JOHN BROWN, 
 
 AN ESSAY BY HERMANN VON HOLST. 
 
JOHN BROWN. 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. HERMANN VON HOLST, 
 
 PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FREIBURG, IN BADEN. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 FRANK PRESTON STEARNS. 
 
 BOSTON 
 CUPPLES AND KURD, PUBLISHERS 
 
Copyright, 1888, 
 
 BY CUPPLES AND HURD. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
When souls reach a certain clearness of percep 
 tion, they accept a knowledge and motive above 
 selfishness. A breath of will blows eternally through 
 the universe of souls in the direction of the Right 
 and Necessary. It is the air which all intellects in 
 hale and exhale, and it is the wind which blows the 
 world into order and orbit. J?. W. Emerson. 
 
 Alas for the man who knows no " higher law/ 
 who holds himself in such absolute obedience to any 
 power of governor or government on earth that he is 
 not ready to listen when the demands of his own 
 character say to him " disobey ! " Alas for the man 
 who thinks even the facts of Nature his inevitable 
 masters, who will not believe in his power to over 
 come them, even though it be by undergoing them, 
 who will not rush through fire, though it burn, through 
 water, though it drown, to do the work which his 
 soul knows that it must do ! Phillips ftrooks. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 r I ^HE late attacks upon the memory of John 
 Brown having aroused me to a sense of 
 the danger which might result from them, a 
 danger not only to that hero but to all heroism 
 in the future, I looked about for some means 
 by which their baneful influence might be coun 
 teracted. Fortunately I found close at hand an 
 honest and sympathetic account of him by a 
 German writer who has within the last few years 
 achieved the highest rank as an authority on 
 American history, recognized alike by liberal 
 and conservative as an impartial judge of our 
 public affairs. Not being in sufficiently good 
 health to make a translation of this myself, I 
 obtained the assistance for that purpose of Mr. 
 Philippe Marcou, an excellent philologist of 
 Cambridge; and I believe that his version of 
 Professor von Hoist s essay will be found as 
 
iv Preface. 
 
 nearly literal and accurate as is possible, con 
 sidering the differences of idiom between the 
 two languages. It is not always possible to 
 render Von Hoist s vigorous and comprehensive 
 sentences into smoothly flowing English, and if 
 the translator has anywhere sacrificed an elegant 
 diction in order to reproduce the full sense of 
 the original, the reader will doubtless decide 
 that he has done rightly. 
 
 Such a writer is no creature of a day ; and I 
 have no fear but that his opinion of John 
 Brown s life and death will be the one which 
 future generations of Americans will accept. 
 No rude hand will ever again reach high enough 
 to pull down this record of his fame. The hos 
 tile shafts of the so-called realist will do him as 
 little harm as the malign sympathy of the an 
 archist, or the indifference of the historical 
 pedant. 
 
 The essay, however, is so closely connected 
 with Von Hoist s great work on the political 
 and constitutional history of our country that 
 I considered it advisable to prepare an intro 
 duction to it, in which to give some brief ac 
 count of that history and the mental attitude of 
 
Preface. v 
 
 the writer toward it. This is not so much an 
 abstract of the book (which would have been 
 too difficult an undertaking for me), as a com 
 pendium of my own impressions after reading 
 it. I felt that before considering John Brown 
 himself some statement was required of the 
 social and ethical problem which he under 
 took to solve, and through an understanding of 
 which we find, in turn, the solution of his own 
 character. 
 
 At the suggestion of my friends, I have pub 
 lished in an appendix a vindication of the char 
 acter of John Brown from the principal charges 
 which have within the last few years been 
 brought against him, as well as some remarks 
 on the bust of him by Brackett, from which the 
 frontispiece in this volume is taken, and the 
 account of a visit to the grave of John Brown, < 
 written by a distinguished member of the 
 medical profession. 
 
 THE EDITOR. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION ll 
 
 JOHN BROWN. AN ESSAY BY HERMANN VON 
 
 HOLST 55 
 
 THE FLOODS. BY D. A. WASSON . . . . i?9 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 REMARKS ON THE JOHN BROWN BUST . . 185 
 
 REMARKS ON THE JOHN BROWN MEDAL . . 189 
 
 A VISIT TO THE GRAVE OF JOHN BROWN . 197 
 
 UNFRIENDLY CRITICISM OF JOHN BROWN . 204 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
I^BBIIY] 
 
 ^^iiFOWj^P 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 TTISTORIANS may be divided into 
 three classes. Firstly is the rhetor 
 ical school, represented by Macaulay and 
 Bancroft, who aim at producing a striking 
 impression ; secondly, there is the artistic 
 school, to which Voltaire and Carlyle be 
 long, writers of great dramatic effect; and 
 finally, what may be called the scientific 
 school, those historians who only attempt 
 to tell the plain facts in the simplest way, 
 and give whatever explanation for them 
 seems most probable. The difference be 
 tween the first and the second is like the 
 difference between the play-writer and the 
 dramatic poet ; the difference between 
 the second and third is like that between 
 
1 2 Introduction. 
 
 * 
 
 the stage and the court-room. Of the 
 latter class there has been during the 
 present century no more conspicuous ex 
 ample than Dr. Hermann von Hoist, 
 professor of constitutional history in the 
 University of Freiburg in Baden, Ger 
 many, or, as it is sometimes called, Frei 
 burg in the Black Forest. 
 
 In one sense Americans are the most 
 cosmopolitan of people, for they travel 
 everywhere and make themselves at home 
 wherever they go. On the other hand 
 Frenchmen travel but little, and the Eng 
 lish commonly carry their island about 
 with them, as a tortoise carries his shell on 
 his back. But in another sense the Ger 
 mans are the most cosmopolitan people, 
 because they are the only people who take 
 pains to obtain a clear and unprejudiced 
 knowledge of other nations. The Prus 
 sian staff in 1870 knew more about the 
 military condition of France than did 
 
Introduction. 13 
 
 Napoleon III., or probably any one of 
 his subordinates. German newspapers 
 are much better judges of English politics 
 than French or American papers are, and 
 predict more correctly in regard to Orien 
 tal politics than the English press is able 
 to. When Garfield was assassinated, the 
 " Berlin Post " said, " His life is a sacri 
 fice to the cause of good government;" and 
 this was the only gleam of light which came 
 to us from Europe in that dark period. 
 When Alaska was purchased from Russia, 
 a book on that country was immediately 
 published in Germany from which one 
 might suppose that the author had been 
 studying the subject all his life, so thor 
 ough and exhaustive was it. About the 
 time that Sainte-Beuve had concluded that 
 German literature was coming to an end, 
 Von Ranke was writing his " History of the 
 Popes," and Mommsen preparing for his 
 " History of Rome," both unsurpassed in 
 
1 4 Introduction. 
 
 their way. In the last century, Lessing and 
 Goethe set such a bright example of high- 
 minded impartiality in literature that their 
 country-men could not but follow in the 
 same path. As a sort of natural reaction, 
 one sometimes meets with individual Ger 
 mans who are the most bigoted and pro 
 vincial of men, unwilling to discover virtue 
 or excellence in any country or time but 
 their own ; but these do not represent cul 
 tivated Germany. Professor von Hoist 
 represents it a great deal better. In his 
 great work called, " The Constitution and 
 Democracy of the United States of Amer 
 ica," 1 he has given us a history so sympa 
 thetic and yet so impartial, so clear and 
 yet so profound, so painstaking and accu 
 rate in details, and yet of such broad vision 
 and correctness of logic, as probably no 
 citizen of one nation has ever before writ- 
 
 1 Verfassung und Demokratie der Verein-Staaten von 
 Amerika. Von Dr. H. von Hoist, Dtisseldorf. 
 
Introduction. 15 
 
 ten of another. Other European books 
 on America, French and English, have a 
 certain strangeness about them, we read 
 them as if we were reading of a foreign 
 country, but H. von Hoist is native to the 
 soil. He is at the same time friendly and 
 inexorably just. He does not even suffer 
 from that bias of impartiality which tries 
 to balance opposing elements too nicely 
 and produces an effect of indifference or 
 indecision. He is a disinterested spec 
 tator, but by no means a cold one. Not 
 too easily do we discover the character of 
 the writer in his work ; but at length it 
 shines clearly forth from the pages, his 
 sincerity, his earnestness, his love of sim 
 plicity, his determination to bring order 
 and truth out of the confusion and men 
 dacity of party politics ; above all, his 
 respect for virtue, admiration of true great 
 ness, and contempt for inflated pretension. 
 We feel no little sympathy for him when 
 
1 6 Introduction. 
 
 we consider what a multitude of speeches 
 he has been obliged to read, what long 
 files of newspapers to hunt through, be 
 sides pamphlets, legal evidence, and other 
 stuff, all in a language foreign to him ; a 
 sort of w r ork which is like weeding a 
 flower-garden where the weeds are large 
 and numerous, and the flowers small and 
 far between. Most notable is the respect 
 in which he is held by the legal profession 
 of our country. 
 
 A man of keen moral sense, even if 
 narrow-minded, will usually be found on 
 the right side of any public question. A 
 broader mind which sees both sides pretty 
 clearly often becomes indecisive on that 
 account ; while the man of full mental 
 breadth who perfectly comprehends his 
 subject is naturally a partisan of which 
 ever side has a better show of justice than 
 the other. Thus we find Von Hoist in 
 the five volumes of his history which have 
 
Introduction. 1 7 
 
 thus far been published in full sympathy 
 with the anti-slavery movement, which he 
 finds to have been the main element in 
 our political evolution. At the same time 
 he fully appreciates the position of the 
 South. As Sumner said, when one of his 
 friends pronounced a curse on Preston S. 
 Brooks, " You must not blame him, but 
 slavery ; he was the result of the institu 
 tion," so Von Hoist shows true human 
 sympathy for a community doomed by the 
 greed of the English commercial class to 
 run through a course of Tartarean horrors. 
 The forced importation of negroes into 
 the colonies led inexorably to the horrors 
 and desolation of a gigantic war. There 
 was no help for it ; individuals could have 
 acted differently, but a community is in 
 the hands of fate. Democracy and slavery 
 in the same government were like a lion 
 and a bear in the same cage ; both are 
 compelled to fight for self-preservation. 
 
1 8 Introduction. 
 
 For the Northern States to rid themselves 
 of this curse was not difficult, for their 
 economical conditions were not favorable 
 to it ; but in the Southern States it flour 
 ished as monstrous things only can in a 
 hot climate. It became the mainspring of 
 the Southerner s life. It ruled all his ac 
 tions and drove him forward in a course 
 from which he could not turn. It filled 
 his pockets, and made life comfortable for 
 him. It gave its own tone to his thought, 
 and its color to his actions. It produced a 
 rapid and superficial civilization which is 
 similar to the strength given by successive 
 doses of opium, the more we take of it 
 the more we have to, until we reach moral 
 and physical bankruptcy. When finally it 
 became a political lever, the evil increased 
 in geometrical ratio. 
 
 What made American slavery worse 
 than any previous form of it, was that in 
 a democracy the individual has more free- 
 
Introduction. 1 9 
 
 dom and is more irresponsible than under 
 other forms of government. This per 
 mitted every Southern planter to be an 
 autocrat on his own estate, with the pos 
 sibility always of his becoming a sort of 
 Nero. The central government could 
 pass no laws regulating slavery outside 
 of the District of Columbia, nor could the 
 President of the United States protect the 
 negro from the fury of his master. The 
 governments of the Southern States were 
 in the hands of the slave-holders (Von 
 Hoist calls them the slavocracy), who nat 
 urally moulded the State laws in the in 
 terests of their class. Every planter was 
 more than a king, for he could put his 
 black subjects to death without even the 
 form of a court-martial. I have never 
 heard nor read that any American slave 
 owner was brought to justice for maltreat 
 ment of his slaves. There was virtually no 
 law which regulated the relation between 
 
2O Introduction, 
 
 master and slave ; whereas the Emperor 
 Claudius enacted that any slave exposed 
 by his master during sickness should be 
 considered free, and under the Antonines 
 the power of a Roman citizen to put his 
 slaves to death was abolished altogether. 
 In Athens also, slave-murder was held 
 to be a crime sometimes punishable with 
 death. The serfdom of the Middle Ages 
 can only be compared to American slavery 
 as claret may be compared to brandy. The 
 serfs were only serfs with respect to their 
 seigneurs ; by all other persons they were 
 to be treated like freemen. They could sue 
 in the courts and obtain justice, such as 
 it was in those days, and in extreme cases 
 of ill-treatment even against the seigneur 
 himself. They were attached to the land, 
 and their ownership could rarely be 
 transferred without it. Manumission was 
 frequent, both for industry and bravery. 
 Runaway serfs who escaped to a free city 
 
Introduction. 2 1 
 
 could not be reclaimed after the expiration 
 of a certain time. The Catholic Church, 
 in those days a pure fount of mercy, made 
 constant efforts to ameliorate their con 
 dition, and at length obtained their total 
 emancipation ; whereas in America the 
 Catholic clergy always supported the pro- 
 slavery ticket in, politics, and the whole 
 Christian Church in the Southern States 
 was a strong prop to the peculiar institu 
 tions there. 
 
 Perhaps a well-regulated serfdom for one 
 or two generations would have been the 
 best arrangement for the raw material when 
 first imported from Africa. It would have 
 served as the negro s apprenticeship to 
 civilization and trained him up in good 
 and useful ways. We all go through this 
 discipline as children, and why not also 
 the great child of the tropics ? the equa 
 torial grasshopper, as Theodore Parker 
 called him. But it is not in this way that 
 
2 2 Introduction . 
 
 human institutions are formed. Passion 
 and superstition unbalance their judgment ; 
 the pendulum swings ever from side to side. 
 We have first the Carolina slave code, and 
 within a few days Governor Moses and 
 universal negro suffrage. The theory that 
 white slavery was wrong, but black slavery 
 right, was a kind of bad logic with which 
 people stilled their consciences for two 
 hundred years, until at last the recoil set 
 in. It came to be seen more and more cer 
 tainly that the negro belonged to the great 
 human brotherhood, and though there was 
 a difference between a Zulu and a Saxon, 
 that it was not like the difference between 
 a man and a dog. Even in Jefferson s 
 time the Virginia negro had become a 
 fairly intelligent personage. Hamilton pro 
 posed to make soldiers of them and give 
 them their freedom in return for fighting 
 the British, a feasible plan, as has since 
 been proven. After the two races had 
 
Introduction. 23 
 
 become a good deal mixed, and a great 
 many slaves were to be found who owned 
 a quarter or only an eighth of negro de 
 scent, it required a still more forcible per 
 version of honest reasoning to believe that 
 all these were doomed by the curse upon 
 Ham. It was fairly sitting. upon the safety- 
 valve of one s conscience. A new and 
 most dangerous element was now intro 
 duced into the problem ; namely, the su 
 perior intelligence of these comparatively 
 white negroes. Instead of encouraging 
 this, laws were passed for the purpose 
 of repressing it. Among Roman slaves 
 mental ability was the common passport to 
 emancipation; but in our Southern States it 
 was more likely to lead to suspicion, harsh 
 treatment, and ultimate ruin. Von Hoist 
 mentions the slave code of Maryland as a 
 most disgraceful collection of legal enact 
 ments ; and the pro-slavery Constitution 
 which Missourians attempted to force upon 
 
24 Introduction. 
 
 Kansas would have done little discredit to 
 the Spanish Inquisition. 
 
 That in drafting the Constitution, slaves 
 should have been spoken of as " persons 
 held to labor" is curious enough ; but 
 what would some Italian or Hungarian 
 lawyer who only knew of America as a 
 place of immigration make out of such 
 a clause as this : The first clause of Sec 
 tion Nine, Article First says, 
 
 " The migration or importation of such 
 persons as any of the States now exist 
 ing shall think proper to admit, shall not 
 be prohibited by Congress prior to the 
 year one thousand eight hundred and 
 eight ; but a tax or duty may be imposed 
 on such importation, not exceeding ten 
 dollars for each person." 
 
 What American boy who now learns the 
 Constitution of his country in the public 
 schools could guess of his own wits what 
 this was intended for? I was formerly 
 
Introduction. 25 
 
 myself indebted to Justice Story for an ex 
 planation of it. He says, " This clause, as is 
 manifest from its language, was designed 
 solely to reserve to the Southern States 
 for a limited period the right to import 
 slaves." I do not think this is manifest 
 from its language. It is only manifest by 
 proving a negative ; manifest, because at 
 that time the clause could not refer to any 
 thing else. It could be applied equally 
 well now to the importation under contract 
 of free Croats or Italians to labor at a 
 specified price. Why, therefore, this am 
 biguity ? Why not call a slave a slave, as 
 well as a spade a spade ? In a national 
 constitution, if anywhere, language should 
 be clear, explicit, and unmistakable. Did 
 then the wise framers of our government 
 make use of such terms in deference to 
 popular prejudices ? Was it in deference 
 to the prejudices of the North, or to the 
 prejudices of the South ? Sumner said 
 
26 In (reduction . 
 
 that it was because our noble ancestors 
 were unwilling to have the Constitution 
 appear to support slavery or for the na 
 tional government to recognize slavery, and 
 brings good evidence to support his plea. 
 Is it not also an evidence of shame, a con 
 sciousness of wrong, acquiesced in also by 
 the representatives of slave-holding States ? 
 We may infer this from Jefferson s cele 
 brated utterance on the subject, " Indeed, 
 I tremble for my country when I reflect 
 that God is just." Thus, from the cradle 
 was our nation possessed of a guilty con 
 science which became intensified with 
 time, but which developed itself very differ 
 ently in the two opposing sections. In the 
 Northern States it produced an ever increas 
 ing disgust of negro slavery and a sort of 
 religious belief that it was a curse upon 
 the national life, and contrary to divine 
 law, a belief inevitably tending to fanati 
 cism in ardent and impulsive natures. In 
 
Introduction. 27 
 
 the Southern States it led more and more 
 to an attempt at self-justification by spe 
 cious and sophistical reasoning, thus sub 
 verting man s moral consciousness and 
 resulting in that ugliest type of fanaticism 
 which is evolved from the worship of false 
 idols. Calhoun, as Von Hoist mentions, 
 proved himself a true prophet when he 
 warned his constituents that the greatest 
 danger to slavery would arise from the in 
 struction in Northern pulpits and school- 
 houses ; but he neglected to warn them 
 that no less a danger lay concealed in the 
 influence of their institutions upon them 
 selves, especially from the effort to just 
 ify what could never be morally justified. 
 Nothing is more pernicious either for an 
 individual or a community than the con 
 stant habit of self-justification. It subverts 
 the conscience, undermines character, and 
 leads from self-deception to self-delusion, 
 and that infatuation which, as ^schylus 
 
28 Introduction. 
 
 says, "has death for its fruits." The wise 
 way for the slave-holders would have been 
 to have avoided agitation, and in regard to 
 slavery to have rested their defence upon 
 a legal basis only. There were some who 
 perceived this and acted accordingly, but 
 the great majority proved the truth of 
 Hamilton s maxim 1 that man is more a 
 reasoning than a reasonable animal. What 
 to them was the outcry of the Abolitionists, 
 a handful of unknown people without posi 
 tion or influence ? Yet from the first day 
 they were enraged to fury by the accusa 
 tion that slavery was wrong. It was the still 
 small voice as Phillips afterwards said, 
 " it was the John Brown in every man s 
 conscience " which so alarmed them. 
 
 The Southerners, however, are not to be 
 blamed for the results of slavery, even for 
 its influence upon themselves, except so 
 
 1 Alexander Hamilton, and not the English metaphy 
 sician, who was perhaps an illustration of it. 
 
Introduction . 2 9 
 
 far as all of us are to blame for shirking 
 the plain obligations of the golden rule. 
 As long as cotton was king in the republic, 
 it is not likely that a co-operative move 
 ment for gradual emancipation would have 
 been successful. The tares were so im 
 bedded with the wheat that one could not 
 be eradicated without pulling up the other. 
 Calhoun was also quite right when he de 
 clared that the interests of the slave-holders 
 could not be trusted to legislators who 
 were not slave-holders, and that therefore 
 the South must acquire new territory and 
 new States to balance the rapidly increas 
 ing population of the North. It must 
 maintain a supremacy in the Union if it 
 was to remain part of the Union. That 
 supremacy once gone, slavery would go 
 with it, for an equality with free labor was 
 not possible. The best argument for a 
 protective tariff is that it creates a diver 
 sity of material interests. It is unfortu- 
 
30 Introduction. 
 
 nate for any country when one particular 
 interest in it predominates over all others, 
 as the commercial interest in England, 
 which has so often disturbed its relations 
 with semi-civilized nations, and so also the 
 offspring of its cupidity, African slavery in 
 the United States. The slave-holders as a 
 class are not therefore to be blamed, for 
 they were only puppets in the hands of 
 fate ; but those Southern politicians who 
 in disregard of the prophetic warnings of 
 Calhoun stirred up sectional hatred among 
 the masses so as to advance their own per 
 sonal ends, those Southern Congressmen 
 who persuaded their ignorant constituen 
 cies that the population of the free States 
 were mean-spirited, cowardly wretches, 
 " mudsills," scarcely better than vermin, 
 for them what condemnation can be too 
 severe ? The coarsest arts of the dema 
 gogue were made use of to intensify 
 provincial prejudices, and after a time it 
 
Introduction. 3 1 
 
 happened that the caucus orator who was 
 able to vilify the Northern people in the 
 most extravagant language (like the Loui 
 siana representative mentioned by Webster 
 in his oration of the seventh of March), 
 was the one surest to gain an election. 
 There were many in the Northern States 
 also who were unable to distinguish be 
 tween the wickedness of the institution and 
 the innocence of those to whom it was 
 an inheritance. There were some among 
 the Abolitionists who considered it a stain 
 upon the pure character of Washington 
 himself that he had been a slave-holder. 
 The anti-slavery people who would not vote 
 for Henry Clay in 1844 because he was a 
 slave-holder threw away the last chance of 
 preventing the annexation of Texas and 
 the extension of slavery in that direction. 
 Wendell Phillips afterward accused Web 
 ster and Clay of promoting the Mexican 
 War; whereas they were both as much op- 
 
3 2 Introduction . 
 
 posed to it as he was. Men of this class 
 were, however, sincere and free from per 
 sonal ambition, for the road to public 
 offices lay in the opposite direction. 
 
 The influence of slavery on American 
 political life is made beautifully clear by 
 Von Hoist in his minute painstaking man 
 ner. What he has not yet referred to, if I 
 remember rightly, is its effect in determin 
 ing the Southern character. The slave 
 holders, especially Virginians, possessed in 
 deed, some virtues which enabled them to 
 appear to Europeans in favorable contrast 
 with other Americans. Plantation life with 
 its tendency to indolence and prodigality, 
 also developed rare courage, self-reliance, 
 and a cheerful hospitality. No army ever 
 endured privations with less complaint or 
 fought more heroically in a good cause than 
 General Lee s army in a bad one. From 
 the soldier s point of view it was not a bad 
 cause. So after the war an equal heroism 
 
Introduction. 33 
 
 was shown by great numbers of Southern 
 ladies, who, educated in extreme luxury, 
 but now widowed, orphaned, their property 
 gone, cheerfully set themselves to earn 
 their own livelihood in whatever honest 
 way lay open to them. Nevertheless, South 
 ern culture before the war was not in har 
 mony with the spirit of our times. Jeffer 
 son has referred to that brutality which 
 was the moral reaction of slavery upon 
 the master ; but the possession of unlim 
 ited power over men, and especially over 
 women, engenders an equally pernicious 
 and almost insane arrogance. Abundant 
 instances of this are to be found in the 
 Congressional debates of thirty years ago, 
 and in Southern newspapers of the same 
 period. Mommsen seems to have been the 
 first, perhaps the only European who has 
 appreciated this fact, although there is a 
 hint of it in Thackeray s last novel. This 
 only can explain the fatal self-confidence 
 
 3 
 
 I rXlVPnein.^ T 
 
34 Introduction. 
 
 with which the slavocracy challenged to 
 war the greatly superior power of the free 
 States, seven millions against twenty, thus 
 verifying the old adage of a haughty spirit 
 to a degree never before known. By their 
 own violence and temerity the slave-holders 
 accomplished a revolution which might 
 otherwise have been deferred a hundred 
 years. Stephens of Georgia recognized 
 the fact afterward when he denominated 
 secession as a gigantic blunder. There 
 was no expectation of immediate, scarcely 
 of remote, emancipation among the masses 
 who first voted for Lincoln. In 1857 
 Mommsen wrote, " When once the slave- 
 holding aristocracy of Virginia and the 
 Carolinas shall have carried matters as far 
 as their congeners in the Sullan Rome, 
 Caesarism will there too be legitimized in 
 the view of the spirit of history ; " l and in 
 another passage, " All the arrant sins that 
 
 1 History of Rome, bk. v. ch. xi. 
 
Introduction. 35 
 
 capital has been guilty of in the modern 
 world against nationality and civilization, 
 remain as far inferior to the abominations 
 of the ancient capitalist States as the free 
 man, be he ever so poor, remains superior 
 to the slave ; and not until the dragon-seed 
 of North America ripens, will the world 
 have similar fruits to reap." 
 
 De Tocqueville in his bright but super 
 ficial book on democracy in America de 
 clines altogether to grapple with Southern 
 society and the slavery question ; yet that 
 was democratic also in its political machin 
 ery, and the most important factor in the 
 whole problem. Von Hoist, however, is no 
 compromiser, but seizes boldly upon his 
 subject. He finds slavery in a democratic 
 republic to be such a political inconsis 
 tency as could only end in violent revolu 
 tion ; and Thucydides never made a better 
 statement. Thomas Jefferson represented 
 in his own life these two contradictory 
 
36 Introduction. 
 
 sides, for he was the first notable anti- 
 slavery writer as well as the author of the 
 Southern gospel of secession, the Ken 
 tucky and Virginia Resolutions, which have 
 become so famous. He was at once a ro 
 mantic political theorist and the most skil 
 ful of party politicians. He drafted the 
 Declaration of Independence; but state 
 rights, the election of judges by ballot, the 
 substitution of metaphysical formulas for 
 true political consideration, even the use 
 of slander as a party weapon, may be said 
 to have originated with him also. Being 
 anchored to nothing firm or durable, he 
 floated with the current of his time, and 
 sympathized with every popular move 
 ment, 1 good or bad. What has been called 
 his happy optimism was his happy uncon 
 sciousness of this self-contradiction. 
 
 The seed sown in Jefferson s time sprang 
 
 1 The abolition of slavery was not a popular movement 
 in Virginia, but it was so in France. 
 
Introduction* 37 
 
 up in Jackson s, debasement of the civil 
 service ; monstrous defalcations ; shameful 
 violation of treaties and constitutional 
 rights ; and finally, nullification. It is in 
 his perfect comprehension of Jackson and 
 his times that Von Hoist shows himself 
 the great historian. The Seminole War 
 originated through slavery and consequent 
 ly made thousands of Abolitionists in the 
 free States. Inexorably as truth itself Von 
 Hoist traces, on one hand, the more and 
 more fruitless efforts at compromise be 
 tween slavery and free labor, and on the 
 other, those dark conspiracies and fraudu 
 lent acts by which the slavocracy frantically 
 sought to maintain its grasp upon the cen 
 tral government. The recovery of a few 
 hundreds of fugitive slaves from the Semi- 
 noles is said to have finally cost as many 
 millions as either of Napoleon s Austrian 
 campaigns. The acquisition of Texas he 
 calls the Nessus-shirt in which slavery 
 
38 Introduction. 
 
 was strangled. President Polk probably 
 thought by taking George Bancroft into 
 his cabinet to cover up his knavish prac 
 tices and appear to posterity in a favorable 
 light; but he did not count upon Von 
 Hoist, who exposes the villany of his ad 
 ministration as unmercifully as Tacitus 
 that of the bad emperors. It would appear 
 that no case of more disgusting oppression 
 of a weak nation by a strong one than 
 the Mexican War has been known in mod 
 ern times. After that came the last futile 
 effort at compromise, with the fugitive 
 slave law in it like a bombshell in the 
 family oven. Clay, Webster, and Calhoun, 
 three Herculean statesmen, for a moment 
 only were able to support the crazy struc 
 ture, and then went to their graves. The 
 very next Congress overthrew their work, 
 and the Whig party was crushed in its 
 ruins. That such an omen portended some 
 national catastrophe ought to have been 
 
Introduction. 39 
 
 plain to the very dullest souls, for a well- 
 established political party will commonly 
 live for several decades after its apparent 
 raison cCetre has passed away. 
 
 Out of the ashes of the Whig party 
 arose the Republican party, vigorous and 
 resplendent in the new morning. Affairs 
 however, had to grow worse before they 
 could become better. The central govern 
 ment, in the hands of the most unscrupu 
 lous men who have ever disgraced it, lost 
 more and more the respect of the masses 
 in all sections of the country. The Presi 
 dent himself became an object of derision. 
 Courts of law were transformed into par 
 tisan engines of political corruption. The 
 arrogance and brutality of the slavocracy 
 culminated in the murderous assault upon 
 an United States Senator. Hell itself 
 seems to have been enacted in Kansas, 
 where the central government sought to 
 impose slavery by force upon the refractory 
 
4-O Introduction. 
 
 Northerners. What can be more distress 
 ing than that poor men should be driven 
 from their homes with the connivance of 
 that government which was constituted to 
 protect them ? Amid such confusion there 
 arose a grand character, John Brown, of 
 Ossawatomie, the central figure of this 
 gloomy period, who took the sword of jus 
 tice into his own hand, but was afterward 
 crushed by entering into a conflict with 
 conventional right. Von Hoist has hon 
 ored this unique hero (and himself at the 
 same time), by writing a separate essay 
 upon him, published in Vol. XLI. of the 
 "Preussische Jahrbiicher," Berlin. 
 
 Professor von Hoist is no writer of 
 panegyrics. His tone is cool, judicial, dis 
 passionate. He rarely rises to eloquence, 
 and whenever his subject happens to be a 
 dry one he goes steadily through it with 
 genuine scientific patience. Neither does 
 he waste time on biography. The analyti- 
 
Introduction. 4 1 
 
 cal tendency of his work leads him in 
 other directions, and many a person who 
 deserves recognition in American history 
 receives from him merely a brief no 
 tice, or perhaps none at all. The more 
 remarkable therefore is the special promi 
 nence which he gives to this plain, un 
 educated backwoodsman. The picture of 
 John Brown he draws for us is no splendid 
 Italian ideal, but rather a realistic German 
 wood-cut, like those of Durer, in which 
 no wrinkle is smoothed over, no angularity 
 softened. Such a portrait wins our confi 
 dence, for it appeals directly to our sense 
 of veracity. A friend of ours once sug 
 gested that Carlyle was the one person to 
 have written a life of John Brown, if fortu 
 nately he had happened to be acquainted 
 with him. No doubt Carlyle would, for 
 his was a literary genius of the highest 
 order, and of all writers of that time he 
 was the most like John Brown in his own 
 
42 In troduction. 
 
 nature. He could not however have ex 
 plained the relation of Brown to American 
 politics as Von Hoist has done it, for poli 
 tics proper Carlyle neither cared for nor 
 understood, except in an elementary way. 
 History was to him a grand drama, in 
 which only the most notable events and 
 the most distinguished actors were inter 
 esting; but to Von Hoist it evidently ap 
 pears as currents great and small of human 
 life, modified by the action of prominent 
 individuals. 
 
 It is in tracing out these currents, as 
 an explorer determines the geographical 
 position of an unknown river, that Von 
 Hoist s chief excellence consists. The 
 chapter in his constitutional history on 
 the rise of the anti-slavery movement, is 
 a capital illustration of this. He follows 
 it from its fountain to the broad current in 
 which he discovers John Brown, like a great 
 cataract forcing the waters rapidly onward 
 
In troduction. 4 3 
 
 to their final disappearance in the broad 
 ocean of emancipation. This unequalled 
 importance of the man he appreciates 
 fully ; but does he also appreciate that 
 superior quality in Brown s nature, the 
 single-minded earnestness of this grim 
 old Puritan, which won for him so readily 
 the confidence of Emerson and Parker 
 and Andrew, cultured men of the best 
 American type ? Von Hoist does not 
 mention this, but he says : " The man of 
 flesh and bone led a life such as many 
 thousands of Americans, who from the 
 cradle almost are left to shift for them 
 selves, still lead to-day ; but the man 
 whom God had chosen as a mortal vessel 
 for his immortal spirit, led alongside of 
 this life another life, of which a few only 
 were cognizant." This is certainly a strong 
 hint of something uncommon in the man, 
 either genius or exceptional character. 
 It is in under-estimating the importance 
 
44 In troduction . 
 
 of his Kansas work that Von Hoist, if at 
 all, fails to do him full justice. As twenty 
 years earlier John Quincy Adams, the true 
 hero of his period, fought and won alone 
 the first battle against the slavocraey by 
 fearlessly insisting on the right of petition 
 in Congress, an action which Von Hoist 
 celebrates in his most spirited manner, 
 i so was John Brown, and the Eastern 
 I friends who supported him, the first to 
 <, organize armed resistance to the illegal 
 j jaggression of the slavocraey in Kansas. 
 If one marked an epoch in our history, so 
 did the other none the less. As Ather- 
 ton s gag-law was a blow aimed at the 
 foundation of constitutional right, likewise 
 the Atchison invasion was a bombshell 
 fired at the pillars of constitutional gov 
 ernment. We have the testimony of an 
 Englishman, a relative of Mr. Gladstone, 
 presumably an impartial witness, that 
 while the pro-slavery invaders of Kansas 
 
Introduction. 45 
 
 were insolent and audacious in an extreme 
 degree, the Free-State people seemed to 
 lack even the confidence and resolution 
 requisite for self-protection. No wonder it 
 was so, when the former were encouraged 
 by the President of the nation, and the 
 latter found to their horror that the laws 
 which they venerated, and which had al 
 ways before protected them, were now 
 become their enemy. 
 
 Those only who have been tossed about 
 in an earthquake might appreciate this sen 
 sation. Then is the time for firm hearts 
 and indomitable wills. It is a fearful mo 
 ment in the consciousness of a community, 
 the quick transition from peaceable pro 
 test to the use of death-dealing weapons. 
 It must not come too soon or too late.M 
 John Brown effected this transition, not i 
 only for Kansas but for the whole nation. 
 His little battles of Black Jack and Ossa- 
 watomie correspond in a surprising man- 
 
46 Introduction. 
 
 ner to Concord Bridge and Bunker Hill; 
 as Pottawatomie, also, to the State Street 
 massacre in Boston. The Missourians 
 were taught that shooting was a game 
 which both sides could play at. John 
 Brown set an example which Lane, Mont 
 gomery, and others soon imitated with ad 
 vantage. Y The first shot he fired was the 
 signal of a new era in American history, 
 and it electrified the whole country as only 
 Adams had done once before. To obey 
 the laws is often difficult; to break them 
 is easy ; but to rise above them is nobility 
 itself. On the whole, however, Von Hoist s 
 account of John Brown is the best that has 
 yet seen the light, the most impartial 
 and the most discriminating; and it would 
 be unreasonable to expect everything in a 
 single essay. No other has shown so pro 
 found an insight of the man and his 
 historical relations. 
 
 In conclusion, it would be only just to 
 
Introduction. 47 
 
 remark that this essay was published in 
 Berlin before Dr. von Hoist had an op 
 portunity to examine the latest biography 
 of John Brown. In a private letter he 
 says of it : " In the main, my views of 
 Brown s character and the historical sig 
 nificance of his career have undergone no 
 change, though the new materials brought 
 to light by Mr. Sanborn render some 
 corrections as to details necessary." The 
 details in this case are fortunately not 
 essential. The individual acts of such a 
 man are like the strokes of the sculptor ; 
 it is not the chips which interest us, but 
 the whole statue. We anxiously await Von 
 Hoist s opinion of that, because he has 
 proved himself to be, and is now every 
 where admitted, a competent critic of the 
 actions of men. In these words he gives 
 his final judgment: "Millions of eyes were 
 fastened on him in anxious expectation, to 
 see whether he would not betray at the 
 
48 Introduction. 
 
 last moment that he was wearing a mask, 
 even though this mask might be woven of 
 the thinnest gauze wire ; but after he had 
 stood ten minutes like a statue, with the 
 rope around his neck and the cap drawn 
 
 , over his eyes, the millions drew a deep 
 breath, he was wholly pure, wholly true. 
 And this is why John Brown s life and 
 death struck the minds and consciences 
 of the North with a far mightier blow 
 
 (than the Lundys, Garrisons, and Doug 
 lases could deal with their most heartfelt 
 speeches." I have lately heard an opinion 
 similar to this last from a veteran lawyer 
 of Boston, one of the most highly respected 
 members of the Suffolk Bar. 
 
 As intimated already, of the various 
 biographies of John Brown the one by 
 Sanborn is decidedly the best. Redpath s 
 was written at a time when full informa 
 tion in regard to Brown s life could 
 scarcely be obtained, and though it served 
 
Introduction. 49 
 
 well enough the purpose of the moment, 
 and was composed in an excellent spirit, 
 is too much in the style of the daily 
 pressman to be quite worthy of its subject. 
 Another biography written by a Dr. Webb 
 of Dublin, Ireland, appears to have been 
 constructed upon hearsay, and is quite 
 untrustworthy. Mr. Sanborn s " Life and 
 Letters of John Brown," however, is a 
 work based throughout on documentary 
 evidence. During twenty years or more, 
 Mr. Sanborn collected all possible infor 
 mation in regard to his hero in Kansas, 
 Massachusetts, Ohio, Virginia, wherever 
 John Brown had lived and worked and 
 suffered. He has placed this evidence 
 before the reader in a plain, sincere man 
 ner, without embellishment or reservation. 
 ; If its details are sometimes found to be 
 . tedious, they will always be valuable to the 
 student of history. They give a faithful 
 impression of the hard, toilsome, Spartan 
 
 4 
 
5 O In troductlon . 
 
 life of the man, which disciplined him so 
 well for his last great struggle with the 
 slave power. What we miss in it, I think, 
 is an adequate explanation of the internal 
 man, the informing spirit of John Brown 
 himself. There are glimpses of this -here 
 and there through the book, but not 
 enough to produce a deep impression. 
 What Mr. Sanborn substitutes for it - 
 namely, tjiatjns herQ .was .a -special instru 
 ment of the divine will, one to whom God 
 made his purposes directly known - - is 
 rather a deus ex machina, and is not likely 
 to be credited in a critical era such as 
 our own. It is true that Brown appears 
 to have believed this himself ; but men of 
 action as well as poets too frequently as 
 cribe to an external impulse what is noth 
 ing more than the sudden concentration of 
 their own mental forces. But who will ex 
 plain to us those grandly reticent natures 
 who never explain themselves ? Shak- 
 
Introduction. 5 1 
 
 spere, who explains to us everything else 
 in human nature, says nothing of them. 
 Milton may have given us a hint in Sam 
 son Agonistes ; and in that far off Grecian 
 morning of man s intellectual life, there is 
 the Prometheus of /Eschylus. We see 
 their forms upon the ceiling of the Sistine 
 Chapel ; we behold them with wonder and 
 admiration, but we do not know them. 
 
JOHN BROWN, 
 
 AN ESSAY BY HERMANN VON HOLST. 
 
JOHN BROWN. 
 
 V\7HEN the spring sun has gained so 
 much power that the snow-fields 
 of the mountains begin to send rivulets 
 into the valley, destruction threatens from 
 every cliff and crag. The report of a gun, 
 a loud call, are said to be sufficient to 
 push over the ridge a small mass of snow, 
 which as it falls grows to an avalanche, 
 and may cover up whole villages. 
 
 I n the same way it happens sometim es 
 in the life of nations that things have 
 been slowly growing ripe for a catastrophe, . i 
 which is finally brought about by a deed 
 whose significance, considered in itself, 
 stands in. ridiculous contrast to its world- 
 wide. effects. 
 
56 John Brown. 
 
 Thus the same act which changed the 
 United States of America from a rapidly 
 
 I decaying union of States into a federal 
 union^such as would live and prosper, ren 
 dered a violent disruption of the republic 
 
 .inevitable in the future. But although 
 three generations passed away before the 
 fates could be accomplished, yet the almost 
 insanely rash undertaking of a high-minded 
 enthusiast proved in a single night that 
 the time was come in which they must be 
 accomplished with inconceivable horror. 
 
 The new Constitution which went into 
 effect in 1789 founded the structure of the 
 State on two opposing principles. The 
 Union, in accordance with actually exist 
 ing, legally sanctioned conditions and after 
 the pattern of the separate States, was or 
 ganized as a moderate democratic republic 
 whose constituent members enjoyed com 
 plete equality before the law. But at the 
 same time, and here again in accordance 
 
John Brown. 57 
 
 : with the actual state of things, the Con 
 stitution recognized the existence of negro 
 j slavery in most of the States as a fact which 
 it took into account in various ways, going 
 even so far as to enter into positive en 
 gagements without reserving in regard to 
 this fact adequate rights for the federal 
 government. ^ The development of the lib 
 eral democracy and of the diametrically 
 opposed /lavocray proceeded simultane- 
 ouslyTy However, in accordance with the 
 nature of such things, the former principle 
 spread much more rapidly, in the literal 
 and in the metaphorical sense of the word, 
 both because it was common to all parts 
 of the Union, and because it was only 
 through this principle that the powers of 
 the individual could attain their highest 
 development. ) But, on the other hand, it 
 was just as much in the nature of things 
 that the slave-holders should more and 
 more get control of the Union, partly be- 
 
58 John Brown. 
 
 cause they were indissolubly bound to 
 gether by an interest to which they subor 
 dinated everything else, and partly because 
 by favor of this interest they maintained 
 
 themselves ^airiS 1 " ^P fprWal gnvprnmpnf 
 
 and against the free States on important 
 legal rights, without binding themselves to 
 the performance of corresponding duties. 
 The more rapid the growth of the free 
 North in population, wealth, culture, and 
 morality, the more abject grew the servility 
 of a portion of the Northern politicians 
 toward the great Southern slave-holders ; 
 and the more boundless the despotism of 
 the latter, the more certainly, swiftly did 
 they see the day of their ruin approach. 
 Each new victory placed them in a more 
 violent and more hopeless opposition, not 
 only to the majority of the North and to 
 the fundamental spirit of the federal Con 
 stitution, but also to all the traditions and 
 institutions of the slave States ," 1 in so far as 
 
John Brown. 59 
 
 they were not the outgrowth of slavery. 
 Through the activity of the liberal demo 
 cratic spirit, the Union became gradually 
 consolidated into a national State ; and 
 slavery, which grew continually more prom 
 inent as the leading principle in the South 
 ern States and the main interest in national 
 politics, became every day more and more 
 an impossibility in this national State, 
 whether from an economical, a political, a 
 social, or a moral point of view. 
 
 The slave-holders, who were too weak to 
 withstand the irresistible development of 
 existing conditions, were yet strong enough 
 to grasp the political power, and they 
 dragged the Union into their service with 
 ever increasing recklessness, while at the 
 same time they more and more uncondi 
 tionally denied that the Union was compe 
 tent in matters connected with slavery. 
 They hammered harjd-~tQjconsplidate the 
 federal republic, and they tore with brutal 
 
60 John Brown. 
 
 violence all binding threads into loose fil 
 aments, and all for the service of the 
 " peculiar institution." The more wildly 
 they dragged the Union to the right, the 
 more pitilessly were they obliged to goad it 
 to the left, f Slavery which was especially 
 fed by the constantly increasing demand 
 for cotton! was like wiidfixe- on a dry 
 prairie, arousing by its own heat the whirl 
 wind which drives it madly onward, but at 
 the same time spending itself the more 
 rapidly, the more irresistibly it rushes on. 
 
 The struggle of the principle of free 
 dom with the slavocratic principle was ex 
 pressed most clearly in the contest over 
 territorial extension ; and the beginning of 
 the end was at hand when the South, in 
 order to make good its claims, had to tear 
 down with its own hands the barriers 
 which it had erected thirty years before by 
 its utmost efforts. The constant acquisi-i 
 tion of new territory was for the South a 
 
John Brown. 61 
 
 conditiogLjpf existence, for the only pos 
 sible method of cultivating the land by the 
 labor of slaves, systematically reduced to 
 the condition of brutes, was one that ex 
 hausted the soil ; and the much more rapid 
 growth of the free North made an artificial 
 increase of the number of slave-holding 
 States a necessity, since the continuance 
 of the Southern rule was bound up with 
 the maintenance of an even balance of the 
 parties in the federal Senate. However, 
 the territory which the JSouth had ao- 
 quired by the purchase of Louisiana from 
 France, in 1803, and by the Florida treaty 
 with Spain, in 1819, had already been 
 brought into play, while the already far 
 more powerful Northjiad still an immeas 
 urable ex{gnt_of land to fall back upon. 
 The annexation of Texas, which had been 
 contended for by the South during sixteen 
 years with the greatest persistence and 
 With much skill, but greatly at the ex- 
 
62 John Brown. 
 
 pense of the country s honor, again drew 
 the tongue of the balance more to the side 
 of the slave-holders in 1845. But appe 
 tite grows with what it feeds on ; and al 
 though Texas was as large as a good-sized 
 kingdom, it could not long counterpoise 
 the natural growth of the North. Mexico 
 had threatened to consider the annexa 
 tion a casus belli \ and when, feeling its 
 powerlessness, it failed to fulfil its threat, 
 the i United States forced on the war in 
 order to carry the star-spangled banner 
 and, as the South thought, slavery also, to 
 the Pacific shore. / Calhoun, who as Sec 
 retary of State had brought about the 
 annexation of Texas, threw his whole 
 weight as senator against this unrighteous 
 war of conquest. } He was the living 
 personification of the slavocratic instinct, 
 and he recognized the fact that, were the 
 policy of the annexation istsjo triumph, the 
 slave-holders would be inflicting on them- 
 
John Brown. 63 
 
 selves a fearful and perhaps a fatal wound. 
 His warning was unheeded. The blinded 
 clan dashed past their great-minded leader, 
 whose fears were fulfilled more completely 
 than he himself had anticipated. While 
 in the far West iron and lead did their 
 bloody work, in Congress freedom and 
 slavery wrestled for the territory which it 
 was expected would be acquired. The 
 Southerners succeededj with the help of 
 their Northern partisans, in preventing a 
 decisive settlement_of the parliamentary 
 contest./... An immense territory was added 
 to the Union by the treaty of peace ; and 
 the attempt to secure this territory against 
 the introduction of slavery by a resolution 
 /of Congress, was not successful. But the 
 population of California and of New Mex 
 ico demanded, with a majority amounting 
 almost to unanimity, to be allowed to ward 
 this curse from their borders. The strug 
 le for the annexed territory raged anew, 
 
64 John Brown. 
 
 and this time with a violence which shook 
 the Union to its deepest foundations. 
 Calhoun, worn out by grief and cares, died 
 
 before a decision was reached. Daniel 
 Webster thought he could pave his way to 
 the White House by lowering himself to 
 
 i hold the stirrup of the slavocracy. He 
 tried to clutch a shadow, and lost the re 
 spect of those who thought that such a 
 mess of pottage as the presidency was too 
 small a price for freedom and loyalty to 
 principle. The gray-haired Henry Clay 
 hastened once more from his quiet Ash 
 land to the Senate, and devoted his dying 
 energies to patching up the cloak which 
 was dropping to pieces like rotten tinder, 
 with still more rotten rags. This great 
 undertaking succeeded. ^After six months 
 tremendous labor the so-called compromise 
 of 1850 saw the light. It was a bargain, like 
 all the previous bargains that were falsely 
 called compromises ; the free North was 
 
John Brown. 65 
 
 despoiled of much that formed a part of 
 its most sacred rights and highest inter 
 ests ; but still the slave-holders had not ! 
 succeeded in getting all they wanted, and 
 the chasm which irreconcilable contradic 
 tions of principle had opened, between 
 North and South, yawned broader than 
 ever, and the web of sophistical formulas 
 and phrases which should have bridged it 
 over was more transparent and flimsy 
 than ever. The mass of politicians, how 
 ever, in both camps grew loudly jubilant 
 over the eternal peace. Both parties were 
 pledged to the compromise in the most 
 formal fashion by the politicians who met 
 in the national conventions. 
 
 If only words could have done away with 
 disagreeable facts ! The extreme wings of 
 both parties grew very bitter over the con 
 ditions of this penny-wise transaction, con 
 ditions which were alike dishonorable and 
 impossible of fulfilment; and the contradic- 
 5 
 
66 John Brown. 
 
 tion between the promises of the compro 
 mise and the actual state of affairs grew 
 constantly greater. The sweat was scarcely 
 dry on the brows of the worn-out politi 
 cians when they were forced to work with 
 busy hands to loosen the knots of the 
 highly artistic net which they had woven 
 with so much pains. \The compromise 
 had been a heavy blow for the North, but 
 the South had not won by its means any 
 new territory for slavery. California had 
 been admitted as a free State (Statutes at 
 Large, ix., 452), and the question as to 
 the right to hold slaves in New Mexico 
 and Utah had been silently passed over 
 as long as they remained Territories (Ibid. 
 pp. 447, 453);^ 
 
 T Whatever concessions mrght be made 
 to the slave-holders, their defeat and final 
 ruin were unavoidable if they remained 
 confined within their then boundaries. But 
 what had just happened in California 
 
John Brown. 67 
 
 opened to them a melancholy prospect in 
 case the question were left open until the 
 Territories were received as States into the 
 Union ; for there the members of the con 
 vention to draft a Constitution, even those 
 of Southern origin, had voted unanimously 
 to exclude slavery. The slave-holders party 
 must make sure of the Territories if it 
 wished later to have control over the 
 States. The radical leaders of the party 
 therefore maintained that slavery and free 
 dom were equally lawful in all the Terri 
 tories of the Union, and that no political 
 power had the right to exclude slavery. 
 BuTeven their most devoted adherents in 
 the North would not agree to this, and 
 even the more moderate Southern politi 
 cians refused to deny in so brazen a fash 
 ion a principle which the great Southern 
 statesmen had always recognized as law 
 and had used as a guide for their actions. 
 But the men who wished for peace at any 
 
68 John Broivn. 
 
 price and the politicians who thought that 
 the Southern party was most likely to fa 
 vor their reckless ambition were absolutely 
 sure of one thing ; namely, that the raging 
 South must be satisfied. They sought to 
 - escape from the dilemma by means of 
 the doctrine whose promulgation is errone- 
 I ously ascribed to Senator Sjephen^Dou^las, 
 t of Illinois, the doctrine of the so-called 
 ^ squatter sovereignty. According to this 
 doctrine Congress could neither forbid 
 slavery in the Territories nor in. trod uce it 
 /there ; on the other hand, the squatters 
 should have the right to decide whether 
 they would allow slavery or not. This is not 
 the place to set forth the utter nonsense 
 of this doctrine, whether from a constitu 
 tional or from a political point of view. 
 "The majority of Congress adopted it and 
 thereby overthrew, the Missoun^jcomgro- 
 mise. This compact, which forever prohib 
 ited slavery north of 36 31 , had hitherto 
 
John Brown. 69 
 
 been recognized by all parties without dis- 
 \ tinction as peculiarly sacred and as bind 
 ing for all time. In its stead the law. of 
 nature was now set, the bellum omnium l/ir 
 contra omnes. Kansas Territory was the 
 first battle-field. Nn^^vj^vifttpH ^ fi rf! i n 
 regard__to_.slaver^^ Events alone were to 
 decide. That side was to win which with 
 in a certain time could bring the greatest 
 number of followers into the Territory. 
 Under these conditions the North took up 
 the fight, and its great superiority was 
 soon demonstrated. But the South con 
 trived to find crutches on which to support 
 its weakened limbs. On election days 
 hundreds of " roughs," armed to the teeth, 
 poured into the Territory from the Missouri 
 border, cast as many ballots as they pleased 
 into the ballot boxes, from which they 
 scared away the real squatters by threats 
 
 or open violence, and won in this way an ~ 
 
 J 
 easy and brilliant victory. As the federal 
 
70 John Brown. 
 
 executive had pledged itself body and soul 
 to the slave-holders, the only recourse of 
 the champions of freedom was to oppose 
 violence with violence. \_Neither right nor 
 policy could decide the question whether 
 the Territory should belong to the demo 
 cratic republic of free labor or should be 
 handed over to barbarism under the Mo 
 loch of slavery. The freebooters of the 
 " party of law and order," led by a former 
 Vice-President of the Union, proved by 
 means of bowie-knives, revolvers, shot 
 guns, and even cannon that " slavery is the 
 broadest and surest foundation for a free 
 existence ; " and th JFree-Soil men proved 
 with the same arguments that the people 
 of the North had not yet completely lost 
 their common-sense and their manliness 
 in the voluptuous embrace of the strumpet 
 slavery, and under the poisonous breath of 
 her burning kisses. The " irrepressible 
 conflict " between slavery and freedom was 
 
John Brown. 71 
 
 carried from the forum of absolute right to 
 the judgment seat of the God of battles; 
 but the God of battles in the civilized 
 world of Christianity is the God of right 
 eousness also, the God of truth, the God 
 of moral principles, and the God of free 
 dom. For eighty years the opposing spirits 
 had fought, and now the personal encoun 
 ter was to begin. North and South triecT 
 their strength on the soil of Kansas ; and a 
 civil war arose as fruitful of baseness and 
 horror as any civil war of other times. 
 But the people of the North found their 
 better selves again in the blood which 
 drenched the soil of Kansas. They awoke 
 once more to the consciousness that laws 
 exist for man, and not man for the laws, 
 and that the nation was bound neither in 
 the eyes of man nor in the eyes of God to 
 allow itself to be politically and morally 
 ruined for the sake of the laws. As citi 
 zens, as members of the political commu- 
 
72 John Brown. 
 
 nity, they could no longer come to an 
 understanding as to law and right ; and as 
 men as men in whose hearts and brains 
 there was yet a spark of the divine spirit 
 they bade the citizen draw back. Yea, they 
 rose up in rebellion against him. and cut 
 with the sword the knot which law and 
 right could no longer unravel. 
 
 It was in December, 1855. A large 
 armed force, consisting mostly of Missouri- 
 ans, but nevertheless passing for Kansas 
 militia and marching under the authority 
 of the federal government, appeared before 
 Lawrence, the principal town of the Free- 
 Soil men of the territory. The townspeople 
 prepared to resist, and their partisans from 
 the surrounding country hastened to bring 
 them aid. A small troop of these auxil 
 iaries attracted especial attention. They 
 drove up in front of the Free States Hotel 
 in a lumber-wagon. Rods were fixed in 
 the sides of the wagon, and from these 
 
John Brown. 73 
 
 rods bayonets projected into the air. The 
 men stood upright with improved rifles in 
 their hands, and their belts bristling with 
 well-selected weapons. Four were young, 
 one or two were scarcely more than boys ; 
 in their midst stood a man fifty-five years 
 old. John Brown and four sons two 
 others had to remain behind for the time 
 on account of sickness came at the call 
 of the Lord of hosts to fight out a life-and* 
 death struggle with slavery, " the sum 
 all iniquities." He was almost six feet high, 
 and slender rather than stout. His body, 
 though not broad in the shoulders, told of 
 unusual strength. The muscles and sin 
 ews seemed to be woven with threads of 
 iron. The hair, which had grown gray 
 with years, stood up in a dense mass above 
 the high forehead, which retreated some 
 what in its upper part. Two deep furrows, 
 telling of thought and cares, ran down be 
 tween the bushy eyebrows to the strong, 
 
74 John Brown. 
 
 curved nose. The thick, full beard could not 
 conceal the firm closing of the lips of the 
 broad mouth. The large clear eyes seemed 
 to change color from the intensity of the 
 fire that glowed in them, sometimes they 
 appeared light blue ; sometimes dark gray, 
 sometimes black. When he hastened on 
 with a rapid and remarkably energetic gait, 
 making room for no one that he met, his 
 head would be slightly bent forward and 
 his eye cast down, as though he were lost 
 in serious thought. But his eyes seemed 
 to pierce to the uttermost depths when he 
 fixed them on a face ; and if the enemy 
 was near, they turned restlessly hither and 
 thither, as though no point of the horizon 
 should escape them for even a single 
 mojnent. 
 
 I The man had led a busy and agitated 
 
 fife; but he had never come into public 
 
 hotice. Finding pleasure in his calling, he 
 
 /devoted himself to it quietly but with great 
 
John Brown. 75 
 
 activity. He was no dreamer, and not 
 even an enthusiast in the ordinary sense 
 of the word. An American through and 
 through, Nature had formed him for 
 vigorous work, and the vicissitudes of his 
 life had developed his natural inclination 
 to a high degree. The man of flesh and 
 bone led a life such as thousands and 
 thousands of Americans, left to shift for 
 themselves almost from the cradle, still 
 lead to-day ; but the man whom God had 
 chosen as a mortal vessel for his immortal 
 spirit, led alongside of this life another, of 
 which very few outside of his family cir 
 cle knew anything, and they had only a 
 faint idea of it. The sandy sea-shore pre 
 sents year after year the same appearance, 
 though mighty waves may rush foaming 
 over it ever so often ; but the paths which 
 the trickling stream makes for itself in 
 the hidden recesses of the cliffs remain, 
 even though no human eye sees them, and 
 
76 John Brown. 
 
 the parched wanderer in the burning sun 
 light asks perhaps chidingly why Nature 
 gives the barren rock no water. The 
 Brown whom neighbors and friends had 
 known for half a century, had bravely 
 tossed about on the stormy sea of Ameri 
 can business life, but the waters had gone 
 as they had come. That which was to 
 make of him a figure in the world s his 
 tory lay unnoticed and mostly unknown in 
 the quiet depths of his soul. The deed of 
 his life sprang from a spirit as guileless, 
 as pure, as true, and as unselfish as that of 
 a child; but it was performed by a man 
 whose every fibre had been steeled by the 
 stern discipline of life, and whose inner 
 being was so absolutely ruled by the cat 
 egorical imperative that his will could 
 neither be broken nor bent. Tender and 
 soft as a girl who nestles in her mother s 
 lap, and yet every inch a man ; as igno 
 rant of the power of actual facts as a her-j 
 
John Brown. 77 
 
 mit in the desert, and at the same time 
 wonderfully fitted by nature and training 
 to seize the best chance at first sight under 
 the most difficult circumstances, and to 
 accomplish the most with the smallest 
 means ; illogical as a child, and yet follow 
 ing his own path as steadily as the sun ; 
 with a horror of fighting, and yet offer 
 ing up himself and his family in an insane 
 war against the whole nation ; so tender 
 hearted that he stakes and loses his own 
 life and the life of his followers, of his 
 sons-in-law and sons, merely to save a few 
 strangers from their anxiety lest the train 
 with their relatives should not arrive at 
 the right time, and at the same time so 
 terribly stern that he unconditionally ap 
 proves a horrible five-fold murder; never 
 excited to revenge even by the worst injus 
 tice exercised toward himself and toward 
 those dearest to him, but goaded on to 
 such a rage by the wrong done to the 
 
78 John Brown. 
 
 negro slaves that he recklessly trangresses 
 all positive law and only recognizes as 
 binding what he considers to be God s 
 command, such is the portraitj^Lthe first 
 man_vvho diQdJ^^iQ^hsind^oi the execu- 
 \tioner for a political crime in the United 
 
 John Brown was born in Torrington, 
 Litchfield County, Conn., on the gih of 
 May, iSoo. 1 His pedigree can be traced 
 without a single break back to Peter 
 Brown, a joiner, and one of the " Pilgrim 
 Fathers " whom the Mavflower landed at 
 Plymouth Rock on the 22d of December, 
 1620. His grandfather John died a cap 
 tain in the army of the Revolution Sept. 
 3, 1776, and his maternal grandfather 
 also served in the same army. Owen 
 Brown, the father of the martyr, moved in 
 
 1 Not as Kapp thinks (John Brown aus und iiber Amer- 
 ika, ii. p. 121), in northeastern New York. See Brown s 
 Autobiography, printed in Redpath s The Public Life of 
 Capt. John Brown, p. 24. 
 
John Brown. 79 
 
 1805 to Hudson, Ohio, at that time one of 
 the most remote Western settlements. 
 
 The boy soon lost his fear of the sneak 
 ing redskins. When but six years old 
 he wandered fearlessly through the wil 
 derness barefoot and bareheaded, with his 
 " leather trousers held," as he writes, " some 
 times by two suspenders and sometimes 
 by one." The fare was scanty, and in 
 struction scantier still, but in the midst of 
 hard work and the rough games of his 
 few comrades, his body was steeled and 
 his wit grew keen in the school of " help 
 yourself." His reading was as yet none of 
 the best, and he wrote but a sorry hand ; 
 yet the twelve-year-old boy at the time of 
 the second war with England drove alone 
 large herds of cattle through the wilder 
 ness to camp, a hundred miles and more 
 away. During onje of these expeditions, 
 he was extremely well received at a slave 
 holder s, who made much of the bold 
 
8o John Brown. 
 
 knowing boy before his guests. He re 
 mained, however, insensible to the praise 
 bestowed upon him, because of his indig 
 nation at the harsh way in which the host 
 treated his negro boy. He explained 
 afterward that this occurrence had made 
 an Abolitionist of him and had made him 
 " swear eternal war on slavery." 
 
 It was not merely his own innate feel 
 ings that produced in him a profound 
 aversion to slavery. However faulty his 
 education had been as a whole, it was 
 thorough in one respect, he knew the 
 / Bible better than many a minister of the 
 Vjgospel, and he had learned to read it with 
 all the grim puritanic earnestness which 
 for more than two centuries had filled his 
 race. Although he had never forgotten it, 
 yet three and forty years went by before he 
 entered upon the literal fulfilment of the 
 oath which he had sworn as a boy. He 
 always bore witness fearlessly when occa- 
 
John Brown. 81 
 
 sion offered; but it was for the Lord to 
 designate the hour at which thought 
 should be transformed into action. If 
 there ever was a sect of Christianity who 
 adopted equally the gospel of love of the 
 New Testament and the stern severity of 
 the Old Testament spirit in all its terri 
 ble grandeur, the_Puritans were that sect^ 
 and if ever a Puritan exemplified the weld 
 ing together of these opposite principles 
 in his whole life, and in each and every 
 act, John_J3rown was Jthat J^uritan.__ He 
 was the man of the old covenant, who 
 waited quietly and patiently to gird about 
 his loins " the sword of Gideon" till a sign 
 from God gave the order. And how in 
 the nineteenth century and in one of the 
 foremost of civilized States could that 
 sword be a weapon suitable for the hand 
 of a boy, or even for the grip of a man, 
 who had not yet drunk deep of the bitter 
 dregs of the cup of life ? A youth could, 
 
82 John Brown. 
 
 indeed, have called the slaves to rebellion, 
 but the world in the most favorable case 
 would have looked upon him as an object 
 of pity, who ought already to have been 
 placed in an insane asylum. \What alone 
 caused Brown s deed to produce such a 
 powerful and ever increasing effect North 
 and South, was the fact that he held as 
 a sacred tenet from first to last, without 
 a second s doubting, the belief that he 
 was God s chosen bearer of the sword of 
 Gideon ; but in order that such a belief 
 should be awe-inspiring and not ridicu 
 lous, but should be fearful, it must be 
 held by a man on whose head lay the snow 
 of age, in whose veins the blood coursed 
 slowly and evenly, and who could point to 
 a long life as to an irrefutable proof that 
 he was as cool as ice and as completely 
 the master of his five senses as any man. 
 
 Already, as a ten-year-old boy, Brown 
 let it be seen clearly that it was not in 
 
John Brown. 83 
 
 his power to enjoy the bright sides of life. 
 The few books which he could get hold 
 of, and from which he mostly got his edu 
 cation, were of a serious sort, and he began 
 to prefer the society of older men to that 
 of his comrades. Light talk, even when it 
 was entirely inoffensive, was distasteful to 
 him. He touched neither tobacco, cards, 
 nor alcoholic drinks as long as he lived ; 
 yet he was not a " crank," and did not pass 
 for such. On the contrary, he was so highly 
 esteemed that it became a second nature 
 with him to speak with a tone of absolute 
 authority. He always carried through to 
 the end whatever he undertook. He gave 
 up his purpose of becoming a minister of 
 the gospel only because his eyes would 
 not stand the strain of continued study. 
 He went back to business, tried various 
 things in different States, and what he 
 accomplished was always satisfactory and 
 often excellent. He became a good tanner 
 
84 John Brown. 
 
 under his father s guidance ; his sheep- 
 raising was a model for the whole neigh 
 borhood; in the wool-trade he introduced 
 the important graduation of wool, and as 
 a cattle-raiser, he sent, in 1850, to an agri 
 cultural show a variety of the celebrated 
 Devonshire " Short-horns," whose beauty 
 caused a great sensation among the whole 
 farming population. The business enter 
 prises at the head of which he stood were 
 often important and prosperous. But Fate, 
 which had destined him for something 
 greater, seemed to watch with anxious 
 jealousy lest the elasticity of his muscles 
 and the proud energy of his will should 
 relax in the midst of ease and comfort. 
 He lost again and again his painfully ac 
 quired property, partly through unfortu 
 nate accidents, and partly through the 
 machinations of business friends who cared 
 more for profit than for what was just and 
 fair, and for whom the stern righteousness 
 
Brown. 85 
 
 of the Puritan was an obstacle. He lost, 
 however, what was dearer than money or 
 estate. His first wife died in August, 
 1832, and in September, 1843, he buried 
 three sons on the same day. Of the nine-* 
 teen children whom his two wives bore 
 him eight alone survived their father. 
 
 After the failure of his wool business in [ 
 Springfield, Mass., Brown moved, in 1845, ( 
 to North Elba in Essex County, New York. 
 The years he spent there as a farmer 
 were the night-watch preparatory to the 
 deed which was to shage__the course of 
 the world s history. ^^mj^Sn^^one of 
 the most distinguished (^bolitionisj$ and 
 most high-minded philanthropists, had set 
 apart a portion of his extensive possessions 
 in this part of the State of New York to 
 found a colony for free colored people. 
 Brown offered to live among the negroes 
 as their fatherly friend and adviser, and 
 Smith joyfully accepted the offer. The 
 
86 John Brown. 
 
 undertaking did not succeed for various 
 reasons, but more especially owing to the 
 rascalities of a surveyor. Here, however, 
 in. the midst of the severe stillness of the 
 Adirondacks, which assume at this point 
 the character of a mighty range of rocky 
 mountains, the spirit of Brown gazed more 
 and more into its own depths. During 
 the long winter evenings there was plenty 
 of time for reading the Bible and for 
 earnest conversation and thought in the 
 simple shabby-looking farmhouse. His 
 numerous family and his warm friends, the 
 Thompsons, listened devoutly to the words 
 of the experienced, storm-tried man, full 
 of childlike simplicity. And when at last 
 the sign came for which he had watched 
 so long, he had poured out his own spirit 
 in such wealth among this band, which 
 crowded around him in really patriarchal 
 simplicity and devotion, that the men fol 
 lowed him without his commanding or re- 
 
John Brown. 87 
 
 questing them to do so, as though it were 
 a matter of course, and the women did not 
 seek to hold them back by a single look of 
 entreaty. 
 
 The treason against Kansas, committed 
 by the weak-kneed, the self-seeking, and 
 the corrupt politicians, although the State 
 had been pledged to freedom for all time 
 by the fathers, was the sign long waited 
 for by Brown that it was time for him 
 to stand up and take his rifle. As early! 
 as 1854 his four eldest sons decided to 
 move to Kansas. The way in which they 
 went to work to carry out their resolution \ 
 leaves no doubt that they intended to se 
 tlej)ermanently jntheTemtory ; EulTKapp 
 
 is mistaken when he says (p. 122), that 
 the father too moved to Kansas as a peace 
 ful farmer. 1 Accompanied by two, or as 
 
 1 On the 1 8th of February, 1857, Brown told the Mas 
 sachusetts Legislature that he had been summoned with 
 six sons and a son-in-law to defend Lawrence, in May, 
 1856. 
 
88 John Brown. 
 
 some have it, three other sons, he followed 
 the call of his children, who had suffered 
 from the Missouri border ruffians, and 
 begged their father to hasten to their aid 
 with arms. In the first informal exami 
 nation to which Brown was subjected in 
 prison, by Governor Wise and Senator 
 Mason, of Virginia, and Vallandigham of 
 Ohio, he said : " Four of my sons had gone 
 ;there [to Kansas] as squatters, and they 
 were the occasion of my going there. I 
 did not go to settle, but on account of the 
 difficulties." 1 
 
 ^rown went to Kansas in order to drive 
 jthe partisans of slavery from the soil to 
 |vhich they had no right, by means of 
 powder and shot. He was accordingly 
 Very much displeased at having come to 
 JLawrence with his four sons for nothing, 
 
 I X 
 
 Because the leading men of the place pre- 
 
 1 The Life, Trial, and Execution of Capt. John Brown, 
 p. 45- 
 
John Brown. 89 
 
 lerred a slothful peace to a bold strugglel j 
 The latter, on the other hand, looked with 
 I anxious distrust on the grim old man, in 
 j whose vocabulary the word "compromise" 
 ihad no place, and who knew of only one 
 jargument that would carry the day, and 
 Ithat was bloodshed. 
 
 The old man was right -; the wise politi- 
 
 / 
 
 cians were over-wise, vjhere was no pos 
 sibility of keeping on a good footing with 
 the law, because the executors of the law 
 knew no other compelling power than that 
 which forced them to obey the slave-hold 
 ers^/ It was subjection or war; there was 
 no mean between the two extremes. And 
 Brown saw that if the decision was war, 
 it could not be the sort of war in which 
 Grotius and Vattel would be always con 
 scientiously consulted. If the enemy acted 
 in accordance with the maxim that he who 
 shot first and best was in the right, he too 
 claimed the right to act according to the 
 
90 John Brown. 
 
 same principle where it was necessary. A 
 God-fearing man, he yet did not shrink 
 from executing the code of Judge Lynch 
 in all its horror. After the Kansas clays 
 w T ere past, some one asked him once, speak 
 ing of one of the worst partisans of slavery, 
 " Well, Captain, Judge Lecompte would 
 have had a hard time of it, I guess, if the 
 Lord had delivered him into your hands ? " 
 The judge would doubtless have felt his 
 blood curdle if he had heard the quiet, 
 laconic answer, "It would have taken the 
 Lord himself to tear him out of them 
 again." It is at bottom only owing to a 
 fortunate accident that his memory is not 
 stained with a sort of court-martial execu- 
 . tion./ Five members of the slave-holders 
 % party, who had committed great brutalities 
 against Free-Soil people, and had warned 
 them that if they should not have left the 
 Territory within a given time they would 
 be hanged, were pulled out of their beds 
 
John Brown. 91 
 
 and put to death not far from Pottawato-/ 
 
 niaki: ryMVffly ^frl^fe^r SevJ 
 
 eral witnesses declared that Brown was the) 
 leader of this band of combined prosefr 
 cutors, judges, and executors. 1 It was 
 natural to think that he was the originator 
 of the bloody deed, as he and his sons 
 were among those w r ho had been threat 
 ened with the hangman s rope, and as it 
 was his daughter and daughter-in-law who 
 had received from the tongues and hands 
 of the roughs, fighting for "law and order," 
 specimens of the renowned "chivalry "of 
 the South. The accusation was therefore 
 perhaps brought in good faith, but it was 
 false. Redpath heard from two of those 
 who took part in the murder that Brown 
 on that night was twenty-five miles away 
 with one of his sons. Brown acknowl 
 edged this at a later period to his future 
 biographer, but added, " Take heed, how- 
 
 1 Congressional Globe, XXXVI. Cong., I Sess.. p 105. 
 
92 John Brown. 
 
 ever, that I do not say this in order to 
 throw guilt off from myself; although my 
 hand was not engaged, I would have ad 
 vised the step if I had known the circum 
 stances, and I approved of it." 1 
 It was, above all, this cool, reckless en 
 ergy, which shrank from no consequences 
 of the first step, that made of Brown the 
 most dreaded leader of the men on the 
 -side- of the-Eree-Slate party. Besides, he 
 
 had a really remarkable talent for guerilla 
 warfare. It may have been absurd of 
 him to criticise minutely Napoleon s dis 
 positions for a battle ; but no one under 
 stood better than he how to post a handful 
 of men in a wood or in a gorge so that 
 they could keep in check a force ten times 
 their superior, composed of such heroes 
 as the Missouri rangers. On the 3Oth of 
 August, 1856, he posted himself with about 
 thirty men in the way of a troop of from 
 
 1 Redpath, p. 119. 
 
Brown. 93 
 
 four hundred to five hundred well armed 
 Missourians who had even brought cannon 
 with them, and did not let them pass until 
 he had killed more than thirty and wounded 
 about fifty. Soon after, before Lawrence 
 with between forty and fifty men armed 
 with rifles, he prepared such a warm night 
 reception for four hundred cavalry that 
 not only the latter retreated, but also 
 the force of about two thousand men who 
 had burned down Franklin and were 
 marching on Lawrence thought good to 
 face about. However, he understood not 
 only how to make excellent use of the 
 lay of the land, but how to teach his 
 people not to waste their shot. He 
 adopted both sides of Cromwell s maxim 
 
 your trust in God, and keep_^oiir 
 powder dry."_ He was fully aware of 
 the worth of his own moral superiority 
 and of that of his people. He declared 
 that it was foolishness to think that the 
 
94 John Brown. 
 
 square-built bullies who were the matadores 
 at tavern brawls and on the street, and 
 who had primed themselves with brandy, 
 were the best material for soldiers. He 
 said that he who defended a great and 
 noble cause, who fought for his wife and 
 children, and who trusted in God, could 
 stand against ten rapscallions in the pay of 
 hell. He put his trust in God, and each 
 beat of his pulse spoke of the sacredness 
 of the cause to which he had devoted his 
 life. The day was begun and ended with 
 prayer in his camp, and no morsel was 
 touched before thanks had been rendered 
 to the Giver of all good gifts. Woe to 
 the man who uttered a profane word in 
 his presence ! Once some border roughs 
 whom he had taken prisoners were curs 
 ing. As they were beginning to curse 
 again in spite of his protest, he pointed his 
 cocked revolver at them and thundered, 
 " Kneel down and pray ! " They knelt 
 
Brown. 95 
 
 down and prayed. They had to pray 
 more during the five days they passed in 
 his camp than they had presumably prayed 
 in their whole lives. 
 
 No one has ventured to assert that this 
 stern piety was with him an acquired habit 
 or even a blind. On his return East, late 
 in the autumn of 1856, his opinions and 
 belief in his God-given mission were sub 
 jected to tests which few would have en 
 dured. On Feb. 18, 1857, before a com 
 mittee of the Massachusetts Legislature 
 he said : " About the first of September 
 (1856), myself and five sick and wounded 
 sons and a son-in-law had to lie on the 
 ground a long time without covering and 
 at times almost starved, and completely 
 thrown on the charity of the above-men 
 tioned Christian Indian and his wife." 
 And that was one of the lesser trials 
 which he had to stand. " Near Black 
 Jack," so ran his tale, "the Missourians 
 
96 John Brown. 
 
 wounded three Free-State men, one of 
 them was my son-in-law ; a few days later 
 one of my sons was wounded so that he 
 will remain a cripple for life." After giv 
 ing a long list of the sufferings of others 
 which he had witnessed, he went on : 
 " Abandoned houses and corn-fields were 
 to be seen in almost every direction south 
 of the Kansas River. 
 
 " However, I have not yet told all that 
 I saw in Kansas. Once I saw three 
 mutilated bodies ; two were dead and 
 one still lived, but was riddled with 
 twenty bullet holes and buck-shot holes; 
 the two murdered men had been lying 
 eighteen hours on the ground, a prey to 
 the flies. One of these young men was 
 my own son." 
 
 A clergyman, Martin White by name, 
 boasted of having shot down Frederick 
 Brown, who, thinking to meet friends, was 
 going on his way peaceably and unarmed. 
 
John Brown. 97 
 
 This part of his story was hard for the 
 old man, he could scarcely utter the words. 
 After a few moments, however, he was 
 again calm. He had not yet told the 
 worst that he had to say. This was the 
 chapter concerning his son John, which 
 he had not committed to paper. It was 
 short enough to be told in a few im 
 promptu sentences. " Captain " Tate, for 
 merly a journalist, now really a wandering 
 knight in the service of slavery and pre 
 tending to be in the service of United- 
 States Marshal Donaldson for the pur 
 pose of maintaining " law and order," 
 Captain Tate arrested John Brown, Jr., 
 and his brother Jason, while they were 
 peaceably attending to their business. He 
 had no legal order to arrest them ; but it 
 seemed good to him to declare them guilty 
 of murder and high treason on his own 
 responsibility. They were put into chains, 
 dragged away, and soon handed over to 
 7 
 
98 John Brown. 
 
 the United-States dragoons under Captain 
 Wood, who made common cause with the 
 border roughs. The dragoons with their 
 horses drove the prisoners, laden with 
 chains and hatless, many miles under the 
 burning sun. John could not endure the 
 torture : his mind got out of joint. 1 The 
 father now asked the gentlemen of the 
 Committee of the Legislature if they wished 
 to see the chains ; they were always with 
 him as a memorial, he said, and were now 
 in his hotel. As he was concluding his 
 report of this episode with the statement 
 that the treatment his son had suffered 
 had made of him " a madman, yes, a 
 madman," his bronzed features trembled 
 and a tear stole over his cheek. 
 
 The man who, after going through such 
 trials, still persevered in the work which 
 he had once for all set himself to do, and 
 staked all that he had not yet lost, such 
 
 1 Phillips The Conquest of Kansas, pp. 332, 333. 
 
John Brown. 99 
 
 a man must either have been driven by 1^ 
 thirst for revenge, or he must have honf- 
 
 L 
 
 estly taken himself for an instrument ii 
 God s hand which had to do its work with 
 out looking to the right or to the leit_ 
 Kapp says, speaking of Brown s career in 
 Kansas, " He takes up the fight for the 
 right, and revenges himself as well as he 
 can : eye for eye, tooth for tooth." It 
 seems to me that the expression " revenges 
 himself " is an unhappy one. True, his 
 motto was, " Eye for eye, tooth for tooth," 
 but merely in order to exercise justice and 
 to protect the right. Again and again He"" 
 was asked in prison whether he had wished 
 to revenge himself for the wrong suffered 
 by his sons, and after a moment of deep 
 thought he always answered quietly, but 
 with the utmost positiveness, that so far 
 as he knew his own inner thoughts, this 
 feeling had never filled his breast. But 
 Brown was no actor, he did not play a 
 
ioo Jo Jin Brown. 
 
 part. The idea of revenge is incompatible 
 with his whole being. The death of his 
 sons caused him acute suffering, but it did 
 not make him bitter, and it did not turn 
 him from his path. We shudder when we 
 read in the Bible how Abraham draws his 
 knife against his son at God s bidding, 
 and it is hard to believe that a cultivated 
 man of the nineteenth century could give 
 up one after the other of his sturdy sons 
 with tears, it is true, but without a mur 
 mur and without the slightest hesitation 
 because his " mission " required it. And 
 yet John Brown really thought and felt in 
 this way. 
 
 Whenever I have stood among the ruins 
 of the classic age, before a single column 
 which had once been one of many to sup 
 port the roof of a temple, I have always 
 had a feeling as though I stood before a 
 sort of enigma. This picture involuntarily 
 came to me while trying to grasp the men- 
 
John Brown. 101 
 
 tal and moral nature of this remarkable 
 man. In his comparisons he was fond of 
 referring to the Bible accounts of Old 
 Testament heroes. He bore the imprint 
 of their spirit. All who did not believe 
 what they believed, were devoted to the 
 sword. In Brown s eyes, the man who 
 saw slavery under any other aspect than 
 that of a moral wrong, was a heathen. 
 His platform is a narrow one, a very 
 narrow one ; but on this platform he 
 stands, towering up mightily in genuine 
 grandeur, a solitary pillar in this sober 
 world, with its calmly analytic thought, 
 and its broad and shallow thread-bare 
 sentiment. But how did this representa- . 
 tive of a long-vanished period of civili 
 zation come into this modern world of 
 
 
 
 ours ? There is only one explanation. 
 Negro slavery, as it had developed in the 
 United States, on the soil of the most 
 democratic State in the world, which in 
 
iO2 y John Brown. 
 
 - 
 
 all other respects was even with the times, 
 was itself so much of an anachronism and 
 an anomaly that the whole history of the 
 world cannot produce its fellow. 
 
 So far Brown had stood on the defen 
 sive; he had only helped to defend Kansas 
 from being overpowered by the party of 
 the slave-holders. His return to the East 
 was the decisive turning-point in his life. 
 He had not come to seek rest and relaxa 
 tion. He had taken the final resolve to 
 assume the offensive, and he wished to 
 collect in the East the necessary material 
 aid. He travelled about, knocked at many 
 doors, where he thought that he could 
 Otfunt not merely upon sympathetic words, 
 but also upon effective assistance ; here 
 and there he spoke in public meetings ; 
 he even published in the papers a call for 
 assistance. But the contributions came 
 in very scantily. In a written " Farewell 
 to the Plymouth Rocks, Bunker Hill Mon- 
 
John Brown. 103 
 
 uments, Charter Oaks, and Uncle Tom s 
 Cabins," he summons " the glorious Com 
 monwealth " before the judgment seat of 
 God, on account of its lukewarmness in 
 a cause " in which every man, woman, and 
 child, yea, in which the whole human race 
 has a deep and awful interest." He was 
 again on his way to Kansas as early as 
 June, 1857, but he did not get there till 
 November, because lack of money forced 
 him to interrupt his journey. 
 
 However, his stay in the East had 
 by no means been barren of results. 
 He had formed new connections, he- had 
 drawn old ties closer, and the object of 
 it all was to collect a small band of 
 men who were ready to burn their ships 
 and to begin with him the holy war^-ol 
 / extermination againsl^&laY^j^. He had 
 
 lalready selected Harper s Ferry as the 
 
 point where the first great blow was to 
 
 * be struck. A certain Forbes, however, 
 
IO4 John Brown. 
 
 \ who was to have been a drill-sergeant 
 \ for his people, and who later on betrayed 
 1 him, persuaded him for the time to give 
 ]up this idea. For the present, Kansas 
 Uvas to continue to be the scene of his 
 //exploits. It is not necessary to go into 
 the details of what he did there. His 
 life was agitated enough, but he did not 
 experience as many remarkable vicissi 
 tudes as the first year. The main thing 
 was the silent inward and outward prepa 
 ration for his coming grand raid on Vir 
 ginia. One event alone deserves special 
 mention. 
 
 Brown carried " the war into Africa " 
 for the first time in December, 1858. Di 
 viding his force into two parts, he went 
 with his associates over the borders of 
 Missouri, freed eleven slaves, and took 
 them to Kansas. The division led by 
 his friend Kagi shot down a man who 
 levelled his gun at the invaders, and 
 
John Brown. 105 
 
 Brown took as much money from the 
 slave-holders as, according to his estimate, 
 would suffice to pay for the work which 
 the slaves had hitherto done. This char 
 acterizes completely the procedure which 
 he intended henceforth to observe, f He 
 does not at all consider himself called 
 upon to punish the slave-holders. He 
 merely wants to assist the slave in getting 
 what is his due. TBut he shoots down any 
 one who forcibly resists him. He only 
 added one other point to this programme, 
 -at first he lightened the purse of his vie- f 
 tims only to make up the wages which 
 were owing to the slaves ; later on he 
 thought it just and fair that they should 
 furnish him the means to free other slaves. 
 This raid made a great sensation. The 
 Qxerrmy^of^ Mjssojjri offered a reward of 
 $3000, and the President a further reward 
 of $250, for the capture of Brown. But 
 he brought his charges in good condition 
 
io6 John Brown. 
 
 jto Canada, after putting to flight with only 
 
 *~ : ght men, and without firing a shot, more 
 an forty Missourians who pursued him. 
 was a natural and completely justifiable 
 view of the situation that both sides con 
 sidered this event as much more important 
 than the biggest " battle " which had been 
 fought in Kansas. The appearance of a 
 highwayman armed to the teeth if I 
 may allow myself a comparison from the 
 Southern point of view throws the whole 
 region into frightful excitement, while the 
 q npajf_Jji i P VP.S, though they may cause 
 much more damage, are quietly left to 
 the local police, so long as things are not 
 carried quite too far. What do the eleven 
 slaves freed by Brown signify when com 
 pared with the great number of those 
 whom the Abolitionists and freed slaves 
 had already been conveying every year 
 for a long time by the so-called " under 
 ground railroad," to the British posses- 
 
V 
 
 iafi 
 
 John Broivn. 107 
 
 sions? lit was the fact that an armed 
 band haa entered a slave State and forci- 
 jbly freed a number of slaves ; and this 
 I startled the whole South like a bursting 
 |bombshell. 1 It is true that Southerners 
 had often allowed themselves to resort to 
 the most violent methods of propagating j 
 their " peculiar institution ; " but they would 
 sooner have believed that the heavens were 
 falling than that the Northern " dough 
 faces " and " mudsills " could return the 
 compliment. And they showed at once 
 how very conscious they were of the fact 
 that the " peculiar institution " which they 
 called the corner-stone of their greatness, 
 was in reality sadly weakening in its 
 effects. The border counties of Missouri 1 
 lost for some time their craving for expe 
 ditions against Kansas, and those who 
 owned slaves hastened to sell them far 
 ther from the border. In one district, 
 which at the time of Brown s first raid 
 
I 
 
 io8 John Brown. 
 
 had had five hundred slaves, there were 
 only fifty to be found two years later. It 
 was certainly easier to protect one s self 
 in this way against the old man than to 
 earn the rewards that had been offered for 
 him. And the slave-holders were right 
 in taking for granted that he would not 
 be satisfied with this one success. He 
 now started an organization in Canada for 
 the purpose of reducing to a system the 
 work of freeing the slaves, and of accom- 
 pli^hing it on a large scale. 
 
 A convention of Abolitionists radical 
 enough to inspire Brown with confidence, 
 was called together with great secrecy, 
 and met in Chatham, West Canada, on the 
 8th of April, 1859. The place of meeting 
 was a negro church, and a colored clergy 
 man, named Munroe, presided. Brown 
 laid before the convention a paper drawn 
 up by himself and entitled, " Provisional 
 Constitution and Ordinances for the 
 
Brown. 
 
 109 
 
 people of the United States." Thisdoc- 
 ument was a confused medley of absurd, 
 because absolutely inapplicable, forms, and t 
 of measures well calculated for the end" 
 injview, of sound common-sense and of 
 absurd systematizing ; of cool computation 
 
 over-estimates of 
 
 the resources at hand ; of true, keen- 
 sighted humanity lmd~of"Teckiess seventy. \ 
 It was absurd in itself that a little band 
 of negroes and a few white men without 
 influence should secretly put their heads 
 together in Canada in order to give a 
 Constitution to the people of the United 
 States ; but it was entirely rational to 
 create a strong organization which had 
 fqr^its object the breaking of the chams 
 of the slaves. It was absurd for this cor 
 poral s guard of officers with no troops 
 behind them to copy the Federal Con 
 stitution and to desire a President with a 
 complete cabinet, a Congress " with not 
 
Iv iio John Brown. 
 
 h ess than five, nor more than ten mem- 
 bers," a Supreme Court and four lower 
 Courts ; but it was entirely sensible to 
 ir hppoint a supreme commander ; that is, to 
 f place all the means available in the hands 
 of one man. It was hard that all those 
 who willingly kept slaves, all enemies, and 
 all who assisted the enemy, should have 
 all they possessed taken away from them, 
 * wherever found, whether in free or in 
 slave-holding States." But in the case of 
 these fanatics the fact deserves to be ac 
 knowledged, that they would recognize 
 any kind of neutrality, that they promised 
 not to execute any prisoner without a fair 
 trial, and j._verdict of the court strictly 
 forbade all useless destruction of property, 
 and would not unnecessarily wound th 
 feelings of the defeated enemy even with 
 a single word. This plan was probably 
 intended for moral effect on the emanci 
 pated negroes, to hold them under some 
 
John Brown. 1 1 1 
 
 restraint during confusion. It was a piece 
 oj insanity, in the literal sense of the word 
 to create such a government and to want 
 to carry onsuch a war, and yet to declare 
 that there was no intention of overthrowing 
 thg_ .state or federal government ; but 
 it showed tkaXjn__a few instances the con 
 spirators saw farther than their noses, 
 that they would not be content with the 
 freeing of the slaves, but promised also to 
 look out for the bringing together again 
 <rf separated families, for schools and even 
 for the furtherance of " personal cleanli- 
 ness."- The plan was so nonsensical that 
 it was an unseemly piece of pleasantry on 
 the part of the Attorney-General to accuse 
 Brown later of high treason, and on the 
 part of the jury to declare him guilty, be 
 auge~rrriad set u a overnment ofhi 
 
 up a government ofhis 
 
 ojvnbymeans of this " Provisional Con 
 stitution." But the fact that a society 
 iad been formed which practically in- 
 
1 1 2 John Brown. 
 
 means to a supreme com- 
 
 Qrnander (whatever powers were given on 
 ^paper to the Secretary of the Treasury and 
 iito Congress), and that John Brown was 
 < unanimously chosen supreme comrnander, 
 this fact was important enough. 
 
 An ill-boding sultriness filled the air 
 
 of the whole Commonwealth. The deci 
 
 sion of the Supreme Court in the Qj:ed 
 
 Scott Case, which opened to slavery the 
 
 i Whole territorial domain of the Union, 
 
 ; was a dearly bought victoryforthe 
 
 * South. The just exasperation of the Re 
 
 publicans spurred them on to increased 
 
 efforts, while the split in the Democratic 
 
 party made ceaseless and rapid progress. 
 
 President Buchanan presented daily a 
 
 more pitiful spectacle of moral wretched 
 
 ness ; daily it seemed more probable that 
 
 the Republicans would carry the next pre 
 
 sidential election ; and constantly did the 
 
 Southern Hotspurs declare that the day 
 
John Brown. 113 
 
 on which a Republican was chosen Presi 
 dent would be the last day of the Union. 
 
 Who, at this stage of affairs, would 
 have thought of the bold leader of vol- 
 Jnteers during the times of "bleeding 
 Kansas"? In the United States more 
 than anywhere else, people live in the 
 present, and Brown was not at all anxious 
 to remind the public of his existence. 
 Diligently, but with the greatest secrecy, 
 |; he made his preparations. 
 
 In the State of Virginia, on the left 
 bank of the Potomac, lies the town of 
 Harper s Ferry, which Brown had had in 
 mind years before. Brown wanted to ex 
 plode his first bio; mine in Virginia, Be 
 cause this State had always held in the 
 South the leading position, although the 
 centre of the slave-holders power lay in 
 the_cotton States, where the radical wing 
 of the party was consequently strongest. 
 AndBrown had chosen Harper s Ferry as 
 
 """" 8 
 
1 1 4 John Brown. 
 
 rthe centre of operations, partly because 
 there was an important United-States 
 Arsenal in the place, and partly because 
 it lay near the mo-t^tains, which offered 
 hjgi#g s pta~ces eiTcrugJi, and many points 
 which a band of resolute men could easily 
 defend against a superior force. The 
 choice of just this place was therefore by 
 no means so unfortunate and so unwise 
 as has often been asserted. 
 
 Toward the end of June there appeared 
 at Harper s Ferry a " Mr. Smith " and his 
 two sons, who came, as they said, to look 
 for a farm, being tired of farming in west 
 ern New York, where the frosts had 
 repeatedly destroyed the crops. The 
 stranger, who presented a striking appear 
 ance by reason of his long beard, hired 
 the Kennedy farm after looking about a 
 little. When he had taken possession, 
 a few other men joined him, one by one. 
 The neighbors wondered a little that the 
 
John Brown. 115 
 
 new-comers did not seem to have any 
 regular occupation, and that, though they 
 often went into the mountains to hunt, 
 they never brought home any game. They 
 remarked also that large chests were re 
 peatedly brought into the quiet house. 
 But as the occupants paid for everything 
 in cash, and showed themselves friendly, 
 helpful neighbors, they were not troubled 
 by curious intruders, and no heed was 
 given to the strangers who often dropped 
 in upon them. 
 
 On the night of October 16, the pict 
 ure changed as though by magic. The 
 game which Smith was out after, fell into 
 his hands without having cost him a grain 
 of powder. ^ No shot had been fired, no 
 cry had broken the stillness of the night, 
 and yet Brown was in possession of the ar- 
 senal^guards occupied the railroad bridge 
 which leads to the Maryland shore of the 
 river, the faithful Kagi was bringing in 
 
n6 John Brown. 
 
 as a prisoner Colonel Washington, whom 
 he had captured with his arms and ne 
 groes, the watchmen were safely locked 
 up in the watch house, the telegraph wires 
 were cut, and the rails torn up. Even the 
 first shot at midnight failed to alarm the 
 slumbering town. It was fired at a watch 
 man who had come to relieve the watch 
 at the railroad bridge, and who, on being 
 summoned to surrender, ran off. It was 
 only when the train which arrived a little 
 after one o clock could not get through, 
 that the sleepers were roughly made aware 
 that something extraordinary was going 
 on. The railroad officials of the train, 
 who wanted to cross the bridge on foot, 
 turned round at sight of the levelled rifles. 
 A man trying to follow the example of 
 the watchman, who had luckily escaped, fv 
 was shot down. It was a bad omen that ; 
 in this foolhardy war, undertaken for the | 
 slaves, the first man who fell at the hands r 
 
 \l 
 
John Brown. 1 1 7 
 
 of the insurgents was a negro.I But this 
 was not all. Brown s moderate command 
 had been transgressed. He had ended 
 his last speech to his people with the 
 words : "iD^ not take a human life if you 
 can by any means avoid it, but if you must 
 take another s life to save your own, then 
 aim well." j He repelled afterward the ac 
 cusation of murder with the assertion that 
 he only made use of his weapons in self- 
 defence. The killing of this negro was 
 brought up against him, and he had to be 
 responsible for all that his associates had 
 done, even against his orders. 
 
 But whatever may be attributed to the 
 mistakes of his associates, it was undoubt 
 edly Brown who brought down destruc 
 tion upon himself. He sealed his fate by 
 accompanying the train over the bridge 
 toward morning, allowing it to proceed on 
 its way, and yet going back quietly into 
 the buildings he had seized. Steam and 
 
1 1 8 John Brown. 
 
 electricity carried in a few hours the as 
 tounding news to the uttermost borders of 
 the country. Armed-bodies-of men marched 
 against him from all sides, not merely 
 _.the. ..militia of Virginia and Maryland, but 
 also regular troops of the Federal army, - 
 and he remained motionless at his post 
 with his sixteen white men and five ne 
 groes. Did he believe that the hosts of 
 heaven would descend to cleave for him, 
 with their flaming swords, a broad path 
 through the ranks of the swarming enemy, 
 who had it in their power to surround 
 Harper s Ferry so closely that not a mouse 
 could escape ? This he did not believe, 
 however positively he assumed that the 
 arm of the Lord was above him. Was he 
 obliged to remain ? No ; he was still com 
 pletely master of the situation. Though 
 his company had only twenty-two rifles 
 all told, the inhabitants of the place were 
 so paralyzed by fear that he could have 
 
John Brown. 121 
 
 number of friends from the United States 
 and from Canada were to have joined 
 | Brown, but the news that Forbes had 
 warned the President drove him to imme- 
 idiate action. There is presumably some 
 truth in the story; but Redpath s heated 
 imagination sees the whole raid through 
 a powerful magnifying-glass, and he wants 
 to avenge the friend whom he honored 
 like a saint, by trying to make the South 
 believe that Brown had really laid a huge 
 network of mines which, in spite of his 
 execution, would soon explode into the air. 
 
 The main reason why Brown, as soon 
 as he had brought the arsenal into his 
 power, remained doubtingly expectant, en 
 tirely contrary to his nature, lay much 
 deeper. 
 
 Mason of Virginia declared later that 
 at least fifteen or twenty thousand dollars 
 worth of arms had been found in Brown s 
 house, and that he carried with him "a 
 
122 ohn Brown. 
 
 large sum of money in gold." 1 This is a 
 wanton exaggeration. There were found, 
 besides a few things not worth mention 
 ing, one hundred and two rifles and twelve 
 pistols, with a considerable amount of 
 ammunition, four hundred and eighty- 
 three pikes, fifty-five old bayonets, and 
 twelve artillery sabres ; and as to the 
 large sum of money, it would at the out 
 side have sufficed to support a battalion 
 for a day. 2 These preparations scarcely 
 indicated that the Union was in danger 
 of being lifted from its foundations) Still 
 Brown undoubtedly counted on a consid 
 erable addition to his force, although he 
 hardly expected much assistance from Can 
 ada, or from the Abolitionists of the North, 
 as Redpath will have itj Th_arios.,were 
 evidently especially intended for the slaves, 
 wkem-he~xp.ected to deliver. This is not, 
 
 1 Congressional Globe, XXXVI. Cong., I Sess., p. 14. 
 
 2 Brown himself says before the court, $250 or $260. 
 
John Brown. 123 
 
 however, by any means equivalent to say 
 ing as not only his enemies but his 
 friends have often asserted that he i 
 tended to excite a universal revolt of the 
 slaves, if the word " revolt " is taken in its 
 usual meaning. During the time Brown 
 was still completely master of the situa 
 tion, he and his men, when they were 
 asked what they wanted to do, always 
 answered promptly and emphatically, " We 
 want to free . the-slaves," Brown offered 
 repeatedly to free his prisoners of whom, 
 for a time, he had about fifty /if he could 
 receive a slave in exchange for each priso-( 
 ner, and he maintained this declaration 
 unconditionally to the last. And he meant 
 it as he said it. To free the slaves was 
 absolutely his one object^ If blood were 
 shed in the attempt, it would be the ene 
 my s fault ; liberators and liberated were 
 to make use of their arms only in self- 
 defence. But if any one resisted with vio- 
 
124 John Brown, 
 
 lence the freeing of the slaves, he was 
 according to Brown s view the attacking 
 party, since the slaves through emancipa 
 tion merely entered into the enjoyment of 
 thdrjnalienable natural rights. If their 
 would-be owners placed themselves sword 
 in hand between them and their natural 
 rights, then self-defence regardless of con 
 sequences was not only a right, but a 
 sacred duty. Yet Brown, as much as any 
 man in the""Union, would have shrunk 
 with horror from a massacre of the slave 
 holders, unless it had been necessary for 
 the liberation of the slaves. But if such 
 an enormous success as Brown dreamed 
 of was at all conceivable, it was only pos 
 sible in case many thousands of slaves 
 
 ) claimed these rights of theirs at the first 
 call of the liberator. And if that hap- 
 
 * pened, was it possible that they should con 
 fine themselves to defending these rights, 
 or, rather, was it not certain that they 
 
John Brown. 125 
 
 would from the first wade ankle-deep in 
 the blood of their former masters ? Any 
 one who had the least acquaintance with 
 the great mass of slaves could not have 
 a moment s doubt as to the answer. But 
 Brown, incredible though it may sound, 
 certainly never even asked himself this 
 question. Nay, more, Brown actually ex 
 pected that the raid on Harper s Ferry 
 would be the stroke with which Moses 
 called forth water from the rock. The 
 spring was to turn southward, and in its 
 swift course to swell to a mighty river. 1 
 ;He declared expressly to Governor Wise, 
 .later still in his letters, that he had 
 
 /not intended simply to break the chc ins 
 
 1 A map was found among Brown s effects, on which 
 the number of slaves, free colored people, and white peo 
 ple, was carefully marked for each State and county. Evi 
 dently his route was to be partially determined by these 
 numbers, i It should, however, be mentioned that there 
 were comparatively few slaves in and around Harper s 
 Ferry. 
 
126 John Brown. 
 
 of a few dozen or a few hundred slaves, 
 and to take them again to Canada. Eman 
 cipation was to be spread farther and far 
 ther, and the Jreedinen were to remain in 
 the Southern States. 
 
 Heaven itself could not have brought 
 this about, unless it had sent the angel 
 of judgment to cast down into the dust 
 the whole white population from Florida 
 to Maine. Upon recovering from the stu 
 pefaction of the first alarm, the white pop- 
 | ulation of the South would have risen as 
 N one man to force the slaves back into the 
 ^ | yoke, and the North, with the exception 
 I of a handful of the most radical Abolition- 
 ^ ists, would have helped the South with all 
 Jits might. And truly they would have 
 ^ | been right ; though slavery was an incal- 
 f * culable wrong, though it was an incon 
 ceivable curse for the white people, it 
 would have been a still greater misfortune 
 for black and for white, if the former had 
 U 
 
John Broivn. 127 
 
 the twojuces. 1 
 But aside from this it was certain that 
 the whole white population would have res 
 olutely taken up the fight, and that the 
 blacks would have been crushed like tinder 
 by their overwhelming force. The more 
 Brown s dreams were realized, the more 
 unavoidable became the conflict between 
 
 unutterable misery on those he wished to 
 protect. The question of slavery in the* , 
 United States was a many-sided one, not 
 only from the point of view of expediency, 
 but also from that of morality. In every 
 established law, as such, there is also a 
 moral element. And when it has been 
 possible for an institution such as slavery 
 to remain established law for centuries, 
 then there have been active causes at work- 
 which have so broadened and strengthened ] 
 this moral element that the evil cannot be 
 forcibly overthrown by one blow without , 
 
128 John Brown. 
 
 \ deeply wounding relations which morality 
 ([requires us most scrupulously to respect. 
 And this is my view, although a study of 
 " these matters, continued for many years, 
 has persuaded me more and more that the 
 question of slavery in the Union could 
 only be solved by a sharp thrust, dealt by 
 the people themselves, acting under the 
 pressure of an iron necessity. If any one 
 man drew from his catechism the conclu 
 sion that he had the moral right to make 
 such an attempt on his own responsibility, 
 then, so far as he succeeded, the number, 
 as well as the importance, of the inevitable 
 immoral consequences must very notably 
 increase. 
 
 ft That in spite of the absolute wickedness 
 / pi slavery, the slave problem in the United 
 f /States was even morally a very complicated 
 / one, was, and remained to the last, simply in- 
 / comprehensible to Brown. His reasoning 
 in this matter was made up of two propo- 
 
I John Brown. i2gJ 
 
 sitions : jDo unto others as you would 
 have them do unto you," and " All men 
 are born free and equal, l His sight was 
 keen, but he saw only in a straight line. 
 This is easy to understand when one con 
 siders that he looked upon the question 
 only from the ethical point of view. Not 
 only would he have nothing to do with 
 any political party, soJhajLh^jIidj^t even 
 belong__tothe Abontionists, considered as 
 a close organization, but in all the existing 
 sources of information there is not the 
 slightest indication that he ever occupied 
 himself with the question of slavery, con 
 sidered as a political problem affecting 
 the South, or the North, or the Union 
 ,as a whole. His position was, however^" 
 entirely different as regards the most 
 immediate practical consequences of his 
 undertaking. Although he evidently re^\ 
 mained a stranger to the considerations I 
 we have just developed, he was certainly 
 9 
 
130 John Brown. 
 
 I able to think coolly and weigh coming 
 (events. The irresistible impulse which 
 moved him now at last to do the deed of 
 his life, did not allow him to make use of 
 this power in time, but as soon as he had 
 crossed the Rubicon, his eminently prac 
 tical instinct, although perhaps without 
 his being conscious of it asserted itself 
 fully, and paralyzed his arm. A fore 
 boding came over him that after all he 
 had launched his boat without helm or 
 compass upon a trackless ocean, that 
 his plan was based on an inherent contra 
 diction, which must necessarily sooner or 
 later cause its failure. 
 
 However painful the suggestion may 
 be for those who admire and revere 
 Brown, it sounds like a comic interlude 
 in the tragedy when we read that the man 
 who, against the law of absolute right, 
 against all legal authorities, and against 
 the whole nation, presumed to start a 
 
John Brown. 131 
 
 radical, political, and social revolution in 
 i the Southern States, which was to be 
 / purchased at the cost of a four years civil 
 war of frightful proportions, that this 
 man, after the success obtained during the 
 first two hours, remained with folded arms 
 and waited to be hemmed in and hunted 
 down like a mad wolf. But still he stands ! 
 forth in this hopeless fight, a grand, he 
 roic figure from first to last, while his 
 conquerors have covered themselves with 
 imperishable and absolutely unutterable 
 disgrace and shame. When Brown was 
 completely surrounded, he repeatedly of 
 fered to retreat if they would let him take 
 his prisoners along for a short distance as 
 security ; after that he was willing, if 
 necessary, to defend his life in open battle. 
 It was entirely in order to reject these con 
 ditions. In the eyes of the authorities he 
 was a criminal; they could not embrace his 
 proposition and engage with him in battle 
 
132 John Brown. 
 
 according to the rules of chivalry, as 
 though they had stood face to face as 
 individuals possessed of the same rights. 
 But what justification was there for shoot 
 ing down from a safe cover the men who 
 came out unarmed and under a white flag- 
 to escort prisoners ? It could not be as 
 serted that they were regarded as poisonous 
 vermin whose extermination by all pos 
 sible means was a necessity, unless the 
 authors of the statement were willing to 
 accuse themselves of much more cowardly 
 baseness. Brown had quite a number of 
 prisoners. What if he had now said, 
 " an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth " ? 
 His acting thus would have been con 
 ceivable, for it was his own son whom the 
 cowards shot down before his eyes like a 
 mad dog, while he stood unarmed before 
 them. And this was not all, nor was it 
 the worst. William Thompson, Brown s 
 son-in-law, had fallen into the hands of the 
 
John Brown. 133 
 
 enemy and had been brought a prisoner 
 to a hotel. A crowd of young heroes 
 were for killing him on the spot. This 
 was with difficulty prevented by a young 
 lady, named Miss Foulke, the sister of the 
 proprietor of the hotel, who threw herself 
 again and again between the prisoner and 
 the revolvers. She is said to have declared 
 later that she did not in the least oppose 
 the execution, she merely did not wish her 
 carpet to be soiled with blood. The car 
 pet was saved from all injury by the heroic 
 girl. Thompson was sent into eternity on 
 the railroad bridge. He fell over the rail 
 ing and remained lying at the foot of a 
 pillar, but so clumsily had the hangman, 
 who stood close to him, performed his 
 work that he still gave signs of life ; a 
 general discharge from the bridge ended 
 his sufferings. Henry Hunter, the son of 
 the prosecuting attorney, boasted before 
 the court that he had played the part of a 
 
134 John Brown. 
 
 leader in this heroic deed, and repeatedly 
 declared that he had acted deliberately. 
 Is there any need of saying that he was 
 never in the least troubled by the courts 
 on account of this affair, and that he be 
 came one of the lions of the day? And 
 what vengeance did they take, these high 
 way robbers, toward whom the noble 
 Virginians thought every brutal cruelty 
 permissible, if not praiseworthy ? Brown 
 had allowed the railroad train to proceed, 
 " in order to reassure those who might 
 have thought we were come here to burn 
 and to kill." He allowed the prisoners to 
 go out with an escort and to reassure their 
 families, and as the firing of the attacking 
 party grew hotter, he warned the prisoners 
 to keep in sheltered corners, that they 
 might not be hurt. One of his sons lay 
 dead at his feet ; with his left hand he felt 
 the pulse of his other son, who was dying, 
 while his right hand held his rifle, and his 
 
John Brown. 135 
 
 eye, steady and clear, followed the move 
 ments of the enemy. Thus he stood, still 
 warning his surviving companions not to 
 shoot at people who were not engaging in 
 the fight. 
 
 The militia had not the courage to seek 
 the lion in his lair. It was not till a body 
 of troops of the United-States marines 
 had come, that an attack on the engine- 
 house was ventured upon. A long ladder 
 did duty as a battering-ram, and the door 
 was broken through at the second onset. 
 All further resistance was now useless. 
 Brown called out to the soldiers who were 
 rushing in that he surrendered. Did they 
 not hear him, or did they shut their ears 
 to his call ? At any rate he was lying on 
 the ground without attempting to defend 
 himself when he received several sword- 
 cuts on the head, also bayonet-thrusts in 
 the abdomen. Brown himself, who up to 
 this point had remained unhurt, was gen- & 
 
136 John Brown. 
 
 erous enough to declare his belief that his 
 being wounded was an unfortunate acci 
 dent attributable to the confusion of the 
 moment. However, Lieutenant Green ac 
 knowledged during Copeland s trial that 
 he had struck Brown on the head after he 
 had already been knocked down, and on 
 being asked again whether Brown was 
 actually lying on the ground, he repeated 
 his statement. At the reproachful request 
 of the prosecuting attorney, Copeland s 
 counsel gave up pushing "such ques 
 tions " farther. 
 
 It is easy to understand why Hunter, 
 the worthy father of a still worthier son, 
 did not like " such questions." But the 
 heroic courage of Brown s conqueror stood 
 out already in such bold relief that it made 
 little difference whether light was thrown 
 on one or the other of the remaining ob 
 scure points. I have before me the official 
 report which Colonel Baylor, commander 
 
John Brown. 137 
 
 of the militia at Harper s Ferry, made 
 to Governor Wise. From this report * I 
 borrow the following facts. Wise s tele 
 grams called into action first of all, I. H. 
 Gibson, who marched at once with the 
 Jefferson Guards and a body of armed 
 citizens of Charlestown from the latter 
 place to Harper s Ferry. At Halltown, 
 halfway between the two points, he tele 
 graphed for immediate reinforcements, 
 to consist of the militia of Frederick 
 County, the Hamtramck Guards, and 
 the Shepherdstown Troop. On reach 
 ing Harper s Ferry he was joined by the 
 armed citizens of the place. A few 
 hours later the reinforcements that had 
 been asked for arrived, also a company 
 from Martinsburg, and later in the even 
 ing another company from Winchester. 
 Colonel Baylor, who in the mean time 
 
 1 The Life, Trial, and Execution of Capt. John Brown, 
 
 pp. 40-44. 
 
138 John Brown. 
 
 had assumed the command, summoned in 
 addition the third regiment of cavalry, 
 and formed two more companies of citi 
 zens. Before the struggle was over there 
 arrived, besides the Continental Guards 
 under Captain Washington, riflemen un 
 der Captain Clarke and three companies 
 from Frederick, Maryland. It would seem 
 that this was a sufficient force against an 
 enemy who had at the first numbered 
 twenty-two men and had in the mean time 
 suffered severe losses. However, when 
 Colonel Lee, who commanded the eighty- 
 five marines, expressed the rash opinion 
 that the militia themselves might have 
 captured the engine-house with its garri 
 son of four combatants, the latter politely 
 declined the honor of making the attack. 
 True, they were not only masters of the 
 art of shooting down prisoners and men 
 under a flag of truce, but fear had taught 
 them the science of multiplication much 
 
John Brown. 139 
 
 better than Falstaff had ever learned it. 
 Colonel Baylor tells us that on his arrival 
 the insurgents were estimated at from 
 three hundred to five hundred men. 
 
 The Virginians demonstrated amply dur 
 ing the Civil War that they were not 
 cowards. What made them shake in their 
 shoes was not John Brown and his hand 
 ful of men, but the shadows which their 
 excited imagination saw standing behind 
 them. There is certainly some foundation 
 for the charge that Governor Wise pur 
 posely sought to increase the excitement 
 by his extraordinary measures of defence ; 
 because he labored under the delusion that 
 this agitation would be an excellent step 
 ping-stone to the presidential chair. But 
 on the whole, neither the fear of shadows 
 nor the excitement was artificially pro 
 duced. Colonel Baylor declared from the 
 first that the fear lest a rescue could be 
 effected was entirely without foundation. 
 
140 John Brown. 
 
 But the putting under martial law of the 
 whole district around Charlestown, whither 
 the prisoners were brought; the keeping 
 under. arms a small army of militia-troops, 
 the sending of fresh troops and artillery to 
 Charlestown by Governor Wise on the first 
 false alarm, and his praising the soldiers 
 for not looking " pale with fear ; " the not 
 even allowing John Brown s wife to ap 
 proach the prison except under a strong mil 
 itary escort ; the chaining of the wounded 
 man, who was unable to stand, to a fellow- 
 prisoner, and the bringing him to his first 
 hearing under a guard of eighty men ; the 
 glittering of bayonets all over the court 
 house ; finally, the assumption by the State 
 of the control of the railroads shortly be 
 fore the execution, for greater security, and 
 the introduction of a strict system of pass 
 ports, all this was to a great extent a 
 wretched humbug gotten up for effect. 
 There were plenty of people in the South 
 
John Brown. 141 
 
 who were fully conscious of this. The 
 "Charleston Mercury," the most influential 
 organ of the extremists, called it, " The 
 Virginia Farce and its Terrorism, a,tissue 
 of the most disgraceful exaggeration and 
 invention, such as must excite the gall of 
 every Southerner who has regard for the 
 dignity and personal responsibility of the 
 Southern people." The same sheet de 
 clared : " It seems really as though the 
 men who hold the telegraph wires had 
 joined together to make us an object of 
 mockery and ridicule to ourselves and to 
 the world." l Yet it was no humbug, but 
 a genuine scare, which drove couriers to 
 horse, and set the telegraph in motion 
 for every burning haystack, and brought a 
 poor cow to its death because it ventured 
 to approach the sentinels without knowing 
 the watchword. When, later on, the rep 
 resentatives of Virginia complained bitterly 
 
 1 Congressional Globe, loc. cit., p. 65. 
 
142 John Brown. 
 
 in the Senate that the North had shown 
 so little sympathy for Virginia in its mis 
 fortune and distress, Chandler replied : 
 " We do not understand a case like this. 
 . . . If seventeen or twenty-two generals 
 from Virginia and North Carolina were to 
 attack Springfield, I will guarantee that, 
 supposing there were not a man within 
 five thousand miles, the women would bind 
 them fast within thirty minutes, and would 
 not demand any sympathy. . . . The pa 
 pers tell us that Governor Wise compared 
 the population of Harper s Ferry to sheep. 
 That is slanderous ; it is not true, for I 
 have never yet seen a flock of fifty or one 
 hundred sheep in which there was not one 
 warlike bell-wether!" 1 Cutting words, but 
 true. How could the North understand, 
 that a town of three thousand (others say 
 five thousand) inhabitants in a great State \ 
 like Virginia could be driven into a panic \, 
 
 1 Congressional Globe, loc. cit., p. 34. 
 
John Brown. 143 
 
 by a body of twenty-two men? But the 
 fact that such things were possible in the 
 South was not lost on the North. The 
 stunning effect which this raid produced 
 on the South gave the lie in the most 
 emphatic and annihilating fashion to the 
 insolent and insane hymns which were be 
 ing constantly sung in praise of slavery. 
 If his deed had produced no other effect, 
 Brown would still have been justified in 
 his glorious declaration that he willingly 
 mounted the scaffold, since his life and 
 that of his fellows had not been offered up 
 in vain to the great cause. 
 
 The best evidence of the frightful genu 
 ineness of the panic is the brazen impu 
 dence with which it was brought forward as 
 the justifying motive for the many atroci 
 ties which marked the trial. The brutaliz 
 ing influences of slavery came to light with 
 terrible vividness. Kapp s statement that 
 Brown " enjoyed very careful treatment " 
 
144 John Brown. 
 
 is not mistaken, but it is true only of the 
 later period of his imprisonment. Watson 
 Brown, whose life was prolonged until 
 the early morning of the igth of Octo 
 ber, complained of the hard bench he was 
 forced to lie on. His fellow-prisoner, Cop- 
 poc, begged for a mattress, or at least a 
 blanket, for the dying man, but could ob 
 tain neither. Both Brown himself and 
 Stevens, who was even more seriously 
 wounded, had nothing furnished them but 
 wretched straw. Redpath (p. 373) assures 
 us that "from October 19 till November 7 
 no clean clothing was given to Brown, but 
 that he lay in his soiled and blood-stained 
 garments just as he had fallen at Harper s 
 Ferry." On the 25th of October he was 
 brought before the court; he was not at 
 first carried there on a camp-bed, as was 
 the case afterward, but compelled to walk, 
 leaning on two men. Virginia could not 
 wait till he could stand. And why was 
 
John Brown. 145 
 
 Virginia in so much haste? Hunter said 
 the expenses were too large; the judges 
 declared that the term would soon be over, 
 and they wished to dispose of the cases 
 against the leaders before the end, and 
 Hunter crowned the whole matter by 
 demanding that Virginia should be re 
 leased from her anxiety. Brown cost Vir 
 ginia dear indeed. The commissioners 
 to whom the financial side of the busi 
 ness was intrusted handed in to the State 
 an account of $i85,667.O3. 1 But it was 
 certainly gloriously original to make a 
 state trial an extremely costly amusement 
 by means of the wildest and most useless 
 precautionary measures while the prose 
 cuting attorney was continually crying out, 
 " Hurry him to the gallows, or the tax 
 payers will be making wry faces at us." 
 Why should the prosecuting attorney not 
 bring forward such reasons, however, if the 
 
 1 The Independent, March 8, 1860. 
 10 
 
146 John Brown. 
 
 judges did not make it their sole and only 
 care to pronounce righteously and to guard 
 most carefully the rights which humanity 
 and the laws emphatically accord to the 
 man who is tried for his life ? And if the 
 judges wanted above all things to get 
 through, why should the prosecuting at 
 torney blush for shame as he stated that 
 the defendants must be delivered over to 
 the executioner as soon as possible, be 
 cause u there can be no woman in the 
 whole county who, with or without rea 
 son, does not tremble with anxiety and 
 fear " as long as a half-dozen of prisoners, 
 most of them severely wounded, have not 
 been sent to their last account ? 
 
 A dreadful picture is here ! a court 
 house, in front of which cannon have been 
 dragged, and which is packed with people 
 who do not wish to hear a verdict but a 
 condemnation ; the condemnation of a 
 man of sixty years who lies covered with 
 
John Brown. 147 
 
 wounds on his litter, manifesting a mar 
 vellous composure, listening without the 
 least excitement to attorney and judges as 
 they heartily unite in the decision that all 
 possible means must be employed for has 
 tening his fearful end. When the hearing 
 revealed the story of Thompson s cruel fate 
 in all its particulars, the tears rolled down 
 Brown s cheeks, but the gallows erected 
 for himself was in his eyes a ladder to 
 heaven, and he greeted it with a smile. 
 It was only his sense of justice and the 
 wish not to let the motives of his action 
 be covered over with foul, mendacious 
 mud, which made him demand what he 
 would have obtained as a matter of course 
 in every State where the laws are properly 
 administered. On his very first appear 
 ance in court, Brown begged the judges 
 for their own sakes and for his not to give 
 him a sham trial. " When I was taken 
 prisoner," said he, " I did not ask for quar- 
 
148 John Brown. 
 
 ter; I did not ask that my life be spared. 
 The governor of Virginia assured me that 
 I should have a fair trial, but under no 
 circumstances shall I be able to secure 
 one. If you want my blood, you can have 
 it at any moment without going through 
 with this mockery of a trial. I have had 
 no lawyer. I have been unable to take 
 advice of any one. . . . There are exten 
 uating circumstances which I would ad 
 duce in our favor, if we could be granted a 
 fair hearing. But if you wish to force an 
 empty form upon us a trial for the pur 
 pose of hanging us you had better spare 
 your pains. I am ready to meet my fate." ] 
 The court s answer proved that he 
 was indeed to have a trial only " for the 
 purpose of hanging him." Brown asked 
 for a short postponement until he should 
 be in a little better state of health. He 
 
 1 The Life, Trial, and Execution of Capt. John Brown, 
 P- 55- 
 
John Brown. 149 
 
 could not now, he said, rely upon his 
 memory, and his hearing was for the time 
 being still so much affected by the scalp- 
 wounds he had received that he could not 
 understand what was said. The prosecut 
 ing attorney requested the court not to 
 take notice of these " trifling statements." 
 As the physician s opinion agreed with 
 Hunter s wishes, the court maintained that 
 it was entirely in order to bring before its 
 bar on a camp-bed a man suffering from 
 five serious wounds one of his kidneys 
 had been pricked or cut into on trial for 
 his life. Brown had moreover requested a 
 delay of two or three days to give time for 
 the arrival of the lawyer whom he had 
 asked to undertake his defence. His re 
 quest was denied ; the court assigned him 
 two lawyers; and the trial began before 
 Brown had been able to speak a word to 
 the counsel that had been given him. 
 Brown was right ; a fair trial was out of 
 
150 John Brown. 
 
 the question from the outset, for in no 
 slave State, and least of all in Virginia, 
 could a jury be brought together in the 
 usual way which would not come with pre 
 conceived opinions, such as would make a 
 condemnation absolutely sure. But when 
 we consider that in addition to a court of 
 slave-holders and a jury as above described, 
 there were assigned as counsel for the de 
 fence, lawyers who were also born and 
 bred under the poisonous breath of slavery, 
 we perceive that it was an insult to talk of 
 a fair trial, however honorable the judges, 
 jurymen, and lawyers might be. And 
 moreover, it was an outrage, under the 
 existing circumstances, to deny the de 
 fendant, whose life was at stake, a delay 
 of two days in order that he might secure 
 the counsel he wanted. 
 
 It has been said, in order to justify the 
 refusal of the court, that they acted in 
 the belief that Brown only wished for a 
 
John Brown. 151 
 
 postponement in order to improve his 
 chances of being forcibly rescued. One 
 might almost be tempted at first sight to 
 believe that such fears were genuinely 
 entertained when one reads at the end 
 of one of the official reports, " The jailers 
 have orders to shoot down all the pris 
 oners, if an attempt is made to deliver 
 them." But this excuse can hardly stand 
 when we consider the decision which for 
 bade all exhaustive reports of the trial, and 
 the refusal to allow reporters access to 
 Brown, a refusal which was explained 
 by some one of the slave-holders party to 
 have been due to the fear that he might 
 say something calculated to influence pub 
 lic opinion, and to have a bad effect on the 
 slaves." ] But even if the members of the 
 court really believed at first that Brown 
 wished to protect himself by means of 
 
 1 The Life, Trial, and Execution of Capt. John Brown, 
 PP- 57, 58. 
 
152 John Brown. 
 
 empty pretexts, they speedily received the 
 proof that this assumption was entirely 
 false. His counsel submitted a paper to 
 the court, which, pointing to the fact that 
 several of the members of Brown s family 
 had been or were still insane, suggested that 
 a mental derangement might be assumed in 
 his case also. The facts were correct, and 
 Brow r n might therefore have obtained a 
 much longer postponement; but he re 
 pelled " with scorn," as a very poor device, 
 the insinuation that he was not in his 
 senses. Now what did the court do, when, 
 as frequently happened, a postponement 
 of a day or of a few hours was again re 
 quested? With one exception the request 
 was denied, and in this one instance 
 Hunter expressly protested against its 
 being granted. And yet it was a question 
 of waiting for the arrival of lawyers from 
 the free States, who had telegraphed that 
 they were coming, or of allowing Hoyt a 
 
John Brown. 153 
 
 few hours rest before beginning the de 
 fence, Hoyt was a young lawyer from 
 Massachusetts who had worked all night, 
 straining his powers to the utmost, in 
 order to gain in haste some knowledge of 
 the statutes of Virginia bearing on the 
 case, but had not yet been able to read 
 through the testimony of the witnesses 
 who had been examined before his arrival, 
 and was completely exhausted in body and 
 mind. Toward the end the defendant s 
 lawyers were even obliged to haggle with 
 the court over the number of hours within 
 which they were to confine their conclud 
 ing speeches. 
 
 Still further evidence of Brown s magna 
 nimity is furnished by his statement that 
 the trial was conducted as fairly as could 
 have been expected under the circum 
 stances. Nor do I myself mean to say 
 that the verdict would or could have been 
 otherwise than it was. I do not believe 
 
154 John Brown. 
 
 it would, although it is possible to raise 
 quite a number of objections which can 
 be supported by extracts from the con 
 stitutional and from the criminal law 
 against the drawing up of the suit and con 
 sequently against the judgment rendered. 
 However, these are merely technical le 
 gal points, and the trial was eminently a 
 political one. Forms were sinned against, 
 but in the main, justice was done. He 
 who undertakes such a game stakes his 
 life. Brown had forfeited his life, and 
 that not only according to the laws of 
 Virginia, for in every State where the 
 death penalty exists he would necessarily 
 have been condemned for a similar crime. 
 The motives which actuated him must 
 furnish the ground on which to judge his 
 character, but the jury and the court in 
 rendering judgment could only deal with 
 the facts. 
 
 There was no such haste to carry out 
 
John Brown. 155 
 
 the sentence as there had been to bring 
 the trial to a close. On the 2d of No 
 vember, ^Brown was sentenced to suffer 
 death by hanging on the 2d of Decem 
 ber. Several thousand militia-men, infan 
 try, and cavalry, had been called out for 
 the day, and loaded cannon had been 
 gosted so as to command the gallows and 
 the streets, as though it were very much 
 to be feared that Brown would be rescued 
 at the last moment from the hands of the 
 executioner ; and yet no stranger was al 
 lowed to come within two or three miles 
 of the place of execution. One cannot 
 wonder at this, since even the would-be 
 spectators from the neighborhood were 
 kept so far from the gallows that Brown s 
 voice could not have reached them ; and 
 yet there was certainly not one among 
 them who would have raised his finger 
 to keep the rope from Brown s throat. 
 During the previous days they had glutted 
 
156 John Brown. 
 
 their eyes gazing on the fatal rope, which 
 [was publicly exposed. It is characteristic 
 of the feeling in the South that three 
 States contended for the honor of furnish- 
 . ing this rope. Kapp, however, is wrong 
 when he says, in accordance with the first 
 newspaper reports, that South Carolina 
 carried the day in this noble contest. 
 The cotton of the plantation State was 
 too weak to bear John Brown s weight. 
 The preference had to be given to hemp, 
 which grows in more northern climes, and 
 the hemp used had been grown in Henry 
 Clay s State, the border State of Ken- 
 
 Itucky. 1 There was a fitness in this. The 
 North and South were equally responsible 
 for the hanging of John Brown. 
 
 Brown was writing his will up to the 
 last moment. When the parting came, he 
 exhorted his companions, heartily, to be 
 firm, and gave each of them with the 
 
 1 The Independent, Dec. 8, 1859. 
 
John Brown. 157 
 
 exception of Cook, who had attempted to 
 buy his life by falsehoods twenty-five 
 cents, "since he had no more use for 
 money." Thus is his ideal childish sim 
 plicity carried to almost inconceivable 
 lengths ; and yet he does not for one 
 moment cease to be a thoroughly sober, 
 practical American. In speaking of the 
 bringing up of his daughters, he exhorts 
 his wife not to forget that " the music of 
 the broom and the wash-tub, of the nee 
 dle and the spinning-wheel, of the sickle 
 and the flail," should precede that of the 
 piano ; and in one of his last letters he 
 complains that she has not told him any 
 thing of the condition of the crops on 
 the little farm. The often-repeated story" 
 that on coming out of prison he took a 
 negro woman s child from her arms and 
 kissed it, is presumably a poetic embel 
 lishment. I do not find the circumstance^ 
 mentioned in the most reliable report^/ 
 
158 John Brown. 
 
 that I am acquainted with, and consid 
 ering the exaggerated precautions which 
 were taken, it is not likely that negroes 
 were allowed to come near him. More- 
 
 
 
 ;V over, anything that would have looked 
 like a scene out of a play was repugnant 
 to his nature. The crystal-clear truthful 
 ness of his nature is illustrated once more 
 by the fact that he remained perfectly 
 simple and natural up to the last. On 
 being asked whether he considers himself 
 an instrument in the hands of Providence, 
 he answers simply and firmly, " I do." 
 True, he declares that he is not being 
 executed but " publicly murdered," and 
 yet not for a single minute does he at 
 tempt to clothe himself with the air of a 
 martyr and saint. Sitting on his own 
 coffin, he takes his last journey; but he 
 lets his eye wander over the sunny land 
 scape with quiet earnestness, as though 
 he were looking with a friend at his own 
 
John Brown. 159 
 
 North Elba, and says, " This is a beautiful 
 country." With a firm step he mounts the 
 ladder leading up to the gallows. On 
 the sheriff s handing him a cloth to give 
 the signal when he shall be ready, he 
 refuses it, and says, " I am ready at any 
 time, but do not make me wait longer 
 than is necessary." This last request 
 was not fulfilled. The sheriff received 
 orders to wait, and the troops began to 
 go through all sorts of evolutions. Brown 
 had to wait ten minutes with the cap 
 drawn over his eyes and with his hands 
 bound. He stood erect, without shudder 
 ing in the least, or betraying any excite 
 ment. The undertaker had said to him 
 during the ride, " Captain Brown, you are 
 in better spirits to-day than I ; " and he 
 had answered, " I have good cause to be 
 so." When the sheriff, indignant at Gen 
 eral Taliaferro s cruelty, asked him pity 
 ingly if he were not tired, he answered, 
 
160 John Brown. 
 
 " Not tired ; but don t make me wait 
 any longer than is absolutely necessary." 
 These were his last words. 
 
 This closing scene of the tragedy filled 
 the North with horror. People said and 
 rightly too, that such things could not 
 have happened north of Mason and Dix- 
 on s line at the execution of the most ab 
 ject criminal. Yet individuals might be 
 directly responsible for these barbarities, 
 while the fact itself of Brown s execution 
 would have to be settled by every one with 
 the whole South and with himself. The 
 President s way of doing this was to give 
 a dinner to the diplomatic corps on the 
 day of the execution. This was a method 
 which did not accord with the feelings of 
 either party. There were certainly many 
 men among the Southern aristocracy who 
 perceived the want of tact of any demon 
 stration on the part of the federal execu 
 tive, nor was such a petty and underhand 
 
John Brown. 161 
 
 proceeding calculated to please any South 
 ern "fire-eater." But the North looked 
 upon Brown with a feeling which turned 
 Buchanan s dinner into a cowardly, con 
 temptible insult. A few only called the~l 
 execution a piece of meanness, but thou 
 sands and ten thousands who unreservedly \j$ 
 acknowledged that death by the hand of 
 the executioner was the legitimate result 
 of his undertaking honored his memory 
 by solemn religious ceremonies. " What 
 sort of a system is this, which drives men 
 like Brown to acts rendering a resort to 
 the executioner s axe a horrible but un- 
 \avoidable necessity ? " This was the ques- .J 
 tion that lay on countless lips, and it was 
 a question of immense importance. Piti 
 ful though the attitude of most politicians 
 was toward this affair, the Democrats 
 seeking with greedy eagerness to make it a 
 poisonous arrow in the flesh of the Repub 
 licans, and the Republicans repelling with 
 
1 62 John Brown. 
 
 holy horror as a shameful calumny the 
 charge that they were not filled with as 
 great an aversion toward the deed as the 
 most conscientious Democrat, the best 
 portion of the people in all classes were 
 pervaded and thrilled by the conviction 
 that a martyr had laid down his life as an 
 offering for the sins of the nation, and 
 that the fateful, " All ready, Mr. Sheriff," 
 on the field of Charlestown, was not the 
 end of the matter; this seed sown in 
 blood must needs bring forth a mighty 
 harvest, it must become a curse or a 
 blessing. 
 
 People were far from looking upon 
 Brown in this light from the first. The 
 " New York Tribune," in many respects the 
 most prominent and most extreme organ 
 of the Republicans, summed up the case by 
 calling him simply " a madman ; " and the 
 " Independent," one of the most radical anti- 
 slavery papers outside of the small circle 
 
John Brown. 163 
 
 of Abolitionists in the narrowest sense of 
 the word, described him on the 2oth of 
 October as " a lawless brigand." On 
 November 24, on the other hand, the " In 
 dependent " declares, " The people s ver 
 dict has already stamped John Brown as 
 a brave and honest man." And on De 
 cember 8, the same sheet writes : " No 
 man has ever made such a profound im 
 pression on this nation through his moral_ 
 heroism. . . . Each of his actions, each 
 word he spoke up to the time of his ex 
 ecution has only strengthened and in 
 creased the power of his example. He 
 grew constantly greater up to the end. 
 He was greatest at the last, when most 
 men would have been weakest." Here 
 we have an example of the change of 
 opinion concerning Brown which took 
 place during his six weeks imprisonment, 
 and he who carefully follows his intel 
 lectual and spiritual life during this period 
 
164 John Brown. 
 
 will fully understand this change. When 
 , a slave-holder said to him in prison, " You 
 are a fanatic," he answers with the quiet 
 of conviction, " You yourself are a fa 
 natic." And before the court he declares, 
 " I consider it not unlawful, but lawful that 
 I have thus taken the place of God s de 
 spised arm. If it is thought right that I 
 should lose my life to further the purposes 
 of righteousness, and to mingle my blood 
 with that of my children and with that of 
 the millions of slaves in this land whose 
 rights have been trodden down by sinful, 
 cruel, and unrighteous laws, why, then, be 
 it so." Here John Brown takes his stand; 
 every word and action afford fresh evi 
 dence that this and this alone is the 
 ground on which his feet rest. Even in 
 the smallest things he remains true to him 
 self. He goes steadfastly and evenly on 
 his way, even to the dark end, as though 
 an irresistible natural law were driving 
 
John Brown. 165 
 
 ! " 
 
 him on. The number of his letters writ 
 ten in prison is considerable, and not even 
 in the most confidential of these can the 
 closest scrutiny discover the faintest tinge 
 of selfishness. " To me all is joy ; " trie" 
 Bible words are the dominant note, which 
 rings full and clear through all his utter 
 ances concerning himself. When his 
 family had been cared for and the edu 
 cation of his minor children secured by 
 means of collections at the North, the one 
 shadow departed from his soul. But even 
 this anxiety never drew from him a sickly, 
 sentimental word, and its removal does 
 not cause his imagination to soar even an 
 inch above the sober ground of reality. 
 He writes to his wife, " Helping poor 
 widows and their children is not much 
 more romantic than trying to help poor 
 negroes." He is I repeat it no en 
 thusiast, no fanatic in the common accep 
 tation of the term ; and it is precisely for 
 
1 66 John Brown. 
 
 this reason that his character makes so 
 powerful an impression. There is no 
 gloss about him ; he is all substance. His 
 terrible earnestness compels people in 
 spite of themselves to believe in his moral 
 greatness, and the touching moderation 
 with which he gives his executioners, con 
 sidered simply as men, more than their 
 due, takes away the repellant effect of the 
 one-sided roughness and rigidity of his 
 jnoral convictions. He gave the highest 
 proof a man can give of the genuineness 
 of these convictions ; for their sake he 
 staked his life and that of his children, 
 without the possibility of any selfish ad 
 vantage, and when he lost, he did not regret 
 ;what he had done. " Time and the honest 
 verdict of posterity," said he, " will justify 
 all my actions." Millions of eyes were 
 fastened upon him in anxious expectation, 
 to see whether he would not betray at the 
 last moment that he was wearing a mask, 
 
John Brown. 167 
 
 even though this mask might be woven of 
 the thinnest gauze wire. But after he had 
 stood ten minutes like a statue with the 
 rope round his neck and the cap drawn 
 over his eyes, the millions drew a deep 
 breath, he was wholly pure, wholly true. 
 And this is why John Brown s life and 
 death struck the minds and consciences of 
 the North with a far mightier blow than the 
 Lundys, Garrisons, and Douglases could 
 deal with their most heartfelt speeches. 
 
 Brown recognized fully the magnitude 
 of the impression which he and his deed 
 made on the North, and it was through 
 this impression that he for the first time 
 fully appreciated what he had done. He 
 did not perceive that his undertaking 
 could not have succeeded under any cir 
 cumstances ; but he did see that his fail 
 ure and its consequences achieved much 
 greater results than its most complete 
 success could- have done. His acknowl 
 
 - 
 
1 68 John Brown. 
 
 edgment that he had been led by God in 
 the best way when he delivered himself 
 through his own folly into the hands of 
 his enemies was not merely owing to his 
 Christian faith, but to a clear insight into 
 the facts. " I can leave to God," he writes, 
 " the time and manner of my death, for I be 
 lieve now that the sealing of my testimony 
 before God and man with my blood will do 
 far more to further the cause to which I 
 \ have earnestly devoted myself, than any- 
 | thing else I have done in my life." And 
 a few days later, u My health improves 
 slowly, and I am quite cheerful concerning 
 my approaching end, since I am convinced 
 that I am worth infinitely more on the gal 
 lows than I could be anywhere else." 
 
 The most intelligent men of the South 
 can hardly have failed to recognize the 
 truth of this assertion. The rumor that 
 Governor Wise would pardon Brown if he 
 dared to follow his personal inclination 
 
John Brown. 169 
 
 was perhaps not entirely unfounded. 1 Not 
 all intelligent and cultivated people are so 
 high-minded when they recognize the noble 
 qualities of an enemy as to take pains to 
 acknowledge them. It is easy to understand 
 that even such men as Senator Mason could 
 not refrain from characterizing Brown by 
 the epithets, "rough," "thief," "highway 
 man," and " wretched vagabond." Governor 
 Wise, however, honored himself by giving 
 Brown the character of a man of extraor 
 dinary fearlessness, truth, and fidelity toj 
 principle. And this view of Brown s char 
 acter, as a serious warning for the South, * 
 was confirmed so emphatically by a num 
 ber of fanatical slave-holders, that only 
 half of the wild abuse of the majority 
 can be considered genuine ; the other half 
 was partly political manoeuvring, partly 
 the hissing of powerless rage. How much 
 would these gentlemen have given to suc- 
 
 1 Washington letter of Nov. 5 to the " Independent." 
 
170 John Brown. 
 
 ceed in their attempt to point out a direct 
 complicity on the part of prominent Re 
 publicans, or to have proved that Brown 
 was merely the weak-headed tool of some 
 other man, who, safe in his own house, in 
 dulged in the pleasure of being fanatical ! 
 It seemed to them a sacred, patriotic duty 
 to tear down Brown s character; they 
 understood very well how essential it was 
 for the political side of the question to 
 consider the motives which actuated him, 
 though they had been of no use to him 
 in court. How often they had scornfully 
 called on the Abolitionists to turn their 
 words into action for once, and to come to 
 the South, where the ropes were already 
 twisted for them ! Now one of them had 
 come and had substantiated his doctrine 
 by reckless action, and he had not even 
 blinked at the sight of the rope. Thou 
 sands who till then had been unwilling to 
 believe it were now convinced of the gen- 
 
John Brown. 171 
 
 uineness of the moral sentiment of the 
 North in regard to slavery, though they 
 still stoutly denied the fact. Not that 
 they had really believed the North to be 
 swarming with John Browns. But a gen 
 eration had not yet gone by since Garrison 
 had been dragged through the streets of 
 Boston with a rope round his neck, and 
 the houses of the philanthropic Tappans 
 had been pulled down in New York be 
 cause they declared that every compromise 
 with slavery was a chimera and a mon 
 strosity. And this short space of time had 
 not only given birth successively to the 
 Freedom, Free-Soil and Republican par 
 ties, but the Democratic party at the North 
 had been split and its foundations shaken 
 by the agitation connected with slavery. 
 Those were signs of the times which the 
 Southerners had not passed by unheed 
 ing. But John Brown first revealed to 
 them the full meaning of Calhoun s decla- 
 
172 John Brown. 
 
 ration that the spirit of abolitionism unless 
 its germ were destroyed could never be 
 suppressed, because it was able to control 
 the pulpit and the school, and that it 
 would infallibly break up the Union, be 
 cause it was a religious conviction. Now 
 they only hoped against their own con 
 viction that the stream would still be ar 
 rested in its course. When a boat at the 
 crossing of the stream above Niagara Falls 
 is turned out of its course, every stroke of 
 the oars is watched anxiously from both 
 shores. As the prow of the boat turns 
 toward the middle of the river, cheeks 
 grow pale, but there is still hope, for the 
 oars strike the waters with twofold energy. 
 When the rapids have been reached, the 
 gazers hold their breath, for there is only 
 one chance of rescue : the boatman may 
 succeed in casting himself on one of the 
 small islands. But when the force of the 
 current has driven him beyond them, then 
 
John Brown. 173 
 
 eyes are closed, and hearts filled with 
 horror exclaim, " God have mercy on his 
 soul!" For seventy years the politicians 
 had been trying in vain to struggle with 
 the boat of the slavery question against 
 the mighty stream of actual facts and 
 against the moral principles which were 
 operating among these facts. The boat 
 had been constantly driven farther and 
 farther down stream, but hope had as yet 
 never been utterly given up, though fear 
 had often gotten the upper hand. But 
 now John Brown, in the grim earnestness 
 of his religious convictions, had put his 
 foot on the boat as it was drifting in the 
 rapids and given it a mighty shove away 
 from the shore of the last island. True, he 
 was the first to fall overboard and to be 
 hurried to the depths below. But was there 
 now any chance that the leaky skiff should 
 not follow him over the Falls? At last it 
 dawned on the people that even suppos- 
 
174 John Brown. 
 
 ing none but Henry Clays to sit in the 
 ^councils of the nation, the time must come 
 when it would be absolutely impossible to 
 throw a new bridge of compromise across 
 the chasm which had been opened between 
 North and South by the contradictory 
 principles embodied in the Constitution. 
 Brown s execution sealed the irrepressible- 
 ness of the conflict between North and 
 South. 
 
 Kapp concludes his estimate of Brown 
 with the words, " Vivat sequens." This 
 conclusion has been deprecated by people 
 who have a right to express an opinion on 
 American affairs. To me it has no hard 
 or painful sound. The sentence is the vic 
 torious battle shout of a man who stands 
 in the midst of the fray. But a battle shout 
 was justified, and the joy of victory from 
 which it sprang is like the breath of fresh 
 morning air after a sultry night of storm. 
 There were still many of whom it could be 
 
 
John Brown. 175 
 
 said in the words of the Bible, " They 
 call out, peace, peace ! " but they too re 
 ceived the answer, "And yet there is no 
 peace ! " The era of constant terror was 
 past. On November 24 the " Independent " 
 wrote : " What is it that will be hanged on 
 the gallows before the eyes of all men ? 
 Not John Brown, but slavery. . . . John 
 Brown swinging on the gallows will ring 
 the knell of slavery." The frightful end 
 was close at hand from which a new and 
 better future was to be born. One year 
 after the execution of Brown, on the 2Oth 
 of December, 1860, South Carolina de 
 clared its secession from the Union, and 
 on May n, 1861, the Second Massachu 
 setts Regiment of infantry was raised, which | 
 was first to sing on its march South, 
 
 " John Brown s body lies mouldering in the grave, 
 His soul goes marching on." 
 
 H. VON HOLS? 
 
THE FLOODS, 
 
 A POEM BY D. A. WASSON. 
 
THE FLOODS, 
 IN MEMORY OF JOHN BROWN. 
 
 BY D. A. WASSON. 
 
 T OOK how a river, brimmed, then heaped 
 *-^ yet more, 
 
 Will drown his banks, and flood the regions 
 
 nigh, 
 Spreading with bounty terrible, the store 
 
 Of melting mountain and dissolving sky. 
 
 So may a soul of power, an Amazon 
 
 Of heavenly purpose, being o ergraced with 
 good, 
 
 Break from the banks of prudence, rolling on 
 A kingdom s quiet his aggression rude. 
 
 And as before the unappeased urge 
 
 Of influence hurrying from the heart of heaven, 
 
180 The Floods. 
 
 He rises, widens yond all wonted verge 
 
 Still on o er hokl and hearth of Custom 
 driven, 
 
 We that, mayhap, see Order in the guise 
 Of our own safety only, cry, " Behold, 
 
 These forces rude the name of Law despise ; 
 They mock it in their foray fierce and bold." 
 
 Hidden from timid eyes the truth will be ! 
 
 For, lo ! the deluge, too, is Order s child ; 
 Its waters hasten but from sky to sea ; 
 
 And though we citizens may deem them wild, 
 
 They journey as they must, while straying, still 
 Chasing their lawful channel where it goes, 
 
 Nor wid ning but by affluence of that Will 
 Which out of heaven beyond containing flows. 
 
 And when at length their swelling tides are gone 
 The plain lies higher, and the fertile shore 
 
 Is farther stretched by that alluvion 
 
 Whose wealth the deluge in its bosom bore. 
 
The Floods. 181 
 
 Oh, from earth s history were the floods away, 
 Not well had ripened here the cosmic plan ! 
 
 For many a happy harvester to-day 
 
 Gathers in golden corn their gifts to man. 
 
 And from the record of man s deed and thought 
 Were razed out that deluge-height of soul 
 
 Which makes the fountained bosom all too 
 
 fraught 
 To yield effect by nice and legal dole, 
 
 Sure, men would hiss their drawling destinies, 
 And hist ry creep, as twere, through cowherd 
 
 lanes. 
 
 Deep ran the plough where high the harvest is ; 
 The man-child breathes but by a mother s 
 pains. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE BUST OF JOHN BROWN. 
 
 / T~* V HE effect of momentous events on light- 
 * minded persons is often very slight; but 
 on serious men they leave an indelible impres 
 sion, which usually shows itself in the aspect of 
 the face. Especially do wounds and suffering 
 deepen the expression of the countenance, and 
 bring out the features in a strong and pure 
 relief. Mr. E. A. Brackett, when he returned 
 from Charlestown, Va., in November, 1859, said 
 to the lady who had commissioned him to 
 make a marble bust of John Brown : " You 
 have never seen John Brown ! I mean that no 
 one who has not seen him in prison can be said 
 to have seen him at his very best. He is glori 
 ous to look upon ! " It was under this impres 
 sion that the sculptor began his work, and in a 
 short time produced a work of art which in con- 
 
1 86 Appendix. 
 
 ception at least might compare well with any of 
 the heads of Greek divinities, though, like all 
 modern work, it falls far short of them in execu 
 tion. It is too narrow to be purely Greek, and 
 this peculiarity, which is more noticeable in the 
 photograph than in the bust itself, cannot be 
 wholly accounted for on the ground that Brown 
 was a native of New England. The sculptor, 
 however, has been most fortunate in moulding a 
 face in which strong Roman-like features are 
 united with perfect classic repose. The eyes 
 have an expression as if looking into the far 
 distance, as we look at clouds beyond the hori 
 zon. The lines about the mouth resemble those 
 on the Zeus which is attributed to Phidias. 
 These lines are rarely seen in real life, but they 
 can be noticed in all the pictures of John Brown, 
 and are no invention of the artist. It seems as 
 if thus Constantine must have looked, and the 
 great Christian emperors, of whose appearance 
 we have no good record, for Greek art had died 
 out before their time. It must have been the 
 pose of the head and the aspect of great moral 
 force which led Sumnerto compare it to Michel- 
 
Appendix. 187 
 
 angclo s Moses, for otherwise there is no re 
 semblance. Neither does it resemble decidedly 
 any other work in marble that I have anywhere 
 seen. It is somewhat idealized, for how other 
 wise can the spirit of man be represented in 
 cold marble? but not too much so. Compared 
 in this respect with Crawford s Beethoven, it is 
 a realistic likeness. Mr. Brackett writes, " As 
 to the bust of John Brown, I can only say that 
 I intended it as a physical and mental likeness 
 of the man. Your father, Wendell Phillips, and 
 Dr. S. G. Howe expressed their entire approba 
 tion of it as a likeness." It was at first placed 
 on exhibition among the busts of the Roman 
 emperors in the Boston Athenaeum, and Mrs. 
 Brown, coming upon it there without previous 
 intimation, recognized it and wept Idealized 
 or not, it represents John Brown much better 
 than the pictures which are current of him, de 
 signed from bad photographs or daguerreo 
 types. There are peculiarities of light and 
 perspective in photography which make its re 
 sults always uncertain and in many cases quite 
 unreliable. The best photographs are always 
 
1 88 Appendix. 
 
 in slight variation from their subjects, and bad 
 ones are only better than no pictures at all. 
 Mont Blanc as seen from the Mauvais Pas is a 
 sky-piercing dome, but in a photograph taken 
 from the same point of view it appears as a spot 
 of light too small to attract attention. Every 
 one must have felt the mental shock which 
 arises from the first look at the photograph of 
 an intimate friend. John Brown himself had a 
 stern but friendly and attractive countenance; 
 ladies admired him, and little children went to 
 him, which they would hardly have done had 
 he looked as most of these pictures represent 
 him. 
 
Appendix. 189 
 
 THE JOHN BROWN MEDAL. 
 
 THIS medal has finally been deposited by 
 Mrs. Brown in the museum of the Kansas State 
 Historical Society at Topeka. In 1870 a com 
 mittee of leading French philanthropists was 
 appointed at a meeting held in Paris to superin 
 tend the construction of a handsome gold medal 
 in honor of the martyr of Harper s Ferry. 
 Such, however, was the confusion which en 
 sued upon the Franco-German war that the 
 plan was not carried out until 1874, in the 
 autumn of which year it was received by Mrs. 
 Brown at North Elba, N. Y. The following let 
 ter accompanied it : 
 
 {Translation^) 
 
 PARIS, Oct. 21, 1874. 
 To MADAME, WIDOW OF JOHN BROWN. 
 
 MADAME, Many years have passed away since the 
 day when your noble husband completed the sacrifice 
 of a life devoted to the most benevolent of causes. 
 From the gallows where he was hung has gone forth 
 
1 90 Appendix. 
 
 this cry of universal indignation, which has been the 
 signal for the complete deliverance of a disinherited 
 race. Honor to him and his worthy sons, together 
 with his widow ! To the benedictions with which the 
 present century follows their memory those of future 
 centuries will be added. Such thoughts must produce, 
 Madame, a great alleviation of your grief; but you 
 have claimed the best compensation for your afflictions 
 from this superior mandate, that above the poor justice 
 of men soars the supreme justice, which leaves no 
 good action without its recompense, neither any crime 
 without punishment. You will also receive, we hope, 
 with a feeling of solace this witness of the sympathy of 
 the French republicans, the expression of which would 
 have arrived less tardily but for the long and cruel 
 ordeals through which our unfortunate country has 
 just passed. 
 
 We beg you, Madame, to accept the homage of our 
 profound respect. 
 
 In the name of all their colleagues the undersigned 
 members of the committee on subscription. 
 
 VICTOR HUGO, PATRICE LARROQUE, 
 
 ETIENNE ARAGO, Louis BLANC, 
 
 CAPRON, CH. L. CHASSIN, 
 
 MELVIL BLONCOURT, LAURENT PICHAT, 
 
 EUGENE PELLETON, V. SCHOELCHER, 
 
 L. GORNET. 
 
Appendix. 191 
 
 Certainly the French hold the first place 
 among nations in their sympathy and encour 
 agement for struggling humanity. Among the 
 names of this committee Victor Hugo and 
 Louis Blanc alone are popularly known in this 
 country, but the others are also distinguished 
 in France, as distinguished and respectable as 
 the names of William M. Evarts, John A. Low 
 ell, or George W. Childs are on the Atlantic 
 seaboard. 
 
 Etienne Arago, born at Perpignan, 1802, not 
 the astronomer, but a litterateur who has written 
 a great many light comedies. He is also a re 
 publican politician of decidedly radical tenden 
 cies, and was mayor of Paris during the siege 
 in 1870. He is not a communist, however, and 
 has since retired from politics. 
 
 Victor Schoelcher, born at Paris, 1804, a dis 
 tinguished writer and politician who has written 
 much on the subject of slavery. His first pam 
 phlet appeared in 1833, with the title, " De 1 des 
 Noirs et de la Legislation Coloniale; " and he 
 presided over the commission which drew up 
 the statute abolishing slavery in the French 
 
1 92 Appendix. 
 
 colonies April 27, 1848. He was representa 
 tive in the Chamber of Deputies from 1848 to 
 1851, and after having been exiled during the 
 reign of Napoleon III, was again from 1871 to 
 1875, when he was chosen a life member of the 
 French Senate, most surely a remarkable and 
 highly honorable career. 
 
 Patrice Larroque was born at Beauve, Cote 
 d Or, March 27, 1801, and died in Paris in 1879. 
 He was a professor of philosophy, and has writ 
 ten mostly on philosophical and religious sub 
 jects. One of his books, " De 1 Esclavage chez 
 les patrons Chretiennes," published in 1857, 
 proves him to have been an Abolitionist. 
 
 Eugene Pelleton, born Oct. 29, 1813, at 
 Saint-Palais-sur-Mer, was in early life a journa 
 list and author of somewhat mystical turn of 
 mind, and wrote for a variety of newspapers. 
 After 1863 he became a politician, and during 
 the war of 1870 he was a member of the Gov 
 ernment of National Defence, and since then he 
 has been a member of the Senate. He is a 
 moderate republican. 
 
 Melvil Bloncourt was born at Point-a-Pitre, in 
 
Appendix. 193 
 
 the French West Indies, Oct. 23, 1825, a law 
 yer, journalist, author, and politician of radical 
 and socialistic views. He was an important 
 official during the Paris commune, and was in 
 1874 condemned to death for it by court mar 
 tial. He had already taken French leave, how 
 ever, and has since been living in Switzerland. 
 Probably his character was not as well known 
 at the time this committee was organized as it 
 now is. 
 
 Charles L. Chassin, born at Nantes, Feb. 11, 
 1831, journalist and litterateur, and in politics 
 a moderate republican. 
 
 Laurent Pichat, born in Paris, 1823, is a poet, 
 a politician of the advanced republican type, 
 and a friend of Victor Hugo s. He is now a 
 senator for life. 
 
 Louis Blanc, born at Madrid, in 1813, was 
 a journalist, historian, and prominent political 
 agitator in 1848. His exposure of the corrupt 
 methods of the government of Louis Philippe 
 are supposed to have contributed largely to its 
 overthrow; but the failure of his impracticable 
 socialistic schemes also contributed to the over- 
 13 
 
1 94 Appendix. 
 
 throw of the revolutionary government in whose 
 counsels he had too much influence. He lived 
 in exile during the whole period of the second 
 empire, but returned to France in 1871, and 
 was chosen a member of the national assembly. 
 Although a visionary thinker and a prejudiced 
 writer, the uprightness of his life and purity of 
 his motives have caused Louis Blanc to be re 
 spected by fair-minded men of all political par 
 ties. He took no part in the Paris commune of 
 1871, and his socialistic doctrines are of so mild 
 and peaceable a type that he would seem to be 
 as far removed from the anarchist of to-day 
 on the one hand as from the Bonapartes on 
 the other. That pure-minded but impractical 
 dreamers often do mischief in the world of reali 
 ties is only too true, but whether they are to be 
 blamed for it is another question. 
 
 Among this brilliant company of gifted and 
 venerable men Melvil Bloncourt is the only 
 name which seems to be in some degree un 
 worthy of the rest. Is there not commonly a 
 Judas among every twelve men? Anarchists 
 and socialists attach themselves to John Brown 
 
Appendix. 195 
 
 as barnacles do to a whale, or as the most ec 
 centric forms of woman s rights, teetotalism, and 
 spiritism formerly attached themselves to the 
 early Abolitionists. Those who go through life 
 with such a veneration for form as never to see 
 the inside of anything may readily confound 
 John Brown with the anarchists, simply because 
 the actions of the former were equally revolution 
 ary with the principles of the other ; but this is 
 no less a blunder than it would be to mistake the 
 moon for the sun because both are round and 
 of about the same size.\ John Brown made war 
 upon a concrete case of political injustice, but 
 the anarchists set themselves against all abstract 
 political right. The one could not even serve 
 as an illustration of the other, even if reasoning 
 by comparison were not the most fallacious 
 form of logic. The anarchists might indeed 
 learn from the example of John Brown s life 
 such contentment in poverty, such disinterested 
 pursuit of a lofty ideal, and such reverence for 
 the unseen spirit which is above man, as might 
 be the proper corrective for their envious and 
 materialistic theories. The salutary discipline 
 
1 96 Appt&dix. 
 
 of John Brown s camp in Kansas, with prayers 
 morning and evening, might have benefited 
 their moral good health, as it is supposed to 
 have the captured border ruffians. The anar 
 chists do not draw their mental sustenance from 
 John Brown s life and principles, but as Mr. 
 William M. Salter has clearly demonstrated in a 
 dissertation on the subject, from certain English 
 and French writers on political economy, the 
 most materialistic of all sciences that have as 
 yet been discovered. The feudal system of me 
 diaeval Europe is the only form of socialism 
 which has ever proved successful, and it is prob 
 able that if socialism should ever become para 
 mount it would again revert after a series of 
 changes to a similar form. 
 
Appendix. 197 
 
 LETTER 
 
 TO A LADY PATIENT TO WHOM WAS PROMISED AN 
 ACCOUNT OF A VISIT TO JOHN BROWN S GRAVE. 
 
 SARANAC LAKES, July 27, 1865. 
 DEAR MRS. H , 
 
 I promised to write to you from John Brown s 
 grave. I thought while there of my promise; 
 but as I had only a short time to stay, and many 
 people were visiting the spot, I have postponed 
 writing to you until now. 
 
 I am at Bartlett s, the prince of hosts in 
 these mountain regions, who, living here many 
 years with his charming and energetic, warm 
 hearted wife, makes a sort of paradise for lovers 
 of angling and shooting, or still larger numbers 
 of devotees to eating delicious trout or sweet, 
 tender venison-steaks. In this little bijou of 
 a hotel, and with the sound of rushing water 
 falls in my ears, within close view of the eter 
 nal hills, and while breathing the clear, cool air 
 of heaven, I redeem my pledge. 
 
198 Appendix. 
 
 I stood by the side of John Brown s grave 
 yesterday. 
 
 He was, or rather he is now, one of my God- 
 sent heroes, a man specially allowed to appear 
 at the appointed hour with a sort of John the 
 Baptist mission, and who sealed that mission 
 with his blood. I thought his design foolish 
 and wrong ; and how foolish was my thought 
 as I consider subsequent events, which made 
 him the leader of our hosts in the Civil War, 
 during which " his soul was marching on," and 
 compelled even his enemies to admire him even 
 while they sought his life. 
 
 While I think now of his quiet self-possession 
 in prison ; his brave words to his companions 
 just before his death; his admiration of the 
 beauty of Nature while going toward the place 
 of execution ; his thanks to his jailer and others 
 for acts of kindness ; his walk, firm and elastic, 
 up the scaffold-step ; his gentleness and yet his 
 perfect manliness even to the last, my rever 
 ence for him exceeds, far exceeds, the reverence I 
 have for any other being save Christ, or Socrates 
 while drinking the hemlock. And how enno- 
 
Appendix. 1 99 
 
 bling is such an example as Brown s to all the 
 race ! Knowing him to be mortal like ourselves, 
 we for a time at least understand the fine ex 
 pression made use of by Dr. James Walker in 
 one of his sermons : " There is the power of 
 an archangel locked up in the breast of every 
 man, and a sufficient motive only is needed to 
 bring it forth." 
 
 But a truce to all my musings ! You want 
 me to redeem my promise and to describe his 
 tomb. Most fitting is the spot; nothing could 
 be finer. 
 
 It had been raining all night, and the morn 
 ing was showery when we started from Lower 
 Jay, a small village in the town of North Elba, 
 in New York. We soon struck off from the 
 main road, through a huge swinging gate, and 
 driving along through a field of grass, soon 
 entered a primeval forest. " The corpses of 
 great old trees," as Holmes, I believe, has it, 
 lay at the feet of splendid tall oaks and deli 
 cately fringed larches or rugged wide-branch 
 ing pines. The leaves glittered in the morning 
 sunlight, and the air was sweet as honey to the 
 
2OO Appendix. 
 
 lips; the song of birds was in our ears. The 
 road, a simple by-path for our wheels, mean 
 dered up hill and down for nearly three quarters 
 of a mile, when suddenly we emerged into a 
 magnificent " clearing" of many hundred acres, 
 lying broadly embosomed in an amphitheatre 
 of mountains. The clouds, which had been 
 lowering all the morning, lifted themselves from 
 the summits of many of the higher peaks, and 
 some of the clouds became so fleecy over them 
 as to let us see the morning sun playing up 
 over their loftiest points. The scene was grand 
 in the extreme. A finer spot for the tomb of 
 a pious and brave man could not have been se 
 lected ; and I could not help feeling how much 
 the martyr must have gained in strength from 
 his very residence. " I will lift up mine eyes 
 unto the hills, whence cometh my strength." 
 I am sure that often to his genuinely pious 
 soul, a lover of the Bible, the whole of this 
 noble psalm must have suggested itself to him 
 as he went forth in the morning to his daily 
 toil, or returned from it at eventide. 
 
 John Brown s house is a prominent object, 
 
Appendix. 201 
 
 and the only one in sight, a simple, plain 
 wooden structure, with a larger barn near by, 
 in which I saw, as I passed by, a fine load of 
 newly made hay. We entered the front door 
 and met Mr. Hinckly, who married one of John 
 Brown s daughters. 
 
 He had a very intelligent countenance. He 
 was one the " chosen band " (in Kansas), and 
 had a sincere reverence for his great leader 
 and for the objects he had in hand. 
 
 Mr. Hinckly regards Brown as the pioneer 
 as in fact the first martyr in this war. I 
 think he is right in his judgment of John 
 Brown s position as history will put him. 
 
 I read to my boys and my brother the 
 touching account of Brown s death, in order 
 to impress upon my young companions the 
 real nobleness of the soul whose body s rest 
 ing place we were going to visit. Eight or 
 ten rods from the door is seen a huge bowlder, 
 rising about ten feet high, rugged and broad, 
 and having a rather grand, irregular shape, 
 making four massive sides. Directly in front 
 of one of these, and facing, or nearly facing, 
 
2 o 2 Appendix. 
 
 the front door of the residence, lies John Brown, 
 " alone in his glory." A magnificently broad 
 sodded tumulus alone marks the spot. I like 
 its size. It was worthy in this respect to be 
 placed over the remains of one of the old 
 Scandinavian Vikings, huge and simple as his 
 own great nature. It is surrounded by rose 
 bushes, a little neglected. In front of it, and 
 very awkwardly placed, is a tall, crumbling 
 headstone, given originally to John Brown to 
 mark the grave of his father, of the same name. 
 Below the name of the father and time of his 
 death appears, rudely cut and easily to be ef 
 faced, the statement that another John Brown 
 was executed at Charlestown, Va., 1859. On 
 the back of the slab were the names of the 
 family; but it was all sad, as we thought, and 
 my brother William and I almost vowed that 
 we would send up a good stone-cutter, who, 
 after removing the grotesque and inappropri 
 ate slab to another part of the lot, should be 
 directed to cut deeply into one of the sides of 
 the massive bowlder above mentioned, the sim 
 ple words " John Brown," in large letters that 
 
Appendix. 203 
 
 could be seen at a glance from as great a dis 
 tance as one could see the rock itself. This 
 could be done, and the family would consent 
 to it. 
 
 It only remains for some of us who believe 
 that such a man is worthy of such a memorial 
 to make proper arrangements for so doing. l 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 HENRY I. BOWDITCH. 
 
 1 This was accomplished a few years after the above 
 letter was written. Colonel Francis L. Lee and Hon. 
 George S. Hale had the following inscription deeply cut 
 upon the bowlder, so that neither morbid relic-hunting 
 tourists nor the storms of centuries can blot it out : 
 
 JOHN BROWN 
 
204 Appendix. 
 
 UNFRIENDLY CRITICISM OF JOHN 
 BROWN. 
 
 AT the time of John Brown s death, now 
 nearly twenty-eight years ago, his praises were 
 celebrated so eloquently by Emerson, Thoreau, 
 Manning, John A. Andrew, Wendell Phillips, 
 and others, and were so well supported by 
 public opinion, that it seemed as if his fame 
 had been set on an enduring basis forever. 
 Victor Hugo and the English anti-slavery peo 
 ple took up the refrain in Europe, and the 
 reverberation of it had not died away on either 
 side of the Atlantic, before the civil war began, 
 and the John Brown song echoed throughout 
 the land. In 1867, Phillips said of Emerson 
 that after all his chief merit lay in the fact that 
 having talked about heroism all his life, when 
 the hero finally came he knew him. 
 
 Now, however, as usually happens, we have 
 an ebb tide again. The opposition, who were 
 formerly constrained to silence by public opin- 
 
Appendix. 205 
 
 ion, come forward now to argue their views be 
 fore a younger generation, in which there dwells 
 a different spirit from that of the war period. 
 Take any man out of his own time, and place 
 him in another, and he will appear to great 
 disadvantage. Imagine Socrates in the age of 
 the Antonines, or Martin Luther as a contem 
 porary of Voltaire. They would appear as 
 violent or meddlesome persons. So if we take 
 John Brown away from the fearful and excit 
 ing period of his career, a period of dark 
 political intrigues and inhuman plots against 
 the liberties of the people, while the first shocks 
 of a gigantic revolution were agitating the most 
 courageous minds, if we take him out of the 
 element in which he lived, and study him with 
 the peaceful and commonplace life of to-day 
 as a background, his actions may appear mon 
 strous, his character inhuman, his endeavor a 
 failure. That, however, is not the way to study 
 an historical character. We should either place 
 ourselves in sympathy with the conditions of his 
 life, or leave him alone, and interest ourselves in 
 other subjects. 
 
206 Appendix. 
 
 Henry Wilson, in his hastily constructed his 
 tory of the anti-slavery struggle, led the way 
 by speaking of thjb Harper s Ferry invasion as 
 a serious injury to the prospects of the Re 
 publican party] This is the natural view of a 
 broad-minded but timid politician, one without 
 much historical insight ; but it is a point diffi 
 cult to prove, since the Republican party was 
 never more successful than during the next 
 twelve months. In Wilson s own State, John 
 A. Andrew, who did not hesitate to preside at 
 a meeting called to raise funds for John Brown s 
 family, was nominated for governor with enthu 
 siasm, and easily elected. Next came an article 
 some years since in the " North American Re 
 view," supposed to have been written, or perhaps 
 instigated, by a citizen of Kansas who formerly 
 was a leading spirit in the Free-State move 
 ment, but afterward was eclipsed by bolder and 
 more enterprising leaders. Having now outlived 
 most of his rivals, he takes advantage of the 
 fact in a way which is creditable neither to his 
 judgment nor intentions. The article does not 
 even pretend to be an ex parte statement, but 
 
Appendix. 207 
 
 is a direct attack on John Brown s character, 
 and an undervaluation of his public services. 
 Fortunately for the writer, his efforts to do this 
 have small chance of success, and we trust will 
 be forgotten for the sake of his earlier services 
 in the cause of freedom. 
 
 Following shortly after the " North American" 
 article, came an essay on John Brown, by a 
 Boston gentleman, read and presented to the 
 Massachusetts Historical Society. This was 
 also a direct attack upon the man. In it he is 
 said to have been described as either a fanatic^ 
 or a midnight murderer, and Iguilty of lynch 
 ing five innocent Missourians at Pottawatomie. \ 
 Brown may have been a fanatic in the sense 
 that Peter the Hermit and Cromwell were fa 
 natics, not in the sense that Marat and Wilkes 
 Booth were fanatics. In regard to the Potta 
 watomie executions, nothing probably will ever 
 be known with certainty. Whether Brown was 
 responsible for them or not, the Free-State party 
 certainly were. It appears to have been a case 
 of retaliatory lynch law. A number of Free- 
 State settlers had been murdered bv Missou- 
 
208 Appendix. 
 
 rians in a cowardly and brutal manner that 
 would have disgraced highwaymen. The mur 
 derers could not be punished by course of law, 
 and in most cases could not be identified. We 
 know in our own time what ruffians have in 
 fested the border counties of Missouri, the 
 James brothers and others. The men who 
 committed these atrocities were indirectly sup 
 ported by the President of the United States. 
 It is not in the nature of frontier men to endure 
 such things without reprisals; they would not 
 endure them from Indians, nor from any other 
 species of human fiend. The five Missourians 
 who were shot or stabbed on Pottawatomie 
 Creek, may not have committed these atrocities 
 themselves, but they were known to have been 
 members of the lawless bands which were ter 
 rorizing the country round about. That they 
 were " innocent and blameless men " is as un 
 likely and as difficult to prove as Wilson s 
 statement that the Harper s Ferry invasion in 
 jured the prospects of the Republican party. 
 It was a horrible affair, and whether justifiable 
 or not, who shall say? To return good for evil 
 
Appendix. 209 
 
 does not work well in all cases ; and vicarious 
 atonement is also a Christian doctrine. Among 
 the Free-State men of Kansas at the time there 
 seems to have been a difference of opinion in 
 regard to it; but we have sufficient evidence 
 in Governor Robinson s cordial indorsement of 
 John Brown to the friends of Kansas in the 
 Eastern States some months afterward that it 
 did not injure him with the leaders of the party. 
 Caesar, whose merciful nature stands out alone 
 among the soldiers of antiquity, once utterly 
 destroyed a tribe of Germans who had invaded 
 Gaul, men, women, and children. In ordinary 
 men, temporary aberrations are usually caused 
 by outside influences, but in the case of a 
 strong, consistent, and determined character, 
 they must be interpreted in some other way. 
 The lives of such men are like problems in 
 algebra, the known terms give us the solution 
 of the unknown. 
 
 Professor von Hoist refers to the Pottawat- 
 
 omie matter as a case of somewhat irregular 
 
 lynch law, and it has occurred to me that the 
 
 perfect solution of it can be attained only 
 
 14 
 
2 i o Appendix. 
 
 through a careful study of the customs and 
 traditions of Western frontier life. People who 
 live in comfortable city houses, with a policeman 
 within call of the telephone, cannot easily con 
 ceive what it is to be alone at night on the wild 
 prairie with wife and children only, unprotected 
 except by one s own rifle, and one s nearest 
 neighbor perhaps something more of a tiger 
 than a human soul. Laws which apply in the 
 former case are of no value in the other, for 
 the excellent reason that they cannot be exe 
 cuted. John Brown was reared in that same 
 frontier life, and was well versed in its criminal 
 code. It is likely that he acted as his father 
 and his friends would have done had a small 
 band of Indians persisted in establishing them 
 selves too near at hand for public security. 
 The situation of that handful of Free-State set 
 tlers at Ossawatomie was truly a terrible one. 1 
 Peaceable themselves and wishing harm to no 
 one, they felt that they were liable to be at 
 tacked at any time, either when at work in 
 
 1 See Sanborn s " Life and Letters of John Brown," 
 pp. 259 281. 
 
Appendix. 2 1 1 
 
 their fields or asleep in their beds, by an 
 enemy overwhelming in numbers, their houses 
 burned, their wives insulted, and driven from 
 their claims, fortunate if they escaped with 
 their lives. The Doyles and Shermans were 
 an advanced post of this enemy, spies almost 
 in their camp. Only two courses lay open to 
 them, either to move away and leave the 
 fruits of their toil to others; or to get the 
 start of their opponents, brush away the Doyles 
 and Shermans, and clear the decks for action. 
 There was no middle course, nor help to be 
 expected from others. Brave men will usually 
 risk their lives to defend their property, and 
 the Anglo-Saxon race does not bear oppres 
 sion with equanimity. Least of all was John 
 Brown the person to take a backward step in 
 an affair of this kind ; he could no more be 
 cuffed with impunity than a Spanish cavalier 
 of the best period. He was deliberate and 
 cool-headed, but there was spirited dynamite 
 inside of him. The two following cases of 
 frontier justice may place this dubious matter 
 in a clearer light. In 1878, a Ute Indian was 
 
2 1 2 Appendix. 
 
 found dead in the Colorado forest with a bullet- 
 hole in his body. A detachment of the tribe 
 immediately proceeded to the nearest settle 
 ment and shot the first white man they met 
 with, sitting on the piazza of his own ranch. 
 There was great indignation in the community 
 at this retaliatory outrage, but I was informed 
 that both state and federal authorities acqui 
 esced in it as the only kind of justice that 
 Indians could obtain. In February, 1880, I 
 attended a trial for murder in Denver. The 
 prisoner was acquitted by the jury, mainly on 
 the ground that the murdered man had some 
 time previously threatened his life, I think with 
 a revolver. A threat of violence in a so slightly 
 regulated community is necessarily considered 
 equal to an overt act, or at least to the prepa 
 ration for one. To use a classical comparison, 
 the Pottawatomie affair reminds me of Ulysses 
 and Diomed s midnight expedition against the 
 Trojans. 
 
 In his great oration on " The Crime Against 
 Kansas," the 2Oth of May, 1856, Charles Sum- 
 ner gave this prophetic warning to the Demo- 
 
Appendix. 2 1 3 
 
 cratic Senators : " If you madly persevere, 
 Kansas will not be without her William Tell, 
 who will refuse at all hazards to recognize the 
 tyrannical edict, and this will be the beginning 
 of civil war." A few days later the Pottawat- 
 omie executions, as Mr. Sanborn calls them, 
 took place, and the subsequent fights of Black 
 Jack and Ossawatomie verified Sumner s pre 
 diction. John Brown, however, was in this re 
 spect unlike Tell ; he did not risk the life of 
 his son, but struck directly at the tyrant. Bis 
 marck thinks that is what Tell ought to have 
 done. European history is filled with like in 
 stances of sudden explosions which have pre 
 ceded political or religious revolutions, popular 
 feeling concentrating itself in a small group of 
 individuals. The Thirty Years War began in 
 this way, and so did the Hungarian revolution 
 of 1848, a struggle for independence which was 
 greatly applauded in America. The revolt 
 of Germany against Napoleon in 1813 began 
 with collisions between the French troops and 
 the populace in Berlin, similar to the Boston 
 Massacre. That is the mistake which the gen- 
 
2 1 4 Appendix. 
 
 tlemen of the Massachusetts Historical Society 
 make now in regard to Crispus Attacks. Their 
 estimate of him is not historical but conven 
 tional. Evidently they do not realize in what 
 shape the burning passion of patriotism may 
 develop itself in rude, uncultured natures. 
 Upon what testimony do they denounce him 
 as a "notorious negro spoiling for a fight"? 
 Even if that were the fact, as possibly it 
 may be, it would not necessarily change the 
 character of the act in which he lost his life. 
 Rowdies who are spoiling for a fight do not 
 commonly expose themselves to imminent 
 death, and though an unlettered man, he 
 seems to have shown such a spirit of self- 
 sacrifice as would do honor to any college 
 graduate. Too dull, perhaps, to understand 
 the legal relation between England and her 
 colonies, he looked upon the redcoat soldiers 
 only as instruments of an oppression against 
 which he rebelled with all his might. Upon 
 which side were the sympathies of our Histori 
 cal Society in 1775, or during the dishonora 
 ble presidency of Buchanan, and the crime 
 
Appendix. 2 1 5 
 
 against Kansas? It is indeed true that all 
 the members of that society are not, in regard 
 to John Brown at least, of the same mind, 
 and one of its most cultivated and honorable 
 associates has made a vigorous defence there 
 of the old Puritan hero, as I believe he called 
 him. At the John Brown meeting held in 
 November, 1859, and presided over by John A. 
 Andrew, the pastor of the Old South Church, 
 Rev. Mr, Manning, drew a parallel between 
 John Brown_a.prl C.rkpns Attacks, as the white 
 man who was sacrificing himself for the black 
 race, and the black man who had sacrificed 
 
 himself for the white race. It would not be 
 
 
 
 just to John Brown, however, to carry the 
 comparison beyond an historical similarity, 
 for the relative importance of their acts differ 
 as greatly as the men themselves. Finally, Hay 
 and Nicolay in their "Life of Abraham Lincoln" 
 have given a disparaging account of John Brown 
 which is much more dangerous than any pre 
 ceding attack upon his life and character. 
 
 It is more dangerous, not only because of 
 the large circulation of the book, but also be- 
 
2 1 6 Appendix. 
 
 cause it is written with what might be called 
 the negative bias of impartiality, as man is 
 unconsciously prejudiced in regard to a certain 
 action, mentally condemns it without proper 
 investigation, and then decides to write an im 
 partial account of it. This I think is what 
 Hay and Nicolay have done in the present in 
 stance, and the mischief of it is that it gives 
 their writing the appearance of being dispas 
 sionate, when it is not so at all. Their inten 
 tions are doubtless good, but they do not 
 apprehend the processes of their own minds. 
 They would do John Brown justice if they saw 
 him clearly as he was ; but they do not see him 
 clearly as he was. The case is as if one were 
 to judge a stained-glass window in a mediaeval 
 church by its dull and wire-covered exterior. 
 Go within the church and look at it with the 
 light shining through, and it becomes a glorious 
 spectacle. John Brown s achievements, looked 
 at from the outside would not surpass those of 
 Andreas Hofer; looked at in the light of their 
 spiritual significance, and he becomes the most 
 modern type of a world-hero. It is one of the 
 
Appendix. 2 1 7 
 
 materialistic tendencies of our time that writers 
 come more and more to consider surfaces only. 
 This is what Mr. Howells means by what he 
 calls realism, and consequently he relegates 
 heroism to the infatuations of the past. Man 
 kind can always be divided into classes ; those 
 to whom " the primrose by the river s brim " 
 is a picture of heavenly love and purity, and 
 those to whom it is only a yellow primrose. 
 This may not be democratic, but according to 
 the view of these writers neither is heroism a 
 democratic virtue. Democracy, as its name 
 implies, is a principle of politics, and has no 
 place in ethics or literature. 
 
 John Brown, moreover, was a unique char 
 acter, so different from his cotemporaries that 
 even among his admirers few can be said to 
 have penetrated to the very heart of the man. 
 No one should be blamed for not understanding 
 him, or for misunderstanding him. There are 
 excellent painters who do not appreciate the 
 drawings of Da Vinci, and good composers who 
 cannot realize the superiority of Bach s music. 
 It is not any fault of theirs, but the accident 
 
2 1 8 Appendix. 
 
 of temperament, education, or mental capacity. 
 What is difficult of comprehension attracts and 
 interests the civilized man ; but the pedant de 
 spises it, and the barbarian hates it. We should 
 always endeavor to rpsppr.f w^t wf Hn ru^^^^. 
 prehend^_for so only can we hope finally to 
 comprehend it. 
 
 In Hay and Nicolay s account of Brown, 
 there is a certain kind of disparagement from 
 beginning to end. Everything about him is 
 represented in the hardest, most uncharitable 
 way. He is spoken of as a man generally 
 urisussful in a variety of vocations; his ser 
 vices in Kansas are discredited ; his presumed 
 connection with the Pottawatomie affair is en 
 larged upon and presented in an unfavorable 
 light; he is represented as practising deceit 
 on the Kansas aid committees ; his invasion 
 of Virginia is criticised from a military^-fi^-nt 
 of view, certainly the most inapplicable of all 
 points of view from which to see it ; he is 
 described as a man / erf unbounded courage 
 and little wisdom; crude, visionary ideality;/ 
 of " ambition curbed to irritation ; ... in Ian- 
 
Appendix. 219 
 
 guage and conduct he was clean, but coarse; 
 honest, but rude; . . . his courage partook of 
 the recklessness of insanity; " and finally the 
 victor of the Ossawatomie fight is represented 
 as " of military ability too insignificant even for 
 ridicule." Is this one of the results of Mr. 
 Howells s doctrine of realism in writing? Surely 
 nothing could be more unsympathetic. 
 
 I will add one short paragraph to show more 
 plainly the temper of this historian : - 
 
 " But merely to conceive great enterprises is not to 
 perform them, and every after-step of John Brown re 
 veals his lamentable_jyakness and utter inadequacy 
 for the heroic role to which he fancied^ hioisgjf called. 
 His first blunder was in divulging all his plans to 
 Forbes, an utter stranger, while he was so careful in 
 concealing them from others. Forbes, as ambitious 
 and reckless as himself, of course soon quarrelled with 
 him and left him, and endeavored first to supplant, 
 and then betray him." 
 
 As these remarkable statements have, to use 
 a geological expression, all the same " dip," I 
 shall only attempt to reply to one or two of 
 them, which may do for the whole. In regard 
 
22O Appendix. 
 
 to John Brown s conduct and language, it was 
 sufficiently refined for him to appear to advan 
 tage among the most cultivated men and women 
 of Boston. Never was a man more transparent. 
 His ethical purity, and the innate nobility of his 
 spirit were not written on his face, but shone 
 through it. It was this which always inspired 
 confidence in him among high-minded men, as 
 among vulgar people he was often despised for 
 the very same reason. His handwriting, though 
 somewhat cramped, was in general style much 
 like Abraham Lincoln s ; and Emerson, in the 
 deliberative reflection of after years, coupled his 
 address to the court in Virginia with Lincoln s 
 Gettysburg speech as "the most eloquent words 
 of the present century." Mr. Lowell also, I be 
 lieve, has pronounced Brown s letter in which he 
 describes the incidents and adventures of his 
 early life to be one of the finest pieces of auto 
 biography extant. In style, his writing is plain, 
 sensible, and kind, which are also the distinctive 
 characteristics of Lincoln s speeches. 
 
 People who are exclusively non-resistants, 
 and those who know what is at the bottom of 
 
Appendix. 221 
 
 the sea, may satisfy themselves that there was 
 
 n r^nppH^ prf<fcrh ti n g^_j[^]^lJ^T^5^; bi 1 1 they 
 
 will never convince many others. What has 
 been we sometimes know; what might have 
 been who can tell? nThat the Civil War began 
 in Kansas has become a proverbial expression. ) 
 If fighting was necessary in one case it was in 
 the other jC^nd there has never been any ques 
 tion but that John Brown did the bravest fight 
 ing against the Missouri invaders of Kansas.) 
 Colonel Lane is credited with having beerr^a 
 brave man and ready for a fight, but he never 
 had much chance, for Captain Brown was al 
 ways before him. What would the Free-State 
 settlers have done without Brown and Lane to 
 defend them? I think they would have mostly 
 emigrated to Nebraska, and left Kansas to be 
 filled up with slave-holders. " Courage," Dr. 
 Johnson said, " is the most important of all vir 
 tues, for without it the others are of no avail." 
 The books which have been written to prove 
 that the [Civil War might have been avoided by 
 a few more concessions to the slavocracy, and 
 that Buchanan s policy toward the rebellious ] 
 
222 Appendix. 
 
 South was dictated by patriotic motives, are 
 based upon a misunderstanding of human na 
 ture, and their writers can have but a weak 
 sense of national honor. John Brown s invasion 
 of Virginia was only the continuation of hostil 
 ities, the inevitab4ir change from a successful 
 defence Iqjpffensive operations. 
 
 The Harper s Ferry attack was not a success 
 from a military point of view, or even from that 
 of guerilla warfare; but to call John Brown an 
 unsuccessful man is to deny history. It is diffi 
 cult to understand how it could have been 
 otherwise than unsuccessful, but those who have 
 accomplished any great work by their own un 
 aided exertions, and have not been mere flies on 
 the wheel of prosperity, those know right well 
 the narrow line that divides success from failure. 
 John Brown, like Garibaldi, possessed a genius 
 for irregular warfare, a very rare kind of genius. 
 The methods of such men are a secret which, 
 like that of Titian s coloring, dies with them. 
 How can any of us who are wholly incapable of 
 such great actions pretend to judge them with 
 exactness? Indeed, in a higher sense, as Lin- 
 
Appendix. 223 
 
 coin said at Gettysburg, we have no right to 
 judge them. Not to be satisfied with their re 
 sult would be ungenerous. The ignominy of 
 failure fell at John Brown s feet like broken 
 chains, and the moral grandeur of the man 
 shone forth from the Charlestown jail with such 
 a light that friends and foes bowed their heads 
 in homage, and men of all nations rose to their 
 feet with a shout of applause. It was like a 
 bright meteor crossing the black sky of Ameri 
 can politics and disappearing forever. He 
 shook the South as Neptune was fabled to 
 shake the nations with his trident, and Lincoln s 
 army which invaded Virginia twenty months 
 afterward was much less successful and produced 
 less consternation. 
 
 " But John Brown was a rebel, and Lincoln the 
 lawfully elected President," say alike the com 
 fortable aristocrat depending on his traditions 
 and the honest democrat holding fast to party 
 principles. So was Henry Tudor a rebel when 
 he fought against Richard III., and William of 
 Orange when he opposed the Spaniard, and so 
 were Washington and Mirabeau rebels. Those 
 
224 Appendix. 
 
 men had law and authority pitched against them. 
 They were the champions of a higher law and 
 acted under it. When laws become unendura 
 ble, when, as Lowell says, " right is ever on the 
 scaffold, wrong forever on the throne," then re 
 bellion is a virtue and the higher law comes into 
 play. Froude states it exactly when he says, 
 " High treason is either the greatest of crimes 
 or the noblest of virtues; " which it is depends 
 upon the circumstances of the case. Webster 
 wished to know where the higher law was to be 
 found ; but when there is no such law in the 
 hearts of men the laws in the statute-books have 
 little force, as is the case in Mexico and por 
 tions of South America. On another occasion 
 Webster also might have admitted this, for if he 
 was not a man of keen moral sense, neither was 
 he a narrow legal pedant. There is at least 
 one form of higher law which even the most 
 pedantic lawyers are compelled to recognize, 
 and that is the right of revolution. 1 The de- 
 
 1 There can be no stronger statement of the right 
 of revolution than is to be found in Webster s reply 
 to Colonel Hayne. 
 
Appendix, 225 
 
 feated party in a revolution rarely, if ever, justi 
 fies it, and the successful party invariably 
 justifies it; but every one is sure to justify some 
 revolution. ^Southerners might condemn the 
 acts of John Brown, but the bombardment of 
 Fort Sumter was just as illegal. / Englishmen 
 may think that we separated from the mother 
 country without sufficient cause, but they all 
 justify the glorious revolution of 1688. The 
 French jurists of the restoration were not so un 
 wise as to attempt a return to the legal status of 
 Louis XVI. ; and when Charles X. did so he 
 was immediately dethroned. It was the higher 
 law which Jennie Geddes appealed to when she 
 hurled her chair at the Scotch bishop and cried 
 out, " Are you going to say mass in kirk? " It 
 was the liigkejMaw which our forefathers ap 
 pealed to when they declared " No taxation 
 without representation." It was under authority 
 of the higher law that Lincoln issued his procla 
 mation of freedom to the slaves. So far as the 
 practice of law is influenced by legal principles 
 rather than the customs of mankind, and so far 
 as legislators in framing the statutes are influ- 
 15 
 
226 Appendix. 
 
 enced by an idea of right and justice, just so 
 far is the higher law recognized and accepted 
 by the legal profession. Truly, it is this ideal 
 of justice which constitutes the higher law. 
 
 Hay and Nicolay, however, say that " modern 
 civilization and a republican government re 
 quire that all coercive reform shall act by au 
 thority of law only." This statement is almost 
 worthy of Stephen A. Douglas ; for while it 
 seems broad enough to cover the whole ques 
 tion, it contains in substance only a vague and 
 unproven political theory. Great things are to 
 be hoped of republican governments, but the 
 history of our own would show that they are not 
 exempt from tyranny, outrage, and the perver 
 sion of right. | Read what that most truthful of 
 historians, Dr. H. von Hoist, says of the admin 
 istrations of Jackson, Polk, and Pierce. The 
 United States in 1856, with the noblest states 
 man of his time struck down at his desk in the 
 Senate, and political murders supported by gov- 
 
 authority in Kansas, can 
 called an instance of modejjidvilizatipjtj. The 
 Southern States at that time were in a condition 
 
Appendix. 227 
 
 resembling that of Italy two thousand years ago. 
 That they were so was wholly owing to the in 
 stitution of African slavery. We were a repub 
 lic in form, but an oligarchy of sixty thousand 
 slave-holders had absolute possession of the 
 central government. The human race, however, 
 is governed not more by laws than it is by senti 
 ment, and it was the sentiment of European civ 
 ilization, of the civilization of New England, and 
 of the sons of New England in the West, which 
 concentrated itself in John Brown, and drove 
 him to his desperate deed. Consecrated like 
 Metius Curtius he leaped into the fiery gulf. 
 
 It has been said that he made the Civil War. 
 No doubt he precipitated it, but that is a differ 
 ent thing from being responsible for it. Fred 
 erick the Great precipitated the Seven Years 
 War ; but he did so, as we all know, as an act of 
 self-defence. /If any one individual was respon 
 sible for the* war it was Stephen A. Douglas, 
 with his iniquitous Kansas-Nebraska bill, all the 
 more iniquitous since it pretended to be based 
 on democratic principles. Next to Douglas 
 come Franklin Pierce and Caleb Gushing, with 
 
228 Appejidix. 
 
 their support of the " law and order party " in 
 Kansas. H. von Hoist has made this so plain 
 that only those who are perverse can fail to be 
 convinced of it. In brief, the slavery question 
 might be compared to a powder magazine, cov 
 ered up and protected by Henry Clay with suc 
 cessive layers of compromise, the last of which in 
 cluded Webster s Fugitive Slave Law. Through 
 all these protections Douglas bored a hole with 
 a sharp auger called the Kansas-Nebraska bill ; 
 Pierce then laid the train, which was suddenly 
 exploded by John Brown in a flash of heaven s 
 own lightning. 
 
 In a higher sense, as Lincoln would have said, 
 it seems almost a pity that anything should have 
 been written about John Brown. Almost imme 
 diately from the time of his death he became 
 an ideal character in the thoughts of men. 
 Probably he will remain so in spite of all that 
 may be said about him ; and in some future age, 
 a more poetical and less critical one than the 
 present, it is likely he will become the central 
 figure in some epic commemorating the great 
 anti-slavery struggle. Since Cromwell s time 
 
Appendix. 229 
 
 there has been perhaps no other such grand 
 personality. His features, " chiselled as it were 
 in granite," bore the stamp of the hero; and 
 when Brackett s bust of him was placed among 
 those of the Roman emperors in the Athenaeum, 
 it made them all to appear insignificant. Was- 
 son said of him, " His was the most determined 
 face I ever beheld. His lips were like the lips 
 of fate, and yet they met together as lightly as 
 rose petals. There was no contraction of the 
 facial muscles, no clinching of the teeth ; his 
 determination was of a pure moral quality. 
 Like Socrates, the man was possessed of a 
 genius which was too much for him." The 
 penetrating look of his eye has been already 
 mentioned, but the tone of his voice was also so 
 penetrating that its echoes are sometimes yet 
 to be heard. Two years since I met a South 
 Carolinian who had been a colonel in the Con 
 federate army, and he told me quite a dramatic 
 story of an interview between John Brown and 
 Governor Wise of Virginia, and as he repeated 
 the words, " It is only a brief moment, Governor 
 Wise, that any of us live on this earth," the tones 
 
2 30 Appendix. 
 
 of the narrator s voice startled me, for I heard 
 in them the tone of Brown s own voice again 
 after twenty-five years. Now this colonel had 
 not received this story directly from Governor 
 Wise, but at second or third hand. The oft 
 repeated tale that Governor Wise was pro 
 foundly impressed by the bearing and conver 
 sation of John Brown has lately received 
 positive confirmation from Gen. S. C. Arm 
 strong of Hampton, Va. Brown, Lincoln, and 
 Sumner seem to be the three Northern men of 
 that time for whom Southerners have the most 
 respect. 
 
 One is glad to learn from Sanborn s biogra 
 phy that John Brown s friends endeavored most 
 earnestly to dissuade him from the Virginia ex 
 pedition. Finally, being unable to move him, 
 they proved themselves true and loyal friends, 
 and gave him all the moral and material sup 
 port they could. " You see how it is," said 
 Gerrit Smith, " our dear old friend has made up 
 his mind to this course, and qannot be turned 
 from it. We cannot give him up to die alone ; 
 we must support him." This loyalty to friends 
 
Appendix. 231 
 
 and kindred was the basis of all virtue in the 
 earlier ages of history ; and although in modern 
 life a regard for abstract right is held to be 
 superior to it, cases still occur in which amid a 
 conflict of duties we are compelled to fall back 
 again on the old corner-stone of human society. 
 It was in such Homeric sense that his most in 
 timate friends supported John Brown in his at 
 tempt to liberate the negroes of the South. 
 Froude says that healthy natures act more from 
 feeling than reflection, and in spite of his in 
 tense moral earnestness Brown was a healthy, 
 practical nature, one that looked facts full in 
 the face, and felt the firm earth always under his 
 feet. His presentiment of accomplishing great 
 things in Virginia was justified by the result, 
 though in a different way from what he had at 
 first anticipated. 
 
 When in 1863, George L. Stearns was estab 
 lishing a bureau for the recruitment of colored 
 troops at Buffalo, he and one of his subordinates 
 happened to be taking dinner one day at a ho 
 tel on the Canadian side of Niagara River. At 
 the same table were a number of secessionists 
 
232 Appendix. 
 
 who having by chance escaped from the Con 
 federacy were in no hurry to return South again. 
 Having discovered that Mr. Stearns was from 
 Boston, they talked to each other about the 
 cowardly Yankees and " nigger " Abolitionists in 
 such loud tones as were evidently intended to 
 taunt and exasperate him. Having endured 
 this for some time he finally turned to his com 
 panion and said in a clear, strong voice, " Mr. 
 
 , I consider it the proudest act of my life 
 
 that I gave good old John Brown every pike 
 and rifle he carried to Harper s Ferry." Such 
 a retort was more than his tormentors had 
 looked for; they seemed abashed by it and 
 soon left the room. I believe that all of Brown s 
 friends felt that having known him was the 
 highest honor and good-fortune. 
 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 " Corea: the Hermit Nation." Cr. Svo, 459 pages, gilt top, with two por 
 traits and seven illustrations. $2.00. 
 " Sure of favorable reception, and a permanent place in public and private 
 
 libraries." N. Y. Evening Post. 
 
 Of unusual value to every student of American history." Nat. Baptist. 
 
 One of the best books of the year." Public Opinion. 
 
 His biography will be one of the naval classics." Army and Navy 
 
 Journal. 
 
 Has done his work right well." Chicago Evening Journal. 
 Highly entertaining and instructive." Universalist Quarterly. 
 
 THADDEUS STEVENS, AMERICAN STATESMAN, AND 
 FOUNDER OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. A Memoir by 
 E. B. CALLENUAR. With portrait. Cr. Svo. Cloth, gilt top. $1.50. 
 A biography of one of the most interesting characters in the whole range of 
 American politics, whose work must be understood thoroughly to gain accurate 
 knowledge of the secret forces operating during his times, 1792 to 1869. 
 
 JOHN HOWARD PAYNE. A Biography of the author of "Home, 
 Sweet Home," by CHAS. H. BRAIXARD. With four portraits from minia 
 tures and other sources, fac-simile of manuscript, " Home, Sweet Home," 
 and photographic illustrations of his tomb at Washington, etc., etc. Svo. 
 Cloth elegant, gilt top, in box. $3.00. 
 
 Apart from the remembrance and regard in which the author of " Home, 
 Sweet Home " is held by the world, this biography will possess additional inte 
 rest from the fact that it is written under the direct editorship of W. W. Cor 
 coran, the late eminent philanthropist, who provided the funds for the removal 
 of the poet s body from Africa to Washington. 
 
 THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL SIR ISAAC COFFIN, BARONET; 
 HIS ENGLISH AND AMERICAN ANCESTORS. By THOMAS 
 C. AMORY. With portrait. Large Svo. $1.25. 
 
 The name of Coffin is so widely spread over our continent, so many thous 
 ands of men and women of other patronymics take pride in their descent from 
 Tristram, its first American patriarch, that what concerns them all, any consid 
 erable branch or distinguished individual of the race, seems rather history than 
 biography. 
 
 THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF COMMODORE CHARLES 
 
 MORRIS. With heliotype portrait after Ary Schejfer. i vol. Svo. 
 in pages, ^i.oo. 
 
 A valuable addition to the literature of American history ; a biography of 
 one who, in the words of Admiral Farragut, was "America s grandest seaman." 
 
 Cupples and Hurd, * S&-, BOSTON. 
 
 Library Agents, 
 
important New Books. 
 
 TRAVESTIES, PARODIES, AND JEUX D ESPRI^. 
 
 THE IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS OF HIS EXCELLENCY 
 AND DAN. By C. W. TAYLOR. With 40 full-page silhouette illustra. 
 tions by F. H. BLAIR 90 pp. i6mo Paper. 25 cents, 
 
 " It is fun for the masses, wholly irrespective of political parties, such good- 
 natured fun that even those that it satirizes might well laugh. . . Probably thi 
 most humorous skit ever produced " 
 
 THE LITTLE TIN-GODS-ON-WHEELS ; OR, SOCIETY IN 
 
 OUR MODERN ATHENS- A Trilogy, after the manner of tha 
 Greek. By ROBERT GRANT. Illustrated by F. G. ATTWOOD. Tenth edu 
 tion. Pamphlet. Small 4to. 50 cents. 
 
 Divided into Three Parts: The Wall Flowers; the Little Tin-Gods-on- 
 Wheels ; The Chaperons. A broad burlesque of Boston society scenes. 
 
 ROLLO S JOURNEY TO CAMBRIDGE. A Tale of the Adventures 
 of the Historic Holiday Family at Harvard under the New Regime. Witr ; 
 twenty-six illustrations, full-page frontispiece, and an illuminated cover ol 
 striking gorgeousness By FRANCIS G. ATTWOOD. i vol. imperial 8vo 
 Limp. London toy-book style. Third and enlarged edition. 75 cents. 
 
 "All will certainly relish the delicious satire in both text and illustrations." 
 Boston Traveller^ 
 "A brilliant and witty piece of fun." Chicago Tribune. 
 
 EVERY MAN HIS OWN POET; OR, THE INSPIRED 
 SINGER S RECIPE BOOK. By W. H. MALLOCK, author of "New 
 Republic," etc. Eleventh Edition. i6mo. 25 cents. 
 
 A most enjoyable piece of satire, witty, clever, and refined. In society and 
 literary circles its success, both here and abroad, has been immense. 
 
 TWO COMEDIES: AN ILL WIND; AN ABJECT APOL 
 OGY. By F. DONALDSON, JR. Fcap. 8vo. Paper, elegant. 50 cents. 
 
 These comedies belong to the same class of literature as do the lightest of 
 Austin Dobson s lyrics and Andrew Lang s least serious essays, and their form 
 is admirably suited to the depicting of the foibles and rather weak passions of 
 that indefinite caste, American society. They are evidently modelled on the 
 French vaudeville, and their characters are clever people, who say bright things. 
 Why should we not choose the people we describe from the clever minority, 
 instead of making them, as is sometimes done, unnecessarily dull, although 
 perhaps more true to nature at large ? Mr. Donaldson has done so, and much 
 of the dialogue in these comedies is clever as well as amusing. 
 
 Cupples and Hurd, " Bo*lu*r,, BOSTON. 
 
 Library Agents, 
 
Important New Books. 
 
 A NEW BOOK BY W. H. H. MURRAY. 
 
 DAYLIGHT LAND. The experiences, incidents, and adventures, humoroug 
 and otherwise, which befell Judge John Doe, Tourist, of San Francisco; 
 Mr Cephas Pepperell, Capitalist, of Boston; Colonel Goffe, the Man 
 from New Hampshire, and divers others, in their Parlor-Car Excursion over 
 Prairie and Mountain ; as recorded and set forth by W. H. H. MURRAY. 
 Superbly illustrated with 150 cuts in various colors by the best artists. 
 
 CONTENTS: Introduction The Meeting A Breakfast A Very Hopeful 
 Man The Big Nepigon Trout The Man in the Velveteen Jacket The 
 Capitalist Camp at Rush Lake Big Game A Strange Midnight Ride 
 Banff Sunday among the Mountains Nameless Mountains The Great 
 Glacier The Hermit of Frazer Canon Fish and Fishing in British Colum 
 bia Vancouver City Parting at Victoria. 
 
 8vo. 350 pages. Unique paper covers, $2.50; half leather binding, $3.50. 
 
 Mr. Murray has chosen the north-western side of the continent for the scene 
 of this book ; a region of country which is little known by the average reader, 
 but which in its scenery, its game, and its vast material and undeveloped 
 resources, supplies the author with a subject which has not been trenched upon 
 even by the magazines, and which he has treated in that lively and spirited 
 manner for which he is especially gifted. The result is a volume full of novel 
 information of the country, humorous and pathetic incidents, vivid descriptions 
 of its magnificent scenery, shrewd forecasts of its future wealth and greatness 
 when developed, illustrated and embellished with such lavishness and artistic 
 elegance as has never before been attempted in any similar work in this coun 
 try. 
 
 ADIRONDACK TALES. By W. H. H. MURRAY. Illustrated. i2mo. 
 300 pages. $1.25. 
 
 Containing John Norton s Christmas Henry Herbert s Thanksgiving A 
 Strange Visitor Lost in the Woods A Jolly Camp Was it Suicide? 
 The Gambler s Death The Old Beggar s Dog The Ball Who was he ? 
 
 Short stories in Mr. Murray s best vein humorous; pathetic; full of the 
 spirit of the woods. 
 
 HOW DEACON TUBMAN AND PARSON WHITNEY KEPT 
 NEW YEARS, and other Stories. By W. H. H. MURRAY. i6mo. 
 Illustrated. $1.25. 
 
 A HEART REGAINED. By CARMEN SYLVA (Queen of Roumania) 
 
 Translated by MARY A. MITCHELL. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth. $1.00. 
 A charming story by this talented authoress, told in her vivid, picturesqu* 
 manner, and showing how patient waiting attains to ultimate reward. 
 
 Cupples and Hurd, * Bookleiiers, BOSTON 
 
 Library Agents, 
 
Important New Books. 
 
 TRANSLATIONS OF Two POWERFUL GERMAN NOVELS BY AUTHORS 
 NEW TO AMERICAN READERS. 
 
 THE LAST VON RECKENBURG. By LOUISE VON FRANCOIS. Trans 
 lated from the third German edition. 370 pages. Cr. 8vo. Cloth, gilt. 
 $1.50. 
 
 The popularity of this book among the reading public of Europe, and the 
 interest it has excited in critical circles, led to the present translation into 
 English. Gustave Freytag, one of the greatest of German novelists, says of 
 it : " Clear, terse, with not a word too much, and rich in powerful expres 
 sions, it depicts everything in short sentences, obedient to every mood, every 
 change of color. Readers will always close this volume with a consciousness 
 that they have received a rare gift." 
 
 MM. Erckmann-Chatrian have depicted the feverish excitement of France 
 during the height of Napoleon s meteor-like blaze : this equally powerful ro 
 mance shows the reaction in Germany immediately after his downfall, when 
 the pulse of Europe was striving to regain its normal beat. 
 
 THE MONK S WEDDING. A novel. By C. F. MEYER. Cr. 8vo 
 
 unique binding, gilt top. $1.25. 
 
 This is an Italian story, written by a German, and translated by an American, 
 and purports to be narrated by the poet Dante at the hospitable hearth of his 
 patron, Can Grande. He evolved it from an inscription on a gravestone : 
 "Hie jacet monachus Astorre cum uxore Antiope. Sepeliebat Azzolinus" 
 (Here sleeps the monk Astorre with his wife Antiope. Ezzelin gave them 
 burial). Those who have any acquaintance with the unscrupulous machina 
 tions of the Italian, and particularly of the Italian ecclesiastic, will have little 
 difficulty in conjuring up what a grim, lurid tale of secret crime and suffering a 
 " Monk s Wedding " is sure to be. It is of sustained and absorbing interest, full 
 of delicate touches and flashes of passion, a tragedy which cannot fail to leave 
 an impression of power upon the mind. 
 
 WORKS BY WILLIAM H. RIDEING. 
 THACKERAY S LONDON: HIS HAUNTS AND THE 
 
 SCENES OF HIS NOVELS. With two original Portraits (etched 
 and engraved); a fac-simile of a page of the original manuscript of " The 
 Newcomes ; " together with several exquisitely engraved woodcuts, i vol, 
 square i2mo. Cloth, gilt top, in box. $1.00. Fourth Edition. 
 LITTLE UPSTART, A. A Novel. Third edition. i6mo. Cloth. $1.25. 
 "As a study of literary and would-be literary life it is positively brilliant- 
 Many well-known figures are drawn with a few sweeping touches. The book, 
 as a story, is interesting enough for the mo?t experienced taste, and, as a satire, 
 it is manly and healthy." John Boyle O Reilly. 
 
 " Notably free from the least sensationalism or unnaturalness. . . Flashes of 
 sterling wit, with touches of exquisite pathos, and with a quiet mastery of style 
 which I have rarely seen surpassed in American fiction and seldom equalled. 
 The incidental bits of philosophy, observation, and keen worldly knowledge 
 have few parallels in our literature." Edgar Fawcett. 
 
 Cupplcs and Hurd, Booksellers, BOSTON. 
 
 Library Agents, 
 
Important New Books. 
 
 PROF. CLARK MURRAY S WORKS. 
 
 SOLOMON MAIMON: An Autobiography. Translated from the Ger 
 man, with Additions and Notes, by Prof. J. CLARK MURRAY, i vol. 
 Cr. 8vo. Cloth. 307 pp. $2.00. 
 
 A life ivhich forms one of the most extraordinary biographies in the history 
 ff literature. 
 
 The London Spectator says: "Dr. Clark Murray has had the rare good 
 fortune of first presenting this singularly vivid book in an English translation 
 as pure and lively as if it were an original, and an original by a classic 
 English writer. 
 
 George Eliot, in "Daniel Deronda," mentions it as "that wonderful bit of 
 autobiography the life of the Polish Jew, Solomon Maimon " ; and Milman, 
 in his " History of the Jews," refers to it as a curious and rare book. 
 
 HANDBOOK OF PSYCHOLOGY. By Prof. J. CLARK MURRAY, 
 LLD,, Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy, M Gill College, 
 Montreal. Cr. 8vo. 2d edition, enlarged and improved. $1.75. 
 Clearly and simply written, with illustrations so well chosen that the dullest 
 student can scarcely fail to take an interest in the subject. 
 
 ADOPTED FOR USE IN COLLEGES IN SCOTLAND, ENGLAND, 
 CANADA, AND THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Prof. Murray s good fortune in bringing to light the " Maimon Memoirs" 
 together ivith the increasing popularity of his "Handbook of Psychology" ha* 
 ittracted the attention of the intellectual ivorld, giving him. a position 
 with the leaders of thought of the present age. His writings are at once 
 original and suggestive. 
 
 AALESUNtr TO TETUAN. By CHAS, R. CORNING. A Volume of 
 
 Travel. i2ino. 400 pp. Cloth. $2.00. 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. Portsmouth Isle of Wight Channel Islands 
 Normandy Nice Monte Carlo Genoa Naples and its Environments 
 Rome Verona Venice Norway Sweden St. Petersburg Moscow 
 Warsaw Berlin Up the Rhine Barcelona Valencia Seville Cadiz 
 Morocco Gibraltar Granada Madrid and the Royal Wedding Bull 
 Fights Escurial Biarritz Bordeaux Paris. 
 
 TAPPY S CHICKS: or, Links Between Nature and Human Nature. 
 By MRS. GEORGE CUPPLES. Illustrated. i6mo. Cloth, $1.25. 
 
 The tenderness and humor of this volume are simply exquisite. E. P. 
 W hippie. 
 
 The title is altogether too insignificant for so delightful and valuable a work, 
 ^-Spectator (London). 
 
 It is not merely a work of talent, but has repeated strokes of undeniable 
 genius. George Macdonald. \_In preparation. 
 
 Publishers, 
 
 Cupples and Hurd, Booksellers, BOSTON. 
 
 ** Library Agents, 
 
Important New Books. 
 
 RALPH WALDO EMERSON, PHILOSOPHER AND SEER. An Estimate 
 of his Character and Genius. By A. BRONSON ALCOTT. 
 With portraits and other illustrations. Foolscap octavo. Gilt top. $1.50. 
 One hundred copies tvill be printed on larger and finer paper, 8vo, suitable 
 for the insertion of extra illustrations. Bound in Roxburgh, gilt top. Price 
 to Subscribers, $3.00. 
 
 A book about Emerson, written by the one man who stood nearest to him of 
 all men. It is an original and vital contribution to Einersoma ; like a portrait 
 of one of the old masters painted by his own brush. [In Press, 
 
 HERMAN GRIMM S WORKS. 
 
 THE LIFE OF RAPHAEL as shown in his principal works. From the 
 German of HERMAN GRIMM, author of "The Life of Michael Angelo," 
 etc. }Vith frontispiece, after Braun, of the recently discovered portrait, 
 outlined by Raphael in chalk. Cr. 8vo. Cloth. $2.00. 
 
 ESSAYS ON LITERATURE. From the German of HERMAN GRIMM, 
 uniform with "The Life of Raphael." New and enlarged edition, care 
 fully corrected. Cr. 8vo. Cloth. $2.00. 
 
 BY JAMES H. STARK. 
 
 ANTIQUE VIEWS OF YE TOWNE OF BOSTON. ByjAMEsH. 
 
 STARK, Assisted by Dr. SAMUEL A. GREEN, Ex-Mayor of Boston, Libra 
 rian of the Massachusetts Historical Society; JOHN WARD DEAN, Libra 
 rian of the New England Historic Genealogical Society ; and Judge 
 MELLEN CHAMBERLAIN, of the Public Library. An extensive and exhaust 
 ive work hi 378 pages. Large quarto. Illustrated with nearly 200 full 
 size reproductions of all known rare maps, old prints, etc. i vol, 4^- 
 Cloth. $b.oo. 
 
 BERMUDA GUIDE. A description of everything on or about the Ber 
 muda Islands, concerning which the visitor or resident may desire informa 
 tion, including its history, inhabitants, climate, agriculture, geology, 
 government, military and naval establishments. By JAMES H. STARK. 
 With Maps, Engravings and 16 photo-prints. i vol. i2mo, cloth, 
 157 pp. $2.00. 
 
 PAUL REVERE: Historical and Legendary. By ELBRIDGE H. Goss. 
 With reproductions of many of Revere s engravings, etc. [In press. 
 
 A DIRECTORY OF THE CHARITABLE AND BENEFICENT 
 ORGANIZATIONS OF BOSTON, ETC. Prepared for the Asso- 
 dated Charities, i vol., 196 pp. i6mo. Cloth, $1.00. 
 
 Publishers. 
 
 Cupples and Hurd, Booksellers, BOSTON. 
 
 Library Agents, 
 
Important Neiv Books. 
 
 WORKS BY SALLY PRATT MCLEAN. 
 
 CAPE COD FOLKS. A novel. Twenty-third edition. Illustrated. 
 Cloth. $1.25. 
 
 TOWHEAD: THE STORY OF A GIRL. Fifth thousand, 
 Cloth. $1.25. 
 
 SOME OTHER FOLKS. A Book in Four Stories, wmo. Cloth. $1.25. 
 
 These books are so well known that further comment seems superfluous. 
 Suffice it to say that the entire press of the country has unanimously spoken of 
 them in terms of high praise, dwelling not only on their delicious humor, their 
 literary workmanship, their genuine pathos, and their real power and eloquence, 
 but what has been described as their deep, true Aumanness, and the inimitable 
 manner in which the mirror is held up to nature that all may see reflected 
 therein some familiar trait, some description or character which is at once recog 
 nized. 
 
 MISS MCLEAN S NEW BOOK. 
 
 Since the production of Miss McLean s first effort " Cape Cod Folks," she 
 has steadily advanced in intellectual development ; the same genius is at work 
 in a larger and more artistic manner, until she has at length produced what 
 must be truly considered as her masterpiece, and which we have the pleasure to 
 announce for immediate publication. 
 
 LASTCHANCE JUNCTION; FAR, FAR WEST. A novel. By 
 SALLY PRATT MCLEAN, i vol. i2ino Cloth. $1.25. 
 
 The author in this book sees further and clearer than she saw in her earlier 
 works ; she has stepped, as it were, out of the limits of her former thought and 
 action into the centre of the arena of the world s full, rich life ; from the indi 
 vidual characteristic she has passed to the larger weaknesses and virtues of 
 humanity, vith their inevitable results of tragedy and nobility. Much as 
 has been said respecting the pathos of her former books, one feels, as the 
 last page of " Lastchance Junction " has been turned, that they were but small 
 as compared with this, so terribly earnest is it, so true in its delineation of life, 
 with all its elements of tragedy and comedy ; and life, moreover, in that region 
 of our cou"try where Nature still reigns supreme, and where humanity, uncon 
 trolled by the conventionalities of more civilized communities, stands sharply 
 drawn in the strong shadows of villainy and misery, and in the high lights of 
 uncultured, strong nobility and gentleness. There are no half-tones. 
 
 Terse, incisive descriptions of men and scenery, drawn with so vivid a pen 
 that one can see the characters and their setting, delicious bits of humor, 
 passages full of infinite pathos, make this book absolutely hold the reader from 
 the title to the last word, and as, when finished, one sighs for the pity of it, the 
 feeling rises that such a work has not been written in vain, and will have its 
 place among those which tend to elevate our race. 
 
 Cupples and Hurd, BooLeiiers, BOSTON. 
 
 Library Agents, 
 
Important New Books. 
 
 SCOTTISH HUMOR. 
 
 DAVID KENNEDY, THE SCOTTISH SINGER: Reminiscences 
 of his Life and Work by MARJORY KENNEDY. With portrait and illustra 
 tions. 8vo. Cloth. 479 pp. $2.00. 
 
 A highly interesting narrative of this humorous and pathetic singer, who will 
 be remembered the world over, not only by Scotchmen, but by all those who, at 
 any time, have formed a part of his delighted audiences, and who recall the in~ 
 imitable manner in which he rendered all that is best in Scottish poetry and song. 
 Genuine fun and drollery, keen observation of men and manners, notes of travel 
 in many cities, the vicissitudes of an artistic career, are all depicted here with 
 force and style. 
 
 NEW AND CHARMING WORK ON JAPAN. 
 
 NINE YEARS IN NIPON : SKETCHES OF JAPANESE LIFE 
 AND MANNERS. By HENRY FAULDS, L. F. P. S., Surgeon of TSUKUI 
 Hospital, Tokio ; Member of the Royal Asiatic Society. With lithographed 
 frontispiece, and initial letters and illustrations on wood by .Japanese 
 artists, i vol. 304 pp. 8vo. Cloth. With appropriate and original cover 
 designs. $2.00. 
 
 The best inexpensive book on Japan that has yet appeared ; valuable as the 
 record of the observations and experiences of one who, by virtue of his profes 
 sion and his long residence, was admitted into the inner life of that conserva 
 tive people, the Japanese. Teeming with accurate information and eloquent 
 description, especially of the social life of the people, of which the ordinary 
 traveller sees practically nothing, it is a valuable addition to the literature of 
 geographical, ethnological, and social science. 
 
 THE TERRACE OF MON DESIR. A Novel of Russian Life. By 
 SOPHIE RADFORD DE MEISSNER. 12010. Cloth limp, elegant. $1.25. 3rd 
 edition. 
 
 This novel is written by the A merican wife of a Russian diplomat, who, by 
 virtue of her position, is well qualified to describe the scenes and characters 
 which she has chosen to present , she writes with the clear, unbiassed view of 
 her native country, and shows, perhaps for the first time, an unprejudiced pict 
 ure of Russian society. 
 
 Her literary style has been pronounced easy and flowing, with a certain opu 
 lence in its swift panorama of bright scenes and high personages, and readers 
 who recall the charming story of Switzerland which appeared in a late mim ^r 
 of " Scribner" will need no further recommendation to the perusal of this 
 work. 
 
 In these days when so much interest and sympathy is evoked by the narration 
 of the miseries of the tnoujik this novel comes very a propos, as it presents 
 a picture of the social and domestic life of that other branch of the Russians, the 
 aristocratic, governing class ; who, notwithstanding their adherence to French 
 models, still have that indefinite touch of their Oriental ancestry which gives 
 them their romance and passion, and renders them as emphatically Russian as 
 the most humble peasant. 
 
 Clippies and Hurd, Booksellers, BOSTON. 
 
 Library Agents, 
 
Important New Boofts. 
 
 THE HEIDI SERIES. 
 STORIES FOR CHILDREN AND THOSE WHO LOVE CHILDREN. 
 
 Translated from the German of Johanna. Spyri by Louise Brooks. 
 
 HEIDI I HER YEARS OF WANDERING AND LEARNING. HOW SHE USED WHAT 
 
 SHE LEARNED. 2 vols. in one. i2mo. Cloth, pp. 668. 8th edition, with 
 7 illustrations, and portrait of the Authoress. $1.50. 
 
 RICO AND WISELI. "RICO AND STINELLI," and "HOW 
 RICO FOUND A HOME." wmo. PP . 509- Cloth. $1.50. 
 
 VERONICA AND OTHER FRIENDS. mo. 517 pages. Cloth. $1.5.. 
 GRITLI S CHILDREN. mo. 39/pages. Cloth. $1.50. 
 
 The Atlantic Monthly pronounces " Heidi " "a delightful book . . . charm* 
 ingly told. The book is, as it should be, printed in clear type, well leaded, and 
 is bound in excellent taste. Altogether it is one which we suspect will be 
 looked back upon a generation hence by people who now read it in their child 
 hood, and they will hunt for the old copy to read in it to their children." 
 
 A leading Sunday-school paper further says : " No better books for a Sunday- 
 school library have been published for a long time. Scholars of all ages will 
 read them with delight. Teachers and parents will share the children s enjoy 
 ment." 
 
 The steadily increasing sales of these books attest to their extreme popularity 
 and value, and it has been truly said that their publication marks an era in the 
 history of juvenile literature. Their sweetness, purity, and freedom from any 
 sectarian bias, have secured for them a place in the Sundav-school libraries of 
 all denominations, and make them as welcome to those having charge of the 
 young as they are to the children themselves. 
 
 OLD NEW ENGLAND DAYS. A story of true life. By SOPHIE M. 
 DAMON. Second edition. :6mo. $1.25. 
 
 " Reading Old New England Days is like talking with an old lady who has 
 long since passed the allotted " three score and ten," and now delights in noth 
 ing so much as in recalling the far distant days of her youth." Concord Even 
 ing Gazette. 
 
 " The beauty of the tale is in the touches of Yankee life and lore, joy and 
 sorrow, which crop out at every turn of the page, like dandelions in a summer 
 field." Christian Journal. 
 
 MAHALY SAWYER; OR, PUTTING YOURSELF IN HER 
 PLACE. By S. E. DOUGLASS. i6mo. Cloth. $1.25. 
 
 This is a very curious and a remarkably interesting little book. The Chris 
 tian Register, one of the ablest of critical reviews, says: If the number of 
 people vitally interested in the motif oi this bright story should all be the num 
 ber of its readers, it would have a circulation equal to Uncle Tom s Cabin. 
 ... It is a realistic tale, which, in its way, puts Mr. Howells to shame." 
 
 Cupples and Hurd, PlM $%iu e r,, BOSTON. 
 
 Library Agents, 
 
Important New Books. 
 
 STANDARD BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR OF "MADGE" AND 
 "SHERBROOKE." 
 
 A distinguished critic says: "There is nothing sensational or dramatic 
 about the writings of Mrs. H. B. Goodwin. Her books are natural, heartfelt, 
 and a true mirror of this not altogether unromantic life of ours." 
 
 DR. HOWELL S FAMILY- i vol. i6mo. Cloth elegant. $1.00. New 
 and popular edition. 
 
 "Of the merits of this work it is difficult to speak too highly. It is written 
 in a style as near perfection as it is possible to conceive. Better books a parent 
 cannot put into the.hands of a son or daughter." Watchman. 
 
 CHRISTINE S FORTUNE, i vol. i6mo. Cloth elegant. $1.00. New 
 and popular edition. 
 
 Like a pearl on the sands of the seashore is the story of Christine among the 
 average novels of the day. The interest is sustained, and no one \vlio begins 
 the book will lay it down until he has finished reading it, and will rise from it 
 with the feeling that he has been in excellent company. The style, the senti 
 ments, and the teachings are faultless and ennobling. 
 
 ONE AMONG MANY, i vol. i6mo. Cloth elegant. $1.00. 
 
 The author has not drawn imaginary and impossible characters, but has se 
 lected a few from the vast theatre of life to portray the loveliness of that wis 
 dom " which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full 
 of mercy and good fruits." 
 
 OUR PARTY OF FOUR. A story of Travel, i vol. i6mo. Cloth 
 elegant. $1.00. 
 
 Readers will find great pleasure in following the fortunes of the kind-hearted 
 narrator and her three friends in their European tour, and in the glimpses of 
 their subsequent careers at home. A rare combination of travel, intellectual 
 discussion, exciting adventure, and the portrayal of earnest feeling and refined 
 sentiment. 
 
 THE ANGEL OF THE VILLAGE. By L. M. OHORN. Translated by 
 Mrs. MATHEWS. i6mo. Cloth. $1.25. 
 
 "A work possessing unusually high merit. It is such fiction as elevates and 
 makes beneficent influences keenly manifest ; . . abounding in deepest inte 
 rest, and written in the most fascinating style. "Journal, Philipsburg, Pa. 
 
 " Purely and pleasantly written." Christian Register. 
 
 " Honest and pure in tone, with a distinctly religious inspiration." Ameri 
 can, Philadelphia. 
 
 " Elevated in tone, and healthy in its suggestions and influence." Univer- 
 salist Quarterly, 
 
 Cupples and Hurd, Publ BMiers, BOSTON. 
 
 Library Agents, 
 
Important New Books. 
 
 THREE THRILLING NOVELS IN THE STYLE OF THE MODERN FRENCH 
 S- NSATIONAL SCHOOL. 
 
 MR. AND MRS- MORTON. A Novel, gth thousand. 12010. Cloth. 
 
 $1.25. 
 
 A powerfully told story of domestic misunderstanding which turns upon an 
 event of so startling a nature that the reader s attention is at once arrested and 
 held to the end. Without revealing the plot of the book, we can say that it 
 concerns the marvellous effects of atavism and the influence of heredity, and is 
 totally unexpected, yet probable withal. Lucidly and concisely written, with 
 out unnecessary verbiage. 
 
 SILKEN THREADS: A DETECTIVE STORY. By the Author 
 
 of " Mr. and Mrs. Morton." i6mo. Cloth. $1.25. 
 
 One of the best stones of its kind that has appeared of late, and worthy, in 
 its construction and elaboration of detail, to be placed beside Gaborian and Du 
 Boisgobey, while it has not that tediousness which sometimes renders these 
 authors distasteful to American readers. Wilkie Collins never invented a more 
 ingeniously constructed plot, or told it in a more interesting way. 
 
 " Construction of work is admirable, the denouement very cleverly developed. 
 . . . Neither more nor less than that bright consummate flower, genius, re 
 appearing in the department of detection the latest Vidocq." Boston Globe. 
 
 THE DISK: A TALE OF TWO PASSIONS. By E. A.ROBINSON 
 
 and GEORGE A. WALL. i2mo. Cloth. $1.00. 
 
 This powerful and stirring novel, the plot of which is entirely original, 
 resembles nothing hitherto published, and the demand for it continues unabated. 
 It approaches more nearly the wonderful romances of Jules Verne in intricacy 
 of plot, in wealth of scientific detail and vivid imagination, than any book now 
 before the public; even surpassinghim in the marvellous developments of science 
 suggested by the ingenious pen of its authors. It is, as its name denotes, \ 
 narrative of the supreme power of the two passions of love and science upon 
 different organizations, and is equally good in the charm of its love scenes and 
 in the weirdness and power of its description of occult investigations. 
 
 ZORAH : A LOVE STORY OF MODERN EGYPT. BY ELIZABETH 
 BALCH. Cr. 8vo. Cloth elegant. $1.25. 
 
 It is an excellent study of the political and social atmosphere surrounding 
 official life in Cairo and Alexandria at the present day, with its underlying 
 stratum of Oriental romanticism, and the constantly varying stream of Western 
 influences which are slowly but surely shaping the destinies of the country. 
 
 " Depicted with artistic power, and, as a love story, it is of absorbing interest. 
 . . . Told with all the rich coloring of the East." Boston Home Journal. 
 
 " Cleverly conceived and written." Boston Globe. 
 
 " Well worth reading." Julian Hawthorne. 
 
 "Shows a very keen observation and a marked descriptive faculty." 
 Churchman. 
 
 "Its very incongruities make it readable." Philadelphia Times. 
 
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Important New Books. 
 
 THE FOUR GOSPELS. Translated into Modern English from the Au- 
 thorized and Revised Versions. By ERNEST BILTON. Cloth. $1.00. 
 A cheap edition of a ne ju translation of the Gospels^ having a great run of 
 popularity in the religious circles of Great Britain. 
 
 The author lias taken the authorised version as it stands, availing him 
 self of many corrections suggested by the revised version, and has given the 
 apparent meaning of the text in the plainest possible language, the whole 
 object being the simplification of the narratives of the Evangelists. It is not 
 expected that this rendering will supersede the accepted version. The author 
 evidently feels that he is not without hope that it may lead to the serious con 
 sideration, in proper quarters, of the advisability of providing the people 
 with an authorised translation of the Scriptures into the "vulgar tongue." 
 not of the sixteenth but of the nineteenth century. 
 
 THESKETCHES OF THE CLANS OF SCOTLAND, with twenty- 
 two full-page colored plates of Tartans, By CLANSMEN J. M. P. - F. W. S. 
 Large 8vo. Cloth, $2.00. 
 
 The object of this treatise is to give a concise account of the origin, seat, and 
 characteristics of the Scottish clans, together with a representation of the dis 
 tinguishing tartan worn by each. The illustrations are fine specimens of color 
 work, all executed in Scotland. 
 
 THE GREEN HAND; or, the Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant. A Sea 
 Story. By GEORGE CUPPLES. With Portrait of the Author and other 
 Illustrations, i vol. 121110. Cloth. $2.00. 
 A new library edition of this fascinating sea classic. [In press. 
 
 ALL MATTER TENDS TO ROTATION, OR THE ORIGIN 
 
 OF ENERGY. A New Hypothesis which throws Light upon all the 
 Phenomena of Nature. Electricity, Magnetism, Gravitation, Light, 
 Heat, and Chemical Action explained upon Mechanical Principles and 
 traced to a Single Source. By LEONIDAS LE CENCI HAMILTON, M.A. 
 Vol. i. Origin oi Energy Electrostatics and Magnetism. Containing 100 
 Illustrations, mcludine Fine Steel Portraits of Faraday and Maxwell. 
 Handsomely bound ir> cloth. 8vo, 340 pp. Price, $3.00.- Net. 
 
 In vhis volume the author has utilized the modern conception of lines of 
 torce originated by Faraday, and afterwards developed mathematically by 
 Prof. J. Clerk Maxwell, and he has reached an explanation of electrical and 
 magnetic phenomena which has been expected by physicists on both conti 
 nents. It may have a greater influence upon the scientific world than either 
 Newton s " Principia or Darwin s " Origin of Species," because it places 
 natural science upon its only true basis Pure Mechanics. 
 
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 JOHN BROWN. By HERMANN VON HOLST, author of "Constitutional 
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 dix by FRANK P. STEARNS, a poem by Mr. WASON, and a letter describing 
 John Brown s grave. Illustrated. i6mo, gilt top. $1.50. 
 This book, the author of which is so well known by his " Constitutional His 
 tory," and by his biography of John C. Calhoun, cannot fail to be of interest to 
 all students of American history, who appreciate a calm, impartial criticism of 
 a man and an episode which have been universally and powerfully discussed. 
 
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 edges. i6mo. $1.25. 
 A collection of charming poems, many of which are familiar through the 
 
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 A collection of poems and sonnets showing great talent, and valuable transla 
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 prefaced by Max Miiller. 
 
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 THOMAS CARLYLE S COUNSELS TO A LITERARY ASPI 
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 LING, LL. D. i2mo, boards, 50 cents. 
 
 Gives a side of the rugged old Scotchman which will be new to most readers. 
 It shows that he was not always gruff and bearish, and that he could at times 
 think of somebody besides himself. T/ie letter is one it>hich every young man 
 who has a leaning towards literary work will read and ponder over. 
 
 SOCIAL LIFE AND LITERATURE FIFTY YEARS AGO. 
 
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 CIVILIZATION IN THE UNITED STATES. By MATTHEW 
 ARNOLD. And Other Essays concerning America. i6mo, unique paper 
 boards. 75 cents. Cloth, uncut, $1.25. The cloth binding matches the 
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 LEGENDS OF THE RHINE. From the German of P*x*. BERNARD. 
 
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 A SELECTION FROM THE POEMS OF PUSHKIN. 
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 author of "Thoughts." Foolscap 8vo. Unique binding. $2.00. 
 
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 Two editions of these charming prose idyls were exhausted within two weeks 
 of publication. Third edition now preparing. 
 
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 which she has long been a prominent figure, and the types of character she 
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 ION A : A Lay of Ancient Greece. By PAYNE ERSKINE. Cr. 8vo. Cloth. 
 
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 An endeavor to present in a popular way the philosophy and practice of 
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 value, but hopes " to fix a few points and establish a few relative values, in an 
 ticipation of the time when human research and experience shall complete the 
 pictures." 
 
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 when it becomes the channel of the infinite spirit of God, and that so-called 
 mind cures are not brought about wholly by the power of the micH over the 
 body, or by the influence of one mind over another. 
 
 Religious enthusiasm and scientific medicine abound in cases of extraordi 
 nary cures of diseases effected by what, for the sake of convenience, is gener 
 ally called " faith." 
 
 It will not do, says the British Medical Journal, for pathologists and psy 
 chologists to treat these " modern miracles " so cavalierly. 
 
 In them are exhibited, in a more or less legitimate manner, the results of the 
 action of the mind upon the bodily functions and particles. 
 
 Hysteria is curable by these phenomena, since hysteria, after all, is only an 
 unhealthy mastery of the body over the mind, and is cured by this or any other 
 stimulus to the imagination. "Therefore," says the editor of the above jour 
 nal, " there is no reason to doubt that faith-healing, so called, may have 
 more positive results than we have been accustomed to allow." 
 
 TYPICAL NEW ENGLAND ELMS AND OTHER TREES- 
 
 Reproduced by Photogravure from photographs by HENRY BROOKS, with an 
 Introduction, and with Notes by L. L. Dame. 4to. [Infress. 
 
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 HOW TO WRITE THE HISTORY OF A FAMILY. By W. P. 
 
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 antique style, handsomely bound, $2.00. 
 
 Unassuming, practical, essentially useful, Mr. Phillimore s book should be in 
 the hands of every one who aspires to search for his ancestors and to learn his 
 family history. Athenceum. 
 
 This is the best compendious genealogist s guide that has yet been published, 
 and Mr. Phillimore deserves the thanks and appreciation of all lovers of family 
 history. Reliquary. 
 
 Notice. Large Paper Edition. A few copies, n hand-made paper, wide mar- 
 gins, bound in half morocco, may be obtained, price $6.50 net. 
 
 THE KINSHIP OF MEN: An Argument from Pedigrees ; or, Genealogy 
 Viewed as a Science. By HENRY KENDALL. Cr. Svo. Cloth, $2.00. 
 
 The old pedigree-hunting was a sign of pride and pretension ; the modern is 
 simply dictated by the desire to know whatever can be known. The one 
 advanced itself by the methods of immoral advocacy ; the other proceeds by 
 those of scientific research. Spectator (London). 
 
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 gist and Topographer. By WALTER RYE. Svo, cloth. Price $2. 50. 
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 interested in kindred studies, a comprehensive guide to the enormous mass of 
 material which is available in his researches, showing what it consists of, and 
 where it can be found. 
 
 ANCESTRAL TABLETS. A Collections of Diagrams for Pedigrees, so 
 arranged that Eight Generations of the Ancestors of any Person may be 
 recorded in a connected and simple form. By WILLIAM H. WHITMORE, 
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 tastefully and strongly bound, Roxburgh style. Price $2.00. 
 
 " No one with the least bent for genealogical research ever examined this in 
 geniously compact substitute for the family tree without longing to own it. 
 It provides for the recording of eight lineal generations, and is a perpetual 
 incentive to the pursuit of one s ancestry." Nation. 
 
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 what heraldry is, where it comes from, and to what extent it is applicable to 
 American usage; to which is added a Glossary in English, French and 
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 WHITMORE, author of " Ancestral Tablets," etc. [/* press. 
 
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RECENT FICTION. 
 
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 THE LAST VON RECKENBURG. By LOUISE FRANCOIS 1.50 
 
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 How DEACON TUBMAN AND PARSON WHITNEY SPENT NEW 
 
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" (Sood as it is to inherit a Iibttat[g, it is fatter 
 to toilet one* (Bach uolume then, horceuer lightlg 
 a stranger s ege mag i;oam ft[om sh^lf t^ sh^lf, 
 has its own huUciditalitg, a hist^r^ -of its ami. 
 HIM r L em^mb^r tcher^ gou jot it, and hint much 
 gou pr4 fm[ it. . . , h^ man irho has a librarg 
 of his oitin collection is alitc to Contemplate him 
 self obje^tiuelg, and is justified in beliedng in 
 ijis oum existpc^ J}Q oth^r man but he tuould 
 haue made precisetg such a Combination as his* 
 gad hq been in ang singly r L espei[t different friom 
 trhat h^ is, his libp^g, as it exists, neuett irould 
 hau$ existed* her^for L e, surelg he mag exclaim, 
 as in the gloaming fy Contemplates the bachs 
 of his loued on^s, * heg ar^ mine, and J ant 
 theirs/ " 
 
 Obiter Dicta. 
 
 CUPPLES 4 HURD, THE ALGONQUIN PRESS, BOSTON. 
 

 MAR 24 1980 
 
 
 BEU> cut. MAR 
 
 r-r> -t r> <~ 
 
 rec d wc. APR 3 ^ 
 
 
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 IV 2 5 1999 
 
GENERAL LIBRARY - U.C. BERKELEY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY