that can only be done by rendering such property
insecure. My plan, then, is to take at first about twenty-five picked
men, and begin on a small scale; supply them arms and ammunition, and
post them in squads of five on a line of twenty-five miles. The most
persuasive and judicious of them shall then go down to the fields from
time to time, as opportunity offers, and induce the slaves to join them,
seeking and selecting the most restless and daring."

It was substantially this plan to which Brown now returned, and he
sought aid among those men at the East who had backed the Free State
cause in Kansas. He was not known to them, as he has been presented to
the reader, as the chief actor in the Pottawatomie massacre, but as a
bold guerrilla chief, who had lost a son in the Kansas strife. Even so,
he was a recognized dissenter from the peace policy which had finally
won success for freedom in the Territory. But there were men in the
anti-slavery ranks who were impatient of the whole policy of peace, and
the impressive personality of Brown won some of these to active support
of his project. Among them were Theodore Parker, Gerritt Smith, Dr. S.
G. Howe, George L. Stearns, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and Franklin B.
Sanborn, who formed a secret committee to forward this plan. They were
not informed of its details, but knew its general scope. To a
considerable number Brown was known as a hero of past fights and not
averse to fresh ones. He visited Concord, where he spoke at a public
meeting, and made a great impression on Emerson, Alcott, and Thoreau.
Alcott made a pen-picture of him. "I think him equal to anything he
dares,--the man to do the deed, if it must be done, and with the
martyr's temper and purpose. Nature obviously was deeply intent in the
making of him. He is of imposing appearance personally,--tall, with
square shoulders and standing; eyes of deep gray, and couchant, as if
ready to spring at the least rustling, dauntless yet kindly; his hair
shooting backward from low down on his forehead; nose trenchant and
Romanesque; set lips, his voice suppressed yet metallic, suggesting deep
reserves; decided mouth; the countenance and frame charged with power
throughout."

Emerson, from his own observation and from hearsay, drew his spiritual
portrait: "For himself, Brown is so transparent that all men see him
through. He is a man to make friends wherever on earth courage and
integrity are esteemed,--the rarest of heroes,