The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-10-18
NEW BOOKS.
New Hook About John Brow n.

Inn volume entitled Captain John Brown
= Harper's Ferry" by John Newton "a.
Vessels Company, the author undertakes
,, "a, his subjects career in the proper
,sr.uective to the moral and political
,,,oveuen,s of he time. He does not pro-
fsss 70 have written in spirit OF cold.
,iyorous impart iality; on the contrary,
10 a,oas himself an admirer of John
Browns character and career. He dis
,ini.. nevertheless. any conscious eva
.lor ~ difficulties or perversion OF detri-
mental facts lie asserts hat he has AIKEN
r,o-' care 20 arrive al tho exact truth
.r controversies points and to state II clear.
u.s.. ,Iough without any disguise Of the sym
ra,hv he feels for the subject OF the biog-
,apnv. For his materials he is indebted
mainly 10 the works previously published
uy Kidpath. Sanborn and Hinton: he has
$50 quoted freely from r. G. Webb's Life
and Letters Of John Brown which ap-
reared in England in 1852.
The author says. truthfully enough, in
an Introductory chapter. that the type Of
avery which prevailed in our Southern
s'ares before he war was relatively harsh
one ~ the Spaniards and Portuguese
= Save was treated 10 a considerable ex-
en-; ike a man and a Christian. In Span
isl and Portuguese America he could pur-
chase his freedom at a rate fixed by law.
he had granted 20 him a specified number
q, hours each week in which TO work for
himself Thus u came 10 pass that an in
ius'rious slave could gradually accumu-
are enough money TO set himself a, liberty.
\ slave mother could purchase her child's
freedom al the baptismal font. In fine,
he slave had a legal status as human
ueiug. possessing rights and privileges.
In the Southern States. on the other
hand, aud especially toward the end Of
The slavery regime. the slave had none
If the rights and privileges conceded
20 him in LatlnAmerica. He was merely
par Of his owners goods and chat
tells. 4 slaves testimony, or that Of
70 score OF his fellows, had no weight
asanst his owners word. No scale of
purchase was fixed by law: neither had a
slave the right to buy his freedom II
vas left TO the caprice Of each individual
owner 10 fix reasonable or prohibitive
price. or TO refuse to sell at all In most
Of the States mannmission gradually came
10 be- discouraged by public opinion and
IN AZ least one State IL was made illegal
1f' any pNil'l W klNt OF sell freedom 10 his
slaves Freed slaves were not allowed 10
settle in some States. and In others il was
a punishable offence to teach them TO read
or write While it is true. however. that
tho system Of slavery AZ il was ultimately
organized IN our Southern States was in
'heorv more rigorous than that which
formerly prevailed in Spanish and Portu-
gIese America the author of this hook
fails 10 recognize the material extent TO
which il was mitigated in practice. The
life Of house slaves was an easy and pleasant
one almost everywhere, and even field slav
were not overworked. except in sections
OF the Gulf States, and there only in ex-
ceptiona cases. In The eyes Of every INTEL
gent owner It was as great an act of folly
20 overtax a good slave as to overtax a
good horse. Had the author of this book
lived in the Southern States before our
civil War he would have learned how kindly
and even anectionate were. az a rule, the
relations between slave owners and their
slaves. and he would have refrained from
describing the Southern clergymen who
saw the milder features OF the institution,
and who strove to make the best of a sys-
tenn not to he uprooted except by secession
hl' p'ooNSuVu, dN tTdltOTN 70 humanity.
There is no foundation for the authors
assertion in his concluding chapter that
Browns death-putting the crown to the
noble work Of the Northumberland Lin
coins election certain" what made Lin
coins election certain was the split in the
Democratic party. and the consequent
domination Of two Democratic candidates
for the Presidency. II is probable that
had Douglas been the sole Democratic
candidate, he would have been elected
What John Browns raid rendered certain
vas secession. But for Browns invasion
Of Virginia and attempt to excite slave
inslrrection there. that State would never
have gone out of the Union. II Is doubtful
whether even Mississippi would have taken
such step; for less than ten years pre-
Niously majority Of the voters in that
State, under the leadership of Foote, had
beaten the secessionists. II was the effort