The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1890-05-17
WASHINGTON.
News Gleanings From the. Capitol
City of This Great and
Glorious Nation.
Items Of General Interest.

IN the FOst OF the llth, an article
appeared ov the signature B. Turner,
entitled Career of John Brown" The
theme of itself commended it to vast
number of readers and thinking people
who are not blinded by false prejudice
or political motives. In it is the follow
ing quotation from the distinguished
parsonage and famed abolitionist Men
dell Phillips in 1859. I'm less than
thirty years." said Mr.. Phillips, t'his
labors and sufferings in behalf of man
kind will command nearly as many ad-
mirers south Of Mason and Dixon's
line as north oft. Tomorrow we shall
consign his ]ifeless body to the cold
earth, but his soul will go marching on,
carrying with it convictions that his
principles and labors were God-like and
for the best interest of the country"
And following this is the comment of
the writer. Never was prophecy
more correct foretold than the state
ment then uttered by the Bay State
abolitionist. To-day there are more
people In Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, and West Virginia, who
respect and approve the acts of John
Brown than he had supporters in the
State of New York at the time Of execu-
ton. To judge from the rapid change
of public sentiment at the South on the
slavery question during the past
Twenty-Five years, it is not an extrav va
CANT assumption to claim that at the end
OF another twenty-five years John
Browns labors, to destroy slavery will
command as much respect in the Con.
federate States az Jefferson Davis servi-
ces will command, not excepting the
State of Mississippi" How true! I'm
DERIVING all this tuere must be some
other basis for the oppression of the
Colored man than the hue of his skin.
1t might be argued that the south re-
veres or will revere John Brown be-
cause they champion insurrection, but
the motive that must underlie all is the
gradual growth of justice in, thsir minds
under the pricking fact that they had
cruelty denied the existence of soul in
a black body and the unjust persecution
and enthrallment Of all honest, loyal,
peaceful people, We have only to hope
and wait for Christianity that will not
deny to any man on account of color a
right to worship in any Church or
abridge his rights in secular walks of
life. These will bring with them. the
browning success of a national existence
pure ct simple. When we consider
that the Colored man has done nothing
to perpetuate the memory of such illus
trious men as Phillips, Lovejoy, Garri-
son, Brown and others it is almost a
mockery to proclaim our patriotism, our
bravery, our loyalty and devotion.
With just consideration of the claims
of constitution that condemns insur-
rection yet how can we help thinking
that John Brown was Bctuated by the
thought resistance 10 bad government
is obedience to conscience;" and is that
any less grand than the motive that ac-
tuated the trainers of the Declaration
OF Independence, PERSISTENCE to tyranny
is obedience to God?" Would that a
shaft might be reared to his memory
that would pierce the blue vault of
heaven, that his name and history
might be as we'll known to us as the
Lords PRAYER. When we read the
speech of Charles O'Connor in which he
says: The laurel wreath of victory sur
rounds the name Of Washington. III
success, defeat, overthrow and death in
an ignominious form might have been
his fate of many, who in this respect,
were as pure and virtuous as he. We
revere the name of Emmett. We
revere the name of Wallace, of every
virtuous man who has persisted in un-
successful attempts to achieve the indie
pendence of his country. 'And there
fore, if Negro slavery be a thing so un-
just and so wicked as my friends and
their associates esteem it, / must admit
that that we cannot consistently refuse
the same tIibute to the recent abolition
martyr John Brown. He fell! So have
many illustrious champions of justice.
He failed? So did Emmett and so did
Wallace. His means were inadequate!
So were theirs: the event proved it,
we cannot help but think that posterity
will claim her own. that as Phillips
says; Virginia herself. clothed and in
her right mind, may yet beg of New
York the dust of John Brown for some
Mausoleum at Richmond, as repentant
Florence, robed in sackcloth, begged of
Revenna the dust of that outlawed
Dante, whom a century before she or
dered to be buried alive" With hui
let US make common cause
against that which condemns the merit,
and curse the fate that makes John
Browns death ignoble. Let us keep
his name even before us for thus the ar
ticles concludes. The more you know
Of John Brown the more you will honor
his memory. It is only those who
never saw the man-have no knowl-
edge of his character except what has
been cleaned from his traducers, and
from villifylng publications-who ques-
ton his integrity, truthfulness, and pa
,riotism. All true friends of humanity
will cordially indorse the following sem
siment, from the pen of Mr.. Sears, the
Concord poet:
Not any spot, six by two,
Will hold a man like thee;
John Brown will tramp the shaky earth,
From Blue Ridge to the sea.