his operations to the mountains of Virginia.
Kansas became free through the persistent determination of the rank
and file of Northern settlers under the wise leadership of Governor
Robinson. It is difficult to determine whether the cause of Kansas was
aided or hindered by the advent of John Brown and the adventurers with
whom his name became associated.

During the fall of 1856 and until the late summer of 1857 Brown was
in the East raising funds for the redemption of Kansas and for the
reimbursement of those who had incurred or were likely to incur losses
in defense of the cause. For the equipment of a troop of soldiers under
his own command he formulated plans for raising $30,000 by private
subscription, and in this he was to a considerable extent successful.
It can never be known how much was given in this way to Brown for the
equipment of his army of liberation. It is estimated that George L.
Stearns alone gave in all fully $10,000. Because Eastern abolitionists
had lost confidence in Robinson's leadership, they lent a willing ear to
the plea that Captain Brown with a well-equipped and trained company of
soldiers was the last hope for checking the enemy. Not only would Kansas
become a slave State without such help, it was said, but the institution
of slavery would spread into all the Territories and become invincible.

The money was given to Brown to redeem Kansas, but he had developed an
alternative plan. Early in the year 1857, he met in New York Colonel
Hugh Forbes, a soldier of fortune who had seen service with Garibaldi
in Italy. They discussed general plans for an aggressive attack upon the
South for the liberation of the slaves, and with these plans the needs
of Kansas had little or no connection. "Kansas was to be a prologue to
the real drama," writes his latest biographer; "the properties of
the one were to serve in the other." In April six months' salary was
advanced out of the Kansas fund to Forbes, who was employed at a
hundred dollars a month to aid in the execution of their plans. Another
significant expenditure of the Kansas fund was in pursuance of a
contract with a Mr. Blair, a Connecticut manufacturer, to furnish at a
dollar each one thousand pikes. Though the contract was dated March 80,
1857, it was not completed until the fall of 1859, when the weapons were
delivered to Brown in Pennsylvania for use at Harper's Ferry.

Instead of rushing to the relief of Kansas, as contributors had
expected,