The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1860-03-01
A Just Rebukc.

Ann .. stephens, VINO occupies al
honorable position in American literature
has addressed long letter to Victor Hugo
the French romancer. who took it upon
himself to send communication to the
London Morning Star. deprecating the ex.
ecution of John Brown by the Virgins
authorities. Mrs. Stephens says in open
ing:
Sr-Your letter 10 the London Star has
found its way into the American press.
lor which it was doubtless intended. II
ardent enthusiasm could win justice from
her strict course yours might have had
some effect upon the destiny Of John
Brown. But all the eloqaence of genius
cannot take the blachness Of treason, or
the crimson stain from murder. 1t re-
quires something more than an ou,burst
of fine poetry to turn crime into patriotism
something more than impetueus de-
nunclations TO check the solemn footsteps
of justice.
John Brown was tried, condemned, and
executed as traitor--a guard Of Ameri-
can cilizens stood around the scatfod, sad
at heart, bun steady in their in their de-
volion to the laws. The Legislature Of
a great Commonwealth sOt, deliberately.
after his sentence, and pronounced it just.
The Federal Union, in which thirty mill
ion of souls throb, stood by in solemn
silence while the treason Of this man was
expiated.
r =
1t is. indeed, a terrible picture you have
drawn but the streets of HarLer's Ferry
had one more terrible still. There. in
nocent mea. all unconscious of danger,
were shot down like wild animals. There,
widows, newly bereaved. knelt moaning
over their dead husbands. and orphan
children cried aloud for the parents that
John Brown had so ruthlessly murdered
This picture you have forgotten to place
side by side with the other but we who
love our counlrymen have sympathy for
the innocent as well as pity for the guilty.
You complain that this trial was hurried,
that the jury sat only forty minute. and
that all the proceeding were indecorously
urged forward /; but were they SO swift rs
the rifle balls that shot down uaarmed
men in the streets at Harper's Ferry p
Were they SO ruthless as John Brow"'s
midnight descent upon sleeping villag,
in Kansas, where husbands and ons were
dragged out of their beds, and shot down
within hearing of their wives and mothers?
Is this the man you speak of as "pious.
austere. animated with the old puritan
spirit. inspired by the spirit of the Cos
pel." while you call his companions ''sa-
cred martyrs ?"
Victor Hugo. in his letter says -
"Let the Judges of Charleston and the
slaveholding Jurors. and the whole Popula-
ton Of Virginia ponder on it well--they
are watched--lhey are Lot alone in the
world.
To which our fair countrywoman re-
plies as follows:
They have pondered on it WE'LL and the
execution of John Brown has taken place.
II the whole American Republic were re-
sposible for his death. as you say it is it
would simply bo responsible for most
painful duty solemn performed and re-
ceved with mournful resignation even by
the most merciful. because Of its impera-
tive necessity. Justice demanded the life
Of this man for he had taken human life
necessity demand it. for he was the spirit
and soul of treason that threatened the
foundations OF our nationaliiy-that would
forever have been plotting more bloodshed
SO long IA he lived on earth.