Newbern weekly progress., 1860-01-10

|
so ruthlessly murdered This picture you have
forgotten to place side by side with the other {;
| but who love our countrymen have sympa-
thy for the innocent as we'll as pity for the
/ guilty.
| You complain that his trial was hurried that
| the jury sat only forty minutes, and that all the
proceedings were indecorously urge forward ;; but
! were they so swift the rife balls that shot
| iown unarmed men in the streets at Harpers
| Ferry? Were they so ruthless John Brown s
| midnight descent upon sleeping village in Kan
| sas, where husbands and sons were dragged out
Fof their beds, and shot down within hearing of
their wives and mothers? Is this the man whom
you speak of as ''pious, austere, animated with
the old puritan spirit. inspired by the spirit of the
Gospel;' while you call his companions, sacred
| martyrs ?''
This. sir, is the blasphemy of a highly wrought
! ina magination-excuse for saying-not original
with you; for wilder and more rrehgious men
| than trust you have gone to greater lengths.
and blasphemed more eloqnenily than this. They
| have pronounced John Browns goows holier
than the cross, and held up his rebellion
buke to the unfinished mission of Lord the
Saviour
" At this moment" you say, America attracts
the attention of the whole world
Not at this moment only, but ever since she be
came a free nation this has been a truth. TO all
| the Kingly Governments of Europe she has all
ways been n contrast and rritation-a sub
iect for criticism and, whenever opportunity
for blame arose. of denunciation 1t is not strange
then that a rebellion in part fostered in Europe
should call forth bitter remarks there.
LET the Judges of Charlestown and the slave
holding Jurors, and the W hole population of Vir-
gina ponder on it welI-they watched-they
are not alone in the world
They have pnndered on it well, and the execu-
! ton of John Brown has taken place If the
whole American Republic were respOnsi bic for
his DEATH you say it is-it would simply be
responsible for most painful duty solemny per-
formed and received with mournfu resignation
even by the most mercifu, because of its
| Inst dnf InI a
| life of this man for he had taken human life-ne-
cessity demanded it, for he was the spirit and
soul of Il treason that threatened the foundations
of our natonality-that would forever have been
plotting more bloodshed so long as he lived on
earth.
You call the execution of Brown a brother
hood of bloood'-you say that ''the fasces of our
splendid Republic will be bound together by the
running moose that hangs from his glbbet.
| If this is true--if any brotherhood of blood is
connected with this painful event, it rests neither
with the ''whoe" American Republic nor with
the State of Virg nia but its red track may be
| found across the foam of the Atlantic, linking
Exeter Hal! with the sensation pulpits on this
side the ocean. The weight of John Browns
blood lies with England and the confederates Of
England, who have by their teachings their
money and crafty sympathy, led the old man on
| to death. What bat this band of blood " did
| the people of England expect W hen they gathered
penny contributions throughout the length and
breadth of their land in order to urge this incen
/
butions-as if Liberty Tyrant Pau
per, to be intimated or bribed by their infamous
copper.
insult, fund for incendiary nsos3 IF sent TO
the United States for the purpose of incting in
surrection, or in any way opposing our laws then
| that money has been the price of John Browns
! blood and the first strand of the halter that
hung from his gallows
! What did the people of Scotland expect when
they rent the American flag in twain. and hung it,
tattered and quiver;ng beneath the indignty, over
| the head of an American woman, who smiled be
nignly under the insult, and received aims after
it was offered Out of such acts and such in
suits the halter of John Brown was woven; to
such insidious encouragement the old man owes
| his death
Was there an English living,
who supposed that great nation would allow the
treason thus nstgated on foreign soil, to ripen
| in her bosom, and fail to punish 1t with all the
force of her Just laws?
! 1t is the people of England, then, with very
small party in the United States. who united
| by this - bond of blood 1t reddens the vest
ments of our sensation ministers, not the ermne
| of our Judges. The sacfamental tables OF our po-
| litcal churches are encrimsoned with 1t, and the
places once sacred are oyershadowed by the old
mans crime. In these places when you call John
Brown " the champion of Christ, 1t may be con-
sidered meek and holy language; but the great
mass of our American peopls will turn from such
| impiety with shudder.
Your letter closes with appeal to our Re
public, calling it the sister of the French Repub-
| jic How little YOU know of the great land you
compliment and revie in the same breath. Lib
erty with subjects herself to the laws which she
| has inspired and he who revolts against those
laws sins against her and the whole people whom
she protects. She Sprang another Minerva from
the midst of patriotic statesmen, modestly clad
serene and beautiful, she presides over our Re
public, and has SO far protected it from anarchy
oppression.
1t is that our Republic may have sisterhood
I, -, nf th.t nch aS
YOU denominate "a sacred duty are met with
! the whole force of our laws Were they permit
ted to obtain fuothold in the land, our Republic
mi ght indeed become sister to those of France
and perish as they did.
! Had the insurrection at Harper's Ferry
ceeded. the scenes of anarchy which left France
| lying like an unnatural monster satiated with the
! blood of her children, might have been re
peated here. But are not yet prepared to see
! innocent babes shot down in battailions, or fair
| girls compelled to drink blood frothing from
| vet warm human heart, in order to redeem their
! fat hers from the hatchet We not prepared
to pastors slaughtered at the foot of their
own affairs, or hear coarse songs laundering
| through the solemn arches of our temples 1t Is
to save our country from consangninity with Re
publics founded atrocities like these, that our
| laws crush rebellion when it first crests itself.
| Rest Sir, upon your knees before the star-span-
| gled banner While our pulpits are turned into
political forums, and their Ministers preach raplne
and blood shed, the foot of our flag staff is, per-
| hapsAthe most sacred place for devotion that we
! haveto offer you. There, certainly pure spirit
should inspire your prayers. Yes knee reverent-
ly, and plead that the great country protected by
its fold may fling off the poison SO insidiously cir
culated in her bosom by foreign nations. The
spirits of our immortal statesmen will be around
you when that prayer is uttered and, if you are
| in truth patriot, one heavenly voice will whls
per, in tones that must be changed if they do not
penetrate to the depths of your SOUL" know no
| North, no South, no East, no West; nothing but