John Brown plunged into politics in Kansas under the impression that hiswill could dominate the rank and file of the Northern party. He quicklyfaced the fact that the frontiersmen had opinions of their own. And theywere not in the habit of taking orders from a master.
His hopes were raised to their highest at the Free State Conventionwhich met at Lawrence on Monday, the twenty-fifth of June, 1855. ThisConvention spoke in tones that stirred Brown\'s admiration.
It meant Action.
They elected him a vice president of the body. He had expected to bemade president. However, his leadership was recognized. All he neededwas the opportunity to take the Action on which his mind had long beenfixed. The moment blood began to flow, there would be but one leader. Ofthat, he felt sure. He could bide his time.
The Convention urged the people to unite on the one issue of makingKansas a Free Soil State. They called on every member of the ShawneeLegislature who held Free Soil views to resign from that body, althoughit had been recognized by the National Government as the duly authorizedlaw-making assembly of the Territory. They denounced this Legislature asthe creature of settlers from Missouri who had crowded over the borderbefore the Northerners could reach their destination. They urged allpeople to refuse to obey every law passed by the body.
The final resolution was one inspired by Brown himself. It was a bolddeclaration that if their opponents wished to fight, the Northernerswere READY! The challenge was unmistakable. Brown felt that Action wasimminent. Only a set of poltroons would fail to accept the gauge ofbattle thus flung in their faces.
To his amazement the challenge was not received by the rank and file ofthe Free Soil Party with enthusiasm. Most of these Northerners had movedto Kansas as bona fide settlers. They came to build homes for the womenthey had left behind. They came to rush their shacks into shape toreceive their loved ones. They had been furnished arms and ammunition byenthusiastic friends and politicians in the older States. And they hadeagerly accepted the gifts. There were droves of Indians still roamingthe plains. There were dangers to be faced.
The Southern ruffians of whom they had heard so much had notmaterialized. Although the Radical wing of the Northern Party had madeLawrence its Capital and through their paper, the _Herald of Freedom_,issued challenge after challenge to their enemies.
The Northern settlers began to divide into groups whose purposes wereirreconcilable. Six different conventions met in Lawrence on or beforethe fifteenth of August. Each one of these conventions was divided incouncils. In each the cleavage between the Moderates and Radicals becamewider.
Out of the six conventions of Northerners at Lawrence, out of resolutionand counter resolution, finally emerged the accepted plan of a generalconvention at Big Springs.
The gathering was remarkable for the surprise it gave to the Radicals ofwhom Brown was the leader. The Convention adopted the first platform ofthe Free State party and nominated ex-Governor Reeder as its candidatefor delegate to Congress.
For the first time the hard-headed frontiersmen who came to Kansas forhonest purposes spoke in plain language. The first resolution settledthe Slavery issue. It declared that Slavery was a curse and that Kansasshould be free of this curse. But that as a matter of common sense theywould consent to any reasonable adjustment in regard to the few slavesthat had already been brought into the Territory.
Brown and his followers demanded that Slavery should be denounced as acrime, not a curse, as the sum of all villainies and the Southern masteras a vicious and willful criminal. The mild expression of the platformon this issue wrought the old man\'s anger to white heat. The offer tocompromise with the slave holder already in Kansas he repudiated withscorn. But a more bitter draught was still in store for him.
The platform provided that Kansas should be a Free White State. And inno uncertain words made plain that the accent should be on the wordWHITE. The document demanded the most stringent laws excluding ALLNEGROES, BOND AND FREE, forever from the Territory.
The old man did not hear this resolution when read. So deep was hisbrooding anger, the words made no impression. Their full import did notdawn on him until John Brown, Jr., leaned close and whispered:
"Did you hear that?"The father stirred from his reverie and turned a dazed look on his son.
"Hear what?""The infamous resolution demanding that Kansas be made a white man\'scountry and no negro, bond or free, shall ever be allowed to enter it?"The hard mouth twitched with scorn. And his jaws came together with asnap.
"It doesn\'t matter what they add to their first maudlin plank on theSlavery issue.""Will you sit here and see this vile thing done?"A look of weariness came over the stern face with its deep-cut lines.
"It\'s a waste of words to talk to politicians."John, Jr. was grasping at the next resolution which was one surpassingbelief. He rubbed his ears to see if he were really hearing correctly.
This resolution denounced the charge that they were R............