Part 46 (1/2)
On entering the Territory, now as peaceful as any State in the Union, Brown gathered his disciples, Oliver, Kagi, Stevens, and Cook and despatched them to Tabor, Iowa. Here they were informed for the first time of the real purpose of their organization--the invasion of Virginia and the raising of a servile insurrection in which her soil would be drenched in blood within sight of the Capitol at Was.h.i.+ngton. With Stevens, as drill master, they began the study of military tactics. They moved to Springdale and established their camp for the winter.
CHAPTER XXIV
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 doc.u.ment as a subst.i.tute for the Declaration of Independence and the Const.i.tution of the United States.
He hurried with his finished ma.n.u.script 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 Const.i.tution 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 ”Const.i.tution.”
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 pa.s.sion 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 Circa.s.sian 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 ma.s.sacre 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 ”Const.i.tution and Preamble,” it was unanimously adopted.
The Const.i.tution 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 CONSt.i.tUTION 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.
CHAPTER XXV
Brown's scout reached the town of Harper's Ferry on June 5, 1858. The magnificent view which greeted his vision as he stepped from the train took his breath. The music of trembling waters seemed a grand accompaniment to an Oratorio of Nature.