Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1859-12-03
Mot all DarIx

We have already laid before the readers OF
the PATRIOT the very just and eorcible views
of Hon. THOs. CoRwIN, of Ohio, relative tc
the Harper's Ferry foray. Below We present
them an extract from the Providence r. L.
Journal edited by Hon. HENRY B. ANTHONY.
United States Senator, and republican. l.
will be observed that he is very far from ap
proving the conduct of JOHN BROWN and biz
sympathizers:
We concede very sincerely the courage
truthfulness and disini erestedness OF John
Brown. But we altogether condemn his &C,
We do not doubt that he did what he though
was right. But we do not think his cours
was right. 1t is deserving of Condemnation.
not of imitation.
There are some distinguished men from
whom we differ upon this subject. Nov, ther,
is one thing We should like to have explained
by Mr. Emerson, Mr. Phillips, and the others
who tell us that John Brown is the man VIII,
has made it possible for an American to owl
without shame in Europe that he is al Amer
lean who proclaim that his cause is the one
for true man to follow that his gallowsis
to be forever glorious, like the cross, and
much more in the same style. If all this is
so /; if John Brown in his late attempt was
the model man ; if he did what it is the high
duty of noble hearted spirit to do if he
set the example which is worthy of such un-
qualified admiration and imi alton, why in the
world do not heroic men who talk so loudly
go and do what he did Why are they con-
tent to stand upon this lower plane OF Man.
hood, which they now occupy? They have
talked magnificently about what makes
man in this crisis.
Why do they not try to be men after the
model which they commend? To be sure the
experiment would be perilous, nay, fatal.
But what of thatf True greatness, nay, man
hood, we are told, consists in such a sacri-
fee as Browns Why not then hurry and
make it? According to them, Brown is
doing, and is destined to do, more for the
cause to which he is falling a martyr than
he could have done by the eloquence of a
Pitt and the long life of Methuselah. Why
do they not then join him, help on the victo-
ny of freedom, and place their names, with
Browns, among those that men Twill not
willingly let die 2"
Change your words, or your acts, gentle
men. Either follow Brown, or modify the
language with which in your idolatry of him
you have chosen to characterize his deeds
So long as you do not, you show that you
are not men, measured by the standard
which you yourselves hold up. Let Us have
something be- sides the Dutchman's ''pravorts'
or else fewer of them. The lamentable re-
suit of this indiscriminate praise of an
honest but erring man will be the encourage
ment of others to follow his unhappy ex-
ample, while those who furnish the encourage
ment keep themselves at safe distance
from peril, and spend their heroic lives in
clarifying through words what they dare
not do themselves. That may be a lofty
style of heroism, but we have not yet attain |
ed to height where it seems so to us. For
the present John Brown, with all his mis-
takes, seems to US to gain little from such
as theirs. He did not urge any
one to peril which he was not willing to
face himself.