At the thought of the United States of America, a majestic
form rises in the mind, — Washington. In this country of Washington what is now
taking place? There are slaves in the South; and this most monstrous of
inconsistencies offends the logical conscience of the North. To free these
black slaves, John Brown, a white man, a free man, began the work of their
deliverance in Virginia. A Puritan, austerely religious, inspired by the
evangel, “Christ hath set us free,” he raised the cry of emancipation. But the
slaves, unmanned by servitude, made no response; for slavery stops the ears of
the soul. John Brown, thus left alone, began the contest. With a handful of
heroic men he kept up the fight; riddled with bullets, his two youngest sons,
sacred martyrs, falling at his side, he was at last captured. His trial? It
took place, not in Turkey, but in America. Such things are not done with
impunity under the eyes of the civilized world. The conscience of mankind is an
open eye; let the court at Charlestown understand — Hunter and Parker, the
slaveholding jurymen, the whole population of Virginia — that they are watched.
This has not been done in a corner. John Brown, condemned to death, is to be
hanged to-day. His hangman is not the attorney Hunter, nor the judge Parker,
nor Governor Wise, nor the little State of Virginia, — his hangman (we shudder
to think it and say it!) is the whole American republic. . . . Politically
speaking, the murder of Brown will be an irrevocable mistake. It will deal the
Union a concealed wound, which will finally sunder the States. Let America know
and consider that there is one thing more shocking than Cain killing Abel, — it
is Washington killing Spartacus.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of
John Brown, p. 630
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