Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-12-09
John Brown Dead.

Slavery has killed John Brown. We state
the fact as fact simply, and not by way Of
complaint. We have discouraged all appeals
by others than Virgipians to the clemency Of
the Slave Power in the. premises Slavery
and John Brown were foes to the death !;
Slavery for the moment is victor, and the law
OF the exIgency is very old one, Va vietis-
Wo to the conquered! John Brown knew no
limitations in his warfare on Slavery-why
should Slavery be lenient to John Brown,
defeated and captive? War has its neces-
sites, and they are sometimes terrible. We
have not seen how Slavery could spare the
life of John Brown without virtually confess.
ing the iniquity of its own existence. We
believe Brown himself has uniformly taken
this view Of the matter, and discountenanced
all appeals in his behalf for pardon or COM
mutation, as we'll as everything savoring of
irritation or menace. There are eras in which
death is not merely heroic, but benefcsnt and
fruitful. Who shall say that this was not
John Browns fit time to die?
We are not of those who say, "If Slavery
lswrong, then John Brown was wholly right"
There are fit and unfit modes of combating a
great evil; we think Brown at Harper's Ferry
pursued the latter.
But his are the errors of fanatic, not the
crimes of a felon. 1t were absurd to apply to
him opprobrious epithets or wholesale denun-
cations. The essence of crime is the pursuit
OF selfish qualification in disregard of others
good; and that is the precise opposite of Old
Browns impulse and decd.
John Brown dead will live in
millions of hearts-will be discussed around
the hearth of Toll, and dreamed of on the
couch of Poverty and Trial. To all who have
suffered for human good-who have been
pursued for an idea--who have been hated
! because of their efforts to make the daily path
OF the despised and unfortunate less rugged
his memory will be fragrant through genera
| tlons twill be easier to die in good cause,
even on the gallows, since John Brown has
! hallowed that mode of exit from the troubles
and temptations of this mortal existence.
| Then as to the irrepressible conflict"
| Who does not see that this sacrifice must
inevitably intensity its progress and hasten its
end? Thirty Millions of Americans - in
Guiding the Four or Five Millions of Slaves
are talking and thinking of John Brown-of
his daring, his purpose, his defeat, and his
death. How can the most hostile, the most
stolid, suppress the questions: What ssas it
I
How came such a man to die the death of q
felon! What is the Juggernaut that demanded
this bloody sacrifice? Admit that Brown
took wrong way to rid his country of the
curse, his countrymen of the chains of bond
! age, what is the right way! And are we
pursuing that way as grandly, unsel6shly, as
he pursued the wrong one? If not, is it not
high time we were? Before censuring severely
his errors, should we not abandon our own!
Yes, John Brown dead is verify power
like Samson in the falling temple of Dagon-
like Ziska, dead, with his skin stretched over
q drumhead, still routing the foes he bravely
fought while he lived. Time will doubtless
make plain the object and effect of this sacri-
| fee, and show the errors of Man overruled
and made benefcent by the wisdom and Low.
ing justice Of God So let US be reverently
grateful for the privilege of living in world
rendered noble by the daring of heroes, the
suffering of martyrs-among whom let none
doubt that History will accord an honored
niche to Old John Brown.-N. 2 Tribune,
Dec. Sd.