97

LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 249

approached the old quarry very cautiously, for John Brown was generally
well armed, and regarded strangers with suspicion. He was then under the
ban of the government, and heavy rewards were offered for his arrest, for
offenses said to have been committed in Kansas. He was passing under the
name of John Smith. As I came near, he regarded me rather suspiciously, but
soon recognized me, and received me cordially. He had in his hand when I
met him, a fishing-tackle, with which he had apparently been fishing in a
stream hard by; but I saw no fish, and did not suppose that he cared much
for his "fisherman's luck." The fishing was simply a disguise, and was certainly
a good one. He looked every way like a man of the neighborhood, and
as much at home as any of the farmers around there. His hat was old, and
storm-beaten, and his clothing was about the color of the stone quarry
itself his then present dwelling-place.

His face wore an anxious expression, and he was much worn by thought
and exposure, I felt that I was on a dangerous mission, and was as little desirous
of discovery as himself, though no reward had been offered for me.

We — Mr. Kagi, Captain Brown, Shields Green, and myself, sat down
among the rocks and talked over the enterprise which was about to be undertaken.
The taking of Harper's Ferry, of which Captain Brown had merely
hinted before, was now declared as his settled purpose, and he wanted to
know what I thought of it. I at once opposed the measure with all the arguments
at my command. To me, such a measure would be fatal to running off
slaves (as was the original plan), and fatal to all engaged in doing so. It
would be an attack upon the federal government, and would array the whole
country against us. Captain Brown did most of the talking on the other side
of the question. He did not at all object to rousing the nation; it seemed to
him that something startling was just what the nation needed. He had completely
renounced his old plan, and thought that the capture of Harper's Ferry
would serve as notice to the slaves that their friends had come, and as a
trumpet to rally them to his standard. He described the place as to its means
of defense, and how impossible it would be to dislodge him if once in possession.
Of course I was no match for him in such matters, but I told him,
and these were my words, that all his arguments, and all his descriptions of
the place, convinced me that he was going into a perfect steel-trap, and that
once in he would never get out alive; that he would be surrounded at once
and escape would be impossible. He was not to be shaken by anything I
could say, but treated my views respectfully, replying that even if surrounded
he would find means for cutting his way out; but that would not be forced
upon him; he should have a number of the best citizens of the neighborhood