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CHAPTER XIV. ;

THE JOHN BROWN RAID - ENDORSED BY THE RE-
PUBLICANS.

A

Seward, Hale and Wilson Toasted by the Louisville "Journal" for not exposing the John Brown Raid...John Brown's operations a part of the Dissolution Scheme... Numerous Extracts to prove that Republicans endorsed the John Brown Raid...Republican Press, Clergy and Orators endorse it...From "La Crosse Republican "... Rev. De Los Love... Rev. E. D. Wheelock... Milwaukee Sentinel "..." Elkhorn Independent"..." Janesville Gazette"...Telegraphic Despatches, 1859..." Winsted Herald"...Speech of J. W. Phillips... Laconic Letter and Reply, between Elder Spooner and an Editor... Massachusetts Resolution...Meeting in Rockford, Ill....100 Guns Fired in Albany, N. Y....Theodore Parker's Formula...Indignation Meeting in Milwaukee: their Resolutions, etc. ... Rev. Geo. W. Bassett, of Ill....Telegram from New York... Horace Greeley on John Brown"Milwaukee Free Democrat "...Speech of Rev. Mr. Staples, Milwaukee... Emerson at Tremont Temple... Rev. M. P, Kinney..." Menasha Conservator "..." Milwaukee Atlas"..."New York Tribune"..." Wood County (Wis.) Reporter "...A Prophetic Article from the "New York Herald "... Brown's Character in Kansas, by the "Her ald of Freedom"-General Conclusions, &c.

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abundant evidence from the treasonable mutterings of those who rang bells on the day he expiated his crimes, and canonized him as a martyr, whose 'soul is marching on." That leading and influential Abolitionists were made acquainted with his designs at Harper's Ferry before the shameful emeute took place, is abundantly in proof. FORBES, a compatriot of JOHN BROWN, and who from some spleen of disappointment "blowed" on his bloody preceptor, was a witness before the Senatorial Committee that investigated the Harper's Ferry affair. This FORBES testified that he had forewarned Senator WILSON, of Massachusetts, and others of RROWN's nefarious purposes, and still WILSON kept the matter from the public.-[See Report of. Senate Investigating Committee.

THE LOUISVILLE JOURNAL'S EXPOSITION. The following article from the Louisville Journal, at the time of the Congressional exposure, shows that not only Messrs. WILSON, HALE, SEWARD and other leading Republicans foreknew the purposes of BROWN, but that they kept the knowledge from the public, for reasons which all may readily divine. Many of the Journal's suggestions have since been reduced to history:

"We are now prepared to comprehend the general character and extent of the disclothe interview before mentioned sures which FORBES made to Mr. SEWARD in FORBES, it will be observed, had two separate and distinct grounds of complaint against the 'humanita

The Northern sesessionist, MR. PHILLIPS tells us, finding it impossible to abolish slavery in peace, sought to inaugurate a war, as the only means to secure this object. Take their conduct in this, step by step, from beginning to the end from first to last,--and it all looks like business. They went to work as though they intended to accomplish their purpose.rians,' as he somewhat loosely terms the AboThey knew that to make hornets "fighting mad," they must be violently disturbed. The Kansas imbroglio had not sufficiently maddened Achilles to make a counter attack on Hector, and something else was necessary to provoke hostilities. Yes, this is the word under Mr. PHILLIP's and Colonel JAMISON's declarations, none other will answer.

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and intelligence:-namely, first, the necessilitionists, seeing that he is a man of culture ties of his family, consequent, as he alleged on the failure of the 'humanitarians' to redeem their engagements to him, [FORBES, be it remembered, was one of the JOHN BROWN guard, and 'blowed' on that band of assassins he had been associated with, because they neglected sundry money obligations] and secondly, the rejection of his plan by the perfidious 'humanitarians,' and their adoption of JOHN BROWN's project,' including the cotton speculation. These are grievances for the redress of which FORBES desired to enlist the favor and influence of SEWARD and HALE. These are the crooked things which he wanted them to put straight.' The scope and force of the language in which he describes his respective interviews with them is now not only obvious, but unmistakable. 'Having made several ineffectual attempts,' he says, to get a quiet conversation with Senator JOEN P. HALE, of Sunday morning. I could not then enter into New Hampshire, I met him accidentally on the details of JOHN BROWN's project, therefore I confined myself to explaining the urgen

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cy of sending my family relief. He could | tragedy has been performed. The great State touch upon only a part of his grievances. Not of Virginia has played the hangman's part, so in his more deliberate interview with Mr. and is crowned with its bloody honors. A SEWARD. In that he touched fully upon the telegraphic message was received at Janesville entire burden of his complaint. I went' he yesterday afternoon, stating that BROWN was says 'into the whole matter, in all its bearings.' hung at Charleston, at a quarter past 11, A. M. What now is left to inference or doubt? As- For an hour previous to the arrival of the insuming the genuineness of these developments, telligence at this place, the bell was tolled sadwhich we believe is not impeached, even by ly in anticipation of the event! No mercy was those most nearly concerned, it is an offense to expected for the victim of southern vengeance. reason, an insult to, common sense, a gross But the end is not yet. Troops cannot check violence to the constitution of the human mind, the flow of sympathy that surges over the to ask one to believe that Mr. SEWARD was not land. A wall of bayonets may guard the hidthoronghly cognizant of the bloody and de- eous bastile of cruelty and wrong, but cannot moniacal scheme which old JOHN BROWN and obstruct the march of the free legions that will his fellow conspirators were meditating. He spring forth from their slumber, and make the did know it all. The conclusion is inevitable!" earth tremble beneath their tread!

REPUBLICAN ENDORSEMENT OF THE JOHN
BROWN RAID.

As accumulative proof that the Republican party generally, if they did not plan or connive at the JOHN BROWN raid, for the purprse of bringing on a civil war-if they were not accessories before the fact, they were certainly and clearly after-we present the following testimony. Our witnesses are principally from Wisconsin, as the most convenient at hand, but their evidence is similar to the general mass of Republicans throughout the North.

In 1859, the Rev. W DE Loss LovE, an orthodox Abolitionist of Milwaukee, preached a thanksgiving sermon in the Spring street Congregational Church, "on the death of JOHN BROWN, in which occurs these sentences:

"In Kansas was sown the seed of the outbreak at Harper's Ferry! * * If, indeed, you had power to revolutionize a nation, or all | nations, and extinguish slavery at a blow, and plant society afterwards on a peaceable and sure foundation, doubtless you, as a people, should do it! * * JOHN BROWN may die 'on a gallows, but his name will be embalmed in millions of hearts. * *

""The good he has done

Will live after him.'

"The world will attribute the blood of JOHN BROWN, not to justice, but to those who shed the blood of his children. The blood of both father and sons will cry out against them from the ground."'

"Now, may God help the right! and give us tongues of fire, and hands that shall never weary, to wage an eternal crusade against the diabolical sin of slavery.

"Peaceful be the sleep of the murdered BROWN, and glorious his awakening.' ""

The above was draped in mourning to show the deep sorrow of the editor for the death of the diabolical murderer.

"If the decree of the court is fulfilled, Virginia will commit a crime in the murder of John Brown to-day, which will result in another step towards bringing to the light the dark blot upon the American Republic."-LaCrosse (Wis.) Republican, Dec. 2, 1859.

"One such man makes total depravity impossible, and proves that American greatness died not with Washington! The gallows from which he ascends into Heaven, will be in our politics, what the cross is in our religion-the sign and symbol of supreme self-devotedness, -and from his sacrificial blood, the temporal salvation of four millions of our people shall yet spring! On the second day of December he is to be strangled in a Southern prison, for obeying the Sermon on the Mount. But, to be hanged in Virginia, is like being crucified in Jerusalem-it is the last tribute which she pays to Virtue!"-Extract from Sermon of Rev. E. D. Wheelock, of Dover, N. H., on the execution of John Brown.

"THE HANGMAN'S DAY.-To-morrow, the 2d day of December, 1859, is to become memorable in history for the martyrdom of John Brown! The State of Virginia, represented by Gov. WISE, and the United States of America, the home of the free) and the land of the brave,' represented by President BUCHANAN, are to see the effectual hanging of 'Ossawatamie.' Some twenty-five hundred State and Federal troops will assist in the ceremony. No one is to come within earshot of the dying martyr. No 'Northerner' will be permitted to record his parting words. But, in spite of all precautions, they will be heard, read and remembered by millions of FREEMEN, whose hatred of oppression, injustice and tyranny, in every form, will be intensified by the events "JOHN BROWN DEAD.-The first act in the of this black Friday. The bell that tolls for

"But thanks to God, several thousand are yet left in this Israel that have not bowed their knees to Baal nor prostituted their lips to kiss the rod of slavery. From these let your hopes arise, that our land will yet be redeemed from her insolvency," &c.

The Fort Atchison (Wis.) Standard, in its first issue after the execution of BROWN, thus blended its grief with its treason:

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the departing spirit of JOHN BROWN, will ring worthy to lick or feel the foot of old JOHN | At all events he is so unthe knell of American Slavery!"-Milwaukee BROWN. (Wis.) Sentinel, Dec. 1st 1859. successful, and so Republican presses, fearful that their party will somehow lose a vote, and themselves an office, fell to mouthing old JOHN BROWN, as heartily as twelve months since they praised, and vie with each other in denouncing and abusing him. For shame! Old BROWN had more nobleness in his soul, more honesty in his heart, more principal in his action, more courage in a single finger, than all such politicians, from Maine to Oregon."

"The moral effect of the hanging of BROWN will be to bring the hideousness of slavery home to thousands who were indifferent before. A thousand abolitionists will spring up for every one that is hung, and the 'irrepressible conflict' will go on until the institution of slavery is rooted out of the Union. The Union may be dissolved, but slavery must die! and if may be dissolved, but slavery must die! and if it can only die or be restricted to its present limits, through a dissolution of the Union, then in the name of the framers of the Union, who made it to secure the blessings of liberty, let the Union be dissolved!!”—Elkhorn (Wis.) Independent, 1859.

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"Even if BROWN is guilty of all that is charged against him, his bravery, magnanimity, and fortitude wins the respect of the generous, everywhere."—Janesville (Wis.) Gazette,

1859.

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"We have almost brought the American people to that decision, which says 'Government or no Government-law or no law, but slavery come down! come down! Whether he broke law or violated Government, God bless John Brown!! So says the American heart in the Northern states. American hand will soon begin its work! in The American head will soon follow! obedience to that heart and head, and we shall see slavery, the victim of its agitation-the victim of pure politics and a Christian church.” before the Anti-Slavery Society of Mass, 1859. The Wisconsin Chief, a paper devoted temperance, took occasion to rebuke the mad spirit of fanaticism that was rushing the country to ruin on JOHN BROWN breakers, whereupon Elder SPOONER, one of the subscribers of that paper wrote the following note:

A telegraphic dispatch, dated Manchester, Extract from a speech of John W. Phillips N. H., Dec. 2, 1859, said:

"An attempt was made to toll the City Hall bell to-day, in commemoration of JOHN BROWN. The bell was only struck a few times, when Mayor HARRINGTON appeared in the belfry, and ordered BROWN's sympathisers to desist. One of them refused, when the Mayor dropped him down through the scuttle, as the most convenient mode of enforcing his exit."

Another telegraphic dispatch read:

"Cleveland, Dec. 2.—A meeting was held here to-night, commemoratory of the execution of BROWN. Over 1,500 people were present. Able addresses were made by D. R. TILDEN, R. S. SPAULDING, C. H. LANGSTON, A. G. RIDDLE, Rev. J. C. WHITE, and others. Resolutions were adopted. The hall was draped in mourning"

There were a few Republican presses in various localities, fearing no doubt the bad political effect of mourning the loss of RROWN, chose rather to fish up excuses that he was insane, &c., and they pretended not to sympathize with his movements and murderous conduct, but in all their editorials, they would somehow or other contrive to weave in a word of excuse and palliation. To this class of Republican papers the Winsted (Conn.) Herald a rabid Republican sheet, thus discoursed:

"And here we may as well say, we have no admiration for that class of Republican newspapers which are so eager to disclaim and disown all fellowship and sympathy for old JOHN BROWN. Did they stop here, we could be patient with them, but when they go further, and pelt him with titles of madman, crazy, muddled and insane, we say out upon them, for hypocrites and traitors-'little villains,' un

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To which the editor of the Chief replied:

"JOHN BROWN had heroism to redeem his folly. Elder SPOONER is not so fortunate. He is fortunate, however, in living in a land where folly is not a capital offense.”

A JOHN BROWN meeting was held at Natick, Mass., which was attended by U. S. Senator WILSON, at which the following resolution was passed:

Whereas, Resistance to tyrants is obdience to GOD,

Resolved, That it is the right and duty of slaves to resist their masters, and the right and duty of the people of the North to ÎNCITE THEM TO RESISTANCE, and to aid them in it!”

A JOHN BROWN meeting was held in Rockford, Ill., Dec. 2, 1859, attended by such leading men as Ex-Senator TALCOTT, who presided, and Dr. LYMAN, Mr. HULIN, Mr. LOOP, Judge CHURCH, Mr. BLINN, Rev. Mr. CANAUT, and others, who made speeches. The follow

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ing is among the resolutions they passed, offered by Mr. HULIN, and adopted unanimously:

Resolved, That the memory of JOHN BROWN is now consigned to impartial history, which will vindicate his motives, and that his integrity, truthfulness, courage, fidelity and fortitude, stand as conspicuous examples for the veneration of all who love freedom and applaud true courage.

"Resolved, That the city bells be tolled one

hour in commemoration of JOHN BROWN."

meeting was held in the Chamber of Commerce in Milwaukee. A committee was appointed on resolutions, consisting of EDWARD D. HOLTON, (afterwards elected by the Republicans to the Legislature,) J. H. PAINE, a prominent lawyer of Milwaukee, GEO. TRACY, CLARENCE SHEPHERD and B. DOмSCHKE, a Republican editor, who reported among others the following resolutions:

Whereas, The fundamental principle of the

The following appeared among the tele- United States Government is, that all men are graphic dispatches of the day:

created equal, and are entitled to the protection of life, [except the white men murdered "ONE HUNDRED GUNS IN HONOR OF THE EX- by JOHN BROWN,] liberty and property as an

ECUTION OF JOHN BROWN.

ALBANY, N. Y., Dec. 2, 1859.

"To-day, between twelve and one o'clock, one hundred guns were fired, comemmorative of the execution of JOHN BROWN. It was

previously hinted in some of the papers, that some of the more impulsive and enthusiastic portion of the Republicans intended thus to celebrate the event. A member of the common council of this city, at the last sitting, drew up a resolution, desiring that body to authorize that demonstration, but he was dissuaded from it. To-day, a connon was taken from the State Arsenal by the keeper thereof, and planted upon the State Street Bridge, from which a hundred catridges were fired by the Deputy of the Commissionary General. * * During the day the white fanatics posted placards through the streets.

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"Give us liberty or give us death-execution of Capt. JOHN BROWN."

THE POSTULA AND FORMULA OF THEODORE
PARKER AND HORACE GREELY.

Shortly after the execution of JOHN BROWN a card appeared in the New York Tribune, from THEODORE PARKER of Boston, in which the following postulates are laid down as a formula for future action :

"1st. A man held against his will, as a slave, has a natural right to kill any one who seeks to prevent his enjoyment of liberty.

"2d. It may be a natural duty of a slave to develope this natural right in a practical ner, and actually kill those who seek to prevent his enjoyment of liberty.

inalienable birthright, and,

"Whereas, There can be no allegiance due to a Government from those to whom it refuses such protection, and,

"Whereas, To enslave innocent human beings is the highest crime against humanity,

therefore,

"Resolved, That the enslaved of this country owe no allegiance to the Government, either of the United States, or of the state in which they live, and have a right to regard and treat their enslavers as their enemies [Was not this a declaration of war?] and that a resort to force to obtain their freedom, is not only the right of the enslaved, but may be a duty which they owe to themselves and to their children, if they can use no other means, by which they fact should not be lost sight of in reading these can escape from the House of Bondage. [One vaporings, and that is, JOHN BROWN, though he often tried, could not induce the slaves to join him in effecting their "freedom," so that this criminal sympathy was a forced exotic.] "Whereas, The State of Virginia, under the forms of law, has this day put to an ignominious death JOHN BROWN, for an attempt to deliver his fellow men from slavery, and,

"Whereas-All the evidence in relation to

this attempt proves that they did not intend to destroy life, except in self defense, but were animated solely by the desire to relieve the oppressed, therefore

Resolved, That JOHN BROWN and his fellow sufferers, who have followed his example, have but obeyed the Divine Command, 'remember those that are in bonds as bound with them,' man-have but acted in the faith of the Declaration drafted by Virginia's greatest statesman, that all men are endowed by their Creator with an inalienable right to liberty, and placing the souls in the slave's souls stead, have translated into an immortal deed, the glorious motto, "give me liberty or give me death."

3d. The freeman has a natural right to help the slaves to recover their liberty, and in that enterprise to do for them all which they have a right to do for themselves.

66 4th. It may be a natural charity for the freeman to help the slaves to the enjoyment of their liberty, and as a means to that end, to aid them in killing all such as oppose their natural freedom.

"5th. The performance of this duty is to be controlled by the freeman's power to help."

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'Resolved-That those who justify the Revolution of '76, cannot condemn the attempt of JOHN BROWN," &c.

That is, if the revolution of the British control over this country was right, the attempt. to revolutionize the government which was the On the 2d day of Dec., 1859, an indignation | result of such first revolution is right, and

ought not to be condemned, and so on, ad in finitum, keeping society in constant revolution. Can it be possible that such monstrous doctrines were honestly entertained by honest men and good citizens? The resolutions also declare

"Resolved, That the spectacle of a great state, trembling with affright at the solitary voice of JOHN BROWN [when backed by the entire "voice" of the abolition party of the North] alone in prison, surrounded by thousands of armed soldiers, yet preaching repentance to oppressors, and ready to cheerfully seal his doctrine with his blood, is convincing proof of the weakness, cowardice and guilt of the slaveholders to an earnest that BROWN is the John the Baptist of the new dispensation of freedom [What solemn mockery] and that nothing but the united and earnest protest of the people of the North, to break every slaveholding yoke in the Union and let the oppressed go

free.

Resolved, That as the pusillanimity of the North, and its want of fealty to the principles of freedom, have encouraged the growth and spread of slavery, and the arrogance of the slave power, it is time that the North should awake to its responsibilities and duties, and that as the Union is a mockery and a cheat to all who hold to the sentiments of the Declaration of Independence, and to the principles of Free Government, we should not be deterred from speaking the truth in regard to slavery, and the rights and duties of both the oppressors and the oppressed, by the silly and cowardly threats of dissolving the Union,' &c.

The following appeared among the telegraph items of

"NEW YORK, Nov. 2, 1859.—WENDELL PHILLIPS, of Boston, delivered a lecture last night, in Brooklyn, in which he argued that JOHN BROWN was the only American who had acted boldly up to the true American idea, and cast aside all those false and fatal warpings of an effete conservative, and refused to regard anything as government, or any statute as law, except those which conformed to his own sense of justice and right. [This is the Higher Law doctrine on the point of a pike] Virginia was not a state. Mr. WISE was not a Governor. The Union was not a nation. All these socalled governments were organized piracies, and JOHN BROWN was to-day the only real and true government on the soil of Virginia, and had an infinitely better right to hang Governor WISE than Gov. WISE had to hang him."

purpose of himself and his aiders and abettors Of course, having declared that it was the to dissolve the Union, it only remained for him to second the means he and his secessión compatriots had set in motion.

As that clause in the Constitution which recognizes the right to hold slaves, and also to forced upon the people of the North by the secure their return if they escaped, was not South, nor upon any State by the General Government, but was the free act of all the people combined, the utterance of such fulminations and the hundreds of others quoted in our "collection" of Abolition "curiosities," no The Rev. GEO. W. BASSETT, of Ottawa, Ill., language we can command can sufficiently exwas one of the speakers at the John Brown press the abhorance all good people must enmeeting in Chicago, and being severely criti-tertain of such fanatical and treasonable diacised by the Times of that city, wrote a note to the editor, of which the following is an extract:

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"When you tell your readers that I eulogized Capt. BROWN, of Ossawatamie. I thank you for it, and I regard it as the shame of a pusillanimous and servile age, that the heroism of that most remarkable and heroic man, is not appreciated. His epitaph, like that of the noble, but equally unfortunate EMMET, shall be written by a subsequent and disenthralled age.

"Sirs, I prefer your outspoken, fearless and terribly consistent advocacy of despotism; or, as you will say, slavery as it is, to a truckling and time serving spirit, that while seeking to use the anti-slavery sentiment of the country for a political result, tries to cast odium upon the very unpopular development of it."

This was said of those Republican sheets that professed to dislike the JOHN BROWN raid, for fear of its probable political consequences, which might be adverse to their political prospects:

tribes. We quote again:

"JOHN BROWN, dead, will live in millions of hearts. It will be easier to die in a good cause hallowed that mode of exit from the troubles even on the gallows, since JOHN BROWN has and temptations of this mortal existance. Then, as to the 'irrepressible conflict,' who does not see that this sacrifice must inevitably intensify its progress, and hasten its end? Why, PHILLIPS contends that was just what the JOHN BROWN raid was got up for.] Yes, JOHN BROWN dead, is verily a power-like ZISKA, dead, with his skin stretched on a drum SAMPSON in the falling temple of Dagon-like head, still routing the foes he bravely fought while he lived, so let us be reverently grateful for the privilege of living in a world rendered noble by the daring of heroes, the suffering of martyrs-among whom let none doubt that history will accord an honorable niche to old JOHN BROWN."-Horace Greeley.

Large handbills were posted in Philadelphia calling the citizens of the Republican "persuasion" together, Dec. 2, 1859, for the pur

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