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 and others, with one small company of mounted men, and John Brown, Jr., with another, started to the defence of this building and of Lawrence; but to Brown's great disgust the Lawrence people decided to make no resistance to a United States officer, and the place was ravaged. Brown was further infuriated by the refusal of the people at Osawatomie to make a brave stand against the Missourians. Beyond doubt he reached the conclusion that a blow of desperate violence must be struck to arouse the people and overcome the tendency which he saw on the part of the Free State people to temporize, to waver. He also, doubtless, believed his own life to be in danger.

Getting together a small party of trusted men, John Brown went on the night of May 24 to the shores of Pottawatomie creek, where lived several Pro-slavery men who had terrorized the neighborhood. He called them one by