HARPER'S FERRY
John Brown now prepared for his final effort, for the enterprise he had
espoused and the sacrifice he had sworn to make for it were to be
completed by his death. 'There is no way of deliverance but by blood,'
had become his settled conviction upon this slavery question. And
truly it seemed so. The Slave States were waxing fiercer in their
unholy enterprise. The reopening of the market for freshly imported
slaves from Africa was openly advocated--indeed, prices were offered
for the best specimens, as if it were a mere cattle trade. 'For sale,
400 negroes just landed,' was placarded in Southern streets; and to
complete the grim situation a prize was proposed for the best sermon in
defence of the slave trade. Surely the Lord gave not 'the word,' but
'great was the company of the preachers' who were prepared to publish
it.
John Brown felt that the fullness of time was come for a desperate
stroke. Desperate indeed it was. From a military point of view it was
madness. He resolved to hire a farm in Maryland, near to the great
armoury at Harper's Ferry in the Slave State of Virginia, and there
diligently and silently to store arms. Then with a small company he
would seize Harper's Ferry. Having possessed himself of its stores, he
would retreat to the mountains, where he hoped there would be
considerable rallying to his standard. Holding his own amid mountain
fastnesses of which he had acquired an intimate knowledge, he thought
he might at last become strong enough to make terms with the Government.
We next find him passing as Isaac Smith, a Maryland farmer--known to
his neighbours as a demure, somewhat eccentric, son of the soil. Three
of his sons, true to the vow, were with him. Little thought the
farmers around that hard by that farmhouse a few thousand weapons were
stored and that a little band of mysterious strangers was gathering
there, but so it was. To the last there was much opposition to Brown's
impulsive scheme. Once, indeed, he resigned leadership, but the little
group passed a horrible five minutes of bereavement and then re-elected
him with many promises of support. Sublime old madman!--if mad indeed
he was! Had he not made them all feel like himself, 'that they have but
one life and once to die; and if they lose their lives perchance it
will do more for the cause than their lives would be worth in any other
way?'
One reluctant darkie, rescued by him from slavery, was challenged to
say what he would do. He hesitated--looked at his shaggy old
benefactor, and then, with heart surcharged with gratitude, said, 'I
believe I'll go wid de ole man.'
Ah! the old man's soul had entered into them--it kept them 'marching
on.' In the dark, wet night of October 16, 1859, they mustered
quietly. The captain addressed them, and he was no reckless destroyer
of human life who thus spake: 'Gentlemen, let me press this one thing
on your minds. You all know how dear life is to you, and how dear your
lives are to your friends; and in remembering that, consider that the
lives of others are as dear. Do not therefore take the life of any one
if you can possibly avoid it, but if it is necessary to take life in
order to save your own, then make sure work of it.'
Two of them were deputed to hasten, when the town was in their hands,
to Colonel Washington's house, four miles distant--to seize him, free
his slaves, and take the relic of the house, the famed sword of his
illustrious ancestor George Washington, that with this in hand John
Brown might head the campaign. That feat they actually performed, and
for one brief day their leader bore that sword.
Silently marched that little band of about a score under shelter of the
darkness. They had their plans complete, even a Constitution ready
framed, should they be successful. The telegraph wires were cut. They
contrived to terrify all on guard without firing a shot, and as the sun
rose, Harper's Ferry, arsenal, armoury, and rifle works, and many
prisoners were in the hands of John Brown. The day wore on, but the
expected reinforcements came not; the spreading news, however, brought
hostile troops around the captured place, and they hourly increased.
Brown took not his one chance of escape to the mountains--why, it is
difficult to say. In prison afterwards he said his weakness in
yielding to the entreaties of his prisoners ruined him. 'It was the
first time I ever lost command of myself, and now I am punished for
it,' he added. At another time when questioned he gave fatalistic
answers, and said it was 'ordained so ages before the world was made.'
By afternoon he was on the defensive within the armoury, and a fierce
fight ensued. Even then his simple notions of justice were uppermost,
and to the last as his men fired from the portholes he would be heard
saying of some one passing in the street, 'That man is unarmed don't
shoot.' Two of his sons--Watson and Oliver Brown--were pierced with
bullets. As he straightened out the limbs of the second, he said,
'This is the third son I have lost in the cause.' Always the cause!
The night fell and the fight was in abeyance, but in the morning he was
summoned to surrender, and refused, saying he would die there. At
length the engine-house, their last resort, held stubbornly, was
captured, and Brown fell, wounded by the sword of a young lieutenant
who had marked him for his stroke. One of his prisoners who was by
says truly of his last fight, 'Almost any other man who saw his sons
fall would have exacted life for life, but he spared all of us who were
in his power.' Of the force of twenty-two men, ten were killed, seven
captured and hanged, and five escaped. On the other side six were
killed and eight wounded.
He was now a captive, suffered to recover from his wounds that he might
die a felon's death. Many were those who, from various motives, came
to see the wounded prisoner, and from many interviews reported at the
time we may take a few extracts:
Q. Can you tell us who furnished money for your expedition?
A. I furnished most of it myself. I cannot implicate others. It is by
my own folly I have been taken. I could have saved myself had I not
yielded to my feelings.
Q. If you would tell us who sent you, who provided means, it would be
valuable information.
A. I will answer freely and faithfully about what concerned myself,
anything I can with honour, but not about others. It was my own
prompting and that of my Maker or the devil--whichever you please to
ascribe it to--I acknowledge no master in human form.
Q. Why came you here?
A. To liberate the slaves--the cry of the oppressed is my only reason.
I respect the rights of the poorest coloured folk as much as those of
the most wealthy and powerful.
Q. How do you justify your acts?
A. I think, my friend, you are guilty of a great wrong against God and
humanity--I say it without wishing to be offensive and it would be
perfectly right for any one to free those you wickedly hold in bondage.
I am not here to gratify revenge, but because I pity those who have
none to help them.
Q. Do you consider this a religious movement?
A. The greatest service man can render to God.
Q. Do you consider yourself an instrument in the hands of Providence?
A. I do.
Q. Brown, suppose you had every nigger in the United States, what would
you do with them?
A. Set them free.
Said Governor Wise of Virginia, 'Mr. Brown, the silver of your hair is
reddened by the blood of crime, and you should eschew these hard words
and think of eternity. You are committing felony by these sentiments.'
Brown replied, 'Governor, I have by all appearances not more than
fifteen or twenty years the start of you in the journey to eternity,
and whether my time has to be long or short I am equally prepared to
go. There is an eternity behind and an eternity before, and this speck
in the centre, however long, is but comparatively a minute. The
difference between your tenure and mine is trifling, and you have all
of you a heavy responsibility and it behoves you to prepare more than
it does me.'
The Governor's public testimony was: 'They are mistaken who took Brown
to be a madman. He is a bundle of the best nerves I ever saw. He is a
man of clear head, of courage, fortitude, and simple ingenuousness. He
is cool, collected, and indomitable; and it is but just to him to say
that he was humane to his prisoners, and he inspired me with great
trust in his integrity as a man of truth. He is a fanatic, vain and
garrulous, but firm, truthful, and intelligent. He professes to be a
Christian in communion with the Congregational Church of the North, and
openly preaches his purpose of universal emancipation, and the negroes
themselves were to be the agents, by means of arms, led on by white
commanders. Colonel Washington says that he was the coolest and
firmest man he ever saw in defying danger and death. With one son dead
by his side, and another shot through, he felt the pulse of his dying
son with one hand, held his rifle with the other, and commanded his men
with the utmost composure, encouraging them to be firm, and to sell
their lives as dearly as they could.'
The trial for treason and murder took place in the Virginian Court on
October 27-31, ere he had recovered. He pleaded for delay till his
health allowed him to give more attention to his defence, but the
request was refused. So, weak and wounded, he had to lie upon his
pallet with a blanket thrown over him. His words were few, and to the
same effect as those we have quoted. There was only one verdict
possible in that court--GUILTY--and he was sentenced to be hanged.
Technically there was no other course possible. The calm verdict of
the CAMBRIDGE MODERN HISTORY upon the raid is correct: 'It was the mad
folly of an almost crazed fanatic . . . the stain still upon him of the
bloodiest of the lawless work done in the name of Freedom; a terrible
outlaw because an outlaw for conscience' sake; intense to the point of
ungovernable passion--heeding nothing but his own will and sense of
right; a revolutionist upon principle; a lawless incendiary, and yet
seeking nothing for himself.'
But while we feel the veracity of these words there comes to our mind
one of Charles Kingsley's impulsive sayings: 'Get hold of one truth,
let it blaze in your sky like a Greenland sun, never setting day or
night. See it in everything, and everything in it. The world will
call you a bigot and fanatic, and then fifty years after will wonder
how it was the bigot and fanatic managed to do so much more than all
the sensible men round about him.'
John Brown vindicated that opinion.