over his own signature an article in the "National Intelligencer" discountenancing "raising the standard of education among the colored population," on the ground that it would not be just to the white population" to extend to the colored people a degree of instruction so far beyond their social and political condition; which condition," he contended, "must continue in this and every slaveholding community." But notwithstanding her straightened means and small accommodations and the stern opposition she encountered she was neither dismayed nor discouraged. Nothing daunted, she moved on with serene confidence in the successful issue of her plans, an issue, as forecasted in her enthusiastic and hopeful imaginings, in signal contrast with anything she had yet experienced. For her plans were comprehensive and contemplated large results. Nor did she seem at all inadequate to her part of what she had undertaken. With untiring energy, devotion, enthusiasm, not to say magnetism, she seemed wonderfully successful in impressing others and winning them to her support. By a fortunate purchase, at the moderate price of four thousand dollars, a whole square, containing some three acres, had been secured in the northwestern part of the city, on which was a small wooden house and three cabins. These became her seminary and home. She gave to each of her pupils a flower-plat, and required her to cultivate it. Here she gathered paintings, engravings, magazines, papers, and apparatus. Here, too, in addition to their ordinary studies, her pupils had the privilege of becoming interested and instructed in matters of literary and æsthetic culture. Her plan was to found a female college, with suitable accommodations for one hundred and fifty boarders, with all the provision and appliances of a first-class institution. The war, however, intervened; and soon after its close a severe accident suddenly arrested all effort on her part, and the project she so auspiciously began was never resumed, though Congress in 1863 incorporated an association which succeeded to this trust. This association sold the real estate for more than ten times the amount Miss Miner paid for it. It now has a fund of nearly fifty thousand dollars, the income of which is devoted to the education of colored youth for the profession of teachers. There is something touchingly impressive in the life and purpose of Miss Miner. To the great and grim tragedy of human affairs they afforded a delightful episode. In this selfish world, with its grasping, jostling throng, — she seemed like some angel ministrant on her mission of mercy. On the dark background of the nation's history it seemed an illuminated picture, resplendent with truthfulness and love. Her life of romantic incident was at once redolent and beautiful. It was in itself a sweet poem, a living evangel of a heart yearning toward humanity and filled with a sublime trust in God. Nothing, however, came of Mr. Brown's bill; nor was it brought up again for discussion. But the record of the debate remains, with its damaging admissions, its outrageous avowals, and its tyrannic demands. And such was slaveholding, its results and proclaimed necessities, in the high noon of the nineteenth century, at the capital of the great Republic, as described, too, by its own advocates themselves in the high places of the land. And it was for this they clamored so vociferously, sacrificed the amenities of friendly debate, the fraternal feelings of good neighborhood, and all the advantages of union; for this they were even then on the eve of rushing into rebellion and all the horrors and risks of civil war. CHAPTER XLV. JOHN BROWN'S INVASION OF VIRGINIA. Assault on Harper's Ferry. - Conflicting opinions. —John Brown's birth, early life, and characteristics. His deep philanthropy. His life in Kansas. His great work. -Meeting in Canada. - Plan of government. - Officers under it. Meeting in Central New York. Hesitation. Final acquiescence. - Move Secret committee. - Brown visits Boston. - Letters from Forbes. ment deferred. - Aid furnished by committee. Again visits Boston. THE raid on Harper's Ferry and its failure, the capture, trial, conviction, and execution of John Brown and his followers, startled and profoundly stirred the nation. The South was excited, furious, and unanimous. The North was hardly less excited, but regretful and divided. Antislavery men generally deplored and condemned the invasion, though they admired the stern devotion to principle and the heroism displayed therein, sympathized with its actors in their misfortunes, and mourned over its tragic results. Many, however, who admired and pitied the heroic old man and his hardly less heroic followers, felt that such a revolutionary movement compromised legitimate reforms and put in peril rightful opposition to slavery. Nor were they mistaken; for, at once and everywhere, proslavery men and presses sought to fix the odium of this lawless act upon antislavery organizations, and especially upon the Republican party. Although they signally failed in this, they did, for a time, greatly intensify the popular feeling against antislavery men and antislavery measures. John Brown was a Puritan, and a lineal descendant of the Pilgrims. He inherited the spirit as well as the blood of his ancestry. Born in Connecticut, in the year 1800, he was taken by his father, at the age of five years, to the Western Reserve. Living in straitened circumstances in that pioneer home, he early exhibited those marked developments of character which distinguished him in after life. He was strictly conscientious and sternly religious. The Bible and the experimental writings of such men as Baxter and Bunyan were the chosen companions of his leisure hours. Principle and a nice and exacting sense of justice were the regal elements of his character, and unselfishness the resplendent virtue of his strange career. To relieve suffering, and to vindicate the rights of the injured and oppressed, were the leading objects of his life. Recognizing no rightful claim of the master to his slave, the Underground Railroad early and ever found in him a practical and most efficient agent. Such relief of the oppressed, however, he deemed individual and of small account, and he looked for something more nearly adequate to the work to be accomplished. Despairing of a peaceful solution of the issue, the idea entered his mind that "perhaps a forcible separation of the connection between the slave and his master was necessary to educate the blacks for self-government." But, in common with his countrymen, he underestimated the strength and tenacity of the Slave Power, and underrated the difficulties in the way of the slave's redemption. Evidently, too, his wish was father to the thought, as he interpreted the probable designs of Providence towards removing the fearful evil. His reply, to one who informed him he had been marked by the Missourians for death, that "the angel of the Lord will camp round about me," revealed the secret conviction that his destiny was linked with that of the slave, and that he was a chosen instrument of the Lord to work out his deliverance. This thought unquestionably affords a key to his life, and explains many things which might otherwise seem inexplicable. With such convictions, it is not strange that such a man should be drawn to Kansas by the terrible scenes there enacted, there and that he should have taken a prominent part in that. great struggle; though the immediate cause of his going there was a request for arms from his four sons, who had gone to make for themselves homes. He hoped, too, to aid the struggling freemen there to rescue that fair territory from the polluting touch of slavery. Not to make for himself a home, but to aid others to build for coming generations, was this courageous, self-forgetful, and future martyr willing to en-counter the hardships and to brave the dangers which were involved in such a purpose. But he felt that his work, that for which he believed he was specially called of God, that over which his soul had brooded for nearly a generation, was not thus to be accomplished. He had done something, but it was only individual and fragmentary. He would relieve an enslaved race, and destroy the system that was crushing it. Combination and conference were needed, and early in the spring of 1858 he sent out a call from Chatham, Canada, for "a very quiet convention at this place" of the "true friends of freedom." Such a meeting was held; and one of its acts was the adoption of a paper, drafted by him, entitled "Provisional Constitution and Ordinances for the People of the United States." In this paper, designed to give shape and direction to the movement, it was provided that the offices of president and commander-in-chief should be held by different persons. Brown was elected commander-in-chief, Richard Realf was chosen secretary of state, and J. H. Kagi was made secretary of war. There is much that is strange and inexplicable in all this; and it will ever remain a mystery, whatever explanations may be made, how sane men could hope to establish such an organization, with a constitution setting forth the three departments of government, legislative, judicial, and executive, defining crimes and their penalties, including death even, and yet affirm, as it is affirmed in the forty-sixth of the forty-eight. articles, that "the foregoing articles shall not be construed so as in any way to encourage the oyerthrow of any State government or of the general government of the United States, |