Iowa. Here they were informed for the first
time of the real purpose of their organization--the invasion of Virginia
and the raising of a servile insurrection in which her soil would be
drenched in blood within sight of the Capitol at Washington. With
Stevens, as drill master, they began the study of military tactics. They
moved to Springdale and established their camp for the winter.

CHAPTER XXIV

Suddenly the old man left Springdale. He ordered his disciples to
continue their drill until he should instruct them as to their next
march.

Two weeks later he was in Rochester, New York, with Frederick Douglas.
In a room in this negro's house Brown composed a remarkable document as
a substitute for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of
the United States.

He hurried with his finished manuscript to the home of Gerrit Smith at
Peterboro for a consultation with Smith, Sanborn, Higginson and Stearns.

Only Sanborn and Smith appeared. Brown outlined to them in brief his
plan of precipitating a conflict by the invasion of the Black Belt of
the South and the establishment of a negro empire. Its details were as
yet locked in his own breast.

Smith and Sanborn discussed his plans and his Constitution for the
Government of the new power. In spite of its absurdities they agreed
to support him in the venture. Smith gave the first contribution which
enabled him to call the convention of negroes and radicals at Chatham,
Canada, to adopt the "Constitution."

Brown went all the way to Springdale, Iowa, to escort the entire body of
his disciples to this convention. And they came across a continent
with him--Stevens, Kagi, Cook, Owen Brown, and six new men whom he had
added--Leeman, Tidd, Gill, Taylor, Parsons, Moffit and Realf.

Thirty-four negroes gathered with them. Among the negroes were Richard
O. P. Anderson and James H. Harris of North Carolina.

The presiding officer was William C. Monroe, pastor of a negro church in
Detroit. Kagi, the stenographer, was made Secretary of the Convention.

Brown addressed the gathering in an unique speech:

"For thirty years, my friends, a single passion has pursued my soul--to
set at liberty the slaves of the South. I went to Europe in 1851 to
inspect fortifications and study the methods of guerrilla warfare which
have been successfully used in the old world. I have pondered the
uprisings of the slaves of Rome, the deeds of Spartacus, the successes
of Schamyl, th