451 
 
ro v'\ ^er\ ce. . Cl\ t \ ten' 
 
 SPEECHES 
 
 OF 
 
 HON. Arc. BARSTOW, IlEY. GEO. T.'DAY, 
 
 REV. A. WOODBURY, HON. THOMAS DAVIS, 
 
 AND 
 
 HE SOLUTIONS 
 
 ADOPTED AT A MEETING OF CITIZENS 
 
 HELD IX 
 
 PROVIDENCE, R. I., 
 
 DECEMBEB 2d, 1869, 
 
 ^t■/W ON THE OCCASION OF THE 
 
 EXECUTION OF JOHN BROWN. 
 
 PROVIDENCE: 
 AMSBURY & CO., PRINTERS. 
 
 1860. 
 
/ 
 
 2^484 
 
 A large meeting was held in response to the following call --^ 
 ^' John Brown is to be hung on Friday, Dec. 2nd. The cit- 
 izens of Providence will meet at Pratt's Hall on the above day, at 
 3 o'clock, P. M., to speak and hear such thoughts as the solemn oc- 
 casion suggests. The meeting will be addressed by Rev. Geo. T. 
 Day, Rev. Augustus Woodbury, Hon. Thomas Davis, and 
 
 others. " 
 
 Hon. A. C. Barstow was chosen to preside. D. W. Vaughan, 
 Esq. and Dr. W. H. Helme were elected Secretaries. 
 
 ::; 1899 
 
REMARKS OF HON. A. C. BARSTOW.' 
 
 Fellow Citizens : 
 
 We are assembled under peculiar circumstances. A fellow- 
 citizen has, in the judgment of his JDcers, violated the laws of a 
 neiffhborino- commonwealth, and for this, stands condemned td 
 die upon the gallows, and this is the day appointed for the ex- 
 ecution. Before this, perhaps, the penalty has been paid, and 
 »John Brown stands before that higher tribunal to which he 
 niade his appeal, where actions are judged by the rules of Eter- 
 iial right, rather than by those rules of carnal policy and civil 
 expediency which often form the basis of human jurisprudence! 
 Without arraigning the court of A^irginia, or presuming to 
 anticipate and declare the judgment of the Judge of all the earth, 
 we may at least be pardoned for assembling at the foot of a gal- 
 lows to learn a lesson of duty, as we have often assembled, as 
 Christians, at the foot of the cross, on which was suspended 
 another malefactor. 
 
 I am not here this afternoon to advocate insurrection or jus- 
 tify treason. Neither do I counsel or appi'ove an armed inter- 
 vention for the deliverance of the oppressed. Had I known 
 John Brown, and been advised of his plans, I would, if possi- 
 IdIc, have dissuaded him from the execution of them. I confi- 
 dently look for the deliverance of the land from the damning 
 guilt of slavery, but 1 pray that it riiay be accomplished by 
 peaceable means. I hope that it may pass away from the 
 Southern, as it did from the Northern States; but sometimes 1 
 fear that God may allow some child of Providence to arise, like 
 Moses in Egypt, or Touissailt Louveture in St. Domingo, be- 
 fore our Southern brethren are prepared to loose the chains, 
 and that in the conflict l)etween natural rio;ht and arbitrary 
 power, history shall make another record that shall parallel that 
 of the Red Sea. Believing with Jefferson, that " in sucli a 
 eonfiict the Ahnighty has no attribute that can take sides with 
 
tlie oippress'or,** 1 shrink from the contemplation of it. 
 
 if, having these sentiments, it be asked why I am here, I an-^ 
 swer that I come in obedience to an inspired injunction, which 
 has to me all the force of a Divine command — " Remember 
 those that are in bonds as hound with them, and those who suf- 
 fer adversity as being yourselves also m the bocly^ I under- 
 stand the command to cover all who are bound, all prisoners of 
 Avar, all captives in dungeons, all detained in custody for trial, 
 all who are condemned, though on their way to execution, and 
 •all who are held in bondage and slavery, or are otherwise op- 
 pressed and maltreated. I am the brother of eVery such man, 
 and am bound in a measure to identify myself to him and feel 
 what he suffers as though I endured it myself. But I am es- 
 pecially bound to sympathize with those who suffer for consience 
 sake — those who look at a great evil until the sight of their eye 
 affects their hearts, and links them, as by a magic chain of in- 
 terest and sympathy and destiny, to those who suffer by it. 
 Such instances of noble disinterestedness are rare in this cold 
 and selfish world, and therefore when I meet with one I invol- 
 untarily do it homage. I think I see something more than a 
 shadow of it in John Brown. Call him mistaken, deluded, 
 fanatical if you please, and let me admit your charges true, and 
 ■even then, with all these qualifications, I find more in him to 
 love and admire, than I can in a crowd of those pi-udent, care- 
 ftil, cautious and timid men, who crawl through the Avorld so 
 softly that they leave not a track to mark their course. I like 
 the men who, like Luther and Cromwell, in the presence of a 
 great principle, or a great wrong, count not their repvitation or 
 lives dear unto tiiem. 
 
 But it is said that John Brown was a rebel- — that he com- 
 mitted treason against the State"— and therefore has no claim 
 •upon our sympathy or respect. 
 
 But is rebellion synonymous with guilt ? I>oes it never find 
 justification ? If we adopt this principle, we condemn our rev- 
 olutionary sires, who were all rebels ; and of their number, 
 Samuel Adams and John Hancock were such noted rebels that 
 the British government excepted them from an offer of pardon 
 proposed to the many, and set a reward upon their heads. But 
 these were Massachusetts rebels. Let me come nearer home> 
 
5 
 
 Jn resistance to the oppressions of the British government, 
 Rhode Island led the van. Four years before the declaration 
 of American independence, she struck the first blow, and drew 
 the first blood in freedom's cause on the waters of our own 
 beautiful Narraoansett ; and on that memorable occasion the 
 man who commanded and led the attack was named John 
 Brown ! Yes ! Rhode Island has a John Brown in her his- 
 torv, whose memory is embalmed in the affections of all who 
 read it ; and yet the act vhicli has rescued that name from ob- 
 livion and made it immortal, was as full of rank rebellion, and 
 coupled with contingencies as dire and bloody as were those 
 connected with the foray at Harper's Ferry. But tvho and 
 where is the man who could erase a line of that page in our his- 
 tory which records the burning of tlie 'Gaspee, or allow the 
 breath of suspicion to fall either upon th« motive or the act of 
 that John Brown or his associates, who, on tlhe 10th of June, 
 1772, Avithout law and against law — yea, in the face of threat- 
 ened execution, engaged in that act of successful rebellion ! 
 
 The facts are doubtless familiar to you. The people of 
 Rhode Island were annoyed by the presence of armed vessels 
 in their waters, and their commerce was constantly vexed by 
 the officious and insolent meddlino; of Lieut. Dudinoton of the 
 cutter Gaspee, which acted as a tender to the ship of war Bea- 
 ver, stationed at -Newport. Complaint was made to Admiral 
 Montague, stationed at Boston, \A'ho, instead of giving desired 
 relief, answered, " As sure as the people of Rhode Island at- 
 tempt to rescue any vessel, and any of them are taken, I will 
 hang them as pirates." Seconded thus, in insolence, by his su- 
 perior officer, Dudington continued to insult tlie inhabitants, de- 
 tain their vessels, and make illegal seizure of goods, of which 
 the recovery cost more than they were worth. On the 9th of 
 ■June, 1772, the Providence packet was returning to Provi- 
 dence. Dudington gave chase. The tide being at flood, the 
 packet ventured near shore ; the Gaspee confidently followed 
 and drawing more water, ran aground a little below Pawtuxet 
 on what is now called Gaspee Point. On the following- nio-ht 
 -a band of men, commanded by John Brown, in six boats with 
 muffled oars, approached the Gaspee, boarded her, and after a 
 scuffle in which Dudington was womided, took and landed the 
 
6 
 
 crew, and then set the vessel on fire. Suppose they had heen 
 overcome, taken and hung, would that have altered the nature 
 of the act, or changed the character of the men ? If this act 
 of rebellion was praiseworthy, on Avhat principle is that of the 
 present John Brown blameworthy ? Why should any man be 
 proud of his relationship to the first John Brown, and at the 
 same time frown upon the man who is moved, despite his faults, 
 to express the least sympathy for the second John Brown ? 
 
 It is remarkable that the only evidence before the King's 
 Comm'ssion, Avhich identified any of the leaders in this foray, 
 was that of a colored man and a slave. Immediately after the 
 occurrence, Gov. Wanton dispatched letters by express to Ad- 
 miral ]Montague at Boston. By return express the Governor 
 was advised to offer a reward to any one who would discover 
 the perpetrators of the villiany. The Governor's proclamation 
 offering a reward of <£100 was issued at once, and bears date 
 12th of June. As soon as the news reached the ears of King 
 George III., viz: on the 26th of August, his proclamation wals 
 issued offering a reward of X500 for the discovery and convic- 
 tion of each offender. 
 
 On the 16th of July, the Governor had information that 
 Aaron, a neo-ro man who had just entered his Majesty's service 
 on board ship-of-war Beaver at Newport Avas concerned in this 
 foray, and forthwith addressed a note to her commander, desir- 
 ino- that he be sent on shore for examination. Instead of send- 
 ino- him, the commander examines him on shijiboard, under a 
 threat that he will hang him to the yard-arm if he fails to dis- 
 close ; and that evidence, thus obtained, enters into the page of 
 history to immortalize our John Brown. I feel moved to give 
 it entire. 
 
 It will be seen from it, that Lieutenant iDudington waS' 
 wounded by John Brown ! It may also be remarked that al- 
 thouo-h the King's Commissioners had long and frequent sit- 
 tings, and many witnesses were before them, there was no other 
 testimony to identify Brown or any of his associates. Tlie tes- 
 timony being placed in the hands of the Judges of the Supreme 
 Court, of which Stephen Hopkins was Chief, they decided 
 that inasmuch as Aaron's testimony was obtained under threats, 
 it must be rejected ; and therefore there was not that probable 
 
suspicion of guilt, which is required to justify an arrest of any 
 of the persons identified by him. 
 
 "Aaron, a negro man and slav^, has dedared that he rowed from 
 Providence the evening His Majesties schooner Gaspee was burnt 
 toward Warren, where he met a man called Potter, oF Bi'istoi, in a 
 rowing boat with eight men armed with pistols, guns and club^. The 
 said Potter desired him to go with him. In consequence of Potter's 
 de.-ire, rowed by his boat, until I came within quarter of a mile of 
 the Kmg's schooner, that was on shore on a spit of land. I then got 
 into Potter's boat by his desire. He told me that he was to join 
 other boats, that was coming down from Providence, in order to burn 
 the King's schooner that lay on shore. In about half an hour alter, 
 we joined seven other boats from Providence, commanded as they 
 informed me by John Brown. Immediately after the boats joined 
 company, we rowed towards the schooner. Before we came close to 
 the schooner, they hailed the boats and Ibrbid us coming on board, 
 but notwithstanding that, we had orders to row up to the schooner, 
 which we did immediately, and boarded her. I saw Brown fire a 
 musket, when in the boat under the bows, and the Captain of ih'. 
 schooner immediately fell from the place he was standing on. The 
 surgeon that was ordered to dress the Captain, was a tail thin mai 
 called Weeks, of Warwick. Very soon after we gjt on board ih.! 
 schooner, the men's hands belonging to the schooner were tied be- 
 hind their backs, and put in boats and put on shore. I rowed the 
 bow oar in the boat, that the Captain came on shore in. I think 
 there were five people belonging to the schooner in the boat. The 
 Captain lay abaft all the oars. Potter, of Bristol, was in the boat, 
 and John Brown, of Providence. Brown steered the boat ou shore. 
 I had on a red and white spotted handkerchief, tied round my head, 
 and two frocks on my body. 
 
 A list of five men's names that were concerned in destroying His 
 Majesty's schooner Gaspee : 
 
 John Brown, Joseph Brown, principal men of the town of 
 Providence. 
 
 Simeon Potter, of Bristoh 
 
 Doctor Weeks, of Warwick. 
 
 Richmond, of Providence." 
 
 Fellotv- Citizens : I have presented this scrap from our colo- 
 nial history, not for the purpose of stimulating insurrection, or 
 promoting treason, or to "stir your minds to mutiny," but 
 rather to induce you to be just and charitable in your judgment 
 of a man who, in his character and acts, as well as in his name, 
 bears a strikino; resemblance to one whose name and fame we 
 cherish with peculiar pride. Our John Brown was Jirm, re- 
 solved, headstrong, rash ! Yea, even bloody, and we build his 
 monument in our hearts and call our highest school of learninj'' 
 after his honored family name. Was John Brown of Harper's 
 
Ferny any more, or worse than this ? Our Jolm Brown was- 
 doubtless' somewhat fanatical. He ^^'itnessed the indignities of- 
 fered by a tyrant King and his insolent tools to our persons and 
 commerce, until his soul was roused to mutiny and rage, which 
 conquered his prudence and impelled him to seek that redress 
 for public wrongs which the laws denied him. His neighbors 
 and friends disapproved the imlaivfid act, but loved and Jwnored 
 the man. After awhile the oppressions which excited him to 
 fanaticism and rebellion were removed, and then he became a 
 canonized hero, if not a saint. So it will be with John Brown 
 of Harper's Ferry. That great crime, American slavery, will 
 by and by pass away ; and when it does, and we look back up- 
 on it with clear vision, midimmed by any selfish interest, we 
 shall cease to wonder that a mind ennobled by a strong love of 
 justice and a conscientious regard for the right should have been 
 moved to rashness by a desire to abate its wrongs. We shall 
 then look at that side of his character which the gallows now 
 obscures, and possibly find, as in the case of our John Brown, 
 that it illumines the page of history that bears his name. :May 
 God in mercy speed the day. 
 
 REMARKS OF REV. GEO. T. DAY. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Fellow- Citizens : 
 
 I cannot covet the heart of any man who does not feel that 
 this is a serious hour, giving a special fitness to serious words. 
 We who gather here to-day are not investing the tragedy of 
 Harper's Ferry with public importance. We have been fore- 
 stalled in any such attempt, if it had been in our hearts to 
 make it. The whole country is already stirred. The press 
 every where is making that scene the text from which it 
 preaches its peculiar and varied homilies ; the marching and 
 countermarching of troops, the proclamations and epistles of 
 Gov. Wise, the noisy criminations and recriminations that fill the 
 air, will not allow us quiet ; and men at almost every street 
 corner stop and converse eagerly for a moment over the latest 
 dispatch from Charlestown. We simply yield oui'selves to the 
 
9 
 
 pressure of that strong and generous impulse which every man 
 that has a heart under his ribs is compelled to feel, whether he 
 will or not, and so come here to learn and impress the lesson 
 of the hour. 
 
 Let me say, at the outset, that every Avord I utter, I utter 
 on my own responsibility. I am the mouth-piece of no party, 
 the orator of no clique, the pledged supporter of no other 
 man's opinions here ; and for anything that ii^ deemed criminal 
 or treasonable in any word of mine, hold me onlv responsible, 
 and charge no other man with the o;uilt. 
 
 In the eye of the Liw before which John Brown is tried he 
 is unquestionably a criminal ; and legal consistency doubtless 
 requires that he should be hung. I do not see how Viro-inia 
 can do any thing else than convict and execute him, if Virgi- 
 nia is to remain what she is. His execution is necessary to 
 maintain the dignity and supremacy of her statutes, and give 
 apparent security to her " peculiar institution." I grant that 
 Avithout a moment's hesitation ; thouoli I say nothing: now re- 
 specting the mode and spirit of the trial which was accorded him. 
 But the simple fact that he was legally hung need not damn 
 him in our estimation. He has become obnoxious to the statute 
 of a sovereign state, he has been proved an offender before 
 what is called a Court of Justice, he has been given over by 
 formal sentence to the tender mercies of the hano-man with or 
 without benefit of clergy. There is no doubt of that. But all 
 this does not of necessity impeach him before manly souls, nor 
 prove that he deserves to be branded as a felon or executed as 
 a traitor. We are still sent to study the law, and learn the 
 character of the man. 
 
 Not a few of the noblest names in history are associated with 
 a similar condemnation ; but their nobility survives. Men, of 
 whom the world was not worthy, have been legally hunted and 
 hurried away from the earth. They were too great and pure 
 for their age, and so violence hastened their departure to the 
 bosom of that broader and better future where alone they could 
 find an appreciating spirit, work in hope and enter into rest. 
 Here they were cursed while they lived, execrated after they 
 had gone to the martyr's grave, till subsequent centuries re- 
 versed the verdict and sent abroad the truth. 
 
10 
 
 Athens gave t]-> cup of hemlock to Socrates, the noblest 
 spirit that eA-er graced that ancient state. The Pope and the 
 Emperor, Charles V., imited in the blood-hound search for the 
 heroic Luther, intent on crushing him and all his heresies out 
 of the Commonwealth. John Roo;ers had his body turned into 
 ashes at the stake where the fagots were lighted by the hand 
 of the civil magistrate. Glorious, blind John ^Nlilton, whose 
 eminent statesmanship added so much to the political wealth of 
 Great Britain, and Avhose Cathredral-like music makes the 
 earth glad, and shall sing yet another thousand years into ecsta- 
 cy, — glorious old John Milton was only permitted to live in 
 England after Parliament had impeached him, because his mis- 
 fortunes made his accusers ashamed to take his life. Roger 
 Williams could not live in Massachusetts, — for with all its loy- 
 alty to freedom, the most liberal colonial government in the land 
 could not bear his presence, and so sent him into exile, And, 
 =^r^pausing long enough to recognize the peculiar grandeiir of that 
 event in comparison with every other, — that development of 
 majesty and heroism which is the culminating glory of human 
 history, Jesus of Nazareth, died on a malefactor's cross. All 
 these were rebels and criminals in the eye of the law. I do not 
 ^sk you to tell me what the verdict of History has declared them 
 to be, while Humanity all through the lands has cried, A^nen ! 
 
 I take the statements of John Brown, touching the service 
 he was attempting to perform in Virginia, as expressive of the 
 simple, unqualified truth. His recognized and acknowledged 
 character, his well known antecedents, his final instructions to 
 his men, his scorn of all attempts to acquit him on false grounds, 
 and his frank, vmiform and consistent testimony, all demand 
 confidence when he unfolds his plans. He tells us he meant to 
 liberate the slaves ; that he Avas in earnest to break the fetters 
 of a race too weak to break their own ; that he knew the perils 
 attendant upon such an undertaking, and so provided himself 
 with carnal weapons to resist the attacks to which he knew hipi- 
 self exposed ; but that he desired and expected to avoid the 
 shedding of blood. This murderous fight at the arsenal, there- 
 fore, seems plainly an accident thrust into the actual programi^e 
 of the drama,-^noi it all intended when he gave it its theoretic 
 constructioii, 
 
11 
 
 Tested by the law of Virginia, John Brown was a criini^ 
 iial. But it is as no common criminal that he statids before the 
 Court of Virginia and of the world. These six things will in- 
 dicate the peculiarity of his position. 
 
 First. His deed^ in its motive, aim and purpose, is not be- 
 low the life prescribed by the law, but far above it. Virginia 
 law neither embodies nor recognizes that large and sacred phi^ 
 lanthropy wdiich venerates and works for humanity under every 
 aspect and in every condition ; it has no reward or encourage- 
 ment to give to the spirit of the Good Samaritan, which stoops 
 at once to relieve and lift up every stripped and wounded suf- 
 ferer ; — it only proposes to guard the lower rights and conserve 
 the less important interests of one class of citizens ; it establish^ 
 es and defends caste ; it leaves the great inherent ritdits of hu- 
 manity without protection in the persons of the poor and weak 
 and despised. John Brown would supplement the law ;^- 
 Avhile it grovelled among earthly dignities, and scattered its fa- 
 vors at the feet of a powerful class, and hemmed special privi- 
 leges Avithin the enclosure of the favored citizens by its statutes, 
 he fell back on the sanctities of an all-comprehending philan- 
 thropy, and so rose into supernal ether above them all. He set 
 aside the lower statute for the sake of loyalty to a loftier prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 Second. A common criminal is one who invades the rio-hts 
 and lays waste the interests which the stnte has set itself to 
 guard. He sought to deliver the souls which the state had 
 agreed to spoil. 
 
 Third. A common criminal is one who openly quarrels with 
 the objects which the state is organized to secure. He Was 
 only conscientiously seeking to give a legitimate and rio-id and 
 difficult application to the fundamental principles of the govern- 
 ment, as they are set forth in our civil corner-stone, — the Decla- 
 ration of Independence, and in the definition of our civil ob- 
 jects, — the Preamble to the Constitution. If he found local 
 enactments plainly at war with the general principles, was it a 
 common crime that he should treat them as somethino- " more 
 honored in the breach than in the observance," and sacrifice 
 the statute to the principle, — the local and vicious regulation to 
 the luiiversal and sacred requirement ? 
 
12 
 
 Fourth. A common criminal breaks the statutes for the sake 
 of selfish ends, personal gain, and outward aggrandizement. 
 He wrought in self-denial, braved the greatest perils, risked 
 property and lite, accepted what is held as a most unmanly and 
 ignominious service, and all for the profit of a people who lack- 
 ed the discernment to appreciate the effort, and the ability to 
 reward it. 
 
 Fifth. A common criminal bears a character which calls out 
 the special condemnation of those Avho are assailed by his deed. 
 He wakes admiration in his bitterest foes. His manifest inteff- 
 rity and heroism silence the clamors of the populace who are 
 goaded toward desperation by the memory of their shameful 
 cowardice. The jailor who fought him learns to approach him 
 with almost courtly etiquette, and takes him to his heart in 
 spite of public murmurs ; and Gov. Wise confesses, because he 
 must, that he has never met such an embodiment of bravery, 
 truthfulness, frankness, and fidelity to conviction. 
 
 Sixth. A common criminal only makes the distant people, 
 who read the record of his trial, shudder at the thought that 
 such violent spirits are abroad, and breathe freer when the 
 doors of the prison are between them and the world. Not a few 
 of the noblest spirits in the country are daily blessing John 
 Brown from the heart, and sending his name heavenward in 
 their prayers ; and they would count it no common honor to 
 share his prison and his fame. Aye, not a few of those who 
 condemn him passionately in their open speech, out of regard 
 to partisan consistency, or cotton consistency, or official con- 
 sistency, — when once they let the heart have spontaneous ut- 
 terance in quietude, find themselves exclaiming, — " God bless 
 the brave old hero, after all!'''' It must be no common criminal 
 of whom all this is true. 
 
 On legal grounds there is no disposition to be made of him 
 but to send him to the scaffold. The law can preserve its maj- 
 esty only through his execution. A respite or a commutation 
 of his sentence will put the institutions of the state in peril. 
 But what a testimony is this to the character of laws and insti- 
 tutions, that they can only reward an unselfish zeal for free- 
 dom, bravery, daring, truthfulness, honor, and conscientious 
 fidelity with a halter ! Doubtless the Covirt must condemn 
 
13 
 
 the prisoner. But what shall be said of a Court whose condi- 
 tion or character is such that it can only cry " Cridlty T' 
 Doubtless such qualities cannot breathe freely in Virginia. But 
 what must be the air of that sovereign state,-^ — Mother of Presi- 
 dents ! Guardian of Washington's Tomb ! — that such qualities 
 must be strangled into the grave the moment they develop 
 themselves into active life ! 
 
 Civil government has its claims upon human respect. I re- 
 cognize it as an ordination of Providence. I own its authority. 
 I do not demand perfection in it. But to build it up on the 
 rains of manhood is to turn it into a Bastile, instead of makino' 
 It a school where weak and warped natures grow rapidly up in- 
 to strength and symmetry. And the duty of obedience and 
 submission has its limitations. There is the ultimate rioht of 
 revolution, — though it may not be easy to define the point 
 where the duty to obey is lost in the obligation to resist. 
 Somewhere that point exists ; otherwise many of the most glo- 
 rious passages of history should be read backwards, the men we 
 venerate will fall under censure, and even our own national life 
 testifies only to a criminal and traitorous iisurpation. 
 
 " We owe allep:iance to the State ;— bat deeper, truer, more, 
 To the sympathies wliich God has set deep in the spirit's core ; 
 Our country chiims our ieaUy ;— we gram it so, but tfien, 
 Before man made us citizens the great God made us Men." 
 
 I speak only for myself, when I say that I have little faith in 
 violence or bloody crusades which aim at the enthronement of 
 moral objects and luimane institutions. Good causes are not so 
 dependent as to need bad methods. Sacred principles, faith- 
 fully uttered, can wait, if they must, for recognized supremacy. 
 I cannot but regret the employment of carnal weapons to inau- 
 gurate spiritual forces. Guns, bayonets and swords, infantry, 
 cavalry and artillery, do not seem to me very eminent Christian 
 agencies. For this reason I cannot so readily endorse the for- 
 cible methods of helping on a good cause. They who glorify 
 the sword in the struggles of the past may point out if they can 
 the wrong of this earnest old man. 
 
 John Brown is to be judged by men in view of the princi- 
 ples they have taught him to recognize, and the culture under 
 which our civil society has schooled him up into his energetic 
 
14 
 
 htanhoocl. Let us look at him in the light of that culture, and 
 estimate him and his deed in the spirit of justice and modera- 
 tion. It is evident that he began life with an American heart. 
 His pedigree goes back by a straight road to the Puritan fami- 
 lies of Plymouth. He nursed affection for freedom, and sym- 
 pathy with the wronged and crushed^ from the breast of his 
 mother. And as he grew up, he learned Avhat Avas meant liy 
 that precept of the Inspired Word,-=-" Remember them that are 
 in bonds as bound With them." In this spii-it he went abroad 
 to take the teaching of our national school. 
 
 Our Declaration was a reality to him. He saw no " glitter 
 ing genei'alities " in its straightforward and compact sentences. 
 He took its statements for sober truth. He Avas taught to be- 
 lieve in fighting for freedom ; — for every Fourth of July ora 
 tion has canonized our Revolutionary Generals. He was 
 taught that it was specially glorious for men to come from afar 
 and give their aid to an oppressed people. Steuben and Ro- 
 CHAMBEAU, De Kalh and Lafayette, are names always spo- 
 ken reverently by American lips ; and Avliat Avere they but 
 prototypes of John Bkown ? They came to us from a foreign 
 state, in defiance of compacts ; they marched through state af- 
 ter state, making of cAcry Tory toAvn a Harper's Ferry. There 
 Avere these tAvo points of difference. They fought and toiled 
 for a people of the Caucasian type, still resolute Avith indigna- 
 tion and hope ;-=^and their treason Avas successful. He struck 
 for a sable and hated race Avhose spirit Avas more than half bro- 
 ken by whole centuries of injustice ; — and he perished before 
 the altar Avhereon he laid his vow of fealty. It Avas not sar- 
 casm, but the plain honest truth, Avhen he told the Court that 
 Such a service rendered to the eminent in society Avould have 
 won the gratitude and huzzas of the nation ; — and Ave put doAvn 
 failure at the head of our list of unpardonable sins. I do not 
 ask you Avhether a service loses all its dignity and merit by be- 
 ing put forth in behalf of the Aveak and perishing, and by fall- 
 ing short of its lofty mark. 
 
 That is not all the extenuation of his offence. Bold and ille- 
 gal fillibustering for Slavery has been long connived at and 
 loudly praised. I need only allude to the examples to recall the 
 disgraceful history. The Florida Avar, the acquisition of Texas, 
 
15 
 
 the crraspincv of New Mexico, the manceuvering foi* Cuba, anc^ 
 the filh blistering for Nicaragua, have set the bad exam[)le, and 
 naturally enouo-h suo-o-ested that Freedom had no option but to 
 enter the arena of the duel, and fight it out with the very 
 weapons which Slavery has chosen to Avield. And not a few of 
 the bold, bad men who led these crusades, have thereby Avon a 
 notorietv Avhich Ave agree to call euA-iable distinction. Is it 
 strange that the example becomes contagious ? And, especial-- 
 ly, AA'hen the Government, in Punic faith, opened the free terri- 
 torA^ of Kansas, that ruflian slaA^ery-propagandists might rush in 
 and driA-e out the freedom-loving settlers, and people the land 
 with skxA'-es, and turn the fruitful soil over to the desolations of 
 plantation life ; Avhen his OAvn house Avas sacked, his hearth- 
 stone covered Avith gore, his OAvn life threatened, and the chil- 
 dren Avhich si)i'ano' from his oavu loius murdered for lovino- 
 
 J- ~ * r^ 
 
 liberty too Avell ;t — is it striinge that he pkinned to end our 
 terrible despotism Avith a sei'ies of bold and A^iolent bloAvs, be- 
 lieving that a genuine lo\'e of man demanded the Avielding of 
 strong arms in his defence, and that a true trust in God requir- 
 ed the free use of dry poAvder ? I cannot justify him ; I must 
 condemn his policy ; but let truth pu^ tlie responsibility Avhere 
 it belongs. It is useless to look for the fruits of peace on soil 
 soAvn as thick Avith violence as HeaA'en is Avith stars. That old 
 Roman myth holds an eternal truth,- — Wherever Cadmus scatr 
 ters the dragon's teeth, they spring vaj) armed men. They who 
 soAV the Avind may bind the Avhirlwind into sheaves if they can ! 
 I have done Avith John Broavx. History Avill take care of 
 his memory ; and in the great Court of the Future, Avliere judg- 
 ment is not Avarped by prejudice, and conscience is not clamor- 
 ed down by passion, a righteous verdict Avill be rendered. The 
 reversals of the decisions Avhich one age sends abroad are often 
 radical ; and this case may illustrate the statement. His prison 
 may yet be a shrine Avhere the emancipated race he died for 
 shall go on reA'erential pilgrimage ; his halter may yet be cut 
 up and distributed Avith enthusiasm, as suggesting something 
 more significant than the sections of the Atlantic Cable. As. 
 Antony said of Caesar, men may yet long 
 
 To "dip their napkins in his sacred blqcd j 
 Yea, beg a hair of him for memory, 
 And, dying, mention it within their wills. 
 
16 
 
 Bequeath in f^ it, as a rich legacy, 
 
 Unto their issue. " 
 
 It may be well for demagogues, feeding on popular favor, 
 who condemn him to-day as a demon, to write their sentence 
 with invisilile ink, lest the record be hereafter pleaded against 
 them ; or frame it so that it may show both a Northern and a 
 Southern side, according to the position of the reader. The 
 clamor for crucifixion is sometimes succeeded by the swelling 
 hosanna. The popular foot-ball of to-day is the popidar idol of 
 to-moin"ow. 
 
 '• For Humanity sweeps onward ; where to-day the martyr stands, 
 On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands ; 
 While the hooting mob of yesterday with silent awe return, 
 To collect the scattered ashes into History's golden urn. " 
 
 I stand here to say two things, and then I have done. 
 1st.. It is a fitting time now to bear testimony for Freedom 
 in the face of public clamor. I can afi^ord to be silent when her 
 step is stately, her mien majestic, her work manifestly conserv- 
 ative, when she stands simply on the defensive, or is pitied by 
 the world while she bleeds in the Senate Chamber, struck down 
 in the person of a noble Senator, and all voices are lifted in her 
 defence and praise. I choose to come here in the day of her 
 misfortunes ; to stand by her side Avhen men are doubting 
 whether it be Avise and prudent to be allied Avith her interests. 
 I take her with all her perils, and will repudiate no confidence 
 when her friends commit excesses in her name. The Declara- 
 tion is as true and as trustworthy here to-day as it was in Phil- 
 adelphia in 1776, or when the treaty was signed in 1783. I 
 will take Freedom, with all her liabilities, and recognize the 
 duty of being loyal Avhen loyalty purchases nothing but re- 
 proach. I do not think it necessary to ignore the " irrepressi- 
 ble conflict " when the avowal of belief in it excites a howl 
 of indio-nation ; — now is the time to recocrnize and assert it 
 when a fresh and fearful illustration is curdling the nation's 
 blood. There is such a conflict, and this is the time to assert 
 its existence ; for neither dumbness nor denial will change the 
 fact. In 1859, with the Harper's Ferry tragedy still acting 
 before us, I wish to exhume and repeat the words of the Rich- 
 mond Enquirer, uttered in the partisan heat of 1856, — more 
 ^han two years before the New York Senator had expressed the 
 
17 
 
 same sentiment, and thereby drawn on himself the cliarfre of 
 radicalism and treason. Thus spoke the Virginia oracle : — 
 
 " Two opposite and conflicting forms of society cannot, among 
 civilized men, co-exist and endure. The one must give way 
 and cease to exist — the other become universal. If free society 
 be unnatural, immoral and unchristiiin, it must fall and give 
 way to slave society — a social system old as the world, univer- 
 sal as man." 
 
 I accept the issue thus tendered, and add, if slave-holding so- 
 ciety " be unnatural, immoral and unchristian, it must give 
 way " to free society, — a system promulged in the Deca- 
 logue, exalted in the Sermon on the Mount, which has had all 
 the past for its battle-field, and has the whole eternal futux*e for 
 its scene of triumph. 
 
 2nd. And this leads me to say that, in this Harper's Ferry 
 tragedy, Ave have another appeal, more urgent than any before, 
 to seek the deliverance of the Slave by moral and peaceful 
 methods, and to do it without delay. Staving it off does but 
 increase the difficulties and multiply the waiting disasters. This 
 is the call of Providence to let Africa have a peacefiil exodus. 
 The first plague has come ; the second is treading on its heels ; 
 others still walk in majestic and solemn procession on the track, 
 and they Avill speedily burst on us in retribution. The Magi- 
 cians are busy Avith their enchantments, as they were in Egypt 
 of old, trying to proA'e that the signs are only the fruit of hu- 
 man juggling. Woe to us, and to them also, if they succeed ! 
 If justice and love do not lead out our bondmen, there is 
 another Red Sea before us Avhere our despotism shall find its 
 grave, and the crimson of the Avaters Avill come of fraternal 
 blood. 
 
 Somehow deliverance is manifestly coming. That is hardly 
 a question. The eternal laAvs of Providence settle that. We 
 only decide Avhen and hoAv. We cannot long ignore the great 
 question which Providence is forcing on our attention, — " What 
 is to be done with and for the American Slave ? " We may 
 send off duty, but it Avill speedily change its visage and come 
 back calamity. The crisis is surely coming, if it be not already 
 here ; and no worse visitation can befall us than that which 
 comes of letting it go by unseen and uucared for. 
 
1* 
 
 " Once to every man and nation comes tlie moment to decide, 
 In tlie strife of Truth with Falsehood, tur the good or evil side ; 
 Some great cause, God's new Messiah, — otii-ring each ihe bloom or 
 
 blight, 
 Parts the jioats npon the left hand, and the slicep npon the ripht, 
 And the choice tioes bv forever 'iwixt lliat darknes- and that lijjht. " 
 
 As I am horror-stricken by the experience at Harper's Ferry, 
 as I Avould put far away the reputation of that terrible event, 
 as I am smitten dumb with grief in view of a prospective ser- 
 vile insurrection, — I would, therefore, have every man and wo- 
 man, gathered here to-claY,go out from this meeting, leaving in 
 the ear of Heaven somi new vow of fidality to the great cause 
 of Human Freedom, — insisting that there can be no truce in the 
 battle and no respite from endeavor, till the last fetter is bro- 
 ken and the jubilee is proclaimed over all the land. 
 
 In that great future which is coming ou, — amid those majes- 
 tic events that wait to step forward on to th3 stage of time, there 
 will be found no sadder epitaph on the tomb-stone of any man 
 belonging to the present generation than this, — " Here lies a 
 Traitor to the cause of American Liberty when she 
 
 LAY prostrate AND BLEEDING, AND PRAYED FOR RELIEF. " 
 
 Such a man's posterity will Avalk backwards with a mantle of 
 grief and shame to cover their ancestor's nakedness, and every 
 traveler who carries with him a heart will fling a stone at the 
 grave. 
 
 REMARKS OF REV. MR. WOODBURY. 
 
 A few weeks ago, I saw in the drawing-room of one of the 
 most respectable merchants of Boston, largely engaged in the 
 trade with Southern staples, a photograph of a man, Avhoseface 
 exhibited those lines of resolution and bravery which betokened 
 1)0 common strength of character. It was the photograph of 
 John Brown, and the owner, speaking in terms of respect for 
 the subject, did not seem to feel that he would compromise his 
 position, or injure his respectability by avowing his sympa- 
 thy for the misfortunes of a convicted traitor. John Brown has 
 Qow, doubtless, paid ithe forfeit of his life for his recent act df 
 
IS 
 
 daring. We meet to gather what instruction we may from the 
 mournful circumstanr-es. 
 
 What I shall say will have reference to the man, the event, 
 its cause, and probable consequences. 
 
 1. The Man. — John Brown, a descendant of the Puritans, 
 is represented as a man of no ordinary mould. Gov. Wise 
 gives his testimony to the effect that he has never seen a man 
 of more integrity, honesty and courage. It is the testimony of 
 an enemy, and it is of all the more value on that account. All 
 the cn-cumstances of the movement in which he engao-ed verify 
 the declaration of the Executive of Virginia. However mista- 
 ken we may consider him, he was still honest. However 
 wrong, he was still courageous and brave. His experience in 
 Kansas I need not recount. He had seen his house pillaged, 
 his sons murdered in cold blood, his neighbors' property rained.' 
 He was forced to take up arms, that he might exercise the right 
 of self-defence. Those lawless and cruel outrages, too familiar 
 alas ! to our knowledge, and blackening forever the pages of our 
 national history ; the ruffianism of that border warfare, secret- 
 ly approved, if not directly sanctioned by the general f-overn- ■ 
 ment, seem sufficient to have maddened any man of common 
 sensibility. Were he influenced by the desire for reveno-e, he 
 had provocation, enough to have roused all the powers of his 
 nature. But it was not all revenge. Deep within the man's 
 conscience and heart was another and more forceful impulse. 
 He felt himself to be one with the slave. He meditated upon 
 the wrongs of an oppressed and injured race, till the idea of 
 their deliverance excluded all other ideas from his mind, and 
 he devoted his life to its realization. 
 
 " He has borne the yoke of the oppressed as though it had 
 been upon his own neck, for thirty years, " said his wife. Con 
 ceive the effect upon his character and action ! " Oppression " 
 says Solomon, " maketh a wise man mad. " May it not also 
 bring a man who felt himself to be even as a slave, to the very 
 verge, if not into the condition of insanity ? He considered 
 the injunction of the Apostle to " remember those in bonds as 
 bound with them, " as applying to himself, and he considered 
 himself as the instrument of God for freeing those in bondage. 
 So he took his life in his hand, asking no favor fi-om those whom 
 
20 
 
 he considered his enemies, and even seeking no sympathy from 
 those whom he thought his friends. He was wilhng to bear 
 the consequences of his acts, and there is no one to say that he 
 did not bear them bravely. Cannot we respect his motives, if 
 we do not approve his methods of action ? His intention 
 doubtless was simply the deliverance of the slaves. This is 
 what I gather from sifting the various statements of the case. 
 He wished to hold the owners as hostages and alloAv the slaves 
 to escape to the mountains. There, being furnished with arms 
 they could defend their lives, if necessary. But, if he contem- 
 plated invasion, he had a parallel in the action of the Missouri 
 invaders of Kansas, who captured the United States arsenal at 
 Liberty, and plundered it of its arms to help drive out the set- 
 tlers of the Territory. What did the government? Nothing. 
 What has government done since ? Nothing. Might not 
 Brown hope to succeed by the same means ? 
 
 Remember, too, the injunction which he impressed on his 
 men. " Consider, " he says, " that the lives of others are as 
 dear to them as yours are to you. Do not, therefore, take the 
 life of any one, if you. can possibly avoid it ; but if it is neces- 
 sary to take life, in order to save your own, then make sure 
 work of it. " Such was the man before the attempt. The 
 o-enuine heroism of his bearing afterwards can hardlv be denied, 
 when we remember his moderation, his humanity to the prison* 
 ers, his calm endurance of suffering and his fortitude in the 
 trying hours preceding his execution. 
 
 In saying all this, I do not approve the deed which he has 
 committed. The resolutions which we pass censure it. But 
 we may certainly regret that a man of Brown's character should 
 have been led to a course of action which in civilized commu- 
 nities must be disapproved. Servile insurrection is not the 
 proper mode of emancipation. Invasion from neighboring 
 States cannot accomplish the object. We are not to do evil 
 that good may come. We can advise no such course. We 
 contemplate no such action. But, not the less can I, for one, 
 help admiring many traits in the character of him who was en- 
 crao-ed in these transactions, and see him as a noble, though in- 
 fatuated man. This I have said on another occasion, and this 
 I can but repeat to-day. 
 
21 
 
 2. The Event. — -This has been determined to be the puu 
 ishment of treason. It has been inflicted according to the 
 forms of law. The student of history cannot but recollect how 
 often it has happened that the judgment of the law is reversed 
 by the decision of posterity. The most illustrious names in his- 
 tory are those of outlaws, criminals and traitors, and many of 
 the events which we ourselves commemorate as a people, were 
 nothing but treason at the time. 
 
 The early Christians endured martyrdom for disobedience to 
 the law of the empire. Socrates, the man most honored in 
 heathen philosophy, suffered death according to the law, con- 
 demned for impiety and for corrupting the Athenian youth. 
 He, too, labored under a sense of religious duty, and died, con- 
 sidered as a fanatic. Who can read his speech to the judges 
 that condemned him, Avithout emotion ? "Now it is time to 
 be going ; me to die, you to live. Whose lot is the better of 
 the two is hidden from all but God." William Tell, whose 
 story, mythical as it may be, warms our hearts with the fire of 
 heroic daring, was a murderer, having shot the tyrant Gesler. 
 Charlotte Corday, that beautiful, heroic French Avoman, Avho 
 did her part towards diminishing the horrors of the French 
 rcA'olution, was a murderess, plunging her dagger into Marat 
 as he lay in his bath. She was tried and guillotined four days 
 after the bloody deed. Raleigh, Avhose brilliant qualities almost 
 make us forget the laxity of his principles, was beheaded as a 
 traitor. Lord William Russell and Algernon Sydney, men of 
 unimpeachable integrity, whose memories are honored now. 
 were convicted of plotting insurrection and even the assassina- 
 tion of their sovereign, and suffered the doom of traitors in 
 1683. Russell was a man of singular virtue. Popular and 
 beloved, humane and just, he sought to free his country from 
 the rule of a tyrant. His virtues became as crimes, and even 
 closed the door of royal clemency against him. His Avife one 
 of the noblest Avomen of the time, cheered the last hours of his 
 captivity by her presence, and by her courage and composure 
 strengthened him for the final hour. He rejected all means of 
 escape, preferring to die, rather than involve any of his numer- 
 ous friends in his misfortunes. At the time of his execution 
 the croAvd of Avitnesses Avas immense, and a strong military 
 
22 
 
 force was present to aid the civil authorities, and prevent any 
 demonstrations of sympathy. His written speech, which he 
 was not able to deliver, was privately printed by his heroic 
 wife and circulated among the people. He died, says Lin^ard, 
 '" a martyr to the lawfulness of resistance. " The civilized 
 world is familiar with the name of Algernon Sydney. He was 
 one of the first victims of the odious Jeffreys. He was a man 
 of wonderful courage and force of character. Once called up- 
 on to write in an allium at the University of Copenhagen, he 
 boldlv put on record his enmitv to tvrannv in these memora- 
 
 ble words : 
 
 '' Manus haec, inimica tvrannis, 
 
 Ii)nse petit placidam sub libertate quietem"— 
 
 which John Qviincy Adams once paraphrased thus : 
 
 " This hand, to tyrants ever sworn the foe, 
 For freedom only deals the deadly blow ; 
 Then sheatiies in calm repose the vencreful blade, 
 For gentle peace in freedom's hallowed shade. " 
 
 He did not apologize for his fearless language, but declared in 
 a letter to his father, that " never havino- heard that any sort 
 of men were so worthily the object of enmity, as those I have 
 mentioned, I did never in the least scruple to avow myself to 
 be an enemy unto them." When his time to die came, he trod 
 the scaffold with a firm step, and met his death like a hero. 
 " He suffered no friend to accompany him ; he refused the aid 
 of the ministers of religion ; and when he Avas asked if he did 
 not intend to address the spectators, he replied, that ' He had 
 made his peace with God, and had nothing to say to man.' 
 He then placed his neck upon the block, and bade the execu- 
 tioner perform his duty." Eight years after these sad events, 
 the sentence of attainder against these noble men was reversed 
 amid the joy of a whole nation. Macaulay draAvs a brilliant 
 picture of the proceedings in Parliament Avhen the decree of 
 reversal Avas passed. Many members of Parliament at the time 
 had knoAvn these men and been Avitnesses of their self-devo- 
 tion, and no act was ever passed AA^th such hearty feeling and 
 profound emotion. So do the traitors of to-day become the 
 patriots of to-morroAV. 
 
 Eno-lish and American history is full of such examples. Was 
 not Cromwell's success gained by rebellion against the poAver 
 
Oft 
 
 that governed England in liis time ? The very city wherein 
 we now reside was founded by a man banished by the respecta- 
 bihty of Massachusetts for uttering dangerous opinions against 
 the authority of magistrates. And what, indeed, was the 
 American Revolution but a successful rebellion? The men 
 who signed the Declaration of Independence did it almost with 
 the halter around their necks. 
 
 The burning of the Gaspee in Narragansett bay, (the history 
 of which our chairman has so vividly related,) wdiile upon her 
 legitimate duty as a British cruiser, and before war was declar- 
 ed, Avas " rank treason " against the English government. 
 JoHX Browx — a historical name — was a leader in that enter- 
 prise which was only saved from fatal bloodshed because there 
 was no resistance, and only saved from being piracy because it 
 w^as not done upon the high seas. I mention these things to 
 show that there is a difference between names and thinos. 
 Every age and every country have had their traitors, Avhom af- 
 ter ages have called martyrs. Compare John Brown's attempt 
 Avith what most of these have done, and if you have anv ques- 
 tion respecting the similarity, give him at least the benefit of 
 the doubt. Virginia may indeed arraign and convict him of 
 crime committed ao-ainst her laws. But does not Virmnia her- 
 self stand before the tribunal of the civilized Avorld arraigned 
 for crime against the laAvs of Humanity and God ? 
 
 Do we thus countenance disobedience to laAv and treason to 
 the State ? Because we honor the memories of Socrates, Tell, 
 Corday, R\issell, Sydney, Williams, and the worthies of the Rev- 
 olution, do we countenance sedition, insurrection, incendiarism, 
 murder, treason ? I need not put the question to any man of 
 sense. If Ave expurgate from history the names of those Avho 
 have loved truth and liberty, " not AA'isely, but too Avell ," we 
 have little left to reverence in the life of the human race. 
 When Ave go doAvn beloAv the forms to the facts of life, and feel 
 the pulsations of the great human heart, we are able to draAv 
 the distinction betAveen that Avhicli constitutes treason to the 
 State and that Avhich we call fidelity to principles of duty. 
 
 3. The Cause and Consequence. — What is the secret of all 
 this ? Does not all this conflict come from the existence of the 
 evil ? Slavery, in its denial of rights to a, whole race ; in its 
 
24 
 
 influence upon the law ; in its derogation of justice ; in its 
 Avliole character of oppression and wrong, is the teacher and 
 the instigator of all these things. It produces the excitement 
 whicli inflames the public mind. It institutes a most humilia- 
 ting censorship of the public press, of social intercourse, and 
 even of private correspondence. It sets the laws of the coun- 
 try at utter defiance. It secretly plots, it opeuly avows upon 
 the floor of Congress the most treasonable purposes against the 
 State. It over-rides the constitution of the Union, and puts 
 Virginia to-day in the position of a foreign country. How has 
 it treated Walker and the slave traders ? They walk, unharm- 
 ed and unmolested, boasting of their immunity from punish- 
 ment, and planning new schemes of bloodshed, invasion, and 
 piracy. Slavery loosens the grasp of the law from those Avho 
 had been taken in the very act of criminality, and sets them 
 free to follow the devices of fresh iniquities. How blind, how 
 dumb, how weak, how utterly powerless is the laAv, when sla- 
 very demands its silence and inaction I How vigilant and 
 quick to act, when Slavery would use it as the instrument of 
 its will ! Lovejoy, Torrey and a host of others whose names 
 and memories are cherished in the hearts of freemen, have felt 
 its terrible vengeance, for their love of liberty and justice. 
 
 It should always be borne in mind, and History will certain- 
 ly make the record, that Brown suffers as the victim of the sys- 
 tem and power of the evil, rather than of the laws, which allow 
 greater criminals to go free. It is the evil itself which makes 
 insurrection and invasion at any time possible. It is the evil 
 itself which produces the commotion and disturbance which 
 many lament. The philosophic method of treatment strikes at 
 the root, not at the branches. The two principles of Liberty 
 and Slavery are ahvays at war. They can have nothing in 
 common. They cannot coalesce. They cannot unite. There 
 has been, there is now, and there ever will be an " irrepress- 
 ible conflict" between them, till one or the other succumbs. 
 There can be no peace, till Liberty triumphs and the State is 
 p\mfied. The condition always is — '^ first purity, then peace." 
 
 What are the consequences ? This, after all, is but an inci- 
 dent — a part of a series. It reveals most wonderfully the inse- 
 carity of a system founded upon fear ; the hollo wness of a sys- 
 
25 
 
 tern containing nothing but wrong ; the weakness of a system 
 whose strength is only effectual for evil. It calls upon us for 
 a renewal of our vows ; for a fresh consecration to the princi- 
 ples of liberty, justice, righteousness and truth. Doubtless Vir- 
 ginia herself may learn from it to loosen the chains of her bond- 
 men, and it may yet be hailed as the avatar of freedom to a 
 State whose soil has borne a Henry, a Washington, and a Jef- 
 ferson. As for us, let us be encouraged to do more and more 
 for the education of public opinion among ourselves, that be- 
 tween the North and South there may yet be manly and Chris- 
 tian discussion without violence and passion ; that North and 
 South may yet unite to make our republic a slaveless land from 
 shore to shore. 
 
 I appeal to the young men of our country, whose hearts have 
 not yet been hardened by selfishness and the demands of cus- 
 tom and convention. Let them consecrate themselves in the 
 flush of generous ambition and hopeful life to the cause of a nax 
 tion's freedom, counting all things as dross-^influence, popur 
 larity, reputation, as nothing ! Let them be true to the instincts 
 of a noble nature, and live for liberty and God ! 
 
 As for myself, I can only say that I have ever been, and 
 trust ever to continue, firmly opposed to this great system of 
 evil. My opposition may not accomplish much, but I must 
 obey my own convictions of duty. The portrait of Martin 
 Luther hangs upon my study wall. I can almost see the loca- 
 tion of Roger Williams's spring from my door-stone. I was 
 born a Protestant, and on New England soil. If I ever falter 
 or become faithless, may these mute reminders call me back to 
 duty, and strengthen me for larger and wider labors in behalf 
 of those in bonds. 
 
 I preach no violence, no bloodshed, no internal warfare. But 
 I try to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ — that gos- 
 pel which teaches me that " of one blood, God hath made all 
 nations of the e^rth, " and that every human creature, wheth- 
 er with a white, or red or black skin, is the child of the 
 Almighty Father. 
 
 " Ho ! every true and living soul, 
 
 To Freedom's periled allar bear 
 
 The freeman's and the christian's whole, 
 
26 
 
 Tongue, pen, and vote and prayer ! 
 One last great battle for the Right, 
 One short, sharp struggle to be iree ! 
 To do is to succeed — our fight 
 Is waged in Heaven's approving sight- 
 The smile of God is victory ! " 
 
 REMARKS OF HON. THOMAS DAVIS. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Ladies and Gentlemen : — After the very- 
 able and eloquent speeches of the gentlemen who have preceded 
 me, mine Avill be of little consequence. I have lived long in the 
 city of Providence, too long to accept the intimations of the 
 press of this city, that svich a meeting as this for such a pur- 
 pose ought not to be holden. 
 
 I have been too thoroughly acquainted with the Anti-Slavery 
 cause not to know what has been the course of the press fre- 
 quently in times of great emergency. I am aAvare that the 
 great majority turn to it for counsel and instruction, and 
 what is said by A B and C, editors of our leading or party pa- 
 pers, is for the time being, accepted and adopted by no incon- 
 siderable portion of the community. You may, in regard to 
 the press, reverse the oft repeated saying and render it thus : 
 " The throne is greater than the power behind the throne. " 
 But the private conscience of the individual must decide wheth- 
 er he shall regard such notice or heed such warning. 
 
 Twenty-five years ago, this Anti-Slavery enterprise, this 
 movement for the peaceable abolition of slavery was commen- 
 ced in this country. At about every step of its early progress 
 what did it encounter ? Almost the entire force and opposi- 
 tion of the leading and commercial press in the great cities of 
 the land, while mob after mob heralded its progress. Bear in 
 mind that up to this time ; up to the catastrophe which has to- 
 day resulted in the execution of John Brown, none other 
 than peaceful movements have marked its progress through the 
 wdiole twenty-five years ; and \intil this time, no hand has been 
 raised against the slaveholder ; but to-day a new prophet has 
 appeared ; a prophet of the sword. (Tumultuous applause.) 
 
For twenty-five years have these christian men and women pro- 
 claimed to the people of this country that slavery could be abol- 
 ished by peaceful efforts, and Avhat has been the result ? I do 
 not say that public opinion has not made great progress ; I know 
 and thank God that it has ; but the government has made none 
 —and to-day you stand with a government upholding and 
 maintaining the institution of slavery, and with the people en- 
 lightened and determined by all peacefol means at least, that 
 it shall disappear. The conflict is coming on, and no human 
 power, no glossing over of this matter can avert the final result. 
 And, fellow citizens, we who stand for Anti-Slavery, are here 
 to-night to declare anew the truth and the consequences of mis- 
 leading the public mind on this question. 
 
 It may go out from the press that this meeting is not worthy 
 of the consideration of the citizens of Providence ; that the 
 respectability of the city is not assembled here. I may grant 
 it all ; but the eternal right and truth are with us, and to that 
 I appeal. (Applause.) The men and M^omen, some of whom 
 are here before me to-night, who commenced this cause, may 
 be obscure in the estimation of the worldling, but under God's 
 guidance, and by the declaration of the great principles of hu- 
 man liberty, the cause has moved onwaixl to its present exalted 
 position. And as an eminent New England writer remarks 
 *' One feels very sensibly in this history of Anti-Slavery that a 
 great heart and soul are behind these, superior to any man, and 
 making use of each, in turn, and infinitely attractive to Jveiy 
 person according to the degree of reason in his own mind." 
 
 If this be true, and who will deny it, then the cause mea- 
 sures the men, and not the men the cause. Men hiay repudi- 
 ate it, but it will be at their souls peril. Ignore it they can- 
 not, for it " rises before them with twenty mortal murders on 
 its crown. " 
 
 Fellow citizens, the duty of the North, if it desires a peace- 
 ful solution of this question, is plainer than ever before. Let 
 her no longer deceive the South. We must meet the South 
 face to face, and proclaim to her the whole truth. The South 
 will not thank you for the deception at last, for you cannot 
 avoid the consequences that attach to the institution of slavery. 
 v.If every man and woman here to-day were to proclaim eternal 
 
28 
 
 silence in relation to this institution, the result would not be 
 materially different. The cause is not in human hands ; it is 
 not in the hands of legislators ; it is not to be controlled by 
 mere machinery ; it is in the very nature and essence of free- 
 dom and slavery that this conflict is going on, and neither your 
 power nor mine, neither our recreancy nor our falsehood, nor 
 the abandonment of our principles can effect the final issue. It 
 is just as inevitable as the revolution of the planets, that we are 
 approaching a crisis in our affairs in which it seems certain to 
 me that the institution of slavery shall be shaken to its very 
 centre, and no human sagacitv can avoid this result. 
 
 What has been the exhibition to the people of the whole 
 country at the present time ? 
 
 Seventeen men take possession of a town of two thousand 
 people. * * * Think of this exhibition of weakness of the 
 peculiar institution, and you will see to what slavery reduces 
 the great body of the people. There is no real courage in the 
 South, with all their boasting, at the moment of peril, when 
 their institutions are brought to the test. 
 
 Thirty years ago Nat Turner headed an insurrection in the 
 State of Virginia ; that was a warning to that State, and after 
 the execution of Turner and his fellow conspirators, as they 
 were called, the State of Virginia proceeded at once to call a 
 convention, where they took up the whole matter of slavery. 
 They debated it, and the ablest men in their legislature pro- 
 claimed fully and completely, and that testimony has been 
 handed down to us — that the institution was destructive and 
 unworthy of their support. So they resolved after that debate. 
 The people of Virginia did not listen to the voices of 
 these men, but decided to guard and strengthen the institution^ 
 and the final result of that struggle was a resolve to colonize 
 the free blacks, and for this purpose the State appropriated a 
 large sum of money to make more sure the institutioii of Sla* 
 very. 
 
 That insurrection, so startling, sprang from the breast of the 
 brave Nat Turner, an unediTcated slave ; no white man com- 
 municated with him ; the sentiment of liberty deep in the 
 hearts of all men prompted him to final action. The terror 
 spread from Virginia throughout the whole South, and under 
 
29 
 
 the effects of that salutary fear, the convention in Virginia re- 
 solved for a time to do something to rid themselves of slavery ; 
 but, finally, selfishness, ambition and the love of power prevail- 
 ed over all those good resolutions, and instead of taking mea- 
 sures to abolish the system, they have fortified it more and 
 more, and from that hour to this they have put forth continued 
 efforts to increase its poAver, until they have at last come to the 
 conclusion that they will make the institution of slavery eternal. 
 
 We come now to John BroAvn, who has drawn to himself 
 the eyes of the whole country. We cannot help admiring 
 courage, fortitude, heroism, and his composure in view of im- 
 mediate death. Such is the man who, by the statutes of Vir- 
 ginia, stands condemned to death, and is by this time executed. 
 
 Those who take part in this meeting are liable to the charo-e 
 that they are supporting traitors and upholding men whom the 
 laws have condemned. Gentlemen, in my experience and in 
 the recollection of many here, this very State condemned a man 
 (Thomas W. Dorr,) as a traitor, which the party opposed to 
 that condemnation proclaimed throughout the length and 
 breadth of the country to be a violation of the law of the land 
 and the principles of human liberty. Those who now in the 
 case of John Brown make the verdict of a court the final earth- 
 ly arbiter of guilt or innocence, then maintained a different and 
 adverse doctrine. They then appealed to the whole country 
 in behalf of one who was condemned by the A-erdict of a jury 
 and the law of the State. 
 
 The simple reason why that appeal was successful was, that 
 he went for the extension of the liberties of the people. His- 
 tory judges men by their motives. 
 
 But what were the wrongs of the people of Rhode Island 
 compared to the wrongs of the slave ? See him stripped of all 
 his rights, without a future and without a posterity that shall 
 be better than himself, and tell me if the man John Brown, 
 who " remembers them in bonds as bound with them," is not 
 entitled to our sympathies. (Applause.) 
 
 I am aware of the use that may be made of sentiments ex- 
 pressed here, in connection Avith party. I appear simply as a 
 citizen ; and while I acknowledge myself a partisan, I feel that 
 this cause is too sacred to bcl made a partisan use of. 
 
m 
 
 I would avoid shedding one more drop of blood if it is possi- 
 ble, and I know of no way of accomplishing that so surely as 
 by presenting frankly to the people of the whole country " the 
 true and real, and growing sentiments " which you have to-day 
 heard. 
 
 The direct foes of the South are they who for political and 
 party ends are crying " peace, peace, " when there is scarcely 
 an interval of truce. Yes, when you can lull the howling tem- 
 pest with an infant's breath, then will peace come between free- 
 dom and slavery. 
 
 While I deplore the death of John Brown, I believe that the 
 
 event will be sanctified to the people of this country. I am a 
 
 believer in the atonement ; in the eternal atonement of the 
 
 good for the bad, and the purer, the grander, and the holier 
 
 the sacrifice, the more lasting will be the result. Well has 
 
 the poet said : 
 
 " They never fail who die in a great cause. 
 
 The block may soak their gore, 
 
 Their heads may sodder in the sun, 
 
 Their limbs be strung on city gates and castle walls. 
 
 Though years elapse and others share as dark a doom, 
 
 They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts 
 
 Which overpower all others, 
 
 And conduct the world at last to freedom. " 
 
 I trust that our sacrifice is made ; but I have little hope 
 that we shall not see our country convulsed by the flow of the 
 fraternal blood of her children ; there is no way to avoid it but 
 by the absolute and devoted adherence to the truth by the peo- 
 ple of the North ; they have this great cause in their own hands ; 
 they are capable, by moral means, of abolishing slavery in 
 this country ; abolition will cure the evil, and if this course 
 is not taken it will come to a struggle between the two sys- 
 tems, slavery and freedom, and the result would be the ex- 
 tinction of slavery in a bloody conflict. There is no avoid- 
 ance of this but in the repentance of the nation. 
 
 Fellow citizens, I have wished that no imputation should 
 rest on this meeting that should impair its usefulness. I say 
 solemnly before you, that if I had known John Brown and he 
 had asked my advice— though it might have been of little con- 
 sequence — I would have said, forbear ; you are doing what will 
 
31 
 
 result in no good to you ; but to use the language of the poet 
 again : 
 
 " Our indiscretions soraetimes serve us well, 
 
 Wiien our deep plots do fail^; 
 
 There is a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 
 Rough-hew them as we will. " 
 
 Total as is the failure of John Brown in the ends which he 
 contemplated, still the work he has accomplished has called the 
 attention of the public to a deeper consideration of the great 
 question which is now engaging every mind in the nation. 
 
 Yes, fellow citizens. Harper's Ferry is but the echo of the 
 shrieks for Kansas. If the slave power persists in its oft-re- 
 peated purpose of extending slavery into free territorj^, and of 
 otherwise making itself the dominant force in the government 
 it will provoke a recurrence of such or similar scenes with very 
 different and to them more disastrous results. The plao-ue of 
 slavery has spread far enough, and stopped it must and will be 
 and it rests with the slaveholders whether they will confine 
 their institution to the States where slavery now exists, or ac- 
 cept the consequences of their own aggressive policy. The 
 choice is in their hands. May they elect wisely ; but in what- 
 ever form the conflict may come, freedom is sure of final vic- 
 tory. 
 
 When Mr. Davis had concluded, the following preamble and 
 resolutions were read by the President, and passed unanimous- 
 
 ly :- 
 
 Whereas, John Brown has cheerfully risked his life in endeav- 
 oring to deliver those who are denied all rights, and cut off from the 
 hopes of manhood by the statutes of slavery, and is this day doomed 
 to suffer death for his efforts in behalf of those who have no helper • 
 Therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That, while we most decidedly disapprove the methods 
 he adopted to accomplish his objects, yet in his strong love for free- 
 dom, in his heroic spirit, in his fidelity to his convictions, in his faith 
 in righteousness and in his God, in his dignified bearing, whether ly- 
 ing prostrate in the court room, spurning all unwarrantable means to 
 procure his acquittal, or confined within the cell to await his ap- 
 proaching execution, and in his willingness to die in aid of the great 
 cause of human freedom, we still recognize the qualities of a noble 
 nature and the exercise of a spirit which true men have always ad- 
 mired and which history never fails to honor. 
 
 Resolved, That his wi'ongs and bereavements in Kansas, occasion- 
 ed by the violence and brutality of those who were intent on the pro- 
 pagation of slavery in that Territory, call for a charitable judgment 
 
^2 
 
 upon his recent efforts in Virginia to undermint 
 which he had suffered, and commend his family t ^ 
 thy and aid of all who pity sufferinj; and reverence justice. 
 
 Resolved, That the deep and wide-spread terror among the sup- 
 porters of slavery, aroused by this handful of earnest men who were 
 seeking the deliverance of the slave, shows how general and deep is 
 the sense of insecurity and danger which the despotism of slavery be- 
 gets, and furnishes a reason for the most prompt and earnest efforts 
 to remove the cause of these perils by doing complete justice to the 
 slave, and so disarming his resentment. 
 
 Resolved, That as liberty is the inalienable right of all men, it can 
 be no real crime for him who is unjustly deprived of freedom to seek 
 deliverance by all wise and moral means, and it is only a fulfilment of 
 the golden rule given by Christ, to aid the fugitive in fleeing from op- 
 pression by any methods involving no moral wrong. 
 
 Resolved, That the fact that resolute and estimable men are willing 
 to risk, life even in unwise efforts for the freedom of the American 
 slave, shows that a slave-holding State must always be in peril, and 
 that the anti-slavery sentiment is becoming ripe for resolute action. 
 
 Resolved, That we find in this fearful tragedy at Harper's Ferry 
 a reason for more earnest effort to remove the evil of slavery from 
 the whole land as speedily as possible ; that the oppressor and the 
 oppressed alike may be delivered from both the crime and the conse- 
 quences of sustaining such an anomoly in a free government, such an 
 incubus upon national energy, such a barrier to true civilization, such 
 a foe to the highest interests of man, and such a scandal upon the re- 
 ligion which Christ has taught us to revere. 
 
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