0 9 0.. I I* of 0 #, 0. 0.,: "* c 0. * "0 0 I" 0.1 It I 11 JOHN BROWN AND HIS MEN With Some Account of the Roads They Traveled to Reach Harper's Ferry BY RICHARD J. HINTON MEMBER AMERICAN SOCIETY IRRIGATION ENGINEER l/thor of "Handbook to Arizona," "English Radical Leaders," "Phillib Henry Sheridan," etc. Editor of " The Poems by Richard Reaf." RE VISED EDITION FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON I Copyright, 1894, by the FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY. [Registered at Stationers' Hall, ILondon, England.] PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. CONTENTS. Pare A Brief Prelude............... v CHAPTER I.-The Ma...............................9 II.-Purpose and Plans............................ 22 III.-The Kansas Overture...-.................... 39 IV.-Shadows from Pottawatomie................... 6t V.-Preparation and Change in Kansas.............. 93 VI.-John Brown Making Friends.................. 114 VII.-Reaching a Culmination...................... 153 VIII.-Rescue of Missouri Slaves............... Zoo IX.-Life and Preparation at the Kennedy Farm...... 229 X.-The Order of March........................ 269 XI.-Rending the Fortress Wall..................... 285 XI I.-Capture-Trial-Prison-Scaffold............... 315 XIII.-As Seen by Himself, Family, Neighbors, and Friends................................... 413 XIV.-John Brown's Men-Who They Were........... 449 XV.-Men Who Fought and Fell, or Escaped.......... 528 Appendix.................................... - 583 Index............................................. 737 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page John Brown, I856 (New)...................... Frontiszitece John Brown, I858-1859 (Bearded)...................... 200 Oliver Brown.............................. 53 Aaron Dwight Stevens.............................. 99 Albert Hazlett........................ 58 William Henry Leeman............................ 236 Steward Taylor...................... 257 Osborne Perry Anderson......................... 272 Francis Jackson Merriam............................. 274 John Edwin Cook.................................... 275 Dauphin Adolphus Thompson............ 283 John Henri Kagi.................................... 286 Dangerfield Newby............................ 290 Edwin Coppoc....................................... 295 Watson Brown................................... 3c3 Jeremiah G. Anderson................................ 306 Lewis Sherrard Leary................................ 312 ATilliam Thompson.................................. 317 Plan of Charlestown Jail...... ---........... 342 John A. Copeland.......-8............ 508 Barclay Coppoc...................................... 539 Owen Brown....................................... 555 Charles Plummer Tidd............................... 559 FAC-SIMIL ES: Stanza, by Edmund Clarence Stedman......... 335 Stanza by William D. Howells.................. 379 Stanza, by Edna Dean Proctor..........-...... 398 Commission of George B. Gill............. 486 A BRIEF PRELUDE., IT is the cant of To-Day to sneer at Sacrifice. It is not "scientific" to act without a visible reward or hope of material success. It is " scientific " to assume that " sacrifice " is but another and, it may be, foolish form of Self-love. Nevertheless, sacrifices are made! Defenders of systems always assume that the majestic forces of Religion, the exalted functions of Order and Justice, or those within the shimmering arena of Knowledge, belong to them alone. They declare that he who resists should die "as the fool dieth." Perhaps the lives I have outlined herein may help to prove that true and natural religion, that wisdom and knowledge, are also united, not divorced! This book may show, I hope, that generosity remains to bless our human lives; that an integral part of manhood and womanhood is service from each to all, for the life of each and the advancement of all! It will be said that the author of this volume holds a brief for John Brown and his Men. He does not deny it; but, on the contrary, esteems it to be an honor! He has endeavored, however, to so link their lives with historical facts along the nobler lines of American endeavor, that their careers become associated with such loftier purposes and higher imnpulses, as illustrate that true and spiritual democracy vl JOHN BROWN. which should in very truth animate the American Federal Republic. If no such spirit exists, and our institutions are but a mere convenience given to money making only, competitive triumph and sociological advancement of material conditions, without regard to ethical aims or considerations, let us openly enthrone Plutocracy and make Mammon the Baal of our Righteousness. Why should we have fought for the Union, if Freedom was not also our blessed reward? If it is the fashion to sneer, this volume is not in the fashion. If America means no more than Adolphe Thiers said of the latest European commonwealth: " The Republic is the government that divides France the least" (and I do not decry the wisdom of that astute saying); if it means only light taxes, a robust police, and the best armories, guns, and street-drill for national guards, let us deny at once the existence of historical continuity and assume the folly of human Love and Service! However: The world's saints are few, and they're costly, too — We'll keep sweet their deeds, be they Rose or Rue! So much in the making of human Woe, Of insight deep and tender Love doth go,That more precious still they grow to our view, Bringing ripe sheaves whence all bitter weeds grewAs the tides of endeavor swiftly flow, At seedlet roots their lives heroic sow! The Scoffers, keen with bitter jest, wax bold, While sad souls by dull Faith are growing cold, As memories stern, so towering wait On the dread footsteps slow of austere Fate! What natters? Each lofty life finds its goal, And answering lives in b)lood their names enroll. A BPRIEF F'RIUIK.D!. V11 This book, then, has been written because the writer was impelled and desired to do it. It was planned more than thirty years ago. The struggle for existence, which is all that those leave us who pervert the holy teachings of the Nazarene and the noble naturalism of Darwin, into apologies for economic, political, and sociologic brutalities, provided only they exist as institutions, has heretofore prevented the writing of a work laid on one as a duty. These men, of whom I have written, were for me, in a humble sense, as dear comrades. They fell; I escaped! In writing of them, it is with a living sense of their worthier example. There are holier and nobler things in Life than Life itself. They are heroic exemplars of this! I desire to express here my most grateful thanks for assistance extended to me by Mrs. Anne BrownAdams, Mrs. Rutll Brown-Thompson, and John Brown, Jr., of the surviving children of John Brown. I am also specially indebted among others to George B. Gill, of Oklahoma (commissioned Secretary of Treasury under the John Brown-Chatham provisional constitution); to Dr. Thomas Featherstonhaugh and John W. Le Barnes, of Washington; Dr. Alexander Milton Ross, of Toronto, Canada; William Hutchinson, one of the older and best of Kansas pioneers; Harvey B. Hurd, of Chicago; Horace White, of New York; Prof. L. R. Wetherell, of Davenport, Iowa; Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, of Cambridge, Mass.; to Edmund C. Stedman; Wm. D. Howells; Edna Dean Proctor; Col. John Bowles, and Richard Greener, of New York; Miss Saral J. Eddy, of Providence, R. I.; Franklin J. Keagy, vii JOHN BROWN. of Chambersburg, Pa.; Horatio N. Rust, of Pasadena, Cal., and Mrs. Crowley (sister of John E. Cook), of New York, for most valuable aid in reminiscences, letters, documents, and portraits. I desire particularly to give thus publicly my thanks to Frank G. Adams, Secretary of the Kansas Historical Society, whose untiring responses to many demands have laden me with grattude, all the more pleasant, that I know how willingly he has served both the work I was doing for the love of it and for myself personally also. I cannot close without expressing grateful thanks to many whose abiding places are now unknown, but who years since placed in my hands letters and other papers relating to their dear ones. These are the families and relatives of the John Brown men, outside the family of their leader. If this volume shall reach any of them, they will find shortly after its publication all of such papers as I have left in the Library of the Kansas Historical Society, where I shall place the same, subject, of course, to their demands, but hoping they may be left permanently to add to the valuable collection that enriches that Library. " MAYWOOD," RICHARD J. HINTON. BAY RIDGE, N. Y. JOHN BROWN AND HIS MEN. CHAPTER I. THE MAN. John Brown's birth, ancestry, training, education, pursuits, marriage, children, and daily life-His entrance into national life and renown-Removal to Kansas in r855. JOHN BROWN, born at Torrington, Connecticut, May 9, 800o, was hung on a scaffold at Charlestown, West Virginia, Dec. 2, 1859. The grandson and namesake of Captain John Brown, of West Simsbury, a Revolutionary officer who died in the field; he was also the sixth in descent from Peter Brown who came to New England in the Mayflower, 1620. Peter was a carpenter, who married after he landed at Plymouth. Within thirteen years he married twice, and died in 1633, leaving four children. Writing about 1650 (Bradford-MSS. "History of Plymouth Plantation," 1624-57), Gov. Wm. Bradford says: "Peter Brown by his first wife had two children, who are living, and both of them married, and one of them IO J ) II N B ROWN. hath two children; by his second wife he had two more. He died about sixteen years since." Mary and Priscilla were daughters of the first wife, and are the two mentioned as married. In 1644, they were under the care of their uncle, John Brown, a citizen of Duxbury, where also Peter Brown settled a few years after landing at Plymouth. John Brown outlived liis brother Peter many years. Of his family by his second wife, Peter Brown, born in 1632, was the younger. He was the ancestor of John Brown of Osawatomie and Harper's Ferry, and removed from Duxbury to Windsor, Connecticut, between 1650 and 1658, where lie married Mary, the daughter of Jonathan Gillett. Peter Brown the pilgrim, had his home in Duxb1)ry, not far from the hill where Miles Standish built his hlouse, and where his monument is now seen. His son, Peter, lived, and died, at Windsor, Connecticut, March 9, I692, leaving thirteen children. Of these, John Brown, born Jan. 8, 1668, married Elizabeth Loomis. They had eleven children, among whom were John Brown, the father and survivor of John Brown, of West Simsbury, who died in the British prison-ship in New York harbor. He lived, and died, at Windsor, married Mary Eggleston; and the Continental captain, grandfather of the Kansas fighter, was the oldest son, born Nov. 4, 1728. He married Hannah Owen, of Welsh descent, in i758. Her father was Elijah Owen, of Windsor, and her first ancestor in this country, was John Owen, a Welshman who married in Windsor in I650, just before Peter Brown came there from Duxbury. The Browns were, in fact, a distinguished family JOHN BROWN'S BIR'II, ANCESTRY, ETC. II when the sixth in descent from Peter, the Plymouth settler, made it one of the most illustrious of the world. It had embraced soldiers of Indian wars, one hero of the Revolutionary struggle, and another of the War of I812. Its men were workmen, farmers, fighters, townbuilders, scholars, preachers, and teachers. The direct ancestor of John Brown's mother, Ruth Mills, of Simsbury, was a Protestant Hollander, Peter Van Huysenmuysen, who left that sturdy land when the Spanish Duke of Alva was harrying it. Settling in Connecticut, he built a mill and earned bread for his family. Hence tile name Mills, under which the family passed into New England annals. They have bred a long line of physicians, ministers, and teachers. John Brown himself might well be counted, on the modern New York view of family place, among social " exclusives " of the first water. A President of Amherst College, the Rev. Herman Humphrey, D.D., and the Rev. Luther Humphrey, both famous Presbyterian ministers, were his first cousins, being the sons of his father's sister. The Rev. Nathan Brown, editor of the American Baptist, and a famous missionary in India and Japan, -was a second cousin. He translated the Bible into Japanese. Owen Brown, the father (who died in I857), was one of the trustees of Oberlin College, and John Brown himself twas associated with the affairs thereof for years. Salmon Brown, Owen's brother and John Brown's uncle, became a distinguished lawyer and judge, settling in Louisiana, and dying there. There are a score or more of other names belonging to this family, noted in New England and Ohio annals for learning, character, and service, as minis 1 2 JOI- N BROW(N. ters, educators, and citizens. John Brown represents in his own person, then, the best blood and character to be found in America. Thus, in him mingled three great racial forces, English of the Teutonic or Saxon type, the Welsh or ancient British stock, and the sturdy, independent Hollander, all vitalized by the mighty conflicts for the supremacy of civic freedom and liberty of conscience, in the Protestant struggle of the Old World, the founding of New England, and the fiery endurance of the War for Independence. John Brown was the oldest son of Owen Brown, himself one of eleven children born to the Revolutionary captain and Hannah Owen, his wife. The grandmother lived to see most of her own children well established in life. One of them became a judge in Ohio; another, John, of New Hartford, was a man much esteemed, and a deacon of the church there. A daughter was the mother of the Rev. Dr. Humphrey. Owen Brown became a tanner and shoemaker, the same trade he taught his famous son. Owen, born and bred in Simsbury (now Canton), Connecticut, was married there to Ruth Mills, daughter of the old minister, Rev. Gideon Mills, on the iith of February, 1793; they then removed to Norfolk, where his oldest child was born, July 5, 1798, and one year later moved to Torrington. John Brown was born there, also his brothers, Solomon and Oliver Owen, in 800o, I802, and 1804. In I805 the father migrated, with his children and others of the family, to the Western Reserve, Ohio, settling in the town of Hudson. In the wilderness John Brown spent his childhood and youth, though his early JOHN BROWN S BIRTH, ANCESTRY, ETC. I3 recollections extended also to his Connecticut home. Hudson was a notable community of sturdy American people of anti-slavery convictions.' At sixteen John Brown joined the Congregational Church in Hudson. Desiring to study for the ministry, he probably revisited Torrington in order to obtain advice of Jeremiah Hallock, who had married a relation. By him John Brown was advised to fit for college at the school of his brother, Rev. Moses Hallock, Plainfield, Massachusetts. His uncle, Hermann Hallock, D.D., was soon after made president of Amherst College, to which the sturdy student would have gone, but for a serious inflammation of the eyes from overstudy, compelling him to go back to his father's' tanyard in Hudson. In December, 1859, Hermann Hallock, the youngest son Gerard, of tile Rev. Moses Hallock, wrote his brother editor of tle New York Journal of Commerce, as follows: " Your youngest brother does remember John Brown, who studied at our house. He was a tall, dignified young man. He had been a tanner, and relinquished a prosperous business for the purpose of intellectual improvement." Soon after John Brown's return to Hudson, Ohio, he married his first wife, Dianthe Lusk, June 21, I820. She died in childbirth, August, 1832. There were six other children of this marriage, the eldest of whom, John Brown, Jr., was born July 25, I821; he I See Appendix for the autobiography written for the son of George L. Stearns, of Boston, Massachusetts. 14 JOHN BROWN. still lives, residing at Put-in-Bay Island, Lake Erie, Ohio; Jason Brown, living at Pasadena, California, was born January 19, 1823; Owen Brown, born November 4, i824, died in 1890; Ruth (Mrs. Henry Thompson), now living at Pasadena, February i8, 1829; and Frederick Brown, December2x, 1839, killed at Osawatomie, Kansas, August 30, 1856. By a second marriage witi Mary Anne Day, of Meadville, Pennsylvania, in I833, John Brown became the father of thirteen children, seven of whom died in childhood; two, Watson and Oliver, were slain at Harper's Ferry, and four others have survived. These are Salmon Brown, born October 2, 1836; Anne, born September 23, 1843; Sarah, born September ii, 1846; and Ellen, born September 25, 1854. Anne, Sarah, and Ellen live in Santa Cruz and Humboldt Counties, California; Salmon recently removed from Red Bluffs to Washington, near Tacoma. They are all married and have families. In all, John Brown was the father of twenty children, seven of whom are still living. The living grandchildren number twenty-six. John Brown was farmer, tanner, and land surveyor at Hudson, Ohio, until 1826, then at Richmond, near Meadville, Pennsylvania, residing there until 1835. He then removed to Franklin Mills, Portage County, Ohio, where he also speculated in land. He lost heavily in the panic of 1837, and in J839 entered upon a new pursuit-that of wool-growing and dealing; driving also in that year a herd of cattle from Ohio to Connecticut. There he purchased a few sheep, the nucleus of what became a great flock. In 1840 he returned to Hudson, where his father, Owen Brown, lived until i856. In 1842 Brown removed to Rich JOHN BROWN'S BIRTH, ANCESTRY, ETC. '5 field, and here his daughter, Anne, was born. Here, too, he lost four children in less than three weeksSarah, aged nine; Charles, almost six; Peter, not quite three, and Austin, about a year old. Three were buried in one grave and on the same date, a September day, in 1843. The next year he moved to Akron, and in i846 to Springfield, in Massachusetts. He went there as a member of the firm of Perkins & Brown, and also as the agent of the sheepfarmers and wool-merchants of northern Ohio, whose products were then sold wholly to New England manufacturers. John Brown, to prevent loss to them by uniform low grading, initiated the system of grading wools, since then generally adopted. The manufacturers were too powerful for the Western farmer. They bribed his clerk (as he always believed) to change the wool marks, so that the stock was all paid for as low grade. This led to several lawsuits, one of which was tried and decided against him at Boston in the winter of 1852-53, after Brown had withdrawn from the business and was living in the Adirondacks. The next year he won a similar suit in a New York court, and always believed he would have won the Boston case but for the action of the counsel in compromising the same. The Boston judge was Caleb Cushing, and Rufus Choate was of counsel against Brown. In Springfield, John Brown lived in a very modest house on Franklin street, just north of the Boston and Albany Railroad, and his warehouses were close by. Frederick Douglass visited him there in 1847. Wishing to make a market for a large stock of Ohio wool then on hand, and believing that he could sell it in i6 JOHN BROWN. Europe to advantage, he went there in I848-49, traversing a considerable part of England and the continent on that business. He visited both wool markets and battlefields in impartial succession. Among dealers he was noted for the delicacy of his touch in sorting different qualities, and for skill in testing them when submitted to him. After trying the markets of Europe, he finally sold his Liverpool consignment at a lower price than it would have brought in Springfield. His ill success, added to the expense of his trip, finally ruined this business, and in I849 he gave it up and went to live, where he was afterwards buried, at North Elba, Essex County, New York. It was in the hope of enlisting and drilling recruits for his projected company of liberators that John Brown went to live among the colored men to whom Gerritt Smith had given land in the Adirondack woods. Mr. Smith had inherited from his father landed estate in more than three-fourths of the counties of New York. In Essex, he owned several thousand acres. Farms were offered to such colored men as would live upon the land, clear, and cultivate it. On returning from England in 1849, Brown heard of the offer, and soon presented himself to Mr. Smith in Peterboro. A small colony of colored people had already gone to North Elba to clear up the forest land given them. Brown made to Mr. Smith this proposal: " I am something of a pioneer, having grown up among the woods and wilds of Ohio, and I am used to the way of life that your colony find so trying; I will take one of the farms myself, clear and plant it, and show my colored neighbors how such work should be done, will give them work as I have occasion, look JOHN BROWN'S BIRTH, ANCESTRY, ETC. 17 after them in all needful ways, and be a kind of father to them." Mr. Smith readily consented, and John Brown soon removed with his family from Springfield to North Elba.' They lived there most of the time between 1849 and I862, and altogether, while their father was attacking slavery in Kansas, Missouri, and Virginia. Besides other inducements which this region offered him, John Brown considered it a place of refuge for his wife and younger children, where they would not only be safe and independent, but could live frugally. When he went there his youngest son, Oliver, was ten years old, Anne and Sarah were six and three years old. Ellen, his youngest child, was born at North Elba. In I849, there were in Essex County but few roads, schools, and churches, and only a few good farms. The life of the settler at North Elba was pioneer work; the forest had to be cut down and the land burnt over; the family supplies must be produced, mainly, within the household itself. Sugar was made from the maple trees; from the wool they raised, the women spun and wove garments; sheep and cows especially were the farmer's wealth. Winter continues for six months of the year; the short summer crops are grass, oats, and potatoes, a few vegetables, and the wild fruit of the woods and meadows. In the whole township of North Elba, Mr. Sanborn says of his first visit there in I857, there was scarcely a house worth a thousand dollars, or one which was finished See Appendix for description of a visit there in the early 'fifties, written by Richard H. Dana, and published in the Atlantic. 2 i-8 JOHN BROWN. throughout. Mrs. Brown's dwelling had but two plastered rooms, yet two families lived in it. This house had been built by John Brown about i850, in the shadow almost of the great rock beside which he lies buried. John Brown introduced his favorite breed of cattle, and exhibited them at the annual show of Essex County in September, I850. They were a grade of Devons mixed with a particular Connecticut stock, and the first improved breed that had been at the county fair. Of the four sons of his first marriage who were then living, two were married, and one, Frederick, was engaged. Ruth, the eldest daughter, had married Henry Thompson, a sturdy farmer of New Hampshire origin, who lived near the Brown farm at North Elba. He was in sympathy with, and readily consented to join the family in Kansas. Two of his brothers were killed at Harper's Ferry, and Watson Brown's wife was their sister. She is still living in Wisconsin, married to Salmon Brown, a cousin. In the winter of I854-55 the four older sons of John Brown (John, Jason, Owen, and Frederick), with their half brother Salmon, living either in or near Akron, Ohio. made arrangements to settle in Kansas. They established themselves the next spring in Lykins County, about eight miles from Osawatomie. From there they wrote their father, asking his aid. Soon after an anti-slavery meeting was held at Utica, New York, on behalf of the settlement of Kansas as a free State. In this convention John Brown participated. Hie was described as a gentleman standing six feet in his boots, of thin face and dark complexion, with flowing beard and gray hair, lithe and straight, and JOHN BROWN'S BIRTH, ANCESTRY, ETC. I9 about sixty years of age, being then but fifty-five. In his address he spoke of four sons already settled in Kansas, and of three others (Salmon, Watson, and Oliver) who wished to join them, but were unable to pay their way to the Territory. John Brown, referring to the declaration of the assembly that it was Abolition in sentiment, urged that something practical be done, and reminded them that " without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin." The will of the Puritan was finding speech. He asked for arms for the sons already in Kansas, reading letters from the two eldest that gave evidence of the violent spirit of the pro-slavery people. John Brown pledged himself to go to Kansas with his three remaining sons, and "to make a good report of their doings "; this he certainly did. The funds were provided for the expenses of this segment of the Brown family to enter upon the harvest field. On the next day, Gerritt Smith in open session presented John Brown with seven muskets and bayonets, seven voltaic repeating pistols, and seven short broadswords-such as were then worn by artillerymen or sailors; a small purse was also given him,-sixty dollars had been collected the day before. The presentation of arms was a constant feature of Kansas meetings of that period on both sides of Mason and Dixon's line. John Brown's sons were already making their mark on the free-State records. They had selected claims-four of them-and the elder brothers, John, Jr., and Jason, with Frederick, were serving in free-State conventions. John, Jr., was also elected to the free-State Legislature, which convened soon after at Topeka. He and Frederick were delegates to the Big Springs Con 20 JOHN BROWN. vention, September 5th; Charles Robinson, James Blood, G. W. Brown, and others of the few older citizens of Kansas, who have since made themselves unpleasantly conspicuous by malicious attacks and sometimes scurrilous abuse of "Old John Brown," were also present. Happily for the hero's name and family, it was found at Big Springs that there was no relationship between an editorial defamer and the fighting farmer of the same name. John Brown and hiis kin were, at least, spared that degradation. The two elder brothers were at Topeka in the same month and year, assisting in framing the famous free-State Constitution, known in political history by the name of its birthplace-Topeka. They both opposed the "black law" or negro-exclusion feature of the instrument, while heartily sustaining the free-State provisions. John Brown himself arrived at the family settlement on the Pottawatomie,' during the first week of October, 1855. The movement of his elder sons to settle in Kansas was projected by John, Jr., in the early days of January, I855. At that time their father, while bidding them "God-speed," declared that his field of labor "was elsewhere." But the later call from Kansas was that of duty, and he cheerfully responded. John Brown had found the opening place. For him the ruddy lights were rising, and tlle mystic shadows were gathering. Up to this date his modest, quiet, orderly life had given little objective expression to the heroic forces which, subjectively, the agI See Appendix for letters by John Brown, Jr., describing their new home. JOHN BROWN'S BIRTH, ANCESTRY, ETC. 21 gressions and oppressions of chattel slavery had been punctuating. For the first time a free hand, untrammeled by compromise or party restraint, that " feared God so much that it did not fear man," was writing large a bold interrogation mark against the record of Southern domination. It was also to write the answer thereto. From and after that October day in 1855, John Brown was to punctuate American histc, o with the dynamic acts of a life unawed by power and untrammeled by policy. CHAPTER II. PURPOSE AND PLANS. tis earliest friends and onlfid ants- Witfe and sons are voweed to the strugg/e-HJis colored allies-Frederick Douglass's account of the plans-Steadfast devotion of the famill, —Life at Springfield and NAorth,Elba -On the Kansas threshold. MARY, his wife, was John Brown's first confidant wad ally. His earliest recruits were sons of his loins. His faithful assistants were the daughters who had grown to years of discretion amid the plain living and high thinking so characteristic of this unique family. The husband of Ruth was one of her father's Kansas soldiers and is now in elder years the reverential supporter of his memory. The family from which Henry Thompson came-plain, simple, rustic farmers of Northern New York-gave their sons and daughters as readily to the fight as John Brown's children accepted in love their father's unflinching faith and fortitude. The sons' wives murmured no more than the sons, and the widows of Oliver and Watson went to the grave or bore their sorrow unflinchingly. John Brown's detractors never take this marvelous tally into account. Unbending, simple, and Puritanical, living hard, as severe in demands as his morals were stern, amid the nation's years of growing power and wealth that have led to personal display and social unrest, John Brown's wife, sons, and PURPOSE AND PLANS. 23 daughters, have followed without hesitation in his "path of thorns." Among the large number of published letters, written only for each others' eyes, and as exigencies arose, there can be found but one of complaint against the father, and that appears to relate to a trivial rebellion of Owen, when a youth. John Brown's friends were found, first and most faithful, within his own household. They did, and have to the end, believed in him, wholly and utterly. They would not have done so had he not been wholly worthy. It was in I839, at Franklin, Pennsylvania, that John Brown first announced his conviction that by blood atonement alone could chattel slavery be destroyed. De Toqueville, like Jefferson, had already partially realized this as a result not of an ideal but of conditions. It was then that he declared his purpose to live and to be with those in bonds, as if bound witlh them, even unto the bitter and bloody end. His three eldest sons were John, Jr., nineteen, Jason, seventeen, and Owen, sixteen years of age respectively. There was a colored preacher, named Fayette, visiting Brown about that time. He was intrusted with the purpose and place, and with John Brown's wife and three sons, took the obligation of assistance and secrecy. It is more than probable that this strong, simple man, did not hide his convictions, as long as they were unformulated in deed. In the twenty years that followed the family announcement and prayer unto the day when dying, he proved that America, like Rome, could destroy Spartacus, John Brown was not silent, but bore his testimony alike to wrong and remedy, to fitting persons and at proper times. 24 JOHN BROWN. John Brown, Jr., records, that tlle only time he ever saw his father kneel in prayer was when he first vowed himself and them to attack slavery by force. The pilgrim grimly held the ark of the covenant upright when he prayed to his Creator. It was not pride but a rigid humility which thus esteemed the handiwork of the Father. Still, the soul in travail over the slave, bowed itself to the dust in mourning for the Republic dishonored by slavery. It is worth while recalling that it was to Franklin that Owen Brown steered across the rough laurel-clad spurs of the Pennsylvania Alleghanies when, with Tidd and the younger Coppoc, he escaped in October and November of I859, from the shadow land of the slave-driver and kidnapper to the shadowed depots of the underground railway in Western Pennsylvania and Northern Ohio. It was at Meadville, near by, that John Brown was practically refused church fellowship because he insisted on breaking sacramental bread with the fugitive, and held the brother in bronze the equal before God of him whose hue was lighter. It was here, also, that the Puritan tanner refused to do militia duty, and denounced war, paying his fine for the same. John Brown never joined a church thereafter, and obeyed henceforth no man's order as a soldier. A leader of men and a born strategist, he was also a student of warfare. Von Hoist says, in his admirable monograph, that no one would have gone to John Brown for a criticism of Napoleon. On the contrary, he was thoroughly able to have given keen and incisive opinions on that commander's campaigns. Colonel Philips, of Kansas, has given evidence of the careful study he had made l'PURPOSE AND PLANS. 25 of the career of Spartacus.' He read alike of the guerilla warfare of Spain and the Caucasus, and could discuss aptly the movements of the Haytian freedmen, as well as the marching and maneuvers of European armies. John Brown equipped his brain as well as his conscience. He made a special study of how to subsist men, learning to make a little go far in the commissariat-a knowledge which stood him in good stead in Kansas. And he was always conscious of his own power as one called to direct and lead. He begun to both think and write, as well as to prepare. During the following ten years he prepared2 the "League of Gileadites"; a paper on "Sambo," and addresses to non-slave-holding whites and to soldiers, among other matter. How many knew of his purpose outside of the home life from I839 to I858, it would not be easy to ascertain. A score or so of strong, brave colored men-Garnett, Gloucester, Loguen, Douglass, and, later, the Langstons, with Still, Baptiste, Reynolds, and others, who kept guard for the fugitive on the line of " Mason and Dixon," or that of the Canadas, knew of the Ohio farmer and Massachusetts wooldealer, who in a quiet, unbending way, was preparing to precipitate a conflict to make of Jefferson's Declaration a practical fact, and of Hamilton and Franklin s Constitution something more than a mere verbal phantasmagoria. In 1839 the air was charged with vital interest. The rugged old squire, after whom the Ohio town of Hudson was named, typified one side when he rejoiced at the news of a slave1 See Appendix. 2 Ditto. 26 JOHN B)ROWN. insurrection; and the constant conflict between slave catcher and fugitive along the dividing lines of North and South, expressed another. The opposite view of anti-slavery agitation and work to that held by John Brown was rising rapidly into intellectual power. Still, the industrial North however aroused, was at heart peace-loving as well as profit-seeking. So the Quaker conception of non-resistance readily became accepted as a worthy alternative to the passion created by knowledge of oppression. That form of action was presented as the only means of forwarding a crusade which inflamed the moral sensibilities. These are always the heralds of force, and play the r6le of couriers in the declaration of war. The South was saved from conflagration by the underground railroad. Mr. Garrison watered the consuming fires while he declared slavery to be piracy and murder; making the Constitution to be "a covenant with Death and an agreement with Hell." The flames thus ignited he would have restrained by withes of straw. Wendell Phillips presented the role of systematic agitation, and binding the Anglo-Saxon instinct of order to the human passion of resistance to wrong, pointed, through his matchless oratory, the way for the great political forces of nationality and freedom. Conflagrations are not quenched by attar of roses. John Brown said: "Talk was a national institution, but it did not help the slave." The Puritan argued from the individual to the institution, and felt, in seeking to defend the former, he was saving the latter from the wreck and ruin injustice brings to nations as surely as vice does to persons. PURPOSE AND PLANS. 27 The South knew better than Garrison thought, and steadily prepared to fight. Chattel bondage combined with the cotton-gin to coin Southern fortunes, and at the same time to breed bankruptcy. The Southern States gained political power by holding human "property." Extension of bondage controlled the public policy, and the oppressor satin the judgment seat. Still, the impossible became the efficient, and the unexpected happened. John Brown moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, as a wool-dealer. He fought the house of Amos A. Lawrence in business, and long afterwards Mr Lawrence, after arousing the free-State men to fight, joined Brown's defamers in seeking to assail his memory. The warehouseman carried on a propaganda as well as business. There was, thirty years since, a daguerreotype, in possession, I think, of the North Elba household, which showed John Brown and a colored man, presumably Thomas,' a porter he employed and trusted, in which the latter carried a small banneret, lettered "S. P. W." -letters signifying "Subterranean Pass VWa." Brown's hand is on the colored man's shoulder. Mr. Sanborn's biography is the authority for the statement of Thomas's early knowledge of Captain Brown's purposes. Frederick Douglass tells his own story in that exquisite English, of which the renowned slave, fugitive, freedman, orator, statesman, diplomat, and American citizen, is so perfect a master. He has given me authority to use as I wish this account, and I gladly avail myself Thomas Thomas recently died at Springfield, II. He was in -the service of Mr. Lincoln after his first election until his death 28 JOHN BROWN. thereof, while gratefully acknowledging the favor. Frederick Douglass's narrative is the earliest in time of knowledge, as it is also a most cogent account of John Brown's views and plans. The first public account was prepared, however, by me, under the title of " Some Shadows Before," as a chapter in James Redpath's book, published early in i86o.' It is one of the few prizes of a busy life that Mr. Emerson, as stated by Henry D. Thoreau, declared this paper of mine to be "as positive a contribution to American history as John Brown's autobiography (also first presented by Mr. Redpath) was to the historical literature of the English language." Soon after Frederick Douglass returned from his first visit to England and had begun and successfully carried on at Rochester, New York, the publication and editorship of the North Star, he spent a night and a day under the roof of a man whose character and conversation, and whose objects and aims in life made a very deep impression2 on his mind. Other colored men of prominence, and Douglass names Loguen and Garnett especially, in speaking of him, would drop their " voices to a whisper," and what they said made Frederick " very eager to see and know him." Being invited to his home at Springfield, Massachusetts, for it was John Brown they spoke of, Mr. Douglass went there in i847. He was surprised at the remarkable plainness in which the Browns lived, as the head of the family was to all appearance a prosperous merI See Appendix. 2 Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, pp. 337-43, Chap. 8; 383-85, Chap. Io. De Wolf, Fiske & Co., Boston. I893. PURPOSE AND PLANS. 29 chant doing a considerable business. Their dwelling was a small frame house on a back street, in a neighborhood chiefly occupied by laboring men and mechanics, and the inside was plainer even than the outside. In this house, writes Mr. Douglass, "there were no disguises, no illusions, no make-believes. Everything implied stern truth, solid purpose, and rigid economy." Of the head of that house, says thie negro statesman, " he was, indeed, the master of it, as he would have been of any one in it if they only stayed long enough.... He fulfilled St. Paul's idea of the head of the family. His wife believed in him, and his children observed him with reverence." His arguments, adds Douglass, "seemed to convince all, his appeals touched all, and his will impressed all." This, too, because he was a man of truth and hid not where he trusted. Evidently the family heard what he had to say to Frederick Douglass, and this illustrates another notable fact: none of that family ever talked outside of their own circle, and, indeed, not often within it, of the vowed aim of all their lives. In their several degrees, each simple soul was wedded to ideas, and there never came to them thought of heroism or virtue; it was their daily life to be both heroic and virtuous. They have never posed for plaudits. Mr. Douglass writes that after the meal of "beef soup, cabbage, and potatoes," which was placed before his guest and family, John' Brown "cautiously approached the subject;.. he seemed to apprehend opposition to his views. He denounced slavery in look and language fierce and bitter, thought that slave-holders had forfeited their right to live, that the slaves had the right to gain 3~ JOHN BROWN. their liberty in any way they could, did not believe that moral sausion would ever liberate the slaves, or that political action would abolish the system.. He had been for some time looking for colored men to whom he could safely reveal his secret." His plan had, writes Mr. Douglass, " much to commend it." There was no thought of a general slave rising, much less a "general slaughter of the masters." "Insurrection" would defeat the object he had in view, but John Brown, says Mr. Douglass, "did contemplate the creating of an armed force which should act in the very heart of the South." He designed using the Appalaclian range, and declared that in them defensive posts could be made and camps established into which selected slaves could be recruited or taken, and from which then raids would soon " destroy the money value of slave property." The logic and sagacity of this idea may be realized, when it is recalled that the Nat Turner Virginian outbreak, in 1831, almost frightened the people of that commonwealth into emancipation. Only three votes stood between the affirmative and negative of a constitutional convention. John Brown's attack on Harper's Ferry reduced the value of Virginian slave-property by $io,ooo,ooo, and cost the State an expenditure of about $200,000, most of it spent on absurd acts, designed chiefly "to fire the Southern heart," and not at all to affect Abolition activity. ' My plan," said John Brown to Frederick Douglass in 1847, "is to take at first about twenty-five picked men, and begin on a small scale; supply them with arms and ammunition, and post them by squads of five on a line of twenty-five miles. The most per PURPOSE AND PLANS. 31 suasive and judicious of these shall go down to the fields from time to time, as opportunity offers, and induce the slaves to join them, seeking and selecting the restless and daring." With care and skill he deemed that one hundred good men could be gotten together, able to live hardily, well armed, and quick to seize all advantages. His original twenty-five would supply competent partisan leaders. When his one hundred were secured, entrenched in the mountains, whose Virginian portion he knew well from having surveyed for Oberlin College, in I840, the lands that had been granted that institution, the area of work would be extended, slaves run off in large numbers and from various directions, while retaining the hardy and brave fighting men. Of course, he designed to subsist on the slave-holders. " If the slaves could in this way be driven out of one county," he said, "the whole system would be weakened in that State." Bloodhounds might be employed, but they could be killed as well as the hunters. He did not believe that over any considerable area, the means of subsistence could be cut off. Besides such men as he would train could carry subsistence enough for several days. They would live on game, could make jerked beef, find roots, use the wild fruits. Unnecessary fighting was no part of John Brown's plan. Evasion as well as resistance; strategy equally with combat; this was to be the rule. When attacked, resistance was to be made as costly as possible. His field was to begin at the northern section of tle southern Appalachian range, not necessarily at Harper's Ferry, though from the outset he undoubtedly had that point in view as a place of possible attack. He anticipated also being 32 JOHN BROWN. able to arrange for sympathetic assistance along the border of Pennsylvania, and, when the progress of the movement warranted, along the Ohio also. Mr. Douglass gave favorable judgment so far as the practicability of disturbing slavery in Maryland and Virginia was concerned. He also saw that though "John Brown should be driven out of the mountains" (or even slain), that "a new fact would be developed by which the nation would be kept awake to the existence of slavery." Hence, he says, " I assented to John Brown's scheme or plan of running-off slaves." This was the key to the letters on the daguerreotype -S. P. W. It explains also the misapprehension of Brown's movement expressed by Major Martin R. Delany, in the pleasant biography of that notable colored savant, physician, and Union soldier, who called the Chatham (Canada) Convention together in 1858. Major Delany declared, through his biographer, Frank Rollins (Mrs. Whipper, of South Carolina), that John Brown did not state that his operations were to be in Virginia, but left only the impression that the project was but a more systematic and enlarged running-off of fugitive slaves. John Brown never designed throwing his life away in such an enterprise. He would help the bondman to flee as he did in his Missouri raid, in December, 1858, and, having done so, lie would not be content except he knew they were in safety. His purpose was not to populate a Queen's colony, but to save a Republic. To fully understand John Brown and his Harper's Ferry raid, one must comprehend something of the conditions that existed during the years in which he brooded over it. Neither railroad nor telegraphs had PURPOSE AND PLANS. 33 to any large extent penetrated the Atlantic coast range. Very few towns of any size or importance existed near them or within their borders. A mobilized State force was unknown, either of armed police, country militia, or national guard organizations. The negro was not so rigidly watched as was the case in the next decade. The mountaineer and non-slave-holder knew that in the Carolinas and Virginia he and his had been for half a century deliberately pressed back and forced out of the eastern Piedmont region; were obliged to retreat to less fertile mountain fields and valleys, while the schoolhouse faded with the lowland farms. The strategical value of the Appalachian range, from the border of Pennsylvania southward, was instinctively signaled by Congress at the earlier stages of the Civil War in the creation of the State of West Virginia, and by the Executive in stubborn holding of the same at the heaviest of cost in blood and treasure. The Union holding of the upper portion of that range, was the possession of an armed and fortified promontory jutting into the furious sea of rebellion. It would have been a comparatively easy task then, given the acceptance of purpose and policy, to have at any time, between I830 and I850, placed a small body of trained men in that remarkable mountain formation which flows south from the Potomac and Ohio to the northern uplands of Florida, and projects westward as the Blue Ridge, Cumberland, Missionary Ridge, and Lookout ranges, into Tennessee, southern Kentucky, and northern Georgia. The ranges that split the rebel territory in twain, and the holding or successful invasion of which marked the rise and fall of Confederate and Union fortune, 3 34 JOHN BROWN. would have been, under John Brown's original plans, a veritable land of refuge. Harriet Tubman, "the general of us all," as John Brown expressed it to Wendell Phillips in 1858, made these mountains the road by which she aided and guided over two thousand of her enslaved race from bondage to comparative freedom. The limestone formations of Kentucky are full of mountain caves-places which, till emancipation came, often served the needs of flying fugitives. John Brown had seen or heard of all these things. He had studied the census, and knew the resources of the region in which he designed to operate. I have had in my possession a memorandum, prepared by Owen Brown, quaintly written with signs and abbreviations of his own, which lets in considerable light upon the extent of the observations made. Much of this material was based upon the information of fugitive slaves. It relates largely to roads, location of plantations, and character of neighborhood supplies. The seven maps of slave States, with statistics packed on their margins, which were found in the carpet-bag of papers, etc., and captured by the Virginians, showed to Governor Wise and his councillors, that Captain Brown had contemplated more than the scare made by the attack at Harper's Ferry. Captain Brown did not loiter over his plans, except as want of means compelled inaction. In Springfield he set to work upon the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law: to systematize resistance thereto. He organized the League of Gileadites,' and went also to Syracuse to aid in the rescue of "Jerry,"-a fugitive slave See Appendix. PURPOSE AND PLANS. 35 whose case made a famous row at the time. In all these matters it was his aim to find fit persons for the enterprise over which he steadily brooded. For this purpose in the main, he removed himself and family to North Elba, in the picturesque but severe Adirondack region. He hloped to find fighters among the colored farmers. Gerritt Smith was settling there, and hie was necessitated by business failure also to economize more closely. When he went to Europe on his wool-selling venture of I850, he did not, one may be sure, lose sight or thought of the purpose he held. In Great Britain, Germany, Austria, and France, he visited forts, studied plans and ordnance, carefully looked at soldiers and their equipments; above all he inquired into moral, social, and economic conditions or results. More and more he clearly drew the lines he would follow in the struggle to which he was pledged without questioning. He had ideas in connection with defensive works, that bore on them tile stamp of practical capacity. I saw and examined in Kagi's hands plans of John Brown, drawn by himself, for the mountain forts. They were to be used in ravines or " draws " when so situated that passage from one to another could be made. It was intended to conceal them by trees and thickets, place them on hillsides, and otherwise arrange them as ambuscades. I do not know what became of these papers, but presume, from expressions in the newspapers of the period, that they also were found stowed away in the captured carpet-bag. Frederick Douglass ' says of a visit made to him at Rochester in 1859, by Captain Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, pp. 386-87. 36 JOHN BROWN. Brown, that the latter "soon after his coming, asked me to get him two smoothly planed boards, upon which he would illustrate with a pair of dividers, by a drawing, the plan of fortification which he meant to adopt in the mountains.... These forts were to be so arranged as to connect one with the other, by secret passages, so that if one were carried, another could be easily fallen back upon." In his Kansas warfare Captain Brown would, as at Black Jack, seek a ravine for concealment and from which to make his first attack. His tactics were the reverse then, as a rule, of such as govern regular army operations when conducted on a considerable scale. From I847 to I855 no mention has been found beyond the family circle of John Brown's purposes and plans. Much of that time was spent on the lonely mountain farm at North Elba, or at Troy and Utica, New York, in pursuing the lawsuits which had followed liis failure in the wool business at Springfield, Massachusetts. It is singular, in view of the subsequent relations of Amos A. Lawrence to John Brown's Kansas activities, and his later denunciation of the old fighter's memory, under the inspiration of ex-Governor Charles Robinson's morbid and mortified ambition, as well as of Eli Thayer's collapse as a public man, that John Brown's wool venture, bankruptcy, arid subsequent severe poverty, should have directly resulted from the trade combination of which the Lawrence wool dealing and manufacturing firm of New England, were the center. The Ohio firm.of Perkins & Brown was organized, as sheep-growers, raising good breeds and fine wool, and subsequently undertaking to deal in American wools as presented PURPOSE AND PLANS. 37 for market, under the system of graded qualities which John Brown first invented. The wool tariff and its custom service was practically based upon the idea of the Ohio sheep farmer. In the Springfield warehouse, the wool bales consigned to John Brown were tagged and marked to indicate their grade. In some way, these marks were removed or obliterated (John Brown believed by bribery of his clerk) so that all the wool was sold as of one grade, and tlat, too, of a low class. The New England dealers and manufacturers had steadily monopolized the market by this practice of rating American wool in but one low class or grade. John Brown broke it up, but his opponents broke him up also. He afterwards entered suit against the buyers, won the New York case and lost the one conducted in Boston, because of compromise made without his authority, as he claimed, by his lawyers. His New York lawyers testified after he became famous alike, to the transparently honest character of his business advice and action and to the earnestness also with which he watched the progress of the fugitive slave agitation, then at its height. In 1854 he was only prevented by threat of throwing up his case on the lawyers' part, at a critical moment therein of carrying out his desire to leave Utica for Boston to participate in the Anthony Burns rescue excitement. The Kansas and Nebraska struggle went on, and closed not until John Brown was long dead. But, "His soul went marching on." At the head of battling armies, in the uproar of hilarious camps, amid the solemn savagery of the battle shock, flaming with its mighty "Hallelujah Chorus" through all the thundering octaves of 38 JOHN BROWN. embattled conflict. 'It was the sign of human devotion, the unbridled recognition of courage blent and blending with lofty conviction. It was the song of praise fiercely tinged with that of the fighter, as when Jeff. Davis and the " sour apple tree" were brought figuratively into juxtaposition. It was the anthem of reverence, the choral shout of defiance, the jubilee of victory. John Brown's work was still a-doing. CHAPTER III. THE KANSAS OVERTURE. Slavery under arms-Freedom arousing-Slow advance and savage persecution-John Brown's friends and foes-Relations of the hero to the conflict-Recruits who came; confidants who sustained- What is saidService without murmur made or plaudits gained. JOHN BROWN was not old as the years go. He should have been in his prime on entering Kansas. But repression tells, endurance wears, and the conflicts of the soul leave scars that are the most indelible. John Brown, who had never been young with the pride of May, or known the joyous riot of June, was older than his fifty-five years when called to action in that fateful summer of I855. He knew the summons of God had come at last, and he was ready. With the captain were his sons, John, Jason, Owen, Frederick, Oliver, Salmon, Watson, his son-in-law, Henry Thompson, and his brothers-in-law, the Rev. Mr. Adair, who is still living at Osawatomie, Kansas, and Mr. Orson Day, his wife's brother; Ruth, his eldest daughter, Wealthy and Ellen, the wives of John, Jr., and Jason, with children-one having died while these emigrants were passing through Missouri. At first they were refused permission to bury the little 40 JOHN BROWN. body there, and finally had to bring it on to Kansas. These eight fighting men were a host in themselves. To their camp came James H. Holmes, a well-educated New Yorker, fresh from college; August Bondi, European engineer and soldier; Charley Kaiser, one also of the brothers of Susan B. Anthony (there were two in Kansas); the Partridge boys, John Bowles and his brother William; Dr. Updegraft, John Ritchie, H. H. Williams, and a few others. Augustus Wattles, O. B. Brown, the founder of Osawatomie, James Hanway, E. B. Whitman, James Montgomery, with one or two more comprised nearly all who, after that first year, became identified with John Brown. Some of them were advisers, not fighters. All the earnest men on the free-state side,-that is, those who were not temporizing for real-estate deals, political advancement, or color-hating propensities,-held John Brown in the sincerest respect. So far, however, as possessing his confidence as to ultimate designs, after all these intervening years of research, I fail to learn of more than four or five persons, except those who went out with him from Kansas to Iowa, and finally as to the most of them, to Virginia itself. William A. Phillips, besides myself, is the only one of the Kansas men who has presented a connected account of any such knowledge. Most of the regular Northern correspondents who were present in the Kansas fighting years-as Phillips, of the New York Tribune; Redpath, of the Missouri Democrat; Wm. Hutchinson, S. F. Tappan, and Mr. Winchell, of the New York Times; John Henri Kagi, of the New York Post; Hugh Young, of the New York Tribune and Pennsylvania papers; Anderson, of the Boston Advertiser, and 'HE KANSAS OVERTITRE. 41 myself of the Boston Traveller and Chicago Tribune, with a score of others who alternated letter-writing with farm-making or town-building, and some fighting when that was required,-were earnest supporters of John Brown. Most of us believed in striking back on Missouri and slavery, and we wrote and fought on those lines. But we knew nothing till 1857 or 1858 of the reserved Alleghany campaign or of Harper's Ferry attacks. James Redpath affirmed that he went to Kansas, hoping to foment slave insurrections.1 That, as stated, was probably an afterthought, but there can be no doubt that he, like John Brown, fully believed that American slavery would go down amid a sea of blood. Perhaps I was the only other correspondent of that date who openly announced his adhesion to the task of fighting slavery with every weapon obtainable. There is no accessible evidence that others went to Kansas with any such opinions already formed. What they accepted as the coin of that bloody mintage is another matter. Deliberate misrepresentation from men animated by disappointed ambition has been so gross that it is essential to say these things in order to comprehend some of the forces that were affecting John Brown's career. The Northern correspondents who have assailed or criticised us were merely " birds of passage," who took what was told them as gospel, or came later, like Albert D. Richardson or Edmund Babb. Professor Spring or David N. Utter belong to the later and second-hand regime. The men in the breach never assailed John Brown. ' The Roving Editor. New York City. I858. 42 IH( HN BROWN. No one, who knows the history and internal affairs of Kansas from I854 down to i866, can have the slightest doubt as to the motives that animate Charles Robinson. The people of Kansas after electing him Governor, have never been moved to intrust him with any other elective office. His rival in their regard, the late General James H. Lane, once secured the coveted prize of a United States Senatorship, and, with all the faults acknowledged as making part of his character, his memory as their dead servant is more fragrant than the living aroma that identifies Mr. Robinson. The same galled pride of place which aroused hostility to Lane also animates the attacks on Captain John Brown's name and memory. Mr. Eli Thayer, of Massachusetts, is "tarred with the same stick," in that he realizes that his emigrant aid organization has not given him that high rank in current history which his own conception of its merits and of its author's ability, would have required. It is hardly worth while to refer to other writers who have attempted to whitewash and rehabilitate borderruffian leaders and pro-slavery chiefs by minimizing the character or services of nearly all the active Kansas men of the free-state and war period who did not happen to belong to the personal entourage of the ex-Governor. Historical accuracy is illustrated by the manner in which they sneer at and have sought to belittle men who, if not always acting as God's children should do, were always, during those ten stern years of savage conflict, on God's side. Charles Robinson said in i88i, on retiring from the presidency of the Kansas Historical Society: " The time for writing the true history of Kansas has THE KANSAS OVERTURE. 43 not yet arrived, and will not arrive till the historian shall be so far removed from the actors and passions of the hour as to be able to calmly survey the whole field; and clearly discern, not only events, but causes and effects as well." It is a pity that the ex-Governor should have forgotten his own admirable maxim, and left thereby a blot on the fame of Kansas by the book which he has recently had published. Before John Brown reached Kansas, the slavocrats had twice invaded the Territory in force, men had been slain for opinion's sake, and a code of infamous enactments, which made it a penal offense to think of freedom, or to speak, write, or act in its behalf; which dictated ball and chain with hard labor for teaching negroes to read, or to print anything against slavery, had been forced by arms upon the people. Shortly after his arrival other free-state men were slain, cabins were burned, stock stolen, towns raided, courts packed and used for oppression, armed forces were raised in the South. Missouri, as a State, and by its citizens individually, was invading the Territory, and highways of travel, such as the Missouri river, were impeded. The mails were robbed, and people left the Territory in dread of murder. And at the beginning, not over one in six of the free-state settlers owned weapons, while all the pro-slavery people, whether settlers or invaders, came armed to the teeth. A great pro-slavery organization flourished, and secret societies were active in carrying out the designs of nullifiers and secessionists. The army of the United States was as openly used as the courts to suppress freeState resistance. If its officers were better than their 44 JOHN BROWN. instructions, which was not always the case, it was due to the decencies inculcated by their professional training rather than by their honor as servants of a democratic commonwealth. Violence on' behalf of slavery was found on every side. Resistance, slowly rising, became a natural consequence. John Brown's brain had forecast these conditions, and required him to utilize the results thereof. Other men talked revolution, but they trembled at deeds. It is beyond question that all the hours of the Kansas struggle were as replete with intended treason on the part of the pro-slavery leaders, as that its latter days saw the growth of fighters for freedom who realized fully that the existence of slavery was a perpetual menace to the Republic, and who were unwilling to accept as duty the dicta which would make them serve slavery or imperil the Union. Charles Robinson understood this as well as John Brown when he told William A. Phillips, on his leaving Kansas in the second week of May, I856, that lie designed going to the governors of the Northern States, and urging upon them the necessity of immediate organization for armed resistance to the South and its aggressions. The conservative newspaper man combated the free-state leader's idea, but to no avail. The latter went, was made prisoner at Kansas City, brought back to Lecompton, and released through the fighting men. He now lives in his old age to deride John Brown and intimate that Phillips was too radical in 1856.1 1 " There was only one proposal," wrote Col. Wm. A. Phillips, "that ever came to my knowledge that even looked like revolu THE KANSAS OVERTURE. 45 John Brown's first appearance at Lawrence made him at once a conspicuous figure. Free-state confidence was not lessened by the defeat of Henry Clay Pate, of Black Jack, or by the fear which, after the Pottawatomie slaying, dwelt in every border-ruffian camp, and at the threshold of all their strongholds. Osawatomie was a dear victory for the invaders. The forty-five free-state. men against four hundred ruffians could not be expected to do the impossible, though they showed that they tried to, in the slaying and wounding of as many of their assailants as themselves numbered. John Brown showed no insubordination or ambition in sinking his identity at the Washington Creek and the Titus Camp affairs, neither did he at the last defense of Lawrence on the i5th of September, I856, unless the caustic contempt tion in the country. I believed it then, as I have believed it ever, to be a mere crotchet in one man's brain, and one, too, in which he was not sincere. That man was Charles Robinson. You perhaps remember just before the sack of Lawrence by the border ruffians (May, I856) that Robinson started East. I for one could not understand why he should want to leave at such a time, and urged him strenuously to stay, and when pressed for a reason for his departure, lie told me he saw the whole country was going to be involved in civil war, and that he was going to the free States to arouse the governors and the people of them to arm, so that when an army came on us, another could strike our enemies elsewhere, if necessary at Washington... I spent some time urging on him that the difficulties never need, or ouglit, to occupy such proportions.... When he left, I for the first time began to lose confidence in the man, and thought then, as I do now, that all the story about going to the free States was a mere pretense to get away from the danger." [Extract from letter of Wm. A. Phillips to James Redpath, from Lawrence, Kansas, dated Feb. 24, i86o, and published in the New York Herald, April 20, i86o.] 46 JOHN BROWN. expressed for mere words by the remark that I reported at the time of "great cry and little wool; all talk and no cider," made as he left a council where no one agreed to aid in organizing on the street that resistance to the Missouri invaders which tle people of Lawrence were expecting, can be so considered. It lhas not been my intention to place recollections of my own at the fore, but rather to use them as only inspiring and connecting this narrative. But as I was a part of the conflict under consideration, and others are busy in derogation of those who, having passed beyond, are unable to correct misrepresentations, I may surely be pardoned if some things are said upon my personal knowledge: I was in Lawrence on the i5th of September, 1856, and ready to do my share of its defense. During the forenoon we heard of the border-ruffian advance towards Franklin, six miles south of the little town. Of course, it was known also that the free-state "leaders," among whom John Brown never counted himself, were sending frantic messages to Governor Geary, then at Lecompton, eleven miles distant. That functionary had announced his determination to stop the fighting and protect the people. He fulfilled the former by arresting Colonel Harvey and a free-state force under his command on its return from Hickory Point, a border-ruffian camp north of the Kaw river and west of Atchison. But the latter he almost failed to do, as it took him all day to reach Lawrence and the Missourians under Reid (the com. ander in the attack on Osawatomie, August 30) had already burned the cabins of free-state men, run off their stock, and murdered one of them, Mr. David THE KANSAS OVERTURE. 47 Buffum, an unarmed cripple, who lived within eight miles of Lecompton and who was slain during the afternoon, almost in sight of Geary's slow-moving escort. The Governor had ten hours in which to have reached Lawrence. Certainly, that gallant Union soldier would never after have achieved his deserved reputation as a fighter and commander if he had shown no more alacrity than in serving Lawrence at the rate of one mile per hour on the 15th of September, I856. At that date, I was the only correspondent in the town. By that, I mean the only one who was following that line of work exclusively. The night before I returned from Topeka where I had been sent by Colonel Harvey, on whose staff as a free-state commander I was serving. My detail had reference to warning Colonel Whipple (Aaron D. Stevens), who had moved northward with a small command to meet an incoming body of Northern men, of the Federal Governor's avowed intentions to arrest these emigrants. On my return I heard of Captain Brown, whom I had already twice met, being in the neighborhood of Lawrence, and by request of Charles Robinson, in conference with himself and others of the civil leaders. General Lane had already left for Nebraska to avoid complications with Geary and the Federal authority, and it was understood that John Brown would also " disappear." John, Jr., and Jason, his elder sons, who had been held prisoners by the United States troops, were in Lawrence with G. W. Brown, G. W. Deitzler, Judge Smith, Gaius Jenkins, and Charles Robinson, who had been hurriedly discharged by Judge Cato, after General Lane and the free-state force had " demon 48 JOHN BROWN. strated " a few days before in front of Lecompton. The recollection is very distinct to me of the proceedings of September 15th. But I am not left to my memory, however, for there lies before me as I write, my Boston Trave/ler letters of that date and the i6th, written on the spot, and also the journal I kept in those days of youthful enthusiasm. Besides these authorities, I am strengthened by the recollections of Col. John Bowles, now resident in New York City, and then a young, talented, and devoted free-state man, whose brother William was a victim of tile poor fare, bad treatment, and imprisonment of Harvey's command, lield as prisoners by Geary for several months. The elder brother died at Lecompton; both were Kentuckians and slave-holders, too, by inheritance. They emancipated their slaves. John Bowles became a Union soldier, and, like myself, was a commissioned officer (lieutenant-colonel) in the first body of colored men lawfully enlisted to fight (1862) for the Union.1 Colonel Bowles was on the street with his rifle, and was among the dozen young men, similarly armed, " directed " by Captain Brown to take charge of the stone breastwork on Mount Oread, the right of our position, and where the State University now stands. John Brown appeared on Massachusetts street about one o'clock. I walked with him (he asked me for the place of meeting) to a 1 The First Kansas Colored Vol. Inf'y afterward (I864) the Seventy-Ninth UT. S. C. I. James M. Williams, Colonel; John Bowles, Lieutenant-Colonel; Richard Ward, Major; Adjutant, Richard J. Hinton. First enlistment, August 6, I862, First appointment to recruit colored men, to Lieutenant Hinton, August 4th. THE KANSAS OVERTURE. 49 large stone building on the corner of Winthrop street, and just opposite the ruins of the Eldridge or FreeState Hotel. In this building were assembled a number of "leading " citizens of the town, engaged in talking about the "situation." I stood by Captain Brown's side as he listened, briefly and impatiently, refusing to participate in the "jackdaw parliament," and went out with him on to the street where about three hundred men, boys, and women were gathered, with such arms as they possessed. Among them were a portion of the " Stubbs," under, I think, a Captain Cracklin, who now hastens to declare that John Brown had no " command " and did nothing. Among the talking counselors I recall Mr. James Blood, who, in 1884, twenty-eight years after, and when Captain Brown had been dead a quarter of a century, went into cold type to argue that the old fighter was an unnecessary slayer of men or a monomaniac. I recall him listening, also with G. W. Brown and others, who have since assailed John Brown's memory, with muskets or long rifles in their hands, as the Captain mounted a dry-goods box and addressed the excited people. I reported that speech, and I find it printed in my old newspaper letter.' 1 GENTLEMEN-It is said there are twenty-five hundred Missourians down at Franklin, and that they will be here in two hours. You can see for yourselves the smoke they are making by setting fire to the houses in that town. This is probably the last opportunity you will have of seeing a fight, so that you had better do your best. If they should come up and attack us, don't yell and make a great noise, but remain perfectly silent and still. Wait till they get within twenty-five yards of you, get a good object, be sure you see the hind sight of your gun, then fire. A great deal 4 50o JOHN BROWN. Most of us took position in one or the other of the two circular earthworks that had been made under General Lane's directions the winter before. Major Abbott was supposed to be in general command and doubtless consulted freely with Captain Brown. Captain Sam Walker was out, I find by my notes, with a small mounted force, watching Reid's forces, and at the same time looking for Geary's approach. The " Stubbs," or that portion of a company who were in the town were armed with Sharpe's rifles that Amos A. Lawrence, of Massachusetts, had purchased early in I855, and sent by Mr. Abbott to Kansas for use in fighting the Missourians. Dr. Samuel Cabot, of Boston, about the same time paid for and sent through Mr. G. W. Deitzler (afterwards Brigadier-General United States Volunteers), one hundred Sharpe's rifles. Frederick Law Olmstead, of New York, with the aid of other gentlemen, sent by Major Abbott, rifles, revolvers, and one twelve-pound howitzer. All of these arms were solicited by Robinson, Blood, G. W. Brown, and others now attacking the memory of Brown and Lane for revolutionary action, and of the leading newspaper-writers also, as advocating retaliation on Missouri and attacks upon Federal authority and the Union. These arms were in Kansas two months before the sons of Captain Brown settled there, and men had been drilled in their use for the of powder and lead and very precious time is wasted by shooting too high. You had better aim at their legs than at their heads. In either case, be sure of the hind sight of your gun. It is for this reason that I myself have so many times escaped, for, if all the bullets which have ever been aimed at me had hit me, I would have been as full of holes as a riddle. THE KANSAS OVERTURE. St purpose of resisting " alleged " Federal laws, at least three or four months in advance of Captain Brown's own arrival in Kansas. When I read the foolish accusations made against the facts of history, I wonder that intelligent men like Charles Robinson can forget so easily their own acts and commitments. But, to return to whether John Brown aided or not in the defense of Lawrence. The Stubbs detachment marched, by his suggestion, to an advanced point on the extreme left of our position where their long-range carbines could be used effectively against Reid's advance from Franklin. The party of which John Bowles was a member went on a run to Mount Oread, and then I find that Captain Brown came to the earthwork where I was stationed. J. W. Brown, one of his persistent defamers, was there with a United States musket in his hand; I remember two or three women. also armed, with others who were running bullets at a little fire. The Captain asked in a loud voice if any of us had Sharpe's rifles. On response he cried "Come out, quick." We never had an order or request from any one else but John Brown, and some ten or twelve responded. Others came from the street and adjacent works, and about twenty-five or thirty so armed-all young men, as far as I now recall,marched after Captain Brown who led us to a slight ridge on the level prairie about one-third of a mile away. There we were aligned and ordered by him to lie down behind the ridge and watch the advance of a party of about three hundred horsemen we could see coming towards us from the Wakarusa. We lay there, some five or six feet apart, while John Brown, in full sight with a revolver in his hand, walked slowly up and 52 JOHN BROWN. down giving us directions in the event of firing being required. We heard some shots from Mount Oread and from a field to the East also where the Stubbs where. This firing confused the Missourians of whom some were wounded. Then, as the horsemen were coming within our range, a commotion on the California Road, indicated the arrival of Governor Gearv with two companies of United States dragoons, under Lieut.-Col. Phillip St. George Cooke, a gallant Virginian, who remained faithful in after years to his flag and country. He was a courtly old gentleman, fair and loyal, and I owe an apology to his name for some harsh things written at that period. I think Captain Sackett, afterwards Inspector-General U. S. A., was in command of one of the squadrons. At the sight of the ' regulars " coming down Reid's advance retreated, the town was saved, the fight did not come off, and John Brown " disappeared," having by his presence and encouragement, at least, prepared the way for stubborn defense. He always said he did not " command "; so far as my knowledge goes, no one else did. I remember, how the Governor and his troops failed to prevent the sky being reddened in those sundown hours with fiercer hues than even a prairie sunset brings, for the Missourians in their baffled rage set to work to burn every free-state cabin and building in sight. Late that evening I was ordered to ride with a message of warning to the Captain, and taking the prairie —the road not being very safe for travel-I recall most vividly stumbling on John Brown's bivouac, several miles west of Lawrence. He had left immediately on Geary's arrival, disappearing as suddenly as he had appeared that day. With THE KANSAS OVERTUR1E. 53 him wele John, Jr., Jason, Salmon, and Oliver, if I recall aright. They had a small wagon and one horse, and with them was a fugitive slave, whom some of us kept hidden about Lawrence for several days before, while the black-law men threatened arrest and return, and the so-called anti-slavery leaders were asserting he had been sent into the town to embroil us under the Fugitive Slave Law with the Federal authorities direct. I had carried him out of the town ^ one night, before my first Topeka detail, and left him at a settler's near the California road, where John Brown's party found and took care of him. He made his! escape to Iowa. This episode is something of a digression, I know, but its telling will be borne with, as it illustrates a condition of affairs in Kansas ' now being actively denied and OLIVER BRO,W derided. To resume, however, during the spring and summer of 1856, the proslavery people had occupied tile Missouri River route to Kansas, driving back during April, May, and June several parties of Northern emigrants. There were on the road other parties, with one of which I was connected, and it was decided to make our way through Iowa and across Nebraska, entering Kansas on the north, and, if necessary, fight our way through to the Kaw river. General Lane and other free-state leaders, who had escaped the general assault by Missouri N. 54 JOHN BROWN. border ruffians and the Buford contingent from other slave States, were raising emigrants in the Northern States. During the last week of July and the first days of August, I856, about twelve hundred men were encamped on Camp Creek, a few miles from Nebraska City, Nebraska, near the preemption claim, then occupied by the father and sister of John Henri Kagi, afterwards Brown's chief confidant and assistant. The dispersal of the Topeka Legislature occurred on the 4th of July. Captain Brown, whose limited means were nearly exhausted, decided to take his severely wounded son-in-law, Henry Thompson, and the two crippled and hurt sons, Owen and Salmonall of them injured at the Black Jack engagement on the 2d of June-to western Iowa, and then return himself to the field of action. The organized free-state men set about "blazing" a road from the Kaw River at Topeka to the Nebraska line due north, near where Falls City now stands. Aaron D. Stevens, then known as " Colonel Whipple," and as commander of the second or Topeka free-state regiment, was engaged on this work. It was an absolute necessity to open the same. The chief free-state settlements of Kansas were then cut off and practically surrounded. They could only be succored by the bold flanking movement, which, witl insufficent commissariat and a very inadequate ordnance, gathered its recruits, mostly young, from Massachusetts and New York to Wisconsin and Iowa, to rescue the free-state people. After leaving Iowa City, the last railroad station to the West, we marched nearly six hundred miles to Lawrence. The armed pro-slavery forces held the eastern line of Kansas through slave Missouri, and THE KANSAS OVERTURE. 55 had flanked and surrounded the free-state communities from the Missouri border at the south and just below Osawatomie, to Atchison on the north and upon the Missouri river. In the huge semicircle thus indicated, the towns of Osawatomie, Lawrence, Leavenworth, and Topeka, with the raw farms or settlements about them, were all embraced. Within this arc were also the border-ruffian settlements of Franklin, Paola, Lecompton, Indianola, Osawkee, Hickory Point, and Kickapoo, while Leavenworth, though near by them, had had a strong minority of free-state men. The line thus indicated, was almost completed and held by fortified camps occupied by Buford's Alabamians and Georgians; Atchison's, Stringfellow's, and Reid's Missourians. Lane had practically planned the overland march, and pressed it upon the National Kansas Committee, at Chicago. The Massachusetts Committee, of which Stearns, Higginson, Cabot, Russel, Howe, and Sanborn (afterwards John Brown's friends) were the more active members, aided the Chicago movement, and somehow the men got through. The company of which I, a young printer and reporter, was a member, raised principally in Boston and Worcester County, was armed with Sharpe's rifles. My own weapons were given to me by Theodore Parker and Dr. Henry Channing. The Massachusetts Committee furnished transportation and arms, and we all signed a pledge to become bona-fide settlers in Kansas. Thaddeus Hyatt, president of the National Kansas Committee, bought and presented each of us with an Allen revolver on our arrival in New York, and I took charge of fifteen hundred Springfield muskets. At Iowa 56 JOHN BROWN. City, 1,500 United States guns were taken from the State arsenal, the key of which was conveniently left accessible to my hands on Governor (afterwards Senator) Grimes's desk. Arms were also obtained for Lane's men from an arsenal at Ottawa, Illinois. Several hundred Sharpe's rifles and Colt's revolvers were taken from Massachusetts and other emigrants at Lexington, Missouri, which were replevined next year by those who held the evidence of ownership. These weapons were distributed to free-state men enrolled in 1857, for the purpose of resisting the Lecompton Constitution movement. Other arms, including 400 Hall's rifles, made at the works where Kagi, Leeman, and Leary were killed two years later, were subsequently brought in. There were also two or three I2-pound guns, which subsequently helped to make the first battery served in the War for the Union by Kansas Volunteers. At the Nebraska camps many persons, then, or subsequently, of some historical note, were assembled during 1856. Besides Gen. J. H. Lane, Edmund Ross, afterwards United States Senator from Kansas and then Governor of New Mexico, was in charge of a Wisconsin party. A young man of the name of La Grange, who subsequently as colonel of the First Wisconsin Cavalry assisted in the capture of Jefferson Davis, was also at Camp Creek. To it, while we were there, came as inspecting visitors, Thaddeus Hyatt, of New York, a famous inventor; Dr. Samuel G. Howe, of Boston, and Horace White, then of Chicago, and now one of the editors of the New York Evening Post. Among others present then or shortly after was Edward Daniel, a distinguished geologist and afterwards the THE KANSAS OVERTURE. 57 first commander of the First Wisconsin Cavalry; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, preacher, agitator, fighter, soldier, poet, and author; James Redpath, journalist and editor, and S. C. Pomeroy, subsequently United States Senator from Kansas. These are only a few of the names that memory recalls. During that last week in July, James H. Lane, disguised as Mr. "Joe " Cook, with Capt. John Brown, who was known as "Isaac Smith," under Sam Walker's escort went southward. Lane was furnished with means, and aided to enter Kansas only upon the understanding with the National Committeemen that he would avoid any collision with Federal authority, officials, or troops, pledging himself, as he subsequently did, to leave Kansas whenever seriously threatened with arrest. This is a fact that I state upon personal knowledge. It was well understood that there was danger in Lane's immediate command, several hundred in number, breaking up for want of means. Lane himself was under indictment for " constructive treason." The National Kansas Committeemen then in our camp held the point of vantage which this fact insured. For the sake of national peace, then seriously endangered by the necessity of breaking up the pro-slavery forces, it was well to agree. It is part of the verities in relation to Kansas and John Brown to say at this point that whoever planned the summer campaign of I856, breaking up the pro-slavery encampments at Franklin, Washington Creek, the Titus Camp near Lecompton, Hickory Point, Osawkee, and Indianola, and compelling the subservient pro-Southern administration of Franklin Pierce to send to Kansas a Northern Democrat as 58 J8 )1iN BROWN. Governor, who would and did endeavor vigorously to somewhat impartially keep the peace, it was not the free-state " treason " prisoners held by the United States troops at their camp adjoining Lecompton. Their release was a part of the campaign, sedulously forced to that point by General Lane, who retired as he came, with a small escort when this work was accomplished. Sifting the testimony at this late date, as thoroughly as I am able, it appears that Lane was the prime organizer, as he certainly was the chief leader in that nine or ten weeks of marvelous activity, which saw a sufficient force of earnest men gathered, armed, and marched into Kansas from all parts of the North, and a carefully planned conspiracy of aggression, backed by Federal acquiescence and official power, beaten, overthrown, stamped out, and practically driven away. The attacks on Osawatomie and Lawrence when Lane was retiring, though severe, were but flickerings of the fires he and his coadjutors had scattered, without any more aid than words from the gentlemen held as prisoners at Lecompton, on charges of "constructive treason," usurpation of office, etc.1 In May, I856, Chief Justice Lecompte, sitting in the United States Court at Lecompton, charged a Federal Grand Jury as follows: " This Territory was organized by an Act of Congress. It has a Legislature in pursuance of that organic act," and, "being an instrument of Congress it.. has passed laws. These laws, therefore, are of United States authority and making, and all that resist these laws resist the power and authority of the United States, and are therefore guilty of high treason." Further on he declared that for all combinations to resist, and all aiding in them, the Grand Jury must " find bills for constructive treason." Upon THE KANSAS OVE'R'rURE. 59 On his way out of Kansas, during the last two weeks of September, i856, John Brown traveled part of the road with deputy United States marshals and troops sent to arrest him, as well as to intercept the second body of Northern emigrants, whom the Missouri ruffians' seizure of the river route had compelled to march overland in Iowa from the Mississippi. The arresting parties had no idea that this sickly old man with his sons, also sick, could be the formidable partisan leader they all dreaded. Colonel Whipple (Aaron D. Stevens) was moving northward also with an armed free-state party, on parallel lines, but avoiding observation from the Federal force. Captain Brown was in Nebraska before the beaten deputies learned of his escape. He was in the Iowa and Nebraska camps of the Northern train commanded by Col. Shaler Eldridge, S. C. Pomeroy, Samuel F. Tappan, Parsons, James Redpath, and others. The Iowa muskets, under charge of Pardee Butler, a Northern preacher who had been run out of Kansas by border ruffians at Atchison, had already got through in safety. It fell to my lot to meet and convoy Butler to Topeka. Governor Geary's policy at that date was to save the Democratic party, and bring about the election of James Buchanan. By worrying the free-state movements, and by the aid of coffee-pot colored election returns of Pennsylvania, that party this charge that Grand Jury did with the Judge revive Jeffrey's doctrine, and brought in a number of indictments against individuals, including Charles Robinson, and also bills against the freestate hotel and printing-offices in the town of Lawrence, which a few days later were destroyed. [Sanborn's " Public Life of John Brown," pp. 237.] 6o JOHN BROWN. was successful in giving incipient rebellion four years more in which to prepare for an outbreak. Governor Grimes, the stalwart Executive of Iowa, waited until after the Presidential election, and then in the late winter notified the Governor of Missouri, that Iowa proposed to make the Missouri river "run unvexed" to its junction with the Mississippi, unless he should call off the ruffian people of his own State from impeding that line of travel. There were several things to do in western Iowa before Captain Brown could take uip his next role. His enfeebled boys had to be cared for. Owen and Watson were left at Tabor. John and Jason returned to Ohio, in which State they once more made homes. Oliver and Salmon Brown, with Henry and William Thompson, accompanied Captain Brown to Chicago, whence the Thompsons and Oliver went at once to North Elba. Captain Brown remained some days to confer with the officers of the National Kansas Aid Committee, whose headquarters were in that city. At Tabor, Iowa, a number of old arms and equipments had been left by the Northern train under Pomeroy and Eldridge. Captain Brown asked for and was refused their custody. Later, with the third Massachusetts colony under Mr. Parsons, there was brought to and left at Tabor 200 Sharpe's rifles, etc. These arms afterwards came under Captain Brown's control, and were the rifles captured by Virginia after the defeat at Harper's Ferry. NoTE.-Since this chapter was written, and just as this book was finished, Charles Robinson, whose career and criticisms are animaverted upon, has died. If time had permitted the tone, not the facts, might have been modified.-R. J. H. CHAPTER IV, SHADOWS FROM POTTAWATOMIE. A startling deed —The slaying of five men-Its causes and its effects-Aggressions of the slave-power-Preliminary to Kansas outrages-A conspiracy against the Nation-John Brown's views of duty-The roads to Harper's Ferry- f'lho the slain men wereThe border ruffians appalled-How the critics assail andfalsify-An incident at Lawrence —Opinions of contemporaries. DURING the night of May 24, 1856, five menWilliam Sherman, Allen Wilkinson, and three others, named Doyle, father and two sons, were taken after midnight from their beds by armed men, who said they were of the " Northern army." They were made to go a short distance from their cabins, and tlere slain by those who had captured them. Their bodies were found at daylight, the skulls having been split open, evidently by a heavy broad weapon which pierced at once to the brains of the men. Only one shot was fired. The slayers were eight in number. One was an elderly man who was directing, though not otherwise personally active. The only descrip 62 JOHN BROWN. tion of the leader of tile ' Northern" band is given in tile testimony of Jolin Doyle and Louisa Jane Wilkinson, as presented in a report made by the minority member, Representative Oliver, of Missouri, of a Committee of the United States House of Representatives. Joln Doyle in his testimony, uses the following language: "An old man commanded the party; he was dark complexioned, and his face was slim." Louisa Jane Wilkinson says: " The old man who seemed to be commander wore soiled clothes, and a straw hat pulled down over his face. He spoke quick, is a tall, narrow-faced, elderly man' There is no other description given.' Another member of the party does not appear to have been actively engaged, though of late years he has repaired that sluggishness by becoming the instrument of those who find a congenial occupation in assailing the memory and fame of the leader in this tragedy. Stated thus in tile plainest of words, 1In the Thirty-fourth Congress, the House of Representatives passed into the hands of the anti-Nebraska party. N. P. Banks was elected Speaker. One of the first acts was to provide for (March 19, 1856) a committee to investigate the border-ruffian invasion of Kansas, at the Territorial election just held. Lewis D. Campbell, of Ohio, and William Howard, of Michigan, Republicans, with Mordecai Oliver, of Missouri, Democrat, were, on the 24th, appointed such committee. On the 25th, Representative Campbell declined service, and Representative John Sherman was named in his place. It was this committee that was in Leavenworth when the transaction at Pottawatomie occurred. The committee never made any investigation. No evidence was ever taken at any of its sessions. The ex-parte affidavits referred to, were inserted by Mr. Oliver, in a minority report. They have no legal status; still no one disputes their general correctness. SHADOWS FROM POTTAWATOMIE. 63 this was the deed of May 24, 1856, which is known in the free-state annals of Kansas and of anti-slavery resistance as the "Pottawatomie Massacre." I do not intend to excuse, defend, or extenuate as to guilt or innocence therein, nor to detract by any rhetorical effort from the simple sternness and severity of the deed. It will be my purpose, however, to give with equal plainness both cause and effect. From the bivouac of the free-state farmers and settlers enrolled under John Brown, Jr., as "The Pottawatomie Rifles," then en route to the assistance of Lawrence, eight determined men are known to have retraced their march from Captain Shore's dwelling on Ottawa Creek, back to the Pottawatomie, where they had settled as well as the men who were slain. These eight men, like their comrades in the free-state company, had "news" of the pro-slavery doings from the settlement. The eight men were armed with breecliloading rifles and repeating revolvers, while seven of them carried short, broad, heavy swords, such as artillerymen of the United States army then used as side-arms. The men who left the camp within twenty miles of the scene of death were, as is now known, John Brown; with four of his sons-Owen, Frederick, Salmon, and Oliver; a son-inlaw, Henry Thompson; Theodore Weiner, a GermanAmerican settler and merchant, and James Townsley, a Marylander, identified as a settler with the free-state cause. The swords were sharpened before leaving camp, and their departure was greeted with cheers by their comrades. Information had just been received of threatened assaults upon the families who had been left behind by the free-state volunteers. 64 JOHN BROWN. The men were slain, and the act was deliberately done. There never was any doubt of that. It was a question for some years whether or not the act was done under the influence of, and by the direct orders of John Brown. No one now doubts that it was. In passing judgment, then, on this startling deed, the issue is to be made on motive and purpose, on cause and effect. If it were dictated by a supreme need, in order to save other lives, or if it were also the overweening necessity of a situation based upon actual warfare, alive with all its imperatives, while the results wrought righteous advantage to tie cause of Freedom, then in deadly peril, the verities must reach a conclusion in no sense detracting from the lofty moral standard of the grim and sturdy Puritan fighter. Let us examine this severe act, then, in the light of all that has since occurred, and with the relief from secrecy which time has wrought to our advantage. After thirty-eight years of perspective have been gained, we may look all around the act and decide without heat or partisanship. During those years also, this nation has passed through strangely clarifying experiences, which have made very clear the terrible righteousness of forces of which ordinarily we stand appalled. There are many worse things in human history than the taking of human life. It may be that in days of millennial joy, if they ever come, that the race can put behind it all darkness of strife, all shadows of conflict, all the lurid scarlet in whose deep currents we now see the great forces that have often made life worth living. Even altruistiz halos may gain reflected luster from the blood of atone SHADOWS FROM POTTAWATOMIE. 65 ment. The currents of life are not made of perfumes. War is a stern teacher; a sterner master. When its wrath is righteous, may it not be most just? When governed by conviction and engaged in human service, its seeming is actual and without question; its inflexible decision may justly be implacable. There are some things more sacred than life itself: as when sacrilege attempts to destroy the Ark of the Covenant! With the passage of the Missouri Compromise in May, 1820, there begun a long series of slave-holding aggressions, which culminated politically in the enactment of the " Nebraska Bill." The compromise of I820 —repealed in I854-declared: "That in all that territory, ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of 36~ 39' North Latitude, not included within the limits of the State contemplated by this Act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than as the punishment of crime, shall be, and is, for ever prohibited." John Brown was in his twentieth year when this Missouri Compromise was hailed by the slaveholders as a triumph. Good people in the North believed it would settle peacefully a great issue. Within a few years Missouri, with the aid of a National Administration, violated it with impunity and almost unnoticed. The Platte purchase became a breeding-ground for border ruffians. Dedicated to free soil in I820, stolen to slavery in the early 'thirties, it was, during the Civil War, the supporter of bushwhacking and a hotbed of secession sympathy. The young man, turned from the pulpit training he sought by an affection of the 5 66 JOHN BROWN. eyes, became farmer, tanner, and merchant; above all he watched and brooded over the course of events. To him the Declaration of Independence was almost as sacred as the Hebrew Scriptures and the Gospel of Christ. Each of the long line of aggressions by slavery left, therefore, enduring impressions on his mental character. They came rapidly: South Carolina nullification; campaigns against Indians for the surrender of " marooned" negroes; the forcible removal of Indian tribes beyond the Mississippi and the Missouri, in order that slave territory might be organized or the central continental movement of Northern settlers might be checked; the seizure and annexation of Texas; the War with Mexico and the spoliation of her territory; the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law as offset to the admission of California as a free State, and finally the rending of the Compromise of 1820, by the so-called "squatter-sovereignty" dodge as the central feature of the Nebraska Act. None of the other dark and lurid incidents of that third of a century seemed to have escaped the notice of John Brown. I heard him tell one evening at the home of Augustus Wattles, Moneka, Kansas, the obscure and forgotten stories of "Isaac," "Denmark Vessy," "Nat Turner," and the "Cumberland Region " insurrectionary affairs in South Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. He showed himself perfectly familiar with the sometime resistance to slavecatchers in Pennsylvania, and he knew the story of Iayti and Jamaica, too, by heart. The murder of Owen Lovejoy was a part of his own experience, and he had seen the principal riots against the Abolitionists. As an illustration of how he had fol SHADOWS FROM POTTAWATOMIIE. 67 lowed the political workings of the slave-power, he called Mr. Wattles's attention to the policy which covered Kansas more than any other part of the transMissouri region with Indians removed from Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and other States, and stated that for over twenty-five years but one man of Northern birth had been appointed Indian agent to any one of the dozen tribes living within the section then organized as the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska; a large portion of Colorado and Wyoming being then included. That one man, a Mr. Gay, was agent to the Shawnees. He was one of the earlier victims of border-ruffian disorder. It must not be forgotten that for John Brown the Kansas conflict was but an episode. It drew him aside from his main design, an attack on slavery for the purpose of making the "institution" unsafe, from the Appalachian mountains in Virginia. The peril of his sons and their families, who were settlers in the prairie territory and the daily augmenting possibility of an outbreak against slavery itself being precipitated there, took him to Kansas. There was the increasing possibility also of finding recruits. John Brown had decided for himself that the slave-power designed to destroy the Republic. Did not crowding events justify that conclusion? He was also sure, that the people of the free States were more alarmed at their own peace being disturbed than at the danger of the Union. He decided for himself, by the severe processes of his own stern conscience, that his duty as a Christian lay with those in bondage, and that, as a citizen, whatever might be the individual cost, the Republic had to be defended. 68 JOHN BROWN. The closer'one proceeds with analytical inquiry into this chrystalline personality, and the means for sucl analysis are abundant, the more evident it is that the Puritan farmer considered himself in all his purposes and the acts that blossomed from them, as obeying the highest obligations of citizenship, and fulfilling. not tile promptings of his personal zealotry, but tihe direct obligations due from a man to his God, his fellows, and to his country. Nor did he misapprehend the possible penalties, but to him the slave-liolder was a traitor to the Republic and slavery was organized treason to its institutions. As I have already suggested, his close study of current American history taugiht him the existence of a deliberate design to work the overthrow of the Federal Union. For years before Kansas was opened to settlement the Knights of the Golden Circle had been systematically organized throughout western Missouri. Their offshoot, the Blue Lodges, were organized in i854, in order to invade Kansas, carry elections, and make thereof another slave State. The Constitution was in his eyes being steadily violated. Was lie not right in that regard? To him asa Christian, if Christ were love, He also wore a weapon and smote the money-changers. If God were embodied mercy, He was also the enthroned Jehovah-" Judge of the quick and the dead." If men were the creatures of their conditions, they were to him also and supremely the choosers of their own path; responsible for what they knowingly left undone, as well as whatsoever they did in daily life and action. John Brown saw also witli a marvelous precision that seemed like the mystic's flame, the startling course of sequences and events. He could not, therefore, SHAD\OWS 4 IFROM PO()'TT'AVATO I E. 69 act otherwise; nor could lie fail to see the grim severity of the conflict. Perceiving, lie dared not turn aside for political gain or philosophical methods. T'is man lived his convictions, he did not dream that they were available only wlien convenient. Neither politician nor agitator could change him; he judged by but one thing; did they, like his compass, point to the North? That compass " wobbled," lie said, but as the needle settled it always pointed to the North Pole. In Kansas the free-state politicians were bold at times, in words at least. Reeder, the kindly, weak, but well-meaning Pennsylvania Democrat, who had been sent to Kansas as Gove-rnor by President Pierce, declared, as he felt the barbarous aggressions of the slave-power, as early as October, 1855, that —" When other resources fail. there still remains to us the steady eye and the strong arm, an(l we must conquer or mingle the bodies of tile oppressors with those of tile oppressed upon the soil which the Declaration of Independence no longer protects." Andrew H. Reeder, to his credit be it said, never indulged in subsequent verbal denunciations of the man who did " mingle the bodies of the oppressors with those of the oppressed." That weakness was left in the main to some members of the New England Emigrant Aid Society, whose organizers, officers, and leaders had, as the preceding chapter shows, sent to Kansas, several months before John Brown entered the Territory, rifles, revolvers, and cannon, with which to enable free-state men to defend themselves or to slay the assassians of their fellow settlers. Before Captain John Brown entered Kansas, the eight hundred legal voters of the 70 JOHN BROWN. Territory had been overridden by the invasion of more than four thousand Missourians who occupied the polls and elected a citizen of Texas as delegate to Congress from Kansas. Before John Brown's sons had started for tile West, and before even Eli Thayer, Edward Everett Hale, Amos A. Lawrence, Thomas H. Webb. and other men in New England had organized tile Emigrant Aid Society, which, within certain definite lines, did excellent work for free Kansas, the South Carolina nullifiers had publicly organized an association to aid "armed " emigration to Kansas. When the first legal election was called in Kansas, John Brown had taken no public step beyond appearing with his sons four months before in defense of Lawrence, yet, in March, I855, over six thousand armed Missourians marched into Kansas and took possession of the polls. The enrolled legal voters numbered 2,905. The invaders overrode the citizens, defied the Governor, and made a code of slave-sustaining laws,' equaled only in atrocity by the codes for the control of the freed people which were adopted in South Carolina, Mississippi, and the other Southern States, and which President Johnson sought to " restore " direct from the blistering furnace of civil wva r. After the election outrage of March, I855, and the subsequent determination of the free-state people, as a body, to refuse obedience to the draconian code that Missouri had fashioned for Kansas, it soon became evident that tile secession leaders in the slave States were determined to push their cause to the l Sce Appendix for extracts from " The Border-Ruffian Code." SHADOWS FROM POTTAWATOMIFE. 7 perilous verge of civil war. A force of about seven hundred armed men was raised, chiefly in the cotton States, and placed under the command of one Buford, an Alabama fire-eater. From Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana, there also came several smaller bodies, who, as they had their rendezvous at Fort Scott, the chief pro-Southern town in Kansas, outside of Leavenworth and Lecompton, were not as well known and conspicuous as their confreres in the central and northern sections. From early in April, I856, until the increasing free-state power caused them to begin retiring about the following October, there were certainly in the Territory never less than an organized force of from one thousand to fifteen hundred armed men whose residences were elsewhere than in Kansas. A score of free-state assassinations, which included Dow, R. P. Brown, Barber, and others not necessary to name, had already reddened the record of the two years' occupancy of the Territory. Hundreds of cases of robbery and personal violence were known to have occurred. Not a single unmolested or non-blockaded way into the Territory could be found except on the northern or Nebraska line. The Missouri river was closed to the travel of free-state settlers. The mails were regularly stopped, opened and often robbed. Free-state men were maltreated, robbed, and threatened with death, their dwellings plundered and burned, the women of. their households threatened, abused, and even assaulted. There are hundreds of authenticated cases with a recital of which it is not necessary to cumber these pages. The troops of the United States were often used to enforce pretended legalities. It became the custom 72 JOH()N HRO\VN. of the officers and judges of the Federal Courts to cause the indictment and attempt tie arrest of all free-state men whose courage, activity, and ability fitted them to advise or lead their neighbors. John, Jr., and Jason, elder sons of Captain Brown, were both indicted for "usurpation of office," before the Pottawatomie slaying took place. Their offense consisted in being elected legislators under a State constitution which was never made operative. Up to the sacking of Lawrence on the 2ist of May, 1856, three days before the tragedy under review, there had not been any really resistant act or deed perpetrated by the free-state men, except the rescue of Branson and the wounding in Lawrence of Sheriff Jones, the pro-slavery leader. This latter was a personal act committed by one man, and without any consultation with others. They had prepared to resist oppression, and to defend themselves against the border-ruffian laws. No one need assume that the free-state men were saints. If they carried wings they were not those of angels. When they did strike back, it was done very effectually. The hammer of Thor when applied to tile heads of ruffians made some4'ing crack. Why not? Summed up, then, the general situation when the pro-slavery men on Pottawatomie Creek were slain, was this: The Federal judiciary was declaring that, as there was no right whatever (as afterwards affirmed by Dred Scott decision) to prohibit the taking of slaves into any Federal Territory, agitation against as well as resistance thereto, was nothing less than treason to the United States, while to advise or agitate on the same line was " constructive treason." This strained SH ADI))\V'S FRO)M '()'TTAWATO'I ()IE. 73 revival of Judge Jeffries's infamous doctrine was formulated by Chief-Justice Lecompte of the Federal Court, relative to whom Captain Brown once said that he " had earned the right to be hanged," and that " if the Lord had ever delivered Judge Lecompte into his hands, it would have required the Lord God Himself to have taken the Judge out of his (Brown's) hands." The Captain was not without humor of the grimmer sort. The Territorial Executive was a dissipated instrument of the slave-power. A militia force had been organized, on paper at least, with two major-generals and four brigadiers, all residents of Missouri. Ninety-five of the officers and eighty per cent. of the Falstaffian rank and file were actually resident in Missouri; and, when summoned by Jones, Stringfellow, Calhoun, Donaldson & Co., came direct from Platte, Jackson, Clay, Lafayette, and other Missouri counties, bearing the arms of that State, or rather those the United States had assigned to it, and sometimes even wearing the State uniform. They were headed, too, by David R. Atchison, a United States Senator from Missouri, and, at the period now under review, presiding member of the United States Senate, and, therefore, in the absence of Mr. King, acting Vice-President of the United States. The Senator was the leader of the ultra wing of the Missouri Democracy, and the bitter opponent of Thomas H. Benton and his following. Benton was equally as hostile to nullification and its advocates. He was the advocate of Continental Unity, as then comprehended. Some of his declarations during the early 'fifties now read like prophecies. The leading newspaper on his side, the Democrat, of St. Louis. 74 JOHN I':R()W N. was the fast and wise friend, too, of the free-State men, from I854 to i860, as it was also the loyal and gallant advocate of the Union against all comers in the five following years of the bitterest civil and even neighborhood warfare, which any section of the Union was compelled to wage. Missouri was the hotbed of pro-slavery aggression, violence, and final organized resistance to the Union. It is not essential to give details of all these acts in order to indicate the roads that the slave-power blazed and made wide for John Brown and his men to travel upon in reaching Harper's Ferry. All that is suggested in this narrative can be established, if disputed, " by bell and book." It is not essential to parade the acts of resistance thereto or to hold up the resisters-all of them-as priests or heroes. But it is essential to maintain for the truth of history, that the free-state men were never the aggressors, and it is certainly unnecessary to exalt the horn of special manliness for pro-slavery leaders. As persons, apart from opinions, they may be regarded as no worse than their neighbors who differed. But opinions shape conduct, nevertheless. It is too late in the day to measure great events by peanut criticisms. Still less is it writing history in fairness to carp and sneer at or minimize the characters, acts, services, and even the sufferings, of the men who on the right side made that history what it is. It has been too much a fashion in later Kansas to find fault only with those whose unselfish and early services aided in making that State a free commonwealth. Let me give a striking illustration of this. The savage incidents it relates, too, occurred five days before the Pottawatomie slaying, temporarily, SHA I)OWS FROM POT AWATOMIE. 75 at least, awed the border ruffians into a trembling peace, and startled alike the brave and timid in freestate ranks with a triumphant, yet serious, feeling, that on their side at least a Man had arrived. In that portion of his readable, if not always fair or discriminating little volume, which treats of the sacking of Lawrence on May 21, 1856,1 Professor Spring writes of incidents occurring on the i9th of May, two days before the actual raid, and while the " conservative" free-state leaders in Lawrence were advising the young men of the " Stubbs Rifle" company to make no resistance to the armed Missourians gathering at Franklin, six miles from the little city on the Kaw. Mr. Spring shows himself in his presentation more concerned in censuring those whose manhood counseled resistance to murder than he does in characterizing with just indignation the purveyors, to use his own elegant comparison, of "abolition wolf meat." Here is the incident, as told thirty years after by the professor: "A detachment of the United States marshal's posse (May I9) shot a young man-mainly for the sensation and satisfaction of killing an Abolitionist. Three adventurous fellows, presumably intoxicated (the italics are mine, not Mr. Spring's) on hearing the news, snatched their weapons, dashed out of Lawrence to hunt the scoundrels, and begun a fusilade upon the first travelers they encountered without any, preliminary investigation. The expedition turned ont unfortunate for the assailants. Another Abolitionist was turned into wolf meat." I " Kansas," Commonwealth Series, Boston. 76 JOHN.ROW\SN. It is somewhat difficult to refrain from wrath upon reading so contemptuous and cynical an account of an incident in regard to which the author might readily find, even at this date, a hundred living citizens of Lawrence-his neighbors-who would have told him the simple facts. Here they are, based upon personal knowledge on my part, and confirmed by two of those of the " adventurous fellows" who went out to find the murderers of an inoffensive young man, named Jones, sustained also by the narrative of the New York Herald's Kansas correspondent at the time, and found in the columns of that journal; by the story of Col. WVm. A. Phillips, as printed in the New York Tribune, and somewhat later in his interesting volume on " The Conquest of Kansas." I have also examined accounts published in the Missouri border papers of that date, and in the Kansas Squatter Sozereign, of Atchison, and the Leavenworth Herald, which exulted openly over the murder of two young abolitionists, Jones and Stewart. These sources of information, except those of a personal nature, were and are accessible, I presume, to Professor Spring as to myself. But, as to the actual facts: Several miles directly south of Lawrence on the Wakarusa, a small branch of the Kaw River, was "Blanton's," a free-state settlement. It is quite famous in tlie stormy annals of that period. It was here that a blacksmith, named Dow, was murdered by one Coleman, a deputy United States marshal and deputy sheriff under the bogus laws. The famous rescue ot Jacob Branson by other free-state men, from Sheriff Jones's posse, which superinduced the Wakarusa War, occurred in the Blanton settlement. One of the free SHADOWS FROM POTTAWATOMIE. 77 state leaders,-Major Abbott, who had been sent twelve months before by Charles Robinson, James Blood, and other conservative free-state chiefs, to obtain from Amos A. Lawrence, Eli Thayer, and other Eastern friends, the breech-loading rifles, etc., which enabled the free-state men to make a successful resistance,-resided in the Blanton settlement. A bridge across the stream, so named, was indicted as a nuisance by a border-ruffian grand jury, convened and charged by United States Judge Lecompte. Its destruction was a part of the work for the doing of which a posse of 2,500 Missourians had been summoned to the neighborhood of Lawrence. There was in the Blanton settlement a widow and son, named Jones,-the latter was a quiet, inoffensive, but courageous young man of about twenty. Mr. Jones, on the day of his death (May 19, I856), was at Blanton's store, purchasing some groceries. A party from Franklin were there, embracing among them the murderer of Iow, Deputy Marshal Coleman, with another known assassin, named, if I recollect aright, Cosgrove. Some abusive words and threats were aimed at Jones. On his part there is not a particle of proof as to any cause of offense. Though he had a small revolver in his possession he made no demonstration, but as quickly as he could gathered his goods and walked out of the store. There was no reason whatever for singling him out for assassination, but as he quietly turned his back on his assailants and walked on to Blanton's bridge, he was shot and instantly killed. Most of the free-state men were absent doing guard duty in Lawrence. The murderers mounted and rode westward towards Lecompton. Word was sent to 78 7 JOHN BROWN. the free-state headquarters, and early in the afternoon the body of young Jones was carried to Lawrence in a farm wagon. Of course, it created great excitement and indignation. Three "adventurous fellows "-all young men of less than twenty-five years of age-left the town to overtake and capture, if they could, Coleman and his gang. They went without orders from the free-state committee, but their leaving was seen and their errand known and approved of by all who saw them leave. These young men were Jolin Edwin Cook, lawyer, Charles Lenhart, printer, and Mr. Stewart, a medical student from western New York, related, I believe, to the family of Alvin Stewart, once lieutenant governor of the Empire State and then a well-known anti-slavery politician. Of these three men, two had never used any intoxicating liquor, and the third, " Charley " Lenhart, left the " case " at which he was working in the Heradaof Freezdoml office, a perfectly sober man, when the body of young Jones was brought to rest on Massachusetts street. Cook and Stewart had not been long in the Territory. The former came with ample means for his own expenses. Mr. Stewart was employed (at his own cost) in copying the laws which had been prepared by the Topeka Legislature in the vain hope that even squatter sovereignty might be used in removing the Missouri rule. Cook was hung at Charlestown, Va., on the 6th of December, I859, for participation in the Harper's Ferry raid. Cook, like Stevens, Hazlett, Coppoc, Copeland, and Green, were tried for insurrection and murder. John Brown was tried for treason against a State of which he was not a resident, and, therefore, under the SHADOWS FROM POTTAWATOMIE. 79 State-sovereignty doctrine, one to which lie owned no allegiance. The land of Washington and Jefferson had the "honor," then, of hanging the American Spartacus as a traitor. He is the only American so condemned and executed. Charles Lenhart died in 1862, as a lieutenant in the Union army. Mr. Stewart was slain by murderer Coleman. It occurred in this wise: The fact was known that the assassins of Jones had ridden towards Lecompton, and as Cook and Lenhart both told me within two months after the Jones and Stewart murders, it was believed that they would soon return to their Franklin camp. Stewart, Cook, and Lenhart, well armed, went towards the old California trail or road, where about a mile south of Lawrence it crossed the lower portion of Mount Oread and made a highway to Franklin. They stationed themselves at this point and had been there about thirty minutes, when three men riding mules were seen coming down the road. Their animals, clothing, and arms, indicated they were Missourians, and as they rode nearer, Coleman, at least, was recognized. But a moment before the young freestate men had decided to return to Lawrence. Hesitating briefly as to what should be done (the mounted ruffians having evidently prepared for conflict), Stewart impulsively ended the doubt by stepping forward but without raising his Sharp's rifle, and asked"Where are you going, gentlemen?" The response was immediate. A gun was raised and fired as Coleman shouted "We're going to Franklin and you're going to hell." Stewart fell dead as a bullet crashed through his forehead and entered his brain. The assassins put spurs to their animals and dashed 8o JOHN BROWVN. on to Franklin, followed by Cook and Lenhart, firing as they run. One shot from Cook's rifle wounded the murderer Coleman, who dropped his rifle. Lenhart also wounded another. But the assassins escaped, and the two gallant young men, whose memories are so shamelessly blackened by the later " historian," returned to Lawrence with the dead body of their friend. Is any further comment necessary than this plain statement? I think not. These incidents, and such as these, are of those thlat led up to the s!aying on the Pottawatomie. The very air of the Territory was reeking with murder. If the statement is questioned, "The Conquest of Kansas" (1856, pp. 286) by William A. Phillips, will stand for proof. On Pottawatomie Creek, near where Jolhn Brown's four sons, his son-in-law, Thompson, and a brotherin-law, Mr. Orson Day, had made their land entries and settlement, oine of the pro-slavery camps had also been established. It was but a short distance from thle Missouri border. Above it was the proslavery town of Paola, and nearer to it the free-State town of Osawatomie. There is abundant evidence to show that this post was an important link in the pro-slavery campaign of that summer. The free-State settlers south of the Pottawatomie were comparatively few. Fort Scott was left to take care of them. Practically, " Dutch Henry's Crossing," as the proSouthern settlement was named, became thc first at the southern end of tlhe border-ruffian arc, which was forming to inclose tlhe important free-State settlements; the Missouri border, from Bates County north to about St. Joseph, on tile river, being the base of the arc, or string of the boxw. Captain Brown knew SHADOWS FROM POTTAWATOMIE. 8I clearly that the border-ruffian forces were but puppets moved on the board of secession politics, and this understanding far more than any personal threats or possibilities, moulded his acts. He kept himself thoroughly well informed of their purposes. Up to the first sacking of Lawrence (the second occurred under Quantrill in August, 1863), the Captain was comparatively unknown in the Territory. His only public appearance was the one described in the preceding chapter, when with his sons he went to the defense of Lawrence in December, I855. But at Osawatomie, and among the free-state settlers on the Pottawatomie, this grave, quiet man was regarded with increasing confidence. He made no preparations for a continued residence, and was constantly moving about, often appearing in Missouri and along the border with one horse and a small wagon, loaded with surveying instruments. He was presumed to be a United States deputy surveyor and, therefore, " sound on the goose" by all the Southern men in whose camps he was constantly appearing. He allowed them to think as they wished, shaping his replies to questions, so as to add to their confidence. Salmon and Oliver, his two younger sons, generally accompanied him. In this way, during the early spring months, he became thoroughly posted not only on the purposes of the invaders, but as to the agents they depended upon. "Dutch Henry's Crossing" was their initiative post south of the Kansas River. Henry and William Sherman were South Germans. Henry, for some time before the Territory was opened to settlers, had been employed by Ottawa Jones, the leading member of an Indian tribe, so named, who were civil6 82 JOHN BROWN. ized and Christian. Jones was an excellent farmer and a valuable man. Educated, and married to a white woman, formerly a missionary teacher, he was always an open helper of the free-state men, and Captain Brown soon became his friend. " Dutch Henry " had left " Ottawa " before the troubles began. He and his brotherWilliam took up claims, and opened a small grocery and groggery. He was soon suspected of stealing stock and doing other disreputable acts. Both men were violent, ruffianly, and brutal. They were constantly insulting the free-state women and making odious threats against them. Allen Wilkinson was a man of some education and a Marylander. He was at first disposed to be a " black law" freestate man, and his wife did what she could to keep him from the bad influences at Sherman's. He was flattered into becoming actively pro-slavery and had been elected to the Shawnee Legislature-the body that enacted a slave code. The Doyles were a shiftless set, of the ruder and more brutal " poor white" sort, and they were used as tools that had an edge on them.1 To this nucleus came others, until Henry Thompson, now residing at Pasadena, California, writes me recently, in relation to the elder Doyle, that " in Kansas in 1855, when the fall election came off, I, with others of our company, went to the polling-place on the Pottawatomie, thinking there might be trouble.... On the way home I walked about two miles witl old man Doyle and others. Doyle had a great many things to say about the ' nigger,' declaring they had no human feelings and did not know anything. I told him I had seen colored men as much smarter then he was as he was smarter than his little dog. Doyle said that was incendiary language and I would pay for it. So, in the spring of 1856, when they held their bogus court at Dutch Henry's. Doyle swore out a warrant for SHADOWS FROM POTTAWATOMIE. 83 the Sherman's place was the center of proposed operations against the free-state people and cause. These operations did not materialize, because the material was missing. The Federal Judge, Cato, held court there, and from among its frequenters, the larger number of whom were residents of border Missouri, were gathered the grand juries, so-called, that presented indictments against John and Jason Brown, II. H. Williams, of Osawatomie, and other free-state men who had become prominent. The summary removal of Judge Cato, who presided, was afterwards demanded by Governor Geary because of his aiding to prevent the arrest of the murderer Coleman, who, besides slaying Dow and Stewart, was also a party to the killing of David Buffum. No one knew these pro-slavery agents so well as Captain John Brown. Scores of pages might be filled with evidence of this, but one statement will be sufficient. In conversation with E. A. Coleman, now living near Lawrence, Captain Brown in reply to questions about some of the circumstances that doubtless led more directly to the Pottawatomie slaying, said in I856 in the Coleman cabin near Osawatomie and just before the battle thereof: " Mr. Coleman, I will tell you all about it. I had heard that these men were coming to the cabin that my arrest. When we heard of it, we held a little council and decided it best for me to go and give myself up. Salmon Brown went with me as dispatcher, so if they served the warrant on me, the others of our company were to come into court and hand me two revolvers. The court was to be summarily adjourned, but the court had weakened and left before I got there." 84 ( JOHN BROWN. my son and I were staying in,... to set fire to it and shoot us as we ran out. Now, that was not proof enough for me; but I thought I would satisfy myself.. I was an old surveyer, so I disguised myself, took two men with me to carry the chain, and a flagman. The (section) lines not being run, I knew that as soon as they saw me they would come out to find where their lines would come. And taking a book out of his pocket," the Coleman story proceeds with "Here is what every man said that was killed. I ran my lines close to each man's house. The first that came out said,' Is that my line, sir?' I replied, 'I cannot tell; I am running test lines.' I then said, 'You have a fine country here; great pity you have so many Abolitionists in it.' 'Yes, but, by God, we will soon clean them out,' he said. I kept looking through my instrument, making motions to the flagman to move either way, and at the same time I wrote every word that was said. Then I said,' I hear that there are some bad men here by the name of Brown.' ' Yes, there are; but next Wednesday night we will kill them.' So I ran the lines by each one of their houses, and I took down every word; and here it is, word for word, by each one." At the camp, en route to Lawrence, intelligence was received of the burning of Mr. Theodore Weiner's house and store, with abundant proofs of a general advance against the influential free-state settlers along the Pottawatomie Creek. It was known that the honor as well as the lives of the women were in peril. In after years I heard some narrations as to this that were sufficient to set any man's blood on fire. Among others who fled hastily for security to SHADOWS FROM POTTAWATOMIE. 85 Osawatomie, after the younger John Brown's company had left for Lawrence, were the wives of John, Jr., and Jason Brown, as well as members of the Partridge and Updegraft, with other families. James G. Blunt, then a practising physician in that section, and afterwards a major-general of volunteers, with a distinguished record, on whose staff I served for two years, told me of the continued unrest and dread that preceded the 24th of May, and of the quiet and peace that for a considerable period followed thereafter. I never heard a free-state citizen of that section among the scores personally known to me, deprecate the act of death with which John Brown's name is there associated. I have known some of them to evade the expression of an opinion. In fact, the only upright and honorable free-state citizen I have known as always declaring the "Pottawatomie Massacre " to have been unwarranted, was the gallant Col. Samuel Walker, of Lawrence. But, he never made his view a cause of attack upon John Brown's honesty of purpose or integrity of character. He held the act to be such a case of mental aberration or fanaticism as one, for example, in criticising Calvin, might consider the burning of Servetus. Col. Walker left personal reflections to men inside of his own lines who cared more for partisan success, or personal profit and advancement; than they did for conscience and unselfish service. Some attempt has been made to have it appear that John Brown in striking the Pottawatomie blow was obeying the dictates or suggestions of a secret free-state order or council. There is absolutely no proof of such a thing, and I do not believe it to be in any way credible. Reference is 86 JOHN BROWN. made to this rumor so as to call attention to a series of " half truths " that have been made to do duty as " whole falsehoods" ever since I860. These were started, as far as they have a place in this history of events under consideration, by ex-Governor Charles Robinson, in his volunteered testimony before tile Senate Committee's "Inquiry into the Harper's Ferry Raid." In that testimony, as printed at the time in the New York Herald and other papers, Dr. Robinson spoke of a secret order among free-state men known, as he said, as " The Danites." He declared, that he was not a member of it, but that James H. Lane (his rival for political preferment) was. He mentions also John Brown's sons, James Redpath, Wm. A. Phillips, J. H. Kagi, killed at Harper's Ferry, and myself. When his testimony appeared, Colonel Phillips, Mr. Redpath, and myself denied fully all of Robinson's statements. He never answered our proven denials. But there was a " League of Freedom " organized in Kansas, in the fall or early winter of 1855, and Dr. Charles Robinson, then chief agent of the New England Emigrant Aid Society, residing in Lawrence, was, as I have good reason for saying, its first chief or commander. I have in my possession a paper marked "Confidential," written by a well-known and still prominent citizen of Kansas, who states this position of Robinson to be a fact, and claims for himself to have served as the first secretary. This witness states that the original minutes are all in his posession, and that they will at some future day be deposited with the State Historical Society. In writing of " Dutch Henry's " character, he says, that a messenger started and failed to reach the camp of the Pottawa SHADOWS FROM POTTAWATOMIE. 87 tomie Rifles with a request for the striking of some blow that would compel a pause on the part of the border-ruffian assailants. John Brown Jr., has declared in recent years that a Henry Sherman, or " Dutch Henry," as he was called, lived on Pottawatomie Creek and kept a store or saloon. It had become the rendezvous for the Doyles and others who were known as border ruffians, spies, thieves, and murderers. It was through them the Missourians gained all information concerning the condition of the free-state men. At this particular time, the country was full of such ruffians, who had come up here to murder our people and burn our homes. These men were most active and bold. They ordered free-state men to leave under pain of death if they failed to comply. While our men were under arms and in camp, these marauders went to the homes of the settlers, where there was no one but women and children; they were abusive and indecent. On one occasion they so frightened one woman who was quick with child that she gave premature birth to it and came near dying. These conditions were reported, and a council was called, the whole matter was discussed, and after a full investigation, it was decided that " Dutch Henry" and his whole gang should be put to death, as an example and warning to the many murderers who infested the Territory at that time. It was believed their crimes merited it, and the safety of the free-state community demanded it. I do not say that John Brown's party were chosen; probably the decision was anticipated. I do say we decided that it must be done. The execution of these men was the dawn of peace in Kansas. There was no more murdering except by ruffians attached to forces coining over in large numbers. House-burning was done only under similar circumstances. Pro-slavery men who where not border ruffians, and there were a goodly number, were soon ready to aid in the protection of free-state men. They asked and were never denied protection by the latter. It was the great beginning of the glorious ending in Kansas. I justified it then, so did Robinson and everybody else. I have had no reason to change my mind upon that subject since. 88 JOHN B1ROWN. night or two before the last attack on lawrence (September 15, I856), Dr. Robinson in his own house told his father that the Pottawatomie slaying was entirely justifiable, and that more of the same sort should be done. Captain Brown grimly advised the doctor that if he had any such jobs on hland he should do them himself. The " League of Freedom" was designed only to enable the harassed free-state men to know each other, to aid in protection and to assist in rapid gathering for defense. There was no obligation taken of a wrong or violent character; there was no disloyalty in its pledges, and on the whole, as I now recollect, it was less forceful even than the Union League of America, which became so powerful in the war period. That League seems to have followed the Kansas outline. I distinctly remember that the badge of recognition was for both bodies the same-a little piece of black tape or ribbon worn in a button hole or at the throat. The Kansas League was formed into units or councils of ten. That's all I recall, except that I know that it was as a factor of no great consequence. The actors, and no " Danite " order, alone bear the direct responsibility of the Pottawatomie slaying; and as every sincere and active Kansas free-state man of that period, but one, of whom I have any knowledge, indorsed or acquiesced in tile deed and its results, they must all accept a share of responsibility. Charles Robinson declared that the effect was to strike terror into the hearts of pro-slavery men; that their "party could take no exception to it as they had inaugurated the war." He asked: "But was John Brown at heart a murderer in this butchery? I think not. He worshiped the God of SHADOWS FROM POTTAWATOMIE. 89 Joshua and David, who ordered all the enemies of his people to be slaughtered;... and everything that breathed."' In December, I859, three and a half years after the event, Dr. Robinson, at a public meeting in Lawrence, supported resolutions declaring that said transaction was not unjustifiable, but " that it was performed from the sad necessity which existed at the time to defend the lives and liberties of the settlers of that region." Again, at the unveiling of John Brown's monument at Osawatomie, August 30, 1877, twenty-one years after the Pottawatomie slaying, Charles Robinson, in his dedicatory speech, declared of the Harper's Ferry party: "They were men of conviction, though death stared them in the face.... The soul of John Brown was the inspiration of the Union armies in the emancipation war.... To the superficial observer, John Brown was a failure. So was Jesus of Nazareth. Both suffered ignominious death as traitors to the Government, yet one is now hailed as the Saviour of the world from sin, and the other of a race from bondage." Eli Thayer, who, like Governor Robinson, has been lavish in defamatory abuse of John Brown, knew well the story of Pottawatomie and all that it suggested, yet up to I858 he was the open and apparently sincere admirer of the Puritan fighter. In May of 1857 he paid for and made Captain Brown a present of a large gun, carrying a two-ounce ball, which had been manufactured at Worcester for Captain Brown's use by the Massachusetts Arms Company. The receipted bill made out to Eli Thayer was indorsed and 'Topeka Commonwealth, 1879. 90 JOHN BROWN. signed on the back in his own handwriting as follows: "Presented to my friend, Captain John Brown, for use in the cause of Freedom. ELI THAYER." This document was in my possession in I860, and was used in the campaign of that year against Eli Thayer's candidacy for Congress. He was running as an Independent, and part of his stock-in-trade was denunciation of John Brown's character and memory. Perhaps no single piece of evidence will more clearly show the immediate effect of the Pottawatomie blow, than the following letter by one who is known as the lieutenant-colonel of the First Colorado Cavalry, and, after the War, as one of the Indian Peace Commissioners, appointed by President Grant. At the date of the slaying there was considerable commotion throughout the Territory. A party of Northern emigrants which had left Illinois for Kansas by the Missouri River, had been turned back at Leavenworth by Buford's men. The Oliver Congressional Committee was in session at Leavenworth. Threats of driving out all Northern men were freely made. Colonel Samuel F. Tappan says: "In the summer of 1856, I was at Leavenworth as clerk of the Congressional Committee, investigating free-state affairs. A reign of terror prevailed, freestate men, women, and children, were forcibly driven from their homes, put upon steamers, and sent down the river. Free-state men were arrested by a mob of Buford men, and imprisoned in the basement of a warehouse. Miles Moore, M. J. Parrott, Charles Robinson, Judge Wakefield, and others, were also held as prisoners in the city. This continued until one after SHADOWS FROM POTTAWATOMIE. 91 noon the Herald (General Easton, editor) published an extra about six inches long-giving an account of the horrible murder by John Brown, of Wilkinson and six [four] others, on Pottawatomie Creek, Southeastern Kansas. This put a stop to further demands upon free-state men, and they were all soon after released. The Buford men remained quiet, no longer appearing in the street under arms. In a few days I took passage in mail-coach for Lawrence, with S. C. Smith. Mr. Weibling, who had been a prisoner, drove the team. Judge Wakefield, having been released, was also on the coach, and we drove to Lawrence without further trouble." So much is certain: The men who were slain represented the worst elements arrayed in behalf of slavery, and engaged in harrying the free-state settlers; the results of the deed were immediately and permanently beneficial, and the most of those who have since defamed and assailed the name and fame of John Brown under pretense of being shocked by the Pottawatomie tragedy, were conspicuous in earlier days in eulogizing the man they now assail. It is an act not to be judged by soft "lutings of my lady's chamber," or the usual conventionalities of peaceful periods. Those who are shocked always at the shedding of blood will shudder when reading the story. Those who comprehend that evolution includes cataclysm as well as continuity, will realize the nature of the forces in issue, and decide as their own conception of events and their righteousness may determine. Those who lived through those titanic days, and stood for freedom, will have no doubt in ranging themselves. For John Brown himself, no one who understands the 92 JOHN BROWN. conditions then existing will offer apology or excuse. The act done proved to be a potential one in the winning of free institutions for Kansas. And that is what they have to deal with. John Brown always declared that the people of Kansas would surely sustain and justify the deed done on the 24th of May, 1856. The marble statue erected in his honor at Osawatomie is in evidence of the faith that was in him. For himself, while never acknowledging participation in the Pottawatomie slaying, he never denied it either. He always declared, however, that, as he avowed a belief in its righteousness, he could not, therefore, avoid a personal responsibility for the deed. This has been the attitude of every honorable free-state man in Kansas. To avoid now would be cowardice indeed. Time has lifted the shadows, but it has not dulled the memory. CHAPTER V. PREPARATION AND CHANGE IN KANSAS. John Brown leaves the Territory- Through Nebraska and Iowa to Chicago- Governor Geary and the Northern emingrants-Free-state prisoners serving as his body guard-How they were ill-treated-The political conflicts-Serving Territorial power- The Lecompton and Leavenworth Constitutions-Ballotbox frauds-John Brown in Iowa and Kansas again-A new leaf turned. THE Missourians suddenly retired from Lawrence on the evening of Sept. 15, i856. They had failed in their avowed design of " wiping cut" the town; first, because the courage of its residents combined with John Brown's presence, gave definite direction to the defense; and, second, because the Democratic fear of Fremont's election compelled the interference of Governor John W. Geary. But he made no effort to prevent the malign pro-slavery force from wreaking such vengance as they were able when retreating, in the burning of every free-state cabin in sight. Memory still recalls the scene. Two squadrons of United States dragoons, commanded by Lieut.-Col. Phillip St. George Cooke, surrounded the Governor while occupying the crown of Mount Oread, a small range of hills upon which now stands the State uni 94 JOHN BROWN. versity buildings. At that time it was occupied only by a rude circular wall of earth and stone thrown up for defensive purposes. Capt. Samuel Walker was conversing with Geary. Soon after he was appointed acting sheriff of Douglas County. All freestate men esteemed Captain Walker, but many of them did not like the appointment, because it involved a recognition of the " bogus laws." The sunset's glow faded swiftly from the western sky, as a low soughing wind arose. The shadows were made lurid by the red flames of a dozen fires that could be seen, marking the retreat to the Missouri border of the pro-slavery force. All of us were impatient, for murder had been committed. Rapine was free, yet the Governor was slow. His severe manner showed he felt the full importance of his strange position, while it also made manifest his mental attitude towards the free-state people. Hostile and unfriendly then, we knew soon after that he was at heart of genuine stuff. Doubtless he realized that he had by not pressing the Missouri invaders, saved for the time being that Union, for whose defense and preservation he afterwards fought so gallantly and served so well as soldier and commander. Had Lawrence been destroyed tliat day, the North would have arisen in its wrath, Fremont would have been elected President, and the South would doubtless have revolted four years earlier than it did. There were men in the proslavery camp and councils in Kansas who steadily sought to precipitate that issue. It needed, however, the crucial test of the Harper's Ferry sacrifice to educate the awakening North to a fuller measure of the work before it. PREPARATION AND CHANGE IN KANSAS. 95 John Brown, under the friendly shadows, left the town he had helped to save, no longer to him and his a friendly refuge. John, Jr., and Jason, were with him, also a fugitive slave, hidden in the ricketty onehorse wagon that Captain Brown had moved about in when appearing as a United States land surveyor. Two others probably joined him at Topeka. They were Charles P. Tidd and William H. Leeman, afterwards known to be with him at Tabor, Iowa. Owen Brown had been left at Tabor, when Captain Brown went to Iowa, and returned to Kansas in the preceding August. This trip was made in order to convey Henry Thompson, wounded at the Black Jack fight, with Owen and Salmon, who were also injured by accidents at the same time. Owen was on his way to meet his father, and did not get to the neighborhood of Lawrence until long after dark. He had an arduous task in the night to locate the bivouac of his father and brothers. The presence of a fugitive slave in the party made necessary more than usual caution. Captain Walker directed me, after the Governor and his escort made camp and found shelter for the night, to find John Brown's camp, or at least to overtake him by the time he should reach Topeka, giving him warning of an attempt to arrest. I found them early in the morning, and shared with the party their breakfast of roasted corn ears, lean beef toasted over a little fire, and corn-coffee. In those days such parties never traveled the highway, avoided the cabins, and at night usually camped without fire in sheltered ravines. At Topeka, the center of interest then because of the incoming Northern emigrants, the policy of the new Governor was soon made known. He sought to, and 96 JOHN BROWN. did divide free-state councils, inducing conservatives, like Captain Walker, to cooperate in securing what was alleged to be peace, but which in reality only made oppression more difficult to resist. He then directed his efforts to the arresting or scattering of the men, organized in the Northern emigrant trains, that were coming to the Territory by way of the long land route through Iowa and Nebraska. The nearest railroad stations to Kansas at that time were Iowa City, Iowa, to the north and east, and Jefferson City, Missouri, to the south, each about four hundred miles distant. The Missouri River, from St. Louis to St. Joseph, was in the hands of the pro-slavery forces and practically closed to free navigation, the Federal authorities passively cooperating. A number of Eastern and Northern emigrant parties had been turned back thereon, and their arms and other goods taken from them. The Sharp's rifles, which John Brown afterwards transported to Virginia, were originally shipped, after purchase by George L. Stearns, from Massachusetts for Kansas via St. Louis and Kansas City. They were stopped on the road and sent to Iowa City, whence some one of the agents of the National Kansas Aid Committee, probably Mr. W. M. F. Amy, had them forwarded with other supplies to Tabor, a few miles from Nebraska City. Mr. John Jones received and warehoused them at Tabor. It is not generally known, but it is a fact nevertheless, that there were from i856 to I858 more slaves in southern Nebraska than in Kansas itself. Less than a lhundred were brought there, and most of them were conveyed to the north star section soon after. The first attempt to cross the Missouri PREPARATION AND CHANGE IN KANSAS. 97 river by the new route was made by the Massachu - setts party, under charge of Martin Stowell, of which I was a member. We were the advance guard in July, I856, of "Jim " Lane's hastily gathered command. The Nebraska City ferry was worked by a southern settler, named Nuckolds, who had brought slaves there and who declared that our company should not cross. Three of us, who were mounted, rode down, called and got the ferry over to the Iowa or eastern side of the river, with Nuckolds himself in charge, and we held it there until our little company of sixty-five young men with three wagons were ferried over. These incidents are only mentioned to show the nature of the obstacles. Mr. Nuckolds yielded to our persuasive force, aided by that of his neighbors, many of whom were free-state in sympathy, and, perhaps, even more by the profit he found in the large ferriage tolls we promptly paid. Brigadier-General Persifer Smith, U. S. A., was in command, with headquarters in Fort Leavenworth, from early in 1856 until the spring of 1857, had spies in our camps. Southern by birth and associations, he leaned certainly to that side. Colonel Sumner, a cousin of Senator Sumner (then a helpless invalid from the bludgeon of Preston Brooks, of South Carolina), was actively commanding in the field. He is remembered with admiring gratitude for fair play. It is not designed to suggest, however, that General Smith was intentionally and deliberately partisan, but he treated the Northern emigrants as marauders, armed to disturb the peace, and regarded the Southern and Missouri forces as composed of gentlemen, engaged, though in mistaken ways, in the assertion of 7 98 JOHN BROWN. their rights. This seems to be the attitude of some of our local historians, who ought to know better.' Governor Geary for a time held a somewhat similar attitude as to our newcomers, though he could not be in sympathy with the brawling border-ruffian element, by which at Lecompton he was at once surrounded. Indeed, he early exhibited genuine manliness by rejecting their advice and declining personal association with them. So marked grew the divergence that within less than three monlhs the borderruffian leaders at Lecompton were seeking some pretext for his assassination. Perhaps Gen. Persifer Smith's tendencies were shown in no more marked way than by his treatment of Governor Geary, whose demand for troops, needed in order to prevent that assault on himself and authority, he even rudely declined to recognize. That Geary passed this peril safely was mainly due to the fact that a number of free-state men were being nominally held as prisoners at Lecompton. But of this in another place. After the arrival in July and August, I856, from the Among our army officers in Kansas during the free-state prelude, were many of the most distinguished corps and division commanders, on both sides of the subsequent Civil War. General Smith, Col. Joseph E. Johnston, Captain Longstreet, Lieutenant McIntosh, Captain Anderson, I recall as noted Confederate officers. Cols. Sumner and St. George Cooke, Majors Thomas, Sedgewick, and David Hunter, Captains Wm. B. Wood, Sackett, and Nathaniel Lyon, are some of those who made fame as soldiers and renown as Union commanders. And singularly, too, the harshest and most unfair of them all in his personal attitude and action in dealing with free-state men was a fine soldier, now relieved with rank as Major-General of Volunteers and Brigadier General of Regulars, after a notable career as a corps commander. PREPARATION AND CHANGE IN KANSAS. o9 Northern and Eastern States of over one thousand additional free-state men, the conditions of the conflict favorably changed. The effort then begun to disintegrate the free-state party. It had so far deliberately avoided either Republican or Democratic affiliations. With the repulse at Lawrence, the victorious fighters, Lane, Harvey, Brown, and others, quickly disappeared. This was in accord with the politic demands of the National Kansas Committeemen, who demanded non-resistance to Federal authority as a condition of organized Northern support. General Lane left for Nebraska as soon as Geary's arrival at Kansas City was known. He was escorted out of Kansas by a small force commanded by Colonel Whipple-the name by which Aaron Dwight Stevens' was known in Kansas. He was the fighting free-state leader at Topeka, and to him was entrusted a defense of the open road to Nebraska and Iowa. On John Brown's arrival at; Tabor, in the middle of August, AARON DWIGHT STEV] Henry and William Thompson, with Salmon and Oliver Brown, started at once for their Adirondack homes, glad to get away from war's disorder. For a considerable period thereafter, they were disinclined to proceed any further in their leader's course. On the second trip north, Captain Brown and party camped near or passed the lines of I Hung at Charlestown, Va., March, 16, i860. * r* l ~ *, "*:*" ENS, IOO JOHN BROWN. United States cavalry, engaged in efforts to arrest him. Colonel Whipple with his command marched on parallel lines, but kept out of sight, arriving in Nebraska in time to meet the Northern emigrants who were organized and marching under Colonel Eldredge, of Lawrence; S. C. Pomeroy, afterwards United States Senator; Samuel F. Tappan, and James Redpath. Preston B. Plumb was also making his third attempt to enter Kansas, the State which sent him to the United States Senate in after years, he having twice before been taken prisoner by Missourians and compelled to return to Ohio. John Brown left Topeka later (Sept. 2oth) and moved with less rapidity than Lane, avoiding also the emigrant trains. His son Watson, then a youth of seventeen, had left North Elba for Iowa on the arrival home of his brothers, but he missed his father and turned eastward before the latter's arrival early in October at Tabor. Captain Brown proceeded direct to Chicago, where he arrived on the 25th or 26th of October. After conferring with the National Committee, there began the plan of agitation which finally led directly to Harper's Ferry. He had framed definite plans, the character of which will develop in this narrative. While John Brown was making his way eastward on a missionary tour for " Beecher's Bibles " (Sharpe's rifles) and money to sustain further active operations, affairs in Kansas became more complex and also quite serious in character. The " Executive Minutes" of Gov. John W. Geary, published by the State Historical Society of Kansas, within a few years, shed considerable light on the passing events of the period under review. PREPARATION AND CHANGE IN KANSAS. I01 One startling reminder of border-ruffian domination, threatening renewal of strife for more than the year following Governor Geary's arrival in the middle of September, 1856, was an alleged law passed by the Shawnee Mission Legislature,' providing for the convening of a so-called constitutional convention at Lecompton, the Territorial capital, with sixty delegates. These were apportioned so as to allow of electing four-fifths of the delegates from counties controlled by Missouri votes. In an apportionment for Territorial Legislature, nineteen Southern counties were given but three representatives, three counties containing the bulk of free-state voters were given nine, while seven pro-slavery counties with one-half of their population were given twentyfour members. Attempts were made to induce the Governor to authorize and recognize the arming of small bodies as militia for the purpose of preventing any election outbreaks. The leaders were to be proslavery partisans like Henry Clay Pate, and men of the same type. Geary did not yield to this request, nor 1 The Shawnee Mission was partly in Missouri and partly in Kansas, this segment being on the Shawnee reservation in Johnson County. The missionary was a Southern Methodist, and a violent pro-slavery man. Governor Reeder convened the first Legislature at Pawnee City, Riley County, the center of the Territory. The War Department, Jefferson Davis, Secretary, decided that Pawnee was on the military reservation of Fort Riley. Colonel Montgomery was cashiered, and unjustly, for it has since been found that it was not on the reservation at all. The general belief in Kansas was that if Colonel Montgomery had been " sound on the goose," i. e., slavery, he would not have been cashiered. The Missourians immediately after organizing, adjourned to the Shawnee Mission and there went on with their work. 102 JOHN BROWN. did he to the demand of the United States marshal, J. B. Donelson, of South Carolina, for an escort of twenty dragoons to enable him to arrest a number of active free-state men, charged with resisting the borderruffian code. Tie Governor expressed his aversion to the use of troops in serving civil processes, and, on that ground, declined. Among those to be so arrested may,e found the name of Charles W. Moffett, one of Joht Brown's Regulars, and a member of the party who drilled twelve months later at Springdale, Iowa, for tile Virginia raid. These rebuffs to the unqualified ruffian elements soon gave breathing space to bona-fide settlers on both sides. At Lecompton the situation was complicated by the holding as prisoners of o10 free-state men, who h-ad left Lawrence under Colonel Harvey, on the I2th of September, for the purpose of attacking a fortified camp of Buford's men, located at Hickory Point, some thirty miles northeast of Lawrence. A squadron of dragoons, under Captain Wood, left Lecompton on the I4th to intercept Harvey, but did not meet and capture his command till the job they started to do lad been fully completed. The captured free-state force consisted, as the Geary minutes state, of ioi prisoners, a brass cannon, seven wagons, and a large quantity of arms and munitions of war. The prisoners were conveyed to the encampment of the United States troops.' 'List of Prisoners confined at Lecompton, K. T., Sept. 27, I856, and bound over on the charge of murder in the first degree:C. H. Calkins, Bangor, Me; Thos. Bickerton, Portland, Me.: F. B. Swift, Brunswick, Me.; Win. Butler, Cook Co., N. H.; J. F. Tabor, Howland, Vt.; J. L. King, Brattleboro', Vt.; O. M. Marsh, Woodstock, Vt.; Stafford J. Pratt, Boston, Mass.; W. N. Bent, Dorchester, Mass.; D. H. Montague, Springfield, Mass.; PREPARATION AND CHANGE IN KANSAS. 103 Kagi was the correspondent of the New York evening Post and the National Era, Washington, D. C. He and Moffett were afterwards members at different periods of the Harper's Ferry party. William Bowles was the brother of Col. John Bowles, to whom the readers of this work are indebted for the new portrait of Captain Brown, published herein. Among this list are many names of men who afterwards distinguished themselves in the Union army. The arrest, confinement, trial, and conviction with A. W. Dole, Fitchburg, Mass.; Howard York, W. Brookfield, Mass.; C. L. Preston, Worcester, Mass.; "Major" Soley, Worcester, Mass.; A. H. Parker, Clinton, Mass.; Geo. S. Leonard, Franklin, Mass.; Eli D. Lyman, South Hadley, Mass.; L. D. Coleman, Southampton, Mass.; Henry Heard, Lowell, Mass., Ed. Whipple, Providence, R. I.; Win. Owen, Central Falls, R. I.; Alonzo Crawford, Union, Conn.; C. C. Hyde, Hornellsville, N, Y.; Jared Carter, Saratoga, N. Y.; Chester Hay, Madison Co., N. Y.; Theo. J. Dickinson, Newbury, N. Y.; Jas. R. White, New York City, N. Y.; A. Cutter, Central Falls, N. Y.; Henry N. Dunlap, Buffalo, N. Y.; Geo. H. Powers, Oneida Co., N. Y.; Chas. J. Archinbole, Buffalo, N. Y.; John J. Howell, Utica, N. Y.; Jas. B. Haynes, Philadelphia, Pa.; Jas. J. Bower, Chester Co., Pa.; T. P. Brown, Alleghany Co., Pa.; Thos. J. Porterfield, (aged 67), Preble Co., O.; Henry H. Easter, Highland Co., O.; E. R. Farley, Morrow Co., O.; Wm. Ware, Preble Co., O.; Ed. Collingham, Preble Co., O.; S. Vogelsang, Columbiana Co., O.; Josiah G. Fuller, Oberlin, O.; Alfred J. Payne, Cuyahoga Co., O.; Thos. Bowers, Ross Co., O.; J. T. Yunker, Coshocton Co., O.; Albert F. Baker, Lake Co., O.; Chas. Sexton, Oberlin, O.; J. N. Thompson, St. Joseph Co., Mich.; Orville Thompson, St. Joseph Co., Mich.; Roswell Hutchins, Oakland Co., Mich.; John W. Stone, Detroit, Mich.; Sam'l Stuart, Detroit, Mich.; Sam'l Dolman, Grant Co., Ind.; A. G. Patrick, Greencastle Ind.; John Ritchie, Franklin, Ind.; Henry Knowles, Huntington Co., Ind.; Henry Hoover, Huntington Co., Ind.; Nath. Griffith, Huntington 1o4 JOHN BROWN. subsequent treatment, had a serious effect on public affairs and greatly intensified the Northern sentiment on behalf of the free-state cause. Their former residences show how wide the range of sentiment must have been. The permitted escape of assassins like Coleman, who had shot down unarmed or unresisting men like Dow, Jones, Buffum, and others, too vividly contrasted with the brutal starvation of men who had met in open day an enemy under arms, and, after a six hours' combat, captured them in three heavily built log cabins, each side losing one man in Co., Ind., Jas. Sinex, Wayne Co., Ind., Eph. Bainter, Henry Co.; John Laurie, White Co., Ind.; Wmn. Eptograft, Fulton Co., Ind.; Thomas Keinp, Tippecanoe Co., Ind.; W. G. Portet, White Co., Ind.; Jesse Pyle, Schuyler Co., Ill.; A. D. Roy, Lyndon, Ill.; Geo. Smith, Ogle Co., Ill.; Geo. Nebb, Bloomington, Ill.; Justice Ketchum, Bloomington, Ill.; Geo. Pinney, Joliet, IlI.; Thos. Leeson, Rock Island, Ill.; Gilbert Tower, Lake Co., III.; Jeremiah Jordan, Ogle Co., Ill.; Thos. Aliff, Carlisle, Ill.; Adam Bower, Schuyler Co., Ill.; J. M. Cole, St. Clair Co., Ill.; Aaron M. Humphrey, Kendall Co., Ill.; Wm. Cline, Peoria, II,.; Isaac Gray, Chicago, III.; A. S. Gates, Hamilton, Ill.; PhineasStevens, Bloomingdale, III.; Jas. Connelly, Lake Co., Ili.; W. O. Fisher, Madison Co., Ill.; John White, Lasalle Co., III.; Thos. Hankins, Dover, Ill.; W. H. Gill, Elizabeth, Ill.; Louis Remiatte, Tazewell Co., Ill.; R. D. Nicholls, Jefferson Co., Wis.; Robt. M. Nown, Racine Co., Wis.; C. S. Gleason, Albany, Wis.; W. Florentine, Jefferson Co., Wis.; Ed. Jenkins, Spring Prairie, Wis.; G. O. Eberliart, Muscatine, Ia.; Oliver C. Lewis, Davenport, Ia.; Ed. Jacobs, Mahaskie Co., Ia.; M. Kincle, Davenport, Ia.; Oliver Langworthy, Poweshick, Ia.; Jacob Fisher, Jefferson City, Ia.; E. R. Moffett, Bristolville, la.; Wm. Kerr, Washington, Ia.; Wm. Reyman, Cooper Co., Ia.; J. II. Kagi, Nebraska; Wm. Bowles, St. Charles Co., Mo.; David Patrick, Lafayette Co., Mo.; Jos. Hicks, Platte Co., Mo.; Thos. Varner, Buchanan Co., Mo.; J. H. York, Buchanan Co., Mo. PREPARATION AND CHANGE IN KANSAS. I05 the fight. It was not until the middle of March that our men were released under " pardons" issued by Governor Geary. It was the writer's good fortune to carry the printed blanks from Lawrence to Geary's office and assist in the necessary clerical work in filling them up. Some twenty of the prisoners had previously been transferred from Lecompton to Tecumseh, within a few miles of Topeka. A brief visit there under cover of night by some citizens of Topeka, which may possibly have included a gentleman who afterwards served first as United States Senator and subsequently as Governor of one of the Territories, speedily achieved a big hole in the basement wall of the Tecumseh court-house through which our men walked to freedom. The nature of the treatment given these prisoners may be seen from the following transcript of a diary now in my possession. It is worth reading.' ' Monday, Sept. 20.-Received no rations from United States camp,-moved to Lecompton. Received at 5 o'clock one sack of shorts baked into bread,-one ditto not made into bread; 75 Ibs. of bacon, 6 candles;-Io3 men-no coffer or sugar. Tuesday evening.-One sack of shorts, Io3 Ibs. of bacon, 4 Ibs. of coffee, 6 do. of sugar, 8 or Io do. of salt; I do. of saleratus, I gall. of molasses;-Io3 men. Wednesday evening.-One sack of shorts, 5 lbs. of coffee, 5 do. of sugar, one gall. of molasses, I lb. of saleratus;-Io5 men. 7'hursday evening.-Olne sack of flour, 50 Ibs. of bacon, 6 Ibs. of coffee, no sugar, i lb. of saleratus, I qrt. of vinegar, 3 candles, I gall. of molasses; no provisions brought after dark. Friday, 2 o'clock.-Called on the sergeant of the guard for provisions, was informed that he had spoken to the Marshal, and that we were curtailed to two meals per day. Half-past 4 the Marshal came; brought 50 lbs. of bacon, fore-quarter of beef-about IIo io6 JJOHN B)ROWN. After a short detention in the military camp, the hundred prisoners were huddled into a large logcabin, not fit for an abiding-place for even a score. Colonel Titus, a notorious pro-slavery driver, was placed in charge as jailer. Some of the number escaped. William Bowles, for one, had this opportunity, but he refused to leave his companions, even though his brother was near to aid him. The gallant young man died from the confinement and semistarvation to which he was subjected. These privations superinduced ship's fever and pneumonia. One of his companions was a physician, but without medicines of any kind. All help was refused. A fee of $io in gold was sent to a pro-slavery physician, lbs.; 125 Ibs. of flour, I bushel green beans in the pod, I qrt. of vinegar, 6 Ibs. of coffee, no salt, no sugar; we got about I quart of salt from a neighbor. 7 o'clock.-Fresh arrival of 9 prisoners. Marshal brought 3 candles for the whole amount of us, i I men. Furnished 15 mattrasses to sleep upon. Saturday.-Received 28 lbs. of beef, 125 Ibs. of flour, i small sack of salt, I gall. of molasses, i qt. of vinegar, 6 Ibs. of coffee;I I men. Spoke to Marshal in behalf of 9 men brought here yesterday, who had no blankets, was told that it was impossible to furnish any for them. He afterwards brought 3 quilts for them. Sunday.-About Ioo Ibs. of beef-much damaged, 125 lbs. of flour, 6 Ibs. of coffee, Y lb. of saleratus, I peck of beans, 3candles, 4 Ibs. of sugar. We give the above as the amount of provisions received by the prisoners since coining to Lecompton, and are willing to make oath to the same. E. R. FALIEY, ARTEMUS H. PARKER, Commissaries for the prisoners, to distribute the provisions furnished for the same. PREPARAT'ION AND CHANGE IN KANSAS. 10o7 one Dr. J. N. O. P. Wood, and he not only refused to attend, but sent word to the effect, "that he would see every damned Yankee prisoner dead and in hell before he would either come or send any medicine for their relief." Shortly after William Bowles died. The two brothers were of Kentucky birth. John early became anti-slavery in conviction. Both inherited a few slaves, and when they moved to Missouri, the younger brother emancipated his. William, who went with John to Kansas, soon followed his example, and became also a faithful free-state citizen. John Bowles was early in the volunteer service, and, as a lieutenant in a Kansas cavalry regiment, was in association with other company officers, the active cause in bringing about an important public policy. Capt. J. M. Williams, Lieut. John Bowles, and Capt. Henry Seamen, of the Fifth Kansas, were on detached service and during it were ordered by their colonel to return to their master one or more fugitive slaves who had found refuge in tleir lines. The order was disobeyed (this was early in 1862), and the three officers were placed and kept under arrest for several months. The incident created excitement, was discussed in Congress, and Henry Wilson, as chairman of the Senate Military Committee, brought in a bill, which became law, enacting a new article of war, forbidding the use of the army or navy in the capture or return of fugitive slaves. John Bowles was made a field officer in the first regiment of colored men raised during the War for the Union. Capt. James M. Williams became its colonel, and the writer had the honor to be the first adjutant, as well as to legally enlist the first man of color. This seems a Io8 JOHN BROWN. digression, but it illustrates how the roads to Harper's Ferry were made. It may not be out of place to mention here that William, the brother of John A. Copeland, one of the colored men hung by Virginia, December i6, 1859, was one of four men of color, commissioned and mustered, by order of the War Department, to command a light battery manned by colored soldiers. These four were the only men of their race commissioned as line officers, and actually fighting as such in the field, as they did during the Price Missouri campaign of 1864. To return to Lecompton, Governor Geary's growing insight into the pro-slavery conspiracy and the character of the tools it used, soon made his residence there, not only uncomfortable, but very unsafe. And it is an undoubted fact that the free-state men, retained as prisoners and convicted by a border-ruffian court of murder or other crimes, practically were the only men in Lecompton he could depend upon to prevent his assassination. A fair-minded man, Kentuckian by birth, was substituted for Titus, and arms were introduced into the log-prison. Signals were arranged by which, if any attack or alarm was aimed or made at the dwelling near by, where Governor Geary had his executive office and residence, the freestate prisoners could immediately march to his defense. While the Lecompton Constitutional Convention was in session during this period, the chief reason felt for being safe in attendance thereon by the free-state correspondents was the vicinity of the prison and its armed inmates to the Convention Hall, reeking with abuse and threats from the lips of the acknowledged assassins, aimed more or less PREPARATION AND CHANGE IN KANSAS. Io9 directly at the busy men who were educating the North to the real condition of affairs. The commercial free-state politicians and writers who have since those days falsified the record and abused the men whose unflinching work made it possible for them to be safe in trade and real-estate jobbery, were soon after seen aiding the Governors in these early efforts' to divide the free-state ranks on the vital issue of recognition of the slave code made by the Missouri invaders, and then enforced chiefly by the armed men Buford had brought from the further South, in the guise of the United States marshals and court posses. Governor Geary soon saw the futility of tampering with our integrity or dealing with the enemies of Kansas. As a result he was compelled to retire from the Executive office and Territory. Settlers from the North came pouring in by the thousands and, ere the spring of 1857 awoke, at least twelve to fifteen thousand free citizens were added to the population. Naturally, town booms arose, and the want of titles or means of perfecting them, as well as other administrative agencies, became seriously felt. The divergencies thus created were doubtless inevitable. Business accepts expediency as its rule. Barter and profit control its action. The dispute made hot contention. Every attempt to get around the trouble was regarded by Geary's successor, Gov. Robert J. Walker, and the secretary, Frederick P. Stanton, ex-Congressman, of Tennessee (both very able gentlemen, who finally became friends of the free-state cause), as an Geary did a little in that direction, but Walker and Denver, who followed, were active. IIO JOH4^N BR(OWN. evidence of the conspiracy, they were told, existed to put into force by piecemeal the Topeka Constitution. It is a long and interesting record -that of the years I857-58 in Kansas,-but its details belong in the main to a full and fair, but ais yet unwritten history of Kansas, not to these pages. designed only to sketch the course of events. John Brown was kept faithfully advised in his Eastern agitation of the various phases of the Kansas strife. Among the more active of the radical section of the free-state party were several of the young men who afterwards followed him to Iowa, Canada, and Virginia. Kagi, Realf, and Cook especially were active as correspondents for the Eastern and Northern press. They were also always ready, with other of the Captain's friends, for any needed service. The divergent elements, led by Charles Robinson, G. W. Brown, and others, were quite prominent and more successful. The Lecompton Constitutional Convention finished its unwholsome labors, and the need of preventing its being forced upon the majority by the machinery of the pro-southern minority, sustained more or less effectively by Federal influences, were soon beyond dispute. It was decided at last to obtain the needed power by voting under the " bogus laws " of the Territory-a proposition, which, of course, met the stoutest resistance on the part of the younger and more radical wing. The voting was done, and the Territorial Legislature was seized, and as a first result the repeal of the bogus code immediately followed. An Act, providing for a Constitutional Convention, was then passed. The Topeka instrument, which had done its work as a means of holding the PREPARATION AND CHANGE IN KANSAS. III free-state cause together, was abandoned and buried for good. The abandonment was somewhat indecently done on the part of those who had been the chief beneficiaries of that movement. Charles Robinson, the Governor chosen thereunder, did not even recognize its final session. He was too busy with certain real-estate and town-booming operations, to concern himself with funeral services over a gallant effort of freemen. He was, of course, active enough in the movement to secure real-estate titles. Looking back over the intervening years, it may well be recognized that no other method than the one that succeeded could have been adopted. But that fact made it then no less difficult to accept. Of course, the adoption of such civic methods soon demoralized the foes of free Kansas also. The new Constitutional Convention met at Leavenwortli and drafted a Constitution, quite superior in many respects to that of Topeka. Provision was made to elect a State Legislature and a full set of officers under it. The pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution was not to be submitted to the voters, but was sent to Congress direct for acceptance. But an election for State officers under it had been provided. This the freestate men decided to capture. An election to vote on the Leavenworth Constitution and to choose the officers and legislature thereof was decided upon. It was also determined to put up the same men under the Lecompton election, so that if Congress consented to the proposed iniquity of admitting the State under the pro-slavery instrument without the people's consent and against their unrecorded, yet well-known opposition, the men chosen for the Leavenworth in 1 12 JOHN BROWN. strument would be in control. The State being admitted to the Union, it was argued that a peaceful revolution could be at once achieved, by the substitution of the free-state for the pro-slavery Constitution, the installation of officers, and the selection of United States Senators. As the free-state voters numbered fully ten to one in the fall of 1858, the programme was certain to succeed if fraud did not intervene. Steps were taken to meet the issues that might arise therefrom. The Territorial Legislature passed laws providing for a military organization. This they placed under command of James H. Lane, and it was known as " The Ballot Box Guards." It was formidable, on paper at least, and doubtless would have done its selected work had the occasion really arisen. John Brown was in western Iowa, sick in body and disappointed because of the non-receipt of means he anticipated, harassed, too, by the efforts that were making from Kansas to get possession of the arms, munitions, and supplies stored at Tabor, and which had been placed under his control in Massachusetts. He had another use than arming Lane's men with them, as le did not believe that the real danger to Kansas was over or could be met in the way proposed. So, partly from sickness and partly from the desire to avoid being complicated with " authority," he did not respond to the urgent requests for his presence in Kansas, made in September and October, i858. He did not appear till November, and then only made his presence known to a trusted few at Lawrence and Topeka. He gathered rapidly the nucleus of the party that went to Chatham and Harper's Ferry, to make Time's sounding-board ring with PREPARATION AND CHANGE IN KANSAS. II3 the echoes of their footsteps and the impact of their deeds. The Kansas elections passed over without bloodshed, though the turmoil was fierce and the attempts at frauds by the Lecomptonites among the most stupendous in any political history, —prior at least to these later days when the suffrages of a whole race of voters are practically made nugatory and of no avail. The Kansas processes were more clumsy, however. Polling places with a dozen or twenty voters were made to return, by the aid of city directories, from one thousand to three thousand votes each-all, of course, in support of the pro-slavery side. The Territorial machinery was in free-state hands and all the election officers that did not run away were speedily arrested. Governor Walker rejected these returns, and thereby prevented an outbreak which would have utterly wiped out the aggressive remnant in Kansas of the pro-slavery power, while it probably would also have involved us with the Federal authorities, bringing on another period of civil strife. This chapter of Kansas history came to an end with the action of the next session of Congress, in submitting the Lecompton Constitution to the voters of Kansas, who, of course, overwhelmingly and contemptuously trampled it out of sight under their ballots of rejection. It opened another chapter in the story of John Brown and his men. To make this clear it will be necessary to go back over the same year and trace the Captain's movements in the East and North-a year so fruitful as it was of forces.that led with the irresistibility of fate to the deed he had to do-the blow it was given him to strike! 8 CHAPTER VI. JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. Movements eastward- The National Kansas CommitteePaper by Harvey B. Hurd-Letters of Horace White -What the political fighters meant-How John Brown was, and was not aided-The work of the Massachusetts Aid Committee - George Luther Stearns, Theodore Parker, Frank B. Sanborn and other men of Boston - John Brown's letter of autobiography-Lowell and Emterson vs. Hay and Nicolay -Where John Brown got his money and his armsHis active itinerary-Return to Iowa-Supplies found there-Hugh Forbes, the English Garibaldian-His relations with, and conduct to John Brown. WITH John Brown's arrival in Chicago, October, 1856, accompanied by his son Owen, there begun a more definite development of the purposes and plans he had so long conceived. The reputation gained in Kansas opened many doors and won confidence for him in the minds of men of position and even renown. The whole country was quickened, and the Northern States, especially, were vibrating with a sense of danger to institutions, freedom, and union, such as had never before been felt. The overture of Kansas sternly preluded the vaster movements of the JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. I 5 coming slave-holder's rebellion. John Brown realized that if he openly expressed his ideas or his purposes, in their entirety, he would repel more than he gained. But he knew that standing-room had been achieved. The attacks made by slavery familiarized other minds with the need of answering with blows for freedom. His first purpose was to confer with the National Kansas Committee, through its executive body, resident in Chicago. In fact, that Committee, had already sent both to Kansas and Iowa, asking the Captain to visit their headquarters at Chicago. This National Committee had been selected in the preceding summer at a convention held in Buffalo, New York, which was called to consider the means most available and necessary for the protection and aid of the free-state people of Kansas, and of the bodies of ardent Northern emigrants who were preparing to join them. Thaddeus Hyatt, of New York, a wellknown inventor and manufacturer, who is still living in his seventy-eighth year, and still working, I believe, on the problem of aerial navigation, was made chairman of the Committee. A son-in-law of Thurlow Weed, Mr. Barnes, of Albany, was chosen secretary of the Buffalo Convention. Horace White, now editor of the New York Evening Post, then on the editorial staff of the Chicago Tribune, was an active official of the Committee; Harvey B. Hurd, a wellknown lawyer, and now professor in a famous law school of Chicago, was secretary of the Executive Committee; George W. Dole was treasurer, and J. D. Webster, afterwards brigadier-general and chief of artillery on the staff of General W. T. Sherman, throughout his campaigns in the Central and Coast r6 JOHN BROWN. States of the South during the Civil War, was vicechairman. I am indebted to Mr. Hurd for an interesting paper which will in large part be given in this chapter. The first evidence of his arrival, is found in letters of General Webster and Horace White, bearing date respectively the 25th and 26th of October. In one of them is the significant remark that "Captain Brown says the immediate introduction of the supplies is not of much consequence compared to the danger of losing them," a suggestion which illustrated his practical sagacity, as will be seen from what follows. Horace White's letter mentions to Captain Brown that "Theodore Parker, of Boston," was at the Briggs House and wished to meet him. This was an introduction as significant as any one of the notable incidents, which, begun, from that time forward crowded upon John Brown's days. Hitherto the Puritan fighter had been, outside Kansas, known only to a few colored men and women of character, and to his fast friend, Hon. Gerrit Smith, of Peterboro, New York, as one of the most vigorous and determined of resistant Abolitionists. In order to apprehend more fully the conditions which affected, shaped, or marred the mission he had undertaken it will be necessary to briefly sketch some of the movements which the National and other Northern Kansas Aid Committees had set in operation or had then in progress at the time of John Brown's first appearance in Chicago. At that date (last of October, I856) several armed emigrant trains were congregated in Nebraska, on the northern border of Kansas. Among other members were Richard JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. II7 Realf, George B. Gill and Barclay Coppoc, the first of whom was named at Chatham, Canada, eighteen months later as secretary of state for the provisional government formed there, the second was commissioned as secretary of the treasury, and the third accompanied the Captain to Harper's Ferry just three years later. Among the leaders of the Northern commands were James Redpath, John Brown's first biographer, and P. B. Plumb, who, as a Senator from Kansas, afterwards defended and eulogized him on tlhe floor of the United States Senate. There were also with the trains, among others, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, author, preacher, soldier, poetalways faithful to the same ideal of American liberty that John Brown died for-and who, with Theodore Parker, George Luther Stearns, Dr. Samuel G. Howe, Frank B. Sanborn, the later and authorized (by his family) biographer of John Brown, and Gerrit Smith, formed later a council of friends to aid the Captain in his final efforts. I believe Mr. Sanborn visited Kansas about that date, and I know that Thaddeus Hyatt, with W. M. F. Amy, of Illinois, afterwards a Governor of New Mexico, then the general agent of the National Kansas Committee, were then or soon after en route to Kansas. Horace White visited Kansas also. General Lane was in Iowa making speeches, filled with his peculiar, flashing, and exciting oratory. Watson Brown, en route to Kansas, writes the family at North Elba from St. Charles, Iowa, under date of October 30, 1856, that " We are in the company of a train of Kansas teams loaded with Sharpe's rifles and cannon. I heard a report that father had gone east. We travel very slow; you can write to us at Tabor. 8 JOHN BROWN. On our way we saw Gerrit Smith, F. Douglass, and other old friends. We have each a Sharpe's rifle."' Finding, on arrival at Tabor, that his father had gone eastward, Watson returned to Chicago and soon rejoined him, going home later to North Elba. It is not possible to do more than outline the crowding incidents of that winter. Captain Brown spent about two of the five weeks that passed between his last active appearance at Lawrence, Kansas, and his reporting in Chicago, at Tabor, Springdale, and Iowa City. I am greatly indebted to Prof. L. H. Wetherell, of Davenport, Iowa, for very interesting data relating to John Brown and his men during this and their subsequent visits to Iowa. The first visit was made on this journey to the Springdale Quaker settlement in Cedar County, where, just a year later, the Captain housed for several weeks eleven of the original Harper's Ferry party, and in which place four of his associates were found and recruited. At the burial of Owen Brown, Pasadena, California, in 1892, one of the pall-bearers was Mr. James O. Townsend, a liberal Quaker, formerly the landlord of the "Traveller's Rest," West Branch, ten miles east of Iowa City. Mr. Wetherell describes Captain Brown riding up to the little roadside inn, a spare, gaunt figure on a gaunt, spare mule. After dismounting, the traveler asked the landlord: "Have you ever heard of John Brown, of Kansas?" Mr. Townsend eyed him sharply without reply. Having thus satisfied himself that the question identified the person, he took out a piece of chalk from his Sanborn's " Life and Letters of John Brown," p. 341. JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. I 19 vest pocket and deliberately took Brown's hat off and marked on it a large X; as deliberately he marked Brown's back with a XX, and ended by chalking a large one on the mule's back, saying as he put the chalk back in his pocket: Just put the animal into the stable and walk right into the house. Thou art surely welcome." And Captain Brown was always a welcome guest at the " Traveller's Rest." Literally of Mr. Townsend it could be said he fulfilled the injunction of the Saviour: " I was a stranger and ye took me in; I was a-hungered and a-thirst and ye gave me meat and to drink." Captain Brown's first advice at Chicago was characteristic. By "supplies" were meant the armsSharpe's and Hall's rifles. An Illinois party managed to avoid spoliation at Lexington, Missouri, but on arrival at Leavenworth, Kansas, their arms were seized and themselves driven back. Several hundred Hall's rifles, from the gun-factory at Harper's Ferry, whose seizure was one of the objective points in John Brown's plans, at which Kagi, Leeman, and Leary lost their lives, were taken from this party. The late Senator Preston B. Plumb was a member thereof. He refused to go back when ordered, came ashore at Leavenworth; being threatened with lynching on the streets he was rescued by Nicholas V. Smith (who married one of Horace Greeley's daughters) and his brother-in-law, Col. Hampton P. Johnson, afterwards the first Kansas soldier killed for the Union in a conflict with Missouri rebels. The Plumb incident was brought to an end by the news of the Pottawatomie slaying, which, for the time being, proved a complete 120 JOHN BROWN. deterrent to border ruffian enterprise. The emigrants going to Kansas by the land route were always in danger of having their arms taken by the United States troops under orders from the deputy marshal sent with them by Governor Geary. In fact, some four hundred Hall's carbines were so seized. All these weapons were afterwards recovered. A bill of sale was made to some competent party, whose name is not recalled, and the rifles, etc., held at Lexington were obtained by legal process. and brought to Kansas in the summer of I857. With the Northern trains, under Redpath, Parsons, Eldridge, and Pomeroy, were several guns, twelve-pound howitzers-three in all, I think. These were buried near the northern border of Kansas, to prevent seizure by the troops, and were afterwards brought into Kansas when the struggle against the Lecompton constitution assumed the prospect of renewed belligerency. In December, 1857, the fraudulent election on the slavery clause of that instrument was held. The people at Leavenworth, Lawrence, knowing what was designed, took steps at once to recover their property. The guns at Leavenworth were replevined under a bill of sale made to a prominent free-state citizen there. Those at Lecompton were taken from a cellar wherein they were stored, while the acting Governor, J. W. Denver, whose office was in the same building, was engaged in conversation upon a pretended matter of business. This transaction had its amusing as well as dangerous aspect, and I remember laughing with great gusto at General Denver's anger when he found out he was tricked. This did not occur until the loaded wagon was about to drive off. Direst threats of legal action were JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. 121 hurled at us, but none was taken, for the Governor found on inquiry that he was virtually a party to holding stolen property. It is no wonder that John Brown advised as he did in the face of the Federal interference. The conditions grew complex. Naturally gentlemen charged with a grave responsibility like that taken on the shoulders of the Kansas National Committee, grew cautious in the presence of a personality so simple and positive as John Brown's. The party political conditions were also of the gravest character. At this late date perhaps no fairer presentation of the disputed attitude of the National Committee can be given than is found in the communication sent me, under date of October i, 1892, by Mr. Harvey B. Hurd. He says: " The organization of the National Kansas Committee was authorized by a convention held in Buffalo in the summer of i856. An earlier one had been held in Cleveland for the same purpose, but adjourned to meet later in Buffalo. This was presided over by Governor Reeder, and was very fully attended, something like five hundred delegates being present. The purpose was to take charge of the contest then raging in Kansas, and conduct it on behalf of the North. State Committees were formed, and it was the intention to have the States divided into districts, each under a district committee, and this was carried out to a considerable extent. There was a pretty general organization of the North, its head being the National Committee. More specifically, that Committee took charge of the contest in Kansas, as well as of the aid which the North furnished, and therefore, had much to do with the organizing of such military companies in Kansas as were necessary, and the furnishing arms, provisions, clothing, and the like, for military operations, as well as for the purpose of settling the Territory, the ultimate object being to control it with free-state settlers, and carry forward a 122 JOHN BROWN. free-state government to success. The National Kansas Committee had a depot at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, where it furnished horses, wagons, provisions, and arms for emigrants, and organized them into companies, with such commanders as were necessary to put them in shape to defend themselves against attacks from the pro-slavery forces. Our emigrants were forwarded by way of Tabor, Iowa, and through Nebraska, down into Kansas, Lawrence being their objective point. Some of the arms which were purchased for these emigrants were furnished by the Massachusetts State Committee, notably 200 Sharpe's rifles. The latter were forwarded as far as Tabor, and were there at the time they were voted to John Brown, I do not remember of the Massachusetts Committee or any committee other than the National Committee furnishing any other arms directly.' What other arms were furnished were bought by the National Committee, and furnished directly to emigrants. The Committee bought many Colt's revolvers. " An accurate account of the moneys received and expended by the National Kansas Committee was kept at the time, but the books of account, with the other records and papers of the Committee, were destroyed by the Chicago fire of i871. My recollection of the amount of montey contributed and expended by the Committee is in round numbers $Ioo,ooo. There was contributed besides money a large amount of clothing. This was gathered or made-up by local town committees and forwarded through the State Committees to the National Committee, and by the National Committee to its agents in Kansas, 'Arms were furnished by local committees and individuals in New York, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, and Wisconsin, to the writer's personal knowledge. Thaddeus Hyatt, for example, presented each member of the Massachusetts company to which I belonged, with a revolver upon their arrival at New York. Several cases of Springfield muskets, received in New York, were placed by T. W. Higginson, then a Unitarian minister, resident in Worcester, Mass., and by Mr. Hyatt, of New York, in my charge to convey to Kansas, which was safely done. JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. 123 wnere it was distributed. No fair estimate can at present be made of the value of this clothing. I think it equaled the cash contribution. "John Brown never had any close official relation with the National Committee. He was often at the Committee's headquarters, and the Committee supplied him with some money,' and provisions and clothing at times. At the meeting of the National Committee, held at the Astor House, in January, 1857, a proposition was made by one of the representatives of the Massachusetts Committee to furnish John Brown with the arms and money to organize and drill military companies in Kansas, and to have them in readiness in any emergency, such as invasions from Missouri. I was fearful that Mr. Brown's design was to invade Missouri or some other slave State, for the purpose of bringing on a contest between the North and the South.2 Gerrit Smith had said in the Buffalo Convention, 'that Only $150 in all. 2 This suggestion is probably the result of after knowledgeborn of the fact that John Brown did at later dates invade both Missouri and Virginia. The real fear of the National Kansas Committee was that Captain Brown or some other Kansas man, who was genuinely anti-slavery in feeling, would carry resistance to the bogus laws or the Fugitive Slave Act far enough to get into direct collision with the Federal authorities in the beleaguered Territory. All idea of a possible invasion was an afterthought, outside a very small number of Kansas men. In August, 1856, General Lane was compelled to promise Thaddeus Hyatt and others of the National Committee, when the Northern emigrants were concentrated in Nebraska, that he would so conduct the campaign then pending, against the border-ruffian forces harrying the Kansas free-state settlements, as to avoid in every possible way a direct collision with the Governor or United States Judges, before the means-would be furnished to move forward the 1,200 men waiting impatiently to enter Kansas. Lane did as he promised. He demonstrated against, but did not attack, Lecompton, still bringing about the release thereby of the so-called "treason" prisoners in the United States camp. When the troops were sent 1 24 JOHN BROWN. slavery would never be peacefully abolished, but must be washed out with blood,' and he advocated such a course on the part of the Committee as would bring on open hostilities between the North and the South. It was my opinion at the time that John Brown and Gerrit Smith were in full accord, and that Mr. Brown believed that that was the only way to abolish slavery. One of his purposes was to bring on that contest. I therefore opposed the Committee granting the request unless Mr. Brown would pledge himself not to invade a slave State. Mr. Brown was called in before the Committee, and asked if it was his intention to invade a slave State; to which he replied, that he would not disclose to the Committee his intentions; that most of those present knew him well, and they would have to trust to him in that matter. If they were not willing to do that, he advised them not to grant him anything. The Massachusetts Committee thereupon requested to be permitted to withdraw the 200 Sharpe's rifles, then at Tabor, from the National Committee, for the purpose of turning them over to Mr. Brown, and the National Committee voted to return them, and (lid so. They went into the hands of John Brown, and were the same that were afterwards found at Harper's Ferry. The Committee did also at that meeting vote to John Brown $5.000 in money and sone clothing. The latter was furnished to him in Kansas by tie agent of the Committee, Mr. Whitman, but no money was given to him then. When he drew upon the Committee, the Committee was out of funds and never had the money to meet his drafts. Tlat happened in this wav: At the same meetilg at the Astor House, the Comlagainst him lie disappeared. Under his orders, when the United States marshal, guarded by dragoons under Captain Sackett, came into Lawrence to arrest Lane and others, no one said " yea" or " nay," but olly stood laughing at the marshal and cheering the troops. Thle National Kansas Committee carried Fremont's election on their shoulders, just as Governor Geary believed on his ariival in Kansas that the election of Buchanan depended upon him. fOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. 125 mittee had already voted to make an arrangement with the steamboat owners on the Missouri river and railroads throughout the country to sell through tickets from all principal cities in the North to emigrants in the spring of I857, by way of St. Louis and the Missouri river. They also voted to purchase seeds for Kansas, to be forwarded as soon as it could be done, and all the money in the National Committee's hands was expended in the making of such arrangements for the transportation of settlers, and in purchasing and forwarding the needed seeds. A hundred tons of seeds were purchased and sent to Lawrence by a steamboat, purchased for that purpose.' The large emigration which took place early in I857 as the result of the through-ticket arrangement, really settled the Kansas contest. " In consequence of the Committee's failure to pay Mr. Brown's drafts on account of the $5,ooo appropriation, Gerrit Smith came to Chicago to see me. He was very much offended because the Committee did not pay the drafts, but he was told that they had not the means with which to meet them, and there was no other way but to let them be protested. Drafts to the amount of $500 were given to some person in Connecticut,2 who, as I afterward understood, had made some pikes, or same other implements of warfare, for Mr. Brown. He drew for about five hundred dollars, but his drafts not being paid, he did not draw any others. " The National Committee's operations substantially closed with the distribution of the seeds, clothing, arms, etc., in the spring and summer of 1857. The seeds were given out to the settlers on their receipts, promising to return the amount in kind, when their crops should come in; but these obligations were never enforced. "Mr. Brown did not, as I understand it, remove the 200 'Thaddeus Hyatt advanced the money for this. 2 Charles W. Blair, of Collinsville, by whom the pikes captured at Harper's Ferry, in 1859, were manufactured. 126 JOHN BROWN. rifles from Tabor until the winter of I857-58,1 about the time that he came East from Kansas by way of Iowa and went to Canada, where he organized his raid upon Virginia. I saw him while he was then in Chicago, at that time, and talked with him to some extent about his operations in Kansas and his future purposes. He had a paper about which he wished to consult me, some parts of which he read to me. I afterwards found that it was a draft of the constitution which he intended to have adopted if it became necessary to form a government, as the result of his prospective operations in Virginia. He was exceedingly thin and worn at that time, and I remarked to him that he was looking very feeble and much older than his years (fifty-eight), to which he replied: 'Yes, but I feel that I have a work to perform, and I must be expeditious if I am to do it.' I have no doubt now, he had reference to his then contemplated movements. I talked to him some about his operations in Kansas, and what the newspapers had said in his justification; that he had suffered a good deal at the hands of the border ruffians. This plea of justification seemed to grieve him and he said to me,' I wish you would, whenever you have an opportunity, contradict that idea. I have done nothing out of revenge or because I considered that I have suffered in any way. All that I have done has been through my desire to cdo justice by this oppressed race-the negro slaves. I consider it beneath any man to avenge himself.' These are not the exact words, but are substantially what he said to me in 1858. Mr. Brown was at the time very poorly clad, and a number of his friends got together and raised a purse for the purpose of buying him ai new outfit. As I was the nearest to Brown's size and form, I went and bought the clothes, had them fitted to myself, and sent them to him, he not daring to go on to the street at the time, there being an offer out by the President of $3,ooo reward for his arrest.2 I He moved them from Tabor to Springdale in December, 1857, and to northern Ohio in April, 1858. 2 Mr. Hurd is mistaken as to the date of last seeing John Brown. It was during the early part of February, I859, when he was en JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. r27 "There was, during the entire operations of the National Committee, an element having some influence before the Committee, pressing for more aggressive operations on their partto carry the war into the enemy's camp-but those having the conduct of the affairs were unanimous in their determination to stand on the defensive alone, and to confine their operations to the protection of the free-state settlers in Kansas, so as to prevent them from being driven out or overpowered. That was the whole sum and substance of the policy upon which the Committee acted. The Executive Committee, having the matter in charge at Chicago, were J. D. Webster (afterwards General), vice-president of the Committee; George W. Dole, treasurer, and myself as secretary. I gave my entire time to the business of the Committee, and perhaps more than any other managed its affairs." Horace White, in letters of recent date, recalls some details of value as to the relations of Captain John Brown and the National Kansas Committee of which he was so efficient an officer. It is apparent from all evidence obtainable that the anti-slavery soldier was invited to confer with that Committee, as he was also when in New York early in January, 1857, asked to visit Boston and counsel with the Massachusetts Kansas Committee. In this connection it may be well to state that outside of Mr. White's letters no evidence whatever appears that John Brown personally solicited the custody, control or gift of any of the supplies, whether consisting of arms, clothing, tools, camp equipage or teams, that had been raised exclusively for the service of Kansas and the free-state cause. Such route to Canada, removing the eleven fugitive slaves rescued by him from Missouri, Christmas Eve, 1858. The document partially read was already adopted at the Chatham Convention, May, 1858. The suit Mr. Hurd purchased is the one the Captain wore when taken at Harper's Ferry. I28 JOHN BROWN. materials or supplies as passed into his hands came there as a volunteer act. The explanation of this seeming contradiction is found in the probability that Gerrit Smith was active in securing for the Captain such control. The close relations between the two friends will easily account for the statement made by Mr. White. The motion to appropriate $5,000 to Captain Brown was made by the Vermont committeeman, B. B. Newton, of St. Albans. This $5,000 was never paid. Authority was given Captain Brown to draw for $500 thereof, and his drafts for that amount were dishonored in the following April. All the money he received from this body was $150. Of course the want of funds on the Committee's part was a sufficiently peremptory reason, but there can be little doubt either that it was a convenient and gratifying one also, to the committeemen who were openly opposed to the purposes and policy of action which they felt rather than knew that John Brown was in favor of carrying out. When the National Committee ceased to exist, soon after the January meeting at the Astor House, New York City, a quantity of supplies, chiefly clothing, bedding, and camp utensils, became John Brown's property under the terms of their resolutions, or by reason of their being actually under the control of the Massachusetts Committee. Of the twenty-five Colt's revolvers sent to Kansas in September, 1856, for John Brown's use, fifteen of which had been loaned out to various free-state men in need of arms,' the Captain recovered ten or twelve. Other 1 One of these revolvers thus passed into my possession and subsequently I accounted for the same to Captain Brown himself. It was lost in my army service three years later. JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. 129 articles of no great money value were also obtained by him at Tabor and Ottumwa, Iowa, where they had been stored, and subsequently used or sold to enable him in part to care for his company in I857-58, and the fugitive slaves he carried to Canada early in I859. It is doubtful if all he ever received from or through the National Committee exceeded in value a total of one thousand dollars.' Under date of September 17, I892, Horace White writes that the National Committee " had some arms on hand after the struggle was over" (that is, that portion of the free-state conflict which ended with 1856); "Brown applied for them, and Hurd, on behalf of the Committee, required him to promise that he would not use them to make war on slavery in the States.2 This he would not do. So the Committee handed A proposition was made at the New York meeting for the equipment of a company of fifty picked men for special service under John Brown. The Captain's modest estimate for camp service and teams, two of the latter, amounted to $1,774. Later in the year the Massachusetts Committee, through Mr. Stearns, in a letter dated May I8, 1857, writing to Thaddeus Hyatt as chairman of the National Committee, stated that a grant of $0oo,ooo was to be asked from the State Legislature, for Kansas relief, and that a secret force should be organized under John Brown, strictly defensive in character. A fund should also be raised in aid of settlers who might have been impoverished through the pro-slavery war. Mr. Stearns mentions $I3,000 as the money value of arms, materials, etc., entrusted to John Brown. Thaddeus Hyatt recently told me of his surprise at getting that letter. He contributed personally, but the Committee did not. 2 This suggestion probably results from that blurring of memory which time makes witl us all. No one had any thought whatever at that date (1857), that John Brown dreamed of attacking elsewhere than in Missouri and only asa retaliatory measure for Kansas. 9 t30 JOHN BROWN. the arms back to the Massachusetts Committee from whom they were received." After referring to the action of the latter party in donating arms and money to Captain Brown, Mr. White continues: " But my recollection is that his (Brown's) principal supply of money came from Gerrit Smith." But any responsibility for that must rest chiefly upon George L. Stearns, who manfully accepted it when giving; though Gerrit Smith was the next largest contributor. As near as can be estimated the money received by Brown could not have exceeded $12,ooo, while the supplies, arms, etc., furnished may have cost $o0,ooo more. Of course there were smaller contributions and support coming on, but if the total estimate be placed at $25,00o, for the period between the i5th of September, i856, when he left Lawrence, Kansas, and the i6th of October, I859, when he moved on Harper's Ferry, Virginia, with twenty-one men, it will certainly cover all of the outlay except that of time, labor, and lives. And of this total John Brown expended not one cent for personal expenses, outside of the very moderate amounts required to enable him to keep at his work. He was in those days always economical to the verge of penuriousness, regarding the moneys in his hand as a trust. During those three years of " storm and stress," the North Elba family mainly provided for their own wants, with the exception of a sum of $I,ooo raised from private contributions in the East made by Gerrit Smith, G. L. Stearns, Amos A. Lawrence, Dr. Howe, Dr. Cabot, Theodore Parker, and a few others, which amount was expended in the payments of debts incurred by reason of the Adirondack family's sacrifices for Kansas. Debts were paid JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. I3I and the humble dwelling at North Elba was in some degree repaired and made more habitable. That was all.' The largest contributors, then, to John Brown's enterprises were certainly George L. Stearns and Gerrit Smith. Francis Jackson Merriam, his latest recruit at the Kennedy farm, who gave $6oo as well as his services, was doubtless the next largest contributor. Mr. and Mrs. Stearns were devotedly generous for they placed, during the early summer of 1857, at some personal inconvenience, the sum of $7,ooo to John Brown's credit. It was never drawn against, as the Captain did not feel that when conditions changed from those under which he considered the generous proffer to have been made, that he had the right to use any of it, no matter what the need may have been. The Medford family, however, certainly gave in arms and cash not less than $7,500, and possibly more, to John Brown and his cause. In a later letter, bearing date October 6, I892, Mr. White makes quite clear the matter of the purchase of arms from the funds of tile National Committee. Hle says: "A meeting was held in New York, January 25, I857, at which a statement of money received and exA large number of personal and family letters are preserved in the archives of the Kansas Historical Society, many of which are printed in Mr. Sanborn's volume; there are also memoranda of receipts and expenditures. Of all these I find only five references to money sent to Mrs. Brown or to North Elba, the total being but $403.10. I am not quite sure that the whole of the $i,ooo promised to relieve the homestead was really obtained. Mr. Amos A. Lawrence raised $550, and probably Mr. Stearns and Gerrit Smith gave the balance. J32 JOHN BROWN. pended was read by me and published in the N ew York Tribune. The expenditures of the Committee were made in the way of outfitting emigrant trains in Iowa, paying freight on clothing and other articles forwarded, and incidentals. According to my recollection, no money was expended by the 2Vational Conmmittee for arms, bu/t arms passed through our hands from the Alassachusetts Commlittee.1 " My report contains an apparent discrepancy. It speaks of 763 packages of clothing as received, but of only 400 boxes forwarded. I happen to remember that the balance was stored for the winter in a barn or house owned by W. M. F. Amy, at Bloomington, Illinios.2 The Committee voted $5,000 to Brown at the New York meeting for any defensive measures that may become necessary, but whien the time came for paying it they were out of funds." The total received by the National Committee, as given in the report published in the New York Tribune of January 27, 1857, show cash receipts of $85,196.46. Of this, Massachusetts contributed $26,107.17, and New York $33,707.39. Of the latter sum the largest part was raised by the Tribune. The fifteen free States all contributed, though New England and New York bore two-thirds. In all, 762 packages of Mr. Sanborn makes it clear also in his " Life of Johlln Brown," and it agrees with my own recollection of instructions from Mr. Higginson and Mr. Hyatt with regard to arms sent to Kansas. 2A considerable amount of that clothing reached Kansas early ill the spring on the little steamboat. Mr. Hurd writes: Messrs. Hyatt and Arny came up from St. Louis on it. Realf and myself met it at Kansas City, and were on board during the trip up the Kansas River to Lawrence. JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. I33 clothing, etc., were contributed. The estimated value of all contributions through the National Committee was not less than $200,000; as much more was contributed and expended through the several States or direct by individuals. John Brown left Chicago early in December, visiting Albany, Rochester, and Peterboro; also, North Elba, for a few days. He was at the Astor House, New York City, on the 25th of January, I857; and from thence went to Boston, being the guest, for the time, of Judge Russell and Dr. Thayer, in that city, and of George L. Stearns, at Medford. He also visited Concord, having met Mr. Sanborn at Theodore Parker's house. He doubtless met Wendell Phillips, T. W. Higginson, and other anti-slavery people, though he rather avoided such personal publicity and acquaintance. James Redpath was married and living in Boston. At Worcester, where Eli Thayer resided, he was a frequent visitor. The well-laden archives of the Kansas Historical Society, at Topeka, give in the personal and family letters, as well as in other manuscripts belonging to its large and valuable collection of John Brown papers, the close and frequent intimacy, among others, of Captain Brown and Eli Thayer; one, too, of decided admiration on the latter's part. Mr. Thayer evidently aided the equipment of the Captain to the extent of his ability, by way of facilitating, at least with his purse and credit, the procurement and repair of arms. The demand for Slhaipe's rifles had stimulated the manufacture of that very serviceable type of weapon. The Allen rifle, manufactured at Worcester, was one of the improvements tei-'con. Mr. Thayer, up to the close of t34 JOHN BROWN. 1857, maintained very friendly relations with John Brown. He knew as much then as he did subsequently of the story of the Pottawatomie slaying. Yet he could write upon a bill receipted by Allen & Wheelock, that the gun'it called for was presented to his friend John Brown for use in the " Cause of Freedom," and he could advise also that the company or command which John Brown proposed to organize, and for the procurement of arms on behalf of which he was striving, should be called "The Neighbors," as representing the scriptural story of the man who fell among thieves and was succored by the contemned Samaritan, whiie the Levite and Pharisee passed by on the other side. In i880, Eli Thayer stated to G. W. Brown, of Rockford, Ill., a constant assailant of Captain Brown's name and memory, that "not long before his attack on the United States arsenal, he (Brown) came to my house to ask for arms.. to protect some free-state settlements in Kansas," etc. As Captain Brown did not see or call upon Eli Thayer at any date after May or June, I857,-two and a half years-the value of Mr. Thayer's " Memoirs " as an authority falls far below par. John Brown certainly conceived of Eli Thayer as his friend as late as the spring of I859, for he so wrote of him at that period to his son John. Nor is Mr. Thayer seen of record to have been anywhere unfriendly to John Brown's acts or character until after he failed of election to Congress in i860, when he ran as an Independent and in opposition to the Republican nominee in the Worcester, Mass., district. All over the North, especially in the more active centers of Republican political activity, John Brown JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. I35 found friendly sympathizers, a good deal of verbal encouragement, and-a small degree of pecuniary assistance. Yet, no one who came into close contact with him could doubt but that he held firmly to a grim purpose, and that at some date, not far distant, he would probably be heard from by way of a direct attack on slavery. There never was any disguise on the Captain's part that, in his opinion, the only effectual policy would be to "carry the war into Africa." But talk was cheap. In nothing more distinctly, too, is the intellectual quality of the Captain shown than by the fact that he measured all this at no more value than it deserved. Nor was he ever thereby led into giving his confidence. This was due, not because he did not esteem in their places, men of the weight and influence of Sumner, Wilson, Greeley, Chase, et al., as that he intellectually perceived that the methods he would pursue must be entirely unapproved of by them. To him they were all instruments. The analogy holds good, however, that he held no kindred sympathy or association with the methods of the nonresistant Abolitionists or their unflinching antagonism to any form of direct action other than that of agitation. John Brown was always a devoted Unionist. He would never have consented to its dissolution without fighting. He was organizing a forcible attack on slavery, because without question he held the conviction that slavery was an organized menace to the existence of the American Republic. Without freedom, it could not justly exist; with slavery it was always in peril; slavery must, therefore, be destroyed: first, because it was a crime against human life and the law of God, and, therefore, as a corollary, always 136 JOHN BROWN. a menace to free government, the Constitution, and the Union. This comprised John Brown's simple, stern political creed; the one upon which he acted with unwavering fidelity " even unto death." May lie not, therefore, be classed as a Unionist of Unionists, a Loyalist of Loyalists, without evasion or guile? Naturally, such directness made him out of place in party politics. Expediencies he could not recognize; he never accepted them nor was with them, and the shortsighted capacity of the pro-slavery politicians, in endeavoring, after Harper's Ferry, to establish a connection between that action and the parliamentary leaders of Northern politics, was ridiculous enough to breed Homeric laughter. It certainly intensified, not reacted, on the opinions assailed. A letter, published in the Nrew York Tribune, from the pen of Richard Realf, bearing date January 30, I860, shortly after his escape from the South, expresses quite forcibly and, I believe, correctly, the opinions of John Brown as to political action and the Republican party. It will not be out of place, then, to append some extracts from this paper.' '"To THE EDITOR OF THE 'NEW YORK TRIBUNE': SirPermit me, who have barely escaped from being lynched as an Abolitionist in the South, only to find myself denounced as a recreant apostate in the North, and who, therefore, can hardly be suspected of bidding for sympathy from either section, to say a word or two in answer to the allegation, asserted with so much lieat and clamor, 'that the Harper's Ferry insurrection of John Brown was the natural, legitimate, and inevitable consequence of the teachings of the Republican party.' In contradicting and disproving this charge, I am moved, not by any particular regard for Republicanism, nor any particular hatred of Democracy, but only by a desire to do justice to the memory of John Brown... JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. 137 The meeting of John Brown and George Luther rtearns, the Boston merchant, marked for the anti-slavery fighter and idealist the beginning of a momentous end. I hold that it was an event of deep national importance also. Without Mr. Stearns's friendship and cooperation, the blow struck at Harper's Ferry would probably have never been delivered, as the means would doubtless have been lacking. The Boston merchant was a leading spirit among the prominent men who gathered around Theodore Parker and the Twenty-eighth Congregational Church, of which that independent Unitarian preacher, scholar, and 7The charge taius alleged is wholly and altogether untrue, and this for the simple reason, that the movement of John Brown was conceived and originated at least a score of years antecedent to the formation of the Republican party.... The Republican party had no existence until I854 (and no national organization till i856). The statement, therefore, that the incursion into Virginia resulted as a consequence of the inculcated doctrines of Republicanism, is now disproven. Nor was Brown himself, nor were any of his coadjutors committed to the. Republican creed. Henry Wilson, in 1857, advised that the free-state party in Kansas secure the Legislature to themselves by voting under the provision of the Lecompton Constitution. The advice was taken, and the result predicted was achieved. Not one of Brown's originalparty voted. Some of us were at the time correspondents of the Eastern press; and in the interim between the Grasshopper Falls Convention, I851 (when it was decided upon to vote), and the day on which the election occurred (in i851), we opposed the action of the party in every possible way, by speeches, and in every available manner.. "Once more: the only representative of Republicanism who received any inkling of John Brown's plans, learned them from a hostile quarter, and took immediate steps to put it out of Brown's power to commit any illegal act whatever. I allude to Senator Wilson, and his letter to Dr. Howe, of Boston." 138 JOHN itROWN. agitator, was the pastor. The Music Hall congregation and fraternity embraced, with the Parker household, more or less actively, very many of the cultured men and women of Boston, often too within the pale of the orthodox churches who were strongly, even passionately, anti-slavery, but who could not satisfy themselves with the policy of non-unionism and nonresistance advocated by the American Anti-Slavery Society. They were the backbone of resistance to the rendition of fugitive slaves; they were found active as Conscience Whigs, early Free Soilers, and foremost in younger Republican ranks. But the men who were inspired by Theodore Parker or aided to sustain him, were always something more than political workers. They were positively and practically anti-slavery, helping every phase of agitation and effort. Their circle also included some of the ablest business men of New England. Great railroad systems in the West received their incentive and initiative in the discussions constantly going on at Mr. Parker's residence. The lyceum system was then in its largest vogue; a magnificent educator of Northern intellect and sentiment. Theodore Parker shared with Wendell Phillips and Henry Ward Beecher its leading honors, and he was also its chief sacrifice, as the labor and exposure of travel and lecturing undoubtedly hastened his untimely death. It was the wide knowledge which was thus acquired of the new West, then opening, that aided in broadening New England's business enterprise. To the intense interest aroused by the Kansas struggle was in great part due the great investment and sagacious direction that created the enlargement of the railroads running to Missouri from Chicago, the JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. T39 early construction of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad, the beginning of the great Santa Fe system and also of the now vast network of roads in Iowa and Nebraska, as well as of northern Missouri and Kansas. The free-state struggle, like the Civil War, vastly quickened enterprise. And out of the Music Hall Sundays, " Parker's Thursdays " at home, the Stearns's country home, and the headquarters of the Emigrant Aid Society, with the personal efforts, intellectually quickening as they were, of lawyers like Russell and Andrews, active scholars like Howe, Cabot, Thayer, Bowditch, and scores of others, an influence went that did very much to prepare New England and the great North for the mighty struggle that was impending. Parker, a pulpit Socrates, was always questioning the oracles, and as he was sincerity itself, grandly human to the core of his being, the Delphian soul always responded. John Brown came, passed through, and went away, leaving behind him an impression of a personality so simply true, a character so sternly yet impersonally fixed, a brain so honest and clear, and a courage so unfailing, that none who met him, however slightly, failed to be affected as if by the " moving of waters"; the passing of an unquestioned human force. Some were small enough to fear him; a few have since been false enough to defame a life they could not comprehend; but all of them felt his presence as that of an Ithuriel spear, touching to the very core of things. Among the noblest and sanest of all, George Luther Stearns and his wife Mary must be counted as the foremost. Mr. Stearns met John Brown for the first time in December, 1856, and at once invited him to Boston. 140 JOHN BROWN. They met again on the street near to the rooms of the Massachusetts Kansas Committee. It was Mr. Stearns who introduced Frank B. Sanborn to John Brown. On the first Sunday in January,i857, John Brown went to the Music Hall to hear Theodore Parker preach. He was there introduced to Mrs. Mary E. Stearns,' who survives her noble husband and now resides near Boston, at Tuft's College. Their home was then at Medford. Mrs. Stearns is the niece of Lydia Maria Child, a well-known and most graceful authoress, whose pen was also and always at the service of anti-slavery work and ideas. John Brown's first visit to Medford was made on the second Sunday in January, I857. The eldest son, Henry, was naturally attracted to the old hero, to whom, apart from a reasonable curiosity, all children and young people were irresistibly drawn. As he was telling of the privations endured by Kansas families, Henry, a boy of thirteen, brought to him a little hoard of pocket money, and, as he put it into the Captain's hands, asked if he would buy something needed " for the Kansas children," and added, as the grave old man thanked him: "Captain Brown, will you not write me, sometime, what sort of a little boy you were?"' Tlis was the origin of a remarkable composition, which if, as the writer sometime over-modestly declared: "I know no more of grammar than one of that farmer's calves "-plainly shows that lie was of those in whom plain living and high thinking make the noblest of spiritual and intellectual utterances. 1 See Mrs. Stearns's interesting paper on " George L. Stearns and John Brown " in tle closing pages of the appendix to this volume. 'Sanborn's "Life and Letters of John Brown," p. I8. JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. 141 James Russell Lowell has, it is stated, pronounced the Brown letter to Henry L. Stearns "one of the finest pieces of autobiography extant." ' Ralph Waldo Emerson is reported to have declared that this paper of John Brown was "a positive contribution to literature." He also regarded " in the deliberative reflection of after years," the Virginian court-room address, coupling it with Lincoln's Gettysburg speech as of " the most eloquent words of the present century." Yet, the latest biographers of Abraham Lincoln have traveled far out of their road on narrow bypaths to sneer at John Brown; discrediting his services in Kansas, decrying him as a man "of little wisdom," with a " crude visionary ideality," " ambitious to irritation; " as " clean, but coarse; honest, but rude"; with a courage that " partook of the recklessness of insanity," and of a "military ability, too insignificant even for ridicule." Messrs Hay and Nicolay, themselves among the more stupendous failures as biographers and historians in the face of tile greatest of personality and subjects that human history has offered to competent capacity, have succeeded in their unnecessarily extended diatribe on John Brown, and indeed, too, of all the preluding struggle which gave to Abraham Lincoln his exalted opportunity, in making plain the smug limits of their own mental obtuseness. John Brown's reputation can stand that critical judgment far better than their literary capacity can the making of it. It is difficult to give a correct account of the money raised in the service of Kansas. But the figures given '"John Brown," by Herman Von Hoist, Boston, 1889. Ap. pendix, p. 221, by Editor Frank L. Stearns. 142 JOHN BROWN. by Mr. Sanborn in his "Life and Letters of John Brown," must be taken as fairly approximating the facts. The National Committee is credited, as already stated, with raising and disbursing $85,I96.46 in money,and in clothing, supplies, etc., to the estimated value of $IIo,ooo. The Massachusetts Committee raised chiefly through Mr. Stearns's exertions $48,000 in money; Mrs. Stearns, in supplies, at least $30,000 more. Thaddeus Hyatt probably gave $3,000 for the purchase of arms, etc., outside of his contributions to the National Committee. Previous to the formation of the National Committee, six hundred Sharpe's rifles were purchased by Amos A. Lawrence, Dr. Samuel G. Cabot, Frederick Law Olmstead and others; also two I2-pound howitzers, and several hundred revolvers; all these were sent to Kansas, at a cost in all of about $20,000. After the sacking of Lawrence, in May, I856, when there really was the appearance of civil war, the purchase of arms and the equipment of intending settlers from the free States, was an avowed and open policy. In Massachusetts, a second and more private committee was formed to purchase arms and otherwise provide for defense and resistance; the public body chosen at a Fanueil Hall meeting having virtually agreed not to spend money for that purpose. In this, as in the general committee, Mr. Stearns was the pervading spirit. T. V. Higginson, Sanborn, Howe, Russell, Thayer, and the Cabots were all active. Many others, doubtless, came to the inner circle from time to time. It would seem to be not an extravagant statement, to estimate that the total expenditure for arms and other needed supplies for free Kansas cost in the vicinity of half a JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. I43 million dollars, before the books were sealed in such uneasy peace as preceded the actual outbreak of civil war. In the foregoing figures the contributions to John Brown are not included. The arms purchased for that summer's campaign, so far as they can be traced, consisted of 368 Sharpe's rifles, used to equip three companies of New England emigrants, 250 more (of which 200 were purchased by Mr. Stearns, never taken into Kansas and afterwards carried to Virginia by John Brown). In all, there were certainly bought for Kansas, between the summer of I855 and the fall of I856, at least 1,200 Sharpe's rifles, 400 Hall's carbines, I,500 United States Springfield muskets, four 12-pound guns, and not less than 2,500 revolvers. Besides these about 2,000 United States muskets were obtained in Iowa and Illinois for free-state use. Of the Sharpe's carbines, 200, as already stated, came under John Brown's control and were not taken into Kansas at all. From the departure of Captain Brown in September, 1856, to his brief and almost secret return to Kansas early in November, I857, his days were filled with ceaseless efforts. John Brown's itinerary alone is startling. There were weeks of severe fatigue as well as wearying danger, following his departure east after the last attack on Lawrence. His visit to Chicago in the last week of October was rapidly followed by trips to New York, Boston, and western Massachusetts. Before the Astor House meeting with the National Committee during the last of January, I857, he had previously conferred at length with the Massachusetts Kansas Committee in Boston, arranged for the custody of the Stearns rifles, that were captured by Vir 144 JOHN BROWN. ginia in I859, made the acquaintance of most of those who thereafter faithfully aided him in his work, went to Vermont, where, at Vergennes, he probably met one of his sons,' stopped at Peterboro, Rochester, and Albany, and hastened to Boston, so that on the i8th of February he was able to address the Massachusetts House of Representatives on behalf of Kansas. February, March, April, and May saw him in Connecticut, visiting and speaking at Hartford, New Haven and elsewhere. At Collinsville he made with Charles Blair a contract for the manufacture of I,ooo pikes, 900 of which were captured by Virginia, and also arranged for the removal to North Elba, of the tombstone over his Revolutionary grandfather's grave, that has since become renowned in this man's remarkable life-story. He was at Worcester and Springfield, Akron (Ohio), and back in New York in the last of May. He made his appeal to the " Friends of Freedom " through the Tribune in April, and issued the quaint "Farewell to Bunker Hill and Plymouth Rock," which indicated in its tone how sharply he felt his comparative failure to get the amount of pecuniary assistance he needed. From Kansas reports were steadily coming of the Lecompton Constitution movement and the dangerous conditions it was creating. The necessity was upon him of being near to, if not within, the Territory, and early in June, with his son Owen, he left Hudson, Ohio, and soon after appeared in Iowa, fitting out for his tedious overland journey at or near Iowa City. Two wagons and teams were purchased, the Captain The constant threat of arrest under Federal territorial warrants compelled him to refrain from visiting his home during the entire period occupied by the movements under review. JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. 145 driving one, and Owen the other. They were three weeks on the road to Tabor, camping in their wagons and living, as the Captain wrote to Mr. Sanborn, on herring, soda crackers, sweetened water, a little milk and a few eggs. Yet he paid for the outfit $780, and could, but for that conscientiousness which permitted all for the cause and only the barest of necessities for himself, have afforded at least decent food. This was not nearness of habit though, but a strained honesty of purpose. The Browns reached Tabor the first week in August, a letter dated the 8th being the first knowledge of his arrival. Several importunate letters and messages from General Lane and other Kansas friends, urging the need of his presence, awaited him at Tabor. Richard Realf had been sent up in July with some funds, which he left there. Hugh Forbes, the English Garibaldian with whom Captain Brown made a contract that caused much subsequent trouble, appears personally for the first time by joining the Browns at Tabor. Mention is made of his " instructions " in letters dated during September and October. He must have returned east in November, i857, as the results of his disagreements with John Brown, for the latter was by the middle of that month on his way to central Kansas. The Captain had already sent to Concord (Mr. Sanborn being the correspondent selected between himself and the other friends who had subscribed to his efforts and expenses), an account of his expenditures with an inventory of the goods which he found in storage in Iowa City and with John Jones at Tabor.1 Of property forwarded by the National Committee and which Captain Brown never removed, he itemizes: One brass piece, 10 146 JOHN BROWN. The earlier details, relating to John Brown's relations with Hugh Forbes are now unknown. The latter was then a man of about forty-five years of age, an Englishman by birth, who had lived at Siena, Italy, doing business as a silk merchant. He was a man of good education and considerable accomplishments, being a good linguist, an excellent master-atarms, and a fair military engineer. This statement is made on the authority of General Garibaldi's chief of staff, in the Sicilian and Neapolitan campaign, Win. De Rohan, an American who knew Hugh Forbes, and for years a close friend of this writer. Forbes early in his Italian life identified himself with the "Young Italy " party, and was a trusted agent of both Mazzini and Garibaldi. He participated in the campaigns of 1848-49, and showed himself a man of courage and some ability. With defeat he had of course, to leave Italy, and for a time lived in Paris, then in London, and some time in I855 or I856, he came to complete; one damaged gun-carriage, some ammunition, seventyfive old United States rifles and muskets, and twelve sabres. There were also twelve boxes and barrels of clothing and bedding, three hand grist-mills, some powder and lead. At Iowa City he had obtained eleven blankets, nine tents complete, three sets of tentpoles, and three axes, with the addition of an order for fifty dollars, given him in Chicago by Mr. Hurd, to be expended in wagon covers, ropes, etc. These embrace all the material from the National Committee he then received. The Stearns goods consisted of I94 Sharpe's carbines complete, with 3,300 ball cartridges, and necessary primers. He had, besides, two repeating rifles, two Colt's revolvers, a two-ounce gun, a few of the arms he carried into Kansas in I855, two wagons and four horses, with about five hundred dollars in money.: This was all of the outfit he possessed for his great enterprise. JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. T47 New York. The Italian and Garibaldian men were all on the side of the North and the Union. But Forbes, evidently, did not understand our politics. He mistook the ferment and sympathetic excitement in favor of Kansas for a deep-seated revolutionary sentiment in favor of freeing the slave by force of arms, if necessary. The arming of Northern emigrants en route to Kansas, he accepted as a counterpart to the probable arming of the negroes, and evidently, as his letters of complaint against John Brown show, he regarded the bold antagonism, expressed in speeches and newspapers, of Republicans to the proslavery Democracy and its actions, as an undoubted proof of the drift of the North towards open and armed resistance to the aggressions of the slave-power. No doubt such a feeling was manifested in very intelligent and influential circles. Men did talk boldly in those days of the need of forcible resistance; but it was not for the slave they talked, but for the free States and the institutions of the land. In the notable coteries, where European refugees of '48 were received, such a man as Hugh Forbes would be made welcome. And he undoubtedly was. Probably, also, he used his pen, as well as his skill as a swordsman, to maintain himself, wife, and daughter. What is more likely than that John Brown, who could not but have perceived from his twelve months' experience of partisan warfare in Kansas, as he well knew theoretically from his years of silent study, observation, and planning, the need of competent men to train and direct, may have cautiously suggested this need to some of the many persons lie came in contact with. There were men connected with the New York Tribune. 148 JOHN BROWN. for example, who knew Colonel Forbes. His name may thus have been mentioned, and an introduction followed. John Brown had a system of his own as to field defenses, drill, and discipline. Such matters would be at once discussed. Then all that followed is simple enough. Forbes was familiar with the plans of the European revolutionary organizations and leaders. Among their instrumentalities were plans of street-fighting, guerilla and irregular warfare, which had been systematized by a French or Italian general officer of considerable ability, who had identified himself with the European republican organization. This system he embodied in a bulky " Manual," and Hugh Forbes proposed to condense and translate the same into English. Probably this proposition was first made to John Brown, who agreed to bear the expenses of the printing, etc. It was for tllis purpose that most of the $600 drawn by Forbes from John Brown through a banker of Hartford, Connecticut, in the spring and early summer of 1857, was expended. It is not necessary to accuse Hugh Forbes of treachery, any more than it is to assume that John Brown acted in this matter with less than the careful prudence he always showed in monetary dealings. It is more necessary to get at the actual situation, and then for the critics, who desire to understand and not merely accuse or make a telling point, to put themselves in the other man's place. Since the gun at Fort Sumter was fired at the Union, people in our modern world, Americans included, have made huge strides in the use and systematization of destructive forces and arms. But before that date we knew but very little, less, too, on this side of the Atlantic than was known on the other. JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. I49 If this view is correct it will not be difficult to understand why John Brown trusted Hugh Forbes whose " Manual of the Patriotic Volunteer" was a useful book for those who were thinking, studying, and longing to act against slavery, or to defend Kansas against its assailants, as many of us were in those days.' As to paying Colonel Forbes a certain monthly sum,Captain Brown used his own judgment, which, granting his premises and purposes, was not so far out of the way. Forbes had no means and certainly no pecuniary credit. He had current expenses that pressed upon him, and only by regular earning could he maintain his wife and daughter. John Brown, while reducing his personal burdens to the cost of covering the narrowest margin, had more than a fair knowledge of conditions other than those to which he voluntarily limited himself. While always apart from it, he was still a man of the world, having traveled widely, transacted large business affairs, and of later years mingled with those who represented culture and embodied refinement in the best of senses. It is part of his title to leadership in his chosen path that he should apprehend the limits of men who infringed upon it. All this is not designed to defend Hugh Forbes, but only to show how John Brown and himself came together and how they also rudely separated. At Tabor, in all probability, as to their disagreement, John Brown must have given Colonel Forbes his entire confidence, so far as naming to him, as he had done to Frederick Douglass, in 1847, and to a few others of his 1 My copy of the " Manual " was burned with other books and property in Lawrence at the time of the Quantrell raid in I863. I5o JOHN BR)OWN. race before and after that date, the place or region in and from which he designed to attack slavery. It is very evident that this was not at all the idea which Hugh Forbes had associated with the expected movement. John Brown was of course very set-dogmatic indeed-on his own lines. He knew what he wanted to do. The more his purposes are studied in connection with the environment and times in which he lived, the more must the unprejudiced student, separating himself from his own conceptions and trying to understand the growth of so strange a personality, so unique and noble a character, be convinced that if his intended Virginian foray had been undertaken at such time and circumstances as can be reasonably conceived of as possible, that there was from the point of view of endangering slavery and making it wholly insecure, far more than a mere probability of success. Hugh Forbes could not see that. He, too, was dogmatic, and possessed with a great self-pride, as his associate Garibaldian has stated. He might, therefore, readily come to the conclusion that he had been " used "-not fairly dealt with-when he found John Brown's plans so different from those which he, Hugh Forbes, had worked out for him in his own mind. Certain it is they parted. There is no evidence to show that it was in anger. Whether John Brown expected to find Forbes still at Tabor, on his early return from Kansas with the eleven associates he brought with him to study in the school and " Manual of the Patriotic Volunteer," cannot now be ascertained. From later letters of advice to John Brown, Jr., then living in Ohio, it would seem as if the Captain thought Forbes might still be won over. One JOHN BROWN MAKING FRIENDS. 5rT letter indicates that his son had seen the Garibaldian and was certainly corresponding with him. There is not an angry or reproachful word of reference to Forbes's attitude; there is shrewd advice as to trying to mollify his anger and threatened exposures. It must also be said that there is not a particle of evidence to prove that Colonel Forbes went over to " the enemy," as he must have understood that term. His letters of angry complaint to Senators Henry Wilson and Charles Sumner, Horace Greeley, Dr. Howe, and others, are all explainable, though not justifiable, upon the hypothesis suggested herein-that in Forbes's opinion the leaders of Northern political agitation were all more or less approving of Captain Brown's course and were covertly, at least, sustaining him therein. If Forbes believed also that there was a distinct apprehension (and some purpose to definitely prepare therefor) of a Northern outbreak "all along the line," there is another explanation of the earnestness and even passionate nature of his warning and demanding letters. John Brown did not stoop to mourn over the spilled milk, or waste time and energy by useless regrets. He endeavored to temporize, and then, when that was impossible, made another move which threw Forbes and others off the scent. There is no excuse, however, for Forbes's demands but desperate necessities. His own conceptions, largely selfimposed though they were, of the work he had expected to be engaged upon, must be considered in making up judgment. He began to write wildly about John Brown's course in the winter of 1857-58, compelling thereby the movement from Chatham to Kansas in the following summer, and then he dis I52 JOHN BROWN. appeared wholly from our vision; until October, I859, and later when he was reported in command of a fortress under Garibaldi, at or near Messina, Sicily. An attack was made on him by some American newspapers, and, owing to that publicity he fell into considerable discredit, dying soon from exposure and wounds, hastened doubtless by the mental mortification he underwent. Hugh Forbes was not of the higher type. He was very human in his weakness, but it remains true that he did good service elsewhere in the cause of human freedom, and that must in all generosity be weighed in his favor. John Brown cast no stone at him. Others can afford to let his memory rest. He did not send the warning letter of August, I859, to Mr. Floyd, Buchanan's Secretary of War, for that act was left to an American to perform. The strongest criticism came from Horace Greeley's pen, and was published in the N. Y. Tribune, upon which I find also Col. Forbes to have been occasionally employed as a translator.R.J. H. CHAPTER VII. REACHING TO A CULMINATION. The Chatham, Canada, Convention-The refuge of the fugitives-Movements in the East-Telling Gerrit Smith and Frank B. Sanborn of his intention to raid slavery —The six friends and councilors-Martin R. Delaney's misapprehension-" The League of Liberty" -Dr. Ross, of Canada- What was meant by the Provisional Constitution —Hugh Forbes and his evil acts -Delay almost fatal- Throwing Forbes of the scent -The Lecompton Constitution-Massacre of freestate men —Reuniting the little band. JOHN BROWN arrived at the farm of Mr. Whitman, near Lawrence, on the 5th November. On the next day he sent for John E. Cook and myself. At that date I was temporarily absent and had also concluded a contract for twelve months' newspaper work. Richard Realf and Luke F. Parsons were named to John Brown by John E. Cook. On the i4th Cook, Realf, and Parsons reached Topeka, joining John Brown there, leaving almost immediately for Tabor, Iowa, with " Colonel Whipple," as Aaron D. Stevens was then known, Charles W. Moffett, from Montour, Iowa, and Richard Richardson, an intelligent man of color, who had the year before been assisted from slavery in Missouri. After reaching Canada, however. 154 JOHN BRW\VN. in May, I858, he does not again appear in the record. Captain Brown's presence in Kansas at this period was known to a very few persons. The status of the Ter — ritory was by no means a settled one, owing to the pendency of the Lecompton Constitution, and it was a favorable element on tile free-state side to have it believed that John Brown was supposed to be mysteriously hovering along tile northern line. The active resistance at this period of James Montgomery, afterwards colonel of the Second South Carolina Colored Volunteers, to the policy of voting under the "bogus laws," was keeping southern Kansas in a state of ferment,which had, however, a sufficient basis in the existence of plots and ruffianly efforts to drive free-state settlers in that section from their public land entries and settlements.' From Tabor John Brown soon moved to There were other questions embraced in the opposition to voting for State officers under the Lecompton Constitution, besides that of the recognition of the " bogus laws" it directly involved. In Southern Kansas, especially, the so-called "black law" freestate Democracy had a stronghold. To some extent the leaders of this faction were more unfair than were the pro-slavery party proper. A movement was on foot at this time to break down the real free-state party, by substituting for it a so-called Democratic one, which would have virtually served all tie interests of the slavepower, without having "chattelism " actually established. Some of the more sagacious pro-slavery men had ere this realized the impossibility of making Kansas a slave State. The special obstacles to this Democratic movement were the John Brown feeling, though the Captain had no partisan relations whatever; Captain Montgomery's defense of the free-state settlers, and the untiring hostility of the Northern newspaper correspondents of 1855-'6-'7. They were not many in numbers; their pens actually shaped the policy of the free-soil and anti-Lecompton press. Governor Robert J. Walker found this out when he first bent his astute REACHING TO A CULMINATLION. I55 Springdale, the Quaker community he had selected for temporary residence. When assembled the party consisted of John Brown himself, his son Owen, Aaron Dwight Stevens, John Henri Kagi, John Edwin Cook, Richard Realf, Charles Plummer Tidd,William Henry Leeman, Luke F. Parsons, Charles W. Moffett, with Richard Richardson, colored, eleven in all. John Brown departed almost immediately for the East, leaving Stevens in charge as military instructor. Before spring came the company was strengthened by the accession of George B. Gill, Steward Taylor, Edwin and Barclay Coppoc. George B. Gill and Barclay Coppoc had entered Kansas the previous year with the Eldridge-Perry emigrant trains and had met therein Richard Realf and others; also met John Brown coming out, and finding Stevens on the road guarding the trains into Kansas. Owen Brown's diary locates the arrival of Hugh Forbes at Tabor on August 9th. He writes of reading for the first time " The Manual of the Patriotic Volunteers," and mentions also George Plummer Tidd under the name of Carpenter. On the 4th of November Owen writes that he was thirty-three years old. A few days later he mentions the arrival of intellect to the task of making a free-state Democracy. Some among us may have considered the courage of the Republican party as not up to the measure of its occasion or duty, but there was no hesitation in sustaining it as against an administration Democracy and "squatter sovereignty." In this way the correspondents earned the bitter hatred of G. W. Brown, Eli Thayer, and others it is utterly useless to name. They certainly have been entitled by service to something different from the "cold shoulder," historically speaking, which is all their work has in the main received from Kansas writers of later years. L56 JOHN BROWN. " eleven desperadoes," as he jestingly termed his father and their new comrades. John Henri Kagi, who had visited a short time at Camp Creek, Nebraska, with his father and sister, soon joined the command, and remained with it until the Chatham, Canada, movement was made in April. The Sharpe's rifles, revolvers, ammunition and other material which Captain Brown had found at Tabor and taken possession of were shipped as freight to northern Ohio in John Brown, Jr.'s, care. The original intention was to take part of the men to Ashtabula County, Ohio, Hugh Forbes being expected to be in charge there, and Colonel Whipple (Stevens) remain behind among tile Iowa Quakers. With the withdrawal of Forbes, concentration in Iowa was the most reasonable plan. The men were boarded by the Maxsons at the very small rate of one dollar each per week,' the entire cost of their winter's residence not exceeding $250. Most of the men did some work in addition to the drilling and gun practice they regularly followed. Stevens, a very competent drillmaster and swordsman, found apt pupils. Cook, who was almost a phenomenal marksman and had a passion for firearms, readily led the record at the target. Stevens lad served several years as a United States dragoon at frontier posts, and had learned much of rough campaigning. His lessons were all of a practical order. There was no attempt to make a secret of their drilling, and as Gill shows and Cook stated in his " confession," the neighborhood folks all understood that'this band of earnest young men were pre 1 See the account given bly George B. Gill in the Appendix. REACHING TO A CULMINATION. I57 paring for something far out of the ordinary. Of course Kansas was presumed to be the objective point. But generally the impression prevailed that when the party moved again it would be somewhere in the direction of the slave States. The atmosphere of those days was charged with disturbance. It is difficult to determine how many of the party actually knew that John Brown designed to invade Virginia. All the testimony goes to show that it is most probable that not until after the assembling at the Maryland farm in I859 was there a full, definite announcement of Harper's Ferry as the objective point. That he fully explained his purpose to make reprisals on slavery wherever the opportunity offered is without question, but except to Owen, who was vowed to the work in his early youth, and Kagi, who informed me at Osawatomie in July, 1858, that Brown gave him his fullest confidence upon their second interview at Topeka in i857, there is every reason to believe that among the men the details of the intended movement were matters of after confidence. My own experience illustrates this: I was absent from Lawrence when John Brown recruited his little company. He had left already for Iowa before I returned. I met Realf just as he was leaving, and we talked without reserve, he assuring me that the purpose was just to prepare a fighting nucleus for resisting the enforcement of tile Lecompton Constitution, which it was then expected Congress might try to impose upon us. Through this advantage was to be taken of the agitation to prepare for a movement against slavery in Missouri, Arkansas, the Indian Territory and possibly Louisiana. At Kagi's request (with whom I maintained for nearly two 158 JOHN BROWN. years an important, if irregular, correspondence), I began a systematic investigation of the conditions, roads and topography of the Southwest, visiting a good deal of the Indian Territory, with portions of southwest Missouri, western Arkansas, and northern Texas, also, under the guise of examining railroad routes, etc. The letters I wrote Kagi from time to time were signed William Harrison by an understanding with him. It was this name Albert Hazlett gave when taken prisoner at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and, with John E. Cook at Chambersburg, was illegally extradited to Virginia. Under it he was tried at Charlesi-^^ HH^ ~ ~town, and executed in the following March, i860. It will be recalled by those familiar with the drama of events that John Brown always declined publicly to recognize Hazlett, after the latter was 3ERT H-AZLE'TT. imprisoned at Charlestown, as one of his men. He did not wish to throw any obstacles in the way of his possible escape before the Virginia courts.' It was un1The only witness before the Virginian Court who swore to Albert Hazlett's presence in the Harper's Ferry fight was a man named Barry, an Irish-American schoolmaster, whose life Hazlett is reported to have saved. This statement is made on the authority of George Alfred fTownsend, who gives it as coming from Barry himself. The latter is the author of the pamphlet on Harper's Ferry, published under the name of "Josephus" as author, referred to and quoted in other chapters. ALl REACHING TO A CULMINATION. i59 doubtedly the signature to my letters that made him use the name of Harrison when arrested. These letters were captured in the carpet-bag at the Virginia schoolhouse, and Governor Wise himself told me at Richmond in I857, that two were secretly lithographed and sent to many leading men of the South and Southwest as evidence of the plots that were being formed. It is to be presumed that these were two that gave an account of discontent among the slaves in southwest Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, and those held by the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee Indians; planning at the same time to ferment an outbreak among them, aided by Kansas men, led, perhaps, by Captain Montgomery. These things are recalled in connection with the open drilling within a Northern State of a body of men, however small in numbers, having the avowed purpose of carrying the free-state war into the Africa of slavery itself. They serve to prove how charged and vital was the public mentality in those days. A conflict seems to have been expected, denounced or tolerated by all sides. It was this condition that enabled John Brown to hold his small force together without the fullest confidence to them on his part, and, at the same time, keep from active suspicion the public feeling around himself and party. The roads they traveled would never have been so accessible but for the currents that were set in vibration by the aggressions of the slave-holders, their leaders, and politicians. Hugh Forbes must have left Tabor immediately after Captain Brown left for Kansas, for he was at Rochester, New York, in the latter part of November. The latter with his party arrived at Springdale, and i6o JOHN BROWN. himself moved eastward about the 20th instant, called chiefly by the fact that Forbes had already begun a campaign against his chief.' His earlier letters were addressed to Dr. Howe, Senator Sumner, and some other of the more radical anti-slavery men. He demanded that Brown be withdrawn from command, and that he himself or some other person be placed in charge. Evidently he thought there was a political revolutionary conspiracy on foot. Of course such letters produced commotion and caused annoyance. Dr. Howe seems to have been most seriously affected by them. Forbes had received sufficient confidences from John Brown to be able to apprehend some of the weaker points, or rather he knew where the joints in the armor were. The fact that the Captain's " tools " were apparently the " property " of the Massachusetts Kansas Committee, and that Brown had been made their " agent," would seem to have caused a fear that that body might be charged with a breach of trust if Forbes's allegations should become public property. There is no evidence that Messrs. Stearns, Howe, Parker, Gerrit Smith, Sanborn, Higginson, or even Senator Sumner-who knew nothing of the Committee's work except by hearsay-were troubled as to reprisals on slavery itself. Mr. Stearns certainly was not, nor Higginson, Sanborn, Parker. Dr. Howe, sometimes overwrought by the multiplicity of his laborious duties, was evidently excited by the possibility of reflections on the integrity of the Kansas Aid Committee, of which he had been an active member. As a matter of fact, the material in John Brown's 'I am here indebted chiefly to Mr. Sanborn's " Life and Letters of John Brown," Chap. XII., pp. 418, et al., for dates, etc. REACHING TO A CULMINATION. i6i possession as "agent" was not the property of any committee, but of George L. Stearns, who had paid for and owned it. The relations of the Massachusetts Committee were protected by later letters (May, 1858) from Mr. Stearns, as chairman, notifying John Brown that said arms were to be used only " for the defense of Kansas," and shortly after their final disposition was made by his absolute and personal gift of them to John Brown direct. This action was not had, however, till Hugh Forbes found that his letters to the more intimate friends of Captain Brown in Massachusetts did not produce the effect he sought, and he had begun to extend his correspondence of assailment to public men like Senators Wilson, Hale, and Seward, as well as to Horace Greeley and William Cullen Bryant, having evidently been posted on the idea that they as party and political leaders could have no relations with direct attacks on the institution of slavery. It must be borne in mind that the aim of the new politics, its party, and policy, was simply to denationalize slavery: John Brown's purpose to render it unsafe and dangerous to hold slaves by attacks which would show the system's inherent weakness. He had no theory to substitute therefor, except that of the Declaration of Independence; and his convictions that constitutional provisions guarding and preserving, or aiming to, the rights of the individual and of the citizen, were more potential than evasive and temporary compromises. Naturally, however, the organizers and leaders of the new party, already realizing that success was before them, dreaded all action by the "fanatics" of the day. Every period has its sneer. That was the way it II I 62 JOHN BROWN. sounded then. Now tile term is "crank," or worse. Ethics are brushed aside for " practical " success, and faith is lost in sacerdotalism. Plutocracy loves ceremony, and hierarchical forms are the natural product of class and privilege. The fanatics are denounced; the cranks are derided, but lo! Time changes, and the " practical" men wiho have feared or sneered, become the active administrators of the ideas and ideals they denounced and derided. The administrators " win "; the others fail of personal reward and often even of recognition. But the work they do goes on. So it was with John Brown. The Captain left Iowa late in December. Letters had reached him there, at Springdale, and at West Andover, Ohio, very early in January, with accounts of the Boston-wise perturbations. Forbes was at Rochester, N. Y., in November, calling on Frederick I)ouglass, presenting a letter from Captain Brown. Mir. Douglass says he was not favorably impressed, but lie took him to a hotel and paid his bill while there. Hie also gave him a little money, and through a German lady friend lie received introductions also to other Germans in New York. For a short period he did not attack John Brown, but that reticence soon wore off. Mr. Douglass did not hesitate to say that Forbes betrayed tile movement to the authorities at Washington. In that, however, I believe he was mistaken. There are details of this imbroglio which tend to show that Colonel Forbes must have about this time got into relations with a small coterie of clever colored men in New York City, revolving around a well-known physician of that race, now deceased, who were notoriously at variance with the REACHING TO A CULMINATION. 163 efforts and associations of many others of their race leaders. They held the theory that it was the duty of all educated colored men to mould their people into separate and violent resistance. In their minds the reaction to race oppression and outrage led to a counter race contempt, antagonism, and rage. They wanted no help from white men, and some of them spent a good deal of misdirected intellectual effort in the endeavor to prove that somewhere in the historic past their race had been one of the ruling forces of tile world. They did not realize that it mattered not to them if it ever had; the living issues were the potential ones of present wrong-doing and oppression, hurting the wrong-doer as well as the wronged ones. From such sources as these, limited though they were, Hugh Forbes received many hints of possible relations, which his imperfect conception of American affairs turned into remarks that very naturally assumed a malignant aspect when put into letters to prominent men. A letter of John Brown to his son John, written at Rochester to West Andover, Ohio, early in February, shows the manner in which he was disposed to deal with Forbes.1 At this date Captain Brown was fully I After referring to a letter from the Garibaldian, of January 27tl', the Captain outlines a reply to be written to Forbes by John, saying: " I am anxious to draw him out more fully, and would also like to keep him a little encouraged and avoid an open rupture for a few weeks a a any rate." He then adds: Suppose you write Forbes thus: "Your letter to my father,... after mature reflection, I have decided to return to you, as I am unwilling he should, with all his other cares,... be vexed with what I am apprehensive he will accept as highly offensive and insulting, while I know I64 JOHN BROWN. bent on delivering his intended blow, and came to the East determined to strain every nerve to obtain the moderate means needed to begin with. He realized that his handful of keen-witted, brave, and devoted young men, then at Springdale, while heated through to the annealing point by the furnace of Kansas warfare, were liable to all the cooling influences of their years and temperaments, and such modifying conditions as the shifting phases of Time might readily bring to bear on them. He wanted to strike. Besides he desired to use the colored people if possible. It must he is disposed to do all he consistently can for you... unless you are yourself the cause of his disgust." The letter then suggests the statement that he, John, understands from his father, that $600 or " six months' pay " had already been advanced in the face of his own disappointments, " to enable " Forbes to " provide for his family." The contract was to be $Ioo per month as long as Forbes continued to serve. "Now," continues the draft of the letter to John Brown, Jr., "you (Forbes) undertake to instruct him (Brown) to say that he had positively engaged you for one year. I fear he will not accept it well to be asked or told to state what he considers an untruth." The draft adds that he, Captain Brown, will hardly take kindly to be instructed as to how he should transact " his own business and correspondence." Reference is made to " the seemingly spiteful letters " Forbes owns to have written as having not only done himself " great injury," but " also weakened him (Captain Brown) with his friends to whom they were sent." This draft is a very shrewd yet kindly forbearing with all, and closes with suggesting that a draft of $40 may be sent to him (Forbes) if the rebuke intended had its effect. It closes by saying, " I do not mean to dictate to you as he does to me, but I am anxious to understand him fully before we go any further, and shall be glad of the earliest information of the result." No reply is alluded to, and presumably therefore, as the facts show, the " rebuke " had no effect.-"Life and Letters of John Brown," pp. 432-34 - REACHING 'TO A ('CULMINATION. I65 have been within the brooding, observant purview of his perceptive brain to understand that they, too, growing in apprehension of larger political growth, were likely to feel their personal animosity lessened. Knowing their helplessness as a despised minority they might grow timid, more or less disposed to wait upon the changes that the rising tide of northern opinion would bring in favorable drifts towards them. John Brown comprehended with undaunted clearness that respect was only won by compelling it. A blow for freedom was always a victory. That was his view. So he pushed forward on the hard and stern road he had blazed for himself. At Rochester in January and February, staying at the Douglass House for three weeks, whliere he wrote industriously, combating the mischief Forbes's attacks were doing. He was urged to visit Boston, but thought it not safe for him to pass through Albany and Springfield, where he was so well known. An extract of a letter to Thomas W. Higginson shows generally how he was pressing his friends to theconclusion of such assistance as he needs. Evidently Higginson had suggested underground railroad work on a scale larger than was then practised. It was in him to do that, as he was always open to the direct conception of resistance to oppression and the duty of each of us to aid therein. Here is John Brown's suggestive note: "Railroad business on a somewhat extended scale is the identical object for which I am trying to get means. I have been connected with that business, as commonly conducted, from boyhood, and never let an opportunity slip. I have been operating to some T66 JOH N BRO(WN. purpose the past season, but I now have a measure on foot that I feel sure would awaken in you something more than a common interest if you could understand it. I have just written my friends G. L. Stearns and F. B. Sanborn, asking them to meet me for consultation at Peterboro, New York." It was in Peterboro, New York, at the home of G(errit Smith, tliat tile definite direction of John Brown was made known to the friends who had so far aided. They were indeed few in numbers. All of the Emigrant Aid Society organizers had fallen. John Brown himself still clung to the belief that Eli Thayer might "hook on his team," as lie later suggested to John, Jr., when planning out some trips of observation and inquiry. His experience with Amos A. Lawrence, especially over the matter of the North Elba homestead and the $I,ooo to be raised for its protection, did not induce any desire to ask his aid. He had never sought assistance from the Abolitionists proper-that is, the Garrisonians. And of course the National Kansas Committee people were of no avail. The two sources of monetary support open to him, were Gerrit Smith, his personal friend as well as faithful anti-slavery ally, and the very small coterie of Boston gentlemen, wllose names are linked forever with his own. Frank B. Sanborn arrived at Mr. Smith's residence on thie evening of February 22, 1858, representing also Messrs. Stearns, Parker, Howe, and Higginson. It was on this occasion that John Brown unfolded in detail the fulness of his purpose, with the possible reservation of not in words naming HIarper's Ferry, though his general purport must have led directly thereto. Of the three persons REACHINGC TO A CULMINATION. I67 to whom this high-wrought conception was thus presented, Gerrit Smith and Frank B Sanborn do not appear to have accepted it unquestioningly.' According to TMr. Sanborn's very interesting account, the conference lasted till after midnight, and began again briefly on the morrow, being concluded bl) Gerrit Smith saying: " You see how it is; our dear old friend hlas made up his mind to this course and cannot be turned from it. We cannot give him up to die alone; we must support him." Captain Brown had named $800, even $500, as the extent of his need. Then $1,ooo was decided upon, and Mr. Sanborn left on tile 24th for Boston, to present the matter and raise the balance of the amount. Mr. Smith's share became $5oo before 'Mr. Sanborn mentioned Edwin Morton as one who was confided in. At the time that gentleman was an inmate of Mr. Smith's house as a tutor to his sons, and he acted also as secretary or confidential amanuensis. Captain Brown, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Sanborn adjourned to Mr. Morton's room. He was a classmate of Mr. Sanborn, and, in the familiar relations he bore, had necessarily to be trusted. But there is no other evidence than this of Mr. Morton's association with the movement. Mr. Smith, after the blow was struck at Harper's Ferry, had a severe recurrence of a nervous trouble lie had been afflicted with at the time of the long legislative struggle in the United States I-ouse of Representatives over the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, and was seint again to the institution in which he was first treated. The family deemed it wise to send Mr. Morton to Europe for two years. No one in Massachusetts or Kansas, or in John Brown's home circle, seems, besides Mr. Sanborn, to have considered Mr. Morton as directly identified. John Brown, Jr., in letters during I859, speaks of once meeting and talking with him. i68 JOHN BROWN. the conclusion was reached. In Boston, Parker agreed, thought the matter worth trying, though except for effect on opinion, he did not believe it would accomplish much. Dr. Howe accepted the idea with earnestness. He never doubted that within the lines to be worked upon, were real military possibilities, and that it was not necessarily a foredoomed failure. Mr. Stearns accepted, with an utterly loyal belief in the old covenanter. Higginson also held the same view, and Mr. Sanborn almost decided to take a personal share in the movement. To those who knew him then, the wonder is that he was not found at the Kennedy Farm. John Brown, however, knew that some men were more valuable alive just then, than they would be as sacrifices. From the 23d of February the Captain was a busy man. The " feight " stored at Conneaut, Ohio, about which embarrassing questions were arising, had to be placed where John, Jr., and Jason, could control it. Letters were written from North Elba, asking Ruth that Henry, her husband, might "go to school "-join in the pending raid. The incident had a pathetic ending in inducing Oliver and Watson to volunteer on that which was their death-errand. On the 4th of March, the Captain was in Boston, stopping at the American House, where he was visited by all his little circle of friends. While they resolved themselves into a committee of aid and advice, Sanborn is convinced 1 that Harper's Ferry was never named as the first or chief point of attack. On leaving Boston, 1 See Chapter XII. " Life and Letters of John Brown." REACHING TO A CULMINATION. 169 March 8th, he carried with him $500 in gold and assurances of other support. He passed through New York on the 2d, preferring to go round rather than take the risk of being recognized in western Massachusetts. On the ioth of March, Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, of New York, Stephen Smith and William Still, of Philadelphia, with John Brown, Jr., met the Captain in conference at the dwelling of either Smith or Still. Others may have been present, but their names are nowhere given. Earlier letters to his eldest son show in part what must have been discussed, among other matters, at the Philadelphia meetings. On the 4th of February, the Captain wrote John, that: "I have been thinking that I would like to have you make a trip to Bedford, Chambersburg, Gettysburg, and Uniontown, in Pennsylvania, traveling slowly along, and inquiring of every man on the way, or every family of the right stripe, and getting acquainted with them as much as you could. When you look at the location of those places, you will readily perceive the advantage of getting up some acquaintance in those parts." He further advised with his son to visit Washington and see certain Congressmen, with the hope of "getting some money for secret service"; and then he continued,-" You can say to our friends that I am out from Kansas for that express purpose." In subsequent letters he withdrew the Washington suggestion, remarking that he had but little "faith in princes." He mentions, however, that Anson Burlingame gave him $50; and then he directs John to go to Hagerstown, Martinsburg, and even to Harper's Ferry itself in pursuing the inquiries he desired to have I7o JOHN BROWN. made. Of course, the object of these was to find out the underground railroad routes and stations, to ascertain the persons who were actually to be relied Iupon, places to stop at, means of conveyance, and especially to learn of the colored men who could be trusted. The Philadelphia conference must have (one over this ground with the two Browns, and the experience of those who were the most active of U. G. R. R. directors in that section, could not but have been very useful. In the early part of April, John Brown visited St. Catherine, Ingersoll, Hamilton, and Chatham, in Canada West, to prepare for the convention he wished to convene just before he entered on his active work. He was also reported at Sandusky, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan. A visit had been made to North Elba, and it was arranged, that Henry Thompson should manage botll farms, while Oliver and Watson would " go to school " with their father. The Captain was hastening his steps in order to return to Iowa and bring his men on to Chatham, and from there, as he then expected, to the border of Virginia, to begin working out the serious aim of his life. John Brown's purpose in calling and holding the convention at Chatham, Canada West, was in harmony with the conception and plans he had evolved. There was a large number of colored residents under the British flag. They were mainly fugitive slaves; among whom necessarily were many bold, even daring men. In the section, of which Chatham was one of the centers, considerable direction had been given to the settlement of these people. There were among them (and still are) a good many far REAC(HING TO A CUIMINATION. 7 mers, mechanics, storekeepers, as well as laborers. It would not be correct to say that no prejudice existed against them, but it was not strong enough, as in the land from which they fled, to prevent industry and sobriety from lhaving a fair chance, while intelligence, well directed, made its way to civic and business recognition. There were probably not less than 75,000 fugitive residents in Canada West at the time of the Chatham gathering. Their presence, well-ordered lives, and fair degree of prosperity, had brought also to live with them as doctors, clergymen, teachers, lawyers, printers, surveyors, etc., educated freemen of their own race. Martin R. Delany, a physician, editor, ethnologist, and naturalist, was one of them. Mr. Holden, a well-trained surveyor and civil engineer, at whose residence in Chatham, John Brown stayed, the Rev. William Charles Munroe, Osborne Perry Anderson, and others,were among these helpers. Dr. Alexander M. Ross, of Toronto, Canada, physician and ornithologist, who is still living, honored by all who know him, then a young (white) man who devoted himself for years to aiding the American slave, was a frequent visitor to this section. He was a faithful friend of John Brown, efficient as an ally also, seeking to serve under all conditions of need and peril. But it was not simply the presence of these forces which took John Brown to Chatham. As one may naturally understand, looking at conditions tlen existing, there existed something of an organization to assist fugitives and of resistance to their masters. It was found all along the Lake borders from Syracuse, New York, to Detroit, Michigan. As none but colored men were admitted into direct and 72 JOHN BROWN. active membership with this " League of Freedom," it is quite difficult to trace its workings, or know how far its ramifications extended. One of the most interesting phases of slave life, so far as the whites were enabled to see or impinge upon it, was the extent and rapidity of communication among them. Four geographical lines seem to have been chiefly followed. One was that of the coast south of the Potomac, whose almost continuous line of swamps from the vicinity of Norfolk, Va., to the northern border of Florida afforded a refuge for many who could not escape and became "marooned" in their depths, while giving facility to the more enduring to work their way out to the North Star land. The great Appalachian range and its abutting mountains were long a rugged, lonely, but comparatively safe route to freedom. It was used, too, for many years. Doubtless, a knowledge of that fact, for John Brown was always an active underground railroad man, had very much to do, apart from its immediate use strategically considered, with the Captain's decision to begin operations therein. Harriet Tubman, whom John Brown met for the first time at St. Catherine's in March or April, 1858, was a constant user of the Appalachian route, in her efforts to aid escaping slaves. "Moses," as Mrs. Tubman was called by her own people, was a most remarkable black woman, unlettered and very negrine, but with a great degree of intelligence and perceptive insight, amazing courage, and a simple steadfastness of devotion which lifts her career into the ranks of heroism. Herself a fugitive slave, she devoted her life after her own freedom was won, to the work of aiding others to escape. First REACHING TO A CULMINATION. I73 and last Harriet brought out several thousand slaves.' John Brown always called her "General," and once introduced her to Wendell Phillips by saying "I bring you one of the best and bravest persons on this continent-General Tubman, as we call her." William Lambert, who died in Detroit a few years since, being very nearly one hundred years old, was another of those of the race who devoted themselves to the work for which John Brown hoped to strike a culminating blow. Between I829 and I862-thirty-three years-William is reported to have aided in the escape of 30,000 slaves. He lived in Detroit, and was one of the foremost representatives of his people in both Michigan and Ontario. Underground-railroad operations culminating chiefly at Cleveland, Sandusky, and Detroit, led by broad and defined routes through Ohio, to the border of Kentucky. Through that-State, into the heart of the Cumberland Mountains, northern Georgia, east Tennessee, and northern Alabama, the limestone caves of the region served a useful purpose. And it is a fact that the colored people living in Ohio were often bolder and more determined than was the rule elsewhere. The OhioKentucky routes probably served more fugitives than others in the North. The valley of the Mississippi was the most westerly channel, until Kansas opened a bolder way of escape from the Southwest slave section. John Brown knew whatever was to be known of -all this unrest, and he also must have known of i" Harriet-The Moses of her People." By Sarah H. Bradford. George R. Lockwood, New York, i886. Mrs. Tubman is still living at Auburn, N. Y I74 JOHN BRtOWN. the existence of tile secret organization which George B. Gill mentions' (see Appendix) in his interesting paper. This organization served a purpose of some value to the Government in the earlier parts of the Civil War, a fact, that lies within my own knowledge, and then fell into disuse, as the hours moved swifter to the one in whlicil tile gateway of the Union swung aside, and the l)atllway of the Law opened, to allow A letter from Dr. Alexander Milton Ross, bearing date Toronto, January 2Ist, I8(3, contains two points of interest. The first is that relative to the time of moving on Htarper's Ferry. Dr. Ross writes: " On the occasion of my last interview with John Brown I asked him directly-' When do you intend to begin your work?' After a moment's reflection he replied in these words, as near as my recollection serves me: 'God willing, I shall move between the I5th and 27th of October.' I replied: 'Then you will wisll me to be in Richmond between the I5th and 27th ' He said: ' Yes, not later than the 27th.' " " Now, in reference to the ' Liberty League '-I was one of their members at large-Gerrit Smith and Lewis Tappan were the others. As to the actual members I had very little acquaintance. I knew of George J. Reynolds, of Hamilton (Sandusky also), George W. Brown and Glover Iarrison, of this city (Toronto). The branch of tie League in Upper Canada had no connection with the armed and drilled men along the United States border, whose duty it was to help the slaves to escape to Canada. Of course, I knew many of them-Liberators, as they were calledfrom Erie to Sandusky and Cleveland. I never had much in them and but little to do with the organization, alwaysfearing treachery. I never had any military taste or predilection, and but little to do with armed men. Except to my friends, I was not known as Doctor Ross, and my friends took pains to shield me."... I i~equently heard the slaves speak of insurrectionary movements in progress, but never anything definite. T'he slaves were very simple, childlike, and superstitious-ready to believe anything told them by those in their confidence." REACHING TO A CULMINATION. 175 the colored American to reach emancipation and citizenship. These were some of the forces John Brown hoped without doubt to use. He never expected any more aid from them than that which would give a first impetus. Had he got away from Harper's Ferry and kept in the mountains for a brief period, no doubt exists whatever in my mind, that there would have been more or less sporadic outbreaks along the central lines I have suggested. The underground railroaders from Ohio and in Kentucky could not have kept out of the struggle. The home of Isaac Holden, Chatham, Canada West, is an old-fashioned red brick, two-storied, comfortable-looking dwelling-house, nearly square, with brick gables higher than the roof, having a broad, outside chimney at each end, with the side to the street. Five low, broad windows light the parlor floor, one portion of which John Brown occupied. Mr. Holden, who had resided twenty-five years in Canada at the time of this visit, is a native of Louisiana, a man of means and liberal education. It was in John Brown's room that a committee met to examine the constitution. Dr. Delany was chairman, and J. H. Kagi and Osborne P. Anderson acted as secretaries. The meetings of the convention itself were held in a Baptist Church, of which Mr. Munroe was the pastor. Osborne P. Anderson describes some of the incidents as follows: " The first visit of John Brown to Chathamn was in April, 1858. Wherever he went around, although an entire stranger, he made a profound impression upon those who saw or became acquainted with him. Some supposed him a staid but modern 176 JOHN BROWN. ized Quaker, others a solid business man from ' somewhere,' and without question a philanthropist. His long white beard, thoughtful and reverend brow and physiognomy, his sturdy, measured tread, as he circulated about with hands under the pendant coat skirts of plain brown tweed, with other garments to match, revived to those honored with his acquaintance and knowing of his history, the memory of a Puritan of the most exalted type." ("A Voice from Harper's Ferry," I86i, p. 9.) Dr. Delany in the Rollins biography gives a more detailed account. The doctor's statement seems to be at variance with those made by Anderson, Gill, Realf, and Moffett, who were present. It must be borne in mind that Captain Brown had not only alternative methods of action in his own. mind, but ample reason for not drawing the close attention even of friends to the one which he most desired to put into operation, viz., an attack on Harper's Ferry itself. In the first place, he knew that Forbes had sources of information, and was disposed to use them adversely to success, and, next, lie never felt sure of the way in which his daring conception would be received. 1 The "Subterranean Pass Way" represented ideas and methods in accord with and enlarging the work on the underground railroad. The essential difference was that, the rescued fugitives or runaways should be planted in or near to a Northern or Western community and not brought under the British flag. One purpose was to educate Northern people to defend fugitives, and the other would have been to teach the runaways to defend themselves. No report exists from any other source of any such plan having been See Appendix for extract from the Delany biography. REACHING TO A CULMINATION. 177 discussed within the Chatham Convention itself. I have talked it over with Gill and Realf who were actively participating; incidentally I have asked Tidd and Osborne P. Anderson, but from none did I ever gather the idea of any discussion, as Dr. Delany intimates. Yet it doubtless occurred, and in all probability within the preliminary committee meeting. The convention talk was general. It is also certain that more criticism and resistant views came from colored men in the body than ever appears to have been urged at any time by the white men (except Hugh Forbes), who were knowing to Captain Brown's purposes or associated with him. It is also a fact that he received very little of the aid it was presumable he had a right to expect from colored men. Osborne P. Anderson was the only man of his race who reported from Canada, none of those who had Brown's confidence to a greater or lesser degree were on hand at the Kennedy farm, the two Ohio (Oberlin) recruits being the fruits of a near and preceding fugitive slave excitement. It is not necessary to comment on this; it is essential though to state the fact. John Brown was at Springdale, Iowa, on the 27th of April, I858, having arrived from Canada, via Chicago, on the 25th, for the purpose of removing eastward his " band of shepherds," as he termed them, or "surveyors," as they termed themselves. At this date the Boston and Peterboro friends, according to Mr. Sanborn, expected to hear of "his flock " being turned "loose about the 15th of May." J. H. Kagi, C. P. Tidd, and L. F. Parsons had preceded by a few days the main body, which left West Liberty on the 12 178 JOHN BR)WN. 27th. At Chatham, where they arrived on the 3oth inst., they were joined by these three associates. There were in all of the Brown party, including the Captain himself, thirteen persons, one being colored. The convention did not assemble till the 8th of May, and there were only forty-six present, twelve of wlhom were white men. The others were all colored men; Doctor Delany being the only one of any wide reputation. There is no evidence to show that Douglass, Loguen, Garnet, Stephen Smith, Gloucester, Langston, or others of the prominent men of color in the States wlho k/new John Brown, were invited to the Chatham meeting. It is doubtful if their appearance would have been wise, as it would assuredly have been commented on and aroused suspicion. But the singular fact remains, looked at in either way, wlether asked or not, that their influence had no visible representation or presence. John and Owen Brown, father and son, John Henri Kagi, Aaron Dwight Stevens, still known as Charles Whippie, John Edwin Cook, Richard Realf, George B. Gill, Charles Plummer Tidd, William Henry Leeman, Charles W. Moffett, Luke F. Parsons, all of Kansas, and Steward Taylor, of Canada, who had joined in Iowa; twelve in all. Richard Richardson, a member of this party, was a colored man. The remaining members, thirty-three, were all colored. The president of the convention, William Charles Munroe, was pastor of the church in which the sessions were held on Saturday the 8th and Monday the loth of May. Other delegates were Dr. Martin A. Delany, and Alfred Whipper, Pennsylvania; William Lambert and I. D. Shadd, of Detroit, Michigan; James H. Harris, REACHING TO A CULMINATION. I79 of Cleveland, Ohio (after tie war a Representative in Congress for two terms from North Carolina); G. J. Reynolds, J. C. Grant, A. J. Smith, James M. Jones, M. F. Bailey, S. Hunton, John J. Jackson, Jeremiah Anderson, James M. Bell, Alfred M. Ellsworth, James V. Purnell, George Aiken, Stephen Dettin, Thomas Hickerson, John Cannel, Robinson Alexander, Thomas F. Cary, Thomas M. Kinnard, Robert Van Vauken,Thomas M. Stringer, John A. Thomas (believed to be John Brown's earlier confidant and employe at Springfield, Massachusetts, afterwards employed by Abraham Lincoln in his Illinois home and at the White H[ouse also; he died recently at Springfield, Illinois); Robert Newman, Charles Smitli, Simon Fislin, Isaac Holden, and James Smith; making thirty-four colored and twelve white members. John Henri Kagi was made secretary. The entire proceedings did not occupy over fifteen hours in both days, and practically consisted of ratifying what had already been agreed upon in the various conferences held during the preceding three weeks.' The points of difference were of no great consequence, except one. That was a discussion of the forty-sixth article of the proposed Constitution, which reads as follows: THE ARTICLES NOT FOR THE OVERTHROW OF G;OVERNMEN'T. "The foregoing Articles shall not be construed so as in any way to encourage the overthrow of any State Government, or of the General Government of the United States, and look to no dissolution of the 1 See Appendix for minutes of proceedings. I8o JOHN BROWN. Union, but simply to Amendment and Repeal. And our flag sliall be the same that our Fathers fought under in the Revolution." Tile motion to strike this out came from George J. Reynolds. He is mentioned both by Dr. Ross and Mr. Gill, as a leading member of the " League of Liberty." When John Brown, Jr., was engaged during August and September of the next year in the effort to get the Chatham Convention men together for the Harper's Ferry movement, he wrote from Sandusky, Ohio, to Kagi at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, that the " Coppersmith " was "one of those men who must be obtained if possible." This reference is understood to be to Mr. Reynolds. In the discussion which followed, Reynolds was the only advocate of the motion. I)D. Delany, Elder lMunroe, and Mr. Kennard, all colored, were strenuous in opposing; and Captain Brown Kagi, and Realf made earnest argument against the motion. Article XLVI. was in fact the keynote of John Brown's position. He was defending the Union and the Government under it, threatened as he reasoned, by the existence of chattel slavery, having, under misapprehended provisions, political powers which necessitated and encouraged the formation of a dangerous and continuous pro-slavery conspiracy. The presence of this Article makes consistent the declaration subsequently embodied in his last speech in the Virginia Court, in response to the usual question "Why sentence should not be passed upon him?" In that reply he declared, as will be seen, that he had not "raised" insurrection, committed "treason," incited to "civil war," or "instructed" slaves to kill their masters. Right or wrong, as he REACHING TO A CULMINATION. may be judged, it is necessary to apprehend clearly, in order to estimate justly, the mental processes of this remarkable personality. Certainly, there is nothing anarchistic in them. The " roads" John Brown mapped out and which he sought to travel, carried, in his mind at least, the highest respect for law, and recognized to the full the responsibility to social order and equity. The difference between him (as he saw it) and the established " disorder," was that the latter had its strength in wrong-doing, and threatened free institutions to the degree that the reserved rights of the citizen could justly be called upon for resistance. Kennedy's motion had the support only of his own vote. Messrs. Kagi and Realf were particularly vigorous and eloquent in their arguments, as Gill and others report. John Brown made the opening and principal speech of the convention. No orator, certainly no rhetorician, yet he was sententious, logical, direct, very apt in illustration, and, like all men of intellectual reserve, brooding usually on solitude and silence over large issues, quite aphoristic and terse in expression. John Brown had read well and thought clearly within the deep lines his brain and character wrought out for action.' In his evidence before the United States In childhood, youth, and manhood the Bible was his constant study. Mr. Gill says that a volume of the "Sayings of Confucius," was one of his later favorites. He read " Pilgrim's Progress," the "Life of Franklin," " AEsop's Fables," " Plutarch's Lives," "Biography of Washington," all Revolutionary material, and made a study of Marion and Sumpter's careers, "Napoleon and His Marshals," Baxter's " Saints' Rest," " Herodotus," " Josephus," and several theological works. HIe read the newspapers and was well informed in current history and invention. T82 J(OHN CBRO\VN. Senate Committee on the " Harper's Ferry Invasion,' that was the way in which the Virginian and the Southern Statesmen put it in order to maintain the idea of John Brown's movement being concerted with the aid of Republican and Northern leaders. Richard Realf thus outlined John Brown's opening speech in the Chatham Convention. His report is no doubt substantially correct, though more rletorical in tone than were the Captain's actual words. Estimating the quality and temper of the latter, especially at a "supreme moment " like this one, it may readily be accepted that John Brown's actual speech was far more vigorous and striking even than is shown in the picturesque report of his poet follower. " John Brown, on rising," said Realf to the Committee (p. 96 -97 of Report), "stated that for twenty or thirty years the idea had possessed him like a passion of giving liberty to the slaves. lie stated immediately thereafter, that he made a journey to England in 1851, in which year he took to the International Exhibition at London samples of wool from Ohio, during which period he made a tour upon the European continent, inspecting all fortifications, and especially all earthwork forts which he could find, with a view, as he stated, of applying the knowledge thus gained, with modifications and inventions of his own, to such a mountain warfare as he thereafter spoke upon in the United States. John Brown stated, moreover, that he had not b)een indebted to anybody for the suggestion of this plan; that it arose spontaneously in his own mind; that through a series of from twenty to thirty years it had gradually formed and developed itself into shape and plan. He stated that he had read all the books upon insurrectionary warfare which he could lay his hands upon-the Roman warfare; the' successful opposition of the Spanish chieftains during the period when Spain was a Roman province; how with ten thousand men divided REACHING TO A CULMINATION. I83 and subdivided into small companies, acting simultaneously, yet separately, they withstood the whole consolidated power of the Roman Empire through a number of years. In addition to this, he said he had become very familiar with the successful warfare waged by Schamyl, the Circassian chief, against the Russians; he had posted himself in relation to the wars of Toussaint L'Overture, and the other phases of the wars in Hayti and the islands round about; and from all these things he had drawn the conclusion, believing, as he stated there he did believe, and as we all (if I may judge from myself) believed, that upon the first intimation of a plan formed for the liberation of the slaves, they would immediately rise all over the Southern States. He supposed that they would come into the mountains to join him, where he proposed to work, and that by flocking to his standard they would enable him (by making the line of mountains which cuts diagonally thlrough Maryland and Virginia down through the Southern States into Tennessee and Alabama, the base of his operations) to act upon the plantations on the plains lying on each side of that range of mountains, and we should be able to establish ourselves in the fastnesses, and if any hostile action (as would be) were taken against us, either by the militia of the separate States, or by the armies of the United States, we proposed to defeat first the militia, and next, if it were possible, the troops of the United States, and then organize the freed blacks under this provisional constitution, which would carve out for the locality of its jurisdiction all that mountainous region in which the blacks were to be established, and in which they were to be taught the useful and mechanical arts, and to be instructed in all the business of life. Schools were also to be established, and so on. That was it. "The negroes were to constitute the soldiers. John Brown expected that all the free negroes in the Northern States would immediately flock to his standard. He expected that all the slaves in the Southern States would do the same. He believedl, too, that as many of the free negroes in Canada as could accompany him, would do so. x84 JOHN BROWN. " The slaveholders were to be taken as hostages, if they refused to let their slaves go. It is a mistake to suppose that they were to be killed; they were not to be. They were to be held as hostages for the safe treatment of any prisoners of John Brown's who might fall into the hands of hostile parties. "All the non-slaveholders were to be protected. Those who would not join the organization of John Brown, but who would not oppose it, were to be protected; but those who did oppose it were to be treated as the slaveholders themselves. ' John Brown said," continued Realf, summing up the proceedings, "that he believed a successful incursion could be made; that it could be successfully maintained; that the several slave States could be forced (from the position in which they found themselves) to recognize the freedom of those who had been slaves within their respective limits; that immediately such recognitions were made, then the places of all officers elected under this provisional constitution became vacant, and new elections were to be made. Moreover, no salaries were to be paid to the officeholders under this constitution. It was purely out of that which we supposed to be philanthropy-love for the slave. Moreover, it is a mistake to suppose, as Cook in his confession has stated-and I now get away from John Brown's speech-that at the period of that convention the people present took an oath to support that constitution. They did no such thing. Dr. Delany, of whom I have spoken, proposed, immediately the convention was organized, that an oath should be taken by all who were present, not to divulge any of the proceedings that might transpire, whereupon John Brown rose and stated his objections to such an oath. He had himself conscientious scruples against taking an oath, and all he requested was a promise that any person who should thereafter divulge any of the proceedings that might transpire, agreed to forfeit the protection which that organization could extend over him." George B. Gill gives briefly his recollections, written to me, as follows: REACHING TO A CULMINATION. " William Munroe, as president of the convention, signed the commissions issued. The sessions were not fully harmonious. There were some small points of difference, which were satisfactorily adjusted in the end. I only remember a few of the colored men; amongst them was Dr. M. R. Delany, J. J. Jackson, Wm. C. Munroe, of Chatham, G. J. Reynolds, of Sandusky City. The dnly whites present were members of our party. The most of us at that time did not appreciate the necessity of keeping journals. I am, however, indebted to abbreviated notes for the precision in my memory on many points. " The main business of the convention was the adoption of a constitution, which Brown had already prepared, and the organization of a provisional government under that instrument. The election of officers occurred on the Ioth. John Brown was, of course, elected commander-in-chief, Kagi, secretary of war, Realf, secretary of state, the treasurer was Owen Brown, and the secretary of the treasury was George B. Gill. Members of congress chosen were Alfred M. Ellsworth and Osborne P. Anderson, colored. I am sure that Brown did not communicate the details of his plans to the members of the convention, more than in a very general way. Indeed, I do not now remember that he gave them any more than the impressions which they could gather from the methods of organization. From those who were directly connected with his movements he solicited plans and methods-including localities-of operations in writing. Of course, we had an almost precise knowledge of his methods, but all of us perhaps did not know just the locality selected by him, or, if knowing, did not comprehend the resources and surroundings." Had John Brown been able to have moved at once from Canada to Harper's Ferry, the result would have been more startling than even when the blow did come. The delay was caused by Hugh Forbes's letter of exposure to Senator Henry Wilson and some other leading politicians. Mr. Wilson bestirred himself actively. He had been in Kansas some months i86 JOHN BROWN. before, and knew the intense hostility that existed, and heard both approval and adverse criticism of Captain Brown's views of aggression. He also apprehended clearly the spirit of influential persons in Massachusetts. There was no escape from his demands on the members of the Kansas Aid Committee, even though it was practically defunct. Mr. Stearns felt compelled, under pressure, to inform Captain Brown that he must not use the "tools" in his possession except "in the defense of Kansas." He was also notified that an agent would come to Chatham to see him. This policy was changed, and John Brown arranged a visit to Boston. "The news," says Osborne P. Anderson, in " A Voice from Harper's Ferry" (p. I6), "caused an entire change in the programme for a time. The old gentleman went one way, the young men another, but ultimately to meet in Kansas, where the summer was spent." Speculation may be idle, but it is reasonably certain that the movement would, had it then taken place, have been bolder and with more men in it, as there was then unquestioned earnestness in Canada and along the lake borders. Superficial students, failing to put themselves in the other man's place, condemn as insanely inadequate John Brown's force, while his organization has been derided as absurd. The fairest criticism yet published is found in the admirable monograph on "John Brown," by Dr. Von Hoist.' l John Brown," by Dr. Hermann Von Hoist, professor at the University of Frieberg, in Baden (not of State University, Madison, Wis.), author of " The Constitutional History of the United States," edited by Frank Preston Stearns. Boston: Cupples 8 Reed, I889. Pp. Io00-I2. REACHING TO A CULMINATION. i87 That able historical writer speaks of the " Provisional Constitution" as "a confused medley of absurd because absolutely inapplicable forms, and of measures well calculated for the end in view,-of sound common sense and of absurd systematizing; of cool computation and of inconceivable overestimates of the resources at hand; of true, keen-sighted humanity and of reckless severity." It was insane "to create such a Government and to want to carry on such a war," while declaring there " was no intention of overthrowing existing Governments. But the Chatham men certainly "saw farther than their noses," in seeking to provide for the negro slaves, they designed to consider as " men and citizens." It was entirely rational to form and " create a strong organization " and "sensible to appoint a supreme commander," though absurd to suppose "that a little band,... without influence, should secretly put their heads together,... to give a constitution to the United States; " this latter being, with all due deference to Von Holst, exactly what they did not intend or mean to attempt doing.' The absurdity of copying the offices of the Federal Constitution is very palpable to the critics, but the logic of it is not quite so plain. To one who understands that John Brown was above all other things a plain, believing, American citizen, there was the common-sense thought that with the impressible people to be dealt with and controlled, large forms and sounding names or titles were of value, especially if they led to such direct connection with patriotic terms and ideas as might be likely to affect the minds of other sympathetic persons. Dr. Von Holst, strangely enough in the light I88 JOHN BROWVN. of the Franco-Prussian war, regards as severe provisions for taking from all who held slaves willingly, and from those who assisted them, all they possessed, whether in free or in slave-holding States." The recognition of "any kind of neutrality," the enforcement of "fair trial," provisions against " all useless destruction of property," and forbidding the use of ill words or abuse of "defeated enemy," are esteemed by him as proofs of humanity. What Von Hoist fails to see is, that these seemingly petty and even contradictory details were all used upon shrewd conceptions of the limitations of tile people to be freed, and a clear understanding of the conditions that would exist in such fugitive camps as should be created. Even the learned doctor sees the significance of providing for "bringing together again of separated families, for schools, and for the furtherance of 'personal cleanliness.'" In all criticism, the one palpable omission is the failure to perceive how far removed John Brown's mental processes were from revolutionary bias or lawless intent. Thle trouble is, and strangely, too, that the fact seems the hardest one to understand, that John Brown actually believed in the idea of freedom, just as lie believed in the existence of God. There was no " if," " but," or " and "; no qualification for him in one or the other matters of faith. Without question, lie accepted as a conviction thie idea that the real and actual purpose of the Federal Constitution, and of the Union formed under it, was to " establish justice," " maintain peace," and " promote public tranquility." He could not and did not conceive of it as merely a mechanism for courts, a machine for REACHING TO A CULMINATION. i89 money-making, a means only for opening new lands and building more towns; something by which debts could be collected and order maintained, plus the constable and the cannon. This was not John Brown's conception. It is no wonder, therefore, that he was deemed " insane." It will be observed in the papers adopted and plans proposed at Chatham, that certain objects were definitely kept in view: First. That slavery was in derogation of the Republic and contrary to just law, its righteous interpretation, and to the purposes of the American Union. Second. That, therefore, it was slaveholders, not liberators, who were traitors and rebels. Hence John Brown's justification of his constitution and his denial, when on trial, of having raised an insurrection. Third. His purpose to organize authority among his adherents. With this idea in view, the simple organization John Brown projected is seen to be admirably adapted for the conditions he anticipated creating-a widely scattered state of resistance among an untrained but willing set of people, to a system of oppression,-then resistance being presumed to be set in conditions half leaning to their own views and necessities. Fourth. The military plans can be seen by the flexible form of organization, seen in "General Order No. i,"' to be adapted to an insurgent warfare. The bands, sections, platoons, and companies were designed to act separately or together. In this will also be seen some explanation of why an I See Appendix. 19O JOHN BROWN. attack was made with so small a force. Each one of that band was fitted for some separate command, however small. If the best slaves had joined the liberators, and they, as originally designed, lad gone into the Alleghlany Mountains, and not been cooped tip in the Harper's Ferry cil de seac, how soon would they have been subdued? It is reasonably assured that a number of neighborhood negroes did know of Brown's intention. At least they knew something was in the air. Osborne P. Anderson declares,' that visits were made to plantations, " and the slaves rejoiced. At the slaves' quarters there was apparently a general jubilee, and they stepped forward manfully, without impressing or coaxing. In one case only was there any hesitation. A dark-complexioned, free-born man refused to take up arms.,.. Of tile slaves who followed us to the Ferry, some hwere sent to help remove stores, and the others,... furnished by me with pikes, acted as a guard to the prisoners, to prevent their escape." Captain Brown's purpose was to make of his white men, and of others as soon as possible, independent commanders of some small detachments. The Chatham Convention adjourned on the Ioth of May, 1858. An active and acrid correspondence had been progressing while the " Liberators " were in council. A letter of Hugh Forbes, dated May 5th, sliowed that he followed somewhat closely each of the next moves. John Brown on the I4th wrote his eldest son to watch him close and forward all details. 1 " A Voice from Harper's Ferry," Boston, I86I, p. 60. I REACHING TO A CULMINATION. I91 Following Mr. Sanborn's narrative' it is stated that G. L. Stearns and Theodore Parker were for postponing for a year. Mr. Sanborn was in doubt; T. W. Higginson in favor of immediate action; Dr. Howe, on the 9th of May, held the same view; on the x8th he demanded immediate postponement; Gerrit Smith on the 7th wished to go no further; Higginson, and probably Howe, suggested that " when the thing is well started, who cares what he (Forbes) will say." Steps were taken on May 2oth to change the location of the arms and material, for " reasons that cannot be written." A meeting of the Captain's friends, Messrs. Smith, Stearns, Howe, Parker, Higginson, and Sanborn was held at the Revere House, Boston, on the 24th of May, when, as Mr. Sanborn writes, it was "resolyed that Brown ought to go to Kansas at once." On the 3Ist inst., the Captain reached Boston. He was full of regret and much discouraged by the assumed necessity of postponement. The Revere House meeting decided that no effort should be made till the next winter, when a considerable sum, from two thousand to three thousand dollars, would be raised. Brown, in the meantime, according to the notes made by Col. Higginson 2 at the time, was " to blind Forbes by going to Kansas, and to transfer the property so as to relieve the Massachusetts Kansas Committee of responsibility, and they in future were not to know his plans." To all this, the Captain objected thiat his force would be demoralized; "it would not cost twenty-five dollars apiece to move his thirteen men, Life and Letters of John Brown," p. 460, et al. "Life and Letters of John Brown," p. 464. 192 JOHN BROWN. from Ohio;" he would start if he had but three hun dred dollars. The knowledge Forbes could give to his opponents "would be injurious, for he wished " them "to underrate him, but still... the increased terror produced would perhaps counterbalance this, and it would not make much difference. If he had the means, he would not lose a day." Higginson's report is undoubtedly a faithful one, and those who knew him then can realize that his own views were coincident with Brown's. Still, the latter said he did not wish his friends to think him "reckless," as they " held the purse, he was powerless without them," that some of them were " not men of action," and had allowed themselves "to be intimidated" by "Senator Wilson's letter." The Chatham episode had cost him nearly all his funds; so he was obliged to submit. Looking back, one can perceive that for what he was aiming at, and others were sympathizing with, John Brown was right and they were wrong. The blow may have been severer and longer fought. Its direct effect as a blow would have-been more immediate and widely extended; its moral effect would doubtless have been much less, and no one can now judge with any reasonableness as to what might have been the political consequences following a continued and far-spread slave uprising. The Boston incident closed, however, with Captain Brown leaving for the West on the 3d of June " in good spirits," with $500 in gold, and liberty from Mr. Stearns, their legal owner, to retain all the arms as his own property. Doubtless his willingness to return to Kansas, apart from the need of confusing Forbes, which that movement most effectually did, REACHING TO A CULMINATION. '93,^as due to a real emergency that had arisen in the much-harried Territory. The Lecompton Constitution still cast its portentous shadow along the path of the free-state people. Though rejected in different ways,-the people, in order to accomplish this peacefully, having even "stooped to conquer," by voting under the fraudulent Missouri code;-yet the national proslavery administration and party had endeavored in Congress to force the admission of Kansas under it as a slave State. They failed finally in this. A compromise measure, known as the "English bill" was adopted on the i8th of May, by which the Governor of Kansas (James W. Denver) was to appoint a day for voting for or against the wretched instrument. The Governor soon after named August 2d for the polling of this foregone conclusion.' I The votes cast upon the final effort to force slavery upon Kansas are instructive. They were: Election of delegates to Lecompton Constitutional Convention (apportionment fraudulent), June 15, 1857, 2,200 votes. Election of State officers under the Lecompton Constitution, Dec. 21, 1857; vote for or against slavery 6,143, with 569 against; fraudulenit vote proven, 3,006. The free-state men did not vote on the Constitution, but elected a majority of the Legislature; their vote on State ticket and Member of Congress averaged, 6,908; the pro-slavery vote nominally averaged 6,509, a numerical free-state majority of 399. The Constitution itself was not submitted, and Congress was asked to provide for that, or, better still, to reject the whole instrument; and, judging by the unchallenged voles on the question " with" or " without " slavery, the actual pro-slavery vote in 1857 was 3,733. But there were many small frauds perpetrated, and 2,500 would be a liberal number. The Territorial Legislature (free-state) ordered an election on the Lecompton Constitution, and it was held January 4, 194 JOHN BROWN. But this was not all, nor the chief incident which decided John Brown's friends and John Brown him sel that it was a duty as well as the best policy for him to return forthwith to Kansas. On the I8th of May, along the eastern border of Linn County, southern Kansas, eleven peaceable, unarmed citizens, at work in field, forge, and dwelling, or on the unthreatened highway, were suddenly captured at different points within a small radius by an armed band of twentyfive men, who appeared to rise as it were from the ground, so sudden and unexpected was their presence and action. I speak from personal knowledge of the terrible deed, known as the " Marais des Cygnes" massacre. The twenty-five armed men were a remnant of the Buford gang of two years before. They were led by one Charles Hamilton, who was with most of his associates openly sheltered at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and whose terrible and unqualified act of assassination was boastingly defended all along the southwest slave borders.' 1858; vote was as follows: against I0,226; for, with slavery 138, without 25; total 10,389. Congress submitted the instrument over again by act signed May I8, I858, and under it a vote was had August 2d. It stood for it 1,788; against it I1,300; free-state majority, 9,512. 1 The names of all the assassins are not at my hands. The Hon. D. W. Wilder (" Annals of Kansas," p. 183) gives from " Kansas in i858," William P. Tomlinson, the following names: Charles A. Hamilton, Dr. John Hamilton, Algernon Hamilton (three brothers), Luke and William Yealock, Thomas Jackson, James Tate, Lewis Henderson, W. B. Brockett, Harlin, Beech, and Mattock. The names of the other thirteen scoundrels appear to be lost-a fate that is meritted. The Hamiltons were men of edu. cation, residing, I believe, at or near West Point, Mo.; all of theni REACHING TO A CULMINATION. I95 These inoffensive men, eleven in number, were marched to a point near the Snyder forge, an open log building,-sometimes called by the frightened correspondents and politicians of those days, " Snyder's Fort,"-there made to stand in line, while a volley was fired into them, killing five outright, and wounding five others very severely. It was a lovely afternoon, and the scene of murder is the centre of a landscape remarkable for its placid features and rural beauty. The deed startled the country; the North, slow of anger, was roused to passionate heat; the freestate people, who were divided into savage factions, melted and fused together again under a common horror and a single purpose. Robert B. Mitchell, a leading free-state conservative, rode with James Montgomery, the fighting radical of southern Kansas, in the endeavor to overtake the Hamilton gang. At Fort Scott, just before this deed, Sheriff Samuel J. Walker, of Douglass county, acting as deputy United States marshal, had placed Montgomery under arwere, I believe, killed as Confederate guerillas in the Civil War, and one was slain in combat in the Price campaign of I864, at or near the point of the murder in I858-the Chateau Trading Post. The eleven free-state men, all quiet citizens, were: William Robertson, William Colpetzer, Patrick Ross, Thomas Stillwell, John F. Campbell-killed at the first fire;-Asa and William Hairgrove, Charles Snyder, Amos Hall, and Charles F. Reed, a Methodist circuit rider and preacher. 'hese were all severely wounded by the same fire. Amos Hall fell unhurt when the other volley was fired, and, feigning death, escaped unhurt, to be shot to death, as stated in the "Annals of Kansas," after in some later border trouble. The two Hairgroves were natives of Georgia. Mr. Snyder was a border-state man; none of the assailed party were identified with the radical wing of the free-state men. I96 JOHN BROWN. rest, for acts previously done in defense of his neighbors' and his own rights. At the same time leaders of the ruffian element were also arrested by this same cool and fearless officer. Montgomery was released on his parole; the United States Court discharged the proslavery criminals. No reward was offered by any authority for the capture of the Hamilton murderers. The Governor of Missouri did not feel his jurisdiction outraged, and the President offered no reward. The Governor of Kansas contented himself with placating the angered citizens, not in pursuing the assassins. When, however, seven months later, John Brown rescued eleven slaves from their Missouri masters, and Aaron D. Stevens slew one of these while he was in the act of leveling a revolver on him, the Governor of Missouri hastened to put a price on John Brown; President Buchanan offered a reward for his capture; United States marshals and posses were sent after him, while the army of the United States was required to join in tile pursuit by Governor Medary, of Kansas. In the one case, the lives of non-slave-holding " poor whites" alone were sacrificed to the malignant passions of the " chivalry," while in the other the sacred rights of property in human flesh and blood was sternly assailed by armed " Abolitionists." The Hamilton gang coolly and without haste made their way further south. I learned of their movements day after day, and soon after saw the leading assassin strutting as a hero in the streets of Fort Smith, Arkansas. One of the most stirring of John G. Whittier's lyrics is that of " Le Marais du Cygne," (" The Swamp of the Swan ") a picturesque name given to the portion of the Osage River valley by the early REACHIN(; TO A (:1,LMINATION. 197 French voyageurs, who served at Chotteau's Trading Post, close by which the terrible deed occurred. The closing stanzas of Whittier's poem have that prophetic tone, which in the supreme moments of human conflict, always make the true poet a seer-proclaiming what will be. How prescient are the words: ' Not in vain on the dial The shade moves along To point the great contrasts Of right and of wrong; Free homes and free altars, And fields of ripe food; The reeds of the swan's march Whose bloom is of blood. "On the lintels of Kansas That blood shall not dry; Henceforth the bad angel Shall harmless go hy; Henceforth to the sunset Unchecked on her way, Shall liberty follow The march of the dla." The John Brown men were scattered after the adjournment of the Chatham Convention, a little discouraged, too, as Steward Taylor wrote on the i3th of May to Dr. H. C. Gill at Tabor, Iowa, by the aspect of what was " the most critical point " in their endeavors. Owen Brown went to visit his brother Jason at Akron, Ohio. Cook left Cleveland for the neighborhood of Harper's Ferry. Realf left for New York, and from there went to England, not to be heard of or from again until arrested in Texas, dur 198 JOHN BROWN. ing the winter of I859-60. Gill, who tells the story elsewhere in a simple narrative full also of unconscious art, went to work in a Shaker settlement, probably Lebanon, Ohio, where Tidd was already employed. Steward Taylor went to Illinois where he had acquaintances. Kagi and Stevens waited Brown's return at Cleveland. Parsons and Moffett stayed a short time in northern Ohio, and then departed for Iowa. Leeman got some work to do in Ashtabula County. John Brown left Boston, as already stated, on the 3d of June, proceeding to Vermont, where he was joined by his son John, and both went to the North Elba homestead for a very short visit. Kagi, Stevens, Leeman, Gill, Parsons, Moffett, and Owen were gathered up and the party pushed through to Kansas, arriving at Lawrence on the 25th of June. On that day and the following one, Captain Brown was the guest of James Redpath and myseif, at the Whitney Hotel. How he blazed his road from southern Kansas and Missouri through Canada back to Harper's Ferry, must, with the four months of the life at Kennedy Farm, be told in bold outline in the next succeeding pages. CHAPTER VIII. RESCUE OF MISSOURI SLAVES. Out of the "jaws of death "-John Brown as he looked in Kansas in 1856 and 1858-Affairs along the southwest border of Missouri-Intrigues and dissensions in both parties - Captain James Montgomery-John Brown and " Some Shadows Before " - Snyder's Fort —Harrying each other- ProSlavery kidnappers and free-state raiders - Fort Scott affairs Firing on troops-John Brown's first band of freed people -From Missouri to Kansas. JOHN BROWN in 1858 presented a somewhat different aspect to that which first impressed me in 1856. Yet the figure was the same. The picturesque portrait of him found in this volume, gives a full conception of the fighting farmer that he was. The one with the beard recalls the deeper ensemble left on memory, of his appearance in the summer and fall of 1858. On the Northern emigrants' march of 1856 to the aid of their fellows at Lawrence, Topeka, and other Kansas free-state settlements, it fell to my lot to be one of a small company doing rear guard duty near the Nebraska line. But three days before we had 200 JOHN BROWN. led the general advance across tile northern line of Kansas from Nebraska, appeals had been made that no arms were to be openly carried. Our little company, under Martin -; *n Stowell and my-.....:": self,rebelled,claimis jing the right as is e a pter's Fery fiant tMe awe phrased it, to carry our weapons without concealment, and we did;~~~ ~~it. In that advance party were two of the men afterward s slain in the Har-. per's Ferry fight. One was William Henry' Leeman, a boy of eighteen years, from Maine, who had been working as a slhoeoperator in Massach usetts,andjoined....in June, 1856, at Worcester, Dr. CutOHN BROWN AT THE AGE OF 58. ter's party of Massachusetts men. He turned back with them at LexHis middle name, as designated by his parents, was" Pillsbury," his mother's maiden name. He afterward adopted "Henry" and they acquiesced. J RESCUE OF MISSOURI SLAVES. 201 ington, Mo., and then came up the Mississippi River from St. Louis to Davenport, Iowa, where he entered our party, which had determined to march across Iowa and southern Nebraska into Kansas, where he found his way to John Brown and Osawatomie. The other one was William Thompson, of North Elba, New York. Henry, his elder brother, the husband of Ruth Brown, was with John Brown in Kansas and had been severely wounded at the Black Jack fight, June the second. William left the Adirondacks immediately on receiving the news and joined our party at Buffalo, as we were taking the Plymouth Rock steamer for Detroit on our westward way. The camp where my first meeting with John Brown occurred was also named Plymouth. 4' Have you a man in your camp, named William Thompson? You are from Massachusetts, young man, I believe, and Mr. Thompson joined you at Buffalo." These words were addressed to me by an elderly man, riding on a worn-looking, gaunt gray horse. It was on a late July day and in its hottest hours. I had been idly watching a wagon and one horse, toiling slowly northward across the prairie, along the emigrant trail that had been marked out by free-state men under command of " Sam " Walker and Aaron D. Stevens, who was then known as " Colonel Whipple." Three days before, when we crossed the Kansas line, Sharpe's rifles on shoulders and Colt's revolvers at hips, a small party of mounted men was drawn up on the line to welcome us. " Colonel Whipple," who was in command as we proudly marched by-for, well I remember, we all thought the fate of the Nation 202 JOHN BROWN. was on our shoulders-gave the order in a ringing voice: " Present arms!" It was done, and we cheered. We then heard, "What are you doing here, men?" in the same, clear voice. "Holding town-meeting," was the swift reply from his own following. "Where's your ballot-box?" was the next question, and " Here" was the loud response, as each man brought his hand down on his Sharpe's rifle, which rang with the blow. This was a formula gotten-up for identification and encouragement. John Brown, whose name the young and ardent had begun to conjure with and swear by, had been described to me. So, as I heard the question, I looked up and met the full, strong gaze of a pair of luminous, questioning eyes. Somehow, I instinctively knew this was John Brown, and with that name I replied, saying that Thompson was in our company. It was a long, rugged-featured face I saw. A tall, sinewy figure, too,-he had dismounted-five feet eleven, I estimated; with square shoulders, narrow flank, sinewy and deep-chested. A frame, full of nervous power, but not impressing one especially with muscular vigor. Tile impression left by the pose and the figure was that of reserve, endurance, and quiet strength. The questioning voice-tones were mellow, magnetic, and grave. On the weather-worn face was a stubby, short, gray beard, evidently of recent growth. John Brown never wore a beard, as a usual habit, till tile attacks of Hugh Forbes seemed to make necessary a'change in his usual appearance. RESCUE OF MISSOURI SLAVES. 203 The lower portion of the jaws was sharp rather than broad, ending in a square, firm, but not heavy chin. The mouth was close set and wide, deep lined, firmly held. It looked like that of a man who was swift to act. The eyes first struck me, because they had in them an expression I had already begun to associate with all the free-state men I met; that was one of steadfast alertness, keen, sharp observation,-the look of the uncowed man in constant danger and always on the watch, in some respects the " hunted " look. It was the look seen in later days of war, in the eyes of men employed as scouts or secret service. I am not saying these things from memory alone, for an old manuscript journal of the period has been drawn upon and I am transcribing in the main the impressions then more effusively written. I had an excellent opportunity for making a rapid mental sketch. The face was long, as I have said; the cheek bones prominent-privation and fatigue doubtless made this more apparent. John Brown's roman nose was a very distinctive feature. Its shape was fine, the bridge well marked, while the lines were long, wide at the bridge, broad, and rather thin at the nostrils. It has been stated by a competent physiologist that this organ is a distinctive trait of the Brown family and was perceptible in the revolutionary ancestor, as it is slightly less accented in John Brown, Jr.'s, features. Our Captain's "roman" was masterful, not domineering or inquisitive in expression. The rootspace was broad, and the gray, bushy eyebrows were well defined and moderately arched. The eyes, not large, were deep set, blue-gray in color, darkening almost to blackness at times. The impression was 204 JOHN BROWN. not that of a flashing glance; it was not one that lighted-up suddenly and quickly; it was a steady luminous look, which inquired, but did not attack or disturb. They left on me always an impression of deep kindliness, as well as penetration. Yet I recall it as one impersonal and withdrawn in character. They took in at once, not only the person addressed, but all the surroundings. The head also was both long and broad, and carried well forward on a long sinewy neck. The forehead seemed to be a low one at first glance, but it could soon be noted that this impression was due to the short, gray hair that grew down somewhat the front of a broad, well-developed cerebrum. The perceptions were finely marked, and the space from the ears forward and upward was quite deep, even remarkably so. This figure-unarmed, poorly clad, with coarse linen trousers tucked into high, heavy cowhide boots, with heavy spurs on their heels, a cotton shirt open at the throat, a long torn linen duster, and a bewrayed chip straw hat he held in his hand as he waited for Thompson to reach us, made up the outward garb and appearance of John Brown when I first met him. In ten minutes his mounted figure disappeared over the north horizon. With him went William Thompson;-blond, sturdy, yellow-bearded, bold, generous: a loud-voiced, fun-making young fellow of but twentytwo-and I never saw him again. He was done to death in the Shenandoah River, while clinging, a wounded man, to a pier of the Harper's Ferry railroad bridge, from which he had been thrown, after being taken prisoner and then dragged out of Foulke's Hotel for wanton butchery. John Brown RESCUE OF MISSOURI SLAVES. 205 was met a second and third time that year near Osawatomie and at Lawrence. At the latter place I heard and saw him in action, and his voice, though a little sterner, seemed to me no louder or harsher in tone than when I first heard his question in northern Kansas. At Lawrence, too, I first remarked his distinctive walk. His feet were set firmly to the ground; the whole form moved steadily onward, never swaying, but walking as if on a visible line, prearranged for the occasion. Every one gave way; a crowd parted like the waters when a strongly-driven boat presses through. Yet the movement never seemed an assertive one, never left an impression of mere push or aggressiveness. The next time we met was on the 25th of June, i858, at a hotel in Lawrence. In those two years he had aged more than Time required. He was past fifty-six at the first meeting, and had just passed his fifty-eighth birthday,' when he was seated between James Redpath and myself at that dinner-table. I can hardly define the difference in impression that remains in memory, unless by terms which may seem overstrained. But I venture to say that, in 1858, John Brown looked to me as a "Prophet" might have done; in 1856, lie certainly embodied the " Fighter." Under no circumstances could he ever have appeared commonplace. The heavy, gray beard, almost snow-white, lent a degree of dignity as well as a grave picturesqueness to his face and figure. This was enhanced by a slower movement, manners of simple distinction, and a grave, reticent dignity of speech, which tran1 John Brown was born May 9, i8oi. 20o6 JOHN BROWN. scended the terseness of the fighting sunmmer days. This impression was greatly deepened at the meeting had with him at Osawatomie, in the August following, when by his direction Kagi gave me a full insight into the whole enterprise, place, and purpose.' Affairs in southern Kansas, apart from the Hamilton massacre atrocity, were in a state of seething turbulence, and had been so, more or less pronounced, ever since the summer of 1856. In large degree southeast Kansas, below the Pottawatomie basin, had not been very favorably affected by the free-state triumphs of 1856. Fort Scott, formerly an army post, had been disposed of to pro-slavery speculators for a small sum. The buildings alone substantial stone and frame post and headquarters, were worth the sum given, even as old material, while the reservation land was simply given away. A Federal landoffice was established, and Clark, the murderer of Barber, a bold and violent Missourian, was the most active pro-slavery leader. Blake Little was made receiver. Later, a superannuated Democratic politician of Michigan, was made land register in deferSee Appendix for paper entitled "Some Shadows Before." "Five years before, when they first went to Kansas, the father and sons had a plan of going to Louisiana, trying this same project, and thenr retreating into Texas with the liberated slaves. Nurtured on it so long, for years sacrificing to it all the other objects of life, the thought of its failure never crossed their mind; and it is an extraordinary fact that when the disastrous news first came to North Elba, the family utterly refused to believe it, and were saved from suffering by that incredulity till the arrival of the next weekly mail." Account of a visit to the John Brown household, November, I859, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. RESCUE OF MISSOURI SLAVES. 207 ence probably to the slightly growing strength of a presumed sentiment among members of that party who were originally from free States. Since Bourbon, Anderson, Allen, McGee, and Coffee counties were less affected than others by the violent outbreaks of 1856, as the border ruffians had things their own way, a considerable number of so-called conservative free-state settlers-men chiefly from border slave or western States-had taken " claims " in the Osage, Marmaton, Neosho, and other small valleys of the counties named. So also did the pro-slavery men from Missouri and Arkansas. Many of Buford's men filed upon preemption claims in that district, and generally, too, upon those from which other men had been driven. There were also Indian trust lands ordered to be sold by the ruling Buchanan administration, which, being located on the western border of Missouri, afforded occasion for the combining and gathering of some of the worst elements left over from the savager days of the free-state struggle. Later, too, a few free colored people from the Indian Territory, southwest Missouri, and Arkansas, began to quietly settle in this section. Among them were farmers of some means; all were quiet and inoffensive. The chief cause of their appearance was that growing ill-will shown in neighborhood feeling and State law, by which they were unfavorably affected. The history of the few years immediately preceding the slaveholder's rebellion is deeply marked with the harsh treatment of this unfortunate class. The disbandment of border-ruffian gangs, forced by the political necessities of the party in power, gave zest to land-jobs, claim-jumping, and later to negro-kid 208 JOHN BROWN. napping as a business, wherever the more radical free-state feeling was not strong enough to be a persistent menace to such action. From this same class came at a later day (and quite as naturally as they had become manstealers from 1857 to i860), most of the leaders of the guerilla bands who infested western and central Missouri, and harried the Kansas border during the Civil War, writing in fire and blood a record of atrocity so fearful that for the sake of a common nationality it is better that no full record exists nor can be made. Resistance came. Fort Scott, as shown, became the seat of pro-slavery hostility, just in proportion as the power for evil diminished in other localities. The free-state settlers, who had been driven or kept out of southern Kansas from the spring of 1856 to that of 1857, begun to return and to settle in that section. At once violence became rampant. The free-state land claimants found themselves insulted and outraged by the public officials, arrested on false charges, and in personal danger whenever they went to Fort Scott. Appeals were made in August and September, 1857, to free-state friends at Lawrence and elsewhere, and volunteers soon appeared. A squatter's tribunal was organized. It is not essential to this narrative to give details. The fact that the more violent of the Missouri and Buford politicians and leaders made tleir headquarters at Fort Scott and Paris, while free-state black law and "conservative " Democratic politicians were numerous at the county seats of other counties. Intensified quarrels and fighting soon ensued. It is not necessary to either defend or narrate the history of free-state resistance. It is RESCUE OF MISSOURI SLAVES. 209 necessary to bear in mind, however, that the worst residuum of the pro-slavery force were in power. Federal interference was called for, and the disturbances arose from their usurpation of land claims. The more daring free-state men rallied around Captain James Montgomery, who, in the fall of 1857, occupied the place which had fallen the year before on John Brown. His arrest was ordered, attacks were made on his cabin, and resisted. Warrants were issued, and finally troops were sent to execute the same. An attempt was made by Blake Little, in December, 1857, to arrest and break up the squatter's court. A fight ensued, but no one was killed and the marshal retired without any prisoners. Montgomery opposed voting for State officers under the Lecompton Constitution, which was voted upon " for " and "against" under Territorial enactment, passed by the free-state majority, who, under the advice of Senator Henry Wilson and other friends, had "stooped to conquer," and thereby captured the Territorial legislative power. The Radicals did not vote as a rule. Montgomery is charged with having forcibly broken up the voting at his precinct. Southern Kansas affairs grew warmer as i858 lengthened. In April following, Captain Anderson, with his squadron, followed Montgomery and his men up the Marmaton and Little Sugar valleys for the purpose of arresting them. Montgomery, occupying a strong defensible position, turned and fired upon the pursuers, killing one soldier, wounding another, and the captain, too. This is the first and only time that the free-state men actually resisted United States troops. This, in all probability, would 14 210 JOHN BROWN. nut have been done, but for the notorious fact that Anderson and his troopers' were practically a gang of pro-slavery partisans, not acting as a lawful posse. Indeed, the proceedings of that period at Fort Scott and vicinity afford reasonable grounds for the belief that the leading men in the pro-southern councils, who were at heart disunionists per se, were endeavoring by violent persecutions, under the pretense of law, to embroil free-state people in a conflict with United States authority.2 A short time before Captain Montgomery's cabin was surrounded and attacked with firearms, after the inmates were supposed to have retired (I was a guest therein at the time), a supposition which cost the life of one of the assailants, at least. About the same time, a proslavery occupant of a Marmaton claim, first settled on by a free-state man (the validity of whose entry was finally favorably decided by the General Land Office on appeal) who had called in a force from Fort Scott to drive away the free-state claimant, on being visited by a posse from the squatter court, fired at once on those who knocked and was himself killed by a rifle shot from Montgomery. These facts are only recalled to illustrate the existing conditions and to show how the " Swamp of the Swan " assassinations were led up to by acts of rapine, violence, and resistance. In such scenes as these, Barclay Coppoc, Jeremiah G. Anderson, and Albert Hazlett, begun to A number of Buford's men enlisted as dragoons. 2 Jeremiah G. Anderson and Albert Hazlett, both emigrants of the winter of 1856-57, were active members of Captain Montgomery's company. I was myself a witness of many of these scenes. RESCUE OF MISSOURI SLAVES. 211 traverse the roads which led them to Harper's Ferry and, for two of them, to death in Virginia. The promotion of James W. Denver from Secretary to the position of Governor, was first followed by renewed efforts to arrest Captain Montgomery, and whether or not that was any direct emboldenment of the infuriated ruffians, the failure to arrest was followed in three days by the killing and wounding at the trading-post, Linn County, of the eleven victims of the Hamilton fury and bloodthirstiness. Immediately following, some arrests were made in connection with the trading-post crime, and for the two preceding assassinations of Denton and Hedrick, near Fort Scott. The arrested men were immediately released at Fort Scott, and Montgomery made, June 6th, a raid on the place. The assassins got away, and nothing more fatal occurred than an exchange of shots. The partisan support by the proslavery court seems to have alarmed the Territorial executive. Governor Denver moved on Bourbon County.' Returning to John Brown's movements, my journal Governor Denver left Lawrence June 9th with Charles Robinson, Judge John Wright, A. D. Richardson (Boston Journal), Lewis M. Tappan, Edmund Babb (Cincinnati Gazette), and others, for Fort Scott. Montgomery joined the party at Moneka. The Governor's terms of peace are thus reported: I. The withdrawal of United States troops from Fort Scott. 2. The election of new county officers in Bourbon County. 3. The stationing of troops along the Missouri frontier to protect the settlers of the Territory from invasion. 4. The suspension of the execution of all old writs until their legitimacy is authenticated before the proper tribunal. 5. The abandonment of the field by 21 2 JOHN BROWN. states that he remained in Lawrence from his arrival on the 25th of June to the morning of the 27th, when, with Kagi, the only one of his party who then accompanied him, he left for Osawatomie. By invitation I afterwards visited him at the house of his brother-inlaw, the Rev. Mr. Adair.1 A letter to "F. B. Sanborn, and Friends at Boston and Worcester," bearing dates July 2oth, the 23d, and the 6th of August, gives an account of his movements. I reproduce in part from Mr. Sanborn's volume the essential details. The address is " Missouri Line (on Kansas Side)," and it states that " I am here with about ten of my men, located on the same quarter section where the terrible murders of the i9th May were committed." The ten men were his son Owen, John Henry Kagi, Aaron Dwight Stevens, Charles Plummer Tidd, William Henry Leeman, George B. Gill, of the original Kansas-Springdale, Iowa, party, with four others, were men who escaped with their lives from Hamilton's murderous arms. These were the two Hairgroves, the blacksmith, Snyder, and John Mickel or Michael. The Captain assumed the name of " Shubel Morgan," Montgomery and his men, and all other parties of armed men, whether free-state or pro-slavery. Montgomery immediately accepted these terms. At Fort Scott, Governor Denver and Judge Wright made speeches. The pro-slavery men were dissatisfied with the first, and threatened violence over the latter. The Governor left on June I6th; Montgomery then disbanded; the United States troops left Fort Scott, and Captain Weaver, United States Army, was stationed on the Missouri border in Linn County.-" Annals of Kansas," D. H. Wilder. (The truce was not of long duration, however.) See Appendix for my paper, "Some Shadows Before." RESCUE OF MISSOURI SLAVES. 213 and fourteen persons signed the roll of his new company.' Captain Brown vividly described the prevailing feeling of terror, when he said: "Deserted farms and dwellings lie in all directions for some miles along the line, and the remaining inhabitants watch every one moving about with anxious jealousy and vigilance." "Any little affair," continued the Captain, "may open the quarrel afresh.... I have concealed the fact of my presence pretty much, lest it should tend to increase excitement; but it is getting leaked out, and will soon be known to all. As I am not here to seek or secure revenge, I do not mean to be the first to reopen the quarrel. How soon it may be raised against me, I cannot say, nor am I over-anxious." He then refers to misrepresentations in the New York Tribune, under date from Westport, Missouri, as to the existence of an alleged fort, called " Snyder's." It was said, in the Westport letter, that it was " a house built in the gorge of two mounds, and flanked by rock walls, a fit place for robbers and murderers." This was the place the Captain was occupying, and he thus described it: "At a spring in a rocky ravine stands a very small open blacksmith's shop, made of thin slabs from a saw-mill. This is the only building that has ever been known to stand there, yet it is called a 'fortification.' It is to-day just as it was the g9th of May,-a little pent-up shop, containing Snyder's tools (what have not been carried off), all covered with rust,-and had never been 1 See Appendix for Enrollment and Rules of the "Shubel Morgan" Company. These rules should be carefully read, as expressing the spirit of all John Brown's movements. 214 JOHN BROWN. thought of as a 'fortification' before the poor man attempted to use it in his own and his brother's and his son's defense. I give this as an illustration of the truthfulness of that whole account. It should be left to stand while it may last, and should be known hereafter as Fort Snyder." The Captain's letter, under date of July 23d, describes a renewal of excitement, threatening an attack on a free-state Missourian, named Bishop. The letter says: "At present, along this part of the line, the free-state men may be said in some sense to 'possess the field,' but we deem it wise to 'be on the alert.' Whether Missouri people are more excited through fear than otherwise I am not yet prepared to judge. The blacksmith (Snyder) has got his family back; also some others have returned, and a few new settlers are coming in." In the closing paragraph, under date of August 6th, John Brown describes his exposures and privations, being down with the ague, having " lain every night without shelter, suffering from cold rains and heavy dews, together with the oppressive heat of the days." The armed posse stationed on the line by Gov. Denver, moved to and encamped on the quarter section adjoining Snyder's, which the Captain was occupying. He wrote: "Several of them immediately sought opportunity to tender their service to me secretly. I, however, advised them to remain where they were. Soon after I came on the line, my right name was reported, but the majority did not credit the report." Shortly after this last date he returned to Mr. Adair's, where I found him early in September, still quite feeble from the effects of congestive chills. RESCUE OF MISSOITRI SLAVES. 215 During this time the Lecompton Constitution election, as already reported, came off, creating fresh disorder and bringing warrants with posses from Fort Scott to arrest Montgomery and his men. It must be borne in mind that if there were dissensions as to the policy of the free-state people, there were also very ragged-edged ones within the pro-slavery camp. From the first, as already pointed out, there was a distinct and keen-witted faction determined to force their issue to the verge of destructive fight. They were playing " to fire the Southern heart " with Kansas free-state outrages, just as twelve months or so later, Governor Wise, of Virginia, was doing with the Harper's Ferry prisoners and material in his hands. The object was disunion, pure and simple. And at this time, the novement centered in Fort Scott. The leaders still held Federal offices, and were able to so harry the free-state farmers as to force them to greater lengths. Then there were the loose and irresponsible on both sides. Those of the Missouri border turned kidnappers, like William C. Quantrill (afterwards known as guerilla and wholesale assassin), and murderers like the Hamiltons; while on the freestate side were men ready to risk their own lives and the peace of the community, to free a negro and convey a pro-slavery horse or mule to their own use or profit. John Brown and James Montgomery are not to be so recorded, though at times men served with them both who were adepts at such actions. The essential difference, however, was that the one would help a slave to escape, even if they would not steal a horse, while the other type would rather murder a free-state man than kidnap a negro, even into bond 216 JOHN BROWN. age, and the latter was their usual avocation. Politically, then, a considerable element in the pro-slavery party within Kansas were willing to surrender the idea of a slave State for the maintenance of Democratic power. Mr. Buchanan was advised by these shrewder men, the Stringfellows, Eastin, Henderson & Co., to let the extreme Southern wing go, and build up a Northern or black-law Democratic party. He would not do it, and after him came the deluge! It is not possible, then, to understand the situation in the fall of 1858, without keeping these issues in view. John Brown understood and sought to use them. To a certain extent he did, acting only so far as it could aid the spread of growing hostility to the slave-power. Members of his party were more active than himself. Stevens was several times threatened with attack at Snyder's. He refused to do anything but fight, and, by his bold attitude with a few men, caused the retreat of a larger body. Kagi was with Montgomery a good deal of the time. In the beginning of November, the latter's cabin was fired into. Kagi was a guest at the time and assisted in its successful defense. Tidd was also on hand. Gill was mainly with the Captain. Stevens held "Snyder's Fort." Jeremiah G. Anderson and Albert Hazlett were usually under Montgomery's command. The former was several times in arrest. Leeman remained with Stevens. The Captain was chiefly at Osawatomie or Moneka, visiting with the Wattles at the latter place. The Fort Scott pro-slavery policy culminated on the 25th of November in the arrest and chaining of a farmer named B. M. Rice, under charge of murder, but whose real offense was giving, as alleged, information RESCUE OF MISSOURI SLAVES. 217 to Capt. James Montgomery. A meeting was called on the 3oth by the free-state people of Bourbon County, Montgomery attending. The sheriff started to arrest " Old Brown" on the same day. He was living on the Snyder place with four of his men. The Captain had left for Osawatomie unaware of this proposed call. One hundred men were in the sheriff's posse, and on their arrival at "Snyder's," a demand for surrender was made. Stevens declared he would fight all of them, and prepared with three others to resist Sheriff McDaniel, who retired in good order. The next eighteen days were filled with excitement, ending on the i6th of December, with Montgomery's capture of Fort Scott, rescue of Ben Rice, and the killing of Blake Little, the pro-southern leader. Kagi, Hazlett, Tidd, J. G. Anderson, of the Harper's Ferry party, were certainly active in this affair. For some days there was a lull, and then came a startling event, which I shall leave one of the principal actors therein, George B. Gill, to describe. In letters to me, recently revised, he says: "We occupied a log building on a claim owned by Montgomery's mother-in-law on the Little Sugar creek, and but a short distance from his own dwelling. Our family consisted of Brown, Kagi, Tidd, and Stevens-Montgomery was with us occasionally at night. We threw up some earth as a barricade on the outside, and made a few concealed loopholes between the logs in the house and called it a fort. On the 13th of November Montgomery, with his friends, our little company included, visited Paris, the county seat of Linn, in search of a supposed indictment said to have been found by the Grand Jury. Brown accompanied us to the outskirts of the town, saying that he would hold himself in readiness if needed. Later, Captain Brown, accompanied by myself, visited 2t8 JOHN BROWN. Osawatomie. We returned December ist. During our absence a demonstration was made against our fort by Mound City parties. This demonstration emanated from a public meeting held for the avowed purpose of creating sentiment against Montgomery. On the I6th of December Montgomery invaded Fort Scott and released Ben Rice, in which melee a deputy United States marshal, J. Blake Little, was killed. Brown's party participated, but Brown himself remained at the Little Sugar creek rendezvous. "Returning from Fort Scott, we stopped at a settlement on the Little Osage. With the exception of Jerry Anderson, I only remember the names of two of the residents of that locality. One was Captain Bain, the other was a brother of Jerry Anderson. On the Sunday following the expedition to Fort Scott, as I was scouting down the line, I ran across a colored man, whose ostensible purpose was the selling of brooms. He soon solved the problem as to the propriety of making a confidant of me, and I found that his name was Jim Daniels; that his wife, self, and babies belonged to an estate, and were to be sold at an administrator's sale in the immediate future. His present business was not the selling of brooms particularly, but to find help to get himself, family, and a few friends in the vicinity away from these threatened conditions. Daniels was a fine-looking mulatto. I immediately hunted up Brown, and it was soon arranged to go the following night and give what assistance we could. I am sure that Brown, in his mind, was just then waiting for something to turn up; or, in his way of thinking, was expecting or hoping that God would provide him a basis of action. When this came, he hailed it as heaven-sent. Arrangements were made for Brown and his party to visit Hicklan's (the name of Daniels's owner) and others on the north side of the Little Osage, Missouri, while Stevens was to take a small party and bring in one or more applicants from the south side. Brown's party numbered about a dozen. Doctor, afterwards Colonel, Jenisson, "Pickles," a reckless young fellow of the section, and a couple of Dr. Ayres's sons, being among the number. J. G. Anderson RESCUE OF MISSOURI SLAVES. 219 (killed at Harper's Ferry) was also with Brown. Stevens was accompanied by Tidd, Hazlett, and others, to the number of eight. On the night of the 20th of December we wended our way slowly down into Missouri, first stopping at Hicklan's, with whom Daniels and family were staying. Hicklan, I think, had an interest in the estate, his wife being one of the heirs, but they were living on the farm at this time simply as tenants. It required a nice discrimination to tell his individual property from that belonging to the estate. All of the personal property belonging to the estate that he could find, Brown intended to take as being owned by the slaves, having surely been bought with their labor. In his view, they were entitled to all the proceeds of their labor. He would have taken the real estate as well if he had the facilities for moving it across the country to Canada. He reasoned that they, the slaves, were the creators of the whole, and were entitled to it, not only as their own, but from necessity, for they must have a conveyance and also something to dispose of in order to raise funds to defray the expenses of the long overland trip. Captain Brown had no means of his own to do this for them. "Daniels was intrusted with the arrangements on the outside, as he was apparently the soul of honor, and a good friend of Hicklan, who, I believe, was a very fair man and, perhaps, a very good one. Daniels was very careful that nothing belonging to Hicklan should be taken or interfered with. It was also Brown's intention that nothing, if possible, should be touched that did not in his estimation belong to the slaves. " I was intrusted with this matter in the house, and I then declared that Hicklan's effects should not be touched. I soon discovered that watches and other articles were being taken by unscrupulous members of our party. Brown caused an immediate disgorgement. Hicklan himself was consulted as to what property belonged to him and what belonged to the estate; his word being invariably relied upon. If he had any property taken it was by some sneak thief in defiance of the most explicit orders and our utmost care. The party was hastily gathered and the selections were not perfect. 220 JOHN BROWN. " From the Lawrence estate were taken Daniels's wife, with their two children and two other chattels; also a yoke of cattle, two horses, a large old Conestago wagon, beds and bedding, with clothes and personal effects. " From Hicklan's we went direct to LaRue's, whose house was surrounded. We found them in bed and asleep. The old man being awakened with the usual ' Hallo'; which, when replied to by 'What's wanted,' was answered by the old Captain stating the business thus tersely:' We have come after your negroes and their property; will you surrender or fight?' " I think that they had been rather looking for such a company and were prepared to receive us, as we found in a few minutes that there were several men inside with plenty of arms. The immediate reply was 'We'll fight.' 'All right,' said Captain Brown, 'we'll smoke you out, then.' "This would have been attempted forthwith, as there was plenty of fire in the negro quarters, had they not very quickly reconsidered their decision and surrendered. From this place was taken five more negroes, some clothing, bedding, and other personal effects, another yoke of cattle, wagon and several horses. The horses taken from LaRue's were probably never seen by Brown. He heard of them afterwards, no doubt, but that would be about all. Jenisson undoubtedly rode one of them away. Two or three of the white men were carried with us several miles into Kansas and then released, with the suggestion from Brown that 'You can follow us just as soon as you like.' One of them remarked in reply, ' I'll follow home; that is just about what I'll do.' It was a very cold night, but to our contrabands the conditions produced a genial warmth not indorsed by the thermometer. One of the women pitied 'poor marsa! he's in a bad fix; hogs not killed, corn not shucked, and niggers all gone.' One, who was driving the oxen, inquired the distance to Canada. He was told that it was only about fifteen hundred miles. 'Oh, golly; we 'uns never get dar before spring!' he exclaimed as he brought the whip down on the oxen, shouting 'Git up dar, buck; bung along!' Daniels himself was very thoughtful, realizing to the RESCUE OF MISSOURI SLAVES. 221 fullest extent the dangers of the situation. The others seemed to have implicit confidence in their protectors. " On meeting the other party in the morning we learned that they had succeeded in getting the contraband ' Jane ' that they had gone after, and that Stevens, much to Brown's sorrow, had killed Mr. Cruise, the so-called owner of Jane. The inci(lent was told to me by several of the party immediately after. They gained access to Cruise's house by representing themselves to be pro-slavery friends. After gaining entrance Stevens informed them of their business, and demanded his surrender, when he attempted to draw a revolver, which was conveniently near. One of his children had been playing with a ribbon or string and had created an obstruction, or an entanglement, which gave Stevens an advantage and he saved himself by killing Cruise at the first shot. I had no personal knowledge of Cruise, but he was represented as one of the most active enemies of the free-state cause, and as having accumulated much property through raids into Kansas. As reported, he was absolutely notorious. His wife was seemingly not much surprised, for she said that she had often told him that if he didn't behave himself he would get killed sooner or later. The negroes were taken first to Augustus Wattles's, from there to Mendenhall's and Adair's, close to Osawatomie, but were finally landed in some cabins, close to Garnett, under the care of Doctor (afterwards Major-General) James G. Blount. We then returned to Captain Bain's, and, in anticipation of being hunted by the Missourians, Captain Brown commenced a system of earthworks in a naturally inaccessible position on the Little Osage, close to Bain's house. The position, properly defended, would have been well-nigh impregnable, and could have been held by a handful against a small army, without artillery. Rumors of all kinds were thick and warlike, and, while waiting for the Missourians, a friendly messenger from higher up the Osage reached our camp in the night with the information that the conservative free-state men, under a prominent local leader, were organizing to either kill Captain Brown or hand him over to the Missourians. The State 222 JOHN BROWN. authorities there had by this time offered a reward for him and his men. "Brown, in the estimation of these free-state men, had exceeded his privileges by invading Missouri and interfering with the divine institution of slavery. Their code confined all their motions to the defensive. Missouri might invade Kansas, but Kansas must not invade Missouri; pro-slavery men might cross the line and steal from, harass, or murder free state settlers, yet free state men must not retaliate by crossing the line, and must be very careful not to insult the slave interest.' Neither Missourians nor' conservative' free-state men, however, came to trouble us. The company up the Osage discovered that another company had formed in the rear, which would have given them especial attention had they moved towards us. Besides, Montgomery was still a power behind the throne; apparently out of the arena, yet ready in case of need to give Brown his active support. Brown at this time As one result of all these conflicting conditions and disturbances, an agreement was entered into after a conference at Moneka, Mr. Wattles acting as peacemaker. It was at this time, when Mr. Wattles and other friends urged upon the Captain that Kansas was too greatly harassed, that the latter replied: " He would soon remove the seat of the trouble elsewhere." The following is a copy of the agreement made: "We, the undersigned citizens of Kansas and Missouri, Jan. i, I859: " I. All criminal proceedings for any action connected with politics to be quashed. "2. All active political men, who have been 'forcibly driven from the Territory for their crimes... to remain away.' This did not apply to those 'voluntarily' leaving 'through fear.' "3. No troops or posse to be sent out. "4. All parties shall in good faith discontinue acts of robbery, theft, or violence of any kind-on account of 'political differences.' AUGUSTUS WATTLES, JOHN BROWN, WILLIAM AULDERSON, JAMES MONTGOMERY, O. P. BAIN, and others. RESCUE OF MISSOURI SLAVES. 223 wrote his famous parallels,1' and was exceedingly anxious to move north at the safest time for traveling with the colored people. It was found impossible to move them, in consideration of Daniels's wife, she having given birth to a boy, who was christened 'John Brown' Daniels. Dr. Blount, who had attended her, began to grow weary under the care, and sent a messenger to have them moved as soon as possible. "It must have been on or about the 20th of January, 1859, that we left Garnett. Captain Brown and myself were alone with the colored folks." Mr. Gill then mentions Ottawa Jones's, Brown's Indian friend, Major Abbott's, and a Mr. Grover's, near Lawrence, as some of their stopping-places. From Grover's point John Brown visited Lawrence, sold the oxen, which were probably butchered there, and hired a team or two to help the party through as far as Tabor, one of the teams eventually going as far as Springdale, Iowa. At Lawrence the old man arranged his finances, mostly from the sale of the cattle however.2 " The colored folks cooked," continues Mr. Gill, "a supply of provisions, mostly obtained through the generosity of the Grovers and Abbotts. I remained with the colored folks while Brown attended to his business in town. We left Grover's on the evening of the 28th of January, I still being guide and guard, riding a fine stallion, which Brown had given Hazlett a forty acre land warrant for. The land warrant Gerrit Smith had sent Brown, and the stallion Hazlett had picked up down in Missouri. Brown afterwards sold it at auction, in Cleveland, Ohio. About midnight, and somewhere opposite Lecompton, on our way to Topeka, I noticed men behind a fence. Of course I could not tell how many. Going to the wagon in which the old man rode, I acquainted him with the fact. He was dozing when I spoke, but my news woke him up. He told me to keep I See Appendix. 2 It was at this time that Captain Brown had his last interview, and most remarkable interview, with William A. Phillips. (See Appendix.) 224 JOHN BROWN. a good lookout. No one troubled bs, however, but I found out afterwards from some prisoners we took at Holton, that they had actually armbushed us, but could not conceive of ours being the outfit that they were looking for, until it was too late, no oxen, no guards, or if there were guards they were behind and of an unknown quantity, and it might be unsafe to stop us, or it might be a stragetic movement of some kind to take them in. They waited to see and missed us. At Topeka, Stevens joined us, and I stopped to rest with John Ritchie. On the 29th the fugitives passed through and were stopped a little north of Holton, on what was then known as Spring Creek. A messenger was hurried back by Mr. Wasson, living there, to Topeka, and Col. Ritchie quickly raised a force, reaching Holton in the afternoon of the 3Ist, We found Brown and Stevens with the colored folks and teamsters in log houses with one prisoner. We immediately organized and advanced towards the ford or crossing which was in possession of the supposed posse who were drilling on its banks. The stream was very high and almost unfordableo We succeeded in crossing, however, and taking several prisoners without any one getting hurt. This was known as the Battle of the Spurs. The piisoners we kept a day or two and then allowed them to go home on foot. It was these prisoners that it was reported were made by Brown to kneel and pray. There was no truth in this whatever, as I guarded the prisoners myself. One of the prisoners, to show his bravado, commenced to swear as only a first-class expert could do. The old man hearing him said,' Tut, tut, you are not doing right, for if there is a God, it is wrong to speak His name in that way; if there is none it is certainly very foolish.' " One of our boys also undertook to show his bravery by abusing the prisoners. The Captain read him a lecture on the cowardice of insulting a man unable to defend himself. Some of the Topeka party accompanied us to Tabor, Iowa. We understood at this time that troops were in our rear in Kansas, and that there probably would be squads of armed and organized parties to either kill, arrest, or otherwise retard our advance. We stopped over night at a Nebraska Indian settle RESCUE OF MISSOURI SLAVES.2 225 ment (the Otoes), and slept in their houses. In the morning the river had risen, and the ice floated free from each shore. We felled trees and bridged from the shore to the ice, drawing our wagons over by hand and leading the horses. Previous to passing through Nebraska City, I had, in consequence of the cold, walked behind the train. Being in quite a crippled condition, I got some distance behind; or it is possible that the drivers were hurrying up, as it was growing dark. At any rate, I found myself intercepted by three scouts. In my efforts to throw them off, I claimed to be traveling south, which I succeeded in doing, but it delayed my getting into the city until about ten o'clock. Our folks had then crossed on the ice and passed on, I stopped over night with Kagi's brother-in-law, Mr. Mayhew, but had some difficulty in finding him, having had to inquire some. A letter from there shortly afterwards stated that I had not been gone the next morning more than fifteen minutes, before the house was surrounded by about fifty men, being a marshal's posse in search of us. Arriving at Dr. Blanchard's, midway, perhaps, between Nebraska City, at which place Brown and party had stopped, I found that the posse had preceded me, and searched thoroughly, even moving bookcases and cupboards out from the wall, to see that there were no secret recesses to hold underground travelers. How I missed coming into contact with them, or how Brown's party missed them, can only be accounted for on the supposition that different roads were traveled. On the night of the fifth of February, I859, we arrived at Tabor, wherewe stayed until the I th. At this place, meetings were held, and resolutions passed, denouncing Brown, his party, and actions. Yet Tabor had been the starting-point for the free-state movements in western Iowa, and the people continued to aid us. " Leaving that place on the I Ith, we took up our line of march for Springdale, stopping at Toole's the night of the 2th, Lewis's Mills the 13th, Porter's tavern, Grove City, the i4th, Dalmanutha, the 15th, at Murray's, Aurora, on the i6th, Jordan's on the 17th, and, about noon on the I8th, passed through Des Moines City, stopping quite a while in the streets, Kagi hunting up 226 JOHN BROWN. Editor Teesdale, of the Register, an acquaintance of his; he also proved to be an old acquaintance of Brown. Mr. Teesdale paid our ferriage across the Des Moines River. On the night of the I8th we stopped at Hawley's, on the i9th at Dickerson's, and on the 20th reached Grinnell, at which place our welcome was enthusiastic, Mr. J. B. Grinnell, afterwards in Congress, personally superintending the reception.' On the 25th we reached Springdale, going through Iowa City some time during the forenoon. No efforts having been made to ' RECEPTION OF BROWN AND PARTY AT GRINNELL, IOWA. [In the handwriting of Captain Brown is tile following memoranda now among the records of the Kansas Slate Historical Society:] ". Whole party and teams kept for two days free of cost. "2. Sundry articles of clothing given to the captives. "3. Bread, meat, cake, pies, etc., prepared for our journey. "4. Full houses for two nights in succession, at which meetings Brown and Kagi spoke and were loudly cheered, and fully indorsed. Three Congregational clergymen attended the meeting on Sabbath evening (notice of which was given out from the pulpit); all of them took part in justifying our course, and in urging for contributions in our behalf. There was no dissenting speaker present at either meeting. Mr. Grinnell spoke at length, and has since labored to secure us a free and safe conveyance to Chicago, and effected it. " 5. Contributions in cash amounting to $26.50. " 6. Last, but not least, public thanksgiving to Almighty God, offered by Mr. Gtiunell, in behalf of the whole company, for His great mercy and protecting care, with prayers for a continuance of these Blessings. " As the action of Tabor friends has been published in the newspapers by some of her people (as I suppose), would not friend Gaston, or some other friend, give publicity to the above? "Respectfully your friend, "JOHN BROWN. "P. S.-Our reception here among the Quaker friends has been most cordial. Yours truly, J. B. "SPRINGFIELD, IOWA, 26th Feb., I859." RESCUE OF MISSOURI SLAVES. 227 conceal our movements after entering Iowa, rumors came of an intended attempt to capture Captain Brown and the negroes. A building was selected to keep the latter in. There was scarcely any necessity for guards, as the whole community was alert, and any attempt to invade Springdale would have most likely proven very disastrous to the intruders. West Liberty, a railroad( town seven miles south of Springdale, was a very hotbed of Abolitionists, and in full sympathy with Brown's idea." Mr. Gill left the party at West Liberty on the Ioth inst., as health gave out and inflammatory rheumatism prevented further travel on his part. One of the Kansas escort accompanied the party to Crookes's in Iowa, and others left at Tabor. After leaving Iowa there was very little of special interest until arrival at Detroit and transfer to Canada. Of course, vigilant care had to be exercised. On the I2th day of March, 1859, he saw his band of freed people, augmented to twelve by the birth of a boy while camping near Dr. James G. Blunt's place on the Pottawatomie in the January preceding, carried in safety from Detroit to Windsor. John Brown, the baby born in freedom, and bearing the name of his emancipator, still lives in Windsor, having, it has been stated, never set foot in the United States. The Missouri freed people are nearly all living, doing well, and having large families about them. Of course, Captain Brown's successful raid met severe criticism on all sides, and to some extent, too, among a few of his Massachusetts friends. Neither Gerrit Smith nor George L. Stearns were counted among the critics. In Detroit, Captain Brown met Frederick Douglass, who happened to be engaged for a lyceum lecture there. A little meeting was held at the dwelling of a Mr. William Webb, and a report has been made of 228 JOHN BROWN. sharp disagreements between John Brown and tile colored orator and editor. Mr. Douglass assures me nothing of the sort occurred. John Brown girded up his loins again, and with his purse a little replenished by Eastern friends, started once more on the culminating work of his life. With him at Detroit and en route to, Cleveland, Ohio, were his son Owen, Kagi, Stevens, Leeman, Tidd, Hazlett, Edwin Coppoc, J. G. Anderson, and Barclay Coppoc of those that finally went down into tile valley of shadows. Steward Taylor was waiting and working in Illinois, and Cook was in Virginia, ready for work. The hour was coming fast. CHAPTER IX. LIFE AND PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. Friends in southern Kansas and Iowa-Safe arrival of his freed people in Canada-Meeting and speeches in Cleveland —Where the men went and what they didJohn Brown at home in North Elba-Peterboro and Boston —On the borders of slavery-The Kennedy farm and the hiring-Gathering there-Life within -Mrs. Anne Brotwn-Adams the last survivor-Martha Brown-Oliver's girl zwife-John Brown, Jr., in Canada-Shipping the freight-Kagi at Chambersburg-Frederick Douglass and Shields GreenArrival of Osborne P. Anderson and Francis J. Merriam-Return of Anne and Martha to North Elba-John E. Cook-A curious despatch-" The shot heard round the world." JOHN BROWN'S second and last campaign in Kansas left behind warm and enduring friendships. He carried to his grave, less than a year beyond the day when its prairies, made sacred with human passions and human woes, faded from his vision, a sense of enduring regard and honor, which has since made itself felt in many a brave tribute. The real free-state men of southern Kansas have never given a single 230 JOHN IROWN. recruit to the detractors of Captain Brown. "I shall remove the seat of disturbance from Kansas," were his last words to the " Squire," as he always termed his old and trusted friend, Augustus Wattles, of Moneka. Truly, he did remove it across the Continent to the Alleghanies and down to the Gulf of Mlexico, and in removing it he aided beyond words in making a Nation without a slave and a Union without a foe. The meaning of the remark was well understood, though nothing would be known definitely of place and plan. That John Brown would be heard from again was certain to all, as was learned when, in the spring of 1859, I last visited that section. Among John Brown's friends and supporters many became noted in the stormier years that followed. Among the rank and file, I recall the Hairgroves and Snyder, shot in the Marais du Cygne atrocity, as gallant Union soldiers. Dr. James G. Blunt was a prominent major-general of volunteers; James Montgomery a colonel of colored troops in South Carolina; Dr. Jenison commanded a regiment of cavalry; James Hanway was a district judge; H. H. Williams a major of volunteers; Drs. Ayres and Gilpatrick army-surgeons; John Ritchie, at Topeka, a colonel, while William A. Phillips, editor, author, lawyer, commanded a loyal Indian brigade of Cherokees and Creeks, and John Bowles was lieutenantcolonel of colored infantry. There were no doubters, cowards, or trimmers among John Brown's Kansas friends when the war issues finally came. But the personal regard and friendship of the two Wattles families, at Moneka, Levin County, with the unbending Puritan leader, was an incident almost idyllic in char PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 231 acter. Their homes were always open to him and his men, while the Captain was loved by the charming group of girls who made them so attractive. Augustus and John Wattles were of Quaker origin. They were refined, scholarly, cultivated. Augustus, being more a man of affairs than his brother, John, who took no public part in. Kansas matters, though a devoted anti-slavery man. He was a musician of fine ability-the inventor of a system of musical notation, once in considerable use. His brother was lawyer, farmer, and editor. They came from the famous free-soil district in Indiana, which so long sent George W. Julian to Congress. Both had been identified as advocates and writers with the dreams of social equity and organization, so early advanced by the late Albert Brisbane, the disciple of Fourier and Josiah Warren, author of an almost-forgotten form of Bellamyism. Among such groups as these John Brown seems always to have been understood, yet he was apart from them all..On his way out he met William A. Phillips at Lawrence, holding with him the last of a series of remarkable conversations, which are reprinted in the Appendix to this volume. John Bowles, then about to start for California, held a long and confidential talk with him and Kagi, being intrusted with the general outline and location of the movement that was made ten months later in Virginia. In Iowa, the foremost Republicans and anti slavery citizens, while ostensibly shaking their heads-a la politician style, as at Tabor, where they first cared for his party, and then resolved that it was very wrong to help a human being to freedom, if he or she happened to be dark-skinned and African in de 232 JOHN' BROWN. scent-to the Governor and his staff; leading men like Hiram Price, J. B. Grinnel, Wm. Penn Clarke, Senator Grimes's sons;-editors, lawyers, officials, prospective Congressmen and soldiers of future prominence, vied with each other in helping forward the liberator and his party. In Chicago, his presence was widely known, and, though an "outlaw " with two rewards for his arrest, aggregating $3,250, no one seemed to be deterred from making him welcome. No attempt at arrest, no threat even, came to his ears, in either Chicago, Detroit, or Cleveland. The United States marshal of northern Ohio did not attempt an arrest, though a Federal reward was offered, but when Captain Brown was captured and lay, with five wounds, on the bare floor of the United States armory guardroom, he was among the earliest of political visitors from the North, seeking, if possible, to glean from expected weakness an admission against Joshua R. Giddings, Ralph M. Plumb, or some others of the anti-slavery men of the Western Reserve. To Cleveland John Brown shipped the mules for which he had traded the oxen taken in Missouri from the estate of the slave-owners, and which had been used in transporting his band of freed people to "Canaan's happy land," as they had joyfully styled the far-off north land to which they were bound, when leaving Missouri. The stallion, which had been purchased from Hazlett and been ridden by the Captain on his long journey with two or three other travel-worn horses, and perhaps the two wagons used, were on hand. His small funds were divided as far as possible with the rescued when they were left in PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 233 Canada, and it was decided to sell the property. This was done on the public street by Captain Brown himself, who also gave due notice of the facts connected with them. An amusing incident was narrated in a newspaper interview years after about Judge Carter, of Ohio, Chief-Justice of the District of Columbia. The Judge was narrowly critical of John Brown, who had called upon him the day after the Cleveland sale, of which he gave the lawyer full- particulars, drily remarking "and they (the animals) brought good prices, too." The lawyer bought a pair of mules-at second hand, he was careful to say. The amount was given to me afterwards at several hundred dollars, and I find a note thereof among memorabilia of the Cleveland visit, which was on the 23d of March. That evening, a well-attended meeting was held at Chapin's Hall, a small admission fee being charged. The speakers were John Henri Kagi and John Brown, the former making the first address, while the latter in his speech made a significant declaration, which I afterwards copied from the Cleveland Leader's report of the same. Interest turning on events in southern Kansas, Kagi gave a rapid review of their history, showing the border-ruffian outrages of I856; the land-settler persecutions and the official injustice the free-state entrymen were subjected to; the constant "nagging" of the Blake-Little-Clark-Ransom pro-southern gang, with the view of producing retaliation by free-state men, the unfair interference by the Executive usually on the pro-southern side; the sending of picked squadrons of dragoons with Southern sympathy against Montgomery and his men; the constant forays, kidnapping, etc., from Missouri, with the 234 JOHN BROWN. constant violations of all agreements made for peace. the culminating atrocities of the Hamilton gang. Kagi was a strong, logical, convincing, even eloquent, speaker, with a fine presence and a good command of language. He knew the subject, and did not seek to either evade or defend the actions of free-state men. He simply showed what they were and how they came to be, leaving his audience to decide the ethics thereof. Kagi's description of the one-sided fights, ending il the Southerners' flight were amusing and pleased the audience Captain Brown's speech was like himself,-direct, to the point, unequivocal, and animated, with his stern conviction of righteousness. He was capable of grouping his points well, and, from a mere brief, presenting a close, connected statement. He told the audience that his purpose in charging an admission fee was to aid in reimbursing the expenses of his recent effort. Although he had been threatened abundantly during his last visit to Kansas, he had not been engaged in any fight. Some of his young men, however, had bettered the instructions of the Southern men. He was now an outlaw, with a price on his head. The fact did not inconvenience him or cause any loss of sleep. He should never submit to an arrest, as he had nothing to gain by submission. This recalls the fact that Mrs. Brown said just previous to the execution of her husband, that it had always been her feeling, as well as the Captain's, that if he was ever defeated, he should be killed rather than made a prisoner. In referring to his position, John Brown grimly remarked, that he " should settle all questions on the spot, if any attempt was made to PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 235 take him." His purpose in liberating the Missouri bondsmen was to make familiar a direct blow at slavery. He laid it down as a platform for himself, that he considered it his duty to liberate the slave wherever he had an opportunity. He was a thoroughgoing Abolitionist. In referring to his life and actions in Kansas, he said that he, John Brown, " never lifted a finger toward any one whom he did not know was a violent persecutor of the free-state men. He had never killed any body, although on some occasion he had shown the young men how some things might be done as well as others, and they had done the business.' He had never destroyed the value of an ear of corn, and had never set fire to a pro-slavery man's house or property, and had never by his own action driven out pro-slavery men from the Territory, but, if occasion demanded it, he would drive them into the ground like a stake-fence, where they would remain permanent settlers." These grim declarations were probably in reply to charges and attacks made in the current Democratic newspapers. The Captain continued, as reported: "Further, he had yet to learn of any proslavery man being arrested or punished for any crime, while free-state men were slain even for the crime of having opinions, as was his son Frederick, the particulars of whose slaying at Osawatomie he narrated." The speeches and meeting were a remarkable success, and even the Democratic papers treated it fairly in their reports. This report was obtained by me in I86o from a Cleveland paper, I believe the Leader, and the copy in my handwriting is before me as I write. 236 JOHN PBRO\VN. From Cleveland, Ohio, after short visits with his sons, John, Jr., at West Andover, and Jason, at Akron, in the same State, Captain Brown, with J. G. Anderson, left for his home at North Elba. The remainder of the party which had accompanied him as far as Detroit now provided for themselves at various points. Owen Brown remained until July at Akron, with his brother Jason. Aaron D. Stevens, as Charles Whipple, went to West Andover, where he was employed by Mr. Lindsey on his farm until the follow-::$ Emr^ ing August. W. H. Leeman got work at Lindenville, nearby, <1ij A_:%. making whips in a factory there. The two Coppocs, Edwin and iX; Barclay, went to Medina and! 11 iME F Salem, where they had relatives,:......' Xand remained working until -...:. " August, when they were sumWILLIAM HENRY LEEMAN. moned to the Kennedy Farm. Albert Hazlett returned to his home at Indiana, Pennsylvania, where he got employment till August. C. P. Tidd remained in the vicinity of Cleveland, while J. H. Kagi divided his time until late in June, when he went to Pennsylvania, between Cleveland, West Andover, and Oberlin, being occupied, while waiting for the Captain's last return from the East, in looking after the freight shipments (i. e. the arms, etc.) which had been sent from Iowa to Conneaut, Ohio, and in watching the progress of the Price fugitive slave rescue case, in which a number of noted persons, professors at Oberlin, and others, were PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 237 involved. Several of them were imprisoned in Cleveland, and Kagi and Tidd planned with others taking them out. The State of Ohio, however, intervened by arresting the Kentucky slave-catchers, when they came to testify against the rescuers, upon the very plain ground that the original capture of the alleged fugitive Price, was in reality a kidnapping, done without regard to the Federal law and in clear contravention of State laws. Their arrests brought about a settlement of the wlole affair, by which fugitive and rescuers were discharged, and the Kentuckians very gladly availed themselves of a chance to get out of Ohio. Kagi acted as the correspondent of the New York Tribune and also wrote for the Cleveland Leader. Steward Taylor was still in Illinois, not having gone to Kansas with the others. Early in April, John Brown, accompanied by his faithful aide, J. G. Anderson, was in Rochester, and from the iith to the I4th at Peterboro, a guest of Gerrit Smith. The latter gave him $200. On the I4th he started for North Elba, having been at his home but once in two years. At this visit arrangements were made for Oliver to join him at an early day, and Watson later in the summer, after his wife Isabella's confinement. Martha, Oliver's wife, and Anne Brown, the second daughter, it was afterwards arranged, were to go to the Maryland farm as housekeepers. The Captain remained at home for about two weeks, and then left for Massachusetts. He was at Concord, the guest of Mr. Sanborn, on the 7th of May, remaining till his fifty-ninth birthday, when he left for Boston. He met John M. Forbes and a few other well-known men at this visit for the first 238 JOHN BROWN. time, and received, with what Gerrit Smith sent, about $500 in all. At Concord he attended and spoke at a meeting held to hear him. Mr. Sanborn in his volume (pp. 564-65) quotes Emerson, and Thoreau, and Alcott; the latter as writing in his journal in part as follows: "Concord, May 8, 1859.-This evening I heard Captain Brown speak, at the Town Hall, on Kansas affairs.... He tells his story with surpassing simplicity and sense. Our best people listen to his words-Emerson, Thoreau, Judge Hoar (afterwards Attorney-General under Grant, and Congressman).... Some of them contributed in aid of his plans, without asking particulars, such confidence does he inspire in his integrity and abilities.. He is Sanborn's guest, and stays for a day only. A young man named Anderson accompanies him. They go armed, I am told. and will defend themselves if necessary.... The Captain leaves much in the dark concerning his destination and designs for the coming months, yet he does not conceal... his readiness to strike a blow for freedom at the proper moment. I infer it is his intention to run off as many slaves as he can, and so render that property insecure to the master." From Boston to New York 1 and Eastern Pennsyll Among the manuscript letters in my possession, chiefly written by the men, I find two from J. G. Anderson to his brother, Dr. John B. Anderson, of Springdale, Iowa. The Doctor had served in southern Kansas, and was trusted, so that " Jerry" Anderson wrote quite freely. A letter of June I7th, from West Andover, Ohio, describes their travels. The first three weeks were spent at Peterboro, North Elba, N. Y., and in Boston and vicinity. In New York City four days, and the young Western farmer gives a naive description of the impressions he received. He visited Brooklyn, met John Hopper, son of Isaac T. Hopper, the Quaker philanthropist, Dr. George B. Cheever, and also saw Henry Ward Beecher on a street car, whom he described as " a very commonlooking man with very coarse features, but showing undoubted PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 239 vania and Ohio by the middle of June. Arrangements were to complete the pikes ordered in 1857 of Charles W. Blair, of Collinsville, Conn. They were partly paid for then, and Captain Brown paid the balance, $300, ordering them finished as rapidly as possible, and shipped to Isaac Smith & Sons, Chambersburg, Pa., where Kagi was mainly found until the last of September. These " tools " did not reach the Maryland farm until late in September, where they were stored, 950 of them, in the attic of the Kennedy dwelling. The Sharpe's rifles and other articles filled fifteen heavy boxes. Curiosity had been aroused as to their contents at Conneaut. John Brown, Jr., removed them to West Andover and then to Hartstown, Crawford Co., Pennsylvania, July 27th, shipping by canal to Chlambersburg, from whence they were removed early in September to the Kennedy Farm. A log cabin, belonging to the place, just across the road from the house was used for storage. William good sense,"-a knockdown sort of characterization that. A visit to Joshua R. Giddings at Jefferson, Ohio, is mentioned, and then "Jerry " writes: " This is an age of miracles. I wouldn't be surprised if you should hear of me being in some place before long. We are going to start from here next Monday (June 9thl) for Cleveland, from there across Pennsylvania to the border of Virginia, on a surveying expedition. I think I shall write to vyo from that region in a few weeks. You need not be uneasy about us stealing niggers, for that is not our business, but be patient, and in due time you will be apprised of our business, and how we succeed. Our theory is new, but undoubtedly good, practicable, and perfectly safe and simple, but I jadge when we put it into practice, it will astonish the world and mankind in general. We called on Fred. Douglass again as we passed through Rochester; he is to be one of us." 240 JOHN BROWN. Thompson, Watson Brown, and Jeremiah G. Anderson slept therein after the tools arrived, partly as a guard, and as a place of defense in the event of any attack or danger. Captain Brown arrived at Chambersburg early in June, and with his sons Oliver and Owen, or "'Jerry " Anderson, made observation trips along the border, or went to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Philadelplia on business. On the 3oth of June, with Owen, Oliver, and Anderson he went to Hagerstown and Sandy Hook, Maryland, and on the 2d of July they were in Harper's Ferry itself. Cook was living there, and knew of the Captain's visits. Interviews were had, care being taken not to appear too public and familiar. The party were supposed to be prospecting for minerals. Out in the country, however, they were cattlemen from northern New York, looking for grazing land, on which to fatten their lean stock. In an article on "The Virginia Campaign," published in The Atlantic, December, 1875, Mr. F. B. Sanborn gave an interesting account of the finding of the Kennedy Farm, in Washington County, Maryland, but four miles from Harper's Ferry, which was rented for a year for $35. Starting out from Sandy Hook, where they had stayed the night before, on the 4th of July they went up the river road toward the house of Mr. John C. Unseld, a Maryland slaveholder, who lived but a mile from the Ferry, on one of the mountain roads. "Between eight and nine o'clock that morning, as Mr. Unseld was riding down to the Ferry, he met the party strolling along the edge of the mountain. Falling into conversation with them, in the country fashion, he learned that the old man was named Smith, that these were his sons, Watson PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 241 and Oliver Smith, and that the other youth was named Anderson. 'Well, gentlemen,' said the Marylander, ' I suppose you are out hunting minerals, gold and silver, perhaps.' ' No,' said Brown, 'we are out looking for land. We want to buy land; we have a little money, and want to make it go as far as we can: How much is land worth an acre, hereabouts?' Being told that it 'ranged from fifteen dollars to thirty dollars in that neighborhood,' he said, ' That is high. I thought I could buy for a dollar or two an acre.' 'No,' said the Marylander, 'not here; if you expect to get land for that price, you'll have to go farther West, to Kansas, or some of those Territories where there is Congress land. Where are you from?' ' The northern part of New York State.' ' What have you followed there?' 'Farming,' said Brown; but the frost had been so heavy of late years it had cut off their crops; they could not make anything there, so they had sold out, and thought they would come farther South and try it a while. Having thus satisfied a natural curiosity, Mr. Unseld rode on. Returning some hours afterward, he again met Mr. Smith and his young men not far from the same place. 'I have been looking round your country up here,' said he, 'and it is a very fine country-a pleasant place, a fine view. The land is much better than I expected to find it; your crops are pretty good.' As he said this he pointed to where the men had been cutting grainsome white men and some negroes at work in the fields, as the custom is there. For in Washington county there were few slaves even then, and most of the field work was done by whites or free colored men. Brown then asked if any farm in the neighborhood was for sale. 'Yes, there is a farm four miles up the road here, towards Boonsborough, owned by the heirs of Dr. Booth Kennedy; you can buy that.' ' Can I rent it?' said Brown; then turning to his companions he said, 'I think we had better rent a while, until we get better acquainted, so that they cannot take advantage of us in the purchase of land.' To this they appeared to assent, and Mr. Unseld then said, 'Perhaps you can rent the Kennedy farm; I do not know about that, but it is for sale, I know.' Brown then turned 16 242 JOHN BROWN. again to his sons and said, ' Boys, as you are not very well, you had better go back and tell the landlord at Sandy Hook that Oliver and I shall not be there to dinner, but will go on up and look at the Kennedy place; however, you can do as you please.' Watson Brown looked at Anderson and then said, * We will go with you.' ' Well,' said the friendly Marylander, 'if you will go on with me up to my house, I can then point you the road exactly.' Arrived there, he invited them to take dinner, for by this time it was nearly noon. They thanked him but declined, nor would they accept an invitation to 'drink something.' 'WTell,' said Unseld, 'if you must go on, just follow up this road along the foot of the mountain; it is shady and pleasant, and you will come out at a church up here about three miles. Then you can see the Kennedy house by looking from that church right up the road that leads to Boonsborough, or you can go right across and get into the country road and follow that up.' Brown sat and talked with Unseld for a while, who asked him 'what he expected to follow, up yonder at Kennedy's,' adding that Brown 'could not make a living there.' ' Well,' said Brown, 'my business has been buying up fat cattle and driving them on to the State of New York, and we expect to engage in that again.' Three days later (July 7th), the genial Unseld, jogging to or from the Ferry, again met the gray-haired rustic, who said, 'Well, I think that place will suit me; now just give me a description where I can find the widow Kennedy and the administrator,' which Unseld did. A few clays after, he once more met the new comer, and found Mr. Smith had rented the two houses on the Kennedy' farm-the farm-house, about three hundred yards from the public road on the west side, where, as Unseld thought, 'it makes a very pretty show for a small house,' and 'the cabin,' which stood about as far from the road on the east side, 'hidden by shrubbery in the summer season, pretty much.' For the two houses, pasture for a cow and horse, and firewood, from July till March, Brown paid thirty-five dollars, as he took pains to tell Unseld, showing him the receipt of the widow Kennedy." PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 243 The Booth-Kennedy family lived at Sharpsburg, where Lee had his headquarters when the battle of Antietam was fought. The Confederates named it after the Maryland village. The Maryland farmer testified before the United States Senate's Committee on " the Harper's Ferry Invasion." The name of the Virginian Senator's Committee should be borne in mind, as a peculiar piece of direct evidence of the manner in which Mason, Davis, Wise & Co. were working towards revolution by firing the Southern heart with systematic misrepresentation of the relations of the North to the John Brown raid. Mr. Unseld said that he did "not once mistrust him, though he rode up to the Kennedy Farm nearly every week from the middle of July till the ist of October." "'I just went up to talk to the old man,' said he to Senator Mason, when telling the story before the Senate Committee, 'but sometimes, at the request of others, on business about selling him some horses or cows. He was in my yard frequently, perhaps four or five times. I would always ask him in, but he would never go in, and of course I would not go in his house. He often invited me in; indeed, nearly every time I went there he asked me to go in, and remarked to me fre quently, "We have no chairs for you to sit on, but we have trunks and boxes." I decliedl going in, but sat on my horse and chatted with him. Before the 20th of July he saw there " two females," who were Martha, the wife of Oliver Brown, and Anne, the eldest unmarried sister of Oliver. Both of them were but girls in their seventeenth years, as they were born in 1843. "Twice I went there," says Unseld, and found none of the men, but the two ladies, and I sat there on my horsethere was a high porch on the house, and I could sit there and chat with them-and then I rode off and left them. They told me there were none of the meln at home, but did not tell me 244 JOHN BROWN. where they were. One time I went there and inquired for them, and one of the females answered me, " They are across there at the cabin; you had better ride over and see them." I replied it did not make any difference, and I would not bother them, and I rode back home.'" The region is semi-mountainous, and is still sparsely settled. Within three years after John Brown's advent, it passed into national history as the scene of McClellan's defeat of Lee. Across it passed in part the great armies that met in a decisive battle shock at Gettysburg. But it will always be recalled more readily as the location of John Brown's final preparations for the Harper's Ferry attack, which sent the old fighter's soul " marching on " until chattel slavery, by the will of the Nation and the fearful cost of civil war was abolished in the land. It is ruggedly picturesque, quiet, rural, well wooded, and with no great stretches of open, arable lands. The section is quiet, the residents are easy-going and the landscape is the most attractive thing connected therewith. Of late years it has become somewhat noted for the summer residences of well-to-do families, chiefly from Washington and Baltimore. Osborne Perry Anderson, in " A Voice from Harper's Ferry," wrote that "To a passer-by the house and its surroundings presented but indifferent attractions. Any log (frame) tenement of equal dimensions would be as likely to attract attention. Rough, unsightly, and aged, it was only those privileged to enter and tarry for a long time and to penetrate the mysteries of the two rooms it contained - kitchen, parlor, dining-room below, and the spacious chamber, attic, storeroom, prison, drilling-room, comprised in the loft PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 245 above-who could tell how we lived at Kennedy Farm?" The question may in a fair fashion be answered, as besides other sources, I am fortunately endowed with permission to use the vivid recollections of Anne Brown (now Mrs. Adams, of Petralia, Humboldt County,California, and the mother of six children, who was called by her father his " watch dog") who has written me valuable notes and memoranda, full, as I name them, of thumb-nail sketches, which illustrate the scenes of that summer, and the men, too, who were actors in them. Coming from the only survivor of the little band who lived at the Kennedy Farm,' these recollections have a special biographical and historical significance. Anne Brown and Martha Evelyn, the loving young wife of Oliver, who was as much slain as if she had fallen by a Virginian bullet, arrived at the Maryland camp in the third week in July. "Josephus," the Harper's Ferry annalist often quoted in these pages, says, that the Captain and his sons, with Jerry Anderson, first boarded with Mr. Osmond Bulter, at Sandy Hook, Maryland. The Virginian pamphleteer adds, "their conduct was unexceptionable. They 1 It is necessary to emphasize the fact that Anne Brown Adams is the only one alive of the Kennedy Farm party. Besides George B. Gill and Charles W. Moffett, of Iowa and Kansas, there are none alive of those who went "to school " at Springdale, Iowa, and participated in the Chatham, Canada, Convention, in 1857-58, unless it be Richard Richardson, a colored man, of whom I learn nothing. Others are living who were actively aiding and trusted by John Brown, but these named were actually at the farm, in the fight, or trained therefor. 246 JOHN BIROWN. paid in gold for whatever they purchased, and as their manners were courteous to all, they were, on the whole, very popular." Kagi came down from Chambersburg, and remained two or three days with them at Sandy Hook, but his likeness to the Virginian " Keagys," as his uncle's family were called in the neighborhood, compelled him to make a quick retreat to Chambersburg. He was born in southern Ofiio, his father having removed from the Shenandoah Valley, but himself went to school, and taught also in the section, when about sixteen years old. He distinguished himself even then by assisting a fugitive slave, and was obliged to return to his father's home in Ohio. There was danger that lie would be recognized. A memorandum in John Brown's handwriting found in the captured carpet-bag and printed in a State document some time after, gives a good idea of Captain Brown's care for details. It was evidently written for Kagi's guidance, and on the back of it a rough, topographical road sketch, with the names of the towns in Kagi's own handwriting. John Brown wrote: " Look for letters directed to John Henrie; at Chambersburg inquire for letters (there) directed to J. Smith & Sons; for Isaac Smith inquire for freight at the depot, at Chambershurg, for J. Smith & Sons; and write them at Harper's Ferry as soon as any does come. See Mr. Henry Watson, at Chambersburg, and find out if the Tribune comes on.' Have Mr. Watson and his reliable friends get ready to receive company (about this time Leary and Copeland were to arrive from Oberlin, Ohio, Anderson and others from Canada were expected). Get Mr. Watson to make you acquainted with his reliable friends, iut I A memorandum exists of a subscription of $3 sent early in June. PREPARATION AT TIHE KENNEDY FARM. 247 do not appear to be any wise thick with them; and do not often be seen with any such man. Get Mr. Watson to find out if he can, a trusty man or men to stop with at Hagerstown (if any such there be),as Mr. (Thomas) Henrie (A. D. Stevens) has gone there. Write Tidd to come to Chambersburg, by Pittsburg and Harrisburg, at once. He can stop off the Pittsburg road at Hudson and go to Jason's (Akron) for his trunk. Write Carpenter (Edwin Coppoc probably) and Hazlett that we are all right and ready as soon as we can get our boarding-house fixed; when we will write them to come on and by what route. I will pay Hazlett the money he advanced to Anderson for expenses traveling. Find yourself a comfortable, cheap boarding-house at once. Write J. Smith & Sons, at Harper's Ferry. Inquire after your four Cleveland friends, and have them come on to Challllersburg if they are on the way; if not on the road let them wait till we get a little better prepared. Be careful tvhat you7 wr-ite to all persons. Do not send or bring any more persons here until we advise you of our readiness to hoard them." The " four Cleveland friends"' referred in all probability to colored men: Lewis Sherrard Leary, and John A. Copeland, of Oberlin, who did report for duty; Charles Langston and James H. Harris, of Cleveland, who were for some reason unable to come. The date of the foregoing must have been about the ioth or 12th of July, as about that time Kagi first appeared in Chambersburg, and letters began to reach different parties pledged to the enterprise. I received inquiries relating to Richard Realf and Charles W. Leonhardt, of whom further mention will be made. Oliver Brown was sent at the same time that Kagi left for Pennsylvania to North Elba, to bring his wife and Anne to Maryland. On their return to the Adirondack homestead, seventeen days before the outbreak, Oliver escorted them as far as Troy, New 248 JOHN BROWN. York, where, on the 2d of October (Sunday), they parted to meet no more on earth. Mrs. Adams describes the love of the young couple as an exquisite thing, so happy were they " in the enjoyment of each other, that they did not feel the need of much of this world's goods." They were married on the 7th of April, 1858, he being but nineteen and she but sixteen. Their married life lasted only a few months, nearly three of which were spent at the Maryland Farm, in the shadow almost of Death. Martha was cook and housekeeper, and Anne aided as best she could, her chief duty being, as she writes, to serve as "outside guard," and to meet all who called, parley long enough on porch and steps for those inside to remove all suspicious things. If surprised while eating, the men would each seize his dishes and food, and then the table-cloth, quietly going upstairs, till the visitor had left. Her father demanded " constant watchfulness" on her part; others could help with the housework, and the men aided in turn. She sat on porch or at inside door, sewing or reading, with a constant lookout on the road, listening to the katydids and whippoorwills. "I used to enjoy watching the fireflies," she writes, "in the evening and looking at the lights and shadows on those fine old trees and the mountain ridge upon moonlight nights." By the first week in August, then, there were assembled the brothers Owen, Oliver, and Watson Brown, William and Dauphin Thompson, Edwin and Barclay Coppoc, C. P. Tidd, J. G. Anderson, and Aaron D. Stevens; while close after came Albert Hazlett, William H. Leeman, and Steward Taylor. Captain Brown and one of his sons, usually Watson, were away PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 249 a good deal of the time. Owen, at first, was on tile road between Chambersburg, Hagerstown, and Harper's Ferry, the farm being in general charge of shipment, both men and freight. Kagi remained at Chambersburg, under the name of "John Henri." He boarded at the house of Mrs. Ritner, the widow of a famous ex-governor of Pennsylvania, known in State history as being a sturdy man of anti-slavery sentiment and the first organizer of free or public schools, also as an early friend and political associate of the "great commoner." Thaddeus Stevens, " Isaac Smith," and his sons also stopped at Mrs. Ritner's. Occasionally Tidd, Merriam, and one or two others stopped there; Mrs. Virginia Cook, also most of the men, as they arrived, went to Bedford or Hagerstown. The colored men were chiefly booked at Chambersburg by Henry Watson, a trusted colored agent of the " underground railroad." " The pictures of the men do not do them justice," writes Mrs. Adams; " Oliver Brown, Edwin Coppoc, J. G. Anderson, and John H. Kagi, whose faces are given as shaven, all had full beards at the Kennedy Farm, and were really handsome men. Cook had a mustache, and Leeman a mustache and imperial. They were all," writes Mrs. Brown Adams, "much better looking than the pictures convey an idea of." The Oliver Brown picture was taken before he went to Kansas in I855, when he was but seventeen. "All questions on religion or any other subject were very freely discussed by the men, and father always took an interested part in the discussions, and encouraged every one to express his opinion on any subject, no matter whether he agreed with him 250 JO )IN B ROW\N. or not. Stevens had a copy of Paine's 'Age o(f Reason' there; that was read by some of the men and discussed. Father subscribed for tile Baltimore Sun, and Kagi used to send down a bundle of papers and magazines from Chambersburg when the wagon went up. They had a manual of military tactics that was studied a good deal.' Cook obtained directions for browning or coloring rifle-barrels in the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, and the men spent a part of the time in this work on their Sharpe's rifle-barrels, making belts, pistol holsters, etc. They also played checkers, cards, and other games, and sang a deal of the time. Stevens and Tidd were very fine singers, the former having an excellent baritone. They often sang' All the Old Folks Are Gone,' substituting ' All the Dear Ones' for the first words; 'Faded Flowers,' and 'Nearer My God to Thee.'" The live stock consisted of a mule and " Cuff," a mongrel pup, but very vigilant and noisy when any stranger or a neighbor appeared. There was no cow or chicken, and very little furniture. Boxes were used for seats, and the men slept on the floor, camp fashion, in the large room upstairs. A small logbuilding across the road was later on used by several of the men. Some housekeeping articles had been brought from North Elba, and a few purchased at Chambersburg. A stout, though small, wagon and a mule was their only conveyance, and by its means tlhe I98 Sharpe's rifles and belongings, with 950 pikes, shipped from Connecticut and Ohio to "Isaac Smith I Forbes's " Patriotic Volunteer." W. H. Tinson, printer, 43-45 Centre street, New York. 1857. PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 251 & Sons " at Chambersburg, were brought from there via Hagerstown to the Farm. The section of Pennsylvania over which they passed was then a more dangerous one to them than the neighborhood of Harper's Ferry itself. " Hunting niggers" was a regular occupation at that date, and small, " covered " wagons were often objects of suspicion, as fugitiveslaves were occasionally so transported, so as to enable the friendly Quaker, Dunker, or colored farmer along the route to declare they had not seen any fugitive. Provisions could be taken by drivers to these wagons, and no one appeared at all but the driver. Usually the movements of colored men were made on foot. Mrs. Adams describes an incident which occurred about the Igth or 2oth of August. " When Owen was bringing Shields Green down to the farm some men got after them and they were chased into the woods. While the pursuers went back for reinforcements, Owen took Green on his back and swam across the river. As they were traveling south, the slave-hunters did not look in that direction, naturally supposing Green to be a fugitive making his way to the North Star. After that Owen staid at the farm, for fear he might be recognized. The Captain with his son Watson or J. G. Anderson made the journeys to and from Chambers. burg to the Kennedy farm, rendered necessary by the removal of their freight, some of which remained at the Pennsylvania town, and- was discovered there after the blow was struck. The Kansas recruit, whose arrival at Hagerstown, on the I4th of October, is elsewhere mentioned, was sent back therefrom to Chambersburg by Captain Brown and Kagi who had met him with instructions to ship this freight. He had the means to obtain a team for that purpose. He reached too late on the 15th to attend to any business, and the I6th, being Sunday, he kept close out of the town in the dwelling of a trusted colored man. The next the news of the attack came, and the Kansan 252 JOHN BROW N. made his way to Harrisburg and Cincinnati, thence returning East. He has since accounted, in his own mind, and from greater familiarity with the details of events, for the condition in which he was placed, by the possibility of Kagi's desire to save his life, for that heroic soul had no doubt of personal defeat. On a letter summoning him (the Kansas man), the 23d and the 25th of October was named as the beginning of operations. The dispatch of the I 5th, however, may have had the effect of determining a sudden movement. A horse and mule with a small covered wagon formed their only quartermaster train. One would drive and the other ride, before or behind, so as to keep a lookout for suspicious movements. People along the road were beginning to be very inquisitive, often stopping them and asking questions as to their business. Kagi being well known in this section, having resided as a boy in the upper Shenandoah Valley with an uncle, and got himself into trouble too, by aiding a slave to escape, was compelled to remain most of the time at Chambersburg. The Browns, with " Jerry " Anderson and himself, first boarded at Sandy Springs." While the strange, quiet life at the farm went on, John Brown was busy through the correspondence of Kagi from Chambersburg in bringing together his entire band. Several letters of inquiry about Realf had already reached me in Boston and Kansas, and I referred them to William Hutchinson, of Lawrence, Kansas, Thaddeus Hyatt, and Charles Yeatonl, of New York. During my stay in Boston in the fall and winter of I858, I outlined to James Redpath and Francis Jackson Merriam the plan of attack on slavery without, however, at the time naming Harper's Ferry to either of them. In a letter from Kansas to Merriam, during tile spring of I859, I told him of the point of assault, and advised him, if I now remember aright, PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 253 that he ask Mr. Sanborn to put him in communication with Captain Brown. Mr. Redpath never knew till the telegraph brought the startling news from Virginia on tie 17th of October, I859. C. W. Moffett, at Montaur, Iowa, and George B. Gill, then with his brother, Dr. Gill, at Springdale, and still suffering from the rheumatic fever he got during the slave rescue trip from Missouri to Iowa, were written to. Luke F. Parsons was also addressed, but it was learned, that he had withdrawn entirely under the advice of Col. Wm. A. Phillips, settling at Salina, Kansas. Another person addressed was Charles W. Leonhardt, a Polish gentlemen from Posen, Prussia. The Slav "ski" had been dropped from his name when he first came to the United States about i851 or '52. He was a member of a well-to-do family of old Polish stock, who had been educated for a Prussian soldier and had served as lieutenant in some guard corps at Berlin. He was very handsome, dark, with black silken hair, fine eyes, prominent features, and a soldierly aspect. In 1848 he joined the German and Polish revolutionists, and soon after found his way with Dembrowski and the Polish army to Hungary, where he served against Russia. He was made a staff officer with the rank of colonel, serving with Klapka, distinguishing himself for great gallantry. Leonhardt escaped to Turkey with his general, and came to America when Kossuth did. He became fluent and eloquent too in his command of English. During the fall of i856 Leonhardt arrived in Kansas. He wrote for German, American, and other papers, and commenced the study of law. He was an enthusiastic anti-slavery man, active in helping fugitives, 254 JOHN BROWN. became well known as a free-state speaker, and identified himself with Montgomery in 1858 and '59. At this time he became known to Kagi, and through him to Captain Brown. It is certain that he agreed to serve and was entrusted with the plan and intended movement. Early in I859 Leonhardt removed to Cincinnati and entered as astudent and clerk the office of Chase (Salmon P.) and Ball. During subsequent months Colonel Leonhardt received several notes from Kagi, as he himself informed me shortly after the Harper's Ferry attack. Edmund Babb, an editorial writer on the Cincinnati Gazette, now dead I believe, had been in Kansas two or three times during the troubles that followed the arrival of Governor Geary. I recall his first arrival at Lawrence, Kansas, in December or January, 1856-57; he was a close friend of Leonhardt. From the first, as a Kansas correspondent, Babb was critical, censorious, and carping, decrying the journalists and other men who had been "in tile breach" for the preceding two years. He personally identified himself with the views of Charles Robinson and George W. Brown, editor of the HAerald of Freedom, who was especially hostile to all other Northern newspaper men, or "letterwriters," as they were then termed. Mr. Babb was with Governor Denver in i858, when that Executive visited southern Kansas to stop the Fort Scott Blake LittleMontgomery troubles. His correspondence, though written to a strong Republican paper, was always hostile in tone to the resistant free-state men and their actions. Leonhardt, a generous soul, was apt to trust those about him. He gave me distinctly to understand that lie made a confidant of his editorial PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 255 friend, after receiving early in August letters from both " Isaac Smith" (John Brown), and John Henri (Kagi) from Chambersburg, Pa., informing him that the " mines" were ready, and the " workmen " needed. These were the terms agreed upon between Kagi and myself, as well as to Leonhardt and the others. Almost immediately after confidence was given to Mr. Babb the following letter was sent to John B. Floyd, secretary of war, who, it will be recalled, took no notice of the same. He was probably too much engaged himself in preparing for a coming civil war by a systematic distribution of United States arms and munitions from Northern to Southern Government arsenals, to take any notice of the Cincinnati warning. Here is the letter: CINCINNATI, August 20, 1859. SIR-I have lately received information of a movement of so great importance that I feel it my duty to impart it to you without delay. I have discovered the existence of a secret association, having for its object the liberation of the slaves at the South by a general insurrection. The leader of the movement is " old John Brown," late of Kansas. He has been in Canada during the winter, drilling the negroes there, and they are only waiting his word to start for the South to assist the slaves. They have one of their leading men (a white man) in an armory in Maryland,-where it is situated I have not been able to learn. As soon as everything is ready, those of their number who are in the Northern States and Canada are to come in small companies to their rendezvous, which is in the mountains of Virginia. They will pass down through Pennsylvania and Maryland, and enter Virginia at Harper's Ferry. Brown left the North about three or four weeks ago, and will arm the negroes and strike the blow in a few weeks; so that whatever is done must be done at once. They have a large quantity of arms at their rendezvous, and are probably distributing them 256 JOHN BROWN. already. As I am not fully in their confidence, this is all the information I can give you. I dare not sign my name to this, but trust that you will not disregard the warning on that account. What this letter contains is, in effect, what I understood from Colonel Leonhardt, that he told Edmund Babb. The latter then, and successfully too, labored with the law student not to go further in the John Brown movement. At the time, inquiring in Cincinnati also among earnest anti-slavery friends as to Mr Babb's standing on matters of direct help to fugitives, etc.. and with the reluctant belief, too, of his friend Leonhardt behind me, I soon after made public the allegation that Edmund Babb wrote the letter to Secretary Floyd. I still hold that view, and repeat it now as part of the narrative, without the slightest feeling one way or the other relative to the person whom I believe wrote the same. Mr. Babb never denied the authorship, though that is not, of course, conclusive or affirmative. Captain Brown knew nothing whatever of this letter and of the peril it indicated, until his attack and defeat caused its publication. It is almost startling now, in view of the many statements to relatives and friends, that were made in letters written during this period by members of the party, as well as the great public interest that attended John Brown's movements, that there was not an undue exposure and arrest of the whole party. I have in my possession a score of letters from Anderson, Leeman, and Taylor, very plainly setting forth the general purpose. Anderson, it is evident, was better informed than most of them as to the PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 257 place and date. In visits after the war to London County and other parts of the valley of Virginia, I gathered many details of Cook's movements, as a writing-teacher, map and book agent, etc., and of his rather loose talk. He never concealed his identity with the Kansas free-state cause, and was quite open, at least among the Quaker and Dunker farmers of that section, in declaring that there might be "disturbance " or "active uneasiness" among the "darkies." In one letter Leeman tells his mother he is in Virginia, engaged in a movement to attack slavery at Harper's Ferry. Steward Taylor was engaged in writing farewells to intimate friends and his brother, and letters found in the carpet-bag, captured in Virginia, shows that even Tidd had been very frank in his hints to his brother and sister as early as 1858. Some of these matters reached John K Brown and aroused his anxiety, if not anger. The sharpest let- STEWARD TAYL ter from his pen I have seen was written to Kagi, though not designed for him, and is as follows: - "WASHINGTON, MD., I th August, I859. "J. HENRIE, ESQ.: "DEAR SIR-I got along Tuesday evening all right; with letters, etc. I do hope all corresponding except on business of the Co. will be droped for the present. If every one must write somegirl; or some other extra friend, telling or shoing 17,OR. 258 JOHN BROWN. our location; and telling (as some have done) all about our matters; we might as well get the whole published at once, in the New York Herald. Any person is a stupid fool who expects hisfriends to keepfor him; that which he cannot keep himself. All our friends have each got their special friends, and they (aain have theirs, and it would not be right to lay the burden of keeping a secret on any one; at the end of a long string. I could tell you of some reasons I have for feeling rather keenly on this point. I do not say this on account of any tale-bearing that I accuse any-you of. Three more hands came on from North Elba on Saturday last. Be sure to let me know of anything of interest. "Yours in TRUTH." There is another fact to account for the feeling this letter manifests. At this time there was evidently considerable and earnest discussion in progress at the Kennedy Farm. The men there were made acquainted with the fact that John Brown intended to first capture Harper's Ferry Even his own sons did not regard it as a wise or practicable step. Mrs. Adams's memoranda gives warrant to this. It would seem as if the men had a desire to only repeat but on a larger scale the Missouri episode and run off a large body of fugitive slaves. The discussions were "warm." Even his sons Owen, Oliver, and Watson, unwillingly consented to the attack on Harper's Ferry. Kagi came down from Chambersburg to take part in that decision. Cook was also present from Harper's Ferry. Charles P. Tidd got so warm, writes Mrs. Adams, that he left the farm and went down to Cook's dwelling near Harper's Ferry "to let his wrath cool off." He remained away for over a week. Kagi, when telling me of the plan, had emphasized the intention of getting out of the place before the frightened PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 259 people could get organized for an attack in force. This, as we know, was not done. Cook favored the capture quite forcibly, and made many visits to examine and report on the Government buildings, their contents, weak or strong points, habits of their watchmen, and other matters of value. Kagi, the adjutant-general, did not oppose Captain Brown. Stevens, Anderson, Leeman seem also to have been with their leader. Owen, Oliver, and Watson, all men of ability, Oliver especially, had visited the Ferry quite often, and saw readily what a deathtrap it might become. This brave, clean-souled lover and husband, young and ardent, with a beautiful girl-wife near him, closed the discussion, for the sons at least, with the remark: " We must not let our father die alone." The Captain had declared that he would go to the Ferry with the half dozen, who had signified that they, at least, would follow him anywhere and under all conditions. He also proposed to resign the command and follow Kagi, Stevens, or whoever the men might choose. On that question their vote was a united negative. The following letter was written two days before Frederick Douglass and Captain Brown had their last meeting in the old stone quarry, near Chambersburg. Here it is: HARPER'S FERRY, August I8, I859. DEAR SIR-We have all agreed to sustain your decisions, until you have prozeiL incompetent, and many of us will adhere to your decisions so long as you will. Your friend OWEN SMITH.1 I For " Smith" we should, of course, read " Brown." $o0 JOHN BROWN. " The men generally,' writes Mrs. Adams, " did not know that the raid on the Government works was part of the 'plan' until after they arrived at the farm in the beginning of August. We knew," she writes, " that lie had planned the taking of Harper's Ferry long before he or any member of his family ever went to Kansas. It was father's original plan, as we used to call it, to take Harper's Ferry at the outset, to secure firea ins to arm the slaves, and to strike terror into the hearts of the slaveholders; then to immediately start for the plantations, gather up the negroes, and retreat to the mountains; send out armed squads from there to gather more, and eventually to spread out his forces until the slaves would come to them, or the slaveholders would surrender them to gain peace. He expected... that if they had intelligent white leaders that they would be prevailed on to rise and secure their freedom without revenging their wrongs, and with very little bloodshed.... He changed his plan as to the places for commencing while in Kansas, and at one time thought of going down to the vicinity of New Orleans and working north from there."' John Brown, Jr., begun active work "hiving tile bees," as his father told Frederick Douglass, at Chambersburg, he wished him to do; after shipping tlie precious freight of tools, etc., the Captain had This may account for a series of memoranda relative to Louisiana slave plantations, routes, etc., which, in Owen's peculiar hand, are now in possession of Mrs. Ruth Thompson, the eldest sister. It may also account for Kagi suggesting to me the trips I made into the Indian Territory and even further south, reporting observations to him by letter. PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 26I procured with such labored efforts, July and part of August was taken up with this work. The first trip was made to Boston, August Ioth, where he succeeded in raising about two hundred dollars. He wrote Kagi from Syracuse, under date of August 17th, that he dined at Medford, with George L. Stearns,.who said as he left: " Tell friend Isaac that we have the fullest confidence in his endeavor, whatever may be tile result." John Brown, Jr., adds: "I have met with no man on whom, I think, more implicit reliance can be placed." Of other Boston friends whom he met or had communication with, he says; "Our cause is their cause in the fullest sense of the word." On the same day he sends a brief note from Rochester, announcing that Frederick Douglass had left via New York and Philadelphia, to meet " friend Isaac." He also states " That other young friend went on from here, to visit you yesterday," referring to the negro Shields Green, whom Douglass had enlisted in his place. John Brown, Jr., then went northward to Canada West, taking with him a colored man, the Rev. Mr. Loguen, of Syracuse, of whom he afterwards wrote as "too fat" for real use. St. Catherine, Hamilton, Chatham, London, Buxton, and Windsor were all visited. Branches of the League, of which mention has been made in chapter seven, were organized. John's letters are full of information, but all of them indicate delay on the part of the small number relied upon. He was in Detroit, conferring with De Baptiste, and at Sandusky and Cleveland, urging others to work and assist. In a letter from Sandusky to "John Henri" (Kagi), bearing date August 27th, John, Jr., writes of " a coppersmith," sup 262 JOHN BROWN. posed to be Reynolds, who was at the Chatham Convention and one of the sharpest of would be fighters, saying, " I think he is one of those men who must be obtained if possible," but he had been out of work, and now "has a job, which he cannot leave until finished." At another man's "an association" was formed, "the business of which is to hunt up good workmen and raise the means among themselves to send them forward." None of these things materialized. John, Jr. believed that " they will take hold and do something." At Chatham "I met a hearty response," he writes and that's all, except that the brave, modest, reticent 0. P. Anderson, paid his own way and reported for duty shortly after. Robinson Alexander, also a member of the Chatham Convention, "thinks, writes John, "he can now close out by ist November, and in the meantime to prove his devotion will furnish means to help on two or three himself." But if he did that, they fell by the wayside somewhere. Mr. Holden, also a member of the convention, had "gone to the Frazier River," British Columbia. Even Richard Richardson, the fugitive, who had been helped out of Missouri, and was afterward one of the men " at school" in Iowa and a member of the Chatham Convention, was "away harvesting " All, indeed, appeared to be otherwise busy or to misapprehend. Canada, and the freed refugees therein, proved a broken reed, indeed. Harriet Tubman, "the General of us all," fell sick and could not travel. Frederick Douglass's refusal to finally join the enterprise has never, to me, appeared to warrant adverse criticism. His position before the land justified, in 1859, a choice between both conditions, nor failed of PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 263 endeavor. Certainly he was doing a large work, compelling, by his intellectual power and eloquence, a fast-growing recognition for the oppressed race, of which he was an able leader. He might well weigh, as he did, the question of casting this upon the "hazard of a die." The "logic of events" at least has justified Frederick Douglass, and his faithful services must silence critics; those at least who also had the opportunity and did not follow John Brown. On the 2d of September John, Jr., writes again to "John Henri," dating from his home at West Andover. In this he mentions sending letters to Canada points, and says that "friend L-y (Leary), of Ob(erlin) will be on hand soon." He brought a recruit, too, in the person of John A. Copeland " C. H. L-n (Langston) will do all he can, but his health is bad." Another one has " married a wife and cannot come." So had Oliver Brown, but he had never been a slave. Jolin, Jr., inquires as to the "frame of mind" in which the Rochester friend (Frederick Douglass) returned. On the 8th of September, another letter reaches Kagi, in which John, Jr., says: "I had supposed you would not think it best to commence operations opening the coal banks before spring, unless circumstances should make important." This misapprehension, if such it was, seems to have been the cause of delays on the Canada side. I do not myself believe that beyond a dozen in all, there was any real expectation of competent recruits arriving. Mrs. Adams's statements confirm this view. Reasons grew for pressing to a conclusion. Disbandment was not hinted at even; a forward movement was therefore necessary. Life in the little farm 264 JOHN BROWN. house went on becoming almost unbearable at times; the men, who, in spite of their devotion, good humor, and discipline, necessarily feeling the vigorous caution and confinement demanded by it Their singing was a great relief when it could be indulged; Stevens and Tidd especially having fine voices, the former being an excellent baritone of superior timbre Among their favorite songs were "All the Dear Folk have Gone," "Faded Flowers" and "Nearer My God to Thee." No spiritual "seances" were held at Kennedy's, at least while Anne and Martha were there. John Brown was always good to his neighbors, and his acts of personal kindness and charity, as well as his skill as veterinarian with sick cattle and horses, are remembered to this day, and have become parts of the neighborhood traditions. At the " Ferry,' he and his sons became favorites, and were noted for their courtesy and willingness to oblige. Owen especially used to spend hours in talking with the railroad men and others, learning thereby, without arousing suspicions, of the people, topography, the best and worst slaveholders, and of the "tools," etc., in the United States Arsenal. Cook at this time was constantly on the move, selling maps through the country as an excuse. The people around the Kennedy Farm were mainly of the Dunker sect or church, and of a division therein which were non-resistant and did not believe in slavery. Captain Brown used to go nearly every evening to a little church close by, and join with these quaint people in their religious exercises, often exhorting or preaching to the small congregation. Mrs. Adams says of the result of one of these occasions: PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 265 " There was a family of poor people who lived near by who had rented the garden on the Kennedy place, directly back of the house. The little barefooted woman and four small children (she carried the youngest in her arms) would all come trooping over to the garden at all hours of the day, and, at times, several times during the clay. Nearly always they would come up the steps and into the house and stay a short time. This made it very troublesome for us, compelling the men, when she came in sight at meal times, to gather up the victuals and table-cloth and quietly disappear up stairs. One Saturday father and I went to a religious (Dunker) meeting that was held in a grove near the schoolhouse, and the folks left at home forgot to keep a sharp lookout for Mrs. Heiffmaster, and she stole into the house before they saw her, and saw Shields Green (that must have been in September), Barclay Coppoc, and Will Leeman. And another time after that she saw C. P. Tidd standing on the porch. She thought these strangers were running off negroes to the North. I used to give her everything she wanted or asked for to keep her on good terms, but we were in constant fear that she was either a spy or would betray us. It was like standing on a powder magazine, after a slow match had been lighted." The Pennsylvania border was more suspicious. It floated slowly over to Maryland, and rumors began to be heard of possible domiciliary visits, of calls by the sheriff, and other symptoms of distrust. They did not crystallize into action, but it is most probable that an exposure of some sort must have soon occurred, if Captain Brown had not himself made the same. The men themselves were overstrained. The exaltation they were feeling would have broken and fallen down. " One day, while we were alone in the yard," writes Mrs. Adams, "Owen remarked as he looked up at the house-' If we succeed, some day there will be a United States flag over this house-if we do not, JOHN BROWVN. it will be considered a den of land pirates and thieves.'" On the 29th of September, the two young and brave women left the Kennedy Farm for North Elba. Martha's babe was born, and died five months after, and in a few days she parted with life also. Oliver escorted them to Troy, and then returned direct. Virginia Cook, the wife of John Edwin, spent one night, the I3th of October, on her way from her home to Chambersburg, where. she was left with her babe almost destitute for some days. When Anne and Martha, with Oliver, were on their way to Chambersburg to take the train and ere they had left Maryland, a constable, or deputy sheriff, rode up and compelled Oliver to stop, while he searched the little wagon. When the train reached Harrisburg, the three young folks met their father and Kagi, returning from Philadelphia, and there in the depot bade them farewell, — the last one as it proved. It was difficult to make any of the Brown family believe their father's plan was to prove a failure. When the startling news reached them at North Elba, and it came in even worse than the actual shape, they could not be induced to give it full credence. The last of the party closed in. Osborne P. Anderson arrived at Chambersburg on the i6th, and reached the farm on the 25th of September. Dangerfield Newby, who had been living in a border town of Pennsylvania, was on hand, Captain Brown, Kagi, Leary, and Copeland alone were absent. The two last arrived cn the 2d of October. Merriam reported at Philadelphia on the ioth or xIth of the last month, met Captain Brown there, and, after conference, left PREPARATION AT THE KENNEDY FARM. 267 immediately for Baltimore, where he purchased a large amount of primers and caps. The dealer testified afterwards that he supposed the purchase to be for some filibustering expedition. On the i5th, Merriam arrived at the Kennedy Farm. From Harper's Ferry he sent the following inexplicable dispatch: HARPER'S FERRY, Oct. 15, 1859. LEWIS HAYDEN,' Secretary of State's Office, State House, Boston. Orders disobeyed. Conditions broken. Pay S. immediately balance of my money. Allow no further expenses. Recall money advanced, if not sent. FRANCIS J. MERRIAM. The meaning of this dispatch is unknown. It can only be conjecturally understood. There is not the slightest ground for supposing it to relate to any dissatisfaction with Captain Brown. Merriam brought with him to the point at which he first met John Brown several hundred dollars in gold, and transferred to him in large part what he did not expend at Baltimore on the I3th or i4th of October in the purchase of 40,000 Sharpe's rifle primers and percussion caps, etc. It is evident, therefore, that the message could not have referred to affairs at the Maryland rendezvous, and must have related to some undue gossip or complaints made in Boston. The five men of color that Lewis Hayden states agreed to, but did not go to join John Brown, were to have traveled on funds advanced by Frank J. Merriam, who had drawn $600 from his uncle before he left Boston, leaving part of it with Mr. Hayden. My information, A well-known colored man, of Boston, now deceased, himself a fugitive slave. 268 JOHN BROWN. though not quite verified, goes to show that he gave and spent for Captain Brown and the enterprise about $400 in all; fortunately retaining some for himself, thus enabling him to make his escape from Chambersburg north to Canada, after the defeat. Frank B. Sanborn (on the authority of Hayden himself), in an Atlantic article, December, I875 (" The Virginia Campaign of John Brown"), states that Lewis Hayden was informed of the movement by John Brown, Jr., after conferring with Mr. Stearns and Dr. House in June, 1859, of his father's purposes and plans. The Atlantic article says: " Mr. Hayden entered warmly into the work, and undertook to enlist a few colored men in Massachusetts... According to his recollections he did enlist six such recruits only one... reached Harper's Ferry, before the attack, and even he took no part in the fight." In a footnote to the same article, it is said, on hMr. Hayden's authority, that " John Anderson was a different person from Osborne (Perry) Anderson; that he was the only one of the colored recruits from Massachusetts who reached Harper's Ferry, but that he took no part in the fight and returned to Boston, where he has since died." [I have been unable to find the slightest trace of such a person.-R. J. H.] This much is certain, that with the arrival of the Boston recruit, Francis J. Merriam, the tally was closed, the list put away, the die was cast! Within thirty hours, at sunrise of the 17th of October, 1859, a " shot was fired " that, like that of the embattled farmers of Concord and Lexington, eighty-two years before, led, too, by the grandfather of the Reverend Theodore Parker, one of John Brown's warmest friends, " echoed round the world." CHAPTER X. "THE ORDER OF MARCH." Gathering the last recruits-Date of assault- Was it changed? -Arrivals from Canada - Ohio - The young Bostonian-A colored man who cannot be traced —ewis Hayden and John Brown, Jr., as recruiting agents —The Kansas notification-Night rides from Chambersburg to Hagerstown-The last Sunday services at the farm-A council of warAssignments to duty-Down the moonlit road. THE movement upon Harper's Ferry begun at eight in the evening of the i6th of October, that being the hour at which the little band assumed their weapons and left the Kennedy farm. John Brown returned from Philadelphia via Hagerstown, during the night of the I4th, reaching the farm early in the forenoon of the 15th. All who participated in the attack answered the roll call. It remains uncertain whether the actual blow was suddenly decided on or not. Dr. A. M. Ross, of Toronto, Canada, states that he was notified that the blow was to be delivered between the 15th and 27th, and, according to a previous understanding, the doctor went to Richmond and was in that city when the startling news arrived. John Brown, Jr., evidently did not anticipate as early a movement. His letters from Canada, found in the captured car 270 JOHN BROWN. pet-bag, showed that there were colored men from Canada and Ohio who expected and were preparing to join during the last week of October. One hand from Kansas reported to Captain Brown himself, between the Ioth and I4th, while the latter was absent from the farm. This Western man was sent to Hagerstown and Chambersburg, receiving a distinct impression that a week would elapse before positive action. He managed to remain from the i5th to the i8th in the neighborhood; and then, finding it impossible to assist in any direct way the party headed by Owen Brown who had escaped into the laurel hills of southern Pennsylvania, successfully made his way to Cincinnati, returning immediately to the border counties of Pennsylvania. As a newspaper correspondent, being recognized or suspected of being, moreover, a "Kansas" man-not a safe designation in those days,-he soon left for Harrisburg and Cleveland, and finally went to Boston. Details multiply to show that "Isaac Smith's" appearance, with the presence of Owen Brown and his brothers and of Jerry Anderson, in such a quiet neighborhood and upon so small a farm, excited active suspicions among those who were always alert to guard the interests of slavery. The presence of a colored man at the farm-house, known as it was, according to Dauphin Thompson's letter, could but excite alarm. The Pennsylvania border was a more dangerous neighborhood than that of Maryland. The "peculiar institution," as Ralph Waldo Emerson once wittily termed chattelism, was never without assets, however, when assault was threatened or dangers feared. A large draft of alarm was always ready t THE ORDER OF MARCH." 27I for discount. The type of Pennsylvanians by whom Cook and Hazlett were afterwards done to death, were as " mediumistic " as the border slaves and free people of color. In Maryland, county peace officers were somewhat anxiously inquiring about "Isaac Smith & Sons," a mining firmn that did not minecattle buyers who were not trading in stock. Annie Brown (Mrs. Adams), whom her father called his "little watch-dog," because so vigilant when at the farm, recalls in her California home that, when she and Isabel, her brother Watson's wife, left the Kennedy farm for North Elba, nearly a month before the outbreak, that persons were already prying about the place. James Redpath' puts the expected date as the 24th of October. He was in communication with Lewis Hayden and Francis J. Merriam, and had, as he wrote, all the current data at command. During August, I received at Leavenworth, from J. H. Kagi, a letter referring to a proposed "expedition" to "Central America," being about to start later in October. From "Isaac Smith" there came to me in the middle of September, bearing date at Chambersburg, a brief note by which I was notified that "mining operations" would begin in October, and that if I still wished to enter upon the speculation, I should report by the middle of that month at a point named. Under the tense excitement of that period, I destroyed this note, and have ever since been apologizing to myself for the only bit of fear or evasion as to my own feelings or purposes, of which I was in any way guilty during all the fierce '' Public Life of Capt. John Brown," Boston, I86o. 272 CJOHN BROWN. days that followed the I7th of October, I859. In subsequent conversation with Charles Plummer Tidd, while in northern Ohio, and later with Barclay Coppoc in Boston and at North Elba, the following July, I had my view strengthened into conviction, that the final order to move was based upon a sudden emergency. Osborne Perry Anderson's graphic and invaluable little monograph "A Voice From Harper's Ferry," must after all be the best authority. Summarizing his testimony, he states that, after his own arrival at Chambersburg, By "^ f ^Pa., from Chatham, Canada, on the i6th of September, I859, there was a council or conference held, presumably at Mrs. Ritter's, the boarding-house B L/~ IHBi where "Isaac Smith" and "John Henri" always put up, and where boarded also the Carpenters (the two Coppocs), PERRY ANDERSON. George Plummer (Tidd),Watson and Oliver "Smith" (Brown), and to which Mrs. Virginia Cook, the young wife of that abolition partisan, went on the night of the i2th or i3th of October, from Martinsburg, via Hagerstown, Md. The colored hands were usually accommodated, it is presumed, by men of that rxace, like Henry Watson, the barber. There were others who tilled small areas of land and worked " round," that could also oe depended upon. Mr. Anderson, in conversation at Washington during I870, estimated that there were at OSBORNE " THE ORDER OF MARCH." 273 least one hundred and fifty actively informed slaves. He spent eight days at Chambersburg. On the 20th and 24th, conferences as before referred to, were held, and upon the latter date Anderson started afoot for Middletown, a village on the borders of Maryland and Pennsylvania. He arrived there at dark and found Captain Brown awaiting him in a one-horse covered wagon he used. The underground railway work of that border was usually done in such vehicles, when " Walker's express " was not employed. It was this little experience that helped Anderson to escape. If the party which Owen Brown afterwards led, had taken the same general direction northwards that Anderson did, probably all of them would have got away. Cook's anxiety to get news of his young wife, then at Chambersburg, and Owen Brown's knowledge of western Pennsylvania, led to the route, west and south of the range-the road watched by the professional kidnappers and fugitive slavehunters of those days-which they finally followed. Hazlitt's divergence at Chambersburg from the north star line, also led to his arrest at Carlisle. But to return to Anderson's experiences. After meeting Captain Brown on the outskirts of Middletown, they drove at once to the Kennedy Farm, arriving there about daybreak. As a necessary precaution against surprise all the four colored men who went from the North to the farm and ferry made the journey from Chambersburg to the Kennedy Farm in the night. Anderson says: "A more earnest, fearless, determined company of men it would be difficult to get together." On the I2th of October John A. Copeland and Lewis Sherrard 274 JOHN BROWN. Leary, colored men from Oberlin, Ohio, arrived at Chambersburg. Captain Brown on the Ioth or iith of October was in Philadelphia, meeting F. J. Merriam there, and sending him over to Baltimore to buy gun caps, rifle primers, tools, etc. Why these were iot purchased inl Philadelphia has never been explained. The large quantity of 40,000 caps Merriam purchased aroused suspicion of a filibustering movement and almost caused his arrest. Some days before, Merriam, who had learned from me a few months previously of the proposed attack on slavery, was met on a Boston street and,Go~, ^ iiasked by Lewis Hayden for $600,:.....- which was furnished, Merriam well knowing it was intended for " secret service" purposes. Lewis Hayden always said one "John Anderson," H,, a colored man, went from Boston![^ in p; ' and never returned. Mr. Sanborn in his "Life and Letters of John n, is 0 Brown" gives this name. But I ~,/!~ have never been able to trace any ACKSON MERRIAM. such person, and if John Anderson did go to join John Brown, he must liave been slain on the road after the fight commenced. The party who assembled then in council at the Kennedy Farm after the Captain returned from the little Winebrenarian (Dunker) chapel and the evening prayer-meeting therein, consisted of John Brown and his three sons-Owen, Oliver, and Watson; William and Adolphus Dauphin Thompson, brothers of Henry, FRANCIS J " THE ORDER OF MARCH." 275 husband of the Captain's eldest daughter Ruth; John Henri Kagi, Aaron Dwight Stevens, John Edwin Cook, who had come the same day from Martinsburg, Maryland, where he had lived for about fifteen months with his wife's people; William H. Leeman, George Plummer Tidd, Jeremiah G. Anderson, Albert Hazlett, Steward Taylor, Edwin and Barclay Coppoc, and Francis J. Merriam, white men, and Osborne P. Anderson, William Copeland, Lewis Sherrard Leary, and Shields Green (known usually as "the Emperor"), colored. No mention is made as being at the farm of Dangerfield Newby, the Virginian free man, who fought and died at Harper's Ferry, in the evident hope of making his wife free. She was a slave woman who lived about thirty miles south of < H-arper's Ferry and was then, as letters show, about to be sold to a Louisiana trader. She was subsequently so sold and still lives, I? learn, in the Pelican State, made JOHN ED)WIN free by the civil war. Of the twenty-one followers assembled in the Kennedy dwelling, thirteen of them, including the Browns and William Thompson, had all seen service in Kansas. Of the younger whites-Dauphin Thompson was a North Elba recruit, the brothers Coppoc were from Iowa, and Francis Jackson Merriam, a grandson of the president of the American Anti-Slavery Society, came naturally with his hostility to chattel bondage, COOK. 276 JOHN BROWN. though his feeling did not take the non-resistance form of Francis Jackson. Adolphus Dauphin Thompson and Barclay Coppoc were both in their twentieth year; Merriam was not over twenty-one. The unmarried men were besides these three youngsters,-Owen Brown, Kagi, Stevens, Tidd, Leeman, Edwin Coppoc, Taylor, " Jerry " Anderson, his colored namesake, Osborne, and Shields Green-twelve out of the twenty-two. During the summer months the wives of Oliver and Watson Brown had both been at the Kennedy Farm on short visits. Virginia, the wife of Captain Cook, was then at Chambersburg, Pa., waiting with her young child for the news of an event whose nature she but half suspected. The wives of the Browns were all in North Elba. The roads by which the little band of heroic emancipators had traveled to reach Harper's Ferry that fateful Sunday evening, were indeed sufficiently defined. Five through slavery and fugitive days; thirteen in the miry smoke and red flame of Kansas aggressions; the remaining five of the party had been trained by the seeing of events and through their associations. Only one recruit came direct from Canada. There was also one unknown colored Virginian left at the Maryland farm to assist Owen's party in moving goods. That suspicions were aroused became even more evident on the Pennsylvania border, where the profit of fugitive slave-hunting had trained its human bloodhounds, than it was in the sleepy fields of Maryland. A letter of Dauphin Thompson to his North Elba home gives a reason for this: " THE ()RDER (01 \MARCH." 277 " PARTS UNKNOWN, September 4, I859. "DEAR BROTHER AND SISTER-.. I am sitting in the door of an old log-house, in which we have stored some of our freight. It is about fifty rods from the house in which we live. We are all well and in capital spirits. The girls have gone to meeting this morning, and some of the boys. They call the meeting a bush-meeting. They have meetings in a grove during the daytime, and at evening in the house. The meeting is conducted by a sect, called Winebrenarians. They are opposed to slavery, so much so that they will not have anything to do with the institution in the least. If a strange minister comes along, they will not let him preach until they find out whether he is in favor of slavery or not. " We have to be very careful here how we act in everything. We have one colored man in our company who has been seen by a neighbor woman, but she thinks he is a fugitive, and that we are trying to help him to his freedom. She has promised to keep dark about it, and we are going to trust her honesty. It is rather a bad job, but it can't be helped, as we are not ready to begin operations yet. Probably you will hear from us about the ist of October, if not before. The girls will be sent home before we begin operations. I have been over into Virginia a number of times since I have been here. There are some of the best farms in Jefferson County I ever saw. There are two nephews of George Washington over there. They own large farms and lots of slaves." He then inquires after home and neighborhood affairs, and writes: " I suppose the folk think we are a set of fools, but they will find out we know what we are about." 278 JOHN BROWN. It is also known that Captain Brown had learned of orders to remove a large number of arms at an early day from the Harper's Ferry Arsenal to other points, chiefly in the South. Indeed, the removal had already begun, for when on the I7th the citizens began to arm themselves, it was United States muskets they obtained from boxes stored in the town previous to transfer elsewhere. There can be little question to a studentoof the period, that the removal of which Captain Brown heard, was commenced in pursuance of the Secretary of War's policy of loading the Southern arsenals with the military property of the general Government.' Mr. O. P. Anderson's narrative continues by saying that a tried friend (Dangerfield Newby) had given information of the state of public feeling without, and of the projected search. Captain Brown, therefore, Valuable documents of an historical character were obtained during the Civil War, by army seizures, etc. Among such finds were a number of letters taken from Jefferson Davis's plantation house in Mississippi, bearing dates from 1851 to I856. They were from various Southern Senators; all of them urged secession if the new Northern party should prove successful, and several demanded of Mr. Davis, as Secretary of War, the replacing of old arms in Southern arsenals with the best at command of the War Department. Senators Butler (South Carolina) and Mason (Virginia) were especially earnest. The latter, under date of September 30, I856, writes Davis, after urging the supply of arms as indicated, that " in the event of Fremont's election the South should proceed at once to immediate, absolute, and eternal separation," adding, that " I am a candidate for the first halter." It were a pity that he did not get it also. This, and other letters, first appeared in print in 7he Republic (May, 1876), a political monthly then issued at Washington, of which I was one of the editors. C" THE ORDER OF MARCH." 279 concluded to strike the blow immediately, and not, as at first intended, to await certain reinforcements from the North and East, which would have been in Maryland within from one to three weeks. Captain Brown was not seconded in another quarter as he expected at the time of the action, but could the fears of the neighbors have been allayed for a few days, the disappointment in that respect would not have had much weight. It is not of much moment to speculate as to the disappointment Anderson refers to, but it seems most probable that the reference is made both to the failure to make connection with the Canada colored recruits, who had been expected, and to the declination of Frederick Douglass to participate in the Harper's Ferry movement, as there is some evidence that other colored men made their possible activity contingent on that of their leading orator and statesman. "On Sunday," writes Anderson, "October the i6th, Captain Brown arose earlier than usual and called his men to worship. He read a chapter from the Bible applicable to the condition of the slaves and our duty as their brethren, and then offered up a fervent prayer to God to assist us in the liberation of the bondmen." After breakfast the Captain called the roll, a sentinel was posted outside the door to warn if any one should approach,.and at Io o'clock the council assembled; Osborne P. Anderson was appointed to the chair. John Brown preserved the moral logic of his attitude by putting this competent colored man into the presiding place. After the council adjourned the constitution was read for the benefit of the four who had not before heard it and the necessary obligations z8o JOHN BROWN. taken. Mr. Anderson used the word "oaths," but the records show that it was a parole of honor which was taken at Chatham when the " Constitution " was adopted. Men who were to hold military positions in the organization, and who had not received commissions before then, had them filled out by J. H. Kagi, and gave the required promises of obedience. In the afternoon eleven orders were made out by the Captain and were afterwards carried out in all particulars by the officers and men. They were as follows: I. Captain Owen Brown, F. J. Merriam, and Barclay Coppoc to remain at the old house as sentinels, to guard the arms and effects till morning, when they would be joined by some of the men from the Ferry with teams to move all arms and other things to the old school-house in Virginia, located about three-quarters of a mile from Harper's Ferry. It is a place selected beforehand by the Captain. 2. All hands to make as little noise as possible going to the Ferry, so as not to attract attention till we could get to the bridge; and to keep all arms secreted, so as not to be detected if met by any one. 3. The men to walk in couples, at some distance apart; and should any one overtake us, stop and detain him until the rest of our comrades were out of the road. The same course to be pursued if we are met by any one. 4. That Captains Charles P. Tidd, and John E. Cook walk ahead of the wagon in which Captain Brown rides to the Ferry. They are to tear down the telegraph wires on tle Maryland side along the railroad; and to do the same on the Virginia side, after the town should be captured. "THE ORDER OF MARCH." 28T 5. Captains John H. Kagi and A. D. Stevens to take the watchman at the Ferry bridge a prisoner when the party get there, and to detain him until the engine-house upon the Government grounds shall be taken. 6. Captain Watson Brown and Steward Taylor to take positions at the Potomac (covered) bridge, and hold it till morning. They to stand on opposite sides, a rod apart, and if any one entered the bridge, they are to let him get in between them. In that case, pikes to be used, not Sharpe's rifles, unless they are offered much resistance, and they meet with refusal to surrender. 7. Captains Oliver Brown and William Thompson are to execute a similar order at the Shenandoah bridge; remaining until morning. 8. Lieutenant Jeremiah Anderson and Adolphus (Dauphin) Thompson to occupy the engine-house at first, with the watchman from the bridge and the watchman belonging to the engine-house yard as prisoners, until the one on the opposite side of the street and the rifle factory be taken, after which they would be reinforced, to hold that place with the prisoners. 9. Lieutenant Albert FIazlett and Private Edwin Coppoc to hold the armory opposite the engine-house after it has been taken; remaining through the night and until morning, when arrangements would be different. Io. That John H. Kagi, Adjutant-General, and John A Copeland (colored), take positions at the rifle factory through the night, and hold it until further orders. 282 JO- IN BROWN. 12. That Capt. A. D. Stevens proceed to the country with his men, and after taking certain parties prisoners, bring them to the Ferry. In the case of Col. Lewis Washington, who had certain arms in his possession, he must, after being secured as a prisoner, deliver them into the hands of Osborne P. Anderson. Anderson being a colored man, and colored men being only things in the South, it is proper that the South be taught a lesson upon this point. Preparation had been made for the means of firing the bridges, buildings, etc., by tow balls steeped in oil. The making of these was probably due to Annie and Isabel Brown before they left. These articles were taken to the Ferry, but no use was made of them. It was the intention, evidently, to set fire before leaving that place for the mountains. Captain Brown did not omit, it is said by a former neighbor of the Kennedy farm party, to proceed to the nearby Duinker or" Vinebrenarian" Church, and conduct there the services in which he had participated or led during the preceding months of his life in Maryland. But that is doubtful, as the order to move was made so early. When all was ready, Captain Brown then gave his final charge to the men, in which he said among other things, as Anderson reports: "And now, gentlemen, let me impress this one thing upon your minds. You all know how dear life is to you, and how dear your life is to your friends. And in remembering that consider that the lives of others are as dear to them as yours are to you. Do not, therefore, take the life of any one if you can possibly avoid it; but if it is necessary to take life '"THE ORDER OF MIAR(CT. 283 in order to save your own, then make sure work of it." The several parties had been chosen. John H. Kagi being second in command, the capture and holding of Hall's Rifle Works was naturally assigned to him. To Aaron D. Stevens was assigned the capture of several prominent slaveholders. He selected for his assistants Charles P. Tidd, John E. Cook, Osborne P. Anderson, Lewis Sherrard Leary, and John A. Copeland. Stevens was to send over from Virginia to Owen Brown at the farm a wagon with negro help for the removal of the pikes and guns, etc., stored at the farm. Captain Cook had several times traveled thus along ^ the Valley turnpike and collected information needed. He thus learned of Lewis Washington's possession of the historic arms of Frederick the Great and General Lafayette that were afterwards captured.' It would hardly be necessary to ' repeat the startling story, except to DAUPHIN ADOLPIIU.S bring out the actions of the party as a whole and as individuals. One thing must be realized from the first moment: not one faltered, quailed, or failed. From the two country lads, who had not yet crossed the path of manhood, Dauphin Thompson and Barclay Coppoc, neither of whom had THOMPSON. 1 The Lafayette pistol or pistols were afterwards restored by Owen Brown; the sword was retaken from Captain Brown. 284 JOHN xROWN. reached his twentieth year, to Kagi and Stevens and Cook-the three whose experience of the world had most assuredly given some mental maturity, fitted them to understand as they did, the desperate chances of their startling venture-all the associates at Harper's Ferry failed not in obedience, courage, and combat, to their veteran and idealistic leader. From the outset, intelligently and intellectually-sentimentally and by feeling-new recruits as well as long-time comrades, all knew or felt that the attack on slavery they were about making, whether lost or won at the moment, would assuredly "pay," and it did. John Brown was right when he said so in the jail and on the road to the sacred gallows. CHAPTER XI. RENDING THE FORTRESS WALL. The first blow-An Irish watchman-Twenty-two capture the United States arsenal, armory, and works -Stopping the train a fatal blunder- The town people's fright-Sunrise brings aid —Capture of Lewis [Washington-Attack on the little bandBeginning of the fateful end- The fight was onTwo thousand held at bay by seventeen men-Barbarities and brutalities - Courage and calmness -The United States marines-The Virginians' own verdict on their own acts- Where the roads ended. DOWN the still road, dim white in the moonlight, and amid the chill October night, went the little band, silent and sober. Tidd and Anderson stated afterward that they saw no sign and felt none themselves of any special excitement. Cook and Tidd were so busily engaged in cutting the telegraph wires along the road that they had no time to think. Near the Maryland entrance of the Ferry bridge the wagon stopped and the men assumed their carbines and cartridge-boxes. No one had seen them on the road. John H. Kagi and Aaron D. Stevens led the march and were first to cross the bridge. Williams, the watchman there, was captured without disturbance. Captain Brown with the wagon and the balance of 286 JOHN BROWN. the force went on and into the Arsenal grounds. Watson Brown and Stewart Taylor were placed as guards, and the engine-house was then occupied. The watchman in the armory began to shout and would not open the door, which was forced. The two prisoners were left under charge of Jeremiah G. Anderson and the younger Thompson. Stevens then moved to take possession of the armory. Kagi and Copeland were left at Hall's rifle works, and Albert Hazlett and Edwin Coppoc held the United States armory. William Thompson and Oliver Brown held possession of the Shenandoah railroad bridge. Up to this point not a shot had been fired. Returning to the. engine-house, where Captain Brown had already stationed himself, Stevens with Cook, Tidd, Leary, Shields Green, and 0. P. J^B A Anderson, left to secure Lewis W- ashington, Terence Burns, and JOHN HENRI KAGI. Alstedt as hostages, with their slave men as recruits, according to the arranged programme. The capture of the place was effected before eleven on the I6th. At midnight the relief watchman for the railroad bridge came down. He may be left to tell his own story of events. The first shot fired was at that watchman.' I Patrick Higgins is a watchman of.the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, who is still at Harper's Ferry, where, in the employ of that corporation, he has resided for nearly forty years, recently gave to Dr. Thomas Featherstonhaugh,.of Washington (to whom RENDING THE FORTRESS WALL. 287 On the night of tie i6th of October, I859, Patrick Higgins went to his post at midnight, waiting as usual at the end of the bridge till the half hour came in order to pull the indicator, as required by the railroad regulations. He noticed that the lamps at each end of the bridge were out, and thought it strange but did not light them. A little alarmed, with a lantern in his hand he passed the watch-house looking for the other man, Bill Williams. When nearly over the bridge he was suddenly halted by two men; keeping on, however, he was seized by one (Oliver Brown, he afterwards learned) who, grasping his arm,'told him to "come along." Higgins walked on, remonstrating quietly, till he saw by the light of his lantern a half dozen pikes leaning against the bridge rail. Terrified at this, he struck Oliver a savage blow on the right ear and knocked him back to the rail. Then he ran towards the Foulke's Hotel, while William Thompson, the other guard, immediately fired upon him, sending the bullet from his Sharpe's rifle through Higgins's hat, and grazed his scalp, leaving a mark which is still visible. This shot and Higgins's story gave the alarm to the Hotel people, but as to the party in possession, nothing was known. The barkeeper ventured out from curiosity soon after and was captured. Captain Brown exchanged this man in the morning for breakfast for forty men, which I am greatly indebted for detailed local and other important iniformation), his recollection of the capture of that place by John Brown and his men. Mr. Higgins is a man of recognized probity and character. His courage and manliness was conspicuously manifested during the remarkable scenes of which he speaks clearly and with so much interest. 288 JOHN BROWN. number included his prisoners. The careful Virginians afterwards deducted from such remnants of the Captain's property, as could be recovered from the ravenous hands of enemies or relic-hunters and sold for his benefit, the price of these meals. After his escape, Higgins went to Williams's house, and found that he had not returned and was a prisoner. The train was in when the watchman got back. Accompanying the conductor (Mr. Phelps), they went to the armory grounds, saying loudly " What's the matter, boys? " The answer was: "We want liberty; the grounds, bridge, and town are in our hands." By this time the passengers were swarming in the depot and much excited; no one knew, and the watchman could not tell them, what was the matter. It was generally thought to be a strike of dissatisfied men, working on a government dam. As the dawn broke, John Brown told Mr. Phelps to " proceed, that lie had no intention of interfering with the comfort of passengers or hindering the United States mails." Captain Brown was apparently unarmed, and with cool deliberation and as much unconcern as if carrying on an ordinary business proceeding, walked with the conductor across the bridge. He waited with Mr. Phelps till the signal to proceed was given, and then walked back over it alone. The four-horse wagon load of Colonel Washington's slaves, etc., had already been brought in. Just as the train was leaving, Cook recrossed the bridge, with a companion (a colored man) driving the wagon, to the school-house and Kennedy farm. Heyward Shepherd, the Hotel porter, was shot soon after, RENDING THE FORTRESS WALL. 289 Higgins aided in his removal to the depot, where the watchman remained with the dying man. Early in the forenoon, Heyward asked for water, and Higgins started to the pump to get some. On starting to return William Thompson halted him and asked for a drink. The bucket was handed him. After drinking he asked Higgins to go to the bridge and give some to two men. They were Oliver Brown and a negro. As he did so, Oliver said: " You're the buck that hit me last night, eh?" Replying affirmatively to Oliver, the latter continued: "Well, you did an unwise thing; it was only this leg that saved you"; showing a cut near his left knee, which he received on striking the bridge from Higgins's blow. The latter then asked: "What's all this fuss about, anyhow?" "Oh, its a darkey affair," laughingly replied Thompson, pointing to the smiling negro, and adding: "I am one, and here's another." " I'm on a darkey affair, too," responded Higgins, " and that's to get water for a negro whom you have shot." " All right," replied Oliver, " go along. He brought it on himself by refusing to obey orders." Soon after, the Mayor, Mr. Beckham, was shot and his body lay exposed by the water tank for some hours. It was not molested by the invaders. Citizens in the town had got arms and others were arriving from the valley and from Maryland. A party from that side, says Higgins, opened the fight in earnest, coming upon the bridge and firing a volley. A negro ran towards the arsenal and was shot down while 19 290 JOHN BROWN. getting over a fence. People came along, says this eye witness, and cut pieces from his ears and face, and the pigs ate from a neck wound. The latter incident is told of Dangerfield Newby's body, but as ie was shot at the armory gate, it is probably untrue. Mr. Higgins describes Aaron D. Stevens as the boldest man of the party. He stood in the open entrance of the bridge, firing upon;^^^PsFC r Cthe Marylanders, and that, too, after he was desperately wounded. The watchman reached him when he fell face downward, taking a pistol from his person, and assisting in removing the wounded man to the Galt House. William Thompson had in the meanwhile / been taken prisoner, carried to.~;; Foulke's, and then brought out DANGERFIELD NEWBY. upon the bridge, shot, and thrown over into the river mortally wounded. He managed to swim or wade and reach one of the piers, where he was discovered and riddled with bullets. Mr. Higgins's description of the scenes of the day and night of the I7th is certainly terse and graphic. "The people, who came pouring into town," he says, " broke into liquor saloons, filled up, and then got into the arsenal, arming themselves with United States guns and ammunition. They kept shouting, shooting at random, and howling." Day passed in this way, and evening came. During the night the United States marines came. He saw the attack upon and RENDING THE FORTRESS WALL. 291 capture of the engine-house. Oliver's body was, the watchman says, thrown into a cart and carried to a shallow grave across the Shenandoah. Shots came from the side of the mountains during the afternoon of the i7th from Cook, as he believed then, and as we now know. It was supposed that Cook had quite a command in the range, and even as late as 1887, Andrew Hunter, John Brown's prosecutor at the Charlestown trial, asserted that the mountains and woods were full of John Brown's men. It is proper to say at this point, that the few shots Cook was able to fire in the futile though gallant effort that courageous but unfortunate young man made to assist his leader and comrades then in the enginehouse and arsenal building, with a few more fired by Albert Hazlett and Osborne Perry Anderson later in the day from the Maryland Heights, after they had succeeded in crossing the river unharmed from the arsenal building, was all the firing actually known to have been done outside of the United States grounds by any of the John Brown party. There is reason to believe that a small band of neighborhood negroes fired a few desultory shots from the upper shore, but that cannot be positively stated. Mr. Higgins remained at Harper's Ferry all through the war, saw both armies in possession, and all the fighting, but the nights of the John Brown raid stand alone in his memory for their terror and the fury and excesses that prevailed. Higgins knew Cook well, had often talked with "Isaac Smith," remembers Owen's arrival and asking for the " Smith place." He assisted in placing John Brown's body into the freight car, and saw Mrs. Brown, who was, he quietly remarks, 292 JOHN BROWN. "a nice-looking little woman." He closes his narrative with the suggestion that " It was not healthy to be out in sight of the armory during the fray." With the moving of the train, early in the morning, the alarm was given to the country. And what a startling one it was! From Penobscot to Mobile, and from New York to San Francisco the story flashed! Extras were issued! The headlines were ablaze! Here are some culled from the dailies of the period: HARPER'S FERRY. FEARFUE AND EXCITING INTELLIGENCE! NEGRO INSURRECTION AT HARPER'S FERRY!! EXTENSIVE SLAVE CONSPIRACY IN MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA! HUNDREDS OF INSURRECTIONISTS IN ARMS! SEIZURE OF THE UNITED STATES ARSENAL AND WORKS! TELEGRAPH WIRES CUT-BRIDGE SEIZED AND FORTIFIED! DEFENDED BY CANNON —TRAIN SEIZED AND HELD — FIRING ON BOTH SIDES-SEVERAL KILLEDCONTRIBUTIONS LEVIED- TROOPS ON THE WAY! iLATER IN THE DAY-ADDING NEW FUEL TO THE FLAME OF EXCITEMENT-THE NAME OF THE LEADER APPEARED AS OSAWATOMIE BROWN, OF KANSAS. RENDING THE FORTRESS WALL. 293 On the road the Stevens party met several colored men who promised to at once arouse their fellows. The designated hostages were then captured; Colonel Washington being the first. The Virginian gave the sword of Frederick the Great and the pistols of Lafayette to O. P. Anderson. Shields Green and Leary were placed on guard, one at the side and the other in front of the house. Of course Colonel Washington was excited and alarmed. Stevens, who was dramatic in manner as well as commanding in appearance, briefly told him that they would take his slaves, not his life, and that he must go to the Ferry with them as a prisoner. The slaves in the meanwhile had been aroused and harnessed up a family carriage and a four-horse wagon. Whiskey was offered and refused, and when he found the handsome, tall, full-bearded invader was not to be moved, Colonel Washington broke down utterly. Amid the cries of his family he was placed in his carriage, and with the addition of his slaves, who filled the big wagon, the party started back. 0. P. Anderson writes that all the colored people they met were eager to aid. Seventeen men were armed and added to the force. The only shot fired that first night was at the railroad bridge and that was the only act also of direct personal violence. Sunrise on the 17th was, however, greeted with stirring action on both sides. 0. P. Anderson says -that, in consequence of the movements of the night before, we were prepared for commotion and tumult, but certainly not for more than we beheld around us. Men, women, and children could be seen leaving their homes in all directions, climbing up the hillsides, 294 JOHN BROWN. evidently impelled by a sudden fear. Captain Brown was all activity, though at times he appeared somewhat puzzled. He ordered Lewis Sherrard Leary, and four slaves, to join Kagi and Copeland at the rifle factory. Copeland was the only man of the seven (Leeman afterwards joining them) who escaped from the dangerous post. Kagi early realized the perilous position, and ineffectually sent for orders to join Captain Brown. Tidd, Leeman, and Cook, with some fourteen slaves were ordered to take Washington's four-horse wagon and proceed to the Kennedy farm where Owen Brown, Merriam, and Barclay Coppoc had been left to guard the place and the arms. Cook, Leeman, and Tidd returned to the schoolhouse, Leeman subsequently reporting to Kagi. Owen Brown then began to move the arms and goods down to the schoolhouse in tile mountain, three-fourths of a mile from the Ferry. Cook and Tidd, with the help of armed slaves, busied themselves in the capture of Terence Burns, Mr. Alstedt, and some other neighboring slaveholders, whom they sent into the Ferry. Their orders required them also to hold the schoolhouse, to which it was understood Captain Brown, Kagi, Stevens, and comrades, with such negroes as might follow from the Ferry, would retreat, bringing any arms, etc., that it should be deemed advisable to remove. Up to and about noon this could have been accomplished. Early in the morning it could have been done without loss; in the waning hours of the forenoon, there would have been some sporadic fighting. The noon sun, however, saw the liberators encircled. Even then a bold sortie would have opened the ring, though pursuit RENDING THE FORTRESS WALL. 295 had surely followed. The United States reservation was to them a trap of death. 0. P. Anderson remained at the Ferry, and, by Captain Brown's orders, proceeded to arm slaves in the grounds with the pikes brought by the wagon from the farm. Among those who eagerly accepted the weapons were several farmhands who had come in on hearing the reports from " underground wires." Colonel Washington's "Jim" was one of the boldest of the new fighters. Outside the gates the excited citizens gathered. Arms were found and began to be used. Desultory firing commenced in the middle of the forenoon. Kagi's position was chiefly as-: sailed, as the Virginia and Mary- l land farmers could fire on the s rifle works without getting within '^ the deadly range of the enginehouse squad. 0. P. Anderson's \ arming of the negroes led to the early report that the commander EDWIN COPPC was a colored man named Anderson. Edwin Coppoc, on guard at the arsenal gates, was fired upon from the outside. He was not struck. Immediately after, writes Anderson, an old colored man armed with a double-barreled shotgun, taken at the Washington's and loaded by Leeman with buckshot, was ordered by Captain Stevens to arrest a citizen. The latter refused to obey the order to halt, and the old man fired both barrels into him, causing his death immediately. A rifle-shot from the engine )C 296 JOHN BROWN. house had also wounded the man who fired at Coppoc. From the rifle works where Kagi, Leeman, Leary, and Copeland, with four freed men held the fort, came fresh messages urging immediate withdrawal. It was at this point that John Brown lost control of his judgment, and acted with hesitation unusual to him, halting between two views of the situation. He tried to be both teacher and fighter at once and necessarily failed, not that the characters are incompatible, but that if fighting to achieve a moral result is accepted, then fighting rather than teaching is the order of the day. In his anxiety to prove that the movement was one not of outlawry and destruction, but of beneficence, of justice, and lofty purpose, the logic of the method chosen was temporarily overlooked. Just then the business of the liberators was to have got out of Harper's Ferry and into the mountainous region nearby, leaving Virginians, prisoners, and citizens alike to settle for themselves as best as they might, whether their assailants were freebooters or freedommakers. It may well be supposed also, that the long strain of mental effort and agony he had endured, combined with undoubted debility consequent upon intermittent attacks of chills and fever with malarial tendencies, had some temporary effect on his intellectual powers. Though possessing a sturdy frame, an iron constitution, enriched and endowed with a temperate life, he was over fifty-nine years of age and showed it. But, whatever was the cause, Captain Brown delayed, and when the October sun reached its meridian on that memorable Monday, he and his little band were practically hemmed in by fire from five hundred guns, held and used by infuriated RENDING THE FORTRESS WALL. 297 men, with more coming and the certainty also that a Federal force was on its way to the scene of action. This tardiness was fatal, and the general encounter commenced in all its fury. With Frederick the Great's sword on his hip, the Captain went on the street, sending for the men at the arsenal, Stevens, Anderson, Dauphin Thompson, Dangerfield Newby, and several colored Virginians. A fight impending, no indecision existed. Anderson reports the scene in a vigorous style: "The troops are on the bridge coming into town; we will give them a warm reception," said Captain Brown as he walked around among us, giving words of encouragement: "Men! be cool! Don't waste your powder and shot! Take aim, and make every shot count! The troops will look for us to retreat on their first appearance; be careful to shoot first." His men were all supplied with rifles, but Captain Brown had only the sword mentioned. The troops soon came out of the bridge and up the street facing us, we occupying an irregular position. When they got within sixty or seventy yards, Captain Brown said: "Let go upon them! " Which we did, when several of them fell. Again and again was the fire repeated, creating consternation among the troops. From marching in solid marching columns they became scattered. Some hastened to seize upon and bear up the wounded. They seemed not to realize at first that the raiders would fire upon them, but evidently expected they would be driven out by them without firing. Captain Brown seemed to understand this, Anderson wrote, 298 J()JOHN 1PROWN. and in defense undertook to forestall their movements. The consequence of their unexpected reception was after leaving several of their dead on the field, the Marylanders beat a confused retreat into the bridge and stayed there under cover until other reinforcements came to the Ferry. On the retreat of the troops, Brown ordered his men back to their former posts. While going, Dangerfield Newby was shot through the head from the window of a brick store on the opposite side of the street. Anderson writes: " -le fell at my side, and his death was promptly avenged by Shields Green, the Zouave of the band, who afterwards calmly met his fate on the gallows with John Copeland." Newby was shot twice. At the first fire he fell on his face and returned it; as he lay, a second shot was fired and the ball entered his neck. Green raised his rifle and brought down the assailant before the latter could even get his gun and face from the window. The hillsides grew more lively with the frightened people, and for a time even that refuge became unsafe, as armed slaves were seen in some numbers. Cook's later statement and the escape account given years later to Ralph Keeler for magazine publication by Owen Brown, shows that the laborers on the canal above the Ferry, and, indeed, generally the nonslave-holding white workmen of the neighborhood, took very little part in the fighting, and, while alarmed at the tumult, were evidently somewhat disposed to feel kindly to the liberators. Cook, at least, testified to this. He was given coffee and food, as well as warned of the location of armed men and the danger of capture he ran. RENDING THE FORTRESS WALL. 299 For some time after the Maryland militia fell back, nothing of moment occurred until William Thompson was slain on the railroad bridge. Shortly after the Mayor, Fountain Beckham, was shot dead from the engine-house and all the furies were released. Thompson was dragged out of the Foulke House. Oliver Brown was mortally wounded at the arsenal gate and Stevens soon after receiving several wounds, was captured and taken to the Galt House. The men at the rifle works were in the deadliest peril, and the difficulty of communication became greater. Jeremiah G. Anderson was sent with a message to Kagi, requesting him," to hold out a few moments longer." But that was the last. An hour's severe fighting ensued. More troops were on the ground, from Frederick, Baltimore, Hagerstown, in Maryland, and Winchester, in Virginia. From current accounts at the time, a list of twelve companies is obtained, numbering in all from 700 to 800 men. Officers were numerous. Colonel Baylor, who evidently had some military knowledge, assumed command, and from that moment all chances of escape from the self-made trap had passed. The flag of truce, pressed for and accompanied by some of Brown's Virginian prisoners, was fired upon after the hostages had escaped, which they swiftly did. In this way, Oliver and Watson Brown, with A. D. Stevens, were slain or wounded and the latter was captured also. "Jerry ' Anderson, carrying a last message and making his way to the rifle works, was fired upon and returned to the engine-house. Continuous firing was kept up till dark on both sides. The little garrison at the rifle works had all been slain. The men at the armory were iso 300 JOHN BROWN. lated, all slain but two, and they crossed the river and escaped. Captain Brown, with four men and ten prisoners, his dead son Oliver, and with Watson dying, settled himself grimly for the night to " hold the Fort." The United States marines, less than a hundred in number, commanded by General Scott's chief-of-staff, Robert E. Lee, were on the ground at night to regain control of the Federal reservation. The incidents of that night, with the early morning attack, may fully be told by eye witnesses who were prisoners. It will not then be said, the story is the concoction of an advocate or admirer. John Brown selected eight prisoners to hold as hostages after he was compelled to retreat to the engine-house. Among these were Jesse W. Graham, armory workman, and acting United States paymaster or pay clerk, John E. R. Daingerfield, who had been taken on the i7th. Mr. Daingerfield tells of his capture,' and of being taken to " Captain Smith," and adds: " Upon reaching the gate I saw what, indeed, looked like war-negroes armed with pikes, and sentinels with muskets all around. When I reached the gate I was turned over to 'Captain Smith.' He called me by name, and asked if I knew Colonel Washington and others, mentioning familiar names. I said I did. and he then said, 'Sir, you will find them there,' motioning me towards the engine-room. " We were not kept closely confined, but were allowed to converse with him. I asked him what his object was; he replied, 'To free the negroes of Virginia.' He added that he was prepared to do it, and Century for June, 1885. John Brown at Iarper's Ferry. RENDING THE FORTRESS WALL. 30i by twelve o'clock would have fifteen hundred men with him, ready armed." This is evidently a mistake or misconception of the paymaster's memory. After describing briefly from his own point of view the excitement, massing, and arming of the citizens, by which Captain Brown and three unwounded men, one dead, and one dying, with eight prisoners, were driven to keep within the enginehouse, Mr. Daingerfield says: " After getting into the engine-house with his men, he made this speech: ' Gentlemen, perhaps you wonder why I have selected you from the others. It is because I believe you to be the most influential, and I have only to say now that you will have to share precisely the same fate that your friends extend to my men.' He began at once to bar the doors and windows, and to cut port holes through the brick wall." Firing ceased at nightfall, but the men were vigilant, responding to their Captain's voice and commands. After the arrival of the United States marines, the paymaster says: " When Stuart was admitted, and a light brought, he exclaimed, 'Why, aren't you old Osawatomie Brown, of Kansas, whom I once had there as my prisoner?' 'Yes,' was the answer, 'but you did not keep me.' This was the first intimation we had as to Brown's true name. He had been engaged in the Kansas border war, and had come from there to Harper's Ferry. When Colonel Lee advised Brown to trust to the clemency of the Government, he responded that he knew what that meant,a rope for his men and himself,-adding, 'I prefer to die just here.' Stuart told him he would 302 JOHN BROWN. return at early morning for his final reply, and left hlim. "When he had gone, Brown at once proceeded to barricade the doors, windows, etc., endeavoring to make the place as strong as possible. "During all this time no one of Brown's men showed the slightest fear, but calmly awaited the attack, selecting the best situations to fire from upon the attacking party, and arranging their guns and pistols so that a fresh one could be taken up as soon as one was discharged.. " When Lieutenant Stuart came in the morning for the final reply to the demand to surrender, I got up and went to Brown's side to hear his answer. Stuart asked, 'Are you ready to surrender, and trust to the mercy of the Government?' Brown answered promptly,' No! I prefer to die here.' His manner did not betray the least fear." He then pays the stern partisan this tribute: "During the day and night I talked much with John Brown, and found him as brave as a man could be, and sensible upon all subjects, except slavery. Upon that question lie was a religious fanatic, and believed it was his duty to free the slaves, even if in doing so he lost his own life. " During a sharp fight one of Brown's sons was killed. He fell; then trying to raise himself, he said, It is all over with me,' and died instantly. " Brown did not leave his post at the port-hole, but when the fighting ceased he walked to his son's body, straightened out his limbs, took off his trappings, then, turning to me, said, 'Tills is the third son I have lost in this cause.' Another son had been shot in the RENDING THE FORTRESS WALL..303 morning and was then dying, having been brought in from the street. While Brown was a murderer, yet I was constrained to think that he was not a vicious man, but was crazed upon the subject of slavery. Often, during the affair in the engine-house, when his men would want to fire upon some one who might be seen passing, Brown would stop them, saying, 'Don't shoot; that man is unarmed.' The firing was kept up by our men all day and until late at night, and during this time several of his men were killed; but, as I said before, none of the prisoners was hurt, though in great danger." Mr. Daingerfield's description.. of the entrance of the marines is ' very vivid and worth reproducing here: "I had assisted in the barricading, fixing the fastenings so that I / could remove them upon the first -. effort to get in. But I was not WATSON IBROV at the door when the battering began, and could not get to the fastenings until the ladder was used, I then quickly removed the fastenings, and after two or three strokes of the ladder the engine rolled partially back, making a small aperture, through which Lieutenant Green of the marines forced himself, jumped on top of the engine, and stood a second in the midst of a shower of balls, looking for John Brown. When he saw Brown he sprang about twelve feet at him, and gave N. 304 JOHN BROWN. an underthrust of his sword, striking him about midway the body and, raising him completely from the ground. Brown fell forward with his head between his knees, and Green struck him several times over the head, and, as I then supposed, split his skull at every stroke. "I was not two feet from Brown at that time. Of course I got out of the building as soon as possible, and did not know till some time later that Brown was not killed. It seems that in making the thrust Green's sword struck Brown's belt and did not penetrate the body. The sword was bent double." Two years after this was prepared and published, Mr. Hunter in a paper printed in a New Orleans journal, declared that Captain Brown was "shamming" sickness and feebleness from his wounds. He is the only Virginian of repute who saw Captain Brown at that time, that has, since his death, gone aside to defame him, supplying material for the same purpose to others.' Mr. Graham gave Dr. Featherstonhaugh (in 1892) interesting details of his experience, from which I extract some significant details. When Mr. Graham was brought to Captain Brown, he reports the latter as saying in response to a question as to reason for capture, that he "had no time to make breastworks, and I mean to use you as such." Graham went soon after (the prisoners were then all in front of " Trial of John Brown," pamphlet. By Gen. Marcus J. Wright (ex-Confederate Major-General, and then, 1889, in charge of Confederate records, War of the Rebellion, War Department). A review of ProfessorVon Hoist's paper on John Brown, Richmond, Va., 1889. RENDING THE FORTRESS WALL. 305 the engine-house) to Stevens, who was walking up and down as a guard, and begged for leave to go home for twenty minutes and tell his family. After a while Stevens yielded and told the Captain he'd be responsible for his, Graham's, return, then led him to the gate where he was placed in charge of "a snall man " (probably Steward Taylor) who was directed to escort and bring Graham back, which was done. Coming back, Daingerfield was captured by Graham's guard. Firing had then begun, and soon after Newby having fallen near the gate, Graham saw Mr. Burleigh shot by Shields Green. The party, prisoners and all, were obliged to take shelter in the engine-house. Shields Green, or "Emperor," was tile only negro taken out of the engine-house when the capture was made. Mr. Graham and others, wlio were there, mention "negroes" as being in the early Ilours of the fight in and around "John Brown's Fort." One of these, says Mr. Graham, commenced making a hole in the wall for firing. Some one in a building near by-only a road and fence intervening -saw what was in progress and fired at tile liole. Pieces of brick, etc., flew about the negro and lie never ventured near the spot again. Shields Green is spoken of as "very impudent." Probably that was true from a chattel owner's point of view. When Mr. Beckham was shot Graham remonstrated, and Green pointed a pistol at his head telling-him to " shut up." Before the engine-house was finally occupied, a number of prisoners escaped to the back of the building. Mr. Graham is interesting when describing the scenes inside the engine-house just before and at the attack on the doors. He says: 20 306 JOHN BROWN. "Early on Tuesday morning I peeped out of a hole and saw Colonel Lee, whom I had seen before at the Ferry, standing close by with the troops behind him. A negro stood near him, holding a large military cloak. Just then Edwin Coppoc thrust me aside, and tlrust the muzzle of his gun into the hole, drawing a bead on Lee. I interposed, putting my hand on the rifle and begging the man not to shoot, as that was Colonel Lee, of the United States army, and if he were hurt the building would be torn down and they'd all be killed. Green again put up his pistol and Coppoc readjusted his rifle. During this momentary:. altercation, Robert E. Lee had stepped aside, and thus his life was saved to the slaveholder's L Confederacy. After the demand for surrender had been made and ~ -^ ' rejected, the attack begun. A hole was made by a sledge-hammer in AH G. ANDERSON. one of the doors, and Quinn, who crawled through, was shot at by J. G. Anderson, who a few moments after, when with a ladder the doors were battered in, raised his gun to fire on another marine. The gun snapped and the marine made a savage bayonet thrust. The weapon passed clean through Anderson's body and pinned it to the wall where in the dying struggle it turned clear over, so that Anderson hung with his face downward, a horrible sight. Lieutenant Green struck at Captain Brown, who stood by the side of JEREMI. RENDING THE FORTRESS WALL. 307 the engine, wounding him over the left eye, so that he fell to the ground, where, as the Lieutenant himself testified on the trial and before the United States Senate Investigating Committee, as since in letters published in current newspapers, he struck at him several times in the shoulder and in the stomach and abdomen. Mr. Graham tells of visiting Stevens after his own release, and states that while talking with him, a citizen armed with a bayonet rushed in and pressed the point on Stevens's neck saying "I'm minded to kill you." The wounded man cooly looked up and said: " If I were up and had a pistol in my hand, you would jump out of that window," pointing to an open one. Mr. Graham adds that Stevens was brave, cool, and kindly, too. The fight was over; the work was done. John Brown was a prisoner, surrounded by politicians, soldiers, reporters, and vengeful spectators. His son Owen, with his followers, Cook, Tidd, Barclay Coppoc, and F. J. Merriam, as also Albert Hazlett and O. P. Anderson, on their own account, were fugitives. Of these, Cook and Hazlett were captured, tried, and executed. Stevens, Edwin Coppoc, Copeland, and Shields Green were hung, while Oliver and Watson Brown, William and Dauphin Thompson, John H. Kagi, Wm. Leeman, Steward Taylor, Lewis S. Leary, Jeremiah G. Anderson, and Dangerfield Newby were killed in combat or as prisoners. If "John Anderson " was present and slain, the deaths were ten of the attacking party, and during the fighting; afterwards seven were executed, and five escaped. It is known 308 JOHN BROWN. and allowed that seventeen colored men were slain; though the policy of Virginia minimized the action of the slave-population. On the side of the citizens and soldiery, eight were killed, seven whites and one colored. Nine persons were wounded. John Brown held eight prisoners in the engine-house during the night, all of whom testified during the subsequent trial to the uniform kindness of the leader, and as to the civility of the men. The attitude of other Virginians seems to have been different. From a pamphlet,' still sold at Harper's Ferry, interesting details are given of the raid, and especially of the treatment of men, shot, wounded, and slain, by one who was an eye witness to the defense against and attacks on John Brown's party. The village annalist says: that "he encountered four armed men at the arsenal gate-two white and two black,"-on the morning of the 7th. They saluted him civilly and "one of the white men asked if he owned any slaves. On his answering in the negative, the strangers told him there was a movement on foot that would benefit him and all people who did not own such property." His curiosity then led him to look in and speak to some of the prisoners within the arsenal gates that he knew, and the result was that he had to run to escape being himself taken. Four Sharpe's rifles were raised and his chances of escape seemed small, when a colored woman, who was crouched in a doorway in the alley, rushed out " Annals of Harper's Ferry," by Josephus, Jr., Hagerstown, Md., 1869, pp. 64. The author's name is Joseph Barry, formerly a school-teacher. RENDING THE FORTRESS WAIL. 309 between him and the guns, and extending her arms begged of the men not to shoot. They did not, but the pamphleteer finds no space or words to thank the brave woman for her timely and courageous kindness. The treatment of prisoners and wounded captives, as well as the indignities inflicted on the dead. are described with apparent gusto by this village pamphleteer. He says: " William Thompson was dragged to the bridge and riddled with bullets. He even, however, tried to escape by letting himself drop through the bridge into the river. He had been left for dead, but it appears he had vitality enough left to accomplish this feat. He was, however, discovered and a shower of bullets was discharged at him. He was either killed or drowned, as he could be seen for a day or two after lying at the bottom, and with his ghastly face still exhibiting his fearful death agony." Jeremiah G. Anderson, slain by the bayonet in the engine-house, had, says the Harper's Ferry annalist, " three or four bayonet stabs in the breast and stomach. When dragged out of the engine-house to the flagged walk in front, he was yet alive and vomiting gore from internal hemorrhage. While he was in this condition a farmer from some part of the surrounding country, came up to him and viewed him in silence, but with a look of concentrated bitterness... He passed on to another part of the yard, and did not return for a considerable time. When he came back, Anderson was still breathing, and the farmer addressed him thus: 'Well, it takes you a hell of a long time to die.'... After death, also, this man Anderson appeared to be marked out for special 3Io JOHN BROWN. honors and the most marked attention. Some physicians from the valley of Virginia' picked him out as a good subject for dissection, and,;nem. con., they got possession of his body. In order to take him away handily, they procured a barrel and tried to pack him into it. Head foremost they rammed him in, but they could not bend his legs so as to get them into the barrel with the rest of his body. In their endeavors to accomplish this feat, the man's bones, or sinews, fairly cracked. The praiseworthy exertions of these sons of Galen, in the cause of science and humanity, elicited the warmest expressions of approval from the spectators. The writer does not know what disposition was finally made of him." The would-be humorous brutality of this incident is only equaled by the evident delight the annalist takes in the following description of Dangerfield Newby's death. He was a colored man, and native of that section of Virginia, whose wife Harriet was a slave living some thirty miles below. By letters found in the famous carpet-bag, afterwards published in State Legislative Document No. i, accompanying Governor Wise's message relating to the outbreak, it appears she was the mother of their children, and about to bear another, while in hourly dread of being sold to a New Orleans trader. She was afterwards found in Louisiana. Dangerfield Newby was killed ' Winchester doubtless, as there was a medical college there, and, some years after the war, the bones of Oliver and Watson Brown were recovered there and taken away by John Brown, Jr., for burial with their brothers. RENDING THE FORTRESS WALL. 3"1 about ii A. M. on the 17th, and lay where he fell, his body exposed to nameless brutalities until the afternoon of Tuesday the i8th of October. A writer for a Maryland paper stated that infuriated people beat the body with sticks, put them in the wounds, showered curses on the dead and otherwise degraded themselves. The annalist shows that Newby was fired at from above, a house window probably, as "the bullet struck him in the lower part of the neck and went down into his body. From the relative position of the parties, the size of the bullet, the hole in his neck was very large," and it was remarked that "a smoothing iron had been shot into him. Shortly after his death a hog came rooting about him.. Suddenly the brute was seized with a panic, and, with bristles and tail erect, it scampered away as if for life. This display of sensibility was very creditable to that hog, but soon a drove of the same genus crowded round the dead man, none of which appeared to be actuated by the same generous impulse as the first. The King of Terrors himself could not exceed those hogs in zealous attention to the defunct Newby. They tugged away at him with might and main, and the writer saw one run its snout into the wound and drag out a stringy substance of some kind, which he is not anatomist enough to call by its right name. It appeared to be very long or elastic, one end being in the hog's mouth and the other in the man's body. This circumstance," says the gloating annalist, "could not fail to improve the flavor,... and value of pork at Harper's Ferry next winter." Of the fate of others the annalist, already quoted, 3.T JOHN I'ROW\N. says, that Lewis S. Leary " was mortally woundedearly on the I7th, " at the rifle factory, and died in A cooper's shop on 'the Island.'" He suffered great agony, but was left alone by the infuriated defenders. Of the circumstances attending the death of Dauphin Thompson, little is known, except that he was shot outside and died in the engine-house. Steward Taylor was killed near the rifle works. The bodies of Kagi, Leary, and VWm. Thompson were taken out of the river on the i8th, and buried in shallow holes upon the river bank, where the dogs soon rooted them out. They were partly destroyed before the Winchester doctors took the remains away for dissection. Hazlett and 0, P. Anderson, who served with I. Kagi, managed to cross the border in safety and get away from Maryland i n to Pennsylvania, where Hazlett was arrested and;HERRARD LEARY, extradited at the demand of Virginia. After W. H. Leeman had cut off his accoutrements and wounded as he was plunged into the river at the rifle works, a Virginia militiaman waded after him. Leeman threw up his hands and said appealingly, "Don't shoot." Tile maddened pursuer thrust his pistol in the boy's face, fired, and blew it into an undistinguishable and bloody mass. He then cut off the skirts of his coat. gathered the weapons of his victim, and returned t' the bank, where he was loudly applc uded by his LEWIS S RENITNC 'rTI E FORTI E SS W ALL. 33 3r3 fellows. With him in the river or lying on the rocks were the riddled bodies of Kagi, Steward Taylor, William Thompson, and Lewis S. Leary. It is related by a Maryland newspaper man that some time after Leeman had been killed as described, another militiaman waded out to where it lay and set it up in a grotesque attitude as a target. Finally he was pushed off and floated down stream, lodging near William Thompson's body. The correspondent remarks that " being outlaws," they " were regarded as food for carrion birds and not as human beings." The same writer stated the "dead lay... subjected to every indignity that a wild and madly excited people could heap upon them. Dangerfield Newby's wounds had sticks 'ran into' them, they were used 'to beat him,' while the assailants 'wished he had a thousand lives' wherewith to appease their fury." In striking contrast with this, was the fact that when Mr. Beckham, the Mayor, was killed, his body lay for some time exposed on the road, till the hotel porter volunteered to bring it in. A lady also went out, and as soon as the reason for their presence was seen, the anti-slavery men ceased their fire and the body was recovered. It is almost in order to apologize for quoting such brutalities. They would not be given here but for the illustration afforded thereby of the temper and tone of the occasion, flickering down into verbal indecencies several years after the occasion. They are of a piece with the sad and savage spirit the wretched Mahala Doyle, of the Pottawatomie affair, was induced to exhibit when she signed the letter written for her in which she 3t4 J(OHN B1ROWN. desired to furnish the rope wherewith to hang John Brown. Very different in tone, though no less inexorable in spirit and purpose, were the unqualified tributes which the power of character wrung from Messrs. Wise, Hunter, Mason, Vallandigham, and Voorhees, pro-slavery sympathizers as they were. These direct if unwilling estimates to the convictions, high courage, stoical endurance, and the moral purpose of John Brown, were given by them under conditions which would have certainly excused opinions to the contrary. Hunter, the prosecuting attorney; Avis, the jailer; Campbell, the sheriff; and Parker, the judge, have also given unmistakable evidence of the moral magnetism and personal grandeur of the man. As a rule, it is not among tile Virginian survivors of the Harper's Ferry raid, it is not in Southern books and newspapers that one will find abuse and denunciation, assault on motives, denial of honesty, and general effort to belittle and degrade the memory of a great soul or besmirch the luminous apotheosis of a special and sacrificial deed. It is left to Kansas defamers, and Northern cynics and sciolists to do these things, and credit themselves with honor in the doing.' It is not my purpose to shoot parthian arrows in the dark. I have especial reference in this allusion, among a few other assailants, to ex-Governor Charles Robinson, of Kansas; to Eli Thayer, of Massachusetts, and to Mr. David N. Utter for his indefensible article of November, 1883, in the North American Review. CHAPTER XII. CAPTU RE-TRIAI,-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. [n the hands of the foe —Gozernor Wlise and John Brown-Andrew Hfunter, prosecutor and executioner -John Brown " is not a madiman " - " The coolest" of men-In the Charlestozwn jail- The People's hysterical fury-Systematically fannedTroops paradled in the interest of coming disunionThe trial and its mockery-H-ow the prosecution was foilhed-" Rescue " scare-Arrivzal of the Massachusetts lawyer Hoyt —His letters-Le Ba rne., Griswold, Chilton, lfontgonmery, Blair, Sennott — The making of two wills-HloTc Brown was plundered — Attempts of [Wise to bull), Governors Packer and Chase —His execution- The tr-ials and death of Cook, Coppoc, Green, Copeland, Stevrens, Hazlett-Duplicity of President Buchanan-,Slaverey's merciless cruelt'. JOHN BROWN, wounded and prone, gibed and wondered at by those he had scared to the verge of hysterical fury, was captured by a party of eighty United States marines, commanded by Major Russell and Lieutenant Green, who were directed by the chief-of-staff of Lieutenant-General Winfield ScottColonel Robert E. Lee-he being also accompanied )y a dragoon officer, afterwards to be the most ,; < j1IiN 1'.,O\V'(-. famous of Confederate cavalry raiders-Lieut. J. E. B. Stuart. Nine hundred armed Virginians and Marylanders! Nearly one hundred Federal soldiers with the power of army headquarters behind them! All these were necessary to capture one old man, a dying son, and four young men, one seriously wounded. Harper's Ferry had practically been held for fifty-eight hours by seventeen men.' For more than half that time not over a dozen men of the party were actually in the fighting. It was a wonderful object-lesson in the weakness of a slave-holding community. But there were more forcible ones yet to be taught. The old man lay for eighteen hours on the floor of the armory superintendent's office, which thus became an improvised guardroom. His wounds remained undressed for all that period: wounds, too, administered by bayonets of marines and sabre of officer, Lieutenant Green, after firing had ceased, and both Coppoc and Anderson had announced their surrender, while the latter, too, had been fastened by Marine Quinn's bayonet to the wall of the engine-house. Brown's gun2 was in his land when Russell and Green entered the enginehouse, and either of them could have been slain by him. He lowered the muzzle and was immediately struck down. Aaron D. Stevens, also shot while Owen Brown, Barclay Coppoc, and Francis J. Merriam were not at the Ferry at all. John E. Cook and Charles Plummer Tidd took no active part in the fighting, being ordered to the Virginia schoolhouse in the forenoon of the I7th, and then being unable to afterwards return. 2 One of his prisoners, Mr. Graham, states that he had taken up a pike. CAPTURE-TRIAL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 317 carrying a fiag of truce, lay by his Captain's side, with six bullet wounds, five of the bullets being imbedded in head and neck. He, too, was unarmed when shot. In fact, Virginia's victims were so taken, and the most of her shots were directed against unarmed prisoners, or men dying or already dead. It was Henry Hunter, son of the State's special attorney, Andrew Hunter, who testified on John Brown's trial, upon call to the witness stand by his father, that he shot William Thompson, an unarmed prisoner, and only regretted that he was not quite sure of having killed him, as some one else fired into his head at the same time. Another Vir- S ginian, George Schoeper, of Harper's Ferry, is reported to have shot Leeman, after he fell dying into the Shenandoah, wading out into the i stream and setting up his poor body X. against a rock, to enable a Mary- land company to make a target WLLIAM THO thereof. Schoeper cut off the tail of the boy's coat in which he found his commission as a lieutenant. George Chambers, of Williamsport, Virginia, is reported as the man who shared with Henry Hunter in the massacre of William Thompson, and boasted of it. James Holt, of Harper's Ferry, was seen to club the body of Leary, after the capture of the raiders, and long after life was extinct. A farmer spat his tobacco expectoration into the throat of the dying Jerry Anderson. But the Virginians who had been John Brown's prisoners, resisted the cruelty MIPSON. 318 JOHN I:ROWN. of their fellows, and it was they who testified as to the capture, as witnesses at the trial and ever since to their deaths, to the uniform kindness and courtesy of manner of John Brown and to his anxiety to prevent their being unnecessarily exposed to the reckless firing of their own people. The bodies of Oliver. dead, and Watson, dying, were brought to t he armory. The latter died about three in the afternoon with his head pillowed on the knees of Edwin Coppoc. Two wounded men, three unwounded, ten of the raiders dead, and seven fugitives was the tally which Governor Wise was greeted with upon his arrival from Richmond, about 9 A. AI. on the i8th of October. In the New Orleans Times-Democrat of September 5, 1887, the late Andrew Hunter published a long and somewhat remarkable account of the John Brown raid and trial. In this paper Mr. Hunter sought to prove that the Liberator's wounds were slight, only one, he said, and that was on the temple, from whence the blood spread down his face and breast. The garments, afterwards mended by Mrs. Rebecca Spring, of New Jersey, and in which his body was clothed, were in proof of the reverse of this. One severe bayonet wound in the left kidney caused Captain Brown to suffer until his execution had ended the account. Federal soldiers were necessary for the protection of the prisoners. The wonderful vitality and mental force of Captain Brown kept him alert throughout the long strain of examination and interviewing, to which he was subjected. Immediately upon the Governor's arrival, the Baltimore Grays went to the Kennedy Farm-house and the mountain CAPTURE-TRIAI,- IRISON —SCAFFOLD. 319 school-building, and soon brought in the famous carpet-bag, containing the historic John Brown's papers, and also a large number of letters, etc., belonging to the men. The arms, etc., found at the schoolhouse, were legally John Brown's property. A small wagon and mule, compass, and other personal property, were brought from the Maryland farm into Virginia and there confiscated; the wagon and mule being seized by Foulke, the Harper's Ferry hotel-keeper, to pay for meals which Brown had obtained to feed his prisoners and his men. It was well that the money found on Brown's body, when captured (about two hundred and ninety dollars in gold and silver), had been taken by Federal officials. or otherwise lie would not have any means whatever to aid in defraying the small expenses of a trial and prison life. Even that, he did not obtain the use of till the 3otl instant, after Northern counsel had arrived. Virginia had a somewhat obsolete law, sequestrating the property of a convicted person found within the State. While Judge Parker said nothing and Sheriff Campbell was ignorant, wrote Counselor Hoyt of its existence, Andrew Hunter, claiming kindly treatment to his prisoners, and even writing his will, exacted however the State's full pound of flesh. The military stores of the raiders proved a somewhat rich " loot " for the captors. To this day the " pikes" are being offered for sale from distant points in Alabama, and elsewhere, to which it is claimed they were carried early in the Civil War. Of arms there were not less than I8o Sharpe's rifles and 75 Allen revolvers, a little less in size than the Colt navy-pistol, with 950 pikes, and primers, caps, 320 JOHN BROWN. powder, tools, etc. The following were reported on the trial as received by the State authorities: o08 Sharpe's rifles, I2 revolvers, 455 pikes, several kegs of powder, 40,000 rifle and 20,000 revolver percussion caps, with a quantity of rifle primers, several reams of cartridge paper, lead for bullets, ladles, a small, portable furnace, and a swivel gun, with some other articles. The swivel gun, carrying a two-ounce ball, was found in the Kennedy house, and it was the weapon presented to John Brown by Eli Thayer, " for service in the cause of freedom," in April or May, i857. The Sharpe rifles and Allen revolvers were those turned over to the Captain in 1857, and finally presented to him as a personal gift, in 1858, by George Luther Stearns, of Massachusetts. By noon on the g9th of October, the armory-room was crowded by local magnates, press men, and military officers, while the train soon brought leading men from Richmond, Washington, Baltimore, and Ohio, —Senator Mason and Clement L. Vallandigham, among others-representatives of some leading newspapers, and the agent of the Associated Press, from Baltimore, connected with the American of that city. They certainly manifested a fair and manly spirit in all dispatches, and, even at this date, they can be admired for their candid, almost judicial temper. These dispatches, still present a remarkable tribute to the character and personality of the antislavery raider. " Porte Crayon " (General Strother), artist for Harper's Weekly, a Virginian born, was among the earlier arrivals. His graphic pencil, made furious by the thoughts of an avoided slave insurrection, spared no line in savage realism. CAPTU RE- TRI AL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 32I Captain Brown's identity had been settled the day before.1 Governor Wise and Senator Mason arrived during the early afternoon of Tuesday. Lieutenant Stuart, who had been stationed in Kansas during the fighting summer of 1856, also recognized the leader as Black Jack and Osawatomie. A remarkable intellectual duel at once ensued. From the outset, Governor Wise, who dominated the situation by virtue both of public position and erratic zealotry as a representative Southerner, sought to shape questions and entrap replies into the mould he had already formed, viz., the idea that John Brown was but the agent of an extended and powerful combination of Northern politicians and persons opposed to slavery. Vallandigham seconded, and rudely even, this effort of the Governor. Senator Mason, as the report shows, aimed more at ascertaining the Captain's motives and pleas in justifical Col. Robert W. Baylor, "Colonel-Commandant" of the State forces, then about six hundred in number, in his report to Governor Wise, published the following cartels. It was 3 P.M. of the I7111. Stevens had already been shot while carrying a flag of truce and bearing Joln Brown's first proposition to retire, releasing his prisoners, forty in all, as he got beyond Harper's Ferry. Baylor than assumed command, pouring in a heavy fire, rescuing thirty of the hostages and compelling Brown to retire with five men and ten prisoners to the shelter of the engine-house. Having driven them under cover, Baylor also withdrew his own troops out of range. A second flag of truce appeared; Isaac Russell, a prisoner, being used to bear a verbal message. Baylor replied: HEADQUARTERS, HARPER'S FERRY. CAPT. JOHN BROWN: SIR-Upon consultation with Mr. Isaac Russell, one of your prisoners, who has come to me on terms of capitulation, I say to you, if you will set at liberty our citizens we 21 322 JOHN BROWN. tion. The evidence then and afterwards indicates that the author of the Fugitive-Slave Law gave but little weight to the apparently excitable conceptions which dominated Henry A. Wise. All, however, were eager for any means of " firing the Southern heart," for the disunion struggle up to which their efforts were leading. John Brown, still bleeding, stiff, sore, and dazed; in blood-stiffened and dirtbegrimed garments; suffering from hunger, thirst, and want of even the rudest care; with his project defeated, his men slain, captured, or scattered; himself a prisoner, one son dead, another expiring while the Southern politicians questioned, and a third a fugitive with his fate wholly unknown, held himself with such firmness, intellectual clearness, stoic grandeur and manly directness, that the harsh floor will leave the Government (Federal) to deal with you concerning their property, as it may think most advisable. ROBERT W. BAYLOR, Colonel- Commandant. The following written reply was then received: In consideration of all my men, whether living or dead, or wounded, being soon safely in and delivered to me at this point, with all their arms and ammunition, we will then take our prisoners and cross the Potomac bridge, a little beyond which we will set them at liberty; after which we can negotiate about the Government property as may be best. Also we require the delivery of our horse and wagon at the hotel. JOHN BROWN. Baylor returned the following: CAPT. JOHN BROWN: SIR-The terms you propose I cannot accept. Under no considerations will I consent to a removal of our citizens across the river. The only negotations upon which I will consent to treat are those which have been previously proposed to you. ROBERT W. BAYLOR, Colonel-Commandant. CAPTURE-TRIAL-PPRISON-SCAFFOLD. 323 on which he lay became, as it were, the enthroned seat of true courage, while his bearing compelled the unwilling attention of all present and the unstinted and admiring respect of some of them. There was a persistent demand to know " who paid " and " who sent" John Brown to Virginia. Vallandigham endeavored to lay all sorts of verbal traps in which to catch the Ohio or other Republicans. Governor Wise showed to greater advantage than others, and his questions were straightforward and direct, being such as his position gave him the right to ask. To the Ohio politician John Brown said: " No man sent me here; it was my own prompting and that of my Maker; or that of the devil, which ever you please to ascribe it to. I acknowledge no master in human form." To Senator Mason's question of " How do you justify your acts?" he turned the tables by saying: "I think, my friend, you are guilty of a great wrong to God and against humanity-I say it without wishing to be offensive-and I believe it would be perfectly right to interfere with you, so far as to free those you wickedly and willfully hold in bondage." In reply to other questions he declared that he did what "he thought right", that he "applied the golden rule " to his own conduct, and that it was "a duty to help others to gain their liberty." In reply to a question of the Senator, as to whether he considered the Provisional Constitution (copies of which in pamphlet form were in the hands of his examiners, as the carpet-bag with his papers had been brought from the Kennedy Farm-house to Harper's Ferry), Captain Brown said: " Yes, in some respects. I wvsh you would give that paper your close attentiun. ' 324 JOHN BROWN. To Lieutenant Stuart, who remarked in comment on some expression of the wounded man-" The wages of sin are death "-John Brown replied with quiet dignity, " I would not have said that if you had been a prisoner and wounded in my hands." When asked under "whose auspices" he went to Kansas, lie told Vallandigham-" Under the auspices of John Brown and no one else." To Governor Wise he said lie was an " instrument in the hands of Providence," and that he considered the work he attempted " the greatest service man can render to his God." During the long examination to which he was subjected, Captain Brown avoided all names; all recriminatory speech, and contented himself with courteous but very direct replies as to his motives and purposes; declaring that he liad none but the freeing of slaves; that he had treated his thirty prisoners well and with humanity. Those who were present promptly confirmed this. He asserted that the only reason for his defeat and capture was that he considered too long the feelings of families of those he was holding as hostages. But for that he would have got away. To the reporters present he said: "I claim to be here in carrying out a measure 1 believe to be perfectly justifiable, and not to act the part of an incendiary or ruffian; but, on the contrary, to aid those suffering a great wrong. I wish to say, furthermore, that you had better-all you, people of the South-prepare yourselves for a settlement of this question. You may dispose of me very easily. I am nearly disposed of now; but this question is still to be settled-this negro question, I mean. The end of that is not vet." CAPTURE ---TRIAL- PRISON- S(A FFOLD1). 325 Governor Wise, before leaving for Richmond, directed that the bodily necessities of the prisoners be properly cared for, and also declared that Captain Brown and his men should have a fair trial. How little he meant this became soon apparent. There were five alive and in their hand,-Jolin Brown and A. D. Stevens, wounded; Edwin Coppoc, Shiel(ls Green, and John A. Copeland.(the two last colored), unwounded, retained in the army guardroom till noon of the g9th, when all were removed to Charlestown. They were then placed in the jail, a moderatesized brick building, which still stands. It was surrounded by State troops under Colonel Baylor's orders, and two guns were also placed in position to eommand the jail. The scare begun. Rage had taken the place of tile first alarmed surprise. It had vented itself in a saturnalia of abuse and outrage on the bodies of those whose lives had been given in return for their daring. But when the first excitement flickered down a little, a terrible dread then arose as to how far tlhe movement extended among the slaves and free people of color. This dread reached Richmond, Baltimore, and Washington. It caused vigilance and guards at Charleston and New Orleans, and put the entire South into a ferment, illustrating John Brown's biblical comment-" The wicked fleeth, when no man pursueth." That it was a terror need not be denied or evaded. In Virginia and Maryland one effect was to cause a rapid sale at reduced prices "down South" of all slaves who were "suspects," unruly, or turbulent. The loss from this source has been estimated at $Io,ooo,ooo in Virginia alone. For a considerable period thereafter some of John 326 JOHN BPROWN. Brown's friends kept a record, so far as newspaper information permitted, of the enforced movement southward of slaves from the border States. It was very rapid and extended from Virginia to Missouri. There and then began another marvelous struggle, not for life, but for recognition; for a clear apprehension of motives, conditions, and results. History holds no record more memorable. It was waged against the entrenched Slave power, embattled institutionalism, aroused legal ties sure to avenge themselves if the taking of life would accomplish that; but, more than all, it was set to conquer and convict the Northern States, with all their compromising tendencies, their commercial needs, and social demands excited and in hostile array. More, too, than that, there was a growing power in public affairs to be influenced, whose dominance aiming only and wholly for the advancement of the Nation, was threatened in its very heart, apparently, by this seemingly frantic blow at Harper's Ferry. To meet all these there was but a simple, upright, crystalline manhood, physically sure of only but one thing — DEATH! To him, however, there was also, and without questioning, GOD! Convinced of his cause, sure of his motive, purged of all desire but service, and confident that such sacrifice was victory, John Brown, knowing what he was doing and whither it led, was supremely the Idealist,-transendental and transparent, too, in the eyes of the world. To this end the men most opposed, most actively aided. The manhood of men like Wise and Vallandigham run, for the time being, with their schemes, aims, and CAPTIT RE ---'TRI A,-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 327 policies, so far as John Brown's character and motives were concerned. The Harper's Ferry raid was at once used as a means of attack on Northern and anti-slavery opinion. More than that, however, the attack was moulded so as to arouse every hostile feeling in the South. The effort to prove that Republican leaders, voters, and newspapers were parties to the movements of Jolin Brown soon failed of their own inanition. But the larger purpose of preparing for revolution, by inflaming Southern sentiment, gathered force with every day, and the words of the hour served John Brown, his men, and their cause most admirably. So far as affecting fierce and fusing public opinion, as well as the colder verdict of history, Henry A. Wise stamped on the latter his representation of John Brown, when he said in a public speech, upon his return to Richmond, from Harper's Ferry, that"They are themselves mistaken who take him to be a madman. He is a bundle of the best nerves I ever saw, cut, and thrust, and bleeding, and in bonds. He is a man of clear head, of courage, fortitude, and simple ingenuousness. He is cool. collected, indomitable, and it is but just to him to say that he was humane to his prisoners, as attested to me by Colonel Washington and Mr. Mills [an armorer at the United States works], and he inspired me with great trust in his integrity, as a man of truth. He is fanatic, vain, and garrulous, but firm and truthful, and intelligent.1 His men, too, who survive, except Governor Wise is the only man of weight who ever criticised John Brown as " garrulous." Those who knew him best always considered him a reticent man. He was able to talk, however, on proper occasions, and this, with the listening ears of men wide open, waiting on his utterances, was certainly one that he improved upon, and wisely too. 328 JOHN BROWN. the free negroes with him, are like him. He professes to be a Christian in communion with the Congregational Church of the North,' and only preaches his purpose of universal emrancipation; and the negroes themselves were to be the agents, by means of arms, led on by white commanders. When Colonel Washington was taken, his watch, plate, and jewels, and money were demanded, to create what they call a 'safety fund '2 to compensate the Liberators for the trouble and expense of taking away his slaves.3 This, by a law, was to be done with all slaveholders." This seems to be an error. If John Brown was a regular church member, it would have been with a small Presbyterian or Cameronian sect, the chief seat of which was in Pittsburg and western Pennsylvania, and which was positively anti-slavery in its tenets and action, not fellowshipping with those who were actively or tacitly in favor of slavery. He seems not to have been in regular standing with any church body after being ostracised early in the 'forties on account of his recognition on equal terms of colored Christians. 2 The "safety fund" mentioned by the Governor was never designed for " compensation to liberators" or any one else. Its purpose was simply that which its name implied, or for what, by the light of war experiences, we should now term " secret service" work. "A RTICLE XXIX. " SAFETY OR INTELLIGENCE FUND." "All money, plate, watclies, or jewelry captured by honorable warfare, found, taken, or confiscated, belonging to the enemy shall be held sacred, to constitute a liberal intelligence or safety fund; and any person who shall improperly retain, dispose of, hide, use, or destroy such money or other article above namned, contrary to the provisions and spirit of this article, shall be deemed guilty of theft, and on conviction thereof, shall be punished accordingly. IlTe treasurer (Owen Brown) shall furnish the commander-in-chief (John Brown) at all times with a full statement of the condition of such fund and its nature." CAP T'1RE ---TRI A — PR1SON-SCA FFOLD). 329 After referring to the taking of Frederick the Great's sword by Stevens, Governor Wise went on to say of John Brown: "He promised.... to return it when he was done with it. And Colonel Washington says that he, Brown, was the coolest and firmest man he ever saw in defying danger and death. With one son dead by his side, and another shot through, he felt the pulse of his dying son with one hand, and held his rifle with the other, and commanded his men with the utmost composure, encouraging them to be firm, and to sell their lives as dearly as they could." In the light of historic evidence, events, and conditions, such as can now be seen, it is quite apparent that the Virginian managers sought to prove that John Brown represented a wide-spread, organized, and active hostility in the North, deliberately aiming to injure the South and destroy its slave institutions. Such careful examination of the "John Brown papers," as Governor Wise and Senator Mason, with their counselors and aids must have given, could but have convinced them that the range of Brown's active support was very limited indeed. The Virginian Executive secured the services of the ablest detectives, lawyers, newspaper men, etc., to examine these papers and to follow up the clues afforded. These men and their rumors, or reports, fooled him to the top of his bent. They led nowhere and ended in nothing, until early in November the paper prepared by John Edwin Cook, under the pressure brought upon him by his brother-in-law and other relatives, gave the names of Dr. Howe, F. B. Sanborn, Thaddeus Hyatt, and Gerrit Smith as being active in support of the Captain's movements. In all 33~ JOHN BROWN. the papers and letters printed in "Appendix No. I." to the messages of Governor Wise, or in the Harper's Ferry raid report of the United States Senate Investigating Committee, there are but few clues to any names.' After removal by United States marines to Charlestown, six miles beyond the direct jurisdiction of the general government, four of the prisoners-Brown, Coppoc, Copeland, and Green --- were kept until the The " Appendix to Message I. Documents relative to the Harper's Ferry Invasion," is a thin octavo of 154 pages. With some exceptions as to personal letters, it probably contains nearly all the manuscripts or printed matter found in the Captain's carpet-bag or at the Kennedy Farm-house, in addition to a letter, addressed to President Buchanan, dated November 25th, and the reply thereto; also letter of Wise to the Governors of Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, with replies, all relating to the " invasion" for "rescue " purposes, of which Governor Wise claimed he had positive information; with reports of State militia commanders, Cols. J. T. Gibson and Robert W. Baylor. There is a letter from one Henry Hudnall to the Governor, setting forth at some length the contents of the captured carpet-bag. Hudnall was probably a lawyer-clerk, employed to look over this material, and his comments are not especially marked by acumen or ability of any value. The formal documents are the " Provisional Constitution and Ordinances for the People of the United States;" " No. I. The Duty of the Soldier;" " Blank Form of Commission under the Provisional Government." The three were printed; the first and last having been " set up " at St. Catherine's, Canada. Then follows the manuscript journal of that convention, with the autographs attached of the delegates thereto. Outside of John Brown's own name, there is not one known at the time beyond a neighborhood circle, unless Dr. Delany is an exception, as having been editor of a weekly paper. A remarkable document was " A Declaration of Liberty. By the Representatives of the Slave Population of the United States of America." This was in the CAPTU R — T 1 IA --- P R IS)N ---S(' A FFOLD. 331 25th without further disturbance. On the 22d, the Captain wrote letters to the North appealing for counsel. At John Brown's home in North Elbashut away amid the mountains from rapid communication with the world-the news of disaster and death had been slow in its merciless movement. It was not until the afternoon of Friday,.the 2ist inst., that a young man, their neighbor, brought to the lonely dwelling under the shadow of Whiteface and original, bearing, wrote Mr. Hudnall, "strong internal proof of having been the work of Brown, parodied on the colonial declaration, with some very original variations and interpolations by Brown himself, the whole being copied by his son, Owen, and fixed upon a roller." There are 102 letters in this " Appendix," mainly written to and from the men of the party, and a few by friends at Springfield, la., or Cleveland, O. There is a business note of Horace Greeley & Co. inclosing to Kagi a check in payment of work done for the Tribune; one from Gerrit Smith, forwarding $200, and nothing else directly relating any one to Captain Brown's movements. Reference is made under initials, or assumed names, to Messrs. Stearns, Howe, Sanborn, and Parker, as persons having relations with his efforts. The correspondence must have been a disappointment to the Virginians. What became of these papers and the historic carpet-bag is unknown, though there is reason to believe they were kept in the Virginian State Library at Richmond until 1865. When the Federal army was about entering the ex-Confederate capital, it is stated that the librarian threw the carpet-bag and contents into some receptacle between the walls of the dome of the Capitol, from which, if so, they have never been recovered. This statement is not vouched for, however, but yet it seems to have some foundation in fact. What is of interest in the carpet-bag papers is the unquestioned fact that they offered little or no foundation for the inflated structure of hysteria and suspicion, Governor Wise sought to build upon them. 332 JOHN BROWN. amid the somber Adirondack woods, a copy of the New York Times of the i8th. The day before an exaggerated report of the defeat had reached them, but this they would not believe. But the newspaper with all its startling details could not be denied. To them the shock was lessened by the sacrificial, expectant atmosphere in which they had all and so long moved. Within the small frame-house, dim and unpainted, were Mary, the wife and mother; Annie, Sarah, and Ellen, the younger daughters-the latter still a child-and Martha, the pregnant widow of Oliver Brown, who was so soon after to join her boy-husband in death; also Salmon, the remaining brother and son, while Henry and Ruth Thompson were close neighbors. The dwelling of the elder Thompson was.one of mourning also. Two of its boys had fallen, their sister was the widowed wife of Watson Brown, while in another home William Thompson's wife wailed in loneliness her sudden widowhood. Five households and four families were stricken by tile blow at Harper's Ferry, and yet no recognized murmur ever escaped any of them, unless it were from the parents of Oliver's widow, who were very hostile to the anti-slavery sentiments of the Browns and Thompsons. The neighborhood, too, was somewhat unfriendly on account of political feeling, but the overwhelming nature of the defeat and the reluctant admiration extorted by the way the sorrow was borne, soon changed hostile indifference into active kindliness. How vividly does memory recall the facts relating to their devotion, the Spartanlike simplicity of their lives, the courage which came because it must and never thought to CAPTU RE-TRIAL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 333 vaunt itself. No one murmured, and each sought to lift the burden of the two fated mother-lives —the wife who had borne sons for freedom, and the young bride who was so near death in her coming motherhood. The sorrow and endurance at North Elba was felt elsewhere. In Jefferson County, Ohio, the hlomes of John, Jr., and Jason Brown, at Dorset and Akron, were abodes of care and suffering. It was known that one brother-Owen- had escaped, but his fate remained in tedious uncertainty. It was also certain that John, Jr., would early be an object of suspicion, as many of his letters were among the captured papers. The inaccessibility of North Elba doubtless prevented annoyance and insult to the elder household; in the Western reserve the organized courage and open determination to resist attempts at arrests, kept the Federal and State agents, officers and detectives, at a respectful distance. John Brown, Jr's, home at Dorset soon became for John Brown men the safest place in tile land. There was mourning in southern Nebraska, where father and sisters lived, for the able and gallant John Henri Kagi; at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, the wife of John E. Cook, cowered in bewildering dread, saved only at first from insult and possible arrest by the courage of Mrs. Ritner, in whose boarding-house she had temporary shelter. In the homes of his own relatives, in Connecticut, New York, and Indiana sorrow and anxiety felt for Cook was made bitterer by open hostility of feeling felt towards his cause. The father and sisters of Aaron Dwight Stevens, whom he had not seen since, as a youth of nineteen, he had enlisted in the United States army, were in 334 JOHN BROWN. accord with his nobler aims, and cheered him unremittingly through the four and a half months of brave prison life that followed. In Springfield, Iowa, the Coppoc boys left home and mother behind them, and there were other hearts drawn by tender feelings towards some of the party. Edwin's Ouaker mother bore her burden well, rejoicing at least tlat cone of her sons came safely through the fiery furnace. In Maine, two housellolds were affected, that of Leeman unto death, and that of Tidd, until his safety was assured. In Oberlin, the widow of Leary was mourning for her beloved, while Harriet Newby, her Virginian sister in affliction, weighted too with bondage, was hurriedly sold to a Louisiana dealer. The range of interested and sympathetic excitement ran over a wide area. Danger, too, shadowed some wellknown door-steps. One family neither affirmed or denied. The household of George Luther Stearns, implicated as was its generous head, made no change and took no precautions. Dr. Howe found it advisable to visit Canada. Gerrit Smith was stricken under the excitement with severe recurrence of a former nervous disorder which necessitated his being placed in perfect quiet and care. Frederick Douglass soon and wisely, too, left for England Mrs. Gloucester, of Brooklyn, who was known to have freely assisted John Brown, took no outward heed of the talk aimed at her, as well as others, while in other directions men marked for suspicion and known at least to have been trusted, went unfearing about their work of moulding opinion for John Brown and his acts, or for at least his character and purposes. From startled surprise and deprecation, even CAPTURE-TRIAL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 335 savage criticism, Northern opinion begun to mellow and glow in the light and heat of the calm unflinching courage and sincerity that aura-like enveloped John Brown. Orator, writer, and poet, expressed their true thoughts. Among those who, without indorsing John Brown's acts, still felt the force of John Brown's character, was the poet from whose stirring "Old Brown of Osawatomie," the following verse is given in autographic fac-simile: (r^jle^~i/^^ /,A5/^;6 4514y &/4, V@Fo/s Addi,~',ys*.; THlE STEDMAN FAC-SIMILE. The hot passion of Virginia, which was perfectly natural at first, degenerated as details came out of the manner in which twenty-two men had throttled the State and five had held Soo of its armed citizens Thehotf; wpssion o n natural at first, degenerated as details came out of the manner in which twenty-two men had throttled the State and five had held So of its armed citizens 336 JOHN BROWN. at bay for at least eighteen hours, into a very drivel of hysterical fears, which fed a nervous and almost ruffianly panic at every stupid rumor or darkling fear that crossed those trembling days. Northern newspapers, of any character, were compelled to resort to all sorts of subterfuges to gain information. Edward House and Mr. Olcott, since known as a teacher of modern theosophy, went to Virginia in disguise, the latter joining a Richmond volunteer company sent on guard duty to Charlestown. Other correspondents were stationed at Baltimore, Washington, Harrisburg, and various points in Maryland and Pennsylvania, to whom letters were sent from "within the lines," it being unsafe to direct them openly to the several journals. Harper's Ferry was the chief outpost of this strange encampment, in which, first and last, Virginia massed about four thousand militia at a cost of $200,000,' maintaining an armed force about Charlestown throughout of not less than from one thousand to three thousand men, with artillery, and yet it may safelybe affirmed that there never was over one hundi-ed men in all of the United States directly involved or knowing in any positive degree, the character of John Brown's intended movement. That the " wicked flee when no man pursuetli," was never more vigorously illustrated. In tile North for weeks the leading brains on the anti-slavery side, that spoke out boldly, could be counted on one pair of hands. Garrison doubted the use of it, Beecher denied wisdom and depreAndrew Hunter's paper of 1887 put the cost at $25,000ooo; a carefully prepared statement of a New York paper, published in December, I859, made the bill up to that time $I93,000. CAPT U RE-TIRIAL —PRISON —SCAFFOLD. 337 cated responsibility, and, as a matter of course, the Northern political leaders denied, avoided, or denounced. The bitter taste left of Mr. Seward's assailing speech, has not yet departed. The newspapers grew slowly to understand, brought thereto more rapidly by the stupid folly of the South itself. Even its readiest servants in the Nortlh, like the New York Herald, were denied access to information or opportunity for proper publication. That great journal was able only to get its interesting matter by the fact that it had as a correspondent a cousin of editor Gallagher, of the Jefferson County Times-Democrat. He was a native of Charlestown, who secured employment as a jail guard, and so got to the prisoners occasionally. He did his work well, for at the execution he drove the undertaker's wagon in which John Brown was seated. The provisions of law under which the State's attorney, Andrew Hunter, and his associates were proceeding, are in substance as follows: Treason was defined as an offense against the "sovereignty of the State," and the provision of the Code of Virginia (I859-60), Chapter CXC., read as follows: I. Treason shall consist only in levying war against the State, or adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort, or establishing, without authority of the Legislature, any government within its limits separate from the existing government, or holding or executing, in such usurped government, any office, or professing allegiance or fidelity to it,or resisting the execution of the laws, under color of its authority; and such treason, if proved by the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or by confession in court, shall be punished with death. 22 338 JOHN BROWN. Sections 2 and 3 relate to " accessories," etc. The fourth defines conspiracy with slaves as follows: 4. If a free person advise or conspire with a slave to rebel or make insurrection, or with any person induce a slave to rebel or make insurrection, he shall be punished with death. whether such rebellion or insurrection be made or not. The general laws of the State provided for the holding of special term of courts, and for immediate process on indictments for felony, and for trial on such indictments at the same term of court. They also authorized immediate execution of the deathsentence in cases of insurrection or rebellion. This class of cases was excepted under the existing code out of the general provision of law, allowing thirty (30) days to intervene between sentence and execution. Under these statutes, then, John Brown and his fellow prisoners could have been tried, convicted, sentenced, and executed on the same day they were arraigned, had the court so minded, and the execution could also have been conducted in private, if so ordered. These provisions were undoubtedly intended for the defense of a slave-hording community. They probably had their active origin in the Nat Turner insurrection of 1839, though the "patrol law," and other provisions, run further back, even to colonial days, when attempts at insurrections seemed more frequent. It was perfectly, then, within the legal power of Virginia to have tried, sentenced, and executed the Harper's Ferry raiders in its custody within the ten-days "emergency" law, of which Andrew Hunter wrote in 1887, and upon which, but not avowedly. he attempted to proceed in I859. The reason for CAPTURE-TRIAL-PRISON —SCAFFOLD. 339 holding back Aaron Dwight Stevens is apparent under the light of these provisions. With the rest swept away, his case could have been used to foment sectional feeling and to hunt down the Northern men and women, whose love of liberty may have drawn them to John Brown. Mr. Hunter's disingenuousness, in his paper of 1887, is only equaled by Governor Wise's double dealing, in so emphatically promising John Brown a fair trial. It is a matter of uncertainty as to how far the Captain's knowledge of the State Code then extended, but it is _certain that his determination to make clear his own objects as well as the methods that were being pursued by the State authorities, completely baffled tile latter, and led to that full understanding of a simple, moral, and intellectual courage, which, combining lofty aims and intentions, has made tile name and history of John Brown that of one of humanity's nobler servants and leaders. The Examining Court met under orders. Jolhn Brown, manacled to Edwin Coppoc, supported on the other side by an armed man, and surrounded by eighty men with fixed bayonets, was taken to the courtroom and arraigned. The presiding justice was a slaveholder named Davenport. He was ordered to plead to the charges made, and in response replied as follows, as reported by tile Associated Press: "VIRGINIANS: 1 did not ask for quarter at the time I was taken. I did not ask to have my life spared. Your Governor assured me of a fair trial. In my present condition this is impossible. If you seek my blood, you can have it at any time without this mockery of a trial. I have no counsel. I have not been able to advise with any one. I know nothing of the 340 JOHN BROWN. feelings of my fellow prisoners, and am utterly unable to attend to my own defense. If a fair trial is allowed, there are mitigating circumstances to be urged. But if we are forced with a mere form-a trial for execution-you might spare.yourselves that trouble. I am ready for my fate. I beg for no mockery of a trial-no insult-nothing but that which conscience gives or cowardice would drive you to practice." In conclusion he added: " I have now little further to ask, other than that I may not be foolishly insulted, as only cowardly barbarians insult those who fall into their power." No attention was paid to this trenchant statement. Attorneys Iawson Botts and Charles J. Faulkner' were assigned by the examining court as the prisoner's counsel. On being asked if he accepted their services (Attorney Green, ex-Mayor of Charlestown, and now a State judge, was afterwards substituted for Mr. Faulkner, who could not attend), Captain Brown stated he had sent for counsel, and there was no time given for their arrival. He had no wish to trouble any gentleman, and with such mockery of trial. In reply to Harding's statement that he would have "a fair trial," the Captain said: " I want counsel of my own. I have been unable to have any conference with any one. Let these gentlemen exercise their own pleasure." The other four agreed to the assignment, but in no affirmative way did John Brown acknowledge them as his counsel. The proceedings went on, and eight witnesses testified to the attack on, the fighting, and results at, Harper's Ferry. The prisoners were at once committed. The Grand Jury The latter served the Confederacy as a diplomatic agent, and has since been elected from West Virginia as Congressman and United States Senator. CA PTU RE-TRIAL,-PRISON- SCXAFFOILD). 341 met on the 25th, and remained in session. A true bill was found with three counts against John Brown, and at a later session, October 25th, bills were also presented against the others for slave conspiracy, murder, and robbery. John Brown was charged with -Conspiracy with slaves for the purpose of insurrection; with -Treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia; and with -Murder in the first degree. The trial was set-for the next day, Wednesday, the 26th of October. Still the prisoners were practically penniless and defenseless. No matter what might have been the courage and uprightness of Messrs. Botts and Green, it was simply an impossibility for them to have martyrized themselves by vigorous showing. In the Andrew Hunter narrative of the trial, there is abundant testimony,,even if unconsciously given, to this state of feeling. It is asserted that "Brown's men" were "swarming" in the one street of Charlestown, that the jail was approached by them, and that they were constantly managing to converse with either him or some of his men through the cell windows of the jail, which, as the diagram shows, were in the back part, looking into the yard. All these statements are without foundation in fact. That it was impossible to communicate with John Brown or his men, may be understood when it is known that the jailer's house occupied the front, and that the yard inclosing the brick jail was surrounded on three sides by a wall fourteen feet in height. 342 JOHN BROWN. Here is a rude plan of the building and its yard: Brick wall 14 feet high. C S.W ^~^*I a- d d w _ w __ w _ e c c i Jailer's dwelling. -J 1 I. --- — -—......-....... - -................ w w w? A Main street. A Main entrance, B Space between walls, Avis's house, and the A Main entrance, B Space between walls, Avis's house, and the jail building; C Point of wall which Cook and Coppoc reached on the night of Dec. I5th in their attempt to escape; D Jail yard d d d d d, cell doors; E Reception-room; F Cell occupied by Brown and Stevens, afterwards by the latter and Hazlett; G Cell of Green and Copeland; H Cell of Coppoc and Cook; 1 Cell first occupied by Albert Hazlett, w w w, w wt, windows, those of cells look into the jail yard; cc cots of Brown and Stevens. At this date, too, the building was guarded by a heavy force, two cannons were planted so as to cover the same, the inside guards were heavily armed and increased in number, several hundred State troops were encamped about the town. Harper's Ferry, the nearest railroad point, was occupied as an outpost, and no one was allowed to pass from the earliest CAPTURE-TR I AL-PR ISON -SCAFFOLD. 343 days of the raiders' imprisonment at the county seat without passes from Governor Wise or Mr. Hunter himself. All this procedure seemed to be decided upon as a means of forcing any issue justifying the execution of John Brown and of breeding sectional ill will. Espionage and vigilance were increased, not diminished, as the trial, etc., went forward. Mr. Hunter's explanation (New Orleans TimesDemocrat, September 5, I887) of the haste shown in the preliminary examination is, that " according to a very anomalous system peculiar to Virginia, it was necessary that from the time of issuing the warrant, calling for the examining court, not less than five nor more than ten days should expire." So Mr. Hunter proceeded to enforce the law to almost the rigidest letter thereof, by putting the examination on the sixth day. The State warrant for John Brown's commitment was not issued till October g9th. The. examining court, which had to consist of not less than five justices of the peace (a Mr. Davenport presided, and eight were summoned), could acquit, but not convict a prisoner. The October term of the county court began the next day, the 2oth. The preliminary inquiry was ordered for the 25th; the trial for the next day. The Hunter programme, defeated by the arrival of Counselor Hoyt and the sagacious courage of Captain Brown, would, if unchecked, have had the chief prisoner examined, committed, indicted, tried, convicted, and sentenced by the 28th of October, and probably also, executed the next day-all being done within the ten days permitted by Virginian law. Captain Brown was unable to stand more than a 344 JOHN BROWN. few minutes at a time. The wound in his head liad affected both hiis sight and hearing, and lie was without friendly counsel or money, as the Federal agent at Harper's Ferry yet retained what was taken from his person. On the 26th the trial proceeded, and it was only by a fortunate series of incidents (for Captain Brown and his cause) that conviction did not transpire on the 28th or 29th of the same month. It has been left to men like Hunter, however, who had motives to present, ambitions to serve, and records to maintain, to accuse John Brown of trifling and trickery. He accuses him of shamming weakness, of declaring he wanted no trial, while at the same time he did all he could to delay the proceedings. It must be borne in mind that John Brown had not the slightest expectation of escape from the severest legal penalty. His only interest was in securing time.sufficient to make evident to the country and the world the motives that animated him, the objects he had pursued, and the manner in which he had acted. He was confident of his historical vindication, or, rather of that of his cause. It was the interest of Virginia and of the larger issues of Southern policy which at once developed themselves, that John Brown's motives should be questioned and his action left obscure. Hence, in spite of the tribute to character already wrung from Henry A. Wise and others, it becomes at once plain that the intention was to press the examination, trial, conviction, sentence, and execution to as rapid a consummation as possible. The current press records show this; they were not in John Brown's interest, and offer therefore the best of evidence. Virginia was afraid of a better CAPTU RE- TRIA\- PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 345 understanding of Jolhn Brown on tie part of the country and of the world. John A. Andrew voiced the growing public opinion when he said at this time: " Whateveir mIay be thought of John Brown's acts, John Brown himself is right! " The court begun its business early. Judge Parker, who presided, lived to the age of eighty-three, dying in 1893, was then a man of about forty-nine years, handsome and dignified, with a severe look, rather small in stature; personally, a very social and agreeable gentleman. He was a native of the section, and connected by family and marriage with all the noted Virginians therein. Charles B. Harding, the County Attorney, is reported in the current dispatches as a man of intemperate habits, unprepossessing, morose, and even ferocious in manners. He was soon blotted out of the case, however. Captain Avis, who is still a resident of Harper's Ferry, was then a man approaching middle age, short and stout, with a humorous-looking, pleasant face, but of serious manners. He was always kind, and the testimony to that effect is without a negative. The sheriff, Mr. Campbell, was a tall, stout man, of middle age, who, like Avis, won the respect of his prisoners. Indeed, he did for them, and willingly, even more than common humatnity required. The most comical, pompous apparition of the period was a militia officer, to whom the " protection " of the court and " security " of the prisoners was committed. This was Col. J. Lewis Davis, a very queer-looking dignitary indeed, especially profuse in his hirsute appendages. He wore his hair braided in two queues tied by a bow-knot over his forehead, and with arrogant manner and 346 JOHN BROWN. strident voice, armed with a Sharpe's rifle, "looted " by him from Captain Brown's stock, which he always carried, he was the ever present, conspicious, and unendurable figure about the courthouse. His special purpose seemed to be the hunting out of newspaper men and annoying them all he could. He was brutally offensive to Counselor Hoyt, and it was by his order that Mr. Jewell, a newspaper artist or illustrator, and Mr. Hoyt were driven from Charlestown. Col. Lewis A. Washington was naturally also a conspicuous figure. A handsome man, of medium height, with slow, grave speech and walk, he looked like Trumbull's portrait of his great-uncle. Lieutenant Green, of the Marine Corps, was another personage of the period. He is an undersized, dull-looking man, compact of build, and with the air of a stupid sort of a swashbuckler. Andrew Hunter, the State's special attorney, fully represented Virginia, in both her strength and weakness. His, was the dominant figure in the prosecution. Governor Wise made no mistake in selecting Hunter. About fifty years of age, six feet in stature, well proportioned, active, elegant in manner, generally suave, quiet, and grave in speech, from the first carrying everything with a high hand, confident, as a matter of course, of conviction, he could still be very overbearing in act and coolly insolent in manner. This was his attitude at first to the brave, quick-witted, keen-brained, but inexperienced young lawyer, George Henry Hoyt, of Massachusetts, who appeared so opportunely in that Virginia courthouse, disarranging thereby the short, swift plans of the haughty Virginian prosecutor. Afterwards he gauged Hoyt's ability more fully and CAPTURE —TRI AL-PRISON —SCAFFOLD. 347 got him out of Virginia as early and rudely as he could. He did not care even to assume the virtue he had not, and made it quite clear that he proposed to drive matters red-handed. This became very apparent at the afternoon session of the 29th, when, as Hunter states in his last paper (1887), " the court reassembled after dinner," and the " word came from the jail that Brown was too sick to appear that evening. I at once suggested to the court to have the jail physician summoned to examine, whether he was too sick, and to report. This was done, and the physician, who was Dr. Mason, promptly reported that he was not too sick, and that he was feigning. On my motion, the court directed him to be brought into court.... He was conducted through the line of soldiers into the courthouse and placed (still on the cot) in the bar, with one of his lawyers (Mr. Hoyt) fanning him. -The trial went on to a certain extent, but every effort was made to protract it. I resisted it, but at last, late in the evening, the judge called me up and said he thought we'd better agree, to avoid all further cavil at our proceedings, to let the case be adjourned over till Monday, which was done. Brown did not require to be carried back to jail that evening; he walked back." In this statement, it is possible that Mr. Hunter was as wrong as in his writing that the trial ended on Monday night, October 30th, when, in fact, the verdict was not rendered until Wednesday, November 2d. Mr. Hunter's own statement shows how incapable he and all his associates were of understanding the representative character of John Brown. He was at that moment the embodied moral sense of the free States; he had sought to be 348 JOHIN IROWN. the mailed hand thereof. It was essential that intel. lectual courage should serve the conscience of freedom better even than armed action has sought to do it, and he was not found wanting. Privilege never can understand the resistance planted on the basis of right dealing. Scratch its veneer ever so slightly, and the brutal grain always appears. Attorney Hunter demonstrated this in many ways. As a pleader, his manner was subdued, his diction strong and earnest, his voice deep and full, and lie could make it ring at will. He did tlis, and with a touch of ferocity, too, when making his final argument for the conviction of Shields Green, till the crowd in and around the courthouse blazed with fury at his denunciation of the black man who had attempted to free his race, and both as fighter and prisoner showed in rude, but vigorous manner, his utter disdain of men who sold mothers, dealt in men, bred children for sale, making concubines for profit of every ninth woman in the land. The Virginian lawyers selected by the Examining Court to defend these prisoners had an ungracious and tha.nkless task assigned them. Mr. Green was described by Correspondent House, of tile New York Trib/ule, as a " most extraordinary man to look upon,.. long, angular, uncouth, and wild in gesture,... deficient in all rhetorical graces. His words rush from his mouth scarce half made up. He speaks sentences abreast... His. 'whar and ' thar' are the least of his offenses. His demeanor, altogether, is of unrivaled oddity; and yet his power is so decided that, while he is upon his legs, he carries everything before him. CAPTURE-TRIAL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 349 He is the most remarkable man I have seen here, although not so impressive in his bearing as Mr. Andrew Hunter, who is a man of real nobility of presence." Mr. LawsonBotts is also mentioned in the Cook trial as having all the while "sat coiled together in his chair,... watching for opportunities of springing upon his antagonist at the least sign of weakness, he has darted upon Hunter and striven, to destroy the fabric of his argument." George Henry Hoyt served an excellent purpose for the defense by his presence, and won a deserved place for both courage and ability. Mr. Chilton, of Washington, was selected by Montgomery Blair, who at one moment, under the solicitation of John A. Andrew, was almost ready to go himself. Chilton was a Virginian by birth, connected with leading Valley families, thoroughly familiar with the State laws, and quite able to measure the needlessness of the extreme alarm, which was driving the community into such violent excitement. He understood the political drift of the positions taken by Mr. Hunter and Governor Wise, and afterwards aided Blair and other conservative Republican leaders to make the most of it. Judge Griswold, of Ohio, was a strong, conscientious, able lawyer, who did not at all like the work he had undertaken at the request of Judge Tilden, John Brown's former lawyer and personal friend. He did his work well, as a lawyer, and got away as soon as it was done. George Sennott, the young Boston Democratic lawyer who volunteered, working for only his bare expenses, did a man's part as well as a lawyer's in the defense of Copeland and Green, the colored men, as also for Stevens, Cop 35~ JOHN BROWN. poc, and Hazlett. His avowed Democracy gave him a better chance than Mr. Hoyt would have had. Indeed, it was probably fortunate for himself that the latter did not have occasion beyond the first day lie was in court, to make a plea for his friend and client, as his warm and impassioned speech and earnest anti-slavery feeling-Hoyt was a man of genuine eloquence even then-might have led him to expressions that would have been unwise and readily have proven dangerous, too. The most picturesque and powerful figure connected with any defense was that of Daniel W. Voorhees, now the veteran Democratic leader and United States Senator, of Indiana; then in the full zenith of his ability as a pleader, and gifted with the soaring power of speech which so well befitted Western and Southern juries of the period. John E. Cook had wealthy relationsopposed to him in opinions, but strongly attached to him personally,-and they made for his life a forensic and legal fight of the most vigorous character. It was unsuccessful, for lie had lived and married among the neighborhood people. With that strange belief in the iniquity of disbelieving whlat they believe, still a claracteristic of our Southern brethren, the Virginians would have almost let Brown go in preference to Cook, if a peremptory choice had been thrust upon them. These were some of the salient features of that courthouse drama, though when the curtain rolled up for the first act, it was on a scene all one-sided. The gray-bearded, worn old man, so imperturbably lying or half raised on his dirty cot; the intense, almost savage faces of spectators, the alert dignified judge, the already decided jury wait CAPTURE-TRIAL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 351 ing with barest patience for the hour in which their inevitable verdict would be recorded, the armed attendants, subdued but still eager for force; yet dominated all over by the strident will of Andrew Hunter, pursuing his end with contemptuous disregard of practice, caring nothing for the bungling form of papers and pleas, brushing aside all dilatory motions, declaring that the cost of waiting was too great, and demanding a swift ending;-these made a somber prologue to the powerful tragedy. Cannon were trained on the courthouse. The building and vicinity swarmed with armed guards. Brown's face was less swollen, but he managed to walk only with great difficulty. Stevens, supported by two bailiffs, was held up, breathing with great difficulty; afterwards he lay on a mattress placed upon the floor. Coppoc, Copeland, and Green stood behind. All four were removed to the jail after the indictments were read, Captain Brown being left alone. Before the indictment was read, the prisoner said: ' I do not intend to detain the Court, but barely wish to say, as I have been promised a fair trial, that I am not now in circumstances that enable me to attend a trial, owing to the state of my health. I have a severe wound in the back, or rather in one kidney, which enfeebles me very much. But I am doing well, and I only ask for a very short delay of my trial, and I think I may get able to listen to it; and I merely ask that, as the saying is, the devil may have his due '-no more. I wish further to say that my hearing is impaired, and rendered indistinct, in consequence of the wounds about my head. I cannot hear distinctly at all. I could not hear what the Court has said this morning. I would be glad to hear what is said on my trial, and am now doing better than I could expect to under 352 JOHN BROWN. thle circumstances.... I do not presume to ask more than a very short stay.... If that could be allowed me, I would be very much obliged."' This is certainly a remarkable speech for a man "shamming weakness," defiant of proceedings, and desirous of " embarrassing " justice. It was objected that the request was premature, and the reading of tile indictments were proceeded with. A plea of " not guilty" was made and separate trials asked for in each case; the State electing to try John Brown first. Lawson Botts, of counsel, then made the formal plea for a short delay on the ground of the prisoner's physical disability. The Court after brief discussion, ordered the jail physician, Dr. Mason, to examine the Captain. He did so and swore that Brown was able to stand trial, upon which the Court ordered it to proceed. During the afternoon the jury was made up. Not a single member of the panel was challenged by Mr. Botts, though prejudice and preconceived opinion was necessarily evident in a majority. At five o'clock the Court adjourned. On the 27th, Captain Brown was brought into court on a cot. The illustrated papers of the date give pictures of the carrying of him to and fro, accompanied by armed guards. A press dispatch describes the prevalent opinion, as follows: " There is an evident intention to hurry the trial through, and execute tlie prisoners as soon as possible-fearing attempts to rescue them. It is rumored that Brown is desirous of making a full statement of his motives and intentions through the press; but the Court has refused all access to reporters] See Associated Press dispatches of date, CAPTURE-TRIAL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 353 fearing that he may put forth something calculated to influence the public mind, and to have a bad effect on the slaves. The reason given for hurrying the trial is that the people of the whole country are kept in a state of excitement, and a large armed force is required to prevent attempts at rescue." On entering court, Captain Brown was confronted with a dispatch sent from Cleveland, Ohio, alleging his insanity and urging delay, in order to prove the same. This emanated from persons unable to grasp the ethical nature of the situation. Jeremiah L. Brown, half-brother of the Captain, was one of the most persistent of those who asserted that John Brown's brain was affected. Others, and a majority, desired only to save, if possible, the life of the old covenanter, and were ready for any method that offered. As a matter of fact, no saner man lived or died than John Brown. In the court, when Attorney Botts presented the dispatch, the Captain, slowly getting on his feet, said: " I will add, if the Court will allow me, that I look upon it as a miserable artifice and trick of those who ought to take a different course in regard to me, if they took any at all, and I view it with contempt more than otherwise.... I am perfectly unconscious of insanity, and I reject, so far as I am capable, any attempts to interfere in my behalf on that score." This little speech and other details again proved that the accused did not seek to obstruct, or cause any unnecessary delay. The jury being sworn, and the indictment read, a plea of " Not guilty " was entered. Mr. Hunter then stated the evidence he propossd to present and urged absence of prejudice, but demanding celerity in the proceedings. Mr. Green argued in reply, tlhat 23 354 JOHN BROWN. the indictment for " treason " was faulty, as it must be shown that an attempt was made to " set up" a separate State government, and to show tile treasonable purpose of all acts done, not by tile prisoners' confessions, but by two separate witnesses; that the alleged conspiracy with slaves must be shown by competent testimony to have existed within the State of Virginia itself. The Court could not punish for acts done in Maryland or within the Federal jurisdiction at Harper's Ferry, and this applies also to the charge of murder committed on the United States reservation there. Mr. Hunter replied, that the treason was shown by the effort made, backed by the evidences of a new form of government being ready, if the effort was successful. On his own confession, Brown was guilty of conspiracy. The murder was notorious, and the prisoner was in command. The United States had always recognized the local jurisdiction over criminal offenses committed at Harper's Ferry. Testimony was given, among others, by the train men to the effect that Captain Brown expressed regret that the train had been stopped and that no one should be hurt, adding that it was not his intention that "blood should be spilled." The stoppage was bad management on the part of the men stationed on the bridge. He walked over the bridge with the conductor, as a guarantee that the passengers and people would not be injured. Messrs. Washington, Allstadt, Ball, and others, who had been held as hostages by Captain Brown, testified as to his directing them to keep out of range of the firing as far as practicable, and of the unvarying courtesy of manner and speech he showed towards them; also, as to his CAPTURE-TRIAL- PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 355 steadfast coolness and courage, and of a declaration to them, that " his object was to free the slaves and not to make war on the people,... that it was no child's play he had undertaken; that he was only obeying the Bible and following the law of God." He assured all in his hands that he was not making war on property, but defending liberty. During this afternoon and early the next morning, he offered no obstacles whatever to the progress of the trial, identifying as handed him all the documents, papers, and letters, found in the Kennedy Farm-house, or at the Virginia schoolhouse, declaring as documents were handed him by the prosecuting attorney through Sheriff Campbell (who had made himself familiar with Captain Brown's handwriting) that he was " ready to face the music," and save all trouble in such matters. Adjournment on Thursday afternoon was had at a reasonable hour. The arrival about midnight of George Henry Hoyt, a young Massachusetts lawyer, who proposed to serve as junior counselor for John Brown, marked the beginning of historical incidents of importance. Mr. Hoyt was not allowed to enter the jail; Messrs. Botts and Green called at the hotel and notified him that they declined his or any other man's assistance, while the public hostility was eagerly and loudly made apparent. By Judge Parker's direction, with the aid of Sheriff Campbell, Mr. Hoyt was permitted to enter the courtroom and seat himself by the cot of the prisoner. During the early part of the Friday (October 28th) morning session, the evidence of the leading "hostages," and the identification of the John Brown papers proceeded. 356 JOHN BROWN. It soon became evident that the prosecution was about to rest. Witnesses subpoenaed were called, but did not respond, though, as Mr. Hoyt stated in after years, John Brown himself pointed out to him several he desired to testify as being then in the courtroom. The position was a very plain one. Mr. Hunter had called enough of John Brown's more prominent "hostages" to give some color to the prosecutor's desire for "fairness," and did not want any further testimony of that character. He had brought out the seizure of buildings and train, the capture of prisoners and property; the presence of negroes, free and slave; the firing, wounding, and killing of persons; and, to emphasize this latter, put his own son on the stand to show the death of Mr. Beckham-"his grand-uncle "-and his subsequent seizure and slaying, with others, of Wm. Thompson. A good case had been made and none of the testimony disproven. Why, then, should John Brown be permitted in a Virginia court, under plea of defense or " mitigating circumstances," to make anti-slavery arguments or prove that his aim was to attack slavery as " the sum of all villainies"? Why, indeed! The instinct of self-preservation leads clearly to the tacit understanding, as existing between prosecution and defense. Counselor Hoyt always charged this. And here comes in the narration of events, described to this writer and others, by Mr. Hoyt, and established, too, by the exhibition of a brief, or memorandum, in John Brown's handwriting, which, during the earlier years of the Civil War, was in Colonel Hoyt's possession. As this gentleman sat by the Captain's cot, his attention was called by a silent motion of the Cap CAPTURE-TRIAL -- PRISON-SCAFFOLD). 357 tain's eyes and head to a paper with writing on it, lying near the chairs occupied by Messrs. Botts and Green. My recollection of Hoyt's statement was that it lay close to Mr. Green's chair. Hie managed to secure the same, attention being directed to Captain Brown's rising from his cot and addressing the Court as follows: May itfplease the Court,-I discover that, notwithstanding all the assertions I have received of a fair trial, nothing like a fair trial is to be given me, as it would seem. I gave the names as soon as I could get at them, of the persons I wished to have called as witnesses, and was assured that they would be subpoenaed. I wrote down a memorandum to that effect, saying where those parties were, but it appears that they have not been subpoenaed, so far as I can learn. And now I ask if I am to have anything at all deserving the name and shadow of a fair trial, that this proceeding be deferred until to-morrow morning; for I have no counsel, as I have before stated, in whom I feel that I can rely, but I am in hopes counsel may arrive who will see that I get the witnesses necessary for my defense. I am myself unable to attend to it. I have given all the attention I possibly could to it, but am unable to see or know about them, and can't even find out their names; and I have nobody to do my errands, for my money was all taken from me when I was hacked and stabbed, and I have not a dime. I had two hundred and fifty or sixty dollars in gold and silver taken from my pocket, and now I have no possible means of getting anybody to go my errands for me, and I have not had all the witnesses subpoenaed. They are not within reach, and are not here. I ask at least until to-morrow morning to have something done, if anything is designed. If not, 1 am ready for anything that may come up.' Associated Press report of period. 358 JOHN BROWN. This bold address created a sensation. Messrs. Botts and Green withdrew peremptorily. An examination of the paper Mr. Hoyt had secured, showed it to be a memorandum made by John Brown for tlle use of counsel, containing the names of witnesses, with notes of what was to be shown by the testimony. It was written on legal foolscap (blue) and occupied nearly tlhe wlole four pages thereof. The handwriting was unmistakable. When I saw it in I862 this document still bore the marks of tobacco juice and bootheels with which its place on the courtroom floor had caused it to be decorated. Evidently it had been rejected by "counsel " and flung away.' Nothing else was left, of course, to Messrs. Botts and Green, than to retire at once from John Brown's case. IMr. Hoyt was perforce compelled to assume charge, and first made a request for an adjournment until morning in order to enable him to examine the in(lictment papers in the case and the Virginia statutes, etc. In resisting and refusing this motion both the Judge and State's Attorney were contemptuously ungracious- in speech. John Brown at this time suggested to Hoyt that a motion for time be made on account of the non-appearance of witnesses for the defense and the lack of subpoenas for tlem. On this ground Mr. Hoyt was at home, fresh as he was from his common-law studies, and aroused to the full significance of the delay asked, by tlhe arrival of telegrans to Captain Brown, announcing that Mr. GrisOf what lhas become of tllis document I have no knowledge. A statement or replica of its contenlts wa- once published, if I recollect arighlt, in tile daily C'oservative', Leavenworth, Kansas, D. W. Wilder, editor. CAPTURE-TRI AL-PRI SON-SC A F FOLD. 359 wold had already left Cle eland, that Mr. Samuel Chilton, of Washington, would leave by the evening train, so that both would be in the courtroom next morning. The interest and excitement of the afternoon was added to by the arrival later in the day under heavy guard, of John E. Cook, captured two days before at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and returned under the stimulus of Governor Wise's reward, without waiting the full legal execution of the process of extradition. Mr. Hoyt's earnestness and persistence coupled with the news that the other counsel were to arrive, brought about an adjournment till morning. Cook, in the meanwhile, was being arraigned before the examining court. Mr. Hunter was baffled, he did not dare to meet the issue made and used the full power of the law to end the trial! The young lawyer was admitted to a conference with Captain Brown, Jailer Avis being present. He managed to place in Brown's hand a private note from a Boston friend, the purport of which is hereafter shown, and proceeded with the larger duty that had fallen upon him, spending the night in an examination of the State laws. The trial proceeded; Messrs. Chilton and Griswold taking full control of the defense on Saturday morning. Both gentlemen asked for a few hours delay, in order that they might have time to read the indictment at least. Mr. Chilton had expected to assist the Virginia lawyers, and finding they retired from the case, had hesitated to take charge, but at the solicitation of Captain Brown and Mr. Hoyt, and friends elsewhere, he had consented to serve. A few hours' delay only was essential for Judge Griswold 36o JOHN BROWN. and himself to become informed. Judge Packer was almost surly in his rejection of this motion, referring with marked asperity to the speech made by Captain Brown the day before. "The trial must proceed," he ordered. The witnesses Brown desired were secured, and the evidence of Master-Armorer Mills, Paymaster Daingerfield, and Samuel Snider, of the United States Arsenal, Captain Sims, a Maryland militiaman, with others testified strongly to the general aim and speech of Captain Brown and the men under him, in the care for prisoners and other matters, and equally as general inhumanity on the part of all the Virginians who directed the attack. The evidence of Captain Simons, Fredericksburg, Maryland, Guards, is worthy reproduction as to the essential points: "Brown complained (at the time of the first proposition on 17th, for withdrawal) that his men were shot down like dogs, while bearing a flag of truce. I told him they must expect to be shot like dogs, if they took up arms in that way. Brown said he knew what he had to undergo when he came there. He had weighed the responsibility and should not shrink from it. He had had full possession of the town, and could have massacred all the inhabitants, had he thought proper to do so; but as he had not, he considered himself entitled to some terms. He said he had knowingly shot no one who had not carried arms. I told him that Mayor Beckham had been killed, and that I knew he was altogether unarmed. He seemed sorry to hear of his death, and said, 'I fight only those who fight me.' I saw Stevens at the hotel after he was wounded, and shamed some young men who were endeavoring to shoot him as he lay in his bed, apparently dying.... I have no sympathy for the acts of the prisoner, but I regard him as a brave man." l Condensed from the current press reports, CAPTURE-T RIAL-PRISON —SC A FFOLD. 36I An attempt was again made to force the prisoner's counsel to proceed to a finish. As the ten days of the "Emergency" law had expired, the effort was altogether needless. Hunter made his opening speech and the Court then adjourned until Monday at nine. Late in the afternoon, of Monday, October 3ist, after about six hours were consumed by the arguments of Messrs. Chilton, Griswold, and Hunter, the case was delivered to the jury. An absence of less than an hour occurred and then the jury returned. The clerk asked: "Gentlemen of the jury, what say you? Is the prisoner at the bar, John Brown, guilty or not guilty?" The offense charged had previously been recapitulated. "Guilty," was the foreman's reply. "Guilty of treason, and conspiring and advising with slaves and others to rebel, and of murder in the first degree," officially queried the clerk. "Yes," slowly and seriously responded the foreman. Strange as it seems under the high-pressure excitement that existed, not a word or sound, beside the natural stir of the audience, was heard. All seemed to feel that a deep tragedy, to be met with befitting stillness, was in progress around them. Counsel Chilton entered a motion for arrest of judgment, on errors to which he had taken exceptions in both indictment and verdict; Hunter even then wanted, or said he did, to proceed with the arguments. But the Court adjourned till next day, when the closing arguments were heard. Edwin Coppoc was called to the bar, and his trial proceeded, lasting 362 J(JOHN;Io\v N. less than two days. So on the second day of Novemher, while the jury was out on the verdict thereof, Captain Brown was brought into court. He still walked with difficulty, every step being attenlde( with evident pain. His features were firm and corn posed, but withlin the dimly lighted courtroom. slowed wan and pallid. H-e seated llimself near his counsel, and resting his head upon his right hand, remained motionless, apparently the most unheeding man in the room. I-e sat upright with lips compressed, looking (irect into the chilled stern face of the judge as he overruled tlhe exceptions of counsel. VWhen directed by tlhe clerk to say " why sentence should not be p)assed upon iim," John Brown rose slowly to his feet, placing his hanhds on a table in front of him, and leaning slightly forward, in a voice singularly quiet and self-controlled, withl tones of marked gentleness and a manner slow and slightly hesitating, made this memorable speech: I have, may it please the Court, a few words to say: In the first place, I deny everything hut what I have all along admitte(l,-the design on my p)art to free the slaves. I intended certainly to have made a clean thing of that matter, as I did last winter, when I went into Missouri and took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side, moved them through the country, and finally left them in Canada. I designed to have (lone the same thing again, on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection. I have another objection: and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer such a penalty, Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admlit has been fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of CA 1'TU RE —TRIAL ---PRISON —SCAFiFODI). 363 the witnesses who have testified in this case), had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the socalled great, or in behalf of any of their friends-either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class -and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and( every man in this court would have (leemred it an act worthy of re\ardl rather than punishment. This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose is the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to ine, I should do even so to them. It teaches me further, to " remember them that are iln bonds, as bound with them." I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I ami yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persolns. I believe that to have interfered as I have (one-as I have always freely admitted I have done-in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, anld unjust enactments,-I submit; so let it be done. Let me say one word further. I feel entirely satisfied with the treatment I have received on my trial. Considering all the circumstances, it has been more generous than I expected. But I feel no consciousness of guilt. I have stated from the first what was my intention, and what was not. I never lhad any design against the life of any person, nor any disposition to conmit treason, or excite slaves to rebel, or make any general insurrection. I never encouraged any man to dlo so, but always discouraged any idea of the kind. Let me say, also, a word in regard to the statements made by some of those connected with me. I hear it has been stated by some of them that I have induced them to join me. ,364 J(3tIN 1tiROW\N. But the contrary is true. I do not say this to injure them, but as regarding their weakness. There is not one of them but joined me of his own accord, and the greater part of them at their own expense. A number of them I never saw, and never had a word of conversation with, till the clay they came to me; and that was for the purpose I have stated. Now, I have done! On that act the curtain fell, without a sound. Over At a later date (November 22d), under pressure from Andrew Hunter, John Brown wrote a letter to explain the apparent discrepancy between his statement to Governor Wise, on the day of capture, and the above speech. The Captain declared he was taken by surprise in court, not having anticipated so early a sentence. Hunter wrote, in 1887 (New Orleans Times-Democrat paper), that he informed Governor Wise, at his visit to Brown in jail, on the 20th of November, that the latter's speech in court " was deliberate, cool, and evidently prepared beforehand." Not a word of such preparation has ever been heard of, and the speech itself bears internal proof of unexpectedness on his part. Governor Wise declared that Brown represented to him and the examining court that he designed to free slaves on the soil, and did not primarily design to turn them off. Under date of November 22d, John Brown addressed Andrew Hunter a letter, in which the apparent "confliction" was dealt witl. Of what he said in court, John Brown wrote: "I was taken wholly by surprise.. In the hurry of the moment I forgot much of what I had intended to say, and did not consider the full bearing of what I did say. I intended to convey this idea: that it was my intention to place the slaves in a condition to defend their liberties, if they would, without any bloodshed, but not that I intended to run them out of the slave States. I was not aware of any such apparent confliction until my attention was called to it.... A man ini my then circumstances" could not be " superhuman in respect to the exact purpose of every word he might utter." Wlat he said to the Governor " was intended for truth," and what was said in court " was equally intended for truth, but required a more full explanation than I gave." CAPTURE-TRIAL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 365 all sounds were the echo of those firm but gentle tones! The letters of George Henry Hoyt, furnished me by J. V. Le Barnes, Esq.' (now a practising lawyer In a recent letter, this gentleman writes: " Hoyt went to Charlestown, at my instance, and I furnished him the money for his expenses. He was living at Atliol, Mass., with his parents, having then recently graduated at law. The morning that the news was received of the raid and capture, he came at once to Boston, and I met him at the Republican Headquarters and told him I wanted him to go to Clarlestown and act as counsel for John Brown. My suggestion was that so youthful and physically fragile a person in appearance (he was not more than twenty-one, and looked not more than nineteen, and was slight in figure) would not create the suspicion that a more mature man might do, and I believed that for this reason he would be more likely to succeed in being allowed access to Brown than another, and did not believe he would be in as much personal danger as another might be. The purposes for which I wanted him to go were: first, to watch and be able to report proceedings, to see and talk with Brown, and be able to communicate with his friends anything Brown might want to say; and, second, to send me an accurate and detailed account of the military situation at Charlestown, the number and distribution of troops, the location and defenses of the jail, the nature of the approaches to the town and jail, the opportunities for a sudden attack, and the means of retreat, with the location and situation of the room in which Brown was confined, and all other particulars that might enable friends to consult as to some plan of attempt at rescue. Hoyt was willing to accept the commission, if his expenses could be paid, as he had no money himself." Le Barnes and Hoyt visited Dr. Howe, at South Boston, who threw cold water on the project, declaring that John Brown's execution would have a good effect on public opinion. Such a view naturally seemed cold-blooded to these earnest young men. It was probably a surprise when they found John Brown holding the same and living up thereto, paradoxical as that seems in statement. Le Barnes furnished Hoyt 366 JOH N BROWN. of \Vashingtorl, )D. C.), by whlom {Mr. Hoyt was induced to volunteer for the Virginia work, and who supplied the modest means required to defray his expenses, give details of the trial and t)rison life, which wvill be of interest here. Under date of Sunday, October 3oth, Hoyt writes Mr. Le Barnes, tlhat" Pursued with unrelenting zeal by the prosecution, who inltended to have had Brown coiznvi'ledt and snitenced last night, even if the session continued until twelve o'clock. By ingenious devices, counsel have got the case continued until to-morrow (Monday, October 31) for concluding arguments. We are fortunate in having here Mr. Chilton, of Washington, a Virginian, and a very eminent lawyer,.. also a relative of the Judge and the family friend of nost of the wealthy and respectable people hereabouts... Associated with him, also, is Mr. Griswold, one of the eminent Ohio lawyers, who was for many years the Reporter of the State. He was sent on by Judge Tilden, who is a personal and family friend of B's relations in Ohio.... After referring to the legal points seventy-five dollars "in silver," and afterwards sent him other small remittances. The funds for paying Messrs. Chilton & Griswold, as counsel, $I,ooo each, with the expenses for copying records, etc., were probably raised through John A. Andrews and Judge Thomas Russell. Mr. Le Barnes's original purpose was probably never known to eiLher of these gentlemen. Hoyt's first letter to Le Barnes set this forth most plainly, and it was, of course, scrupulously obeyed. Mr. Le Barnes writes: "There was a letter from Hoyt, written after he had seen (the night of the 28th of October) and talked with Brown, in which he gave the information desired in respect to the situation at Charlestown, the defenses, etc., and which inclosed a diagram of the jail, showing Brown's cell, the approaches, etc., etc., and in which he stated that Brown positively refused his consent to any movement looking to a rescue." CAPT U RE ---TRI AL ---PRISON-SCA FFOLD. 367 raised and reserved as exceptions, by Mr. Chilton, on which subsequently sound (as to treason, but useless as to prejudices) appeal to the State Supreme Court was made, Mr. Hoyt goes on-' Providentially, things have been conserved to obtain delay. It certainly was most fortunate for Brown that I was with him when he dismissed Botts and Green. In justice to them I must say that their management of the case was as good for him as the circumtstances of their position permitted. You must be told that the morning of my arrival I was visited by them and informed, that they had decided not to be associated with anybody in-the defense, so if I then went into the case they would wholly withdraw. Of course, my only alternative was to remain passive and wait for developments. I was not permitted to see Brown until that night (October 28th), when the case was thrown upon mne. I never offered a sincerer thanksgiving, than when the morning light brought to us the eminent gentlemen now conducting the case. Here let me say, as it is unnecessary for me to explain the exact condition of the case-the very fine report of the Associated Press agent being minute and particular-that Brown is well pleased with what has transpired; is perfectly satisfied, and more than all the rest, seems to be inspired with a truly noble resignation. " This morning, Mr. Chilton, Mr. Griswold, and myself were closeted with him three or four hours. I confess, I did not know which most to admire, the thorough honor and admirable qualities of the brave, old border soldier, or the uncontaminated simplicity of the man. My friend John Brown is an astonishing character. The people about here, while determined to have him die for his alleged offenses, generally concede and applaud the conscientiousness, the honor, and the supreme bravery of this mtan. His fate is sealed, undoubtedly. Whether he will in the course of further judicial proceedings be condemned and executed upon a Virginia scaffold, or whether he will die by the rough hand of violence, I (lo not decide in my own mind.... There is no chance of his ultimate escape. There is nothing but the most unmitigated failure and the saddest consequence which it is possible to 368 JOHN BROWN. conjure up to ensue upon an atteml)t at rescue. The country, all aroused, is guarded by armed patrols and a large body of troops are constantly under arms. If you hear anything about such an attempt, for Heaven's sake do not fail to restrain the enterptrise." Under date of the 31st, Mr. Hoyt again writes, acknowledging receipt of a small draft, and stating that he had been sending for witnesses, and in the incidental payments due thereon, says he is regarded by all the lawyers, and indeed by everybody else, as representing an infinitely rich somebody in Boston." He explained the facts, of course, to Messrs. Clilton and Griswold, assuring them, however, that their fees, etc. will be duly met, until the writ of error to be filed before the Supreme Court is decided upon. He then adds: "In regard to the other prisoners, Coppoc is now on trial, Griswold and I are counsel, and Green and Stevens are yet to be tried. Cook (who was brought from Pennsylvania on the 28th) is making a confession. Griswold and I accidentally found that out.... Stevens is in the same cell with Brown. I have frequent talks with him. He is in a most pitiable condition physically, his wounds being of the most painful and dangerous character. He has four bullets in his body, two or three being about the head and neck. He bears his sufferings with grim and silent fortitude, never complaining and absolutely without hope. He is a splendid-looking young fellow. Brown says it was a great mistake, and Stevens agrees that it was a great mistake, chaffering, to save the lives and shedding of the blood of men. They might have got away into the mountains, where no body of men could have captured them, had it not been for this mistake. Brown says-he doubts not it is all right in the providence of God and is resigned to his fate.... I am assured by everybody that there is no danger of violence to these men. I am not so much CAPTURE-TRIAL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 369 of a fool, however, that I cannot read a devilish countenance when I see it face to face, and I tell you there have been too many silent people about this courthouse to-day, and I am quite sure there are a few... who want no better pretext than a delay, such as we are endeavoring and hope to obtain to set the assassin's hand upon our brave, old friend. John Brown is too good to live among men. I never imagined it possible for a man to be so desperately cool and calm under such terrible circumstances. It may be he has fulfilled his appointed mission on earth (if there be such a thing).. I don't believe that John Brown will ever leave this town a live man." (Hoyt had described the lawyers' hopes of having their writs of error sustained and a new trial ordered, all of which proved fallacious.) "There is a disposition," he continues, " in a measure, to prevent it being said, that he had no formal trial, but the people are bound he shall die. Beckham, one of the killed at the Ferry,.. was a relative of Hunter, and mayor of that town. H. Turner, another of them, was a respectable and highly connected citizen, and they (the citizens) are bound to have the blood of this entire lot of prisoners." In another letter (November 2d), Mr. Hoyt refers to the defense of Coppoc by Mr. Griswold and himself, and then states that Mr. George Sennott, of Boston, who had been sent down, a volunteer, to defend Stevens and the colored prisoners, " had fought with extraordinary pluck and most astonishing zeal the cases of Copeland and Green." Mr. Hoyt urged on Boston friends the necessity of engaging Mr. Chilton to prepare and carry appeals to Richmond in all the other cases, declaring that it would never do to have one case better cared for legally than the others. " Brown will protest against it, and so will the entire North. Brown wants (he says) to share everything with the others." Commenting further on the state of feeling, Mr. 24 37o JOHN BROWN. Hoyt wrote about the ioth of November, after his return from Philadelphia, that he expects "to get a notice to quit" owing to excitement aroused by the Northern press, especially the letters of Mr. House in the New York Tr-ibune. The feeling had grown so abnormal that Hoyt had difficulty in seeing Captain Brown, but in the presence of the " kind-hearted jailer, Captain Avis," contrived to have a long interview with Brown. "They allege," he writes, "fears that poison or some other means of death will be conveyed to the old hero. They need not fear suicide from him!" Mr. Hoyt was kept busy at Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, in such duties as junior counsel usually perform in cases of the magnitude of that of John Brown. He was also serving and making that first, as the personal friend of the Captain in gathering the property and belongings of the Captain for the benefit of Mrs. Brown. The Boston friends were desirous of having all that could be rescued brought there for sale as " relics." Sheriff Campbell, aided all he could in getting tle material together. The money taken from Captain Brown's person after capture by tile Marines, had been held for some time in the custody of the United States Army Superintendent at Harper's Ferry, but was finally paid over to aid in defraying expenses of the defense. Foulke, the hotel proprietor, levied upon the wagon and mule found at the Kennedy Farm, to pay for the food which Captain Brown impressed from him, chiefly for the feeding of his forty prisoners. A Virginia law, Mr. Hoyt found out, carried judgment for costs against the property of a convic (CAP I'T RFE — TRA IA -PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 371 ted prisoner. He thought the sheriff was not aware of it, and that Judge Parker would not speak of it. In all this, however, he reckoned without Andrew Hunter, who was bound to have not only the pound of flesh, but all the surroundings and belongings, thereto. Boston got none of the relics, and Mrs. Brown received little or nothing from property found in Virginia. The order to quit that Counselor Hoyt expected, came on the I2th of November, and he writes on the i3th from Baltimore that he, with Mr. Jewett, Frank Leslie's artist, whom he writes of "as a gentleman and a deuced good fellow," was "compelled to leave the town of Charlestown.. We got a polite, but decidedly peremptory notice to quit, which, considering that the town was in a state of wild excitement with barns and wheat stacks burning,' and the lynching of these prisoners as well as tar and feathers imminent (for us), we concluded to deny ourselves the pleasure of facing a mob and make discretion the better part of valor.... It was the merest suspicion that set them on to us." Under date of Washington, November I4th and i6th, whither lie had gone on the appeal business, Hoyt sends very interesting letters, showing the opinions of important persons and why certain action was taken. He writes: Found Chilton had crossed over to Alexandria where he had cases to be postponed in order to go to Richmond. (In another note, Mr. Chilton's explanation is given.) Sought and found Montgomery Blair;... his judgment in this matter I These fires must have been made by the slaves; there was no one else to do it. The Virginians, of course, declared that it was the work of Nortlherm emissaries. 372 JOHN BROWN. is the best possible. Hoyt was very earnest as to securing for the men as good and complete legal service as given to Captain Brown. "The expense," he writes, "must be shouldered. How will the world and especially John Brown regard an omission to secure to the same last extremity, the rights of the associates of the captive chief?... Certainly it is expected to make a clean fight in this matter.... I have had a long talk with Mr. Blair and have got his ideas pretty thoroughly in my mind. In regard to this, Hoyt's going to Richmond, he waited on learning whether 'John A. Andrews is going' as had been discussed. No statement can, therefore, be made by him, as the 'expulsion from Charlestown ' by the Mayor's order'and under threats of mob violence " until it is settled that he, Hoyt, is to go to Richmond or not."... "Mr. Blair thinks," continues Mr. Hoyt, " a demonstration of Brown's insanity might please Wise. He says he has seen something in the Richmond Inqtzirer (Fxaminer)-probably the statement he exhibited to Andrews-which looks like an invitation... Mr. Blair is very anxious that all those persons who have any reason to suppose that Wise has any reason to summon them down to this Federal Court (and he will soon have some, as number one detectives are hunting them up) should quit the country." (About this time Dr. Howe and Frederick Douglass left for Canada and England; no one else retired except to the Western Reserve and Kansas.) " He says they are sure to be outraged and insulted by the usual programme of 'tar and feathers,' if they are not killed, and he thinks they are likely to meet the other treatment. I want you, Le Barnes, to see that Sanborn and the rest are put on guard, and if possible are either 'hived up' or sent away, for they are surely to be summoned... Mr. Blair thinks that Mason and Company are bound to stir up disruption out of this affair, and that they will go to every extremity to do it. He is confident of a Republican victory in '60, and says disunion must be avoided. I agree mainly with this doctrine, provided victory is sure in I860. But I feel like a frantic disunionist. I cannot help saying-I hate with all my heart the detestable despotism into which I cannot venture to CAPT UR E -k'r RIAL ---PR1SON —SCA FFOLD. 373 set foot for an honest purpose without suffering violence. I suppose Mr. Blair has inferred that I am very bitter in my heart toward the South, for he has kindly entered into an exposition of the plan of the Republican party for the future. It is a most persuasive and inspiring thing.... I think that.Mr. Blair, senior, is a man who understands the people of the South better than we at the North, and his emancipation theory is great! Under date of the 16th, Mr. Hoyt says that Mr. Blair deems it unsafe for him (H.) to go to Richmond, denounced as he had been as the agent of the Boston abolitionists.' Mr. Chilton has been arranged with 'to look after other appeals.' The article in Wise's Richmond organ, the Examiner, is considered by Mr. Blair 'as an invitation to make a demonstration.' Hoyt was, therefore, to proceed and gather affidavits needed." On the matter of insanity affidavits, Governor Wise evidently felt himself obliged, after Brown's execution, to make some sort of a case. In a message to the Legislature, under date of December I3th, he said that "no insanity was feigned, even the prisoner, Brown, spurned it. Since his sentence, Samuel Chilton, Esq. (of counsel), has filed with me a number of affidavits for delay, in order to show such alleged insanity." Mr. Hoyt's letter, already quoted, explains this, and Mr. Chilton, in a letter published December i8th, in the National InteZligencer, states that he had no hand in the preparation or presentation of such affidavits; that Mr. Hoyt had prforaima only attached his name (Chilton's) to a petition for a hearing, making himself the affidavit required of counsel, and that he, Hoyt, was undoubtedly led into such procedure by a statement, made in the Richmond Examiner (credited with being Governor Wise's organ), that it " was not too late to have the question of insanity 374 JO)HN BROWN. upon an issue, and relief afforded, if it was found to exist." The statement was misleading, as only the Legislature could have acted. An undated letter from Philadelphia gives an account of Mrs. Brown there, and must have been written about the 8th of November. Mr. Hoyt says, " I found Mrs. Brown at the house of Wm. Still, on Locust street.... She was stopped at Baltimore (on her way to Harper's Ferry and Charlestown) by my dispatch (due to a conviction that it was not safe for her then to go to Charlestown) to Mr. Fulton (of the American).... We have this P.A., heard news, which seems to demand instant action. It has been explained by Mr. McKim to Mr. Webb. There are three refugees now in the mountains. They must be Tidd, Owen Brown, and Coppoc (brother of the prisoner).... We telegraphed for Redpath. It is important that funds should be placed in Mr. McKim's hands to assist them-poor fellows! (Owen, who was the leader, took care that no one approached them till they reached western Pennsylvania. I tried it from Harrisburg, Redpath and colored men from Chambersburg, but it was of no avail.)... I think it prudent, if the cases of Cook and Stevens (which was discussed) be turned over to the Federal Courts, that those parties who feel they are likely to be summoned as witnesses, keep out of the way of all United States processes. I hope there is pluck enough and ammunition enough in Massachusetts to prevent the forcible attachment of any Massachusetts manin this regard.... I wish I could describe my interview with Mrs. Brown. ' Tell my husband, I can spare him for the sake of the cause!'... 'I can CAPT ' RE-TR I AL,-PR ISON-SCAFFOLD. 375 resign him to God, sure that it is His hand that strikes the blow! ' Every word she utters breathes the spirit of trust and resignation. When I bade her good-bye, the lips quivered, the voice trembled, and the tears flowed freely, but the words were firmly spoken and were worthy the wife of John Brown." Captain Brown had discouraged the visit of Mary, his wife, at this time, as, owing to the local anger and excitement, due in large degree to the successful defeat of the plan to try and execute on an " emergency " plea, there was really personal danger to all visitors, especially, he feared, of any of his family. It was the energy also of J. E. Cook's defense, as well as the personal feeling against him, that re-aroused at this time the bitter hostility and mob-feeling in the town and vicinage. "The shadow of an unconquerable terror" still hung over the people. Evidence of the feeling was found in the exclusion of Lawyer Sennott from the jail at this time, and the wild, almost unappeasable fury which arose, over the arrival of a kindly Quaker lady from Eagleswood, New York, who, expecting to find Lydia Maria Child also at Charlestown, had come to aid in caring for the prisoners. Edwin Coppoc, defended by Messrs. Griswold, Green, and Hoyt, was soon disposed of, having been put on trial at the afternoon session of November ist, and convicted late on the 2nd inst. Brown was brought in and sentenced on that day. Hunter's " latter-day pamphlet," stated that he was not sentenced till the appeal on the writ of error was decided adversely, November i6th. Shields Green and John A. Copeland were placed on trial November 3d, and 376 JOHN }BROWN. convicted the next day, and sentenced to be hung on the same day as Coppoc, December I6th. Mr. Sennott fought vigorously for these men, and went the length of justifying them in their resistance to the enslavement of their race. The State Attorney, Hunter, was almost ferocious in his philippics against Shields Green. whose boldly careless bearing had aroused all the brutal malignity that slave ownership and race prejudice necessarily produced. Cook's trial began immediately after, and was hotly contested until its close on the 9th, when at nine in the evening the jury brought in a verdict of guilty on the same charges that Brown was convicted upon. The trial was remarkable on the part of the defense for its ingenuity and ability. Cook's brother-in-law, Lieutenant-Governor Willard, led the array of counsel. Besides himself, from Indiana were other two lawyers, Daniel W. Voorhees being most prominent. Botts and Green were also retained. The debates were "very keen," and sometimes "very severe." Hunter " vigorously repelled these attacks, and sometimes turned them to his own advantage." Just before this came, the visit of Judge Thomas Russell and his wife, of Boston, had excited a great fury. Mr. Hoyt in one of his letters to Le Barnes refers graphically to them, wondering how she managed to get away unhurt. He himself fell under greater suspicion because of leaving Charlestown with the Judge. Hunter, it is stated, would have arrested the lady, except for her sex, on a charge of "treason." Mrs. Spring was at first refused admission to the jail, but Judge Parker interfered, took her himself to the jail, accompanied by a guard, and CA PT: Uk F 'T RI A -— PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 377 for her protection waited till the interview was closed. Captain Brown himself was greatly disturbed by these ill-timed, though well-meaning visits. Mr. Hoyt, on the i3th of November, writes to Mr. Le Barnes, from Baltimore: " Do not allow Mrs. Child to visit B. He does not wish it because the infuriated populace will have new suspicions aroused, and great excitement and injurious results are certain. He is comfortable and has all his wants supplied kindly. and is not sick enough to be nursed. He don't want women there to weaken his heroic determination to maintain a firm and consistent composure. Keep Mrs. Child away at all hazards. Brown and his associates will certainly be lynched if she goes there. This ought to be shown Mr. Andrews and others, but let no public exhibition be made." One of the curious incidents in the legal proceedings, which at the time and since has escaped notice, was reserved from trial by the State authorities until early in February, I860. Up to that date Stevens was retained, it was understood,- as a Federal prisoner under indictment by a Federal Grand Jury, sitting for the Western District of Virginia, in the County jail at Charlestown. No record is at hand as how this was brought about, nor, by what process he was transferred to the State for a judicial slaying. The object, however, is self-evident. Andrew Hunter gave it away in writing in 1887, that Governor Wise and himself came to the conclusion "that this Brown raid was the beginning of a great conflict between the North and the South, and had better be regarded accordingly," and he adds significantly, that "it was not alone for the protection of the jail and the repelling" of rescuing parties who were " not," in spite of 378 J3)OHN 11RO)WN. his declarations otherwise, organizing for the " rescuing of Brown and the prisoners, but it lwas for the purpose of preparing for coming events." Part of that preparation was to involve the Federal government favorably to the South, hence the Federal indictment against Stevens, the sending of troops to Harper's Ferry as a posse comitatus, the proposed making by Federal court and United States Senate Committee of drag-nets, into which to bring all sorts of prominent personages in the North, and the deliberate threat made by Wise of invading Northern States in " alleged " emergencies, existing mainly in his " mind's eye," coupled with a demand that the general government act with Virginia against other neighboring States upon these frantic declarations of an envenomed Governor. In tracing the "roads" leading from Harper's Ferry as well as to it, it is seen most clearly that in the evolutionary providence of events the wrath of the slaveholders was made to serve the cause of Union and Freedom. The common sense of the North soon perceived the truth; that while there was a great sentiment and a growing force of reason acting steadily against the aggressive spirit and acts of slavery, that also there never was any inclination amounting to serious danger, of a desire to put the institution down by force. The right or wrong of such a situation need not be debated. It is essential here and only to understand the situation. There never was at any time from 1840 till John Brown's pendent shadow clouded the December sunshine, more than one hundred men who had any positive or direct knowledge and affiliation at any one time with John Brown's plans and purposes. At the time of the CAPTURE-TRIAL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 379 raid there certainly were less than that number in all, counting in every delegate who sat in the Convention at Chatham, Canada West, May o1, I859. it was the South which made of the raid a conspiracy against the Union! John Brown's action was indeed startling. Nobody denies that. Dealt with according to the accepted legalities, it would have failed of the aims its commander had in view. But Virginia fanned it into a greater success, because moral and righteous in character, than could have resulted from even its partial trial as a test of conflict. John Brown saw the possibility of this when he laid a wounded captive under Wise's examination. How aptly then could the young and now eminent Ohio poet, himself nurtured with anti-slavery ideas and convictions,'say as he did:Perhaps in no better way can a more suggestive Perhaps in no better way can a more suggestive conception be given of the state of alarm in which the people of the Virginia Valley had lashed them 380 JOHN BROWN. selves than by summarizing a few of the statements made by Mr. Andrew Hunter in the notable paper to which several references have already been made. It cannot be said to be unfair. The prisoners, when captured, says Mr. Hunter, were to be, by railroad, sent to Charlestown from Harper's Ferry, via Winchester. Hunter told Governor Wise this would not do, as the militia company (Captain Rowan's), to be sent as a guard, " will massacre them before they reach the jail." He then advised Wise to go himself, accompanied by a party of United States marines, taking the highway from Harper's Ferry for the trip. This was done, and Mr. Hunter, telling the story twentyeight years after, cannot see the awful irony involved therein. The attorney says that he told John Brown that " anything he wanted, consistent with his condition as a prisoner, he should have"; yet he states that he himself retained (in the name of the State, of course) some, at least, of the money which friendly persons were sending the prisoner in letters from the North. All letters to the prisoners, by " his " direction, were placed by the postmaster, a United States officer, in the box of the State Prosecutor, not delivered at tile jail, as was the postmaster's duty. It was, of course, within tle power of the State, after the letters were delivered to the jail, actually or constructively to examine and read tile same. Hunter retained those that lie pleased, " between seventy and eighty in all," lie stated. Many letters contained small sums, generally one-dollar gold pieces. He seems to believe it was generous to allow these small amounts to reach the condemned men, while retaining others of larger value. There was a letter from CAPTURE-TRIAL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 38I a Mrs. Russell, of Boston, mentioned as sent to Governor Wise by Mr. Hoyt, which evidently never reached John Brown. In the matter of the arms and other property, some of it wholly personal, which had been captured by Virginia, it would seem, in the face of all the evidence obtainable, that every State officer but Hunter was willing that the barbarous State law which sequestrated the property of convicted persons, and which had long been practically unenforced, should remain in that status, so far as John Brown was concerned. Hunter led the Captain to believe, even to drafting for him a second will, on the day of his execution, that he might dispose of his property as he wished; none of it, however, seems to have got out of Virginia, that the State's Attorney could trace. Mr. Sennott, a Boston Democrat, in defending the colored prisoners, spoke of slavery as "illogical and absurd," and was, as a result, for a time, denied admission to his clients within the jail. Among the strangest of half confessions which let in unconsciously the light upon the character it illuminated is one resulting from Hunter's quoting approvingly, twenty-eight years after date, from a New Haven Doughface paper, which hopefully suggested that if "any other party 'ever' invades the territory of Virginia... they may be caught and, without judge or jury, burned alive in a fire made of green faggots." Funny, to quote this, for both the " respectable " Connecticut paper and the old Virginia lawyer, in the light of the vast invasions that came so soon upon the kibes of John Brown's execution. Funnier still, however, is the attorney's recollections of the projected invasions and rescue plots which did not 382 JOHN BROWN. materialize, and which yet, even as late as 1887, this venerable "slurvival" actually believed liad an existence. Hunter "chuckled" almost audibly in his New Orleans article over the " adroitness" with whlichl lie imagines lie met these men in buckram. He sustains his claims by telling of an alleged fire at a neighbor's house, which local papers afterwards said, so the despatclles state, was the result of a smoky chimney, and by describing how he and his son Henry (the unblushing butcher of the unarmed prisoner, William Thompson) heard a great clamor on tile road adjoining their house, and, seizing the Sharpe's rifles "conveyed" to them from Brown's stores, went out, to find some drunken men from Harper's Ferry riding wildly by. It would be cruel to repeat these senile reminiscences, but for tile fact that the incidents were first used in aid of breeding civil Awar, and were later repeated to justify it and to show the " chivalry and courage " of a slave-rearing oligarchy. By means, as lie alleges, of Brown's " intercepted " correspondence, and other sources, such as the paid detective, it is presumed, who falsely reported, for example, being with John Brown, Jr., at Oberlin, while plotting a rescue of his father. Mr. Brown did not leave the county of Jefferson, and seldom his home at Dorset there, for many months. All tle plots he was connected with were simply as a defense against attempts, by kidnapping, to carry him to Virginia, or, later, to make him appear as a witness before the Harper's Ferry United States Senate Committee. When Owen Brown and Barclay Coppoc found refuge on the Western Reserve, the best people joined in a movement to warn them and CAPT U RE-TRIAL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD 383 to prevent efforts to get hold of them without due process of law, as was done in Pennsylvania in both Cook's and Hazlett's cases. The same was true in Iowa, to which Barclay Coppoc went later, and in Boston, with relation to the effort to secure F. B Sanborn as a witness at Washington. All the rest, so far as Hunter's story of John Brown's "rescue plots" are concerned, is mere sensation. It is true, probably, that many letters were sent to John Brown, expressing a wish for his release, by force or otherwise; and it is certain, also, that huge jokes were perpetrated at the expense of Virginia's frightened officials. James Redpath and myself were responsible for filling one credulous detective, who called on us in Boston, having a forged letter of introduction, with a most exciting yarn of our scheme to get John Brown out of jail. It was so Munchausen in style that we hardly dared to hope for its being retailed. But it was, and Hunter sent for 500 more troops at once, while Wise appealed solemnly to the President, Mr. Buchanan, for aid. Hunter tells (i887), as sober truth, a lot of stuff about men " drilling " in Huntington County, Penn.; about an organization at Oberlin and Bellaire, Ohio, which involved the seizure of trains in Ohio; also of an alleged movement from Kentucky, of all places in the world, and under charge of a man named "Day from Missouri." This, probably, had some blundering reference to Dr. Doy, of Kansas, who had been stolen by force from Kansas and imprisoned in jail at St. Joseph, Mo., from which he was afterwards rescued. Dr. Doy was lecturing on his adventures, in Michigan or Massachusetts, and, being apt to talk with a loose mouth, doubtless 384 JOHN BROWN. filled another of Wise's detectives with a mare's nest. The only direct tale Hunter reported in 1887 related to information received by him from Pennsylvania. It had, however, nothing to do with John Brown, for he had been executed two months before. Hunter was warned of " rescue " movements designed on behalf of Stevens and Hazlett, the last two victims. This incident will be told in its proper place, and correctly, too, as the writer was an active organizer thereof. Now, as a matter of fact, and this is said with the fullest possible knowledge, the most serious attention was paid, and immediately, too, to the desire, nay, demand, of Captain John Brown that no such attempt should be thought of or prepared for. Stevens and Hazlett also made the same declaration, and, like John Brown, said that even if any prospects of success could be shown, the result could not be achieved without the slaying of Captain Avis, the jailer, and to that none of them would agree. All three assumed that they would be most useful to the cause they loved as sacrifices. Governor Wise, under date of November 25, stated to the President, that "a conspiracy, of formidable extent in means and numbers (was) formed in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and other States, to rescue Jolin Brown and his associates," was a simple absurdity, The barn and hayrick fires, few probably in number, were made by the negroes, naturally aroused and cognizant of events about them. Governor Wise says that he has i,ooo men under arms, "and, if necessary, shall call out the whole available force of the State." He declared that " places in Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have been occupied as depots CAPTURE-TRIAL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 385 and rendezvous by (these) desperadoes, unobstructed by guards, or otherwise intend to invade " Virginia, and he then proceeds to declare, that while his " purpose is peaceful," that " if another invasion " occurs, he " will pursue the invaders wherever they may go, into any territory, and punish them wherever arms can reach them." The President was called upon to "take steps to preserve peace between the States." The words " between the States" and " Confederate," as political terms, seem to be extensively introduced by Wise at this time. A copy of this rodomontade was sent to the executives of Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Mr. Buchanan replied on the 28th of November to Wise, reminding him that he " did not communicate the facts" on which his charges "are founded." He could not conceive of such "atrocious wickedness," and expressed the conviction that Virginia was "abundantly able and willing to carry her own laws into execution." To protect United States property and to act as a posse comitatus to the United States marshal for western Virginia, who still held Stevens in custody, "charged with the crime of high treason against the United States," 1 Mr. Buchanan announces that two companies of artillery have been ordered "to proceed immediately from Fortress Monroe to Harper's Ferry." Mr. Buchanan, in further reply to the Virginian's demand to "take steps to preserve peace between the States," proceeds to lay 1 No other of the raiders was proceeded against by the Federal authorities. Stevens, then, was the only man indicted for treason against the United States. IHe was held until early in I860, and then tried by the State of Virginia as a conspirator and homicide. 25 c - 386 JOHN BROWN. down that doctrine of imbecility upon which he acted when " the States" went into "rebellion " and prepared for the real "invasion " of other States, on a large scale. It was tile duty, he said, of the several States themselves to prevent such invasions as Wise feared, and that if " the Federal executive, however, were to enter these States and perform this duty for them, it would be a manifest usurpation of their rights. Were I thus to act, it would be a palpable invasion of State sovereignty, and, as a precedent, might prove highly dangerous." Mr. Lincoln would certainly have found it a bar to earlier Union preparations. Governor Wise may have brought himself into the frenzy of fright which his preparations indicate his being in, but a more reasonable hypothesis, based at least upon his acknowledged possession of considerable ability, and the certainty that he had quite correctly gauged the inside facts as to the extent and character of the support John Brown had received, is found in the conception that a plot against the Union was in process of realization. The same purpose that gave the most vigorous direction to the pro-slavery attacks on Kansas, was enlarging the opportunity in Virginia. Memory is often at fault, but sometimes even its senility may serve to clinch a condition. Reference has already been made to Andrew Hunter's late-in-theday defense of Virginian justice in connection with John Brown and his men. The Hunter paper of September 5, 1887, gives as reason for not sparing the lives of the raiders, "that in the coming war they would be found to the South ugly customers, and," lie writes, "I have no doubt that if Brown, particu CAPTURE-TRIAL-PRISON —SCAFFOLD. 387 larly, had survived the result of this raid the most dangerous military leaders would have been found in him and some of his associates." The replies of Governors Hicks, Maryland; Packer, Pennsylvania; and Chase, Ohio, to the terrified " squeal " of Governor Wise, are characteristic. The Marylander will "cooperate"; the Pennsylvanian says that Wise's statement as to that State will "be found, in the sequel, utterly and entirely without foundation," and that in "all circumstances ' Pennsylvania will see " that her honor is fully vindicated." Governor Salmon P. Chase, like Governor Packer, resented the tone of the Wise letter, and notified him that, while "unlawful combinations" against Virginia or any other State would be broken up, the State of Ohio would " not consent, however, to the invasion of her territory by armed bodies from other States, even for the pursuing and arresting of fugitives from justice." John Brown's action placed large issues in the scales. Governor Wise and his fellow conspirators on behalf of the "war between the States" worked the "Invasion " issue for all it was worth for their aims-in tile South, while their impotent demands on States to so act upon the personal showing of Wise, "that their confederate duty " be performed, had just a contrary effect on the States that were addressed. Even Maryland was held to her fealty when the time came and Governor Hicks aided. Events moved forward to the taking of life on the second and sixteenth days of December. Albert Hazlett, under the name of "William Harrison," was, early in November, brought from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, having been sent to execution in Vir 388 JOt)N BROWN. ginia by a United States Commissioner, upon evidence that certainly did not fully identify him with the Harper's Ferry raid. Application for his extradition as Albert Hazlett was made; his identity as such was not shown even before the Court that condemned him to death; only one witness actually testifying to his presence at the Ferry, and he was shaken by Mr. Sennott's cross-examination. Of course, no moral doubt of his connection ever existed; but it remains true that the legal evidence was imperfect. For this reason, Captain Brown always refused to recognize Ilazlett as one of his men, and wrote of him to "Aunt Fanny" (Mrs. Mary A. Gage) the 2d of November, as being among those reported as killed. The tally of the raiders was now complete. Five had been tried and convicted, and were now awaiting execution; two were in prison as yet untried; five had escaped, and were known to be in safety, and ten lhad been slain. Seventeen other men, colored, also fighting on the side of liberty, have been reported killed in the Harper's Ferry struggle. The North was arousing, the South was on fire; while the prisoners, all of them, inspired by the calmness and courage of their leader, awaited death in simple and manly fashion. That fact, no record blackens, and no advocate can deny. John Brown's correspondence went forth; each letter as it was published, became as a winged fire in the testimony it bore. This is not the time nor place to reproduce them. The days moved onward with austere tread. The calm man in the prison cell steadily replies to his correspondents. On the ist of December, Mary, his wife, came, surrounded by an armed guard, and compelled to leave the CAPTURE-TRI AI,-PRI SON-SCAFFOLD. 389 friends, Messrs. Miller McKim and Hector Tyndale, who had escorted her from Philadelphia, behind at Harper's Ferry. One of them was afterwards Brigadier-General Tyndale, of the Union Army, and commanded for a time the Union forces in the upper valley, with headquarters at Harper's Ferry. The narrative of Andrew Hunter of the execution of John Brown (see New Orleans Times-Democrat, Sept. 5, i887) may be accepted as generally accurate. Its cool and cynical recognition of the prisoner's fortitude and courage is in itself a tribute worthy of more enduring preservation than a newspaper file. He says: "On the morning of the 2d of December, a messenger from Brown came to me to my office in Charlestown, saying that Captain Brown wanted to see me at the jail. Though extremely busy making arrangements for the execution that day, I dropped everything and went at once to the jail. There, to. my surprise, I learned from Brown that he wanted me to draw his will. He had been previously advised by me, that as to any real estate he had, the disposition of it would be governed by the laws of the State where it was situated, as to which, of course, I could not advise him, but as to any personal property he possessed, he could dispose of it here in Virginia. He accordingly asked me to draw his will. I said to him, 'Captain, you wield a ready pen, take it, and I will dictate to you such a testament as to this personal property in Virginia as will hold good. It will be what is called a "holographic will "; being written and signed by yourself, it will need no witnesses.' He replied, Yes, but I am so busy now answering my correspondence of yesterday, and this being the day of my execution, I haven't time and will be obliged if you will write it.' Thereupon, I sat down with pen and ink to draw the will, and did draw it according to his dictation. After the body of the will had been drawn, he made suggestions which led to drawing 390 JO HNC I1()SWN the codicil. It was drawn as he suggested it, and both the will ant the codicil are attested )by John Avis and myself, and was probated in Jefferson County.' This all occurred a short The first will was a holographic one, made by John Brown and prepared the day before. It reads like him: CHARLESTOWN, JEFFERSON COUNTY. VA., Dec. I, I859. I give to my son John Brown, Jr., my surveyor's compass and other surveyor's articles, if found; also, my old granite monument, now at North Elba, N. Y., to receive upon its two sides a further inscription, as I will hereafter direct; said stone monument, however, to remain at North Elba so long as any of my children and my wife may remain there as residents. I give to my son John Brown, Jr., my silver watch, with my name engraved on the inner case. I give to my son Owen Brown my double spring opera-glass, and my rifle-gun (if found), presented to me at Worcester, Mass. It is globe-sighted and new. I give, also, to the same son $50 in cash, to be paid him from the proceeds of my wife's estate, in consideration of his terrible suffering in Kansas and his crippled condition from his childhood. I give to my son Salmon Brown $50 in cash, to be paid to him from my father's estate, as an offset to the first two cases above named. I give to my daughter Ruth Thompson my large old Bible, containing the family record. I give to each of my sons, and to each of my daughters, my son-in-law, Henry Thompson, and to each of my daughters-inlaw, as good a copy of the Bible as can be purchased at some bookstore in New York or Boston, at a cost of $5 each in cash, to be paid out of the proceeds of my father's estate. I give to each of my grandchildren that may be living when my father's estate is settled, as good a copy of the Bible as can be purchased (as above) at a cost of $3 each. I desire to have $50 each paid out of the final proceeds of my father's estate to the following named persons, to wit: To Allen Hammond, Esq., of Rockville, Tolland County, Conn., or to George Kellogg, Esq., former agent to the New England Company CAPTURE-TRI AL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 391 time before the officers came to take Brown out to execution. As evidence of his coolness and firmness, while I was drawing the will he was answering letters with a cool and steady hand. I saw no signs of tremor or giving away in him at all. He wrote his letters, each one of which was handed to me before it went out, while I was drawing the will, so as to get done by at that place, for the use and benefit of that company. Also $50 to Silas Havens, formerly of Lewisburg, Summit County, Ohio, if he can be found. Also, $50 to a man of Stark County, Ohio, at Canton, who sued my father in his lifetime, through Judge Humphrey and Mr. Upson, of Akron, to be paid by J. R. Brown to the Inan in person, if he can be found; his name I cannot remember. My father made a compromise with the man by taking our house and lot at Munroeville. I desire that any remaining balance that may become due from my father's estate may be paid in equal amounts to my wife and to each of my children, and to the widows of Watson and Oliver Brown, by my brother. JOHN Avis, Witness. JOHN BROWN. To this document he added the following " codicil" next morning early, and as will be seen, mailed to his wife. CHARLESTOWN, JEFFERSON COUNTY, VA., Dec. 2, I859. It is my desire that my wife have all my personal property not previously disposed of by me; and the entire use of all my landed property during her natural life; and that, after her death, the proceeds of such land be equally divided between all my then living children; and that what would be a child's share be given to the children of each of my two sons who fell at Harper's Ferry; and that a child's share be divided among the children of my now living children who may die before their mother (my present beloved wife). No formal will can be of use when my expressed wishes are made known to my dutiful and beloved family. JOHN BROWN. MY DEAR WIFE-I have time to enclose the within and the above, which I forgot yesterday, and to bid you another farewell. " Be of good cheer," and God Almighty bless, save, comfort, guide, and keep you to the end. Your affectionate husband, JOHN BROWN. 392 JOH)IN BROWN. the time the officers came to take him out. When they finally came to take him he grasped me by the hand and thanked me in the warmest terms for the kindness I had shown to him from the beginning down to that time. "I left the jail alout ten o'clock and stood at-the corner above the jail until the procession went out. The military was drawn up, he was received out of the jail into a spring wagon, and the procession moved around the corner of the jail and out George street to the field. I saw everything from beginning to end of that morning's operations, and preceded the procession by a few minutes in getting out to the field. That whole story about his kissing a negro child as he went out of the jail is utterly and absolutely false from beginning to end. There is not a word of truth in it. Nothing of the kind occurrednothing of the sort could have occurred. He was surrounded by soldiers, and no negro could get access to him. "I had a party, called my suite, of solme fifteen or twenty on that (lay, and David H1. Strother (" Porte Crayon," of Harper's Weekly) was among the number. We were standing near the scaffold, or immediately under it, when the drop fell. When Brown was led forward and placed on the drop, and Campbell, the sheriff, and Avis, the jailer, had stepped back, I distinctly heard him say in a plaintive tone,' I hope they will not keel) me standing here any longer than necessary.' Immediately upon hearing which, the signal was given to cut the rope that supported the drop, which was done, and that ended John Brown's career. I did not hear him say ' be quick,' as mentioned by Captain Avis, though I have no doubt it occurred as lie has narrated it. At the time the order was given to cut the rope, the military had not completed their dispositions around the scaffold, but I promptly determined that Brown, according to his wish, should not be kept longer in this state of painful suspense. Though very close to Brown (we had gotten there to see how he bore himself) we could see nothing of tremor; his hands were clinched, and he was as cool and as firm as any human being I ever saw under such circumstances. " While the body was hanging, Strother slipped up, raised C A PIT R E —T R 1 A L-PR SON-SC A FFOLD. 393 the cap from his face and took a sketch of him hanging. He said that the celebrated Maria Lydia Child had published that she wanted to have a portrait or likeness of Brown in every condition of life to hang in her room, and that he had taken this sketch to send her, that 'she might have him, too, when he was finished.' If he sent it she has the best portrait of Brown ever taken. "After Brown had hung some eight or ten minutes the doctors began to go upon the scaffold, Dr. Mason, the jail physician, first. He examined the body and pronounced him dead. Some ten or fifteen other physicians then went up, examined the body and concurred that he was dead. The body was then cut down, placed in the coffin box prepared for it, and returned to the jail. It remained there until toward the close of the afternoon, when it was sent to the depot and transmitted to his wife and friends at Harper's Ferry to be carried North." The will drawn by Mr. Hunter is as follows; I, John Brown, a prisoner in the prison of Charlestown, Jefferson County, Va., do hereby make and ordain this as my own true last will and testament. I will and direct that all my property, being personal property, which is scattered about in the States of Virginia and Maryland, should be carefully gathered up by my executor, hereinafter appointed, and disposed of to the best alvantage, and the proceeds thereof paid over to my beloved wife, Mary A. Brown. Many of these articles are not of a warlike character, and I trust as to such, and all other property that I may be entitled to, that my rights and the rights of my family may be respected. And lastly, I hereby appoint Sheriff James W. Cam)pbell, executor of this, my true last will, hereby revoking all others. Witness my hand and seal this 2d day of December, 1859. JOHN BROWN. [SEAL.] Signed, sealed, and declared to be the true last will of John 394 J(39 IIN ROW(N. Brown, in our presence, who attested the same at his request, in his presence, and in the presence of each other. JOHN Avis. ANDREW HUNTER. Codicil-I wish my friends, James W. Campbell, sheriff, and John Avis, jailer, as a return for their kindness, each to have a Sharpe's rifle of those belonging to me, or, if no rifle can he had, then each a pistol. XWitness my hand and seal this second day of December, I859. JOHN BROWN. [SEAL.] Signed, sealed, and declared to be a codicil to the last will and testament of John Brown, in our presence, who attested the same at his request, in his presence, and in the presence of each other. ANDREW HUNTER. JOHN Avis. This will was written on a plain white quarter sheet of paper, with the usual faint blue lines, but with no side-rulings or other customary incidentals of a legal document. The seals were merely pen-scrawls inclosing a small circular space in which was placed the word "seal." The black ink in which the body of the paper was indited has turned brown with age, and the edges of the folds are much worn and tawny in color. Across the back of the main fold are these indorsements: 5I. John Brown's will and codicil. 1859, Dec. g9th. Will and codicil proved by the oaths of John Avis and Andrew Hunter, and ordered to be recorded. Teste: F. A. MOORE, C. C. Recorded Will Book No. 16, page I43. This document is now in the City of Washington. It was "of record" for years at Charlestown, West Virginia, but when the county seat was removed to Shephardstown, temporary accommodations were rented. Having but a limited space at his disposal, the then clerk of the court exercised his own discre CAPTU RE-'I R I A L-PR ISO N-SC AFFOLD. 395 tion in tie premises, and threw out what he considered to be " unnecessary and unclaimed " papers. Among the rest was this original will. It was promptly rescued by a prominent citizen, who recognized its historical value, and afterward by bequest it came into possession of retatives at the Federal City. It has been carefully examined, signatures authenticated, and the document was then photographed. Copies of this fac-simile are in my possession. Mr. Andrew Hunter testified before the Senate Committee on "The Harper's Ferry Invasion" in reply to a question of Jefferson Davis, that John Brown " sent for me to write his will." Did you write it?" was the next question. "Yes, sir," answered Mr. Huntel, "about an hour and a half before his execution." One of the correspondents of the New York Herald, a Mr. Gallagher,' cousin of the editor of The Democrat, a weekly published at Charlestown, was allowed about the jail during the last week of John Brown's imprisonment. In order to see the last of the tragedy, Mr. Gallaher drove the undertaker's wagon in which a coffin was placed. On this John Brown and the undertaker were seated. The latter said: "Captain Brown, you are in better spirits to-day than I." " I have good cause to be," was the quiet response. New York Herald, Dec. 3, 1859. Mr. Gallagher, who died at Washington in 1893, confirmed this account to me personally. He left behind him a number of interesting relics, among them being a copy of a paper containing a sermon of Henry Ward Beecher, sharply critical of John Brown. The latter covered the margins with tart replies. This document is doubtless in possession of the old reporter's son, who is employed, I believe, in the library of the United States Geological Survey. 396 JOHN RO ( WN. At the scaffold, while standing waiting Talliaferro's fussy maneuvers, using, according to Hunter, a "criminal " execution as a field for training men to thereafter seek the "execution" of the American Union. Sheriff Campbell said in a kind, low tone to his prisoner, " Are you not tired?" "Not tired," was the reply, " but don't let them make me wait longer than is absolutely necessary." Three thousand Virginian uniformed militia inclosed the scaffold, a hollow square. According to Mr. Hunter they were only trying to get into formation when he gave the signal for the drop to fall. One Northern man, at least, saw the execution. Correspondent Olcott, of the New York Tribune, who, in order to be present, took another's place in the ranks of a cadet company from Richmond. Another young man was there witll pallid, handsome face, and lithe well-moulded form, whose name has since become almost as widely infamous as that of the man whose death he then gloated over has become renowned. John Wilkes Booth, tile assassin of Abraham Lincoln, served as a volunteer in the ranks of the Jefferson Guards. In all probability, too, a Kansas man-one of John Brown's men-was in the same file with him. Charles Lenhart, a printer, before mentioned in this volume, is known to have left his home in Kansas some time before, and there is good reason to believe that he went to Virginia, passing himself off as a pro-slavery Missourian. As he possessed the sign, etc., of the secret Blue Lodge Society, and was thoroughly informed, Lenhart could have done this. Of course he told a good story of John Brown outrages, and then was enabled to obtain work CAPT URE-TRI AL-PRISON-SCAFFOLD. 397 at Charlestown, where lie remained till after the execution of Cook on the i6th inst. They were close friends and comrades, and Lenhart desired to aid him, if possible. The printer died in the Union Army in 1862. For miles around the rugged-looking country town, every road was crowded with scouts and pickets, so it would have been impossible for Northern men, as Mr. Hunter asserted was the case, to have left the railroad before reaching Harper's Ferry, which was under strong guard of both Federal and State troops, while Maryland had troops on guard at approaching stations and towns, and crossed Loudon County for the purpose of being present at the execution. Several cannon were drawn up and pointed at the scaffold, and not until the quivering form of the brave old man ceased its muscular action, did tile shivering commonwealth recover even its braggadocio. It had forgotten before in its wild terrors, to do that. William Jackson Armstrong (of California), writer and lecturer, standing years after on the small rounded knoll upon which tile rude scaffold had stood, thus described the landscape: " The beauty of the earth, as on that fair, soft December noon it shone in on his sight over the Blue Ridge mists, might have unmanned, at the last moment, any man who had had lower than a martyr's purpose for his deed. But John Brown's was not an unfledged fancy, and his imagination had only lent itself to human sentiments. He said to his jailer as he mounted this hill: 'This is a beautiful country. I have never noticed it before.' From the spot of the scaffold, on the ridge of a plowed field, the country dips away into a valley of superb picture-a sweep of wild fields, broken into vistas by ribs of mountain here and there pitched up through the soil and bearing fringes of forest. On the edge of this landscape, five miles 398 JOHN BROWN. away, glides the Shenandoah Riv;cr, and around that lifts ani( sweeps the magnificent crescent of the Blue Ridge, closing the vision under thirty miles of eastern sky. That vision, beyond' the gaudy military parade at his feet, caught at last John Brown's eye before he dropped from the scaffold." His last written words, penned in the jail-room as he was about to leave it for ever, were a prophecy. His last spoken words were those of calm and pleasant resignation. The last writing was in chirography clear, firm, strong; in sentiment solemn, prescient, majestic: CHARLESTOWN, VA., 2d December, I859. I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land: will never be purged away, but with Blood. I had as I now think vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed, it might be done. Truly could it be said and sung*WA AAL & C A. l)A). / CLA,- 0.