Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1859-11-12

ing the river homeward bound.
Very respectfully, yours,
j. NJ MASON
Selma Va, Oct. 81, 1859.
More Harper's Ferry Disclosures Two
Years Secret History of Abolitionism.
a batch of some five columns of letters.
written during 1859, by one Col. Hugh
Forbes, appears in the New York Herald
OF Friday, purporting to disclose the fact
that for the last year and half, at least,
the project of the Harpcr's Ferry outbreak
was known to Senator'S Seward, Sumner
Hale, Gov. Chase, of Ohio, and others,
and that they suffered the project to ripcn
and to bear the disastrous fruit that it has
borne, without effort to the contrary. The
whole, however, rests on the assertions of
the aforesaid Col. Forbes. The Herald
gives the leading statements from the cor
rcspondcnce, as follows:
Col Forbes, an old comrade of Garabal
dis in lS4S, and since then refugee in
this country, was induced to go to Kansas
couple of years since, to cooperate with
Ossawatamie Brown, and to impart to his
raw recruits little instruction in the art
OF war. Forbes and Brown pulled togeth-
er well enough for some months, until there
came to be misunderstanding in regard
to the pay, Forbes appealed from Brown
to the general abolition commissariat in the
East, but found that he was doomed to 90
unpaid all round. Horace Greeley, when
appealed to, fell back on the strict letter of
the law, and plead that he was not bound
by Forbes contract with Brown. Sanborn
n Ionc C Al r. 4
Emigration Aid Society, and Howe, a well
known abolitionist of Boston, kept palter-
ing with Forbes until, in the words of one
OF his own letters, his fami,y's credit was
stopped at the French or Italian restaurant
where they used to get their meals, in Par
ls Forbes camcindignanta against Brown
and the humanitarians, as he styles them,
and denounced them all in pretty round
terms. But still the troubles of his family
did not wean him altogether from the work
to which he had lent his hand. On the
contrary, he devised plan, which he sub
nitted to his abolition friends North, to
perform eftcctually the Kansas work"
that 6errit Smith speaks of in his letters.
Forbes's plan was simply an organized
system of stampeding slaves along the bor
der States, and thus gradually driving the
institution further South. Browns pro.
lect was declared-so long ago as MAY,
1888, to be identically that which has had
such a miserable failure at IIarper's Ferry.
Forbes was too experienced stager not to
see the inevitable result of such a ridicu
lous project, and much of his correspon-
dence is taken IN with denunciations of
Browns crazyi "a, and of appeals to the
leading republicans to stop Brown or tode-
nounce him.
1t appears by this correspondence that
among the persons to whom he denounced
the Harper's Ferry project year and a
half ago, WAS Senator Wm. III. Seward -
lie had an interview with that Senator in
Washington city, in May, 1858, and, as ap-
pears by one of his letters, he went fully
into the whole matter. Again, he had in.
tervlews with Sumner and Hale also in
Washington.
Forbes's letters indicate another thing,
and that is that speculation in the rise of
cotton had something to do with the Har-
per's Ferry outbreak The correspondence
says Old Brown told Forbes thata member
OF the house of Lawrence, Stone a. Com
pany, celebrated for the S87, 900 freewool
movement in Congress, a few years ago,)
had promised him So, 900 if he succeeded
in his Harper's Ferry dash. But Forbes
denounced the project
The first letter is addressed to "F. B.
Sanborn, Concord, Mass. tho Of. b. s."
from whom Brown acknowledged several
remittances of money, and who is or was
the Secretary of the Massachusetts, Emi.
grant Aid Society. The following head
note is prcfxed to the lettcro
"On the 9th December wrote to Sen
ator Charles Sumner, at Boston, requesting
hin! to see what could be done in the case.
The copy was not taken. Mr.. Sumner
transmitted the letter through DIR. Howe
to MIR. Sanborn, VINO replied ist. Jan. al.
leging igAorance of my engagement with
Captain Brown"
The next letter is the same person, and
is prefaccd by the following head note
On the 10Th of January Mr., sanborn