeding wounds, comforting the distressed, and cheering the dying, so, blessing the otherwise cheerless hospital, the poor soldier [turned?] on his uneasy bed of pain, to kiss her shadow. She is receiving her reward of faithfulness, where rebukes or scorn cannot reach her. From St. Paul of the 1st Century who was called mad, to, may I say, John Brown of this [19?], who has been branded a [?] + traitor, is, alas, the history of the good, the reformers of this world, is the same. The [perils?] by their own countrymen, in [perils?] among false bretren

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