Mr. Cook says I promised to join them at Harpers Ferry. I never made a promise so rash and wild. Call it wisdom or call it cowardice — it kept me from Harpers Ferry, and equally from promising to go. My field of labor for abolition has never extended to attacking a U.S. arsenal.
Original passage & context
"I have never made a promise so rash and wild as this [...] my wisdom or my cowardice, has not only kept me from Harper's Ferry, but has equally kept me from making any promise to go there. [...] My field of labor for the abolition of Slavery has not extended to an attack upon the United States' arsenal."
Douglass, implicated by raider John E. Cook's confession, had fled to Canada; he denies promising to join the raid while refusing to condemn Brown. Fragments joined with [...].