In a rage, Garrison publicly burned a copy of the Constitution denouncing it as a “covenant with Satan.” Douglass went away heartsick.
In the heart of the Alleghenies, halfway between Maine and Florida, opens a mighty gateway. From the south comes the Shenandoah, a restless silver thread gleaming in the sun; from the west the Potomac moves placidly between wide banks. But at their junction they are cramped. The two rivers rush together against the mountains, rend it asunder and tear a passage to the sea. And here is Harper’s Ferry.
Why did John Brown choose this particular point for his attack upon American slavery? Was it the act of a madman? A visionary fool? What was his crime?
John Brown did not tell them at the trial. His lieutenant, Kagi, was dead. Green, Coppoc, Stevens, Copeland, Cook and Hazlett followed their captain to the gallows without a word. Perhaps only one man went on living who knew the full answers. His name was Frederick Douglass.
Douglass has been attacked because he did not go with John Brown to Harper’s Ferry, because he did not testify in Brown’s defense, because he put himself outside the reach of pursuers who would drag him to the trial. He could not have saved John Brown and his brave followers. Every word of the truth would have drawn the noose tighter about their necks. It would have hanged Douglass!
It was on a pleasant day in September when the letter came from John Brown. It was very short.
“I am forced to move sooner than I had planned. Before going forward I want to see you.”
Brown, under the guise of a farmer interested only in developing a recently purchased piece of land, was living under an assumed name with his two “daughters”—actually a daughter and young Oliver’s wife. His men were keeping under cover. They made every effort to keep the farm normal-looking. Brown asked Douglass to come to Chambersburg. There he would find a Negro barber named Watson, who would conduct him to the place of meeting. A last line was added: “Bring along the Emperor. Tell him the time has come.”
Douglass knew that he referred to Shields Green, a fugitive slave, whom the old man had met in his house. Green, a powerful black, had escaped from South Carolina. He was nicknamed “the Emperor” because of his size and majestic carriage. Brown had seized upon him immediately, confiding to him his plan, and Green had promised to go with him when Brown was ready to move.