The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1883-12-14
"0LD JOHN BROWN" g "a
The true Character ot' the IManous old
Murderer.


There has been growing impression
that the deeds Of John Brown do not war,
rautpll the culcges that have been pro
nounced upon him. Emerson spoke of him
AS the saint whose martyrlom will make
the gallows glorious like the cross" TAs
quoted in Redpath' Life of Brown" pace
4. The present writer would be glad to
know that Emerson did not use jus. this
language Thoreau said, "He could not
have been tried by his peers, for hs peers
did not exist" Theodore ParkA wrote
from Rome, Brown will die, | thAHk . like
martyr and, also like saint. w Y y
None of the Christian martyrs died iisyaip;
and FROM Stephen, who was stoned 6t j errn
salem: to Mary DyealSkeu our, fsiaers
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 nobler. cause. Let the Ameri>
can State hang his body and the American
Church damn his soul, still the BLESSING OF
such as are ready to perish will fall on him
and the universal ju :tico of the infinitely
perfect God will take him welcome home
The road to heaven is a. short from the
gailows as from throne perhaps, also, as
easy. These mcu were the Radical Aboli
tionlsts o.! the time, to be sure. but their
words and sentiments were adopted durinp
the war period by the entire North, and
since then largely by the civilized world.
but to the average citizen of to>day such
extravagant culogy of doubtful character
is distastetul The mention of the name
OF John Brown no longer brings down the
house, aud for two or three years spirit
OF doubt has been slowly spreading eastward
irom Kansas whether the man deserves any
eulogy whatever. John Brown was dis
turbnS influence in Kansas from the first.
lie went to the Territory not as settler.
but TO fight. His voice was always for
war, and he probably was more anxious to
hight Missouri than TO make Kansas free.
Those who had gone to Kansas to make
homes aud build State naturally felt very
differently. They would fight if it became
necessary in support Of their principles. or
In defence of thoir rights, but general
war with Missouri or the South was last
and least among the things desired or hoped
for.
1t will be remembered that the first
Territorial Legislature was elected irautu>
lcntly by voters who actually lived in Mis-.
souri,. This body Of law makers assembled
first at Puwnee in July, 1865, but imm D.
diately moved to Shawnee Mission, near
the Missouri border, where they completed
their iabors in pro>slavcry atmosr and
IN the most shameless pro-Slavery fashion
establishing the entire code of Missouri
as the laws of Kansas, and adding whatever
beside they could think otthat they believed
would aid in the establishment of slavery in
the Territory. These were the .boyus" laws
resisted rom the first by the Free State
party, but they received in due time the
approval and sanction Of President Pierce
Then It became very serious question
what was to be done. Il few extremists
were in favor Of resisting these laws to tho
bitter end, even to the point of fighting
United States troops. But the wiser and
more moderate 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 citizens.
even the most earnest Abolitionists. John
Brown was among those who secuted the
voting policy and urged armed resistance
to the fraudulcntly enacted laws. Notthat
his voice was heard in the councils of the
time, as he was then an unknown and
unnoticcd man, but it was afterwards
remembered that he had always been nun.
bcred among the revo.utionis,s. The lead>
ers OF this fighting party, so for as it can
be called party, were not citizens, gene
rally, 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 2lst Of May, 1856, occurred what
is known in history as the sackinc of Law.
renee The Frees Hotel was shot
through with cannon balls and afterwards
burned. The two Free State printing
offices were destroyed. many private bouses
pilaged, and that Of DR.. r. Robson, then
Governor" according to the Topeka or
Frec'State faction, burned. This was done
by band of nearly eight hundred men,
partly United States troops commanded by
Federal officers, but largely mob of mer
from nearly all the Southern States, who
had come on their own account to "wipe
out the abolition town" There was no
resistance, and nobody was killed except by
accident. A peace policy had been resolved
upon, and was strictly carried out by the
tree>State men, though it cost them heavily
that day.
While these events we're taking place in
Lawrence, two companies of rhemen were
being organized in the adjoining counties of
Franklin and Miami to come to the defence
OF the ill-fated town. These wore the Osawa.
tonne company, commanded bya Mr. Dayton,
and the Potawatomie company, whose cap
tain was John Bro@n Jr. Both companies
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,