The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-11-11

| Destiny.
| Poor Gerrit Smith is in an insane asylum
driven to madness by reflection upon the con-
sequences Of doctrines with which his mind
had become poisoned, and which he had con-
tlbuted to support. Personally kind, amiable
| and philanthropic, the bloody scenes which he
could calmly theorize about, as philosopher,
overturned his mind after they had been carried
into practical operation The Harper's Ferry
Development Of the Infamous programme laid
down by William II. Seward. at Rochester,
Launts him day and night, and he imagines
himself guilty of murders. which he could en-
courage before realizing their atrocity, aad
would, perhaps, sacrifice his life to have pre-
| vented, now that the evil is irreparable And
| Mr.. Smith Is but one of a multitude of the
| miserable catspaws and fanatics, whom venal,
cold hearted, calculating demagogues at the
! North, after having used to accomplish tho
purpose Of making for themselves political
capital, have heartlcssly thrown aside, ruined,
or destroyed, when the ends were gained which
they had in view:
$50 incompatible" said Mr.. Seward, care
the two systems, Of free aud servile labor, that
every new State makes its 6rst political act a
choice Of the one, and an exclusion Of the
other even at the cost Of civil war if neces-
| sary." In accordance with this authoritative
dctuu, Horace Greeley got hold Of poor
Colonel Forbes, gave him twenty dollars and
dinner, and packed him off TO drill abolition
list rebels in Kansas. He told him that
when the time for lighting came, he desired
to be there, and requested Forbes to send
him word. Greeley, of course, had no
more intention of going than Seward has Of
| shoulderiDg musket in the great irrepressi-
bic conflict between opposing and enduring
forces" But his object was obtained. Forbes
| and his battalion of fellow dupes, created, or
manufactured hideous succession Of "out-
RACES" with which therepublican mouthpieces,
East and West, succeeded in keeping their
followers agape, and the country distracted,
for several years. He risked his life and vast
cd his strength and energies in the service Of
the conspirators who had employed him; but
the moment he interfered with their plans-as
in demonstrating against the folly Of the Har-
per's Ferry invasion-he was given the cold
shoulder, and finally tossed overheard. Greeley
gives Forbes no dinners now, but denounces
him as an idiot, and has even made foolish
attemptto call his veracity in question.
The greater part of the wretched instruments
Of the rebellion at Harper's Ferry were shot.
Some Of them were drowned, and the remainder
will be hanged. A few Of the accessories before
the fact may, possibly, be reached by the arm
Of justice, and others more sensitive and con.
scientious, like Gerrit Smith, may be deprived
of their senses by remorse. All these, however,
tious, far.sighted apostles of treason, who have
preached, for years, what John Brown and his
followers practised. While they have pulled
| themselves and each other up, with the idea
that they were heroes and philanthropists, they
have only been the political pick locks, with
which demagogucs have made their way into
State and federal legislative halls, and lobby
spoilsmen have gained access to the public
treasury. The thousand dollars which Mr..
Greeley knows about, and tho five thousand
dollar free wool operation, were sut petty in
stalments Of the hoped for pecuniary gain
Of Weed and his fellow wirepullers
Messrs. Hale, Wilson, Sumner, Giddings,
Chase, and their compeers, have had
their own ambitious ends to further, while
Seward has worked slowly, crafty and steadily
on, through the instruments whom he has
goaded by his speeches into insurrecton, until
he stands, without rival, as the candidate of
the Northern free soil opposition for the Presi-
dency Of the United States.
Thus while Brown, Cook, Stevens Forbes
Gerrit Smith and the score who were killed in
Virginia, on the 18th ult., perish the nstigators
Of their murders and treasons survive, denounce
the failure of their undertaking as madness,
and profit by its consequences. In May, 1858,
Mr.. Seward was informed by Forbes of the con-
templated Harper's Ferry movement, and said
he was "sorry he had been told" of it. He
however, carefully abstaned from divulging
SO important secret, and, in October of the
same year, gave the principles upon which
Browns invasion of the South was based his
emphatic approval, in the famous Rochester
speech lie would even seem to have forcseen
that the plea Of insanity might be raised in
Browns favor if his enterprise failed, and to
nave wished 10 protest against IL In advance.
"They who think" he said, chat this collision
is accidental, unnecessary, the work Of intc-
rested or fanatical agitators, and therefore
ephemeral, mistake the case altogether" Yet
Brown is to be hung aud Seward escapes
Brown dies the death Of felon, while the
preacher of the crusade, through which ''the
United States must and WILL sooner or later,
become entirely slaveholding nation, or en-
tirely free labor nation" bids fair to become
Chief Magistrate Of the Union which his doc
trines would destroy.
If the voice of the people does not, sooner or
later, reach those who were the cause of the
crimes for which Brown and his troop die in
Virginia, and Gerrit Smith languishcs in
lunatic asylum, they will never be punished.