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cast down in feeling since being imprisoned and under sentence, which I am fully aware is soon to be carried out, it is exceedingly gratifying to learn from friends that there are not wanting in this generation some to sympathize with me and appreciate my motive, even now that I am whipped.
Success is in general the standard of all merit.
I have passed my time here quite cheerfully; still trusting that neither my life nor my death will prove a total loss.
As regards both, however, I am liable to mistake.
It affords me some satisfaction to feel conscious of having at least tried to better the condition of those who are always on the under-hill side, and am in hope of being able to meet the consequences without a murmur.
I am endeavoring to get ready for another field of action, where no defeat befalls the truly brave.
That , “God reigns,” and most wisely, and controls all events, might, it would seem, reconcile those who believe it to much that appears to be very disastrous.
I am one who have tried to believe that, and still keep trying.
Those who die for the truth may prove to be courageous at last; so I continue ( “hoping on,” till I shall find that the truth must finally prevail.
I do not feel in the least degree despondent nor degraded by my circumstances, and I entreat my friends not to grieve on my account.
You will please excuse a very poor and short letter, as I get more than I can possibly answer.
I send my best wishes to your kind mother, and to all the family, and to all the true friends of humanity.
And now, dear friends, God be with you all, and ever guide and bless you.
Your friend, John Brown
Letter to Judge Tilden.
My dear Sir: Your most kind and comforting letter of the 23d inst. is received.
I have no language to express the feelings of gratitude and obligation I am under for your kind interest in my behalf ever since my disaster.
The great bulk of mankind estimate each other's actions and motives by the measure of success or otherwise that attends them through life.
By that rule I have been one of the worst and one of the best of men. I do not claim to have been one of the latter; and I leave it to an impartial tribunal to decide whether the world has been the worse or the better of my living and dying in it. My present great anxiety is to get as near in readiness for a different field of action as I well can, since being in a good measure relieved from the fear that my poor, broken-hearted wife and children would come to immediate want.
May God reward, a thousand fold, all the kind efforts made in their behalf.
