The public life of Capt. John Brown

Dedication

TO

Wendell Phillips, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry D. Thoreau,

DEFENDERS OF THE FAITHFUL,

Preface

When the news of the arrest of John Brown reached Boston, I could neither work nor sleep; for I loved and reverenced the noble old man, and had perfect confidence in his plan of emancipation. I knew him to be one of earth's worthiest souls — the last of the Puritans; and yet I heard, on every side, people calling him a madman, and sneering at his " crazy scheme." Now, or never, was the time to defend my friend, when no voice, however faint, was heard to praise him. An opportunity offered; I indorsed John Brown. A few years hence this will seem as absurd, as an indorsement of Warren would be now ; but necessary in October last — and pronounced insane ! I heard of no one man who fully approved my doctrines or defence when my first article appeared ; but, before the series that I had contemplated was finished, I turned again to other work — for already the highest talent of the nation was marshalling to the rescue of the conquering prisoner of Charlestown Jail. Like Samson, in a single day, if not with the jawbone of an ass, yet with the help of that of a Member of Congress, the mighty man of valor had smitten his enemies, hip and thigh, " from Dan even unto Beersheba, and all the region round about." Now

. (7)

Preface.

that the most skilful trained soldiers of Freedom were in the field to encounter the reserve forces of the enemy, I withdrew myself from the conflict for a time — for, a guerilla skirmisher only, unfitted both by habit and na ture for a place in any regular army, I did not care to fight under any General, or to fire except where I wTanted to kill.

A publisher of New York asked me to write a Life of John Brown. He wanted it as a Republican campaign document. I declined. I would not help to light cigars from the fire above the altar. The publishers of this book made a nobler request ; they believed in J ohn Brown ; they wished to do him justice ; and they desired to assist his destitute family. This volume is the result of their request.

I have written this book, because I could not resist it. Equally at war with the cant of conservatism, of politics, and of non-resistance, and a firm believer in the faith that made Bunker Hill classic, I think that John Brown did right in invading Virginia and attempting to liberate her slaves. I hold God in infinitely greater reverence than Congress, and His holy laws than its enactments. I would as soon think of vindicating Washington for resisting the British Government to the death, as to apologize for John Brown in assailing the Slave Power with the only weapons that it fears.

Therefore, reader, if you think that white makes right, or might makes right, or if the opposite doctrine is abhorrent to you, lay this volume aside at once, for I will not promise that I shall try to avoid giving you offence.

Preface.

I have no apology to make for this work; not because I am unconscious of its defects, but because it is the best that I could write in the allotted time, and because nowhere else can so correct a biography of John Brown be found. It is compiled from hundreds of sources — newspapers, books, correspondence, and conversations. Much of it, also, is the record of my personal knowledge. Materials came to me from all quarters; and not always in the order of time. Thus, the third chapter of the first Book was written two weeks after the account of his execution ; the history of his Kansas exploits before I obtained the autobiographical sketch of his childhood and youth. Hence, if there be occasional repetitions, whether of fact or idea, the just or generous reader will overlook this defect. I do not think that there are such iterations ; but it is a possibility that I desire to explain in advance.

Writing in this way, the volume grew faster than I foresaw. I had intended to write the Life of John Brown, private and public, and biographies of his men, also. But Kansas, and Harper's Ferry, and Charlestown, and an unexpected gift of materials from North Elba, compelled me to defer the biographies of John Brown's men, as well as a minuter record of his own private life and correspondence. For, on the return of my wife from the home of John Brown, I found myself in possession, in trust, of hundreds of private letters, — every one that has been preserved, — written during the long and active career of the illustrious Liberator, which exhibit his daily life in its ~ every relation, and the exceeding beauty of the religion which inspired its actions. These records, with other

Preface.

memorials of him, will be published, in clue time, in a supplementary volume.

The latest telegraphic news makes one correction necessary. I have spoken of Richard Realf as dead. I thought that he died a natural death on the ocean. It appears that he still lives in the body; but dead to honor, the voice of conscience, and the cries of the poor. He has chosen the part of Judas, and promises to play it well.

I am indebted to several friends for valuable aid in the preparation of this volume — first, to every one whom I have mentioned in the notes, or text, or whose letters I have quoted; and to Dr. Thomas H. Webb, of Boston, Richard J. Hint on, of Kansas, and, lastly, but not least among them, to "a nearer one still and a dearer one" for her visit to North Elba and its results.

I still desire information, (whether anecdotes, letters, or conversational remarks,) respecting John Brown and his heroic associates, and will be greatly obliged for all such contributions.

How unworthy soever this volume may be, I shall not regard it as a useless work, if, in the minds of its destined readers, it shall arouse the inquiries :

How far, as men, have we strayed from the Mount where Jesus taught ? and

How far, a« citizens, have we wandered from the Hill where Warren fell ?

Malden, Mass., December 25, 1859.

m& Jfirsi

HE KEEPETH THE SHEEP.

11. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children r And ne said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and behold he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him ; for we will not sit down till he come hither.

12. And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him : for this is he. — I Samuel, Chapter xvi.

I. The Child and his Ancestors

December 2, 1859.

OW, worthily, write the Life of worthy John heroic. In every part and phase of it, numerous and serious obstacles present themselves. For to-day John Brown was hanged by a semi-barbarous Commonwealth, as a traitor, murderer, and robber, and fifteen despotic States are rejoicing at his death ; while, in the free North, every noble heart is sighing at his fate, or admiring his devotion to the principles of justice, or cursing the executioners of their warrior-saint. Thus opposite are the views men have of him ; and this is the first difficulty that confronts his biographer.

But putting it aside, by utterly disregarding the opinions and denunciations of the mob, looking steadily at the old man only, and drawing him as he strove to be and was, — a warrior of the Lord and of Gideon : to satisfy the public expectation', and, at the same time, to do justice to the hero of their hearts, is a far more important, and a still more embarrassing task. For an immediate publication is demanded; and it is impos-

The task is as difficult as the man was

The Child and his Ancestors.

sible, at once, to collate all the facts that should be told of him. But one alternative remains — to do the best that is possible for the present day, and, if a still more extended biography be demanded, to endeavor, at another time, to supply that want.

PATERNAL ANCESTRY OF JOHN BROWN.

Among the group of godly exiles who knelt at Plymouth Rock, on the 22d of December, 1620, and returned thanks to the Almighty for His goodness to them in preserving them from the dangers of the Deep, was an unmarried English Puritan, a carpenter by trade, of whose personal history all that now can be known is, that his name was Peter Brown. That he came over in the Mayflower, is evidence enough that he feared his God, respected himself, and strove prayerfully to obey the divine commands ; choosing rather to sacrifice the comforts of English civilization, and enjoy in the wilderness his inherent rights, than calmly contemplate the perpetration of wrong by sinners in high places, or to rest satisfied with the sophistical belief, that, by the philosophy ofan enlightened selfishness, or the diffusion of correct principles of political economy, all the evils of the age would peacefully be rectified — in a century or two ! He died in 1633.

Peter Brown, the second, was born in 1632. A monument in the churchyard of Windsor, Connecticut, is his only biography. It tells us that he married Mary Gillett in 1658, and died October 16, 1692.

He had four boys ; the second-born named John Brown ; who, in his turn, married Elizabeth Loomis in

I

1692, had eight daughters and three sons, the eldest of sdioni was his namesake.

John, the second, had seven girls and two boys, of whom the first-born son became the third of the name m the family. He died in 1790, at the age of ninety, having been the husband of Mary Eggleston, (who preceded him twelve months to the spirit world,) for the long period of sixty-five years. Mary, the eldest child of this marriage, remained a spinster till her death at the age of one hundred.

John, the third, was born November 4, 1728 ; married Hannah Owen in 1758 ; * was the father of John, Frederick, Owen, and Abiel Brown ; and the honored grandfather of Captain John Brown, the hero of Kansas and of Harper's Ferry. John Brown, the third, at the outbreak of the revolutionary war, was chosen Captain of the West Simsbury (now Canton f) trainband; and, in the spring of 1776, joined the forces of the continental army at New York. His commission from Governor Trumbull is dated May 23, 1776. After a service of two months' duration, he fell a victim to the prevailing epidemic of the camp, at the age of forty-eight years. J He died in a barn, attended only by a faithful subordinate, a few miles north of

* John Owen, the ancestor of Hannah, was a native of Wales. He was among the first settlers of Windsor, where he was married in 1650.

f In 1806, West Simsbury, with a narrow strip of New Hartford, was incorporated, by act of legislature, into a township named Canton.

J He served under Colonel Jonathan Pettibone.

16 The Child and his Anceltors.

New York City, where the continental army was at that time encamped. His body was buried on the Highlands, near the western bank of the East River. On a marble monument in the graveyard of Canton Centre, this inscription may be seen : —

"In memory of Captain John Brown, who died in the revolutionary army, at New York, September 3, 1776. He was of the fourth generation, in regular descent, from Peter Brown, one of the Pilgrim Fathers, who landed from the Mayflower, at Plymouth, Massachusetts, December 22, 1620."

Thus far we see that same spirit of resistance to wrong, which, recently, — nay, at this very hour, — men are branding as insane ! Why did Captain John Brown, " of the fourth generation, in regular descent," risk his life — " throw it away," as our politician's phrase it — by opposing it to the hitherto resistless strength of a mighty empire ? Why not wait until, by the aid of a " constitutional republican party," the evils then endured should have been peacefully abolished ? What was he to Massachusetts, or Massachusetts to him, that he should leave his family and fight her battles ? Personal liberty he had ; his house was his castle ; no power on earth dared molest his property, or wife, or children. It was only a petty question of taxation that called him to the field, but in it there lay embodied a political right ; and, rather than submit to an infringement of it, he resolved to 44 throw his life away," if need be. We now honor him for it ; for we see in it the spirit of the first Peter Brown, who would not wait for the convenient season of corrupt and heartless demagogues, but chose rather to abandon his native land, and enjoy his liberty at once. But it is far nobler than the first Peter's conduct; for it is not solely for himself, as in the Puritan's case, that he abandons home and friends. It is for a neighboring colony, and the rights of his race, rather than for his personal immunities. Only one step further was possible on the ladder of disinterested benevolence — to fight for a race, poor, despised, friendless, and inferior ; and this crowning glory to the family of Peter Brown, the Puritan, was reserved for the grandson of the revolutionary captain.

Captain John Brown, the third, left a widow and eleven children, of whom the eldest daughter was eighteen years of age, and the first son nine years only. " They were reared by his widow, with singular tact and judgment, to habits of industry and principles of virtue, and all became distinguished citizens in the communities in which they resided. One of the sons became a judge in one of the courts of Ohio. One of the daughters had the honor of giving to one of our most flourishing New England colleges a president for twenty years, in the person of her son." *

" She was a woman of great energy and economy," writes a descendant, f " the economy being a needful

* My authority is William H. Hallock, of Canton Centre. Tho preceding facts were chiefly furnished by Lancet Foote, Selden H. Brown, of the same place, and by a pamphlet, now out of print, entitled, "Genealogical History, with Short Sketches and Family Records of the Early Settlers of West Simsbury, &c, by Abiel Brown," an uncle of the liberator.

t Professor C. F. Hudson, a distinguished theological author.

2* i8

The Child and his Anceftors.

virtue. I have heard my grandfather tell of her cooking always just what the children needed, and no more, and they always 6 licked their trenchers,' when they had done with knife and fork. They all grew up to respectability. Their average age was considerable, that of five of them being seventy years, and I forget how much more."

Of the sons of these parents, John — afterwards known as Deacon Brown — lived many years in New Hartford, and died there. Abiel lived and died on the old homestead in Canton, Connecticut, while Frederick and Owen both lie buried in the State of Ohio.

MATERNAL ANCESTRY OF JOHN BROWN.

Owen Brown, the last named of these sons, and the father of Captain John Brown, the greatest and most heroic of the race, married the daughter of Gideon Mills, " who was himself an officer in the revolutionary army, and was intrusted with the command who had in charge a large portion of the prisoners comprising Burgoyne's army: thus proving that John Brown inherits his military spirit through a patriotic ancestry. "

A very brief record of John Brown's maternal ancestry, (all that it is now possible to write,) will prove that his descent was as honorable and patriotic by his mother's family, as from Peter Brown, the Puritan of the Mayflower.

Peter Miles was an emigrant from Holland, who settled at Bloomfield, Connecticut, near the confines of Windsor Plain. He had seven sons, was a tailor by trade, and died in 1754, at the age of eighty-eight.

The Child and his Anceftors.

Of these seven sons, Jedediah graduated at Yale College in 1722, and was a clergyman and theological author of considerable note. Pelatiah was a useful citizen, and an able attorney at law. John was the father of two clergymen. Peter had a numerous offspring, one of whom was the first minister of East Granby. Of two other and younger sons no record exists ; of Return, a daughter, all that is told is the date of her death — 1689.

Gideon, the seventh son, and the great grandfather of John Brown, the liberator, married Elizabeth Higley, a cousin of the first Governor Trumbull, of Lebanon. He was the minister at Old Simsbury about ten years previous to 1755 ; and, after living and preaching one or two years at West Simsbury, was installed in 1759, and died there in 1772. His character may be judged by the following interesting incident of his life :

u At the time of his ministry in West Simsbury, he lived two and a half miles from the meeting house, over a very hilly, cold, and uneven road, which would now be called a hard Sabbath-day's journey for a clergyman or a layman. This road he travelled weekly, and sometimes much oftener. One incident respecting the Rev. Gideon Mills is thought worthy of notice. He was habitually fond of sacred music, and would request others that could sing to join with him, and he retained his relish for singing even to his dying moments. He died of a cancer in the face, which kept him in great suffering for many of the last weeks of his life. He dwelt much on the sentiments expressed in the thirth-eighth psalm, (Watts,) * Amidst thy wrath remember love,' &c. ; also, the thirty-ninth — * God of my life, look gently down.' Just before he expired, he requested the friends in attendance to sing the thirty-eighth psalm — 1 Amidst thy wrath remember love,' — and attempted to join with them, but when the fore part of the psalm was sung he expired ; so that it was said by Mr. Hallock, on a certain occasion, that he dit?d singing the thirty-eighth psalm."

This stout-hearted Puritan left three sons and fhree daughters. Elizabeth and Faithe were married twice, and Anna was the third wife of the Reverend William Robinson. The biography of Jedediah is brief enough : " Born in 1755-6 — married Miss Wells."

Rev. Samuel Mills, second son of the Rev. Gideon Mills, graduated at Yale College in 1776, " with a view to the gospel ministry."

11 Being full of the patriotism prevalent at that time, he entered the American army as lieutenant in the cavalry. In one of those actions which took place in 1777, this young officer received a wound from a horseman's sword in the forehead, was taken prisoner, and conveyed into Philadelphia with a deep and dangerous wound, the scar of which he carried through the remainder of his life. The sick and wounded prisoners in Philadelphia experienced far different treatment from that which those unfortunate American prisoners received from the British and tories in New York in 1776. A kind Providence furnished a goodly numher of ministering angels, (if the expression may be allowable,) in the persons of some of the most accomplished ladies of Philadelphia. Those of superior rank and refinement took it upon them to visit and minister to the wants of the suffering prisoners. Among those worthy ladies was Miss Sarah Gilpin, a person of high refinement and accomplishments. Her labors of benevolence brought her and Lieutenant Samuel to an acquaintance which eventuated in his obtaining her hand and heart. He pursued and finished his theological studies, and was married to Miss Gilpin, and was settled pastor over the church and society of Chester, then a part of Saybrook."

Gideon, the eldest son of the Rev. Gideon Mills, and the grandfather of John Brown, the liberator, was also a lieutenant in the American army, and died in 1813, at Barkhamsted, Connecticut, at the age of sixty-four. He left two sons and four daughters, of whom Ruth, the eldest child, married Owen Brown, the father of our hero.

The Child and his Ancestors. 21

JOHN BROWN BORN.

The town records of Torrington supply these dates :

"Owen Brown, now of Torrington, late - of Simsbury, was married at Simsbury, on the 11th day of February, A. D. 1703.

11 Anna Ruth Brown, daughter of Owen and Ruth Brown, was born in the town of Norfolk, the 5th day of July, 1798.

" JoJm Brown, son of Owen and Eiu'h Brown, was bom in Torrington, the 9tk day of May, 1800.

44 Salmon Brown, son of Owen and Ruth Brown, was born on the 30th day of April, 1802.

4 'Oliver Owen Brown, son of Owen and Ruth Brown, was born the 26th day of October, A. D. 1804."

John Brown, therefore, was born in the year 1800, at Torrington, Connecticut, where he lived, " about a mile north-west of the meeting house," until the age of five, when his father emigrated to Hudson, Ohio ; where, we are told, " he became one of the principal pioneer settlers of that then new town, ever respected for his probity and decision of character ; " was " commonly called 'Squire Brown, and was one of the Board of Trustees of Oberlin College ; " was " endowed with energy and enterprise, and went down to his grave honored and respected, about the year 1852 or 1853, at the age of eighty-seven."

II. The Father of the Man

TjlRULY says the poet, that the child is father of the

JL man. This is why every incident of the childhood of great men is so eagerly sought and cherished by their friends and admirers. When the fruit is glorious, we desire to see the blossom, too. Happily, in the case of Captain John Brown, this desire can be amply gratified— and in a way, and by the pen, of all others the best fitted to do justice to it. Gladly I here step aside for the old hero ; to permit him, in his own inimitable style, to narrate the history of his infancy, and early manhood.

All that it becomes me to write, by way of preface, is a brief statement of the story of this autobiography.

When John Brown was in Boston, in the winter of 1857, among other noble friends of freedom here, he made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Stearns, of Medford ; wTho, recognizing him at once as an historic character, — although clad in a plain suit of clothes only, and with a leathern strap for a neck-tie, — received him at their hospitable home with all the honor justly due to a hero and a saint. Their children soon learned

The Father of the Man.

to love the old warrior; for, like all godlike men, he loved little children ; and, like all young souls, they instinctively recognized the true hero. One of them asked him many questions about his childhood, and he recounted, with great interest, the incidents of his infancy and boyish days. When the old man was preparing to return to Kansas, Master Henry (to whom the Letter is addressed) asked his father's permission to give all his pocket money to Captain Brown. The permission was readily granted, and the old hero received the money. He promised, at the same time, — if he should ever find the leisure for it, — to write out for his young friend an account of his own early life.

When crossing the State of Iowa, with military supplies, in the month of July following, — he himself driving a team, — he was detained for some time by the failure of certain parties to fulfil their promises to send him money. He then fulfilled his promise, and wrote this, autobiographical sketch. I have copied it with the fidelity of a Chinese artist : Italics, punctuation, orthography, and omissions. I add a few notes only, and divide it into paragraphs. It fills six pages of letter-paper in the original manuscript, which is very closely written, and contains two paragraphs only — the Letter and the postscript.

It is hardly necessary for me to say that the internal evidences of its perfect fidelity are overwhelming : for we see throughout it the same grand traits in the barefooted, bareheaded boy, clad in " buckskin breeches, suspended often with one leather strap and sometimes with two;" who idolized the " bobtail squirrel," and had " a mourning season " at its death ; and who, at the age of twelve, swore eternal war against slavery ; which, when in the jail and the Court room and on the gallows of Charlestown, Virginia, astonished and delighted the world.

This is the Letter :

Red Rock, Iowa, loth July, 1857.

Mr Henry L. Stearns

My Dear Young Friend

I have not forgotten my promise to write you ; but my constant care, & anxiety have obliged me put it off a long time. I do not flatter myself that I can write any thing that will very much -interest you : but have concluded to send you a short story of a certain boy of my acquaintance : & for convenience and shortness of name, I will call him John. His story will be mainly a naration of follies and errors ; which it is to be hoped you may avoid; but there is one thing connected with it, which will be calculated to encourage any young person to persevering effort: & that is the degree of success in accomplishing his objects which to a great extent marked the course of this boy throughout my entire acquaintance with him; notwithstanding his moderate capacity ; & still more moderate acquirements.

John was born May 9th 1800, at Torrington, Litchfield Co, Connecticut ; of poor but respectable parents : a decendant on the side of his father of one of the company of the Mayflower who landed at Plymouth 1620. His mother was decended from a man who came at an early period to New England from Amsterdam, in Hoi-

The Father of the Man.

land. Both his Father's & his Mother's Fathers served in the war of the revolution : His Father's Father ; died in a barn at New York while in the service, in 1776

I cannot tell you of any thing in the first Four years of John's life worth mentioning save that at that early age he was tempted by Three large Brass Pins belonging to a girl who lived in the family & stole them, hx this he was detected by his Mother ; & after having a full day to think of the wrong : received from her a thorough whipping. When he was Five years old his Father * moved to Ohio ; then a wilderness filled with wild beasts, & Indians. During the long journey which was performed in part or mostly with an ox team ; he was called on by turns to assist a boy Five years older (who had been adopted by his Father & Mother) & learned to think he could accomplish smart things in driving the Cows ; and riding the horses. Sometimes he met with Rattle Snakes which were very large ; & which some of the company generally managed to kill. After getting to Ohio in 1805 lie was for some time rather

* A correspondent thus writes of John Brown's father : " My recollections of John Brown hegin in the winter of 18 jG-7. I was then five years old. My father's family lived that winter at Hudson, Ohio, which was then one of the remotest of the settlements made by Connecticut people on their Western Rtserve. One of our nearest neighbors there was Mr. Owen Brown, who had removed to Hudson, not long before, from Connecticut. I remember him very distinctly, and that he was very much respected and esteemed by my father. He was an earnestly devout and religious man, of tha old Connecticut fashion ; and one peculiarity of his impressed his name and person indelibly upon my memory. He was an inveterate and most painful stammerer — the first specimen of that infirmity that I had evr seen, and, according to my recollection, the worst that I had ever known to this day ; consequently, though we removed from Hudson to another settlement early in the summer of 1807, and returned to Connect! cut in 1S12, so that I rarely saw any of that family afterwards, I have never to this day seen a man struggling and half strangled with a word stuck in his throat, without remembering good Mr. Owen Brown, who could not speak without stammering, except in prayer."

The Father of the Man.

afraid of the Indians, & of their Rifles ; but this soon wore off: & he used to hang about them quite as much as was consistent with good manners ; & learned a trifle of their talk. His Father learned to dress Deer Skins, & at 6 years old John was installed a young Buck Skin — He was perhaps rather observing as he ever after remembered the entire process of Deer Skin dressing ; so that he could at any time dress his own leather such as Squirel, Raccoon, Cat, Wolf or Dog Skins ; & also learned to make Whip Lashes : which brought him some change at times ; & was of considerable service in many ways. — At Six years old John began to be quite a rambler in the wild new country finding birds & Squirels, & .sometimes a wild Turkey's nest. But about this period he was placed in the school of adversity : which my young friend was a most necessary part of his early training. You may laugh when you come to read about it ; but these were sore trials to John : whose earthly treasures were very few & small. These were the beginning of a severe but much needed course of discipline which he afterwards was to pass through ; & which it is to be hoped has learned him before this time that the Heavenly Father sees it best to take all the little things out of his hands which he has ever placed in them. When John was in his Sixth year a poor Indian boy gave him a Yellow Marble the first he had ever seen. This he thought a great deal of; & kept it a good while ; but at last he lost it beyond recovery. It took years to heat the wound; & I think he cried at times about it. About Five months after this lie caught a young Squirrel tearing off his tail in doing it; & getting severely bitten at the same time himself. He however held on to the little bob tail Squirrel ; & finally got him perfectly tamed, so that he almost idolized his pet. 77m* too he lost; by its wandering away; or by getting killed : & for a year or Two John was in mourning-; and looking at all the Squirrels he could see to try & discover Bob tail, if possible. I must not neglect to tell you of a very bad Sf foolish habbit to which John was somewhat addicted. I mean telling lies : generally to screen himself from blame ; or from punishment. He could not well endure to be reproached ; & I now think had he been oftener encouraged to be entirely frank ; by making frankness a kind of atonement for some of his faults ; he would not have been so often guilty of this fault ; nor have been obliged to struggle so long in after life with so mean a habit. John was never quarelsome ; but was excessively fond of the hardest Sf roughest kind of plays ; & could never get enough [of ] them.