James Redpath, The Public Life of Captain John Brown

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[189] would have acted as he did act. He marched straight ahead, trampling under foot the rotten stubble of unjust laws and constitutions, that stood between him and his foe. It is true that he finally fell among them; but not before he proved how very powerless they are to resist a man.

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John Brown's scheme.

John Brown returned to Kansas in the month of November, 1857.

What had he been doing since January, when we reported him in Boston? Whetting his sword. And how? In our free Republic, with its barbaric Southern rulers, it would not be here safe to say how. Only brief traces of his movements, therefore, can, in justice to his noble friends, be recorded at this time. It should be stated, first, that at this period there was every prospect of renewed disturbances in Kansas. Our need of officers had been greatly felt in the recent conflict there. One hundred mounted men, well armed and officered, would at any time have swept the invaders from the Territory. John Brown fully appreciated this necessity, and the terror that his own name had inspired, arose from the dread, he modestly thought, of his military knowledge, as much as from the victories he had gained. Hence he desired to have funds to equip a sufficient force for the protection of the squatters, as well as to drill a select number of the young men of Kansas, who had proved themselves faithful to principle.

He well knew, from his power over men, that, should the Kansas difficulties cease, the youths thus