John Brown was hung on December 2, 1859. Exactly eleven months later
Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. Exactly
eight months after that, Northern troops were marching southward, to
put down the rebellion of the slave states that had hung Brown.
No one at the time believed events would march so swiftly after Brown’s
death. There were many who knew that some sort of conflict between the
North and South was inevitable; it had been brewing for decades. But
there were as many more who were confident that slavery would win its
legal fight, and would spread over the whole continent. And the great
mass of Americans just faintly understood the issues involved; to most
of them, John Brown seemed some kind of mad fanatic.
President Lincoln’s election undoubtedly provoked the Civil War. And
his election was undoubtedly due to the discussion on slavery that
raged after John Brown’s deed. Lincoln was the first Northerner to be
elected in forty years; the South had always carried things before it,
and would have done so again had not John Brown roused the entire North
to a consciousness of what slavery meant.
He did more than all the abolitionists had been able to do in their
fifty years of agitation.
And yet even most of his friends thought him mad at the time of the
deed. Abraham Lincoln, in a campaign speech at Cooper Union, in New
York, said: “Old John Brown has been executed for treason against a
state. We cannot object, even though he agreed with us in thinking
slavery wrong. That cannot excuse violence, bloodshed and treason.”
Only men of the stamp of Wendell Phillips fully understood what John
Brown had done. His funeral oration at the last resting place of John
Brown’s body had all the vision of the prophets:
“Marvelous old man!... He has abolished slavery in Virginia. You may
say that this is too much. Our neighbors are the very last men we know.
The hours that pass us are the ones we appreciate the least. Men walked
Boston streets, when night fell on Bunker Hill, and pitied Warren,
saying, ‘Foolish man! Thrown away his life! Why didn’t he measure his
means better?’ Now we see him standing colossal on that blood-stained
sod, and severing that day the tie which bound Boston to Great Britain.
That night George III ceased to rule in New England. History will date
Southern emancipation from Harper’s Ferry. True, the slave is still
there. So, when the tempest uproots a pine in your hills, it looks
green for months, for a year. Still, it is timber, not a tree. John
Brown has loosened the roots of the slave system; it only breathes--it
does not live--hereafter.”
Wendell Phillips was a prophet; and even men of wide vision like
Lincoln could not attain his lofty view. At first there was a rush of
Northern politicians to disavow and condemn John Brown’s deed. Later,
there was approval; still later understanding; still later, worship.
Yes, the old man seemed mad, as all pioneers are mad. Gorky has called
it the madness of the brave. But such madness seems necessary to the
world; the world would sink into a bog of respectable tyranny and
stagnation were there not these fresh, strong, ruthless tempests to
keep the waters of life in motion.
Who knows but that some time in America the John Browns of today
will be worshipped in like manner? The outlaws of today, the unknown
soldiers of freedom.
“And his soul goes marching on.”
Transcriber’s Note:
Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
- Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
- Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice.
- Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following
changes:
Page 6: "civilization in the New world" to "civilization in the
New World"
Page 12: "a circumstance occured" to "a circumstance occurred"
Page 20: "his thirty-fith" to "his thirty-fifth"
Page 22: "in communities where everyone" to "in communities where
every one"
Page 24: "John Brown of Osawotamie" to "John Brown of Osawatomie"
Page 25: "most of the Border Ruffins" to "most of the Border
Ruffians"
Page 26: "settlement at Osawotamie" to "settlement at Osawatomie"
Page 32: "It publishe a newspaper" to "It published a newspaper"
Page 34: "on the Pottawotamie" to "on the Pottawatomie"
Page 34: "he had a shot gun" to "he had a shotgun"
Page 42: "eleven other slave" to "eleven other slaves"
Page 44: "not insane. Cooly" to "not insane. Coolly"
Page 57: "suddenly found themelves" to "suddenly found themselves"