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, the Circassian Chief, of Touissant L'Overture in Haiti, of the negro Nat Turner who cut the throats of sixty Virginians in a single night in 1831.
"I have developed a plan of my own to sweep the South. You must trust me with its details. I shall depend on the blacks for the body of my soldiers. And I expect every freedman in the North to flock to my standard when the blow has fallen. I know that every slave in the South will answer my call. The slaveholders we will not massacre unless we must. We will hold them as hostages for our protection and the protection of any prisoners who may fall into their hands."
The men listened in rapt attention and when he read his "Constitution and Preamble," it was unanimously adopted.
The Constitution which they adopted was a piece of insanity in the literal sense of the word, a confused medley of absurd, inapplicable forms.
The Preamble, however, which contained the keynote of Brown's philosophy of life, was expressed in clear-cut, logical ideas.