e45 \ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 012 027 499 5 • pH8J T n E ^. EXECUTION OF JOHN BROWN; A DISCOURSE, Delivered at Chicago, December 4th, 1859, IN THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. BY REV. AV. A\^. R^TTON. CHICAGO: OHURCH, GOODMAN k GUSHING, NEWSPAPER, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, 51 and C3 X>a Salle Street. THE EXECUTION OF JOHN BROWN. JoAn 12: 25. — "Verily, verily I aay unto you, except a oorn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth ulone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." By tlie use of a .striking analogy, Jesiis draws attention to tlie fact, tliat a man's death may be productive of the most be- neficial results to the cau.se with which he is identified — nay, not only so, but that the power of a man's death may reduce his previous life to a mere cypher. A grain of wheat, " abiding alone," though for never so many years, of what value is it? There is no coin small enough to buy it. It is too dimin\Uive to avail for food. No storage in the pp-anary will in- crease the bulk. In its j)resont form it is in fact ))erfeCtly useless. ]5ut lot it come under sentence of death, to be cast forth as a vile nnd des]>icable thing; at the proper season, make a grave for it in the earth, and hide it out of sight inthr damp ground ; there let it lie neglected, till it bursts asunder and is seemingly destroy- ed ; and what have you done? Reduced it to nothing, or to the nu-re dust of de- cay ? Nay, verily. You have made it a thing of power. You have multiplied it fifty fold. From its bursting heart issues a tender shoot that seeks the air and sim, and that crowns itself at last with the beaj-ded head that teems with grain. And were that head of wheat dealt with in like manner, the process would need to be re- peated but a few tiiiu's, to spread before the gladdened eye a glorious harvest field, from which the toiling f:irnier would draw his wealth and hungeritig thousands their bread. And so Christ would have us under- stand, that ft man who dies for the truth, who yields himself as a sacrifice for a righteous cause, is so far from perishing thereby out of all influence, that he actu- ally multiplies his power a thousand fold ; that, paradoxical ;is the assertion may be, he then only begins to live. He offered himself a-s the chief illustration of the tnith ; for he prefaced the declaration with the words, " The liour is come that the Son of man should be glorified." And lest any of his disciples should mistak« his m<'aning, nor once associate the idea of "glorv" with an ignominious executiom as a malefactor, he added the text to show how death might ojicrate to .set upon a man the seal of honor and power. It is quite needless, when eighteen centuries have accumulated the evidence, for me to point out the verification of Christ's pre- dictive remark concerning himself If proof were desired, it would be sufticient to take the word cross, once the synonpTi of shame and now that of glory, once the representative of weakness even unto death, but now the symbol of power and of endless life ; and the change owing isimply to the fact that on the cross the murdered Jesus breathed his last breath ! Satan was fool enough to suppose that a grain of wheat perished when it was planted ! He thought he had secured the world's ruin when he had ci'ucified its Re- deemer, and behold he had unwittingly accomplished its salvation ! But let it not be imagined that Christ meant to restrict the application of the text to himself, because he was the high- est illustration of the truth which it ex- pressed, or because his death sustained a peculiar relation to the world. Not only is the language general antl as it were proverbial, but in the following verse he expressly leads each reader to make a personal application of it, that we too may exercise its sublime faith and prepare, if Providence require, for the necessary sa- criiice ; saying, " He that loveth his life shall lose it ; and he that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal." No man can tell in what circumstances he may be placed in relation to the cause of truth, or when he may be called to choose between death and cowardice ; between the sacrifice of his own life and treason to God and humanity. As in every such case, a false expediency Avould fain per- suade us that it were folly and insanity to court death and thus to lose forever all opportunity to pi'omote the cause we love, Christ hastens to reassure our moral cour- age and sound judgment, by declaring that death in such circumstances is the highest testimony we can bear to the tnith, and that the grave when it closes over our lifeless remains, shall be but as the furrow when it has embosomed the seed. Under the Old Dispensation, when prin- ciples clothed themselves in rude forms, and God suffered men to be tauarht divine truths by harsh methods, such as were then necessary from the world's lack of mental and moral culture, Samson was the striking exemplification of this idea. He was a rough, uncouth, physical type of the grand thought that death may crown the deeds of life with a still vaster result. He was God's scourge of the Philistines, and under his stalwart arm many an un- circumcised oppressor of God's people bit the dust. But at last, and by his own folly too, they had him in prison ; they put out his eyes ; they bound his feet with fetters of brass, and his power seemed to have departed forever. " The lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god and to rejoice ; for they said, ' Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.' And when the people saw him, they praised their god ; for they said, ' Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy and the destroyer of our country, who slew many of us.' " The grand temple of Dagqp was filled with three thousand men and women assembled to exult over Samson, when with a prayer to God for aid, the cajitive hero seized the main colunms which supported the building and bowed forward "with all his might. The support gave way, the mas- sive edifice fell with a crash upon the mocking oppressors, and the inspired pen- man records this significant sentence : — " So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life." Madman! fanatic! suicide! shout the pale conservatives, as they contem- plate the scene ; but the autlior of the epistle to the Hebrews places the name of Samson on the list of the worthies who •' obtained a good report through faith,^'' and, ^'■\fho, through faith subdued king- doms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turn- ed to tiigliL till- anuicM of the alifiib." — That was the most imprcHBivt' mode of inHtruotion in that barbaric ai^i', ami por- haps it woro not too iniu-h to say, that even now, when men by their vices, cherish the barbaric spirit, and when na- tions in tlieir crimes show that the mild in- fluence of Christianity has not civilized them, God will insert in their history acha))- ter out of the Old Tef^tament, ami will raise up a Samson tojbe their instructor in morals. When a tew more centuries had rolled by, the illustrations of the truth which we are considering assumed the forju of mar- tyrdoms. Pro])het8 were slain by incens- ed kinjTS for their faithful ])olitical j)reach- ing, and bequeathed their nu-mories and princij)les as a rich legacy to the nation and the world. Then, as introductorj- to the Savior, came John the IJa])tist, with his brief but powerful ministry, which (by consulting worldly prudence and pre- serving the favor of Herod, which was at first accorded to Inm) he might have pro- longed, at least in its outward form to old age. But he was a ripe seed to be best used by being j)lanted ; and so, with full faith in the doctrine of the text, he ])er- sisted in "ruining his influence" by re- buking the crimes of the king, and met a violent death, and God immortalized his example by giving it a place in the Uible, where it lias been a jjower in moulding the characters of millions for eighteen centuries. Next canu' the illustrious vic- tory of the cross, in which Christ veritie«l his own declaration that death sows the seed of a jueasureless harvest, and then follows the long procession of Christian martyrs, from Stephen to om* own times, the result of whose suflerings and deaths has been so uniform as to give rise to the familiar proverb, '' The blood of the mar- tyrs is the seed of the church." And the principle has held true even beyond its strictly religious illustrations, histor)- teach- ing us that the victims who perish in thr* first stages of resistanoe to any form of wrong and outrage in the world, do not die in vain, nor is their intiuence diminish- ed but rather increased by their heroic sacrifice. The sword and the axe have often proved to be the jdoughshares that turned the furrow in which the madness of oppressors unwittingly planted^the seed of subsequent revolutions, which under the sunshine of a favoring Providence, ripened into human deliverance. And now let us inquire by what meth- ods death becomes even more fruitful than life. l*rincipally by two: 1. It com])els attention to the grand ])oint at issue. Death is too solemn ar event to jiass without notice, even in il^ ordinary private occurrence. ' Hut wh«r: it comes publicly, by order of the rulers, or in the violent rage of the people, it ar- rests universal attention. The inquiry i^ heard from every lij), Why is this? What has the man doneV How did he forfeit his life ? Then ensue statement jind counter statement, accusation and defence, argtunent and appeal. At first those who sufler for the truth will be over- whelmed with obloquy; »br tlu-y belong to the aj)pareutly insignificant niinority, against wh»^m is an almost universal out- cry, i Jut, under (iod's blessing, Iruth wiU gradually clear itseH' from the nii.sts of prejudice and passion. That men should be found willing to die for their principles, argues . t leas> honesty and heroism on their part, and an electrifying power in their peculiar belief The object for which they shed their blood must seem to them to be noble and unspeakably important; may it not really be that they are contend- ing for a sublime truth, or exposing a deadly error, or resisting an insufferable outrage? Such suspicions, leading to investigation, soon ripen into convic- tion in intelligent and thoughtful minds, and sjiread thence to others under their 6 influence, till a general change of opinion is secured. Thus the mere fact of mar- tyrdom occasions inquiry and discussion such as no amoimt of ordinary conversa- tion or preaching would secure. 2. But perhaps a still more potent influ- ence is, the direct contagion of the spirit and example of the martyrs. The heart naturally responds to deeds of heroism. We adnjire bravery even in a bad cause ; we are touched with syra})athy and re- spect for fortitude even where it is sus- tained by fanaticism. Hence all experi- ence proves, that there is no surer way to propagate errror and delusion than to per- Becute its advocates. These may gain through sympathy for their suflerings what they would foil to secure by their ar- guments. If then, men die for the truth ; if in their last moments they give utter- ance to sentiments which, piercing through the outward armor of law and custom, appeal directly to the conscience ; if they manifest a spirit of faith in God and love to man, and show that they act from no selfish considerations, but from high mor- al principle; if their dying declara- tions elicit a response from the noblest instincts of the human breast; there will be a contagion in their character and deeds which no power on earth or in hell can nullify. Their very looks and tones will beget conviction among the spectators ; their lofty bearing and spirit of self-sacrifice will pass, as by inspiration, into the noble natures ainon^ those who witness their death; their last utterances will be caught up with reverent devotion, carried as on the Aviiigs of the wind to the most distant places, and adopted as the Avatch-words of future generations; and their graves will be as the altars of religion, to which men will come to put themselves and their children under oaths of eternal hatred to falsehood and crime. This, it is well known, was the ef- fect of the heathen persecutions directed against the early Christians. Such was the faith, purity, meekness and fortitude of the sufferers, that converts multiplied at every martyrdom, and ere long, death so lost its accustomed terror, and the scaf- fold and stake become so ennobled by the precious blood which had stained them, that new disciples avowed themselves amid the multitude in the very courts and at the place of execution, and vied with each other in claiming the martyr's fate and crown. Thus was death more fruit- ful than life. I need not dwell longer upon the gen- / eral principle announced in our text. You have already anticipated the application which the events of the past week would suggest, and to which I Avould now direct attention, only premising, that such are the relations of the question which they raise, that it becomes us both as citizens and as christians to consider carefully the posi- tions which we may assume. On Friday, the second of December, in this the year of our Lord, eighteen hund- red and fifty-nine, at Charlestown, in the State of Virginia, John Brown was pub- licly executed on the gallows, by the au- thorities of that State. No execution has ever excited so much interest in this country, or given rise to such conflicting opinions. There is no dispute as to what John Brown actually did ; there is a wide difl*erence of judgment as to the moral character of his conduct. That we may i-each a calm and considerate conclusion, let us notice separately the man and his deeds ; and the latter first. John Brown was executed for alleged treason against the State of Virginia, for endeavoring to excite an insurrection among the slaves, and for murder. As the charge of murder was not based on any- thing that usually bears that name, but on acts more nearly parallel to deaths caused in war, and as the killing was incidental to the prosecution of his other plans and occurred while defending himself tluMLiii, stnal. made 'rtundry prij^oiiers, wa« Hur- we need not dwell upon it sepiuatt-ly. — | roundt'd^l'V troops, defendu])lie(l with victims by incessant wars between the tribes; the prisoners being regularly enslaved and then retained in the country or sold to the traders. Slave- ry is thus perpetuated captivity, as when a few years since, the Algermes reduced their white captives to slavery. The slaves have therefore a perfect right to do what other captives have a right to do; what any oppressed nation has a right to do. They may resort, in a body, to revolution, if peaceable measures are in vain, and if they have any reasonable prospect of success ; that is, provided they can act unitedly with sufficient intelligence and courage, and with adequate resources of attack, defence and subsistence. This will not be denied by any who defend the course of our own fathers, or who be- lieve in the right of revolution on the pcyrt of communities. If they were to do this, I see not but that it would be as proper for others to go to theii- aid, as it was for Lafayette to come from France to assist our struggling fathers. Yea, more may be true. If it were previously certain that they had sufficient resources and were prepared to rise and successfully take and defend their rights, provided a leader could be secured from abroad, or a small body of effective auxiliaries could aid them at the first and most perilous moment, it would be difficult to prove wrong upon those who should supply this single deficiency. Indeed if it was right for the civiHzed world to mterfere by force of ^i-ms to put an end to the oppression practiced in the Barbary States, or if French intervention would be right in the Papal States, it would not be easy to show that there would be Avrong in the forcible release of the slaves in the United States by civihzed nations that should have the power. But where no such prospect of success exists, mere in- dividual enterprises, or small combinations for violent resistance, are inexpedient and wrong, being condemned by sound reason and by the explicit teaching of the Scrip- tures. Those Avho in such case " take the sword " must, as our Lord warned Peter in similar circumstances, expect to "per- ish by the sword. " If the slave cannot effect a quiet and peaceable escape, as Paul, with the assist- ance of the disciples, did from Damascus, he must subniit ])atiently to the wrong, must be mdustrious, honest and meek, must endeavor to conciliate the favor and promote the good of the master, and must thus recoinmend the religion of Jesus and lighten as far as possible the burdens of himself and fellows. This was the uni- form advice and coramaird of the apostles, opposed though they were to slavery. — See Ep. 6 : 5-8, Colos. 3 : 22-25. 1 . Tim. _^ 9 6 : 1-5, 1. Pet. 2 : 1 8-20. And thoflo from without who Kvmpathizo with the shive, lUUHt be tjovenied hy the «:ime prineiple, abstaining from violence, and resorting to moral aiul veliixious means; ))rayer, |>reneh- ing, ])rinting ami the ballot box. The spirit of benevolence to all concerned re- quires this course. Judged by these oltviuus rulrs, ilie ex- l)edition of John Hmwri into the Slate of Virginia cannot be jrstitietl, whether it were for insurrection, or for the forcible abduction of slaves. Not that slavery is right, or slave law at all valid, or a slave- holding government, so far fort/i, any- thing more than organized ]»iracy; but only that the tendency of such enterprises is to beget universal bitterness of feeling, to add to the suflerings of the slaves, to create new obstacles in the way of those who are seeking their [toaceful emancipa- tion, to cause the useless deatli of many individuals and to end in disastrous fail- ure. The slaves of our land, however nnicli more oj^pressed than our fathers, have not their means of successful revolution, nor even those which were enjoyed by their own kindred in St. Domingo. They are vastly outnumbered by the white ])0]»ula- tion,arewithoutarms, are uniliseiplined, ig- norant, without nnitual understanding, des- titute of money or resources of any kind, and unfit, therefore, for revolutionary en- terprises, except to co-operate with a powerful invading .inny. Indeed the best indication of good sense which they have ever given, was in their refusing to unite in John Brown's rash undertaking. It were well if their prudence could be im- itated by those who sympathize with them. Gordlan knots are not always to be cut by the sword. No one has a right to sac- rifice hiniseli' ov others in mad enter- prises. And then it must be remembered, that though thus powerless for good, an insur- rection of tho slaves would be mighty for evil. They eould not indeed conquer the whites in war, but nmst ultinnitely, with out powerful help from abroalood runs cold. And can we take any delight in such a prospect ?4- Does it offer any hope to humanity, and promise a blessing t<) the worhl superior to that whieh could be secured by peace- ful and religious means? Were it not infinitely better to secure national repent- ance, and the consent cU" all sections and classes to emancipation? I cannot sympa- thize, then, with any jiroject which looks to a servih' insurrection. It would not benefit the slave, and it would be a hell on earth to the whites. Jt is not the way of Christiajiity, but of blind passion and dia- bolical revenge. John Brown's expedition, therefore, if it wa.s tainted witl. such a design, (which he denies and I think tnithfully,) or if it legitimately tended in that direction, is only lo be condemned. We have not yet exhausted peaceful measures; indeed, (I say it to our shame,) we have scareelv h\'n a murderer ! Next we must call to mind what Amer- ican slavery is, in all its vileness and in all its audacity, and what must have been the feelings of such a man as John Brown, when he had meditated iipon its outrages for years, had seen its power increasing, had long identified himself with the near- ly four millions of its victims, and in view of the apathy of the church and the greed of the slaveholders, had come to despair of its peaceful tei*mination. Said Edmxmd Burke, in one of his noted speeches, when apologizing for any undue warmth of ex- pression, " Something must be pardoned to the spirit of liberty." We can aflTord to be lenient towards extreme action against American slavery, when we re- member that John Wesley pronounced it to be " the vilest beneath the sun," and when we think how at times its atrocities have made our own blood boil in our veins, and it seemed as though we must arm at once and rush to the relief of the op- pressed. And to this again we must add the peculiar experience and training which John Brown had in Kansas, and for which he was indebted to the slaveholding States and the Federal Government. It was in Kansas that he learned to use anns against slavery, and those arms were taken up in defence of the friends of freedom against the lawless and unprovoked violence of the slaveholders who invaded the territo- ry from the neighboring State of Missou- ri in armed bands, seized upon the ballot boxes, imposed a fraudulent legislature and a tyrannical code of laws, and deter- mined to force slavery upon that fair do- main contrary to the wiU of the people. When driven to resistance by the robber- ies, arsons and murders of the slavehold- ers, his own son having been cruelly slain by them, and when under his lead the war had been successfully tunied against those 11 who ooniraenced it, is it singular Uiat John > ijuineaiiiU-ly hcikc the United States ar»e Brown ehould have judged that as the shiveholders had appeak-d to anus, he might justly try them licreatler at their chosen tribunal antl press thi'in with tlu-ir own weapons ? If his attention was turn- ed in the wrong direction, in the choice of means wherewith to combat slavery, who were his teachers and who is resi)onsible for hi8 progress in the school of arms? Nor must we forget, in this connection, the stimulus that such a conception wouhl receive from the numerous " filibuster ex- peditions and slave-trade ventures of the South. If public meetings could be held and newspapers printed, to advocate pi- racy in two ditterent forms, though both in the interest of slavery, and the State and Federal governments connive at the same, does it manifest a remarkable ilete- rioration of morals, that John Brown came to the conclusion that what could be done for slavery might e^iually be done for free- dom? that on the homoDopathic principle that " like cures like," those who favored tilibuster expeditions to Cuba and Central America, might be cured by a similar ex- pedition to " extend the area of freedom" in Virginia? Yes, in Virginia, of all other States, the home of Henry and Washington and Jefferson — the State that has for its broad seal the representation of a freeman trampling on the prostrate body of an oppressor, with tin- motto above, " iSlc 'semper tyrannU P' — " Thus may it always be to tyrants !" And from whoni but from slaveholders did John Brown obtain the suggestion of the leading feature of his enterprise ? Did not the Missoin-ians, on their way to in- vade Kansas, break open the public arsenal nal at Harper's Ferry and not allow it to remain in tUe possession of the Federai government? "No doubt this was the hint that led to the enterprise that has resulted so disastrously ; and within a few vitlx any party that might promise liberty. His own success previously in Kansas may have blinded him to the difficulties of this new scheme, so that it appeared to h.m benevolent and feasible in all its aspects. And then once more — who can tell how much secret faith he may have had in in- terventions of Providence in his behalf as the (leliverer of the oppressed. His mind was just of the cast to imagine this, direct descenuant as he was of the Pilgrims, from the old May Flower stock, and kindred to the men who followed Cromwell, " trust- ing in God and keeping their powder drv." He seems to have ha that has read the *' Prison ^leditations," of Juhn Bunyan will not be reminded of ilu- par "Art I believe mo(ii kept to his determination not to tell Delilah wherein his great strength lay, he Would probably never have overturned the house. 1 (lid m)t tell Delilah, but I was induced to act very <-