The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-10-01
JOHN ROWN'SCOMRADES
A MAN WHO KNOWS TELLS WHO
THEY WE'RE AND WHAT THEY DID.
The Men Who Followed Brown to
Harper's Ferry and Whose Bodies
We're Laid ny His at North EIba.

Al North Elba. in the very heart of the
northern Adirondacks, there recently &C.
Cured a simple, rustic, pathetic ceremony.
unique, however, in character and endowed
with the dignity that belongs to the greater
memories of a people, the Ioftier aspirations
of the human race. 1t was the burial of
the bodies of John Browns comrades by the
side of their leader. AL the world bows IN
courage. All history honors its heroes In
the twilight days such men were hailed as
gods The bones Of ten young men. slain
in the hottest of insurgent lighting or
hanged upon the scaffold under due process
or forms of law. were laid away by the
grave of their grim, steadfast leader and
that Of one of his sons, who fell in his
cause and virtually by his orders.
Forty years since, lacking forty-three
days, this land was startled by an act ap-
parently the most lawiess, taken as a whole.
that had ever been perpetrated within its
borders. 1t was al act of war upon and
within the borders of one of the great
States of the American Union. II was
more-for it declared war upon an economic
social and political system which held over
S.O00,G0 human beings as chattels and prop-
erty valued at $4,000, 900, 900, yet represented
in Congress by eighteen members of the
House, and at the time practically c%ontroII-
ing the affairs of fifteen powerful States
and to all intents also the national policy
and purposes Its chosen leaders sat in the
"seats of the mighty
OUTSIDE CONTRIBUTORS FEW
Outside the small range of this band there
were not over twenty persons in the Lana
who were really cognizant of the leaders
purposes. Not more than five men and
women contributed effectually by their
means; indeed. most of that sort of aid
was given by three persons-George Luther
Stearns, his wife, Mary Z. Stearns. (stin
lving) and Gerrit Smith. Others gave SPAR
1ngly or their moderate purses, but the first
inc Spent RharaK moving n and unsparingiy. the
ing the direct point OF application and at
tack.
The bones reinforced on Aug. 80 represent
ed the remains OF nine white men, whose
ages ran from twenty-one to twenty-nine
years, and one freeman of color. who was
about thirty-fve at the time of his death.
a little less than forty years since the
bodies of eight men-some almost shot to
and ~dogs-were laid in a shallow trench on
the south bank of the Shenandoah. Two
others, removed from present contiguity
with the terra Gotta clay quarry at Perth
Amboy, where. in her own lovely grounds,
a good Quaker woman over thirty-nine
years since had laid them away, were the
last victims of the holocaust offered to the
names Of outraged s~lave-holding law in Vir-
ginia-
THE TWENTY-FIVE INSURGENTS.
There were only twenty-five men in the
insurgent party. The leader, John Brown,
was in his sixtieth year; farmer, tanner,
surveyor, wool merchant, a quiet, spartan,
yet kindly man, holding a stern creed. wor-
Shipping God the Judge, revering the Savior,
believing the Bible and accepting as it's
political Interpretation in the broadcast sense
the Declaration of independence. There
xvara three of his sons and two brothers re-
lated by marriage in the party, the oldest
thirty-six and the youngest twenty-one. All
five were tillers of the soil, graduates only
of the district schoolhOuse. Five of the re-
naming sixteen were of the ,chattel race;
two were born freemen and they were
skilled artisans; three were fugitive slaves,
living in the North under a legal ban and
earning bread and education in whatsoever
humble path was then open to such as they.
The eleven remaining were all young, all
unknown and all without means, the oldest
not yet thirty, the youngest a few weeks
beyond twenty.
There was not a stain of personal dis
honor upon their lives or names. True, one
man had been condemned to death by a mill
tary tribunal for striking a superior, but
he did that in righteous anger at witnessing
a gross and causeless act of cruelty toward
a comrade, and his fellow-SoldierS among
the regulars helped him to escape One
other was accused of shooting a man known
as a kidnaper and murderer when his own
life was in peril and when law had been
overthrown by a mot of pro-slavery, in
NdOCEo III hdHodC ~ Ao ~ NACAAA
held social power or had other means than
those labor produced.
These things are not written IN hostility,
and dignity of the incidents at North Elba
on Aug. 30. 1t was something beyond law
less action. however bold or made superb
by startling and audaciouS courage, that
brought together 5000 people, among whom
were men of renown, place and power.
/ sat on the rude platform by John
Browns historic homestead, thanked on one
side by one of the greatest and most low
able of our American clergy, and on the
other by a great editor and puolicist, VINO
has represented his native land abroad as
envoy, special ambassador and more recent
Iy as one of it's peace commissioners. In
front and around me were not only the men
who work and live in the switzerland or our
continental land, but the soldiers OF the
Republic were there as escort, and, by
order. to do honor by the firing of a sa-
lutte over the dead. Men were there as
for years TO the inspiring strains of the
John Brown song. II was told TO me tnat
the men of business and leisure. too, the
men of affairs, letters and politics, were
all and honorably represented.
THE EXERCISES AT NORTH ELLA.
1t was my place TO tell of the men who
were in large degree to me friends and
comrades of a stormy yet unshamed youth
full manhood. A stately old divine, the Rev
Joshua Young. who said at his cost the
words his faith demanded over the body OF
John Brown in 1859, in his superb and mel
low old age was there to tell OF that not
able winter burial. Others, like Whitelaw
Reid and Bishop Potter. could and did give
the grace and dignity of an historic per-
spective 10 the events of the day and It's
associations.
Ii was my task TO tell as simply as l
could who these men were, what they Gle
and why. This was my endeavor, not III
extenuation or excuse, and wholly without
passion or malice. / live and they dled. !
went to North Elba as their comrade and
biOgrapher. May L not ask now, ere L tel
in type who they were, IL the event was
not a significant one, and full OF a memoir
able dignity, linking these humble names
and memories with those of all VINO nave
struggle for the race and its uplifting IRON
Moses unto Washington
THE BROWN HOMESTEAD PARK.
The homestead and farm of John Brown
and his family, over 2O acres in extent, is
now the property of the people of the State
of New York as a public park. made SO
mainly by the unselish and untiring exer'
tions Of the late Kate Field, author and ed
itor. A simple granite shaft tells on a pol
ished panel the names of the twenty-five
persons by whose exertions the money was
raised TO discharge the mortgage and com
plete the purchase of this lovely mountain