Year: 1875

The following we clip from the re-


port, by the Chicago Inter Ocean,


of the lecture Of FRED. DOUGLASS, in


Farwell Hall in that city, on the hero


of Harper's Ferry, John Brown:


The famous battle of Black Jack


was rehearsed, and the wondrous skill


of the old warrior Of the Kansas plain


was shown to be one of the leading


elements in his character. With only


eighteen men he shook the whole So


cial pillars of Virginis; with them he


captured town of 5000 inhabitants;
with them he repulsed twelve com


them call Justify for Federal bayonets


to protect them: [Applause.] There


injustice of this call. Now, when the
government sends a few regiments


white men and negroes there against
| the White I.eaeuers and Ku Klux, a


howl of indignation went from one


end of the country to the other.
! Loud and prolonged applause ]
| When John Brown went down to
. Virginia the peoples first conclusion
was that he went there for plunder
/ Others we're of opinion that he went


down there to be made the President,


and this was borne out when in his
satchel they found constitution


which was agreed to for those who


were to ioin him in. the mountains.
! The shareholders of that section where
! he operared and few of his personal
friends knew John Brown, and his
plans were fully explained. General
Lee, Governor Wise, r. b. Mason,
J Vallandigham, and others who were
i beside the old man when he lay
wounded down in Virginia, tried to


wiring from the hero that the late
Joshua r. Giddings, the lamented
Gerrit Smith. and Howe, the aboli-
! ZIONIST. we're implicated in the raid.


But he stood there, more than ever a
hero. and claimed for himself all the


authorship of the raid. He boldly
stated he alone was the one upon


whom the thunderbolt should fall.
I He would stand there and take the


results. And the men who were
around him, while they called Brown


a criminal in the outward act, yet in


their hearts they called him hero.
! Old Virginia might have spared him.
1t was useless for them to attempt to


extort from him the confession that
would implicatc any one. He had
gone there, and he was willing and


ready to die on the head of it Colonel


Hoyt, who left Massachusetts, to save


his friend, might have saved his labor,


for the plea Of a Choate, Webster,


or Clay would at that hour have


been unavailing. He was doomed.


He had dared to trample under foot


one of Virginia's greatest, dearest
{ idols. She could have laid aside any


thing, but this was striking an evil
] whose fruits studded every hillside
. and valley in the old State. and that


they could not avert. The man b
greatest herOism was shown at that


hour of death. He laid down his life


for those who were below him in the
social scale. Then ii was not white


man for white man, or black man for


black man, but white man for black


man. black man for white man. APP


plause.1 The best days of John


Brown were his last. In this he re-
sembles the greatest His last hours


were like all those of all great men.


He was his grandest at his death
scene. He told the men who sur


rounded him on that occasion, that in


eighteen months after his death that


for which he fought would come be-


fore the people in way they were not


then prepared for, and each of them


would see it and participate in it. 1t


was a prophecy which came true to


the letter. Mason was arrested for


treason. Vallandigham was vacilla-


ting between North and South, sought
by none. rejected by both. The same
house where Governor Wise had lived,
eighteen months later was turned into


a school, with the daughter of John


Brown teaching colored children.


GApplausc1 He was plain man.


He was possessed of all the family
virtues. He was a bold man. 1t


might be said that the only reason to


be given for the existence of such


men as John Brown was that when


they we're needed they lived. When


ever John Brown saw there was


right, there beside it he saw thus


saith the Lord [Applause.l All


legislation on slavery was to such a


man as John Brown but as cobwebs
which had accumulated only to be


swept away by the hand of the one


who was to sweep the world. The
events which preceded the incidents


at Harper's Ferry were preparatory to


the great struggle of his life. When
John Brown was seen the last time
by the lecturer he met him in Penn


sylvania in a stone quarry. The am


munition and arms with which he
was to attack Harper's Ferry were


there. He told John Brown that he


could not go with him to the Ferry.
And he was glad he didn't. Laugh
ter The reason why John Brown


was not successful was not, as some
said, that the forces promised him
from the North failed to come; was


not that the cowardly negroes had de-


serted him; but that when he stopped
| sengers go. who were swept down on


around Harper's Ferry, to make him
a prisoner and a martyr. What was
| the cause of his failure. or was it
failure? If he went there to raise and


head an army, and thus free the slaves
of the South, then it was failure. If
John Brown went down to Harpers 8


Ferry to make himself leader, then,
. he was a failure. But did John
Brown go there to save his life? That
was his prime object beside freeing
the slaves He went to that dread
conflict to lay down his life for the
black man. and if he did not perform
the act that closed the war. he was
the first to precipitate the struggle
that ended in emancipation. He was


before Fremont in his proclamation,
and before Abraham Lincoln. Let


none call his the lost cause" but


rather that of the ones who brought


about his death. [Applause1.



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