Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-09-17

A LETTER FROM JOHN BRowN.-" What
follows" says the Philadelphia Press, is
al autograph letter of the martyr, John
Brown, written just before his execution in
Virginia, to the Rev. Luther Humphrey,
brother Of Rev. Zephaniah NJ. Humphrey OF
this city, the pastor of the Calvary Church,
corner of Fifteenth and Locust streets, which
we believe has never before seen the light
through newspaper, although it was litho-
graphed and sold in large numbers at one oil
the Sanitary Fairs in Brooklyn during the
war
CHARLESTON, Jefferson Co., Va,
18th November, 1858.
" Rec Luther Humphrey:
"My Dear Friend: Your kind letter oil
the 18th instant is now before me. So fal
as my knowledge goes as to our mutual kin
dred, | suppoee am the first since the land.
ing of Peter Brown from the Mayfower that
has either been sentenced to imprisonment OF
to the gallows. But, my dear old friend
let not that TACT alone grieve you. You can
not have forgotten how and where our grand
father Captain John Brown) fell in l766
md that he, too, might have perished on the
scaffold had circumstances been but very lit
tie different. The fact that a man dies under
the hand of an executiOner Tor Otherwise)
has but little to do with his true character,
as [ suppose.
"John Rogers persisted at the stake a
great and good man, as l suppose; but his
being so does not prove that any other man
who has died in the same way was good or
otherwise. Whether [ have any reason to
be Of good cheer (or nOt) in view of my
end, | can assure you that feel SO and that
| am to ally blinded if l do not really expe-
renee that strengthening and consolation
you SO faithfully implore in my behalf God
OF our fathers reward your fidelity! l neither
feel mortified, degraded, nor in the least
ashamed Of my imprisonment, my chain, or
my near prospect of death by hanging.
feel assured that not one hair shall TALL from
nv head without my Heavenly Father
also feel that | have long been endeavoring
to hold exactly such past as God has
chosen See the passage in Isaiah which
you have quoted. No part of my lite has
been more happily spent than that | have
spent here, and [ humbly trust that no part
has been spent to better purpose. would
not say thus boastingIy, but thanks be unto
God VINO giveth US the victory, through in
finite grace | should be sixty years old
were L to live till May 9, 1860. have en-
loyed much of life as 1t is, and have been re-
markably prosperous-having early learned
to regard the welfare and prosperity of others
as my Own.
Il have never since can remember re-
quired great amount of sleep, so that
conclude that l have already enjoyed full an
average number of waking hours with those
who reach their three-score years and ten.
have not as yet been driven to the use OF
glasses, but can still see to read and write
quite comfortably. But, more than that, |
nave generally enjoyed remarkably good
health. ! might go on to recount unnumber-
ed and unmerited blessings, among which
would be some very severe affection, and
those the most needed blessings OF all. And
now, when | think how easily might be lei t
to spoil all have done or suffered In the
cause OF freedom, hardly dare to risk anoth-
er voyage, If even had the opportunity. 1t
is long time sine We met, but We shall
now soon come together in our Father s
house, | trust Let US hold fast what we
already have remembering that We shall
reap In due time if we faint not Thanks
be ever unto God, who glveth US the victory
through Jesus CHRIST our Lord And now
my old warm hearted friend, good-by'
"Your afectionate cousin,
JOHN Brown"