Page:John Brown (1899).pdf/86

 tending to make use of them in procuring the liberation of his sons, he fell in, unluckily, with a body of United States troops under Colonel Sumner, a Massachusetts man, an anti-slavery sympathizer, and afterward a successful commander on the federal side in the Civil War. Brown was too good a soldier to suppose that, with some nine or ten men and with twenty-two prisoners on his hands, he could successfully engage a large force of United States dragoons, even if he had cared to make a direct issue then with the United States authorities. But he came ojvenly and parleyed with Colonel Sumner as if he were his equal, and Sumner seems to have done the same with him. There was a most impressive incident at this meeting. Brown was at that time charged with murder on the Pottawatomie, with treason and conspiracy; and a price had been put on his head. He was several times an outlaw. A civil officer