The Kansas herald of freedom., 1859-11-05

luded to had preceded him, and the people
were so shocked on his arrival there, be-
cause of it, and supposing John, Jr., guilty
of the outrage, they turned from him. He
went from there to the residence of his un-
Gle, Rev. Mr.. ADAIR, where he had sent his
wife and boy. The reports of the awful
murder Of his neighbors, the consciousness
that his father, brother, and six other friends
had been guilty of that terrible outrage, and
the treatment he received at Osawatomie
from his own political friends, crazed him.
He sought the woods, and wandered about
for days, with only an occasional CLEAN of
recollection. He became tangled in the
brushwood, waded streams, sometimes out
upon the open prairie, and imagining crowds
pursuing him. For days he suffered as on
ly sensitive and educated mind, wrecked
by a great wrong like the one we have very
briefly alluded to, could suffer. He remem-
bers seeing his little boy once, and kissing
him, but cannot call to mind the mother.
He learned by some means that warrant
was out for his arrest, charged with mur-
der. Conscious Of his own innocence, and
having still little spark of memory, he re-
solved to give himself up to the authorities,
which he did. They, believing him guilty
of one of the basest crimes recorded in
American history, and hardly equalled in
atrocity by the savages of the forest, when
led on by revenge and madness, treated him
in very barbarous manner. 1t is true that
he was chained and marched in burning
sun some twenty-five or thirty miles, to
what point we are not advised, probably
Paola, but certainly not Lecompton. The
fatigue, burning sun, excitement and chains
did not, of course, improve his mental con-
dition. He continued wild with delirium,
and when brought into camp with the trea-
son prisoners, he showed evidences of
wandering mind for many days afterwards.
Yea, for months, whenever conversation
turned, as it sometimes did, upon the Pot
.awattamie murder, and we attempted to
excuse his father for that act, giving the
mitigating circumstances current among
Free State men at the time, his eyes would
sparkle with unwonted brilliancy, his man.
aer would assume the widest excitement.
and in loud and boisterous voice, which
was uncommon to him on other occasions,
ne would exclaim :: "Do not attempt to Of
fer anything in palliation of such crime !!
Nothing can excuse it 1t was unequalled
in atrocity, and displayed only cOwardice.
Had the same deed been done in open day,
it would have shown more manliness; but
10 call men from their beds at midnight,
and to cut them down in cold blood, is inf
nitely more savage than was the chopping
in pieces, by drunken rabble, of r. p.
BRowN, at Easton." And thus he would
run on for a long time, much more vehe-
mently than we can possibly describe, until
his attention was diverted by gradually in
Producing some other topic, when his ex-
citement would quietly subside.
JOHN Brown, Jr., is man Of education,
and of more than common abilities. Strict
ly honest and conscientious, he could not
consent that the blood of any one should
rest upon him or his father.
When released from Imprisonment, he
expressed determination to leave Kansas,
and its excitements, that he might engage,
in some peaceful locality, in tilIing the soil,
in the hope that he would forget the Incl
dents through which he had passed while
soJourning in the Territory, and that his
brain might attain its equilibrium.
From this statement it will be seen that
the insanity of JOHN BRowN, Jr., owed its
first cause to other than the barbarity OF
the Border Rufians, though their outrages
upon him were enough to drive cne mad.
We may also state, in this connection,
correcting the many statements to the con-
trary which have appeared in the press,
that the dwellings of the Browns, on Potta-
wattamie creek, were not burned until after
the Pottawattamie murder alluded to, and
then in retaliation for the damning crime Of
which John Brown, Senior, Frederick
Brown, and their party, were guilty.
We sincerely hope that the future histo.
rians of Kansas will take pains to posi-
themselves on these subjects, that they may
not do injustice to innocent parties.
Old John Brown has figured as hero il
Kansas. The time will come when histor,
will be rentiiGted, and instead of hero, h,
!
will stand before the country in his tru,
character. Under cover of night, and il
the name of religion, he committed crimes
too base "for common sinners to meddl
with" Should his celebrated victory owe
Henry Clay Pate, at Black Jack, be prop
erly inquired into, ii would be found tha
Capt. SAMUEL SHORE, now of Prairie City
was the real hero, though too modest an,
unassuming to even put in his claim, par
ticularly after seeing the statements of tn
letter-writers, who gave all the glory t
Brown.