Ferry invasion than for his Concord school, or later service on the
board of State Charities. He was secretary of the Kansas Aid Committee
in Boston during 1856, and in this way became acquainted with John
Brown, who visited the school, and the two were afterwards intimate
friends.

None of Brown's New England supporters approved of his invasion of
Virginia, and Mr. Sanborn especially argued the matter with him and
endeavored to dissuade him from it. He thus became acquainted, however,
with Brown's plans, and was the only person outside of Brown's immediate
followers who knew of the proposed attack on Harper's Ferry. When the
attempt failed and John Brown was a prisoner in Charlestown jail, Mr.
Sanborn found himself, as an accessory before the act, in a most trying
situation. If carried to Virginia either as a witness or as "particeps
criminis" his chance for life would be a slight one. The question was,
would General Banks, who was then governor of Massachusetts, refuse to
surrender him. John A. Andrew did not consider it safe to rely on him;
and Mr. Sanborn accordingly disappeared for the winter, his school being
carried on meanwhile by an assistant and some public spirited Concord
ladies, one of whom was a sister of Hon. E. R. Hoar.

In the spring Mr. Sanborn reappeared, and was almost immediately
summoned by a United States marshal to give an account of himself before
the senate committee in Washington. This he declined to do, believing
that the townspeople would forcibly resist any attempts to carry him
off.

The marshal, however, set a trap for him that missed little of being
successful. He came to Concord at midnight, and secreted himself in an
old barn which was close to the school-house, and belonged to one Mr.