by a little research. Holding the key to much that has heretofore been obscure or ill related, I have furnished the true connection between events and persons where, in some cases, this had escaped notice. I shall gladly receive any correction of mistakes, but shall not pay much regard to inferential and distorted statements which traverse my own clear recollections,—supported, as these often are, by written evidence which I have not here printed, but hold in reserve.
I could not have completed this task of nearly thirty years but for the constant and friendly aid of the family of John Brown, who have placed without reserve their papers in my hands. I have had also the co-operation of Colonel Higginson, Edwin Morton, Mrs. Stearns, Lewis Hayden, Thomas Thomas, and other friends among the living; and of the late Dr. Howe, Wendell Phillips, George L. Stearns, F. J. Merriam, Osborn Anderson, and many more, who are now dead. To all these, named and unnamed, I would here return my acknowledgments. Particularly, I must thank those gentlemen of Kansas, my college friend and brother journalist Mr. D. W. Wilder, and Mr. P. G. Adams of the Kansas Historical Society, who by their accurate knowledge of Kansas history and topography, and the free access they have given me to important papers, have made it possible for me to write the chapters that concern their State. I am also indebted to Mr. James Redpath, Mr. Richard Hinton, Mr. Frederick Douglass, Mr. W. S. Kennedy, and to many correspondents and admirers of John Brown whose names are mentioned in the pages that follow. I might include in this acknowledgment a few malicious slanderers and misjudging censors of Brown, who by their publications have caused the whole truth to be more carefully searched out.
