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Some time in the summer of 1850, John Brown was conducting a band of fugitives from Missouri, through Kansas and Nebraska, into Iowa, intending to reach Canada by the Chicago and Detroit road. By some means, not now recollected, the information was conveyed to the city of Atchison that Brown and his escort were encamped on a small tributary of the Grasshopper river, in Jackson county, about 20 miles from Atchison. The proslavery Democrats thought this a favorable opportunity to strike a blow for the party, capture the man whose influence, courage and military genius had created a panic throughout Missouri, recover the fugitive property and teach the universal Yankee nation down east a lesson that was sadly needed, and getting more important every day.

An impromptu meeting was held rather quietly, and about a dozen young braves who were known to be “found on the goose,” and who were always “ready for a fight or a foot race,” were selected to make a raid on John Brown, capture him and his negroes, and convey them back to Missouri.

Horses and revolvers were furnished by those who instigated the movement, and these redoubtable warriors marched forth “in all the pomp and circumstance of