The crowd of free rangers1 which his fight with Pate2 had gathered provedthemselves beyond control. They raided the surrounding country withoutBrown's knowledge.
They stole from friend and foe3 with equal impartiality4. There was oneconsolation in his surrender to the United States troops. He got rid ofthese troublesome followers5. They had already robbed him of thespoils of his own successful raids and not one of them had shown anyinclination to bring in the enemies' goods for common use.
He began to choose the most faithful among them for a scheme of widerscope and more tragic6 daring. He was not yet sure of his plan. But Godwould reveal it clearly.
He spent a week at his new camp in the woods wandering alone, dreaming,praying, weighing this new scheme from every point of view.
His mind came back again and again to the puzzle of the failure to raisea National Blood Feud7.
For a moment his indomitable Puritan soul was discouraged. He had obeyedthe command of his God. He could not have been mistaken in the voicewhich spoke8 from Heaven:
"WITHOUT THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD THERE IS NO REMISSION OF SINS."He had laid the Blood Offering on God's altar counting his own life asof no account in the reckoning and from that hour he had been a fugitivefrom justice, hiding in the woods. He had escaped arrest only by theaccidental assembling of a mob of a hundred and fifty disorderly foolswho had stolen his own goods before they had been dispersed9.
Instead of the heroic acclaim10 to which the deed entitled him, his ownflesh and blood had cursed him, one of his sons had been shot andanother was lying in prison a jibbering lunatic.
Would future generations agree with the men who had met in his own townand denounced his deed as cruel, gruesome and revolting?
His stolid11 mind refused to believe it. Through hours of agonizingprayer the new plan, based squarely on the vision that sent him toPottawattomie, began to fix itself in his soul.
This time he would chose his disciples13 from the elect. Only men tried inthe fires of Action could be trusted. Of five men he was sure. His son,Owen, he knew could be depended on without the shadow of turning. YetOliver was the second disciple12 chosen. He had forgiven the boy forthe fight over the pistol and had taken pains to regain14 his completesubmission. John Henry Kagi was the third chosen disciple, a youngnewspaper reporter of excellent mind and trained pen. He had beencaptured by United States troops in Kansas as a guerrilla raider and wasimprisoned first at Lecompton and then at Tecumseh. The fourth discipleselected was Aaron Dwight Stevens, an ex-convict from the penitentiaryat Fort Leavenworth. Stevens was by far the most daring and interestingfigure in the group. His knowledge of military tactics was destined15 tomake him an invaluable16 aide. The uncanny in Brown's spirit had appealedto his imagination from the day he made his escape from the penitentiaryand met the old man. The fifth disciple chosen was John E. Cook, a mandestined to play the most important role in the new divine mission withthe poorest qualification for the task. Born of a well-to-do family inHaddon, Connecticut, he had studied law in Brooklyn and New York. Hedropped his studies against the protest of his people in 1855, and,driven by the spirit of adventure, found his way into Kansas and atlast led his band of twenty guerrillas into John Brown's camp. Brown'sattention was riveted18 on him from the day they met. He was a man ofpleasing personality and the finest rifle shot in Kansas. He was genial;he was always generous; He was brave to the point of recklessness; andhe was impulsive19, indiscreet and utterly20 reckless when once bent21 on apurpose. His sister had married Willard, the Governor of Indiana.
Brown's new plan required a large sum of money. With the prestigehis fighting in Kansas had given him, he believed the Abolitionphilanthropists of the East would give this sum. He left his disciplesto drill and returned East to get the money.
In Boston his success was genuine, although the large amount which heasked was slow in coming.
The old man succeeded in deceiving his New England friends completely asto the Pottawattomie murders. On this event he early became a cheerful,consistent and successful liar22. This trait of his character had beenfully developed in his youth. Everywhere he was acclaimed23 by the piousas, "Captain Brown, the old partisan24 hero of Kansas warfare25."His magnetic, uncanny personality rarely failed to capture the dreamerand the sentimentalist. Sanborn, Howe, Theodore Parker, Thomas WentworthHigginson, George L. Stearns and Gerrit Smith became his devotedfollowers. He even made Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison26 hisfriends.
Garrison met him at Theodore Parker's. The two men were one ondestroying Slavery: Garrison, the pacifist; Brown, the man who believedin bloodshed as the only possible solution of all the great issues ofNational life. Brown quoted the Old Testament27; Garrison, the New.
He captured the imagination of Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
He was raising funds for another armed attack on Slavery in Kansas. Thesentimentalists asked no questions. And if hard-headed business mentried to pry28 too closely into his plans, they found him a past master inthe art of keeping his own counsel.
He struck a snag when he appealed to the National Kansas Committee for agift of rifles and an appropriation29 of five thousand dollars. They votedthe rifles on conditions. But a violent opposition30 developed againstgiving five thousand dollars to a man about whose real mind they knew solittle.
H. B. Hurd, the Chairman of the Committee, had suspected the purposeback of his pretended scheme for operations in Kansas. He put to Brownthe pointblank question and demanded a straight answer.
"If you get these guns and the money you desire, will you invadeMissouri or any slave territory?"The old man's reply was characteristic. He spoke with a quiet scorn.
"I am no adventurer. You all know me. You are acquainted with myhistory. You know what I have done in Kansas. I do not expose myplans. No one knows them but myself, except perhaps one. I will not beinterrogated. If you wish to give me anything, I want you to give itfreely. I have no other purpose but to serve the cause of Liberty."His answer was not illuminating31. It contained nothing the Committeewished to know. The statement that they knew him was a figure of speech.
They had read partisan reports of his fighting and his suffering inKansas--through his own letters, principally. How much truth theseletters contained was something they wished very much to find out. Hehad given no light.
He declared that they knew what he had done in Kansas. This was the onepoint on which they needed most light.
The biggest event in the history of Kansas was the deed on thePottawattomie. In the fierce political campaign that was in progress itseffects had been neutralized32 by denials. Brown had denied his guilt33 onevery occasion.
Yet as they studied his strange personality more than one member of theCommittee began to suspect him as the only man in the West capable ofthe act.
The Committee refused to vote the rifles and compromised on the moneyby making a qualification that would make the gift of no service.
They voted the appropriation, "in aid of Captain John Brown in any_defensive_ measures that may become necessary." He was authorized34 todraw five hundred dollars when he needed it for this purpose.
The failure rankled35 in the old man's heart and he once more poured outthe vials of his wrath36 on all politicians,--North and South.
For months he became an incessant37 and restless wanderer throughout NewYork and the New England States.
He finally issued a general appeal for help through the _New YorkTribune_ and other friendly papers.
The contributions came slowly. The invitations to speak came slower. AtCollinsville, Connecticut, however, after his lecture he placed withCharles Blair, a blacksmith and forge-master, an important secret orderfor a thousand iron pikes. Blair pledged his loyalty38. He received hisfirst payment on account, for a stand of weapons destined to becomesouvenirs in marking the progress of civilization in the new world.
In the midst of his disappointing canvas for funds he received a letterfrom his son, Jason, that a Deputy United States Marshal had passedthrough Cleveland on the way East with a warrant for his arrest for thePottawattomie murders.
On the receipt of this news he wrote his friend, Eli Thayer:
"One of the U. S. hounds is on my track: and I have kept myself hid fora few days to let my track get cold. I have no idea of being taken: _andintend_ (if God _will_) to go back with Irons _in_ rather than _upon_ myhands. I got a _fine lift_ in Boston the other day; and hope Worcesterwill not be _entirely behind_. I do not mean _you_; or _Mr. Alien &Company_."So dangerous was the advent17 of the U. S. Marshal from Kansas that Browntook refuge in an upper room in the house of Judge Russell in Bostonand remained in hiding an entire week. Mrs. Russell acted as maid andallowed no one to open the front door except herself during the time ofhis stay.
The Judge's house was on a quiet street and his connection with theAbolition movement had been kept secret for political reasons. Hisservices to their cause were in this way made doubly valuable.
Brown daily barricaded39 his door and told his hostess that he would notbe taken alive. He added with the nearest approach to a smile ever seenon his face:
"I should hate to spoil your carpet, Madame."While in hiding at Judge Russell's he composed a sarcastic40 farewell toNew England. It is in his best style and true character as a poseur41:
"Old Brown's _Farewell_: to the Plymouth Rock; Bunker Hill Monument;Charter Oaks; and _Uncle Tom's Cabins_.
"Has left for Kansas. Was trying since he came out of the Territory tosecure an outfit42; or, in other words, the means of arming and equippingthoroughly, his regular minute men, who are mixed up _with the People ofKansas_: and _he leaves the States_, with a _deep feeling of sadness_:
that after exhausting _his own_ small means: and with his _family andhis brave men_: suffered hunger, nakedness, cold, sickness, (and some ofthem) imprisonment43, with most barbarous and cruel treatment: _woundsand death_: that after laying on the ground for months; in the mostunwholesome _and_ sickly as well as uncomfortable places: with sick andwounded destitute44 of any shelter part of the time; dependent in part onthe care, and hospitality of the Indians: and hunted like Wolves: thatafter all this; in order to sustain a cause, which _every Citizen_ ofthis _Glorious Republic_, is under equal moral obligation to do: (_andfor the neglect of which HE WILL be held accountable TO GOD:) in whichevery Man, Woman and Child of the human family;_ has a deep and awfulinterest; and that _no wages are asked or expected:_ he cannot secure(amidst all the wealth, luxury and extravagance of this _'Heavenexalted'_ people) even the necessary supplies for a common soldier. HOWARE THE MIGHTY45 FALLEN?
"JOHN BROWN."Following his usual tactics of interminable delays and restless, aimlesswandering, it was the 7th of August before he reached Tabor, Iowa, theappointed rendezvous46 of his disciples.
Two days after his arrival the Free State election of the ninth ofAugust was held in Kansas and the heavy vote polled was a completetriumph of the men of peace within the party. Kansas, in his absence,had settled down to the tried American plan of the ballot47 box for thedecision of political disputes. Brown wrote Stearns a despairing letter.
He was discouraged and utterly without funds. He begged for five hundredto one thousand dollars immediately for secret service and no questionsasked. He promised interesting times in Kansas if he could secure thismoney. Of his disciples for the great coming deed but one had arrivedat Tabor, his faithful son Owen. The old man lingered at Tabor with hisreligious friends until November before starting for Kansas.
Higginson, his chief backer in Massachusetts, was growing angry over hisrepeated delays and senseless inaction. Sanborn, always Brown's staunchdefender, wrote Higginson a letter begging patience:
"You do not understand Brown's circumstances. He is as ready forrevolution as any other man, and is now on the border of Kansas safefrom arrest, prepared for action. But he needs money for his presentexpenses and active support.
"I believe that he is the best Dis-union champion you can find, and withhis hundred men, when he is put where he can raise them and drill them(for he has an expert drill officer with him) WILL DO MORE TO SPLIT THEunion than a list of 50,000 names for your Convention, good as that is.
"What I am trying to hint at is that the friends of Kansas are lookingwith strange apathy48 at a movement which has all the elements of fitnessand success--a good plan, a tried leader, and a radical49 purpose. If youcan do anything for it _now_, in God's name do it--and the ill resultsof the new policy in Kansas may be prevented."The new policy in Kansas must be smashed at all hazards, of course. Tothe men who believed in bloodshed as the only rational way to settlepolitical issues, the ballot box and the council table were theinventions of the Devil. It was the duty of the children of Light tosend the Lord's Anointed with the Sword of Gideon to raise anew theBlood Feud.
It is evident from this letter of F. B. Sanborn to Higginson that evenSanborn had not penetrated50 the veil of the old Puritan's soul. The oneto whom he had revealed his true plan was his faithful son in Kansas.
The Territory was not the objective of this mission. It was only a feintto deceive friend and foe.
And he succeeded in doing it.
That his purpose was the disruption of the union in a deluge51 of blood,Sanborn, of course, understood and approved. He was utterly mistaken asto the time and place and method which the Man of Visions had chosen forthe deed.
On entering the Territory, now as peaceful as any State in the union,Brown gathered his disciples, Oliver, Kagi, Stevens, and Cook anddespatched them to Tabor, Iowa. Here they were informed for the firsttime of the real purpose of their organization--the invasion of Virginiaand the raising of a servile insurrection in which her soil would bedrenched in blood within sight of the Capitol at Washington. WithStevens, as drill master, they began the study of military tactics. Theymoved to Springdale and established their camp for the winter.
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1
rangers
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| 护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员 | |
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pate
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| n.头顶；光顶 | |
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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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impartiality
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| n. 公平, 无私, 不偏 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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feud
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| n.长期不和；世仇；v.长期争斗；世代结仇 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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acclaim
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| v.向…欢呼，公认；n.欢呼，喝彩，称赞 | |
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stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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disciple
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| n.信徒，门徒，追随者 | |
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disciples
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| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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invaluable
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| adj.无价的，非常宝贵的，极为贵重的 | |
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advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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riveted
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| 铆接( rivet的过去式和过去分词 )； 把…固定住； 吸引； 引起某人的注意 | |
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impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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liar
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| n.说谎的人 | |
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acclaimed
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| adj.受人欢迎的 | |
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partisan
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| adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒 | |
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warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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pry
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| vi.窥(刺)探，打听；vt.撬动(开，起) | |
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appropriation
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| n.拨款，批准支出 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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illuminating
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| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
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neutralized
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| v.使失效( neutralize的过去式和过去分词 )；抵消；中和；使（一个国家）中立化 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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authorized
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| a.委任的，许可的 | |
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rankled
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| v.（使）痛苦不已，（使）怨恨不已( rankle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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barricaded
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| 设路障于，以障碍物阻塞( barricade的过去式和过去分词 )； 设路障[防御工事]保卫或固守 | |
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sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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poseur
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| n.装模作样的人 | |
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outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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47
ballot
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| n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票 | |
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48
apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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49
radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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50
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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51
deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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