er persons, with the exception of J.
H. Kagi, Osborn Anderson, Owen Brown, Richard Realf, and George B.
Gill.

"Of men born of woman," there is not a greater than John Brown. He was
the forerunner of Lincoln, the great apostle of freedom.

One year before he went to Harper's Ferry, a friend met Brown in
Kansas [in June, 1858], and learned that during the previous month he
had brought almost all of his plans to perfection; and that the day
and hour were fixed to strike the blow. One year before, a convention
had met, on the 8th of May, 1858, at Chatham, Canada. At this
convention a provisional constitution and ordinances were drafted and
adopted, with the following officers: Commander-in-Chief, John Brown;
Secretary of War, J. H. Kagi; Members of Congress, Alfred M.
Ellsworth, Osborn Anderson; Treasurer, Owen Brown; Secretary of the
Treasury, Geo. B. Gill; Secretary of State, Richard Realf.

John Brown made his appearance in Ohio and Canada in the spring of
1859. He wrote letters, made speeches, collected funds for his little
army, and made final arrangements with his Northern allies, etc. He
purchased a small farm, about six miles from Harper's Ferry, on the
Maryland side, and made it his ordnance depot. He had 102 Sharp's
rifles, 68 pistols, 55 bayonets, 12 artillery swords, 483 pikes, 150
broken handles of pikes, 16 picks, 40 shovels, besides quite a number
of other appurtenances of war. This was in July. He intended to make
all of his arrangements during the summer of 1859, and meet his men in
the Alleghanies in the fall of the same year.

The apparent rashness of the John Brown movement may be mitigated
somewhat by the fact that he failed to carry out his original plan.
During the summer of 1859 he instructed his Northern soldiers and
sympathizers to be ready for the attack on the night of the 24th of
October, 1859. But while at Baltimore, in September, he got the
impression that there was conspiracy in his camp, and in order to
preclude its consummation, suddenly, without sending the news to his
friends at the North, determined to strike the first blow on the night
of the 17th of October. The news of his battle and his bold stand
against the united forces of Virginia and Maryland swept across the
country as the wild storm comes down the mountain side. Friend and foe
were alike astonished and alarmed. The enemies of the cause he
represented, when they recovered from their surprise, laughed their
little laugh of