Gentlemen and Ladies:

Do any of you have any more information on the attempt by twenty-two Kansans to break John Brown out of jail in Charlestown, Virginia. I site the information from the Kansas State Historical Society's multivolume histories of Kansas. See the following quotation from my book, Civil War on the Missouri-Kansas Border. Strange it's never been in print before, huh?:

It is also worth noting that a number of the same men who broke John Doy out of jail were later, in 1859, enlisted to break John Brown out of a jail in Charleston, Virginia, where he awaited execution for treason against the United States government for attacking the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry and killing a number of civilians and soldiers.

In an address by abolitionist O. E. Morse of Mound City, Kansas, on December 1, 1903, to the Kansas State Historical Society, Morse revealed a number of interesting bits of information about this latest conspiracy:
Early in October, 1859, Richard J. Hinton came to Kansas, visited James Hanway at Dutch Henry’s Crossing (now Lane), and induced Hanway to go with him to Linn county. Arriving at Moneka, they sent for Capt. James Montgomery and Augustus Wattles, both of whom immediately responded, and a conference was held in a room immediately over the post-office, at the Moneka hotel, then kept by Dr. George E. Dennison. This consultation resulted in the planning for the rescue of Brown. Hinton advocated an attempt by force, which necessitated the transporting of a considerable body of men to Virginia. Wattles did not approve of this believing it impracticable, and thinking that chances of success were only possible with a carefully selected few, and the exercise of the keenest tact and highest courage.

Some of the men, often referred to in various histories as the “Conspiracy of Six” or “Committee of Six” (wealthy New England financiers of high prominence in the United States involved in financing some of Brown’s ventures, possibly even Harpers Ferry), were among the conspirators in this plot also, one of them Thomas Wentworth Higginson, another F. B. Sanborn. Among the Doy rescuers, according to Morse (who provided as evidence a great deal of documentation), were “Joseph Gardner, Silas S. Soule, Joshua A. Pike, and S. J. Willis.” They were chosen to participate in Brown’s rescue also. In addition, “James Montgomery, Augustus Wattles, H. D. Seaman and Henry Carpenter came from Linn County, Benjamin Rice from Bourbon County, and Benjamin Seaman, a brother of H. D. Seaman, went from his home in Iowa.” Other men offering their aid, physically or in funds to finance the treasonous expedition, were J. C. Vaughn, J. W. Le Barnes, Edward Russell, John E. Stewart, W. W. Thayer (the publisher), James Redpath (the journalist), Dr. David Thayer, George Henry Hoyt (future Red Leg and sidekick of Charles Rainsford Jennison, one of the principal leaders of the Kansas Jayhawkers [i.e., Mound City Sharps Rifles Guards, Seventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, and Red Legs]), S. J. Willis, Daniel R. Anthony (Jennison’s future military subordinate), Brachett (the sculptor), and Richard J. Hinton, among others.

The conspirators were carried east by the Hannibal & St. Joseph railroad through the intercession of “Elwood [Kansas] friends, and the additional amount necessary was put up by Major Tuttle, then agent of the [rail]road at St. Joseph . . . who was thoroughly in sympathy with the free-state movement in Kansas, as was Colonel Hayward, then general superintendent with the road.” Incidentally, the Hannibal railroad at this time was “financially managed” by “John Murray Forbes and a New England consortium.” Forbes knew Brown.

According to Morse:
The Montgomery party proceeded direct to Harrisburg without further incident of historical importance, where they were joined by the Lawrence party, by Wattles, Ben. Seaman, from Iowa, and R. J. Hinton. While there is no evidence at hand to show that Frederick Douglass joined the party at Harrisburg, it is pretty clear that he was in consultation with the leaders in their progress towards Charlestown [Virginia, where Brown’s prison was located].

Soule then met with John Brown in prison and “secured an audience” with him. Soule discovered, Morse said, that “John Brown refused to be rescued.” His most credible reason for wishing not to be rescued was that “death on the gallows was a fulfillment of his mission, the rounding out of his effort: the act that would make effective all his work for the freedom of the slaves. In his simple and terse way he said: ‘I am worth more to die than to live.’” Apparently, the men from Lawrence who traveled east to break Brown out of prison were of the rough and ready sort. Abolitionist Joshua A. Pike, their collaborator in the rescue of Doy and Brown, upon meeting some of them later in Lawrence, said: “town full of niggers and abolitionists; a tough set; saw three of the Doctor Doy rescue party, and they were toughs; would not like to meet them after night.” Of course, if these men were to break John Brown out of the Charlestown, Virginia, prison, considering the formidable defenses set up by Southerners, they would have had to have been very tough, indeed. This entire episode has to be one of the most bizarre on record, a scandalous incident in U.S. history, though it is seldom mentioned as such, or mentioned at all for that matter. All the while the Harper’s Ferry raid and the conspiracy to break Brown out of jail were occurring, the conspirators who had financed Brown’s small army, wealthy New England financiers, members of the Conspiracy of Six--Gerrit Smith, Theodore Parker, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, Thomas Wentworth Higginson , and F. B. Sanborn had became highly agitated: Howe fled to Canada, Parker to Rome, and Sanborn had fought off Federal marshals, with the help of a Concord mob.

Journalist/Historian Richard O. Boyer described the antics of John Brown’s multitude of conspirators--who had solicited money for their escapades widely--as “the most public conspiracy in the history of the United States.” Bronson Alcott said of Brown: “Our best people listen to his words--Emerson, Thoreau, Judge Hoar, my wife--and some of them contribute something in aid of his plans without asking particulars.”

Something to mull over, right?

Don Gilmore