Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1881 — John Brown’s Death. [ARTICLE]

John Brown’s Death.

After Johu Brown’s capture, and while he lay in blood on the floor-nf the guard-house, he was asked upon what principle he justified iiis a. to. “Upon the golden rule,,” he answered. "I pitied the poor in bondage: Tl < cry <>f distress is what prompted me l<> come here " And then, with a prophetic ,longue, he said: “I wish to say, furthermore, that you had better, all of you people of the south, prepare yourselves for a settlement of this question. It must come up for settlement before you are aware of it, and the sooner you commence that preparation the better. You may dispose of me very readily. I am nearly disposed of now; but this question—this negro question, I mean—is still to be settled. The end of that, is uot yet." Before sentence was passed upon him, he said: “This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a ln>ok kissed here which I suppose to be the New Testament. That teaches me that whatever I would that men should do unto me I should do even so unto them. lam yet to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done, in behalf of His despised poor, is not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deetaed necessary that I should forfeit my life aud mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, and with tlie blood of millions of this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel ahd unjust enactments, let it be done. lam all ready." > Tn a postscript to a letter to his half brother, written in prison, I.e said: “Say to my poor boys never to grieve for one moment on my account; aud should any of you live to see the time when you will not blush to owu your relation'to old John Brown, it will not be more strange than many things that have happened." In his last letter to his family, lie said: “I am waiting the hour of my public murder with great composure of mind and cheerfulntss, feeling the strong assurance that no possible way could Ibe of so much advantage for the cause of God and humanity, and that nothing that I or my family have sacrificed or suffered will be lost.”

As he was carried to the gallows, he looked over the, lovely landscape, and said: “This is a beautiful country ; I have not cast my eyes over it till now.” “You are more cheerful than I am, Captain Brown,” remarked the undertaker. “Yes,” responded the old man, “I ought to be.” “There.is no faltering in his step,” wrote one who saw him, "but firm and erect he stands amid the almost breathless line of soldiery that surrounds him. With a graceful motion of his pinioned right arm he takes the slouched hat from bis head and carelessly casts it on the platform at his side. The white cap is drawn over his eyes apd the sheriff says: “Captain Brown, shall I give you a handkerchief and let you drop it as a signal?” “No,” replies the old man. “I am ready at any time, but do not keep me needlessly waiting,” Thus standing firm and uj.right, the drop fell and the courageous martyr met his death.

, One would think that so much hero- > ism would excite the admiration of even the bitterest of foes, but it was not so. It was a coward and a brute, ' though he was the captain of a company of Virginia militia, who cried out, while reverent silence should have dwelt upon the scene, “Give the corpse a dose of arsenic to make sure Work of it.” Thus hares do “pluck dead-liops by the beahi;” but while this man railed at the swinging figure and others mocked |t. the lips of northern men were pressed closely together, their eyes were lighted by a new flre, and along the granite hilltops men echoed the words of the Massachusetts sage and seep, *'A saint whose martyrdom will make the gallows glorious like the cross.” Mr. Benjamin Fitch,lof Buffalo, N. Y.,has made an additional gift of property worth 1200,000 to the charity organisation society of that city “for the purpose of founding and .maintaining tn Buffalo a public institution fop the physical, moral and intellectual benefit of the worthy poor of that city, without distinction of creed or oex.”