Windham, Portage
Co., Ohio, Nov. 12.
My Dear Cousin: I
have just completed the attentive perusal of the account published in the New
York Tribune of November 5, of your trial and sentence to be hung on the 2d
December.
Never before did I
read such a sentence upon any relative of mine. From their own witnesses I
cannot see any ground why you should be sentenced to death for a single one of
the counts presented in your indictment. You may have one thing to comfort you
under all your afflictions and sorrows: "The Lord reigns;" and He
will cause the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of wrath He will
restrain. He knows well what were your motives in what you have done; and
whether it was the best course or not, he will overrule it all for his glory.
The Bible throughout condemns oppression in all its forms, and is on the side
of the oppressed, and their sighs and groanings have come up before him, and he
has seen all their tears. Though man may not be able to deliver those who are
in bonds, yet God can do it with perfect ease, and he has taken the matter into
his own hands, and he will certainly accomplish it. The prophet Isaiah was
directed to say to the people, "There is no peace, saith my God, to the
wicked. Cry aloud; spare not; lift up thy voice like a trumpet; and show my
people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins. Is not this the
fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy
burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it
not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast
out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou
hide not thyself from thine own flesh?"
He who hath made of
one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth sent his
servants Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, saying, "Thus saith
the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me; for I
will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants,
and upon thy people, that thou mayest know there is none like me in all the
earth." Pharaoh said in the pride and stoutness of his heart, "Who is
the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord;
neither will I let Israel go." So may the wicked slaveholders of the South
say respecting those whom they cruelly hold in bondage; but the same king who
delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage will surely deliver
those who are oppressed in our own country, and it will not be in the united
power of earth and hell to prevent their deliverance. God will accomplish it in
his own good time and way. We may well exclaim with Jefferson, "I tremble
for my country when I remember that God is just."
You, my dear sir,
may be called to die in the cause of liberty, as your beloved sons have been
caused to give up their lives; but, if so, I believe your and their blood will
"cry unto the Lord from the ground." If you are really a child of
God, you will soon be where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the
weary are at rest; where all things work together for good. Christ is saying to
you, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter."
I fully believe what the kind Quaker woman1 wrote you,
"Thousands pray for thee every day. Posterity will do thee justice."
Should they put you to death, they will not only have to wade through the blood
of those who have been cruelly murdered in the same cause, but also through the
prayers of God's people, which will not be unheeded or disregarded by the
hearer of prayer. I am exceeding thankful that the jailer is so kind to you,
and that you are permitted to occupy yourself in writing and reading. I doubt
not but you now value the Bible far above all other reading. May it do you
good! It will be exceedingly gratifying to me to receive a letter from you
before your exit, . . . I shall continue to pray for you so long as you may be
a subject of prayer, that the Lord may comfort and support you and your remaining
mourning and afflicted family. May we all be permitted to meet in heaven, with
all the blood-bought throng, and with them unite in praise to the Redeemer
forever and ever. May that peace which passeth all understanding be yours in
the trying hour. Farewell! Farewell!
* Cousin of John
Brown, son of Hannah Owen Brown and Solomon Humphrey Jr.
1 The letter referred to I do not republish in
this volume, as it has already appeared in "The Public Life."
SOURCE: James
Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 431-2
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