I am not commissioned specially to speak for the
_Luminary_, nor to prophesy concerning any convention
which may hereafter assemble. I only speak for myself. Let
it then be candidly admitted that the fund which I have
been able to collect is a rather unpromising beginning,
and that it does not augur that this mission will be well
sustained. I remark, then, I never was adequately
sustained. I have been a frontier and a pioneer preacher,
and have shared the fortunes of such men. To keep myself
in the field I have labored very hard, I have toiled by
day, and have subjected my family to the necessity of such
labor, privation, and close economy as, perhaps, calls for
rebuke instead of praise. The churches at Davenport, Long
Grove, De Witt, Marion, and Highland Grove, in Iowa; and
Camp Point, Mt. Sterling, and Rushville, in Illinois, can
be addressed as to my former manner of life. I would speak
modestly of myself; and have not obtruded these matters
before the brethren until rudely assailed as though I
never made any sacrifices.
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