Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/571

The Sharps Rifle Episode in Kansas History 561 brief time over $22,000 was subscribed, most of it in dollar sums.^ Aid committees sprang into existence in almost every Northern village. These in turn were consolidated into state committees. How far all these organizations furnished arms cannot at present be detemiined. The committees in }Iassachusetts, New York, and Wisconsin were exceptionally active. No account has been found of the expenditures of the Wisconsin committee. The Kansas Com- mittee of New York published a full report, and according to this report $643.37 was expended for Sharps rifles. In the secretary's minutes of April, 1856, of that organization there appears a letter to Pomeroy stating that the committee had purchased twenty-five Sharps rifles, thus corresponding with the treasurer's report. The Kansas State Committee of jMassachusetts had been gradu- ally evolved from a subcommittee of the Emigrant Aid Company. As it developed, it finally came under the efficient management of George L. Stearns. This committee raised over $48,000 and a large amount of clothing for Kansas sufferers. The treasurer's report of this committee is among the Emigrant Aid Company's papers, and records the fact that five thousand ($4,947.88) dollars was expended for two hundred Sharps rifles. But these rifles never reached Kansas : they were consigned to the National Committee and by them transported to Tabor, Iowa. Before they could be taken to Kansas, Geary, with the co-operation of the free-state leaders, had established peace, and such military bands as were not incorporated into the state militia were either disanned or driven from the territory. John Brown now entered as an applicant for the Tabor rifles ; his fighting on the border had given birth to plans destined to bear final fruit at Harpers Ferry ; but his application was refused by the National Committee lest he might use them in another expedi- tion into Missouri.- Brown, however, had strong sympathizers at Boston, and, on the demand of the officers of the Massachusetts Kansas Committee, which had originally furnished these arms, the Tabor rifles were restored to the ]Iassachusetts committee'* and then turned over by its president to John Brown. In due season, these two hundred Sharps rifles, originally intended for the defense of the free-state people in Kansas, were carried by Brown to the neighbor- hood of Harpers Ferry^ and there captured by the Maryland militia- men. The organization of the Kansas National Aid Committee came as ^ New York Tribune, January 23, 1857. 2 Serial 1040, 36 Cong., i Sess., Senate Report 278, pp. 245, 247- 3 Ibid., 226-249, passim. 'Ibid., 7. 51, 236-237.