He had an impressive, half-persuasive, half-commanding manner.

He was always very secretive, affected much mystery in movements, came and went abruptly, was direct and dogmatic to bluntness in his conversation.

His education was scant, his reading limited; he wrote strong phrases in bad orthography.

If we may believe the intimations from himself and those who knew him best, he had not only acquired a passionate hatred of the institution of slavery, but had for twenty years nursed the longing to become a liberator of slaves in the Southern States.

To this end he read various stories of insurrections, and meditated on the vicissitudes, chances, and strategy of partisan warfare.