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THE BROWN INVASION TRANSPLANTED FROM KANSAS. – An article which we copy this morning, from the Lawrence (Kansas) Republican, throws fresh light on the movement of BROWN and his comrades at Harper’s Ferry. It confirms what has been plausibly evident from the outset, that this invasion of Virginia was in the main a transplantation from the fields of Kansas. The actors in it were the Kansas ultra Free-State fighting men: - the arms were those which had been rendered useless by the restoration of peace to the Territory: - and the mode of operation was the same which had proved successful there.
The Republican now asserts that the whole plot was concocted there, - that it was the work of a party of adventurers, rash and desperate men, who had nothing to lose, and who were foiled in their schemes of violence by the wise and judicious administration of Gov. WALKER, as Governor of the Territory. It makes some very curious revelations of the plots they had formed for murdering the members of the Lecomption Convention, and for the continuance of the reign of blood which they had inaugurated, and from which they had derived all their importance. At the outset they had been enlisted with the great body of the settlers of Kansas in resisting the forays of the Border Ruffians, and had rendered good service in that necessary and patriotic work. But they had learned to fight for the love of it, and not merely to conquer a peace: - and when the mass of the people were content with the victories they had achieved, these men were just ready to enter upon a protracted war. They resisted the efforts of Gov. WALKER to restore quiet to the Territory, and did everything in their power to render them abortive. But when they failed they turned their attention to “fresh woods and pastures now.” Their first raid was upon Missouri, and the original programme of their operations, according to the Republican, was limited to that State. The transference of their scheme to Virginia was an afterthought.
The Harper’s Ferry affair was thus mainly a prolongation of the fight which in Kansas had been at the outset legitimate and one of self-defence, and as such had enlisted the favor and support of prominent men, both Republicans and Abolitionists, in the Northern States. It does not yet very clearly appear, however, that these men were aware of the transfer, or dreamed of such a thing, until it was revealed to them by one of BROWN’S associates.
