Of Brown himself, the _Herald_ published the following sane and _restful_ paragraph:
About noon Mr. John Brown, an aged gentleman from Essex County, New York, who has been a resident of the Territory for several months, arrived with four of his sons,--leaving several others at home sick, bringing a quantity of arms with him which were placed in his hands by eastern friends for the defense of the cause of freedom. Having more than he could well use to advantage, a portion of them were placed in the hands of those who were more destitute. A company was organized and the command given to Mr. Brown for the zeal he had exhibited in the cause of freedom, both before and after his arrival in the Territory.[107]
Brown, with his sons, returned to their homes December 14th, and under that date, in a letter to Orson Day, he expressed, further, his satisfaction with what had been accomplished at Lawrence by the Free-State managers. He said: "The Territory is now entirely in the power of the Free-State men," and stated hopefully his opinion that "the Missourians will give up all further hope of making Kansas a slave state."[108] January 1, 1856, he wrote from West Point, Missouri: "In this part of the state there seems to be but little feeling on the slave question."[109]
January 5th, a Free-State county convention was held at Osawatomie to nominate candidates for members of the Free-State Legislature. The Browns took a prominent part in the proceedings. John Brown was chairman of the meeting. Frederick Brown received the nomination for member of the House of Representatives, but at the request of his father, he declined the nomination, and it was given to John Brown, Jr.
With his participation in this convention, John Brown closed his public services. Later--probably during March--he abandoned his honorable commission as captain of the "Liberty Guards," disbanded the company, and with his sons, Owen, Salmon, Frederick, Oliver, and his son-in-law, Henry Thompson, planned and decided to abandon the Free-State cause, enter upon a career of crime, and leave the neighborhood. The course was agreed upon with John Brown, Jr., as accessory thereto; but not with the knowledge of Jason Brown. These men comprised John Brown's "little company of six" who, with others, committed the robbery on the Pottawatomie on the night of May 24th--a robbery that included in the plans for its execution, the murder of seven persons, five of whom fell beneath the blows of the assassins.