r *& 
 
> .;w^' g t r -7.7 
 
 •^cr 
 
 °o 
 
 
 
 
 aV*^ -?lS|i§?« t^^rv *^%^^* aV«^ 
 
 ,4^ 
 
 ' • ■ o 
 
 
 
 °o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 .^ * 
 
 "o^ :^ 
 
 * ft- ^. v 
 
A DISCOURSE 
 
 (•Tteartfr and §tti% 
 
 JOHN BROWN 
 
 Delivered in Martinsburgh, N. Y. Dec. 12, 1850. 
 
 IBY S. H. TAFT, 
 Pastor of the Church of Martinsburgh. 
 
 All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even 
 so to them : for this is the law and the prophets." 
 
 SECOND EDITION.-- PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 With an Introduction by the Reverend J. H Moribon. D D. 
 
 DES MOINES: 
 
 STEAM PRINTING HOUSE OF CARTER, HU8SEY AND CURL. 
 1872. 
 
pr ", 
 
 58310 
 
 1 
 
 ^*ASHW 
 
 rf5 
 
P REFATOR T. 
 
 My " Discourse on the Character and Death of John Brown " was 
 published immediately after its delivery, in compliance with the 
 wishes of a very few radical abolitionists. It was favorably noticed 
 by the New York Independent and some other public journals, by rea- 
 son of which I received numerous orders for it from all parts of the 
 Northern States, which soon exhausted the edition. In the summer 
 of 1860 I also received letters from Hon. Gerrit Smith, Rev. Dr. 
 Cheever, and other leading abolitionists, expressing hearty approval 
 of the discourse, after which it slumbered for six years almost as 
 quietly as " John Brown's body — in the grave." But since the close of 
 the war I have received numerous letters asking for copies of it, for 
 which reason I have had published this second edition. 
 
 I have taken the liberty of publishing herewith one of the letters 
 
 above referred to, as also an introduction by my revered friend Dr. 
 
 J. H. Morison, of Boston. 
 
 S. H. Taft. 
 
 Springvale, Iowa, March 21s<, 1872. 
 
 METROPOLITAN NATIONAL BANK, 
 
 New York, February 12th, 1872. 
 
 Rev. S. II. Taft : 
 
 My Dear Sir: I send herewith the John Brown sermon. Accept 
 our thanks for the privilege of seeing what you said in those troub- 
 lous times, of the scenes of deep interest then transpiring. 
 
 A friend seeing it on my desk wished very much to have it to send 
 abroad, to a friend of Lord Byron. I told him it was your only copy. 
 He said his friend Mr. J. E. T., of England, had a portrait of John 
 Brown, and was a great admirer of his, for which reason he wished 
 to send him the sermon — which my friend has read and likes very 
 mvich. 
 
 He has given me a check for $100 (which I enclose), and in return 
 wishes a copy of the sermon, if it can be obtained. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 J. E. Williams. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Milton, Mass., March 18th, 1872. 
 Rev. S. H. Taft : 
 
 My Dear Sir : I am glad that you are to have a new edition of your 
 John Brown sermon published. I can easily understand the feelings 
 of the New York gentleman who sent you a hundred dollars for the last 
 copy you had of the old edition. It seems to me, considering the time 
 and circumstances under which it was delivered, a remarkable produc- 
 tion — one of the mysterious prophetic utterances made under the 
 impulse of a Higher Spirit than man's, which preceded the downfall of 
 slavery. The way in which John Brown's name and acts, apparently 
 so insignificant in themselves, connected themselves with the uprising 
 of a great nation against the terrible wrong, his soul " marching on " 
 the animating spirit in more than a million armed men, would be 
 thought fabulous and incredible, if such an event had been narrated as 
 belonging to the early history of Palestine and Rome. 
 
 What you say of Governor Wise reminds me of an incident related 
 by a rebel officer during the war. Governor Wise's son was killed and 
 his body prepared for burial. The father bent over the body with a 
 look and with words of the deepest anguish and then fell senseless to 
 the ground. The officer added, that at that moment he could not but 
 think of the time when he had seen the Governor coldly repel the 
 request of his daughter who kneeled before her father and begged him 
 to spare the life of John Brown. So the ways of God and of good men 
 vindicate themselves sooner or later, and the foolishness of the faithful 
 and simple ones is found to be wiser than the wisdom of the prudent. 
 So right prevails over wrong. Love is mightier than hatred. One 
 man upon the gallows, with his great loving heart, (madman though he 
 seems to thousands,) is stronger than all that can be arrayed against 
 him. John Brown made a mistake, I think, in taking into his own 
 private hands the responsibility of destroying life. His power when 
 lie had been disarmed, imprisoned and condemned was greater than it 
 had ever been before, and ten thousand times greater when he had 
 been made a martyr in the cause of liberty. 
 
 I thank you for doing something to refresh our memories by bring- 
 ing before us again so vividly the image of one whose name lias been 
 identified with the greatest movement of our age. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 John H. Morison. 
 
JOHN BROWN. 
 
 My text this afternoon, my hearers, is, " John Brown." You will 
 find it recorded in all the newspapers of the land ; and it will yet be 
 inscribed in bold characters on the record of the World's History ! 
 
 Ten days ago, just before the sun had reached the meridian, in the 
 village of Charlestown,in the State of Virginia, John Brown — an aged 
 man, with hair and beard as white as the snows which robe our North- 
 ern hills — was ignominiously hung by the neck, between the heavens 
 and the earth, until he was dead. 
 
 As all civilized nations agree that the death penalty, if inflicted at 
 all, can properly be inflicted only upon the most guilty of men, in 
 punishment for the highest of crimes, the question suggests itself to 
 every candid mind : " Who is John Brown, and what are the crimes 
 for which he has been executed?" v>"'. 
 
 With regard to the first question, I remark, John Brown was born in 
 Connecticut, in the year A B O0; / He early emigrated to Massachusetts, 
 and thence to this State, where he lived until slavery ("seconded by 
 Douglas and other Northern men, who were willing to sell their 
 country's freedom for a mess of political pottage,) put forth its ruth- 
 less hand to plant the Upas of Slavery on the virgin soil of Kansas, 
 when he emigrated there and confronted the minions of despotism on 
 their own chosen battle-ground. 
 
 Suffering severe losses in Kansas by the civil war which raged there, 
 he returned to this State with his family. Leaving them at North 
 Elba, Essex county, he went to Maryland and entered upon his prepa- 
 ration for taking Harper's fenw, of which attack, my hearers, you all 
 know, but of the full result of which little can be known at the present 
 time. 
 
 John Brown was the grandson of a revolutionary soldier, and the 
 sixth from Peter Brown, one of the Pilgrim fathers, who landed at 
 Plymouth in the year 1620. So you observe, my hearers, that royal 
 blood coursed in his veins, as we count royalty. 
 
 To answer with any degree of completeness the second question, 
 viz.: what has he done for which he has been put to death? would 
 require much time. I shall be able therefore, on the present occasion, 
 to reply but liriefly. As his acts at Harper's Ferry were but a continu- 
 ation of a series of like acts, I shall have to go back a few years and 
 speak of his Kansas work. For be it known, my hearers, that John 
 
6 Character and Death of 
 
 Brown was not executed for his tragic conquest of Harper's Ferry ; he 
 was taken prisoner, tried and condemned, for this ; but he was executed 
 for having driven the myrmidons of slavery from Kansas. 
 
 His Spartan bravery, Cromwellian integrity, and Puritanic sim- 
 plicity and faith, won for him the admiration even of his bitterest foes, 
 and Slavery has not yet so wholly eaten out the better impulses of 
 humanity in the Southern heart, but that many desired that the noble 
 old man should have been pardoned, and Governor Wise and the Leg- 
 islature of Virginia would gladly have sought to cover the record of 
 their cowardice and shame, with the magnanimity which a pardon 
 would have displayed, if only the daring deeds of Harper's Ferry had 
 been present before their minds. But tliey remembered, the whole 
 slave oligarchy remembered, that to John Brown, more than any 
 other man, the slave power owed its signal defeat in Kansas. Such a 
 crime could know no foi'giveness, neither in the gubernatorial mansion 
 nor in the Legislative Halls of Virginia. 
 
 When the marauding hordes led on by Atchison, Stringfellow and 
 others were pouring into Kansas to overthrow the three great bul- 
 warks of liberty — freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the 
 ballot-box — Mr. Brown gathered around him a band of faithful, 
 upright men (for he would never allow a profane or unprincipled man 
 in his camp), and went forth to defend the right. So successfully did 
 he contend with the foe, that his name became at once a tower of 
 strength to the Free - State party, while it inspired corresponding ter- 
 ror in the hearts of the slaveholder and his allies. 
 
 His defense of Lawrence against a large force of Missourians, who 
 marched upon it soon after the Shannon treaty, was the turning point 
 in the contest between slavery and freedom in that Territory. Mr. 
 Brown continued his labors until the ballot - box was restored, and the 
 lip and press made free. He then crossed the borders into Missouri, 
 and, Moses - like, led forth some of God's poor and oppressed children 
 from the land of bondage, and conducted them safely to a land of 
 freedom. The result of this has been to drive slavery almost wholly 
 out of the Western and Northern portions of the State. 
 
 A Southern writer lately said that the decrease of slavery in Mis- 
 souri is so rapid that " Whole counties would soon be without a single 
 bondman." The act for which he was sentenced to suffer death upon 
 the scaffold is known to you, my hearers. He made a descent upon 
 Harper's Ferry, with a force of twenty -two men (himself included), 
 took possession of the United States Arsenal, made prisoners of the 
 first citizens of the place, as a means of delivering from a life - long 
 imprisonment the victims of Southern slavery, his object in taking 
 prisoners being to exchange them for slaves, which were by this means 
 to be set free. 
 
 Looking upon slavery as a system of outlawry, and as such having no 
 rights which God recognizes, or man "is bound to respect," he 
 espoused the cause of the weak and outraged party, and laid his life 
 
John Brown. 7 
 
 and the life of his sons upon the altar of freedom. His own emphatic 
 language, when asked what he sought to do, was, " I claim to be here 
 in carrying out a measure I believe to be perfectly justifiable ; not to 
 act the part of an incendiary or ruffian, but to aid those suffering great 
 wrong." 
 
 But can we confide in Mr. Brown's testimony? Certainly, for 
 Governor Wise himself said he would believe him under any circum- 
 stances. 
 
 For such deeds as I have enumerated, and for such only, has John 
 Brown been put to death. 
 
 I am aware that in order to detract from his influence, some have 
 denounced him as a madman ; but where is the evidence ? Is it found 
 in the manner in which he defended the interests of freedom in Kan- 
 sas ? No other man displayed equal wisdom and ability in that dark 
 day of her history. 
 
 Is the evidence of his madness found in the success which attended 
 his attack on Harper's Ferry? With twenty -one men he captured a 
 United States Arsenal, took over forty prisoners, and held possession 
 of a town of over two thousand inhabitants, until overpowered by the 
 united forces which the Federal Government, Virginia and Maryland 
 sent against him. Certainly, there must be great method in such 
 madness. 
 
 The fact, then, of his attacking slavery in its own stronghold, with 
 so small a force, is all that can be regarded as furnishing any evidence 
 of madness. 
 
 That he was deceived by Mr. Cook, in relation to the readiness of 
 the slave population in Virginia and Maryland to strike for freedom, 
 lie stated to that gentleman in his last interview with him. But not 
 for once did he repine at his fate ; not for once did he express regret for 
 what he had done. 
 
 So far from it, he used the following emphatic — may I not say 
 prophetic? — language in a letter written to his old teacher, Rev. H. L. 
 Vaill, of Connecticut : " Before I commeuced my work at Harper's 
 Ferry, I felt assured that in the worst event it would certainly pay. I 
 often expressed that belief, arid I can now see no possible reason to 
 alter my mind." There are others who charge Mr. Brown with having 
 acted in a spirit of revenge. A more groundless charge was never 
 made. That slaveholders and their abettors should have expected 
 vengeance at his hands, is not surprising, for he had suffered wrongs 
 at the hands of the slave power which would have either crushed or 
 driven to madness most men. One of his sons was seized upon and 
 assassinated in Kansas in open day ; another, who was a member of 
 the Legislature under the Topeka Constitution, was arrested at Ossa- 
 wattamie on a charge of treason ; his feet and hands were bound 
 together with an ox chain, and he was compelled to walk the whole 
 distance to Lecompton, under a burning sun, the iron wearing the 
 flesh from his ankles. His sufferings brought on a brain fever from 
 
8 Character and Death of 
 
 which, in a few days he died; and one of his daughters was seized 
 upon in the night time, dragged from her father's dwelli: g by Mis- 
 sourian ruffians, and treated in a manner which would have disgraced 
 the inhabitants of the Fegee Islands. But notwithstanding these and 
 other barbarities of a like character, which he had suffered at the hands 
 of slavery, not for once in all that sanguinary struggle at Harper's Ferry 
 did he stoop to an act of vengeful cruelty. All his prisoners testify 
 that he treated them with the utmost kindness, and that too, notwith- 
 standing his own son was shot down while bearing a flag of truce, and 
 young Thompson was inhumanly murdered by those who had taken 
 him prisoner. No, my hearers, John Brown exhibited no spirit of 
 cruelty or revenge in any of all his acts. In his charge to his men, 
 before the attack, he said : " Remember that the lives of others are as 
 precious to them as yours are to you." When the attack was made 
 upon him by the marines, he spared the lives of Major Russell and 
 Lieutenant Stewart when they were wholly in his power, for which 
 the Major thanked him. Whatever may be said by those at the North 
 who barter conscience and freedom for slaveholding favor, the South 
 admit that he acted magnanimously and bravely towards his fallen foe. 
 But I should fail alike to do justice to the dead and the cause to promote 
 which he offered up his life if I should fail to notice, more particularly, 
 the motives which actuated him in the work to which he devoted the 
 last years of his life ; for in the light of those motives history will 
 judge him. But before we can wisely judge his motives, we must 
 inquire into the character of the system which he sought to over- 
 throw. 
 
 * What is slavery? Webster defines it as "a state of entire subjuga- 
 tion of one person to the will of another." Our ears have become so 
 familiar with the term that it excites but little emotion when we hear 
 it pronounced. But, my hearers, if the dealer in the bodies and souls 
 of men was to enter this house to - day, and, with sufficient force to 
 accomplish his dark purpose, proceed to put the clanking chains upon 
 your limbs, you would begin better to understand the import of the 
 word " Slavery." And as the door of slavery's dark prison house 
 should open to receive you, your trembling limbs, blanched cheeks and 
 chattering teeth would proclaim you an abolitionist, whatever the indif- 
 ference with which you might have been wont to look upon the woes 
 of Southern slaves. Slavery is a system which curses both the master 
 and the slave. It does more than this — in the end it no less certainly 
 brings ruiD upon all who stand by and permit the strong to overpower 
 and subjugate the weak, for whoever tamely consents to the enslave- 
 ment of others, permits the forging of chains for his children's limbs 
 by permitting the bulwarks which protect his own freedom to be over- 
 thrown. It does even more than this — it so debauches the moral sense of 
 such as look on with indifference as to fit them to become the willing 
 slaves of slavery. Thus has it come to pass that our Northern States have 
 become one vast Golgotha on which bleach the moral skeletons of 
 
John Broivn. 9 
 
 those who once promised to honor our nation and bless humanity. I 
 will not attempt to name those in church and state whom slavery has 
 slain, for they are legions. Yet I cannot forbear referring to one of 
 them. Like the one whose obsequies we to - day celebrate, he was a 
 New England man, who, instead of seeking to liberate Southern slaves, 
 forged heavy chains for Northern freemen, and " Let loose the hungry 
 pack to hunt down freedom in her chosen land." He was a man 
 whose large and lustrous eyes looked forth from underneath a brow 
 towering and noble like the mountains of his native State. He was 
 gifted by nature with such unequalled powers of thought that had he 
 lived in the days of Greece or Rome he would have been assigned a 
 place among the gods. But slavery led him (not into an exceeding 
 high mountain, but) out upon a lovely plain, and showed him (not all 
 the kingdoms of the world, but) all the glories of the — Presidency, 
 and said, " All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and 
 worship me," and he took the glory of his great name, the honor of 
 his country, and the last hope of the fleeing bondman, and offering 
 them as sacrifices, he bowed low and worshipped before slavery's bloody 
 altar, and Freedom wept when Daniel Webster fell. 
 
 '•So falFn, so lost, the light withdrawn 
 Which once he wore, 
 The glory from his gray hairs gone 
 Foreverniore." 
 
 Slavery conspires as much against the manhood of the master as of 
 the slave, for no man can put fetters upon the limbs of his fellow man 
 until he has first bowed his moral nature to the slavery of selfishness ; 
 he must first mortgage his own soul to the Devil before he can either 
 take or execute a bill of sale of his brother. 
 
 Slavery blights every green thing in all the South; the mildew 
 which it begets rests upon the roads, fields and houses, manufactories 
 and post-offices, school -houses, literature and religion of the Southern 
 states. All the great men ot the South twenty - five years ago looked 
 upon slavery as an evil and a sin ; her ruling spirits now profess to 
 defend it as a right — so fearfully has the moral sentiment of the South 
 been debauched within a quarter of a century. 
 
 Such are some of the bitter fruits which others besides the bondman 
 have reaped from slavery. 
 
 Well might Cowper exclaim : 
 
 ' L I would not have a slave to till my ground, 
 To carry me — to fan me, when I sleep, 
 And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth 
 That sinews, bought or sold, have ever earned." 
 
 The immediate victims of slavery are despoiled of every right. No 
 pen, though dipped in blood, could draw a picture of their wrongs. 
 First, they are compelled to labor for life, without wages. Second, 
 they are denied education. Third, they cannot own their own children, 
 neither can they protect them. A few weeks ago Mr. 1 Manuel, a 
 
10 Cliaracter and Death of 
 
 colored man in Washington, was fined $200 for giving shelter to his 
 own son, who was a slave and fleeing from bondage. On failing to pay 
 his fine he was last week thrust into prison where he is at present. 
 Fourth, they have no protection in the courts. Fifth, they mav not 
 exercise the right of self- defense. Sixth, they are huddled together in 
 a state of promiscuous concubinage. Seventh, if they attempt to 
 escape from their dark prison - house, they are liable to be pursued by 
 hounds, or to be shot down like beasts of prey. Eighth, they may at 
 any time, as the caprice or self interests of the master demands, be 
 handcuffed like felons, and driven fur from family and friends, never 
 to return. 
 
 What wonder, I ask, that Jefferson, in view of such dark and unmit- 
 igated crimes against humanity, exclaimed, " I tremble for my country 
 when I remember that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep 
 forever." 
 
 One fact more in relation to slavery demands our notice, ere we 
 pass judgment upon the motives which must have actuated Mr. Brown 
 in his war upon it, viz. : it is a system irreconcilably antagonistic to 
 freedom, and will, if much longer permitted to exist anywhere in the 
 United States, secure and exercise control everywhere. I might make 
 an argument in proof of this position, drawn both from the nature of 
 slavery, and from the history of its past aggressions. But I prefer to 
 refer you to the testimony of others on this point. I could call for- 
 ward many distinguished witnesses, but shall content myself with 
 introducing but two : one from the South, the other from the North. 
 The former of them a defender of slavery, the latter of freedom. 
 
 The Richmoiid Enquirer (one ot the ablest, if not the ablest paper in 
 all the South) holds the following language : " Two opposite and con- 
 flicting forms of society cannot, among civilized men, co - exist and 
 endure. The one must give way and cease to exist; the other becomes 
 universal." 
 
 Wm. H. Seward declared a short time since, " That the United States 
 must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slaveholding , or 
 entirely a free labor nation. Either the cotton and rice fields of South 
 Carolina, and the sugar plantations of Louisiana, will ultimately be 
 tilled by free labor, and Charleston and New Orleans become marts for 
 legitimate merchandise, or else the rye fields and wheat fields of Mas- 
 sachusetts and New York must again be rendered up by the farmers to 
 slave culture, and Boston and New York become once more markets 
 for trade in the bodies and souls of men" * 
 
 Thus do you observe, my hearers, that slavery wars not only upon the 
 most sacred interests of all classes, but that it is freedom's deadliest foe. 
 
 And it was for seeking the speedy overthrow of this " sum of all 
 villainies" that John Brown has been doomed to an ignominious death. 
 
 * A similar prophetic declaration was found, in language no less emphatic, in & 
 speech of Abraham Lincoln's delivered at a still earlier date. 
 
John Brown. 11 
 
 Senator Broderick, of California, said as his dying words, " They 
 have killed me because I was opposed to the extension of slavery." 
 They have killed.John Brown because he was opposed to the existence 
 of slavery. 
 
 If " Oppression maketh a wise man mad," what wonder that the 
 destruction of such a man under such circumstances should overwhelm 
 with anguish the great - souled philanthropist of our State, Gerrit 
 Smith? 
 
 But who, I ask, died the most desirable, the most honorable death — 
 Senator Broderick, who offered up his life in obedience to the demand 
 of the " bloody code," or Mr. Brown, who offered up his life on the 
 altar of humanity's freedom ? 
 
 The light in which Mr. Brown regarded slavery may be judged not 
 more by the sacrifices which he made to secure its overthrow, than by 
 the outspoken testimony which he bore against it during his imprison- 
 ment, and upon the scaffold. 
 
 In the course of conversation between him and the Rev. Mr. Waugh, 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held in his prison, the reverend 
 gentleman spoke in defense of slavery, to which Mr. Brown replied, 
 " You have not yet learned the A - B - C of Christianity ; you may be a 
 gentleman, but you are not a Christian — you are a Heathen Gentleman." 
 
 When interrogated in regard to his being attended by a clergyman 
 upon the scaffold, he replied, " I wish for the prayers of no man who 
 believes slavery right. If an old slave mother, with a dozen poor 
 slave children might be permitted to follow me to the scaffold, it would 
 be a gratification to me — I should rather have their sympathies and 
 prayers than the prayers of all the pro - slavery ministers in the United 
 States." 
 
 He said of his two sons who fell by his side at Harper's Ferry, " I 
 do not regret their loss ; they have died in a noble cause." 
 
 We find, then, that, whether judged by the work in which he was 
 engaged, by the manner and spirit in which he prosecuted it, or by his 
 dying testimony, Mr. Brown was actuated by the purest and most 
 exalted motives. 
 
 But is it charged that*he violated law ? That he violated statute 
 enactments, is true. And so did the Prophets ; so did the Apostles ; so 
 did the Saviour of men. 
 
 The successive steps which Hie human race have taken in the ever 
 ascending pathway of progress and freedom, either in Church or State, 
 have not been taken by virtue of legislative enactments. 
 
 The true relormers of all ages have always been in advance of 
 legislation, and the great acts of their lives have always been inde- 
 pendent of, and often in opposition to, statute enactments. If John 
 Brown was a law-breaker, then were Amram and Jockabed; so were 
 Moses and Daniel ; so were Peter and John ; so were all the martyrs of 
 all ages. 
 
 If John Brown deserved death, then much more did Warren, 
 
22 Character and Death of 
 
 Adams, Jefferson, Hancock and Washington, for they rebelled against 
 the unjust taxation of the purse ; but John Brown rebelled against the 
 " sum of all villainies." 
 
 Thus vou observe, my hearers, that those who are law-abiding in the 
 high and true sense of the term, are often compelled to be law-breakers 
 in the low and vulgar sense in which the term is too often used. 
 
 With much force has humanity's poet, J. G. Whittier, presented this 
 truth in the following lines : 
 
 " Eight, forever on the scaffold ; wrong, forever on the throne ; 
 But the scaffold sways the fetters, and behind the dim unknown 
 Standeth God beyond the shadows, keeping watch above His own." 
 
 But did John Brown do right in seeking to aid the slave by force, in 
 obtaining his freedom? is a question asked by ten thousand lips. The 
 non-resistant answers, No. The man who believes in the authority of 
 Mi^ht over Right answers, No. The man who believes that the enact- 
 ments of wicked men are of higher obligation than the law of the 
 Changeless and Holy God, answers, No. 
 
 But those who believe in self-defense and the Golden Rule, answer, 
 Yes, John Brown did right to take his life in his hands, and, entering 
 the dark prison-houses of bondage, seek to break off the fetters of the 
 slave, and " Let the oppressed go free " In so doing he performed an 
 act of disinterested heroism, which challenges the admiration of all who 
 can appreciate exalted virtue ; an act which shall secure for him an 
 immortality of fame. 
 
 And he has not to slumber long years in the grave before his work 
 for freedom shall be appreciated. His noble deeds and heroic utter- 
 ances have, by the aid of steam and telegraph, been borne to all parts 
 of our land : and the public prints are speaking out boldly in reference 
 to him. 
 
 The New York Independent holds the following language in relation 
 to him : " The brave old man who lies in prison at Charlestown, Vir- 
 ginia, awaiting the day of his execution, is teaching this nation lessons 
 of heroism, faith and duty, which will awaken its sluggish moral sense, 
 and the almost forgotten memories of the heroes of the Revolution. * 
 
 * * His brief address to the Virginia Court about to sentence 
 him for unproved crimes, which at the worst were acts of devotion to 
 freedom and humanity, will outlive that sentence, and in the opinion 
 of mankind make Brown the Judge and the Court the criminal. 
 
 * * Calm, self-consistent, courteous towards his accusers and his 
 judge, benignant in feelirig towards all men, mild and patient under 
 personal injuries ; yet inflexibly committed to the cause of human free- 
 dom; undaunted by the presence of death ; despising every subterfuge 
 and expedient for his own deliverance; conscious of the purity of his 
 motives and the essential Tightness of his object ; faithful in God as his 
 trust, he stands not only a brave man in a community of cowards, but 
 a moral hero and prophet, in a nation of ' Sophists, economists and cal- 
 culators.' " 
 
John Brown. 13 
 
 I was pleased to observe that he is spoken of in theJast issue of the 
 Republican, of our own village, as being " As noble-hearted a Christian 
 as ever suffered martyrdom." 
 
 I could multiply, almost indefinitely, quotations of a like character, 
 from the most influential public journals of the land ; but I forbear, and 
 pass to the consideration of another question, viz.: "Was it wise for 
 John Brown to attack slavery when and where he did ? 
 
 A majority of the American people have answered No. 
 
 John Brown has answered Yes, and sealed his testimony with his 
 blood. Who shall decide between the witnesses ? 
 
 Remember, my hearers, that what was the folly of yesterday, shall 
 be crowned as the wisdom of to-morrow. 
 
 Those acts which have been considered as unwise and rash, when put 
 forth, have often proved to be golden links in the chain with which God 
 was binding earth to heaven. 
 
 Christianity and freedom would have had no martyrs if only the wis- 
 dom of the majority had been consulted. Even the Lord Jesus Christ 
 might have avoided the ignominious death which he suffered if he had 
 only acted wisely as the majority judged. 
 
 Whoever recognizes the presence of God, in the affairs of men and 
 nations, should pause long before pronouncing the act for which Mr. 
 Brown was sentenced to death as unwise. 
 
 It seemed unwise that Paul appealed from Festus to Caesar, since he 
 would have been set at liberty if he had not ; but by virtue of that 
 appeal the standard of the cross was planted in the very heart of the 
 Roman Empire, and Caesar's own household was brought under the 
 influence of the Gospel. It seemed unwise and rash in Crispus Attucks, 
 a colored man, to attack the British soldiery in Boston ; yet Daniel 
 Webster said that from the day of the Boston massacre dated the dis- 
 ruption of the British Empire. If the attack of a colored man on the 
 English soldiery at Boston resulted in the overthrow of British rule in 
 America, why, I ask, may not the attack of a white man on the slave- 
 holders at Harper's Ferry result in the overthrow of slavery in the 
 United States. 
 
 I confidently believe that the revelation of the future will prove that 
 John Brown was a chosen instrument in the hands of God to accom- 
 plish the speedy overthrow of slavery in America. 
 
 But much has already been accomplished by the heroic deeds of the 
 brave old man ; he has torn off the covering with which slavery had 
 veiled itself, and exposed to view its weakness and hideous deformity. 
 Its weakness is seen in the fact that twenty -two men have sent a thrill 
 of terror through all the South. 
 
 Governor Wise admits that " Henceforth no slaves can be retained in 
 bondage in the border counties unless they are disposed to stay." 
 
 When the wounded old man arose from his bed, and gave his reasons 
 why the sentence of death should not be pronounced against him, his 
 simple, truthful words inspired such fear in the heart of the officer in 
 
XJj. Character and Death of 
 
 command, that he at once gave orders that the force on guard should 
 be increased. 
 
 The following from the Richmond Enquirer is an undisguised acknowl- 
 edgment of the inability of slavery to defend itself : 
 
 " What have the Governors of Pennsylvania and Ohio done to pro- 
 tect a sister State from the lawlessness of their own people ? And what 
 has the President of the United States done to protect a sovereign 
 State from lawless invasion ? Nothing. We have been left to our own 
 resources just as though Ohio and Pennsylvania were hostile States, 
 and no confederation existed." 
 
 The paper which puts forth this cry for help, is edited by a son of 
 Governor Wise. 
 
 Another Southern paper, the Wheeling (Va.) Intelligencer, holds the 
 following language relative to the stability and safety of slaveholding 
 society : 
 
 " Scarcely less secure are those people who work by day and sleep by 
 night underneath the craters of Vesuvius and iEtna, and who are liable 
 to an eruption at any moment of burning lava, than many communities 
 of the Southern States where the slaves number two or three to one of 
 the whites. Jefferson, up to the time of his dying hour, never ceased 
 to express his apprehension of a great San Domingo rebellion." 
 
 Such are some of the acknowledgments of weakness which the late 
 attack upon slavery has drawn forth from the South. 
 
 I said that the horrid deformity of slavery had also been exposed by 
 the occurrences at Harper's Ferry. It has revealed its jealousy, its cow- 
 ardice, and its barbarity. In speaking of these three characteristics of 
 oppression, I shall hardly be able to tell you where jealousy ends and 
 cowardice begins, or where cowardice ends and barbarity begins ; for 
 they are three grim - visaged monsters of the pit ; so at one in spirit and 
 purpose that they form a bloody, soulless trinity, in fellowship with 
 which no generous impulse can live, no seed of sympathy grow. 
 
 Such incidents as the following very forcibly reveal the jealousy and 
 cowardice of slavery : 
 
 A citizen of Virginia is heard to speak of Mr. Brown as an honest 
 man. He has to flee or be imprisoned. 
 
 Two Cincinnati merchants, when riding in the cars, are heard to 
 express sympathy with Mr. Brown and his family. They are at once 
 seized upon, dragged from the cars, and thrust into prison at Harper's 
 Ferry. 
 
 A part of a letter is picked up in the highway, on which is neither 
 name or date ; but on it is found written the simple sentence, " We can 
 accomplish our work in six hours." The handwriting upon the wall 
 of Belshazzar's banquet hall inspired not more terror than these omi- 
 nous words. The whole community is astir, and guards are stationed 
 in all directions. 
 
 A wheat stack is found to be on fire : " The wildest terror prevails, 
 and thousands of men are at once put under arms." 
 
John Brown. 15 
 
 On the day of execution, Governor Wise, fearing that Mr. Brown 
 might say something that would endanger the stability of slavery, 
 orders that the soldiers be so posted that neither they nor any of the 
 people should be able to hear anything that might be said from the 
 scaffold. 
 
 Pity Governor Wise had not lived in the days of Pilate ; he would 
 have managed the crucifixion better than Pilate did, for he would have 
 protected society from the spread of the heretical and dangerous doc- 
 trines taught by the Saviour, by permitting none to approach near 
 enough the cross to hear Him. 
 
 In the light of such revelations of the jealousy and cowardice of 
 slavery, we wonder not that John Randolph said that "The fire -bell 
 never rings at night in Richmond, but that the mother clasps her infant 
 closer to her breast in fear of an insurrection." 
 
 But the revelation which has been made of the barbarity of slavery 
 is the most appalling. It has proved to be more relentless than the 
 ferocity of the savage. 
 
 Many years ago, when Indian chiefs ruled in Virginia, instead of 
 Governor Wise, a gallant captain by the name of John Smith — instead 
 of John Brown — was tried before a council of chiefs, and sentenced to 
 death. When the hour of execution came, he was led forth amid the 
 war-whoops of the exultant savages, and his head laid upon the stone. 
 The war -club — the instrument of death — was raised; but ere it 
 descended, an Indian girl rushed between the executioner and his vic- 
 tim and, bending over the prostrate captive, she folded his head in her 
 arms, and pleaded for his life. Her prayer was granted, and Smith was 
 released and conducted in safety to his home. 
 
 Such was Virginia chivalry and magnanimity two hundred and fifty 
 years ago, under Indian rule. Let us compare with it the deeds of 
 Virginians of to -day, under slaveholding rule. 
 
 A young man by the name of Thompson was taken prisoner at 
 Harper's Ferry. He was wholly in the power of his captors. There 
 was no possibility of his escape ; yet it appeared from the testimony of 
 Mr. Hunter, son of the prosecuting attorney, that he in company with 
 others entered the room where Thompson was confined, and, putting 
 the muzzle of his gun near to his head, sought to take his life ; on see- 
 ing which, a young lady (Miss Foulk) sprang forward, turned aside the 
 weapon of death, and, folding the prisoner's head in her arms, as Poca- 
 hontas did Captain Smith's in hers, she pleaded that his life should be 
 spared until he had been tried. Where is now the chivalry, where the 
 mercy which dwelt in the bosom of the savage in the days of Powhat- 
 tan ? Gone, quite gone ! Eaten out by the barbarism of slavery. She 
 was rudely thrust aside, the prisoner seized upon, dragged from the 
 room, and ruthlessly murdered in the public street! 
 
 Mr. Brown said to Colonel Stewart, in reference to the treatment 
 which he received after his surrender : " These wounds were inflicted 
 upon me — both sabre- cuts on my head and bayonet stabs in various 
 
26 Character and Death of 
 
 parts of my body — some minutes after I Lad ceased fighting, and con- 
 sented to surrender for the benefit of others, not for my own." 
 
 And then the manner in which his trial was conducted — what 
 American does not blush in remembrance of it. He is brought into 
 court ere he can stand or sit ; he asks a little time that he may recover 
 his memory and hearing, both of which he had nearly lost by reason 
 of the loss of blood and inflammation resulting from the sabre - cuts on 
 his head ; but he asks in vain. He then asks a single day's delay, that 
 he may procure counsel in which he can confide. This, also, is denied 
 him ; and he is put on trial for his life while lying on his couch cov- 
 ered with ghastly wounds ! Surely " The tender mercies of the wicked 
 are cruel." How has the glory of Virginia departed ! Her Governor 
 has doomed to death Columbia's noblest son. 
 
 . Pilate was an honorable man compared with Governor Wise, for he 
 washed his hands after dooming to death one of whom he said, " I find 
 no fault with this man." But Governor Wise, after delivering up to 
 death one whom he admitted to be " The bravest and most truthful man 
 he ever saw," instead of washing his hands, glories in his shame. Who 
 would desire the immortality in store for Henry A. Wise ? 
 
 But we commenced to speak of the disgrace into which Virginia had 
 fallen. She has proved herself destitute alike of justice, courage and 
 magnanimity. She should at once change and amplify the design upon 
 her seal of State. It now represents a defender of liberty, with his foot 
 upon the neck of a prostrate despot, by the side of whom are scattered 
 broken fetters and chains, and her motto is "Sic Semper Tyrannis" 
 (" Thus be it ever done to tyrants.") She should cut down with the 
 sabre and pierce with the bayonet the John Brown who now stands 
 upon the neck of tyranny, and lifting up the fallen despot, plant his 
 iron heel in the vitals of prostrate liberty. By his side should stand 
 the auction block, on which should be arranged a family of slaves, 
 wearing on their limbs the mended manacles and chains. In the back- 
 ground should stand the gallows on which should be suspended the 
 body of John Brown, and over it should be inscribed, " Thus be it ever 
 done to the truthful and the brave." Such a design would be truthful 
 to the life. 
 
 As we mourn over Virginia's degradation and shame, let us not for- 
 get that she is still great in the names of her illustrious dead. But let 
 us 
 
 " Pay the reverence of old days to her dead fame ; 
 Walk backwards with averted gaze and hide her shame." 
 
 But I must pass to notice other and more interesting revelations, 
 which have been made by the last acts and closing scenes of the life of 
 him whom we mourn to-day. The simplicity which ran like a golden 
 thread through all his acts and communications was not studied or 
 assumed. It was my pleasure to meet and spend some hours with him 
 in February, 1858, and if now asked what trait of character most deeply 
 impressed me, I should answer, simplicity, combined with force. 
 
John Brown. 17 
 
 Many have spoken of Mr. Brown's effort in behalf of the slaves as a 
 failure. How little such persons know of the struggle of the right 
 with the wrong, of truth with error, in the history of the past. They 
 overlook the important fact that more often depends upon the power 
 of one brave spirit to inspire courage and enthusiasm in the hearts of 
 others, and carry terror into the ranks of the foe, than to victory gained 
 in one or in a succession of battles. 
 
 Captain Lawrence was overpowered, and the Chesapeake taken by 
 the Shannon. Was it unfortunate, therefore, that the Chesapeake 
 sailed forth and attacked the Shannon ? Did Captain Lawrence fail 
 because he lost this battle and his life also? Far from it; for what, I 
 ask, gave to Commodore Perry his victory on Lake Erie, the proudest 
 achievement recorded in our naval history '? I answer, the flag under 
 which he fought. And what, I ask again, gave to the banner under 
 which he fought its magic power to inspire the soldiery with indomi- 
 table courage, and irrepressible enthusiasm ? 'T was the words of the 
 dying Lawrence, "Do n't give up the ship/" So well did Commodore 
 Perry understand that victory, if gained at all, must be gained in the 
 name of the heroic Lawrence, that when the flag -ship was disabled, he 
 carried the flag in an open boat to the Niagara, and when there was 
 again seen floating in the breeze, the inspiring words of Lawrence, 
 "Do n't give up the ship ! " the Commodore knew from the shouts which 
 rent the air that the day was won. Even so shall the brave deeds and 
 heroic words of the martyred Brown give victory to the hosts of free- 
 dom in their battles with slavery at no very distant day. Well did the 
 Independent say, " The day of John Brown's execution will be a sorry 
 day for Virginia. Her Governor will see the ghost of Banquo in the 
 council room, and in his very bed - chamber. Troops of imaginary 
 terrors will scare sleep from the eyes of her slaveholders, and the blood 
 of the hero will sow her soil with quick and direful retribution." The 
 Utica Herald has said, " The negro's shout at Harper's Ferry, ' That he 
 had been in bondage long enough,' will echo in many a slave cabin, 
 down even to the Red River and the Gulf, and it will be long before 
 the sleep of the slaveholder becomes again as profound and secure as 
 before this outbreak." 
 
 A Southern correspondent of the Tribune remarks, " That the effect 
 of the present excitement in the South upon the negro population will 
 be injurious in the extreme." It will indeed, if it is injurious for the 
 poor battered slave to know that he has friends who arc willing to die 
 for him, and to know that liberty is worth more than life. 
 
 The name of John Brown, my hearers, shall inspire hope and cour- 
 age in the heart of many a weary bondman. It shall be the last word 
 that the outraged slave will speak in the ear of his frantic wife, as she 
 is torn from his arms to be borne away to the harem of some lordly 
 master. Aye, his name shall be breathed in softest accents by the 
 weeping slave -mother, into the ear of her darling child, when she 
 clasps it to her bosom for the last time, before it is placed upon the 
 
28 Character arid Death of 
 
 auction block and sold from her sight forever. Yes, John Brown shall, 
 in a very important sense, yet prove a Messiah to the African race. 
 
 Much more has been accomplished than I have yet named ; the 
 Northern heart has been revealed, and with here and there an excep- 
 tion, it beats true to freedom. The South begins to see that she cannot 
 much longer depend upon the North to supply her with hounds to keep 
 guard about the citadel of slavery, and hunt clown and drag back the 
 fleeing bondman. It is seen that there are those at the North who are 
 prepared to act against slavery, as well as to talk against it. This single 
 fact will accomplish wonders for freedom. Political men have been 
 greatly surprised at the spontaneous and almost universal sympathy 
 expressed at the North for Mr. Brown. But these leaders have fallen 
 behind the times in which they live, as King Charles the First fell 
 behind the times in which he lived. 
 
 I would here remark that whoever would in the future accomplish 
 anything for freedom, must marshal her hosts, not in the low marshes 
 of expediency, wherever rise the miasm of selfishness, and where 
 always blow the simoom from the rice - swamps of the South ; but on 
 the high table - lands of justice and truth, where always shines the sun 
 of liberty, and ever blow the soul - invigorating breezes of freedom 
 from our Northern hill -tops. 
 
 Surely, John Brown's battle with Slavery has not proved a failure, 
 although, like other martyrs, he has fallen, ere victory perched upon 
 
 his banner. 
 
 " His love of truth — too warm — too strong, 
 For Hope or Fear to chain or chill; 
 His hate of Tyranny or Wrong, 
 Burn in the hearts he kindled still." 
 
 Governor "Wise, on being asked a few days previous to the execution 
 if he would pardon Brown, replied, " No, I will not," adding, " Why, 
 John Brown has never asked to be pardoned." No, he preferred to 
 die, bearing faithful testimony against oppression, to accepting life at 
 the hands of the oppressor. To ask for freedom at the hands of such a 
 man, would be to ask an impossibility ; for how, I ask, could Governor 
 Wise give freedom? — a man who stands with his iron heel upon the 
 throbbing, bleeding heart of prostrate humanity. To assume the atti- 
 tude of a suppliant at the feet of such a man, would be to offer up the 
 undying soul as a sacrifice to slavery, to redeem the dying body from 
 the gallows. Rather than ask for life of such an one, he preferred that 
 his faithful wife, who had wept the loss of four noble sons, cloven down 
 by the bloody hand of slavery, should robe herself in the habiliments 
 of yet deeper mourning, as she should walk the descending pathway of 
 her lonely life. 
 
 John Brown has reproduced before the world that grand and sub- 
 lime type of moral heroism which dignifies humanity, and inspires 
 anew in the heart of man his faith in God and Truth. He has done 
 more to lift humanity up toward God than any other man of this age. 
 
John Brown. 19 
 
 While defending the position which he had assumed at Harper's Ferry, 
 one of his sons was shot down hy his side and another one fell, but. linger- 
 ing in agony, he asked his comrades to complete the work of death and 
 end his sufferings. As they severally declined, he took his pistol from 
 his belt, and was about to take his own life ; seeing which the father 
 reached forth and, staying his hand, said, "Not yet, my son ; wait a lit- 
 tle longer, and you shall die as becomes a man." 
 
 When Gov. Wise paid him his first visit in prison, he said to him 
 in that severe, vulgar manner, peculiar to the slaveholder in his inter- 
 course with those in his power, "Well, old man, you had better pre- 
 pare to die." To which Mr. Brown replied in a gentle, respectful 
 voice, "I hope I am prepared for death ; and now you will doubtless 
 permit me to suggest that it is only a question of time with us all ; and 
 it is not probable that you will live to exceed fifteen years ; you may 
 live but a small part of that time. I submit whether it is not import- 
 ant that you, by a timely repentance of your sins, should prepare for 
 that event." 
 
 Behold him as he stands up in court, the representative of universal 
 man, and hear him as he pleads for the outcast and the dumb. When 
 asked if he had anything to say why sentenee of death should not be 
 pronounced upon him, he replies, " Had I so interfered in behalf 
 of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in 
 behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, 
 wife or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I 
 have in this interference, it would have been all right. Every man in 
 court would have declared it an act worthy of reward, rather than of pun- 
 ishment. This court acknowledge, too, as I suppose, the validity of the 
 law of God. I see a book kissed which I suppose to be the Bible, or, at 
 least, the New Testament, which teaches me that, all ' things whatso- 
 ever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them.' It 
 teaches me further, to 'remember them that are in bonds as being bound 
 with them.' I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say I am 
 yet too young to learn that God is any respecter of persons. I believe 
 that to interfere as I have done, in behalf of his despised poor, is no 
 wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit 
 my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood 
 further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions 
 in this slave country, whose rights are disregarded by unkind, unjust 
 and cruel enactments, I say let it be done." 
 
 Search the biographies of the brave and great of any age in the 
 world's history, and you shall not find sublimer utterances. 
 
 But did he maintain his self-possession, his integrity, his love of man, 
 and his faith in Truth and God, during the long days of his imprison- 
 ment, which intervened between the sentence and his execution ? 
 Read any of his numerous letters written to his friends, when under 
 sentence of death, and you shall find that they all breathe the same spirit 
 of lofty devotion to the right, the same cheerful resignation to the will 
 
20 Character and Death of 
 
 of bis Divine Master, added to which is the bright and joyous hope of 
 a glorious immortality beyond the grave. 
 
 In writing to his old teacher, Rev. H. L. Vaill, of Connecticut, he 
 says : " I wish I could write you about a few only ot the interesting 
 times I have experienced with different classes of men, clergymen 
 among others. Christ, the great Captain of Liberty as well as of Sal- 
 vation, and who began His mission as foretold of Him, by proclaiming it, 
 saw fit to take from me a sword of steel, after I bad carried it for a 
 time ; but He has put another in my hand, ' the sword of the spirit,' 
 and I pray God to make me a faithful soldier wherever He may send 
 me, not less on the scaffold than when surrounded by my warmest sym- 
 pathizers." In another part of the same letter he says, " Notwithstand- 
 ing ' my soul is among lions,' yet I believe that ' God in very deed is 
 with me.' You will not, therefore, feel surprised when I tell you that 
 I am 'joyful in my tribulations;' that I do not feel condemned of 
 Him, whose judgment is just, nor of my own conscience. Nor do I 
 feel degraded by my imprisonment, my chains, nor the prospect of the 
 gallows. I have not only been (though utterly unworthy) permitted 
 to ' suffer affliction with God's people,' but have, also had a great 
 many rare opportunities for ' preaching righteousness in the great 
 congregation.' I trust it will not be all lost." Again he says, " I have 
 passed under the rod of Him whom I call my Father (and certainly no 
 son ever needed it oftener), and yet I have enjoyed much of life, as I 
 was enabled to discover the secret of this somewhat early. It has been 
 in making the prosperity and happiness of others my own ; so that I 
 have really had a good deal of prosperity. I am very prosperous still, 
 and am looking forward to the time when 'peace on earth and good 
 will to men ' shall everywhere prevail. I have no murmuring thoughts 
 or anxious feeling to fret my mind. 'I'll praise my Maker with my 
 breath.' " 
 
 To a young friend in New York, he wrote, " I do not feel myself in 
 the least degraded by my imprisonment, or chains, or in prospect 
 of the gallows. Man cannot imprison, or chain, or hang the soul. 
 I go joyfully in behalf of millions who ' have no rights ' that this great 
 and glorious this Christian Republic ' are bound to respect.' " 
 
 Can it be, my hearers, that such a man, one who could thus speak, 
 write and triumph, with the gallows in full view, is dead ? Tis even 
 so. He has been slain that hoary-lieaded wrong and bloody despotism 
 might live. And ten days ago, his noble, faithful wife, waited and wept 
 at Charlestown until the dark deed of murder was consummated in the 
 name of American laic, and then receiving his mangled corpse, she bore 
 it tenderly to her desolate, O, how desolate home ! 
 
 I quote from the New York Independent so much ol its report of Mr. 
 Brown's interview with his wife and of his execution as seems desir- 
 able on the present occasion : 
 
 " Before Mrs. Brown was admitted to her husband, General Talia- 
 ferro asked Mr. Brown 'How Ions; he desired the interview to last,' to 
 
John Broivn. 'Jl 
 
 which the old man replied, ' Not long, sir, three or four hours will be 
 long enough.' 
 
 4 1 am very sorry,' said the officer, 'not to oblige you, but Mrs. 
 Brown must return to Harper's Ferry to-night ; still, I will allow her 
 to remain as long as possible.' 
 
 4 Execute your orders, sir,' said Captain Brown, composedly ; ' I have 
 no favor to ask of the State of Virginia.' 
 
 As the interview was in presence of the jailer, Mrs. Brown, with 
 a woman's delicacy, began speaking in a low voice, so as not to be 
 overheard. The old Captain, with a smile, said, ' Speak loud ! Mary , 
 speak loud ! ' 
 
 When for a few moments she yielded to her feelings and sobbed con- 
 vulsively, he laid his hand upon her gently, saying with great kindness 
 in his tone and marvelous composure in his manner, ' Cheer up, Mary, 
 cheer up ! ' 
 
 In referring to the expected event of the next day, he said he looked 
 forward to it with great calmue&s. He was prepared to submit to his 
 fate without a murmur. He had the comforting consciousness that 
 he would die for the right, and this to him took away all terror from 
 death. 
 
 At this point General Taliaferro announced that the interview must 
 close, and Mrs. Brown immediately prepared to return to Harper's 
 Ferry. The old man exclaimed as she went out, ' God bless you and 
 your children ; ' to which she replied, ' God have mercy on you,' and 
 so the husband and the wile parted, never more to meet in this world. 
 
 On the entrance of General Taliaferro to announce to the prisoner 
 when he should prepare for execution, Captain Brown looked up from 
 his pen and ink, and asked, ' What is to be the hour, General V ' 
 ' Eleven o'clock,' was the reply. ' Well, I will try and finish in time,' 
 said the old man coolly, and returned to spend the last few moments at 
 his writing. 
 
 At eleven o'clock Captain Brown was led out of his cell by Sheriff 
 Campbell and Captain Avis, with their assistants. He was conducted 
 to the cells of the other prisoners that he might have a moment's inter- 
 view with each before his death. He first met Copeland and Green, to 
 whom he. said, ' Stand up like men, and do not betray your friends. 
 
 The prisoner was then taken to Stephens' cell. The two fellow- 
 prisoners kindly exchanged greetings. Stephens said, ' Good by, Cap- 
 tain, I know you are going to a better land.' Brown replied, ' I know 
 I am.' 
 
 Captain Brown told the Sheriff that he was ready. He was led to 
 the door, and received by his military escort. He had on his head a 
 dark felt hat, and was dressed in the same clothes which he had worn 
 in prison. On his feet he wore a pair of red slippers. He was assisted 
 into a furniture wagon, where he quietly took a seat on the box which 
 contained his coffin. The wagon was drawn by two white horses. 
 2 
 
22 Character and Death of 
 
 While riding along toward the scaffold, Mr. Sadler, the undertaker, 
 remarked, ' Captain Brown, you are a cheerful man — more cheerful 
 than I am to-day.' ' Yes,' replied the Captain, ' I have great reason to 
 be cheerful.' Then, casting his eye over the field and the great dis- 
 play of preparations, he said, ' I see that all persons are excluded from 
 the field except the military ; I am sorry that the citizens are shut out.' 
 On entering further into the field, as the wide landscape began to open 
 before him, he rose to his feet, and straightening himself to his full 
 height, he exclaimed, ' This is a beautiful country ; I have never seen 
 it before ! ' 
 
 He ascended the stairs, and advanced with a quick and elastic tread, 
 showing that his courage only grew greater as the end drew near. 
 What man of those five thousand witnesses, in the uniform of soldiers, 
 was half so brave as John Brown V He threw off his felt hat grace 
 fully, and ran his hand through his gray hair. He cast a glance about 
 him, principally in the direction of the people in the distance. Then, 
 turning to his jailer, he remarked, ' Sir, I have no words to thank you 
 for your kindness.' This was his grateful farewell to a man who had 
 treated him from the beginning of his imprisonment to the end, with 
 great courtesy and friendliness. 
 
 No clergyman attended him in his last hours. He would accept no 
 religious rites from men who defended slavery as a divine institution. 
 As no anti-slavery minister was to be found in the neighborhood, he 
 preferred to have none at all. 
 
 His elbows and and ankles were then pinioned, the rope — a slender 
 tarred hemp cord — was adjusted around his neck ; and the white cowl 
 drawn over his head. The Sheriff requested him to step forward on 
 the trap. ' I cannot see,' he replied, ' you must lead me.' He was 
 accordingly led a few steps forward. The prisoner was now subjected 
 to ten minutes' suspense, in this attitude on ihe gallows, in order that 
 a military display might be made to gratify the Virginian troops ! 
 The soldiers marched, counter-marched, and took position as if in face 
 of an imaginary enemy — the prisoner, meanwhile standing bound, 
 blinded, and on the edge of death ! Captain Avis asked, ' Are you 
 tired ? ' To which the undaunted old man replied from underneath his 
 linen shroud, ' No, not tired ; but don't keep me waiting longer than 
 is necessary.' The Sheriff' asked him if he would hold a handkerchief 
 in his hand to drop as a signal when he was ready. He replied, ; No, 
 I do not want it ; but do not detain me longer than is absolutely 
 necessary.' 
 
 His example of courage and faith is almost without a parallel. His 
 letters, his conversation, and his personal demeanor, bear witness to a 
 moral character so high and grand that common men, compared with 
 him in respect to all noble and moral qualities, seem scarcely more 
 than children. No man has ever produced upon this nation so pro- 
 found an impression for moral heroism. He made this impression at 
 the first, but every act he performed, and every word he uttered until 
 
John Brown. cj>% 
 
 the day of his execution, only confirmed and increased the power of 
 his example. He grew greater and greater unto the end. He was 
 greatest at the last, when most men would have been weakest." 
 
 Forcibly, indeed do the circumstances of his execution recall the 
 death of the Marquis of Montrose, whose martyrdom on the scaffold 
 has been celebrated in Aytoun's " Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers : " 
 
 They brought him to the Watergate, 
 
 Hard bound with hempen span, 
 As though they held a lion there, 
 
 And not a fenceless man. 
 They sat him high upon a cart— 
 
 The hangman rode below — 
 They drew his hands behind his back, 
 
 And bared his noble brow 
 
 It would have made a brave man's heart 
 
 Grow sick and sad that day, 
 To watch the keen, malignant eyes 
 
 Bent down on that array. 
 
 ***** 
 
 * * * 
 
 " He is coming! he is coming! " — 
 Like a bridegroom from his room 
 
 Came the hero from his prison 
 To the scaflbld and the doom. 
 
 There was glory on his forehead, 
 There was lustre in his eye, 
 
 And he never walked to battle 
 More proudly than to die ; 
 
 There was color in his visage, 
 Though the cheeks of all were wan, 
 
 And they marveled as they saw him pass- 
 That great and goodly man ! 
 
 But when he came, though pinioned fast, 
 
 He looked so great and high, 
 So noble was his manly front, 
 
 So calm his steadfast eye— 
 The rabble rout forbore to shout, 
 
 And each man held his breath, 
 For well they knew the hero's soul 
 
 Was face to face with death. 
 And then a mournful shudder 
 
 Through all the people crept, 
 And some that came to scoff at him. 
 
 Now turned aside and wept. 
 But he looked upon the heavens, 
 
 And they were clear and blue, 
 And in the liquid ether 
 
 The eye of God shone through ' 
 
 He mounted up the scaflbld. 
 
 And turned him to the crowd; 
 But (hey dared not trust the people, 
 
 So he might not si>eak aloud. 
 
%]f, John Brown. 
 
 The grim Geneva ministers 
 
 With anxious scowl drew near. 
 As you have seen the ravens flock 
 
 Around the dying deer. 
 He would not deign them word nor sign, 
 
 But alone he bent the knee; 
 And veiled his face for Christ's dear grace 
 
 Beneath the gallows-tree. 
 ***** * * 
 
 A beam of light fell o'er him 
 
 Like a glory round the shriven, 
 And he climbed the lofty ladder 
 
 As it were the path to heaven. 
 
 The once noble form of the departed hero and Christian patriot 
 sleeps sweetly in the silent tomb. But his soul has gone to that land 
 where the bondman is free from the master, and where the voice of 
 lamentation gives place to the song of praise. Aye, he has gone where 
 the outgoing of his great and loving heart brings not peril, but 
 increased joy ; where every generous and loving impulse finds a 
 response in the bosom of all who tread with him the fields of ever- 
 lasting life and immortal beauty. 
 
 Let us rejoice, not only " That man cannot imprison, or chain or 
 hang the soul," but that he cannot blot from the record of history the 
 testimony of the brave and good against wrong ; for then would the 
 death of John Brown be an irreparable loss to humanity. But now 
 shall his speech before the court, his letters written in prison, and the 
 record of his heroic, his sublime death, be handed down as a choice 
 legacy to our children. 
 
 He shall indeed be "A favorite of history." Aye, more — poets shall 
 perform pilgrimages to the place of his tragic death, to catch the inspi- 
 ration which breathes anew on the banks of the Potomac, that they 
 may tune to sweeter, loftier strains the Lyre of Liberty. 
 
 But we may not on the present occasion longer hold converse with 
 freedom's chosen martyr. But ere we bid him adieu, let us, in the 
 presence of the Great and Impartial Father of all, breathe the solemn 
 vow, that whatever may betide us, we will " Remember those in bonds 
 as bound with them ; " remembering that — 
 
 " Whether on the scaffold high, 
 Or in the battle's van, 
 The fittest place for man to die, 
 Is where he dies for man." 
 
HUMBOLDT COLLEGE. 
 
 This Institution, located at Springvale, Iowa, was founded in 1869, 
 and has now (in 1873), in buildings and endowments, over $100,000. 
 
 Its character is set forth in the following extracts from the articles of 
 incorporation. 
 
 " We, whose names are hereto subscribed, recognizing the Father- 
 hood of God and the Brotherhood of Man, associate ourselves for the 
 purpose of encouraging liberal Education by the establishment and 
 maintenance at Springvale, Humboldt County, Iowa, of an Institution 
 for the education of youth in Literature, Science, and enlightened 
 Christian Morality, without regard to sex, race, or religious sect. 
 
 The fundamental object of this Association is to establish and main 
 tain an educational Institution which shall be forever free from sec- 
 tarian control, and no change shall ever be made in its character in 
 this respect without the expressed consent of all its donors and the 
 return to all contributors, their heirs, executors, or assigns, who shall 
 request the same, of all funds by them contributed, together with legal 
 interest on the same." 
 
 OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 President — Stephen H. Taft. Vice-President — Ira L. Welch. 
 
 Treasurer — John Dickey. Secretary — J. N. Prouty. 
 
 BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 
 
 C.C.Cole, J.M.Snyder, Ira L. Welch, 
 
 B. F. Gue, J. F. Duncombe, William Emerson, 
 
 John Scott, John Dickey, William Ingham, 
 
 Mary N. Adams, Cynthia Wickes, Jane S. Lathrop, 
 
 Robert L. Collier, N. S. Ames, Frederick Douglass. 
 
 Charles H. Brigham, J. N. Prouty, D. L. Willie, 
 
 Austin Adams, J. C. Bills, N. Seaver. 
 
 Of this Institution the Rev. Dr. Morrison, of Boston, who by 
 appointment, visited Iowa in 1871 to investigate and report upon its 
 character and claims, says : 
 
 " The conclusions to which I have come in regard to Humboldt 
 College are these : 
 
 The people who have the enterprise in hand are honest, competent, 
 and thoroughly in earnest, and will carry it on wisely and economically 
 if the necessary funds are provided. 
 
 The location which they have chosen is peculiarly favorable to such 
 an enterprise. An unsectarian college established there, and liberally 
 endowed, will for centuries have a great and important influence 
 through that whole region of almost boundless fertility." 
 
 " I feel a deep interest in Humboldt College, believing that it sus- 
 tains an important relation to the political, moral, and religious wel- 
 fare of a large section of our common country." — Wendell Phillips. 
 
 " I thoroughly endorse the educational enterprise represented by my 
 friend, the Rev. S. H. Taft," — Rev. Edward Everett Hale. 
 
 A beautiful stone building costing $40,000 is nearly completed, the 
 
corner stone of which was laid in the Autumn of 1870, the principal 
 address on the occasion being delivered by Chief Justice Cole. 
 The following is the introductory address of Rev. Mr. Taft: 
 "Friends of Education, the highest hoi or of which I have ever 
 been made the recipient was the assurance of the Divine favor bv 
 which I was permitted to call God my Heavenly Father, and know 
 myself as an accepted child of His. Next to this was the honor of know- 
 ing that God heard and answered my prayer when in deep solicitude 
 I besought His blessing upon my efforts to found Humboldt College. 
 God answered my prayer by giving me the confidence, sympathy, and 
 aid of noble men and women in the East, without which the scenes 
 and facts of to - day could never have cheered our hearts. I accept 
 also as a distinguished honor, the position assigned me in the deeply 
 interesting exercises of this day. It is an honor to iay the corner 
 stone of an institution bearing the immortal name of Humboldt — an 
 institution which is not only to live through coming years, but to 
 gather increasing strength and beauty from each succeeding age. But 
 the chief honor which crowns this hour arises from the fact that Hum- 
 boldt College is to be an unsectarian and truly Christian institution, 
 practically recognizing at its birth the Fatherhood of God and the 
 Brotherhood of Man, by recognizing the sacred rights and obligations 
 of all, without distinction of religious sect, race or sex. And such is 
 the faith of its founders in the purity, sublimity and power of Chris- 
 tianity, that they ask no legislation for its protection, either from 
 State, Church or School. While religious forms and beliefs may 
 change, and ought by reason of increasing light and enlarged expe- 
 rience to change, Humboldt College will teach that the center of 
 Christian life — its said (the care and love ot God for man, as compre- 
 hensively expressed in the life and death of Christ, and the duty and 
 privilege ot man to love, obey and trust in God, as taught by Christ), 
 will remain changeless through all changes and glorious through all 
 time. 
 
 We see before us to - day the walls of a single edifice in the midst of 
 grounds surpassingly beautiful, yet without ornamentation. In the 
 distant years I see numerous buildings, in the midst of flowers, foun- 
 tains and stately trees. In that day Humboldt College shall be known 
 as one of the leading institutions of the world. Hundreds are here 
 present to - day. Tens of thousands shall gather here a hundred years 
 hence, to commemorate the birth of the Institution, and rejoice in the 
 blessings it shall have conferred. From successive generations shall 
 come to this temple of learning young men and women to seek and 
 obtain that physical, mental, scholastic and moral training which slmll 
 prepare them for usefulness and happiness here, and a glorious immor- 
 tality in the future life. But I will not longer trespass upon the time 
 that belongs to the distinguished gentleman who is to address us on 
 this occasion, but will proceed to the pleasant duty of laying the corner 
 stone, after which we shall have the privilege of listening to the Hon. 
 C. C. Cole, Chief Justice of Iowa." 
 
 §4 » 
 

 s * * > 
 
 is 
 
 
 ■>W,v 
 
 
 "< 
 
fc^ v 
 
 
 ■*<&> 
 
 
 
 W 
 
 r* 
 
 <£%> 
 ^ 
 
 ,«•'•-, 
 
 ^9* 
 
 a ^ **ov 
 
 
 ^o^ 
 
 4? ^ 
 
 X/' 
 
 *<3* 
 
 
 ^ ** 
 "W 
 
 ^ 
 
 A <> *7^7T» T g*** ^ "'7.7* A 
 
 4T *>Va> «►,. a* 
 
 (■ WERT 
 
 BOOK8INDINC 
 
 Cranfull* p. 
 Marc* April 19§0