The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-10-27
sTHE REVOLT AT HARpRR,s FERRY

sTHE REVOLT AT HARPER'S FERRY.
We give place this week to long and inter-
esting account of the revolutionary attempt at
Harper's Ferry. We say revolutionary, because
il was in no sense of the word negro insur-
rection. Not single slave was engaged in it /;
and it is therefore the height of absurdity to
sSyle it negro instruction.
Tremendous as the sensation produced by
this affair has been, the fact is ndisputable
that only twenty men in the whole Union
per, found to engage in it. If any others
aaall be implicated as aiders and abettors,
they have not been quite insane enough to
nhark their fortunes in it, and are on that
' FRY account the more culpable, because they
e.,naot plead the excuse Of downright madness.
= No humane or reasonable man viii for
oment sympathize with this effort to incite
5 rvile instruction no reasonable man could
astieipate its success; and it argues utter ig-
p9rance of the circumstances, and of history, to
expect good results from it, even if successful.
The cause of emancipation has no worse enc
mieJ than these men. They disparage the cause
q liberty by their bloody conspiracies, and
hsipg odium and suspicion upon its friends.
Two classes of men will rejoice at this deplo-
rab: folly, viz the misguided men who set them
upo1 the bloody work, and the Democratic
dgwagogues who, at any sacrifice of the peace
o. tue South they profess to love so well, are
rsac to turn it into political capital. The Doug
las etgan of this city is Of this class 1t has been
a.GSa-send to all such reckless politicians, and
thej only regrets are that it did not occur two
wee'ks sooner, so that its effects might have been
feltsApon the October elections. The hue and
cry they now raise, pretending to believe
tina the Republican party are responsible for
Brt sn's schemes, is gotten up in a spirit of
unritigated demagogueism The Washington
Sta es, the Constitution newspaper, the New
Yo / Herald, Express, Day Book, and other
kir red sheets, are persistently charging this af
fai.. 10 the Republican party. They know that
thei assertions are false, lbellous, and incen-
diarI; but they have caught at it like q drowning
mar ut straw, and they will persist in ii, though
the know its tendency is to produce the very
cor squences they pretend to deprecate. They
ipsT into the minds of the slaves the belief that
the great and powerful Republican party is
NJ to trample on the Constitution and the
rgt of the States in the effort to liberate them,
eyessalthough it should involve the extermina-
ton, Of the white race. This falsehood, we'll
siu I to, they think, will produce reaction in
fHyl Of the Black Democracy; and they reck
Lt9i if it should cause the very insurrectionary
Ait.t which they profess to abhor.
= IL one Republican paper, so far as we have
reels has failed to speak of the affair at Har-
per ! Ferry in terms Of reprobation. The in
r hsats T seGraHeas s nom NE sew f fSF
TFfcrne and Post, in order to convey the inn
pre- sion that those journals approve the con-
.iucSof Brown and his confederates, while the
factsls just the contrary. They have deeply
dep cred the affair, and, like ourselves, are
amt'ig the number of those who regard it as
ca3a5ity, as well on account of its immediate
etieE in the loss of life, as for the odium it
hsiFFs upon the noble cause of peaceful Eman-
cip.aion. For long time to come, degree of
suss cion will probably attach to every Northern
ma. who, with legitimate objects in view, wishes
to sttle in Virginia.
The Democratic demagogues would rejoice
at Ste occurrence Of just such an attempt at
ms erection prior to each election. They are
the men who instigated the Border Ruffian
ralcA upon Kansas and seeing how much the
| catss of Slavery lost by them, they would be
| glat- to see Border Rufian invasions of the
slsTe States by Northern men. But they will be
disappointed. The folly of Brown win not be re-
peesad. Instructions in the South may take
pit ! instigated by the mendacious harangues
OF lsimocrstic demagogues, as they did in 1856 !;
but it may be hoped that the men of the North
who are prone to such madness will have received
lesson in the fate of Ossawatome Brown and
his companions. His extraordinary courage
which has been freely acknowledged by his
prisoner, Col. Washington, and by his captors,
viii not soon be found in another. 1t must be
remembered, also, that it was not SO much
Abolition fanaticism as the personal wrongs
he received from the Border Rufians in
Kansas, which caused him to plot treason
and instruction. One of his sons was muir
dered in cold blood by the Missouri ruff.
fans, and another killed by their cruel treat
ment Of him while prisoner; his property was
destroyed or stolen, and his rights as freeman
trampled under foot. 1t was these peculiarly
aggravating wrongs, operating upon mind
naturally ardent, brave, and strong, though un.
cultivated, which conspired to produce the
daring Tolly which we deplore, and over which
Democratic demagogues rejoice. 1t is not
probable that they will soon find another Ossa-
watomie Brown to manufacture political capital
for them.
CARD FROM Nh. GIDDNcs. We copy
fsfrpm the Philadelphia North American a card
from Mr.. Giddings, in which he denies that
Brown consulted him in regard to his intended
invasion of Virginia. he at the same time ad.
ministers merited rebuke to the demagogues
who, for the sake of making political capital,
are anxious to implicate him in that affair
When shall we hear from Mr.. Guthrie
The HARPER's FERRY INvAs1oS AS PARTY
CAP1TAL."-Such is the title Of the leading ed
itorial on Monday last, in the Richmond En-
quirer, the organ of Governor Wise. 1t is urged
by the Enquirer that the enemies of Repub
hcanism should press this affair. into thei,
service, and thus, if possible, arrest the tide
which is sweeping the Sham Democracy before
it This is frank confession on the part o.
Ftbe Wise organ, and fully confirms the charges
we have elsewhere made, against the party tc
H n