New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-11-19
BROWN AND THE vJRGINIANs.

John Brown may serve as new Illustration OF
the truth of Bonaparte's saying, that there is but
one step from the sublime to the ridiculous! 1t
would be difficult to find anything in itself more
intrinscally absurd in the total want of proportion
between the object in view and the means brought
to bear for its accomplishment, than John Brown
assuming the character of Commander-in-C Chief OF
a Provisional Government and expecting at the
head of an army of seventeen white men and three
negroes, to set on foot great social and political
revolution, and by the bold stroke of seizing the
arsenal at Harper's Ferry, to bring about as it
were in moment that which all the care, thought,
prayers and arguments Of the Christian philanthro-
psts the far-seeing statesmen, and the wise econ
omists of century had totally failed to accom-
pIsh, to wit: the abolition of Slavery. Brown,
however, escapes being ridiculous by the faith for
titude dsyotedness, and mistaken confidence In his
cause and himself with which, wounded, q pris-
Oner, his followers slain or captured, and himself
condemned to death, he still adheres to his project
as feasible and rational no less than a philan-
thropic undertaking
He may be compared to the good knight Don
Quxote, who, in spite of his decisions, and the ab-
surdy of his enterprises always preserves our re-
spect, and even veneratiOn by the display of many
of the nobest qualities OF human municipalities,
which it ia impossible not TO admire, whatever we
may think of the particular circumstances which
have given occasion for their exhibition.
But if John Brown has thus saved himself from
being ridiculous he is likely, are sorry to say,
to be- the occasion of an abundance OF ridiculous
displays-and perhaps of something worse-on the
part OF others. lie seems to have infected the good
people OF Virginia with delnsion as great as his
own. 1t seems to be impossible for them 70 get
over the terror which his bold seizure of larpers
Ferry inspired. Though OF his immediate co0Pera-
tors in that enterprise, most were killed, and the
rest are in prison, Virginia remains strongly I'M
pressed with the idea Of a grand army OF Slave
liberators dispersed up aud down through her bor-
ders in the disguise of Yankee peddlers, while still
another grand army of desperate Abolitionists Is
expected from the North, marching in battle array,
10 storm the Jail at CharestOwn, to berate Brown,
and to place him at their head for the accomplish
ment of his original enterprise. The burning OF
two or three barns, and us many negro huts,
or other outhousss at ChaTlest0w0, has
been accepted as proof positive of the
approach of this liberatng army, and in all has e,
horse, foot and artillery, from Richmond, Alexan-
dra, and elsewhere, are rushing to Charlestown 10
be prepared TO encounter and repel this new IN
vasion. Whether they AL show the same bold
front with those valiant troops which Gov. Wise
led in person 10 Charlestewn on the occasion Of
Browns invasion, and whom the Governor deemed
Il but just specially to compliment alter their re-
tuln for having shown no signs Of fright while on
their way thither, is more than we would be willing
10 answer for. II would not be altogether sur
prsing if the terror which seems to peryade the
public at large should visit even the ranks oil the
citizen soldiery. We trust, however, that no re-
port that the invaders are at hand VIII drive tneSe
assembled troops home again as suddenly as tney
have been called together.
The nrescnt manic which prevails in Virginia
calls TO mind the bloody delusion with which tins
City of New-York was visited hundred years ana
more ago. and at the bottom Of which, then as now,
Law the terror Of negro insurrecton. his CITY al
that time contained some nine or ten thousand IN
h.b;,ar,s Of whom twelve or fifteen hundred were
,.oro slaves. Nine fires in rapid succession, most
of,hicb however, were little more than the burn
rg Of ehmneys, threw the city into an alarm about
sou.l IN that which seems 10 have been produced
BY the present barn-burning at Charlestown A
story was set on foot that some low whites had
cousoired with the negroes 10 burn down the city.
II was suggested that the Catholics, of whom
tsere were then q few resident in the