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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31839-h.zip b/31839-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a83c597 --- /dev/null +++ b/31839-h.zip diff --git a/31839-h/31839-h.htm b/31839-h/31839-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1cfa1f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/31839-h/31839-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1394 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of John Brown. An Address, by Frederick Douglass + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of John Brown, by Frederick Douglass + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: John Brown + An Address at the 14th Anniversary of Storer College + +Author: Frederick Douglass + +Release Date: March 31, 2010 [EBook #31839] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN BROWN *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Norbert H. Langkau, and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1> +JOHN BROWN.</h1> + +<h3>AN ADDRESS</h3> +<p> </p> +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>FREDERICK DOUGLASS,</h2> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h5>AT THE</h5> +<h4>FOURTEENTH ANNIVERSARY</h4> +<h5>OF</h5> +<h3>STORER COLLEGE,</h3> +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, May 30, 1881.</span></h4> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h4>DOVER, N. H.:</h4> +<h3>MORNING STAR JOB PRINTING HOUSE.</h3> +<h3>1881.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"> +<span class="smcap">Presented<br /> +by the Author to Storer College,<br /> +the proceeds to go to the endowment of a<br /> +John Brown Professorship.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2> + + +<p>In substance, this address, now for the first time published, was +prepared several years ago, and has been delivered in many parts of +the North. Its publication now in pamphlet form is due to its delivery +at Harper's Ferry, W. Va., on Decoration day, 1881, and to the fact +that the proceeds from the sale of it are to be used toward the +endowment of a John Brown Professorship in Storer College, Harper's +Ferry—an institution mainly devoted to the education of colored +youth.</p> + +<p>That such an address could be delivered at such a place, at such a +time, is strikingly significant, and illustrates the rapid, vast and +wonderful changes through which the American people have been passing +since 1859. Twenty years ago Frederick Douglass and others were mobbed +in the city of Boston, and driven from Tremont Temple for uttering +sentiments concerning John Brown similar to those contained in this +address. Yet now he goes freely to the very spot where John Brown +committed the offense which caused all Virginia to clamor for his +life, and without reserve or qualification, commends him as a hero and +martyr in the cause of liberty. This incident is rendered all the more +significant by the fact that Hon. Andrew Hunter, of Charlestown,—the +District Attorney who prosecuted John Brown and secured his +execution,—sat on the platform directly behind Mr. Douglass during +the delivery of the entire address and at the close of it shook hands +with him, and congratulated him, and invited him to Charlestown (where +John Brown was hanged), adding that if Robert E. Lee were living, he +would give him his hand also.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ADDRESS.</h2> + + +<p>Not to fan the flame of sectional animosity now happily in the process +of rapid and I hope permanent extinction; not to revive and keep alive +a sense of shame and remorse for a great national crime, which has +brought its own punishment, in loss of treasure, tears and blood; not +to recount the long list of wrongs, inflicted on my race during more +than two hundred years of merciless bondage; nor yet to draw, from the +labyrinths of far-off centuries, incidents and achievements wherewith +to rouse your passions, and enkindle your enthusiasm, but to pay a +just debt long due, to vindicate in some degree a great historical +character, of our own time and country, one with whom I was myself +well acquainted, and whose friendship and confidence it was my good +fortune to share, and to give you such recollections, impressions and +facts, as I can, of a grand, brave and good old man, and especially to +promote a better understanding of the raid upon Harper's Ferry of +which he was the chief, is the object of this address.</p> + +<p>In all the thirty years' conflict with slavery, if we except the late +tremendous war, there is no subject which in its interest and +importance will be remembered longer, or will form a more thrilling +chapter in American history than this strange, wild, bloody and +mournful drama. The story of it is still fresh in the minds of many +who now hear me, but for the sake of those who may have forgotten its +details, and in order to have our subject in its entire range more +fully and clearly before us at the outset, I will briefly state the +facts in that extraordinary transaction.</p> + +<p>On the night of the 16th of October, 1859, there appeared near the +confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, a party of nineteen +men—fourteen white and five colored. They were not only armed +themselves, but had brought with them a large supply of arms for such +persons as might join them. These men invaded Harper's Ferry, disarmed +the watchman, took possession of the arsenal, rifle-factory, armory +and other government property at that place, arrested and made +prisoners nearly all the prominent citizens of the neighborhood, +collected about fifty slaves, put bayonets into the hands of such as +were able and willing to fight for their liberty, killed three men, +proclaimed general emancipation, held the ground more than thirty +hours, were subsequently overpowered and nearly all killed, wounded or +captured, by a body of United States troops, under command of Colonel +Robert E. Lee, since famous as the rebel Gen. Lee. Three out of the +nineteen invaders were captured whilst fighting, and one of these was +Captain John Brown, the man who originated, planned and commanded the +expedition. At the time of his capture Capt. Brown was supposed to be +mortally wounded, as he had several ugly gashes and bayonet wounds on +his head and body; and apprehending that he might speedily die, or +that he might be rescued by his friends, and thus the opportunity of +making him a signal example of slave-holding vengeance would be lost, +his captors hurried him to Charlestown two miles further within the +border of Virginia, placed him in prison strongly guarded by troops, +and before his wounds were healed he was brought into court, subjected +to a nominal trial, convicted of high treason and inciting slaves to +insurrection, and was executed. His corpse was given to his +woe-stricken widow, and she, assisted by Anti-slavery friends, caused +it to be borne to North Elba, Essex County, N. Y., and there his dust +now reposes, amid the silent, solemn and snowy grandeur of the +Adirondacks.</p> + +<p>Such is the story; with no line softened or hardened to my inclining. +It certainly is not a story to please, but to pain. It is not a story +to increase our sense of social safety and security, but to fill the +imagination with wild and troubled fancies of doubt and danger. It was +a sudden and startling surprise to the people of Harper's Ferry, and +it is not easy to conceive of a situation more abundant in all the +elements of horror and consternation. They had retired as usual to +rest, with no suspicion that an enemy lurked in the surrounding +darkness. They had quietly and trustingly given themselves up to +"tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," and while thus all +unconscious of danger, they were roused from their peaceful slumbers +by the sharp crack of the invader's rifle, and felt the keen-edged +sword of war at their throats, three of their number being already +slain.</p> + +<p>Every feeling of the human heart was naturally outraged at this +occurrence, and hence at the moment the air was full of denunciation +and execration. So intense was this feeling, that few ventured to +whisper a word of apology. But happily reason has her voice as well as +feeling, and though slower in deciding, her judgments are broader, +deeper, clearer and more enduring. It is not easy to reconcile human +feeling to the shedding of blood for any purpose, unless indeed in the +excitement which the shedding of blood itself occasions. The knife is +to feeling always an offence. Even when in the hands of a skillful +surgeon, it refuses consent to the operation long after reason has +demonstrated its necessity. It even pleads the cause of the known +murderer on the day of his execution, and calls society half criminal +when, in cold blood, it takes life as a protection of itself from +crime. Let no word be said against this holy feeling; more than to law +and government are we indebted to this tender sentiment of regard for +human life for the safety with which we walk the streets by day and +sleep secure in our beds at night. It is nature's grand police, +vigilant and faithful, sentineled in the soul, guarding against +violence to peace and life. But whilst so much is freely accorded to +feeling in the economy of human welfare, something more than feeling +is necessary to grapple with a fact so grim and significant as was +this raid. Viewed apart and alone, as a transaction separate and +distinct from its antecedents and bearings, it takes rank with the +most cold-blooded and atrocious wrongs ever perpetrated; but just here +is the trouble—this raid on Harper's Ferry, no more than Sherman's +march to the sea can consent to be thus viewed alone.</p> + +<p>There is, in the world's government, a force which has in all ages +been recognized, sometimes as Nemesis, sometimes as the judgment of +God and sometimes as retributive justice; but under whatever name, all +history attests the wisdom and beneficence of its chastisements, and +men become reconciled to the agents through whom it operates, and have +extolled them as heroes, benefactors and demigods.</p> + +<p>To the broad vision of a true philosophy, nothing in this world stands +alone. Everything is a necessary part of everything else. The margin +of chance is narrowed by every extension of reason and knowledge, and +nothing comes unbidden to the feast of human experience. The universe, +of which we are a part, is continually proving itself a stupendous +whole, a system of law and order, eternal and perfect: Every seed +bears fruit after its kind, and nothing is reaped which was not sowed. +The distance between seed time and harvest, in the moral world, may +not be quite so well defined or as clearly intelligible as in the +physical, but there is a seed time, and there is a harvest time, and +though ages may intervene, and neither he who ploughed nor he who +sowed may reap in person, yet the harvest nevertheless will surely +come; and as in the physical world there are century plants, so it may +be in the moral world, and their fruitage is as certain in the one as +in the other. The bloody harvest of Harper's Ferry was ripened by the +heat and moisture of merciless bondage of more than two hundred years. +That startling cry of alarm on the banks of the Potomac was but the +answering back of the avenging angel to the midnight invasions of +Christian slave-traders on the sleeping hamlets of Africa. The history +of the African slave-trade furnishes many illustrations far more cruel +and bloody.</p> + +<p>Viewed thus broadly our subject is worthy of thoughtful and +dispassionate consideration. It invites the study of the poet, +scholar, philosopher and statesman. What the masters in natural +science have done for man in the physical world, the masters of social +science may yet do for him in the moral world. Science now tells us +when storms are in the sky, and when and where their violence will be +most felt. Why may we not yet know with equal certainty when storms +are in the moral sky, and how to avoid their desolating force? But I +can invite you to no such profound discussions. I am not the man, nor +is this the occasion for such philosophical enquiry. Mine is the word +of grateful memory to an old friend; to tell you what I knew of +him—what I knew of his inner life—of what he did and what he +attempted, and thus if possible to make the mainspring of his actions +manifest and thereby give you a clearer view of his character and +services.</p> + +<p>It is said that next in value to the performance of great deeds +ourselves, is the capacity to appreciate such when performed by +others; to more than this I do not presume. Allow me one other +personal word before I proceed. In the minds of some of the American +people I was myself credited with an important agency in the John +Brown raid. Governor Henry A. Wise was manifestly of that opinion. He +was at the pains of having Mr. Buchanan send his Marshals to Rochester +to invite me to accompany them to Virginia. Fortunately I left town +several hours previous to their arrival.</p> + +<p>What ground there was for this distinguished consideration shall duly +appear in the natural course of this lecture. I wish however to say +just here that there was no foundation whatever for the charge that I +in any wise urged or instigated John Brown to his dangerous work. I +rejoice that it is my good fortune to have seen, not only the end of +slavery, but to see the day when the whole truth can be told about +this matter without prejudice to either the living or the dead. I +shall however allow myself little prominence in these disclosures. +Your interests, like mine, are in the all-commanding figure of the +story, and to him I consecrate the hour. His zeal in the cause of my +race was far greater than mine—it was as the burning sun to my taper +light—mine was bounded by time, his stretched away to the boundless +shores of eternity. I could live for the slave, but he could die for +him. The crown of martyrdom is high, far beyond the reach of ordinary +mortals, and yet happily no special greatness or superior moral +excellence is necessary to discern and in some measure appreciate a +truly great soul. Cold, calculating and unspiritual as most of us are, +we are not wholly insensible to real greatness; and when we are +brought in contact with a man of commanding mold, towering high and +alone above the millions, free from all conventional fetters, true to +his own moral convictions, a "law unto himself," ready to suffer +misconstruction, ignoring torture and death for what he believes to be +right, we are compelled to do him homage.</p> + +<p>In the stately shadow, in the sublime presence of such a soul I find +myself standing to-night; and how to do it reverence, how to do it +justice, how to honor the dead with due regard to the living, has been +a matter of most anxious solicitude.</p> + +<p>Much has been said of John Brown, much that is wise and beautiful, but +in looking over what may be called the John Brown literature, I have +been little assisted with material, and even less encouraged with any +hope of success in treating the subject. Scholarship, genius and +devotion have hastened with poetry and eloquence, story and song to +this simple altar of human virtue, and have retired dissatisfied and +distressed with the thinness and poverty of their offerings, as I +shall with mine.</p> + +<p>The difficulty in doing justice to the life and character of such a +man is not altogether due to the quality of the zeal, or of the +ability brought to the work, nor yet to any imperfections in the +qualities of the man himself; the state of the moral atmosphere about +us has much to do with it. The fault is not in our eyes, nor yet in +the object, if under a murky sky we fail to discover the object. +Wonderfully tenacious is the taint of a great wrong. The evil, as well +as "the good that men do, lives after them." Slavery is indeed gone; +but its long, black shadow yet falls broad and large over the face of +the whole country. It is the old truth oft repeated, and never more +fitly than now, "a prophet is without honor in his own country and +among his own people." Though more than twenty years have rolled +between us and the Harper's Ferry raid, though since then the armies +of the nation have found it necessary to do on a large scale what John +Brown attempted to do on a small one, and the great captain who fought +his way through slavery has filled with honor the Presidential chair, +we yet stand too near the days of slavery, and the life and times of +John Brown, to see clearly the true martyr and hero that he was and +rightly to estimate the value of the man and his works. Like the great +and good of all ages—the men born in advance of their times, the men +whose bleeding footprints attest the immense cost of reform, and show +us the long and dreary spaces, between the luminous points in the +progress of mankind,—this our noblest American hero must wait the +polishing wheels of after-coming centuries to make his glory more +manifest, and his worth more generally acknowledged. Such instances +are abundant and familiar. If we go back four and twenty centuries, to +the stately city of Athens, and search among her architectural +splendor and her miracles of art for the Socrates of to-day, and as he +stands in history, we shall find ourselves perplexed and disappointed. +In Jerusalem Jesus himself was only the "carpenter's son"—a young man +wonderfully destitute of worldly prudence—a pestilent fellow, +"inexcusably and perpetually interfering in the world's +business,"—"upsetting the tables of the money-changers"—preaching +sedition, opposing the good old religion—"making himself greater than +Abraham," and at the same time "keeping company" with very low people; +but behold the change! He was a great miracle-worker, in his day, but +time has worked for him a greater miracle than all his miracles, for +now his name stands for all that is desirable in government, noble in +life, orderly and beautiful in society. That which time has done for +other great men of his class, that will time certainly do for John +Brown. The brightest gems shine at first with subdued light, and the +strongest characters are subject to the same limitations. Under the +influence of adverse education and hereditary bias, few things are +more difficult than to render impartial justice. Men hold up their +hands to Heaven, and swear they will do justice, but what are oaths +against prejudice and against inclination! In the face of +high-sounding professions and affirmations we know well how hard it is +for a Turk to do justice to a Christian, or for a Christian to do +justice to a Jew. How hard for an Englishman to do justice to an +Irishman, for an Irishman to do justice to an Englishman, harder still +for an American tainted by slavery to do justice to the Negro or the +Negro's friends. "John Brown," said the late Wm. H. Seward, "was +justly hanged." "John Brown," said the late John A. Andrew, "was +right." It is easy to perceive the sources of these two opposite +judgments: the one was the verdict of slave-holding and +panic-stricken Virginia, the other was the verdict of the best heart +and brain of free old Massachusetts. One was the heated judgment of +the passing and passionate hour, and the other was the calm, clear, +unimpeachable judgment of the broad, illimitable future.</p> + +<p>There is, however, one aspect of the present subject quite worthy of +notice, for it makes the hero of Harper's Ferry in some degree an +exception to the general rules to which I have just now adverted. +Despite the hold which slavery had at that time on the country, +despite the popular prejudice against the Negro, despite the shock +which the first alarm occasioned, almost from the first John Brown +received a large measure of sympathy and appreciation. New England +recognized in him the spirit which brought the pilgrims to Plymouth +rock and hailed him as a martyr and saint. True he had broken the law, +true he had struck for a despised people, true he had crept upon his +foe stealthily, like a wolf upon the fold, and had dealt his blow in +the dark whilst his enemy slept, but with all this and more to disturb +the moral sense, men discerned in him the greatest and best qualities +known to human nature, and pronounced him "good." Many consented to +his death, and then went home and taught their children to sing his +praise as one whose "soul is marching on" through the realms of +endless bliss. One element in explanation of this somewhat anomalous +circumstance will probably be found in the troubled times which +immediately succeeded, for "when judgments are abroad in the world, +men learn righteousness."</p> + +<p>The country had before this learned the value of Brown's heroic +character. He had shown boundless courage and skill in dealing with +the enemies of liberty in Kansas. With men so few, and means so small, +and odds against him so great, no captain ever surpassed him in +achievements, some of which seem almost beyond belief. With only eight +men in that bitter war, he met, fought and captured Henry Clay Pate, +with twenty-five well armed and mounted men. In this memorable +encounter, he selected his ground so wisely, handled his men so +skillfully, and attacked the enemy so vigorously, that they could +neither run nor fight, and were therefore compelled to surrender to a +force less than one-third their own. With just thirty men on another +important occasion during the same border war, he met and vanquished +four hundred Missourians under the command of Gen. Read. These men had +come into the territory under an oath never to return to their homes +till they had stamped out the last vestige of free State spirit in +Kansas; but a brush with old Brown took this high conceit out of them, +and they were glad to get off upon any terms, without stopping to +stipulate. With less than one hundred men to defend the town of +Lawrence, he offered to lead them and give battle to fourteen hundred +men on the banks of the Waukerusia river, and was much vexed when his +offer was refused by Gen. Jim Lane and others to whom the defense of +the town was confided. Before leaving Kansas, he went into the border +of Missouri, and liberated a dozen slaves in a single night, and, in +spite of slave laws and marshals, he brought these people through a +half dozen States, and landed them safely in Canada. With eighteen men +this man shook the whole social fabric of Virginia. With eighteen men +he overpowered a town of nearly three thousand souls. With these +eighteen men he held that large community firmly in his grasp for +thirty long hours. With these eighteen men he rallied in a single +night fifty slaves to his standard, and made prisoners of an equal +number of the slave-holding class. With these eighteen men he defied +the power and bravery of a dozen of the best militia companies that +Virginia could send against him. Now, when slavery struck, as it +certainly did strike, at the life of the country, it was not the fault +of John Brown that our rulers did not at first know how to deal with +it. He had already shown us the weak side of the rebellion, had shown +us where to strike and how. It was not from lack of native courage +that Virginia submitted for thirty long hours and at last was relieved +only by Federal troops; but because the attack was made on the side of +her conscience and thus armed her against herself. She beheld at her +side the sullen brow of a black Ireland. When John Brown proclaimed +emancipation to the slaves of Maryland and Virginia he added to his +war power the force of a moral earthquake. Virginia felt all her +strong-ribbed mountains to shake under the heavy tread of armed +insurgents. Of his army of nineteen her conscience made an army of +nineteen hundred.</p> + +<p>Another feature of the times, worthy of notice, was the effect of this +blow upon the country at large. At the first moment we were stunned +and bewildered. Slavery had so benumbed the moral sense of the nation, +that it never suspected the possibility of an explosion like this, and +it was difficult for Captain Brown to get himself taken for what he +really was. Few could seem to comprehend that freedom to the slaves +was his only object. If you will go back with me to that time you will +find that the most curious and contradictory versions of the affair +were industriously circulated, and those which were the least rational +and true seemed to command the readiest belief. In the view of some, +it assumed tremendous proportions. To such it was nothing less than a +wide-sweeping rebellion to overthrow the existing government, and +construct another upon its ruins, with Brown for its President and +Commander-in-Chief; the proof of this was found in the old man's +carpet-bag in the shape of a constitution for a new Republic, an +instrument which in reality had been executed to govern the conduct of +his men in the mountains. Smaller and meaner natures saw in it nothing +higher than a purpose to plunder. To them John Brown and his men were +a gang of desperate robbers, who had learned by some means that +government had sent a large sum of money to Harper's Ferry to pay off +the workmen in its employ there, and they had gone thence to fill +their pockets from this money. The fact is, that outside of a few +friends, scattered in different parts of the country, and the +slave-holders of Virginia, few persons understood the significance of +the hour. That a man might do something very audacious and desperate +for money, power or fame, was to the general apprehension quite +possible; but, in face of plainly-written law, in face of +constitutional guarantees protecting each State against domestic +violence, in face of a nation of forty million of people, that +nineteen men could invade a great State to liberate a despised and +hated race, was to the average intellect and conscience, too monstrous +for belief. In this respect the vision of Virginia was clearer than +that of the nation. Conscious of her guilt and therefore full of +suspicion, sleeping on pistols for pillows, startled at every unusual +sound, constantly fearing and expecting a repetition of the Nat Turner +insurrection, she at once understood the meaning, if not the magnitude +of the affair. It was this understanding which caused her to raise the +lusty and imploring cry to the Federal government for help, and it was +not till he who struck the blow had fully explained his motives and +object, that the incredulous nation in any wise comprehended the true +spirit of the raid, or of its commander. Fortunate for his memory, +fortunate for the brave men associated with him, fortunate for the +truth of history, John Brown survived the saber gashes, bayonet wounds +and bullet holes, and was able, though covered with blood, to tell his +own story and make his own defense. Had he with all his men, as might +have been the case, gone down in the shock of battle, the world would +have had no true basis for its judgment, and one of the most heroic +efforts ever witnessed in behalf of liberty would have been confounded +with base and selfish purposes. When, like savages, the Wises, the +Vallandinghams, the Washingtons, the Stuarts and others stood around +the fallen and bleeding hero, and sought by torturing questions to +wring from his supposed dying lips some word by which to soil the +sublime undertaking, by implicating Gerrit Smith, Joshua R. Giddings, +Dr. S. G. Howe, G. L. Stearns, Edwin Morton, Frank Sanborn, and other +prominent Anti-slavery men, the brave old man, not only avowed his +object to be the emancipation of the slaves, but serenely and proudly +announced himself as solely responsible for all that had happened. +Though some thought of his own life might at such a moment have seemed +natural and excusable, he showed none, and scornfully rejected the +idea that he acted as the agent or instrument of any man or set of +men. He admitted that he had friends and sympathizers, but to his own +head he invited all the bolts of slave-holding wrath and fury, and +welcomed them to do their worst. His manly courage and self-forgetful +nobleness were not lost upon the crowd about him, nor upon the +country. They drew applause from his bitterest enemies. Said Henry A. +Wise, "He is the gamest man I ever met." "He was kind and humane to +his prisoners," said Col. Lewis Washington.</p> + +<p>To the outward eye of men, John Brown was a criminal, but to their +inward eye he was a just man and true. His deeds might be disowned, +but the spirit which made those deeds possible was worthy highest +honor. It has been often asked, why did not Virginia spare the life of +this man? why did she not avail herself of this grand opportunity to +add to her other glory that of a lofty magnanimity? Had they spared +the good old man's life—had they said to him, "You see we have you in +our power, and could easily take your life, but we have no desire to +hurt you in any way; you have committed a terrible crime against +society; you have invaded us at midnight and attacked a sleeping +community, but we recognize you as a fanatic, and in some sense +instigated by others; and on this ground and others, we release you. +Go about your business, and tell those who sent you that we can afford +to be magnanimous to our enemies." I say, had Virginia held some such +language as this to John Brown, she would have inflicted a heavy blow +on the whole Northern abolition movement, one which only the +omnipotence of truth and the force of truth could have overcome. I +have no doubt Gov. Wise would have done so gladly, but, alas, he was +the executive of a State which thought she could not afford such +magnanimity. She had that within her bosom which could more safely +tolerate the presence of a criminal than a saint, a highway robber +than a moral hero. All her hills and valleys were studded with +material for a disastrous conflagration, and one spark of the +dauntless spirit of Brown might set the whole State in flames. A sense +of this appalling liability put an end to every noble consideration. +His death was a foregone conclusion, and his trial was simply one of +form.</p> + +<p>Honor to the brave young Col. Hoyt who hastened from Massachusetts to +defend his friend's life at the peril of his own; but there would have +been no hope of success had he been allowed to plead the case. He +might have surpassed Choate or Webster in power—a thousand physicians +might have sworn that Capt. Brown was insane, it would have been all +to no purpose; neither eloquence nor testimony could have prevailed. +Slavery was the idol of Virginia, and pardon and life to Brown meant +condemnation and death to slavery. He had practically illustrated a +truth stranger than fiction,—a truth higher than Virginia had ever +known,—a truth more noble and beautiful than Jefferson ever wrote. He +had evinced a conception of the sacredness and value of liberty which +transcended in sublimity that of her own Patrick Henry and made even +his fire-flashing sentiment of "Liberty or Death" seem dark and tame +and selfish. Henry loved liberty for himself, but this man loved +liberty for all men, and for those most despised and scorned, as well +as for those most esteemed and honored. Just here was the true glory +of John Brown's mission. It was not for his own freedom that he was +thus ready to lay down his life, for with Paul he could say, "I was +born free." No chain had bound his ankle, no yoke had galled his neck. +History has no better illustration of pure, disinterested benevolence. +It was not Caucasian for Caucasian—white man for white man; not rich +man for rich man, but Caucasian for Ethiopian—white man for black +man—rich man for poor man—the man admitted and respected, for the +man despised and rejected. "I want you to understand, gentlemen," he +said to his persecutors, "that I respect the rights of the poorest and +weakest of the colored people, oppressed by the slave system, as I do +those of the most wealthy and powerful." In this we have the key to +the whole life and career of the man. Than in this sentiment humanity +has nothing more touching, reason nothing more noble, imagination +nothing more sublime; and if we could reduce all the religions of the +world to one essence we could find in it nothing more divine. It is +much to be regretted that some great artist, in sympathy with the +spirit of the occasion, had not been present when these and similar +words were spoken. The situation was thrilling. An old man in the +center of an excited and angry crowd, far away from home, in an +enemy's country—with no friend near—overpowered, defeated, wounded, +bleeding—covered with reproaches—his brave companions nearly all +dead—his two faithful sons stark and cold by his side—reading his +death-warrant in his fast-oozing blood and increasing weakness as in +the faces of all around him—yet calm, collected, brave, with a heart +for any fate—using his supposed dying moments to explain his course +and vindicate his cause: such a subject would have been at once an +inspiration and a power for one of the grandest historical pictures +ever painted....</p> + +<p>With John Brown, as with every other man fit to die for a cause, the +hour of his physical weakness was the hour of his moral strength—the +hour of his defeat was the hour of his triumph—the moment of his +capture was the crowning victory of his life. With the Alleghany +mountains for his pulpit, the country for his church and the whole +civilized world for his audience, he was a thousand times more +effective as a preacher than as a warrior, and the consciousness of +this fact was the secret of his amazing complacency. Mighty with the +sword of steel, he was mightier with the sword of the truth, and with +this sword he literally swept the horizon. He was more than a match +for all the Wises, Masons, Vallandinghams and Washingtons, who could +rise against him. They could kill him, but they could not answer him.</p> + +<p>In studying the character and works of a great man, it is always +desirable to learn in what he is distinguished from others, and what +have been the causes of this difference. Such men as he whom we are +now considering, come on to the theater of life only at long +intervals. It is not always easy to explain the exact and logical +causes that produce them, or the subtle influences which sustain them, +at the immense heights where we sometimes find them; but we know that +the hour and the man are seldom far apart, and that here, as +elsewhere, the demand may in some mysterious way, regulate the supply. +A great iniquity, hoary with age, proud and defiant, tainting the +whole moral atmosphere of the country, subjecting both church and +state to its control, demanded the startling shock which John Brown +seemed especially inspired to give it.</p> + +<p>Apart from this mission there was nothing very remarkable about him. +He was a wool-dealer, and a good judge of wool, as a wool-dealer ought +to be. In all visible respects he was a man like unto other men. No +outward sign of Kansas or Harper's Ferry was about him. As I knew him, +he was an even-tempered man, neither morose, malicious nor +misanthropic, but kind, amiable, courteous, and gentle in his +intercourse with men. His words were few, well chosen and forcible. He +was a good business man, and a good neighbor. A good friend, a good +citizen, a good husband and father: a man apparently in every way +calculated to make a smooth and pleasant path for himself through the +world. He loved society, he loved little children, he liked music, and +was fond of animals. To no one was the world more beautiful or life +more sweet. How then as I have said shall we explain his apparent +indifference to life? I can find but one answer, and that is, his +intense hatred to oppression. I have talked with many men, but I +remember none, who seemed so deeply excited upon the subject of +slavery as he. He would walk the room in agitation at mention of the +word. He saw the evil through no mist or haze, but in a light of +infinite brightness, which left no line of its ten thousand horrors +out of sight. Law, religion, learning, were interposed in its behalf +in vain. His law in regard to it was that which Lord Brougham +described, as "the law above all the enactments of human codes, the +same in all time, the same throughout the world—the law unchangeable +and eternal—the law written by the finger of God on the human +heart—that law by which property in man is, and ever must remain, a +wild and guilty phantasy."</p> + +<p>Against truth and right, legislative enactments were to his mind mere +cobwebs—the pompous emptiness of human pride—the pitiful +outbreathings of human nothingness. He used to say "whenever there is +a right thing to be done, there is a 'thus saith the Lord' that it +shall be done."</p> + +<p>It must be admitted that Brown assumed tremendous responsibility in +making war upon the peaceful people of Harper's Ferry, but it must be +remembered also that in his eye a slave-holding community could not be +peaceable, but was, in the nature of the case, in one incessant state +of war. To him such a community was not more sacred than a band of +robbers: it was the right of any one to assault it by day or night. He +saw no hope that slavery would ever be abolished by moral or political +means: "he knew," he said, "the proud and hard hearts of the +slave-holders, and that they never would consent to give up their +slaves, till they felt a big stick about their heads."</p> + +<p>It was five years before this event at Harper's Ferry, while the +conflict between freedom and slavery was waxing hotter and hotter with +every hour, that the blundering statesmanship of the National +Government repealed the Missouri compromise, and thus launched the +territory of Kansas as a prize to be battled for between the North and +the South. The remarkable part taken in this contest by Brown has been +already referred to, and it doubtless helped to prepare him for the +final tragedy, and though it did not by any means originate the plan, +it confirmed him in it and hastened its execution.</p> + +<p>During his four years' service in Kansas it was my good fortune to see +him often. On his trips to and from the territory he sometimes stopped +several days at my house, and at one time several weeks. It was on +this last occasion that liberty had been victorious in Kansas, and he +felt that he must hereafter devote himself to what he considered his +larger work. It was the theme of all his conversation, filling his +nights with dreams and his days with visions. An incident of his +boyhood may explain, in some measure, the intense abhorrence he felt +to slavery. He had for some reason been sent into the State of +Kentucky, where he made the acquaintance of a slave boy, about his own +age, of whom he became very fond. For some petty offense this boy was +one day subjected to a brutal beating. The blows were dealt with an +iron shovel and fell fast and furiously upon his slender body. Born in +a free State and unaccustomed to such scenes of cruelty, young Brown's +pure and sensitive soul revolted at the shocking spectacle and at that +early age he swore eternal hatred to slavery. After years never +obliterated the impression, and he found in this early experience an +argument against contempt for small things. It is true that the boy is +the father of the man. From the acorn comes the oak. The impression of +a horse's foot in the sand suggested the art of printing. The fall of +an apple intimated the law of gravitation. A word dropped in the woods +of Vincennes, by royal hunters, gave Europe and the world a "William +the Silent," and a thirty years' war. The beating of a Hebrew +bondsman, by an Egyptian, created a Moses, and the infliction of a +similar outrage on a helpless slave boy in our own land may have +caused, forty years afterwards, a John Brown and a Harper's Ferry +Raid.</p> + +<p>Most of us can remember some event or incident which has at some time +come to us, and made itself a permanent part of our lives. Such an +incident came to me in the year 1847. I had then the honor of spending +a day and a night under the roof of a man, whose character and +conversation made a very deep impression on my mind and heart; and as +the circumstance does not lie entirely out of the range of our present +observations, you will pardon for a moment a seeming digression. The +name of the person alluded to had been several times mentioned to me, +in a tone that made me curious to see him and to make his +acquaintance. He was a merchant, and our first meeting was at his +store—a substantial brick building, giving evidence of a flourishing +business. After a few minutes' detention here, long enough for me to +observe the neatness and order of the place, I was conducted by him to +his residence where I was kindly received by his family as an expected +guest. I was a little disappointed at the appearance of this man's +house, for after seeing his fine store, I was prepared to see a fine +residence; but this logic was entirely contradicted by the facts. The +house was a small, wooden one, on a back street in a neighborhood of +laboring men and mechanics, respectable enough, but not just the spot +where one would expect to find the home of a successful merchant. +Plain as was the outside, the inside was plainer. Its furniture might +have pleased a Spartan. It would take longer to tell what was not in +it, than what was; no sofas, no cushions, no curtains, no carpets, no +easy rocking chairs inviting to enervation or rest or repose. My first +meal passed under the misnomer of tea. It was none of your tea and +toast sort, but potatoes and cabbage, and beef soup; such a meal as a +man might relish after following the plough all day, or after +performing a forced march of a dozen miles over rough ground in frosty +weather. Innocent of paint, veneering, varnish or tablecloth, the +table announced itself unmistakably and honestly pine and of the +plainest workmanship. No hired help passed from kitchen to dining +room, staring in amazement at the colored man at the white man's +table. The mother, daughters and sons did the serving, and did it +well. I heard no apology for doing their own work; they went through +it, as if used to it, untouched by any thought of degradation or +impropriety. Supper over, the boys helped to clear the table and wash +the dishes. This style of housekeeping struck me as a little odd. I +mention it because household management is worthy of thought. A house +is more than brick and mortar, wood or paint; this to me at least was. +In its plainness it was a truthful reflection of its inmates: no +disguises, no illusions, no make-believes here, but stern truth and +solid purpose breathed in all its arrangements. I was not long in +company with the master of this house before I discovered that he was +indeed the master of it, and likely to become mine too, if I staid +long with him. He fulfilled St. Paul's idea of the head of the +family—his wife believed in him, and his children observed him with +reverence. Whenever he spoke, his words commanded earnest attention. +His arguments which I ventured at some points to oppose, seemed to +convince all, his appeals touched all, and his will impressed all. +Certainly I never felt myself in the presence of a stronger religious +influence than while in this house. "God and duty, God and duty," run +like a thread of gold through all his utterances, and his family +supplied a ready "Amen." In person he was lean and sinewy, of the best +New England mould, built for times of trouble, fitted to grapple with +the flintiest hardships. Clad in plain American woolen, shod in boots +of cowhide leather, and wearing a cravat of the same substantial +material, under six feet high, less than one hundred and fifty lbs. in +weight, aged about fifty, he presented a figure straight and +symmetrical as a mountain pine. His bearing was singularly impressive. +His head was not large, but compact and high. His hair was coarse, +strong, slightly gray and closely trimmed and grew close to his +forehead. His face was smoothly shaved and revealed a strong square +mouth, supported by a broad and prominent chin. His eyes were clear +and grey, and in conversation they alternated with tears and fire. +When on the street, he moved with a long springing, race-horse step, +absorbed by his own reflections, neither seeking nor shunning +observation. Such was the man whose name I heard uttered in +whispers—such was the house in which he lived—such were his family +and household management—and such was Captain John Brown.</p> + +<p>He said to me at this meeting, that he had invited me to his house +for the especial purpose of laying before me his plan for the speedy +emancipation of my race. He seemed to apprehend opposition on my part +as he opened the subject and touched my vanity by saying, that he had +observed my course at home and abroad, and wanted my co-operation. He +said he had been for the last thirty years looking for colored men to +whom he could safely reveal his secret, and had almost despaired, at +times, of finding such, but that now he was encouraged for he saw +heads rising up in all directions, to whom he thought he could with +safety impart his plan. As this plan then lay in his mind it was very +simple, and had much to commend it. It did not, as was supposed by +many, contemplate a general rising among the slaves, and a general +slaughter of the slave masters (an insurrection he thought would only +defeat the object), but it did contemplate the creating of an armed +force which should act in the very heart of the South. He was not +averse to the shedding of blood, and thought the practice of carrying +arms would be a good one for the colored people to adopt, as it would +give them a sense of manhood. No people he said could have +self-respect or be respected who would not fight for their freedom. He +called my attention to a large map of the U. States, and pointed out +to me the far-reaching Alleghanies, stretching away from the borders +of New York into the Southern States. "These mountains," he said, "are +the basis of my plan. God has given the strength of these hills to +freedom; they were placed here to aid the emancipation of your race; +they are full of natural forts, where one man for defense would be +equal to a hundred for attack; they are also full of good hiding +places where a large number of men could be concealed and baffle and +elude pursuit for a long time. I know these mountains well and could +take a body of men into them and keep them there in spite of all the +efforts of Virginia to dislodge me, and drive me out. I would take at +first about twenty-five picked men and begin on a small scale, supply +them arms and ammunition, post them in squads of fives on a line of +twenty-five miles, these squads to busy themselves for a time in +gathering recruits from the surrounding farms, seeking and selecting +the most restless and daring." He saw that in this part of the work +the utmost care must be used to guard against treachery and +disclosure; only the most conscientious and skillful should be sent on +this perilous duty. With care and enterprise he thought he could soon +gather a force of one hundred hardy men, men who would be content to +lead the free and adventurous life to which he proposed to train them. +When once properly drilled and each had found the place for which he +was best suited, they would begin work in earnest; they would run off +the slaves in large numbers, retain the strong and brave ones in the +mountains, and send the weak and timid ones to the North by the +underground Rail-road; his operations would be enlarged with +increasing numbers and would not be confined to one locality. +Slave-holders should in some cases be approached at midnight and told +to give up their slaves and to let them have their best horses to ride +away upon. Slavery was a state of war, he said, to which the slaves +were unwilling parties and consequently they had a right to anything +necessary to their peace and freedom. He would shed no blood and would +avoid a fight except in self-defense, when he would of course do his +best. He believed this movement would weaken slavery in two +ways—first by making slave property insecure, it would become +undesirable; and secondly it would keep the anti-slavery agitation +alive and public attention fixed upon it, and thus lead to the +adoption of measures to abolish the evil altogether. He held that +there was need of something startling to prevent the agitation of the +question from dying out; that slavery had come near being abolished in +Virginia by the Nat. Turner insurrection, and he thought his method +would speedily put an end to it, both in Maryland and Virginia. The +trouble was to get the right men to start with and money enough to +equip them. He had adopted the simple and economical mode of living to +which I have referred with a view to save money for this purpose. This +was said in no boastful tone, for he felt that he had delayed already +too long and had no room to boast either his zeal or his self-denial.</p> + +<p>From 8 o'clock in the evening till 3 in the morning, Capt. Brown and I +sat face to face, he arguing in favor of his plan, and I finding all +the objections I could against it. Now mark! this meeting of ours was +full twelve years before the strike at Harper's Ferry. He had been +watching and waiting all that time for suitable heads to rise or "pop +up" as he said among the sable millions in whom he could confide; +hence forty years had passed between his thought and his act. Forty +years, though not a long time in the life of a nation, is a long time +in the life of a man; and here forty long years, this man was +struggling with this one idea; like Moses he was forty years in the +wilderness. Youth, manhood, middle age had come and gone; two +marriages had been consummated, twenty children had called him father; +and through all the storms and vicissitudes of busy life, this one +thought, like the angel in the burning bush, had confronted him with +its blazing light, bidding him on to his work. Like Moses he had made +excuses, and as with Moses his excuses were overruled. Nothing should +postpone further what was to him a divine command, the performance of +which seemed to him his only apology for existence. He often said to +me, though life was sweet to him, he would willingly lay it down for +the freedom of my people; and on one occasion he added, that he had +already lived about as long as most men, since he had slept less, and +if he should now lay down his life the loss would not be great, for in +fact he knew no better use for it. During his last visit to us in +Rochester there appeared in the newspapers a touching story connected +with the horrors of the Sepoy War in British India. A Scotch +missionary and his family were in the hands of the enemy, and were to +be massacred the next morning. During the night, when they had given +up every hope of rescue, suddenly the wife insisted that relief would +come. Placing her ear close to the ground she declared she heard the +Slogan—the Scotch war song. For long hours in the night no member of +the family could hear the advancing music but herself. "Dinna ye hear +it? Dinna ye hear it?" she would say, but they could not hear it. As +the morning slowly dawned a Scotch regiment was found encamped indeed +about them, and they were saved from the threatened slaughter. This +circumstance, coming at such a time, gave Capt. Brown a new word of +cheer. He would come to the table in the morning his countenance +fairly illuminated, saying that he had heard the Slogan, and he would +add, "Dinna ye hear it? <i>Dinna</i> ye hear it?" Alas! like the Scotch +missionary I was obliged to say "No." Two weeks prior to the meditated +attack, Capt. Brown summoned me to meet him in an old stone quarry on +the Conecochequi river, near the town of Chambersburgh, Penn. His arms +and ammunition were stored in that town and were to be moved on to +Harper's Ferry. In company with Shields Green I obeyed the summons, +and prompt to the hour we met the dear old man, with Kagi, his +secretary, at the appointed place. Our meeting was in some sense a +council of war. We spent the Saturday and succeeding Sunday in +conference on the question, whether the desperate step should then be +taken, or the old plan as already described should be carried out. He +was for boldly striking Harper's Ferry at once and running the risk of +getting into the mountains afterwards. I was for avoiding Harper's +Ferry altogether. Shields Green and Mr. Kagi remained silent listeners +throughout. It is needless to repeat here what was said, after what +has happened. Suffice it, that after all I could say, I saw that my +old friend had resolved on his course and that it was idle to parley. +I told him finally that it was impossible for me to join him. I could +see Harper's Ferry only as a trap of steel, and ourselves in the wrong +side of it. He regretted my decision and we parted.</p> + +<p>Thus far, I have spoken exclusively of Capt. Brown. Let me say a word +or two of his brave and devoted men, and first of Shields Green. He +was a fugitive slave from Charleston, South Carolina, and had attested +his love of liberty by escaping from slavery and making his way +through many dangers to Rochester, where he had lived in my family, +and where he met the man with whom he went to the scaffold. I said to +him, as I was about to leave, "Now Shields, you have heard our +discussion. If in view of it, you do not wish to stay, you have but to +say so, and you can go back with me." He answered, "I b'l'eve I'll go +wid de old man;" and go with him he did, into the fight, and to the +gallows, and bore himself as grandly as any of the number. At the +moment when Capt. Brown was surrounded, and all chance of escape was +cut off, Green was in the mountains and could have made his escape as +Osborne Anderson did, but when asked to do so, he made the same answer +he did at Chambersburgh, "I b'l'eve I'll go down wid de ole man." When +in prison at Charlestown, and he was not allowed to see his old +friend, his fidelity to him was in no wise weakened, and no complaint +against Brown could be extorted from him by those who talked with him.</p> + +<p>If a monument should be erected to the memory of John Brown, as there +ought to be, the form and name of Shields Green should have a +conspicuous place upon it. It is a remarkable fact, that in this small +company of men, but one showed any sign of weakness or regret for what +he did or attempted to do. Poor Cook broke down and sought to save his +life by representing that he had been deceived, and allured by false +promises. But Stephens, Hazlett and Green went to their doom like the +heroes they were, without a murmur, without a regret, believing alike +in their captain and their cause.</p> + +<p>For the disastrous termination of this invasion, several causes have +been assigned. It has been said that Capt. Brown found it necessary to +strike before he was ready; that men had promised to join him from the +North who failed to arrive; that the cowardly negroes did not rally to +his support as he expected, but the true cause as stated by himself, +contradicts all these theories, and from his statement there is no +appeal. Among the questions put to him by Mr. Vallandingham after his +capture were the following: "Did you expect a general uprising of the +slaves in case of your success?" To this he answered, "No, sir, nor +did I wish it. I expected to gather strength from time to time and +then to set them free." "Did you expect to hold possession here until +then?" Answer, "Well, probably I had quite a different idea. I do not +know as I ought to reveal my plans. I am here wounded and a prisoner +because I foolishly permitted myself to be so. You overstate your +strength when you suppose I could have been taken if I had not allowed +it. I was too tardy after commencing the open attack in delaying my +movements through Monday night and up to the time of the arrival of +government troops. It was all because of my desire to spare the +feelings of my prisoners and their families."</p> + +<p>But the question is, Did John Brown fail? He certainly did fail to get +out of Harper's Ferry before being beaten down by United States +soldiers; he did fail to save his own life, and to lead a liberating +army into the mountains of Virginia. But he did not go to Harper's +Ferry to save his life. The true question is, Did John Brown draw his +sword against slavery and thereby lose his life in vain? and to this I +answer ten thousand times, No! No man fails, or can fail who so +grandly gives himself and all he has to a righteous cause. No man, who +in his hour of extremest need, when on his way to meet an ignominious +death, could so forget himself as to stop and kiss a little child, one +of the hated race for whom he was about to die, could by any +possibility fail. Did John Brown fail? Ask Henry A. Wise in whose +house less than two years after, a school for the emancipated slaves +was taught. Did John Brown fail? Ask James M. Mason, the author of the +inhuman fugitive slave bill, who was cooped up in Fort Warren, as a +traitor less than two years from the time that he stood over the +prostrate body of John Brown. Did John Brown fail? Ask Clement C. +Vallandingham, one other of the inquisitorial party; for he too went +down in the tremendous whirlpool created by the powerful hand of this +bold invader. If John Brown did not end the war that ended slavery, he +did at least begin the war that ended slavery. If we look over the +dates, places and men, for which this honor is claimed, we shall find +that not Carolina, but Virginia—not Fort Sumpter, but Harper's Ferry +and the arsenal—not Col. Anderson, but John Brown, began the war that +ended American slavery and made this a free Republic. Until this blow +was struck, the prospect for freedom was dim, shadowy and uncertain. +The irrepressible conflict was one of words, votes and compromises. +When John Brown stretched forth his arm the sky was cleared. The time +for compromises was gone—the armed hosts of freedom stood face to +face over the chasm of a broken Union—and the clash of arms was at +hand. The South staked all upon getting possession of the Federal +Government, and failing to do that, drew the sword of rebellion and +thus made her own, and not Brown's, the lost cause of the century.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of John Brown, by Frederick Douglass + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN BROWN *** + +***** This file should be named 31839-h.htm or 31839-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/8/3/31839/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Norbert H. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: John Brown + An Address at the 14th Anniversary of Storer College + +Author: Frederick Douglass + +Release Date: March 31, 2010 [EBook #31839] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN BROWN *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Norbert H. Langkau, and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + JOHN BROWN. + + AN ADDRESS + + + + BY + + FREDERICK DOUGLASS, + + + + + AT THE + + FOURTEENTH ANNIVERSARY + + OF + + STORER COLLEGE, + + + HARPER'S FERRY, WEST VIRGINIA, MAY 30, 1881. + + + + + DOVER, N. H.: + + MORNING STAR JOB PRINTING HOUSE. + + 1881. + + * * * * * + +PRESENTED +BY THE AUTHOR TO STORER COLLEGE, +THE PROCEEDS TO GO TO THE ENDOWMENT OF A +JOHN BROWN PROFESSORSHIP. + + * * * * * + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +In substance, this address, now for the first time published, was +prepared several years ago, and has been delivered in many parts of +the North. Its publication now in pamphlet form is due to its delivery +at Harper's Ferry, W. Va., on Decoration day, 1881, and to the fact +that the proceeds from the sale of it are to be used toward the +endowment of a John Brown Professorship in Storer College, Harper's +Ferry--an institution mainly devoted to the education of colored +youth. + +That such an address could be delivered at such a place, at such a +time, is strikingly significant, and illustrates the rapid, vast and +wonderful changes through which the American people have been passing +since 1859. Twenty years ago Frederick Douglass and others were mobbed +in the city of Boston, and driven from Tremont Temple for uttering +sentiments concerning John Brown similar to those contained in this +address. Yet now he goes freely to the very spot where John Brown +committed the offense which caused all Virginia to clamor for his +life, and without reserve or qualification, commends him as a hero and +martyr in the cause of liberty. This incident is rendered all the more +significant by the fact that Hon. Andrew Hunter, of Charlestown,--the +District Attorney who prosecuted John Brown and secured his +execution,--sat on the platform directly behind Mr. Douglass during +the delivery of the entire address and at the close of it shook hands +with him, and congratulated him, and invited him to Charlestown (where +John Brown was hanged), adding that if Robert E. Lee were living, he +would give him his hand also. + + + + +ADDRESS. + + +Not to fan the flame of sectional animosity now happily in the process +of rapid and I hope permanent extinction; not to revive and keep alive +a sense of shame and remorse for a great national crime, which has +brought its own punishment, in loss of treasure, tears and blood; not +to recount the long list of wrongs, inflicted on my race during more +than two hundred years of merciless bondage; nor yet to draw, from the +labyrinths of far-off centuries, incidents and achievements wherewith +to rouse your passions, and enkindle your enthusiasm, but to pay a +just debt long due, to vindicate in some degree a great historical +character, of our own time and country, one with whom I was myself +well acquainted, and whose friendship and confidence it was my good +fortune to share, and to give you such recollections, impressions and +facts, as I can, of a grand, brave and good old man, and especially to +promote a better understanding of the raid upon Harper's Ferry of +which he was the chief, is the object of this address. + +In all the thirty years' conflict with slavery, if we except the late +tremendous war, there is no subject which in its interest and +importance will be remembered longer, or will form a more thrilling +chapter in American history than this strange, wild, bloody and +mournful drama. The story of it is still fresh in the minds of many +who now hear me, but for the sake of those who may have forgotten its +details, and in order to have our subject in its entire range more +fully and clearly before us at the outset, I will briefly state the +facts in that extraordinary transaction. + +On the night of the 16th of October, 1859, there appeared near the +confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, a party of nineteen +men--fourteen white and five colored. They were not only armed +themselves, but had brought with them a large supply of arms for such +persons as might join them. These men invaded Harper's Ferry, disarmed +the watchman, took possession of the arsenal, rifle-factory, armory +and other government property at that place, arrested and made +prisoners nearly all the prominent citizens of the neighborhood, +collected about fifty slaves, put bayonets into the hands of such as +were able and willing to fight for their liberty, killed three men, +proclaimed general emancipation, held the ground more than thirty +hours, were subsequently overpowered and nearly all killed, wounded or +captured, by a body of United States troops, under command of Colonel +Robert E. Lee, since famous as the rebel Gen. Lee. Three out of the +nineteen invaders were captured whilst fighting, and one of these was +Captain John Brown, the man who originated, planned and commanded the +expedition. At the time of his capture Capt. Brown was supposed to be +mortally wounded, as he had several ugly gashes and bayonet wounds on +his head and body; and apprehending that he might speedily die, or +that he might be rescued by his friends, and thus the opportunity of +making him a signal example of slave-holding vengeance would be lost, +his captors hurried him to Charlestown two miles further within the +border of Virginia, placed him in prison strongly guarded by troops, +and before his wounds were healed he was brought into court, subjected +to a nominal trial, convicted of high treason and inciting slaves to +insurrection, and was executed. His corpse was given to his +woe-stricken widow, and she, assisted by Anti-slavery friends, caused +it to be borne to North Elba, Essex County, N. Y., and there his dust +now reposes, amid the silent, solemn and snowy grandeur of the +Adirondacks. + +Such is the story; with no line softened or hardened to my inclining. +It certainly is not a story to please, but to pain. It is not a story +to increase our sense of social safety and security, but to fill the +imagination with wild and troubled fancies of doubt and danger. It was +a sudden and startling surprise to the people of Harper's Ferry, and +it is not easy to conceive of a situation more abundant in all the +elements of horror and consternation. They had retired as usual to +rest, with no suspicion that an enemy lurked in the surrounding +darkness. They had quietly and trustingly given themselves up to +"tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," and while thus all +unconscious of danger, they were roused from their peaceful slumbers +by the sharp crack of the invader's rifle, and felt the keen-edged +sword of war at their throats, three of their number being already +slain. + +Every feeling of the human heart was naturally outraged at this +occurrence, and hence at the moment the air was full of denunciation +and execration. So intense was this feeling, that few ventured to +whisper a word of apology. But happily reason has her voice as well as +feeling, and though slower in deciding, her judgments are broader, +deeper, clearer and more enduring. It is not easy to reconcile human +feeling to the shedding of blood for any purpose, unless indeed in the +excitement which the shedding of blood itself occasions. The knife is +to feeling always an offence. Even when in the hands of a skillful +surgeon, it refuses consent to the operation long after reason has +demonstrated its necessity. It even pleads the cause of the known +murderer on the day of his execution, and calls society half criminal +when, in cold blood, it takes life as a protection of itself from +crime. Let no word be said against this holy feeling; more than to law +and government are we indebted to this tender sentiment of regard for +human life for the safety with which we walk the streets by day and +sleep secure in our beds at night. It is nature's grand police, +vigilant and faithful, sentineled in the soul, guarding against +violence to peace and life. But whilst so much is freely accorded to +feeling in the economy of human welfare, something more than feeling +is necessary to grapple with a fact so grim and significant as was +this raid. Viewed apart and alone, as a transaction separate and +distinct from its antecedents and bearings, it takes rank with the +most cold-blooded and atrocious wrongs ever perpetrated; but just here +is the trouble--this raid on Harper's Ferry, no more than Sherman's +march to the sea can consent to be thus viewed alone. + +There is, in the world's government, a force which has in all ages +been recognized, sometimes as Nemesis, sometimes as the judgment of +God and sometimes as retributive justice; but under whatever name, all +history attests the wisdom and beneficence of its chastisements, and +men become reconciled to the agents through whom it operates, and have +extolled them as heroes, benefactors and demigods. + +To the broad vision of a true philosophy, nothing in this world stands +alone. Everything is a necessary part of everything else. The margin +of chance is narrowed by every extension of reason and knowledge, and +nothing comes unbidden to the feast of human experience. The universe, +of which we are a part, is continually proving itself a stupendous +whole, a system of law and order, eternal and perfect: Every seed +bears fruit after its kind, and nothing is reaped which was not sowed. +The distance between seed time and harvest, in the moral world, may +not be quite so well defined or as clearly intelligible as in the +physical, but there is a seed time, and there is a harvest time, and +though ages may intervene, and neither he who ploughed nor he who +sowed may reap in person, yet the harvest nevertheless will surely +come; and as in the physical world there are century plants, so it may +be in the moral world, and their fruitage is as certain in the one as +in the other. The bloody harvest of Harper's Ferry was ripened by the +heat and moisture of merciless bondage of more than two hundred years. +That startling cry of alarm on the banks of the Potomac was but the +answering back of the avenging angel to the midnight invasions of +Christian slave-traders on the sleeping hamlets of Africa. The history +of the African slave-trade furnishes many illustrations far more cruel +and bloody. + +Viewed thus broadly our subject is worthy of thoughtful and +dispassionate consideration. It invites the study of the poet, +scholar, philosopher and statesman. What the masters in natural +science have done for man in the physical world, the masters of social +science may yet do for him in the moral world. Science now tells us +when storms are in the sky, and when and where their violence will be +most felt. Why may we not yet know with equal certainty when storms +are in the moral sky, and how to avoid their desolating force? But I +can invite you to no such profound discussions. I am not the man, nor +is this the occasion for such philosophical enquiry. Mine is the word +of grateful memory to an old friend; to tell you what I knew of +him--what I knew of his inner life--of what he did and what he +attempted, and thus if possible to make the mainspring of his actions +manifest and thereby give you a clearer view of his character and +services. + +It is said that next in value to the performance of great deeds +ourselves, is the capacity to appreciate such when performed by +others; to more than this I do not presume. Allow me one other +personal word before I proceed. In the minds of some of the American +people I was myself credited with an important agency in the John +Brown raid. Governor Henry A. Wise was manifestly of that opinion. He +was at the pains of having Mr. Buchanan send his Marshals to Rochester +to invite me to accompany them to Virginia. Fortunately I left town +several hours previous to their arrival. + +What ground there was for this distinguished consideration shall duly +appear in the natural course of this lecture. I wish however to say +just here that there was no foundation whatever for the charge that I +in any wise urged or instigated John Brown to his dangerous work. I +rejoice that it is my good fortune to have seen, not only the end of +slavery, but to see the day when the whole truth can be told about +this matter without prejudice to either the living or the dead. I +shall however allow myself little prominence in these disclosures. +Your interests, like mine, are in the all-commanding figure of the +story, and to him I consecrate the hour. His zeal in the cause of my +race was far greater than mine--it was as the burning sun to my taper +light--mine was bounded by time, his stretched away to the boundless +shores of eternity. I could live for the slave, but he could die for +him. The crown of martyrdom is high, far beyond the reach of ordinary +mortals, and yet happily no special greatness or superior moral +excellence is necessary to discern and in some measure appreciate a +truly great soul. Cold, calculating and unspiritual as most of us are, +we are not wholly insensible to real greatness; and when we are +brought in contact with a man of commanding mold, towering high and +alone above the millions, free from all conventional fetters, true to +his own moral convictions, a "law unto himself," ready to suffer +misconstruction, ignoring torture and death for what he believes to be +right, we are compelled to do him homage. + +In the stately shadow, in the sublime presence of such a soul I find +myself standing to-night; and how to do it reverence, how to do it +justice, how to honor the dead with due regard to the living, has been +a matter of most anxious solicitude. + +Much has been said of John Brown, much that is wise and beautiful, but +in looking over what may be called the John Brown literature, I have +been little assisted with material, and even less encouraged with any +hope of success in treating the subject. Scholarship, genius and +devotion have hastened with poetry and eloquence, story and song to +this simple altar of human virtue, and have retired dissatisfied and +distressed with the thinness and poverty of their offerings, as I +shall with mine. + +The difficulty in doing justice to the life and character of such a +man is not altogether due to the quality of the zeal, or of the +ability brought to the work, nor yet to any imperfections in the +qualities of the man himself; the state of the moral atmosphere about +us has much to do with it. The fault is not in our eyes, nor yet in +the object, if under a murky sky we fail to discover the object. +Wonderfully tenacious is the taint of a great wrong. The evil, as well +as "the good that men do, lives after them." Slavery is indeed gone; +but its long, black shadow yet falls broad and large over the face of +the whole country. It is the old truth oft repeated, and never more +fitly than now, "a prophet is without honor in his own country and +among his own people." Though more than twenty years have rolled +between us and the Harper's Ferry raid, though since then the armies +of the nation have found it necessary to do on a large scale what John +Brown attempted to do on a small one, and the great captain who fought +his way through slavery has filled with honor the Presidential chair, +we yet stand too near the days of slavery, and the life and times of +John Brown, to see clearly the true martyr and hero that he was and +rightly to estimate the value of the man and his works. Like the great +and good of all ages--the men born in advance of their times, the men +whose bleeding footprints attest the immense cost of reform, and show +us the long and dreary spaces, between the luminous points in the +progress of mankind,--this our noblest American hero must wait the +polishing wheels of after-coming centuries to make his glory more +manifest, and his worth more generally acknowledged. Such instances +are abundant and familiar. If we go back four and twenty centuries, to +the stately city of Athens, and search among her architectural +splendor and her miracles of art for the Socrates of to-day, and as he +stands in history, we shall find ourselves perplexed and disappointed. +In Jerusalem Jesus himself was only the "carpenter's son"--a young man +wonderfully destitute of worldly prudence--a pestilent fellow, +"inexcusably and perpetually interfering in the world's +business,"--"upsetting the tables of the money-changers"--preaching +sedition, opposing the good old religion--"making himself greater than +Abraham," and at the same time "keeping company" with very low people; +but behold the change! He was a great miracle-worker, in his day, but +time has worked for him a greater miracle than all his miracles, for +now his name stands for all that is desirable in government, noble in +life, orderly and beautiful in society. That which time has done for +other great men of his class, that will time certainly do for John +Brown. The brightest gems shine at first with subdued light, and the +strongest characters are subject to the same limitations. Under the +influence of adverse education and hereditary bias, few things are +more difficult than to render impartial justice. Men hold up their +hands to Heaven, and swear they will do justice, but what are oaths +against prejudice and against inclination! In the face of +high-sounding professions and affirmations we know well how hard it is +for a Turk to do justice to a Christian, or for a Christian to do +justice to a Jew. How hard for an Englishman to do justice to an +Irishman, for an Irishman to do justice to an Englishman, harder still +for an American tainted by slavery to do justice to the Negro or the +Negro's friends. "John Brown," said the late Wm. H. Seward, "was +justly hanged." "John Brown," said the late John A. Andrew, "was +right." It is easy to perceive the sources of these two opposite +judgments: the one was the verdict of slave-holding and +panic-stricken Virginia, the other was the verdict of the best heart +and brain of free old Massachusetts. One was the heated judgment of +the passing and passionate hour, and the other was the calm, clear, +unimpeachable judgment of the broad, illimitable future. + +There is, however, one aspect of the present subject quite worthy of +notice, for it makes the hero of Harper's Ferry in some degree an +exception to the general rules to which I have just now adverted. +Despite the hold which slavery had at that time on the country, +despite the popular prejudice against the Negro, despite the shock +which the first alarm occasioned, almost from the first John Brown +received a large measure of sympathy and appreciation. New England +recognized in him the spirit which brought the pilgrims to Plymouth +rock and hailed him as a martyr and saint. True he had broken the law, +true he had struck for a despised people, true he had crept upon his +foe stealthily, like a wolf upon the fold, and had dealt his blow in +the dark whilst his enemy slept, but with all this and more to disturb +the moral sense, men discerned in him the greatest and best qualities +known to human nature, and pronounced him "good." Many consented to +his death, and then went home and taught their children to sing his +praise as one whose "soul is marching on" through the realms of +endless bliss. One element in explanation of this somewhat anomalous +circumstance will probably be found in the troubled times which +immediately succeeded, for "when judgments are abroad in the world, +men learn righteousness." + +The country had before this learned the value of Brown's heroic +character. He had shown boundless courage and skill in dealing with +the enemies of liberty in Kansas. With men so few, and means so small, +and odds against him so great, no captain ever surpassed him in +achievements, some of which seem almost beyond belief. With only eight +men in that bitter war, he met, fought and captured Henry Clay Pate, +with twenty-five well armed and mounted men. In this memorable +encounter, he selected his ground so wisely, handled his men so +skillfully, and attacked the enemy so vigorously, that they could +neither run nor fight, and were therefore compelled to surrender to a +force less than one-third their own. With just thirty men on another +important occasion during the same border war, he met and vanquished +four hundred Missourians under the command of Gen. Read. These men had +come into the territory under an oath never to return to their homes +till they had stamped out the last vestige of free State spirit in +Kansas; but a brush with old Brown took this high conceit out of them, +and they were glad to get off upon any terms, without stopping to +stipulate. With less than one hundred men to defend the town of +Lawrence, he offered to lead them and give battle to fourteen hundred +men on the banks of the Waukerusia river, and was much vexed when his +offer was refused by Gen. Jim Lane and others to whom the defense of +the town was confided. Before leaving Kansas, he went into the border +of Missouri, and liberated a dozen slaves in a single night, and, in +spite of slave laws and marshals, he brought these people through a +half dozen States, and landed them safely in Canada. With eighteen men +this man shook the whole social fabric of Virginia. With eighteen men +he overpowered a town of nearly three thousand souls. With these +eighteen men he held that large community firmly in his grasp for +thirty long hours. With these eighteen men he rallied in a single +night fifty slaves to his standard, and made prisoners of an equal +number of the slave-holding class. With these eighteen men he defied +the power and bravery of a dozen of the best militia companies that +Virginia could send against him. Now, when slavery struck, as it +certainly did strike, at the life of the country, it was not the fault +of John Brown that our rulers did not at first know how to deal with +it. He had already shown us the weak side of the rebellion, had shown +us where to strike and how. It was not from lack of native courage +that Virginia submitted for thirty long hours and at last was relieved +only by Federal troops; but because the attack was made on the side of +her conscience and thus armed her against herself. She beheld at her +side the sullen brow of a black Ireland. When John Brown proclaimed +emancipation to the slaves of Maryland and Virginia he added to his +war power the force of a moral earthquake. Virginia felt all her +strong-ribbed mountains to shake under the heavy tread of armed +insurgents. Of his army of nineteen her conscience made an army of +nineteen hundred. + +Another feature of the times, worthy of notice, was the effect of this +blow upon the country at large. At the first moment we were stunned +and bewildered. Slavery had so benumbed the moral sense of the nation, +that it never suspected the possibility of an explosion like this, and +it was difficult for Captain Brown to get himself taken for what he +really was. Few could seem to comprehend that freedom to the slaves +was his only object. If you will go back with me to that time you will +find that the most curious and contradictory versions of the affair +were industriously circulated, and those which were the least rational +and true seemed to command the readiest belief. In the view of some, +it assumed tremendous proportions. To such it was nothing less than a +wide-sweeping rebellion to overthrow the existing government, and +construct another upon its ruins, with Brown for its President and +Commander-in-Chief; the proof of this was found in the old man's +carpet-bag in the shape of a constitution for a new Republic, an +instrument which in reality had been executed to govern the conduct of +his men in the mountains. Smaller and meaner natures saw in it nothing +higher than a purpose to plunder. To them John Brown and his men were +a gang of desperate robbers, who had learned by some means that +government had sent a large sum of money to Harper's Ferry to pay off +the workmen in its employ there, and they had gone thence to fill +their pockets from this money. The fact is, that outside of a few +friends, scattered in different parts of the country, and the +slave-holders of Virginia, few persons understood the significance of +the hour. That a man might do something very audacious and desperate +for money, power or fame, was to the general apprehension quite +possible; but, in face of plainly-written law, in face of +constitutional guarantees protecting each State against domestic +violence, in face of a nation of forty million of people, that +nineteen men could invade a great State to liberate a despised and +hated race, was to the average intellect and conscience, too monstrous +for belief. In this respect the vision of Virginia was clearer than +that of the nation. Conscious of her guilt and therefore full of +suspicion, sleeping on pistols for pillows, startled at every unusual +sound, constantly fearing and expecting a repetition of the Nat Turner +insurrection, she at once understood the meaning, if not the magnitude +of the affair. It was this understanding which caused her to raise the +lusty and imploring cry to the Federal government for help, and it was +not till he who struck the blow had fully explained his motives and +object, that the incredulous nation in any wise comprehended the true +spirit of the raid, or of its commander. Fortunate for his memory, +fortunate for the brave men associated with him, fortunate for the +truth of history, John Brown survived the saber gashes, bayonet wounds +and bullet holes, and was able, though covered with blood, to tell his +own story and make his own defense. Had he with all his men, as might +have been the case, gone down in the shock of battle, the world would +have had no true basis for its judgment, and one of the most heroic +efforts ever witnessed in behalf of liberty would have been confounded +with base and selfish purposes. When, like savages, the Wises, the +Vallandinghams, the Washingtons, the Stuarts and others stood around +the fallen and bleeding hero, and sought by torturing questions to +wring from his supposed dying lips some word by which to soil the +sublime undertaking, by implicating Gerrit Smith, Joshua R. Giddings, +Dr. S. G. Howe, G. L. Stearns, Edwin Morton, Frank Sanborn, and other +prominent Anti-slavery men, the brave old man, not only avowed his +object to be the emancipation of the slaves, but serenely and proudly +announced himself as solely responsible for all that had happened. +Though some thought of his own life might at such a moment have seemed +natural and excusable, he showed none, and scornfully rejected the +idea that he acted as the agent or instrument of any man or set of +men. He admitted that he had friends and sympathizers, but to his own +head he invited all the bolts of slave-holding wrath and fury, and +welcomed them to do their worst. His manly courage and self-forgetful +nobleness were not lost upon the crowd about him, nor upon the +country. They drew applause from his bitterest enemies. Said Henry A. +Wise, "He is the gamest man I ever met." "He was kind and humane to +his prisoners," said Col. Lewis Washington. + +To the outward eye of men, John Brown was a criminal, but to their +inward eye he was a just man and true. His deeds might be disowned, +but the spirit which made those deeds possible was worthy highest +honor. It has been often asked, why did not Virginia spare the life of +this man? why did she not avail herself of this grand opportunity to +add to her other glory that of a lofty magnanimity? Had they spared +the good old man's life--had they said to him, "You see we have you in +our power, and could easily take your life, but we have no desire to +hurt you in any way; you have committed a terrible crime against +society; you have invaded us at midnight and attacked a sleeping +community, but we recognize you as a fanatic, and in some sense +instigated by others; and on this ground and others, we release you. +Go about your business, and tell those who sent you that we can afford +to be magnanimous to our enemies." I say, had Virginia held some such +language as this to John Brown, she would have inflicted a heavy blow +on the whole Northern abolition movement, one which only the +omnipotence of truth and the force of truth could have overcome. I +have no doubt Gov. Wise would have done so gladly, but, alas, he was +the executive of a State which thought she could not afford such +magnanimity. She had that within her bosom which could more safely +tolerate the presence of a criminal than a saint, a highway robber +than a moral hero. All her hills and valleys were studded with +material for a disastrous conflagration, and one spark of the +dauntless spirit of Brown might set the whole State in flames. A sense +of this appalling liability put an end to every noble consideration. +His death was a foregone conclusion, and his trial was simply one of +form. + +Honor to the brave young Col. Hoyt who hastened from Massachusetts to +defend his friend's life at the peril of his own; but there would have +been no hope of success had he been allowed to plead the case. He +might have surpassed Choate or Webster in power--a thousand physicians +might have sworn that Capt. Brown was insane, it would have been all +to no purpose; neither eloquence nor testimony could have prevailed. +Slavery was the idol of Virginia, and pardon and life to Brown meant +condemnation and death to slavery. He had practically illustrated a +truth stranger than fiction,--a truth higher than Virginia had ever +known,--a truth more noble and beautiful than Jefferson ever wrote. He +had evinced a conception of the sacredness and value of liberty which +transcended in sublimity that of her own Patrick Henry and made even +his fire-flashing sentiment of "Liberty or Death" seem dark and tame +and selfish. Henry loved liberty for himself, but this man loved +liberty for all men, and for those most despised and scorned, as well +as for those most esteemed and honored. Just here was the true glory +of John Brown's mission. It was not for his own freedom that he was +thus ready to lay down his life, for with Paul he could say, "I was +born free." No chain had bound his ankle, no yoke had galled his neck. +History has no better illustration of pure, disinterested benevolence. +It was not Caucasian for Caucasian--white man for white man; not rich +man for rich man, but Caucasian for Ethiopian--white man for black +man--rich man for poor man--the man admitted and respected, for the +man despised and rejected. "I want you to understand, gentlemen," he +said to his persecutors, "that I respect the rights of the poorest and +weakest of the colored people, oppressed by the slave system, as I do +those of the most wealthy and powerful." In this we have the key to +the whole life and career of the man. Than in this sentiment humanity +has nothing more touching, reason nothing more noble, imagination +nothing more sublime; and if we could reduce all the religions of the +world to one essence we could find in it nothing more divine. It is +much to be regretted that some great artist, in sympathy with the +spirit of the occasion, had not been present when these and similar +words were spoken. The situation was thrilling. An old man in the +center of an excited and angry crowd, far away from home, in an +enemy's country--with no friend near--overpowered, defeated, wounded, +bleeding--covered with reproaches--his brave companions nearly all +dead--his two faithful sons stark and cold by his side--reading his +death-warrant in his fast-oozing blood and increasing weakness as in +the faces of all around him--yet calm, collected, brave, with a heart +for any fate--using his supposed dying moments to explain his course +and vindicate his cause: such a subject would have been at once an +inspiration and a power for one of the grandest historical pictures +ever painted.... + +With John Brown, as with every other man fit to die for a cause, the +hour of his physical weakness was the hour of his moral strength--the +hour of his defeat was the hour of his triumph--the moment of his +capture was the crowning victory of his life. With the Alleghany +mountains for his pulpit, the country for his church and the whole +civilized world for his audience, he was a thousand times more +effective as a preacher than as a warrior, and the consciousness of +this fact was the secret of his amazing complacency. Mighty with the +sword of steel, he was mightier with the sword of the truth, and with +this sword he literally swept the horizon. He was more than a match +for all the Wises, Masons, Vallandinghams and Washingtons, who could +rise against him. They could kill him, but they could not answer him. + +In studying the character and works of a great man, it is always +desirable to learn in what he is distinguished from others, and what +have been the causes of this difference. Such men as he whom we are +now considering, come on to the theater of life only at long +intervals. It is not always easy to explain the exact and logical +causes that produce them, or the subtle influences which sustain them, +at the immense heights where we sometimes find them; but we know that +the hour and the man are seldom far apart, and that here, as +elsewhere, the demand may in some mysterious way, regulate the supply. +A great iniquity, hoary with age, proud and defiant, tainting the +whole moral atmosphere of the country, subjecting both church and +state to its control, demanded the startling shock which John Brown +seemed especially inspired to give it. + +Apart from this mission there was nothing very remarkable about him. +He was a wool-dealer, and a good judge of wool, as a wool-dealer ought +to be. In all visible respects he was a man like unto other men. No +outward sign of Kansas or Harper's Ferry was about him. As I knew him, +he was an even-tempered man, neither morose, malicious nor +misanthropic, but kind, amiable, courteous, and gentle in his +intercourse with men. His words were few, well chosen and forcible. He +was a good business man, and a good neighbor. A good friend, a good +citizen, a good husband and father: a man apparently in every way +calculated to make a smooth and pleasant path for himself through the +world. He loved society, he loved little children, he liked music, and +was fond of animals. To no one was the world more beautiful or life +more sweet. How then as I have said shall we explain his apparent +indifference to life? I can find but one answer, and that is, his +intense hatred to oppression. I have talked with many men, but I +remember none, who seemed so deeply excited upon the subject of +slavery as he. He would walk the room in agitation at mention of the +word. He saw the evil through no mist or haze, but in a light of +infinite brightness, which left no line of its ten thousand horrors +out of sight. Law, religion, learning, were interposed in its behalf +in vain. His law in regard to it was that which Lord Brougham +described, as "the law above all the enactments of human codes, the +same in all time, the same throughout the world--the law unchangeable +and eternal--the law written by the finger of God on the human +heart--that law by which property in man is, and ever must remain, a +wild and guilty phantasy." + +Against truth and right, legislative enactments were to his mind mere +cobwebs--the pompous emptiness of human pride--the pitiful +outbreathings of human nothingness. He used to say "whenever there is +a right thing to be done, there is a 'thus saith the Lord' that it +shall be done." + +It must be admitted that Brown assumed tremendous responsibility in +making war upon the peaceful people of Harper's Ferry, but it must be +remembered also that in his eye a slave-holding community could not be +peaceable, but was, in the nature of the case, in one incessant state +of war. To him such a community was not more sacred than a band of +robbers: it was the right of any one to assault it by day or night. He +saw no hope that slavery would ever be abolished by moral or political +means: "he knew," he said, "the proud and hard hearts of the +slave-holders, and that they never would consent to give up their +slaves, till they felt a big stick about their heads." + +It was five years before this event at Harper's Ferry, while the +conflict between freedom and slavery was waxing hotter and hotter with +every hour, that the blundering statesmanship of the National +Government repealed the Missouri compromise, and thus launched the +territory of Kansas as a prize to be battled for between the North and +the South. The remarkable part taken in this contest by Brown has been +already referred to, and it doubtless helped to prepare him for the +final tragedy, and though it did not by any means originate the plan, +it confirmed him in it and hastened its execution. + +During his four years' service in Kansas it was my good fortune to see +him often. On his trips to and from the territory he sometimes stopped +several days at my house, and at one time several weeks. It was on +this last occasion that liberty had been victorious in Kansas, and he +felt that he must hereafter devote himself to what he considered his +larger work. It was the theme of all his conversation, filling his +nights with dreams and his days with visions. An incident of his +boyhood may explain, in some measure, the intense abhorrence he felt +to slavery. He had for some reason been sent into the State of +Kentucky, where he made the acquaintance of a slave boy, about his own +age, of whom he became very fond. For some petty offense this boy was +one day subjected to a brutal beating. The blows were dealt with an +iron shovel and fell fast and furiously upon his slender body. Born in +a free State and unaccustomed to such scenes of cruelty, young Brown's +pure and sensitive soul revolted at the shocking spectacle and at that +early age he swore eternal hatred to slavery. After years never +obliterated the impression, and he found in this early experience an +argument against contempt for small things. It is true that the boy is +the father of the man. From the acorn comes the oak. The impression of +a horse's foot in the sand suggested the art of printing. The fall of +an apple intimated the law of gravitation. A word dropped in the woods +of Vincennes, by royal hunters, gave Europe and the world a "William +the Silent," and a thirty years' war. The beating of a Hebrew +bondsman, by an Egyptian, created a Moses, and the infliction of a +similar outrage on a helpless slave boy in our own land may have +caused, forty years afterwards, a John Brown and a Harper's Ferry +Raid. + +Most of us can remember some event or incident which has at some time +come to us, and made itself a permanent part of our lives. Such an +incident came to me in the year 1847. I had then the honor of spending +a day and a night under the roof of a man, whose character and +conversation made a very deep impression on my mind and heart; and as +the circumstance does not lie entirely out of the range of our present +observations, you will pardon for a moment a seeming digression. The +name of the person alluded to had been several times mentioned to me, +in a tone that made me curious to see him and to make his +acquaintance. He was a merchant, and our first meeting was at his +store--a substantial brick building, giving evidence of a flourishing +business. After a few minutes' detention here, long enough for me to +observe the neatness and order of the place, I was conducted by him to +his residence where I was kindly received by his family as an expected +guest. I was a little disappointed at the appearance of this man's +house, for after seeing his fine store, I was prepared to see a fine +residence; but this logic was entirely contradicted by the facts. The +house was a small, wooden one, on a back street in a neighborhood of +laboring men and mechanics, respectable enough, but not just the spot +where one would expect to find the home of a successful merchant. +Plain as was the outside, the inside was plainer. Its furniture might +have pleased a Spartan. It would take longer to tell what was not in +it, than what was; no sofas, no cushions, no curtains, no carpets, no +easy rocking chairs inviting to enervation or rest or repose. My first +meal passed under the misnomer of tea. It was none of your tea and +toast sort, but potatoes and cabbage, and beef soup; such a meal as a +man might relish after following the plough all day, or after +performing a forced march of a dozen miles over rough ground in frosty +weather. Innocent of paint, veneering, varnish or tablecloth, the +table announced itself unmistakably and honestly pine and of the +plainest workmanship. No hired help passed from kitchen to dining +room, staring in amazement at the colored man at the white man's +table. The mother, daughters and sons did the serving, and did it +well. I heard no apology for doing their own work; they went through +it, as if used to it, untouched by any thought of degradation or +impropriety. Supper over, the boys helped to clear the table and wash +the dishes. This style of housekeeping struck me as a little odd. I +mention it because household management is worthy of thought. A house +is more than brick and mortar, wood or paint; this to me at least was. +In its plainness it was a truthful reflection of its inmates: no +disguises, no illusions, no make-believes here, but stern truth and +solid purpose breathed in all its arrangements. I was not long in +company with the master of this house before I discovered that he was +indeed the master of it, and likely to become mine too, if I staid +long with him. He fulfilled St. Paul's idea of the head of the +family--his wife believed in him, and his children observed him with +reverence. Whenever he spoke, his words commanded earnest attention. +His arguments which I ventured at some points to oppose, seemed to +convince all, his appeals touched all, and his will impressed all. +Certainly I never felt myself in the presence of a stronger religious +influence than while in this house. "God and duty, God and duty," run +like a thread of gold through all his utterances, and his family +supplied a ready "Amen." In person he was lean and sinewy, of the best +New England mould, built for times of trouble, fitted to grapple with +the flintiest hardships. Clad in plain American woolen, shod in boots +of cowhide leather, and wearing a cravat of the same substantial +material, under six feet high, less than one hundred and fifty lbs. in +weight, aged about fifty, he presented a figure straight and +symmetrical as a mountain pine. His bearing was singularly impressive. +His head was not large, but compact and high. His hair was coarse, +strong, slightly gray and closely trimmed and grew close to his +forehead. His face was smoothly shaved and revealed a strong square +mouth, supported by a broad and prominent chin. His eyes were clear +and grey, and in conversation they alternated with tears and fire. +When on the street, he moved with a long springing, race-horse step, +absorbed by his own reflections, neither seeking nor shunning +observation. Such was the man whose name I heard uttered in +whispers--such was the house in which he lived--such were his family +and household management--and such was Captain John Brown. + +He said to me at this meeting, that he had invited me to his house +for the especial purpose of laying before me his plan for the speedy +emancipation of my race. He seemed to apprehend opposition on my part +as he opened the subject and touched my vanity by saying, that he had +observed my course at home and abroad, and wanted my co-operation. He +said he had been for the last thirty years looking for colored men to +whom he could safely reveal his secret, and had almost despaired, at +times, of finding such, but that now he was encouraged for he saw +heads rising up in all directions, to whom he thought he could with +safety impart his plan. As this plan then lay in his mind it was very +simple, and had much to commend it. It did not, as was supposed by +many, contemplate a general rising among the slaves, and a general +slaughter of the slave masters (an insurrection he thought would only +defeat the object), but it did contemplate the creating of an armed +force which should act in the very heart of the South. He was not +averse to the shedding of blood, and thought the practice of carrying +arms would be a good one for the colored people to adopt, as it would +give them a sense of manhood. No people he said could have +self-respect or be respected who would not fight for their freedom. He +called my attention to a large map of the U. States, and pointed out +to me the far-reaching Alleghanies, stretching away from the borders +of New York into the Southern States. "These mountains," he said, "are +the basis of my plan. God has given the strength of these hills to +freedom; they were placed here to aid the emancipation of your race; +they are full of natural forts, where one man for defense would be +equal to a hundred for attack; they are also full of good hiding +places where a large number of men could be concealed and baffle and +elude pursuit for a long time. I know these mountains well and could +take a body of men into them and keep them there in spite of all the +efforts of Virginia to dislodge me, and drive me out. I would take at +first about twenty-five picked men and begin on a small scale, supply +them arms and ammunition, post them in squads of fives on a line of +twenty-five miles, these squads to busy themselves for a time in +gathering recruits from the surrounding farms, seeking and selecting +the most restless and daring." He saw that in this part of the work +the utmost care must be used to guard against treachery and +disclosure; only the most conscientious and skillful should be sent on +this perilous duty. With care and enterprise he thought he could soon +gather a force of one hundred hardy men, men who would be content to +lead the free and adventurous life to which he proposed to train them. +When once properly drilled and each had found the place for which he +was best suited, they would begin work in earnest; they would run off +the slaves in large numbers, retain the strong and brave ones in the +mountains, and send the weak and timid ones to the North by the +underground Rail-road; his operations would be enlarged with +increasing numbers and would not be confined to one locality. +Slave-holders should in some cases be approached at midnight and told +to give up their slaves and to let them have their best horses to ride +away upon. Slavery was a state of war, he said, to which the slaves +were unwilling parties and consequently they had a right to anything +necessary to their peace and freedom. He would shed no blood and would +avoid a fight except in self-defense, when he would of course do his +best. He believed this movement would weaken slavery in two +ways--first by making slave property insecure, it would become +undesirable; and secondly it would keep the anti-slavery agitation +alive and public attention fixed upon it, and thus lead to the +adoption of measures to abolish the evil altogether. He held that +there was need of something startling to prevent the agitation of the +question from dying out; that slavery had come near being abolished in +Virginia by the Nat. Turner insurrection, and he thought his method +would speedily put an end to it, both in Maryland and Virginia. The +trouble was to get the right men to start with and money enough to +equip them. He had adopted the simple and economical mode of living to +which I have referred with a view to save money for this purpose. This +was said in no boastful tone, for he felt that he had delayed already +too long and had no room to boast either his zeal or his self-denial. + +From 8 o'clock in the evening till 3 in the morning, Capt. Brown and I +sat face to face, he arguing in favor of his plan, and I finding all +the objections I could against it. Now mark! this meeting of ours was +full twelve years before the strike at Harper's Ferry. He had been +watching and waiting all that time for suitable heads to rise or "pop +up" as he said among the sable millions in whom he could confide; +hence forty years had passed between his thought and his act. Forty +years, though not a long time in the life of a nation, is a long time +in the life of a man; and here forty long years, this man was +struggling with this one idea; like Moses he was forty years in the +wilderness. Youth, manhood, middle age had come and gone; two +marriages had been consummated, twenty children had called him father; +and through all the storms and vicissitudes of busy life, this one +thought, like the angel in the burning bush, had confronted him with +its blazing light, bidding him on to his work. Like Moses he had made +excuses, and as with Moses his excuses were overruled. Nothing should +postpone further what was to him a divine command, the performance of +which seemed to him his only apology for existence. He often said to +me, though life was sweet to him, he would willingly lay it down for +the freedom of my people; and on one occasion he added, that he had +already lived about as long as most men, since he had slept less, and +if he should now lay down his life the loss would not be great, for in +fact he knew no better use for it. During his last visit to us in +Rochester there appeared in the newspapers a touching story connected +with the horrors of the Sepoy War in British India. A Scotch +missionary and his family were in the hands of the enemy, and were to +be massacred the next morning. During the night, when they had given +up every hope of rescue, suddenly the wife insisted that relief would +come. Placing her ear close to the ground she declared she heard the +Slogan--the Scotch war song. For long hours in the night no member of +the family could hear the advancing music but herself. "Dinna ye hear +it? Dinna ye hear it?" she would say, but they could not hear it. As +the morning slowly dawned a Scotch regiment was found encamped indeed +about them, and they were saved from the threatened slaughter. This +circumstance, coming at such a time, gave Capt. Brown a new word of +cheer. He would come to the table in the morning his countenance +fairly illuminated, saying that he had heard the Slogan, and he would +add, "Dinna ye hear it? _Dinna_ ye hear it?" Alas! like the Scotch +missionary I was obliged to say "No." Two weeks prior to the meditated +attack, Capt. Brown summoned me to meet him in an old stone quarry on +the Conecochequi river, near the town of Chambersburgh, Penn. His arms +and ammunition were stored in that town and were to be moved on to +Harper's Ferry. In company with Shields Green I obeyed the summons, +and prompt to the hour we met the dear old man, with Kagi, his +secretary, at the appointed place. Our meeting was in some sense a +council of war. We spent the Saturday and succeeding Sunday in +conference on the question, whether the desperate step should then be +taken, or the old plan as already described should be carried out. He +was for boldly striking Harper's Ferry at once and running the risk of +getting into the mountains afterwards. I was for avoiding Harper's +Ferry altogether. Shields Green and Mr. Kagi remained silent listeners +throughout. It is needless to repeat here what was said, after what +has happened. Suffice it, that after all I could say, I saw that my +old friend had resolved on his course and that it was idle to parley. +I told him finally that it was impossible for me to join him. I could +see Harper's Ferry only as a trap of steel, and ourselves in the wrong +side of it. He regretted my decision and we parted. + +Thus far, I have spoken exclusively of Capt. Brown. Let me say a word +or two of his brave and devoted men, and first of Shields Green. He +was a fugitive slave from Charleston, South Carolina, and had attested +his love of liberty by escaping from slavery and making his way +through many dangers to Rochester, where he had lived in my family, +and where he met the man with whom he went to the scaffold. I said to +him, as I was about to leave, "Now Shields, you have heard our +discussion. If in view of it, you do not wish to stay, you have but to +say so, and you can go back with me." He answered, "I b'l'eve I'll go +wid de old man;" and go with him he did, into the fight, and to the +gallows, and bore himself as grandly as any of the number. At the +moment when Capt. Brown was surrounded, and all chance of escape was +cut off, Green was in the mountains and could have made his escape as +Osborne Anderson did, but when asked to do so, he made the same answer +he did at Chambersburgh, "I b'l'eve I'll go down wid de ole man." When +in prison at Charlestown, and he was not allowed to see his old +friend, his fidelity to him was in no wise weakened, and no complaint +against Brown could be extorted from him by those who talked with him. + +If a monument should be erected to the memory of John Brown, as there +ought to be, the form and name of Shields Green should have a +conspicuous place upon it. It is a remarkable fact, that in this small +company of men, but one showed any sign of weakness or regret for what +he did or attempted to do. Poor Cook broke down and sought to save his +life by representing that he had been deceived, and allured by false +promises. But Stephens, Hazlett and Green went to their doom like the +heroes they were, without a murmur, without a regret, believing alike +in their captain and their cause. + +For the disastrous termination of this invasion, several causes have +been assigned. It has been said that Capt. Brown found it necessary to +strike before he was ready; that men had promised to join him from the +North who failed to arrive; that the cowardly negroes did not rally to +his support as he expected, but the true cause as stated by himself, +contradicts all these theories, and from his statement there is no +appeal. Among the questions put to him by Mr. Vallandingham after his +capture were the following: "Did you expect a general uprising of the +slaves in case of your success?" To this he answered, "No, sir, nor +did I wish it. I expected to gather strength from time to time and +then to set them free." "Did you expect to hold possession here until +then?" Answer, "Well, probably I had quite a different idea. I do not +know as I ought to reveal my plans. I am here wounded and a prisoner +because I foolishly permitted myself to be so. You overstate your +strength when you suppose I could have been taken if I had not allowed +it. I was too tardy after commencing the open attack in delaying my +movements through Monday night and up to the time of the arrival of +government troops. It was all because of my desire to spare the +feelings of my prisoners and their families." + +But the question is, Did John Brown fail? He certainly did fail to get +out of Harper's Ferry before being beaten down by United States +soldiers; he did fail to save his own life, and to lead a liberating +army into the mountains of Virginia. But he did not go to Harper's +Ferry to save his life. The true question is, Did John Brown draw his +sword against slavery and thereby lose his life in vain? and to this I +answer ten thousand times, No! No man fails, or can fail who so +grandly gives himself and all he has to a righteous cause. No man, who +in his hour of extremest need, when on his way to meet an ignominious +death, could so forget himself as to stop and kiss a little child, one +of the hated race for whom he was about to die, could by any +possibility fail. Did John Brown fail? Ask Henry A. Wise in whose +house less than two years after, a school for the emancipated slaves +was taught. Did John Brown fail? Ask James M. Mason, the author of the +inhuman fugitive slave bill, who was cooped up in Fort Warren, as a +traitor less than two years from the time that he stood over the +prostrate body of John Brown. Did John Brown fail? Ask Clement C. +Vallandingham, one other of the inquisitorial party; for he too went +down in the tremendous whirlpool created by the powerful hand of this +bold invader. If John Brown did not end the war that ended slavery, he +did at least begin the war that ended slavery. If we look over the +dates, places and men, for which this honor is claimed, we shall find +that not Carolina, but Virginia--not Fort Sumpter, but Harper's Ferry +and the arsenal--not Col. Anderson, but John Brown, began the war that +ended American slavery and made this a free Republic. Until this blow +was struck, the prospect for freedom was dim, shadowy and uncertain. +The irrepressible conflict was one of words, votes and compromises. +When John Brown stretched forth his arm the sky was cleared. The time +for compromises was gone--the armed hosts of freedom stood face to +face over the chasm of a broken Union--and the clash of arms was at +hand. The South staked all upon getting possession of the Federal +Government, and failing to do that, drew the sword of rebellion and +thus made her own, and not Brown's, the lost cause of the century. + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of John Brown, by Frederick Douglass + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN BROWN *** + +***** This file should be named 31839.txt or 31839.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/8/3/31839/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Norbert H. 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