The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-11-09
LIE TER FROM HON. C L. vALLA SDIe-
rAw-HARIER'S FERRY 1NSURREt-
] DAYTON, o., Saturday, Oct. %, 1859.

II % me 6dlof ~ We EnQulfeT:' --- -
1 The Cincinnati Gazette of yesterday contains
what purports to be conversation between
John Brown, the Harpers Ferry insurgent,
and myself. The editorial criticism in that pa
per, while unjust, is, nevertheless, moderate
and decent in temper and language. Not so
he vulgar but inoffensive comments of the
Commercial and the Ohio State Journal of to-
day. Self-respect forbids to a gentleman any
notice of such assaults. But the report and
editorial of the Gazette convey erroneous
impression, which desire briefly to correct.
Passi .g of necessity through Harpers Fer
ry. en- Wednesday last on my way home from
Washington City, laid over at that place be-
tween morning and eve! ing trains for the West.
Through the politt ness of Colonel Lee, the
c1mman n1ing officer, was allowed to enter the
Armory enclosure. Inspecting the various oil
Iects f interest there, and among them the o.
Zee building, came to the room where Brown
md Stephens lay, ard went in, not aware that
Senator Mason or any reporter was present till
entered, and without any purpose of asking
| single question of the prisoners, and had
here been no prisoners there l should have
visited and inspected the place, just as did,
Il all these particulars.
No '.interview" was asked for by me or any
me else of John Brown, and none granted
whether "vountar ly and out of pure good Will
Jr otherwise. Brown had no voice in the mat
er, the room being open equally to all who
we're permitted to enter the Armory inclosure.
III went and came alike, without consulting
Brown; nor did he know either myself or the
1ther gentlemen with whom he convcrsed.-
Entering the room l found Senator Mason, OF
Virginia, there casually, with eight or ten 9th
'ers, and Brown conversing freely with all who
chose to address him. Indeed he seemed es-
ger to talk to every one; and new visitors were
coming and going every moment There was
no arrangement to have any reporter; nor did
observe for some moments after l entered
hat any were present. Some one from New
York was taking sketches of Brown and Ste
phcns during the conversation, and the report
sr of the Herald made himself known to NE a
short time aiterward, but l saw nothing of the
Gazette reporter till several hours later, and
then at the hotel in the village.
Finding Brown anxious to talk and ready to
answer any one wEo chose to ask question,
and having heard that the insurrection hac
been planned at the Ohio State Fair, held at
GAINESVILLE inSeptember, L very naturally made
the inquiry of him, among other things, as to-
the truth of the statement. Learning from
his answers that he had lived in Ohio for fifty
years, and had visited the State in May or june
last, l prosecuted my Inquiries to ascertain
what conno ction his conspiracy might have had
with the ..Oberlin Rescue trials then pending.
and the insunectionary movement at that time
made in the Western Reserve to orgai-ize for
chile resistance to the Fugitive Slave law; and
I-have only to regret that did not pursue the
matterturther, asking more questions, and max
ing them more specihc--t1t It is possible that
some others who are SO tenderly sensitive IN
regard to what was developed, might have been
equally Implicated, Indeed it is incredible
that 4 mere casual conversation, such abe
one held by me with John Brown, should ex
cite such paroxysms of-rage and call forth so
much vulgar but imTosent vituperation, unless
there be much more yet undselosed. Certain
it is that three-of the negroes, and they from
Oberlin, and at least six of the white men,
nine in all out of lhe nineteen, including John
Brown. the leader of the insurrection, were, or
h:d been from Ohio. where they had received
sympathy and counsel, if not material aid in
their conspiracy.
But the visit and interrogation were both
Casual, and did not continue over twenty min
utes at the longest. Brown so far from being
exhausted, volunteered several speeches to the
reporter, and more than once insisted that the
conversations did not disturb or annoy Linn in
the least. The report il the New York Her
aid, of October 2lst, is generally very accu-
rate, though several of the questions attl iauted
to me, and particularly the first four, oushtt to
have been put in the mouth of f"Bystander,'
who, by the way, represents at least half score
of differ ent persons. So 1la
As to the charge preferred of s'breaeh OF.
good taste and propriety," and all that pro-
pose to Judge oft for myself, having been pres
ent on the occasion. There was neither SIN
terview," scatechising," ''inquisition,' "tpump-
ing, nor any effort of the kind, but short and
casual conversation with the leader of a bold
and murderous insurrection, man of singular
intelligence, in full possession of all his faeul-
ties, and anxious 10 explain his plans and mo-
tivcs so far as possible without duplicating his
confederates otherwise than by cechning TO an
swer. The develo: ments are important let
the CALLED jade vince. O. gssI s-s s=s
And now, allow me to add, that it is vain to
underrate either the man or his conspiracy
Captain John Brown is as brave and resolute
a man as ever headed an insurrection, and, IN
a good cause, and with sufficient force, would
have been a consummate partisan commander
He has GOODNESS, daring, persistency, the stole
faith and patio ice, and irmness of will and
purpose eunconquerable. He is tall, wiry, mus
cular, but with little fesh-with cold, gray
eye, gray hair, beard and mustache, compressed
lips, and sharp; aquilIne nose; OF cast-lronr
f,ce End frame, and with powers of endurance
equal to anything needed to be done or suffer-
ed in any cause. Though engaged in a wick
ed, mad and fanatical enterprise, he is the far
thest possible remove from the ordinary ruff
fan, fanatic or madnian; but his powers are
rather executory than inventive, and he never
had the depth or breadth of mind to originate
and contrive himself the plan of insurrection
which he undertook tc carry out. The con-
spiracy was, unquestioably, far more extended
than yet appears, numbering among the CON
spirators many more than the handful Of fol-
lowers who assailcd Harpers Ferry, and hav-
ing in the North and West, ,=if=not= also the
South, as its counsellors and )abettors, men of
intelligence, position and wealth. Certainly it
was one among the best planned and executed
conspiracies that ever failed.
For two years he had been plotting and pre-
pairing it with com forters and aiders thousand
miles apart, in the slave states and the free; for
six months he lived without so much as suspi-
con in slave State, and near the scene of the
insurrection, winning even the esteem and con-
fdence of his neighbors, yet collecting day by