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248 LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

them out by his endless begging; and when he could make no more money
by professing to advance the John Brown project, he threatened to expose it,
and all connected with it. I think I was the first to be informed of his tactics,
and I promptly communicated them to Captain Brown. Through my friend
Miss Assing, I found that Forbes had told of Brown's designs to Horace
Greeley, and to the government officials at Washington, of which I informed
Captain Brown, and this led to the postponement of the enterprise another
year. It was hoped that by this delay, the story of Forbes would be discredited,
and this calculation was correct, for nobody believed the scoundrel,
though in this he told the truth.

While at my house, John Brown made the acquaintance of a colored man
who called himself by different names — sometimes "Emperor," at other
times, "Shields Green." He was a fugitive slave, who had made his escape
from Charleston, South Carolina, a State from which a slave found it no easy
matter to run away. But Shields Green was not one to shrink from hardships
or dangers. He was a man of few words, and his speech was singularly broken;
but his courage and self-respect made him quite a dignified character.
John Brown saw at once what "stuff" Green "was made of," and confided to
him his plans and purposes. Green easily believed in Brown, and promised
to go with him whenever he should be ready to move. About three weeks
before the raid on Harper's Ferry, John Brown wrote to me, informing me
that a beginning in his work would soon be made, and that before going
forward he wanted to see me, and appointed an old stone quarry near
Chambersburg, Penn., as our place of meeting. Mr. Kagi, his secretary,
would be there, and they wished me to bring any money I could command,
and Shields Green along with me. In the same letter, he said that his "mining
tools" and stores were then at Chambersburg, and that he would be there to
remove them. I obeyed the old man's summons. Taking Shields, we passed
through New York city, where we called upon Rev. James Gloucester and his
wife, and told them where and for what we were going, and that our old
friend needed money. Mrs . Gloucester gave me ten dollars, and asked me to
hand the same to John Brown, with her best wishes.

When I reached Chambersburg, a good deal of surprise was expressed
(for I was instantly recognized) that I should come there unannounced, and
I was pressed to make a speech to them, with which invitation I readily complied.
Meanwhile, I called upon Mr. Henry Watson, a simple-minded and
warm-hearted man , to whom Capt. Brown had imparted the secret of my
visit, to show me the road to the appointed rendezvous. Watson was very
busy in his barber's shop, but he dropped all and put me on the right track. I

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