Daily Democrat and news. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1859-1864, 1859-11-23
Conflicting Testimony.

of making n raid into Virginia, with tue
view of melting a sefvilc instruction,
had it not been for the injuries inflicted
upon him and his family in Kansas =
aud further, that these cruclties renders
Ell him insane, and caused him to devote
the remainder of his life to revenge
All this looked very we'll on paper, and
furnished our neighbor of the Gazette
With a subject upon which he para
phrased most eloquently.
In the Gazette Of the 2lst ult. We
find the following:
'siIaI Capt. Brown been permitted to
remain III the peaceful possession Of his
home in Kansas and not been driven to
fury by the miuions of government there
stationed and the hordes OF despera-
does they urged against him, there
sooah haze been 40 insurrectton IN Vir-
yin.a."
In the same paper of the 22d, in re
fcrring to the acts of old Brown, the
G0-eM, in oxtenuation of his crime,
uses the following language:
"Goaded and urged Oh as he was by
the gricyous wrongs he has been cons
PEELED to suffer from an intensely Pro-
slavery Administration"
Again, in the issue Of the oath, VIC
find the following glowing description
of the causes which, operating upon the
mind OF Old Ossawattomie, urged him
to the commission Of treason:
Because Of the acts of poor crea-
turo who was made nt0niac by the
Border Ruilianism Of Democratic Ad-
mlnisration."
And to wind up this list Of extracts
our ncghbor, on the Goth, "lct himself
OUT in the following strain:
ct requires no logic, nothing more
than a modcnm OF common sense, to
perceive that the insane conduct Of John
Brown at iIarper's Ferry, is a Legitimate
result Of the Border-Rnfian cracltv, fos-
tered by a Pro- Slavery Administration
and practiccd upon the old man while a
resident of Kansas"
These successive attempts to create
the impression that Brown acted under
the influence Of crazed BRAIN, rendered
SO by his Kansas wrongs, go to show the
solictude of our ncighbor to screen him
from moral and legal responsibility, and
as a consequence, to cXonerate those
who have been charged with cncoura
ging his reasonable designs. lie
wished to stamp the whole affair as til,
freak of mailman. But Mrs. Brown
the wife of John Brown, gives her ties
timony in the case, AMI refutcs all thu
assertions made by our ncighbor. In ;
conversation between correspondent O
the New York INDEPENDENT and the wife
of Brown, and now published in thu
Chicago Press and Tribune, we have
the following as portion of that con
versation:
] referred incidentally to the design
upon Harper's Ferry as having beer
premeditated for two years, to which
she Immediately replied-"Not for two
years but for twenty. lie had been
waiting twenty years torsome opportun'
ity to free the slaves; we had all been
waiting with him, tie proper time wher
he should put hisresolve into action, and
when at last the enterprise of Harper's
Ferry was planned, we all thought tha,
the time had now come; MIR. Brown
was sangulne Of success; we all were
equally confident; lie had no idea, moi
did any OF the family, that the expert
ment would result in defeat; we al
looked to it as fulfilling the hopes O
many years"
AS listened to this, could not helT
half exclaiming, "What heroic words
What man! What woman"
| wrote down these sentences few
moments after they were uttered, and a
l repeated them she added
"For he has borne the yoke Of tn
oppressed as if upon his own neck 70
these thirty years.
This proves beyond all cavil, that Oil.
Brown had mcditatcd treason and muir
der long before he went to Kansas, ant
it is rot to be presumed that those wh'
aided him with counsel, arms and mon
ey, were ignorant Of his designs. JOIN
Browns life was devoted to one object
and to attain that he asked for and re-
ceivcd assistance and encouragement
from those who were less courageous, be
not less traltorous than he. His "Kan
sas work" was part of his grand pro
grammc, and, in that work, he had tn
united sympathy Of, and was chcerc,
on by the Republican party of the Ma.
ton.
But our ncighbor has been cndeayor
irg to make it appear that poor VI,
Brown is a maniac. What does Brown
wife say to that, in reply to the Gazette
Let her speak for herself:
then put the question which ha
been chiefly solicited to ask: at is tn
common talk of the newspapers tina
Capt Brown is insane; what do 70
say to that opinion -
u never knew she replied, sof hi
INSANITY, until | read II in Tho ,,o,,,.x,