Till I follow my noble friend to the other world, on which his hopes were fixed, I can never read this letter without emotion. Yet it did not persuade me to comply with his wish. Long accustomed to guide my life by leadings and omens from that shrine whose oracles may destroy but can never deceive, I listened in vain, through months of doubt and anxiety, for a clear and certain call. But it was revealed to me that no confidence could be too great, no trust or affection too extreme toward this aged, poor man whom the Lord had chosen as his champion.
One might venture to suggest, in this connection, that Mr. Sanborn's failure to catch any note of a "clear and certain call" during his months of doubt and anxiety, might be due, possibly, to facts or conditions existing in the Omnipotent economy. God, "whose mercy endureth forever," may not have desired that a "generation should pass off the face of the earth," at that time, "by a violent death." Also, the absence of any evidence of the Divine approval of Brown's scheme, raises a question of doubt, that the Lord had really appointed "this aged poor man as his chosen champion." While, on the other hand, the lamentable failure of the expedition undertaken in the accomplishment of this enterprise; and the overwhelming wreck and ruin of those who engaged in it, point to the theory that God, if he took any active participation in the matter at all, was opposed to Brown—that he was on the other side—on the side of the generation of men, women, and children, who, trusting in His mercy, lived in innocent ignorance of Brown's plot to destroy them.
Leaving Peterboro on the 24th, Brown began a tour among the colored people to unite them in support of his campaign. February 26th, to March 3d, he was at Brooklyn at the home of Dr. and Mrs. J. N. Gloucester, wealthy colored people, and sought their assistance. From Brooklyn he went to Boston. From there, March 4th, he wrote to his son John:[295] "As it may require some time to hunt out friends at Bedford, Chambersburg, Gettysburg, Hagerstown, Md. or even Harper's Ferry, Va., I would like to have you arrange your business so as to set out very soon." March 6th, he was again at Boston, and on the 15th, at Philadelphia again, where he met Rev. Stephen Smith, Frederick Douglass, Rev. Henry H. Garnett, William Sill, and other colored men. His son John met him there by appointment and thence they went to New York, New Haven, and to North Elba, where they arrived March 23d. April 2d, they were at Peterboro for consultation with Gerrit Smith, and from there they went to Rochester, where they separated. From Rochester, Brown went to St. Catherine, Canada, in company with a colored man—J. W. Loguen—where they met, by appointment, Mrs. Harriet Tubman, colored, known as the "Moses of her People." Brown was cordially received by the Canadian negroes. They listened to his statement of the things that he intended to do for their race, and gave him encouragement to believe that many of them would enter his service.
Believing the money which had been pledged would be promptly furnished, Brown launched his enterprise, and called a constitutional convention to meet at Chatham, Canada, to formally adopt a "Provisional Constitution and Ordinances, for the people of the United States." He then proceeded to Springdale to report the situation to his captains.
The war party left Springdale April 27th, and arrived at Chatham on the 29th, Brown stopping at the home of James M. Bell, a colored man. Notices calling the convention were immediately sent out; the form, as drawn by Cook, was as follows:
Chatham, May—1859.
Mr. ——.: Dear Sir:—We have issued a call for a very quiet Convention at this place, to which we shall be very happy to see any true friends of freedom and to which you are most earnestly invited to give your attendance.
Yours respectfully,
John Brown.
The convention was represented, at Chatham, as being a meeting for the purpose of organizing a Masonic (colored) lodge; it met May 8th, at 10 o'clock a. m. Only Brown's party and thirty-four colored men were present. Richard Realf, in his testimony before the Mason Committee, said that Brown opened the convention with an explanation of the purposes for which it had been called. That he spoke of the manner in which he had qualified himself for leadership—by a tour of the European continent, inspecting all fortifications, especially all earthwork forts, that he could find, intending to apply such knowledge, with modifications and inventions of his own, to the warfare he now proposed to undertake. "He spoke of his studies of Roman warfare, and of Schamyal the Circassian chief, and of his knowledge of conditions in Hayti, and of Toussaint L'Ouverture." He said that he expected all the free negroes in the Northern States to flock to his standard, as well as the negroes of the Southern States. Mr. Realf further stated that "no salaries were to be paid to the officers" under this constitution. That it was "purely out of that which we supposed to be philanthropy—love for the slave."[296]
After the address Brown produced a copy of the "Provisional Constitution." The articles were read and adopted unanimously. Each person present then signed the constitution, and swore allegiance to the Provisional Government.[297] The nature and purposes of Brown's invasion of Virginia, in October, 1859, are disclosed in the forty-eight articles contained in this remarkable historical document.[298]