Chapter VIII: Hypocrisy (1)

_He was a man
Who stole the livery of the court of Heaven
To serve the Devil in._

--POLLOCK, COURSE OF TIME

John Brown "struck the trail" of "easy money" June 28, 1855, when Gerrit Smith presented his case to the Syracuse convention and collected sixty dollars to assist him in migrating to Kansas. He had followed it up with profit, while en route thereto, at Springfield, Hudson, Akron, and Cleveland. Now he was returning to the East to work the field again. It was the same graft which he had theretofore worked, but upon greatly improved plans and along broader lines.

He had two schemes in view. Robinson's letter of September 14th addressed "To the Settlers of Kansas," showed that Brown was their accredited defender "from invaders and outlaws." Under the pretext of enlisting, arming, equipping, and maintaining in Kansas, a company of fifty mounted men to protect the settlers from "invaders and outlaws," he intended to try to secure $30,000, in cash, to finance the pretense. The other scheme was to have the Legislatures of Massachusetts and New York appropriate large sums of money--$100,000 each--to reimburse persons who had emigrated to Kansas from these States, for losses which they were supposed to have "suffered in advancing the Free-State cause." Naturally, Brown and all the members of his family were "sufferers," and would be eligible as beneficiaries of this legislation.

"The National Kansas Committee" was a company formed to promote emigration to Kansas Territory. It was also a sort of clearing-house for the various committees which had been organized in the Northern States for a similar purpose. It had offices in New York, Chicago, and other places. Mr. E. B. Whitman was the resident agent of the company in Kansas, a fact which the Browns had not overlooked.

That Brown had this scheme for raising money in view as early as July, 1856, appears from the fact that before leaving Kansas with his sons, in that month, he called upon Mr. Whitman, at Lawrence, and filed with him a paper which was intended to serve as the foundation of a claim for reimbursement for such losses. It reads as follows:[219]

FOR MR. WHITMAN

Names of sufferers and persons who have made sacrifices in
endeavoring to maintain and advance the Free-State cause in
Kansas, within my personal knowledge.

1. Two German refugees (thoroughly Free-State), robbed at
Pottawatomie, named Benjamin and Bondy (or Bundy). One has
served under me as a volunteer; namely, Bondy. Benjamin was
prisoner for some time; suffered by men under Coffee and
Pate.

2. Henry Thompson. Devoted several months to the Free-State
cause, traveling nearly two thousand miles at his own
expense for the purpose, leaving family and business for
about one year. Served under me as a volunteer; was
dangerously wounded at Palmyra, or Black Jack; had a bullet
lodged beside his backbone; has had a severe turn of fever,
and is still very feeble. Suffered a little in the burning
of the houses of John Brown, Jr., and Jason Brown.

3. John Jr. and Jason Brown. Both burned out; both
prisoners for some time, one a prisoner still: both losing
the use of valuable, partially improved claims. Both served
repeatedly as volunteers for defense of Lawrence and other
places, suffering great hardships and some cruelty.

4. Owen and Frederick Brown. Both served at different
periods as volunteers, under me. Were both in the battle of
Palmyra; both suffered by the burning of their brothers'
houses; both have had sickness (Owen a severe one), and are
yet feeble. Both lost the use of partially improved claims
and their spring and summer work.

5. Salmon Brown (minor). Twice served under me as a
volunteer; was dangerously wounded (if not permanently
crippled) by accident near Palmyra; had a severe sickness
and is still feeble.

6. Oliver Brown (minor). Served under me as a volunteer for
some months; was in the battle of Palmyra, and had some
sickness.

7. (B. L.) Cochrane (at Pottawatomie). Twice served under
me as a volunteer; was in the battle of Palmyra.

8. Dr. Lucius Mills devoted some months to the Free-State
cause, collecting and giving information, prescribing for
and nursing the sick and wounded at his own cost. Is a
worthy Free-State man.

9. John Brown has devoted the service of himself and two
minor sons to the Free-State cause for more than a year;
suffered by the fire before named and by robbery; has gone
at his own cost for that period, except that he and his
company together have received forty dollars in cash, two
sacks of flour, thirty five pounds of bacon, thirty five
do. of sugar, and twenty pounds of rice.

I propose to serve hereafter in the Free-State cause
(provided my needful expenses can be met) should they be
desired; and to raise a small regular force to serve on the
same condition. My own means are so far exhausted that I
can no longer continue in the service at present without
the means of defraying my expenses are furnished me.

I can give the names of some five or six more volunteers of
special merit I would be glad to have particularly noticed
in some way. J. BROWN

When one considers the life Brown had been leading and the nature of the atrocities which he had committed, this proposal to ask for compensation therefor is a piece of effrontery: a good exhibit of sublime gall. Also, his ultimatum therein is deserving of consideration. In it he demands, as a condition precedent to the rendering of any further service in the Free-State cause, that he have an assurance that he and his sons would be paid for such services. This demand further discloses the fact that the energies which Brown was putting forth were not a devotion to the cause of the men in bondage, but that he sought to work a personal and family graft upon Free-State sentiment of the country.

During February, 1857, Brown had a bill prepared and introduced in the Massachusetts Legislature to appropriate $100,000, as a contingent fund, to relieve the distress of settlers in Kansas. And on the 18th of that month he and Mr. Whitman appeared before the committee, having charge of the bill, to urge its passage.

Brown arrived at Tabor, Iowa, en route to the East, October 10th. On the 23d he was at Chicago, where he was well received by the National Kansas Committee. At this time it was moving a lot of supplies--two hundred Sharp's rifles, a brass cannon, ammunition, clothing, etc.--across Iowa to Kansas, under the direction of Dr. J. P. Root. The committee asked Brown to return and accompany the train to its destination. He, however, advised the management to stop the train, and not attempt to enter Kansas with it; saying that "The immediate introduction of the supplies is not of much consequence compared to the danger of losing them." His remark had reference to the efficient measures which Governor Geary had adopted to put an end to the lawlessness which was prevailing in the Territory at the time he assumed his official duties. Brown went with Root as far as Tabor, Iowa, where the supplies were stored, to await further developments.

Leaving Tabor, he passed through Chicago about the first of December. In Ohio, upon presenting his letters from Governor Robinson to Governor Chase, he received from him an additional letter of commendation, for use in Ohio, and twenty-five dollars in cash. Thus encouraged, he pushed on, stopping at various places on the way, soliciting money, and arriving in Boston about January 1, 1857. There the congratulatory letters which he had in his possession were of inestimable value to him. It was through them that he succeeded in establishing relations with men of ample means and of high character, who, by their generous contributions of money, and by their moral support, enabled him to work out his schemes to their logical conclusions.

In Boston, Brown met Mr. Frank B. Sanborn, a young man but a year and a half out of Harvard, who was then secretary of the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee. "He was on fire for the anti-slavery cause, and ready to worship any of its militant leaders."[220] Brown, being a militant leader, made a deep impression upon this susceptible young enthusiast, who reported his find to Mr. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, "the fighting young Unitarian Parson of Worcester," in a letter, as follows:[221]

"Old Brown" of Kansas is now in Boston, with one of his
sons, working for an object in which you will heartily
sympathize--raising and arming a company of men for the
future protection of Kansas. He wishes to raise $30,000 to
arm a company, such as he thinks he can raise this present
winter, but will, as I understand him, take what money he
can raise and use it as far as it will go. Can you not come
to Boston tomorrow or next day and see Capt. Brown? If not,
please indicate when you will be in Worcester, so he can
see you. I like the man from what I have seen--and his
deeds ought to bear witness for him.

It will be observed that this was to be a cash transaction: he will "take what money he can raise and use it as far as it will go." Most persons will scan this proposal with grave suspicion, it bears so prominently the brand of the faker; but it will create no surprise in the minds of those who are familiar with Brown's criminal conduct while in commercial life, and with his career of murder and robbery and association with thieves in Kansas.

In his enthusiasm for his Kansas hero, Mr. Sanborn led Brown, as the Psalmist had been led, "into green pastures and beside the still waters." Through him he met Dr. Samuel G. Howe, Patrick Tracy Jackson, George L. Stearns, Dr. Samuel Cabot, Judge Thomas Russell, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Henry D. Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and other notable persons, all of whom were intensely interested in the paramount political question of the day, and especially in the contest going on in Kansas to make it a Free State. His Eastern campaign opened auspiciously. As the popular leader of a popular cause, he struck the popular fancy. He presented himself to the public, "modestly," as being the leader of the "fighting" forces of the Territory; and as having come from the "front" to organize a more effective force, in order that he might render still more efficient services. January 7th, armed with his congratulatory letter from Governor Robinson, he called upon Mr. Amos A. Lawrence, who wrote of him, admiringly, as follows:

Captain Brown, the old partisan hero of Kansas warfare,
came to see me. I had a long talk with him. He is a calm,
temperate, and pious man, but when roused he is a dreadful
foe. He appears about sixty years old. His severe
simplicity of habits, his determined energy, his heroic
courage in time of trial, all based on a deep religious
faith, make him a true representative of the Puritanic
warrior. I knew him before he went to Kansas, and have
known more of him since, and should esteem the loss of his
service, from poverty, or any other cause, almost
irreparable.

Mr. Stearns, too, was deeply impressed with his "sagacity, courage, and strong integrity," He had him dine with him at his home on Sunday, January 11th. Brown sought, on this occasion, to advance his personal fortunes by discrediting Charles Robinson and other Free-State leaders. Measured by his standard they were a collection of incompetents. He exalted Martin F. Conway as the best of them, but characterized him as "lacking in force." Naturally, if the best of them lacked force, there was an emergency to get Brown back to the Territory as speedily as possible. It became clear to Mr. Stearns's mind that it was the general incompetency and inefficiency of the men in control of affairs in Kansas, their cowardice and consequent inability to "protect" the settlers, that impelled Brown to come East and raise money to equip a force to protect them. He therefore determined "to do everything in his power to get him the arms and money he desired."

Mr. William Lloyd Garrison, also, was very much taken with him. "They discussed peace and non-resistance together, Brown quoting the Old Testament against Garrison's citations of the New, and Parker, from time to time, injecting a bit of Lexington into the controversy, which attracted a small group of interested listeners."[222]

The first result of his newly formed relations was a contribution to him of two hundred Sharp's rifles, four thousand ball cartridges, and thirty thousand percussion caps, made by the "Massachusetts State Kansas Committee." These were the arms which Brown had stored at Tabor. The committee also voted him a credit of $500 for expenses. The Massachusetts Kansas Committee originally purchased the arms, and had turned them over to the National Kansas Committee, under whose control they then were.

Before the latter committee, at its offices in the Astor House, New York, Brown appeared, January 24th, and presented his case. He asked for the arms, and for the moderate sum of $5,000, cash. But this committee had taken pains to inform itself, through its general agent, Mr. Arny, with reference to conditions existing in Kansas. The directors, therefore, were not nearly so susceptible as were the more impulsive people of the Massachusetts Committee. They wanted to know something about the nature of the project which they were being asked to finance, and hoped that Brown would make a more specific and definite declaration. They wanted to know what the cost of the equipment, for the defenders he talked about, would amount to, and called for a list of the articles which he needed, with an estimate of the cost of each; and wanted to know what he intended to do with the company after it was organized. And then they asked another very relevant question: what he intended to do with the five thousand dollars he wanted them to give him. Brown's scheme was a personal matter, and to have answered these questions, and others that would have, logically, followed, would have caused him some embarrassment. He therefore denied their right to inquire into the privacy of his affairs. He wanted five thousand dollars flat; with no questions asked; and rising to the height of the occasion, put on a bold front, and refused to be interrogated. He said:[223]

I am no adventurer. You all know me. You know what I have
done in Kansas. I do not expose my plans. No one knows them
but myself, except perhaps one. I will not be interrogated;
if you wish to give me anything, I want you to give it
freely. I have no other purpose but to serve the cause of
liberty.

The debate being thus closed, the National Committee then settled the question of the arms by transferring them back to the Massachusetts Committee; and with admirable tact, voted the five thousand dollars conditionally--for "necessary defensive purposes in aid of Captain John Brown in any defensive measures that may become necessary." The irony of the resolution was concealed by an order authorizing him to draw upon the committee for five hundred dollars at any time. But he received no part of it, until he showed, by his actions, that he intended to return to Kansas.

The committee penetrated the veneer that disguised Brown's hypocrisy, and refused to put any money whatever into his hands. After the adjournment, he made up a list of the articles that he thought he would need, which he handed to Mr. Horace White, assistant secretary. It reads as follows:

Memorandum of articles wanted as an Outfit for Fifty
Volunteers to serve under my direction during the Kansas
war: or for such specified time as they may each enlist
for: together with estimated cost of same delivered in
Lawrence or Topeka.[224]

2 substantial (but not heavy) baggage waggons with good covers $200.00

4 good serviceable waggon Horses 400.00

2 sets strong plain Harness 50.00

100 good heavy Blankets say at 2. or 2.50 200.00

8 Substantial large sized Tents 100.00

8 Large Camp Kettles 12.00

50 Tin basins 5.00

4 Plain strong Saddles & Bridles 80.00

4 picket ropes and pins 3.00

8 Wooden Pails 4.00

8 axes and Helves 12.00

8 Frying pans (large Size) 8.00

8 Large sized Coffee Pots 10.00

8 do do Spiders or Bake Ovens 10.00

8 do do Tin Pans 6.00

12 Spades & Shovels 18.00

6 Mattocks 6.00

2 Weeks provisions for Men & Horses 150.00

Fund for Horse hire & feed, loss & damage of
same 500.00
---------
$1,774.00

There was a very handsome margin for profits between $30,000, his original estimate of what he would require to "arm and equip a company such as he thought he could raise this present winter" and his final estimate--$1,774. But that is not material; Brown was simply working the field for all the money he could get; as Mr. Sanborn truly said "he will take all he can raise and use it as far as it will go."

The National Committee voted $1,774 to fill this requisition, but it declined to give Brown the money wherewith to make the purchases. He had a right to expect that the committee would give him this money, and trust him to expend it honestly; but it ordered otherwise. February 18th Mr. White wrote that the articles Brown had requisitioned would be shipped the following week; and on March 21st he notified him that he would "shortly go to Kansas and work there to fit him out with all the supplies he was entitled to under the New York resolution."[225] Brown was keenly disappointed and deeply humiliated by the actions of the National Committee; and in a letter to Mr. William Barnes, of Albany, April 3d, gave expression to his resentment. He said:

I am prepared to expect nothing but bad faith from the
Kansas National Committee at Chicago, as I will show you
hereafter. This, for the present, is confidential.[226]

It was money and not supplies that Brown was eager for at this period in his operations. His plans did not contemplate any defense of Kansas. The "arming and equipping" of the fifty men was a deception. It was but his stock in trade--a pretext upon which he solicited funds. He, and the kind of men he would have enlisted, if he enlisted any, had all the arms they would need, and stealing requires but little ammunition. In his largest successful venture--the Pottawatomie--but one shot was fired, and that one, as stated by Salmon Brown, was "wholly unnecessary."

February 18, 1857, was an important day in Brown's calendar. Mr. Sanborn had prepared his bill to appropriate $100,000 to relieve the distress of Kansas settlers. It had been introduced in the Massachusetts Legislature, and referred to the Joint Committee on Federal Relations, before which it was to be taken up, on that day, for consideration. Mr. Sanborn stood sponsor for the measure; and Brown and Mr. Whitman appeared before the committee, as advocates, in support of it. Introducing these two distinguished persons Mr. Sanborn said in part:[227]

As one of the petitioners for State aid to the settlers of
Kansas, I appear before you to state briefly the purpose of
the petition. No labored argument seems necessary; for if
the events of the last two years in Kansas, and the
prospect there for the future, are not of themselves enough
to excite Massachusetts to action, certainly no words could
do so. We have not provided ourselves with advocates,
therefore, but with witnesses; and we expect that the
statements of Captain Brown and Mr. Whitman will show
conclusively that the rights and interests of Massachusetts
have suffered gross outrage in Kansas--an outrage which is
likely to be repeated unless measures are taken by you to
prevent so shameful an abuse. Your petitioners desire that
a contingent appropriation be made by the legislature, to
be placed in the hands of a commission of responsible and
conservative men, and used only in case of necessity to
relieve the distress of the settlers of Kansas--especially
such as have gone from our own state.... We have invited
Captain Brown and Mr. Whitman to appear in our behalf,
because these gentlemen are eminently qualified either to
represent Massachusetts in Kansas, or Kansas in
Massachusetts. The best blood of the "Mayflower" runs in
the veins of both, and each had an ancestor in the army of
the Revolution. Mr. Whitman, seventh in descent from Miles
Standish, laid the foundation of the first church and the
first school-house in Kansas; John Brown, the sixth
descendant of Peter Browne, of the "Mayflower," has been in
Kansas what Standish was to the Plymouth Colony. These
witnesses have seen the things of which they testify, and
have felt the oppression we ask you to check. Ask this gray
haired man, gentleman--if you have the heart to do
it--where lies the body of his murdered son--where are the
homes of his four other sons, who a year ago were quiet
farmers in Kansas. I am ashamed, in presence of this modest
veteran, to express the admiration which his heroism
excites in me. Yet he, so venerable for his years, his
integrity, and his courage--a man whom all Massachusetts
rises up to honor--is today an outlaw in Kansas. To these
witnesses, whose unsworn testimony deserves and will
receive from you all, the authority which an oath confers,
I will now yield place.

Mr. Redpath states that Brown then came forward and read his speech, "in a clear ringing tone," as follows:[228]

"I saw, while in Missouri, in the fall of 1855, large
numbers of men going to Kansas to vote, and also returning
after they had so done; as they said.

"Later in the year, I, with four of my sons, was called out
and traveled, mostly on foot and during the night, to help
defend Lawrence, a distance of thirty-five miles; where we
were detained, with some five hundred others, or
thereabouts, from five to ten days--say an average of ten
days--at a cost of not less than a dollar and a half per
day, as wages, to say nothing of the actual loss and
suffering occasioned to many of them, leaving their
families sick, their crops not secured, their houses
unprepared for winter, and many without houses at all. This
was the case with myself and sons who could not get houses
built after returning. Wages alone would amount to seven
thousand five hundred dollars; loss and suffering cannot be
estimated.

"I saw, at that time, the body of the murdered Barber, and
was present to witness his wife and other friends brought
in to see him with his clothes on, just as he was when
killed.

"I, with six sons and a son-in-law, was called out, and
travelled, most of the way on foot, to try and save
Lawrence, May 20 and 21, and much of the way in the night.
From that date, neither I nor my sons, nor my son-in-law,
could do any work about our homes, but lost our whole time
until we left, in October; except one of my sons, who had a
few weeks to devote to the care of his own and his
brother's family, who were then without a home.

"From about the 20th of May, hundreds of men, like
ourselves, lost their whole time, and entirely failed of
securing any kind of a crop whatever. I believe it safe to
say, that five hundred free state men lost each one hundred
and twenty days, which, at one dollar and a half per day,
would be--to say nothing of attendant losses--ninety
thousand dollars.

"On or about the 30th of May, two of my sons, with several
others, were imprisoned without other crime than opposition
to bogus legislation, and most barbarously treated for a
time, one being held about one month, and the other about
four months. Both had their families on the ground. After
this, both of them had their houses burned, and all their
goods consumed by the Missourians. In this burning all the
eight suffered. One had his oxen stolen, in addition."

The Captain, laying aside his paper, here said that he had
now at his hotel, and would exhibit to the Committee, if
they so desired, the chains which one of his sons had worn,
when he was driven beneath the burning sun, by federal
troops, to a distant prison, on a charge of treason. The
cruelties he there endured, added to the anxieties and
sufferings incident to his position, had rendered him, the
old man said, as his eye flashed and his voice grew
sterner, "A maniac--yes, a MANIAC."

He paused a few seconds, wiped a tear from his eye, and
continued his narration....

"I saw while it was standing, and afterwards saw the ruins,
of a most valuable house, the property of a highly
civilized, intelligent, and exemplary Christian Indian,
which was burned to the ground by the ruffians, because its
owner was suspected of favoring the free state men. He is
known as Ottawa Jones, or John T. Jones.

"In September last, I visited a beautiful little free state
town called Staunton, on the north side of the Osage, (or
Marais-des-Cygnes, as it is sometimes called,) from which
every inhabitant had fled for fear of their lives, even
after having built a strong log house, or wooden fort, at a
heavy expense, for their protection. Many of them had left
their effects liable to be destroyed or carried off, not
being able to remove them. This was to me a most gloomy
scene, and like a visit to a sepulchre.

"About the first of September, I, and five sick and wounded
sons, and a son-in-law, were obliged to lie on the ground,
without shelter, for a considerable time, and at times
almost in a state of starvation, and dependent on the
charity of the Christian Indian I have named before, and
his wife."

He concluded his remarks by denouncing the traitors to
freedom, who, when a question of this kind was raised,
cried out, "Save the people's money--the dear people's
Money." He had a detailed estimate of how much the National
Government had expended in endeavoring to fasten slavery on
Kansas; and asked why these politicians had never cried
out, "Save the people's money!" when it was expended to
trample under the foot of the "peculiar" crime of the
south, the rights, lives, and property of the Northern
squatters. They were silent then. (Applause.)

The Chairman then asked who commanded the free-state men at
Lawrence. His answer was characteristic of the man, whose
courage was only equalled by his modesty and worth.

He explained how bravely our boys acted--gave every one the
credit but himself. When again asked who commanded them, he
said,--no one; that he was asked to take the command, but
refused, and only acted as their ADVISER!

The Captain spoke in conclusion, about the emigrants needed
for Kansas.

"We want," he said, "good men, industrious men, men who
respect themselves; who act only from the dictates of
conscience; MEN WHO FEAR GOD TOO MUCH TO FEAR ANY THING
HUMAN."

When asked by the Chairman:--"What is your opinion as to
the probability of a renewal of hostilities in Kansas--of
another invasion; and what do you think would be the
effect, on the free state men, of an appropriation by
Massachusetts?"--replied:--"Whenever we heard, out in
Kansas that the North was doing any thing for us, we were
encouraged and strengthened to struggle on. As to the
probability of another invasion, I do not know. We ought to
be prepared for the worst. Things do not look one iota more
encouraging now, than they did last year at this time. You
ought to remember that, from the date of the Shannon treaty
till May last, there was perfect quiet in Kansas; no fear
of a renewal of hostilities; no violence offered to our
citizens in Missouri. I frequently went there myself; was
known there; yet treated with the greatest kindness."

The Massachusetts Kansas Committee, of which Mr. Sanborn was secretary, was composed of the kind of men described in the resolution, "responsible and conservative men." It seems, therefore, that the scheme was to have the State appropriate this money, and place it with the Massachusetts Committee, for disbursement among Kansas settlers who had suffered, as the Browns and "four or five others" had suffered.

Of his biographers James Redpath, alone, seems to have been favorably impressed with the speech; and it is unfortunate for Brown's fame that he gave it publicity; for, had the report of the speech been suppressed and the manuscript destroyed, his biographers could have made much of the occasion; much more than was made of his mythical effort at Lawrence, December 8, 1855. The speech was, in truth, a maudlin plea for compensation for the time which he and his sons had spent in secretly murdering and plundering Kansas settlers. It also included a weak attempt to criticise the Free-State leadership; a line of criticism then becoming popular, and still existing within the zone infected by the pernicious influence of the Disunionists of that period.

Brown did not dare to even hint at the truth concerning what he had seen, and what he had personally done in Kansas. Yet he did not hesitate to seek to impose this measure for compensation upon the Legislature, and to misinform it in relation to his conduct, and to misdirect its official actions. Imagine if possible the dismay, horror, and disgust that would have taken possession of the members of this committee, if a correct view of Brown's life, in Kansas, had been portrayed to them. The arrangement of the function was audacious and clever; an illustration of his daring hypocrisy, reckless insolence, and consistent variance with right doing. The legislative committee penetrated Brown's armor, as the Kansas National Committee had done, and refused to recommend that his bill be passed.

Three months later, Mr. Stearns was led to make an effort to have the New York Legislature take up a similar measure. Writing on May 18th, to a New York committee, he made the following remarkable statements:[229]

Since the close of the last year we have confined our
operations to aiding those persons in Kansas who were, or
intended to become, citizens of that Territory,--believing
that sufficient inducements to immigrate existed in the
prosperous state of affairs there; and we now believe that
should quiet and prosperity continue there for another
year, the large influx of Northern and Eastern men will
secure the State for Freedom. To insure the present
prosperity we propose--

1. To have our legislature make a grant of one hundred
thousand dollars, to be placed in the hands of discreet
persons, who shall use it for relief of those in Kansas who
are, or may become, destitute through Border-Ruffian
outrage. We think it will be done.

2. To organize a secret force, well armed, and under
control of the famous John Brown, to repel Border-Ruffian
outrage and defend the Free-State men from all alleged
impositions. This organization is strictly to be a
defensive one.

3. To aid by timely donations of money those parties of
settlers in the Territory who from misfortune are unable to
provide for their present wants.

I am personally acquainted with Captain Brown, and have
great confidence in his courage, prudence, and good
judgment. He has control of the whole affair, including
contributions of arms, clothing, etc., to the amount of
thirteen thousand dollars. His presence in the Territory
will, we think, give the Free-State men confidence in their
cause, and also check the disposition of the Border
Ruffians to impose on them. This I believe to be the most
important work to be done in Kansas at the present time.
Many of the Free-State leaders being engaged in
speculations are willing to accept peace on any terms.
Brown and his friends hold to the original principle of
making Kansas free, without regard to private interests. If
you agree with me, I should like to have your money
appropriated for the use of Captain John Brown. If not
that, the other proposition, to aid parties of settlers now
in the Territory will be the next best.

It appears from the closing sentences of this letter, that Brown had succeeded in discrediting the men, who were steadfastly working out the Free-State problem, in order to ingratiate himself with the people whom he then sought to delude. His turpitude should not provoke surprise. The crime of ingratitude cannot further degrade the character of this mendacious mendicant. Having assassinated his unoffending neighbors in the West, and robbed them, he now assassinated the fame of honorable men, and robbed them of the measure of confidence and esteem to which they were justly entitled because of their public services.

Disappointed in his scheme to have money legislated into his pocket, and in his effort to raise the thirty thousand dollars in large sums, he proceeded to canvass the East personally, for money, and to draw upon every possible source of supply--sailing under false colors and doing business under false pretenses. Referring to this, Mr. Villard says:[230]

It must not be forgotten in this connection that very
little was known in Boston at this time, about the
Pottawatomie murders, and still less about Brown's
connection with them. Frank Preston Stearns, the biographer
of his father, states that the latter never knew of John
Brown's connection with the crime, and it may be well that
Theodore Parker and others passed off the scene without a
full realization of the connection between the Harper's
Ferry leader and the tragedy of May 24, 1856.

Brown was proficient in the art of dissimulation. Mr. Thoreau was thus impressed with what, to him, seemed to be the sanctity of a Christian character. He said:[231]

He was never able to find more than a score or so of
recruits whom he would accept, and only about a dozen
(among them his own sons) in whom he had perfect faith.
When he was here, he showed me a little manuscript
book,--his "orderly book" I think he called it,--containing
the names of his company in Kansas, and the rules by which
they bound themselves and he stated that several of them
had already sealed the contract with their blood. When some
one remarked that with the addition of a chaplain, it would
have been a perfect Cromwellian troop, he observed that he
would have been glad to add a chaplain to the list, if he
could have found one man who could fill the place worthily.
I believe he had prayers in his camp morning and evening,
nevertheless. He is a man of Spartan habits, and at sixty
was scrupulous about his diet at your table, excusing
himself by saying that he must eat sparingly and fare hard,
as became a soldier, or one who was fitting himself for
difficult enterprises, a life of exposure. A man of rare
common-sense and directness of speech as of action, a
transcendentalist, above all a man of ideas and
principles,--that is what distinguishes him. Not yielding
to a whim or transient impulse, but carrying out the
purpose of a life. I noticed that he did not overstate
anything, but spoke within bounds. I remember particularly
how, in his speech here, he referred to what his family had
suffered in Kansas, without ever giving the least vent to
his pent up fire. It was a volcano with an ordinary chimney
flue. Also referring to the deeds of certain Border
Ruffians, he said, rapidly paring away his speech, like an
experienced soldier keeping a reserve of force and meaning:
"They had a perfect right to be hung." He was not in the
least a rhetorician, was not talking to buncombe or his
constituents anywhere. He had no need to invent anything,
but to tell the simple truth, and communicate his own
resolution; therefore he appeared incomparably strong, and
eloquence in Congress and elsewhere seemed to me at a
discount. It was like the speeches of Cromwell compared
with those of an ordinary king.

Mr. Emerson recorded his impressions in the following beautiful language:

For himself, Brown is so transparent that all men see him
through. He is a man to make friends wherever on earth
courage and integrity are esteemed,--the rarest of heroes,
a pure idealist with no by-ends of his own. Many of us have
seen him, and everyone who has heard him speak has been
impressed alike by his simple, artless goodness and sublime
courage. He joins that perfect Puritan faith which brought
his ancestors to Plymouth Rock, with his grandfather's
ardor in the Revolution. He believes in two articles,--two
instruments shall I say?--The Golden Rule and the
Declaration of Independence; and he used this expression in
a conversation here concerning them: "Better a whole
generation of men, women and children should pass away by a
violent death, than that one word of either should be
violated in this country." There is a Unionist, there is a
strict constructionist for you! He believes in the Union
of the States, and he conceives that the only obstruction
to the Union is slavery; and for that reason, as a patriot,
he works for its abolition.[232]

These exalted characters, incapable of detecting the vile imposition which he was practicing upon them, gave Brown the full measure of their confidence; even accepting at its face value the assassin's statement that he would have been glad to add a chaplain to his band, if he could have found one who could fill that office worthily. Governor Robinson had been more conservative in his recommendation. He based his approval of Brown upon the information he had received. "Your career," he said, "so far as I have been informed, has been such as to merit the highest praise."

As may be supposed, Brown's most dependable contributor was the Massachusetts Committee. January 7th it voted him $500 for expenses and on April 11th it voted him $500 more for the same account. April 15th it authorized him to "sell to Free-State settlers in Kansas, one hundred of the rifles it had placed in his care, for not less than fifteen dollars each, and to apply the proceeds to relieve the suffering inhabitants of the Territory."[233] Meanwhile he pursued his personal campaign for money without abatement of energy; visiting the principal towns and cities in Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut.[234]

On March 4th he published, in the New York _Tribune_, the following general advertisement for remittances of money:[235]

TO THE FRIENDS OF FREEDOM

The undersigned, whose individual means were exceedingly
limited when he first engaged in the struggle for liberty
in Kansas, being now still more destitute, and no less
anxious than in time past to continue his efforts to
sustain that cause, is induced to make this earnest appeal
to the friends of freedom throughout the United States, in
the firm belief that his call will not go unheeded. I ask
all honest lovers of liberty and human rights, both male
and female, to hold up my hands by contributions of
pecuniary aid, either as counties, cities, towns, villages,
societies, churches, or individuals. I will endeavor to
make a judicious and faithful application of all such means
as I may be supplied with. Contributions may be sent in
drafts to W. H. D. Callender, cashier State Bank, Hartford,
Conn. It is my intention to visit as many places as I can
during my stay in the states, provided I am first informed
of the disposition of the inhabitants to aid me in my
efforts as well as to receive my visit. Information may be
communicated to me (care of the Massasoit House)
Springfield, Mass. Will editors of newspapers friendly to
the cause kindly second the measure, and also give this
some half dozen insertions? Will either gentlemen or
ladies, or both, who love the cause, volunteer to take up
the business? It is with no little sacrifice of personal
feeling that I appear in this manner before the public.

At Hartford and Canton, Connecticut, he used a similar appeal:

I am trying to raise from twenty to twenty-five thousand
dollars in the free States, to enable me to continue my
efforts in the cause of freedom. Will the people of
Connecticut, my native state, afford me some aid in this
undertaking? Will the gentlemen and ladies of Hartford,
where I make my first appeal in this State, set the example
of an earnest effort? Will some gentleman or lady take hold
and try what can be done by small contributions from
counties, cities, towns, societies, or churches, or in some
other way? I think the little beggar-children in the
streets are sufficiently interested to warrant their
contributing, if there was any need of it, to secure the
object.[236]

February 19th Mr. Lawrence sent Brown a check for seventy dollars which had been contributed to the Massachusetts Company by John Conant, of New Hampshire. About this time Mr. Lawrence published an offer to be "one of ten, or a smaller number, to pay a thousand dollars per annum till the admission of Kansas into the Union, for the purpose of supporting John Brown's family and keeping the proposed company in the field." Since he did not intend to have any company in Kansas, Brown took up this proposal promptly and pressed tenaciously to commute it for a thousand dollars, cash. On March 19th, he wrote Mr. Lawrence from New Haven, as follows:[237]

The offer you so kindly made through the _Telegraph_ some
time since, emboldens me to propose the following for your
consideration: For One Thousand Dollars cash I am offered
an improved piece of land which with a little improvement I
now have, might enable my family, consisting of a Wife &
Five minor children (the youngest not yet Three years old)
to procure a Subsistence should I never return to them; my
Wife being a good economist, & a real old fashioned
business woman. She has gone through the Two past winters
in our open cold house; unfinished outside; & not
plastered. I have no other income or means for their
support. I have never hinted to any one else that I had a
thought of asking for any help to provide in any such way
for my family; & SHOULD NOT TO YOU, but for your own
suggestion. I fully believe I shall get the help I need to
operate with West. Last Night a private meeting of some
gentlemen here; voted to raise one Thousand Dollars in New
Haven for that purpose. If you feel at all inclined to
encourage me in the measure I have proposed, I shall be
grateful to get a line from you; Care Massasoit House,
Springfield, Mass; & will call when I come again to Boston.
I do not feel disposed to weary you with my oft repeated
visitations. I believe I am indebted to you as the UNKNOWN
GIVER of One share of Emigrant aid stock; as I can think of
no other so likely to have done it. IS MY APPEAL RIGHT?

Mr. Lawrence replied March 20th that he had just sent nearly fourteen thousand dollars to Kansas to establish a school fund there, and was short of money, but assured him that if his life were shortened while engaged in the great cause, "the family of 'Captain John Brown of Osawatomie' will not be turned out to starve in this country, until Liberty herself is driven out." Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Stearns afterward agreed to raise the thousand dollars, but as the payment lagged, Brown "pressed to close quarters." May 13th he wrote quite peremptorily to Mr. Stearns:

I must ask to have the $1000 made up _at once_; & forwarded
to Gerrit Smith. I did not start the measure of getting up
any subscription for me; (although I was sufficiently needy
as God knows); nor had I any thought of _further burdening_
either of my dear friends _Stearns or Lawrence_....[238]

The amount was made up and paid late in August, Mr. Lawrence paying $310 of it and Mr. Stearns $260.

It will never be known how much money Brown secured during this raid through the East. Mr. Villard estimates his cash collections at $4,000. The money value of the clothing and war material given to him was about $13,000. In addition to this Mr. Stearns gave him a cash credit of $7,000 against which he could draw from time to time "as it might be needed to subsist his company after they entered upon active service." He also had to his credit with the National Kansas Committee the $5,500 it had voted him. His total collections and subscriptions amounted therefore to about $30,000. A valuable asset in his collection of arms was two hundred revolvers, which the Massachusetts Arms Company, at Chicopee Falls, agreed, through Mr. Thayer, to sell to him for $1,300, fifty per cent of the regular price. Brown notified Mr. Stearns of the offer, who promptly placed the order, agreeing to pay for the arms by his personal note, in four months from date of delivery. In his letter, notifying Brown that he would purchase the revolvers for him, Mr. Stearns remarked incidentally:

I think you ought to go to Kansas as soon as possible, and
give Robinson and the rest some back bone.

Also on May 11th he said:

I am glad to know that you are on your way to Kansas: the
free State leaders need somebody to talk to them. I hope
you will see Conway very soon after your arrival. I did not
expect you to return, or hold pledged to me, any arms you
use in Kansas, but only such as were not used.

Yours truly,
GEORGE L. STEARNS.

Encouraged by the success of his deceptions--"the greedy swallowing every where of what I have told,"--and flattered by the notoriety he had gained. Brown began to take his personal criticisms of the Kansas leaders seriously. During the latter part of March he became so impressed by his dissatisfaction with their "incompetence," and, what was worse, with their "unwillingness to fight," that he decided to take things into his own hands and displace them altogether. He would put abler men in charge of Territorial affairs. With this purpose in view, he modestly requested young Mr. Sanborn, and Martin F. Conway, to meet him in conference at the Metropolitan Hotel, in New York. From there the trio went to Easton, Pennsylvania, where they formally offered the leadership of the Free-State cause to ex-Governor Reeder, which the latter declined, with appropriate thanks. However, the mission was not wholly without results. Mr. Villard informs us that the ex-Governor was "so heartily in sympathy with Brown's plan, that the latter wrote to him for aid, on his return to Springfield, explaining that the only difference between them was as to the number of men needed, and hoping that Mr. Reeder would soon discover the necessity of going out to Kansas this spring."[239]

The coming of spring was a serious matter in Brown's affairs. His "sagacious" forecast called for a renewal of pro-slavery aggressions in Kansas, and he was not there to resist them, if they arrived. His admirers had responded to his appeals for arms and money; and in return, they expected him to do something creditable; something worthy of his pretensions. Naturally they wanted their hero to be at the front; they wanted to see him at the post of honor, and, if need be, at the post of danger. Spring came, but Brown was not ready to go--"not yet, but soon." He had not got enough of the kind of money he wanted--"Money without questions asked." Mr. Villard says: "April was for Brown another month of active solicitation of funds." He realized that he had to go, and began making the necessary preparations with reluctance, and in a state of despondence wholly inconsistent with heroism; but true--strictly true--of the shamming mendicant. April 16th he wrote to Mr. Eli Thayer:

I am advised that one of "Uncle Sam's hounds is on my
track;" and I have kept myself hid for a few days to let my
track get cold. I have no idea of being taken, and intend
(if God will) to go back with irons in, rather than upon my
hands.... I got a fine list in Boston the other day, and
hope Worcester will not be entirely behind. I do not mean
you or Mr. Allen & Co.[240]

At this time Brown heard, or pretended that he had heard, a rumor that a United States marshal had passed through Cleveland on his way East to arrest him for "high treason." In consequence of this he sought and obtained a hiding place in the home of Judge and Mrs. Russell, in Boston, where he remained concealed several days. Here he indulged in several spectacular effects, for the benefit of the Judge and his wondering wife. Some of his performances were related by Judge Russell, as follows:

He used to take out his two revolvers, and repeater, every
night before going to bed, to make sure of their loads,
saying, "Here are eighteen lives." To Mrs. Russell he once
said, "If you hear a noise at night, put the baby under the
pillow. I should hate to spoil these carpets, too, but you
know I cannot be taken alive." Giving an account one day of
his son Frederick's death, who was shot by Martin White,
Mrs. Russell broke out, "If I were you, Mr. Brown, I would
fight those ruffians as long as I lived." "That," he
replied, "is not a Christian spirit. If I thought I had one
bit of the spirit of revenge I would never lift my hand; I
do not make war on slave-holders, even when I fight them,
but on slavery." He would hold up Mrs. Russell's little
girl, less than two years old, and tell her, "When I am
hung for treason, you can say that you used to stand on
Captain Brown's hand."[241]

Brown had not been charged with treason in Kansas, nor was he even under suspicion for "constructive" treason. But Kansas treason was then a fashionable offense in the North, and Brown, of course, worked it with fine effect upon his listeners. The Rev. Theodore Parker suggested to Judge Russell a way of escape for Brown. He wrote:

MY DEAR JUDGE--If John Brown falls into the hands of the
marshal from Kansas, he is sure either of the gallows or of
something yet worse. If I were in his position, I should
shoot dead any man who attempted to arrest me for those
alleged crimes; then I should be tried by a Massachusetts
jury and be acquitted.[242]

Brown at one time expressed his contempt for the gullible people upon whom he imposed. It was when he was in Kansas in 1858, and intended to write a book. He thought the story of his life, as he would write it, would be a good "seller." The title was to be "catchy," if there be such a word. It read:

A brief history of John Brown, otherwise (Old B.) and his
family: _as connected with Kansas_; By one who knows.

It was to be "sold for the benefit of the whole of my family or to promote the cause of Freedom as may hereafter appear." There was a mutuality of interest or a unity of Brown and the cause of Freedom. Whatever he did for the cause was done for the benefit of the family. In writing to his son about this venture he said:

I am _certain_, from the manner in which I have been
pressed to narrate, and the greedy swallowing everywhere of
what I have told, and complaints of the newspapers
voluntarily made of my backwardness to gratify the public,
that the book would find a ready sale.[243]

But his sons--John and Jason--disapproved of the venture: they were reactionaries; they thought it best to leave well enough alone, and shied at a proposal to skate upon ice so treacherous as they knew this departure to be. John said:[244] "But many a man has committed his greatest blunder when trying to write a book."

While at the Russell home Brown evolved a scheme, characteristic of his craftiness, which he launched in a highly dramatic and effective manner. The paper was named:

OLD BROWN'S FAREWELL

_To the Plymouth Rocks, Bunker Hill Monuments, Charter
Oaks, and, Uncle Tom's Cabbins._

Having prepared the paper for the specific purpose of imposing upon Mrs. Steams, rather than upon Mr. Parker's congregation, he paid that lady the flattering compliment of desiring to consult her about "a plan he had," asking her to call on him at the Russell home. Her interesting statement of what happened is as follows: