larly constituted authorities" who took his life. Humbly he knelt to his God, and then laid his head on the block. Trembling, as he gazed on that noble form, the executioner hesitated, and asked, "Will you rise again?" "Not till the final resurrection- strike on." Thus were slain Algernon Sydney and John Brown. Both of them disregarded "constituted authorities." Both of them knew that the vitality of their race was a Protest against wrong, and both sealed their Protests with their lives. How little we know of the infinite wisdom and mercy of the God of the Universe. If there is one who doubts of his guiding hand in all our present affairs, let him look to the events of the past two months. I was in Leavenworth when the telegraph brought the strange news of "Insurrection at Harper's Ferry!" Then came the sad intelligence to Kansas, that John Brown of Osawatomie, Kagi, Stephens, Thompson, Anderson, and the others were of the party, and dead, or dying. Lying wounded and bloody in the hands of the Virginians, some of whom had similarly attacked us—us, not similarly, for they came to plant Slavery, and he went to proclaim Freedom. Then, when we heard that all were not yet dead, although dreadfully wounded, we prayed that they might die as befitted brave soldiers, and not that they should be exhibited on an ignominious gibbet. Ah, my friends, we had but little faith in God, or humanity. How unerringly grand the finger that guided all these events! Look to John Brown, surviving that desperate charge, covered with wounds and yet recovering, and escaping the fury of the Virginians after he was disarmed and helpless. Why was it? He was spared to write those grand letters. To utter those simple but solemn Protests against the crime of Slavery. To stand as the representative of the Anti-slavery sentiment. Hated because he was. To Protest against the wrong with his life, and to meet suck a death undismayed. Two months ago respectable papers were fain to stigmatize him, that they might haply escape the suspicion of sympathizing with him. Now, no respectable paper would like to do such a thing. Then, honorable members of Congress compared him to a highwayman, who now trace the mainsprings of his action to Jefferson, Christianity, and God. The time is coming, when an impartial posterity will calmly review the career of John Brown, the cause for which he died, and the men who remorselessly took his life; and looking from this generation to his sacrifice, will recognize in them the Age and the Man. M. A, Phillips "THEY who assert that, in this enterprise, he was moved rather by hatred of the slaveholder than affection for the slave, do his memory most foul wrong. The love of his heart comprehended and encompassed both. He believed that unless the interference of some third party should anticipate and thus prevent the interference of slaves themselves, these latter would, one day, overthrow the institution by a bloody war of extermination against their masters; and it was to prevent the havoc and carnage which, as he conceived, threatened the South, that he entered upon his ill-fated movement. For, he argued, the same elements of resistance to oppression which would result in all bloody excesses if not wisely and properly directed, might be made subservient to the accomplishment of high purposes of humanity, if the governing intelligence was at their side. Wherefore, in order to supply that intellectual sagacity which the slaves lacked, and thus enable them to achieve their freedom, while restraining them from the cruelties into which their instincts would hurry them, he gave himself to this enterprise. In regard to his personal character, I must, though I reside in the South, where I expect to live and die, be permitted to say that It has been studiously and elaborately misrepresented. There never lived a man whose desire to promote human welfare and human happiness was more inextinguishable. Men have grown hoarse with calumniating his memory, who were never worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoes. Venal politicians, grown sleek upon public plunder, and men who cannot perform an act that is not stained with some deadly sin, have lifted up their hands in holy horror, and yelled out their execrable execrations against his name. John Brown was no tongue-hero-no virtue-prattler. He was a reticent man; and when he did speak, the utterance was from his heart, and not his lungs. His faith was very simple. He desired society to be pure, free, unselfish - full of liberty and love. He believed it capable of such realization. The whole history of his life is that of an upward endeavor. Liberty!' that was the key to his soul; the master-passion that controlled all his other ambitions-personal, social, or political. It swayed him like a frenzy." Richard Real. "The condemnation and death of John Brown are to be estimated by equities, in which the Throne of Eternal Justice alone has its foundation. In these scales legal formulas are dead and weightless. Doctors of the Hebrew Law, by its letter, make a conclusive case against Jesus Christ, and show that His condemnation and execution by the Roman Governor Wise of their Virginia, were according to their forms of law. And yet, the faith and hope of Christendom rest on the basis that that judgment and death were the sacrificial and sacramental seals of the Messiahship which stamped the Peasant-born the Saviour of the world. In measuring this case by these eternal principles, do not quote 'Unions,' and 'compacts,' and 'constitutions' to me! I deny their validity! I pronounce them temporary and trashy, when they attempt to contravene the Immutable!" A. G. Riddle, (Cleveland, Ohio.) |