good deal of the Indian Territory, with portions of southwest Missouri, western Arkansas, and northern Texas, also, under the guise of examining railroad routes, etc."[1]
Forbes in the meantime hurried East, nursing his wrath. He had all of a foreigner's difficulty in following the confused threads of another nation's politics at a critical time. He classed Seward, Wilson, Sumner, Phillips and John Brown together as anti-slavery men who were ready to attack the institution vi et armis. This movement which he proposed to lead had been started, and then, as he supposed, shamelessly neglected by its sponsors while he had been thrust upon the tender mercies of John Brown. He was angry and penniless and he intended to have reparation. He first sought out Frederick Douglass, but was received coldly. He appears to have been more successful with McCune Smith and the New York group of Negro leaders. He immediately, too, began to address letters to prominent Republicans.
John Brown was annoyed at Forbes's behavior but seems at first not to have taken it seriously. He left his men at Springdale, and started East in January, arriving at Douglass's Rochester home in February. Douglass says:
"He desired to stop with me several weeks, but added, 'I will not stay unless you will allow me to pay board.' Knowing that he was no trifler, but meant all he said, and desirous of retaining him
- ↑ Hinton, pp. 156–157.
