The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-06-06


wattOmie.
ANY one who had heard him, as have
hundred times, would have known that
my father was an instrument produced
by the exigencies of the time that required
him. do not believe any volition of his
own could have prevented the march of
events or his part in them. His failure
was victory; his cause triumphed over
his death. He headed no party, changed
no law, won no battle and suffered an
ignominious death, but he left principle
that animated 25,000,000 people into ac-
ton, lifted the burden of slavery from
the South and brought civilization for
ward 100 years at single stride. And his
soul goes marching on.
81 cannot tell you how my heart leaped
the first time 1 heard that song. l never
heard how it originated, but all at once
half million soldiers were marching to
victory inspired by the soul of martyred
John Brown. The nation had just caught
up with him who five years before had
been swung off to immortality and immor-
tai fame from the end of rope.
"Harper's Ferry? l was not there. 1
was in Canada getting supplies to support
the fighters. / missed the hemp neck
lace. but l Wear 'savery's bracelets
yet" He rolled his sleeve above his ell
bow and showed a ring that sunk deep
and encrcled the arm. "That ring of skin
came off with some ropes in a Kansas
prison. After the massacre of the six
men at Pottawa tonne, Owen, Jason and
myself We're captured. My arms were
tied back with a heavy rope and L was
forced to run before a cavalry escort all
the way to Ossawattomie in the hot sun.
| went insane and did not know when the
ropes were removed, but l had torn the
flesh of my swollen and bleeding arms in
my agony, and there are the bracelets,
l was in prison for months, wasted with
fever and violently insane, so that If |
had not been chained to the floor | should
have killed myself, probably.
"They did not attempt to put any OF
us to death, because they were afraid Of
my father, who had his band of free
soldiers in the swamp, but who rode in
and out Of the town unmolested. So ter
rible had his name become that the Dor
der ruffians were afraid to come to vote
in 1856 and the State was carried for
free soil. Our work in Kansas was done,
but Brother Frederick was murdered,
my wife's hair was snow white, | was
slowly recovering my mind and strength,
and my infant boy uttered only senseless
babblings."
The "boy," man of 50 then, was sit
ting on the opposite side of the fireplace,
smiling with imbecile amiability upon the
visitor. John Brown, .Tr., swept back his
shock of gray hair with his hand and re-
sumed his story.
"NO, my father was not large man or
robust, like me. He was only feet 10
inches and weighed but 40 pounds; yet
such was his aspect that he carried the
impression of a massive build. He had
a military look and bearing like the God
fearing Puritans. His eyes were keen
blue under shaggy brows and he rarely
smiled, but was serious and meditative-
not sad, because never discouraged. He
always appeared to his followers, and
even to his enemies. to be in the fore
most ranks of men. Emerson once said
that Cromwell was the only other man
in history who could have justified
violent act on his own part as special
commission. But of his personal APP
peamnce? Like John the Baptist crying
in the wilderness. Only once in the last
four years of his life did he wear suit
that was not ragged, and that was on the
scaffold.
His hair grew long and wild in Kan
saS; his face was unshaved for weeks.
He wore leather belt that bristled with
knives and pistols, and in this garb he
held religious services in the swamps and
prayed with his band of men. DO not
despair he said, one and God are a
majority 1t was that little band of
men with God that carried the day in
Kansas for free soil.
"At home he was like child; he rocked
us all to sleep at night and sung us his
favorite song BLOW Ye the Trumpets,
Blow so that the martial strain sounded
like a lullaby. Everything weak and
suffering found protection and comfort
on that gentle breast.
"From Kansas, father and the other
boys, with my brother-in-law, Thompson,
and my young sister, Anne, went to Vir-
ginia, where they lived as cattle buyers
under the name of Smith, until Harper's
Ferry. Converts kept coming until there
were 1S. You know the rest; how the
arsenal and the town were captured with
out firing a shot Then there was a
sharp skirmish and II of the Is were
killed When Colonel Lee arrived from
Washington my father was sitting near
the engine house by Watson, one Of his
men, who was dying, counting the wound
ed mans pulse with one hand and holding
a gun with the other.
lie sat there waiting TO be taken.
He could have escaped to the mountains
with the other six men, but he refused
to do so. Not until long afterward
did we understand his attitude at that
moment, but Victor Hugo on the island
of Guernsey did, and said In Staying
John Brown the United States is dealing
a death blow to slavery In the minds
of great men all over the world it was
time for slavery to disappear from civ
ilzed people. Escaped, John Brown
would have been fugitive traitor; exc
cuted he became a martyr, the pioneer
of great cause.
"In prison he converted his jailers, ant
was offered an opportunity to escape. He
refused, saying they might safely leave
the doors wide, for he had been called t.
the scaffold by higher power. He con
verified the nation. SO far had his fame
as fighter in Kansas spread that no one
believed that 'Ossawattomie Brown coult
ever have been captured had he wished
to escape.
"Yet he did not hate the South. H,
hated slavery, the institution. The Dor
der ruffianism in Kansas was not tn,
South, and he always said so. 1 believ,
he foresaw the reconciliation after tn,
struggle and believed that the Who'll,
moral atmosphere OF the country woult
be strengthened and sweetened by tn
conflict. He would have had love ant
I, tears for the. blue, tears and love for tn,
! gray The -kindliest, gentlest, braves
heart that ever beat In human breas