Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/345

 BROWN 339 summer enhanced his reputation as a partisan leader and hard fighter, and he was both hated and feared by the pro-slavery marauders. In the latter part of August a fresh invasion of Missourians poured into the territory, num- bering nearly 2,000 men. A part of this force was driven back by Gen. Lane, while another body of 500 marched upon the town of Ossawattomie, near which Brown was encamped with about 30 men. Owing to the rapid advance of the assailants, a part of his band was cut off and one of his sons killed ; but with the remainder, about 15 men, he took post in the woods adjoining the town, where for nearly an hour he offered an obstinate and suc- cessful resistauce. When by various casualties his little force had become diminished one half, he effected a retreat in safety, having inflicted a severe loss in killed and wounded on the en- emy. This encounter gave Brown a sort of national reputation, and the sobriquet of " Ossa- wattomie Brown " clung to him until his death. Six weeks later he was again in Lawrence, on his way home from Topeka, when the announce- ment was made that an overpowering force of Missourians was approaching to attack the town, which at the moment contained fewer than 200 able-bodied men. Brown was unan- imously chosen leader, and having made a char- acteristic speech to his men, whom he urged to fire deliberately and aim at the enemy's legs, he posted his force in and around the town. The enemy approached within half a mile, but hesitated to make an attack, and both parties lay on their arms during the night. When the sun rose the Missourians had decamped. Soon afterward Brown, accompanied by his three sons, left for the east to obtain arms and supplies for the free-state emigrants in Kansas. He remained away a year. In February, 1857, he addressed a committee of the Massachusetts legislature, appointed to consider petitions in favor of a state appropriation to protect the rights of Massachusetts citizens in Kansas ; and in Boston and other cities he had frequent in- terviews with anti-slavery sympathizers. The mission proved an unsuccessful one so. far as substantial aid was concerned. His proposi- tion to drill and equip a body of men for ser- vice in Kansas savored too much of aggressive warfare to meet the views of most of those to whom he addressed himself. None could doubt his honesty and devotion to the anti- slavery cause, but few were willing to trust a man whose enthusiasm for freedom evidently bordered on fanaticism. Many persons believ- ed him to be insane on the subject. In Novem- ber, 1857, he returned to Kansas and began to put into practical operation a project in further- ance of the anti-slavery cause far in advance of any views previously made public by him. This was nothing less than to attack the in- stitution of slavery in one of its oldest seats, and by the aid of liberated slaves to overthrow it throughout the Union. This project, con- ceived many years previous, was matured partly during the border warfare in Kansas and partly while on his visit to the eastern states; but he unfolded it very cautiously, and would probably have hesitated to carry it out so soon had not his zeal been inflamed by the exciting scenes through which he had recently passed. He re- vealed it to few if any of those from whom he solicited aid in behalf of the free-state cause. With a small number of resolute men, carefully selected, he soon after repaired to Iowa, where they passed the winter of 1857-'8 in practising military exercises. He now informed his fol- lowers that they were to serve hi Virginia in- stead of Kansas, as they had supposed, and that Harper's Ferry would be the scene of his first operations against the slaveholders. For the furtherance of his plans Brown relied very con- siderably upon the assistance of fugitive slaves who had escaped from the United States into Canada ; and for the purpose of informing these people of his intentions and of inducing them to cooperate with him, he called a secret con- vention of the "friends of freedom" at Chat- ham, Canada West, in May, 1858. The result of its deliberations was the adoption of a " Pro- visional Constitution and Ordinances for the People of the United States," drafted by Brown, and which was essentially an embodiment of his political opinions. The preamble declared that the instrument was framed mainly in the interests of the slaves and other people " de- graded by the laws of the United States," and many of the articles provided for the mainte- nance of order among insurgent slaves and for other contingencies which seemed likely to arise. One of them disclaimed any intention to overthrow the government of the United States or dissolve the Union, and limited the action of the framers to "amendment and repeal." Under this constitution Brown was chosen commander-in-chief ; J. H. Kagi, secretary of war ; Owen Brown, son of John Brown, treas- urer ; and Richard Realf, secretary of state, the three last named being members of Brown's party from Iowa. No person being permitted to hold more than one office at a time, the pres- idency was temporarily conferred upon Elder Monroe, a colored clergyman. Brown had hoped to proceed at once to Harper's Ferry, but several circumstances combined to pre- vent the immediate execution of his plan, the chief obstacle being the want of money. He therefore returned in June, 1858, with a portion of his party, to Kansas, and set- tled temporarily in the southern part of the territory, which was then the theatre of bor- der warfare, as northern Kansas had been a year or two previous. On Dec. 1 9, while the excitement was at its height, a slave named Jim secretly crossed the border to Brown's cabin and announced that he and his family had been sold, and would be sent to Texas the next day. Brown, with 20 men divided into two parties, immediately crossed over into Missouri and liberated the slaves, whom, with 6 other negroes, making 11 in all, they