Year: 1859




The following letter was written and for
warded by DR.. Colver, pastor of First Baptist
church, Cincinnati, Ohio, to Gov. Wise, last
week. 1t has been handed up for publica-
ton 1t will find an echo in in many hearts.
Hon. HENRY A. WISE:


DEAR SIR:-Pardon this intrusion of
stranger upon your attention. Being but an
humble minister of the gospel of Christ, l can
plead no exalted position as my title to your
patience with what have to say. Your own
position is my apology for addressing you
You have in your hands prisoner, the dis
posal of whom will affect yourself and others
far more seriously than the prisoner himself
Precisely the same qualities of mind and
heart which gave to the noble Lafayette a
nations gratitude and a deathIess fame, now
threaten John Brown with gallows. There
is no necessity Of a detailed presentation of
the analogy between the two cases. To your
very great credits there are many striking
indications that you have already perceived
the moral resemblance Of the two cases. |
have no doubt your own noble heart has al
ready suggested the superior claims Of the
latter to the esteem of all good and impartial
men. However wanting, at least in human
wisdom, John Brown may be, if he dies on
the scaffold, he will die pure and noble
martyr to liberty--to sympathy for poor,
crushed, degraded, and wronged humanity.
Aye, for the very principle which brought
his prototype to our shores, and for which
our own noble sires periled their lives, their
fortunes and their honors Now, so far as
he is concerned, have little anxiety. If he
dies, God will take care of his soul, and pos
terity will take care of his name.


But, Sir, there are others beside John
Brown and his immediate friends concerned
in this matter. The great heart of humanity
the world over, throbs in John Browns bo-
som. The hand that sheds its blood will be
held by that world as universal fratricide.
God and humanity must die, or that act will
be avenged. The impartial and unchangng
laws of Jehovah's empire must change, or
that act will be avenged 'Slow, but sure
marks the government of God. Fart rs foul
est blot, the great anomaly of nation of pro-
fessed indicators of the inherent, and in
alienable rights of manhood, with their heel
upon the necks Of three millions Of their fel-
low-men, may indeed have sapped the pru-
dence and discretion Of John Brown. 1t may
overturn the intellect and unsettle the BRAIN
of the large-hearted Gerrit Smith. 1t NAV
yet drive thousands to acts of rashness and
even madness. Solomon says, oppression
makes wise man mad" But it will never
unsettle the mind of Jehovah, nor impede in
its progress the great wheel Of justice be-
lieve it is no new thing in the worlds his
tory, that oppression inflicts madness upon
others for the cure of itself, dreadful rem
edy for a terrible disease Should John Brown
be hung, have no doubt even in that event
'the wrath of man shall praise God" and
through the over rulings of his providence be
made to further the cause of humanity
That single act viii make more than ten
thousand John Browns all over the land, not
excepting the South. As said before, the
great heart of the worlds humanity beats in
the bosom of John Brown Stop its pulsa-
ton there, and the world, all that is worth
naming IN it, will rebound from the paralysis,
and spring intoan activity hitherto unknown
If John Brown, who could bury the brutal
murder Of his noble sons in his purer, larger
ana more noble sympathy for the poor,
crushed slaves; if Jonn Brown, who with
his twenty men could hold Virginia in check,
and only surrender to the United States
troops, and who when he knew his own
friends while helpless prisoners, were being
brutally murdered, was yet kind and con-
siderate toward his enemies who were in his
hands; If such man is made to die on the
gallows, thenceforward that gallows will be
cross, "a cross omnipotent for the gospel of
liberty. His death win be the beginning Of
the end.


As lover of man, as a lover of freedom.
in all this see nothing to fear. Above all
this, above the storm, above the cloud, in the
region of Gods impartial holiness, in the Just
government of his affairs; all is calm, all is
serene. The end is right. Imperial justice
will be done. Even in this world the peace.
fal reign Of Christ shall abolish all distinc-
tons that have their origin in human selfish