Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-12-03
WEEKLY TELEGRAPH.
HTABUL LA
Saturday Morning, Deer 3, 1859.

TnE HARPRR's FERRY EAuTR.-The present
aspect Of the Harpers Ferry affair." could hard
ly have been foreseen from the beginning
When the pefplexity of the public mind upon
the receipt OF the FIRST news had a little sub
sided, and we began TO realize the true charac-
ter OF the project, no one supposed it would be
more than nine days wonder, and that the
whole interest in the affair would be about as
lasting as the spasm Of infatuation 10 which it
was engendered This would have been the
natural result, but sordid, mousing politicians
thought that the whole thing could be turned
into q tremendous engine for the production Of
locofoco capital. Gov. WISE, himself an as
pirant for the Presidency, clutched at it with
desperate energy, and the Richmond Enquirer
edited by Gov. Wises son, commenced the
work Of imitation, and no means have been left
un,ried to give the matter consequence The
fears of the people Of Virginia have been play
ed upon to such an extent, as TO render them
the laughing stock Of the land and the terpida-
ton has been nourished by that aliment, until
the most ridiculous exhibitions have been en-
acted that sane people we're ever guilty Of.
To make the thing more bald and to drive Il e
people Of the old dominion to catch glimpse of
the folly, waggish telegraph operators, and out
side confederates have burdened the wires with
bogus dispatches, revealing the dangers that
we're accumuloting of bodies of armed men
gathering in from all quarters, and BRowN's res
cue was the grand object. Military detachment
after detachment has been accumuating, guard
ing every avenue, and making the whole region
bristle with bayonets. No stranger is permitted
10 the State, railroad trains are detained to al
low surveillance Of their passengers, newspa-
per reporters, and prisoners counsel have been
admOnished Of their danger, and driven from
the state, and Gov. Wise has at length issued
bis proclamation threatening military rule
The gallows is to be surrounded with cordons
Of soldiery, and no civion is to be suffered to
approach within mile Of the execution. All
this has, indeed raised q terrible furore, but the
public appreciation of Browns raid has turned
to disgust, and but few, except those who feed
at the public crib, are able to restrain their
contempt for the actors in this miserable piece
of folly. 10 contrast to all these evidences of
human weakness, stands old JoHN Brown, un-
moved, calm and self possessed viewing all
this mingling of the elements, of strife coward
ice, inhumanity, and political chicanery. His
approaching end presents no terrors, and he
even glories in the hopes which his s; ifce
promises to the cause OF emancipation. In this
view, his declaration is that "h he is worth more
to hang, than for any other purpose" Though
we believe him wrong who will question his
sincerity, or the honesty of that trust aud re-
lance which he reposes in his Creator? His
frmness and dignity Of bearing, his honesty and
truthfulness, bis contempt for everything that
sayOrs of yielding what he considers principle,
or puslanimity all of which have been brought
into stronger relief by the course of his cap
tors, have taken deep hold upon the public
mind, and the sympathy that is felt for the
brave, but infatuated old man, is more generally
dilfused than is acknowledged. This feeling is
exerting tremendous influence upon all class
es of mind, except that surrounded by the ex-
citement at Charlestown. Political capital is
indeed in the course Of rapid generation, but
unfortunately for the slave-driving democracy,
it is against them. 1t has been overruled to
their discontinue, and they have the mortifying
consciousness of the stubborn fact In the
language Of revelation, they have sowed to
the wind and reaped the whirlwind. The des-
tiny of locolocoism and slavery has only been
little more irrevokably fixed, and the day of
its reprobation FASTENED. That, which if left
to its own merits would have died out with
scarcely ripple on the worlds surface out
side of Jefferson county, now disturbs every
heart in the nation and its Influence will be felt
in future time beyond what we are now willing
to conjecture. There is a God in Heaven,
whose ruling in the affairs of men is more and
more apparent in every effort of slavery to in-
trench itself
Cooks CoYFEssIoN.-The n. Y. Tribune
mn hIiehaS tho confaesion Of NooL II rayaoI,