flSlIERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 489 



robbery, imprisonment and murder were the means used by the pro-slavery marauders, 

 who had, in addition to superior numbers, the moral advantage of its being understood 

 that they were representing the Government and carrying out its laws. 



Under the pretense of the proper enforcement of law, Government officials 

 co-operated with ruffians and marauders who had invaded the country to capture and 

 control it, maltreating and cruelly abusing all who were suspected of free-soil 

 principles, insisting that a breath of criticism against slavery was treason deserving 

 instant death. But the undaunted Old Brown and his men were on the alert and 

 returned the inhuman treatment inflicted upon themselves and others in kind and with 

 a vengeance. He believed that stern, unrelenting retaliation, which required two lives 

 for one, would quickest subdue his fiendish adversaries. 



He divided his little force so that they could appear at different and widely 

 separated points simultaneously, and while he kept the enemy confused and in 

 ignorance of his numbers, struck blows which staggered and destroyed them. His 

 bold adventures by day and fearless attacks by night filled his foes with fear and 

 trembling as of one having superhuman power. 



That he could have effected such important results and caused such wild excitement 

 and commotion in the whole country, or, as he says, "Fairly raised hell from below," 

 with so few men, is now the wonder of the world. His si.x sons and one son-in-law, 

 Henry Thompson, of this town, were about all of his regular reliable force ; the 

 balance, never exceeding twenty or thirty, were recruits for temporary service or 

 volunteers for special raids. 



The bulletins sent out by his enemies in those times always magnified his force 

 and doings, which was just what he wanted and pleased him greatly. For example, 

 certain dispatches sent by Senator Atchison read thus: "August 5th, 1856. The 

 notorious John Brown with three hundred abolitionists made an attack upon a colony 

 of Georgians, murdering two hundred and twenty-five, one hundred and seventy-five 

 of whom were women, children and slaves." — "August I2th. At night, under the 

 same Brown, three hundred abolitionists attacked Franklin, robbed, plundered and 

 burned." — Again, "August 15th, Brown with five hundred abolitionists, mounted and 

 armed, attacked Treadwell's settlement." 



Brown, at this time, had no mounted men whatever. The real facts were that 

 other and larger forces of free-soil men under General Lane and others were operating 

 in Kansas; but Brown, with his handful of followers, on account of his daring attacks 

 and intrepid successful fighting against odds, had become the central figure of the 

 Kansas war, and all startling occurrences and alleged outrages were charged to him. 



Of the famous fight at Osawatomie on August 30th, 1856, he says in his report 

 dated September 6th, 1856: "I had no organized force but twelve to fifteen new 



