in
conference on the question, whether the desperate step should then be
taken, or the old plan as already described should be carried out. He
was for boldly striking Harper's Ferry at once and running the risk of
getting into the mountains afterwards. I was for avoiding Harper's
Ferry altogether. Shields Green and Mr. Kagi remained silent listeners
throughout. It is needless to repeat here what was said, after what
has happened. Suffice it, that after all I could say, I saw that my
old friend had resolved on his course and that it was idle to parley.
I told him finally that it was impossible for me to join him. I could
see Harper's Ferry only as a trap of steel, and ourselves in the wrong
side of it. He regretted my decision and we parted.

Thus far, I have spoken exclusively of Capt. Brown. Let me say a word
or two of his brave and devoted men, and first of Shields Green. He
was a fugitive slave from Charleston, South Carolina, and had attested
his love of liberty by escaping from slavery and making his way
through many dangers to Rochester, where he had lived in my family,
and where he met the man with whom he went to the scaffold. I said to
him, as I was about to leave, "Now Shields, you have heard our
discussion. If in view of it, you do not wish to stay, you have but to
say so, and you can go back with me." He answered, "I b'l'eve I'll go
wid de old man;" and go with him he did, into the fight, and to the
gallows, and bore himself as grandly as any of the number. At the
moment when Capt. Brown was surrounded, and all chance of escape was
cut off, Green was in the mountains and could have made his escape as
Osborne Anderson did, but when asked to do so, he made the same answer
he did at Chambersburgh, "I b'l'eve I'll go down wid de ole man." When
in prison at Charlestown, and he was not allowed to see his old
friend, his fidelity to him was in no wise weakened, and no complaint
against Brown could be extorted from him by those who talked with him.

If a monument should be erected to the memory of John Brown, as there
ought to be, the form and name of Shields Green should have a
conspicuous place upon it. It is a remarkable fact, that in this small
company of men, but one showed any sign of weakness or regret for what
he did or attempted to do. Poor Cook broke down and sought to save his
life by representing that he had been deceived, and allured by false
promises. But Stephens, Hazlett and Green went to their doom