timations, "No, God is not
dead; and therefore it is that slavery must end in blood!"

During this period John Brown stamped his name indelibly upon American
history. It was almost inevitable that a man of the views, activities,
and prominence of Douglass should become acquainted with John Brown.
Their first meeting, however, was in 1847, more than ten years before
the tragic episode at Harpers Ferry. At that time Brown was a merchant
at Springfield, Massachusetts, whither Douglass was invited to visit
him. In his _Life and Times_ he describes Brown as a prosperous
merchant, who in his home lived with the utmost abstemiousness, in
order that he might save money for the great scheme he was already
revolving. "His wife believed in him, and his children observed him
with reverence. His arguments seemed to convince all, his appeals
touched all, and his will impressed all. Certainly, I never felt
myself in the presence of stronger religious influence than while in
this man's house." There in his own home, where Douglass stayed as his
guest, Brown outlined a plan which in substantially the same form he
held dear to his heart for a decade longer. This plan, briefly stated,
was to establish camps at certain easily defended points in the
Allegheny Mountains; to send emissaries down to the plantations in
the lowlands, starting in Virginia, and draw off the slaves to these
mountain fastnesses; to maintain bands of them there, if possible, as
a constant menace to slavery and an example of freedom; or, if that
were impracticable, to lead them to Canada from time to time by the
most available routes. Wild as this plan may seem in the light of the
desperate game subsequently played by slavery, it did not at the time
seem impracticable to such level-headed men as Theodore Parker and
Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

Douglass's views were very much colored by his association with
Brown; but, with his usual prudence and foresight, he pointed out the
difficulties of this plan. From the time of their first meeting the
relations of the two men were friendly and confidential. Captain Brown
had his scheme ever in mind, and succeeded in convincing Douglass and
others that it would subserve a useful purpose,--that, even if it
resulted in failure, it would stir the conscience of the nation to a
juster appreciation of the iniquity of slavery.

The Kansas troubles, however, turned Brown's energies for a time into
a different channel. After Kansas ha