FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 49I 



at hand, they would rise and fitjht for and secure their own freedom, although it does 

 not appear that he pubHcly advocated the plan of invasion. 



Through his efforts a few hundred rifles and some money was secured for the 

 Kansas free-soil settlers. Instead of promptly sending them all into Kansas, as 

 expected, some of these rifles were kept under his control until the Harper's Ferry 

 affair. He seemed to have great faith in that ancient weapon, the pike, and contracted 

 for a thousand of them. Some of these were also retained for the Virginia raid, as he 

 believed that in the hands of ignorant men unused to fire-arms the pike was the best 

 weapon. 



Disappointed in not being able to obtain funds with which he hoped to raise, 

 equip and maintain a mounted force for the Kansas struggle yet in progress, he went 

 back west, although he says : "I did not intend to settle in Kansas unless I happened 

 to find my last home there." 



In the winter of 1858 he again left Kansas for the east, where he cautiously 

 unfolded his plans for the attack upon slavery in its eastern stronghold to a few 

 trusted friends. He found no one of any standing who agreed with him, all realizing 

 the foolhardy impotence of such a course. His answer to their objections was : 

 "Twenty men in the AUeghanies can break up slavery in two years." 



In the summer of 1859, Theodore Parker and a few other Massachusetts abolition- 

 ists had a general knowledge of his intention to organize an expedition to free the 

 slaves, and are said to have approved the same and furnished some means without 

 knowing the details of his plans or his point of attack. 



Afifairs in Kansas were getting too tame for him, or strategic reasons were 

 controlling, when he wrote to a friend: " I consider it my duty to draw the scene of 

 excitem.ent to some other part of the country." How well he succeeded, we older 

 people well remember. 



John Brown had no ill-will or hatred for the slave-holder personally. His relent- 

 less animosity was against the institution, and his untiring energies were all directed 

 against it, and he considered it but God's will that those who wilfully or unfortunately 

 stood in the way should be removed. In this, his Puritanic belief was that of the 

 most radical Jesuit. 



His articles of faith he often expressed in this language: "I believe in the Golden 

 Rule and the Declaration of Independence. They both mean the same thing, and it 

 is better that a whole generation — men, women and children — pass ofT the face of the 

 earth by a violent death than that one jot of either should fail in this country." 



He decided upon Harper's Ferry as the spot to strike the first blow, on account of 

 the arms and tools stored there with which he intended to equip the thousands of 

 slaves in its vicinity, allowing those who chose to do so to fight their way to the 



