When I expressed surprise that he could live in Kansas at all,
with a price set upon his head, and so large a number, including
the authorities, exasperated against him, he accounted for it by
saying, "It is perfectly well understood that I will not be taken."
Much of the time for some years he has had to skulk in swamps,
suffering from poverty and from sickness, which was the consequence
of exposure, befriended only by Indians and a few whites. But
though it might be known that he was lurking in a particular swamp,
his foes commonly did not care to go in after him. He could even
come out into a town where there were more Border Ruffians than
Free State men, and transact some business, without delaying long,
and yet not be molested; for, said he, "No little handful of men
were willing to undertake it, and a large body could not be got
together in season."
As for his recent failure, we do not know the facts about it. It
was evidently far from being a wild and desperate attempt. His
enemy, Mr. Vallandigham, is compelled to say, that "it was among
the best planned executed conspiracies that ever failed."
Not to mention his other successes, was it a failure, or did it
show a want of good management, to deliver from bondage a dozen
human beings, and walk off with them by broad daylight, for weeks
if not months, at a leisurely pace, through one State after another,
for half the length of the North, conspicuous to all parties, with
a price set upon his head, going into a court-room on his way and
telling what he had done, thus convincing Missouri that it was not
profitable to try to hold slaves in his neighborhood?--and this,
not because the government menials were lenient, but because they
were afraid of him.
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