Page:Report of Senate Select Committee on the Invasion of Harper's Ferry.pdf/14

14 And, on page 101, he continues:

"On the occasion of which I have just spoken, at Chatham, Brown said to me that Colonel Forbes, maddened by the non-receipt of moneys which he had expected to receive, had threatened to divulge Brown's plans, and had done so by coming to Washington and stating to Senator Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, that Brown had a purpose in view of effecting an insurrection in the Southern States."

The committee at once apprized the Hon. Henry Wilson, senator of the United States from Massachusetts, of the testimony of this witness, and invited him to attend the committee, as well to put any questions he might think proper to the witness, as to give his own testimony, if any he had, in relation to this matter, The testimony of Mr. Wilson will be found commencing at page 140. It shows that the communication made to him by Forbes induced him to write a letter at once to Dr. Howe, at Boston, the substance of which, from recollection, he gave as follows:

"I wrote to him for the purpose of saying it was rumored that some of the arms that had been contributed by gentlemen in the East for the defence of Kansas had passed into the hands of John Brown, and were held somewhere in his hands, and that they ought to get them out of his hands and put them in the hands of some reliable man in Kansas who would use them only for the purposes of defense, for which they were contributed; that if these arms should be used for any illegal purpose, they would involve the men who contributed for the other purpose in difficulties. That was the substance of the letter; that if they should be used for any illegal purpose whatever, they would be involved in difficulty, and they should get them out of his hands at once."

Mr. Wilson continued:

"I received a letter, three or four days after I wrote mine, from Dr. Howe, to this effect: that they had sent to Brown to deliver the arms into the hands of somebody in Kansas; at any rate, they had sent to him to take the arms into Kansas, or deliver them up in some way; and I supposed at the time the arms were those referred to as being in Iowa, which were sent out there and stationed on the way. I received this letter a day or two after I wrote. That was the substance of it. The whole matter, I supposed then, was a quarrel between Brown and Forbes, and I paid but little attention to it; and never, until the outbreak took place, dreamed or heard from any quarter whatever anything in regard to it. I heard nothing from Forbes or Brown or any other source."

At page 158, in the testimony of Dr. Howe, he says, in answer to a question:

"In the year 1858 I received a communication from a Mr. Forbes, then in Washington, and information from other quarters, that Captain Brown had in his possession arms belonging to the committee which he would probably use for purposes not intended by the committee. A meeting was called. The committee had then been virtually dissolved; it had nothing more to do; but the members were called together. A vote was passed instructing the chairman to write to Captain Brown and direct him, if he held any property, arms or