There are other matters treated in this long and charming letter,
written by an outlaw 57 years old, to a boy of twelve. One detail that
is important is the analysis of his own character. John Brown says his
father early made him a sort of foreman in his tanning establishment,
and that though he got on in the most friendly way with everyone, “the
habit so early formed of being obeyed rendered him in after life too
much disposed to speak in an imperious or dictating way.” John Brown
was ever humble, and severely chastised his own faults, but this habit
of being a leader served him in good stead, and made him the born
captain of forlorn hopes he later became.
Another detail that interests us is his account of his early reading.
Working-class Americans, and they are the majority of the nation, do
not go to the high schools and universities. Neither did John Brown.
But they can read history, as he did at ten years, and they can study
and make themselves proficient in some field, as he made a surveyor of
himself by home study. He also read passionately, he says, the lives
of great, good and wise men; their sayings and writings; the school of
biography that seems to have nurtured so many great men. John Brown
never went to school after his childhood; but he became an expert
surveyor, he learned the fine points of cattle breeding and tanning,
he was a student of astronomy, he knew the Bible almost by heart, he
studied military tactics later in life, he was familiar with the lives
and times of most of the great leaders of mankind, and best of all, he
knew how to stir men to great deeds, and lead them in the battle.
Great men do not need to own a college diploma; they teach themselves,
they are taught by Life.
How meaningless college degrees would sound if attached after the names
of Brutus, Pericles, Socrates, Caius Gracchus, Buddha, Jesus, Wat
Tyler, Jefferson, Danton, William Lloyd Garrison!
As for instance: Jesus Christ, D.D.; Robert Burns, M.A.; Victor
Hugo, B.S.; John Brown, Ph.D.! How superfluous the titles of man’s
universities, when Life has crowned the student with real and greener
laurels! Yes, there are many things not taught in the colleges!