In that ease, only about twenty were admitted to the secret; and yet one of them, in his anxiety to save a friend, betrayed the plot to that friend, and, by consequence, averted the calamity.

Occasional poisonings from the kitchen, and open or stealthy assassinations in the field, and local revolts extending to a score or so, will continue to occur as the natural results of slavery; but no general insurrection of slaves, as I think, can happen in this country for a long time.

Whoever much fears or much hopes for such an event will be alike disappointed....
John Brown's effort was peculiar.

It was not a slave insurrection.
It was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt among slaves, in which the slaves refused to participate.

In fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, with all their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could not succeed.