From B. K. M., an Ohio Clergyman, to John Brown, November 26, 1859

Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 26.

My Dear Christian Brother: I hope you will not consider it impertinent or intrusive in me to write you. I am only a stranger to you; but, as a minister of Christ, I feel anxious to send you some word of encouragement and consolation at this trying moment of your life, standing as you do under the very shadow of approaching doom. The executors of penal law, under which you are held, manifest no disposition to relent or mitigate the rigors of the penalty pronounced upon you. I therefore feel that in coming to you by this epistle I am intruding upon you in the midst of reflections and solemnities inconceivably momentous and sacred. Of the brief and waning period allowed you by your captors, only six days now remain, and by the time this shall meet your eye this meagre fragment of space will have dwindled to hours, and the gloomy death-pageant preparing to encircle your execution will be about ready for the gaze of eager thousands, whom sympathy, curiosity, or hatred will gather together. I long to say something to you that may in some way breathe consolation and inspire fresh and holy outgoings of hope, courage and confidence in God. And yet I know God is with you, and his presence and favor are infinitely better and dearer than any sympathy and condolence of your brethren in Christ. And yet I know that a sad yet hopeful, a painful yet prayerful, remembrance of you by those who are in spirit with you, while widely separated from you, will not be painful to you nor unacceptable to God.

I most fervently pray that you may find, through Divine Grace, that however severe the trial that approaches, and however sad all that is now passing upon you may be," according to your day so shall your strength be." God exercises His government in wisdom, love, and mercy, and he does and will overrule all things for His glory and the final good and salvation of all that put their trust in Him. Fear not; God will gird thee with strength, and give a meetness and a divine readiness for your great trials; and may he turn your captivity and death, if you must die, to His glory and the final deliverance of all the oppressed of this land. "Faithful is He that hath called you, who also will do it."

The events that have been brought about recently through your agency have convulsed the nation, and stirred the popular heart to its utmost depth, and the minions of oppression have been made to quake with fear. What is to be the result God only knows, but this, I think, is already apparent, the cause of Freedom is immeasurably stronger than it was before you struck your blow at Harper's Ferry, and were permitted to stand forth a captive among slaveholders and doomed to die.

I herewith inclose you a few lines which I have penned almost involuntarily upon one of the most heroic sentences that have been pronounced in modern times, which the public prints record as yours. This alone is enough to give glory to your captivity; and the spirit that could give utterance to it will make your death a triumph, both for yourself and suffering humanity. Very truly and sympathetically,

Your brother in Christ,

B. K. M.

P. S. Should time and your dying condition permit, write merely enough to say you have received this, and send in the enclosed envelope. Such a note will be received as a memento from a dying brother in Christ, and martyr for the cause of our oppressed fellow men.

 

THE HOARY CONVICT.

 

“I do not know that I can better serve the cause I love so much than by dying for it.” 

— JOHN BROWN, in prison.

 

Brave man! whate'er the world may think of thee,
    Howe'er in judgment hold thy daring deeds,
Men cannot fail in every step to see
    This is no craven heart that beats and bleeds.

Kind friends proclaim thy ardent mind unstrung —
    A maniac only heard the bondman sigh;
While foes alarmed have quivering curses flung,
    And deem it mercy even to let thee die.

But friends and foes to thee are all the same,
    Who drink not at the fount where thou hast stood;
With thee one thought has nursed the hidden flame;
    Thy fettered brother claims the common blood.

To lift Him from Oppression's iron heel
    Became with thee a purpose, then a cause;
Thy life-long madness was a power to feel —
    That gush of feeling wrote thy code of laws.

Thy abject brother doubled in thy sight
    Grew into numbers as the vision rose,
Then stood a nation, without power or might.
    And all their weakness plead against their foes.

The cause of man loomed grandly on thy sight;
    Man, crushed and feeble, was thy rallying cry;
Its wail charmed strangely to the unequal fight.
    To give them Freedom, or to bravely die.

Hadst thou thus dared 'neath far Italia's sky
    Men would have shouted pæans to thy name;
History would dared her highest skill to try,
    And on a spotless page embalmed thy fame.

But thou hast struck on thine own country's plains
    For hosts who crouch where shouts for Freedom flow;
Hosts of a dusky brow, condemned to chains,
    For whom the bravest dared not strike a blow.

Men grudge thee now a felon's gloomy cells,
    And, restive, wail a felon's doom at morn;
Reproach loads every breeze that round thee swells,
    And heaven's own light comes mixed with human scorn.

Oppression hastes to drink thy flowing blood,
    And dip her iron hoof in costly gore;
But right shall strengthen with the might of God,
    And thou, when slain, be mightier than before.

Yon captive hosts shall rise from tears and chains,
    And kneel redeemed at God's own scat ere long;
Then thou shalt rise, and Freedom's festive strains
    Shall give thy memory to immortal song.

Go, then, and die! thy scarred, heroic form
    And hoary locks may grace a scaffold high,
But thy loved Cause shall live beyond the storm,
    And thou canst best subserve it now to die!

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 398-401

A Clergyman of Providence Rhode Island to John Brown, November 26, 1859

Providence, Rhode Island, Nov. 26.

My Dear Sir: Permit me, an utter stranger to you, to intrude a moment, just that I may say, God bless you! Be of good cheer. You bore your witness against American Slavery with voice so loud that all the civilized world now listens, all breathless, to its every echo. More than this: by that act four million slaves have learned with such force of impression as never was theirs before, that they have a right to be free. Washington, and those with him, fought for their own homes and their own liberties; but you, with broader benevolence, having no freedom to gain for yourself, took the sword in behalf of a race oppressed infinitely more than our fathers. I do not say that I think it right to appeal to arms, but I do say that if the first was right, then by logical necessity, was the second. It is an axiom in religion that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church. Jesus baptized his new faith with his own blood. In all ages truth is most advanced by those who most suffer for it. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for another. Let these thoughts console you. I have read your speeches and letters studiously, and from them verily believe that you have acted from altogether righteous motives. Remember, if you have a truly honest and prayerful conscience towards God, He will accept your intentions. I beseech you to read His Word much, and with all the power of your nature to trust yourself entirely to his infinite care. It may perhaps somewhat cheer you to know that beyond question the greater part of the Christian world will approve your intentions. From tens of thousands of hearts prayer is continually made for you. Posterity will look upon you as the Moses of the American bondmen. Your name will be a watchword henceforth for Freedom. Coming ages will put your statue in high places, and build glorious monuments to the honor of your name. God be with you now, and comfort you, and receive you into the glorious company of confessors and martyrs above.

Yours,

A Clergyman.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 401-2

C. F. H., a Theological Author, to John Brown, November 27, 1859

Central Village, Plainfield, Conn., Nov. 27.

Dear Friend: . . . The moral effect of your bearing since your capture seems to me worth more than any immediate physical good which would follow your victory. I think Slavery at the South and every where is weaker than it could have been made by the exodus of a thousand slaves under your lead. I need not explain the particulars of this view; but there does seem to me a special providence in your being spared beyond the hour of your capture, to be tried as you have been, and to appear loftier and braver than your conquerors, as you have. It is God that has called and disciplined you for this, and He sustains you, and will sustain you to the end. . . . I shall probably be at Hartford on Friday of this week, the day appointed for the execution of your sentence. That will be far easier than the execution of yourself; for we believe your life and heroism are not lost in any death. The Lord be with you in your last earthly hours.

Yours, for those in bonds,

C. F. H.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 402

F. G., a Rhode Island Friend, to John Brown, November 27, 1859

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, Nov. 27.

Dear Brother: I feel constrained to write a few lines to you. I have long wished to write; but fearing to do so, the distance being so very long, that it would not reach you. I have long wished to hear from you personally, to know how you are getting along, and how your wounds are, and whether your health is any better. I take three papers, and read them with great interest to know all. But they say one thing one day, and contradict them the next. O, if I could only be with you, could hear you and comfort you in my own feeble way in this trying hour of your confinement! But it cannot be. To God I wish that I could be with you in this hour of trial! O, that I had the money that is daily thrown away for foolishness! I would come to you, and on bended knees ask permission to remain with you. But, as I said before, it cannot be. But if I am not with you in person, I am with you through the eye of vision, talking with and hearing your sad trial of sorrow and incarceration. These visions will never be forgotten by me and my family, as I sit by my fireside rehearsing to them the history of one whom I shall ever remember with a brother's love.

O, that I could find words to express myself, but my mind wanders and my hand trembles so, that I scarce can write! You will, I hope, forgive my many mistakes. I write not for fame, but from friendship's dictation. O, if I could compose myself to write! But, as I have said, my mind wanders back to things past and gone — gone; known only in history's pages. When I call up things that have been done since 1776, to the present time, 1859—but enough of this. God worketh all things for his own good; for he is a God of Justice, and doeth all things well, and in his own time. If there is no hope on earth, there is hope in Heaven. If we meet not here, we will meet there. I trust in Him who ruleth all things. Call on him and he will not see you want, for He hath said so in his Holy Word: "That whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life." . . . Ever believe me,

Your sincere friend for suffering humanity,

F. G.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 402-3

George De F. F. to John Brown, November 27, 1859

WESTFIELD, N. Y., November 27.

Captain Brown

Dear Sir, I have been thinking of you ever sinse I herd of your convicton and I have been thinking to that you have got to die in a very short time. I hope that these Few lines may do you some good If you ever receive theme I have no more time to write so good by till we meet in heaven

I am a little boy and this is the First letter I ever wrote

George De F. F.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 403

H. B., an Old Missionary to John Brown, November 28, 1859

New Haven, Connecticut, Nov. 28.

Dear Sir: Permit a friend of liberty and equitable law to address you a few brief thoughts, which I hope may be acceptable to you and your family. Prayer was yesterday offered for you in a colored congregation in this city, to whom a descendant of Africa, a son of Georgia, a minister of Liberia, and also the writer of this farewell letter, preached the true gospel.

You may be gratified to know that I remember with interest your interview, some two years since, with the cordial friends of Kansas in this city, while that injured territory of our common country was subject to the scorpion lash prepared for the honest advocates of the rights of man, and especially of that freedom which you struggled to establish. These, your New Haven friends, some of whom so ably and so kindly expostulated with our Chief Magistrate in reference to the wrongs of Kansas, remember you with Christian sympathy in your present sufferings.

Take it to your heart that a God of Justice and of Mercy rules, and the Deliverer of Israel from their bondage in Goshen, has mercy in store for a greater number of bondmen and bondwomen, truly as wrongfully oppressed. He has not granted you the full measure of your wishes, but he has allowed you the opportunity of conspicuously and emphatically showing your sympathy for the injured Slave population of our otherwise happy country, and of preaching the duty of giving "them that which is just and equal."

Forty years ago I went among the savages of Polynesia, and preached the gospel of Him whose office it was to proclaim liberty to captives. I plainly taught kings and queens, chiefs and warriors, that He that ruleth men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. I freely exhibited the opposition of God's law and our Saviour's gospel to oppression and every sin found to be prevailing there, and aided my associates in giving them the entire Bible in their own language, and in teaching their tribes to read it and use it freely in all the ranks of life.

Though I labored with them a score of years, and have corresponded with them a score of years more, I have not, lest I should damage my mission, ever told them that I belonged to a nation that deprives three or four millions of their fellow-subjects of Jehovah's Government, of their dearest rights which God has given them one of which is the free use of his own Holy Book.

But when the story of your execution shall reach and surprise them, I will no longer hesitate to speak to my friends there of your sympathy for four millions of the inhabitants of our Southern States, held in unchristian bonds in the only Protestant country on the globe that endorses Slavery.

I can, next week, well afford to endeavor to give them an echo of that protest against the whole system of American Slavery, which on and from the day of your execution, will be louder in the ear of High Heaven than its abettors have been accustomed to hear; rising from the millions of freemen in this noble cordon of Free States, and other millions of now slaveholding freemen, and some slaveholders themselves, in the Slave States.

Have you a kind message to send to the Christian converts at the Sandwich Islands, or to the heathen of Micronesia, a month's sail beyond, where my son and daughter are laboring to give them the Bible and the richest blessings of Christianity? I would gladly forward it to them if you have time to write it.

And now, dear sir, trust in your gracious Saviour; forgive those that have trespassed against you; leave your fatherless children, God will provide for them, and tell your widow to trust in Him, in His holy habitation. "The hairs of your head are all numbered," and not one "shall fall to the ground without your Heavenly Father." Should a lock of your hair fall into my lap before the execution shall help you to shake the pillars of the idol's temple, it would be valued. The Lord bless you, and make your life and death a blessing to the oppressed and their oppressors. Farewell!

Yours faithfully,

H. B.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 403-5

Thaddeus Hyatt to John Brown, November 14, 1859

NEW YORK, Nov. 14.

My Very Dear Friend: Your letter to Mrs. Maria Child has attracted my attention and induced on my part the action indicated in the enclosed slip from the N. Y. Tribune. You will see that I need your autograph. Please address me immediately. Give yourself no further anxiety as to the needy ones left behind. Warm and loving hearts by thousands at this moment are ready to aid them. You little knew, my friend, when you gave me your likeness, to what good account it would be turned; and I, alas! how little could I then dream of your impending fate, or in that hour guess the motives that prompted you to enjoin upon me the strictest caution as to exposing the photograph to be seen. Did your young friend perish? God be with you, my brave heart! For one animated by such faith as yours pity were reproach. Instead of pity I therefore tender you, O my friend, sympathy and a like faith with your own.

God and his eternal heavens are above us! Eternity is ours! So that, in His sight who shall judge us at the last we stand approved. Life matters not, and death matters not; and whether the hours of this day, or the morrow, be shortened, is of little account; for the shorter life is, the longer eternity is; and which is best for us depends wholly upon God; and in which we can best serve Him it is for God alone to say.

Your courage, my brother, challenges the admiration of men; your faith, the admiration of angels. Be steadfast to the end! Be patient! farewell! I am yours in Christ "for the life that now is, and for that which is to come." Farewell!

Your affectionate brother,

Thaddeus Hyatt.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 389-90

Thaddeus Hyatt to the Friends of Freedom at the North, November 14, 1859

In his letter to Mrs. L. Maria Child, John Brown says:

I have at home a wife and three young daughters, the youngest but little over five years old, the oldest nearly sixteen. I have also two daughters-in-law, whose husbands have both fallen near me here. There is also another widow, Mrs. Thompson, whose husband fell here. Whether she is a mother or not, I cannot say. All these, my wife included, live at North Elba, Essex County, New York. I have a middle-aged son, who has been, in some degree, a cripple from his childhood, who would have as much as he could do to earn a living. He was a most dreadful sufferer in Kansas, and lost all he had laid up. He has not enough to clothe himself for the winter comfortably. I have no living son, or son-in-law, who did not suffer terribly in Kansas.

 

Now, dear friend, would you not as soon contribute fifty cents now, and a like sum yearly, for the relief of those very poor and deeply-afflicted persons? To enable them to supply themselves and their children with bread and very plain clothing, and to enable the children to receive a common English education? Will you also devote your own energies to induce others to join you in giving a like amount, or any other amount, to constitute a little fund for the purpose named?

Friends of Freedom at the North, to these simple and touching words nothing more effective and affecting can be added. The story is here in its simplest and saddest form. Widows and fatherless children! all for liberty! Slain for a principle! The heads of the entire family slain! All the male members cut off! And this in the Nineteenth Century, and this amid a free people!

If there be any braver man in the country than John Brown, let him criticise John Brown at Harper's Ferry. If not, let another generation pass upon the fact and its author. Our duties now are with and for the living. God and history will have a care for the dead. Friends at the North, what will you do for John Brown's family? I have a photograph of the old man, presented to me by his own hands, an admirable likeness. Let all who sympathize in the purpose send each a dollar, and I will forward for each such sum an exact copy of the original, and with it, if possible, John Brown's autograph. The proceeds from ten thousand such copies will produce a fund of eight thousand dollars for the benefit of the helpless and afflicted ones, whom the Kansas hero so touchingly commends to our sympathies and care. Suitable acknowledgment of funds received and applied, will be made from time to time through the columns of the N. Y. Tribune. The photographs can be sent by mail, as music is sent, at the expense of a stamp, which may be enclosed with the order. Address me at New York.

Thaddeus Hyatt.

New York, Nov. 14, 1859.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 390-1

From a Slaveholder’s Son to John Brown, undated, about November 1859

Dear Brother: My father was a slaveholder, and when at school I commenced searching the Bible for sanction of the divine institution, but have not found it. I am Old School Presbyterian, and believe with our friends, the Quakers, Christ's kingdom will be peace; but now Christ told his disciples, He that hath a sword, let him take it. Therefore, I cannot say I think you exceeded your commission, and I rejoice that a man has been found worthy to suffer for Christ. Yes, dear brother, God Himself will send His angel, December 2, '59, to release you from your prison of clay, and conduct you to your Redeemer and mine, where you will join the souls under the altar, crying. How long before your blood be avenged on the earth? Truly, your ignominious death has a glory equal to that of the Apostles, in the eye of thousands who are praying for you that all your sins may be blotted out, and Christ's Cause, for which you suffer, may be speedily supplied with other witnesses for Right. Enclosed [is] one dollar for your use, because I want to do something to aid you, hoping others will do much. Kind regards to your family. One of the Seven Thousand the Lord knows; to every one known by man, who hate slavery because the Lord does.

[No signature nor date.]

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 391

H. O. W. and Others, Colored Citizens of Chicago, to John Brown, November 17, 1859

Chicago, November 17.

Dear Friend: We certainly have great reasons, as well as intense desires, to assure you that we deeply sympathize with you and your beloved family. Not only do we sympathize in tears and prayers with you and them, but we will do so in a more tangible form, by contributing material aid to help those of your family of whom you have spoken to our mutual friend, Mrs. L. Maria Child. How could we be so ungrateful as to do less for one who has suffered, bled, and now ready to die for the cause? "Greater love can no man have, than to lay down his life for the poor, despised, and lowly."

Your friends,

H. O. W., and others.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 391

E. H. to John Brown, November 20, 1859

WOONSOCKET, R. I., Nov. 20.

To Captain John Brown, now under sentence of death at Charlestown, Virginia, for endeavoring to liberate the Bondmen.

Much Respected Friend: It is now nearly eighteen hundred and sixty years since our Blessed Redeemer gave His life for poor, wicked, and fallen humanity. Since that time the progress has been slow, as appears to us; but steady towards those exalted and godlike principles which he enunciated. It is difficult to understand how any community calling themselves Christians can, by what they call Christian laws, try, condemn, and execute a man for endeavoring to do the very same acts which our Saviour came to do, viz., "to heal the broken-hearted, to bring deliverance to the captive, and set at liberty them that are bound."

I recollect your visit at our place many years since, when you were in the wool trade; but did not dream of your immortalizing your name with the host of martyrs which have gone before you, who chose to obey God rather than men.

All I can say is this: Hold on; trust in God to the last, and Christ will redeem you to Himself. Die like a Christian and like a man, if needs be, is the sincere desire of your friend,

E. H.

[Enclosed was a check for one hundred dollars.]

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 392

Charles Partridge, a Spiritualist, to John Brown, November 21, 1859

New York, November 21.

My Dear Sir: Although I am not personally acquainted with you, yet your history, as given through the public press, your letters, your stern integrity and unconquerable zeal for what you deem to be truth and righteousness, enlist my sympathies for you in your present trying situation; and also in the Spirit World into which you soon expect to be ushered.

So far as I understand your principles in regard to freedom and physical slavery, I think you are right; but, at the same time, my present view of the case is, you was wrong in the method by which you proposed to incarnate your principles in those who enslave and those who are held subject to bondage. But whether I agree or disagree with your method, it is of no consequence now. My chief object in writing is, first, to inform you that I have abundant evidence that hanging does not kill a man, or prevent his influence in urging forward the worthy humanitary purposes of his affection in the earth; and I write now to solicit from you this favor, namely, if you go into the Spirit Realm before I do, that you will from your new and elevated position, and with the aid of a broader comprehension of man's nature and relations, and of the consequences of this life on the Future One, review this whole subject of physical and mental slavery, and communicate the result, and your final conclusion of the whole matter, through some medium of your own choice, with directions for them to forward the same to my paper, The Spiritual Telegraph, or to The Tribune, or some other widely-circulated paper for publication.

I suggest for your consideration as a medium for such communication, Mrs. J— S—, No. —, S— D— Street, Buffalo, New York; or the medium at the circle where I attend every Thursday evening, at the corner of —— Avenue and M— S—, in the city of New York.

I am not aware that you have any knowledge that spirits communicate with men, or that you have any sympathy with Spiritualism now, but I know you will have when you go hence; and then, if not now, please take these suggestions kindly into consideration for the edification and elevation of humanity, and the incarnation of the Divine Order among men on the earth.

You are at liberty to make me instrumental in forwarding any communication you please to make from the Spirit Land to your loving family, or friends on earth.

Now, sir, I bid you an affectionate good-by, until I hear from you in time or from the Spirit World, or meet you there and perchance make your personal acquaintance.

May you, now and ever, have the consolations which flow from a true religious life and humanitary motives and efforts, which lift men above the errors in judgment, methods, and temporal consequences, into the comprehension of the Divine Beatitudes which overrule all things to the glory of God and human progress.

Charles Partridge.

I mail to your address a few copies of The Spiritual Telegraph, for your perusal.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 393-4

E. N. P. to John Brown, November 23, 1859

Collinsville, [Connecticut,] November 23.

My Very Dear Sir: Little did I think, when I was so much enjoying your society at my home a few months ago, it would ever be my lot to address you under such painful circumstances; nor can I here find words to express to you the depth of my sympathy. We mourn for you as for a father, yet not without hope; and much do we rejoice to know that you still find comfort and consolation in communion with that God whom, we doubt not, it has ever been your aim to love and serve. And, although he may permit Virginia's sons and daughters to dye their hands in your blood, we know that act will do much to advance the cause we love. True, 'tis a bitter cup, and would to God it might pass from you. Yet I think I hear you say "Thy will, O God, be done."

Let us thank God that the Power (called Law) which will lead you forth to martyrdom can reach no farther. There is a resting-place where a Higher Law is known and recognized, and where the oppressed go free. May God grant that we may meet there when he shall have done with us here.

You will be pleased to learn that your wife is being remembered in such a way as will relieve her from pecuniary want. We feel it a privilege to contribute something for her comfort, who has sacrificed so much for the cause.

You will never know with how much interest your friends have watched each daily paper to catch each item of news in your case, and each word you have been permitted to utter; for we doubt not God has directed what you should say. Those words of truth you have spoken have rung from East to West, carrying with them a deep feeling of sympathy for the honest and noble Capt. John Brown. Many are the prayers which have been offered that you may be sustained in the hour of trial. Surely, He who has thus kept you will not forsake you. Thus feebly do I offer you my heartfelt sympathy. May God ever be present to bless and keep you.

Your true friend,

E. N. P.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 394

A. M. M., a Scotch Covenanter, to John Brown, November 23, 1859

New Alexandria, Penn., November 23.

Dear Sir: Permit a stranger to address you. I am the pastor of a congregation of people known as Scotch Covenanters — a people who refuse to incorporate with this Government by holding its offices or using its elective franchise on the ground that it refuses to perform the duty of Government either to God or man. It neither acknowledges the authority of God, nor protects the persons of its subjects; therefore we do not acknowledge it to be the moral ordinance of God for good to be obeyed for conscience' sake.

I do not address you from the expectation that you need any promptings to that fortitude which you have so nobly displayed, and which I doubt not is begotten in your soul by the Spirit of God, through a good conscience and a good cause. I have no fear but that your own familiarity with the word of God and the way to the Throne, will fortify your heart against the foul aspersions cast upon your character and motives by the purchased presses and parrot pulpits. He that fears God need fear no other. Still I know that the bravest heart may be cheered in the midst of sore trials by a kindly word from even a stranger. And, while the bulls of Bashan are roaring around you, it may be some consolation to you to know that there are some earnest Christians who regard you as a martyr to human liberty, and pray for a large outpouring of the martyr spirit upon you, and feel that in such a cause 'tis glorious to die. Whatever prudence may whisper as to the best course, God requires us to "remember them in bonds as bound with them," (Heb. xiii. 3,) and declares that "we know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren," (1 John iii. 14 ; "that we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren," (1 John iii. 16;) "and if any have this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" (1 John iii. 17.) If these are the proper tests of Christianity, I think, at least, you have no reason to fear a comparison of character in that respect with your clerical traducers.

But, my dear brother, you will allow me to urge upon you a rigid inquiry into your motives to know whether you have taken up the cross for Christ's sake, as well as for the sake of His oppressed people? If you have made all this sacrifice for Christ and His cross, you have the promise of a hundred fold now in this life, and in the world to come eternal life, (Mark x. 29, 30.) Your character will be a hundred fold more than redeemed, and a hundred fold better legacy will accrue to your family than you could otherwise have left them.

I know that your mind is deeply exercised in behalf of the slave; but I would suggest to you another feature of "the irrepressible conflict," to which you may not have bestowed as much thought: God's controversy with this nation for dishonor done to His Majesty. This nation, in its Constitution, makes no submission to the King of kings; pays no respect to His Higher Law; never mentions His name, even in the inauguration oath of its Chief Magistrate. God has said, He "will turn the wicked into hell, and all the nations that forget God," (Ps. ix. 17.) To His Son He says, "The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted," (Isa. lx. 12.)

If you must die a witness for the "inalienable rights" of man, I desire that you would also set the seal of your blood to a noble testimony for the supreme authority and outraged majesty of God, and with your expiring breath call upon this guilty nation, not only to "let God's people go," but also to serve God with fear and kiss His Son lest He be angry."

You have been called before judges and governors, and "it has been given you what to say and how to speak," and I pray that when you are called to witness a good confession before many witnesses, that there will be given you living words that will scathe and burn in the heart of this great and guilty nation, until their oppression of men and treason against God shall be clean purged out.

Noble man! you are highly honored of God! You are raised up to a high, commanding eminence, where every word you utter reaches the furthest corner of this great country; yes, of the civilized world. What matter if it be from a scaffold, Samson-like you will slay more Philistines in your death, than you ever did or could by a long life; and I pray God that in your dying agony, you may have the gratification of feeling the pillars of Dagon's Temple crumbling in your grasp. O, feel that you are a great actor on a world-wide stage; that you have a most important part to play, and that while you are suffering for Christ, he will take care of you. He sends none a warfare on their own charges, and, "as the tribulations of Christ abound, the consolations that are by Christ will much more abound." Fear not to die; look on the scaffold not as a curse but an honor, since it has been sanctified by Christ. It is no longer, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree;" that curse was borne by Jesus; — but now it is "Blessed is he that suffers for righteousness' sake; for his is the kingdom of Heaven."

I still entertain the lingering hope that this nation will not add to its already full cup of crime the blood of your judicial murder, and I daily pray God "to hear the groaning of the prisoner, and loose those that are appointed to death," (Ps. cii. 20.)

I wish to be understood as addressing your companions along with you. Should this reach you, will you gratify me by letting me know. I greatly desire to know more of one in whom I feel so deep an interest.

I commend you to God and to the word of His Grace, that is able to keep you from falling, and present you faultless before Him with exceeding great joy.

Yours, for God and the Slave,

A. M. M.

SOURCE: James Redpath, Editor, Echoes of Harper’s Ferry, p. 395-7

William Preston Smith to General William B. Taliaferro, et al, December 1, 1859

Baltimore, December 1st, 1859–9.55 P. M.

General Taliaferro, Hon. A. Hunter,} Charlestown.
A. P. Shutt, A. Diffey,} Harper's Ferry.

As there will probably be very large numbers of troops, besides other passengers, who may come down from Harper's Ferry to Baltimore and Washington, by our road, on tomorrow afternoon and Saturday, it is highly important for us to know at the very earliest moment their probable number, so as to make the necessary provision for their prompt and safe transportation.

We desire to know, therefore, something of the wishes and

intentions of the authorities respecting the return of troops and munitions It may be necessary to run an extra train on Friday afternoon, leaving Harper's Ferry for Baltimore and Washington, about two or three o'clock, which can be done, if we get proper notice.

W.P SMITH.

SOURCE: B. H. Richardson, Annapolis, Maryland, Publisher, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection at Harper's Ferry, 17th October, 1859, p. 71-2

S. Colhoun to William Preston Smith, December 1, 1859

Philadelphia, Dec. 1st, 1859.

W. P. Smith, Esq.

Dear Sir:

I cut the enclosed slip from the editiorial of this afternoon's “Bulletin:”

“TRICKS UPON TRAVELERS.—The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company will have no reason to thank the army of Gov. Wise for the manner in which he treats their trains and passengers. In the severest days of the Austrian police system there were no such high-handed proceedings towards travelers. Every train, it appears, is stopped at Harper's Ferry, and armed men pass through every car, hunting for spies, insurgents and sympathizers with Brown. In one case, three Cincinnati merchants, on their way to Baltimore, were actually taken out of the cars and imprisoned, because they spoke kindly of the poor creature who is to be hung to-morrow. This is the Virginia idea of freedom. Travelers will please take notice.”

Everybody appears desirous of making the most out of “Old John Brown," and if it is true that several Cincinnati merchants have been taken out of your cars at Harper's Ferry, the “Bulletin” thinks it should be used as a spoke to strengthen the wheels of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

We presume your Company took a personal interest at once, in protecting the Cincinnati sufferers. I send you the enclosed as an “on dit.”

Yours, truly,

S. COLHOUN.

SOURCE: B. H. Richardson, Annapolis, Maryland, Publisher, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection at Harper's Ferry, 17th October, 1859, p. 73

Telegram to William Preston Smith, December 2, 1859

Charlestown, Dec. 2, 1859.

W. P .Smith:

John Brown was hung at 11.15, A. M., taken down in 35 minutes after. His remains were taken back to jail in a coffin. Said to have died very easy.

Will be handed over to his wife this evening.

OPERATOR.

SOURCE: B. H. Richardson, Annapolis, Maryland, Publisher, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection at Harper's Ferry, 17th October, 1859, p. 74

A. P. Shutt to Major-General William B. Taliaferro, December 2, 1859

Harper's Ferry, Dec. 2, 1859.

Gen Taliaferro:

We are desirous to know the number of troops that will leave Charlestown Saturday or Sunday. If any we have a train of ten cars here at your disposal to take troops east at a word's notice which we will require as the engine has to be brought from Martinsburg. Please give me the necessary notice at all times.

A. P. SHUTT,        

Special Agent.

SOURCE: B. H. Richardson, Annapolis, Maryland, Publisher, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection at Harper's Ferry, 17th October, 1859, p. 74

E. M. Aisquith to John Donohoo, December 2, 1859

Charlestown, Dec. 2, 1859.

Jno. Donohoo:

        Harper's Ferry.

Send a special train of one passenger car and a house car, to arrive here at 4 o'clock, to-day, to convey the body of John Brown to Harper's Ferry. By order of General Taliaferro.

E. M. AISQUITH.

SOURCE: B. H. Richardson, Annapolis, Maryland, Publisher, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection at Harper's Ferry, 17th October, 1859, p. 74

William Preston Smith to Samuel Calhoun & Alfred Gaither, December 2, 1859

Baltimore, Dec. 2, 1859.

S. Calhoun—Philadelphia.

Alfred Gaither—Cincinnati.

Thanks for dispatch. Reports of arrests and searching of trains greatly exaggerated. Only one case has occurred and against Conductor's remonstrances, that of two gentlemen, telegraphed by State detective from Grafton Junction or Ohio, to Commanding General as being suspicious, and a third at same time for alleged threats to officer making arrest. Our President promptly secured their release, and orders by General to invade cars no more are given. With this exception the trains have not been disturbed, nor passengers annoyed. This you may fully rely upon. We have, at request of authorities, refused tickets to several notorious characters, who would probably only have, by their attendance at execution, increased the excitement, and added to the many wild and inflammatory statements now so rife. Reckless or predjudiced newspapers have no just foundation for their assaults on our Company.

Please have these facts made public on the Company's authority.

W. P. SMITH, Master of Transportation.

SOURCE: B. H. Richardson, Annapolis, Maryland, Publisher, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection at Harper's Ferry, 17th October, 1859, p. 74-5