The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1883-10-31
JOHN BROWN.
"Old OsawatOmie's"lLife Revised
and Corrected.
Some of the Horrors Of bleeding Kan
sas" in Which He Was Con-
cerned.

other uhcOmplimentary things, what
follows:
There has been growing impression
that the deeds of John Brown do not
warrant all the eulOgies that have been
pronounced upon him. Emerson spoke
of him as the saint whose martyrdOm
will make the gallOws glorious like the
CROSS" As quoted in Redpath's Life of
Brown, page 4. The present writer
would be glad to know that Emerson
did not use just this language.l ThOreau
said, He could not have been tried by
his peers, for his peers did not exist"
Theodore Parker wrote from Rome,
Brown will die, think, like a martyr
and also like saint. None of
the Christian martyrs died in vain; and
from Stephen, who was stoned at Jeru-
salem, to Mary Dyer, whom our fathers
hanged on bOugh of the great tree on
Boston Common, think there have been
few spirits more pure and devoted than
John Browns and none that gave up
their breath in a nObler cause. Let the
American State hang his body, and the
American church damn his soul, still
the blessing of such as are ready to per-
ish will fall OH him, and the universal
justice of the infinitely perfect God will
take him welcome home. rhe road to
heaven is as short from the gallOws as
from throne; perhaps, also as easy"
These men were the radical abOlitiOnists
of the time, to be sure, but their words
and sentiments were adopted during the
war period by the entire North, and
since then largely by the civilized
world.
But to the average citizen of to-day
such eXtravagaDt eulOgy of doubtful
character is distasteful. The mention
of the name of John Brown no longer
brings down the mouse, and for two or
three years a spirit of doubt has been
slowly spreading eastward from Kansas
whether the man deserves any eulOgy
whatever. John Brown was disturb
ing influence in Kansas from the first
He went to the territory not as a settler,
but to fight. His voice was always for
war, and he probably was more anxious
to fight Missouri than to make Kansas
free. Those who had gone to Kansas to
make homes and build State naturally
felt very differently. They would fight
if it became necessary in support of
their principles, OF in defense of their
rights; but general war with Missouri
OF the South was last and least among
the things desired or hoped for.
1t will be remembered that the first
territorial legislature was elected fradu-
lently by voters who actually lived in
Missouri. This body of law makers as
sembled first at Pawnee in July, 1855,
but Immediately moved to Shawnee Mis-
sion, near the Missouri border, where
they completed their labOrs in a pro-
slavery atmosphere and in the most
shameless pTOslavery fashiOn-establish
ing the entire code of Missouri as the
laws of Kansas, and adding whatever
beside they could think Of that they be-
lieVed would aid in the establishment of
slavery in the territory. These were the
bogus laws resisted from the first by
the free-state party, but they received in
ha nf
President Pierce. Then 1t became very
serious question what was to be done. A
few extremists were in favor of resist
ing these laws to the bitter end, even to
the point of lighting United States
troops. But the wiser and more mOder-
ate policy of submitting, for the present,
and fighting out differences at the
ballOt-box finally prevailed, having all
along had the support of the best citi-
Zens, even the most earnest abolition
lists. Brown was among those who
secuted the voting policy and urged an
armed resistance to the fraudulently en-
acted laws. Not that his voice was heard
in the councils Of the time, as he was
then an unknown and unnOticed man,
but it was afterward remembered that
he had always been numbered among the
revoIutiOnists. The leaders of this
fighting party, 80 far as it can be called
party, were not citizens, generally,
but correspondents of eastern news
papers, and people who, in various ways,
lived upon money sent from the east to
help make Kansas free State.
On the 21st of May. 1856, occurred
what is known in history as the sacking
of Lawrence. The Free State Hotel was
shot through with cannon balls and
afterward hurned. The two free state
printing offices were destroyed, many
private houses pillaged, and that Of DR..
r. Robinson, then Governor" according
to the Topeka, or free-state faction,
burned. This was done by a band of
nearly eight hundred men, partly United
States troops commanded by federal
officers, but largely mob of men from
nearly all the southern States, who had
come on their own account to "wipe out
the abolition town." There was no re-
sistance, and nobody was killed except
by accident. A posse policy had been
resolved upon, and was strictly carried
out by the free state men, though 1t cost
them heavily that day.
While these events were taking place
in Lawrence, two companies OF rifle
men were being organized In the adjOin-
ing counties of Franklin and Miami to
come to the defense of the ill-fated
town. These were the OsawatOmie COM
pany, commanded by a Mr.. Dayton, and
the POtawatOmie company, whose cap
tain was John Brown, Jr. Both COM
panies started for Lawrence, and they
met on the way and continued their
march all night. On the morning of
the 22d, old John Brown was with these
armed men near Palmyra, within twelve
miles of Lawrence. 1t Is not quite GER
tain whether he started with one of the
companies, or whether he met them on
the way. On this Thursday morning
they heard that Lawrence had fallen on
the day before, and were undecided most
of the day whether to go forward or re.
turn. 1t was toward the evening Of this
DAY, in the camp of his sons company
on Ottawa Creek, that old John Brown
called for volunteers Ito oegin the war
in earnest" He wanted only brave
men, and men who would obey him
implicitly. There was hardly any re-
sponse to this call, perhaps not sim
gle man answered. He had five sons
and a son-in-law; these, at least, he
could command. John, jr. however, pro-