THE MAN
_Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter
unto the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of
my Father which is in heaven._
--MATTHEW, 7:21
The picturesque figure which has been presented to the public as John
Brown is an historical myth--a fiction. The character, as it has been
exploited, is a contradiction of the laws that govern in human nature.
The material for it was furnished by partisans, who were unscrupulous
writers of the times of strenuous political excitement and national
unrest, in which Brown, by his deeds of violence, attracted public
attention. Following the practice of partisans, these writers wrote with
reckless disregard for the truth of their statements. Later, in the
ultimate crisis that occurred in his fortunes, he was eulogized in
surpassing eloquence by sincere people of high ideals, who were unaware
of the real character of the object of their adoration. They were not
informed concerning the criminal life which he had led, or of the
shockingly brutal crimes which he had committed; neither did they
understand that in his final undertaking he sought to involve a section
of our fair land in a carnival of rapine and bloodshed exceeding in
extent the horrors of San Domingo.[14] They were misled and were moved,
in their orations, solely by sentiment and misplaced sympathy. Instead
of a grim and unscrupulous soldier of fortune, leading a band of
desperate men in an effort to unloose in the Slave States the demon of
insurrection, they could see in him only a religious devotee, whom
their imaginations had created; whose life they believed had been a
devotion to deeds of charity and benevolence; who for years had been the
especial champion of the slave; and whose work in Kansas had been, as in
the existing crisis, an heroic and consistent consecration to duty. This
man now awaited execution for his immutability to a great cause. He
appeared to them to be a reincarnation of the virtuous primitive
Christian--an altruistic hero--who, willing to die for his convictions,
had "dared the unequal"; and, after battling heroically, though vainly,
for humanity, had offered himself a sacrifice, making "the gallows
glorious like the cross." These original laudations attracted, as Mr.
Morse has stated, a "horde of writers, who, with rills of versicles and
oceans of prose have overwhelmed his memory beneath torrents of wild
extravagant admiration."
Many persons therefore believe Brown to have been an exceptional person,
a man of deep religious fervor, of unimpeachable veracity and of the
strictest integrity. But a careful study of his life, as revealed by
himself, and as it has been written by his personal friends and his
friendly biographers, may well result in a different interpretation of
the man's character and actions.
John Brown was born at Torrington, Connecticut, May 9, 1800; but he was
not, as he claimed to be, "the sixth descendant of Peter Browne of the
Mayflower." The Peter Brown to whom John Brown's ancestry has been
traced, was born in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1632, as Mr. Villard shows
in very scholarly fashion.[15] The Peter Browne of the Mayflower left no
male issue; nor does John Brown's name appear upon the rolls of the
"Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants."[16] His grandfather
was a captain in the Eighteenth Connecticut Infantry, in the
Revolutionary Army. The father of John Brown--Owen Brown--was a
faithful, industrious citizen who for a livelihood followed the
occupation of shoemaker, tanner, and farmer. John learned the tannery
trade and began work when he was fifteen, and for the greater part of
the ensuing five years was employed as a foreman in his father's factory
at Hudson, Ohio.
On June 21, 1820, he was married to Miss Dianthe Lusk, the daughter of
his housekeeper. She became the mother of seven children; one of
whom--Frederick--was killed at Osawatomie. Her death occurred August 10,
1832; three days after the birth of a son; mother and son being buried
together. A second marriage was contracted on July 11, 1833, his bride
being Miss Mary Anne Day, daughter of Charles Day of Whitehall, New
York. Thirteen children were born of this union; seven of whom died in
early childhood; two--Watson and Oliver--were killed at Harper's Ferry.
As a tanner, at Hudson, Brown was successful, but he gave up his
business there and moved to Richmond, Pennsylvania, in May, 1825, where
he established a tannery. He was appointed postmaster at Richmond in
1828, and held the office until he moved to Franklin Mills, Ohio, in
1835. He left Richmond "because of financial distress."[17] At Franklin
Mills, he secured a contract for building the Ohio and Pennsylvania
Canal from there to Akron. The next year, he undertook some speculations
in real estate, and in company with a Mr. Thompson, borrowed $7,000 with
which to buy a tract of one hundred acres, for an "addition to
Franklin." During the same year, he, with others, organized the Franklin
Land Company, and purchased the water power, mills, lands, etc., in both
the "upper" and "lower" Franklin villages, combining the two water
powers at a central town-site, which he and his associates laid out.[18]
In these, and other schemes, Brown became so deeply involved that he
failed during the bad times of 1837; lost nearly all his property by
assignment to his creditors, and was then not able to pay all his debts,
some of which were never liquidated. His father also lost heavily
through him.[19]
His failure in business should not of itself count against him, but some
of the methods which he employed to extricate himself from his financial
embarrassment, were of a most fraudulent and criminal character. July
11, 1836, he applied to Heman Oviatt and others, to become security for
him on a note for $6,000 to the Western Reserve Bank. The note was not
paid, and the bank got judgment against the makers in May, 1837. August
2d, the judgment debtors gave a joint judgment bond for the amount of
the judgment against them, payable in sixty days. The bond not being
paid, the bank sued again, and Oviatt had to pay the bank in full. The
nature of the wrong done to Mr. Oviatt by Brown is described by Mr.
Villard on pages 37 and 38. He relates that at the time of this
transaction, Brown had a "penal bond of conveyance," but not the title,
for a piece of property known as "Westlands," which he assigned to
Oviatt, as collateral for Oviatt's having endorsed the judgment bond to
the bank. When the deed to the Westlands property was duly given to
Brown, he recorded it, without notifying Oviatt of this action. Later,
he mortgaged the property to two men, again without the knowledge of
Heman Oviatt. Meanwhile, Daniel G. Gaylord had recovered a judgment
against Brown in another transaction, and to satisfy it caused the sale
of Westlands by the sheriff. By collusion with Brown, the property was
bought in at the sale, by his friend, a former business associate, Amos
P. Chamberlain. Oviatt "brought suit to have the sale of Westlands to
Chamberlain set aside as fraudulent, but the Supreme Court of Ohio held
that Chamberlain had a rightful title, and dismissed the suit. John
Brown himself was not directly sued by Oviatt, being, to use a lawyer's
term, 'legally safe' throughout the entire transaction.... Even after
this lapse of years his action in secretly recording the transfer of the
land, and then mortgaging it, bears an unpleasant aspect."[20]
Meanwhile, the parties to the fraud upon Oviatt quarreled. Brown refused
to give up occupation of the land to Chamberlain; assuming that
Chamberlain had not treated him fairly in the matter; and held
possession of the property, in "a shanty on the place, by force of arms,
until compelled to desist by the sheriff...." Finally, the sheriff
arrested Brown and two sons, John and Owen, who were thereupon placed in
the Akron jail. Chamberlain, having destroyed the shanty which Brown had
occupied, and obtained possession of the land, allowed the case to drop,
and Brown and his sons were released.[21] Mr. Sanborn, on page 55,
disposes of the matter in this way:
The affair is explained by his son John as follows: "The
farm father lost by endorsing a note for a friend. It was
attached and sold by the Sheriff at the County seat. The
only bidder against my father was an old neighbor, hitherto
regarded as a friend, who became the purchaser. Father's
lawyer advised him to hold the fort for a time at least,
and endeavor to secure terms from the purchaser. There was,
as I remember, an old shot gun in the house, but it was not
loaded nor pointed at any one. No Sheriff came on the
premises; no officer or posse was resisted; no threat of
violence offered."
Brown was not so staid and prosaic in his daily walk and conversation as
to be indifferent to the sports and amusements of life. He seems to have
been simply an active man of the world, getting as much worldly
enjoyment for himself out of his environment as possible. He was a
horseman with a fancy for horse racing; and while at Franklin, indulged
in the very interesting and sportsmanlike business, or diversion, of
breeding "fast running horses for racing purposes." He bred from a well
known horse of that time called "Count Piper"; and the name of another
favorite sire was "John McDonald." He is said to have dismissed
criticism of his conduct from a moral point of view, by the argument
that "if he did not breed them some one else would."[22]
From 1837 to 1841 Brown lived alternately at Franklin, and at Hudson,
Ohio. In 1838 he became a "drover," and drove cattle from Ohio to
Connecticut. In this business he had trouble with his associates,
Tertius Wadsworth and Joseph Wells, who furnished the capital; and was
sued by them for an accounting.[23] In December, 1838, "he negotiated
for the agency of a New York Steel Scythes house." And in January, 1839,
he made his first venture in sheep, at West Hartford, Connecticut. He
brought the sheep to Albany by boat, and drove them from there to Ohio.
In June of that year he made his final drive to the east with cattle,
and, while at New Hartford, committed a crime of unusual enormity. It
appears that he proposed to the New England Woolen Company, of
Rockville, Connecticut, to act as its agent in buying wool, and induced
it to intrust to him $2,800 with which to begin purchasing the wool. The
negotiations for this money were a deception throughout, in pursuance of
theft. Brown did not intend to buy any wool with the money which he
sought to have intrusted to his keeping for that purpose; but did intend
to convert it to his own use--to make "a much brighter day" in his
affairs. He also deceived his wife, whom he caused to believe that he
was trying to secure a loan. Nor did he hesitate to have the crime,
which he was committing, called to the attention of the God whom he
pretended to serve, but asked her to ask "God's blessing" upon him in
his pursuit of this purpose. Greater hypocrisy and depravity hath no man
than this. The letter which he wrote to his wife in relation to the
transaction is as follows:[24]
New Hartford, 12th June, 1839.
MY DEAR WIFE AND CHILDREN:
I write to let you know that I am in comfortable health,
and that I expect to be on my way home in the course of a
week should nothing befall me. If I am longer detained I
will write you again. The cattle business has succeeded
about as I expected, but I am now somewhat in fear that I
shall fail in getting the money I expected on the loan.
Should that be the will of Providence I know of no other
way but we must consider ourselves very poor for our debts
must be paid, if paid at a sacrifice. Should that happen
(though it may not) I hope God who is rich in mercy, will
grant us all grace to conform to our circumstances with
cheerfulness and resignation. I want to see each of my dear
family very much but must wait God's time. Try all of you
to do the best you can, and do not one of you be
discouraged--tomorrow may be a much brighter day. Cease not
to ask God's blessing on yourselves and me. Keep this
letter wholly to yourselves, excepting that I expect to
start home soon, and that I did not write confidently about
my success should any one enquire. Edmond is well and Owen
Mills. You may show this to father but to no one else.
I am not without great hopes of getting relief, I would not
have you understand, but things have looked more
unfavorable for a few days. I think I shall write you again
before I start.
Earnestly commending every one of you to God, and to his
mercy, which endureth forever, I remain your affectionate
husband and father,
JOHN BROWN.
This beautiful letter, written to his wife in relation to the
prosecution of a criminal design, stands as a _study_ of John Brown
which the student may well contemplate with profit. It is written in
the attractive style, and in the spiritual language characteristic of
Brown's correspondence. It is strikingly similar to the letters that he
gave out from the Charlestown jail, which, in their apparently
devotional simplicity, and humble sincerity and trust in the mercy of
God, won for him there his "victory over death." This letter was a
dissimulation, the proof of which lies in the consummation of the
negotiations for the money; and in the appropriation of it to his own
use, at a time when he was hopelessly involved. It is a real key to the
history of his life; it discloses his true character, and shatters to
fragments every hypothesis that Brown was either sincere, devout, or
honest.
"Three days after the receipt of this letter," Mr. Villard relates,
"Brown received from the New England Woolen Company at Rockville, Conn.,
twenty-eight hundred dollars, through its agent George Kellogg, for the
purchase of wool, which money, regretfully enough, he pledged for his
own benefit and was then unable to redeem. Fortunately for him the
Company exercised leniency toward him."[25] Later it permitted him to go
through bankruptcy, upon the condition that he would endeavor to repay
the money. Brown's letter in acknowledgment of the "great kindness" to
him therein, is as follows:[26]
Richfield, Octo. 17, 1842.
Whereas I, John Brown, on or about the 15th day of June
1839, received from the New England Company (through their
Agent George Kellogg, Esq.) the sum of twenty-eight hundred
dollars for the purchase of wool for said Company, and
imprudently pledged the same for my own benefit, and could
not redeem it; and whereas I have been legally discharged
from my obligations by the laws of the United States--I
hereby agree in consideration of the great kindness and
tenderness of said Company toward me in my calamity, and
more particularly of the moral obligation I am under to
render them their due, to pay the same and interest
thereon, from time to time, as Divine Providence shall
enable me to do. Witness my hand and seal.
JOHN BROWN.
To Mr. Kellogg, agent for the woolen company, he wrote:
Richfield, Summit County, Ohio, Octo. 17, 1842.
George Kellogg, Esq.
Dear Sir--I have just received information of my final
discharge as a bankrupt in the District Court, and I ought
to be grateful that no one of my creditors has made any
opposition to such discharge being given. I shall now if my
life is continued, have an opportunity of proving the
sincerity of my past professions, when legally free to act
as I choose. I am sorry to say that in consequence of the
unforeseen expense of getting the discharge, the loss of an
ox, and the destitute condition in which a new surrender of
my effects has placed me, with my numerous family, I fear
this year must pass without my effecting in the way of
payment what I have encouraged you to expect
(notwithstanding I have been generally prosperous in my
business for the season).
Respectfully your unworthy friend,
JOHN BROWN.
To Mr. Villard the public owes its obligation for the quite complete
history of this transaction. Mr. Sanborn, in his record of it, saw fit
to suppress the letter of June 12, 1839. He, evidently, garbled the
correspondence relating to this criminal incident in Brown's life, with
the intention of practicing a deception upon the public. Commenting upon
the two letters of October 17, 1842, he said:[27]
These papers show the real integrity of Brown, in a
transaction in which he might have escaped the obligation
which he thus assumed.
That Brown promised restitution of the money herein, as a means to
forestall criminal proceedings against him; and gave the above
acknowledgment of the debt, and renewed promise to pay, as a condition
precedent to being permitted to go into the court of bankruptcy, is
evident from the two preceding letters. It is also apparent from his
letter to Mr. Kellogg, that he did not intend to fulfill the promises he
had made. At his death, "this debt, like many others, was still unpaid,"
notwithstanding the fact that two years after his proceedings in
bankruptcy he became prosperous, "with the most trying financial periods
of his life behind him."[28]
With money in his pocket wherewith to commence life anew, Brown
conceived the idea of leaving that part of the country and settling in
Virginia, upon land[29] belonging to Oberlin College. He probably
obtained information concerning the land from his father, who was a
trustee of the college. On April 1, 1840, he appeared before a committee
of the trustees, and opened negotiations with it for an agreement to
survey the Virginia land, and to purchase some of it. Two days later he
submitted a proposal "to visit, survey and make the necessary
investigation respecting the boundaries, etc. of these lands, for one
dollar per day, and a modest allowance for necessary expenses." He also
stated that this was to be a preliminary step towards locating thereon,
with his family, "should the opening prove a favorable one," and in the
event of his so locating, he was to receive one thousand acres of the
land. The trustees promptly accepted his offer, and the treasurer was
ordered to furnish him with "a Commission and Needful outfit,"[30] which
was done the same day. He immediately proceeded to Virginia and entered
upon his duties. April 27th he wrote to his wife from Ripley, Virginia:
I have seen the spot where, if it be the will of Providence, I
hope one day to live with my family.
July 14, 1840, he filed his report, and on August 11th he was notified
that the prudential committee of the trustees had been authorized by the
board to "perfect negotiations, and convey to Brother John Brown, of
Hudson, Ohio, one thousand acres of our Virginia land, on conditions
suggested in the correspondence between him and the committee." Replying
to the letter January 2, 1841, he wrote:
... I feel prepared to say definitely that I expect,
Providence willing, to accept the proposal of your
Board.... I shall expect to receive a thousand acres of
land in a body, that will include a living spring of water
discharging itself at a height sufficient to accommodate a
tannery as I shall expect to pursue that business on a
small scale if I go....
The trustees meanwhile, for reasons which have not been made public,
changed their minds on the subject, and Brown's letter to their Mr.
Burnell of February 5, 1841, reaffirming his intention to accept the
land, as proposed, was never answered.[31]
Failing in his effort to establish himself in Virginia, he engaged in
the sheep raising industry, in the spring of 1841, in company with
Captain Oviatt, at Richfield, Ohio. He was successful and "gradually
became known as a winner of prizes for sheep, and cattle at the annual
fairs, in Summit County." By 1844 he had gained the reputation of a
successful wool grower, and in that year formed "a partner-ship with
Simon Perkins, Jr. of Akron, Ohio, with a view to carry on the sheep
business extensively."[32] He moved to Akron April 10th of that year.
Concerning his home at Akron, Mr. Villard says:
They occupied a cottage on what is still known as Perkins
Hill, near Simon Perkins own home, with an extensive and
charming view over hill and dale--an ideal sheep country,
and a location which must have attracted any one save a
predisposed wanderer.
Two years later it was decided to establish a headquarters at
Springfield, Massachusetts. There Brown went "to reside as one of the
firm of Perkins and Brown, agents of the sheep-farmers and wool
merchants in northern Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia, whose
interests then required an agency to stand between them and the wool
manufacturers of New England, to whom they sold their fleeces."[33]
Of this arrangement Mr. Villard says on page 35: "John Brown was within
bounds in thus exulting; even though the Perkins partner-ship resulted
eventually in severe losses and dissolution. At least it was a
connection with a high minded and prosperous man, and it lasted ten
years. When it was over, the partners were still friends, but Mr.
Perkins did not retain a high opinion of John Brown's ability or
sagacity as a business man." Mr. Sanborn states on page 57, that when
Mr. Perkins was questioned by him, in 1878, about Brown's wool growing
and wool dealing, he replied: "The less you can say about them the
better."
As to the business, there seems to have been trouble from the
commencement of it. Mr. Villard says on page 60: "Moreover some
customers had just grievances, for the letter book contains far too many
apologies for failure to acknowledge letters and shipments, and to make
out accurate accounts, for so young a firm."
In August, 1849, Brown made his historic trip to London to superintend,
personally, the sale of wool, which he had shipped to that market,
because he could not obtain prices that were satisfactory to him from
the manufacturers of woolens in his home market. The amount of wool so
consigned was about two hundred thousand pounds. The Northampton Woolen
Mills Company of Northampton, Massachusetts, had bid sixty cents a pound
for this wool at Springfield. In London, September 17th, a lot of one
hundred and fifty bales of it was sold for twenty-six to twenty-nine
cents per pound. The buyer was the "Northampton Woolen Mills Co., of
Mass., U. S. A."[34] Brown returned home in October "bringing back with
him the portion of the wool which he had been unable to sell. The loss
on this venture was probably as high as $40,000."[35] The firm of
Perkins and Brown then began proceedings in liquidation, which had been
under consideration for some time before Brown made the trip to Europe.
The losses sustained by the company were upon a large scale. Suits
against them were brought for more than one hundred thousand
dollars.[36]
In 1850 Brown contemplated engaging in the manufacture of wine upon a
large scale; and on December 4th, wrote to his sons to send him some
samples of the wines they had made. He said: "I want Jason to obtain
from Mr. Perkins, or anywhere he can get them, two good Junk bottles,
have them thoroughly cleaned, and filled with cherry wine, being very
careful not to roil it up before filling the bottles,--providing good
corks, and filling them perfectly full. These I want him to pack safely
in a very small strong box, which he can make, direct them to Perkins &
Brown, Springfield, Mass., and send them by express. We can affect
something to purpose by producing unadulterated domestic wines. They
will command great prices."[37]
In 1846, Gerrit Smith, a wealthy philanthropist of Peterboro, New York,
set aside one hundred and twenty thousand acres of his large estate in
northern New York, to be divided up into farms, and given, without
charge, to worthy colored people who would settle upon them and improve
them for their permanent homes. Brown heard of this proposition in
course of time, and made a proposal to Mr. Smith to settle among the
negroes on these lands, and aid them by precept and example in their
efforts at home building. In consideration of this, it is probable that
Brown secured title to some land on equal terms with the negroes, and
possibly secured options on other tracts, at satisfactory prices and
terms of payment. His experience with the Oberlin College people in
relation to the Virginia lands, heretofore referred to, was probably of
service to him in this transaction with Smith. The tracts which he
selected were at Timbuctoo, or North Elba, and in the spring of 1849 he
located his family upon the land; but in March, 1851, moved back to
Akron. Brown himself did not go to North Elba to live. His time was
taken up in liquidating the tangled affairs of Perkins and Brown, and
with the extensive litigation involved in the settlement of them.
Litigation seems to have been a constant and conspicuous feature of
Brown's commercial life. Mr. Villard says[38] that "on the records of
the Portage County Court of Common Pleas are no less than twenty-one
lawsuits in which John Brown figured as defendant during the years 1820
to 1845. Of these, thirteen were actions brought to recover money loaned
on promissory notes either to Brown singly or in company with others.
The remaining suits were mostly claims for wages, or payments due, or
for nonfulfillment of contracts.... In ten other cases he was
successfully sued and judgments were obtained against him individually
or jointly with others. In three cases those who sued him were
non-suited as being without real cause for action, and two other cases
were settled out of court. Four cases Brown won, among them being a suit
for damages for false arrest and assault and battery, brought by an
alleged horse thief, because Brown, and other citizens, had aided a
constable in arresting him. A number of these suits grew out of Brown's
failure in his real estate speculations. A serious litigation was an
action brought by the Bank of Wooster to recover on a Bill of Exchange,
drawn by Brown and others, on the Leather Manufacturers Bank of New
York, and repudiated by that institution on the ground that Brown and
his associates had no money in the bank. During the suit the amount
claimed was rapidly reduced, and when the judgment was rendered against
him it was for $917.65.... In 1845 Daniel C. Gaylord, who several times
had sued Brown, succeeded in compelling him and his associates to convey
to him certain Franklin lands, which they had contracted to sell, but
the title for which they refused to convey. The court upheld Gaylord's
claim. The only case in which Brown figured as plaintiff was settled out
of court." This is consistently a bad record.
The year 1854 brought the settlement of Kansas to the front and the
wrecked and practically penniless Browns decided to emigrate to the new
Territory. Not with the "ax and gun" went they, as will be seen, but
with the ax, and with the hope of bettering their condition. The
necessity for the gun was developed later--in 1855--and by the
Free-State men who had preceded the Browns into the Territory.
It seems the family planned to establish a little colony or group of
farms--"Brownsville"--and that while the sons were to be engaged in
opening up the farms, the father would try to earn some money in
surveying, which would be a very grateful and necessary assistance to
them while struggling with the many discouraging incidents which usually
befell the impecunious preëmptor. That such were their conclusions
appears from a letter which Brown wrote February 13, 1855, to Mr. John
W. Cook, of Wolcottville, Connecticut. He said:[39] "Since I saw you I
have undertaken to direct the operations of a Surveying & exploring
party, to be employed in Kansas for a considerable time perhaps for some
Two or Three years; & I lack for time to make all my arrangements, and
get on the ground in season." In pursuance of his intention to move to
Kansas, he relocated with his family on the North Elba farm.
This review of Brown's career discloses a life spent, thus far, in a
series of strenuous struggles with various problems, covering a wide
range in the field of commercial activity. All his efforts had ended in
disappointment and failure. The removal to North Elba marks his
retirement, in defeat, from the world of trade, and finds him, as the
result of his failures, living with his dependent family upon a small
tract of mountain land, of little value, that had been given to him as a
condition of his settlement thereon. They had "moved into an unplastered
four-room house, the rudest kind of a pioneer home, built for him by his
son-in-law, Henry Thompson, who had married his daughter Ruth."[40]
What Brown's religious belief was is problematical. He was a student of
the Bible, and, as he said, "possessed a most unusual memory of its
entire contents." The Book, as a whole, was his creed, and upon its
teachings he placed his personal interpretations. He spoke and wrote,
when he so desired, in its phraseology; and by this distinction, in
contradiction of the character of his actions, he gained a reputation
for being a Christian. He may have been a Presbyterian, as has been
said; or he may have been a Methodist, as has also been stated; and
there is equal authority for the statement that he belonged to the
Congregational church; but, it would seem that if he had been a
consistent member of _any_ of these churches, his historic name would
have been proudly borne upon the rolls of membership, in the
congregations to which he belonged; and the fact of his membership
therein clearly established. It would further seem that he would have
stated the fact of such membership in connection with what he did say,
in 1857, in relation to his religious experience. It appears however,
that while assuming to believe firmly in the divine authenticity of the
Bible, he had become only to "some extent a convert to Christianity."
There is no evidence that he ever attended public worship in Kansas, or
at any place during the latter years of his life, or that he engaged in
prayer. Also, it would seem, that if he had been "a student at
Morris Academy" in either 1816 or 1819, as a preparation for
college--Amherst--with an ultimate purpose so creditable as "entering
the ministry," he would have referred to the fact, incidentally at
least, in his _Autobiography_, which treats specifically of his
education.[41]
The Rev. H. D. King of Kinsman, Ohio, met Brown frequently at Tabor,
Iowa, during August and September, 1857. He probably regarded him as an
infidel, but did not wish to say so. "He was rather skeptical, I think,"
he said; "not an infidel, but not bound by creeds. He was somewhat
cranky on the subject of the Bible as he was on that of killing
people."[42] In the last letter which Brown wrote to his family,
November 30, 1859, two days before his execution, he said:[43]
I must yet insert the reason for my firm belief in the
Bible, notwithstanding I am, perhaps, naturally
skeptical--certainly not credulous.... It is the purity of
heart, filling our minds as well as work and actions, which
is everywhere insisted on, that distinguishes it from all
other teachings, that commends it to my conscience....
The late Mr. George B. Gill of Kansas, who was a member of Brown's
cabinet--secretary of the treasury--said of him: "He was very human. The
angel wing's were so dim and shadowy as to be almost unseen."
Brown's younger sons were infidels. They had "discovered the Bible to be
all fiction."[44] To the Sabbath day and its sanctity, he was
indifferent. In violation of the stricter conventions, which prevailed
at that time, concerning the observance of it as "Holy unto the Lord,"
he committed the principal crimes incident to his career, wholly or in
part, on the Sabbath. A part of the murders and thefts on the
Pottawatomie were committed on Sunday morning, May 25, 1856. Returning
to Kansas from Nebraska City (August 9th and 10th) half the journey was
made on Sunday, August 10th. "On August 24," 1856 (Sunday), "the Brown
and Cline companies set out for the South, marching eight miles and
camping on Sugar Creek."[45] Sunday night, October 16, 1859, was the
time fixed for the insurrection of the slaves to occur, and on that
night, in pursuance of his plans, he occupied Harper's Ferry.
Brown was averse to military operations, and military affairs. He
refused to drill with the local militia, paying the fines instead, which
were imposed by law for such delinquencies. In political matters he
affiliated with the Abolitionists, or with those of the party who were
"non-resistants."[46]
The statements which have been put forth in support of the assumption
that Brown's life was a devotion to the Anti-Slavery cause--a series of
abnormal activities in opposition to slavery--are not confirmed, nor can
they be justified by any contemporaneous evidence. For notwithstanding
the persistent, if not offensive, insistence of his biographers to the
contrary; and the pages without number which have been written in
support of such insistence, the record of his life is practically
barren in relation to the subject. There is not a scrap of concurrent
evidence which, even remotely, suggests that prior to 1855 he might have
taken more than a most ordinary interest in securing freedom for the
slaves. Even in his letter of that year to Mr. John W. Cook (_note_ 40),
informing him of his intention to go to Kansas, and of his motive for
going thereto, he made no reference to the subject whatever. A statement
of everything which Brown did, or that he attempted to do up to that
year, in opposition to slavery, may be republished in this book without
encumbering its pages. It will therefore be given.
In 1857, after Brown had ceased to be a non-resistant, and was in the
East professionally advocating war in Kansas; he wrote that during the
late war with England an incident "occurred that made him a most
determined Abolitionist: & led him to declare or _Swear_: _Eternal war_
with Slavery." But Mr. Villard, having the infant Pardigles prodigy in
mind, makes the point that "the oaths of a lad of such tender years do
not often become the guiding force of maturity." A Mr. Blakesley, with
whom Brown, before his marriage, kept bachelor's hall, relates that one
evening a runaway slave came to their door, and asked for food, which
was given him freely. John Brown, Jr., relates the same, or a similar,
incident as occurring eight years later. The dramatic settings in each
case are practically similar: Night! Sound of horses' feet approaching!
Flight of fugitive, or fugitives, into the adjacent timber! False alarm!
Subsequent search for, and locating of the fugitive "by the sound of the
beating of his heart!" Finale: "Brown swears eternal enmity to
slavery!"[47] Both of the tales are of the legendary type common to
Brown literature. Mr. Blakesley's story is probably in part true, but
whether either of them, or both of them, be true is without
significance. It would indeed have been difficult to find a person
living in the North at that time, who would have refused a poor
fugitive slave the measure of assistance asked for in this case.
On another occasion Brown is represented as taking the members of his
family into his confidence, and enlisting them for life in the "eternal
war" which he is said to have been personally waging; taking the
precaution to swear them to secrecy. Jason Brown states that they were
"merely sworn to do all in their power to abolish slavery," and does not
use the word "force."[48] But as related by John Brown, Jr., the
occasion was much more dramatic and far reaching. He says:[49]
It is, of course, impossible for me to say when such idea
and plan first entered his (John Brown's) mind and became a
purpose; but I can say with certainty that he first
informed his family that he entertained such purpose while
we were yet living in Franklin, O. (now called Kent), and
before he went to Virginia, in 1840, to survey the lands
which had been donated by Arthur Tappan to Oberlin College;
and this was certainly as early as 1839. The place and the
circumstances where he first informed us of that purpose
are as perfectly in my memory as any other event in my
life. Father, mother, Jason, Owen and I were, late in the
evening, seated around the fire in the open fire-place of
the kitchen, in the old Haymaker house where we then lived;
and there he first informed us of his determination to make
war on slavery--not such war as Mr. Garrison informs us
"was equally the purpose of the non-resistant
abolitionists," but war by force and arms. He said that he
had long entertained such a purpose--that he believed it
his duty to devote his life, if need be, to this object,
which he made us fully to understand. After spending
considerable time in setting forth in most impressive
language the hopeless condition of the slave, he asked who
of us were willing to make common cause with him in doing
all in our power to "break the jaws of the wicked and pluck
the spoil out of his teeth," naming each of us in
succession. Are you, Mary, John, Jason, and Owen?
Receiving an affirmative answer from each, he kneeled in
prayer, and all did the same. This posture in prayer
impressed me greatly as it was the first time I had ever
known him to assume it. After prayer he asked us to raise
our right hands, and he then administered to us an oath,
the exact terms of which I cannot recall, but in substance
it bound us to secrecy and devotion to the purpose of
fighting slavery by force and arms to the extent of our
ability.
Referring to this incident Mr. Villard says:[50] "It must be noted here
that in this letter John Brown, Jr., gives the date of the oath as 1839;
in his lengthy affidavit in the case of Gerrit Smith against the Chicago
_Tribune_, he gave the date as 1836, three years earlier, and in an
account given in Mr. Sanborn's book he placed it at 1837; three distinct
times for the same event. It can, therefore, best be stated as occurring
before 1840."
In the opinion of the writer, it could, perhaps, "best be stated" as not
having occurred at all. As has been heretofore stated, Brown was at that
time a non-resistant, and there is no concurrent evidence that he
treasured a thought of using force against slavery until after Robinson
suggested it by arming the Free-State men in Kansas in the spring of
1855. The incident may therefore be considered as apocryphal. It is a
part of the mass of legendary literature that has overwhelmed Brown's
"simple, noble memory."
The improvisation of these two incidents, shows the strait in which John
Brown, Jr., was placed, when called upon, by Mr. Sanborn, to narrate
some of the incidents occurring in the course of his father's
anti-slavery activities. There being none, nothing whatever to tell, he
filched the Blakesley incident and related it as one occurring under his
personal observation, and put it forth along with the fiction concerning
the dramatic function just related, to relieve himself from an
embarrassing situation.
In a letter written nearly twenty years after the Blakesley incident is
said to have occurred, Brown disclosed the character of the "eternal
war" which he really proposed to wage, if any, against slavery. It was
to "get at least one negro boy or youth and bring him up as we do our
own,--give him a good English education, learn him what we can about the
history of the world, about business, about general subjects, and, above
all, try to teach him the fear of God." In the same letter he seeks to
interest his brother--Frederick--in a school for blacks which he wanted
to open at Randolph. He thought "if the young blacks of our country
could once become enlightened, it would most assuredly operate on
slavery like firing powder confined in a rock." Incidentally, he
intended to own the school, and thought it would pay.[51]
While the suggestion to attack slavery in the manner outlined in this
letter is the first recorded movement, or act of aggression, in the much
talked of eternal war; and while it may be regarded as a sort of opening
gun; though not a loud one, the proposal contained therein may be
considered merely as being a commercial venture, for pecuniary profit,
that he desired to engage in, rather than as a scheme in negro
philanthropy. He thought the venture would be profitable, and offered to
divide the profits arising from it with his brother upon terms that
"shall be fair." Also it may be stated that at the time he made this
proposal he was in the toils of insolvency. Six months later he left
Randolph in straitened circumstances. It is therefore probable that he
was moved to suggest the opening of a school for blacks by personal
considerations, and that but for such reasons the letter containing the
proposal would not have been written.
In 1848, while a resident of Springfield, Massachusetts, Brown wrote
some articles reflecting upon the negro character; criticising negroes
because of their vanity and shiftlessness. They were written under the
caption: "Sambo's Mistakes," and were published in the _Ram's Horn_, a
newspaper conducted by negroes, in New York. They do not relate to
slavery.[52]
In 1850 he made the first, and, it may be said, the only noticeable
effort in behalf of the anti-slavery cause, that is recorded of him
prior to 1854. The Fugitive Slave Law, enacted by the Thirty-first
Congress, provided for the use of all the forces of the Department of
Justice, to effect the arrest of fugitives from slavery, and the
restoration of them to their masters. Brown conceived the idea of
uniting the free negroes and fugitive slaves in an organization to
resist the enforcement of the provisions of this law. The society was to
be called "The United States League of Gileadites." The plan failed; the
enrollment so far as known was confined to the Springfield,
Massachusetts, branch, which numbered fifty-three members.[53] But the
activities therein undertaken were strictly defensive in their
character; they were not directed against slavery, but for the personal
protection of fugitive slaves and free negroes living in the Northern
States. His letter of advice to the Gileadites is, in part, as
follows:[54]
WORDS OF ADVICE
"Union is Strength"
Nothing so charms the American people as personal bravery.
Witness the case of Cinques, of everlasting memory, on
board the "Amistad." The trial for life of one bold and to
some extent successful man, for defending his rights in
good earnest, would arouse more sympathy throughout the
nation than the accumulated wrongs and sufferings of more
than three millions of our submissive colored population.
We need not mention the Greeks struggling against the
oppressive Turks, the Poles against Russia, nor the
Hungarians against Austria and Russia combined, to prove
this. _No jury can be found in the Northern States that
would convict a man for defending his rights to the last
extremity. This is well understood by Southern Congressmen,
who insisted that the right of trial by jury should not be
granted to the fugitive._ Colored people have ten times the
number of fast friends among the whites than they suppose,
and would have ten times the number they now have were they
but half as much in earnest to secure their dearest rights
as they are to ape the follies and extravagances of their
luxury. Just think of the money expended by individuals in
your behalf in the past twenty years! Think of the number
who have been mobbed and imprisoned on your account! Have
any of you seen the Branded Hand? Do you remember the names
of Lovejoy and Torrey?
Should one of your number be arrested, you must collect
together as quickly as possible, so as to outnumber your
adversaries who are taking an active part against you. Let
no able-bodied man appear on the ground unequipped, or with
his weapons exposed to view; let that be understood
beforehand. Your plans must be known only to yourself, and
with the understanding that all traitors must die, wherever
caught and proven to be guilty. "Whosoever is fearful or
afraid, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead"
(Judges, vii. 3; Deut. xx. 8). Give all cowards an
opportunity to show it on condition of holding their peace.
_Do not delay one moment after you are ready; you will lose
all your resolution if you do. Let the first blow be the
signal for all to engage; and when engaged do not do your
work by halves, but make clean work with your enemies, and
be sure you meddle not with any others._ By going about
your business quietly, you will get the job disposed of
before the number that an uproar would bring together can
collect; and you will have the advantage of those who come
out against you, for they will be wholly unprepared with
either equipments or matured plans; all with them will be
confusion and terror. Your enemies will be slow to attack
you after you have done up the work nicely; and if they
should, they will have to encounter your white friends as
well as you; for you may safely calculate on a division of
the whites, and may by that means get to an honorable
parley.
Be firm, determined, and cool; but let it be understood
that you are not to be driven to desperation without making
it an awful dear job to others as well as to you....
A lasso might possibly be applied to a slave-catcher for
once with good effect. Hold on to your weapons, and never
be persuaded to leave them, part with them, or have them
far away from you. _Stand by one another and by your
friends, while a drop of blood remains; and be hanged, if
you must, but tell no tales out of school. Make no
confession._
In a letter to his wife, January 17, 1851, relating to the same subject,
he said:[55]
DEAR WIFE ... Since the sending off to slavery of Long from
New York, I have improved my leisure hours quite busily
with colored people here, in advising them how to act, and
in giving them all the encouragement in my power. They very
much need encouragement and advice; and some of them are so
alarmed that they tell me they cannot sleep on account of
either themselves or their wives and children. I can only
say I think I have been enabled to do something to revive
their broken spirits. I want all my family to imagine
themselves in the same dreadful condition. My only spare
time being taken up (often until late hours at night) in
the way I speak of, have prevented me from the gloomy
homesick feelings which had before so much oppressed me:
not that I forget my family at all.
The assumption that Brown, "The peaceful tanner and shepherd," had at
this time been transformed "into a man burning to use arms upon an
institution which refused to yield to peaceful agitation,"[56] is not
justified by anything that he had theretofore said or done relating to
slavery; neither is it justified by what he wrote to the "Gileadites,"
nor by the letter which he wrote to his wife concerning the condition of
the free negroes. These papers contain no hint, to say nothing of
evidence, that the action taken therein by him was the result of any
preconceived intention to attack slavery; or that it was related to any
general plan or purpose to oppose slavery; or that it foreshadowed any
disposition on his part, burning or otherwise, to engage in the matter
any further than by counsel and advice. The letter to his wife reflects
the general sense of compassion that was felt for the negroes, by all
humane people throughout the North, because of the distressful condition
in which they were placed by the terms of the Fugitive Slave Law.
The foregoing is a recital of all that is contained in the record of
Brown's life concerning his anti-slavery activities up to the year 1852.
In the working of that great engine for emancipation, the Underground
Railway, he took no part. Of the more than seventy-five thousand slaves
who were carried from bondage to freedom by the self-sacrificing
agencies of the system, Brown, it is said, gave shelter and a meal to
but one of them. The late Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, militant
clergyman and abolitionist, in a eulogy upon Brown, said:[57]
... It had been my privilege to live in the best society
all my life--namely that of abolitionists and fugitive
slaves. I had seen the most eminent persons of the age:
several on whose heads tens of thousands of dollars had
been set; a black woman, who, after escaping from slavery
herself, had gone back secretly eight times into the jaws
of death to bring out persons whom she had never seen; and
a white man, who after assisting away fugitives by the
thousand, had twice been stripped of every dollar of his
property in fines, and when taunted by the Court, had
mildly said, "Friend if thee knows any poor fugitive in
need of a breakfast, send him to Thomas Garrett's door." I
had known these, and such as these; but I had not known the
Browns....
This well informed man; this practical and intellectual leader of the
anti-slavery movement had been Brown's neighbor for years. Why was it
that he had never heard of him? There is but one answer: Brown had not
been a worker in Mr. Higginson's vineyard. He had not done anything to
attract the attention of any one seriously interested in the
anti-slavery cause. He was neither an ardent nor a conspicuous laborer
in behalf of the slave.
However, what has been stated herein is the credit side of Brown's
account with slavery; there is also a debit side in this history which
exhibits strong presumptive evidence that his "horror" of slavery was
neither so "passionate" nor so violent but that it could be controlled
and modified to accommodate itself to the advantages of the system. When
John Brown, the man of affairs, decided to become a resident of the
State of Virginia, and engage in business there upon a one thousand acre
estate, he knew that he would have to employ some slave labor. He knew
also that the "good will" and the patronage of the people living in the
section of the country in which he intended to locate, were necessary
for the success of his undertaking; these he knew he could not secure
unless he conformed to the commercial and social customs prevailing in
Virginia, and to the sentiment of Virginians in relation to slavery.
These conditions this aggressive speculator and sportsman, did consider
and did accept. The letter which he wrote to his wife from Ripley,
Virginia, suggests, as a matter of fact, that he had declared a truce in
his opposition to slavery, whatever the degree of such opposition may
have been; and that he had changed his attitude toward the system to
meet the requirements of his prospective environment. The letter,
abridged by Mr. Sanborn, is as follows:[58]
Ripley, Va., April 27, 1840.
... I like the country as well as I expected and its
inhabitants rather better; and I have seen the spot where,
if it be the will of Providence, I hope one day to live
with my family.... Were the inhabitants as resolute and
industrious as the Northern people, and did they understand
how to manage as well, they would become rich; but they are
not generally so. They seem to have no idea of improvement
in their cattle, sheep, or hogs, nor to know the use of
enclosed pasture-field for their stock, but spend a large
portion of their time in hunting for their cattle, sheep,
and horses; and the same habit continues from father to
son.... By comparing them with people of other parts of the
country, I can see new and abundant proof that knowledge is
power. I think we may be very useful to them on many
accounts, were we disposed. May God in mercy keep us all,
and enable us to get wisdom; and with all our getting and
losing, to get understanding.
It would be very much more satisfactory if Mr. Sanborn had published the
full text of that part of this letter which treats of the habits of the
people, and of the labor conditions existing there. The question of
labor was of paramount importance in Brown's Virginia venture. He was an
optimist, and in his optimistic forecast saw that the care and
cultivation of a thousand acres, and the operation and development of a
tanning business would, in time, require a large establishment,
necessitating, probably, the labor of a number of slaves. This question
then arises: Did John Brown intend or expect to own, ultimately, the
necessary slaves to operate this property, or did he intend to hire them
from others. His letters consistently abound in minute detail. It is
therefore improbable, in the opinion of the writer, that he discussed
the manners and customs of the white people of that section with his
wife, and wrote of minor conditions existing there, without making some
reference to the black people of the country; and to the more important
questions of slavery and labor--matters in which he would have a deep
personal and pecuniary interest. Mr. Villard did not fail to comment,
with surprise, upon the omission of the subject from Brown's letter. He
said:[59]
But his letter to his family from Ripley, Virginia, April
27, 1840, already cited, is peaceable enough and his hope
of settling his family there is hardly consistent with his
anti-slavery policy of later years. Indeed, while recording
his pleasure that the residents of the vicinity were more
attractive people than he thought, he had nothing to say
about the institution of slavery which he then, for the
first time, really beheld at close range.
No one inspired with an enthusiasm upon the subject of slavery, such as
has been attributed to Brown, could have failed, under these
circumstances, to dwell upon the theme. A dilemma is, therefore, herein
presented to his biographers and eulogists which they cannot disregard:
either he discussed the questions of labor, and what their relations to
slavery would be in their prospective estate, in this letter to his
wife; or else, he considered slavery of so little importance in the
premises, and was so indifferent at heart upon the subject, that his
first sight of real slaves, in actual slavery, failed to elicit from him
any expression whatever in regard to it. It is the opinion of the writer
that John Brown, the man of iron will, the reckless speculator, optimist
and sportsman, was well pleased with the prospect of owning a plantation
of a thousand broad acres in Virginia; and with having it well stocked
with fine horses, fine cattle, fine sheep, and _fine slaves_.
This opinion of the man is consistent with his reckless speculative
career, and with his indifference as to the means for the accomplishment
of his ends. And after all, it is by a man's actions, and not by any
explanation of his motives, furnished by himself or by others, that we
must, in the final analysis, estimate his character.