[117] Secessionists who publicly cursed the Union as a burden to the South. John Brown frequently adopted this plan of entering the camp of the invading forces, and not only never was suspected, but was never asked what his political opinions were. Never doubting that he was a Government surveyor, the Southrons never doubted his political orthodoxy.
The men in this camp freely told him their plans. There was an old man of the name of Brown, they said, who had several sons here, whom it was necessary to get out of the way, as, if they were driven out or killed, the other settlers would be afraid to offer any further resistance. They told him how Wilkinson, the Doyles, and a Dutchman named Sherman had recently been in Missouri, and succeeded in securing forces to drive out the Browns, and that it was determined to kill them in the latter part of May. They mentioned several other prominent Free State men who were to share this fate.
John Brown left their camp, and at once notified the settlers who had been marked out for destruction, of the murderous designs of the Missourians. A meeting of the intended victims was held; and it was determined that on the first indication of the massacre, the Doyles,--a father and two sons,--Wilkinson, and Sherman should be seized, tried by Lynch law, and summarily killed.
On the 23d of May, John Brown left the camp of his son, at Ossawatomie, with seven or eight men, and from that moment began his guerilla warfare in Southern Kansas. He ordered them to the vicinity of his
