Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-11-02
That John Brown Article.

1t is not claimed in behalf of John
Brown that he was infallible. On the
contrary he labored under a nlisappre-
hension in the great central idea of his
life. He thought the slaves would rise
in insurrectiOn and throw off the fetters
of bondage if they had the slightest OPP
portulity. He went to Kansas impress
ed with that belief, and hoped to see
spark thrown into the magazine of the
South which would produce a general
explosion. 1t was not so much to make
Kansas free state as to inaugllrate
war for freedom, that he and his son
moved into that territory. He was &C
tuated by the same motive there that he
was in Virginia, and only changed his
base to IIarper's Ferry when he found
that the anti slavery movement i'm the
far west confined its purpose to prevent
ing the extension of slavery. He died
with the conviction still in his heart
that the slaves were to be liberated by
servile war. The sentiment which
was the controlling principle of his life
was the dominant thought in Mrs.
Stoves ''Dred," a character which the
events of the next decade proved to be
wholly fictitious. But in general way
John Brown Vas indeed a prophet, or
rather, prophecy. His band was
styled by him the northern army, 'and
he longed eagerly for war between the
1 focfiopo rThoro bod hoap N o,,.oo% ,1ool
of killing in cold blood on the southern
side before this. The territory at that
time was in state of civil war. The
sacking of Lawrence, the shooting of
Dow at Hickory Point, of Jones at Blan-
toms Bridge, the hacking to death of E.
2. Brown by border ruffians, and other
similar atrocities preceded his opera
tions. The struggle for the possession
of Kansas was one Of the most import
ant wars in all history, none the less a
war because carried on in an irregular
and desultory manner. Such men as
Shannon, Atkinson, Stringfellow and
Donaldson on one side, and Robinson,
Lane and John Brown on the other
side, were the champions of their res
pective causes. At the very time that
John Brown was taking the field Gen
eral Atkinson, Of Missouri, was raiding
Kansas with his "Platte County Rifles
and two pieces of artillery.
| 1t is impossible TO conceive what
would have happened had John Browns
little band been Immediately followed
by "the Northern army" but it is safe
to say that the cost of emancipation
was not cheapened by delay. A five
year truce intervened. The carnage
which was the final price of emancipa-
tion was so enormous that the Kansas
war, taking both sides into account and
putting the record under the strongest
possible microscope, sustains about the
same relation to it that a mud-puddle
does to Lake Michigan.
If Mr.. Utter or any one else could
show that John Brown was fraud pre-
tending to fight for freedom when plum
der or some other rascality was the real
object he had i'm view, then he would
cease to be what he is now aud bids fair
to forever remain, the great idol of
American hero worship: but even upon
such showing as that made in the
North American Review he would still
continue to hold his place not only as
themost popular of all American he-
roes, but history would justify Theodore
Parker's prediction that ''the blessing
of such as are ready to perish will fall
on him. for instead of trying to tear
down everything, nihilist fashion, he
devoted himself wholly to the eradica
ton of that one supreme evil of his
country, the institution of slavery. A
conservative in all else, he herein set an
example of the;very highest wisdom, and
of especial Importance in these nihilist-
ic days. But no man who thoroughly
investigates the subject will fail to see
in John Brown of Ossawattomie, "a John
the Baptist, every way worthy to be the
herald of that supreme evaHgel of lib
erty, the destruction of African slavery
in America.-Ch Chicago Inter-Oseln.