e him, but finally consented to cooperate. The secret
was carefully guarded: some half-dozen Eastern friends were apprised of
it, including Stearns, their most liberal contributor, and two or three
friends at Springdale.

As early as December, 1857, Forbes began to write mysterious letters to
Sanborn, Stearns, and others of the circle, in which he complained of
ill-usage at the hands of Brown. It appears that Forbes erroneously
assumed that the Boston friends were aware of Brown's contract with
him and of his plans for the attack upon Virginia; but, since they were
entirely ignorant on both points, the correspondence was conducted
at cross-purposes for several months. Finally, early in May, 1858, it
transpired that Forbes had all the time been fully informed of Brown's
intentions to begin the effort for emancipation in Virginia. Not only
so, but he had given detailed information on the subject to Senators
Sumner, Seward, Hale, Wilson, and possibly others. Senator Wilson was
told that the arms purchased by the New England Aid Society for use in
Kansas were to be used by Brown for an attack on Virginia. Wilson, in
entire ignorance of Brown's plans, demanded that the Aid Society be
effectively protected against any such charge of betrayal of trust. The
officers of the Society were, in fact, aware that the arms which had
been purchased with Society funds the year before and shipped to Tabor,
Iowa, had been placed in Brown's hands and that, without their consent,
those arms had been shipped to Ohio and just at that time were on
the point of being transported to Virginia. This knowledge placed the
officers of the New England Aid Society in a most awkward position.
Stearns, the treasurer, had advanced large sums to meet pressing needs
during the starvation times in Kansas in 1857. Now the arms in Brown's
possession were, by vote of the officers, given to the treasurer in part
payment of the Society's debt, and he of course left them just where
they were. * On the basis of this arrangement Senator Wilson and the
public were assured that none of the property given for the benefit of
Kansas had been or would be diverted to other purposes by the Kansas
Committee. It was decided, however, that on account of the Forbes
revelations the attack upon Harper's Ferry must be delayed for one year
and that Brown must go to Kansas to take part in the pending elections.

* "When the denouement finally came, however, the public and