Douglass’s views were very much colored by his association with Brown; but, with his usual prudence and foresight, he pointed out the difficulties of this plan.  From the time of their first meeting the relations of the two men were friendly and confidential.  Captain Brown had his scheme ever in mind, and succeeded in convincing Douglass and others that it would subserve a useful purpose,—­that, even if it resulted in failure, it would stir the conscience of the nation to a juster appreciation of the iniquity of slavery.

The Kansas troubles, however, turned Brown’s energies for a time into a different channel.  After Kansas had been secured to freedom, he returned with renewed ardor to his old project.  He stayed for three weeks at Douglass’s house at Rochester, and while there carried on an extensive correspondence with sympathizers and supporters, and thoroughly demonstrated to all with whom he conversed that he was a man of one all-absorbing idea.

In 1859, very shortly before the raid at Harpers Ferry, Douglass met Brown by appointment, in an abandoned stone quarry near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.  John Brown was already an outlaw, with a price upon his head; for a traitor had betrayed his plan the year before, and he had for this reason deferred its execution for a year.  The meeting was surrounded by all the mystery and conducted with all the precautions befitting a meeting of conspirators.  Brown had changed the details of his former plan, and told Douglass of his determination to take Harpers Ferry.  Douglass opposed the measure vehemently, pointing out its certain and disastrous failure.  Brown met each argument with another, and was not to be swayed from his purpose.  They spent more than a day together discussing the details of the movement.  When the more practical Douglass declined to take part in Brown’s attempt, the old man threw his arms around his swarthy friend, in a manner typical of his friendship for the dark race, and said:  “Come with me, Douglass, I will defend you with my life.  I want you for a special purpose.  When I strike, the bees will begin to swarm, and I shall want you to help hive them.”  But Douglass would not be persuaded.  His abandonment of his old friend on the eve of a desperate enterprise was criticised by some, who, as Douglass says, “kept even farther from this brave and heroic man than I did.”  John Brown went forth to meet a felon’s fate and wear a martyr’s crown:  Douglass lived to fight the battles of his race for years to come.  There was room for both, and each played the part for which he was best adapted.  It would have strengthened the cause of liberty very little for Douglass to die with Brown.