Page:John Brown (1899).pdf/106

 against slavery. The abolitionists, he said, "would never effect anything by their milk-and-water principles," and the Republican party was of no account, since it was opposed to "meddling with slavery" in the States where it existed. For his part, he lived to meddle with it wherever it was. Peace, he said, was but an empty word. He was certainly now preparing to make war.

In September, 1857, he had assembled in Iowa his little company of young men for military instruction under the adventurer Forbes. These young men had for the most part served with him in Kansas: a few were new recruits. They were a chosen lot, of energy and fierce principle, but trusting Brown completely and going unquestioningly where he bade them. Several of them afterward died with him at Harper's Ferry. One of their best was John Henry Kagi, or Keagy, a native of Ohio, of Swiss extraction, a tall young