The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1877-10-18

can be scrutinized and contrasted. We
know the moment when the Pilgrims
perilously disembarked upon the sandy
hem OF the unoccupipd Continent. Hour
by hour for two hundred and ffty-seven
years we can trace the path of themselves
and their posterity. Inch by inch we
can follow their march through the for
ests, across the mountains and rivers and
prairies from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Sea. We know, for they have told US,
the ideas the purposes, the convictions,
the hopes the fears. Of the founders oi
this Christian Commonwealth. We OBJ
serve the inconceivable energy with
which the principles OF these exiles have
been disseminated and the results that
have followed their recognition as the
foundation of a system of government;
innumerable cities and habitations; de
serts and wildernesses reclaimed from
savage solitude; harbors and beacons
to warm and shelter vast commerce
from the hazards of the deep; costly
highways, bridges, canals, and railroads
to facilitate interior intercourse; tranquil
institutions; orderly methods for the ad.
ministration of Justice; education uni
versally diffused mortality everywhere
prevalent, and religion assuaging the in.
evitable griefs Of this world with the
hope of eternal reparation in that which
is to come Attracted by the induce
ments or a civilization which elevates
every citizen into absolute freedom !;
which emancipstes him from the chains
of customs, creeds and sects which slim
ulates industry by dignifying labor and
generously rewarding toll; which opens
the prizes of ambition TO all multitudes
OF the discontented and aspiring have
thronged hither from other lands only
To be fused and blended by the predomi-
nant force of the American idea into the
homogeneous mass Of the American peo-
pie. Since the Christian era all great po-
litical movements have had their i'm
pulse in religious sentiment. The ma
tional existence OF the jews has been
preserved for two thousand years by the
hope OF a Messiah. The destiny OF Eu-
rope, Asia and Africa has been modified
by the doctrines OF Mohammed The
dogmas of Luther and Calvin have the
of England and the Puri-
tan to America, and resulted Tor the first
time in history in the adoption of the
golden rule as maxim of government,
and OF the bible as the chief corner stone
OF the civil state.
AS the nation grew, two conflicting
theories of the nature and objects of our
political system gradually developed in
increasing activity, and contended for
the mastery. Prudential considerations,
the ambition of party leaders, the COW
ardice of emaSculated statesmen, the Gu
pidity of pusillanimous traders deferred
the crisis by compromises, patches and
plasters, till the inevitable issue long de-
ferred, was precipitated upon the plains
Of Kansas, and the mortal duel began
whose bloody deluge submerged half the
continent beneath its crimson inunda-
lion. Among those who signed the GOV
snant in the cabin OF the Mayhower was
Peter Brown, an English carpenter. who
lied in 1888 Descended from him in
he sixth generation was John Brown,
born at Torringtop, Connecticut, on the
9TH of May, 1900 When FIVE years of
lge he was taken to Ohio. His youth
was obscure and uneventful. He was
'hepherd. farmer, a tanner. At the
age OF eighteen he went to Massachusetts
With the design OF obtaining collegiate
education and entering the ministry, but
was attacked with disorder OF the eyes,
which compelled him TO abandon this
purpose and return to Ohio. In early |
manhood he was a surveyor and travers-
ed the forests of Pennsylvania and Vir- |
1inia Later he was engaged in business
'or ten years in Pennsylvania, and after
wards in Ohio as q tanner, as a cattle
laaler, and speculator in real estate, till
1916, when he removed with his family
TO Springfield, Massachusetts,, and dealt |
m wool as a commission merchant. In
$40 he went to North Elba, New York.
where he lived upon a sterile rocky farm
IL "A L..
body now lies mouldering in the grave.
In 1s45 four sons of John Brown joined
The column of emigrants that marched to
Kansas. They settled near Pottowato
ME Creek, about eight miles from the
,pot where we now stand, and became
apostles OF the Puritan idea and mission
aries of freedom. They were unarmed !
put believed the State should be free.
They were harrassed, insulted, raided, /
md plundered by gangs OF marauders,
md at length wrote TO their father to
procure arms to enable them to protect
heir lives and property, and 20 bring
hem personally TO Kansas. The hour
lad struck. The long, humble lite OF
Meditation was about TO flower into inn
mortal deeds. In the autumn OF 1855, |
turing the siege OF Lawrence, the old
nan with his tour sons, appeared upon
he field, equipped for battle. A sprcLa
Or says they drove up in front OF the
Free State Hotel, standing in a small
lumber wagon. To each of their persons
we're strapped "A short heavy broad sword
Each was supplied with a goodly number
d firearms and revolvers, aud poles were
endwIse around the wagon box
With fixed bayonets pointing upward
they looked really formidable, and were
received with great eclat."
But il soon became apparent that ht |
was too sincere, too much in earnest, To
be available He refused TO do anything
but fight. His criticisms upon the polit
cal leaders were caustIc and intolerable
he would do nothing because it was ex-
Dedient, but everything because it was
right He had no sympathy with those
" ho wanted to make Kansas a free white
State. He asserted the manhood of a
negro with vehemence that agitated
he political eunuchs ol the period who
we're more anxious for place than for
principle.
On the 4th of July, 1865, it seemed as
# the subjugation of Kansas by the slave
power was accomplished. The Missouri
River, the great avenue of access to the
Territory, was closed Governor Shan
non said "the roads were literally strewed
with dead bodies" the Free State citi
tens of Leavenworth were exlles; the
principal towns OF the Territory were ia
The hands of the enemy; and on this
natal day of the Republic, at the com
mand OF a servile President, the Legisla-
ture was dispersed by United STATES
troops without protest from that party
which has recently stunned the public
ear with denunciations of federal inter
terence in Louisiana and the insurgent
States OF the South. EDcamped in the
timber that shadowed the banks oil Shun-
ganunga. ready to attack the Dragons
OF Colonel Sumner upon that fatal day.
lay old John Brown and his sons Pru