Page:A voice from Harper's Ferry (1861).djvu/18

16 Kagi had improved his time; he discoursed elegantly and fluently, wrote ably, and could occupy the platform with greater ability than many a man known to the American people as famous in these respects. John Brown appreciated him, and to his men, his estimate of John Henry was a familiar theme.

Kagi's bravery, his devotion to the cause, his deference to the commands of his leader, were most nobly illustrated in his conduct at Harper's Ferry.

Scarcely had the Convention and other meetings and business at Chatham been concluded, and most necessary work been done, both at St. Catherines and at this point, when the startling intelligence that the plans were exposed came to hand, and that "Judas" Forbes, after having disclosed some of our important arrangements in the Middle States, was on his way to Washington on a similar errand. This news caused an entire change in the programme for a time. The old gentleman went one way, the young men another, but ultimately to meet in Kansas, in part, where the summer was spent. In the winter of that year, Capt. Brown, J. H. Kagi, A. D. Stevens, C. P. Tidd and Owen Brown, went into Missouri, and released a company of slaves, whom they eventually escorted to Canada, where they are now living and taking care of themselves. An incident of that slave rescue may serve to illustrate more fully the spirit pervading the old man and his "boys." After leaving Missouri with the fugitives, and while yet pursuing the perilous hegira, birth was given to a male child by one of the slave mothers. Dr. Doy, of Kansas, aided in the accouchment, and walked five miles afterwards to get new milk for the boy, while the old Captain named him John Brown, after himself, which name he now bears. At that time, a reward from the United States government was upon the head of Brown; United States