[244] Many, who started to join the Liberators, halted half way; for the blow had already been struck, and their Captain made a captive. Had there been no precipitation, the mountains of Virginia, to-day, would have been peopled with free blacks, properly officered and ready for field action.1 The negroes, also, in the neighboring counties, who had promised to be ready on the 24th of October, were confused by the precipitate attack; and, before they could act in concert — which they can only do by secret nocturnal meetings — were watched, overpowered, and deprived of every chance to join their heroic liberators. Having sent off the women who lived at their cabins --Cook's wife and others — the neighbors began to talk about the singularity of the proceeding; and it became necessary, on that account also, to precipitate an attack on Harper's Ferry. On Saturday, a meeting of the Liberators was held, and the plan of operations discussed. On Sunday evening, a council was again convened, and the programme of the Captain unanimously approved. “In closing,” wrote Cook, John Brown said:
And now, gentlemen, let me press this one thing on your minds. You all know how dear life is to you, and how dear your lives are to your friends; and, in remembering that, consider that the lives of others are as dear to them as yours are to you. Do not, therefore, take the life of any one if you can possibly avoid it; but if it is necessary to take life in order to save your own, then make sure work of it.
