CAPT. JOHN BROWN. 
 

 The Truth at Last History Corrected. 
 
 REMINISCENCES 
 
 OP 
 
 OLD JOHN BROWN 
 
 THRILLING INCIDENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 BORDER LIFE IN KANSAS; 
 
 WITH AN APPENDIX, 
 
 CONTAINING STATEMENTS, AND FULL DETAILS OF THE POTTAWOTOMIE MASSACRE, 
 
 BY GOV. CRAWFORD, COL. BLOOD, JAS. TOWNSLEY, COL. WALKER, 
 
 AND OTHERS, TO WHICH IS ADDED 
 
 A REVIEW: BY HON, ELI THAYER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 BY GT. W. BRO WIST, M. 13. 
 
 
 
 Where thou findest a lie that is oppressing thee extinguish it. Lies exist only to be extinguished. 
 They wait and cry earnestly for extinction. Think well, meanwhile, in what spirit thou wilt do it: 
 not with hatred; not with headlong, selfish violence; but in clearness of heart, with holy zeal, 
 gently, almost with pity. CAKLYLE. 
 
 Let Truth and Falsehood grapple. Who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open 
 encounter? MILTON. 
 
 ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS: 
 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY ABRAHAM E. SMITH. 
 
i\ 
 
 Entewl according to Act of Oonffress, in the year 1879, 
 
 By G. W. BROWN, M. D., 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of ronjrrew, at Washinj-ton, D. ( . 
 [All Ritrhte Received.! 
 

 DEDICATION. 
 
 To the HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF KANSAS, these humble pages are respectfully dedicat 
 ed. They have been written at the request of a distinguished citizen of your State, to 
 correct any errors that have crept into jour early history, from the carelessness of past 
 writers, or from their desire to eulogize esteemed friends. I hope that neither Malice nor 
 Misrepresentation has guided my pen. 
 
 It has been truly said that the early history of all nations is founded in myth, as is 
 that of the world in fable. The American States, though their origin is so recent, are not 
 exceptions; and even Kansas, \\4th an organized existence but little exceeding twenty-five 
 years, is subject to a like condition. Already she begins to substitute fiction and legend for 
 facts. Alreadv she is weaving chaplets to adorn the brows of gods whom she has apothe 
 osized. As one of your oldest journalists, identified with all your early history, and an 
 eye witness of many of the incidents narrated, it seems highly proper that I should aid you 
 in your very laudable endeavor to TRANSMIT ONLY TRUTH TO POSTERITY. 
 
 Rockford, III., January 15, 1880. THE AUTHOR. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Tn September, 1879, tne author of these pages, by special invitation, attended the cele 
 bration of the Old Settlers of Kansas, held at Bismarck Grove, near Lawrence, in com 
 memoration of the >sth anniversary of the founding of that State. He heard repeatedly, 
 during the two days the convention was in session, the principal character in these pages, 
 lauded as the person of all others to whom Kansas is indebted for her rescue from slavery. 
 He learned that a monument had been erected to his memory, at Osawotoinie, and that it 
 \\us proposed to send a statue of him to Washington, to adorn the National Capitol, and 
 perpetuate his renown. He saw all around him the real heroes in the strife ; those who 
 a vear earlier than old John Brown, had settled in Kansas ; who had taken their families 
 with them ; who had sacrificed everything but honor for the triumph of a principle ; who 
 had been genuine models of the brave and true ; while in imagination he turned his eye 
 to the cemeterv, where the dead martyrs repose, and he inquired of himself : 
 
 "Must this state of things always continue." Shall they who endured all but death, 
 and who struggled successfully to the end, ever faithful to their convictions, be pushed 
 permanently aside to make room for those who were really destitute of merit? Shall 
 Dow, and Barber, and Hoyt, and Shombre, and Phillips, and the other immortal dead, 
 rest in unknown graves, while the towering shaft, the sculptured marble, and the brightest 
 page of history emblazon the name of him who retarded our efforts, threw obstacles in 
 the way of our success, discouraged honest endeavor, and who blackened our otherwise 
 bloodless escutcheon with crime and death ? Shall tongue remain silent, and pen at rest, 
 while the real actors the genuinely brave shall die, and their memories pass into obliv 
 ion ? No ! Twenty years have passed since old John Brown paid the penalty of his 
 folly and wrong-doing with his life ! The time has come, if it ever will come, when the 
 TRUTH of history must be vindicated ; when the principal facts in his Kansas adventures 
 ought to be given to the world ; when they who have been crowded aside and treated as 
 non-entities should take the front, and wear the garlands so long adorning dishonored 
 brows. Though other duties are pressing, and my pen has been idle for years, yet / will 
 iv rite for preservation* and leave to those who shall succeed me, what I know and be 
 lieve in regard to old John Brown ! " 
 
 Permeated with these feelings I returned to my home, delighted with what I had seen 
 of the material prosperity of Kansas ; gratefui for the cordial welcome I had received at 
 the hands of my old associate* ; and gladdened at the brilliant future awaiting this infant 
 and central State ; but mortified as I contemplated the wrongs perpetrated upon my com 
 peers, by awarding merit where it did not belong, and leaving those entitled to the true 
 meed of Fame to languish in obscurity, soon to pass into forgetfulness. 
 
 A few days after reaching home I received a copy of the Lawrence Journal, when my 
 eye fell upon a marked article, and read at the head of it, "An Open Letter to Geo. W. 
 Brown, from Gov. Robinson." "What have I done," thought I, "that I should be called 
 jo account by Gov. Robinson ?" This was the first impulse. I read, and was startled 
 with his proposition ! "Wonder," thought I, "if he had the same feelings with myself at 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWH, 
 
 Bismarck Grove ? Wonder if, as he looked over that vast assembly, as its presiding officer, 
 and back over the darkened history of Kansas, and thought of the mouldering dead who 
 laid down their lives that Freedom might live, and heard eulogy on eulogy, the sweet voice 
 of song, and the loud trump of Fame, all enlisted in favor of a single person whose name 
 is hardly worthy of preservation, wonder if he felt as I in regard to that character ?" 
 
 I took my pen and hurriedly answered. The two letters, that of Gov. Robinson, and 
 my own in reply, are on the following pages, and the product of his request, so far as 
 relates to John Brown, constitutes the substance of this humble volume. 
 
 I hope some day to re-write it, and correct such errors as my attention has been or 
 may be called to, by personal friends and gentlemanly critics, or which the malice of bitter 
 enemies may point out. 
 
 LAVRENCE, KANSAS, September 22, 1879. 
 
 DR. GEO. W. BROWN DEAR SIR : Your presence at the Old Settlers Gathering, on 
 the 1 5th and i6th instant, as well as your intimate connection with every movement in 
 Kansas, in 1855, 56 and 57, has created a desire on the part of the friends of truth and 
 history, to hear from you relative to those critical times. The Historical Society is col 
 lecting data on all matters of general interest, from the actors in the drama, but so far 
 has nothing from you. As you were never in office, and never desired any, so far as I 
 ever knew, and were never under obligations to active participants in the struggle, your 
 testimony ought to be impartial. One subject seems just now to be uppermost in the 
 minds of writers of history, and that is, where to place Gen. Lane and John Brown. One 
 writer says : "Lane s actions and efforts in 1856 deserve the highest praise. * He was 
 the only man the people could tie to," etc. 
 
 Another writer says : "If I were to name two men of different tastes and ambitions, to 
 whom Kansas owes most for her deliverance from the clutches of the slave power, I 
 would mention James H. Lane and John Brown." 
 
 And another writer says : "His services were greatly over-estimated. He also did a 
 great deal of bad. He was the originator of the corruption in politics that Kansas is 
 credited with. His forte was bulldozing and deceit. He killed himself because he under 
 took to sell Kansas out, but found he could not deliver the goods." 
 
 Still another calls him, "the greatest liar of his time," and says he should be held up as 
 a warning to young men. 
 
 It is plain that neither their beneficiaries and partisan worshippers, nor their enemies, 
 can be fully relied upon to do full justice to these men. A statement, to be valuable as 
 history, should be unbiased, with nothing extenuated and nothing set down in malice. 
 Can you give such a statement, show what policy these men advocated, tell whether the 
 people in critical times followed their counsels, and if it was by pursuing their lead and 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 advice, Kansas was aved from slavery, or the reverse ? This will settle the question 
 of the value of their services better than any amount of detraction by enemies, or fulsome 
 laudation by friends. It is not eulogy nor censure that is desired, but FACTS for the 
 historian. Very Truly, C. ROBINSON. 
 
 REPLY. 
 
 ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS, October 10, 1879. 
 
 Gov. CHAS. ROBINSON: Yours of the 22d ult., which I first saw in the Lawrence 
 Journal, is at hand. You ask me to furnish facts to enable the historian to know where 
 to place Gen. Lane and John Brown in the history of Kansas. You predicate this desire 
 on my "intimate connection with every movement in Kansas associated with her early 
 history, with freedom from personal or party bias, and from lack of obligation to any of 
 the active participants in the strife." 
 
 ,1 went to Kansas in the autumn of 1854, taking a party of nearly three hundred with 
 me from Pennsylvania. I also took with me a large printing establishment, and printed 
 on Kansas soil, several days in advance of any other, the first Free State newspaper 
 published in that Territory. ^ 
 
 My wife, father, mother, sister, brother, and nearest friends accompanied me. Our 
 object was neither honor nor emoluments ; but thoroughly imbued with anti-slavery 
 sentiments, we went there to make Kansas a Free State. That end attained, my mission 
 was ended. At the close of the war, in 1865, I bade adieu to all my early associates in 
 Kansas, those with whom I spent eleven of the best years of my life, and located in this 
 beautiful city, in Northern Illinois, where, probably, I shall spend the residue of my years ; 
 I trust in quiet, at peace with all the world. 
 
 About a year ago I received a letter from Hon. John Speer, stating that he was about 
 to write a biographical historv of Kansas ; that my name, with others, had been selected 
 for a place in its pages ; closing by requesting a sketch of leading incidents in my life, for 
 publication. I wrote him, substantially, in reply : "That I had no ambition to perpetuate 
 myself in historv ; that 1 had done the best I knew to advance the material interests of 
 humanity ; that I hud always determined the world should be better for my having lived 
 in it; that the stream of Time was rapidly flowing onward ; that in a very few years all 
 would reach the great gulf of Oblivion, where we should disappear together; and that I 
 had no motive in trying to float on its darkened bosom, conscious that in the end, my 
 fate would be that of every other lover of his raee." 
 
 While this is still my feeling, as regards myself, I recognize this fact, that "Truth is a 
 debt which every man owes his neighbor." 1 also remember an axiom, by the "Author- 
 Hero of the Revolution," that "Facts are but links in the great chain of truth." If there 
 are missing links in the chain of Kansas historv, which 1 have the ability to supply, con 
 nected as I was with its early settlement, in the capacity of a journalist, "All of which I 
 saw and a part of which I was." it is my duty to do so ; hence I accept of your very kind 
 invitation, and will commence a series of articles relating to Capt. John Brown in Kaiisas 
 immediately/ That pertaining to Gen. Lane I will defer for a time. 
 
 I shall endeavor to state nothing but facts, as seen from my own stand-point ; will 
 answer any pertinent questions honestly submitted with the view of arriving at truth, and 
 will leave others to make their own deductions as to the place the names you mention 
 deserve on the scroll of Fame. Your own intimate connection with almost every event 
 in the early history of Kansas, will enable you to either corroborate or correct my state 
 ments, while impartial criticism, and such new light as shall be thrown upon the subjects 
 of my sketches during their publication, will dispel much error, now honestly entertained 
 in regard to these historic characters. Very Truly, <L W. BROWN. 
 
For the better understanding of what 
 shall be said in regard to the subjects of 
 these inquiries, it ma}* be well to inform 
 the reader at the outset, that there were 
 two classes of early settlers who went 
 out to Kansas from the Northern States. 
 Indeed, it seems just to say there were 
 three classes. 
 
 The first of these, and by far the most 
 numerous, were those who met the issue 
 squarely which was presented them in 
 the Kansas-Nebraska act. They had no j revolution . Every opportunity was 
 other idea than to settle the question by sought to influence the public mind, and 
 the ballot. In short, they accepted the incite a contest. Letters were written 
 doctrine of " popular sovereignty, * as | and books published in their interest. It 
 enunciated in the organic law, and as J required caution, coolness and great ac- 
 the Missouri Compromise, prohibiting tivity to foil these workers of mischief in 
 slavery North of 36 degrees, was re- j their many bloody schemes. Actual set- 
 pealed, and the question was to be set- . tiers and property holders were constant 
 tied at the polls, their ambition was [ sufferers because of the excesses of these 
 to get as many pioneers as pos- j men. When danger assailed the Terri- 
 sible from the free North, whose j tory, the less brave of them had business 
 
 Free State party," and with having 
 "gone over to the enemy." 
 
 The second class of settlers consisted 
 of a comparatively small number. They 
 made up for this in activity ; were mostly 
 young men, without families or homes of 
 their own. They were literally "carpet 
 baggers." Their desire was to embroil 
 the country in war. They claimed to be 
 genuine haters of slavery, but saw no 
 means for its extinction save through 
 
 e lucation, prejudices, instincts, and 
 interests were all for freedom. Thia 
 
 in the States; when all was pacific they, 
 would return, renew their violence, and 
 
 idea was clearly set torth in the leading j again away. 
 
 edit r al in the first number ot the Her- \ And then the third class: They had 
 aid of Freedom, edited and published by ! no principle in the matter. They were 
 the writer, and was the guiding principle j governed wholly by selfish interests; and 
 of that paper throughout the whole period , always acted with that wing of the party 
 of its publication. Papers like the Lib- from which at the time they supposed 
 erator, by Wm. Lloyd Garrison; the Ant i- j they had most to hope. We never knew 
 Slavery Standard, under the direction of where to find them, or what to expect at 
 Oliver Johnson; and the Anti-Slavery their hands. To-day, perhaps, pro-slavery; 
 Bugle, published at Salem, Ohio, took | to-morrow very conservative free white 
 issue with these positions, and complain- ,; State Democrats, and next day rabid ab 
 ed that those who followed such leaders ! olitionists; and thus varying through all 
 and teachings, were fighting the battles j phases of the question, as they supposed 
 of freedom, on a low plane; that they had j public sentiment had changed, 
 no right to expect success; that defeat I I am glad to say there were but a very 
 was inevitable ; that it was deserved, and j limited few who occupied these latter 
 that no genuine anti-slavery man could j positions. They, however, seriously em- 
 co-operate with them. Every movement | barrassud proper action at times,and their 
 
 in the direction of a pacific settlement 
 of our difficulties was scouted, nn/l stig 
 matized as "an attempt to sell out the 
 
 influence on more than one occasion 
 seriously threatened the final favorable 
 
 result. 
 
I was called upon the next day after 
 my Reply to Gov. Robinson, was pub 
 lished in the GAZETTE, by a gentleman 
 of Rockford, who requested me to "Re 
 member that John Brown and Jas. H. 
 Lane are dead, and that I should be 
 humane in the treatment of these historic 
 characters." 
 
 My recollection coincided with my 
 clerical friend, in regard to the death of 
 these personages, so I replied: 
 
 "I am writing facts for history, and as 
 a faithful historian I shall endeavor not 
 to withhold anything because they are 
 dead, that is necessary to a truthful 
 knowledge of their real characters; and 
 certainly shall not give anything from 
 malice, for I held none towards either of 
 them while living." 
 
 More than twenty years have passed 
 since any of these events I shall narrate 
 have occurred. I have not been iden 
 tified for more than fourteen years with 
 Kansas, her politics, individuals, or his 
 tory. For nearly eleven years previous I 
 was familiarly intimate with nearly every 
 transaction relating to her early settle 
 ment. The Historical Society of Kansas 
 is gathering up important events con 
 nected with those times,for preservation in 
 her archives, before all the actors in them 
 shall pass away. Gov. Robinson is the 
 honored Chairman of that Society, and, 
 as such, asks me to tell the truth in re 
 gard to the connection of John Brown 
 and Gen. Lane with that history, f 
 
 Is it less my duty, as a historian, to 
 tell the truth because a man is dead? 
 There are times when silence may be ob 
 served ; but not when truthful histor ie 
 are written, and good and bad actions 
 alike pass in review. Biographers, wish 
 ing to eulogize the heroes of whom they 
 write, usually suppress important facts in 
 regard to their characters, and exagger 
 
 ate others, until they make demi-gods of 
 very common personages./ 
 
 It was a habit in a past age to deify all 
 persons of distinction; and, it is said, 
 the habit still prevails in semi -civilized 
 China. The consequence has been that 
 many names have come down as worthy 
 exemplars for our imitation, who, were 
 they living to-day, and practicing the 
 vices and crimes they were hourly perpe 
 trating, we would lose no time in closing 
 the bars of a penitentiary on them, else 
 execute them on the gallows. 
 
 Many of our modern histories are only 
 fictions of an idle brain. The authors 
 clothe their characters in habiliments of 
 perfection, yea, of god?, and geuu ns 
 merit is left to languish and die in ob 
 scurity. 
 
 The writer bows to no shrine but Truth. 
 He has seen too many heroes manufac 
 tured from very poor material to have an 
 excess of love for any of them. The 
 best of characters had their frailties. 
 These must be known, to judge correctly 
 of their worth. 
 
 If professed historians and biographers 
 overdo their characters, it is due the liv 
 ing that their falsehoods be corrected, 
 and their concealments exposed to the 
 full light of day. 
 
 In writing of John Brown and Jas. 
 H. Lane, for preservation by the Histori 
 cal Society of Kansas, as before stated, I 
 shall endeavor to give the truth as I saw 
 ,it. If these facts add additional lustre to 
 their fame, it is well ; if they detract 
 therefrom it is the misfortune of the 
 characters that they were human, not 
 gods, as their biographers, eulogists and 
 Nromancers would have us believe. 
 
 Inviting impartial criticism to every 
 thing herein said, we submit the whole 
 to the candid consideration of a truth- 
 loving public. 
 
WM UMTS DP BORDER UR IN KANSAS, 
 
 FIRST NOTICE OF JOHN BROWN IN KANSAS 
 HISTORY. 
 
 I think it was sometime in August, of 
 /855, that the proceedings of an "Ultra 
 Abolitionist" convention, held somewhere 
 in Central New York, were first pub 
 lished in the Anti- Slavery Standard. 
 The convention was presided over by the 
 Hon. Gerritt Smith. During the first 
 day the report, as published, stated in 
 substance that "A gentleman standing 
 six feet in his boots, thin face, dark com 
 plexion, with flowing beard, and gray 
 hair, lithe and straight, about sixty years 
 of age, arose and said : "That he had 
 four sons in Kansas, and three others who 
 wished to join them there, but they had 
 not funds to pay their way ; besides, he 
 was opposed to sending any person there 
 without arms ; that he was a firm believer 
 in the doctrine that "Without the shed 
 ding of blood there is no remission;" that 
 if the acrors in this convention were ultra 
 abolitionists, as they claimed, and de 
 sired to do something practical for Kan 
 sas, they would arm and send his three re 
 maining sons to Kansas, and send arms 
 to the boys already there; that if they 
 
 would do so he would accompany them, 
 and would promise a good report of their 
 doings." 
 
 In the proceedings of the following 
 day appeared the statement that "Ger 
 ritt Smith presented to John Brown, in 
 open session, seven voltaic repeaters, 
 seven broad swords, seven muskets with 
 bayonets, and a purse of gold ; and told 
 him to go to Kansas, take his remaining 
 sons with him, arm them ; and, as he had 
 promised, make a faithful report of hia 
 action there in behalf of human freedom, 
 and in the cause of the oppressed." 
 
 More than twenty-four years lie be 
 tween the reading of those proceedings 
 and the present; but the main facts are 
 indelibly enstamped on my memory, and 
 why? 
 
 My father had a brother by the name 
 of John Brown. He removed to Western 
 New York, sometime between 1810 and 
 1815. The last heard of him he was a 
 Sheriff in some western county. In ^ ar 
 resting a prisoner he received a pistol 
 shot in his body, and kis physician 
 wrote the family he would probably die. 
 When I read these proceedings I thought 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 t possible the earnest John Brown wa s 
 the living uncle, and more particularly as 
 his age, size, &c., generally coincided 
 with that of my lost relative, of whom I 
 1 ad often heard my father speak. 
 
 ACQUAINTANCE OP THE SONS. 
 
 The Big Springs Convention, where 
 the Free Stale party was organized, was 
 convened on the 5th of September, 1855 
 I was a delegate, and I think one of the 
 secretaries. In reading the list of dele 
 gates, reported by the committee on 
 credentials, the names of John Brown,Jr. 
 and Frederick Brown, occurred as in 
 attendance from Pottawattomie Creek. 
 I saw who answered to the name when 
 called, and, at my first leisure, made my 
 way to John, Jr., and inquired it he was 
 one of the sons of John Brown, the ac 
 tor in the recent Abolition Convention of 
 New York. He answered in the affirma 
 tive. "I introduced myself, had but a few 
 words of hasty conversation, and found 
 that our families were in no way con 
 nected. He introduced me to his brother 
 Frederick. During recess we had further 
 conversation, and at the close of the con 
 vention they accompanied me to Law 
 rence, and remained at my home over 
 night. 
 
 Another Free State Convention was 
 held at Topeka, on the 19th and 20th of 
 October, 1855, where I again met the 
 brothers John and Frederick. We stop 
 ped at the same boarding house and John 
 and I occupied the same bed. I am thus 
 definite that the reader may understand 
 how and why I became so well acquaint 
 ed with the character of whom I write. 
 
 THE WAKARUSA WAR. 
 
 We pass to the 27th of November, 
 1855, when the tocsin of war was again 
 Bounded in Lawrence. 
 
 Chas W. Dow, a former employe in the 
 Herald of Freedom office, was killed by 
 F. M. Coleman, some ten to twelve miles 
 
 south of Lawrence, on the 21st of Novem 
 ber, 1855, growing out of a disput be 
 tween the parties, relative to a division 
 line between their respective claims. He 
 was shot in the back, while leaving a 
 blacksmith shop,where each of the parties 
 had been for work. Dow was boarding 
 with Jacob Branson, and his body was 
 removed there. On the 26th of Novem 
 ber, a public meeting was held by citi 
 zens of the neighborhood, and resolu 
 tions were passed resolving to bring 
 Coleman, with his accomplices, Hargus 
 and Buckley, to justice. On the same 
 day of the meeting, Harrison Buckley 
 swore out a peace warrant against Bran 
 son, and placed it in the hands of S. J. 
 Jones, who wrote himself "Sheriff ot 
 Douglas county," for execution. 
 
 Branson s residence was broken into by 
 a force estimated at twenty-five, on the 
 night of the 26th, and he was taken by a 
 circuitous route to the crossing of the 
 Wakarusa, at Blanton s Bridge, near 
 which he was rescued by his neighbors, 
 under the command of S. N. Wood, of 
 Lawrence, who had been in the neigh 
 borhood of the excitement during the 
 day. 
 
 Jones, who, though "Sheriff of Doug 
 las coanty," Kansas, was at the same 
 time Postmaster at Westport, Mo., sent 
 dispatches to Missouri, and afterwards 
 to Gov. Shannon, whose headquarters 
 were at the Shawnee Mission, two miles 
 from Westport for assistance. 
 
 A proclamation was immediate 
 ly issued by that functionary, stat 
 ing that Lawrence was in rebellion; de 
 manding the people to lay down their 
 arms, and calling upon the forces of the 
 Territory to rally to the aid of the Sher 
 iff, and aid in enforcing his process. Mis 
 souri, as was her habit on such occasions, 
 responded, and an army some 2,000 strong 
 was soon raised, and with shot guns 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 muskets stolen from the government ar 
 senal at Liberty, and whatever weapons 
 they could get hands on, with a piece of 
 artillery, moved on the fated town. 
 
 At Lawrence we were constantly ad 
 vised, by volunteer messengers, of what 
 was transpiring. A meeting of the citi 
 zens was hastily called, and the facts 
 were stated. We knew that Missouri only 
 wanted a pretext for our entire extinc 
 tion. A Committee of Public Safety was 
 immediately appointed, consisting of ten 
 persons, ot which I had the honor of be 
 ing a member. I was also a member of the 
 Territorial Executive Committee, as belore 
 stated, appointed at Big Springs on 
 the fifth of September, re-indorsed 
 at the Topeka Convention on the 19th of 
 September, and confirmed by the Con 
 stitutional Convention in October, and 
 by a provision in the Constitution itself. 
 The Lawrence meeting closed with the 
 appointment of that Committee of Pub 
 lic Safety, which was clothed with ample 
 power for the emergency. The Commit 
 tee held an immediate session, organized 
 by the election of a Chairman and Sec 
 retary. On my motion Dr. Chas. Robin 
 son was made Commander-in-Chief, and 
 was empowered to appoint subordinates, 
 to organize the forces of the town, and 
 do whatever was necessary for the com 
 mon defense ; he to report his action to 
 the Committee for approval. Provision 
 was made that a quorum of the Commit 
 tee, consisting of six members at least, 
 should continue in session until the im 
 pending danger should pass. Their 
 headquarters, as that of the Commander 
 and his subordinates, were in the Free 
 State Hotel, whilst the Territorial Exec 
 utive Committee held its sessions at the 
 office of John Hutchinson and A. D. 
 Searl,~on the East side of the street 
 Being a member of each Committee, my 
 presence during the day was almost con 
 tinually required with one or the other. 
 
 Moments of leisure were filled in writing 
 a daily journal of the incidents of the 
 campaign, which was published in the 
 next number of the Herald of Freedom 
 after the close of the war, while nights I 
 did service on picket. 
 
 The Commander dispatched messen 
 gers to various Free State settlements 
 asking assistance. These requests were 
 promptly responded to, as all were aware 
 the common fate would be that of Law 
 rence, until some 800 persons had assem 
 bled, with such rude arms as they could 
 command for defense. Defenses were 
 thrown up, sentinels were posted, and 
 everything put on a war-like appearance. 
 
 JOHN BROWN IN LAWRENCE. 
 
 It was near sunset, I should think 
 about the 3rd of December, when, in the 
 distance, towards the South, a strange 
 looking object was seen approaching Law 
 rence. With many others I watched it. A? 
 it neared it proved to be the skeleton of a 
 horse, covered with a poorly-stuffed skin, 
 wearily dragging a rather large one-horse 
 lumber wagon. I think there were seven 
 men standing in the box, which was made 
 of wide, undressed, and weather-stained 
 boards. Each man supported himself by 
 a pole, of probably six to eight feet in 
 length, surmounted with a bayonet. The 
 poles were upright, and held in place at 
 the sides of the box by leather loops 
 nailed to the sides. Each man had a vol 
 taic repeater strapped to his person,as 
 also a short navy sword ; at the same time 
 supporting a musket at the position of 
 "order." A formidable arsenal, well 
 manned all but the horse. 
 
 As the party dismounted I grasped the 
 hands of John and Frederick Brown, who 
 introduced me to their father and brothers. 
 Leaving the horse unhitched at the door 
 I took the whole family to the rooms of 
 the Committee of Public Safety, and in 
 troduced them. On my suggestion a 
 company of veterans was soon organized 
 
s 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 and the command given to Old John 
 Brown, who he represented had served as 
 a private at the battle of Plattsburg, in 
 the war of 1812. [If this is true, he was 
 but fourteen years of age, as we see by 
 his life he was born May 2, 1800. The 
 battle of Plattsburg was fought in Sept. 
 1814.] My father, who held a Captain s 
 commission in that war, and was an ac 
 tive participant in the battle there, was 
 made 1st Lieutenant, and I think O. 
 Wilmarth was 2d Lieutenant. The whole 
 company, as thus organized, consisted of 
 twenty-five members. Here, at my sug 
 gestion, John Brown was first clothed 
 with the title of Captain, conferred on 
 him in the Wakarusa war, by Gov. Rob 
 inson, and approved by the Committee 
 of Public Safety. 
 
 On the 9th of December an under 
 standing was reached between Gov. Shan 
 non, representing the beleagures, Gov. 
 Robinson and Col. Lane, representing 
 the citizens. 
 
 On the 10th the people were mar 
 shalled in front of the Free State Hotel, 
 from the steps of which Gov. Shannon 
 made a short speech, in which he stated 
 that matters had been unfortunately pre 
 cipitated by their not understanding 
 each other, and that he was glad to have 
 a pacific termination of the affair. I think 
 Gov. Robinson made a few remarks in 
 the same direction. It was at this stage 
 of procedure, when old John Brown 
 mounted a piece of timber lying near 
 the corner of the hotel, and began to 
 harangue the crowd. He said the peo 
 ple of Missouri had come to Kansas to 
 destroy Lawrence; that they had be- 
 leagured the town for two weeks, threat 
 ening its destruction ; that they came for 
 blood ;that he believed, "Without the shed 
 ding 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 
 ni es from Lawrence. 
 
 Listening to his speech to this point I 
 made my way to the room of the Com 
 mittee of Public Safety, where others 
 came immediately, leaving -the Captain 
 trying to excite insubordination. Col. 
 G. W. Smith was instructed by the Com 
 mittee to place him under arrest, and de 
 tain him in custody until the excitement 
 should cease. Col. Smith made his way 
 direct to the Captain, took him by the 
 arm, and requested to speak with him. 
 Leading the Captain away, the storm 
 that he was i citing was soon at an end. 
 
 Gov. Shannon issued orders sending 
 his posse back to their homes. ^ That 
 night, the 14th of December a "Norther" 
 broke upon their camp, the coldest I 
 ever recollect in Kansas, when the bcseig- 
 ers, under duplicate orders Gov. Shan 
 non and a frigid north made a hasty 
 and bloodless retreat to Missouri. Capt. 
 Brown, his sons with their military sup 
 plies, the over-burdened wagon, and the 
 venerable horse also retired from their 
 first field of glory. 
 
 Red path says, page 88 of his Life of 
 Brown, that 
 
 "He went out once with a dozen men 
 to meet the Missouri invaders to draw a 
 little blood, as he styled it but, at the 
 earnest entreaties of Gen. Lane, he re 
 turned to town without doing it." 
 
 "Lane sent for him to attend a council 
 of war. The reply was characteristic of 
 the brave old man, who despised all man 
 ner of assumptions, with no fact behind 
 them to give them vitality, and^ a title to 
 respect." 
 
 " Tell the General, he said, that when 
 he wants me to fight, to say so; but that 
 is the only order I will ever obey. " 
 
 If Redpath s assertions are true, thai 
 the Captain "despised all manner of as 
 sumption with no facts behind to give 
 them vitality," he would have -been ter 
 ribly disgusted with that statement, aa 
 with nearly the entire mass of simila 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 ones made in that eulogy of John Brown, 
 erroneously called a "Life." 
 
 CAPT. CHARLIE LENHART. 
 
 These Recollections would be very in 
 complete without reference to Charley 
 Lenhart, as he was a junior John 
 Brown, minus the latter s principles and 
 piety. Charley came to Kanaas 
 from Iowa, where he left a widowed 
 mother, in the spring of 1855. He was 
 then 18 to 19 years of age. He applied 
 for a situation as typo in the Herald of 
 Freedom office. 1 grave him a "case," and 
 agreed to board him in my family, con 
 ditioned he could find lodging elsewhere. 
 To this he assented, and commenced 
 type-setting. He was a faithful worker, 
 always at his post, but proved quite lim 
 ited in experience as a practical printer 
 As I paid by the thousand for his labor 
 this did not affect me, so he continued, 
 aUays the first at the case in the morn 
 ing, and the last to leave at night. 
 
 Late in the autumn of 55, during a 
 cold driving -Norther," accompanied 
 with rain, he asked the privilege of lying 
 on the floor in the office for the night. I 
 thought the request a strange one, and 
 inquired: 
 
 "Why don t you remain where you 
 have been through the summer?" He 
 replied 
 
 "The roof is rather leaky," looking out 
 at the driving storm. 
 
 "You don t mean to say that you have 
 been sleeping out of doors through the 
 summer?" 
 
 "Every night since I have been in your 
 service, I have slept on the open prairie, 
 and could do so to-night, but don t like 
 to." 
 
 "That will not be necessary," I re 
 plied. "Had you reported the fact to me 
 I could have made provision for you 
 long ago." 
 
 From that time until he left my em 
 ploy, Charley had a bed in doors. The 
 
 colloquy explained why he had al 
 ways disappeared late at night, with a 
 blanket, and was so early at his post in 
 the morning. Justice to Kansas climate 
 requires me to say, that during all that 
 season he was reposing on the lap of 
 mother earth, with the stars to look up 
 on, and the green grass a pillow, protect 
 ed from the night dews by a single 
 blanket only, he was a picture of perfect 
 health. 
 
 Charley did faithful service for Kansas 
 during the Wakarusa war, in the fall of 
 55, but from that forth I could not 
 count on him with certainty. If 
 there was any wild adventure on foot he 
 was the leader, and awav ! 
 
 After the destruction of the Herald oj 
 Freedom office in 56, Lenhart seemed to 
 have adopted a guerilla life, and I only 
 heard of him through others thereafter. 
 He appeared intimate with both Lano 
 and Brown, and held himself ever ready 
 to execute their wishes. His associates 
 were of the dare-devil stripe, of which 
 John E. Cook was a representative. He 
 was fearless and brave, and always in 
 sympathy with the fighting Free State 
 men. Like old John, he required large 
 "contributions" from Ihe enemy, and dis 
 appeared with his patron saint in the 
 autumn of 1859, since which I think 
 there is no intelligence of him. It was 
 reported he was shot under the walls of 
 the prison at Charlestown, Va., wherein 
 Brown was imprisoned, and where he 
 was reconnoitering with a view of effect 
 ing the Captain s escape. 
 
 About 1864, a gentleman who knew 
 Charley s mother well, in Iowa, called on 
 me hoping to get some information in 
 regard to him, he stating that after he 
 left the Herald of Freedom office, she nev 
 er heard again from him by letter. 
 
 PERSONAL TO THE WRITER. 
 
 The following facts concerning tha 
 writer, explains somewhat incidents 
 
10 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 closely connected with these Reminiscen 
 ces, and seem necessary to understand 
 \vhat shall follow. He would be glad 
 to keep in the back-ground, but cannot 
 comprehend how he can give his recollec 
 tion of events,in which he was an actor in 
 common with the persons of whom he 
 writes, without occupying a front posi 
 tion with them. 
 
 So many outrages had been perpetrat 
 ed on property in transit up the Mis 
 souri, and at Kansas City, destined to 
 Kansas, as also upon persons making 
 their way to the Territory, that a public 
 meeting was held at Lawrence, on the 
 second floor of the Emigrant Aid Com 
 pany s building, on Massachusetts 
 street, on the evening of the 28th 
 of March, 1856. Speeches were 
 made, numerous instances of out 
 rages were narrated, among others the 
 breaking open of a box at Kansas City, 
 containing a piano, directed to Orville 
 C. Brown, of Osawatomie, under 
 the pretense of its containing Sharp s 
 rifles. Resolutions denouncing the oc 
 currences were passed, and a committee 
 %vas appointed, consisting of E. Nute, G. 
 W. Brown, and G. W. Hutchinson, with 
 instructions to visit St. Louis, Alton, Chi 
 cago, Cincinnati and Pittsburg, and to 
 make all needful arrangements for the 
 establishment of a trusty line of steam 
 ers, to leave some safe point on the Mis 
 sissippi and land in Kansas. 
 
 I left home in obedience to these in 
 structions, in advance of the other mem 
 bers of the committee on the 1st of 
 April, descended the Missouri, and heard 
 much en route of a contemplated raid on 
 Lawrence " as soon as the grass shall 
 grow." 
 
 At Alton I called a public meeting, and 
 elicited great enthusiasm among business 
 men, in the enterprise. Going to Chica 
 go, I made arrangements in that city for 
 a public meeting a few evenings after. 
 My name having been published in the 
 
 list of " arrivals," Jas. Redpath, being in 
 the city, saw the notice, and called on me 
 at the Treinont. He stated he 
 was on his way to Kansas and wished 
 to borrow a revolver. As the history 
 of that revolver, which I loaned him, 
 will form my next sub-division, I will 
 hasten to close my own connection with 
 these incidents by stating that soon after 
 I visited Rockford, talked to a good audi 
 ence in Warner s Hall, on the night after 
 the municipal election, while bonfires 
 and rejoicings were going on outside over 
 the election of Jas. L. Loop as Mayor. 
 Thence I started for Chicago to fill my 
 engagements there; was taken with a 
 congestive chill in the cars, and was al 
 most death sick all day. Again stopped 
 at the Tremont, was carried almost by 
 force from my sick bed to Market Hall, 
 [was it?] where I was requested to 
 "show" myself, but at which, in addition, 
 with a raging fever, I spoke over an 
 hour on Kansas matters, and of the 
 causes of a movement for a direct line of 
 steamers to that Territory. What I said, 
 or how I said it, I never had any recol 
 lection, for I was suffering too much 
 physically to hardly know anything. The 
 next day I took passage for the Lake 
 View Water Cure, where I remained five 
 days. When sufficiently recovered to 
 journey, I returned to Chicago, and was 
 about starting for Cincinnati, when my 
 eye fell upon a telegram in the Demo 
 cratic Press, bringing intelligence of the 
 shooting at Lawrence of "S. J. Jones, 
 Sheriff of Douglas county." I changed my 
 direction, went to Alton; thence to St. 
 Louis; chartered a stt-amer at my own 
 risk; and returned with it to Alton, 
 where I received a party of about,, one 
 hundred Michigan pioneers, on their way 
 to Kansas, under the direction of Rev. A. 
 St. Clair; thence up the river; at Lexing 
 ton learned of the arrest, by a mob, of 
 Gov. Robinson at that place the day pre 
 vious; on to Kansas City; besieged a 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 11 
 
 couple of days by a mob which surround 
 ed the hotel, but did not enter; thence 
 started at night with Gaius Jenkins for 
 Lawrence; both captured in going half a 
 mile; taken to the Harris House, at 
 Westport, Mo., prisoners; an ex parte 
 trial for our lives by the ruffians, who 
 finally sent us to the Territory under 
 Henry Clay Pate, I arriving at Lecompton 
 on the ;20th of May, the day before the 
 destruction of Lawrence by the semi 
 legal mob. This much, hurriedly, for 
 myself, to make what shall follow better 
 understood. 
 
 HISTORY OF A REVOLVER. 
 
 Mr. Redpath was instructed, on his ar 
 rival in Lawrence, to leave the revolver 
 mentioned above, which was an Allen 
 patent, known as a "pepper box," on the 
 border, with MibS Aunis W. Gleason, 
 the clerk in the Herald of Freedom office. 
 He did so. 
 
 About this time a new attempt was set 
 on foot to arrest S. N. Wood, for the res 
 cue of Branson, in the autumn previous. 
 The " grass had begun to grow," and the 
 threats I heard when descending the Mis 
 souri were about to be executed. 
 
 " Sheriff Jones, with a posse of United 
 States troops, entered Lawrence, and 
 camped on the night of the 23d of April 
 in canvas tents, a little North-east of the 
 Herald of Freedom building, on some 
 open lots. 
 
 Early in the evening Charley Lenhart 
 called on Miss Gleason, and asked for 
 the loan of a revolver. The one returned 
 by Redpath, mentioned above, was passed 
 to him, with no idea, on her part, of the 
 uses he desired to put it to. He exam 
 ined the weapon, saw it was fully loaded; 
 went in the direction of Jones camp ; 
 was gone but a few minutes, when Miss 
 G. heard the discharge of a revolver, and 
 Boon Charley came running back to the 
 office. He passed her the wicked instru 
 ment, one barrel of which was dis 
 charged. She put it away, and learned 
 
 almost immediately thereafter of the 
 shooting of " Sheriff Jones," the first 
 blood actually drawn by Free Soil men in 
 Kansas, and which transaction was deeply 
 regretted by every sincere friend of the 
 Free State cause. A public meeting of the 
 citizens was held the next morning de 
 nouncing the event, and a reward of 
 $500 was offered by Gov. Robinson, for 
 the arrest and conviction of the offender 
 in the United States District Court- 
 Charley was strongly suspected of know 
 ing something of the matter ; but this is 
 probably the first published account of 
 it. He has long been beyond the reach 
 of those who would punish him, and now 
 I only give it publicity, that the praise 
 or censure may fall where it rightfully 
 belongs. 
 
 Jones recovered from his injury, and 
 on the 21st of the following month, 
 made the people oi Lawrence realize, as 
 I experienced to my own sorrow, with 
 many others, the truth of the following 
 quotation from Byron s Mazeppa: 
 There never yet was human power, 
 Which coal d evade, if unfcrgiven, 
 The patient search and vigil long 
 Of him who treasures up a wrong! 
 
 Three other exoiting incidents were 
 
 connected with that revolver, either of 
 which would form a valuable chapter in a 
 "blood and thunder novel." The follow 
 ing, being historic, will conclude its 
 story ; anticipating somewhat the order 
 of events : 
 
 Dr. John Doy was captured in Mis 
 souri, charged with aiding in the escape 
 of slaves. He was taken to St. Joseph, 
 Mo., and imprisoned in the county jail, 
 awaiting trial. During that period, the 
 writer, was called upon for the loan of a 
 revolver. It was passed to the party. A 
 few days later news came of the break 
 ing of the jail at St. Jo., on the night of 
 the 23d of July, 1859; the rescue of Doc 
 tor D.; and, soon after, was informed of 
 the transactions by one of the actors, of 
 which I had no previous intimation, and 
 
12 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 of the loss overboard, while crossing the 
 river in the darkness of night, of the 
 identical weapon fired by Lenhart, at 
 "Sheriff Jones." Had Jones died, and 
 the ancient English law of deodand been 
 still in force, that revolver could not 
 now be taken for "pious uses." It re 
 poses beneath the turbid waves of the 
 Missouri. 
 
 SACKING OF LAWRENCE ARREST OF FREE 
 STATE PRISONERS. 
 
 On the 21st of May, 1856, Lawrence 
 was sacked, as before stated, by a pro- 
 slavery mob, called together by United 
 States Marshal Donaldson. His posse, 
 as he called them, were then disbanded, 
 and passed over to Sheriff Jones, who 
 had mostly recovered from the effects of 
 Charley Lenhart s bullet. The Free 
 State Hotel was demolished. It was a 
 fine stone structure, fully completed and 
 furnished, and was opened on that very 
 day,under the auspices of S. W. Eldridge, 
 to the public. The residence of Gov. 
 Robinson was burned, with his furniture 
 and fine library. The Herald of Freedom 
 office was destroyed, its types were 
 thrown into the river,its two hand presses, 
 and a small cylinder fast running Taylor 
 Power Press, were broken, and a large 
 library and heavy stock of paper were 
 cut to pieces or carried away. The Free 
 State office and entire contents met a 
 similar fate. The town was overrun and 
 pillaged by the lawless invaders. They 
 were not resisted, because the Marshal 
 had come under the pretext of executing 
 legal process from a United States Court. 
 It was well known that this was a plan 
 of the pro-slavery leaders, hoping to 
 bring on a collission between the Free 
 State people and the federal government. 
 They had already, before a packed Grand 
 Jury, made up of South Carolinians, 
 Missourians and southerners, all but a 
 few days in the Territory, procured in 
 dictments for high treason against A. H. 
 
 Reeder, Chas. Robinson. G. W. Brown, 
 G. W. Smith, G. W. Deitzler, and Sam 
 uel C. Pomeroy. The latter s name was 
 erased, and the name of Gaius Jenkins was 
 interlined. This was done long after 
 the Grand Jury adjourned. 
 
 Gov. Robinson had been captured by a 
 mob at Lexington, Mo., nine davs before, 
 while with his wife going down the Mis 
 souri ; G. W. Brown was captured on the 
 14th of May, by residents of Missouri, 
 without legal process, in Kansas City, 
 while making his way to Lawrence. He 
 reached Lecompton on the 20th, Mr. Jen 
 kins being with him when arrested, but 
 was discharged on the evening of the 
 19th, and re-arrested on the 21st, with 
 Judge Smith and Col. Deitzler, all of 
 whom were placed under guard in the 
 same room with myself, at Lecompton. 
 Gov. Robinson was started for the Terri 
 tory, and reached Franklin, within four 
 miles of Lawrence. His captors, fearing 
 a rescue, took him back to Kansas City 
 thence to Leavenworth, where he ar 
 rived on the 24th of May. 
 
 Mention is made of these facts that the 
 reader may keep connectedly in mind 
 the general condition of affairs at the 
 period referred to; without any intention 
 of entering into details. 
 
 HORRIBLE MURDERS ON THE POTTAWOT- 
 OMIE. 
 
 l)n Sunday, late in the afternoon of the 
 25th of May, 56, information was given 
 to the treason prisoners, at Lecompton, 
 of which the writer had the honor of be 
 ing one, that a terrible massacre of pro- 
 slavery men had been perpetrated on 
 Pottawotornie creek; that the news had 
 reached the Kickapoo Rangers, Atchison 
 Tigers, and such other pro-slavery organ 
 izations as were still about Locompton, 
 after their successful raid of the 21st on 
 Lawrence. The excitement was report 
 ed ?, ry high among them. 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 13 
 
 On the evening of the 25th Marshal 
 Donaldson entered the building in per 
 son, and said that a party were organiz 
 ing among the Rangers, Tigers, 
 &c., to take the prisoners and hang them 
 in retaliation for theee murders. He said 
 he had learned that we were all Odd 
 Fellows or Masons; that he had so re 
 ported; and besides enlisting all the 
 Territorial officers, including the Govern 
 or, Judges, &c., and such members of the 
 Orders as he could find in Lecompton, he 
 had found some in the several compan 
 ies, and with these he hoped to be 
 able to save us ; that they should stand 
 guard through the night, and if an attack 
 was made he should place arms in our 
 hands, that we might aid in our own 
 defense. 
 
 The guard was kept up for the night. 
 The next day the Marshal s "posse" 
 were again discharged, and left Lecomp 
 ton; but Donaldson himself remained 
 with us in the room for the night, for our 
 protection against contingencies, as he 
 asserted. 
 
 DETAILS OF THE MASSACRE. 
 
 My pen is not capable of describing 
 the horrors of that event. Death by the 
 hand of violence is always terrible; com 
 mitted at the hour of midnight, adds ad 
 ditional terrors to it; but when the bodies 
 are fiendishly mutilated, with awful impre 
 cations on the authors of such transac 
 tions, we recall to memory the most san 
 guinary deeds of American savages. The 
 murderer, stimulated to crime by passion, 
 or led on by hopes of gain, may, under 
 some circumstances, arrest our sympa 
 thy; but he who mutilates the dead 
 body of his victim, whether a Col. Chiv- 
 ingtou, or his command, revelling in the 
 blood of his victim; a Modoo chieftan, 
 taking vengeance on an enemy,or the In 
 quisition, with rack and torture, tearing 
 liml from limb from the writhing and 
 dying heretic, must only excite our ab 
 horrence. 
 
 We charge no one with these outrages 
 upon humanity. Our province istostaU 
 the facts, and leave the reader, or tbo 
 historian, to make his own deductions. 
 
 That five persons were killed, in the 
 neighborhood of the Potto w atomic, 
 some time towards the last ot May, 1856, 
 is not susceptible of a doubt. The 
 sworn evidence of several witnesses fixes 
 the time as the morning of the 25th of 
 May, but other facts fix the time as late 
 on the night of the 23d, and the 
 morning of the 24th, and I am inclined 
 to adopt the latter dates. No person 
 has ever denied the murders, and the ex 
 act date is not necessary. These men 
 were taken from their homes during the 
 darkness of night, one from the bed of 
 a sick wife, unable to help herself, and 
 was found the next morning about one 
 hundred and fifty yards from the house, 
 in some dead brush," * * with "a 
 gash in his head and side, * * and 
 his throat cut twice." Another was 
 found in a creek near his residence. His 
 "skull was split open in two places, and 
 some of his brains were washed out by 
 the water. A. large hole was cut in his 
 breast, and his left hand was cut off, ex 
 cept a little piece of skin on one side." 
 
 A father and two sons, 
 additional to the above, were 
 massacred, and found "about one 
 hundred and fifty yards from the house, 
 in the grass, near a ravine." The "father 
 was shot in the forehead and stabbed in 
 the breast." One of the son s "head was 
 cut open, and a hole was made in his jaw, 
 as though it was made by a knife, and a 
 hole also in his side." Another son was 
 found with his "fingers cut off, and his 
 arms were cut off; his head was cut open ; 
 there was a hole in his breast." 
 
 The above passages, in quotation, are 
 copied verbatim from affidavits made by 
 witnesses who saw the terrible sight; 
 who swore to the statements before legal 
 
14 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 authority; it was published soon nl tcr; 
 was accessible to everybody; and yet, so 
 far as we know, there has never been a 
 denial of the killing, or of the mutilation 
 by any party who was trying to tell the 
 truth. 
 
 Win. A. Phillips, a sensational corres 
 pondent of the New York Tribune, who 
 published in 1856, a volume of 414 
 pages, entitled "The Conquest of Kan 
 sas," page 316, writing of this tragedy, 
 says: "It was one of those stern and 
 remorseless acts in civil war which make 
 the delicate and sensitive shrink." This 
 work was published as a campaign docu 
 ment, in the presidential election of 
 that year, in the interest of his party. 
 While he did not deny the murders 
 he does say: "The frightful stories 
 about mutilation were unfounded, as ap 
 plied to this affair. A Mr. Sherman, 
 
 WHO WAS KILLED AT THAT TIME, 
 
 was killed by the Camanches, he hav 
 ing gone out to the plains to hunt Buf 
 falo. The Indians not only killed him, 
 but mutilated his body; and his friends 
 when they found his body, brought it 
 home to Pottowatomie. The pro-slavery 
 men in the neighborhood took advantage 
 of this circumstance to confound this af 
 fair with the other, and charge it upon 
 the abolitionists! and it afforded a fine 
 theme for war extras along the Missouri 
 frontier. Free State men, too, believing 
 tlie worst pro-slavery version of it, held 
 meetings and denounced it." 
 
 I cannot believe that Mr. Phillips 
 ever wrote that part of the above which 
 charges the offense upon the Camanches. 
 It is an interpolation, and a libel upon 
 these savages, put in by the publishers, 
 to avoid responsibility by Free State men 
 for such a terrible affair. This is evi 
 denced by the awkwardness of the lan 
 guage, which is unlike Mr. Phillips 
 round, easy style; besides, the killing is 
 described as occurring at the time these 
 
 other men were slaughtered. And yet 
 we must hold Mr. Phillips responsible 
 for the statement, as he has ne er denied 
 its paternity, and it is in a book claimed 
 to be written by him. 
 
 Such "savage barbarity and demoniac 
 cruelty," as a prominent politician sa d 
 ot the event, practiced not only on 
 Win. Sherman, but on Allen Wilkenson, 
 Jas. P. Doyle, Drury Doyle and Wm. 
 Doyle, are certainly characteristic of 
 North American savages; and I honor 
 the author for his attempt, feeble as it 
 was, to throw the responsibility foi one 
 of these cases of mutilation on one of the 
 most violent tribes of the plains; but I have 
 quoted in confirmation of the mutilation 
 of these men, from affidavits made before 
 a member of the Kansas Investigating 
 Committee, appointed by resolution of 
 Congress to inquire into all our Kansas 
 troubles. These affidavits will be found, 
 spread at length on pages 1,193, 94, 95, 
 96, 97, 98 and 99, of their official report 
 made to Congress, 20,000 extra copies of 
 which were printed and scattered over 
 the country. The huge volume of over 
 1,200 pages is open before me as I write, 
 and from which I shall have occasion 
 again to make extracts, in endeavoring 
 to find who these murderers and muti 
 lating Camanches were! Would to 
 heaven the truth of history would per 
 mit me to throw the veil of darkness 
 over this awful tragedy, and allow the 
 world to believe that not only Wm. 
 Sherman, but his associates in death and 
 mutilation on that fearful night died by 
 the hands of Camanches ! But we must 
 seek elsewhere for the real murderers. 
 
 INCIDENTS OF HISTORY. Sf 
 
 To leara the truth in regard to this 
 tragedy, let us hurriedly state a few facts 
 that followed the sacking of Lawrence, 
 on the 21st of May, three or four days 
 before the massacre. News had gone 
 out from Lawrence, into all the Free 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 15 
 
 Stnte settlements, of the assembling of 
 large bodies of pro-slavery men around 
 that il! -fated town. The whole South 
 seemed pouring her swarms of idle and 
 dissolute population into Kansas. Col. 
 Buford was there with his South Caro 
 linian followers; Col. Titus was there 
 with his Florida cohorts; Col. Bell was 
 there with his "fillibusters" indiscrimi 
 nately raised in the South; the two 
 Stringfellows were there with their Mis 
 souri rabble; and all were working in 
 harmony under the lead of that master 
 demagogue, Dave Atchison, who fur 
 nished brains for the whole. 
 
 The Free State men had witnessed the 
 invasion of Kansas, on the 29th of No 
 vember, 1854, at the first election for a 
 delegate to Congress, when they poured 
 over from Missouri, took possession of 
 the polls, and cast their votes for Gen. 
 Whitfield, excluding the Free State set 
 tlers almost wholly from participation in 
 the election. 
 
 ^JThey saw this again on the 30th of 
 March, 1855, at the election of members 
 of the Legislative Assembly, when the 
 invaders came by thousands, overran every 
 election precinct but one in the Terri 
 tory, excluded the legally appointed 
 judges of election, placed their servile 
 tools in their places, driving away the 
 legal voters, and elected some of their 
 own numbers to make laws for the resi 
 dents. 
 
 _ The people saw these invaders again, 
 in session at Pawnee; thence adjourned 
 to the Shawnee Mission, a locality posi 
 tively " excepted out of, and made no 
 part of the Territory of Kansas," by 
 provision of the organic act, which ex 
 cluded Indian Territory and reservations 
 from operation of the law; they saw 
 them enacting a code in keeping .with 
 their character as invaders of a neighbor 
 ing territory over which they had no po 
 litical rights whatever. 
 
 In the autumn of 1855 they beheld an 
 army of 2,000, thoroughly organized, 
 officered, armed and provisioned, march 
 ing on Lawrence, breathing words of 
 slaughter and demolition. The people 
 had then rallied from all quarters, and 
 stood with the residents, determined to 
 sell their lives as dearly as possible in 
 defense of that town. 
 
 And, now, they saw it again menaced 
 by thousands, gathered from every South 
 ern State, hurling imprecations against 
 the Free State settlers, threatening to 
 "wipe out every Northern pioneer," and 
 divide his possessions among themselves. 
 For days they saw Lawrence completely 
 surrounded by this invading army, while 
 several of their compeers, C. Robinson, 
 G. W. Brown, J. P. Root, and others, 
 were prisoners in their hands, and their 
 lives were threatened. 
 
 John Brown, Jr., on the Pottawotomie, 
 rallied his neighbors and acquaintances, 
 and joined them with others from Osa- 
 watomie, and marched to the rescue of 
 their friends. He had a force variously 
 stated, ranging in number from 60 
 to 120. On Thursday, the 22d of 
 May, they reached Palmyra, within twelve 
 miles of Lawrence. They there learned 
 of the sacking of the town; the destruc 
 tion of the hotel, and printing offices, the 
 burning of Dr. Robinson s residence; the 
 general pillage ; and the arrest of G. W. 
 Smith, G. W. Deitzler, and Gaius Jen 
 kins; of their removal to Lecompton, held 
 under an indictment for high treason I 
 
 After reconnoitering in the vicinity for 
 a time, they retraced their steps for a 
 short distance, and camped fqr the night. 
 On the 23d they resumed their homeward 
 journey, and reached the vicinity of Pot 
 tawotomie, where they again encamped. 
 
 With incidents narrated to me by an 
 eye witness, still living, and a resident of 
 Lawrence, Kansas, whose veracity was 
 
16 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 never called in question, and whose un 
 supported statements would outweigh, in 
 any court of justice acquainted with his 
 character, the sworn statement of a hun 
 dred letter -writers, and a quotation from 
 Redpath, I close this subdivision. My 
 informant said: 
 
 "During the evening Old John Brown, 
 who had accompanied the expedition to 
 Palmyra, and returned with it to the 
 neighborhood of the Pottawotomie, asked 
 the attention of the men, and said he had 
 an expedition in view, which required 
 the assistance of some brave, bold men ; 
 that John, Jr., protested against any per 
 sons leaving the camp that night; that 
 notwithstanding this Old John Brown 
 and seven others left camp, armed to the 
 teeth, and marched towards the settle 
 ments on the Pottawotomie; that they 
 returned early the next morning; that 
 when our informant left his tent in the 
 morning he saw a navy sword, worn 
 away by one of Old John Brown s recruits 
 the night before, standing near the door 
 of a tent, with dried blood and red hair 
 upon it; that it was laughingly remarked 
 that the party "must have killed a dog 
 the night before;" that soon after the 
 camp was rallied, when a messenger 
 came in and reported the killing and 
 mutulation of five men on the Pottowat- 
 omie during the night previous; that 
 John, Jr., was greatly excited, disbanded 
 his men and rode hurredly towards Ossa- 
 watomie." 
 
 In Redpath s Life of John Brown, 
 page 117, I find this statement confirmed 
 in these words : 
 
 u On the 23d of May, John Brown left 
 the camp of his son, at Osawatomie, with 
 seven or eight men, and from that mo 
 ment began his guerilla warfare in 
 Southern Kansas." 
 
 WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS MASSA 
 CRE? 
 
 Not until after Old John Brown s ar 
 rest for murder and inciting slaves to in 
 surrection, at Harper s Ferry, on the 20th 
 of October, 1859, two years and five 
 months after the massacre, did I hear 
 but one expression in Kansas, as to the 
 party responsible for that transaction. 
 
 Pro-slavery men, as well as Free State 
 men, accredited the affair to him. And 
 on the very day, if I remember correctly, 
 of his execution, a body of his friends in 
 public convention in Lawrence, while 
 expressing sympathy for his fate, apolo 
 gized, by public resolution, for these 
 murders. His most ardent admirers had 
 not face to stand up before a Kansas au 
 dience, where the whole facts were so 
 well known, and attempt a denial of his 
 responsibility. It was left to his eastern 
 apologists, first, to deny his connection 
 with the affair; second, to justify the 
 outrage on humanity, under pleas as 
 false and specious as the crimes were ab 
 horrent. John Brown on several occa 
 sions, once while a prisoner at Charles- 
 town, Va., said he did not do the killing, 
 but that he approved of it. We do not 
 assert that his own hand struck the blow, 
 neither did John Calvin, with his own 
 hands, set fire to the faggots which 
 burned Michael Servetus for heresy, but 
 the historian holds Calvin responsible 
 Brown s denial was always guarded in 
 expression, and the reader, knowing the 
 facts, saw there was something behind 
 which was not fully told. In a" speech 
 made by him at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 
 22d of March, 1859, reported by Kagi, 
 his Secretary of War, killed at Harper s 
 Ferry, and published in Redpath s Life 
 ot Brown, page 239, is probably found 
 the key to this "mental reservation. 
 He said, according to the report: 
 
 "He had never killed anybody; al 
 though on some occasions, he had showr 
 the young men with him how some 
 things might be done as well as others 
 and they had done the business." 
 
 What "business" had the young men 
 done? Why, the killing, which he hac 
 instructed them how to do. 
 
 On page 112 of Redpath s Life, aftei 
 detailing the author s adventure* 
 "a few days after the sacking o1 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 17 
 
 Lawrence," in his " first journey South, 1 " 
 page 106, he mentions that li a Southern 
 squatter from Pottawotomie had arrived 
 at Lecompton with dispatches for the 
 Governor, which announced that five pro- 
 slavery settlers had been murdered, at 
 midnight, and their bodies shockingly 
 disfigured and mutilated, by a party of 
 Free State men. He brought a request 
 for a body of troops to protect the pro- 
 slavery people there," &c. He then states 
 that the troops passed through Lawrence 
 en route for Osawotoinie, as it was under 
 stood, to arrest John Brown, Jr., and the 
 force he commanded. He left Lawrence 
 to inform the Browns of their danger; 
 recites his adventures, and on page 112, 
 as he neared the camp of those he sought, 
 he was interrupted by Frederick Brown, 
 with the command, " Halt !" His recog 
 nition, and the young man s movements 
 on the occasion, are thus narrated : 
 
 " He talked wildly, as he walked be 
 fore me, turning round every minute, as 
 he spoke of the recent affair at Pottawot 
 omie. . His family, he said, had been ac 
 cused of it; he denied it indignantly, 
 with the wild air of a maniac. His ex 
 citement was so great that he repeatedly 
 recrossed the creek, until, getting anxious 
 to reach the camp, I refused to listen to 
 him until he took me to his father. He 
 then quietly filled his pail with water, 
 and, after many strange turnings, led me 
 into camp." 
 
 Redpath then relates the incidents on 
 reaching camp, and, on page 113, con 
 tinues : 
 
 "Old Brown himself stood near the fire. 
 The old man received me with great cor 
 diality, and the little band gathered 
 about me. But it was for a moment only, 
 for the Captain ordered them to renew 
 their work. He respectfully but firmly 
 forbade conversation on? the Pottawotomie 
 affair; and said that if I desired any in- 
 foimation from the company in relation 
 to their conduct or intentions, he, as their 
 Captain,would answer for them, whatever 
 was proper to communicate." 
 
 Iliis was but two to three days after 
 
 the massacre, while the letter-writers 
 were gathering material for the Eastern 
 press, Redpath being one of them, and 
 fully in sympathy,as we shall see further 
 on, with a movement to bring on a 
 "revolution." , 
 
 FURTHER, WHO WAS RESPONSIVE? 
 
 The reader may weary with these de 
 tails of facts, cumulative in their char 
 acter, connecting Capt. Brown with this 
 massacre on the Pottawotomie; but it 
 will be remembered that twenty years 
 ago he was, through the public press, 
 charged with it. His friends, outside of 
 Kansas, denied his guilt, and he equivo 
 cated when interrogated in regard to it, 
 by saying, "/ never shed the blood of a fel 
 low man, except in self-defence, or in pro 
 motion of a righteous cause." See Red- 
 path s Life, page 383. ^ 
 
 F. B. Sanborn, of Concord, N. H., 
 who is the author of the "Memoirs of 
 John Brown," in a letter, written Nov. 
 26, 1878, and published in the Spring 
 field Republican, used this language in 
 regard to that event: 
 
 "That Brown was connected with this 
 affair, and approved of it I have never 
 doubted that he was actually present, 
 he always denied to me and I shall be- 
 liev him until some eye witness proves 
 to the contrary. One eye witness has 
 told two contradictory stories about it; 
 and nobody has yet made public the whole 
 truth," 
 
 Though the writer was not an "eye-wit 
 ness," yet he believes he is in possession 
 of the whole "truth," and it is with an 
 earnest desire to reach that point that he 
 continues these inquiries. The "eye-wit- 
 nesses"were accomplices in the transaction, 
 and it is safe to expect from them "con 
 tradictory stories." Before the evidence 
 is finally closed, his friends will with 
 draw their attempt to prove an alibi, and 
 rely upon justifying, else set up the 
 ple a of insanity, which Brown rejected 
 with so much scorn at Harper s Ferry. 
 We continue: 
 
18 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 Mrs. Robinson, in her "Kansas, Its In 
 terior and Exterior," written in "Camp 
 near Lecompton," where her husband and 
 the other Free State prisoners were held 
 for high treason, guarded by a regiment 
 of United States troops, as she could not, 
 even as a partisan of the times, vindicate 
 the transaction, very properly passed it 
 over, merely telling her readers of the 
 inflammatory statements which were 
 spread along the Missouri border in con 
 sequence: and then she describes some 
 what in the order of their occurrence the 
 events following, and growing directly 
 out of these murders. 
 
 Phillips, in his "Conquest of Kansas," 
 seems horrified on account of these mur 
 ders, and says: 
 
 "A party of seven or eight guerillas, 
 
 NOT YOUNG MEN, BUT STERN DETERMINED 
 
 MEN, attacked them, and in the scuffle 
 every pro-slavery man was killed." 
 
 Redpath, page 99, aids us somewhat 
 in finding out who these "guerillas, not 
 young men, but stern determined men," 
 were, in the following words: 
 
 "John Brown, Jr., marched back to 
 Osawatomie [from Palmyra,] but ere he 
 reached it and disbanded his father, with 
 a company of seven men, left his camp, 
 and began in right earnest the war of 
 liberty." 
 
 Mr. Phillips well knew that these men 
 were not killed in a body; that they 
 were taken from their homes during the 
 darkness of night, and one by one 
 were murdered and mutilated, and Red- 
 path calls it the beginning of " The War 
 of Liberty." A few lines further down 
 the page Phillips says: " It was one of 
 those cases at which enlightened human 
 ity will shudder." He denies the muti 
 lation, and then invents the tale of Sher 
 man being killed and mutilated by Ca- 
 manches! 
 
 i Redpath, who always justified and en 
 couraged tne shedding of blood; who, 
 n his " Roving Editor," says he "went to 
 
 Kansas to incite a revolution," and whose 
 every action, by pen and otherwise, was 
 in that direction, falsely ascribes the 
 provocation to a state of facts that did 
 not exist, then justified the killing, but 
 denies the participation of old John 
 Brown in it, though he informs us that 
 the Captain " approved of it" 
 
 John Doyle, a son of the murdered 
 man, and brother of Drury and William 
 Doyle, who gave testimony to the Con 
 gressional Investigating Committee, pre 
 viously referred to, in an affidavit dated 
 June 6th, 1856, only a few days alter the 
 murder, says: 
 
 "An old man commanded the party; 
 he was dark complected, and his face 
 was thin. We had lighted a candle, and 
 about eight of them entered the house\ 
 there were some more outside." 
 
 James Harris, also an Investigating 
 Committee witness, says he was living in 
 Sherman s house, in bed with his own 
 wife and child, when 
 
 " We were aroused by a company of 
 men who said they belonged to the 
 Northern army, and who were each 
 armed with a sabre and two revolvers; 
 two of them I recognized, namely : a 
 Mr. Brown, whose given name I do not 
 remember, commonly known by the 
 appellation of * Old Man Brown, and his 
 son Owen. * * Old Mr. Brown 
 and his son went into the house with 
 me. * * Brown asked Mr, 
 Sherman to go out with him, and 
 Mr. Sherman then went out with 
 old Mr. Brown, and another came into 
 the house in Brown s place. I heard no^. 
 thing more for about 15 minutes. Two 
 of the Northern Army, as they styled 
 themselves, stayed in with us until we 
 heard a cap burst, and then these two 
 men left. That morning about ten 
 o clock I found Wm. Sherman dead in 
 the creek near my house." 
 
 The above is followed with a descrip 
 tion by the witness of the mutilation, 
 copied further back. Phillips says he 
 was killed and mutilated by Camanchesl 
 How much short does this evidence fall 
 of the "eye-witness" desired by Sanborn, 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 and what other proof is required to asso 
 ciate the "father of Owen Brown" with 
 the Camarches? 
 
 Mrs. Wilkinson, in her affidavit to 
 the Investigating Committee, made on 
 the 13th of June, 1856, less than three 
 weeks after the murder, said : 
 
 "I believe that one of Capt. Brown s 
 sons was in the party who murdered my 
 husband; I heard a voice like his. I do 
 not know Capt. Brown himself. * * 
 The old man who seemed to be the com 
 mander wore soiled clothes, and a straw 
 hat pulled down over his face. He spoke 
 quick; is a tall, narrow-faced, elderly 
 man." 
 
 Morrow B. Lowry, ot Erie, Pa., a per 
 sonal friend of the writer, visited John 
 Brown while in prison al Charlestown, 
 and, referring to this affair, "ventured the 
 remark that his reputation demanded an 
 explanation." Brown replied: "Time and 
 the honest verdict of posterity will ap 
 prove of every act of mine to prevent 
 slavery from being established in Kansas. 
 I never shed the blood of a fellow-man, 
 except in self-defense or in promotion of 
 a righteous cause." 
 
 Here is no denial of the killing; no 
 claim by the man himself of an alibi; 
 but a firm reliance on posterity" for jus 
 tification. 
 
 NEWLY DISCOVERED EVIDENCE. 
 
 I might close the testimony at this 
 point, and submit the case, as to the con 
 nection of Capt. Brown with this Potta- 
 wotomie affair, to the impartial verdict 
 of the reader; but I have before me the 
 letter referred to above, written to the 
 Springfield Republican touching this sub 
 ject. . I will give it in Mr. Sanborn s 
 own words, punctuation and parenthesis. 
 It will be seen it corroborates to the let 
 ter and date, every assertion we have 
 previously made on this subject,and, what 
 is strange, on the hypothesis that Brown 
 was not immediately connected with 
 it, while he mentions that he is charged 
 
 with guilt, he only retorts by criminating 
 his friends at Osawotoinie and Lawrence, 
 designating their refusal to fight the 
 United States troops as "cowardly" and 
 "mean." I quote from Sanborn s letter; 
 the italics are mine : 
 
 "I have before me a letter of John 
 Brown s, never yet printed. * * He 
 says : "We were called to the relief of 
 Lawrence, May 22, and every man, (eight 
 in all) except Orson turned out; he stay 
 ing with the women and children, and to 
 take care of the cattle. John (Jr.) was 
 captain of a company to which Jackson 
 belonged. The other six were a little 
 company by ourselves. On our way to 
 Lawrence we learned that it had been 
 already destroyed, and we encamped with 
 John s company over night. (This must 
 have been the night of May 22,Thursday.) 
 Next day our little company left, and 
 during the day we stopped and searched 
 three men. On the second day and eve 
 ning after we left John s men ; ("this was 
 Saturday, May 24, and on that evening 
 the Pottawotomie ruffians were shot,") 
 l we encountered quite a number of pro slave 
 ry men and took quite a number prison 
 ers. Our prisoners we let go, but we 
 kept some four or five horses. We were 
 immediately after this accused of murder 
 ing Jive men at Pottawotomie, and great 
 efforts have since been made by the Missou- 
 riitn s and others, ruffian allies, to capture 
 us. John s company soon afterwards dis 
 banded, and also the Osawotoinie men. 
 John tried to hide for several days, bat 
 from the feelings of the ungrateful con 
 duct of those who had ought to have 
 stood by him, excessive fatigue, anxiety 
 and loss of sleep, became quite insane, 
 and in that condition gave up, or, as we 
 are told, was betrayed at Osawatomie in 
 to the hands ot the Bogus men. ^ We do 
 not know all the truth aboutthis affair. 
 The cowardly mean conduct of Osawo- 
 tomie and vicinity did not save them, 
 for the ruffians came on them, made 
 numerous prisoners, fired their buildings 
 and robbed them. It is said that both 
 the Lawrence and Osawatomie men, 
 when the ruffians came on them, either 
 hid or gaye up their arms, and that their 
 leading men counseled, to take such a 
 course? "This letter bears date, near 
 Osawatomie," June 24, 1856." 
 
REMJNISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 So much for the letter and Sanborn s 
 interpolations in brackets. It was writ 
 ten from "near Osawatomie," which was 
 about seven miles from the scene of this 
 massacre, just one month to a day, after 
 the murder. Under another head I shall 
 have occasion to refer to this letter again 
 
 THE CAMANCHES DISCOVERED. 
 
 I find in the "First Biennial Report of 
 the State Board of Agriculture for Kan 
 sas," Vol. 6, published in 1878, under the 
 head of Miami County, page 311, the fol 
 lowing very clear, but in some respects 
 inaccurate, account of this transaction, 
 from the pen of E. W. Robinson, Esq., 
 v long a resident of the county, located at 
 Paola, but a few miles distant. His ve 
 racity no man will call in question. He 
 says : 
 
 " On the 24th of May, Winans, a Free 
 State man, who kept a store on Mosquito 
 Creek, brought the intelligence to the 
 Free State camp, near Ottawa, commonly 
 called Toywa Jones, that the anti-sla 
 very settlers on the Pottawotomie had 
 been ordered to leave. On the reception 
 of this news a detachment, under com 
 mand of John Brown, Sr., at once set out, 
 on the evening of the 24th, for the relief 
 and protection of the settlers. 
 
 "On arriving at the residence of Mr. 
 Doyle, on Mosquito Creek, near the mouth 
 of the Pottawotomie, the party stopped 
 and called Doyle out, and when he ap 
 peared they fell on him with heavy cut 
 lasses and sabres, and hacked him to 
 death. Doyle s two sons, coming to the 
 rescue of their father, met with a, similar 
 fate. 
 
 "From Doyle s the party proceeded to 
 the house of Allen Wilkinson, wh was 
 especially ohnoxious, on account of his 
 having been a member of the Bogus 
 Legislature, and, on making his appear 
 ance, the party murdered him. A Mr. 
 Sherman, living on the Pottawotomie, 
 was also murdered by the same party." 
 
 This seems sufficiently definite. An 
 active member of the Republican party, 
 resident in the immediate vicinity of this 
 massacre, and writing for home use, a 
 historical sketch of his county > says John 
 Brown, Sr., commanded the detachment. 
 
 And he says they "hacked" the Doyle s 
 to death, and "murdered" Wilkinson, 
 and " murdered - Sherman ! And he tells 
 us. in so many words, who Phillips 
 Camanches were! The writer has been 
 careful to withhold a statement of even 
 his opinion in the premises, content to 
 collate such facts as are open to the 
 world. 
 
 TERRIBLE ARRAIGNMENT. 
 
 The following, sent to John Brown, and 
 read to him by the Sheriff, in prison, 
 while the Captain was under sentence of 
 death, is a terrible finale of that horrible 
 massacre. Whether the "Liberator," as 
 his friends called him, was guilty, or 
 or otherwise, it tells in sad, sorrowful, 
 and bitter words who the lonely wife and 
 mother believed the murderer of her 
 husband and sons: 
 "CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Nov. 20, 1859. 
 
 JOHN BROWN Sir : Although ven 
 geance is not mine, I confess that I do 
 feel gratified to hear that you were 
 stopped in your fiendish career at 
 Harper s Ferry, with the loss of your 
 two sons. You can now appreciate my 
 distress in Kansas, when you then and 
 there entered my house at midnight and 
 arrested my husband and two boys, and 
 took them out in the yard, and in cold 
 blood shot them dead in my hearing. 
 You can t say you did it to free our 
 slaves; we had none, and never expected 
 to own one ; but it only made me a poor 
 disconsolate widow, with helpless child 
 ren While I feel for your folly, I do 
 hope and trust you will meet with 
 your just reward. Oh, how it pained 
 my heart to hear the dying groans 
 of my husband and children. If 
 this scrawl gives you any satisfaction, 
 you are welcome to it. v 
 
 MAHAL A DOYLE. 
 
 "N. B. My son, John Doyle, whose 
 life I begged of you, is now grown up, 
 and is very desirous to be at Charlestown, 
 on the day of your execution ; would cer 
 tainly be there if his means would per 
 mit it, that he might adjust the rope 
 around your neck, if Gov. Wise would 
 permit." M. D. 
 
 Three and a half years only had passed, 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 at the time of writing that terribly vin 
 dicative letter, since that fatal night on 
 the Pottawotomie, when Mrs. Doyle s 
 husband, and sons were slain. She had 
 left Kansas, with the remaining members 
 of her family, the youngest only five 
 years old, and had struggled as only a 
 mother will, to keep them near her. No 
 one can know the anguish of heart ; the 
 poverty ; the wretchedness ; the suffering 
 which had been hers in consequence. 
 Though the reader. I hope, similarly 
 circumstanced, would not have written 
 such a letter, yet, in her bereaved condi 
 tion, she was human, and it tells more 
 forcibly than words of mine to whom she 
 ascribed the cause of her woe. 
 
 MOTIVE FOR THE KILLING. 
 
 The motive for the killing of these men, 
 on the Pottawotomie, as given by various 
 authors, are so varied and numerous it 
 will be difficult, if not impossible, to ar 
 rive at the truth, other than by implica 
 tion. 
 
 1. R. J. Hinton, a very intimate friend 
 of Capt. Brown, who designed to have 
 been at Harper s Ferry, but could not get 
 away, according to Cook, one of the ac 
 complices, in a letter of Dec. 3, 59, to 
 the Boston Traveler, said : 
 
 " Doyle was engaged with others in a 
 fiendish attempt to outrage the persons of 
 Capt. Brown s daughter and daughter-in- 
 law, the wife of one of Brown s sons." 
 hence the murder. 
 
 2. J. R. Brown, a brother of old John, 
 writing to the Cleveland Plaindealer, of 
 date Fov 22, 59, says: 
 
 44 My brother John and his two sons 
 were living in the same neighborhood, 
 and a committee of five from the Bor 
 der Ruffian camp called upon him, and 
 said that they were instructed to warn 
 him that if the Free State men were 
 found there the next Thursday night, 
 they would kill every one of them." 
 
 3. A statement went through the East 
 ern press excusing the killing, by saying 
 that: 
 
 "The old man was driven to violence 
 by the murder of his son, Fre terick, and 
 the arrest of John, Jr., who was chained 
 and driven forty miles in a hot sun, etc." 
 
 Both of these events followed, and was 
 in consequence of these murders. John, 
 Jr., when arrested, was suspicioned of 
 being one of the banditti; and Frederick 
 was killed on the morning of the 3()th of 
 August, more than three months after the 
 murders, hence we must seek elsewhere 
 for the cause. 
 
 4. Still another statement was made 
 that 
 
 "A band of pro-slavery men went to^ 
 the house of John, Jr., insulted his wife, 
 burned his cabin, and drove off his 
 cattle." 
 
 The cabins of the sons of old John 
 Brown were burned by pro-slavery men, 
 on the 27th or 28th of May. three to four 
 days after the massacre, and because of it. 
 
 5. "John Brown s cabin was burned, his 
 blooded stock were driven off, and the 
 women of his family were grossly in 
 sulted." 
 
 John Brown never had a cabin in Kan 
 sas, nor owned or exercised ownership 
 over one foot of Kansas soil. His family, 
 through all his western adventures, were 
 residents of North Elba, Essex county, 
 New York. In answer to Valandingham, 
 while in Charles town jail, Captain Brown 
 said in so many words : "I did not go to 
 Kansas to settle, but because of the dif 
 ficulties." 
 
 6. "That Wilkinson, Sherman and the 
 Doyles were caught in the act of hanging 
 a Free State man, and were shot by 
 friends of the injured party." 
 
 7. Old John Brown told A. E. Coleman, 
 Esq.,residing near Lawrence, Kan., that he, 
 
 Brown, ran a survey line through 
 each of the cabins of the murdered men, 
 and, on account of being a stranger,heard 
 from their own lips a plan to drive out 
 the entire Free State settlers; that it was 
 merely a question whether to submit to 
 being driven out, or to drive out those 
 who were threatening their neighbors." 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 This statement was made long after the 
 event, when the transaction needed vindi 
 cation. 
 
 8. Red path s Life of John Brown, p. 
 118 says: 
 
 "On the night of the 25th of May, the 
 Doyles, Wilkinson and Sherman were 
 seized, tried and slain. This act was 
 precipitated by a brutal assault commit 
 ted during the forenoon on a Free State 
 man. at the store ot Sherman, in which 
 the Doyles were the principal and most 
 ruffian); participators." 
 
 9. Captain Brown in answering a ques 
 tion from the Chairman of the Massa 
 chusetts Legislature, in Boston, on the 
 18th of February, 1857, said: 
 
 " He saw a great deal of Buford s men 
 in Kansas; that they spoke without hesi 
 tation before him, because he employed 
 himself as a surveyor; and, as nearly all 
 the surveyors were pro-slavery men, they 
 probably thought he was sound on the 
 goose. They told him all their plans; 
 what they intended to do; how they 
 were determined to drive off the Free 
 State men, and possess themselves of 
 the Territory, and make it a slave State 
 at all hazards, cost what it might. * * 
 They did not hesitate to threaten that 
 they would burn, kill, scalp, and drive 
 out the entire Free State population of 
 the Territory, if it was necessary to do so 
 to accomplish their object." 
 
 The above was, probably, the original 
 of the survey story, and was varied from 
 time to time, by different reporters, to ac 
 commodate varying circumstances. 
 
 TOO GOOD TO MURDER. 
 
 But it is said that Old John Brown s 
 who!e character was antagonistic to such 
 outrages upon humanity, as were these 
 on the Pottawotomie; that he was 
 a religious man, of Puritanic faith and 
 practice; a praying man, and that the vi 
 olent shedding of blood wa? not in har 
 mony wifh his Christian life, his great 
 love for the negro, and his desire for 
 heir liberation from a life of toil and 
 slavery. The reader will please remem- 
 bcr his oft-quoted expression, "Without 
 
 the shedding of blood there is no remis 
 sion." Some of the vilest char 
 acters whose names have come 
 down to us, have falsified the pure 
 teachings of the Master, by an almost in 
 discriminate massacre of those who en 
 tertained religious convictions in opposi 
 tion to them. Their faith did not save 
 them from an exhibition of brutal 
 sions. 
 
 Will some reader who has implicit 
 confidence in old John Brown s piety be 
 ing sufficient to shield him from such 
 acts of violence, give interpretation to the 
 following extract, which I make from 
 page 191, Redpath s Life of Brown? It 
 was while the Captain was in Boston, in 
 the winter of 1857. Says the biogra 
 pher, the italics are mine : 
 
 " Mr. Stearns, an active and generous 
 friend of Kansas, tells two incidents of 
 John Brown s visit to Boston at this time, 
 which are exceedingly characteristic of the 
 old Puritan: , 
 
 " Shortly after his introduction to him, 
 Mr. Stearns said, one day, half jestingly, 
 * I suppose, Captain Brown, that if Judge 
 Lecompte had fallen into your hands, he 
 would have fared rather hard? 
 
 The old man turned round in his 
 chair, and, in the most earnest tones, said, 
 If the Lord had delivered Judge Lecompte 
 into my hands, it would have required the 
 Lord to have taken him out again!" 
 
 EFFECT OF THE MASSACRE ON THE FREE 
 STATE PARTY. 
 
 Phillips Conquest of Kansas, page 117, 
 says : 
 
 "The effect of this act was highly ben 
 eficial to the Free State men. * * Ev 
 ery one in Kansas admitted the fact, al 
 though many of them deny it now." 
 
 When did they "deny" that it was 
 "beneficial?" Why, "now," when his 
 book was published, on the first of Aug 
 ust, 1856, two months only after the mas 
 sacre. And why did "many of them 
 deny it 1 so soon after the transaction? 
 Possibly they had noticed he conse 
 quences growing out of, and directly 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 traceable to that tragedy. Suppose, 
 reader, we lift the veil of the past en 
 shrouding Kansas history, and, per- 
 c lauce, ere \ve close, you, too, may be one 
 who denies that beneficial results follow 
 murder and mutilation! We read some 
 where that, -He who takes the sword 
 shall perish by the sword." There are 
 but few who have not observed that "vi 
 olence begets violence." 
 
 Mrs. Robinson was on the Missouri 
 at the time of this occurrence. She says 
 page 273, of her "Kansas Interior and Ex 
 terior." ( 
 
 "The last day or two of the trip on the 
 Missouri river, rumors of v.*ar became 
 more frequent. Inflammatory extras 
 were thrown upon the boats at different 
 landings. * * The extras stated the 
 murder of eight pro-slavery men by the 
 abolitionists, and the cruel mutilation of 
 their bodies." 
 
 I have already stated how the news of 
 these murders was received in Lecomp- 
 ton, and the determination to retaliate 
 by hanging the treason prisoners. 
 4e> Gov. Robinson was taken by a mob at 
 "Lexington. Mo., while descending the 
 Missouri in company wUh his wife. He 
 was detained there for a few days; thence 
 taken by way of Westport, to Franklin, 
 within four miles of Lawrence; thence 
 back to Kansas City, and up the Missou 
 ri, to Leaveuworth, where he arrived on 
 the eve of these murders on the Potta- 
 watomie. The news of the massacre 
 caused the most intense excitement. It 
 was all that active pro-slavery men, who 
 were warm personal friends of the Gov 
 ernor, some of whom were under 
 lasting obligations to him for 
 favors rendered in California, and 
 on his way thither, to save him from 
 violent death. Indeed, the people were 
 wrought up to such a furious phrenzy 
 that death was expected at any moment. 
 An eye-witness of the scene told me that 
 the cooler and better class of the citizens, 
 
 thinking they were powerless to save him, 
 wept like children as one by one they 
 took him by the hand and bade him fare 
 well. 
 
 The Congressional Investigating Com 
 mittee were in session at Leaven worth. 
 They could not proceed with business 
 because of the excitement, hence re 
 moved to Kansas City, where they also 
 found it impossible, with personal safety, 
 to continue their investigations, and left 
 for Washington, one of the members re 
 maining long enough to obtain affidavits 
 detailing the incidents of this awful 
 tragedy, portions of which I have copied. 
 In his minority report to Congress, he 
 said of these murders : In savage bar 
 barity and demoniac cruelty they [haye] 
 scarcely an equal in the history of civil 
 ized man !" The majority of the Com 
 mittee were compelled to stultify them 
 selves, and throw out important evidence 
 they had already taken, in order to sup 
 press the loathing details of the butchery. 
 | A lady resident of Leaven worth, at the 
 time the news of the tragedy reached 
 that city, told me, on her way up the 
 Missouri in the following spring, return 
 ing for the first time after the occurrence 
 to Kansas, of its effects on the Free State 
 population there. She said a public 
 meeting of pro-slavery men was immedi 
 ately called, when the account of the 
 Pottawotomie massacre was narrated to 
 the already-crazed pro-slavery mob. The 
 most violent, denunciatory and threaten 
 ing speeches were made. Resolutions 
 were passed of a fiery character, setting 
 forth that the first blood had been shed 
 by the Free Btate men ; that the midnight 
 assassins were not satisfied with simply 
 murdering their victims, but that they 
 had mutilated them in a shameful man 
 ner. They declared that it was impos3i- 
 ble for the abolitionists and the pro- 
 slavery settlers to live together in Kansas 
 and that the former must leave. She 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 said a body of arnud men marched 
 through the streets, visiting each dwell 
 ing, and ordered every Free State man, 
 woman aud child to go at once to the 
 Levee. They would not allow her to 
 even close her house; but with her child 
 ren she was marched to the river where 
 she found hundreds of others. All wcie 
 forced upon a steamer lying at the levee, 
 including her husband who she found 
 there. The Captain was ordered to take 
 these involuntary passengers to Alton 
 and there leave them. She remained 
 in that city until the spring of 1857, 
 when she returned with her husband and 
 again settled in the Territory. 
 
 Mr. Phillips, in his " Conquest of Kan 
 sas. (a very singular title for a book 
 whose author was supposed to be in favor 
 of fiee institutions for that Territory,) 
 speaking of this event, page 318, says: 
 
 " Citizens of Leavenworth who were 
 known to be Free State men, were noti- 
 lied that they must leave the Territory. 
 On the morning of the 
 28th of May, [four days after the mur 
 ders, as the reader will observe,] the of 
 fice of the Leavenworth Herald issued a 
 reprint of a violent war extra of the 
 Westport paper, the design of which was 
 to excite the border men to acts of vio 
 lence against the Free State settlers of 
 Kansas. In the forenoon of that day a 
 pro-slavery meeting was held, at which 
 Btringiellow and Gen. Richardson were 
 prominent actors. At this meeting it 
 was decreed that all persons who had 
 taken an active part as Free State men 
 must leave the Territory." 
 
 Mr. Phillips seems to ascribe these out 
 rages, by the pro-slavery party at Leaven 
 worth, to the appearance of the Investi 
 gating Committee; but the facts are, they 
 were because the news of the murders 
 on the Pottawotoinie only reached 
 them at that moment, by way of West- 
 port and Kansas City, hence the reason of 
 republishing the " war extra" from 
 Westport. 
 
 Gov. Robinson was hurried away from 
 
 Lcnvenwortli. in the midst of this excite 
 ment, by the cooler headed pro-slavery 
 men, across the prairies to .Lecompton, 
 i where he joined the other prisoners un 
 der indictment for high treason on the 
 1st of June. It was owing to this event 
 he was saved from violence. 
 But these excesses were not limited to 
 Leavenworth. Steamers coming up the 
 Missouri, loaded with Eastern passen 
 gers, were sent back to St. Louis ; and all 
 emigration by way of this great thor 
 oughfare was suspended until autumn, 
 and the arrival of Gov. Geary in the Ter 
 ritory. A reign of terror paralyzed every 
 industry, and mob violence reigned 
 supreme. 
 
 South of the river the times were no 
 less exciting. The pro-slavery popula 
 tion on the Pottawotomie arose in mass, 
 burned the cabins of Captain Brown s 
 sons, (not his, for he never had any cabin 
 in Kansas to burn,) drove off their stock, 
 and it is probable their language to the 
 daughter and daughter-in-law, who alone 
 were in possession, was really insulting, 
 for it is said to be true they represented 
 the father and husband of these ladies, 
 (very amiable people, by the way,) with 
 having caused the murder i-f their 
 friends, the Doyles, &c. 
 
 Henry Clay Pate, with his "Westport 
 Sharpshooters," who were mounted, had 
 escorted Gaius Jenkins and the writer 
 from Westport to a point near Lecompton, 
 where we arrived on the evening of the 
 19th of May. He was present, taking 
 part with his command, at the sacking of 
 Lawrence, on the 21st. Thence he visited 
 Lecompton, where he learned, on the 
 evening of the 25th, of the murders on 
 the Pottawotomie. As every Missourian 
 imagined himself a United States Mar 
 shal many had commissions as deputy, 
 and among this number was Pate him 
 self he resolved to arrest John Brown 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 25 
 
 anil his party, then augmented to nine. 
 Without following his steps in detail to 
 Palmyra and Prairie City, and noting the 
 outrages which Pate perpetrated at these 
 places, and in their vicinity, enough to 
 ever cover his name with infamy, they 
 came in contact, on the 2d of June, 1856, 
 with old John, at a place on the Sante Fe 
 road known as Black Jack. Whether 
 any portion of Brown s .force was with 
 him at the massacre, the writer has no 
 means of knowing. A collision caine 
 on. Oapt. Shore, who had been watch 
 ing Capt. Pate s movements after leaving 
 Prairie City, with some CO men, put in an 
 appearance at a very opportune moment 
 inr the safety of the Liberator; a very 
 animated skirmish followed; Pate and 
 his command were captured. ^ Here oc 
 curred the famous "battle of Black Jack," 
 in which Brown is represented as an in 
 vincible hero; instead of being arrested for 
 murder, with the aid of the very large 
 force of Capt. Shore, aided by Capt. 
 Me whinny, the pro-slavery marauders 
 \vere captured. Pate was soon after re- 
 released by United States troops, under 
 Col. Sumner, and, with a severe repri 
 mand, was ordered home to Missouri. x 
 
 On the 6th of June, still in pursuit of 
 the Pottawotomie murderers, was fought" 
 what is known in Kansas history, as the 
 first battle of Osawotomie; but the light 
 consisted in a retreat of the pursued to 
 the timber, "skedaddling," we used to 
 call it on the border, while the pursuers 
 ransacked and pillaged the town; and 
 yet old John Brown is lauded by his bio 
 graphers as the hero of this occasion, as he 
 was at Black Jack,thoughhe sought safe 
 ty in the covert of the wood,as the others 
 diu. This statement I had confirmed 
 while writing these pages, by a gen 
 tleman from Kansas, visiting friends 
 in Rockford, who was in the bush 
 with the other Free State men, and who, 
 ij- answer to my direct inquiry, said 
 
 there was not a gun fired in defense on 
 that day. And thus heroes are made, on 
 small occasions. And thus great battles 
 are fought on paper. 
 ^The so-called "second battle of Osawo 
 tomie" occurred on the 29th of August, 
 1856. It was precipitated on the town 
 by an attack, by residents and others, 
 driving off a party of Buford s men, who 
 were encamped near, and who, like their 
 associates all over the Territory, were 
 guilty of every variety of wickedness. 
 These men deserved severe punishment 
 wherever found, during their stay in 
 Kansas. Their expulsion, however, 
 aroused the war spirit again ; again in 
 flammatory appeals were made to Mis- 
 sourians; another invasion was planned, 
 and on the 29th of August, 1856, under 
 the command of Gen. John W. Reed, of 
 Independence, Mo., with some four, 
 hundred followers, Osawotomie was at- 
 tacked. The citizens under various com 
 mands, in companies of ten to fifteen 
 from the thick undergrowth surrounding 
 the town, fired upon the invaders, and 
 they, thinking "prudence the better 
 part of valor," made a speedy 
 retreat. Probably this repulsed army, 
 of 400, became the nucleus of the 2,700 
 which marched on Lawrence on the 14th 
 of September. The general understand 
 ing in Kansas was that Old John exhib 
 ited good fighting qualities at Osawoto 
 mie. He was engaged in a good cause, 
 but whether he deserved more applause 
 than Capt. Cli&e, Dr. Updegraff, or any 
 other brave man there, the writer has no 
 knowledge. 
 
 How many cases of violence, consist 
 ing of murders, arsons, robberies, rapes, 
 &c., were perpetrated during that sum 
 mer, which had their origin in excited 
 passions, influenced by these transactions 
 on the Pottawotomie, no human historian 
 will ever know. It was the pro-slavery 
 purpose to drive out the Free State set- 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 tiers. They sought every pretext in their 
 reach to justify their aggressions. The 
 great misfortune was that too many of 
 these were offered, and that the innocent 
 had to suffer for the violence of his guilty 
 neighbor. 
 
 NOT LIMITED TO KANSAS. 
 
 The effect of this massacre on the pros 
 perity of Kansas was not limited to that 
 Territory. A national party, with pow 
 erful anti-slavery proclivities, had recent 
 ly sprung into being. It undertook the 
 task of defending and sustaining the 
 struggling Free State men, who had 
 thrown themselves into the mighty 
 chasm, made by the repeal of the Mis 
 souri Compromise oi 1820. These Free 
 State men had resolved that the princi 
 ples involved in that settlement of a vexed 
 question, by their fathers, should still be 
 maintained; that the broad and beautiful 
 prairies of Kansas should never be cursed 
 by the tread of the slave. They had gone 
 from the comforts of their Eastern homes ; 
 had sacrificed business long established ; 
 had broken loose from all social and re 
 ligious organizations, and abandoned 
 parties to which they were dearly at 
 tached, and formed a new one, with the 
 single motto of * Kansas a Free State." 
 Now a new party was organized in the 
 States, or.t of remnants of old ones, with 
 the principle written in its platform, and 
 emblazoned on its flag, and borne aloft 
 by its standard bearer, " No more Slave 
 States, No More Slave Territory; Free 
 dom to the Republic, JUSTICE TO KAN 
 SAS !" 
 
 But on the very eve of the first organi 
 zation of that party, while every pulsa 
 tion of the genuinely good was beating 
 in full sympathy with "bleeding Kansas," 
 and they were solemnly determined to 
 right our wrongs, and correct the abuses 
 of false legislation, they were in -t with 
 these excesses by the men they would 
 serve ! 
 
 The horrible details of that midnight 
 butchery on the Pottawotomie, were 
 dwelt upon, and passed from mouth to 
 mouth ; the opposition press, both North 
 and South, took up the damning tale and 
 passed it on. Whole columns of leaders 
 Irom week to week, with startling head 
 lines, liberally-distributed capitals, and 
 frightful exclamation points, filled all the 
 newspapers; while each public speaker, 
 who wished to inflame the already excit 
 ed populace, in glowing rhetoric, would 
 depict the ghastly spectacle of five men 
 torn from their beds at midnight, and 
 ruthlessly slaughtered by savage, fero 
 cious and unfeeling Free State men. 
 
 The Republicans denied the allega 
 tions; they set up an alibi; they charged 
 the butchery and mutilation on the 
 Camanches; they said the killing was 
 done in self-defense; they apologized for 
 it in various ways ; when forced to the 
 wall they attempted justification; but, 
 meet it as they would, there was the ap 
 palling outrage; the deep, dark and 
 damning bloodspots which would not 
 disappear at their bidding. 
 
 When the autumn elections came on, 
 so successful had the opposition been in 
 ringing these charges on the country, 
 the friends of Kansas were overborne by 
 superior numbers, ami another four years 
 of misrule by the Democratic party, 
 under its corrupt leaders, was inaugu 
 rated. The oppressed in Kansas saw 
 another term of struggle and violence be 
 fore them. 
 
 As an actor in those exciting times, 
 watching the progress of the political 
 canvass from my prairie prison, surround 
 ed continually by the gleam of the sabre, 
 the musket and bayonet of Federal 
 troops, with a large list of exchanges for 
 the Herald cf Freedom, daily received in 
 camp, and little to do but read them, I 
 do solemnly aver and believe, twenty four 
 years thereafter, that had it not been for 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 27 
 
 the massacre of the three Doyles, of 
 Wilkinson and Sherman, by self- 
 styled Free State men on far. Pot- 
 tawotomie, the Republican party 
 would have been successful in that mem 
 orable campaign of 1856, and our period 
 of enslavement would have been four 
 years abridged. But perhaps we should 
 take cheer from classic story, and 
 "Weep not for the lost leaves of Cybele." 
 
 As the horrors ot the Spanish Inquisi 
 tion; the bloody butcheries, martyrdoms, 
 crimes and excesses of the middle ages, 
 with the massacre of St. Bartholomew at 
 a later period, paved the way, and added 
 new impetus to the Reformation, which 
 gave rise to subsequent liberal thought, 
 with full toleration of all forms of relig 
 ious and non-religious faith, and a larger 
 comprehension of man s final destiny; so 
 the outcome of this awful tragedy traced 
 by the pen of the casuist, shows the de 
 feat of Republicanism in 1856; the pro 
 longation of our Kansas ills; the rebel 
 lion ; a nation rolled in blood ; the con 
 flagration of cities; the complete upheaval 
 of society; crimes unparalleled in the 
 world s history; general bankruptcy; and 
 every heart filled with deepest woe. In 
 bold and cheering contrast we have the 
 diseuthralment of a race; the greater 
 freedom of the masses; education more 
 widely diffused ; larger religious liberty, 
 and a more glorious future than was ever 
 before witnessed by aspiring humanity, 
 or predicted by inspired prophet. 
 
 As well, however, to give credit to 
 Torquemada, the father of the Inquisi 
 tion, for our present religious freedom, as 
 to old John Brown, and the massacre on 
 the Pottawotomie, for the freedom of 
 Kansas, or our present and prospective 
 piosperity. 
 
 THE SUMMER OF 1856. 
 
 How Capt. Brown spent the summer of 
 1850, other than avoiding an arrest, and 
 with his "twelve or fifteen new recruits," 
 
 as he calls his army, defending Osawo- 
 tomie, we have but little knowledge. He 
 represents that in that "bloody battle" 
 there were, of the invaders, "thirty-one or 
 two killed, and from forty to fifty wound 
 ed." This assertion was as positively de 
 nied by the attacking party. It is cer 
 tain there were three killed on the Free 
 State side, to wit: Fred Brown, Mr. Part 
 ridge and Mr. Williams. 
 
 Sometime during the summer of 1856 T 
 a Santa Fe train was captured by Free 
 State men. These trains consisted, usu 
 ally, of twenty to sixty very lar^e 
 wagons, carrying some two or more tons 
 of freight, consisting of general merchan 
 dise, drawn by six mules. The wagona 
 were covered with white canvas, and 
 when moving over the prairies, stretched 
 out over a long distance. The sight was 
 truly imposing. Minus the speed they 
 would remind the observer of the immense 
 freight trains of the Atchison and Santa 
 Fe Railroad moving in the same direc 
 tion to-day. 
 
 These mule trains were fitted out im 
 Westport, Mo., and Kansas City, and 
 through them was carried on the almost 
 limitless commerce between the States 
 and New Mexico. 
 
 Who was concerned in the capture of 
 this train mentioned I never knew, as I 
 was a prisoner at the time, and our field 
 of observation was not large. The Free 
 State newspapers of the Territory were 
 all suspended, and it is even questiona 
 ble if mention would have been made of 
 it, for prudential reasons, had all been in 
 successful operation; for we were ex 
 tremely careful, in those exciting times, 
 not to expose the dereliction or excesses 
 of our own party friends. If I don t for 
 get it, and a good place occurs, I will 
 tell "A Case in Point," at a considerable 
 later date, in illustration. 
 
 The magnitude, however, of the c^i>ture 
 
28 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN 
 
 of an entire Santa Fe train made a little 
 riffle of excitement at the time, and the 
 responsibility with the public seemed 
 divided between Dr. Ephraim Cutter, E. 
 B. Whitman and old John Brown. 
 Whether any or all of these personages 
 wore concerned in the capture, I do not 
 know; but I have an indefinite recollec 
 tion that there was a wordy quarrel, or 
 misunderstanding at least, between the 
 parties implicated, in regard to the divis 
 ion of. plunder. My only reason for 
 thinking John Brown was not concerned 
 in it, is that I find no mention of it in 
 Rcdpath s Life of the Captain," whereas 
 had the "Liberator" been even the hum 
 blest private in the affair, he would have 
 been magnified into a leader; the details 
 of the capture would have extended 
 through several chapters, describing each 
 incident of the battle, the various strat 
 egical movements employed to surround 
 the "greasers," the deafening roar of mus 
 ketry, the clash of crossed sabres, the 
 wild shrieks of the captors, the 
 dying groans of the defeated teamsters, 
 closing with a poem in Homeric verse, 
 from that brilliant poet Raelf, preserving 
 in song for future ages a glowing account 
 of the gallant affair. He could not have 
 -done less than quoted the last stanza 
 from "Brown s Address to His Men ;" 
 page 156, of his "Life of Brown: 
 
 We must conquer, we rnnst slaughter, 
 
 We are God s rod, and His ire 
 Wille their blood nhall flow like water 
 
 In Jehovah s dread name Fire! 
 
 This will give the reader an idea of 
 "what the brilliant historian could have 
 clone with a very trifling capital. As 
 Redpath was not in the Territory at the 
 time, and the Byronic poet did not arrive 
 until, I think the 10th of October follow 
 ing, this may account for the loss of this 
 glowing description ot the event. 
 JOHN BKOWN S BIOGRAPHER. 
 
 I have had frequent occasion to refer 
 
 to, or quote from "Relpatlfs Life of 
 John Brown," and shall have still further 
 use for him, as we advance with these 
 "Reminiscences." The reader must of 
 course desire to know the character of 
 the author, and the stand- pointf from 
 which he wrote. I take pleasure in furn 
 ishing this information, by stating that 
 Redpath claimed great intimacy with 
 Brown in Kansas; was an indorser of the 
 invasion at Harper s Ferry; wrote largely 
 in its interest; was selected by the John 
 Brown family to write a "Life" of their 
 head; into whose hands, the letters, writ 
 ings and sketches of the Captain were 
 placed; and who agreed to divide the 
 profits accruing from the sale of the 
 book with the family. Under the head 
 of Professional Letter Writers, I shall 
 have occasion to mention Mr. Redpath 
 again. 
 
 In 1859, Redpath published a book of 
 365 pages, entitled "The Roving Editor." 
 It came from the press sometime be 
 fore the Harper s Ferry raid of Old John. 
 From some pages it is very evident the 
 book was prepared with special purpose 
 to encourage and incite a servile insur 
 rection. 
 
 I copy from page 306 of that revolu 
 tionary book : 
 
 "But is insurrection possible?" 
 
 "I believe that it is. The only thing 
 that has hitherto prevented a universal 
 revolt, is the impossibility of forming ex 
 tended combinations. This the slave code 
 effectually prevents. To attain this end, 
 therefore, the agency of white men is 
 needed." 
 
 "Are there men ready for this holy 
 work?" 
 
 "I thank God that there are. There are 
 men who are tired of praising the French 
 patriots who are ready to be Lafayettes 
 and Kosciuskos to the slaves." 
 
 "Do you ask for a programme of 
 action?" 
 
 "The negroes and Southrons have 
 taught us. The slaves of the Dismal 
 Swamp, the maroons of Florida, the 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 Free-State men of Kansas, have pointed* 
 out the method. The South committed 
 suicide when it compelled the free squat 
 ters to resort to guerilla warfare, and to 
 study it both <ts a mode of subsistence and 
 a science. For the mountains, the swamps 
 and morasses of the South, are peculiarly 
 adapted to this mode of combat, and 
 there are a number of joung men trained 
 to the art in the Kansas ravines, who are 
 eager for an opportunity of avenging 
 their slain comrades, on the real authors 
 of their death, in the forests and planta 
 tions of the Carolinas and Georgia." 
 
 "Will you aid them will you sustain 
 them? Are you in favor of a servile insur 
 rection ? 
 
 "Tell God in acts." 
 
 This book from which I cite is dedi 
 cated by Red path "To Captain John 
 Brown, of Kansas." On the fourth page 
 of the Dedication, at its close, he sa> s : 
 
 "You went to Kansas when the trouble 
 broke out there not to settle or specu 
 late or from idle curiosity; but for one 
 stern, solitary purpose to have a shot at 
 the South. So did I. 
 
 "To you, therefore, my senior in years 
 as in service to the slave, I dedicate this 
 work." 
 
 Under the sub-head of "My Object," 
 page 300, Redpath informs us why he 
 traveled through the South belore going 
 to Kansas, in 1855, and says it was to 
 "disseminate discontentment" among the 
 slaves on certain conditions, which he 
 names. He then adds : 
 
 "I believed that a civil war between 
 the North and South would ultimate in 
 insurrection, and that the Kunsas troubles 
 would probably create a military conflict 
 of the sections. Hence I left the South, 
 and went to Kansas ; and endeavored, per 
 sonally and by my pen, to precipitate a rev 
 olution. That we failed for I was 
 not alone in this desire was owing 
 to the influence of prominent Republican 
 statesmen, whose unfortunately conserva 
 tive character of counsel which it was 
 impossible to openly resist effectually 
 baffled all our hopes: hopes which Demo 
 cratic action was auspiciously promot 
 ing." 
 
 The insurrection was finally set on foot 
 
 in the South, agreeably to Red path s 
 plans. He was a valiant warrior on 
 paper; the inciter, aider and abettor of a 
 servile and warlike revolution, as shown 
 by the foregoing extracts; yet he was not 
 there to lead, or assist, or in any manner 
 to endanger his own person, but realized 
 the oft-quoted couplet of Hudibras, that 
 "He who fights and runs away, 
 May live to fight another day." 
 
 I am glad to do justice to Redpath, 
 and say that after the execution of his 
 patron saint; after he discovered that the 
 public did not sanction his wild schemes 
 of murder and violence; and after he had 
 written the "Life of John Brown," he en 
 gaged in the Hayti emigration move 
 ment, and published in Boston, a paper 
 entitled The Pine and Palm. The follow 
 ing extracts from that paper I made at 
 the time of its publiation, but neglected 
 to note its date. It is in words following : 
 
 "A PREPARATORY WORD. Having be 
 come sincerely convinced that many of 
 the political doctrines that I have advo 
 cated in my writings are dangerous and 
 abhorrent to the higher insight the mur 
 derous policy, for example, of inciting 
 the slaves to insurrection which I have 
 urged repeatedly, and with terrible mis 
 taken zeal I wish to announce here 
 that I shall retire from any participation 
 in the political management of this jour 
 nal, excepting for the purpose of retract 
 ing past errors, until such time as I feel 
 that I have attained a clearer and more 
 humane and Christian view of the duties 
 of the freeman to the enslaved . 
 
 "I shall confine myself exclusively to 
 the editing of the outside pages of the 
 paper. The name of the acting editors 
 will be duly announced. The articles 
 signed with an (*) were mine; of these I 
 will retract many; my associates, who in 
 dicate their respective writings by the 
 initial L., and by the marks f, J, , are 
 alone responsible for their thoughts thus 
 labeled. I repudiate my war doctrines, 
 utterly and forever. 
 
 "JAMES REDPATH." 
 
 In a later number of The Piis and 
 Palm, I find a longer statement, in which 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN liROWN. 
 
 R djmth gives the reason for the sudden 
 change in his views. I quote briefly : 
 
 "It is right now that I should confess, 
 publicly and contritely, that my recent 
 chancre in political policy proceeds solely 
 and irresistibly from a change of heart 
 from an acceptance, fully and unreserved, 
 of the doctrines and plan of salvation of 
 our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. * * 
 Not the blood of the slaveholder, but the 
 blood of the Redeemer, can truly free 
 the slave. * :|: Hitherto I have con 
 ducted this movement (Haytien emigra 
 tion,) from a sense of duty to man; 
 henceforth I shall seek to conduct it as a 
 duty to God and man. May his Holy 
 Spirit guide, direct, and uphold me ! 
 JAMES REDPATH." 
 
 In another clipping, which I made 
 about the same time, a like confession 
 was made in regard to another very bad 
 habit he had fallen into touching his 
 veracity. This vice had grown upon him 
 until it seemed a part of his being. In 
 the burning of the Herald of Freedom 
 building and contents, at the Quantrell 
 Raid on Lawrence, in 1863, all the files of 
 my papers were wholly consumed, with 
 bound volumes of many other Kansas 
 journals which I had carefully preserved. 
 There were also a large and choice col 
 lection ot excerpts saved for future use, 
 among which probably was the one re 
 ferred to, and it was lost. I greatly re 
 gret this, for then I could have done this 
 famous letter writer, biographer and 
 author further valuable service. That he 
 was sincerely u contrite" for this evil habit, 
 at the time lie wrote, there is no doubt. 
 I hope his reformation was permanent. 
 
 JOHN BROWN, JR. 
 
 John Brown. Jr., and H. H. William 
 were brought into the camp, near Le- 
 compton, about the KHh of June, 1856 
 and were held as prisoners with us. They 
 were indicted on the 27th of May, at 
 Paola, then Lykins county, charged with 
 "conspiracy to resist the collection of 
 
 taxes." John was also suspicioned with 
 responsibility for the Pottawotomie mur 
 ders, but I am glad to say there was no 
 truth whatever in this allegation. He 
 became an occupant of my tent, and 
 remained with me some time after he 
 was brought into camp. He was partly 
 insane ; his mind seemed continually run 
 ning on the Pottawotomie massacre, and 
 he appeared to suppos h was under 
 arrest for that offence. During the 
 entire period he was with us 
 nearly three months whenever that 
 event was mentioned in his hear 
 ing his eyes would flash and sparkle 
 like a madman s. He would exhibit the 
 wildest excitement, and express himself, 
 in the severest terms at the enormity of 
 the outrage. On several occasions I at 
 tempted to ally his irritation by offering 
 an apology for it. He replied invariably : 
 "There can be no apology for such a trans 
 action. Every feature of it was too bar 
 barous to admit of an apology." And 
 then I would divert his mind as speedily 
 as possible, engage his thoughts on some 
 other subject, when he would graduully 
 regain his composure. 
 
 In his ravings about these murders on 
 the Pottawotomie, John, Jr., told me of 
 the incidents lying between his disband 
 ing his command, when the news of 
 the massacre reached him, on the morn 
 ing after its committal, until his arrest. 
 He said his best friends in Osawotomie 
 turned the l cold shoulder" on him, 
 when he arrived in the town ; a pub 
 lic meeting of Free State men was 
 soon held, which repudiated it, and de 
 nounced the actors; he called on his wife 
 and child, and made his way to the bot 
 tom lands, where he secreted himself be 
 hind logs and trees. He forded the river 
 several times to avoid exposure. A se 
 vere storm of rain and lightning came 
 on, and he thought, in the flashes, he 
 could see his pursuers. He said he 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 31 
 
 suffered for food; but his wife occasional 
 ly found and relieved him. Finally, at the 
 suggestion of his friends, he voluntarily 
 surrendered himself to the civil authori 
 ties, and was taken in charge by federal 
 tioops. He was removed to Paola; 
 thence to Tecumseh, where he had a hear 
 ing before U. S. Commissioner Hoag- 
 land, and was sent to camp for safe keep 
 ing. He represented that he was bound 
 with ropes and chains, and was compelled 
 to " trot along," thus bound, between two 
 horsemen, for forty miles, in a hot June 
 sun. How much of these statements 
 were real, and how much imaginary, it 
 would be difficult to determine. His 
 friends, outside of Kansas, say he was 
 made insane by the cruel treatment 
 he received as a prisoner, and 
 John himself is still laboring under 
 that delusion ; but I think his insanity 
 was induced by the severe fatigue inci 
 dent to his long and exciting march 
 towards Lawrence; the nervous shock he 
 received when informed of the sacking 
 of that town-, and his wearisome return 
 iouruey; the news of the massacre falling 
 so unexpectedly on an extremely sensi 
 tive -nature, followed by being suspi- 
 cioned by his friends as an accomplice ; 
 and his exposure, loss of sleep and anx 
 iety of mind while hiding from his pur 
 suers. I am sustained in these opinions 
 by the letter of old John Brown, directed 
 to Mr. Sanborn, already quoted, under 
 the head of "Newly Discovered Evi 
 dence." Speaking of his being accused 
 ot the murders, Brown continues : 
 
 "John s company soon afterwards dis 
 banded, and also the Osawotomie men. 
 John tried to hide for several days, but 
 from the feelings of the ungrateful con 
 duct of those who ought to have stood by 
 him, excessive fatigue, anxiety; and loss 
 of sleep, became quite insane, and in that 
 condition gave up, or, as we are told, was 
 betrayed at Osawotomie into the hands 
 of the Bogus men." 
 
 John told me during his confinement, 
 of a plan, on the part of his father, to 
 carry the war into Missouii. He showed 
 that in his estimation the scheme was a 
 practical one to make slave property val 
 ueless on the other side of the Territorial 
 line. He reasoned that a constant agita 
 tion, by running off the negroes,- would 
 make slave property so insecure that the 
 large holders would be compelled to 
 either emancipate their "chatties, 1 or sell 
 them South. In either contingency it 
 would ultimate in the abolition of 
 slavery in that State. In fact the whole 
 plan of a servile insurrection was devel 
 oped in these .conversations, his father 
 being the leader, identical in every es 
 sential particular with that which, three 
 years later, was attempted in Virginia, 
 the difference Missouri was the point of 
 attack instead of Virginia; and the prai 
 ries of Kansas were the base of opera 
 tions instead of the mountains of the Old 
 Dominion. 
 
 John s wife and young son came 
 into camp a short time after his arrival, 
 and remained until the discharge of the 
 treason prisoners, on the 10th of Septem 
 ber, on our personal recognizances. 
 John, Jr., and Mr. Williams were left in 
 custody. The difficulty of their detention 
 being mentioned to the Court by the mil 
 itary officer in command, they were al 
 lowed to depart on giving bail in the sum 
 of $5,000 each. I acknowledged myself 
 bound in that sum for John s appearance. 
 I may say in this connection the bond 
 was forfeited ; but I was never prosecuted 
 under it. By a late letter of Mr. Brown s, 
 I observe that he is under the impression 
 that he was indicted for high treason, but 
 this is a mistake. 
 
 On breaking up camp Mr. Brown and 
 wife accompanied me to my home at 
 Lawrence, where he remained for a few 
 days until after the 14th ot September 
 invasion, and the excitement following it 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BKO\VN. 
 
 had passed, when, with his wife, father, 
 and brothers, he started tor the States, 
 going north to Nebraska, and overland 
 through Iowa. 
 
 GOV. GEARY. 
 
 Before release from imprisonment, on 
 the 10th of September, I received a very 
 interesting letter from Hon. Morrow B. 
 Lowry, of Erie, Pa., whom I had known 
 from boyhood, accompanied with a letter 
 of introduction to Gov. Geary. Mr. 
 Lowry had always acted with the Demo 
 cratic party, until the nomination of John 
 C. Fremont, when, resolved to aid in 
 righting the wrongs done to Kansas, he 
 gave his earnest support to the Repub 
 lican leader. Mr. Lowry requested me to 
 present the letter ot introduction to our 
 new Governor, as soon as possible after 
 his arrival in the Territory. He wrote 
 that he knew Col. Geary intimately; had 
 served one term with him in the Pennsyl 
 vania Legislature; that he was a gentle 
 man in the full sense of that term, and 
 that the Free Statj men could rely upon 
 his integrity and honor. He desired me 
 to give him my confidence and receive 
 his. He stated he had written Gov. 
 Geary in a similar spirit in regard to my 
 self. 
 
 Gov. Geary arrived at Leavenworth on 
 the 9th of September, on the 10th reached 
 Lecompton, and on Friday, the 12th, vis 
 ited Lawrence. I met him at the Cincin 
 nati House; presented him Mr. Lowry s 
 letter, and had a brief interview. The 
 Governor mentioned that he received, on 
 the eve of leaving his home for Kansas, 
 a letter from his friend Lowry in regard 
 to me, and that he would take great 
 pleasure in favoring me in any way in his 
 power. 
 
 The Governor had already distributed 
 large numbers of his proclamations, 
 ordering all bodies of armed men to lay 
 down their arms and retire to their 
 
 homes and ordinary occupations. lie de 
 clared his intention to protect the Terri 
 tory from further violence. I walked 
 with him to various influential citizens, 
 whom I introduced. In answer to 
 questions I frequently heard propounded, 
 "Governor, do you think it is safe 
 for us to go to our homes," he invariably 
 replied : "You had better stay in town a 
 few days longer, for mutual protection ; 
 but be careful that you do nothing in vio 
 lation of the spirit of my proclamation. 
 To defend yourselves against an attack, 
 will not incur my displeasure." 
 
 On that afternoon, or the following 
 morning, Gov. Geary, with his escort, re 
 turned to Lecompton. 
 
 A CRISIS APPROACHING. 
 
 At the time Gov. Geary s arrival in the 
 Territory, Lawrence was a military camp. 
 Woodson, the pro-slavery Secretary, un 
 der Gov. Shannon, was the acting Gover 
 nor, and was running things with a high 
 hand. All the roads leading to Lawrence 
 were blockaded by armed bodies of 
 Southern marauders, and every day vio 
 lence was perpetrated upon Free State 
 citizens. Guerilla parties of Free State 
 men were also roving the Territory, com 
 mitting depredations on pro-slavery men. 
 Between these bodies there was no safety 
 for any one. 
 
 Gov. Geary, in his " Farewell Address 
 to the People of Kansas," dated March 
 12, 1857, manuscript copy of which was 
 mailed me from St. Louis, and published 
 in the Herald of Freedom of April 1 8th, 57, 
 thus graphically and truthfully describes 
 the condition of the Territory, on 
 his first arrival the time of which I am 
 writing. He says : 
 
 " I reached Kansas, and entered upon 
 the discharge of my official duties in the 
 most gloomy hour of her history. Deso- 
 lution and ruin reigned on every hand ; 
 homes and firesides were deserted; the 
 smoke of burning dwellings darkened 
 the atmosphere; women and children, 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 dim-n from their habitations, wandered 
 
 OVCT tln> prairies and among the wood 
 lands, or sought refuge and protection 
 even among the Indian tribes. The high 
 ways were infested with numerous pre 
 datory bands,and the towns were fortified 
 and garrisoned by armies of conflicting 
 partizans, each excited almost to frenzy, 
 and determined upon mutual extermina 
 tion. ;Such was, without exaggeration, 
 the condition of the Territory at the pe 
 riod of my arrival." 
 
 In Lawrence, where the people had re 
 sorted from the country for security, the 
 masses were subsisting on just what for 
 aging parties could pick up through the 
 country, even bringing in unthreshed 
 wheat and oats, treading out the grain, 
 and grinding in coffee mills. Teams sent 
 to Kansas City or Leavenworth for sup 
 plies were sure to be confiscated by the 
 Border Ruffians, and the teamsters were 
 robbed and outraged in some form. I 
 think there were full 800 Free State men 
 in town on the Goyernor s arrival; and 
 yet, when with tears in their eyes I heard 
 parties tell the Governor the necessitous 
 condition in which they had left their 
 families, and how anxious they were to go 
 to their relief, the Governor would reply: 
 "You had better remain in Lawrence a 
 few days longer, but only for defence." 
 
 I will not at this time detail all the 
 facts / know in regard to this subject, as 
 they will be more properly treated of in 
 my "Reminiscences of Gen. Lane," which 
 I am invited to write. / will say that 
 history needs correction, badly, at this point. 
 Suffice it for the present, the entire de 
 fences of Lawrence were removed, leav 
 ing not to exceed two hundred men in 
 town, and (save the " Stubbs," who were 
 armed with Sharp s rifles, and who I wish 
 to say were always on hand and faithful 
 to every trust,) scarcely any organized 
 force whatever. 
 
 ANOTHER INVASION. 
 
 Beginning at about 2 o clock, of Sun 
 day afternoon, the 14th of September, 
 
 1856, every little while a messenger 
 would arrive in Lawrence, on a foaming 
 steed, from the direction of Missouri, and 
 in hurried words state that a large body 
 ot armed men were rapidly marching on 
 the town. The numbers of the enemy 
 were variously estimated at from 1,500 to 
 2,000. The earnestness in which the 
 news was imparted, the appearance of the 
 horses, and frequent repetition of reports 
 were sufficient assurances of danger. 
 Several expresses were quickly dis 
 patched, by different routes, to Gov. 
 Geary, at Lecompton, one of which I 
 forwarded with a note, and Gov. Robin 
 son did the same with another. Other 
 parties were equally active. 
 
 Four days before, the treason prisoners 
 had been discharged, leaving Col. Patrick 
 St. George Cooke, who had them in cus 
 tody, with a battery and lull regiment 
 of United States cavalry stationed within 
 two miles of Lecompton. Our hopes of 
 succor in this trying moment was in the 
 interposition of these troops between us 
 and the invading forces. 
 
 The Herald of Freedom building was a 
 high three-story structure, with stairs 
 reaching the roof, which was flat. From 
 this point I watched in the direction from 
 which we expected the enemy, occasion 
 ally descending to mingle with the citi 
 zens to see what arrangements were be 
 ing made for defense. The ladies in my 
 residence, which was divided from the 
 office by a narrow alley only, were mak 
 ing cartridges, while others were bring 
 ing bullets and powder from neighboring 
 places. I was a deeply interested party, 
 for teams were then on the road for my 
 new press, type and fixtures, and I was 
 soon expecting their arrival, v 
 
 About 5 o clock a large party of horse 
 men, estimated at 400, were seen ap 
 proaching from towards Franklin. They 
 were within, probably, two miles of the 
 town. The fact was announced, when. 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN KliOWN. 
 
 descending from my point of observa 
 tion, taking two or three loaded guns, 
 accompanied by my sister, Mrs. Mary 
 A. Mandell, and my sister-in-law, Miss 
 A. W. Gleason, they bearing cartridges, 
 we made our way to entrenchments 
 thrown up in the autumn previous, I 
 think, near Vermont and Henry streets. 
 "We entered one ot these and watched ail 
 that transpired, ready to sell our lives as 
 dearly as possible in defence of our 
 homes and each other. I remember see 
 ing old John Brown pass near, going 
 towards some other entrenchment; but I 
 heard no speech, no directions, no coun 
 sels, no command of any character. He 
 wore no ensignia of rank, and carried 
 neither sword or gun. Col. J. B. Abbott 
 was understood to be in command. Yet, 
 as the forces were unorganized, and the 
 feeling was universal that a vigorous and 
 successful defence was the condition on 
 which we should escape; we needed no 
 commander in such an emergency. The 
 threats that reached us were that we were 
 "to be wiped out." We numbered not to 
 exceed two hundred, while the advancing 
 enemy was believed to equal four hun 
 dred, #and back of these was a large 
 army, how many we did not know. 
 
 As the invaders neared the town the 
 Stubbs, consisting of some sixty young 
 men, armed with Sharp s rifles, advanced 
 to meet them. r A braver or truer body 
 of men never set foot on Kansas soil. 
 They were justly the pride of the town. 
 There was not a man among them who 
 would not have deemed it a pleasure to 
 die in preference to turning his face from 
 the foe. ""Many of these men afterwards 
 fell under command of Col. Deitzler, at 
 Wilson s creek, where Gen. Lyon was 
 killed. Their names adorn the brightest 
 pages of Kansas history. 
 
 The Stubbs fired a few shots at the 
 approaching enemy, and one of the in 
 vaders fell from his horse, which galloped 
 
 away riderless. At this occurrence they 
 retraced their steps to Franklin and re 
 joined the main army. They proved to 
 be an advanced mounted guard, which 
 had gone out to "feel" of the Free State 
 men, and see if they were disposed to of 
 fer any resistance to their entering the 
 town. v 
 
 The general invading force had been 
 collected from various points in Missouri, 
 and had rendezvoused at Westport, under 
 Gen. Heiskell, responsive to a proclama 
 tion from Acting-Governor Woodson. 
 They learned from spies, who were at 
 Lawrence, on the arrival of Gov. Geary, 
 and who remained until Col. Harvey, in 
 obedience to an order from Gen. Lane, 
 had crossed the river and gone to Hickory 
 Point, in defiance of the Governor s proda 
 mation, taking with him the almost entire 
 defenses of the town. Dispatches, it 
 seems, were sent to Westport, and on the 
 12th, the enemy set out determined to 
 reach Lawrence in this unprotected con 
 dition, and destroy it before Gov. Geary 
 could interpose any obstruction. They 
 had purposed to reach their point of 
 destination on the afternoon of Sunday, 
 and complete their bloody work. Instead, 
 the forty miles of travel for a large body 
 of badly organized soldiery ,which proved 
 to consist of 2,700 men, unaccustomed to 
 long marches delayed them, and on reach 
 ing Franklin the infantry and four pieces 
 of cannon were halted, while the cavalry 
 advanced ; seeing a fight was inevitable, 
 returned and delayed their intended as 
 sault upon the town until the following 
 morning. 
 
 Reader, be patient. I am trying at 
 this point to correct much false history, 
 and have entered into greater detail than 
 I would under other circumstances. 
 
 FEDERAL INTERPOSITION. 
 
 About 9 o clock Sunday night the 
 heavy rumbling of wagons, and the rapid 
 clatter of horses hoofs, descending tli 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 35 
 
 elevated plat eau from the old California 
 road to Lawrence, gave assurance that 
 protection had reached us in the form 
 of the United States cavalry, a battery of 
 six cannon, and a thousand well-armed 
 and thoroughly drilled soldiers, under 
 the command of that brave old warrior, 
 Col. Cooke, who, two years after, when 
 tendered the command of the rebel 
 troops of Virginia, by the Governor of his 
 native State, in substance replied, that 
 
 "Though I love m y mother, on whose 
 bosom I was nursed, yet I owe allegiance 
 to my father more, who reared me, gave 
 me my military education, trusted me 
 with a commission in his army, under 
 whose flag I have spent the best years of 
 my life, and, though sorry to raise an 
 arm against her who gave me birth, am 
 resolved, if need be, to die in that 
 father s defence." 
 
 I had made Col. Cooker acquaintance 
 while a prisoner, indeed had commenced 
 writing a series of personal sketches of 
 him, for publication, which he himself 
 kindly furnished me, but which were cut 
 short, long before their completion, by 
 our unexpected discharge. His oppor 
 tune arrival before Lawrence, relieved 
 further anxiety, and, like hundreds of 
 other weary ones, I retired for the night, 
 after seeing the troops entering camp be 
 tween the invaders at Franklin and our 
 own greatly loved pioneer city of Kansas. 
 GOV. GEARY S STATEMENT. 
 
 To conclude th s narration, Gov. Geary 
 told me, soon after the events I have re 
 corded transpired, that on his way up the 
 Missouri he saw these invaders organiz 
 ing, and learned they were marshaling 
 their forces at Westport, Mo ; that he 
 hurried forward as rapidly as possible, 
 prepared his proclamation to head them 
 oft, and resolved that no injury 
 should come to Lawrence in any 
 contingency; that this was the 
 reason he suggested to persons 
 inquiring of him "thit it would be bet 
 ter to remain in Lawrence a few days 
 
 longer," and that the invaders had stolen 
 a march on him, and set themselves down 
 before the town several days earlier than 
 he expected. 
 
 The Governor said, on receipt of the 
 first note, which reached him, quite late 
 in the afternoon of Sunday, he immedi 
 ately wrote and dispatched to camp, two 
 miles distant, the following: 
 EXECUTIVE OFFICE, Lecompton, Kan.T. 
 Sept 14, 1856. 
 
 COL. P. St. GEORGE COOKE : Remove 
 your entire command, with all possible 
 dispatch, to Lawrence, for the defence of 
 that town. I will accompany you in 
 person. JOHN W. GEARY, Governor. 
 
 Early in the morning of the 15th, 
 
 GOY. Geary issued the following order: 
 
 EXECUTIVE OFFICE, Kansas T., ) 
 
 In Camp near Lawrence, > 
 
 Sept. 15, 1856. ) 
 
 COL. P. St. GEORGE COOKE : Inter 
 pose your command before Lawrence,and 
 allow no armed body to enter that town. 
 Call the people of that city to your aid, 
 if yon need assistance. Disregard any or 
 der coming from me to the contrary, un 
 less given in person. 
 
 JOHN W. GEARY, Governor Kan. T. 
 
 Gov. Geary, with a small escort, ac 
 companied by Col. Cooke, rode to Frank 
 lin and had an interview with the com 
 manding officers, and the head conspir 
 ator, Dave Atchison. They claimed to 
 be there in accordance with a proclama 
 tion issued by Acting Gov. Woodson ; 
 that they appeared in the capacity of 
 Kansas militia, though they would not 
 deny the fact that they came from Mis 
 souri; that they had an enrolled force ot 
 2,400, and about 300 stragglers who were 
 not formally organized, but would do ef 
 fective work if an engagement took 
 place. 
 
 The Governor caused his proclamation 
 to be read to the entire force; assured 
 the invaders that he had a federal force 
 sufficient to maintain the peace of the 
 Territory, and that their services would 
 not be required in that direction. 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 After the Governor retired the leaders 
 held a long consultation, and, finally, re 
 luctantly consented to retrace their steps 
 to Missouri. A portion of them made 
 the circuitous route by way of Lecomp- 
 ton, and committed gross outrages en 
 route, among others stealing several 
 horses, and murdering a gentleman by 
 the name of Buffum. Gov. Geary at 
 tempted to bring the villains to justice, 
 but was thwarted through the interposi 
 tion of a corrupt judiciary. 
 
 THE PRO-SLAVERY ACCOUNT. 
 
 I compile from an anonymous writer in 
 the St. Louis Evening News of September 
 24th, the following version of this affair 
 from a "Border Ruffian" standpoint. I 
 use the language of the writer, only 
 slightly abridged : 
 
 The Missourians, true to their word, 
 inarched from Westport, on the 13th, to 
 attack Lawrence. The army was com 
 posed of one regiment of foot and two of 
 mounted men in all ?,400 men, attended 
 by four pieces of artillery. Gen. Heiskell 
 was in command. On the 13th and 14th, 
 the army marched forty miles, reaching 
 Franklin, four miles from Lawrence. 
 The advance guard, when about three 
 miles from Franklin, was fired on by the 
 picket guard of the Lawrence army, and 
 one man was killed. The main body was 
 hurried up as rapidly as possible, for the 
 purpo-e of attacking Lawrence that even 
 ing. By the time it reached Franklin it 
 was night, and the contemplated attack 
 was postponed. The army encamped at 
 Franklin, intending to make the assault 
 next day, the 15th. 
 
 "At midnight an express arrived with 
 information that Col. Cooke had been 
 sent by Gov. Geary, who was urgently 
 solicited by the people of Lawrence to 
 interpose for their protection. 
 
 "On the 15th Gov. Geary arrived at 
 Franklin and had a consultation with the 
 officers of the invading army. He told 
 them he was prepaired to enforce the 
 laws, to arrest offenders, crush out insur 
 rection, and suppress disorder with the 
 aid of the troops under his command; 
 that the interposition of the troops under 
 Gen. Heiskell was no longer necessary. 
 
 In view of these facts he urged the 
 Missourians to disband, and abandon 
 their projected attack on Lawrence. 
 
 "Gen. Atchison, Gen. Reid and Col. 
 Titus urged compliance witli the Gover 
 nor s proposal. The Governor withdrew 
 from the conference. 
 
 "A meeting was immediately organ 
 ized, with Gen. Atchison in the chair. 
 Resolutions were passed declaring that 
 relying on the protection promised to 
 peaceable settlers by the Governor, th< j y, 
 the invading rmy, would disband and 
 return to their homes." 
 
 BEDPATH S STATEMENT. 
 
 In his -Life of Old John Brown/ 
 Red path devotes thirteen pages to the de 
 tails of Brown s Defence of Lawrence." 
 To read it, with its gorgerus disp ay of 
 rhetoric, and brilliant scintillations of 
 genius, not omitting, "not fiction but 
 poetry" as Mrs. Robinson happily styles 
 it, the reader would suppose that there, 
 in Lawrence, on the afternoon of the 14th 
 of September, 1850, and duiing the long 
 night which followed, was fought one of 
 the most destructive battles recorded in 
 American history; and that to old John 
 Brown s genius, and great military ex 
 perience and gallantry, the people were in 
 debted for their salvation, and the city 
 saved from complete destruction. I quote 
 from page 163, to its conclusion, omitting 
 all the fine descriptions not necessary to 
 a complete comprehension of the facts : 
 
 "The inquiry was next, Who shall be 
 that leader ? * * It was no sooner 
 known that Capt. Brown was in town, 
 than he was unanimously voted generai- 
 in-chief for the day. The principal por 
 tion of the people had assembled in Main 
 street, opposite the post office ; [There is 
 no Main street in Lawrence,] and Capt. 
 Brown, standing upon a dry goods box 
 in their midst, addressing them some 
 what as follows : [Here follows a speech. 
 Probably all who heard it were killed in 
 the terrible fight(?) which followed.] 
 * * Having thus taught them in the 
 arts of war, he commenced his prepara 
 tions for defence. * * Capt. Brown 
 was always active and on the alert, visit 
 ing every part of the town, and all the 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 fortifications, in person, giving directions, 
 and exhorting every man to keep cool, 
 and do his duty, and his reward would 
 be an approving conscience. * * 
 About five o clock in the afternoon their 
 advance guard, consisting of 400 horse 
 men, crossed the Wakarusa, and pre 
 sented themselves in sight of town about 
 two miles off, where they halted, and ar 
 ranged themselves for battle, fearing 
 perhaps to come within too close range 
 of Sharp s rifle balls. Brown s move 
 ments now were a little on the offensive 
 order, for he ordered out all the Sharpe s 
 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." * * 
 
 Let us leave them "lying on their 
 faces," certainly a poor couch, skip over 
 all the intermediate minute descriptions 
 of incidents, the meeting of the beliger- 
 ents "face to face," "half a mile apart 
 and a cornfield between," the hurrying 
 down of the sun in "anticipation of a 
 fratricidal strife," the good deeds ot the 
 angel in "spreading her mantle over the 
 earth," and the reflections of the author 
 in regard to "the distant Aidenn," and, 
 in modern parlance "pitch in" the thick 
 est of the fight. Don Quixote s battle 
 with thr wind mills waa nowhere. Lis 
 ten : 
 
 "The distance now between the con 
 tending armies was such as to give 
 Sharpe s rifle balls, that were fired with 
 precision, a deadly effect; as was evinced 
 by the fact that several horses were found 
 riderless. In a few moments the firing 
 became general, and in the darkness, and 
 otherwise stillness of the night, the con 
 tinual flash, flash, flash of these engines 
 of death along the line of living fire, pre 
 sented a scene the appearance of 
 which was at once not only ter 
 rible but sublimely beautiful. From 
 fear that the few men detailed to 
 meet the enemy would be surrounded in 
 the darkness, by the superior numbers of 
 horsemen, and cut to pieces, a twelve 
 pound brass piece, under guard of twelve 
 
 , ( was sent to their assistance; but be- 
 lore it hail arrived upon the ground, the 
 foe had become panic-stricken and fled." 
 
 No wonder, for the brass piece men 
 tioned did execution that day some twenty 
 miles distant, in the vicinity of Hickory 
 Point. 
 
 I will not disturb the slumbers of T., 
 nor the historian of this bloody battle, 
 nor the " General-m Chief," by entering 
 the " breast work ;" nor listen to the " Lib 
 erator s" recital of his trials as given on 
 pages 167-8,, but give audience at once 
 to Richard Raelf, who. Red path says r 
 "died on his passage from England," 
 where he had gone for funds to aid in 
 the Harper s Ferry Raid, but which the 
 newspapers said last year, had just sui 
 cided in San Francisco. " He who has 
 tears to shed, prepare to shed them now ["" 
 
 THE DEFENCE OF LAWRENCE* 
 
 All night, upon the guarded hill, 
 
 Until the stars were low, 
 Wrapped round as with Jehovah s will, 
 
 We waited for the foe; 
 All night the silent sentinels 
 
 Moved by like gliding ghosts; 
 All night the fancied warning bells 
 
 Held all men to their posts. 
 
 We heard the sleeping prairies breathe, 
 
 The forest s human moans, 
 The hungry gnashing of the teeth 
 
 Of wolves on bleaching bones; 
 We marked the roar of rushing fires, 
 
 The neigh of frightened steeds, 
 And voices as of far-off lyres 
 
 Among the river reeds. 
 
 We were but thirty-nine who lay 
 
 Beside our rifles then ; 
 We were but thirty-nine, and they 
 
 Were twenty hundred men. 
 Our lean limbs shook and reeled about, 1 
 
 Our feet were gashed and bare, 
 And all the breezes shredded out 
 
 Our garments in the air. 
 
 Sick, sick, at all the woes which spring 
 
 Where falls the Southron s rod, 
 Our very souls had learned to cling 
 
 To Freedom as to God; 
 And so we never thought of fear, 
 
 In all those stormy hour?, 
 For every mother s son stoodnear 
 
 The awful, unseen powers. 
 
38 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 And twenty hundred men had met, 
 
 And sworn an oaih of hell 
 That, ere the morrow s sun might set, 
 
 Our smoking homes should tell 
 A tale of ruin and of wrath, 
 
 And damning hate in store, 
 To bar the freeman s western path 
 
 Against him evermore. 
 
 They came : the blessed Sabbath day, 
 
 That soothed our swollen veins, 
 Like God s sweet benediction, lay 
 
 On all the singing plains; 
 The valleys shouted to the sun, 
 
 The great woods clapped their hands, 
 And joy and glory seemed to run 
 
 Like rivers through the lands. 
 
 They came : our daughters and our wives, 
 
 And men whose heads were white, 
 Rose suddenly into kingly lives, 
 
 And walked forth to the fight ; 
 And we drew aim along our guns, 
 
 And calmed our quickening breath; 
 Then, as is meet for Freedom s sons, 
 
 Shook loving hands with Death. 
 
 And when three hundred ot the foe 
 
 Rode up in scorn and pride, 
 Whoso had watched us then might know 
 
 That God was on our side; 
 For all at once, a mighty thrill 
 
 Of grandeur through us swept, 
 And strong and swiftly down the hill 
 
 Like Gideons we leapt. 
 
 And al). throughout that Sabbath day 
 
 A wall of fire we stood, 
 And held the baffled foe at bay, 
 
 And streaked the ground wii i blood; 
 And when the sun was very low, 
 
 They wheeled their stricken ranks, 
 And passed on, wearily and slow, 
 
 Beyond the river banks. 
 
 Beneath the everlasting stars, 
 
 We bended child-like knees, 
 And thanked God tor the shining scars 
 
 Of his large victories; 
 And some, who lingered, said they heard 
 
 Such wondrous music pass, 
 As though a seraph s voice had stirred 
 
 The pu ses of the grass. 
 
 CAPT. BROWN S STATEMENT. 
 I have given the reader my own ac 
 count of the defence of Lawrence, on the 
 14th of September, 1856, and minutely 
 stated my means of inforn ition and ob 
 servation. I have given the pro slavery 
 account of the aftair, as furnished by 
 members of their own party, and pub- 
 liahed at the time in one of their own 
 
 papers. I have copied from Red path 
 his account ot the invasion, and showed 
 what an exciting and prolonged battle 
 was fought, in his frenzied imagination, 
 on this occasion. 
 
 Old John Brown, when before the Mas 
 sachusetts Legislature, in February, 1857, 
 five months only after the event, made 
 mention of it, which I copy from Red- 
 path s life, page 181. He said: 
 
 "I know well that on or about the 14th 
 of September, 1856, a large force of Mis- 
 souriaus and other ruffians, said by Gov. 
 Geary to be twenty-seven hundred in 
 numbers, invaded the Territory, burned 
 Franklin, and, while the smoke of that 
 place was going up behind them, they, 
 on the same day, made their appearance 
 in full view of, and within about a mile 
 of Lawrence; and I know ot no reason 
 why they did not attack that place, ex 
 cept that about one hundred Free State 
 men volunteered to go out, and did go out 
 on the open plain before the town, and 
 give them the offer of a fight; which, 
 after getting scattering shots from our 
 men, they declined, and retreated back 
 towards Franklin. I saw that whole 
 thing." 
 
 The Chairman of the Committee, be 
 fore whom the above statement was 
 made, inquired "Who commanded the 
 Free State men at Lawrence? Red path, 
 page 183, gives the answer in these 
 words : 
 
 "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 
 ther- adviser." 
 
 Here we have the positive, unqualified, 
 and truthful statement of old John 
 Brown, that he did not command on that 
 occasion. That he was requested by 
 somebody to do so is very probable; but 
 it could not have come from any author 
 ized party without the writer s knowl 
 edge, for he was in a position of all 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 39 
 
 men, to know what was transpiring on 
 that day in Lawrence. 
 
 On three separate and distinct 
 occasions old John Brown has been cred 
 ited with being the "Defender of Law 
 rence." First, he appears in the city 
 with his sons, in December, 1855, and is 
 arrested for insubordination he wished 
 "to draw a little blood." On the second 
 he arrives within twelve miles of the city, 
 reaches Palmyra, and retraces his steps 
 do you say, reader to Pottawotomie? 
 And, third, he is a mere looker on, and 
 did no more, to say the least, than any of 
 the hundred ladies who were engaged in 
 making cartridges, or the two, certainly, 
 who entered the trenches with tin pails 
 of cartridges to aid their brothers in 
 firing more rapidly, should occasion de 
 mand. And yet his eulogists tell us he 
 was the "brave defender of Lawrence, 
 and without his services the city would 
 have been destroyed on these occasions." 
 
 At Bismark Grove, near Lawrence,Kan- 
 sas, on the 16th of September, 1879, I 
 heard a gentleman, from the platform, in 
 the hearing of thousands of interested 
 listeners, most of whom were compara 
 tively new-comers in that State, make 
 the broad and unqualified assertion that 
 the freedom of Kansas was due to the 
 services of Gen. Lane, and old John 
 Brown. Shall they who know to the con 
 trary, remain silent, and allow such state 
 ments to go down to another generation, 
 and pass into history, uncontradicted ? 
 The most humble actual settler who lo 
 cated in Kansas with his family, who re 
 mained, and voted with the Free State 
 party, rendered a greater service to free 
 dom than did old John Brown, who nev 
 er cast a vote there, and whose influence 
 was to discourage Northern emigration, 
 by his acts of violence. Gen. Lane is en 
 titled to great credit for his services, and 
 when I write of him I shall award him 
 
 that credit he deserves. I write lor an 
 other generation, with no expectation of 
 reward, hence it is iust that neither fear 
 nor favor shall guide my pen. 
 
 AN INTERLUDE. 
 
 I have already stated that immediately 
 after the 14th of September invasion, old 
 John Brown and his sons, with their fam 
 ilies, started overland, by way of Ne 
 braska and Iowa, for the Eastern States. 
 It is not my purpose to follow the Cap 
 tain on his long journey; to detail the in 
 cidents by the way ; his arrival in Chica 
 go, in November; his efforts in Ohio to 
 raise a regiment of men to march into 
 Missouri to make reprisals ; his visiting 
 Albany in December; the particulars re 
 garding his visit to his home and family 
 at North Elba, Essex County, N. Y.; and 
 thence to Boston, and visiting the Massa 
 chusetts Legislature in February, 1857. 
 Neither is it my purpose to show his 
 earnest efforts to raise funds to renew the 
 strife in Kansas ; his contract for pikes to 
 arm the slaves in Missouri, where he was 
 proposing to strike his next blow, but 
 was finally diverted, by causes which 
 shall appear in the sequel, to Harper s 
 Ferry; his failures, vexations, disappoint 
 ments, and denunciations of prominent 
 Republicans, who stood in the way of his 
 wild adventures, and who, he declared, 
 were foes to the cause of freedom, be 
 cause of their conservatism. 
 
 All the long period lying between 
 September, 1856, and November, 1857, 
 when the "Liberator" again returned to 
 Kansas, was a period of almost unbroken 
 rest, interrupted only by deep anxiety for 
 the future, and the earnest discussions 
 among Free State men as to the line of 
 policy to be pursued, and which was 
 crowned by wresting the Territorial Legis 
 lature from the bogus authorities, a ud 
 sending a Free State Delegate to Congress. 
 Save the Lecompton Constitution, which 
 
40 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 still endangered us, the question was vir 
 tually settled between freedom and slav 
 ery. A new era had dawned. A large 
 emigration from the North began to flow 
 in upon us. The timid, who had fled 
 during the strife, had returned to their 
 homes; the South were discouraged and 
 had mostly fled; cur Free State newspa 
 pers were revived ; separated families were 
 reunited; and in November, 1857, it 
 needed no prophet s ken to settle the 
 future that awaited disenthralled Kansas. 
 With this period of repose, I will in 
 troduce, with the consent of the reader, 
 by way of interlude, a few sketches of 
 border life, which I trust will not be 
 wholly devoid of interest. 
 
 A STRANGE COINCIDENCE 
 
 By the generosity of those who were 
 interested in the freedom of Kansas, and 
 the personal efforts of Mrs. Brown, some 
 $2,700 were contributed to aid in the re 
 vival of the Herald of Freedom. Much of 
 this amount was reimbursed during the 
 ensuing year. Less than $1,000 reached 
 the writer of this, owing to large sums 
 expended in defraying expenses of agents, 
 and in a fruitless attempt to obtain, first 
 from Judge McLean, at Cincinnati, and 
 afterwards Judge Curtis, in Massachu 
 setts, members ol the Supreme Court of 
 the United States, writs of habeas corpus 
 for the relief of the treason prisoners. 
 
 During the summer of 1856, while still 
 in durance, I opened a correspondence 
 with the Cincinnati Type Foundry, for 
 a duplication of the bills of the news 
 paper department of the office. That 
 Company chanced to have a hand press, 
 type and fixtures at Mauhatten, which 
 had been obtained of them by fraud, but 
 possession had been regained before the 
 boxes were opened. They sent me an or 
 der for the outfit, to Mr. Pipher, still 
 living at Manhatten. 
 
 Immediately after my discharge from 
 
 arrest I procured the services of Augus 
 tus Wattles, then living near Blooming- 
 ton, Kan., who, with his teams, started by 
 the way of Topeka for the goods. 
 
 Conscious of the great risk we were 
 running, and the probabilities of capture 
 by guerillas, on its way down to Law 
 rence, through the aid of a pro-slavery 
 friend, who was not in sympathy with 
 the violent proceedings of his party, and 
 in whose integrity I had implicit confi 
 dence, I had papers made out, putting 
 the office in his hauds,so that if captured 
 by "Buford s men - it would nevertheless 
 reach me safely. 
 
 Thus provided, Mr. Wattles, with the 
 requisite order, obtained the material 
 from Mr. Pipher,and set out on his return 
 journey. When in the neighborhood of 
 Silver Lake he was captured by a roviiig 
 body of armed men. Not recognizing 
 his captors he exhibited his pro slavery 
 papers. The "boys" assured him that a 
 press was just the thing they wanted. He 
 was escorted to Topeka,where he revealed 
 the truth, was recognized by acquaint 
 ance?, and passed on to Lawrence, with 
 out further incident. 
 
 As Mr. Wattles passed up Massachu 
 setts street, between Henry and Winthrop, 
 with his teams, a body of mounted horse 
 men entered Massachusetts street from 
 the ford of the river, dragging in the dust 
 behind them a red flxg, the identical one 
 which waved over the Herald of Freedom 
 office on the 21st of May previous, when 
 it was destroyed by Border Ruffians. The 
 new press and the captors ol the flag met 
 at the corner of Winthrop street, where 
 the office was located. 
 
 The Free State boys, I do not remem 
 ber under whose command, had captured 
 the day previous, I think, near Easton, 
 a company of South Carolinians, and took 
 their flag and arms. The victors pre 
 sented me with u, musket, which they 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 41 
 
 took from the vanquished, on the barrel of 
 which was stamped the State arms, and 
 the words " South Carolina/ showing 
 that the last of the original states admit 
 ted into the Union, had contributed from 
 her State armory munitions of war for our 
 subjugation. I regret to write that the 
 musket was lost by some means in one 
 of the Indian scares in Western Kansas, 
 s I left it with A. R. Leonard, Esq., re 
 siding near Lawrence, to be forwarded to 
 nie in Illinois. I have the bayouet still 
 
 FURTHER STRATEGY. 
 
 Though I had succeeded in getting 
 the necessary printing material I had no 
 paper. Messrs. Younglove & Hoyt, of 
 Cleveland, Ohio, donated me $200 in 
 printing paper, soon after the office was 
 destroyed. This was shipped to Alton, 
 Ill.,aud remained in the warehouse there 
 through the summer. I ordered it to be 
 forwarded to Mr. McAllister, Lecompton, 
 Kan., through a leading pro-slavery com 
 mission house in St. Louis, thence to the 
 care of a violent one in Leavenworth. In 
 due time Mr. McAllister was notified of 
 its arrival at Leavenworth. He was Gov. 
 Geary s private secretary. His given 
 name is forgotten. 
 
 Mr. McAllister procured some pro-slav 
 ery teamsters at Lecompton, to haul the 
 paper from Leavenworth, with instruc 
 tions to cross the ferry at Lawrence, on 
 their return. The teamsters received the 
 p ,per from the warehouse, and returned 
 homeward, no doubt congratulating 
 themselves on the idea that they would 
 now have a trusty Democratic paper 
 again in operation at Lecompton. 
 
 Knowing about the time they would 
 react) the river a watch was kept for 
 then); On their arrival, on the Lawrence 
 side, I presented them an order from Mc 
 Allister to deliver the paper to me, which 
 they did, but exhibited much chagrin 
 and mortification in doing so 
 
 This is the manner, the first time made 
 
 public, the Ruffians were Circumvented, 
 who had resolved that no Free State 
 newspaper office or printing material 
 should again be allowed to reach Kansas. 
 Foiled in this, and the circulation of the 
 Herald of Freedom, reaching 8,000 during 
 the winter, they readily discovered the 
 truth of the adage that "The blood of 
 the martyrs is the seed of the church," 
 and thought it best to not disturb the 
 papers in the future. 
 
 AN EXCITING INCIDENT. 
 
 To illustrate the times and disturbed 
 state of Kansas, during this interesting 
 period in tioe history of the Territory, I 
 give the following facts: 
 
 After our release from imprisonment; 
 the arrival ot Gov. Geary ; the return of 
 Gens. Heiskell and Reed, with their in 
 vading army of twenty-seven hundred to 
 Missouri; the disappearance of old John 
 Brown, his sons and their families 
 towards Iowa; the arrest and imprison 
 ment of Col. Harvey and his command 
 of one hundred, who had unwisely 
 responded to an "order" of Gen. Lane s, 
 after Gov. Geary s proclamation of peace: 
 and while Gov. Geary and his escort 
 were making a tour of Southern Kansas 
 to tranquilize the agitation in that quar 
 ter, probably sometime during the last 
 days of October, I was sitting at my 
 table, in the sanctum of the Herald of 
 Freedom office building, preparing copy 
 for the paper. A rap at the inner door. 
 I arose, opened it, and saw three men 
 standing before me, armed with revolvers 
 and bowies, and I think Sharp s rifles. 
 Speaking to them,one introduced himself 
 as Captain H. Shaking hands with him, 
 he then introduced the others, one as 
 "my first Lieutenant," giving his name, 
 which has escaped me; the other as "sec 
 ond Lieutenant," whose name is also for 
 gotten. I passed them chairs, and took 
 a seat myself at the table where I had 
 been writing. 
 
42 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN RBOWN. 
 
 Capt. H. opened the conversation; in 
 quired how soon the Herald of Freedom 
 would again appear; congratulated me on 
 my restoration to liberty, and then said, 
 with a hearty laugh, in which the whole 
 trio joined: "Gov. Geary is tranquilizing 
 the Territory." I replied that he seemed 
 doing much in that direction, and from 
 the character of letters to me irom per 
 sonal friends in Pennsylvania, who knew 
 Gov. Geary well, and from private inter 
 course with him, I had no doubt of his 
 success, provided the authorities at 
 Washington would not interfere with his 
 work. 
 
 "Ho can never do it," replied Capt. H. 
 "It is too late. The Ruffians have over 
 run Kansas, have had their day until the 
 Free State men are thoroughly organized 
 for revenge, and now they want to tran- 
 quilize us. Ha, ha, ha, they can t do it. 
 Let me tell you, Mr. Brown, my Lieu 
 tenants here and myself have been fol 
 lowing in the rear of Gov. Geary s pacific 
 tour, and we have been trying to show 
 that the thing won t tranquilize." He 
 then proceeded to narrate various crimes 
 they had committed, entering into de 
 tails, telling of murders, arsons, rapes, 
 horsestealing,and other offenses of an ag 
 gravated character. 
 
 I was wholly alone in the presence of 
 three brutal ruffians. What should I do? 
 I said: 
 
 "I think you mistake the true policy. 
 Our ambition is to make Kansas a Free 
 State. Our success is contingent upon 
 the number of actual settlers we have 
 from the free North, who will co-operate 
 with us. To get these settlers it is our 
 interest, as well as duty, to quiet down 
 the excitement, show up the beauty of 
 the country, the healthful climate, pro 
 ductive soil, and satisfy them that we 
 have the ability to make it free, and we 
 "will see such an emigration Kansas- 
 "ward next spring as the world has never 
 
 seen before. You must remember, Cap 
 tain, that the great mass of us are here 
 with our families, our property, with all 
 we have in the world. We came here to 
 build up homes and free institutions, 
 and to be successful we must have peace 
 and quiet." 
 
 "You can t do it. You can t do it. It 
 is too late. We have got stirred np in 
 the matter, and by G we shall keep it 
 stirred up. I have told you what we 
 have done. We shall continue in the 
 rear ot Gov. Geary s movements, and we 
 shall continue to agitate," replied the 
 Captain, the Lieutenants with oaths en 
 dorsing his threats. 
 
 "Gentlemen, if this is the case, I shall 
 feel in honor bound to repeat this conver 
 sation to Gov. Geary, and, much as I de 
 spise the bogus authorities, I shall hope 
 to see you arrested and convicted for 
 your crimes." 
 
 They all sprung to their feet, drew 
 their revolvers, and threatened me with 
 dire vengeance. I arose at the same in 
 stant, shoved a paper aside on the table, 
 exposing an armory, which experience 
 had taught me were good things to have 
 on such occasions. Without showing 
 fear I ordered them from the room ; told 
 them they would hear nothing further from 
 me, unless I heard of further violence 
 from them. They retreated down stairs, 
 and twenty-two years have passed since 
 then. Whether any of them are now 
 living I don t know, but the facts are 
 in every essential particular as I nave 
 narrated. 
 
 To the old settlers of Kansas I will 
 make an explanation in this connection, 
 and to the "Letter-Writers," an apology. 
 In the summer of 1857, the letter-writers 
 of which there were some thirteen or 
 more, had headquarters at the Whitney 
 House, in Lawrence. If any event was 
 about to transpire, in any portion of the 
 Territory, they would send one of their 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 43 
 
 number to that point, who would gather 
 up the facts, return to the general rendez 
 vous, make his report, when each one 
 would write his respective paper of the 
 event, filling up with such incidents as 
 an active imagination would suggest, and 
 dating their letters at distant points. 
 Thus, corroborated by each other in 
 main facts, all was taken as true as holy 
 writ. Indeed the Eastern press used the 
 same arguments to show that they were 
 truthful, as the vindicators of the bible 
 have done to show the correctness of the 
 sacred writers. "They were written at 
 different times, by different persons, 
 widely separated from each other, of 
 cotemporary events, and all agree in main 
 facts, therefore their statements are strictly 
 reliable." 
 
 These letter writers were almost inva 
 riably sensational ; the more exciting their 
 narrations the greater the demand, and 
 the more letters would be required. They 
 generally received $5 each for their cor 
 respondence. The more letters they wrote 
 the better it paid. The Herald of Free 
 dom was ever correcting their statements, 
 and trying to convince the eastern public 
 that "bloody Kansas" was not half as 
 bloody as the correspondents were repre 
 senting. Something was necessary to 
 protect the guild. A friend of mine, who 
 had access to their rooms, reported that 
 the whole list of Letter- Writers had en 
 tered into a solemn agreement to crush 
 the Herald of Freedom, by representing 
 the editor with having "sold out to 
 the administration, gone over to the 
 enemy." Remembering that Captain 
 H. was then an eastern correspondent, 
 whether of the guild I do not know, I 
 unwisely stated the fact, in and editorial, 
 that the letter writers had resolved to 
 write down the Herald of Freedom; that 
 we had corrected too many of their false 
 hoods through our columns for them 
 longer to submit to it quietly; that they 
 
 were not the sort of men whose truthful 
 ness could be always relied upon; 
 that one of their number was a profes 
 sional horse thief, and he would be 
 known because he had and would con 
 tinue to write the most bitter things de 
 nunciatory of the Herald of Freedom and 
 its editor. The insane man running 
 through the streets stating that u Hell 
 was out for noon," don t half express tie 
 excitement which that brief editorial 
 caused among the scribling fraternity. I 
 think a dozen challenges to fight duels 
 followed in rapid succession, and the 
 most dignified ot them insisted on a cor 
 rection as to him. Our statement was 
 strictly true, but no doubt rather sweep 
 ing in its effect ; and, looked upon from 
 this distant stand point, more than 22 
 years after, we will say frankly, if his 
 name does not commence with H. he was 
 not the letter-writer to whom we referred, 
 and, to save another challenge, we may 
 as well mention that his name wus uot 
 Hinton. 
 
 THE TERRIBLE PATE OF A TYPO. 
 
 While the foregoing incidents illustrate 
 one phase of Kansas life, and show the 
 disturbed state of the country, I will re 
 cite still another, as due to the faithful 
 exposition of the times. 
 
 It was during this same autumn of 
 1856. With the destruction of the Her- 
 aid of Freedom office, my own arrest and 
 imprisonment, and business of every sort 
 suspended throughout the Territory, my 
 typos were thrown out of employment, 
 and every honest means of support was 
 cut off. Four months of the outer world 
 shut out, I lost all trace of them, save of 
 Mr. Whitcomb, who remained faithful to 
 his trust, and did what he could to col 
 lect the broken and scattered ruins of 
 one ot the best printing offices ever taken 
 to Kansas, and prevent farther spiolation. 
 He still lives in Lawrence, with his 
 
44 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN RBOVVN. 
 
 pleasant family, pursuing the delightful 
 occupation of a florist. 
 
 At the time of this incident I had suc 
 ceeded in getting our Free State citizen 
 soldiery removed from the office building, 
 who I found in full possession of each of 
 the three floors, when I returned from 
 camp; had received my new printing 
 office, in spite of Border Ruffian vigilance, 
 which had determined no new printing 
 establishment should reach Free State 
 men in the Territory, and had it arranged 
 in place. My paper, too, had already 
 come to hand, as before mentioned. In 
 short, I was ready to resume work on the 
 typographical department of the paper. 
 Sitting in my sanctum, as in the preced 
 ing incident, preparing matter for publi 
 cation, I heard a loud call at the door: 
 
 " Brown, O, Brown." 
 
 I stepped quickly to the door, and saw 
 a tall, lank, awkward looking figure of 
 the genus homo, sitting astride a fine 
 horse, at the same time leading sixteen 
 others , which were tied together by twos, 
 then a long rope passing between them to 
 which each pair of horses were fastened. 
 The following colloquy ensued: 
 
 "Why, G," (I shall use only the ini 
 tial, for reasons which appear in the 
 sequel,) "is that you? I am so glad to 
 see you," reaching up and shaking him 
 by the hand. "Where have you been 
 through the summer?" 
 
 "Well, lying around loose." 
 
 "I have frequently thought of you, and 
 wondered why you did not put in an ap 
 pearance. Everything is now in working 
 order, and I am short of typos. I wish 
 you to go to work immediately." 
 
 "I would like to 3blige you, Mr. Brown, 
 but I can t do it. Got something better." 
 
 "How is that?" 
 
 * - Why, I have this stock to dispose of. 
 Gov. Geary seems hell bent on tranquil- 
 izing things, and I am going to git as 
 fast as I can with this stock out of the 
 
 Territory, and let him tranquilize." V. 
 
 "Where in the world did you get those 
 horses?" 
 
 "They are reprisals which 1 have made 
 for my last summer s work." 
 
 With a cordial shake, and " good bye," 
 I saw G. for the last time riding hurried 
 ly towards the ferry. 
 
 Fourteen years after I was at Ful 
 ton, Illinois, and in conversation 
 with the publisher of the Journal, 
 learned that it was established 
 by himself and G., I think in the spring 
 ot 1857. As he mentioned the name, it 
 being an odd one, I stated the above 
 facts, with a description of G. s person, 
 and that he was a native Iloosier. 
 
 "You have described him accurately. 
 He is the same person. I well remember 
 his frequent mention of those borcle 
 troubles in Kansas." 
 
 "Had he any money to start with?" 
 
 "Yes, probably the proceeds of the sale 
 of those horses." 
 
 "What has become of him?" 
 
 "I bought him out. He got religion, 
 joined the Baptist church, and is now 
 preaching over in Iowa." 
 
 "The Devil he is," is all I could re 
 spond. "And the proceeds of the stolen 
 horses was the capital he commenced the 
 ministry with." 
 
 Should this meet Rev. Mr. G. s eye, he 
 need not distress himself, for I shall not 
 give the residue of the letters which 
 spell his rather homely name, and Itrust 
 my friend Mr. Whitcomb will not. Noth 
 ing short of an inquisitorial rack, or 
 thumb screw, at least, shall wring them 
 from me; and I know Mr. Booth, late of 
 the Fulton Journal, will not expose him, 
 because he is a member of the same 
 church. 
 
 BREWERTON. 
 
 Again a rap at the door of the sanctum, 
 to which I responded. It could not have 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 varied many days either way from the 
 two preceding cases. 
 
 In stepped a rather pleasant looking, 
 gentlemanly appearing person, some 
 thirty years of age, and extended his 
 hand. I said: 
 
 "You have the advantage of me." 
 
 "Don t you remember Brewerton, of 
 theN. Y. Herald?" 
 
 "Yes, very well, you d d scoundrel, 
 and you get out of here this instant." 
 
 Standing back, as if perfectly shocked, 
 he exclaimed : 
 
 "What does this mean." 
 
 "It means sir, that you are the d d 
 scoundrel who came to my room, at the 
 Harris House, in Westport, with a lot of 
 Southern desperadoes, while I was a 
 prisoner in the hands of a mob, who ex 
 hibited a letter they represented they had 
 taken from the carpet bag of some person 
 from Lawrence, whom they claimed to 
 have captured, revealing a plot to rescue 
 me from them, and when I told them it 
 was a forgery, put up b} r some person of 
 evil intent, you, like the d d scoundrel 
 you are, labored to convince me and them 
 that it was genuine, when you knew it 
 was only a pretext, they were seeking, 
 to take me out and shoot me, as they had 
 repeatedly told me they would do to pre 
 vent a rescue."^ 
 
 "But, you know I was suspected, as 
 a Northern man, and had to work 
 my card very adroitly to keep on good 
 terms with them, and save my own life, 
 during that period of great excitement." 
 
 "Yes, you played the scoundrel and 
 sneak to divert attention from yourself, 
 and I want you to leave this office in 
 stantly." 
 
 "But I am not accustomed to being 
 talked to in this manner. I was formerly 
 a midshipman in the United Stages 
 Navy." ^ 
 
 "The greater reason why you should 
 
 have been a gentleman. Git /" 
 And he got. 
 
 Reader, I always despised profane lan 
 guage and made it an invariable rule to 
 discharge from uiy employ any workman 
 accustomed to its use, or who was intem 
 perate in the use of spirituous liquors, but 
 in this case please remember our "Uncle 
 Toby, in Flanders," who used to 
 swear enormously big oaths while there, 
 but when the recording angel had writ 
 ten down the words, and remembered the 
 great occasion which called them forth, 
 according to Sterne, he dropped a tear 
 upon the record, and wiped it out for 
 ever. I trust he did so on the above oc 
 casion. 
 
 And then we have a somewhat analo 
 gous case with Uncle Toby s, which, with 
 the reader s permission, I will offer in 
 further extenuation. It was told me 
 by a clergyman for the truth, and of 
 course it is so. 
 
 Late in the autumn of 1854, so ran the 
 story, an eastern settler, whom we will 
 call Mallory, was engaged with his oxen 
 in doing some labor just out of Lawrence. 
 A clergyman riding past interrupted the 
 laborer with : 
 
 "Good morning, Mr. Mallory." 
 
 "Good morning, Elder, I am glad to 
 see you." 
 
 "But I was not aware until this morn 
 ing that you were a profane man." 
 
 "I am not, I never swear. My parents, 
 were pious people, and they gave me a 
 pious education. I always despised the 
 practice of profane swearing." 
 
 "You surprise me, Mr. Mallory. lean- 
 not understand it. As I came up I 
 thought I never heard a person swear so 
 wickedly as you were doing." 
 
 "Oh, no, Elder, your ears have de 
 ceived you. I never swear." 
 
 "How could I be so deceived?" 
 
 "Why, what in the world could I have 
 
46 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 said that you have mistaken it for pro 
 fanity?" 
 
 "You were directing your remarks to 
 the oxen." 
 
 "Oh, oh, Elder, I understand you now. 
 The truth is, I bought these cattle down 
 in Missouri, and I was only addressing 
 language to them they would under 
 stand." ; 
 
 It is hoped the people of Lawrence 
 have ceased to buy Missouri cattle; and 
 if Brewerton never intrudes himself again 
 on my premises, I will try and never use 
 such emphatic terms again. 
 
 A FIRST CLASS BORE. > 
 
 Bores are frequent attendants in a 
 newspaper office. They thoughtlessly 
 trespass on the time and patience of the 
 editor, when he is preparing important 
 matter for the press, delay the printers, 
 by forcing them to wait for copy, and 
 annoy him in allsoits of ways. I have 
 a case of this character, which the reader 
 will allow me to narrate, for the benefit 
 of the press, which, certainly is applic 
 able to our title of a "Thrilling Incident 
 of Border Life." 
 
 It was December, 6th 1856. Theday 
 was rather cheerless. Moist snow was 
 falling in large flakes, melting nearly as 
 S joii as it reached the ground. 
 
 I was seated in my sanctum, as usual, 
 hard at work, writing editorials for my 
 paper, which then had a circulation bor 
 dering closely on 8,010. I had no assist 
 ant, and often wrote from ten to sixteen 
 columns of matter each week, besides 
 conducting a heavy business correspond 
 ence. To do this vast amount of labor I 
 was compelled to be wholly alone. My 
 clerks were instructed to allow no person 
 to pass through their room into mine, un 
 less it was a case of the greatest import 
 ance. 
 
 The sanctum was a beautiful room, in 
 the middle of the building, on the sec 
 ond floor, dxteeii foot square, high 
 
 <H1 ing, well lighted, the floor carpeted, 
 two fine book cases well filled, pictures 
 on the wall, a large round table in the 
 center of the room, and a beautifully or 
 namented stove, which I took great pride 
 in keeping nicely polished. In one c< r- 
 ner of the room was a little trap door, 
 probably 12 by 20 inches, a series of 
 them extending through the building to 
 the roof, to be used in cases of emergency. 
 These traps gave direct access to the 
 workmen, either on the first 01 third 
 floor. The typos were above, and through 
 the trap the foreman received his copy. 
 
 I was seated at my table, in the midst 
 of a heavy article, laboring to show that 
 tranquility was fully restored to Kansas; 
 that the golden age had really dawned; 
 that the lost Eden was found ; our gorg 
 eous prairies were teeming with houey 
 and wine; and was telling everybody and 
 his wife to come right there, by first 
 steamer up the Missouri, and enjoy thia 
 newly-discovered Paradise, wher I was 
 interrupted by an attempt to enter at the 
 door, which was fastened. I was in an 
 unusual hurry, behind with copy, and a 
 long train of thought, which I wished to 
 get on paper, before it should take wings 
 and fly away, as my best always does. 
 
 Two or three clerks, among whom, by 
 the way, was John E. Cook, an accom 
 plished penman, who was hung with old 
 John Brown, at Harper s Ferry, were 
 hard at work arranging subscription 
 books in the business office, so I resolved 
 I would not be interrupted. 
 
 But the door was shook again, followed 
 by three raps, the sesame which had been 
 agreed upon with the clerks to ope" tho 
 door. 
 
 Impatient with the annoyance, I pTisscd 
 to the door and opened it, when in 
 stepped a gentleman of probably 35 years 
 of age, heavy set, wearing a slouch hat, 
 face unshaven for a week, with the gen 
 eral air of a man that had his own notion 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 47 
 
 of things, ami cared but little what oth 
 ers thought about it. 
 
 I passed him a chair, in front of the 
 warm stove, made some remarks about 
 the weather, when the following colloquy 
 ensued : 
 
 " Rather an unpleasant day to travel." 
 
 " Quite." 
 
 " You have just arrived in the Terri 
 tory?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 "Do you come to locate with us?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " What State are you from?" 
 
 " Indiana." 
 
 "How are you pleased with Kansas?" 
 
 " Well." 
 
 Here the trap was raised, and the fore 
 man called, Copy." 
 
 " Excuse me a few minutes, I have an 
 article well under way, which I will soon 
 finish. 1 
 
 The trap was let down, when I dipped 
 my pen, already between my fingers, in 
 the ink, and remarked: 
 
 " I am yery much pressed to supply 
 copy as fast as needed, as my pap?r is 
 almost wholly original." 
 
 Again I dipped my pen in the ink, as 
 if to write, but my thoughts were gone. 
 To add to my grief, my visitor took from 
 his pocket a case of tobacco, extracted a 
 quid, and commenced chewing, and soon 
 after made a target of my beautiful stove. 
 The door was open in front, exposing a 
 glowing fire. ^ He evidently aimed to hit 
 the opening; but in spite of his skill in 
 that direction he would frequently miss, 
 then a hiss, accompanied by a foul odor, 
 and a soiled place was exposed. 
 
 I tried to draw my visitor out, and 
 learn the object of his call, but could 
 not. Everything I said, or inquiry made, 
 was answered with a monosyllable. 
 
 Up again, every few minutes, would fly 
 the trap, and down would come the cry 
 of "Copy 1 We are all out of copy." 
 
 The pen would be again loaded, but 
 the thoughts were on the bore, and I 
 could not write. To demand his busi 
 ness seemed impolite, and what to do 
 was the conundrum I did not know 
 how to solve. Dear reader, were you ever 
 similarly afflicted? 
 
 Then it seemed an age. Looking back 
 upon the events, and recalling the vexa 
 tion I experienced at the abuse my stove 
 was receiving, when I had long ago 
 pushed a spittoon to my visitor s feet, to 
 which he paid no attention, it is a wonder 
 that I did not make a slight draft on 
 Mallory s language to the oxen to help 
 me out. 
 
 When my patience was nearly exhaust 
 ed, and I was studying what to say to 
 get rid ot the intruder, to relieve the 
 monotony, he arose, looked at the 
 pictures on the wall, read my cer 
 tificate of membership in the Grand 
 Division Sons of Temperance, as also 
 of the Grand Temple of Honor of Penn 
 sylvania. Then coming to the table, 
 with both hands on it, leaning over 
 towards me, he inquired : 
 
 "Have yua any subscribers at Centre- 
 ville, Indiana?" 
 
 "I think so." 
 
 "Who arc they?" 
 
 I stepped to the business room, called 
 for my Indiana subscription book, opened 
 to Centreville, and read a handsome list 
 of names . 
 
 "Put down " 
 
 I did so. 
 
 "Put down " 
 
 "Put down " 
 
 And so he continued, I following di 
 rections until I had added some eighteen 
 names. 
 
 "Put down the number on a slip of 
 paper. Have you any subscribers at Ce- 
 darville?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Who are they?" 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 And thus on from one place to another, 
 each with a long list, until I had entered 
 an even ninety names. 
 
 "How much do you want for them? 1 
 
 "One hundred and thirty-five dollars 
 I furnish them all to you at my lowest 
 club rates." 
 
 He drew from his pocket a bag of coin, 
 and counted out $135 in gold, which I 
 trarsf erred to my safe, thinking to myself 
 as I did so : 
 
 "You may spit on my stove just as 
 m ich as you dum please." 
 
 ) I then inquired his name. He gave it 
 as DrJas.G.Blunt. He was afterward Maj. 
 General, in the war of the rebellion, and 
 I had the pleasure of telling Col.Thomas 
 Moonlight, now of Leavenworth, the 
 above facts,in the presence of Gen. Blunt 
 and seveial members of his staff. 
 
 I suppose my journalistic friends will 
 call the General a "First Class Bore." 
 I While recently in Kansas, I learned 
 with much sadness, that Gen. Blunt is at 
 this time an inmate of an insane asylum, 
 I think at Washington. 
 
 THE LETTER WRITERS. 
 
 Having had frequent occasion to refer 
 to, or quote from the professional letter 
 writers of Kansas, it may not be improper 
 to give a few passing lines to them, be 
 fore we return to the "Liberator.* Many 
 of the names of these gentlemen have 
 escaped me. The most prominent were 
 Jas. Redpath, Wm. Phillips, Richard 
 Raelf, Richard J. Hinton, J. H Kagi and 
 John E. Cook. There were others, as A. 
 D. Richardson, Capt. H., previously men 
 tioned, S. F. Tappan, Mr. Russel, etc. 
 The first four names were foreigners, and 
 nearly all were in sympathy with old 
 John Brown, and acted as apologists, and 
 vindicators of him. 
 
 Redpath made his rrrst appearance in 
 Kansas, in June, 1855. For a time he 
 made his headquarters at the Herald of 
 Freedom oftice, and I saw and knew much 
 
 of him. He was ambitious to secure a 
 position as reporter of the Bogus Legis 
 lature, which assembled at Pawnee on 
 the 2nd of July, 1855, and was suc 
 cessful. He failed, for some reason, to 
 give satisfaction, and was discharged, af 
 ter the removal of that body to the 
 Shawnee Mission. He claimed to have 
 traveled all over the South, mostly on foot, 
 spending much of his time among the 
 slaves. As a correspondent he was wholly 
 unreliable, drawing so largely on ^ his 
 imagination that it was difficult to dis 
 tinguish the truth from falsehood. He 
 was a violent Northern secessionist in 
 feeling, and all his energies seemed di 
 rected to involve the extremes of the Re 
 public in a bloody collision. He es 
 tablished a paper at Doniphan, under the 
 auspices of Gen. Lane, but they soon fell 
 out, and he left the Territory in disgust, 
 and engaged in the Haytian emigration 
 business. To aid the enterprise he pub 
 lished a paper at Boston, entitled the 
 Palm and Pine, from which I have 
 already copied. He is now the recog 
 nized head of the Boston Literary Bureau. 
 He recently disappeared mysteriously 
 from New York, but in due time turned 
 up in San Francisco. 
 
 Mr. Phillips was sent to Kansas as the 
 special correspondent of the New York 
 Tribune, in the summer or autumn of 
 1855. He was a man of fine ability, de 
 signed to write nothing but the truth, and 
 had many excellent qualifications of head 
 and heart. He placed too much confidence 
 in the reports of his associates; frequently 
 magnified molehills into mountains; and 
 was an extreme partizan with a tendency 
 toward the John Brown school. Instead 
 of encouraging Northern emigration, his 
 published articles were always lugubrious 
 and lacking in hope and confidence in 
 the final result. 
 
 Richard Raelf came to Kansas, over 
 land, through Iowa, in the fall of 1856, 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 reaching Lawrence with the Eldridgc 
 party, some time about the middle of 
 October. Raelf represented himself as 
 an adopted son of Lady Byron ; claimed 
 to have had some trouble with her; came 
 to New York, and engaged as an assistant 
 to Mr Pease, in the House of Industry, 
 belonging to the Five Point s Mission. 
 Thence he drifted to Kansas. He was 
 "something of a poet," an enthusiastic 
 admirer of old John Brown, an advocate 
 of the fighting policy, but was not a suc 
 cess as a correspondent. He suicided last 
 year in San Francisco. 
 
 Hm ton, like Red path, Philips and 
 Raelf, was an Englishman. He came to 
 Kansas with the same party with Raelf, 
 in October, 1856. He obtained a situa 
 tion as typo, in the Herald of Freedom 
 office, but was wholly incompetent as a 
 compositor, being paid by the thousand, 
 his wages rarely or never exceeded $3 50 
 a week, when good workmen made $12 to 
 $15 a week. He was transferred to 
 the position of assistant clerk, and 
 thence joined the letter-writing fraternity. 
 
 Cook, too, was an employe for some 
 three months in the Herald of Freedom 
 office; was engaged principally in copy 
 ing subscription books; making indexes; 
 and entering lists of new subscribers. 
 He came to Kansas in the spring of 1856, 
 from Indiana, and joined Lenhart and 
 others in a sort ot guerilla warfare 
 through that summer. He fell into the 
 embraces of old John Brown,- and died 
 on the gallows a few days after the "Lib 
 erator." He was a man of generous im 
 pulses, and, in peaceful times, and oth 
 er surroundings would have made a 
 worthy citizen. An anonymous writer, 
 since these articles were in course of pub 
 lication, wrote me that he lacked bravery. 
 
 Kagi I never saw but once, and then 
 was favorably impressed with his appear 
 ance. He was correspondent for the 
 National Era, at Washington, a very 
 
 worthy, high-toned. Free Soil paper. He 
 was Captain Brown s Secretary of War, 
 and was killed at Harper s Ferry. He 
 became known in Kansas principally by 
 a personal encounter with Judge Elmore, 
 at Tecumseh. 
 
 These young men, inexperienced in 
 practical lite, imbued with the wildest 
 romance, and seeking to involve the 
 Government in revolution, writing under 
 nom de plumes, and flooding the country 
 with sensational letters, in too many in 
 stances wholly devoid of truth, gave a 
 false coloring to history, which will 
 probably impress it for years, if not for 
 all time. Take the "Life of John Brown," 
 written by one of them, for illustration : 
 I have shown conclusively that the pro 
 duction is in no way reliable; that the 
 entire work was a eulogy published in the 
 interest ol John Brown s family, with 
 everything objectionable in his character 
 carefully omitted, or heavily gilded; and 
 yet so worthy and enduring a work as 
 "The American Cyclopedia," in its arti 
 cle on Old John Brown, has only greatly 
 abridged Redpath s book, without adding 
 a single additional statement. Probably 
 the Encyclopedia Britanica borrows its 
 article, in substance, from the American. 
 French and German publications will fol 
 low, while other nations will copy, and 
 thus is realized the truth of that maxim : 
 "Falsehood will travel a league while 
 Truth is putting on his boots to join in 
 pursuit." 
 
 Sensational writers, endorsing each 
 other, gave coloring to everything they 
 attempted. Genuine merit was ob 
 scured and real worth was passed with- 
 out mention; tinsel was thrown over 
 their heroes, whilst their meritorious 
 works were magnified many times, and 
 their vices and crimes concealed. Thus 
 left, the future historian has a herculean 
 task before him, else an admiring gener 
 ation will convert these heroes of an idle 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 braiu into gods for narrow minds to wor 
 ship. 
 
 Exeunt, the letter writers. 
 
 JOHN BROWN S CABIN A FRAUD. 
 
 Hon. James Hanway, of Lane, Frank 
 lin Co., Kansas, at the Old Settlers Con 
 vention, at Bismark Grove,near Lawrence, 
 on the 15th and 16th of September, 1879, 
 said, from the public stand, that he 
 wished to make a correction in regard to 
 old John Brown, because it was due to 
 history. He then said a photographer 
 had taken a picture of an old log cabin, 
 i*-hich he had erected on his place at an 
 early day, for preemption purposes, but 
 bad long been unoccupied. After the 
 picture was complete the artist inquired 
 what he should call it. 
 
 " Well, old John Brown used to visit 
 me quite frequently, while we lived in 
 the cabin, suppose we call it the John 
 Brown Cabin. 1 " 
 
 Agreeably to the suggestion, Judge 
 Hanway said, the picture was so named, 
 and the artist went away with it. A lit 
 tle time alter he saw an engraved illus 
 tration of the cabin, in a Kansas City 
 paper,and published as the veritable John 
 Brown s Cabin. At the Philadelphia 
 Centennial, the old gentleman added, 
 there were thousands of this fraud dis 
 posed of to the credulous, at high figures, 
 who wanted some relic of their hero. 
 " But John Brown," he continued, "never 
 owned a cabin nor any land in Kansas." 
 
 In the first biennial report of the State 
 Board of Agriculture of Kansas, a beau 
 tifully executed volume of 632 pages 
 printed on heavy paper, and finely illus 
 trated, we find a wood cut of this cabin 
 fraud, so characteristic of many other 
 events Brown s eulogists have falsely 
 heaped upon him, for the historian to 
 correct, underneath which is printed 
 44 John Brown s Cabin, in southwestern 
 part of Franklin county, near Osawot- 
 
 omie, Miami Co., (from a photograph by 
 A. W. Barker.)" 
 
 Gov. Anthony aided and abetted in ex 
 tending and perpetuating this fraud, by 
 sending a copy of the engraving to a 
 Subscription Club in Paris, France. He 
 says: "With this I hand you an engrav 
 ing of John Brown s Cabin, still stand 
 ing, as it did when it domiciled the old 
 hero during his residence in Kansas." 
 
 This fact shows how myths are made. 
 That cabin will be as immortal as the 
 apple in the mythical story of Wm. Tell. 
 Are all our histories of prominent per 
 sonages as devoid of truth as are those of 
 old John Brown? 
 
 THE HOME OF JOHN BROWN. 
 
 From the same piece with the "Cabin 
 Fraud" comes a statement as late as 
 November 12, 1879, from the present 
 Governor of Kansas, John P. St John, a 
 very excellent gentleman, by the way, 
 who telegraphed the Chicago Daily News, 
 as the Governor said, from "The home of 
 Old John Brown." 
 
 Seven cities claimed to be the birth 
 place of Homer; but it is difficult to 
 understand how it is possible for any 
 person, while living, to have two "homes" 
 at the same time. "Home," in law and 
 fact, is the place where a person is dom 
 iciled. Domicile is a place of permanent 
 residence. That place is where the lam 
 ily resides. From John Brown s first en 
 trance into Kansas, in the fall of 1855, to 
 the time of his execution, December 2d, 
 1859, his family was on his faim at 
 North Elba, New York, and th- re, 
 in the writer s natal county of Essex, 
 among the Adirondac mountains, where 
 he was born, rests in tranquility the 
 bones of the "Liberator." Far be it from 
 me to disturb his repose, or wrest from 
 his fame a single well-earned laurel; but 
 I am laboring to brush away the false in 
 history, which his eulogists have thrown 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BKOVVN. 
 
 around him, in many instances robbed 
 from those better entitled to wear the 
 garland than he. 
 
 A GLANCE IN PASSING. 
 
 Many of the most interesting pages in 
 Kansas history, when correctly and fully 
 written, will be those describing the in 
 tervening events between the autumn of 
 1856, and November, 1857. The period 
 embraces the whole of Gov. Geary s ad 
 ministration, extending through six 
 months; of Secretary Stanton s term, as 
 Acting Governor, for one month ; and 
 about six months of Gov. Walker s ad 
 ministration. 
 
 ,The correspondents and "fighting men," 
 made a continual warfare on these gen 
 tlemen; but they were, nevertheless, very 
 worthy persons, and came to Kansas with 
 a sincere desire to do justly by all 
 parties. They were hampered by instruc 
 tions issued by the State Department at 
 Washington, and were frequently embar- 
 assed with interferences by co-ordinate de 
 partments ot government. Each employed 
 all his power to correct abuses, and con 
 tinually labored with the President in 
 that direction, but was unsuccessful. 
 
 The President was under the influence 
 of Jefferson Davis, the man of "evil 
 destiny," who seemed to have Kansas 
 affairs in his keeping, and whose great 
 ambition was to make it a slave State. 
 
 When Gov. Geary saw he could not be 
 permitted to right our wrongs, he re 
 signed, and left the Territory ; but his in 
 fluence for free Kansas did not end here. 
 After Gov. Walker s appointment he paid 
 that functionary a visit, and made known 
 to him the outrages which had been per 
 petrated on the Free State settlers, by 
 Missouri and the South, and placed him 
 in rapport with influential Free State 
 men in Kansas, who wielded valuable in 
 fluence over him during his whole term 
 of office. 
 
 When Gov. Walker found that his 
 
 instructions would not permit a faithful 
 discharge of his duties to the citizens, 
 he visited Washington in person, and 
 labored with the President to get his in 
 structions changed; failing, he, too, re 
 signed. 
 
 Secretary Stanton, who again became 
 Acting Governor, also attempted to assist 
 the real settlers, but was immediately 
 sacrificed to placate the South, and was. 
 removed by the President. 
 
 Each of the Governors were violently 
 denounced by the Bohemians of the 
 press, and with Gov. Walker, it required 
 great effort to prevent his being driven 
 into extreme measures, by their false, 
 abusive and violent denunciations of 
 him. 
 
 Each of these Governors, on leaving the 
 Territory, became indentified with the 
 friends of free Kansas. Gov. Geary 
 served his country with gallantry in the 
 war of the rebellion, and was made Gov 
 ernor of Pennsylvania,by the Republican 
 party, discharging his duties faithfully 
 and satisfactorily to all. Gov. Walker 
 was sent by President Lincoln, on a se 
 cret and very important mission to Eng 
 land, during the rebellion, and received 
 therefor the highest commendation of the 
 Martyr President. These facts show that 
 however greatly they were misunderstood 
 the time, in Kansas, their impulses were 
 leading them in a proper direction. 
 
 The writer had special opportunities of 
 information in regard to the official con 
 duct of each of these gentlemen ; and he 
 believes it a duty he owes to impartial 
 history, some day, to give that knowl 
 edge to the public. 
 
 In my next I shall resume John 
 Brown s connection with Kansas affairs, 
 and hurry these Reminiscences to a close, 
 stopping by the way, to correct any er- 
 ros, pointed out by critics, which, lapse 
 of years, or defective information has !ed 
 me into. Each person who has or may 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 point out any discrepancy between my 
 statements and facts will please accept 
 my cordial thanks. 
 
 RETURN TO KANSAS. 
 
 During this long period, from about 
 the middle of September, 1856, to No 
 vember, 1857, old John Brown has been 
 laboring in the Eastern States, soliciting 
 funds to arm a body ot men to return to 
 Kansas, and make reprisals in Missouri. 
 As before stated, he contracted in Col- 
 linsville, Conn., for one thousand pikes, 
 to be "fixed to the end of a pole, about 
 six feet long," which he told the manu 
 facturer he proposed "to place in the 
 hands of the settlers in Kansas, to keep 
 in their cabins, to defend themselves 
 against border ruffians and wild beasts. " 
 This was his ostensible object. His REAL 
 object was to place these rude instru 
 ments, which only required physical 
 force to wield them, in the hands of slaves 
 in Missouri. 
 
 In August, 1857, Capt Brown, with a 
 small party, reached Tabor, near the 
 south-western corner of Iowa, where he 
 remained inactive until the 2d of Novem 
 ber, when, with one of his sons, he set 
 out with his own conveyance for Kansas. 
 
 We find him a few days after in coun 
 cil with various parties in the vicinity of 
 Lawrence. His stay in that vicinity 
 was quite brief, limited to about three 
 days. He seems to have enlisted John 
 E. Cook, Richard Raelf and L. F. Par 
 sons in his enterprise on this trip. Red- 
 path was already co-operating, and Hin- 
 ton, according to Cook, was to have 
 joined the adventure. The Captain re 
 turned by way of Topeka, to Nebraska, 
 thence to his place of general rendezvous, 
 at Tabor. 
 
 Why the Captain made so brief a stay 
 in Kansas is not apparent. Probably he 
 was disappointed in finding that the 
 "Voting Policy," as distinguished from 
 the "Fighting Policy," had prevailed. 
 
 Certain it is, the Free State party, 
 through the faithfulness of Gov. Walker 
 to public and private pledges, had con 
 trol of both houses of the Legislative 
 Assembly of the Territory, and had se 
 cured the certificate of election for their 
 Delegate in Congress. This matter hung 
 in doubt for a time, and the Bohemians 
 of the press were almost positive in their 
 statements that Gov. Walker and Secre 
 tary Stanton would play false to Mieir 
 pledges. 
 
 It is possible the Captain s movement 
 was inspired Kansasward at that time, 
 with a bloody project in view. It was 
 certainly fortunate for the tranquility of 
 the Territory that he was detained in 
 Iowa, from the 7th of August to the 3d 
 of November "for the want of funds," as 
 his biographer states, for it is very prob 
 able a renewal of strife was saved by the 
 event. 
 
 I have one of the most exciting chap 
 ters in Kansas history, to detail, sometime, 
 which occurred during this interesting 
 period, and which may partially explain 
 John Brown s reasons for hovering on 
 the borders of Kansas during this inter 
 val. To introduce it in these pages 
 would require the introduction of other 
 characters, which are not at present the 
 subjects of inquiry, hence an account of 
 it is reserved for another occasion. 
 
 Each movement of the Captain, until 
 his visit in November to Lawrence, 
 looked towards a renewal of the strife by 
 him on the Kansas border. He had bid 
 "farewell" to New England in April, 
 1857; had an engagement with Col. 
 Hugh Forbes to meet him at Tabor in 
 June to instruct a number of young 
 Kansas men in military tactics; in May 
 he was journeying in that direction. On 
 July 4th he left Cleveland, O., for Iowa 
 City. Reached Tabor on the 7th of 
 August. Was joined by his "drill 
 master" on the 9th. He had quite a little 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 party with him at this time. He visited 
 Lawrence in November, as we have just 
 seen, taking one son with him, and k-av- 
 ing two others at Tabor. He called on 
 E. B. Whitman, living a few miles west 
 of Lawrence. On reaching Topeka, en 
 route back to Tabor, he told Cook that 
 the party "were to leave Kansas to attend 
 a military school during the winter; and 
 that it was the intention to go to Ashta- 
 bula County, Ohio." 
 
 ^ow it seems there was a sudden 
 ^nange in the "Liberator s" mind. Here is 
 a back step, and an explanation as to the 
 cause is required. On his return to Tabor 
 he communicated to his followers that 
 Harper s Ferry would be the point of at 
 tack. 
 
 Did the Captain call on Gov. Robinson 
 while in Lawrence? What was the 
 character of their interview? Did that 
 interview have anything to do with hip 
 change of base, and Ids precipitate re 
 treat? I have written the Goyernor for 
 information in this direction, and hope to 
 receive his answer in time for the next 
 number of the series. 
 
 AN IMPORTANT LETTER. 
 
 I wrote Gov. Robinson recently, as 
 stated in the previous article, recalling a 
 conversation between us twenty years 
 ago, in regard to an interview between 
 him and Old John Brown, and wished the 
 facts for publication. He hesitated to 
 furnish a statement, but with the assur 
 ance that I should repeat it according to 
 my recollections, which would possibly 
 b/ing him before the public in reply, he 
 sent me the following, which has just 
 reached me in time for this place. 
 Whether that interview was had on the 
 occasion of the Captain s visit to Law 
 rence, in November, 1857, when his 
 whole plan of operations seemed so sud 
 denly changed, or a year later, at the 
 close of the troubles in Linn and Bour 
 bon Counties, is not apparent. From 
 
 some facts in my possession I am led to 
 think it occurred on the occasion of this 
 visit, for the Governor saw clearly the 
 end of civil strife at that time, and, like 
 other permanent settlers who desired to 
 see order substituted for anarchy, was 
 laboring to bring about an era of peace. 
 It is possible the Captain s mission was 
 in pursuit of money with which to pro 
 long the agitation, and which the Gov 
 ernor thought best to withhold from him, 
 at the same time suggesting very good 
 reasons for so doing. But these, the 
 reader will understand, are my own de 
 ductions. The letter is as follows: ^ 
 
 LAWRENCE, Kan., Nov. 24, 1879. 
 
 GEO. W. BROWN, M. D. DEAR SIR: 
 Your favor asking for an account of my 
 interview with John Brown, as he left 
 the Territory of Kansas, is received. The 
 particulars of the conversation I cannot 
 give, as I made no memoranda at the 
 time. The interview was very friendly, 
 and a frank review was had of the two 
 lines of policy pursued in Kansas, name 
 ly, his policy of involving the North and 
 South in a war; and our Free State pol 
 icy of surrounding the slave States with 
 free, and securing the Federal as well as 
 State governments on the side of free 
 dom. 
 
 He frankly admitted that from my 
 standpoint we had acted wisely, and had 
 succeeded; but from his standpoint, so 
 far as aiding the cause of emancipation 
 it was a failure. But as his presence here 
 would be a source of annoyance, and do 
 no good, he would seek another field of 
 operations, but did not say where. 
 
 It may not be generally known that_ I 
 was authorized to draw on a person in 
 Boston, for money to support John Brown 
 in Kansas, if I thought his presence 
 beneficial to the Free State cause. I had 
 written this person that I thought his 
 presence a hindrance rather than a help 
 at that time. Probably Mr. Brown had 
 been so informed. It is possible that 
 Amos A. Lawrence can tell where the 
 letter can be found. 
 
 I notice in Redpath s book, he repre 
 sents Mr. Brown as speaking very con 
 temptuously of the Free State men in 
 general, and of myself in particular. If 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 lohe was very hypocritical, as iu my pros 
 ence he was always most respectful, and 
 appeared to give Free State men credit 
 for acting honestly and efficiently, al 
 though not to suit him or his policy. 
 
 Very truly, C. ROBINSON. 
 
 Whether this interview was in the au 
 tumn of 1857 or 1858, is not important to 
 these inquiries. It shows how the Gov 
 ernor regarded the prolongation of civil 
 strife, and how sincerely desirous he was 
 to end it. And it gives us, in his own 
 words, what he thought of John Brown s 
 services in Kansas as an auxiliary in the 
 cause of freedom. 
 
 "KANSAS TOO HOT FOII HIM." 
 
 Another interesting period in Kansas 
 history is passed, lying between the mid 
 dle Qf November, 1857, to the last of 
 June, 1858, when our hero again appears 
 upon the scene. There had been more 
 or less difficulty for soipe months, in 
 southern Kansas, growip 7 out of conflict 
 ing land titles between Free State and 
 pro-slavery men. This led to aggressive 
 acts on the part of each of the contending 
 factions. 
 
 party of armed pro-slavery ruffians, 
 ^metime in June, 1858, under the lead 
 ership of one Hamilton, visited a Free 
 State neighborhood, and gathered one by 
 one, eleven citizens, marched them into a 
 deep ravine, formed them into line, and 
 fired upon them. They all fell to the 
 ground, five were instantly killed, five 
 were seriously wounded, and one escaped 
 unharmed. 
 
 An intense excitement justly lollowed 
 this bloody procedure. The whole 
 country was on fire. Capt Brown was in 
 the States at the time, had just made ar 
 rangements for the completion of his 
 pikes in Connecticut, and for their ship 
 ment to Chambersburgh, Pa., on their way 
 to Virginia. He again hurried to Kan 
 sas, taking his faithful Kagi with him. 
 According to Redpath, one of the mo 
 tives which prompted Captain Brown to 
 
 return to Kansas, at this time, was to di 
 vert attention from his Harper s Ferry 
 project. On his return to Iowa, in 57, 
 from Lawrence, he had freely c6mmuni- 
 cated to Col. Forbes, his drill master, his 
 changed plan of operations. During the 
 winter they fell out, and Forbes left for 
 the East. The Captain was fearful that 
 the Colonel would communicate to the 
 government his plan of operating in Vir- 
 ginia,hence his appearance in Kansas,the 
 Marias des Cygnes massacre furnishing 
 an excuse, to disguise his real purpose. 
 From that time until the close ot 
 1858, civil strife, with all its horrors, 
 raged in the counties of Linn and Bour 
 bon, which bordered on Missouri. 
 
 Neighbor was arrayed against neigh 
 bor, and each party sought the destruc 
 tion of the other. Conservative Free 
 State men and pro-slavery men united 
 and tried to allay the excitement. The 
 result was their being indiscriminately 
 pillaged by each party. Crimination 
 and re-crimination was the order of the 
 day. Though the disturbance was origi 
 nally began by the pro-slavery agitators, 
 the violence of Hamilton met with earn 
 est hostility from his own party friends, 
 and many joined the conservative Free 
 State men in trying to suppress the 
 discord. 
 
 The reader would not be interested in 
 a reviewal and detailed history of these 
 exciting times. And I am frank to own 
 that I have not the requisite knowledge 
 to a clear exposition of them. Neither 
 can I tell what important part John 
 Brown played in them, other than he was 
 assocated with the extreme Free State 
 men in making reprisals from the oppos 
 ing factions. 
 
 The Herald of Freedom was regularly 
 issued during this period, and correspon 
 dents were continual! y reporting the 
 condition of affairs, bvt th st 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 were so conflicting that it seemed almost 
 impossible to arrive at the truth. 
 
 It was during this period that the 
 Mayhawking" fraternity sprang into be- 
 inir, and such men as Quautrell, who at 
 that time was recognized as a Free State 
 man , coming originally from Ohio, was 
 educated for the terrible work he was 
 afterwards guilty of, in leading a large 
 party, [I was about to say five 
 hundred, but apprehensive that John 
 Speer, or some other critic, had counted 
 them, and found there were but four 
 hundred and ninety-nine, I have con 
 cluded to be extremely cautious,] of 
 Bu-hwhackers into Lawrence, and shoot 
 ing- down in cold blood one hundred and 
 eighty citizens,robbed the banks, pillaged 
 the town, and burned the best portion of it, 
 leaving ruin, desolation and death every 
 where. Tt was a fearful school, and the 
 consequences were not limited to a few 
 years, nor confined to Kansas. 
 
 Brown made repeated raids into Mis 
 souri captured horses, "blooded stock," 
 ran off slaves, and made his name a ter 
 ror through all that region. The Gov 
 ernor of Missouri offered a reward of 
 $8,000 for his apprehension, and made a 
 requisition on the Governor of Kansas 
 for his arrest and extradition as a fugi 
 tive from justice. President Buchanan 
 added to the reward. 
 
 Gov. Denver, some time during this 
 agitation, called to his aid Gov. Robin- 
 eon, who had the confidence of the Free 
 State men, and they, in company, visited 
 the infected region, held public meetings, 
 and labored with their respective friends 
 to restore tranquility to the disturbed 
 country. The United States District 
 Court, Judge Elmore presiding, impan 
 eled a Grand Jury, and subpoenaed a 
 hundred or more witnesses, and called 
 them to Lawrence to give evidence with 
 a view to indictments. 
 
 While the Court was yet in session, the 
 
 Legislature passed a general amnesty 
 law; the Grand Jury was discharged; the 
 witnesses returned to their homes ; and 
 quiet was restored to the convulsed 
 border. 
 
 The American Cyclopedia says: "Not 
 only was a reward offered for Brown s ar 
 rest, but the more moderate Free State men 
 hastejied to disavow any sympathy with his 
 daring acts. The Territory became TOO 
 HOT FOR HIM, and he started, early in 
 January, 1859, for the North, accom 
 panied by four white companions and the 
 liberated negroes." 
 
 Since then, save the troubles growing 
 out of the rebellion, and the excesses 
 produced by bad men educated to deeds 
 of violence in these exciting times, many 
 of whom, it is presumed, have paid the 
 penalty for their wrongs in the peniten 
 tiary, and an occasional Indian scare on 
 the Western border, general trauquility 
 has prevailed throughout Kansas. The 
 Lecompton Constitution was defeated ; & 
 State Constitution, by the honest settlers, 
 was made, and the new State indue time 
 became a member of the Federal Union 
 with the motto on its seal of "Ad astro, 
 per aspera," [To the Stars through diffi 
 culties,] and the future prosperity of the 
 State was secured. 
 
 EXAGGEllATIONS OF HIS EULOGISTS. 
 
 The eastern press, and the eulogists ol 
 John Brown, were not Content to make 
 him a model hero, in almost every direc 
 tion, but they gave him credit for fight 
 ing bravery where battles were never 
 fought: they made him a leader where he 
 did not command ; they represented him 
 a veteran warrior in battles fought while 
 he was a stripling of fourteen years, and 
 full eight hundred miles from (he battle 
 field ; they gave him command of troops 
 where there were none to tight; defended 
 a town against a heavy invading /orce 
 where every one fled to the brush; said 
 he was the savior of a city, where the 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 did not fire a gun; they repre 
 sented him as possessing wisdom he did 
 not exhibit; with judgment to which he 
 seemed a stranger; with owning cabins in 
 fhich he was only a visitor; with being 
 a grower of blooded stock, to put it 
 mildly, which he pressed from their own 
 ers ; with being a heavy landed proprietor 
 in Kansas, where he never owned a rood ; 
 with having a home in Kansas when it 
 was in north-eastern New York; claimed 
 that his wife was insulted and abused, 
 when she was more than a thousand 
 miles distant from the place of pretended 
 outrage; that he had a son hacked to 
 pieces by a hatchet, whom it is question 
 able if he ever saw or heard of him until 
 after his death. 
 
 Even the portraits exhibited by the ad 
 mirers of old John Brown are frauds. 
 During the whole period he was known 
 in Kansas he wore a long, flowing beard. 
 And the same was true of him, at the 
 time ot his execution; but the pictures 
 his friends take delight in, were those of 
 a man several years younger, with a 
 smooth shaven face probably John 
 Brown, the wool-buyer; certainly not 
 John Brown, the Guerilla Chieftain. 
 
 They credited him with making Kan 
 sas a Free State, whereas he retarded its 
 prosperity and threwobstacles in the way 
 of its most zealous and effective workers. 
 Every slave he aided in escaping from 
 Missouri; every horse pressed into his 
 service; and every injury inflicted upon 
 pro-slavery men was repeated on Free 
 State mea, by friends of the injured 
 party, with compound interest. 
 
 Not content with all these, and num 
 berless other misrepresentations ol a sim 
 ilar character, they next gave him a res 
 idence in Osawotomie, where he only 
 lived at times in the guise of a visitor 
 with his sister, or other friends; and, to 
 crown all, gave him a title robfar 1 - from 
 
 another. And that shall be the subject 
 of my next sub-division. 
 
 OSAWOTOMIE BROWN. 
 
 Osawotomie lies near the junction of 
 the Marias des Cygnes and Potawotomia 
 creeks. Uniting at this point the river 
 below is known as the Osage. 
 
 The town was located early in the 
 spring of 1855, by S. C. Pomeroy, repre 
 senting the N. 2. Emigrant Aid Com 
 pany, and Orville C. Brown, a lawyer 
 from Utica, N. Y. The name of the town 
 was compounded by dropping the last 
 two letters from Osage, and the first five 
 from Pottawotomie, joining, formed Osa 
 wotomie, with but one s, as here printed. 
 [O-sa-wot-o-mie.] 
 
 Mr. Brown usually employed only his 
 initials in writing his individual name. 
 As there were so many other Browns in 
 Kansas, and as Orville became quite 
 prominent in our early conventions, he 
 was frequently referred to and known at 
 Lawrence, and elsewhere, as Osawotomie 
 Brown. I recollect very well the earn 
 estness he exhibited when arrested by the 
 mob at Kansas City in place of the 
 writer, and his protest that he was not 
 the Brown they wanted. He was taken 
 to Riddlesbarger s for identity, dis 
 charged, and then the renewal of the ef 
 fort to take the "undersigned." 
 
 When Osawotomie was invaded by 
 Missouri, in a fruitless attempt to cap 
 ture old John Brown, for the Pottawoto 
 mie murders, a son of Orville, ged four 
 teen, fell into the hands of the maraud 
 ers and was carried into Missouri. 
 After a painful search he was found at 
 Lexington, in the care of a Presbyterian 
 deacon, who gladly restored him to his 
 almost frantic parents. From about this 
 time I lose sight of "the genuine, original 
 and simon pure" Osawotomie Brown. 
 Two years later we find the Eastern press 
 applying the pseudonym of "Osawoto- 
 
. REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN RBOWN 
 
 jnie" to old John Urown, the man whose 
 "soul is marching on." 
 
 The press also confounded the name of 
 R. P. Brown, mistaking him for a son of 
 old John, whereas he was a teacher from 
 Michigan, engaged professionally for a 
 period in Mississippi. Seeing a negro 
 burned alive in that State, for some tri 
 fling offense, as he told the writer, he 
 left the South in great disgust, came to 
 Kansas, and located near Leaven- 
 worth. He incurred the displeasure 
 of some drunken pro-slavery ruffians, be 
 cause of his intelligence, coolness and 
 intrepidity in defense of his Free State 
 neighbors, was set upon about the mid 
 dle of January, 1856, and was struck sev 
 eral times on the head with the sharp 
 edge of a hatchet, by which his skull 
 was fractured. He was then thrown into 
 a lumber wagon, taken home, and bru 
 tally dragged into the yard,where he died 
 sooa atter, living loner enough to say, 
 "They have murdered me like a dog." It 
 was a terrible affair, and the actors in 
 the tragedy deserved a dozen deaths; but 
 he and old John Brown were strangers, 
 unless they became acquainted during 
 the so-called u Wakarusa War." 
 
 NOT ALL BAD. 
 
 I am not writing a "biography of John 
 Brown, " nor a "History of Kansas," as 
 my critics allege; but "Reminiscences," 
 or recollection?, as the word is defined, 
 of the Captain, with "Incidents" or 
 sketches ot those times. Neither am I 
 laboring to make my hero a monster of 
 iniquity on the one hand, or a saint on 
 the other. I have desired to tell only 
 what I knew of him, and what has come 
 lo me, and which I believed, from others. 
 
 The Captain and the writer differed 
 widely as regards the means to be em 
 ployed to prevent the extension and se 
 cure the final extinction of slavery, as 
 upon many other subjects. From my 
 earliest recollection war seemed to me a 
 
 terrible calamity. History was never a 
 source of delight, because it was mostly 
 detailed accounts of bloodshed and vio 
 lence. I always thought there was no 
 necessity for the arbitrament of the 
 sword; that the differences between indi. 
 viduals. States and nations ought to find 
 a solution in peaceful means. The God 
 I reverenced was a tender Parent, ever 
 seeking the elevation and happiness of 
 his creatures, never their degradation. 
 
 The shedding of human blood, in my 
 humble estimation, is never justifiable 
 save in defense of life, or when it cannot 
 be otherwise avoided. ,- Capt. Brown s 
 oft-quoted expression, "Without the 
 shedding of blood there is no remission," 
 seemed to give character to all the latter 
 years of his life. He was a friend of the 
 oppressed; with enlarged sympathies; a 
 praying man; and, in many respects, no 
 doubt, a good man; but with his peculiar 
 organization, and his earnest desire to 
 aid the poor slave, he did not properly 
 take into consideration the condition, 
 nor properly respect the rights, liberty 
 and person of the master. 
 
 Like, the "Liberator," I was an anti- 
 slavery man; an abolitionist; a Free 
 Soiler of the John Quincy Adams and J. 
 R. Giddings school ; but in going to Kan 
 sas I proposed to fight the battles of free 
 dom on that plane which I believed 
 would ensure success, and make that ter 
 ritory, and all others bordering upon it, 
 free territory. "One thing at a time" has 
 always seemed an excellent maxim. By 
 occupying certain positions we could ob 
 tain such assistance as to insure the 
 results we aimed at; while an opposite 
 one would, no doubt, have driven thous 
 ands from us. I was opposed to what 
 was known as the "black laws," and so 
 were n early if n;>t all from the New Eng 
 land and Middle States. The Western 
 pioneers, and the great mass, if not all 
 w ho acted with us from the South, on 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BKOWN. 
 
 the contrary, were Free State men only 
 on the condition that negroes should be 
 prohibited from settling among us. We 
 of the East and North felt the terrible 
 injustice of such a provision, and labored, 
 against it until we saw we were endan 
 gering everything by our persistency; 
 then we subordinated our feelings to the 
 prejudices of the masses, and remained 
 silent, confident that more enlarged 
 views would ultimately prevail, when we 
 could regain what was temporarily lost. 
 John Brown, on the contrary, was firm 
 and unbending. He conceded that his 
 course had driven many, otherwise 
 friends, into the opposition; still he kept 
 TO, determined to yield nothing for suc- 
 tess. By so doing, but for others, we 
 must have lost all. 
 
 )That John Brown had many traits of 
 character which commended him to the 
 admiration of the public I am well 
 aware. When on his way to the gallows 
 he stooped and kissed a black child, a 
 poor creature doomed, so far as the 
 world the a knew, to a life of toil and 
 bondage. This incident aroused our 
 tenderest sympathy. That act did much 
 *jo redeem his past wrongs ; but is no reason 
 why we should cover him all over with 
 adulation, falsifying history, and rob 
 other men of their merits, to make liim 
 Appear more sublime. I was willing to 
 give him more than the benefit of a 
 doubt, and admit that in all his de- 
 demands for "blood," when he was so 
 anxious to "go out and draw a little" at 
 Lawrence, from the invaders; when send 
 ing word to Gen. Lane that he would not 
 obey another order unless it was to fight; 
 his statement to Stearns that it would 
 require a God to take Lecompte out of 
 his hands if he had caught hjm; his 
 whole life in Kansas, one of blood he 
 was partly insane a monomaniac on the 
 subject of slavery; a religious enthusiast, 
 K the reader prefers, thinking that hn 
 
 was an instrument in the hands of God 
 to wipe out American slavery. 
 
 It may be said that Brown was justi 
 fied in his bloody exhibitions of charac 
 ter, because of the violence of pro-slavery 
 men. Others suffered far more than he, 
 and their brutal passions were never 
 aroused into violence. And he was by 
 no means the only one who heard threats 
 of indiscriminate slaughter and extermi 
 nation. For many months they were 
 heard continually, and great coolness and 
 forbearance were employed by Free State 
 men everywhere, determined to act only 
 on the defensive. The writer has many 
 vivid recollections of those times, with 
 his own painful experience ; but he looked 
 upon the persecutions as an offshoot oi 
 the accursed system he was laboring tc 
 put down, and looked forward with hope 
 to the time when his eftoits would be 
 crowned with victory. It was this as 
 surance of final success that nerved all, 
 the humblest and highest, to press for 
 ward, and which has ultimated in giving 
 freedom to the world . 
 
 John Brown, the professed Christian, 
 should have taken lessons from his Ex 
 emplar, instead of showing such a thirst 
 for blood, His character at Harper s 
 Ferry, after he was wounded, while under 
 arrest, his hopes blighted, and even while 
 in the engine house in the treatment of 
 prisoners, was in pleasing contrast with 
 what he exhibited in Kansas, and seems 
 almost irreconcilable with his disregard 
 cf human life at Pottawotomie. 
 
 CONFIRMATION. 
 
 I have been careful, throughout this 
 scries of articles, to make no statement 
 of my own, that John Brown was di 
 rectly connected with the Pottawotomie 
 massacre ; but I have arrayed such evi~ 
 dence as was in my possession, to prove 
 this fact upon him. How successful I 
 have been is left to others to decide. 
 Allow me, reader, before I close, to r.M 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN 
 
 the additional facts which have come 
 into my possession, as I hope to settle 
 his qu estion beyond further controversy. 
 
 A well-known gentleman of integrity, 
 a prominent citizen of Lawrence, well 
 known to me, since the spring of 1855, 
 wrote me a private letter, of date Nov. 
 16, 1879, from which I make the follow 
 ing extract : 
 
 "Just before sunset, on the night of the 
 massacre, I met old John Brown and his 
 party, within a few miles of the Doyle 
 settlement, on the Pottawotomie, and 
 going in that direction. John Brown, 
 Jr., and his company, were, at the time, 
 in camp at Palmyra, this county. Old 
 John Brown and his party left the camp 
 early in the day, and did not return until 
 the next day, when they came to the 
 camp, then on Toywa creek near Jones . 
 * * I have never felt disposed to make 
 the facts of that affair public." 
 
 Another gentleman of Lawrence wrote 
 me. Nov. 23, 1879 : 
 
 "I have been reading your articles on 
 old John Brown. I am glad to see some 
 one has the courage to write the truth 
 about the Pottawotomie affair; but, good 
 Lord, wont they go for you? I have often 
 felt like telling what I know about it; 
 but I was conscious those who were 
 wholly ignorant of the facts, and were 
 determined to remain so, would say I 
 was telling that which was not true, 
 hence I have remained silent." 
 
 Even John Speer, who has higgled 
 over the most unimportant statements I 
 have made in this series of articles, and 
 who has always been recognized as the 
 special, champion of old John Brown, 
 finding he could not sustain an alibi, and 
 the proof of his guilt being so over 
 whelming, says, in an article which 
 appeared in the Lawrence Journal, No 
 vember 25, 1879: 
 
 U I have taken great pains to get at the 
 truth of the history of the Pottawotomie 
 tragedy , visiting Pottawotomie and con 
 versing with the men of Brown s time, 
 with a view to facts, let them fall where 
 they may. I find that the belief, con 
 firmed by the traditions, ^o to the estab 
 lishment of the fact that John Brown ex 
 
 ecuted these men. That he ever mutilated 
 their bodies, or did anything except what 
 was necessary in their execution, 1 do not 
 believe, nor does any man who knew 
 John Brown." 
 
 John Speer is welcome to use the word 
 "executed" in place of "murdered? as 
 used by Robinson, of Paola, if he prefers. 
 And as to the mutilation, I leave that 
 with Phillips, in his story about the 
 Camanches, and the sworn evidence of 
 those who first discovered the bodies 
 after the killing, as given under the head 
 of "Details of the Massacre." ; 
 
 By private letters from Kansas, I learn 
 that Hon. Jas. Hanway, whose cabin was 
 photographed, and palmed off as old 
 John Brown s, has made a statement 
 through the press touching those mur 
 ders; and while this article is in type foi 
 the press, I am in "receipt of a letter from 
 a prominent lawyer at Lawrence, stating: 
 
 "I am going this week to Osawotomie, 
 to interview the man who gave Johnson 
 Clark the facts; and expect to get his 
 statement over his own signature. We 
 shall soon have the whole history in do- 
 tail. I think it a matter of importance 
 that all the truth be known and published. 
 I have been reading your articles with 
 great interest." 
 
 THE CLINCHER. 
 
 Hidden away in a large book, the Kan 
 sas volume "United States Biographical 
 Dictionary," and rarely seen by any per 
 son other than the few simpletons who 
 paid twenty dollars for a copy of the 
 work, with the additional pleasure of 
 seeing their names in it, as "distinguished 
 in history," is found the following state 
 ment, exhumed by JOHN HUTCIIINGS, 
 Esq , of Lawrence, Kan., and which he 
 kindly gave to the public through the 
 columns of the Home Journal, of Nov. 
 20, 1879, from which I quote at length. 
 It is a statement made by Hon. Johnson 
 Clark, of Miami county, Kan. Rather 
 choice literature in this connection : 
 
 On May 24, 1855, William Sherman 
 
50 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 called at the house of John T. Grant, a 
 Free State man trom New York, and 
 there, in anger and in liquor, told the 
 Grant family that they, (the pro-slavery 
 men,) intended to drive out the Free State 
 men from Pottawotomie Creek and othe 
 parts of Kansas. This alarmed Grant, 
 and he sent his son George to the camp 
 of John Brown, who was at that time on 
 Ottawa Creek, some twenty-five miles 
 northwest. Upon arriving in camp, 
 young Grant told John Brown the con 
 dition of things in his neighborhood, and 
 the trouble anticipated if help was not 
 had immediately. And here it is proper 
 to state that news had come from Kansas 
 City that Buford had organized and 
 armed a large force of Georgia immi 
 grants, and was about to march upon 
 Kansas. The news had also arrived that 
 Lawrence was in ashes, and that our Free 
 State Governor, Robinson, was a prisoner 
 in the hands of pro-slavery "border-ruf 
 fians, 1 at Leaven worth. In brief, it was 
 u time of terror FO appalling that it was 
 felt that the destiny of Kansas was 
 trembling in the balance, and its fate 
 u bout to be decided. 
 
 When old John Brown received this 
 message from Pottawotomie, in addition 
 to all other words of distress, a council 
 was held in his camp. A party of eight 
 was formed, headed and commanded by 
 Brown himself. The names of the other 
 members of this party were as follows: 
 Frederick Brown, Owen Brown, Watson 
 Brown, Oliver Brown, Henry Thompson, 
 (Brown s son-in-law,) Mr. Wyner, and 
 last the man whr now lives in Kansas 
 and gives me the particulars, and before 
 whom I am now writing. This last-men 
 tioned party, whom we will call Mr. T., 
 took this party in his wagon and started 
 from Ottawa Creek about two o clock in 
 the afternoon, arriving at the scene of tie 
 tragedy about midnight. 
 
 The first attack was upon a man by 
 the name of Doyle and his two sons, they 
 being parties that had threatened. They 
 were immediately dispatched, and left 
 lying in the woods near the cabin where 
 they resided. They next visited the house 
 of a man named Wilkinson, who was at 
 the time a postmaster under Buchanan, 
 and who lived about one-half mile from 
 the Doyle residence, and Wilkinson was 
 found dead the next morning. The party 
 then proceeded to the premises of the 
 
 Sherman brothers, which was across the 
 creek, and about one mile distant. It 
 was the intention to dispatch both these 
 men, as they had been particularly active 
 in the pro-slavery cause. Henry Sherman 
 was out hunting cattle and had staid over 
 night with a pro-slavery friend, but find 
 ing William, they called him out and 
 left him dead in the middle of the creek, 
 upon some rocks and gravel. They then 
 wanten Mr. 1 to drive them to another 
 place but it was now late at night, and 
 he declined to take them any further. 
 
 . Mr. T says that Brown s boys did most 
 of the killing, by the advice and with the 
 encouragement of old John Brown him 
 self, and adds, furthei, that Browi. him- 
 pelf,to nerve his party for the deeds about 
 to be done, stepped in front oi the first 
 victim the old man Doyle and, draw 
 ing his revolver, shot him through the 
 forehead. In conclusion, I will only add 
 that this is the generally accepted version 
 of the affair, in the vicinity of the trag- 
 ed} 7 ", and thnt, notwithstanding historians 
 have written to the contrary, I have no 
 doubt but time will vindicate the correct 
 ness of this statement, which is from Mr. 
 T., the only known witness living in the 
 State. This Mr. T. is a quiet farmer, and 
 now lives within a radius of a dozen 
 miles of the dreadful scene he witnessed. 
 This statement has been made^.to the 
 writer of this, by Mr. T., a dozerr* times, 
 and, in company with Judge James Han- 
 way, I visited him at his house, where 
 this is written, and, after hearing it read, 
 he said : It is correct." After a silence 
 of a few moments he added: "I took no 
 hand in the ki ling, and did not approve 
 of it, but Brown said: It must be done; 
 it is better that a score of bad men should 
 die than one man be driven from Kansas 
 who came here to help make it a free 
 State. " JOHNSON CLARK. 
 
 Mr. Hutchings adds: 
 
 It will be seen by Mr. Clark s state 
 ment that the party that committed the 
 Pottawotomie tragedy consisted of six 
 members of the Brown family, and t vo 
 others, one of whom at least was the 
 "settler in the neighborhood." 
 
 ; CHANCE FOR CORRECTION. 
 
 These Reminiscences, as I contem 
 plated 1 when I commenced them, )i.ave 
 awakened much interest in the Kansa* 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN RBOWN. 
 
 61 
 
 tors mi^ht see my statements, and cor 
 rect any errors ; as I did not flatter my 
 self I could write of so many things, all 
 occurring more than twenty years ago, 
 relying almost wholly on memory, with 
 out being guilty of some mistakes. In 
 deed in my acceptance of Gov. Robin 
 son s invitation to write of Old John 
 Brown, I said : 
 
 "I shall endeavor to state nothing but 
 facts, as seen from my own standpoint." 
 
 I did not propose to write from John 
 Speer s standpoint, nor from that of my 
 critics. Had I attempted it, probably 
 my breadth of observation would have 
 been far more limited. I might have 
 seen some trifling matters quite differ 
 ently ; though from the former s exhibi 
 tion of criticisms, which I shall notice 
 farther on, I think Truth would have 
 suffered quite as much in his hands as ia 
 mine. 
 
 The Lawrence Journal, a Republican 
 paper, published - v T. D. Thacher, Esq., 
 who has been identified with the Kansas 
 ^ress sinc<3 1857, kindly opened its 
 co umnp, and is publishing the entire 
 series, cheerfully giving space to corres 
 pondents lo make corrections, for which 
 I take this occasion to publicly thank the 
 editor. 
 
 The Ottawa Gazette, a Democratic 
 paper, published in Franklin county, in 
 which the Pottowatomie murders oc 
 curred, edited by Joel K. Goodin, Esq., 
 who was among the first settlers in Kan 
 sas associated with us in all our early 
 history, and who was the faithful secre 
 tary of the Territorial Executive Com 
 mittee, and who certainly did more !aard 
 labor without recompense than any other 
 man in Kansas, is also publishing the 
 entire series. In a personal letter before 
 me, be compliments the general accuracy 
 of my statements, and says that my arti 
 cles are giving general satisfaction. 
 
 Through these channels excellent op 
 portunities have been offered to point out 
 
 errors for emendation. Very few of such 
 have come under my observation. Theae 
 I will take occasion to correct 
 
 Gov. Robinson, at whoso request these 
 articles were written, in a communication 
 press, and brought out a vast amount of 
 facts, which, but for their publication, 
 would have been lost to the world. Had 
 I written, and deposited them in the ar 
 chives ot the Historical Society, the his 
 torian a few years later would have found 
 the statements, and copied from them, 
 and thus no opportunity would have 
 been left for correction. I made it a 
 condition of writing them that they 
 should appear in three of the lead ng 
 papers of Kansas, to the end that the ac- 
 to the Lawrence Journal, of Nov 23d, 
 says: 
 
 "Dr. Brown s letters are so full of inter 
 est that I trust he will continue them till he 
 has covered the whole field of Kam<<s his 
 tory. I have seen no history that, will 
 compare in interest and accuracy with liis 
 letters; and a complete work from him 
 would be invaluable. Dr. Brown \vas no 
 friend of mine, being estranged from me, 
 for some cause I never fully understood, 
 for eighteen months, so that we had no 
 intercourse; yet the estrangement never 
 prevented us acting together when the 
 cause of Kansas called. The fact that 
 Dr. Brown knew no friendship but. in 
 the cause of free Kansas, makes him 
 the fittest man to be the historian of 
 Kansas." 
 
 CORRECTIONS. 
 
 While I have received a large number 
 of letters, from prominent actors in those 
 times, fully indorsing every material 
 statement I have made, a few persons of 
 an over critical turn of mind, and dis 
 tressed at the loss of a "lesser god," have 
 controverted several minor statements, 
 predicated on information derived from 
 others; and from these have attempted to 
 weaken the force of my entire narration. 
 
 As before stated, I coveted criticism, 
 to the end that truth only should be 
 transmitted in these pages to those who 
 come after us. 
 
62 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 Instead of the principal facts being 
 weakened by criticisms, every one has 
 received confirmation; and the central 
 figure has been presented in a more dam 
 aging attitude than I contemplated. 
 
 I stated, under the head of "History of 
 a Revolver," that "the shooting of Sheriff 
 Jones was the first blood actually drawn 
 by Free State men in Kansas/ To have 
 been correct I should have said, as I de 
 sired to be understood, it was the first ag 
 gressive act of violence by Free State men. 
 The killing of Henry DavL% by Lewis 
 Kibby, Nov. 29, 54, was on the defensive; 
 as was that of Malcom Clark, by Cole 
 Me rca, at Leavenworth, April 30, ? 55. 
 
 I did not state that Charley Lenhart 
 shot Sheriff Jones. I only gave the facts 
 of the loan of the revolver, by r Miss Glea- 
 son ; the discharge, which she heard ; the 
 hasty return of Lenhart, with the revol 
 ver, minus one charge ; and the deduction 
 that it was Charley who did the shooting. 
 By the statement of Capt. Swift, it ap 
 pears that Lenhart did discharge the re 
 volver, but not at Jones; that it was a 
 Mr. Filer who inflicted the wound. The 
 critic will turn to my account, and he 
 will see that I did not err in fact, but in 
 deduction. 
 
 As to the justice of applying the title 
 of "C iptain" to Lenhart, I have an origi 
 nal "order" in my possession, in Gen. Jas. 
 II. Lane s hand writing, and signed by 
 him, directed to "Captain Charles Len 
 hart, ordering him to "take such num 
 ber of active young men as you shall 
 deem necessary, and proceed with as lit 
 tle delay as possible to colonize Kick- 
 apoo." In due time I will place that doc 
 ument in the Historical Society of Kan 
 sas. Is not this sufficient authority for 
 me to mention Charley with the title of 
 Captain? 
 
 The rumor I gave that Leuhart was 
 killed in a foolish attempt to rescue 
 CJapt. Brown, is also disproved. It seems 
 
 he served his country during the first 
 years of the rebellion, and died in Ar 
 kansas, with consumption, while yet in 
 the service. 
 
 It is claimed that I was mistaken in 
 the statement, that the Territorial Exec 
 utive Committee was originally appointed 
 at Big Springs, on the 5th of September, 
 1855; whereas it is represented they were 
 appointed at Topeka fourteen days later. 
 The question is not important; but I 
 think I can demonstrate that my memory 
 is correct in this case. 1$ it not strange 
 that a new party was organized without 
 any committee to represent it in the 
 futu/e? The committee, unless I am 
 greatly mistaken, was appointed at Big 
 Springs, and was organized by trickery, 
 as I will show sometime, with Col. Lane, 
 as Chairman. The Topeka Convention, 
 on the 19th, was holden to consider the 
 project of a State movement, and to pre 
 vent any collision of authority re-ap 
 pointed the Big Springs committee,with 
 Lane as Chairman, and J. K. Goodin as 
 Secretary. I wrote up the proceedings 
 in detail, of the Big Springs convention, 
 and published the same in the Herald of 
 Freedom. The same matter was used in 
 pamphlet form, two thousand copies of 
 which were printed, and I have no doubt 
 somebody has copies of them. If my 
 memory serves me correctly, I was ap 
 pointed with others, a committee to com 
 municate the proceedings of the Big 
 Springs convention to Gov. Shannon. 
 Would I have been likely to have re 
 ceived this appointment if not a dele 
 gate? 
 
 I stated, as a fact, that I was invited 
 by Gov. Robinson, who is President of 
 the Historical Society of Kansas, to write 
 these Reminiscences. The letter of in 
 vitation was published at the commence 
 ment of the series, and shows for itself, 
 that it was not done in Jiis official capacity. 
 1 am glad to write, however, that two 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 copies of the entire work will be pre 
 served by that body among its archives. 
 
 Again, my informant was somewhat 
 mistaken in the time old John Brown 
 left the camp of his son, going in the di 
 rection of Pottawotomie, and probably, 
 as to the place and hour of his return. 
 Human memory is treacherous. Possibly 
 I did not report him accurately. 
 
 The charge that I have systemized the 
 order of presenting my facts is puerile, 
 and unworthy the head and heart of the 
 critic making the objection. He who 
 concedes so much reverence for his hero, 
 and who, no doubt, indorsed the state 
 ment, credited to Ralph, Waldo Emer 
 son, that "The time will come when the 
 gallows of old John Brown will be glori 
 ous like the cross of Christ," ought to tol 
 erate a little honest skepticism in that di 
 rection. 
 
 A quotation is made from a letter it is 
 jaid old John Brown wrote to Sanborn, 
 o destroy the force of my facts, that the 
 Herald of Freedom was in disrepute by 
 Free State men. That paper was a foe to 
 11 forms of wrong doing, whether com 
 mitted by pro-slavery men, or those act- 
 ng in the Free State ranks. Jayhawkers, 
 thieves and murderers, had reason to 
 "despise it," and if John Brown associated 
 with that class of "Free State men," he, 
 no doubt, heard just such expressions as 
 it is claimed he employed in regard to it. 
 The position of the Herald of Freedom 
 through all those times is one I can look 
 back upon with pride, as I trust is the 
 case with every other honest reader of it. 
 Censure, from some persons, is the 
 highest possible commendation. ** 
 
 Under the head of "John Brown in 
 Lawrence, first paragraph, I said: 
 
 "I think there were seven men stand 
 ing in the box. *^ * * Each man sup 
 ported himself with a pole, probably six 
 to eight feet in length, surmounted with 
 a bayonet." 
 
 John Speer, the accurate critic and very 
 
 truthful historian, represents thai I said: 
 "John Brown came with seven sons, 
 armed with pike poles ten feet long." 
 
 Three additions in two lines! Now 
 either John Speer misrepresented or was 
 mistaken! Which? He had just read 
 my statements, and, if disposed to play 
 critic, should have been more accurate. 
 Possibly there were but four sons and the 
 father in the wagon. Does that render 
 my statement, "I think there were seven 
 men in the box," invalid? Twenty-four 
 years lie between that event and the 
 present, and, taking Speer s statement, I 
 erred two-sevenths; while John Speer 
 converts my "poles" "from six to eight 
 feet in length," into "pike poles ten feet 
 in length. And my "seven men" into 
 seven sons," increasing the entire number 
 to eight. Will some mathematician tell 
 us how long the "poles would have been, 
 and what name they would have borne, 
 had he waited twenty-four years before 
 writing? And how many men would 
 have been in the wagon, had he told the 
 story after the same lapse of time? 
 
 Williams, riding behind, saw the party 
 some distance back sitting^ the old man 
 with a rifle across his knees. Does this 
 prove that they were not standing when 
 they entered town? The poles were green 
 ones, recently cut, and still covered with 
 bark. Where they obtained them, or 
 however numerous the denials, I know 
 the poles were there, and the facts are 
 just as I have stated. 
 
 I am charged with being a partisan of 
 Gov. Robinson. From the 3d of July, 
 1856, to December 23d, 1857, Gov. R. and 
 myself held no intercourse with each 
 other. From that time to my leaving 
 Kansas, nearly fifteen years ago, we only 
 met a very few times, and then to ad 
 vance the cause which took each of us to 
 that Territory. I was never, in any 
 sense, a partisan of Gov. Robinson ; but 
 let me do that gentleman and myself the 
 
64 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 justice to say, that while the breach be 
 tween us was greatly widened by the 
 action of the "professional letter writers," 
 we came together, almost involuntarily, 
 when we mutually felt that the freedom 
 of Kansas was contingent on our harmo 
 nious action. From that time our per 
 sonal animosities ceased, without ex 
 planation, and time, I trust, has satisfied 
 each, that the other is in the main, at 
 least as good as the average man, without 
 regard to what the world may say in that 
 direction. 
 
 Thus much for my reviewers. If any 
 gentleman will write me, pointing out 
 any other errors, it will give me pleasure 
 to make the proper corrections when 
 these pages shall be again put in type. 
 
 THK FLY ON THE LOCOMOTIVE.. 
 
 We find, running through recent ac 
 counts of John Brown s raid into Virgin 
 ia, the very silly assertion that his at 
 tack, at Harper s Ferry, produced the 
 Rebellion of the Southern States, and 
 the emancipation of the slaves in conse 
 quence. ^This assertion is of a similar 
 character with that of the eastern press 
 in representing the Pottawotomie massa 
 cre as the outgrowth of the killing of 
 Frederick Brown, which antedated the 
 killing by more than three months. 
 
 The South had threatened the nullifi 
 cation of United States laws, as early as 
 1832- 33, and a general conspiracy for 
 secession was set on foot; but the whole 
 movement was suppressed by the master 
 mind of Jackson. Through all the years 
 that followed to 1861, the critical ob 
 server saw that we were standing on the 
 verge of a smouldering volcano, ready to 
 burst forth at any time. Calhoun and 
 associate conspirators were ever active in 
 furtherance of their desires, while Ben- 
 ton, Clay and Webster were eqally ener 
 getic to thwart their purposes. 
 
 Southern success in securing the ad 
 mission of Texas; the passage of the com- 
 
 promise measures of 1850; and the ac 
 quisition of newly acquired territory, sus 
 pended their action for a time. They 
 lost control of the House of Represent 
 atives, in 1856; and the admission of Kan 
 sas into the Union in 1861, destroyed 
 their last hope of controlling either 
 branch of Congress ; for this, with the ad 
 mission of Minnesota, gave the North a 
 heavy preponderance in that body, which 
 they knew they could never regain. 
 
 The united South had hoped to make 
 Kansas a slave State. They knew it was 
 the key which would decide the fate of 
 Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Ne 
 vada, Arizona, Montana, Utah, etc. Fail 
 ing to secure their wishes in this respect ; 
 and, to crown the causes for distress, in 
 a square issue between the North and 
 South, a northern President was elected. 
 They decided to submit the question to 
 the arbitrament of war, hoping through it 
 if they regained nothing, they would 
 prevent what they deemed further ag 
 gressions. 
 
 Possibly the invasion of Virginia, un 
 der the circumstances, may have been 
 employed by southern demagogues as an 
 instrumentality to further inflame the 
 southern heart; but this was never their 
 pretext in a single State paper. They 
 complained of the disregard of solemn 
 covenants, on the part of the North ; of 
 continued interference, both in Congress 
 and out of it, with their peculiar insti 
 tutions ; they said that legislation had pro 
 hibited slavery in the District of Colum 
 bia, in violation of good faith ; that the 
 fugitive slave law was a dead letter on 
 the statute books; that their rights were 
 everywhere disregarded. 
 
 The faithful historian has at all times 
 stated the fact, that the contest between 
 freedom and slavery in Kansas, inaugur 
 ated the rebellion, and ultimated in the 
 freedom of a continent. The other alle 
 gation is the product of such minds as 
 
HEiMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 G) 
 
 James Redpath and his congeries of 
 Northern disunionists, who, like the fly 
 on the driving wheel of a locomotive 
 pompously exclaimed, "Look and see 
 what a vast train I am moving !" 
 
 HERO WORSHIP. 
 
 W e to that man who does not rever 
 ence the gods we set up." It is no less 
 true to-day than in the days of Nebu 
 chadnezzar. The fiery furnace of public 
 opinion is ever burning, and ever ready 
 to consume those who will not obey the 
 popular mandate. "Away with him, 
 crucify him," is heard on every hand, 
 through every age, directed against all 
 bold enough to have and express an hon 
 es thought. 
 
 When the Egyptian god Serapis was 
 destroyed, in the year 385, by the order 
 of Theodosius, at the instance of the 
 Christian Bishop of Alexandria, and the 
 remaining 350,000 volumes of the great 
 Alexandrian library was burned, with the 
 temple, the people looking on were hor 
 rified beyond expression. They had 
 been taught that Serapis caused the Nile 
 to overflow and fertilize the country. 
 They thought, following this indignity 
 to their god, and the desecration of his 
 temple, the great river would cease to 
 give its annual tribute to the soil; that 
 productive harvests would cease; and 
 starvation follow. No terms were suffi 
 ciently expressive with which to denounce 
 the authors of their sorrow. They were 
 sincere in their denunciations, and really 
 believed the threats of their priests would 
 bo executed to the letter. 
 
 The seasons rolled on; the waters came 
 down from the mountains at their accus 
 tomed time, and brought the usual fer 
 tilizing productions; the valley of the 
 Nile was clothed with beauty and ver 
 dure. Though Serapis was dead the gold 
 en harvests were as luxuriant as ever. 
 Thft pc ople were fed. Peace and pros 
 per it v reigned. Soon the deluded devo 
 
 tee saw that his imagined deity had ot 
 the power to interrupt the great processes 
 of Nature, and his name was no longer 
 revered. 
 
 It is so with regard to all heroes. y They 
 are the idols of the age in which hey 
 live, and are worshipped as such. Stat 
 ues are erected to their memory when 
 dead. Costly monuments adorn their 
 resting places; and lying epitaphs perpet 
 uate the popular applause. Another gen 
 eration goes by. Cool reflection takes 
 the place of the frenzied hour; histories 
 are ransacked ; the truth is learned; the 
 hero of yesterday is forgotten to-day; 
 and, like Marat in French history, his 
 bones are removed from their resting 
 place by the side of kings; his portraits 
 are torn down and trampled upon; his 
 mausoleum is demolished; and fragments 
 of his costly monument are all that re 
 main of him whom a " grateful nation " 
 so highly idolized as to vote a pension 
 
 for life to his concubine. 
 
 ^% - 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 I knew full well that the task I at 
 tempted to correct the false in history 
 was an unpopular one. I was aware, 
 before a single line was written, that 
 popular prejudice had enshrined a hero, 
 and, as in classic story, his devotees were 
 " filling the air with hideous shrieks and 
 shouts, and crying aloud, Great is 
 Bacchus! " Occupying too humble a 
 position to feel the shock of their blows, 
 and too strong in the rectitude of my in 
 tentions to be diverted from my purpose ; 
 fully conscious of my inability to do 
 justice to what I had undertaken, I have 
 continued TO THE END, content to leave 
 to the conscientious and unprejudiced 
 reader, and to future times, the rendition 
 of their verdict, Whether I have contrib 
 uted any what of facts to aid in placing 
 in his true position, in American history, 
 the Guerilla Chieftain and Visionary En- 
 
66 
 
 REMINISCENCES OP OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 thusiast, the gallant and intrepid OLD 
 JOHN BROWN? 
 
 As the earth from a fiery beginning, 
 with convulsions of a most gigantic char 
 acter; the incessant roar of contending 
 elements; upheavals and depressions; 
 volcanic eruptions and rivers of molten 
 rock, and showers of scoriae and ashes; 
 geysers, everywhere sending up floods of 
 boiling water, dissolving into vapor, and 
 descending in torrents, falling on heated 
 rock to again ascend as steam, forming 
 clouds which obscured for ages sun and 
 stars ; lightnings ever flashing along the 
 sky, with crash on crash of deafening 
 thunders; earthquakes rending the globe, 
 and upheaving mountains and depressing 
 valleys; all nature everywhere discord 
 ant; hurricanes and cyclones ever active; 
 thence change following change in 
 gradual succession from age to age, until 
 the present delightful era, when the earth 
 is clothed with beauty, adorned with 
 verdure, and animal life fills up the 
 waste places, and man appears to 
 
 crown the whole with wisdom and 
 joy; so we have seen Kansas, torn and 
 convulsed by contending factions; neigh 
 bor warring with neighbor; Anarchy and 
 Discord sweeping over the land, amid pil 
 laged homes, burning dwellings,scattered 
 families, death and mutilation, grim- 
 visaged famine, desolating pestilence, 
 conflagrations, and all the multitudinous 
 ills that humanity is subject to ; thence 
 tranquility, and order, and beaming 
 peace; labor largely rewarded, and pros 
 perity attendant upon every enterprise; 
 commerce spreading her whitened sales; 
 the school room showering intelligence 
 upon her youth; joyous homes every 
 where springing up, while Contentment 
 is smiling at every door, as we find it to 
 day; and, bending in silent but humble 
 adoration, before that Wisdom which 
 crowns all with peace and happiness, we 
 bid the reader, for the present, a cheerful 
 
 FAREWELL ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The admirers of old John Brown must 
 desire the possession of every important 
 fact that throws light upon his history 
 While the proceeding sketches were pas 
 sing through the Kansas press a vast 
 amount of new information, heretofore 
 concealed in the breasts of interested 
 partisan friends, have come to light. 
 Such as has fallen under the observation 
 of the writer, I propose to add in this 
 Appendix, and shall conclude with a 
 Review, from Hon. Eli Thayer, of Massa 
 chusetts, which will only appear in the 
 pamphlet. 
 
 VALUABLE CORRESPONDENCE. 
 WORCESTER, Mass., Dec. 10, 1879. 
 
 DR. G. W. BROWN : I have received, 
 and read with the greatest interest, 
 your "Reminiscences of old John Brown. 1 
 I earnestly hope you will continue these 
 papers until they embrace all the impor 
 tant facts of the early Kansas history. 
 
 I inclose herewith a letter which I re 
 ceived last summer from Hon. Geo. A. 
 Crawford, of Fort Scott, Kansas, in rela 
 tion to John Brown s Pottawotomie 
 Massacre, and his raid into Missouri, 
 which I think may be of use to you, and 
 which I would like to have preserved in 
 the Kansas Historical Society. 
 
 I am confident that Mr. Crawford will 
 not object to its publication. Mr. C., in 
 advising John Brown to leave the Terri 
 
 tory, in my opinion, gave expreesion to 
 the general desire of the men who made 
 Kansas a Free State. * * ^/ 
 
 Thanking you sincerely for the great 
 work you are doing for the truth of hia- 
 tory, I remain, very truly yours, 
 
 ELI THAYER. 
 
 FORT SCOTT, Kan., Aug. 4, 1879. 
 HON. ELI THAYER, WoRcester, Mass. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR : Yours of the 28th ult. 
 received asking for facts in my posses 
 sion in regard to John Brown s participa* 
 tion in what is known as the Pottawato- 
 niie massacre, and the raid into Missouri. 
 
 In reply I would state that I was in 
 John Brown s camp, at the Trading Post, 
 in Linn county, Kansas, early in .January, 
 1859, and had conversations with him in 
 regard to both transactions. ^ 
 
 As to the "Massacre" he said ht> would 
 not say that he was not engaged in it, 
 but he would say that he advised it, and 
 justified it, and was willing to take a full 
 share of the responsibility of it. He 
 said that the death of those pro-slavery 
 men had been determined upon, at a 
 meeting of free state settlers the day be 
 fore; that he was present at that meeting, 
 and, I think, presided, and that the ex 
 ecutioners were then and there appointed. 
 He said he would not say that he was 
 one of them, but he would say that if it 
 was wrong he was as much to blame as 
 any. 
 
 He gave as a reason for the deed that 
 the men were carriers of news to the Missou- 
 rians, that they kept a "grape vine tele 
 graph" with Missourians, and were eudan- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 geriDg the settlements, by bringing in 
 the invaders. He said it became neces 
 sary to make an example, and so strike 
 terror, and put an end to that sort of 
 thing. 
 
 As to the raid into Missouri it was 
 made on the 20th Dec. 1858, four days 
 after the raid into Fort Scott. It was led 
 by Capt. Brown in person. Capt. Mont 
 gomery refused to go along protested , 
 as I have understood, against it, but 
 came to the aid of the Kansas settlers 
 when retaliatory raids were afterwards 
 expected. The Captain s Company 
 marched down the Little Osage River, in 
 the north part ot this county, and about 
 12 miles from here, and proceeded into 
 Vernon Co., Mo., a distance of three or 
 four miles. 
 
 The Missouri Democrat, of Dec. 30th, 
 1858, gave the Missouri statement of the 
 losses. I presume it is correct. Files 
 of other papers of the period would 
 show. It states that they "murdered" 
 David Crews, (or Cruise,) "kidnapped a 
 negro woman," took wagon, horses &c., 
 and robbed Mr. Martin and family of a 
 fine mule; took irom the estate of James 
 Lawrence, in possession of his son-in-law 
 Henry Hicklin, five negroes, 2 horses, 1 
 yoke of cattle, an ox-wagon, a double 
 barrel shot gun, saddle and clothing. 
 From Isaac B. LaRue, five negroes, six 
 Corses, 1 yoke of cattle, clothing and 
 took prisoners whom they released. 
 
 Jn the conversation to which I have 
 atluded, Captain Brown said he had 
 sent the slaves on to their freedom; that 
 they had earned the property of their 
 masters; and that his young men were 
 entitled to forage to the extent of their 
 subsistence. He denied the current ru 
 mor that the slaves had been taken away 
 by violence and against their will. 
 
 As to the killing of Cruise, he said 
 that he had given strict orders for the 
 careful use of the guns; and that there 
 should be no firing unless resistance was 
 offered. He had divided his men into 
 two squads, one on each side of the 
 stream. In the house of Cruise one of 
 his quick-blooded young men, supposing 
 that Cruise was about to draw a weapon, 
 had fired, killing him instantly. I infer 
 red that the Captain was not present. 
 He claimed to have reprimanded the 
 young man for his haste. 
 
 Cruise was a good citizen a plain un 
 
 offending farmer. It was reported that 
 he had no weapons on his person. The 
 killing of him was an unjustifiable out 
 rage, and it subjected our settlements to 
 great danger from retaliatory measures. 
 
 I protested to the Captain against this 
 violence. We were settlers, he was not. 
 He could strike a blow and leave. The 
 retaliatory blow would fall on us. Being 
 a free-state man, I myself, was held per 
 sonally responsible by pro-slavery ruf 
 fians in Ft. Scott, for the acts of Capt. 
 Brown. 
 
 One of these ruffians, Brockett, when 
 they gave me notice to leave the town 
 said : " When a snake bites me I don t go 
 hunting for that particular snake. I kill 
 the first snake I come to." 
 
 I called Capt. Brown s attention to the 
 facts that we were at peace with Missouri ; 
 that our Legislature was then in the 
 hands of Free-State men, to make the 
 laws; that even in our disturbed counties 
 of Bourbon and Linn we were in a ma 
 jority, and had elected the officers both 
 to make and execute the laws; that with 
 out peace we could have no immigration; 
 that no southern immigration was com 
 ing; that agitation, such as his, was only 
 keeping our northern friends away, &c. 
 
 The old man replied that it was no 
 pleasure to him an old man to be liv 
 ing in the saddle, away from home and 
 family, and exposing his life; and if the 
 free-state men of Kansas felt that they no 
 longer needed him he would be glad to 
 go. 
 
 He seemed very erratic at war with 
 all our accustomed ideas on the slavery 
 question but very earnest. 
 
 I think the conversation made an im 
 pression on him, for he soon after went 
 to his self-sacrifice at Harper s Ferry. 
 
 Yours, GEO. A. CRAWFORD. 
 
 THE POTAWATOMIE TRAGEDY-COL. BLOOD S 
 RECOLLECTION. 
 
 ROCKFORD, 111., Nov. 19, 1879. 
 JAS. BLOOD, ESQ. 
 
 My Dear Sir: Yours of the 16th is at 
 hand, and I hasten to reply. 
 
 Twenty years ago I made a statement 
 of the Potawatomie massacre in the Her 
 ald of Freedom. After writing it, but be 
 fore passing to the compositors, I chanc 
 ed to meet a gentleman to whom I allud 
 ed in my recent statement. He suggest 
 ed several corrections, which were made 
 in his presence, and re-read to him ; 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 when he said the statement, as amended, 
 was correct, and he would make affidavit 
 to it, if the truth should ever be called 
 in question. He further made the addi 
 tional statements at the time which I 
 have added. I asked leave to refer to 
 him then. He declined, saying he did 
 not wish to be mixed up in the matter, 
 but sometime he would take pleasure in 
 stating all his knowledge on the subject. 
 I did think of sending him the state 
 ment for his indorsement before publish 
 ing at this time; but was so sure that my 
 memory served me correctly, and had 
 such confidence in his statement, that, in 
 the hurry, with the length ol time that 
 must intervene between writing and pub 
 lication, I gave it to the printers with 
 out consultation with him. 
 
 In all cases where possible I have given 
 the names of living witnesses and wish I 
 could do so in every instance. 
 
 I think you will excuse me for not 
 giving at present the name you request, 
 but I will take great pleasure in correct 
 ing, at the close of the series of articles, 
 which is now near at hand, any errors 
 which I have been led into by misstate- 
 nicnts of others, or defective memory, as 
 it is my desire that the truth, and the 
 truth only, be stated in the premises. 
 
 The whole matter is being stereotyped 
 as we advance, and it is expected that 
 the edition, in pamphlet or book form, 
 will be large; hence I ask it as a favor 
 to the public and to another generation, 
 for whom I principally write, that every 
 error be corrected in the same volume in 
 which the original statement is made. 
 
 I am satisfied that you are in posses 
 sion of valuable facts in the matter. I 
 have always known you as a gentleman 
 of the strictest truth ; your opportunities 
 of observation, through all these times, 
 were large; neither of us have anything 
 to gain by concealment, or to lose by the 
 fullest exposure. Those who come after 
 us have a right to be fully informed of 
 the times in which we lived; therefore I 
 again ask you to give me a full and 
 frank statement of the facts, without any 
 reflections on anybody, and it shall have 
 as wide circulation as the original state 
 ment. 
 
 Thanking you for your kindness in 
 writing me, and wishing that any and all 
 other persons having knowledge on this 
 subject would be equally frank, and 
 
 write me direct, to the end that I may. in 
 my closing articles, make the proper cor- 
 rtxtions, I am, with pleasant old-time 
 memories, Very truly yours, 
 
 G. W. BROWN. 
 
 COLONEL BLOOD S REPLY. \ 
 
 LAWRENCE, Kan., Nov. 29. 1879. 
 G. W. BROWN, M. D., ROCKFORD, 111. 
 Dear Sir: Yours of the 19th inst., was 
 duly received, but I have hesitated to 
 comply with your request to write for 
 publication a statement of what I know 
 about the "Potawatomie massacre," in 
 1856. I was not "an eye witness," but 
 have concluded to make a statement of 
 incidents that came within my observa 
 tion, as I recollect them. 
 
 In the spring of 1856, I went east on 
 business, leaving my family in Lawrence. 
 I was in New Hampshire, when I 
 learned that the border ruffians were 
 gathering, under ruffianly federal officers,, 
 to destroy Lawrence. I immediately 
 started for home, arriving at Kansas City r 
 I think, on the 21st day of May, 1856. I 
 could find no way of getting to Lawrence, 
 direct, but hired a close hack to take me r 
 with two or three friends (one of them 
 was J. F. Bliss, now residing at Oskaloo- 
 Ba,) to Ossawatomie. We instructed the 
 driver to say to any one who might halt 
 us, that he was taking some men to 
 Pleasant Hill, Missouri. We drove south 
 through Westport, and the parties halt 
 ing us appeared to be satisfied with the 
 reply of the driver. We stayed that 
 night at a farm house in Missouri, a short 
 distance south of Westport. The next 
 day, the 22nd, we took dinner with Bap- 
 tiste Peoria, where Paola now stands, 
 and arrived at Osawatomie in the after 
 noon. From there we sent the hack 
 back to Kansas City. 
 
 The next morning I bought a horse of 
 O. C. Brown who will be remembered 
 by the old settlers as the original Osa 
 watomie Brown. After having the horse 
 shod, I started in the afternoon of the 
 23rd of May, from Osawatomie for Law 
 rence, by way of Ottawa Jones and Pal 
 myra. 
 
 I was informed while at Osawatomie 
 that the active pro-slavery men of that 
 part of the Territory had gone to Le- 
 compton to join the border ruffians in 
 their attack upon Lawrence, and that 
 most of the Free State men had gone, 
 
70 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ui.uer the load of Capt. John Brown, Jr., 
 !> tid in the defence oi Lawrence, 
 
 It was nearly sun-down that afternoon 
 when, between Potawatomie Creek and 
 Middle Creek, and but a few miles 
 fiom the Doyle settlement, I saw a party 
 of men coming fron the west and going 
 toward Potawatomie Creek. As we ap 
 proached each other I could see the 
 gleam of the sun s rays reflected from the 
 moving gun-barrels of the party, in a 
 wagon. When within perhaps 100 yards 
 they stoppt d, and a man rose up i*n the 
 wai^on and cried, halt! I immediately 
 recognized old John Brown, and stated 
 who I was, calling him by name. I was 
 then allowed to approach the party. 
 1 here were in the wagon John Brown, 
 and, to the best of my recollection, four 
 of his sons, his son-in-law, and a man 
 driving the team, whom I did not know, 
 making seven in the wagon. There was 
 also a man on horseback, I think his 
 name was Wymer, or Winer. 
 
 The party all appeared to be fully arm 
 ed with rifles, revolvers, knives or swords. 
 I think some of them at least had a pecu 
 liar instrument, something like a Scotch 
 claymore, or a short, very heavy broad 
 sword. John Brown had presented me 
 with one of the same kind, while at Law 
 rence, during the Wakarusa war, iu the 
 fall of 1855. 
 
 I talked with the old man for some 
 time. I believe he was the only one of 
 the party who spoke. He stated that 
 they had left Capt. John*Brown Jr., with 
 the Potawatomie company, in camp near 
 Palmyra. He informed me that Law 
 rence had been sacked and burned, and 
 that a number of leading Free State men 
 had been taken prisoners. He seemed 
 very indignant that there had been no 
 resistance; that Lawrence was not de 
 fended ; and denounced the members of 
 the committee and leading Free State 
 men as cowards, or worse. His manner 
 was wild and frenzied, and the whole 
 party watched with excited eagerness 
 every word and motion of the o ! d man. 
 Finally, as I left them, he requested me 
 not to mention the fact that I had met 
 them, as they were on a secret expedition, 
 and did not want any one to know that 
 they were in that neighborhood. 
 
 I came on, and when I arrived at Mid 
 dle Creek it was dark, so dark that im 
 mediately after crossing the creek I lost 
 the road, and after riding some time re 
 turned to the crossing, where I found the 
 
 road and arrived at Jones 1 late in the 
 night. 
 
 The next morning, the" 1 24th, I again 
 started for Lawrence. When . I arrived 
 at Palmyra, I f nmd the Potawatomie 
 company, with one or two other com 
 panies of Free State men, and there 
 learned that Capt. John Brown, Jr., had 
 gone to Lawrence to learn the condition 
 of things there. 
 
 I rode on toward Lawrence, and met 
 Capt. Brown, Jr., south of Wakarusa. 
 From him I obtained the first reliable in 
 formation as to what had taken place at 
 Lawrence. He appeared to be in good 
 spirits and perfectly rational. 
 
 When a day or two later we heard of 
 the massacre of the Doyles,Wilkinson,and 
 Sherman, on the Potawatomie, on the 
 night ol the 23d, I could have no doubt 
 as to who committed the deed. I could 
 not resist the conviction that it was done 
 with those Scotch claymores. I remem 
 bered the wild frenzied look and appear 
 ance of old John Brown and his party, 
 when I met them near the Potawato 
 mie settlement, on that evening,and only 
 a few hours before those men were kil 
 led. 
 
 I believe the Free State men here re 
 garded this horrible tragedy with more 
 sincere and sorrowful regret than any 
 other incident of our struggle. It was 
 regarded as terribly damaging to the 
 Free State party and cause. No suffi 
 cient justification or defence could be 
 made. 
 
 I sincerely believed that it was the 
 work of insane men. Their halting at 
 that distance a solitary traveler, who 
 was apparently unarmed, and upon the 
 open prairie where they dould see for 
 miles around, seemed to me evidence of 
 insanity. Certainly that number of so 
 well-armed men could not fear an as 
 sault and capture, or that they were in 
 any immediate danger. I noticed that 
 while we were in conversation the boys 
 watched every look and gesture of the 
 old man keeping their guns in their 
 hands ready for instant action. 
 
 A short time after the Potawatomie 
 massacre I had a conversation with 
 George Partridge, an old acquaintance 
 and friend of mine from Wisconsin, who 
 was then a settler on the Potawatomie. 
 He was a strong anti-slavery man, and 
 was killed later that summer in the fight 
 at Osawatomie. 
 
 Mr. Partridge informed me that he was 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 71 
 
 a member of Capt. John Brown, Jr s. 
 company, and was with them on their 
 expedition to Palmyra, in May. He 
 stated that old John Brown became fren 
 zied at the condition of affairs in the 
 Territory, and the refusal or failure of 
 Free State men to fight; that the old man 
 left the company, on the 23rd, with six or 
 seven others, and against the remon 
 strance of his son, Capt. John Brown, Jr.; 
 that when, on the afternoon and evening 
 of the 24th, while in camp at Ottawa 
 Jones ,uews was received of the massacre, 
 Captain Brown, Jr., became insane, and 
 w is taken home the next day a maniac. 
 
 Mr. Partridge also stated that the 
 only provocation the Doyles had given; 
 as tar as he knew, was, that at the spring 
 election, a short time before, Doyle ex 
 pressed his dislike for negroes and abol - 
 tionistx, and that Brown expressed his 
 dislike of pro- slavery men. He said that 
 denunciations and threats were made on 
 both sides. * 
 
 In the foregoing I have stated the 
 incidents as I recollect them. Mr. Part 
 ridge had no doubt that the killing was 
 done by old John Brown and his party, 
 and sincerely regretted the affair. 
 
 I believe that when we heard here of 
 the Potawatomie massacre Col. Samuel 
 Walker was sent down there by the com 
 mittee (of which Gen. Babcock was 
 chairman,) to learn all the facts in rela 
 tion to the matter. Perhaps Color ei 
 Walker or Gen. Babcock could furnish 
 some information on the subject. 
 
 Respectfully, J. BLOOD. 
 
 * Of all the fifteen or over different motives given for 
 this terrible massacre, including that by Capt. Brown 
 himself, to Gov. Crawford, this, by Mr. Partridge, to 
 Col. Blood, seems the most plausible. BROWN. 
 
 STATEMENT OF THE GRANTS. 
 
 Geo. W. Grant, a son of John T. Grant, 
 mentioned by Johnson Clark, in an arti 
 cle headed "CLINCHER," made a state 
 ment to the Lawrence Journal a few 
 weeks ago, the greater substance of 
 which is given below, from that paper, 
 as follows: 
 
 "We were near neighbors of the Sher 
 mans, of the Doyles, and Wilkinson. 
 
 "When the news came that the Border 
 Ruffians were about to attack Lawrence, 
 the Free State men of Potawatomie 
 Creek raised a company to go to the 
 rescue. It was under command of Capt. 
 John Brown, Jr. I was a member of the 
 company. We started for Lawrence, 
 but on the wav there a messenger reach 
 
 ed us saying it was too late; that the 
 town was already sacked. While lying 
 in camp the company was drawn up one 
 day, and old John Brown called for vol 
 unteers, saying : "flow many men will vol 
 unteer to go with me and obey my orders? 1 
 When he calhd for volunteers J"hn 
 Brown, Jr., said: "Father, I ol>jeci to any 
 of the men leaving. We are getting up 
 near the enemy and may need them." 
 Alter the number had volunteered John 
 Brown, Jr., said, "Father, be careful and 
 commit no rash act." The volunteers 
 were Fred, Owen, Salmon and Oliver 
 Brown, Thompson, John Brown s son-in- 
 law, Mr. Winer, and Mr. Townsley, with 
 his team. After they had volunteered 
 they went into camp by themselves, and 
 ground up their sabres. They were armed 
 with short swords or sabres. 
 
 "When we were at Ottawa Jones , the 
 Brown party came in during the night. 
 The next morning I saw one of Dutch 
 Henry s horses, which they had brought 
 in. It was a gray horse, with mane and 
 tail sheared. We had heard of the kil 
 ling on Pottawatomie Creek, at Palmyra, 
 and had returned. 
 
 "The effect of the news of the massa 
 cre on John Brown, Jr., was very marked. 
 He showed great agitation, and gave up 
 the command of the company to H. II. 
 Williams." 
 
 [Then follows a long account of the 
 provocation for the massucre. As we 
 have at least fifteen different reasons 
 given, one by Capt. Brown himself to 
 Gov. Crawford, we will not tax the read 
 er with any additional ones.] 
 
 "They were apparently killed by a 
 thrust with the short sword, and by cuts 
 over the head with the sabre, except 
 Doyle, who was shot in the forehead, and 
 also stabbed. There was no idea at that 
 time that the bodies had been purposely 
 mutilated. The wounds in the hands 
 had apparently been made either in at 
 tempting to ward off blows, or in grasp 
 ing the blades of the short swords. 
 
 Mrs. Wilkinson s description of the 
 leader pointed out Brown as present at 
 th.3 killing. She mentioned his being an 
 old man, and his wearing a black stock 
 about his neck, which Brown habitually 
 wore. Nobody ori, the creek doubted that 
 John Brown was the leader of the party. 
 As to the killing, it was the current story 
 that Brown shot Doyle, but personally 
 did nothing more, and that the cutting 
 
72 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 and stabbing was done by other members 
 of the party. 
 
 The effect of this massacre on the in 
 habitants of the creek, was to greatly 
 alarm both parties. The pro-slavery set 
 tlers almost entirely left at once and the 
 Free State people were constantly fearful 
 of vengeance. As a matter of fact, there 
 was no more killing on either side in 
 that neighborhood. Dutch Henry 
 Henry Sherman, was killed in the spring 
 of 1857, but politics had nothing to do 
 with it." 
 
 To this statement, in the Journal of 
 Dec. llth, 1879, is affixed the signatures 
 of Geo. W. & H. C. Grant. 
 
 The following appeared as an editorial 
 in the Lawrence, Kan. Standard^ of Dec. 
 llth, 1879: 
 
 "WERE THEY MUTILATED? 
 
 Mr. Townsley, in his statement about 
 the Pottawatomie massacre, says that 
 the bodies of the Doyles were not muti 
 lated, or at least not to his knowledge 
 Mr. Ely Moore, who is employed in the 
 Standard office, says that he arrived at 
 the scene of the murder before the bodies 
 were cold, that the ears and noses of old 
 man Doyle and one of his sous were cut 
 off , and that old man Doyle had a great 
 gash down the side of his face, cut ap 
 parently with a sword or sabre. John 
 Brown s pistol ball entered just over 
 the eye. 
 
 MR. TOWNSLEY S STATEMENT. 
 
 The statement of Mr, Townsley, given 
 below, was procured by John Hutchings, 
 Esq., of Lawrence, Kansas, referred to at 
 the close of my article headed "Confirma 
 tion." In answer to the question, "Who 
 is Mr. Townsley?" the Laurence, Kan, 
 Journal says : 
 
 James Townsley, whose statement in 
 regard to the Potawatomie affair we 
 publish this morning, was one of 
 the first settlers in Anderson county. 
 In Johnson s history of that county 
 we notice that he was one 
 of the Commissioners who located its first 
 county seat, at a place called Shannon, 
 Marcli 1, 1856. At that place all the 
 county business was transacted until April 
 5, 1856. He was also one of the Commis 
 sioncrs who located in the same mouth 
 the first road in the county, running 
 from Shermanville f Dutch Henrv s Cro^ 
 
 sing] through the county seat to Hamp- 
 den and Cofachique. Alost, if not all of 
 these places now exist only in history, 
 and it is said that only, a few 
 persons in the county can point 
 out the place even where the first 
 county seat stood. Mr. Townsley s 
 history, however, is not likely to be so 
 ephemeral. The closeness of his relation 
 to the hero of Harper s Ferry in one of 
 the most striking if not important acts 
 of his life, will be likely to secure for his 
 name a remembrance not soon to be ex 
 tinguished. 
 
 I am a native of Hartford county, state 
 of Maryland, and was born August 29, 
 1815. I enlisted in company I, Capt. 
 Benjamin L. Bell, Second United States 
 dragoons, and served five years in the 
 war waged against the Seminole and 
 Creek Indians, a part of the time under 
 the command of Gen. Taylor, and was 
 discharged in August. 1844, at Fort 
 Washita, Indian territory. I am a pa* lit 
 er by trade, and followed that business 
 in Fallston, in my native county, until 
 October 20, 1855, when I emigrated to 
 Kansas with my family, and settled in 
 Anderson county, on the Potawatomie 
 creek, about one mile west ot Greeley, 
 I joined the Potawatomie rifle company 
 at its re-organization in May, 1856, at 
 which time John Brown, Jr.,was elected 
 captain. On the 21st of the same month 
 information was received that the Geor 
 gians were marching on Lawrence, 
 threatning its destruction. The company 
 was immediately called together, and 
 about 4 o clock p. m. we started on a 
 forced march to aid in its defense. 
 About two miles south of Middle Creek 
 we were joined by the Osawatomie com 
 pany, under Capt. Dayton, and proceeded 
 to Mount Veruou, where we wait 
 ed about two hours, until the 
 moon rose. We then marched all night, 
 camping the next morning, the 22d, for 
 breakfast, near Ottawa Jones . Before 
 we arrived at this point news had been 
 received that Lawrence had been des 
 troyed, and a question was raised whether 
 we should return or go on. During the 
 forenoon, however, we proceeded up Ot 
 tawa creek to within about five miles of 
 Palmyra, and went into camp near the 
 residence of Captain Shore. Here we 
 remained undecided over night. About 
 noon the next day, the 23d, old John 
 Brown came to me and said he had just 
 received information that trouble was cx- 
 DL-ctcd on tin* Potawatnmin. and w:mtf><i 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 73 
 
 to know if I would take my team and 
 take hi in and his boys back so that they 
 could keep watch of what was going 
 on. I told him I would do so. The 
 party consisting of old John Brown, Fred 
 erick Browu,Owen Brown, Watson Brown, 
 Oliver Brown, Henry Thompson [John 
 Brown s son-in-law,] and Mr. Winer, 
 were soon ready for the trip, and we 
 started, as near as I can remember, about 
 2 o clock p. m. All of the party, except 
 Mr. Winer, who rode a pony, rode with 
 me in my wagon. When within two or 
 three miles of the Potaw atomic creek, we 
 turned off the main road to the right, 
 drove down to to the edge of the timber 
 between two deep ravines, and camped 
 about one mile above Dutch Henry t 
 crossing. 
 
 After my team was fed and the party 
 had taken supper, John Brown told me 
 for the first time what he proposed to do. 
 He said he waited me to pilot the com 
 pany up to the forks of the creek, some 
 five or six miles above, into the neighbor 
 hood where I lived, and show them 
 where all the pro-slavery men 
 resided ; that lie proposed to sweep the creek 
 as he came down of all the pro-slavery men 
 living on it. I positively refused to doit. 
 He insisted upon it, but when he found 
 that I would not go he decided to post 
 pone the expedition until the following 
 night. I then wanted to take my team 
 and go home, but he would not let me do 
 so, and said I should remain with them. 
 W r e remained in camp that night and all 
 day the next day. Sometime after dark 
 we were ordered to march. 
 
 We started, the whole company, in a 
 northerly direction, crossing Mosquito 
 creek above the residence of the Doyles. 
 Soon after crossing the creek some one of 
 the party knocked at the door of a cabin, 
 but received no reply I have forgotten 
 whose cabin it was, if I knew at the 
 time. The next place we came to was 
 the residence of the Doyles. John Brown, 
 three of his sons and son-in-law went to 
 the door, leaving Frederick Brown, Winer, 
 and myself a short distance from the 
 house. About this time a large dog at 
 tacked us. Frederick Brown struck the 
 dog a blow with his short two-edged 
 sword, after which I dealt him a blow 
 with my sabre, and heard no more of him. 
 The old man Doyle and two sons were 
 called out and marched some distance 
 from the house toward Dutch Henry s in 
 the road, where a halt was made. Old 
 John Brown drew his revolver and shot the 
 
 old man Doyle in the forehead, and Brown s 
 two youngest sons immediately fell upon 
 the younger Doyles with their short two- 
 edged swords. 
 
 One of the young Doyles was stricken 
 down in an instant, but the other at 
 tempted to escape, and was pursued a 
 short distance by his assailant and cut 
 down. The company then proceeded 
 down Mosquito creek to the house of 
 Allen Wilkinson. Here the old man 
 Brown, three of his sons, and son-in-law, 
 as at the Doyle residence, went to the 
 door and ordered Wilkinson to come out, 
 leaving Frederick Brown, Winer and 
 myself standing in the road east of the 
 house. Wilkinson was taken and marched 
 some distance south of his house and 
 slain in the road, with a short sword, by 
 one of che younger Browns. After he 
 was killed his body was dragged out to 
 one side and left. 
 
 We then crossed the Potawatomie and 
 came to the house of Henry Sherman, 
 generally known as Dutch Henry. Here 
 John Brown and the party, excepting 
 Frederick Brown, Winer, and myself, 
 who were left outside a short distance 
 from the door, went into the house and 
 brought out one or two persons talked 
 with them some, and then took them in 
 again. They afterward brought out 
 William Sherman, Dutch Henry s 
 brother, marched him down into the Pot 
 awatomie creek, where he was slain with 
 swords by Brown s two youngest sons, 
 and left lyin? in the creek. 
 
 It was the expressed intention of 
 Brown to execute Dutch Henry also, but 
 he was not found at home. He also 
 hoped to find George Wilson, Probate 
 Judge of Anderson County, there, and 
 intended, if he did, to kill him too. Wil 
 son had been notifying Free State men to 
 leave the territory. I had received such 
 a notice from him myself. 
 
 I desire to say here that it is not true 
 that there was any intentional mutilation 
 of the bodies after they were killed. 
 They were slain as quickly as possible 
 and left, and whatever gashes they re 
 ceived were inflicted in the process of 
 cutting them down with swords. I un 
 derstand that the killing was done with 
 these swords so as to avoid alarming the 
 neighborhood by the discharge of fire 
 arms. 
 
 I desire also to say that I did not then 
 approve of the killing of those men, but 
 Brown said it must be done, for tie 
 protection of the Free Slate settlers; th it it 
 
74 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 was better that a score of bad men should 
 die than that one man who came here to 
 make Kansas a free state should be driven 
 out 
 
 Brown wanted me to pilot the party 
 into the neighborhood where I lived, and 
 point out all the pro-slavery men in it, 
 whom he proposed to put to death. I pos 
 itively refused to do it, and on account 
 of my refusal I remained in camp all of 
 the night upon which the first attack was 
 to be made, and the next day. I told 
 him I was willing to go with him to Le- 
 compton and attack the leaders, or fight 
 the enemy in open field anywhere, but I 
 did not want to engage in killing these 
 men. That night and the acts then per 
 petrated are vividly fixed in my memory, 
 and I have thought of them many times 
 since. 
 
 1 then thought that the transaction was 
 terrible, and have mentioned it to but 
 few persons since. In after time, how 
 ever, I became satisfied that it resulted 
 in good to the Free State cause, and was 
 especially beneficial to the Free State 
 settleis on Potawatomie creek. The pro- 
 slavery men were dreadfully terrified, and 
 large numbers of them soon left the ter 
 ritory. It was afterward said that one 
 Free State man could scare a company of 
 them. I always understood that Geo.W. 
 Grant came to our camp on Ottawa creek, 
 near Capt. Shore s, with a message from 
 his father, John T. Grant, to John Brown, 
 asking for protection frotn threatened as 
 saults of the Shermans and other pro- 
 slavery ruffians. But I did not know 
 Geo. W. Grant at the time, and do not 
 remember of seeing him. I frequently 
 henrd the circumstance mentioned as a 
 fact. After the killing of William Sher 
 man, some time after midnight, we all 
 went back to camp, about one mile dis 
 tant, where we had left my team and 
 other things. We remained in camp until 
 after noon of the following day, and then 
 started to join the Potawatomie company 
 under John Brown, Jr. When we reached 
 Ottawa Jones 1 about midnight, we found 
 them in camp at that place. 
 
 The next morning the company was 
 called together just after breakfast, 
 and John Brown. Jr., announced his re 
 signation, and requested the company to 
 elect another captain in his place. The 
 name of II. H. Williams, now of Osawa- 
 tomie, and my own were presented and a 
 vote taken which resulted in the election 
 of Williams. _ The company then broke 
 camp and started for home. After cross- 
 in" Middle Creek at Mount Voruon, John 
 
 Brown, with the rest of the party who 
 accompanied him on the Potawatomie 
 expedition, fell back from the balance of 
 the company and struck of to the left of 
 the main Potawatomie rc>d, in the direc 
 tion of the cabins of John Brown, Jr., and 
 Jason Brown. Tha f night we staid at 
 the cabin of the farmer, keeping up a 
 guard all night. The next night we went 
 to Jason Brown s, about one mile and a 
 half away. Here we remained several 
 days, all the time on the watch. While 
 we remained here August Bundy, and I 
 think Benjamin L. Cochran, joined us. 
 After several days, as I now remember, a 
 young man by the name of Carpenter 
 came to us from Prairie City and gave 
 the information that Capt. Pate was in 
 the vicinity in search of Brown. That 
 evening we all took horses and started 
 for Prairie City, where we arrived next 
 morning about daylight and camp<d in 
 the timber on Ottawa creek, near Capt. 
 Shore s. While John Brown was cooking 
 breakfast for the company, James Red - 
 path came into our cam]) and had some 
 conversation with Capt. Brown. 
 
 I saw Red path again after the b tttle 
 of Black Jack, near BYe Mound, and I 
 desire to say in this Connection, that I 
 never told Redpatt at any time that John 
 Brown was not present at the Pcttawoto- 
 mie tragedy. His statement, which was 
 read to me, to the effect that u two squat 
 ters, who aided in the execution," gave 
 him such information, is totally false, so 
 far as I am concerned. As Winer and 
 myself were the only settlers in the 
 neighborhood not members of Brown s 
 family who were present at the tragedy, 
 I can only conclude he referred to us. 
 In the afternoon, after we camped in the 
 woods near Capt. Shore s, we moved up to 
 Prairie City. We picketed out our horses 
 and laid down not over a hundred yards 
 from the store. About the middle of the 
 afternoon six of Pate s men came riding 
 into town, four of whom we captured 
 and held as prisoners. During the after 
 noon Capt. Shore raised a company of 
 about thirty men, and in the evening we 
 started in pursuit of I ate. The next 
 morning before daylighc we obtained in 
 formation that he waj camped at Black 
 Jack point, and wf; moved forward with 
 about twenty-four men to attack him. 
 When within a mile of Pate s forces we 
 all dismounted, lett seven men in charge 
 of the horses, and, with seventeen men, 
 made the attack. In about fifteen^ nin- 
 utcs wo drove them into the ravine. The 
 fight continued about three Imurb when 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 75 
 
 Pate surrendered. About the time we 
 got the captured arms loaded into the 
 wagons ready to move, Maj. Abbott s 
 company came up and we all marched 
 back to Prairie City with the prisoners. 
 Here we remained until Col. Sumner re 
 leased them. 
 
 At this time I left John Brown, and in 
 company with Charley Lenhart and 
 many other Lawrence parties, camped in 
 thetimber near Ottawa Jones . 
 
 I make this statement at the urgent 
 request of my friends and neighbors, 
 Judge James Hanway and Hon. Johnson 
 Clarke, who have been present during 
 all the time occupied in writing it out, 
 and in whose hearing it has been several 
 times read before signing. 
 
 JAMES TOWNSLEY. 
 
 LANE, Kan., Dec. 6, 1879. 
 
 CONFIRMATORY LETTER FROM COL.WALKER. 
 
 LAWRENCE, Kan., Dec. 21, 1879. 
 DR. G. W. BROWN Dear Sir : I have 
 just read your article in your John 
 Brown series, entitled "Another Inva 
 sion." You are correct in your state 
 ment that Maj. Abbott was in command 
 on the day you mention. He was ap- 
 po ; nted officer of the day on the 13th, 
 and was not relieved on Sunday morn 
 ing, the 14th, as Gen. Lane was away, 
 and no one was named to succeed him. 
 When news came in on Sunday that the 
 jnemy was moving on Lawrence, Maj. 
 Abbott asked me what he should do. I 
 told him to keep on his sash, and do the 
 best he could. He ordered me to get 
 what mounted men I could, and go to 
 Franklin, and reconnoitre in that direction 
 and gain such intelligence as I could of 
 the enemy s movements. All the 
 mounted men I could find in the city 
 numbered only ten. When we started 
 out I saw your sister, Mrs. Mandell, with 
 a riile in her hands. 
 
 John Brown had no command ut any 
 kind on that day. The me.i with me 
 were the first to exchange shots with the 
 invaders. Coming back we met the 
 Stubbs, under Capt. Crack in, marchii g 
 in the direction from which we can e. 
 The next morning John Br >wn was g- ne 
 no one knew where. 
 
 Gov. Geary, in making terms with the 
 invading forces, consented to let that 
 portion of them which belonged North, 
 pass through the city, and cross the 
 river on the ferry. When Maj. Abbott 
 heard of it he came to me, and said that 
 it would never do to let the d d skunks 
 pass through the city in triumph. He 
 and I mounted our horses and rode to 
 Gov. Geary s quarters, on the hill, and 
 told him we would never consent to 
 allow an armed force to pass through 
 the city if no one else would fire on 
 them we would, and thus would bring 
 on a collision. The Governor consulted 
 with Col. Cooke, and the latter labored 
 to convince us that the Governor was 
 right. But we refused to yield. The 
 Governor finally issued an order, which 
 was executed by an orderly,directing the 
 party to pass up the California road. The 
 murder of Buffum was the result. ^ 
 
 At the erection of John Brown s monu 
 ment I heard Senator Ingals say, in his 
 speech, "that John Brown and no one 
 else saved Lawrence on that occasion; 
 that John Brown was in command ; and 
 but for him it would have been destroyed." 
 The facts are just as you have stated : 
 Gov. Geary and Col. Cooke saved Law 
 rence. 
 
 Public opinion is changing here, not 
 withstanding Speer and Hanway are 
 going for you. I expect you will go for 
 us all, but let the facts come out. It is 
 better for all parties. I could tell you 
 many things confirmatory of your state 
 ments in regard to old John Brown, as 
 well as additional thereto. 
 
 I remain as ever, Yours, 
 
 SAMUEL WALKER. 
 
JOHN BROWN S FRAUDULENT CABIN 
 
 [SEE PAGE 50.] 
 
REVIEW. 
 
 As a fitting conclusion to this APPENDIX, I add a REVIEW, by Hon. ELI THAYER, 
 of Massachusetts. No person watched with greater interest than he every movement in 
 Kansas while freedom and slavery were at issue in that Territory. That the reader may 
 the better comprehend the stand-point from which Mr. T. writes, he will allow me briefly 
 to state, that in 1854 he was a Representative from the city of Worcester, in the Massa 
 chusetts Legislature. In January of that year, Mr. T. devised the plan of the Emigrant 
 Company, and in February went with his charter, before the Judiciary Committee, of 
 which Judge Colt, now of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, was Chairman. Mr. 
 Thayer said in substance before the Committee, that the Kansas- Nebraska bill was sure 
 to become a law ; that the country ought to be prepared for it ; that the decisive struggle 
 between freedom and slavery was about to transpire ; that for many years this contest 
 had been carried on in Congress, with invariable triumph for slavery, and invariable de 
 feat for freedom ; that it was time to change the battle ground, and we must be ready to 
 try the issue on the prairies ; that if the South gave us fair play, our superior strength 
 and power of organization would give us certain victory ; that if slavery would not allow 
 us fair play we were a thousand times more certain to triumph, for while the North was 
 always willing to endure the aggressions of slavery, if made according to law, she would 
 crush all such as were made contrary to law ; that the granting of the charter would be 
 the overthrow of slavery, by making Kansas free, and by securing freedom to all our* 
 other territories. Thus the political power of slavery would be ended, and, speedily, its 
 life. The Kansas-Nebraska bill became a law on the 3Oth of Mav following. Mr. T. 
 had been several months in the field, and had, through the press and forum, thoroughly 
 aroused the New England States. He was made President of the Emigrant Aid Com 
 pany, and traveled from city to city, addressing the assembled thousands ; entrancing 
 them with his powerful eloquence, and arousing the people to a full consciousness of their 
 danger and duty. He induced capitalists to subscribe largely to the stock of the Com 
 pany, to enable it to encourage the humble pioneer, who, stimulated by a similar zeal for 
 the right, should go forward, and by actual settlement in the Territory, contribute his 
 share towards developing its resources, and in "laying deep and broad the foundations of 
 an empire which shall be sacred to freedom." 
 
 With funds thus raised, cheap rates of travel were established ; large parties were 
 enabled to travel together for mutual aid and protection ; cities were projected and located; 
 the press was encouraged ; saw-mills and hotels were built ; lumber was furnished at 
 moderate prices ; and the destitute were frequently given employment ; while worthy 
 agents were kept on the alert, watching with paternal care the development of the infant 
 colonies ; and, more than all, were continually active with pamphlets, circulars, news- 
 
78 REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 papers, memorials to Congress, and public addresses, in building up and sustaining a 
 powerful sympathizing and favorable opinion in the States. 
 
 Mr. Thajer was the founder, proprietor, and principal of the Oread Institute, in 
 Worcester, a Seminary for the education of young ladies. This he neglected, to his 
 serious pecuniary loss, to give his great labors to the welfare of the future, by excluding 
 slavery and its blighting influences from the plains of Kansas. 
 
 When mob violence destroyed Lawrence, the Emigrant Aid Company, with its organ 
 ized capital and energy, to give cheer to the settlers, set itself at work to speedily re-erect 
 that which was demolished. When arms were needed for defence, careful that the 
 Company, as such, should commit no breach of rights, its members, in their individual 
 capacity, promptly contributed of their means, the necessary monev to buy and ship 
 them to Kansas. 
 
 In the darkest hour, when others despiared of success, Mr. Thayer was full of hope ; 
 wrote cheerful words of encouragement ; and assured all that the result would be fully 
 satisfactory. 
 
 Like the great mass of the active friends of Kansas in the Eastern States, Mr. Thajer 
 wasdeceived by placing confidence in the representations of old John Brown. Ignorant 
 of the full facts until years after, Mr. T. contributed largely of his private means to aid 
 the old man in his insurrectionary movements. 
 
 If Mr. Thayer expresses himself forcibly, in hostility to old John Brown, the reader 
 will observe that he was induced, by falsehood, to furnish arms to be used in a rebellion 
 against the sovereignty of the United States ; that Hon. Gerritt Smith was driven to 
 insanity, when he learned of the abuse made of his money and confidence furnished in 
 the same direction ; and that Mr. T. felt that he was highly censurable fcr reposing confi 
 dence in his integrity. But I am detaining the reader quite too long with this introduction : 
 
 "One of that saintly, murderous br.ood, 
 "To carnage and the Koran given, 
 "Who think through unbelievers blood 
 "Lies their directest path to heaven. 11 
 
 G. W. BROWN, M. D. DEAR SIR : Every lover of historical truth owes you a 
 debt of gratitude, for your fearless and manly review of the history of John Brown in 
 Kansas. You have followed the guidance of facts to their logical and indisputable con 
 clusions, unterrified by denunciation and abuse, unmoved by the sickly protests and the 
 sickening entreaties of the sentimental worshippers of the subject of your sketch. That 
 a man so narrow and bigoted as he, so ignorant and deceptive, so ferocious and malig 
 nant, should have been puffed into the semblance of a moral hero, or inflated to the 
 majestic stature of a god, is one of the greatest wonders of this wonderful century. 
 
 It was fortunate for Kansas that John Brown did not enter her borders till the time had 
 passed when he, or any other man, could have changed her destiny. Had he come one 
 vear earlier, his blind ferocity, and unreasoning hatred of slave-holders, might have sub 
 jected our infant colonies to retaliatory acts by Missourians, which they would have been 
 powerless either to resist or avert. 
 
 Still more fortunate would it have been for that afflicted Territory if he had never come 
 at all. He had nothing in common with the Free State settlers, and came, not as they, 
 to make a free State, but to incite a Northern rebellion against the government of the 
 Union. He confessed his failure to accomplish that purpose, and left the Territory after 
 he had been entreated to do so by Gov. Crawford, and other prominent Free State men. 
 The busy pens of a few Northern disunionists recorded his departure as a great loss to the 
 Free State Council ! When was John Brown ever seen in Council ? When was his 
 
REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BRCfWN. 79 
 
 advice on public measures ever solicited ? Did President Lincoln ask the counsel of Tom 
 Hyer, the pugilist, concerning the war of the Union ? 
 
 According to Mr. Redpath, John Brown despised Councils, but was always ready to 
 figh t. In Dickens "Domby & Son" appears a like character, Chicken, the boxer, 
 whose only inquiry was always : "Is there any body to be doubled up ?" In studying the 
 method of "doubling up" somebody John Brown found "scope and verge enough" for all 
 his intellectual ability. He could not have understood, if he would, the philosophy of 
 that organization which made Kansas a free State, and which, from its first action, gave 
 assurance of its ultimate success, in strict accordance with the law and the Constitution. 
 
 As the case now stands, but little more may be said of John Brown. No one need 
 paint again the ghastly picture on the Pottawotomie ! Five unarmed men, taken from 
 their homes at midnight, and murdered in cold blood ! The supplicating agony of wives 
 and children, soon changing to the despairing wail of widows and orphans ! Five dead 
 bodies lying unattended on the bleak prairie, with heads split open, hands cut off, 
 breast and jaws punctured, and the curdling blood crying from the ground for vengeance ! 
 An appalling scene ! One more hideous than this could scarcely be presented to mortal 
 eye. Friends and eulogists can never palliate, or explain away, the damning infamy and 
 fiendish atrocity of the doers of this horrid work. As that picture is now presented, so it 
 must remain forever ! Invincible truth will be its keeper, and no friend of the great 
 criminal can throw light on its deep shadows, or erase a single one of its loathsome 
 features. Neither can it be made worse. The concentrated malice of all Brown s ene 
 mies, with unlimited license to do their will, could add nothing to its overwhelming 
 horrors ! No one need again expose to public execration that merciless tyranny which 
 drove one of his sons through murder to insanity, and two others through treason to 
 death ! 
 
 In that brief portion of Brown s history which is before the public, there are some cases 
 of "conspicuous inexactness," which contrast very strikingly with that "eminent truthful 
 ness," so fervidly described and so tenaciously dwelt upon by his admiring eulogists : 
 
 i. He told F. B. Sanborn and many others that he was not present at the Pottawoto 
 mie massacre. It is proved that he was present as commander of the midnight assassins. 
 
 2. He repeatedly affirmed that he took no part in the killing, though he approved of it. 
 It is proved that he slew with his own hands one of the hapless and helpless victims ! 
 
 3. He asserted that in his Missouri raid he liberated several slaves without bloodshed 
 and without the use of weapons. It is in proof that one respectable and quiet farmer was 
 murdered in that raid, by one of Brown s men. 
 
 4. Before his attack upon the United States arsenal, at Harper s Ferry, he spent several 
 weeks in Virginia. He pretended to be a mineralogist, and went about with a hammer 
 breaking off the corners of rocks. Under the pretext of seeking for copper he found 
 opportunities for trying to enlist slaves in his little rebellion. These facts were narrated 
 to me by a representative in Congress from the Harper s Ferry district. 
 
 5. The surveyor trick is already well understood. It was of the same charact* 
 his mineralogical observations. 
 
 6 While he was in Massachusetts, in iS 57 - 5 S, I repeatedly heard him recite his Cap 
 ture of Henry Clay Pate." He gave the same rendition of that highly interesting story 
 several times a day while he was here, describing the same incidents with minute exactness 
 in the same identical language. The substance of his narrative was, that he met Clay Pate 
 on the open prairie ; that he had nine men on foot, and Pate twenty-seven on horse-back, 
 and that he captured Pate and his entire command. When asked why Pate did not 
 wheel about and ride away, Brown said : "We received three rounds without harm from 
 Pate s men while marching towards them. We then fired and two or three of Pate s 
 men fell from their horses. Then they all seemed stupefied. Leaving my men I went 
 oer to Pate and held my pistol to his head commanding him to surrender. He sun-end- 
 
8o REMINISCENCES OF OLD JOHN BROWN. 
 
 ered !" Then followed the clinching pantomime of drawing from one of his boots a huge 
 bowie knife with the name of Pate engraved upon the handle. No allusion was ever 
 made in these recitals, in my hearing, to Capt. Shore, or Capt. Mewhinny, or to their 
 men. It may be his "kindness of heart" restrained any utterance which might have 
 exposed the two Captains, and thetr companies, to retaliatory measures from Missouri. 
 
 7. The writer s confidence has been many times abused, but never in any other instance 
 so grossly and wickedly abused as by John Brown. Not long before his attack on the 
 United States arsenal he came to my house to ask for arms, with which, he said, 
 he intended to protect some Free State settlements in Kansas, against an invasion of 
 Border Ruffians, at that very time in process o preparation. He would not tell me 
 how he had ascertained the fact of the intended raid, or what was the proof of it. He 
 said he knew it and would like to be prepared to save our settlements. I gave him all 
 the arms I had. I did not hear of him, or the arms in Kansas, or of any invasion of 
 Border Ruffians, but I did hear of his attack upon the United States Arsenal, at Harper s 
 Ferry, -with these identical arms, which were there captured. In this way he made my 
 devotion to the free State settlements in Kansas, serve to aid and abet his own Treason 
 in Virginia. Had he told me the TRUTH, effective measures would have been taken to 
 prevent his suicidal and murderous work. When the end justifies the means lying may 
 be a holy vocation ! 
 
 So in all these transactions John Brown may have thought he was doing God s service. 
 Ignorant, infatuated, intolerant, the ripest growth of Garrisonian disunionism, he had 
 the daring to do what the others of his school had only courage to resolve, to wit : that,, 
 
 "The time has fully come for the people to practically assert their right of revolution." 
 
 John Brown threw away his life in a futile effort to translate into heroic deeds the 
 graceless gabble of a few Northern Secessionists. Stimulated by their sentiments, and 
 exasperated almost to frenzy by his attempts and failures in Kansas to sustain them, he 
 determined to rush, single-handed, against the power of the United States. Cervantes 
 himself never wrote any thing one-half so Quixotic. If John Brown did not know that 
 this was suicide he knew less than any other sane man in the country. But it was suicide, 
 such as might be supposed to have attractions for a man of his obstinate ambition and 
 adverse experience. It was suicide, to be justified by the teachings of disunion societies ; 
 to be sanctified by its simulation of martyrdom; to be glorified by all the abolition seces 
 sionists in the free States. 
 
 Some charitable people say that our "hero" was insane, but there seems to have been 
 "too much method for madness." His disease appears to have been rather moral than 
 mental, and of that kind that could not have been economically cured in any swine-pro 
 ducing country near the sea. But whether sane, or insane, he acted well the part^of 
 heavy villain in the Kansas drama. Now "his soul goes marching on ! " Well, let it 
 march until it shall become infinitely remote ! 
 
 WORCESTER, Mass., Jan. i3th, 1880. ELI THAYER. 
 
o 
 
 p^ 
 
 PQ 
 
 W 
 
 K 
 H 
 
 O 
 
 H 
 
 P 
 W 
 
 O 
 
 2 
 
 w 
 
INDEX. 
 
 DEDICATION, v 
 
 Introduction, vi 
 
 Correspondence, vi 
 
 Prefatory, 3 
 
 Explanatory, 4 
 First notice of John Brown in Kan. His., 5 
 
 Acquaintance with the Sons, 6 
 
 The Wakarusawar, 6 
 
 John Brown in Lawrence, 7 
 
 Capt. Charley Lenhart, 9 
 
 Personal to the writer, 9 
 
 History of a revolver, n 
 
 Sacking of Lawrence Arrests, 12 
 Horrible murders on the Pottawotomie, 12 
 
 Details of the massacre, 13 
 
 Incidents of history, 14 
 Who was responsible for the massacre, 16 
 
 Further, who was responsible, 17 
 
 Newly discovered evidence, 19 
 
 Terrible arraignment, 20 
 
 Motive for the killing, 21 
 
 Too good to murder, 22 
 Effect of massacre on Free State praty, 22 
 
 Effect not limited to Kansas, 26 
 
 The Summer of 1856, 27 
 
 John Brown s biographer, 28 
 
 John Brown,Jr., 30 
 
 Gov. Geary, 32 
 
 A crisis approaching, 32 
 
 Another invasion, 33 
 
 Federal interposition, 34 
 
 The pro-slavery account, 36 
 
 Redpath s statement, 36 
 
 Capt. Brown s statement, 38 
 
 An interlude, 
 
 A strange coincidence, 
 
 Further strategy, 
 
 An exciting incident, 
 
 The terrible fate of a typo, 
 
 Brewerton, 
 
 A first class bore, 
 
 The letter-writers, 
 
 John Brown s cabin a fraud, 
 
 The home of John Brown, 
 
 A glance in passing, 
 
 Return to Kansas, 
 
 An important letter, 
 
 Kansas too hot for him, 
 
 Osawotomie Brown, 
 
 Not all bad, 
 
 Confirmation, 
 
 The clincher, 
 
 Chance for correction, 
 
 Corrections, 
 
 The fly on the locomotive, 
 
 Hero worship, 
 
 Conclusion, 
 
 APPENDIX, 
 
 Letter of Mr. Thayer, 
 
 Letter of Gov. Crawford, 
 
 Potawoto e massacre, Col. Blood s letter, 
 
 Statement of the Grants, 
 
 Were they mutilated, 
 
 Mr. Townsley s statement, 
 
 Confirmatory letter of Col. Walker, 
 
 REVIEW, 
 
 Introductory notice of Mr. Thayer, 
 
 Eli Thayer s Review, 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS: 
 
 CAPT. JOHN BROWN, 
 JOHN BROWN S FRAUDULENT CABIN, 
 FRENCH MEDAL TO THE BROWN FAMILY 
 
 
 Face Title Page. 
 76 
 Si 
 
RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 
 
 202 Main Library 
 
 LOAN PERIOD 1 
 HOME USE 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 
 
 Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date. 
 
 Books may be Renewed by calling 642-3405. 
 
 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW 
 
 8- 
 
 UN18 
 
 uTO. DioJ 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY 
 FORM NO. DD6 BERKELEY, CA 94720 
 
 HftR25 67-H/\M 
 
 L-60m-4, 64 
 (E4555slO)476B 
 
U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
 mi 
 
 
 
 
 
 C0052AM1QQ 
 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 i <- ** j* ;* b %*