876 THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 



Higginson, " I have never fully reconciled myself to this vindication 

 of ' the blow,' " and he claims that Brown is to be judged as " a pure 

 enthusiast — fanatic, if you please." 



Brown had developed a plan for penetrating Virginia with a few fol- 

 lowers, not with a view to an insurrection, but with intent to assemble 

 fugitives, and if unable to protect them in local fastnesses to send them 

 to Canada. In this plan Higginson, Theodore Parker, and others of 

 the anti-slavery leaders co-operated and raised money for its further- 

 ance. The details of the scheme were betrayed, and action on the part 

 of Brown was necessarily postponed. In October, 1859, came the 

 attack on Harper's Ferry, a proceeding on the part of Brown radically 

 different from the plan previously proposed by him, in aid of which the 

 money referred to above had been contributed, and further a proceed- 

 ing which was opposed by Brown's followers. For a time all those 

 who had been in touch with this fanatical leader and all those who had 

 furnished him with money were under suspicion and were in danger 

 of arrest. Some fled to Canada, but Higginson felt that it was his 

 duty to stand his ground and give Brown his moral support, and he 

 goes on to state that with Brown in confinement there was, of course, 

 an immediate impulse to rescue him from prison. " I do not know 

 how far this extended," he says, "and can only vouch for myself." 

 Brown, however, had absolutely prohibited any such attempt, and 

 unless he could be led to change his opinion any efforts to rescue the 

 inflexible old man would be thrown away. It occurred to Higginson 

 that Brown's wife might, in a personal interview, influence the prisoner 

 to recede from this position, and he went to North Elba and secured 

 her co-operation. The plan failed through the stubbornness of Brown, 

 who refused positively to see his wife. A harebrained effort was 

 shortly afterward started to rescue two of Brown's followers, but the 

 leader chosen for the purpose, after carefully inspecting the ground, 

 pronounced the scheme impracticable. When this proposition was 

 under consideration, Higginson went to Harrisburg to meet the leader 

 of the enterprise, to arrange details, and to take part in the rescue if 

 it should be attempted. On the abandonment of the expedition he 

 returned to his home. 



At the outbreak of the war he visited Governor Andrew and volun- 

 teered, if provided with the necessary funds, to invade the Virginia 

 mountains with a small force of men selected from the Kansas Free 

 State men, and kindle a back fire there, with a view of distracting 

 attention from the national capital, then in peril. There was no con- 

 tingent fund in Massachusetts that could be used, but a small sum of 

 money was raised from private sources. Governor Curtin of Pennsyl- 



