should exist one day longer.' These words were uttered
like rifle balls; in such emphatic tones and manner that our
little Carl, not three years old, remembered it in manhood as one
of his earliest recollections. The child stood perfectly still,
in the middle of the room, gazing with his beautiful eyes on this
new sort of man, until his absorption arrested the attention of
Captain Brown, who soon coaxed him to his knee, tho' the look of
awe and childlike wonder remained. His dress was of some dark
brown stuff, quite coarse, but its exactness and neatness
produced a singular air of refinement. At dinner, he declined all
dainties, saying that he was unaccustomed to luxuries, even to
partaking of butter.

"The 'friends of freedom' with whom Mr. Stearns had invited John
Brown to consult were profoundly impressed with his sagacity,
integrity, and devotion; notably among these were R. W. Emerson,
Theodore Parker, H. D. Thoreau, A. Bronson Alcott, F. B. Sanborn,
Dr. S. G. Howe, Col. T. W. Higginson, Gov. Andrew, and others. In
February (1857) he appeared before a committee of the State
Legislature, to urge that Massachusetts should make an
appropriation in money in aid of those persons who had settled in
Kansas from her own soil. The speech is printed in Redpath's
'Life.' He obtained at this time, from the Massachusetts State
Kansas Committee,[67] some two hundred Sharp's rifles, with which
to arm one hundred mounted men for the defense of Kansas, who
could also be of service to the peculiar property of Missouri. In
those dark days of slave-holding supremacy, the friends of
freedom felt justified in aiding the flight of its victims to
free soil whenever and wherever opportunity offered. The
Fugitive-Slave Law was powerless before the law written on the
enlightened consciences of those devoted men and women. These
rifles had been forwarded previously to the National Committee at
Chicago, for the defense of Kansas, but for some unexplained
reasons had never proceeded farther than Tabor, in the State of
Iowa. Later on, Mr. Stearns, in his individual capacity,
authorized Captain Brown to purchase two hundred revolvers from
the Massachusetts Arms Company, and paid for them from his
private funds, thirteen or fifteen hundred dollars. During the
summe