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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 247

constitution in Captain Brown's own handwriting, as prepared by himself at
my house.

He called his friends from Chatham (Canada) to come together that he
might lay his constitution before them, for their approval and adoption. His
whole time and thought were given to this subject. It was the first thing in
the morning and the last thing at night, till I confess it began to be something
of a bore to me. Once in a while he would say he could, with a few resolute
men, capture Harper's Ferry, and supply himself with arms belonging to the
government at that place, but he never announced his intention to do so. It
was however, very evidently passing in his mind as a thing he might do. I
paid but little attention to such remarks, though I never doubted that he
thought just what he said. Soon after his coming to me, he asked me to get
for him two smoothly planed boards, upon which he could illustrate, with a
pair of dividers, by a drawing, the plan of fortification which he meant to
adopt in the mountains.

These forts were to be so arranged as to connect one with the other, by
secret passages, so that if one was carried, another could easily be fallen
back upon, and be the means of dealing death to the enemy at the very
moment when he might think himself victorious. I was less interested in
these drawings than my children were, but they showed that the old man had
an eye to the means as well as to the end, and was giving his best thought to
the work he was about to take in hand.

It was his intention to begin this work in '58 instead of '59. Why he did
not will appear from the following circumstances.

While in Kansas, he made the acquaintance of one Colonel Forbes, an
Englishman, who had figured somewhat in revolutionary movements in
Europe, and, as it turned out, had become an adventure — a soldier of fortune
in this country. This Forbes professed to be an expert in military matters,
and easily fastened upon John Brown, and, becoming master of his
scheme of liberation, professed great interest in it, and offered his services
to him in the preparation of his men for the wprk before them. After remaining,
with Brown a short time, he came to me in Rochester, with a letter from
him, asking me to receive and assist him. I was not favorably impressed with
Colonel Forbes at first, but I "conquered my prejudice," took him to a hotel
and paid his hoard while he remained. Just before leaving, he spoke of his
family in Europe as in destitute circumstances, and of his desire to send them
some money. I gave him a little — I forget how much — and through Miss
Assing, a German lady, deeply interested in the John Brown scheme, he was
introduced to several of my German friends in New York. But he soon wore