Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1859 — A PERSONAL INTERVIEW WITH CAPT. BROWN’S WIFE. [ARTICLE]

A PERSONAL INTERVIEW WITH CAPT. BROWN’S WIFE.

[Front the New York Independent.

Fist/ of a Lady to the Charlestown Jail. I write this morning, on board a steamboat, a hasty account of a personal interview last evening with Mrs. Mary Brown, wife of Capt. John Brown, now under sentence of death in Virginia for having bravely failed in a brave deed. I am scarcely at liberty to mention at what place Mrs. Brown has lately ,been staying, of whose hospitkiity-she has been sharing. I may say, however, that after her return from Baltimore, where she was stopped on her half-made journey to her husband, she has been the guest of a family residing in one or the most beautiful regions of a neighboring State, who have proved themselves kind friends, not. only to herself but to her husband, and who were the more glad to bid her welcome to their hou e, because the lady of the household, with her son, had already made a visit to Capt. Brown in his prison at Charlestown since his sentence of death. Mrs. Brow n's stay with these friends terminated this morning. She is now on her way to Philadelphia, to meet Mr. Sennott, the counsel for her husband’s defense. I conversed with her during entire evening. But only ten minutes ' acquaintance is enough to show that she is a woman worthy to be the wife of such a man. She is tall, large and muscular, giving the impression at first sight of a frame ca -able of great strength and long "endurance. Her face is grave and thoughtful, wearing, even in this hour of her trial, an expression of soberness rather than of sadness, as if, like her husband, she had long since learned how to suffer and be calm. Her manner is singularly quiet and retiring, although her natural simplicity and modesty cannot hide the evident force of character, and strength of will and judgment, which have fitted her so long to be a counselor in her husband’s enterprises and a supporter in his trials. She is a native of Whitehall, near Lake Champlain, and has been the mother of thirteen children; but, notwithstanding the cares of her numerous family, and her many privations and struggles independent of household burdens, she still appears as fresh and hale as if she were only now in the prime and vigor of life. A NEWSPAPER CORRECTION. The conversation, of course, was of the scenes at Harper's Ferry—both those which have already been enacted, and those which are shortly to follow. She alluded, with subdued though evident emotion, to the wounds of her husband, and to the loss of her two sons, Watson and Oliver, who fell in the struggle. But she made no such remark as that recently attributed to her in a New England newspaper, “that four of her sons had already been slain, and she would be willing that all the rest of her family should be made a sacrifice, if necessary, to the cause of freedom.” These words, she said to me, could never possibly have fallen from her lips, for she had already felt too many griefs to court any fresh sacrifices; and she could not think, without pain, of any new deathstroke to her family. She would not shrink from any necessary trial or struggle when the hour came for it, but she could not look forward with composure to any further lessening of her family, already too sadly broken. She regretted that such a remark should have been but in her mouth, “for,” ns she observed,“they were unnaotherly words.” She said that she had been so long accustomed to sorrows that she had been trained to bear them. While living in Ohio, four of her children died, from dysentery, within eleven days, three of whom irerc carried to the

grave together on the same day! She mentioned in this connection, that her huband had always been a watchful nurse and the chief care-taker of the children, and of herself, during periods of sickness. CAPT. brown’s RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. I adverted, in alluding to Capt. Brown’s religious opinion, to the common report that he was an Old-School Presbyterian. She replied that he had been a church-member ever since he was a boy; that he united, at sixteen years of age, with a Congregational church in Hudson, Ohio, and that on removing to Pennsylvania, thirty years ago, he transferred his membership to the Presbyterian church, with which he had since remained connected. She said that the religious element of his character hid always been the ruling mo’ive of his life. He had always observed religious exercises in his household with exemplary regularity. It has been for many years the custom of the family to read the Bible every morning, in regular course of chapters, each member reading in turn a verse. She said that her husband’s familiarity with texts of Scripture was so great that he could detect almost the slightest misquotation of any passage, and that if a portion of the verse in almost any part of the Bible were read or repeated to him, he could immediately repeat the remainder. His conversation frequently abounded with Scripture texts, and his letters were always filled with them. I asked if she knew what were his favorite passages, to which she replied, j “He had a great many; but one was ‘Remember them tha: are in bonds as bound with them." How nobly his life has proved his deephearted sympathy or the slave! In his habits of living, his wife testified that he was always singularly self-denying. As an example, he never suffered himself or his family to wear expensive clothing. His standing admonition was, “Let us save the money, ami give to the poor.” Day before yesterday, when some clothes were sent from New \ ork to Mrs. Brown, to go in a box to her husband, among the articles was a new coat ol fine brown cloth, which, when it was shown to h r, she immediately pronounced too gay for her husband to wear. It was accordingly sent back; and last evening there came in return a coarser coat, which better suit liis taste, and which the brave old Puritan might not think to good for him to put on! He never in his life has used tobacco or ardent spirits, and never, until within the last few years, has taken tea or coffee. His mode of living has been so rigidly temperate that, in Kansas, he would sometimes go for da s with scarcely a mouthful of food, and suffer no faintness or exhaustion. HIS LONG .MEDITATED DESIGN. * I referred incidentally to the design upon Harper’s Ferry as having been premeditated for two years, to which she immediately replied : “Not for two years, but for twenty! He had been waiting twenty years for some opportunity to free the slaves; we had all been waiting ’.tfith him, the proper time when he should put his resolve into action, and when at last the enterprise of Harper’s Ferry was planned, we all thought that the time had now come: Mr. Brown was sanguine of success; we all were equally sonffdent; he had no idea, nor did any of the family, that the experiment would result in defeat: we all looked to it as fulfilling the hopes of many years.” As I listened to this I could not help half exclaiming, “What heroic words! What a man! What a woman!” I wrote down these sentences a few moments after they were uttered, and as I repeated them, she added: “For.he has borne the yoke of the oppressed as if upon his own neck for these thirty years.” She made several and repeated references to various newspaper accounts in which her husband’s character had been misrepresented. -he had been pained to see him described as a cruel man, for, as she said, “No man ever had a kinder heart. He is generous by nature. He had always aimed to impress his family with a spirit of benevolence. He has always taught his children to be unselfish; to act always for others before acting for themselves. His sympathies for the poor and the oppressed have always been too easily excited.” I inquired as to his habit of carrying firearms about his person. She said that since the many threats upon his life, during and since his efforts in Kansas, he had carried a revolver, but never before, HIS RECENT LETTERS to MRS. BROWN. I may mention that I saw last evening a letter from Capt. Brown to his wife, dated November 8, and brought away by the lady who visited him nt Charlestown. This let-

ter is too private, and I might almost say, too sacred to be exposed in print to every eye. Mrs. Brown is unwilling that it should be made public, both for her own sake and her husband’s. But I violate no confidence in saying that this letter, written in prison, is no less remarkable than the memorable speech delivered in Court. It breaths the same heroic spirit; it is marked by the same simplicity of style; it expresses the same conscientious conviction of the rightfulness of his undertaking; it exhibits throughout the same unwavering courage, and the same strong faith in God. To the many overflow ing expressions of bis sympathy for his wife and children, given in this letter, I do not feel at liberty to allude, further than to say that they are as warm, as tender and and as delicate as ever were written by a husband to a wife. They prove that his delicacy is equal to his courage, and that his heart is not only as brave as a hero’s, but as tender as a child’s. During the evening another letter came directed from the prison, dated November 10. This fresh message was briefer than the other, but of the same character and in the same spirit. A BOX FOR CAPTAIN BROWN. For several days past, until last evening, Mrs. Brown has been actively engaged, aided by some female friends, in preparing clothing to be sent to her husband. A sewingmachine had been busy at work from morning till night for two days. Last evening the box was packed, and this morning sent to the cars, containing shirts, stockings, pocket-handkerchiefs, a pair of easy slippers, some writing materials, two or three favorite books, and some preserved fruits and other delicacies. A great number of friends crowded around it, each anxious to add something for the old man’s comfort, before the cover was nailed on. From this scene Jl r s. Brown retired, sobbing, to another part of the room, and for a few moments was unable to control her emotion, excl.liming, “Poor man! he will not need them long!” But perhaps-the troubled Governor of Virginia, and his Sheriff’who is making ready for the Second of Docember, may find, before the time shall roll around, some othervictim to keep up the honor of the fatal Friday , and may be glad, after all, not to hang the brave old man! THE VISIT TO CAPT. BROWN IN PRISON. The lady whose visit to Charlestown has been already mentioned, went there chiefly to assist Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, whom she expected to meet in the prison; but as Captain Brown had meanwhile written to Mrs. Child not to come, the new volunteer nurse found herself an entire stranger (except to her own son who accompanied her) in a community not over-disposed to be hospitable to strangers. She arrived at Charlestown shortly affer Captain Brown’s speech in court. She spent more than two days in vain entreaties with the Sheriff to secure admission to the jail. Hearing tha Capt. Brown, whom she had informed of her arrival, was anxious to see her, and not being willing Io take the Sheriff’s short answer alter her long journey, solicited Mr. Sennott’s aid, who at last persuaded the Judge to grant a permit of entrance. She refers to the visit in the jail as one of touching interest. She obtained two in- i terviews, the first of an hour, and the other of a shorter period. She describes the prison as a large brick building that seemed to be formerly used as a dwelling-house. Capt. Brown was occupying, with his fellow-prisoner Stephens, a room on the ground-floor, about sixteen feel square, opening with a single door into a long gallery, and lighted through a single small window, grimly defended by heavy double bars. Mrs. S , on entering, found Captain Brown lying on a cot, and Stephens on a large double bed. Capt. Brown arose from i his bed to receive his guests, and stood a few moments leaning against the bedstead, immediately lying down again from weakness. His visitors were struck with the cheerfulness of his expression, and the calmness of his manner. He seemed not only passively resigned to his fate, but cheerful under it, and more than willing to meet it. My friend said to him. “I expected Mrs. Child would be here to i introduce me; I am sorry not to find her, for her presence would make this room brighter j for you.” He smiled and replied: “I have written to her the reasons why! she should not come; but she was very kind—very kind!” Somo questions were then asked as to the : treatment and care he had received; to which he said: “I wish it to be understood by everybody, that I have been very kindly attended; for

if I had been under the care of father or brother, I could not have been better treated than by Capt. Avis and his family.” Capt. Avis is the jailor, of whom all the reports speak in high terms for his humane and courteous conduct not only to these but to all his prisoners. When another allusion was made to Mrs. Child, Capt. Brown remarked: “The reason why I did not wish her to come, and why I did not wish my wife to come, was for fear lest they would be barrassed aad annoyed, and on this account I would be troubled myself.” A BUNCH OF LEAVES. Mrs. S had carried with her into the jail a large bunch of autumn leaves, gathered in the morning from the woods. There was no nail on the wall to hang them by, and she arranged them between the grated bars of the window. She gave to the sufferer a full blown rose, which he laid beside his cheek on his pillow. The old rain seemed to be greatly touched with these tokens of thoughtfullness. lie is said to have always been a great lover of nature, particularly of the grandeur of forest scenes. Mrs. S drew a chair near his bed-side* and taking out her knitting, sat by him for an hour. She has preserved his complete conversation, of which I can only give a small portion. She says: “I never saw a person who seemed less troubled or excited, or whose mind was less disturbed and more clear. His remarks are pointed, pithy, and sensible. He is not in the least sentimental, and seems to have singularly excellent common-sense about everything.” She asked him the direct question—“ Were you actuated, in any degree, in undertaking your lute enterprise,by a feeling of revenge!” adding that a common impression to that effect had gone abroad. He manifested much surprise at tin's statement, and after pausing a moment replied : “I am not conscious of ever having had a feeling of revenge; no, not in all the wrong done to me and my family in Kansas. But I can see that a thing is wrong and wicked, and can help to right it, and can even hi pe that those who do the wrong may be punished—and stiil have no feeling of re’enge! No, I have not been actuated by any spirit of revenge!” He talked a good deal about his family, manifested solicitude for their comfort alter I he was gone, bu expressing his great confidence and trust in God’s kind Providence in their behalf. When some allusion was made to the sentence which he had received, he said very deliberate!}’ and firmly, and as my friend says, “almost sublimely.” “ I do not think I can better serve the cause I love so much, than to die for it!" She says that she never can forget the impressive manner in which be uttered these solemn words. She replied: “It is not the hardest thing that can happen to a brave man to die; but it must be a great hardship for an active man to lie on his back in prison , disabled by wounds. Do you not dread your confinement, and are y<?u not afraid it may wear you down, or cause you to relax your convictions, or regret your attempt, or make your courage fail!” “I cannot tell,” he replied, “what weakness may come over me, but I do not think that I shall deny my Lord and Master Jesus Christ, as I certainly should if I denied my principles against slavery.” When the conversation had proceeded thus far, as it was known outside the jail that a Northern lady was inside, a crowd began to collect, and although no demonstration of violence was made, yet there were manifest indications of impatience; so that the Sheriff' called to the jailor, and the obliged to put an end to the interview. A second visit was made on the second day afterward. The popular excitement had grown so great on accout of the first visit, that on the succeeding day it was deemed unadvisable to attempt another.

THEODORE TILTON.

Wednesday, November 16.

OO’A German had made a fortune in Philadelphia by selling milk. He started for home with two bags of sovereigns. On shipboard he counted one bag of treasure. A mischievous monkey was watching his operations. As soon as it was replaced and tied up, and the other bag emptied, Jacko snatched up the full one, and was soon at the masthead. He opened the German’s bag, and after eyeing the pretty gold, he proceeded to drop one piece upon the deck, and another in the water, until he had emptied the bag. When he had finished, the German threw up his hands, exclaiming, “He must be the dyyel, for what come from the vater he does give to the Vatet, and what came from the milk ho gives to me.”