Suddenly the old man left Springdale. He ordered his disciples to
continue their drill until he should instruct them as to their next
march.
Two weeks later he was in Rochester, New York, with Frederick Douglas.
In a room in this negro's house Brown composed a remarkable document as
a substitute for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of
the United States.
He hurried with his finished manuscript to the home of Gerrit Smith at
Peterboro for a consultation with Smith, Sanborn, Higginson and Stearns.
Only Sanborn and Smith appeared. Brown outlined to them in brief his
plan of precipitating a conflict by the invasion of the Black Belt of
the South and the establishment of a negro empire. Its details were as
yet locked in his own breast.
Smith and Sanborn discussed his plans and his Constitution for the
Government of the new power. In spite of its absurdities they agreed
to support him in the venture. Smith gave the first contribution which
enabled him to call the convention of negroes and radicals at Chatham,
Canada, to adopt the "Constitution."
Brown went all the way to Springdale, Iowa, to escort the entire body of
his disciples to this convention. And they came across a continent
with him--Stevens, Kagi, Cook, Owen Brown, and six new men whom he had
added--Leeman, Tidd, Gill, Taylor, Parsons, Moffit and Realf.
Thirty-four negroes gathered with them. Among the negroes were Richard
O. P. Anderson and James H. Harris of North Carolina.
The presiding officer was William C. Monroe, pastor of a negro church in
Detroit. Kagi, the stenographer, was made Secretary of the Convention.
Brown addressed the gathering in an unique speech:
"For thirty years, my friends, a single passion has pursued my soul--to
set at liberty the slaves of the South. I went to Europe in 1851 to
inspect fortifications and study the methods of guerrilla warfare which
have been successfully used in the old world. I have pondered the
uprisings of the slaves of Rome, the deeds of Spartacus, the successes
of Schamyl, the Circassian Chief, of Touissant L'Overture in Haiti, of
the negro Nat Turner who cut the throats of sixty Virginians in a single
night in 1831.
"I have developed a plan of my own to sweep the South. You must trust
me with its details. I shall depend on the blacks for the body of my
soldiers. And I expect every freedman in the North to flock to my
standard when the blow has fallen. I know that every slave in the South
will answer my call. The slaveholders we will not massacre unless
we must. We will hold them as hostages for our protection and the
protection of any prisoners who may fall into their hands."
The men listened in rapt attention and when he read his "Constitution
and Preamble," it was unanimously adopted.
The Constitution which they adopted was a piece of insanity in the
literal sense of the word, a confused medley of absurd, inapplicable
forms.
The Preamble, however, which contained the keynote of Brown's philosophy
of life, was expressed in clear-cut, logical ideas.
He read it in a cold, vibrant voice:
"Whereas, Slavery, throughout its entire existence in the United States
is none other than a most barbarous, unprovoked and unjustifiable war of
one portion of its citizens upon another portion: the only conditions
of which are perpetual imprisonment, and hopeless servitude or absolute
extermination, in utter disregard and violation of those eternal and
self-evident truths set forth in our Declaration of Independence:
_Therefore_, we CITIZENS OF the UNITED STATES, and the OPPRESSED PEOPLE
who by a RECENT DECISION of the SUPREME COURT ARE DECLARED to have NO
RIGHTS WHICH the WHITE MAN is BOUND to RESPECT; TOGETHER WITH ALL OTHER
PEOPLE DEGRADED by the LAWS THEREOF, DO, for the TIME BEING ORDAIN and
ESTABLISH for OURSELVES, the FOLLOWING PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION and
ORDINANCES the BETTER to protect, our PERSONS, PROPERTY, LIVES and
LIBERTIES: and to GOVERN our ACTION."
The first result of his Radical Convention was the exhaustion of his
treasury. He had used his last dollar to bring his men on from the West
and no money had been collected to pay even their return fares.
They were compelled to go to work at various trades to earn their bread.
Brown determined to return to Kansas and create a sensation that would
again stir the East and bring the money into his treasury. He would at
the same time test the first principle of his plan by an actual raid
into a neighboring Southern State. In the meantime, he issued his first
order of the Great Deed. He selected John E. Cook as his scout and spy
and dispatched him to Harper's Ferry, Virginia, to map its roads, study
its people and reconnoiter the surrounding territory.
He raised the money to pay Cook's fare and saw him on the train for
Virginia before he started for Kansas to spring his second national
sensation.