[489] oppressed in this country, in the way he has chosen, as did1 Moses in relation to the deliverance of the captive Israelites that when he says he aims to be guided by the Golden Rule, it is no cant from his lips, but a vital application of it to his own soul, “remembering those that are in bonds as bound with them” ; that when he affirms, that he had no other motive for his conduct at Harper's Ferry except to break the chains of the oppressed, by the shedding of the least possible amount of human blood, he speaks “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” ; and that if he shall be (as he will speedily, beyond a peradventure) put to death, he will not die ignobly, but as a martyr to his sympathy for a suffering race, and in defense of the sacred and inalienable rights of man, and will therefore deserve to be held in grateful and honorable remembrance to the latest posterity, by all those who glory in the deeds of a Wallace or Tell, a Washington or Warren. Read his2 replies to the interrogatories propounded to him by Senator Mason3 and others! Is there another man, of all the thirty millions of people inhabiting this country, who could have answered more wisely, more impressively, more courageously, or with greater moral dignity, under such a trying ordeal? How many hearts will be thrilled and inspired by his utterances! Read, too, his replies in court with reference to his counsel! Where shall a4 more undaunted spirit be found? In vain will the sanguinary tyrants of the South, and their Northern minions, seek to cover him with infamy:—And, on November 25:Courts, judges can inflict no brand of shame,
Or shape of death, to shroud him from applause.
In recording the expressions of sympathy and admiration5 which are so widely felt for John Brown, whose doom is so swiftly approaching, we desire to say—once for all—that, judging him by the code of Bunker Hill, we think he is as deserving of high-wrought eulogy as any who ever wielded sword or battle-axe in the cause of liberty; but we do not and cannot approve any indulgence of the war spirit. John Brown has, perhaps, a right to a place by the side of Moses, Joshua,6 Gideon, and David; but he is not on the same plane with Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John, the weapons of whose warfare were not carnal, though mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. But the professedly Christian church, with all Christendom, rejects
