The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-04-03
JOHN BROWN.

The recent attempt of IA writer in the .1t1ah.
tic .Nonthly to apotheosize John Brown,
provokes from the st. Louis Republican, the
following sensible remarks:
Stripped of all nonsense and clap.trap, who
was j ohm Brown and what did he do to mer-
il the apothcosis which is already being be-
slowed upon MIN and mis-? He was bold,
brave fanatic, who could see but one evil in
the world which was really worth lighting.
That evil he turned over and over III his
mind, brooded upon it, preached and prayed
about it, until it appeared to him as the sum
of human iniuuties, and the OBJECT above all
others which most deserved the wrath OF God.
This conviction firmly imbedded IN his mind,
the next followed as a matter oflOglcal neces-
sity. The evil should be eradicated at once,
and any and every means used for the accom-
pllshment Of that end would not only be JUS
tfiable, but in the highest degree acceptable
to Heaven. Just in the same way, and by the
same species of argument, did the church IN
earlier days come to the conclusion that
heterodoxy was the worst of crimes and de
serving the worst of punishments; and mat
burning the bodies of heretics was more
precious sacrifice to the Father of Mercy than
all the offerings that ever smoked on the top
of Mount Moriah. In other words, in order
TO uproot what he deemed the chief OF sins,
Brown deliberately resolved to take step
which, if fully successful, would infallibly
inaugurate such massacre as the world never
witnessed. He knew, but did not care, that
slavery was recognized and protected by the
organic law of the land he knew, but did not
care that this recognition and protection were
cheerfully conceded by the founders of the re-
public, and were part and parcel of the com
promise upon which the republic was based;
he knew, but did not care, that an armed at
tack upon the institution which he hated was
as clearly high treason as plot TO overturn
the federal government; he knew, but did not
care that such an attack, whether ii succeed
ed or failed, would rouse sectional animosi.
ties which could find suitable expression on
" in wholesale blood shedding; he knew, but
did not care for all the terrible consequences
which must inevitably follow an instruction
among the blacks of the South and yet, know.
ing all this, he marched with Bible in one
hand and torch aud musket in the other, up
on his mission OF murder and destruction.
That the blacks did not rise; that servile
lace did not rally at the summons, repeat the
deeds done in st. DNmingo and make half the
Union such hell as Satan himself would ny
from with horror, was no fault OF his. Ii in
tentiOns count for anything, he Is as guilty as
if that hell had become an accomplished fact.
No quantity or quality of glittering senti
ment and maudlin philanthropy can utterly
obscure these simple, solemn truths. Call
African slavery what you will, curse his
ghost as you may, neither harsh names nor
expletves, whether deserved or undersigned,
can lessen the enormity of that offence upon
which John Brown relies for a gracious i'm
mortality. If he is entitled to praise for what
he did and attempted to do, then we must
concede the sOundness of the infamous prn-
ciple that the end justiies the means, and.
that the more damnable the means the more
righteous are those who employ them. Should
the day ever arrive when the events of the
last quarter of a century can be calmly and
impartally reviewed in the unstained light
of common.sense and common justice, then,
if not before, it will be seen that the so.called
martyr has
LEFT name to other times,
Linked with one virtue and thousand