The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-11-10
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We alluded yesterday to the responsibility of the
Republican Party for the crime of JOHN Brown
We traced that responsibility to the logical con-
sisency which exists between Browns conduct
and the ideas of the Republican Party on the sub
ject of negro savery-the rights of slaves and the
duty ofnon-slaveholders. Wefurther illustrated the
correctness ofOur position by reference to the open
and undisguised expressions of sympathy which
we find Mt the North for Brown and his cause
1t is just to add, however, that various circum-
stances, besides those which we enumerated,
have helped to raise Brown to the position of
hero in the eyes of the people of the North-and
prominent among these the false and ex-
aggerated views of Browns character and purposes
which have been originated and disseminated at
the South Coupled with sympathy with the
treason, we everywhere find, at the North, admi-
ration for the traitor He is the ''brave old man"
the 'noble old man''-the great and even
the ''God-like" man. A sculptor has travelled all
the way from Boston TO Charlestown to take a cast
of his features for the purpose of perpetuating them
in marble. The second day of December-the
day on which Brown is sentenced to be hung-is
to be kept as day of fasting and humiliation by
pf In Gno g
to receive, and already receives, the honors which
are due only to the most exalted heroism and the
purest patriotism. For this, Southern men have
themselves, in great measure to thank They
have magnifed unduly the importance of BRowN
and particularly his forhtude and courage
Governor WISE appeared to be in perfect ecstacies
with Brown. He called him ''the gamest man
THAT ever he saw, and pronounced him a ''per-
feet bundle of nerve" Does not Governor WISE
know that constancy the rule and not the excep-
ton with men in BRowN's condiion-that there is
courage which, in the face of death, takes DOS
session Of the meanest and'the weakest natures
the courage ofdespair? Few men will beg for life
when they know that begging will do no good.
Ordinarily, the vest and most degraded criminals
when under sentence of death, or undergoing trial
for capital offences, show fortitude We have
seen fellow charged with rape or murder demean
himself with as much composure on his
trial, and listen with as little emotion TO
his sentence, and bear himself as brayely and as
stifay upon the scafold, as ever Brown
could do. In this respect, BROwN can claim no
superiority over GAMBRLL or CYPHUs-as he GER
tainly is not raised one whit above them by the
character of his offence. He is simply murderer
and so were they. Considered in the light of a
political offender, it is even less remarkable that
BRowN should exhibit the stoicism he has dis
played. Let those who affect to admire him for
his courage, reflect how many men have suffered
death for political offences in all ages and countries
Of the wOrld-how many rebels taken in arms
and traitors taken in their beds, have been broken
upon the wheel, or stretched upon the rack, and
how few among all these have manifested craven
heart, or shown sign Of fear. Human ingenuity
has been taxed TO the utmost to devise new insru-
ments Of torture for those from whom the ordi-
nary terrors Of death could extort no cry for
mercy. Without referring to those who have been
sustained through all the pangs of martyrdom, by
their religious faith, recurring to the millions
who have persisted miserably for opinions sake in
the amphitheatre, upon the cross, at the stake in
the dungeon, and upon the rack, and who have
never quailed in the presence of the executioner
it is only necessary to recall the period of the
first French revolution of the civil wars in Eng
land, and remember how many noble gentlemen,
and tender women, even, have walked with I'M
faltering step to the scaffold, under circumstances
Il thousand-fold more trying than those which
surround and sustain Old BRowN Nor
in such trials have the meanest peasants
been found possessed of inferior fortitude
to that exhibited by gentlemen and peers. We
do not read even that the Sepoys who were blown
from the mouths Of guns in India, sued for mercy,
or that their last look upon earth was other than
one of hatred and defiance towards their execu-
TONERS and foes. How idle, then, to talk about
Old Browns courage as if there had never been
men before him-or as if many a poor wretch
condemned to death for sheep-steang or shop
lifting, has not shown as much fortitude as he !
Yet it is this quality which has contributed so
largely to elevate Brown to the position of a hero
at the North, and which has won the admiration
of Governor WISE. What other claims to respect
or sympathy Old Brown possesses, we are at loss
to imagine Had he killed the unarmed gentle
not have been more the fend he proved himself to
be when he sought to let loose, upon the homes
and fields Of Maryland and Virginia, and the
peaceful community in which he had dwelt with
out harm or molestation, the horrors of murder
rape and arson, and all the barbarous conse-
quences of Il servile war Nor is there any reason
for supposng that Old Brown spared his prisoners
from any other motives than those of policy
while there is ground for believing that this
very act Of mercy, is one of the mistakes which |
he regrets that he committed. The other traits
of BRowN's character which appear to have i'm
pressed the Yirgnans most forcibly, derive effect
solely from their ignorance of the New England
temperament Old BRowN neither drinks nor
swears, and, probably, neither smokes nor chews
These things are matters of custom and education
rather than indications of individual character
At time, even gentlewomen and reverend
preates used to swear; in another age and place !
profanity is highly questionable, and pun
ished by law. Yet it would be great mistake TO |
suppose that murder and theft necessarily abound |
ed more in the one case than in the other To- |
day-a Southern murderer is probably a gamester
and bully, wears knives and pistols swag-
gers in bar-rooms and threatens mems lives |
upon the smallest provocaton. A Northern |
murderer most likely goes to meeting on Sunday |
is deacon, perhaps, and never breaks the Third |
Commandment. As Old. BRowN's religion and |
morality have not kept him from the perpe-
traton of the worst crimes in the calendar OF
sin-we must he pardoned for doubling wheth-
er he can claim credit for either. He was
sincere and honest, no doubt, in his treason, as
the thief who picks your pocket is sincere in his
desire to possess himself of your handkerchief
or the assassin who shoots you from behind, or
cuts your throat while sleeping, is honest in his
desire to take your life. A more unpromisng
subject for hero we can not well imagine; and
the taste which can assign to him the place of one,
is not one whit higher than that which prompted
the Egyptians 10 select objects of their idolatry
serpents and crocodiles. There is nothing in
BRowNs character, as there is nothing in his
crime which should command the sympathy or
of any honest man, much less of
any true woman Yet this is the man whom to
nurse and comfort, women would flin come from
Boston-to minister TO whose supposed wants
churches are subscribing money-whose memory