JOHN BROWN'S LAST HOURS.

297

has died in the same way was good or otherwise. Whether I have any reason to be of good cheer' (or not) in view of my end, I can assure you that I feel so; and that I am totally blinded if I do not really experience that strengthening and consolation you so faithfully implore in my behalf. The God of our Fathers reward your fidelity! I neiashamed of my imprisonment, my chain, or ther feel mortified, degraded, nor in the least my near prospect of death by hanging. I feel assured that not one hair shall fall from my head without the will of my heavenly Father.' I also feel that I have long been endeavoring to hold exactly 'such a fast as which you have quoted. No part of my life God has chosen.' See the passage in Isaiah has been more happily spent than that I have spent here, and I humbly trust that no part has been spent to better purpose. I would not say this boastingly; but thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory,' through infinite grace.

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 worshiped, or the Saviour in whom he trusted. He held arguments on several occasions with proSlavery clergymen, but recognized them as men only, and not as invested with any peculiar sanctity. To one of them, who sought to reconcile "I should be 60 years old were I to live Slavery with Christianity, he said: till May 9, 1860. I have enjoyed much of "My dear Sir, you know nothing life as it is, and have been remarkably prosabout Christianity; you will have to welfare and prosperity of others as my own. perous, having early learned to regard the learn the A B Cs in the lesson of I have never, since I can remember, required Christianity, as I find you entirely a 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.

I

"REV. LUTHER HUMPHREY-My Dear Friend: Your kind letter of the 12th instant is now before me. So far as my knowledge goes as to our mutual kindred, I suppose am the first since the landing of Peter Brown from the Mayflower that has either been sentenced to imprisonment or to the gallows. But, my dear old friend, let not that fact alone grieve you. You cannot have forgotten how and where our grandfather (Captain John Brown) fell in 1776, and that he, too, might have perished on the scaffold had circumstances been but very little different.

The fact that a man dies under the hand of an executioner (or otherwise) has but little to do with his true character, as I suppose. John Rogers perished at the stake, a great and good man, as I suppose: but his doing so does not prove that any other man who

6

great amount of sleep, so that I conclude that I have already enjoyed full an average number of waking hours with those who reach their three-score years and ten.' I have not as yet been driven to the use of glasses, but can see to read and write quite comfortably. But, more than that, I have generally enjoyed remarkably good health. I might go on to recount unnumbered and unmerited blessings, among which would be some very severe afflictions; and those the most needed blessings of all. And now, when I think how easily I might be left to spoil all I have done or suffered in the cause of Freedom, I hardly dare wish another voyage, even if I had the opportunity. It is a long time since we met; but we shall now soon come together in our 'Father's house,' I trust. Let us hold fast that we already have,' remembering we shall reap in due time if we faint not.' Thanks be ever unto

6

God, who giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.' And now, my old warm-hearted friend, 'Good-bye.'

"Your affectionate cousin,

"JOHN BROWN."

The 2d 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. Can

non 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.

| Capt. Avis, who had been one of the bravest of his captors, who had treated him very kindly, and to whom he was profoundly grateful. The wagon was instantly surrounded by six companies of militia. Being asked, on the way, if he felt any fear, he re

Brown rose at daybreak, and continued writing with energy until half-plied: "It has been a characteristic 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. A sixth, named Hazlett, was confined in the same prison, but he did not visit him, denying all knowledge of him.

He walked out of the jail at 11 o'clock; an eye-witness said "with a radiant countenance, and the step of a conqueror." His face was even joyous, and it has been remarked that probably 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. He mounted the wagon beside his jailor,

of me from infancy not to suffer from physical fear. I have suffered a thousand times more from bashfulness than from fear." The day was clear and bright, and he remarked, as he rode, that the country seemed very beautiful. Arrived at the gallows, he said: "I see no citizens here; where are they?" "None but the troops are allowed to be present,' was the reply. "That ought not to be," said he; "citizens should be allowed to be present as well as others." He bade adieu to some acquaintances at the foot of the gallows, and was first to mount the scaffold. His step was still firm, and his bearing calm, yet hopeful. The hour having come, he said to Capt. Avis: "I have no words to thank you for all your kindness to me." His elbows and ankles being pinioned, the white cap drawn over his eyes, the hangman's rope adjusted around his neck, he stood waiting for death. "Capt. Brown," said the sheriff, "you are not standing on the drop. Will you come forward?" "I can't see," was his firm answer; you must lead me." The sheriff led him forward to the center of the drop. "Shall I give you a handkerchief, and let you drop it as a signal?" "No; I am ready at any time; but do not keep me needlessly waiting." In defiance of this reasonable request, he was kept standing thus several minutes, while a military parade and

66

THE VOTE FOR FREMONT AND DAYTON.

299

display of readiness to repel an ima- | pension. His body was conveyed to Harper's Ferry, and delivered to his widow, by whom it was borne to her far northern home, among the mountains he so loved, and where he was so beloved.

ginary foe were enacted. The time seemed an hour to the impatient spectators; even the soldiers began to murmur— "Shame!" At last, the order was given, the rope cut with a hatchet, and the trap fell; but so short a distance that the victim continued to struggle and to suffer for a considerable time. Being at length duly pronounced dead, he was cut down after thirty-eight minutes' sus

There let it rest forever, while the path to it is worn deeper and deeper by the pilgrim feet of the race he so bravely though rashly endeavored to rescue from a hideous and debasing thraldom !

XXI.

THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS OF 1860.

THE vote polled for Fremont and | sentatives Keitt, of South Carolina, Dayton in 1856 considerably exceeded the solid strength, at that time, of the Republican party. It was swelled in part by the personal popularity of Col. Fremont, whose previous career of adventure and of daring-his explorations, discoveries, privations, and perils-appealed, in view of his comparative youth for a Presidential candidate, with resistless fascination, to the noble young men of our country; while his silence and patience throughout the canvass, under a perfect tempest of preposterous yet annoying calumnies, had contributed to widen the circle of his admirers and friends. A most wanton and brutal personal assault1 on Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts, by Representative Brooks of South Carolina, abetted by Repre

6 Cook, Coppoc, Copeland, and Green (a black),

and Edmundson, of Virginia, doubtless contributed also to swell the Republican vote of the following Autumn. Mr. Sumner had made an elaborate speech in the Senate on the Kansas question-a speech not without grave faults of conception and of style, but nowise obnoxious to the charge of violating the decencies of debate by unjustifiable personalities. Yet, on the assumption that its author had therein unwarrantably assailed and ridiculed Judge Butlerone of South Carolina's Senators, and a relative of Mr. Brooks-he was assaulted by surprise while sitting in his place (though a few minutes after the Senate had adjourned for the day), knocked to the floor senseless, and beaten, while helpless

succeeded in making their escape, were Owen

were hanged at Charlestown a fortnight after | Brown, Barclay Coppoc, Charles P. Tidd, Brown-December 16th; Stevens and Hazlitt were likewise hanged on the 16th of March following. The confederates of Brown, who

Francis Jackson Merriam, and Osborne P. Anderson, a colored man.

1 May 22, 1856.

and unconscious, till the rage of his | ized, however, but New York; where immediate assailant was thoroughly-owing, in part, to local questions satiated. Mr. Sumner was so much and influences-Fremont's magnifiinjured as to be compelled to aban- cent plurality of 80,000 was changed don his seat and take a voyage to to a Democratic plurality of 18,000. Europe, where, under the best medi- It appeared in this, as in most other cal treatment, his health was slowly Free States, that the decline or dissorestored. The infliction on Brooks, lution of the "American" or Fillby a Washington court, of a paltry more party inured mainly to the fine2 for this outrage, tended to deep- benefit of the triumphant Democraen and diffuse popular indignation at cy; though Pennsylvania, and possithe North, which the unopposed re- bly Rhode Island, were exceptions. ëlection of Brooks-he having re- To swell the resistless tide, Minnesigned, because of a vote of censure sota and Oregon-both in the exfrom a majority of the House-did treme North-each framed a State not tend to allay. Of Fremont's ag- Constitution this year, and took pogregate vote-1,341,812-it is proba- sition in line with the dominant ble that all above 1,200,000 was giv- party-Minnesota by a small, Oreen him on grounds personal to him- gon by an overwhelming, majority self, or from impulses growing out of the Sumner outrage.

Accordingly, the elections of 1857 exhibited a diminution of Republican strength-the eleven States which had voted for Fremont, giving him an aggregate popular majority of over 250,000, now giving but little over 50,000 for the Republican tickets. All the New England States were still carried by the Republicans, but by majorities diminished, in the average, more than half, while that of Connecticut was reduced from 7,715 to 546. So, in Ohio, Gov. Chase was this year reëlected by 1,481, though Fremont had 16,623; while Gov. Lowe, in Iowa, had but 2,151, where Fremont had received 7,784; and Gov. Randall was chosen in Wisconsin by barely 118, where Fremont had received 13,247. No Republican State was actually revolution

2 Of $300.

3 Minnesota chose three Members to the House, on the assumption that her population was sufficient to warrant her in claiming that

3

the two swelling by four Senators and four Representatives the already invincible strength of the Democracy.

The Opposition was utterly powerless against this surge; but what they dare hardly undertake, Mr. Buchanan was able to effect. By his utterly indefensible attempt to enforce the Lecompton Constitution upon Kansas, in glaring contradiction to his smooth and voluble professions regarding "Popular Sovereignty," "the will of the majority," etc., etc., he enabled the Republicans, in 1858, to hold, by majorities almost uniformly increased, all the States they had carried the preceding year, and reverse the last year's majority against them in New York; carry Pennsylvania for the first time by over 26,000 majority; triumph even in New Jersey under an equiv

number-or, at least, soon would be. She has since chosen but two, being entitled to no more —in fact, hardly to so many-under the Census of 1860.

THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT.

301

ocal organization; bring over Min- | Union cannot permanently endure nesota by a close vote; and swell half Slave and half Free. Said Mr. their majority in Ohio to fully 20,000. | Lincoln: They were beaten in Indiana on the State ticket by a very slender majority, but carried seven of the eleven Representatives in Congress, beside helping elect an anti-Lecompton Democrat in another district; while Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin, chose Republican tickets-as of late had been usual with them-by respectable majorities, and the last named by one increased to nearly 6,000. California and Oregon still adhered to Democracy of the most pro-Slavery type, by decisive majorities.

.

"If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to Slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this Government cannot permanently endure half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved-I do not expect the house to fall-but I do expect It will bethat it will cease to be divided. come all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of Slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the pub

'A

This almost prophetic statement, from one born in Kentucky, and who had been known, prior to the appearance of the Dred Scott decision, as a rather conservative Whig, was put forth, more than four months before Gov. Seward,' as if under a like premonition of coming events, said:

Illinois was this year the arena of lic mind shall rest in the belief that it is in a peculiar contest. Senator Douglas the course of ultimate extinction; or its adhad taken so prominent and so effi-vocates will push it forward till it shall becient a part in the defeat of the Le- come alike lawful in all the States, old as compton abomination, that a number well as new-North as well as South." of the leading Republicans of other States were desirous that their Illinois brethren should unite in choosing a Legislature pledged to return him, by a vote substantially unanimous, to the seat he had so ably filled. But it was hardly in human nature that those thus appealed to should, because of one good act, recognize and treat as a friend one whom they had known for nearly twenty years as the ablest, most indefatigable, and by no means the most scrupulous, of their dental, unnecessary, the work of interested or fanatical agitators, and therefore ephemeadversaries. They held a sort of ral, mistake the case altogether. It is an irState Convention, therefore, and pre- repressible conflict between opposing and sented ABRAHAM LINCOLN as a Re-United States must and will, sooner or later, enduring forces; and it means that the publican competitor for Mr. Douglas's seat; and he opened the canvass at once, in a terse, forcible, and thoroughly "radical" speech, wherein he enunciated the then startling, if not absolutely novel, doctrine that the

4

4 At Springfield, Ill., June 17, 1858.

"These antagonistic systems are continually coming into closer contact, and collision

results.

"Shall I tell you what this collision means? They who think that it is acci

become either entirely a slave-holding nation, or entirely a free-labor nation. Either

the cotton and rice-fields of South Carolina

and the sugar plantations of Louisiana will ultimately be tilled by free labor, and Charles

gitimate merchandise alone, or else the ryefields and wheat-fields of Massachusetts

ton and New Orleans become marts for le

5 At Rochester, N. Y., Oct. 25, 1858.