Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-02-22
THE BARBER COUNTY MDEX.
{. W. PAYNE, PROPRIETOR
JOHN BROWN.
Story Of His Life as Told BY an Unprsjudiced
Historian.

lSince the publication in the North
American Review, November number,
Of Rev. David n. Utter's article on
John Brown, we have been asked sever
al times to re-publish the article and we
have concluded to do so this week. Ev-
en- though it is quite lengthy, it is never
theless interesting, and old Kansans es-
peciaLy will read it carefully. Here is
the article in full 4
From the North American Review Nov. 1881
Whether John Brown was right in his
invasion of Virginia in 1859, is ques-
tion upon which good men may always
differ. The movement was designed to
excite insurrectiOn among slaves, which
IN legal sense might have been treason
against the State. A number of men
were killed, and jury found the old
commander guilty of murder. A rebel
lion that is successful is always washed
clean of the stains of blOodshed and
treason but where the revolt is check
ed in its beginning, the leaders usually
suffer Immediately, and, for one reason
or another, their names are seldom
greatly hOnored. To John Brown the
fates have been unusually kind. His
story fell upon time when the world
was eager for hero, and when the pee
pie of the northern United States must
make one of whatever material came to
hand. 1t will be remembered that we
were ready, early in the war of the great
rebellion, to worship General Scott, or
General Mcclellan, or Sigel, or Fremont,
or Grant-anybody who would show any
activity or earnestness in fighting the
south, or any real hatred of slavery. To
hate slavery, and to be ready TO fight,
these were the virtues in those days
that, especially in New England's eyes,
covered a multitude of sins. Here was
a man who had fought slavery for years
in Kansas, in Missouri, in Virginia,
and had died martyr to his principles.
The very fact that ne had fought unlaw-
fully added to his glory. No doctrine
has ever been dearer to New England
than the doctrine of the d" higher law. ~
This is an invisible and unwritten law
which each man must find for himself,
read and interpret for himself, aud obey
in his own way. If 1t leads him to dis
obey certain human enactments, so
much the better if it even leads him
to treason and rebellion against his
country, he at least is right, however
wrong his acts may seem in the eyes of
men: The acts of John Brown fitted
this doctrine admirably; indeed, he
himself was no mean exponent of it,
either with voice or pen. His defense
of himself was on this line wholly. He
had resisted bogus" laws in Kansas /;
and the laws of Virginian sanctioning
slavery were bogus also in his view. He
was above all such laws he had done
right in breaking them he had done
no wrong even in killing men, because
his motives were good. He secuted the
idea of insanity, and he set his individ-
ual judgment against all the law books
|. of Virginia, and staked his life on the
issue.
The attitude was heroic. The man
bore himself like hero from the time
his schemes failed till his death; and
every word that he spoke was in such
perfect accord with the doctrine of the
higher law. that every sentence thrilled
Now England as though a prophet were
speaking the very words of God. There
arose in his defense, and to sing his
praises, a company of men and women
whose peers did not exist in America.
They have made our history and writ
ten it, and they have made our litera-
ture. They made the public sentiment
that abolished slavery. They held the
pen that awakened those who bore the
sword that preserved the Union. When
these men said, John Brown is a hero
and a saint, the bravest and the clean
est of all the heroes of ancient or mod
ern times, there was nothing for it but
to accept the verdict.
1t was not accepted hastily. VERY
many newspapers lamented the affair at
Harper's Ferry as extremely unfortu-
nate and fanatic" and "crazy old
man" were the terms commonly applied
to the old hero for fully year after his
death by all except those who were
known to hold extreme anti-slayery
views. But during the war all was
changed these extremists became our
trusted leaders, and their version of the
John Brown affair became accepted his
tory, and, as such, it has passed into en-
cyclopedias and biographical dictionar-
les, not only in this country, but in Eng
land and Europe. The war has now
been over for nearly twenty years. A
new generation Is upon the stage read
ing and thinking. and the deeds of Old
John Brown have new interest as they
pass again under review taking the
form Of final history. 1t is time OF
revaluation Of our war heroes, and some
will gain in our estimation, and some
no doubt, viii lose. This younger gen.
Grafton that is weighing, and sitting
and revaluing the deeds and characters
of the men of twenty years ago may not
love truth more than those who made
the records that We read, but they prob
ably need heroes less. The ZeiI-geist
has now more to say of science and fact
than Of right or valor. Not that these
latter terms arc meaningless, nor thai
there is forgetfulness Of what they sig
Nifty, nor indifference toward such con
ceptions in ethics or qualities in men
but the keenness Of interest now is al
in the direction of getting at the exact
facts Of every case, let them be what
they may.
Under the influence Of this spirit thers
has been growing impression that the
deeds Of John Brown do not warrant al
the eulogies that have been pronounced
upon him. Emerson spoke of him a
s~.k -