Jo CHAPTER XXIII. JOHN BROWN. “When the refuges of Falsehood Where Mammon hath its altars. OHN BROWN was born in Torrington, Connecticut, May? 1800, and was hanged at Charlestown, Virginia, December 2, 1859. He had lived in Essex County, New York, in “Joha Brown tract" until 18 51, when he removed to Akron, Ohio, and in 1855, without his younger children but with his four older sons, settled in Kansas, where he soon became known as "John Brown of Osawatomie," one of the foremost leaders in resisting Missouri border ruffian violence by force. He at last began the forcible liberation of Missouri slaves, and rewards were offered for his arrest by State and Federal authorities. In January, 1859, he left Kansas for the East, to fulfill his life long ambition of beginning a forcible, not a political, opposition to slavery by renewing the liberation of slaves on a far larger scale. In July, 1859, he settled near Harper's Ferry, Virginis. with some of his Kansas associates, and began preparations, Late on Sunday evening, October 17, with seventeen white and five colored men, he seized the United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry "by the authority of God Almighty," and spent the next eighteen hours in freeing slaves, cutting telegraphi wires, preparing defenses, and making white prisoners, of whom he secured nearly fifty. His intention was to retreat at once, with his negro recruits, to the strongholds of the mountains, and keep up a guerrilla warfare with the Alleghanies from Alabama to Maryland as his base, but he delayed until it was too late. By noon of Monday militia began to pour in, and before evening 1,500 soldiers, of all arms had surrounded the Armory engine house, which was Brown's last refuge. Early on Tuesday morning, the United States Marines, using a ladder as a battering ram, burst in the engine house door, and the Harper's Ferry insurrection was over. Eight of the insurgents had been killed, one was dying, and three had already been captured, two of them mortally wounded. The prisoners in the engine house were Brown, three other whites, and half dozen Negroes. John Brown's trial was fair, but his conviction was inevitable. His During the forty-two days of his confinement in Charlestown, Brown received several visits from sympathizing Northern friends, many of whom had never before seen him. wife, overcoming many obstacles, was finally permitted to spend a few hours in his cell, and to take supper with him a short time before his death. No Virginians, so far as is known, proffered him any words of kindness, unless it were the Reverend Clergy of the neighborhood, who tendered him the solace of religion after their fashion, which he civilly but firmly declined. He could not recognize any one who justified or palliated slavery as a minister of the God he worshipped, or the Saviour in whom he trusted. He held arguments on several occasions with pro-slavery clergymen, but recognized them as men only, and not as invested with any peculiar sanctity. To one of them who sought to reconcile slavery with Christianity he said: "My dear sir, you know nothing about Christianity. You will have to learn the A, B, Cs in the lesson of Christianity, as I find you entirely ignorant of the meaning of the word. I of course respect you as a gentleman; but it is as a heathen gentleman." The argument here closed. The second of December was the day appointed for his execution. Nearly three thousand militia were early on the ground. Fears of a forcible rescue or of a servile insurrection prevented a large attendance of citizens. Cannon were so planted as to sweep every approach to the jail, and to blow the prisoner into shreds upon the first intimation of tumult. Virginia held her breath until she heard that the old man was dead. Brown rose at daybreak, and continued writing with energy until half past ten, when he was told to prepare to die. He shook hands with the Sheriff, visited the cell of Copeland and Green, to whom he handed a quarter of a dollar each, saying he had no more use for money, and bade them adieu: He next visited Cook and Coppoc, the former of whom had made a confession, which he pronounced false; saying he had never sent Cook to Harper's Ferry as he had stated. He handed a quarter to Coppoc also, shook hands with him and parted. He then visited and bade a kindly good-bye to his more especial comrade, Stevens, gave him a quarter, and charged him not to betray his friends. He walked out of the jail at eleven o'clock, an eye-witness said, "with a radiant countenance and a step of a conqueror." His face was even joyous, and it has been remarked that prob ably his was the lightest heart in Charlestown that day. A black woman, with a little child in her arms, stood by the door. He stopped a moment, and, stooping, kissed the child affectionately. Another black woman, with a child, as he passed along, exclaimed, "God bless you, old man! I wish I could help you; but I can't." He looked at her with a tear in his eye. "John Brown, of Osawatomie, spake on his dying day: I will not have to shrive my soul a priest in slavery's pay, John Brown, of Osawatomie, they led him out to die; The shadows of his stormy life that moment fell apart; |