The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-02-02
INTERESTING LETTER FROM OLD BROWNS
CErRETARv OF STATE

INTERESTING LETTER FROM OLD BROWNS
SECRETARY OF STATE.
The following is a copy OF letter from Richard
Realf, Old Browns Secretary of State, to the
brother law of Cook, who was executed for par
ticipating in the Brown raid:
WASHINGTON, D. c., Jan. 80, 1860
DEAR SIR: Your favor of the 9th instant, ad-
dressed in care of the Senate Investigating Com
mttee, is received. and hasten to assure you of
nv sympathy and coincidence with yourself and
family in your recent sorrowfu bereavement. You
WILL am sure, pardon me for saying that in rela-
ton to your deceased brother, cannot consent to
adopt as my own the sentiments with which you
appear to regard him. | cannot, that is, consent
to call him unfortunate. Doubtless life is dear
and liberty sweet, and to die by the executioners
hand is an ignominioul doom; yet when, in the
lapse of time, the deed for which John Edwin
Cook incurred the extreme penalty of the law
shall be seen in its due proportions, and calm
ANALYSIS shall be substituted for loud-mouthed
horror, and the motives which impelled to the act
shall, as they WILL determine the verdict upon it,
the name and memory of your dead brother may
become unto you glorious inheritance forever. l
take no shame unto myself in that dissolved nv
connection with that mistaken and Inflated enter
prise; and vet, in justice to the solemn dead, must
confess that the spirit of benevoience, and SELL
sacrifice, and high audacity of courage upon which
it rested, eclipse so surprisingly my careful pru-
dence and polite caution that though the result
has confirmed the justice of my judicious fears, l
cannot choose but do homage to their memories as
beings who, in all noble attributes of character,
were infinitely above myself.
The fatal error of John Brown consisted in TAX
ing for granted the premises upon which this move
ment was predicated, and without the absolute
rectness of which it could not possibly succeed 1t
was based on the mistaken superstition that the
slaves themselves were anxiously awaiting an OPP
portunity of striking for their freedom, and John
Brown labored under an intatuation of intellectual
obtusity in attempting to execute his project before
having thoroughly assured himself that he might
RELY upon their cooperation. He was swayed by
other errors. He COMPOUNDED his own differences
as to duty with duty itself, believing that the con-
illusions which bound his conscience were binding
on the conscences of all other men, and he trans
lated the sensiveness of his heart and the sugges
tions of his idiosyncracies to be a command unto
him from Heaven.
These things impaired his reason and prevented
him either from thinking impartialy or Judging
accurately and wisely. But as he possessed that
strange power which enables one man to infict
many with his views, he so psychological his aSso-
ciates that, seeing only through his medium of Wis
ion, they consequently were unable to controvert
his theories; therefore the movement went bllndly
on. For myself too it is certain that had l not
been sent to New York, where, ont of the reach of
his great mesmeric influence, could in some sort
master the questions involved, should have been
with the enterprise down to the bitter end.
should. indeed, have had no other choice. Had
John Brown sent man on an errand to Hades, he
must have started thither, for he was one of Gods
own commanders.
l knew your brother. We have been friends
Permit me to say of him that bis faults were such
as belongs to a warm, impulsive, chivalrous ma
ture. He was quick hearted, swift booded, brave
unto recklessness, generous unto prodigality. We
have been together the stump, to the solitude OF
the far praires, in the social circle in the retire
ment of our own homes, and never knew him 9TH
er than that which have stated. In the history
of Kansas he bore an honorable part, and leaves
an honorable record; and you must not, in your
sorrow at the manner of his recent death, forget
to consider the causes that led thereto for shall
you be comforted and consoled by the reflection
that" all the clamorous noise and passion which
Interpretation it will receive from time is now
being rendered. and that, too, in the spirit which,
sooner later, causes ever the truth to come up
permost, and makes justice ever be DONE
With much respect, yours truly,
RICHARD REALF.
R. Crowley, ESQ.,, New York CITY,