THE SWAMP OF THE SWAN
“And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the
sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his
hands hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.”
“Did you go out under the auspices of the Emigrant Aid Society?” asked
the Inquisition of John Brown in after years. He answered grimly: “No,
sir, I went out under the auspices of John Brown.” In broad outline the
story of his coming to Kansas has been told in the last chapter, but the
picture needs now to be filled in with the details of his personal
fortunes, and a more careful study of the development of his personal
character in this critical period of his career. The place of his coming
was storied and romantic. French-fathered Indians wheeling onward in
their swift canoes saw stately birds in the reedy lowlands of eastern
Kansas and called the marsh the Swamp of the Swan. Up from the dark
sluggish rivers rose rolling goodly lands over which John Brown’s
brother Edward had passed to California in 1849, and on which his
brother-in-law had settled as early as 1854. Here, too, naturally had
followed the five pioneering sons in April, 1855. They came hating
slavery and yet peacefully, unarmed, and in all good faith, with cattle
and horses and trees and vines to settle in a free land. In Missouri
they met hatred and inhospitality, and in Kansas sickness and freezing
weather. Nevertheless they were stout-hearted and hopeful, and went
bravely to work until the political storm broke, when they wrote home
hastily for arms to defend themselves. John Brown, as we have seen,
brought the arms himself, taking his son Oliver and his son-in-law Henry
with him. “We reached the place where the boys are located one week ago,
late at night,” he wrote October 13, 1855. “We had between us all, sixty
cents in cash when we arrived. We found our folks in a most
uncomfortable situation, with no houses to shelter one of them, no hay
or corn fodder of any account secured, shivering over their little
fires, all exposed to the dreadful cutting winds, morning, evening and
stormy days.” All went to work to build cabins and secure fodder,
keeping at the same time a careful eye on the political developments. On
free state election day, October 9th, “hearing that there was a prospect
of difficulty, we all turned out most thoroughly armed,” but “no enemy
appeared” and Brown was encouraged to think that the prospect of Kansas
becoming free “is brightening every day.”
By November the settlers, he wrote, “have made but little progress, but
we have made a little. We have got a shanty three logs high, chinked and
mudded, and roofed with our tent, and a chimney so far advanced that we
can keep a fire in it for Jason. John has his shanty a little better
fixed than it was, but miserable enough now; and we have got their
little crop of beans secured, which together with johnny cake, mush and
milk, pumpkins and squashes, constitute our fare.” And he adds, “After
all God’s tender mercies are not taken from us.... I feel more and more
confident that slavery will soon die out here—and to God be the praise!”
On November 23d he writes: “We have got both families so sheltered that
they need not suffer hereafter; have got part of the hay (which had been
in cocks) secured; made some progress in preparation to build a house
for John and Owen; and Salmon has caught a prairie wolf in a steel trap.
We continue to have a good deal of stormy weather—rains with severe
winds, and forming into ice as they fall, together with cold nights that
freeze the ground considerably. Still God has not forsaken us!”[93]
It was thus that John Brown came to Kansas and stood ready to fight for
freedom. No sooner had he stepped on Kansas soil, however, than it was
plain to him and to others that the cause for which he was fighting was
far different from that for which most of the settlers were willing to
risk life and property. The difference came out at the first meeting of
settlers in the little Osawatomie township. Redpath says: “The
politicians of the neighborhood were carefully pruning resolutions so as
to suit every variety of anti-slavery extensionists; and more especially
that class of persons whose opposition to slavery was founded on
expediency—the selfishness of race, and caste, and interest: men who
were desirous that Kansas should be consecrated to free white labor
only, not to freedom for all and above all.” The resolution which
aroused the old man’s anger declared that Kansas should be a free white
state, thereby favoring the exclusion of Negroes and mulattoes, whether
slave or free. He rose to speak, and soon alarmed and disgusted the
politicians by asserting the manhood of the Negro race, and expressing
his earnest, anti-slavery convictions with a force and vehemence little
likely to suit the hybrids.[94]
Nothing daunted by the cold reception of his radical ideas here, Brown
strove to extend them when a larger opportunity came at the first
beleaguering of Lawrence. It was in December, 1855, when rumors of the
surrounding of Lawrence by the governor and his pro-slavery followers
came to the Browns. The old man wrote home: “These reports appeared to
be well authenticated, but we could get no further accounts of the
matters; and I left this for the place where the boys are settled, at
evening, intending to go to Lawrence to learn the facts the next day.
John was, however, started on horseback; but before he had gone many
rods, word came that our help was immediately wanted. On getting this
last news, it was at once agreed to break up at John’s camp, and take
Wealthy and Johnnie to Jason’s camp (some two miles off), and that all
the men but Henry, Jason, and Oliver should at once set off for Lawrence
under arms; those three being wholly unfit for duty. We then set about
providing a little corn bread and meat, blankets, and cooking utensils,
running bullets and loading all our guns, pistols, etc. The five set off
in the afternoon, and after a short rest in the night (which was quite
dark), continued our march until after daylight; next morning, when we
got our breakfast, started again, and reached Lawrence in the forenoon,
all of us more or less lamed by our tramp.”[95]
The band approached the town at sunset, looming strangely on the
horizon: an old horse, a homely wagon and seven stalwart men armed with
pikes, swords, pistols and guns. John Brown was immediately put in
command of a company. He found that already “negotiations had commenced
between Governor Shannon (having a force of some fifteen or sixteen
hundred men) and the principal leaders of the free state men, they
having a force of some five hundred men at that time. These were busy,
night and day, fortifying the town with embankments and circular
earthworks, up to the time of the treaty with the governor, as an attack
was constantly looked for, notwithstanding the negotiations then
pending. This state of things continued from Friday until Sunday
evening,”[96] when Governor Shannon was induced to enter the town and
after some parley a treaty was announced. Immediately Brown’s suspicions
were aroused. He surmised that the governor’s party had not thus lightly
given up the fight for slavery, and he feared that the leading free
state politicians had sacrificed the principles for which he was
fighting for the sake of the temporary truce. Already the drunken
governor was making conciliatory remarks to the crowd in front of the
free state hotel, the free state Governor Robinson replying, when John
Brown, mounting a piece of timber at the corner of the house, began a
fiery speech. “He said that the people of Missouri had come to Kansas to
destroy Lawrence; that they had beleaguered the town for two weeks,
threatening its destruction; that they came for blood; that he believed,
‘without the shedding of blood there is no remission’; and asked for
volunteers to go under his command, and attack the pro-slavery camp
stationed near Franklin, some four miles from Lawrence.... He demanded
to know what the terms were. If he understood Governor Shannon’s speech,
something had been conceded, and he conveyed the idea that the
territorial laws were to be observed. Those laws he denounced and spit
upon, and would never obey—no! The crowd was fired by his earnestness
and a great echoing shout arose: ‘No! No! Down with the bogus laws. Lead
us out to fight first!’ For a moment matters looked serious to the free
state leaders who had so ingeniously engineered the compromise, and they
hastened to assure Brown that he was mistaken; that there had been no
surrendering of principles on their side.”[97] The real terms of the
treaty were kept secret, but Brown with his usual loyalty accepted their
word as true and wrote exultingly home: “So ended this last Kansas
invasion,—the Missourians returning with flying colors, after incurring
heavy expenses, suffering great exposure, hardships, and privations, not
having fought any battles, burned or destroyed any infant towns or
Abolition presses; leaving the free state men organized and armed, and
in full possession of the Territory; not having fulfilled any of all
their dreadful threatenings, except to murder one unarmed man, and to
commit some robberies and waste of property upon the defenseless
families, unfortunately within their power. We learn by their papers
that they boast of a great victory over the Abolitionists; and well they
may. Free state men have only hereafter to retain the footing they have
gained, and Kansas is free.”[98]
The Wakarusa “treaty,” however, was but a winter’s truce as John Brown
soon saw; his distrust of the compromisers and politicians grew, and he
tried to get his own channels of news from the seat of government at
Washington. “We are very anxious to know what Congress is doing. We hear
that Frank Pierce means to crush the men of Kansas. I do not know how
well he may succeed, but I think he may find his hands full before it is
all over.”[99] And Joshua R. Giddings assures him that the President
“never will dare to employ the troops of the United States to shoot the
citizens of Kansas.”[100] Yet the President did dare. Not only were
regular troops put into the hands of the Kansas slave power, but armed
bands from the South appeared, and one in particular from Georgia
encamped on the Swamp of the Swan near the Brown settlement. John
Brown’s procedure was characteristic. With his surveying instruments in
hand one May morning, he sauntered into their camp. He was immediately
taken for a government surveyor and consequently “sound on the goose,”
for “every governor sent here, every secretary, every judge, every
Indian agent, every land surveyor, every clerk in every office, believed
in making Kansas a slave state. All the money sent here by the national
government was disbursed by pro-slavery officials to pro-slavery
menials.”[101] Brown took with him, his son says, “four of my
brothers,—Owen, Frederick, Salmon, and Oliver,—as chain carriers, axman,
and marker, and found a section line which, on following, led through
the camp of these men. The Georgians indulged in the utmost freedom of
expression. One of them, who appeared to be the leader of the company,
said: ‘We’ve come here to stay. We won’t make no war on them as minds
their own business; but all the Abolitionists, such as them damned
Browns over there, we’re going to whip, drive out, or kill,—any way to
get shut of them, by God!’”[102]
Many of the intended victims were openly mentioned, and every word said
was calmly written down in John Brown’s surveyor’s book. Soon this
information was corroborated by the Southern camp being moved nearer the
Brown settlement. Secret marauding and stealing began. Brown warned the
intended victims, and, at a night meeting, it seems to have been decided
that at the first sign of a move on the part of the “border ruffians”
the ringleaders should be seized and lynched. Not only was this the
opinion at Osawatomie, but secret councils throughout the state were
beginning to lose faith in conciliation and compromise, and to listen to
more radical advice. From Lawrence, too, there came encouragement to
John Brown to take the lead in this darker forward movement. There was
little open talk or explicit declaration, but it was generally
understood that the next aggressive move in the Swamp of the Swan meant
retaliation and that John Brown would strike the blow.
While, however, the free state leaders were willing to let this radical
hater of slavery thus defend the frontiers of their cause, they
themselves deemed it wise still to stick to the policy of passive
resistance, and their wisdom cost them dear. On the 21st of May the
pro-slavery forces swooped on Lawrence, and burned and sacked it, while
its citizens stood trembling by and raised no hand in its defense. John
Brown knew nothing of this until it was too late to help.
Notwithstanding, he hurried to the scene, and sat down by the smoldering
ashes in grim anger. He was “indignant that there had been no
resistance; that Lawrence was not defended; and denounced the members of
the committee and leading free state men as cowards, or worse.” It
seemed to Brown nothing less than a crime for men thus to lie down and
be kicked by ruffians. “Caution, caution, sir!” he burst out at a
discreet old gentleman, “I am eternally tired of hearing that word
caution—it is nothing but the word of cowardice.”[103] Yet there seemed
nothing to do then, and he was about to break camp when a boy came up
riding swiftly. The ruffians at Dutch Henry’s crossing, he said, had
been warning the defenseless women in the Brown settlement that the free
state families must leave by Saturday or Sunday, else they would be
driven out. The Brown women, hastily gathering up their children and
valuables, had fled by ox-cart to the house of a kinsman farther away.
Two houses and a store in the German settlement had been burned.
John Brown arose. “I will attend to those fellows,” he said grimly.
“Something must be done to show these barbarians that we too have
rights!”[104] He called four of his sons, Watson, Frederick, Owen and
Oliver, his son-in-law, Henry Thompson, and a German, whose home lay in
ashes. A neighbor with wagon and horses offered to carry the band, and
the cutlasses were carefully sharpened. An uneasy feeling crept through
the onlookers. They knew that John Brown was going to strike a blow for
freedom in Kansas, but they did not understand just what that blow would
be. There were hesitation and whispering, and one at least ventured a
mild remonstrance, but Brown shook him off in disgust. As the wagon
moved off, a cheer arose from the company left behind.
It was two o’clock on Friday afternoon that the eight men started toward
the Swamp of the Swan. Arriving in the neighborhood they spent Saturday
in quietly and secretly investigating the situation, and in gathering
evidence of the intentions of the “border ruffians.” Although the exact
facts have never all been told, it seems clear that a meeting of the
intended victims was secured at which John Brown himself presided.
Probably it was then decided that the seven ringleaders of the projected
deviltry must be killed, and John Brown was appointed to see that the
deed was done. The men condemned were among the worst of their kind. One
was a liquor dealer in whose disreputable dive the United States court
was held. His brother, a giant of six feet four, was a thief and a bully
whose pastime was insulting free state women. The third was the
postmaster, who managed to avoid direct complicity in the crime, but
shared the spoils. Next came the probate judge, who harried the free
state men with warrants of all sorts; and lastly, three miserable
drunken tools, formerly slave-chasers who had come to Kansas with their
bloodhounds and were ready for any kind of evil.
These were not the leaders of the pro-slavery party in Kansas, but
rather the dogs which were to worry the free state men to death. The
ringleaders sat securely hedged back of United States bayonets and the
Missouri militia, but their tools depended for their safety on
terrorizing the localities wherein they lived. Here then, said John
Brown, was the spot to strike and, once sentence of death had been
formally passed, the band hurried to its task. The saloon lay on the
creek where the great highway from Leavenworth in the northeastern part
of the state crossed on its way to Fort Scott. Around it within an
hour’s walk were the cabins of the others. In all cases the proceeding
was similar: a silent approach and a quick sharp knocking in the night.
The inmates leapt startled from their beds, for midnight rappings were
ominous there. They hesitated to open the door, but the demand was
peremptory and the door was frail. Then the dark room was filled with
shadowy figures, the man dressed quickly, the woman whimpered and
listened, but the footsteps died away and all was still. Three homes
were visited thus; two of the number could not be found, but five men
went out into the darkness with their captors and never returned. They
were led quickly into the woods and surrounded. John Brown raised his
hand and at the signal the victims were hacked to death with
broadswords.
The deed inflamed Kansas. The timid rushed to disavow the deed. The free
state people were silent and the pro-slavery party was roused to fury.
Even the silent co-conspirators of Pottawatomie rushed to pledge
themselves “individually and collectively, to prevent a recurrence of a
similar tragedy, and to ferret out and hand over to the criminal
authorities the perpetrators for punishment.” But they took no steps to
lay hands on John Brown and as he said, their cowardice did not protect
them. Four times in four years the wrath of the avengers flamed in the
Swamp of the Swan, and swept the land in fire and blood, and the last
red breath of the expiring war in Kansas glowed in these dark ravines.
To this day men differ as to the effect of John Brown’s blow. Some say
it freed Kansas, while others say it plunged the land back into civil
war. Truth lies in both statements. The blow freed Kansas by plunging it
into civil war, and compelling men to fight for freedom which they had
vainly hoped to gain by political diplomacy. At first it was hard to see
this, and even those sons of John Brown whom he had not taken with him,
recoiled at the news. One son says: “On the afternoon of Monday, May
26th, a man came to us at Liberty Hill, ... his horse reeking with
sweat, and said, ‘five men have been killed on the Pottawatomie,
horribly cut and mangled; and they say old John Brown did it.’ Hearing
this, I was afraid it was true, and it was the most terrible shock that
ever happened to my feelings in my life; but brother John took a
different view. The next day as we were on the east side of Middle
Creek, I asked father, ‘Did you have any hand in the killing?’ He said,
‘I did not, but I stood by and saw it.’ I did not ask further for fear I
should hear something I did not wish to hear. Frederick said, ‘I could
not feel as if it was right;’ but another of the party said it was
justifiable as a means of self-defense and the defense of others. What I
said against it seemed to hurt father very much; but all he said was,
‘God is my judge,—we were justified under the circumstances.’”[105]
This was as much as John Brown usually said of the matter, although in
later years a friend relates: “I finally said, ‘Captain Brown, I want to
ask you one question, and you can answer it or not as you please, and I
shall not be offended.’ He stopped his pacing, looked me square in the
face, and said, ‘What is it?’ Said I, ‘Captain Brown, did you kill those
five men on the Pottawatomie, or did you not?’ He replied, ‘I did not;
but I do not pretend to say that they were not killed by my order; and
in doing so I believe I was doing God’s service.’ My wife spoke and
said, ‘Then, captain, you think that God uses you as an instrument in
His hands to kill men?’ Brown replied, ‘I think He has used me as an
instrument to kill men; and if I live, I think He will use me as an
instrument to kill a good many more!’”[106]
No sooner was the deed known than John Brown became a hunted outlaw. Two
of his sons who had not been with him at the murders were arrested on
Lecompte’s “constructive treason” warrants because they had affiliated
with the free state movement. Horror at his father’s deed and the
cruelty of his captors drove the eldest son temporarily insane, while
the life of the other was saved only by a scrap of paper which said, “I
am aware that you hold my two sons, John and Jason, prisoners—John
Brown.”[107] The old man never wavered. He wrote home: “Jason started to
go and place himself under the protection of the government troops; but
on his way he was taken prisoner by the bogus men, and is yet a
prisoner, I suppose. John tried to hide for several days; but from
feelings of the ungrateful conduct of those who ought to have stood by
him, excessive fatigue, anxiety, and constant loss of sleep, he became
quite insane, and in that situation gave up, or, as we are told, was
betrayed at Osawatomie into the hands of the bogus men. We do not know
all the truth about this affair. He has since, we are told, been kept in
irons, and brought to a trial before bogus court, the result of which we
have not yet learned. We have great anxiety both for him and Jason, and
numerous other prisoners with the enemy (who have all the while had the
government troops to sustain them). We can only commend them to
God.”[108]
Withdrawing to the forests, John Brown now began to organize his
followers. Thirty-five of them adopted this covenant in the summer of
1856:
“We whose names are found on these and the next following pages, do
hereby enlist ourselves to serve in the free state cause under John
Brown as commander, during the full period of time affixed to our names
respectively and we severally pledge our word and our sacred honor to
said commander, and to each other, that during the time for which we
have enlisted, we will faithfully and punctually perform our duty (in
such capacity or place as may be assigned to us by a majority of all the
votes of those associated with us, or of the companies to which we may
belong as the case may be) as a regular volunteer force for the
maintenance of the rights and liberties of the free state citizens of
Kansas: and we further agree; that as individuals we will conform to the
by-laws of this organization and that we will insist on their regular
and punctual enforcement as a first and a last duty: and, in short, that
we will observe and maintain a strict and thorough military discipline
at all times until our term of service expires.”[109]
A score of by-laws were added, providing for electing officers, trial by
jury, disposal of captured property, etc. Then follow these articles:
“Art. XIV. All uncivil, ungentlemanly, profane, vulgar talk or
conversation shall be discountenanced.
“Art. XV. All acts of petty theft, needless waste of property of the
members or of citizens are hereby declared disorderly; together with all
uncivil, or unkind treatment of citizens or of prisoners.
“Art. XX. No person after having first surrendered himself a prisoner
shall be put to death, or subjected to corporeal punishment, without
first having had the benefit of an impartial trial.
“Art. XXI. The ordinary use or introduction into the camp of any
intoxicating liquor, as a beverage, is hereby declared disorderly.”[110]
Nor was this ideal of discipline merely on paper. The reporter of the
New York _Tribune_ stumbled on the camp which the authorities did not
dare to find:
“I shall not soon forget the scene that here opened to my view. Near the
edge of the creek a dozen horses were tied, all ready saddled for a ride
for life, or a hunt after Southern invaders. A dozen rifles and sabres
were stacked against the trees. In an open space, amid the shady and
lofty woods, there was a great blazing fire with a pot on it; a woman,
bareheaded, with an honest sunburnt face, was picking blackberries from
the bushes; three or four armed men were lying on red and blue blankets
on the grass; and two fine-looking youths were standing, leaning on
their arms, on guard near by. One of them was the youngest son of old
Brown, and the other was ‘Charley,’ the brave Hungarian, who was
subsequently murdered at Osawatomie. Old Brown himself stood near the
fire, with his shirt sleeves rolled up, and a large piece of pork in his
hand. He was cooking a pig. He was poorly clad, and his toes protruded
from his boots. The old man received me with great cordiality, and the
little band gathered about me. But it was a moment only; for the captain
ordered them to renew their work. He respectfully but firmly forbade
conversation on the Pottawatomie affair; and said that, if I desired any
information from the company in relation to their conduct or intentions,
he, as their captain, would answer for them whatever it was proper to
communicate.
“In this camp no manner of profane language was permitted; no man of
immoral character was allowed to stay, excepting as a prisoner of war.
He made prayers in which all the company united, every morning and
evening; and no food was ever tasted by his men until the divine
blessing had been asked on it. After every meal, thanks were returned to
the Bountiful Giver. Often, I was told, the old man would retire to the
densest solitudes, to wrestle with his God in secret prayer. One of his
company subsequently informed me that, after these retirings, he would
say that the Lord had directed him in visions what to do; that for
himself he did not love warfare, but peace,—only acting in obedience to
the will of the Lord, and fighting God’s battles for His children’s
sake.
“It was at this time that the old man said to me: ‘I would rather have
the smallpox, yellow fever, and cholera all together in my camp, than a
man without principles. It’s a mistake, sir,’ he continued, ‘that our
people make, when they think that bullies are the best fighters, or that
they are the men fit to oppose those Southerners. Give me men of good
principles; God-fearing men; men who respect themselves; and, with a
dozen of them, I will oppose any hundred such men as these Buford
ruffians.’
“I remained in the camp about an hour. Never before had I met such a
band of men. They were not earnest but earnestness incarnate.”[111]
A member of the band says:
“We stayed here up to the morning of Sunday, the first of June, and
during these few days I fully succeeded in understanding the exalted
character of my old friend. He exhibited at all times the most
affectionate care for each of us. He also attended to cooking. We had
two meals daily, consisting of bread made of flour, baked in skillets;
this was washed down with creek water, mixed with a little ginger and a
spoon of molasses to each pint. Nevertheless we kept in excellent
spirits; we considered ourselves as one family, allied to one another by
the consciousness that it was our duty to undergo all these privations
to further the good cause; had determined to share any danger with one
another, that victory or death might find us together. We were united as
a band of brothers by the love and affection toward the man who with
tender words and wise counsel, in the depth of the wilderness of Ottawa
Creek, prepared a handful of young men for the work of laying the
foundation of a free commonwealth. His words have ever remained firmly
engraved in my mind. Many and various were the instructions he gave
during the days of our compulsory leisure in this camp. He expressed
himself to us that we should never allow ourselves to be tempted by any
consideration to acknowledge laws and institutions to exist as of right,
if our conscience and reason condemned them. He admonished us not to
care whether a majority, no matter how large, opposed our principles and
opinions. The largest majorities were sometimes only organized mobs,
whose howlings never changed black into white, or night into day. A
minority conscious of its rights, based on moral principles, would,
under a republican government, sooner or later become the majority.
Regarding the curse and crimes of the institution of slavery, he
declared that the outrages committed in Kansas to further its extension
had directed the attention of all intelligent citizens of the United
States and of the world to the necessity of its abolishment, as a
stumbling-block in the path of nineteenth century civilization; that
while it was true that the pro-slavery people and their aiders and
abettors had the upper hand at present, and the free state organization
dwindled to a handful hid in the brush, nevertheless, we ought to be of
good cheer, and start the ball to rolling at the first opportunity, no
matter whether its starting motion would even crush us to death. We were
under a protection of a wise Providence, which might use our feeble
efforts.
“Occasionally Captain Brown also gave us directions for our conduct
during a fight, for attack and retreat. Time and again he entreated us
never to follow the example of the border ruffians, who took a delight
in destruction; never to burn houses or fences, so often done by the
enemy. Free state people could use them to advantage. Repeatedly he
admonished us not to take human life except when absolutely necessary.
Plunder taken from the enemy should be common property, to be used for
continuance of the struggle; horses to go to recruits, cattle and
provision to poor free state people.”[112]
To this band of men the surrounding country, which was already feeling
the first retaliatory blows of the pro-slavery party, now looked for
aid, and Brown stood ever ready. His men, however, could form but the
nucleus of a spirited defense and for a time the settlers hesitated to
join the band until Brown threatened to withdraw. “Why did you send
Carpenter after us? I am not willing to sacrifice my men without having
some hope of accomplishing something,”[113] he demanded of a hesitating
emissary, and turning to his men he said: “If the cowardice and
indifference of the free state people compel us to leave Kansas, what do
you say, men, if we start south, for instance to Louisiana, and get up a
Negro insurrection, and thereby compel them to let go their grip on
Kansas, and so bring relief to our friends here?” Frederick Brown jumped
up and said: “I am ready.”[114]
The petty outrages of the Georgia guerrillas now so increased in
boldness and in frequency that a company was hastily formed which called
Brown’s men to the defense of a neighboring village. “We will be with
you,” cried Brown, and thus he told the story of what followed to the
folks at home:
“The cowardly mean conduct of Osawatomie and vicinity did not save them;
for the ruffians came on them, made numerous prisoners, fired their
buildings, and robbed them. After this a picked party of the bogus men
went to Brown’s Station, burned John’s and Jason’s houses, and their
contents to ashes; in which burning we have all suffered more or less.
Orson and boy have been prisoners, but we soon set them at liberty. They
are well, and have not been seriously injured. Owen and I have just come
here for the first time to look at the ruins. All looks desolate and
forsaken,—the grass and weeds fast covering up the signs that these
places were lately the abodes of quiet families. After burning the
houses, this self-same party of picked men, some forty in number, set
out as they supposed, and as was the fact, on the track of my little
company, boasting with awful profanity, that they would have our scalps.
They, however, passed the place where we hid, and robbed a little town
some four or five miles beyond our camp in the timber. I had omitted to
say that some murders had been committed at the time Lawrence was
sacked.
“On learning that this party was in pursuit of us, my little company,
now increased to ten in all, started after them in company of a Captain
Shore, with eighteen men, he included (June 1st). We were all mounted as
we traveled. We did not meet them on that day, but took five prisoners,
four of whom were of their scouts, and well armed. We were out all
night, but could find nothing of them until about six o’clock next
morning, when we prepared to attack them at once, on foot, leaving
Frederick and one of Captain Shore’s men to guard the horses. As I was
much older than Captain Shore, the principal direction of the fight
devolved on me. We got to within about a mile of their camp before being
discovered by their scouts, and then moved at a brisk pace, Captain
Shore and men forming our left, and my company the right. When within
about sixty rods of the enemy, Captain Shore’s men halted by mistake in
a very exposed situation, and continued the fire, both his men and the
enemy being armed with Sharps rifles. My company had no long shooters.
We (my company) did not fire a gun until we gained the rear of a bank,
about fifteen or twenty rods to the right of the enemy, where we
commenced, and soon compelled them to hide in a ravine. Captain Shore,
after getting one man wounded, and exhausting his ammunition, came with
part of his men to the right of my position, much discouraged. The
balance of his men, including the one wounded, had left the ground. Five
of Captain Shore’s men came boldly down and joined my company, and all
but one man, wounded, helped to maintain the fight until it was over. I
was obliged to give my consent that he should go after more help, when
all his men left but eight, four of whom I persuaded to remain in a
secure position, and there busied them in the horses and mules of the
enemy, which served for a show of fight. After the firing had continued
for some two to three hours, Captain Pate with twenty-three men, two
badly wounded, laid down their arms to nine men, myself included,—four
of Captain Shore’s men and four of my own. One of my men (Henry
Thompson) was badly wounded, and after continuing his fire for an hour
longer, was obliged to quit the ground. Three others of my company (but
not of my family) had gone off. Salmon was dreadfully wounded by
accident, soon after the fight; but both he and Henry are fast
recovering.
“A day or two after the fight, Colonel Sumner of the United States army
came suddenly upon us, while fortifying our camp and guarding our
prisoners (which, by the way, it had been agreed mutually should be
exchanged for as many free state men, John and Jason included), and
compelled us to let go our prisoners without being exchanged, and to
give up their horses and arms. They did not go more than two or three
miles before they began to rob and injure free state people. We consider
this in good keeping with the cruel and unjust course of the
administration and its tools throughout this whole Kansas difficulty.
Colonel Sumner also compelled us to disband; and we, being only a
handful, were obliged to submit.
“Since then we have, like David of old, had our dwellings with the
serpents of the rocks and wild beasts of the wilderness, being obliged
to hide away from our enemies. We are not disheartened, though nearly
destitute of food, clothing, and money. God, who has not given us over
to the will of our enemies, but has moreover delivered them into our
hand, will, we humbly trust, still keep and deliver us. We feel assured
that He who sees not as men see, does not lay the guilt of innocent
blood to our charge.”[115]
It was John Brown’s hope that the courage engendered by the striking
success of the fight at Black Jack, would spread the spirit of
resistance to the whole free state party. Lawrence, then the capital,
was still surrounded by a chain of forts held by bands of pro-slavery
marauders: one at Franklin just east of the city; another just south and
known as Fort Saunders; and a third between Lawrence and the pro-slavery
capital, Lecompton, known as Fort Titus. When it was rumored that the
United States troops would disperse the free state legislature about to
meet at Topeka, John Brown hurried thither, hoping that resistance would
begin here and sweep the Territory. One of the free state leaders met
him at Lawrence and journeyed with him toward Topeka. Brown and he took
the main road as far as Big Springs, he says, and continues:
“There we left the road, going in a southwesterly direction for a mile,
when we halted on a hill, and the horses were stripped of their saddles,
and picketed out to graze. The grass was wet with dew. The men ate of
what provision they had with them, and I received a portion from the
captain,—dry beef (which was not so bad), and bread made from corn
bruised between stones, then rolled in balls and cooked in the ashes of
the camp-fire. Captain Brown observed that I nibbled it very gingerly,
and said, ‘I am afraid you will be hardly able to eat a soldier’s harsh
fare.’
“We next placed our two saddles together, so that our heads lay only a
few feet apart. Brown spread his blanket on the wet grass, and when we
lay together upon it, mine was spread over us. It was past eleven
o’clock, and we lay there until two in the morning, but we slept none.
He seemed to be as little disposed to sleep as I was, and we talked; or
rather he did, for I said little. I found that he was a thorough
astronomer; he pointed out the different constellations and their
movements. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘it is midnight,’ as he pointed to the
finger-marks of his great clock in the sky. The whispering of the wind
on the prairie was full of voices to him, and the stars as they shone in
the firmament of God seemed to inspire him. ‘How admirable is the
symmetry of the heaven; how grand and beautiful! Everything moves in
sublime harmony in the government of God. Not so with us poor creatures.
If one star is more brilliant than others, it is continually shooting in
some erratic way into space.’
“He criticized both parties in Kansas. Of the pro-slavery men he said
that slavery besotted everything, and made men more brutal and
coarse—nor did the free state men escape his sharp censure. He said that
we had many noble and true men, but too many broken-down politicians
from the older states, who would rather pass resolutions than act, and
who criticized all who did real work. A professional politician, he went
on, you never could trust; for even if he had convictions, he was always
ready to sacrifice his principles for his advantage. One of the most
interesting things in his conversation that night, and one that marked
him as a theorist, was his treatment of our forms of social and
political life. He thought that society ought to be organized on a less
selfish basis; for while material interests gained something by the
deification of pure selfishness, men and women lost much by it. He said
that all great reforms, like the Christian religion, were based on
broad, generous, self-sacrificing principles. He condemned the sale of
land as a chattel, and thought that there was an indefinite number of
wrongs to right before society would be what it should be, but that in
our country slavery was the ‘sum of all villanies,’ and its abolition
the first essential work. If the American people did not take courage
and end it speedily, human freedom and republican liberty would soon be
empty names in these United States.”
Early next morning the party pressed on until they came in sight of the
town. Brown would not enter but sent a messenger ahead, and the narrator
continues:
“As he wrung my hand at parting, he urged that we should have the
legislature meet, resist all who should interfere with it, and fight, if
necessary, even the United States troops. He had told me the night
before of his visit to many of the fortifications in Europe, and
criticized them sharply, holding that modern warfare did away with them,
and that a well-armed brave soldier was the best fortification. He
criticized all the arms then in use, and showed me a fine
repeating-rifle which he said would carry eight hundred yards; but he
added, ‘The way to fight is to press to close quarters.’”[116]
The Topeka journey was in vain. The legislature quietly dispersed at the
command of Colonel Sumner, and John Brown saw that his only hope of
stirring up effective resistance lay in Lane’s “army” of immigrants,
then approaching the northern boundaries of Kansas, with whom was his
son-in-law’s brother. Taking, therefore, his wounded son-in-law and
leaving his band, he pressed forward alone on a dangerous and wearisome
way of one hundred and fifty miles through the enemy’s country. Hinton
saw him as he rode into one of the camps and says:
“‘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 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.’ 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. The 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.... This figure,—unarmed, poorly clad, with
coarse linen trousers tucked into high, heavy cowhide boots, with heavy
spurs on their heels, a cotton shirt opened 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.”[117]
Pushing on northward, Brown found asylum for his wounded follower at
Tabor, Ia. Returning, he joined the main body of Lane’s men at Nebraska
City. Here again arose divided counsels. Radical leaders like Lane and
Brown were proscribed men, and United States troops stood on the borders
of Iowa to prevent the entrance of armed bodies. It was decided,
therefore, that Lane must not enter with the immigrants, and a letter to
this effect was brought to him by Samuel Walker, a free state leader.
Walker says:
“After reading it he sat for a long time with his head bowed and the
tears running down his cheeks. Finally he looked up and said: ‘Walker,
if you say the people of Kansas don’t want me, it’s all right, and I’ll
blow my brains out. I can never go back to the states, and look the
people in the face, and tell them that as soon as I got these Kansas
friends of mine fairly into danger I had to abandon them. I can’t do it.
No matter what I say in my own defense, no one will believe it. I’ll
blow my brains out and end the thing right here.’ ‘General,’ said I,
‘the people of Kansas would rather have you than all the party at
Nebraska City. I have got fifteen good boys that are my own. If you will
put yourself under my orders I’ll take you through all right.’”[118]
Thus Walker, Lane, and John Brown with a party of thirty stole into
Kansas and started anew the flame of civil war.
Brown’s old company, organized early in 1858, was mounted and brought to
the front, and a systematic effort was made by Lane to free Lawrence
from its beleaguering forts. The first attack was directed against
Franklin on the night of August 12th, and as ex-Senator Atchison of
Missouri indignantly reported: “Three hundred Abolitionists, under this
same Brown, attacked the town of Franklin, robbed, plundered and burned,
took all the arms in town, broke open and destroyed the post-office,
captured the old cannon ‘Sacramento,’ which our gallant Missourians
captured in Mexico, and are now turning its mouth against our
friends.”[119] Two days later the little army turned southward to Fort
Saunders. Lane deployed his forces before it with John Brown’s cavalry
on his right wing. A charge was ordered and the garrison fled to the
woods, leaving an untasted dinner and large stores of goods. On August
16th, Fort Titus on the road to Lecompton was besieged with cannon, and
finally fired by a load of hay; Colonel Titus, a Georgian, was captured
and John Brown and other leaders wanted to hang him, for he was one of
the most brutal of the border-ruffian commanders. Sam Walker, however,
saved his neck.
So furious had been this short campaign that the pro-slavery party sued
for a truce. Walker tells how “on the following day Governor Shannon and
Major Sedgwick came to Lawrence to negotiate an exchange of prisoners.
They held about thirty of our men and we forty of theirs. It was agreed
to ‘swap even,’ we surrendering all their men, including Titus; they to
hand over all our men and cannon they had captured at the sacking of
Lawrence. I insisted very strongly on this last point of the contract,
for when the gun was taken I swore I would have it back within six
months. I had the pleasure of escorting our prisoners to Sedgwick’s
camp, and receiving the cannon and the prisoners held by the enemy
there, in exchange.”[120]
The whirlwind of guerrilla warfare now swept back to the dark ravines of
the Swamp of the Swan. After the murders of May came the first counter
attack of early June, culminating in the battle of Black Jack. This
check quelled the pro-slavery party a while and they began manning the
forts around Lawrence. On August 5th the free state men struck a
retaliating blow while John Brown was absent in Nebraska, although he
was credited with being present by the Missouri newspapers. Similar
skirmishes followed, and the advantage was now so completely with the
free state forces, that a final crushing blow was planned by the slave
party of Missouri. Manifestoes swept the state, and “No quarter” was the
motto. The Missourians responded with alacrity and a great mass crossed
the border divided into two wings. The lesser attacked Osawatomie and a
newspaper in Missouri said:
“The attack on Osawatomie was by part of an army of eleven hundred and
fifty men, of whom Atchison was major-general. General Reid with two
hundred and fifty men and one piece of artillery, moved on to attack
Osawatomie; he arrived near that place and was attacked by two hundred
Abolitionists under the command of the notorious John Brown, who
commenced firing upon Reid from a thick chaparral four hundred yards
off. General Reid made a successful charge, killing thirty-one, and
taking seven prisoners. Among the killed was Frederick Brown. The
notorious John Brown was also killed, by a pro-slavery man named White,
in attempting to cross the Marais des Cygnes. The pro-slavery party have
five wounded. On the same day Captain Hays, with forty men, attacked the
house of the notorious Ottawa Jones, burned it, and killed two
Abolitionists. Jones fled to the cornfield, was shot by Hays, and is
believed to be dead.”[121]
But John Brown was not dead and was ever after known as “Osawatomie”
Brown. He wrote home September 7th saying:
“I have one moment to write to you, to say that I am yet alive, that
Jason and family were well yesterday; John and family, I hear, are well
(he being yet a prisoner). On the morning of the 30th of August an
attack was made by the ruffians on Osawatomie, numbering some four
hundred, by whose scouts our dear Frederick was shot dead without
warning,—he supposing them to be free state men, as near as we can
learn. One other man, a cousin of Mr. Adair, was murdered by them about
the same time that Frederick was killed, and one badly wounded at the
same time. At this time I was about three miles off, where I had some
fourteen or fifteen men over night that I had just enlisted to serve
under me as regulars. These I collected as well as I could, with some
twelve or fifteen more; and in about three-quarters of an hour I
attacked them from a wood with thick undergrowth. With this force we
threw them into confusion for about fifteen or twenty minutes, during
which time we killed or wounded from seventy to eighty of the enemy,—as
they say,—and then we escaped as well as we could, with one killed while
escaping, two or three wounded, and as many more missing. Four or five
free state men were butchered during the day in all. Jason fought
bravely by my side during the fight, and escaped with me, he being
unhurt. I was struck by a partly-spent grape, canister, or rifle shot,
which bruised me some, but did not injure me seriously. Hitherto the
Lord has helped me.”[122]
A cheer went up from all free Kansas over this vigorous defense, and for
once there was unanimity among the leaders of the free state cause.
Robinson, the wariest of them, wrote: “I cheerfully accord to you my
heartfelt thanks for your prompt, efficient, and timely action against
the invaders of our rights and the murderers of our citizens. History
will give your name a proud place on her pages, and posterity will pay
homage to your heroism in the cause of God and humanity.”[123]
Meantime the Missourians, after their hard-won victory, hastened back to
join the larger wing of the invaders, and so disconcerting was their
report, that when Lane made a feint against them, they started to
retreat. Governor Woodson’s call for the “territorial militia,” however,
heartened them and gave them legal standing. By September 15th they were
threatening Kansas again with nearly 3,000 men. The nation, however, was
now aroused and the new governor, Geary, with orders to make peace at
all costs, was hurrying forward. Among the first whom he summoned to
secret conference was John Brown. Brown came to Lawrence and was
leaving, satisfied with Geary’s promises, when the invading army of
Missourians suddenly appeared before the city. He immediately returned
to the town, where there were only 200 fighting men. He was asked to
take command of the defense but declined, preferring to act with his
usual independence. About five o’clock Monday, the 15th, he mounted a
dry-goods box on Main Street opposite the post-office and spoke to the
people:
“Gentlemen,—it is said that 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. Now 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 until 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 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 sights of your guns. It
is from 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.”[124]
It was a desperate situation. The free state forces were scattered,
leaving but a handful to face an army. But in that handful was John
Brown, and the invaders knew it, and advanced cautiously. Redpath who
was with Brown says: “About five o’clock in the afternoon, their
advance-guard, consisting of four hundred horsemen, crossed the
Wakarusa, and presented themselves in sight of the town, about two miles
off, when they halted, and arrayed themselves for battle, fearing,
perhaps, to come within too close range of Sharps rifle balls. Brown’s
movement now was a little on the offensive order; for he ordered out all
the Sharps riflemen from every part of the town,—in all not more than
forty or fifty,—marched them a half mile into the prairie, and arranged
them three paces apart, in a line parallel with that of the enemy; and
then they lay down upon their faces in the grass, awaiting the order to
fire.”[125]
The invaders hesitated, halted and then retired. John Brown says:
“I know of no possible reason why they did not attack and burn that
place except that about one hundred free state men volunteered to go out
on the open plain before the town and there give them the offer of a
fight, which they declined after getting some few scattering shots from
our men, and then retreated back toward Franklin. I saw that whole
thing. The government troops at this time were with Governor Geary at
Lecompton, a distance of twelve miles only from Lawrence, and,
notwithstanding several runners had been to advise him in good time of
the approach or of the setting out of the enemy, who had to march some
forty miles to reach Lawrence, he did not on that memorable occasion get
a single soldier on the ground until after the enemy had retreated back
to Franklin, and had been gone for about five hours. He did get the
troops there about midnight afterward; and that is the way he saved
Lawrence, as he boasts of doing in his message to the bogus legislature!
“This was just the kind of protection the administration and its tools
have afforded the free state settlers of Kansas from the first. It has
cost the United States more than a half million, for a year past, to
harass poor free state settlers in Kansas, and to violate all law, and
all right, moral and constitutional, for the sole and only purpose of
forcing slavery upon that territory. I challenge this whole nation to
prove before God or mankind the contrary. Who paid this money to enslave
the settlers of Kansas and worry them out? I say nothing in this
estimate of the money wasted by Congress in the management of this
horrible, tyrannical, and damnable affair.”[126]
The withdrawal, however, was but temporary and it seems hardly possible
that Lawrence could have escaped a second capture and burning had not
Geary thrown himself into the breach with great earnestness. As he
reported: “Fully appreciating the awful calamities that were impending,
I hastened with all possible dispatch to the encampment, assembled the
officers of the militia, and in the name of the President of the United
States demanded a suspension of hostilities. I had sent, in advance, the
secretary and adjutant-general of the Territory, with orders to carry
out the letter and spirit of my proclamations; but up to the time of my
arrival, these orders had been unheeded, and I discovered but little
disposition to obey them. I addressed the officers in command at
considerable length, setting forth the disastrous consequences of such a
demonstration as was contemplated, and the absolute necessity of more
lawful and conciliatory measures to restore peace, tranquillity, and
prosperity to the country. I read my instructions from the President,
and convinced them that my whole course of procedure was in accordance
therewith, and called upon them to aid me in my efforts, not only to
carry out these instructions, but to support and enforce the laws and
the Constitution of the United States.”[127]
Without doubt Geary especially emphasized the fact that another sacking
of Lawrence would possibly defeat Buchanan and elect Frémont. What
chance would there be then for the pro-slavery party?
The Missourians were thus induced to retreat, partly by Geary’s logic,
partly perhaps by John Brown’s resolute handling of his patently
inadequate but nevertheless efficient force. They marched back home,
leaving a trail of flame and ashes—the last and largest Missouri
invasion of Kansas, the culmination and failure of the pro-slavery
policy of force.
Geary now began successfully to cope with the Kansas situation. His most
puzzling problem was John Brown and his ilk. His experience soon led him
to see the righteousness of the free state cause, but he had to insist
on law and order even under the “bogus” laws, promising equitable
treatment in the future. Immediately the free state party split into its
old divisions: the small body of irreconcilables like John Brown, who
were fighting slavery in Kansas and everywhere; and the far larger mass
of compromisers like Robinson, whose only object was to make a free
state of Kansas, and who were willing to concede all else. Under such
circumstances the best move was to get rid of John Brown. To have sought
to arrest him would have precipitated civil war again. Could he not be
induced quietly to leave on promise of immunity? Accordingly, Geary
issued a warrant against Brown, but gave it into the hands of the
friendly Samuel Walker whom he had previously asked to warn the old man.
Brown was not loath. His work in Kansas, so far as he could then see,
was done. The state was bound to be free and further than that few
Kansans cared. They had no enmity toward slavery as such which called
them to a crusade; far from regarding Negroes as brothers, they disliked
them and were willing to disfranchise them and crowd them from the
state.
Among such folk there was no place for John Brown. His greater mission
called him. Kansas had been an interlude only, although for a time he
hoped to make it the chief battle-ground. Now he knew better and again
the Alleghanies beckoned. To be sure, he owed Kansas much. Here he had
passed through his baptism of fire, and had offered the sacrifice of
blood to his God. He was sterner stuff now, ready to go whithersoever
the Master called; and he heard Him calling. Not only had he learned a
method of warfare in Kansas—he had learned to know a band of simple
honest young fellows, hot with the wine of youth, hero-worshipers ready
to do and dare in a great cause. Thus the worst difficulties of the past
disappeared and the way lay clear. Only one thing oppressed him—he was
old and sick, a tired, toil-racked man. Could he live and do the Lord’s
will?
His company of regulators was formally disbanded but left spiritually
intact, and he started north late in September, 1856, taking with him
his four sons, John, Jr., who had at last been released, Jason, Salmon,
and Oliver, and also, true to his cause, a fugitive slave whom he had
chanced upon. As he moved northward the United States troops, unaware of
Geary’s diplomacy, shadowed and all but captured him. Yet he passed
safely through their very midst with his old wagon and cow and the
hidden slave, displaying his surveyor’s instruments. Thus silently John
Brown disappeared from Kansas, and for a year nothing was heard of him
in his former haunts. Only his near friends knew that he had gone
eastward, and a few of them hinted at his great mission. Matters moved
swiftly in Kansas. There was more and more evident a free state
majority. But would the pro-slavery administration let it be counted?
The new governor was trying to save something for his masters, but the
irreconcilables of the Lane and John Brown type doubted it.
“I bless God,” wrote Brown in April, “that He has not left the free
state men of Kansas to pollute themselves by the foul and loathsome
embrace.... I have been trembling all along lest they might ‘back down’
from the high and holy ground they had taken. I say in view of the
wisdom, firmness and patience of my friends and fellow sufferers in the
cause of humanity, let the Lord’s name be eternally praised!”[128]
Notwithstanding this attitude of many of the free state party, they were
prevailed upon to vote in the state election of October, 1857. As a
concession, however, Lane was appointed to guard the ballot-boxes and,
hearing that John Brown was back again in Iowa, he sent for him in hot
haste. His messengers found the old man sick and disappointed among his
staunch Quaker friends at Tabor. Brown offered to come if supplied with
“three good teams, with well-covered wagons, and ten really ingenious,
industrious (not gassy) men, with about one hundred and fifty dollars in
cash.”[129] These demands were not met until too late, so that Brown
returned the money and did not appear in Kansas until the election was
over, and the free state forces had triumphed. This had now but passing
interest for him. He had other objects in Kansas and flitted noiselessly
about among the picked men who had promised their aid. Then he
disappeared again. Eight months passed away, when suddenly another
Kansas outrage startled the nation. It was the last vengeful echo of
that first night of murder in the Swamp of the Swan. In 1856 Linn and
Bourbon counties, some miles below the original Brown settlement, had
been cleared of free state settlers. In 1857 these settlers ventured to
return and found the pro-slavery forces centred at Fort Scott, waiting
for Congress to pass the Lecompton constitution. Thus in 1857 and 1858
the expiring horror of Kansas guerrilla warfare centred in southeast
Kansas. The pro-slavery forces saw the state slipping from them, but
they determined by desperate blows to plant slavery so deeply in the
counties next to Missouri that no free state majority could possibly
uproot it. To accomplish this it was necessary again to drive off the
free state settlers. The settlers objected and led by James Montgomery,
there ensued a series of bloody reprisals culminating in May, 1858, two
years after the first May massacre. A Georgian with a remnant of
Buford’s band again rode down amid the calm silent beauty of the Swamp
of the Swan. They gathered eleven unarmed farmers from their fields and
homes and marched them to a gloomy ravine near Snyder’s blacksmith shop;
there the party killed four and badly wounded six others, leaving them
all for dead.
The echoes of this last desperate blow had scarcely died before John
Brown appeared on the scene and attempted to buy and fortify the very
blacksmith shop where the murders were done. He writes to Eastern
friends:
“I am here with about ten of my men, located on the same quarter-section
where the terrible murders of the 19th of May were committed, called the
Hamilton or trading-post murders. Deserted farms and dwellings lie in
all directions for some miles along the line, and the remaining
inhabitants watch every appearance of persons moving about, with anxious
jealousy and vigilance. Four of the persons wounded or attacked on that
occasion are staying with me. The blacksmith Snyder, who fought the
murderers, with his brother and son are of the number. Old Mr.
Hairgrove, who was terribly wounded at the same time, is another. The
blacksmith returned here with me and intends to bring back his family on
to his claim within two or three days. A constant fear of new trouble
seems to prevail on both sides of the line, and on both sides are
companies of armed men. Any little affair may open the quarrel afresh.
Two murders and cases of robbery are reported of late. I have also a man
with me who fled from his family and farm in Missouri but a day or two
since, his life being threatened on account of being accused of
informing Kansas men of the whereabouts of one of the murderers, who was
lately taken and brought to this side. I have concealed the fact of my
presence pretty much, lest it should tend to create 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.”[130]
He quickly had fifteen of his former companions in arms organized as
“Shubel Morgan’s Company” under the old regulations, and he eagerly
sought out and coöperated with Captain Montgomery. The vigil was long
and wearisome. “I had lain every night without shelter,” he writes,
“suffering from cold rains and heavy dews, together with the oppressive
heat of the days.”[131] Hinton met Brown at this time and found him not
only unwell but “somewhat more impatient and nervous in his manner than
I had ever before observed. Soon after my arrival, he remarked again in
conversation as to the various public men in the Territory. Captain
Montgomery’s name was introduced, and I inquired how Mr. Brown liked
him. The captain was quite enthusiastic in praise of him, avowing a most
perfect confidence in his integrity and purposes. ‘Captain Montgomery,’
he said, ‘is the only soldier I have met among the prominent Kansas men.
He understands my system of warfare exactly. He is a natural chieftain,
and knows how to lead.’
“Of his own early treatment at the hands of ambitious ‘leaders,’ to
which I alluded in bitter terms, he said:
“‘They acted up to their instincts, as politicians. They thought every
man wanted to lead, and therefore supposed I might be in the way of
their schemes. While they had this feeling, of course they opposed me.
Many men did not like the manner in which I conducted warfare, and they
too opposed me. Committees and councils could not control my movements;
therefore they did not like me. But politicians and leaders soon found
that I had different purposes and forgot their jealousy. They have all
been kind to me since.’
“Further conversation ensued relative to the free state struggle, in
which I, criticizing the management of it from an anti-slavery point of
view, pronounced it, ‘an abortion.’ Captain Brown looked at me with a
peculiar expression in the eyes, as if struck by the word and in a
musing manner remarked, ‘Abortion!—yes, that’s the word!’
“‘For twenty years,’ he said, ‘I have never made any business
arrangement which would prevent me at any time answering the call of the
Lord. I have kept my business in such a condition, that in two weeks I
could always wind up my affairs, and be ready to obey the call. I have
permitted nothing to be in the way of my duty, neither my wife,
children, nor worldly goods. Whenever the occasion offered, I was ready.
The hour is very near at hand, and all who are willing to act should be
ready.’”[132]
During the fall John Brown coöperated with Montgomery in his guerrilla
warfare, and laid out miniature fortifications with his men. While he
himself was not personally present in Montgomery’s fights, he usually
helped plan them and sent his men along. Meantime winter set in and John
Brown knew that hostilities would cease. Once again he turned to his
long and exasperatingly interrupted life-work. Just after the famous
raid on Fort Scott, he had a chance not only to begin his greater work
but to strike a blow at slavery right in Kansas. Hinton says: “On the
Sunday following the expedition of 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 administrator’s sale in the immediate future. His present
business was not 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 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.”[133]
John Brown himself told the story in the New York _Tribune_:
“Not one year ago eleven quiet citizens of this neighborhood,—William
Robertson, William Colpetzer, Amos Hall, Austin Hall, John Campbell, Asa
Snyder, Thomas Stillwell, William Hairgrove, Asa Hairgrove, Patrick
Ross, and B. L. Reed,—were gathered up from their work and their homes
by an armed force under one Hamilton, and without trial or opportunity
to speak in their own defense were formed into line, and all but one
shot,—five killed and five wounded. One fell unharmed, pretending to be
dead. All were left for dead. The only crime charged against them was
that of being free state men. Now, I inquire what action has ever, since
the occurrence in May last, been taken by either the President of the
United States, the governor of Missouri, the governor of Kansas, or any
of their tools, or by any pro-slavery or administration man, to ferret
out and punish the perpetrators of this crime.
“Now for the other parallel. On Sunday, December 19th, a Negro man
called Jim came over to Osage settlement, from Missouri, and stated that
he, together with his wife, two children, and another Negro man, was to
be sold within a day or two, and begged for help to get away. On Monday
(the following) night, two small companies were made up to go to
Missouri and forcibly liberate the five slaves, together with other
slaves. One of these companies I assumed to direct. We proceeded to the
place, surrounding the buildings, liberated the slaves, and also took
certain property supposed to belong to the estate. We, however, learned
before leaving that a portion of the articles we had belonged to a man
living on the plantation as a tenant, and who was supposed to have no
interest in the estate. We promptly returned to him all we had taken. We
then went to another plantation, where we found five more slaves, took
some property and two white men. We all moved slowly away into the
Territory for some distance, and then sent the white men back, telling
them to follow us as soon as they chose to do so. The other company
freed one female slave, took some property, and, as I am informed,
killed one white man (the master), who fought against the liberation.
“Now for comparison. Eleven persons are forcibly restored to their
natural and inalienable rights, with but one man killed, and all ‘hell
is stirred from beneath.’ It is currently reported that the governor of
Missouri has made a requisition upon the governor of Kansas for the
delivery of all such as were concerned in the last named ‘dreadful
outrage.’ The marshal of Kansas is said to be collecting a posse of
Missouri (not Kansas) men at West Point, in Missouri, a little town
about ten miles distant, to ‘enforce the laws.’ All pro-slavery,
conservative, free state, and dough-face men and administration tools
are filled with holy horror.”[134]
One of the slaves, Samuel Harper, afterward told of this wonderful
_katabasis_ of a thousand miles in the teeth of the elements and in
defiance of the law:
“It was mighty slow traveling. You see there were several different
parties amongst our band, and our masters had people looking all over
for us. We would ride all night, and then maybe, we would have to stay
several days in one house to keep from getting caught. In a month we had
only got to a place near Topeka, which was about forty miles from where
we started. There was twelve of us at the one house of a man named
Doyle, besides the captain and his men, when there came along a gang of
slave-hunters. One of Captain Brown’s men, Stevens, he went down to them
and said:—‘Gentlemen, you look as if you were looking for somebody or
something.’ ‘Aye, yes!’ says the leader, ‘we think as how you have some
of our slaves up yonder in that there house.’ ‘Is that so?’ says
Stevens. ‘Well, come on right along with me, and you can look them over
and see.’
“We were watching this here conversation all the time, and when we see
Stevens coming up to the house with that there man, we just didn’t know
what to make of it. We began to get scared that Stevens was going to
give us to them slave-hunters. But the looks of things changed when
Stevens got up to the house. He just opened the door long enough for to
grab a double-barreled gun. He pointed it at the slave-hunter, and says:
‘You want to see your slaves, does you? Well, just look up them barrels
and see if you can find them.’ That man just went all to pieces. He
dropped his gun, his legs went trembling, and the tears most started
from his eyes. Stevens took and locked him up in the house. When the
rest of his crowd seen him captured, they ran away as fast as they could
go.
“Captain Brown went to see the prisoner, and says to him, ‘I’ll show you
what it is to look after slaves, my man.’ That frightened the prisoner
awful. He was a kind of old fellow and when he heard what the captain
said, I suppose he thought he was going to be killed. He began to cry
and beg to be let go. The captain he only smiled a little bit, and
talked some more to him, and the next day he was let go.
“A few days afterward, the United States marshal came up with another
gang to capture us. There was about seventy-five of them, and they
surrounded the house, and we was all afraid we was going to be took for
sure. But the captain he just said, ‘Get ready, boys, and we’ll whip
them all.’ There was only fourteen of us altogether, but the captain was
a terror to them, and when he stepped out of the house and went for them
the whole seventy-five of them started running. Captain Brown and Kagi
and some others chased them, and captured five prisoners. There was a
doctor and lawyer amongst them. They all had nice horses. The captain
made them get down. Then he told five of us slaves to mount the beasts
and we rode them while the white men had to walk. It was early in the
spring, and the mud on the roads was away over their ankles. I just tell
you it was mighty tough walking, and you can believe those fellows had
enough of slave-hunting. The next day the captain let them all go.
“Our masters kept spies watching till we crossed the border. When we got
to Springdale, Ia., a man came to see Captain Brown, and told him there
was a lot of friends down in a town in Kansas that wanted to see him.
The captain said he did not care to go down, but as soon as the man
started back, Captain Brown followed him. When he came back, he said
there was a whole crowd coming up to capture us. We all went up to the
schoolhouse and got ourselves ready to fight.
“The crowd came and hung around the schoolhouse a few days, but they
didn’t try to capture us. The governor of Kansas, he telegraphed to the
United States marshal at Springdale: ‘Capture John Brown, dead or
alive.’ The marshal he answered: ‘If I try to capture John Brown it’ll
be dead, and I’ll be the one that’ll be dead.’ Finally those Kansas
people went home, and then that same marshal put us in a car and sent us
to Chicago. It took us over three months to get to Canada.... What kind
of a man was Captain Brown? He was a great big man, over six feet tall,
with great big shoulders, and long hair, white as snow. He was a very
quiet man, awful quiet. He never even laughed. After we was free we was
wild of course, and we used to cut up all kinds of foolishness. But the
captain would always look as solemn as a graveyard. Sometimes he just
let out the tiniest bit of a smile, and says: ‘You’d better quit your
fooling and take up your book.’”[135]
On the 12th of March, 1859, nearly three months after the starting, John
Brown landed his fugitives safely in Canada “under the lion’s paw.” The
old man lifted his hands and said: “Lord, permit Thy servant to die in
peace; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation! I could not brook the
thought that any ill should befall you,—least of all, that you should be
taken back to slavery. The arm of Jehovah protected us.”[136]