In America, he met and was chosen to bring money to the Polish revolutionaries, thus he left with two missions, to establish schools for the blind and as chairman of the American-Polish Committee at Paris, organized with J. Fenimore Cooper, S. F. B. Morse, and several other Americans living in the city, to support the revolutionaries. The Poles were defeated by the Russians and Howe was to give money to the many, particularly officers, who did not want to return home and harassed people of neighboring countries, while they were given political refuge and crossed over the Prussian border into Prussia. Howe undertook to distribute the supplies and funds personally, and while in Berlin, he was arrested and imprisoned, but managed to destroy or hide the discriminating letters to the Polish officers. After five weeks, he was released due to the intervention of the United States Minister at Paris.