Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-11-12
From the Springfield Republican.
what John Brown has Done.

From the Springfield Republican
What John Brown has Done.
Fhe great comic tragedy in Virginia i.
nearly played out. The closing scene viii
be grand tableaux, in which John Brown
aud his fellow prisoners will be seen hangeC
for crimes they never committed or cOntem
plated, because Virginia is afraid to hanC
them for their real offenses the spectacle
being relieved by single act of cemency
towards the ouly offender who had demo
cratic friends. The FIRST excitement is now
over and men can look at the matter calmly
and reason about it. Aud what has Johl
Brown accomplished 7 First, the nseIes.
death of some twenty-five or thirty men,
His object was to run off slaves from Vir
ginia, aud it does not certainly appear thai
single slave was freed by the operation
In the adaptation of means to ends no enter.
prise more reckless and insane was ever nm.
! dertaken 10y men with sense enough TO keen
themselves out OF fire and water. The i'm
mediate results to all engaged have therefore
been as diSasterous as they could well be.
and we trust the terrible lesson will not be
lost on men whose. excited humanity runs
away with their common sense.
But Virginia and The South are determin-
ed that the affair shall not lack moral re-
suit, and SO John Brown and the survivors
of his company are to be made martyrs, and
their blood to be devoted to the noursh
ment and strengthening of that agitation by
which slavery is finally TO meet its DOOM
This is folly greater than that of John
Brown, but such folly seems to be the pre-
destined means by which the inhuman insti.
tuition is to accomplish its own overthrow
Slavery is to be removed by discussion and
Lagitation, and everything which serves to
keep it before the public mind, whether it be
the mad malignity of its supporters or the
mad philanthropy oft enemies, contributes
something towards the final result. The
process is SLOW but sure and inevitable.
One of the first effects of John Browns
raid has been to eXaSperate the South, and
to make the supporters Of slavery there
more intOlerant and more unreasonable in
their demands. \ temporary effect at the
North has been to inspire the democratic
and other. allies of the slave power with q
spasm of courage. BY falsely charging
Browns folly upon the republican party they
hope to frighteu timid men into their own
ranks But the trick is too shallow and
too easily exposed. Already the democrat
ic leaders at the North begin to see that
they shall lose more han they can gain out
of the affair, maugre all their bold lying, and
are begging Gov. Wise to spare J ohm Brown
! for the democracy's sake. The North toe
will resist the new demands of the slave
/ GROWING nut Of fhi, aR,ir
the democracy in tle free states be placed
still more hopelessly in the minority. Al
ready several of the leading southern papers
are taking advantage Of the excitement to
push the demand for the congressional leg.
iSlation to sustain slavery in the territories,
and the prospects of Douglas at the South
are melting away iu the heat of the new
/ fury. An Alabama democratic paper SAYS
there is perfect revulson in that state and
/ old prominent democratic leaders from every
corner of the state are out against Douglas.
We are not sure that John Brown has not
given the hopes of Douglas their death blow.
The disuniOnists of the South make John
Brown the text for immediate dissolution.
The Charleston Mercury declares that
! Browns affair is not an isolated event, but
/ the beginning of series of attacks, which
are to end either in the destruction Of slave.
/ ry or the dissolution of the Union, and that
the sooner the latter result is reached the
better. 1t says
"The great source Of the evil is, that we are
under one government with these people--thai
by the constitution they deem themselves re-
spOnsble Tor tie institution ofslayery, and there
FORE they seek to overthrow it. They do uot
! plot Instructions for Cuba or Brazil. IL we
had separate government Of our own the post
Office, all the avenues Of intercourse, the police
and military Of the country, would be under ouT
control. AbOliIiOnism woula die out at tht
North, or its adherauts would have to operate
| in the South as foreign emissaries, in country
armed and prepared to excl1de their intercourse
or arrest their designs and punish their inter
vention."
IL is easy to sec that under this exasper.
ated condition of the southern mind, the
Charleston convention, which must satisfy
the South or explode iutofragments, will b
compelled to take such high southern
ground and to nominate such ultra pro-slave
ry candidates that the prospects of the
democratic party at the North will be re
duced to an ininitesimal quantity. AL
this operates of course to the advantage o
the republican party and goes to assure III
success in the presidential contest. While
therefore, the democrats, who at first ex
ulted in the Virginia tragedy as giving
them the basis for little bogus capita, will
6nd il operating TO their destruction, the
republicans, who deprecated the affair and
amented the folly Of those engaged ia it,
are certain to reap the political advantage
which they have not sought from IT,
Mr.. Stewards assertion of the 'irrepres-
sible conhicp was neither the declaration
OF a purpose nor aprophesy;it was only the
calm statement Of q fact, which becomes
daily more evident. The conflict between
slavery and freedom Is 10 go on, and car
by no means be stopped, until liberty il
''proclaimed throughout the land unto all
the Inhabitants thereof" II is the mission
Of the republican party to prevent the con