The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-26
The Spirit of John Brown.

THE Age this morning again refers to the in
famous Democratic slsnder on General Hsctor
Tyndale. But it imagines that it has done
the case ample justice by stating that "both
these papers deny the accuracy Of the state
ment, referring to TIE EVENING TELEGRAPH
and The Evening Bulletin. 1t may be that the
Age people cannot comprehend the meaning
of plain words; that they see no difference
between simple statement on our part that
we believe charge to be unfounded, and the
explicit denial of that charge by direct au-
thority of the person involved. But while the
Age, detected in the very act of giving our
rency to a boldfaced falsehood, and in the
equally discreditable act Of attempting to
fasten the responsibility for that falsehood
where it kneo the responsibility did not belong,
satisfies its conscience with halfway apology
for its petty partisan trick, it attempts to
bolster up the charge in a way that displays
its sentire disbelief in its truthfulness. No
proof is brought forward to substaatiate the
slander which, by authority of General Tyn-
dale, we have explicitly denied. The Age
hopes to injure gallant soldier and honorable
Christian gentleman by raking up the words
employed by the committee by whom General
Tyndale was informed of his nomination for
the Office of Mayor
"Your early struggles in the cause of the op
pressed, when contumely and insult were your
reward, are not forgotten now that these once
despised principles are successful. In your
heart John Browns spirit early found lodg.
ment, and in you 1t still goes marching on"
1t also asserts that "the radical journals did
much to accredit it when, on the nomination
of General Tyndale, they formally introduced
him to the public as disciple of old John
Brown" By such slender thread of proofs
as this, the Age hopes to create the.impres-
sion on the part of its readers that General
Tyndale, in his own private parlor, pointed to
the portrait of John Brown and emphatically
remarked:-"That man was better man than
Jesus Christ ~ The utter desperation Of
desperate cause could not be more pointedly
illustrated than by this weak exhibition OF
ridiculous and slanderous sophistry.
The committee by whom General Tyndale
was informed of his nomination truthfully de-
clared that Sin his heart John Browns spirit
early found lodgment, and in him it still
goes marching on.' The only difference
between General Tyndale and the great body
of the American people consists in the fact
that the former became enlisted in the cause Of
the oppressed at day when 'contumely aud
insult" were his sole rewards, while 1t was not
until the Southern Democracy had assailed
the nation with traitorous hands, that the
united North marched to victory on hundred
bloody fields, with these words for their battle
cry
"John Browns body lies mouldering in the
But his soul goes marching on!"
This was the spirit of the war for the Union
and the noble deeds that we're done in Yer
mont and Maine show that it is not yet ex-
tinct. General Tyndale is thoroughly imbued
with this spirit, the Republican party Of the
city and State are still inspired by it, the great
loyal party Of the nation embodies 1t in all its
length and breadth. The soul of John Brown
is the soul Of progress, of truth, of justice, OF
earnest antipathy to wrong, of heroic devotion
to the right. The man himself was fanatic
a madman, rather-but in his feeble intellect
the spirit of truth and justice found lodgment
and SO worked upon it that he was promptsi
to rash and criminal act which cost him his
life. But the spirit which impelled him die
not perish with him, aud when treason became
the inspiration Of the Southern Demo ocraoy
the "Johu Brown song" arose in response
from every hamlet in the land. With tht
stirring strain upon their lips the army o
the Union, led by General Grant, swept over
the South; and now again, with the ssmt
refrain for our watch word, and the same grea
soldier for our leader, We are sweeping ovsl
the land, from Lakes TO Calf, from Qceau Il