Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-12-03


Ths Hero and Martyr Of HRrper's Ferry
Capt JoHN BRowN has been 'Permited 10
die for a cause" and his "LAsT or EARTH" will
hereafter be the sign and symbol of supreme
self>devotedness to the sublime doctrines OF the
Sermon on the Mount. His example Of hero
ism, sanctified by such tenderness and fai'h'
imseting the eye and filling the heart of the
civilized world, spreading its noble inspiration
far and wide through a continent, quickening
the pulses of heroism in millions of souls, is
Gods prime benefactsr to our time-the immor-
tai 6re that keeps Humanity's highest hoEe
aAams"
The martyr BRowN has been "PsrmHted to die
for cause" HE death will illumine history,
for ali such records do. When arraigned for
sentence he uttered his own enduring epitaph-
"IfitiS deemed necessary that should forfeit
my life, and minge my blood with the blood OF
my children, and with the blood of millions in
this slave land, whose rights are dsregarded by
wicked laws, l say, let it be done" F" 1t is done
JoHS BRowN is dead but bis "wOrks do fol-
low him." He made all his foes abolition mis-
s.onaries, and the greatness of the fears of his
enemies who sought and took his life, reveals
the extent Of his triumph. He made the knees
OfSlavery smite together in the mountains and
in the valleys, and wherein he failed his foes
came TO his aid through telegraph, press, drum,
gun, terror, panic, whisper, and word spoken
from mouth to mouth, master to master, slave
to slave. What page of slave history do Hsr
pers Ferry and Charlesto present in the ''irre-
pressble conflict !" In the words Of another
The Spartan band Of chiyalry, fifteen hundred
strong, quaking ON the hill round Harper's Fer.
~, for a whole day unable to look the old man
in the face; then numbering prisoner, unarmed
and bound hand and foot, who could hnd
in that shambles no man, and but ono won an
to vainly plead for his life; then blowing OIL
tie face of man who cried for quarter; then
hicking with seven wounds the body OF the
gray haired leader after he had ylelded; then
before the eyes of the beIeayed ani bleeding
father, crowding the body of his son into "box
for dissection" then with obscene rage and
threats insulting the aged chiel as he lay wound
ed and manaoled. upon his cot the mock trial
overlapping with indecent haste the ancient
forms Of law; the hurried sentence; the mastering
ofhundreds of armed men, filling with horse,
foot, aud cannon, every avenue to'his jail; the
whole South on tiptoe with apprehension two
great States in an ecstacy Of fear; Virginia turn
ing herself into an armed garrison; the slave
journals Of the North shrieking in full concert.
Behold on what platform the insane rage and
fear of his foes has lifted this anti slavery
veteran to the ptars Strangling John Brown
will not stop the earthquake that has followed
his ehattering blow; orifit does, Science teach
es that when the earthquake stops the volcanoes
begin, His aim was to render slavery insecure,
and he has succeeded lie has forced the tele-
graph, the press, the stump, the bar-room, the
parior, to repeat the dangerous story OF insur-
rection in every corner of the South. From
Maryland to Florida there is not slave who
does not have the idea of Freedom quickened
within him by the outbreak of Harpor's Ferry
Like the Druid stone, which the united force
Of an hundred mon could not move, while a
child's finger rightly applied. rocked 1t TO its
base, this dark system of outrage and wrong, has
which stood for thirty years moyeless against the
political power Of the North, against the warn
ings of an inSulted Christianity, and against
the moral sentiment Of the world, now rocks
and trembes as the finger of this God-fearing
Puritan presses against its weak spot"