that "he who taketh the sword shall perish by the sword." Kansas Senator John James Ingalls in 1884 quoted with approval the judgment of a Free State settler: "He was the only man who comprehended the situation, and saw the absolute necessity for some such blow, and had the nerve to strike it." This resulted from the men killed being leaders in a conspiracy to "drive out, bum and kill; and that Potawatomie Creek was to be cleared of every man, woman and child who was for Kansas being a free State." According to Brown's son Salmon, who participated, it was "the grandest thing that was ever done in Kansas". Debate over Brown's role and motivation John Brown was evasive about his role in the massacre, but in Kansas Territory, his role was no secret. A United States congressional committee investigating the troubles in Kansas Territory identified Brown as the chief perpetrator. Nonetheless, following John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, there was a widespread denial of Brown's involvement in the Eastern abolitionist press. Brown's first biographer, James Redpath, denied Brown's presence at the murders. Defenders of Brown argue that the raid was in retaliation for their hanging of a free-state man, for the murder of Brown's brother, for the murder of one of Brown's sons and arrest of another, for the burning of the free-state settlement at Osawatomie, and outrages upon Brown's wife and daughter, although critics dispute these events happened. The revisionist history around John Brown, much of it motivated by Lost Cause of the Confederacy ideology, has, in turn, been called into question. In response to those that argued the attack was motivated by the threats of violence by the pro-slavery targets of the attack, the governor of Kansas, Charles Robinson, stated: When it is known that such threats were as plenty as blue-berries in June, on both sides, all over the Territory, and were regarded as of no more importance than the idle wind, this indictment will hardly justify midnight assassination of all pro-slavery men, whether making threats or not... Had all men been killed in Kansas who indulged in such threats, there would have been none left to bury the dead. However, Robinson also said: According to Senator Ingalls: See also List of battles fought in Kansas List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States References Further reading Also available here PBS Online. People