"It was much- -a very notable interposition of Providence in John Brown's behalf — that he was led out from the influence of the church as far as the upholding of Slavery was concerned; that he was plucked, as a brand from the burning, out of this department of her snares. But her mischievous doctrine that the true God is the God of battles' that the universal Father is the Lord of hosts,' authorizing some of his children to hang, behead, stab, and shoot others— this detestable doctrine the church had instilled into him so effectually that he never escaped from it. And he probably never took pains even to look at the question of non-resistance as an open question; a doctrine that might, perhaps, be true; a principle which might, as its advocates declared, lie at the very root of Christianity. Nothing, then, could be more unjust than to judge him by the same standard as if he had recognized this principle. We cannot have grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles. But we can, we must say, that, so far as his light extended, John Brown nobly, gloriously, did his duty to the slave."

Charles K. Whipfile

I.

John G. Whittier and Wm. Lloyd Garrison.

WHENEVER an heroic act is done in Freedom's cause

W

or name, every one naturally turns to John G. Whittier for a song fit to celebrate and consecrate it. Many eyes were directed to him when John Brown fell; and many eyes were filled with tears when the poet spoke. For the noble veteran singer sadly disappointed them; and murmurs of injustice filled the homes of the old warrior's friends. I have been spared the labor and pains of criticising Whittier in this instance, by one whose devotion to Freedom and opposition to war no man doubts- William Lloyd Garrison; whose comments, (as they appeared in the "Liberator,") I append to the verses of the anti-slavery poet :

BROWN OF OSAWATOMIE.

John Brown of Osawatomie

Spake on his dying day:

"I will not have, to shrive my soul,
A priest in Slavery's pay;

But, let some poor slave-mother,

Whom I have striven to free,

With her children, from the gallows-stair,

Put up a prayer for me!"

John Brown of Osawatomie,

They led him out to die;

And, lo! — a poor slave mother

With her little child pressed nigh.

Then the bold, blue eye grew tender,
And the old, harsh face grew mild,
As he stooped between the jeering ranks
And kissed the negro's child!

The shadows of his stormy life
That moment fell apart:

Without, the rash and bloody hand,

Within, the loving heart.

That kiss, from all its guilty means,
Redeemed the good intent,
And round the grisly fighter's hair
The Martyr's aureole bent!

Perish with him the folly

That seeks through evil, good;
Long live the generous purpose
\Unstained with human blood!
Not the raid of midnight terror,
But the thought which underlies;
Not the outlaw's pride of daring,
But the Christian's sacrifice.

O! never may yon blue-ridged hills
The Northern rifle hear,

Nor see the light of blazing homes
Flash on the negro's spear.
But let the free-winged angel Truth
Their guarded passes scale,

To teach that Right is more than Might

And Justice more than Mail!

So vainly shall Virginia set

Her battle in array ;

In vain her trampling squadrons knead
The winter snow with clay.

She may strike the pouncing eagle,

But she dare not harm the dove; And every gate she bars to Hate Shall open wide to Love!

FEW Witten

THE CRITICISM OF GARRISON.

We have copied into our poetical department, from the New York "Independent," some lines on John Brown of Osawatomie, from the pen of our gifted friend, John G. Whittier; but, though the sentiment is gracefully expressed, we think there is not the same magnanimous recognition of the liberty-loving heroism of John Brown, which is found in many of the poet's effusions relating to the war-like struggle of 1776, and "our revolutionary fathers." For example — he speaks of "the rash and bloody hand”—the "guilty means" with "the good intent"-"the grisly fighter's hair"-"the folly that seeks through evil good"—"the raid of midnight terror" "the outlaw's pride of daring," &c. There is an apparent invidiousness or severity of imputation in these epithets, which does not seem to be called for, though softened by some approving allusions in close juxtaposition. Let such of us as are believers in the doctrines of peace be careful to award to John Brown at least as much credit as we do to a Joshua or Gideon, a Washington or Warren, and especially not to do him the slightest injustice. Though he was far from being a nonresistant, yet he was not a man of violence and blood, in a lawless sense, any more than those Jewish and American heroes; and if no reproachful epithets ought to be cast upon their memories, none ought to be cast upon his. In all that constitutes moral grandeur of character, and entire disinterestedness of action, he was their superior. He perilled all that was dear to him, not to achieve liberty for himself, or those of his own complexion, but to break the fetters of a race "not colored like his own," most wickedly abhorred, universally proscribed, and subjected to a bondage full of unutterable woe and horror. But, even in their behalf, he sought no retaliation nor revenge, but only (if possible) a peaceful exodus from Virginia. He explicitly declared to the Court, "I never had any design against the liberty of any person, nor any disposition to commit treason or destroy property, or to excite or to incite slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection." And what fair

minded man doubts the word of John Brown?

His weapons were purely for self-defence on the part of the flying bondmen — an extremity, which, eighteen centuries after Christ, justifies their use in the belief of Catholic and Protestant Christendom, and in accordance with the common law of the world. He was of such stuff as the Waldenses and Albigenses, the Scotch Covenanters, the Smithfield Martyrs, the Mayflower Pilgrims, were composed; apparently as true to his convictions of duty towards God, as any man who ever walked the earth before him. This does not prove that he did well to rely on some other than spiritual weapons for the success of his plan; but it does demand that the fullest justice should be done to his character, and that every reference to him should be as respectful and as appreciative as to any of the patriots and martyrs to whom all the civilized nations of the earth bow down in homage. Every man who votes to uphold (as does the Quaker poet himself) the Constitution of Massachusetts and the American Constitution, votes to uphold the war system army, navy, militia, with all their accompaniments; and no such person, therefore, can consistently speak of "the rash and bloody hand" of John Brown, nor of "the folly that seeks through evil good,”—that is, that seeks to emancipate the enslaved, peaceably if it can, forcibly if it must.

Possibly, before entering Harper's Ferry, John Brown had been reading the following soul-stirring lines of Whittier, — giving them a more literal interpretation than the poet intended: