ery they had so frantically sought to establish in
Kansas.

Joseph said to his brethren, "You meant it for evil, but the Lord
meant it for good." _Sheriff Jones and his fellow conspirators were in
the Lord's hands, but they did not know it_.

CHAPTER XVI.

When the news came of the sacking of Lawrence, the great mass of the
squatters had not yet lost faith in the nation, nor had they lost hope
that justice would be done, tardy though it might be; but the utmost
limits of human endurance were fast being reached. There were,
however, many that had already gone beyond this point, and they
returned an answer that made the hearts of the people stand still with
horror. It was the answer of a wild beast that had been hunted to its
lair, and that turns with savage ferocity on its pursuers. It was an
answer framed not in words, but in deeds. It said, "We have come to
an end. We have been robbed of the rights guaranteed to us by the
Kansas-Nebraska bill. We have been robbed of the rights of American
citizens. We have been given the alternative of abject and degrading
submission or of extermination. And now we make our answer. We will
return blow for blow, wound for wound, stripe for stripe, and burning
for burning. Murder shall be paid back with murder, robbery with
robbery; and every act of aggression shall be paid back with swift and
terrible retaliation." It must be remembered that at that time news
traveled slow, and that it was slow work to take men from their
ordinary farm life and organize them into bands of soldiers, and it
was some days before "Old John Brown, of Osawatomie," appeared on the
scene of conflict with a company of men. Of this company his son, John
Brown, Jr., was captain. But the "old man" had come too late. He was
terribly excited, and denounced as a set of cowards the "Committee of
the Public Safety Valve" that had dug up the hidden cannon and had
surrendered it to Sheriff Jones. Captain Brown and his company
determined to return. Old John Brown selected a squad of six men to go
on a secret expedition. Of these, four were his own sons, and one was
his son-in-law. His son, Captain Brown, was unwilling that his father
should go, and when the old man would not be persuaded, he cautioned
him, "Father, don't do anything rash." "Old John Brown" took old man
Doyle and two sons and two other men in the dead hour of night and put
them to death. The facts of this awful deed have never been made
public--ther