Year: 1859

squad OF militia, attacked state, ana un


dertook to release and lead away an euslav


ed race They do not appear to have


been called by the sufferers, nor to have


been welcomed by them. They volunteer


ed grace, and sought to enforce its accep


tance. Seventeen white men surrounded


two thousand, and held them 'in duress
| They barricaded themselves, and waiteC


until the troops of two States, the employ


ees of a great railway, and portion of tho


Federal Government could travelling brisk


ly night and day, reach them. Then, a;


one dash, they were snulIed out


do not wonder that Virginians feel q


great modification Everybody is sympa


thetcnlIy ashamed for them 1t is quite


natural that every effort should be made to
enlarge the proportions of this escapade
that they may hide their weakness and in.


competency behind smartly uptown hor-


ror No one doubts the bravery of Vir.
ginians. 1t needs no praising. But even


brave men have pancs. Courage is some
times caught at uuawares. Certainly it
strikes us, at distance, as a remarkable
thing that prisoners three to one more than
their captors, and two thousand citizens,
should have remained days and nights un.
der the fear and control of seventeen white
men. Northern courage has been at dis
count in the South hitherto 1t ought
hereafter to rise in value at least in Vir-
ginia


The diligence which is now shown, on
the part of many public presses, to inaame
the public mind, and infect it with fear, is
quite foolish. The inoculation will not
take. The North may not be courageous,
but it certainly is not silly. There is an
element of the ludicrous in this transaction
which think will effectually stop all panic.


Seventeen men terrified two thousand
brave Virginians, into two days submission
that cannot be got over The common
sense Of common people will not fail to see
through all attempts to hide a natural
shame by bungling make-believe that the
danger was really greater than it was |!
The danger was nOthing-and tne fear very
great, and courage none at all. And no.
thing can change the facts All the news
papers on earth will not make this case ap.
pear any better Do what you please
muster q crowd of supposed confederates,
call the roll of cOnspiratorS, and include
the noblest men of these States, and exhih-
it this, imaginary army before the people,
and, in the end, it will appear that seven
teen white men over-awed a town of two
thousand brave Virginans, and held them
captives until the sun had gone laughing
twice around the globe.


And the attempt to hide the fear of
these surrounded men by awaking larger
fear, will never do. 1t is too literal full
fllment, not exactly of Prophesy but of
Fable not of Isaiah, but Esop.


A fox having been caught in trap es-
caped with the loss of his TAIL He imme-
diately went to his brother foxes to persuade
them that they would all look better if they,
too, would cut off their caudal appendages
They declined. And our two thousand
friends who lost their courage in the pres
ence of seventeen men, are now making an
appeal to this nation to lose its courage
too that the cowardice of the few may
be hidden in the cowardice of the whole
community ! 1t is impossible. We choose
to wear our courage for some time longer


AS shall not recur to this epic in Vir-
gnia history again tonight, mnSt say
word in respect to the head and heart Of it,
For it all stood in the courage of one man.


An old man, kind at heart, in 'uStrouS,
peaceful, went forth with large family of
to seek new home in Kansas
That infant colony held thousands Of sonls
as noble as liberty ever inspired or religion
A great scowling slave State,
its nearest neighbor, sought to tread down
this liberty-loving colony, and to dragoon
slavery into it by force Of arms. The arm
ed citizens of another State crossed the
States lines, destroyed the freedom Of the
ballot-box, prevented fair expression of
public sentiment, cOrruptly usurped law
making power, and ordained by fraud laws
as infamous as the sun ever saw, assaulted
its infant settlements with armed hordes,
ravaged the fields, destroyed harveStS and
herds, and carried death to a multitude of
cabins. The United States Government
had no marines for this occasion No
Federal troops by cars night and day for
the poor, the weak, the grossly wronged
men in Kansas. There was an army there
that unfurled the banner of the Union, but
it was on the side of the wrong g-doers, not
on the side of the injured.


1t was in this field that Brown received
his impulse. A tender father, whose life
was in his sons life, he saw his first born
seized like felon, chained, driven across
the country, crazed by suffering and heat,
beaten by the officer in charge like dog,
aud long lying at deaths door Another
noble boy, without warning, without Of
ense, unarmed, in open day, in the midst
,f the city, was shot dead No justice
ought ont the murderers. No United
States attorney was dispatched in hot haste
No marines or soldiers aided the wronged
md weak


The shot that struck the chld's heart
,razed the fathers brain. Revolving his
wrongs, and nursing his hatred of that
leadly system that breeds such contempt
If justice and humanity, at length his
1hantoms assume slender form, and or
yanze such an enterprise as one might eX-
1ect from man whom grief had bereft of
good judgment. He goes to the heart of
! slave State. One man-and sixteen fol-
overs he seizes two thousand brave Vir-
yinians aud holds them in duress


When great State attacked handful
ul of weak colonists, the Government and
nation were torpid, but when seventeen
O. IL.