e 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.

He read it in a cold, vibrant voice:

"Whereas, Slavery, throughout its entire existence in the United States
is none other than a most barbarous, unprovoked and unjustifiable war of
one portion of its citizens upon another portion: the only conditions
of which are perpetual imprisonment, and hopeless servitude or absolute
extermination, in utter disregard and violation of those eternal and
self-evident truths set forth in our Declaration of Independence:
_Therefore_, we CITIZENS OF the UNITED STATES, and the OPPRESSED PEOPLE
who by a RECENT DECISION of the SUPREME COURT ARE DECLARED to have NO
RIGHTS WHICH the WHITE MAN is BOUND to RESPECT; TOGETHER WITH ALL OTHER
PEOPLE DEGRADED by the LAWS THEREOF, DO, for the TIME BEING ORDAIN and
ESTABLISH for OURSELVES, the FOLLOWING PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION and
ORDINANCES the BETTER to protect, our PERSONS, PROPERTY, LIVES and
LIBERTIES: and to GOVERN our ACTION."

The first result of his Radical Convention was the exhaustion of his
treasury. He had used his last dollar to bring his men on from the West
and no money had been collected to pay even their return fares.

They were compelled to go to work at various trades to earn their bread.
Brown determined to return to Kansas and create a sensation that would
again stir the East and bring the money into his treasury. He would at
the same time test the first principle of his plan by an actual raid
into a neighboring Southern State. In the mea