Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1885 — JOHN BROWN AND CAPT. COOK. [ARTICLE]

JOHN BROWN AND CAPT. COOK.

Interesting Reminiscences of the Harper’s Ferry Trials. I had long desired, for a literary purpose, to obtain from Senator Daniel W. Voorhees his reminiscences of the trial of John Brown, where he was counsel for Capt John E. Cook, and made in Cook’s behalf one of the most remarkable speeches in causes celebres of history. Mr. Voorhees is so much employed in his public avocations that it ■was with as much difficulty as reluctance that he obliged me with this most interesting story. I have undertaken to jot it down for myself, but perhaps waen X nave finished it, it mny be better preserved in print. I think there con be no impropriety in the publication if I so conclnde. Beginning slowly and with reflection, Mr. Voorhees spoke to mesomewhat as follows, though I cannot exactly give his words: “I have refrained from talking on the subject of my employment in the Harper’s Ferry trials of twenty-five years ago. Some things connected with me there I probably cannot speak of now. , I think, however, that you have had some, bias established in your mind to the prejudice of my client, Capt Cook, as one of John Brown’s band, and it is due to the memory of that poor boy that I should tell you that my defense of him was not his defense; that he had no part in it; that I, in the effort to save his life, chose my own course, consulting nobody but his brother-in-law, Governor Ashbel Willard, of Indiana, who was a Democrat, like myself. Cook was as determined a follower of John Brown as anyone in that band. I believe that he was as brave a man as any of those invaders. His nerve was as good as his courage. He had a gentle, affectionate nature, and in our attempt to save his life the inference might properly be drawn that he put us upon that line of defense. Such was not the case. We were Democrats and he was an Abolitionist We made the only effort to save his life in our power, and that was by representing him as having been .under the influence of a powerful mind like John Brown.

“Had Governor Willard ever met this brother-in-law, Cook ?” “Yes, I think he had; but not for some years. He told me that when the information came that the young man had been born in Haddam, Connecticut, Mrs. Willard and her sister Kate had concluded that he must be their missing brother. ‘Voorhees,’ said he, ‘we thought you would go. Bad as the boy’s act has been, I am going to stand by him? " The Senator then continued: “We traveled by railroad direct for Harper’s Ferry, and we went so fast that we arrived there during the day, while Cook himself had only been taken through Harper’s Ferry to Charlestown the same morning. He had to be brought by conveyance, while we came by steam. He had therefore been in Charlestown jail only a few hours. When we got out of the cars at Harper’s Ferry, so soon after this memorable raid, the people of the village, still suspicious of strangers, looked at ps, and asked somequestionsindicative of ‘ their feelings. . “Joseph McDonald had come with us from Indianapolis. He Was a Democrat and Attorney General of Indiana. While we were in this unsettled State, with the villagers pressing around ns, none of whom probably had ever heard even of Governor Willard, notwithstanding he had made the memorable contest against Oliver P. Morton and beat him for Governor, some one said that Governor Floyd, a member of the cabinet at Washington from the State of Virginia, was in the armory grounds at that time. Governor Willard knew Floyd, and asked to be taken to him. Floyd wA# the Secretary of War. He was a fine-looking, typical Virginian, with curling dark hair, rather eaglelike nose, and warm temperament. His misfortune, I think, generally came from his personal fealty to his friends. He received Willard with kindness, heard the statement that Cook was probably his brother-in-law, and said

he would send us off to Charlestown without further embarrassment “Now," remarked Mr. Voorhees, “I had not gone to Harper’s Ferry under any great belief that my services would be really required. I thought that Willard had labored under some paisapprehension; that this young Outlaw could not be the brother of his wife, whom I knew very well, apd who was « beautiful woman and a highly intelligent one. This opinion I continued to have until we reached Charlestown and entered the jail. It is a popular mistake to say that the people of Charlestown were turbulent or offensive. There were a good many peojfie there, and they wore a determined, significant look, but they were quiet. Governor Willard led all the proceedings we took at that moment, and when it was said that Senator Mason, of Virginia, was in town he asked at once to be taken to him. Mason was a very fine-looking man of considerable hauteur. As a Virginian, he was sensitive to the attack made on his neighbors. I had never seen him be f owe. Willard, however, was quite his match in address. Gov. Willard was one of the noblestlooking men I ever saw. and perhaps the greatest natural leader Indiana ever had. He was a very young man when he died,'soon after these occurrences, but he had swept our State like a tornado against a man as able as Morton, and was the idol of the Democracy out there. He stood tall, with his head well thrown back, and when he introduced himself to Mr. Mason, Mason seemed to feel the equality. Mr. Mason went with us to the jail. We entered that building and passed into a hall or corridor and were taken into quite a large room. Nobody was in that room but a rather small young man, who was sitting near the window with his cheek in the hollow of his hand. He was looking out of the window in an abstracted way, as at something far off. I was the last one to enter. Mr. Mason, I think, went in first But I looked in that room as we came to it, and there 1 saw stamped on that young man’s face, though he was of a mere flaxen complexion than his sister, the unmistakable likeness of Carrie Willard. My heartjbegan to droop. I had tjie evidence before me that Willard had not been mistaken in the identity of the young man. I was so much overcome for a moment that I did not enter the room, but paced the hall outside. I knew that I had to defend this youth upon the terrible charges against him. “When I went to the room Gov. Willard was sitting near this young man and Senator Mason was looking at them both from a chair. I do not think much, if anything, had been said. The young man had now turned his face around, still keeping his hand as he sat against his cheek, and he looked, at •Willard with a distant recognition as if. he was not decided about welcoming him. He had a broad* forehead, fine long locks of brown hair, a nearly transparent skin, in which you could see the blue veins, a smooth face, and the chin firm though slight. He had a fine mouth apd beautiful white teeth in it, as I saw afterward. He was looking at Willard as at a friend who might now be an enemy and without very great concern, but like one wearied. I will not attempt,” said Mr. Voorhees,'“to repeat the conversation, though it was not long. It was something like this: ‘John,’said Gov. Willard, ‘how camo you to be in such company? These men are of a different sort from you. You have been better bred, better educated.’ The young man replied without any excitement, that he was there. Gov. Willard then said: ‘John, why have you not written to your sister? They loved you, and you have been lost to them for two or three years.’ Cook replied in the same wearied, dreamy way, turning his face back from the window out of which he had looked with the same air of dreaminess: ‘I have been in Kansas and out where I had a good many things to think of. Sometimes I have not had the facilities to write. At other times I have been too much engaged.’ ‘But, John,’ said the governor, looking at him with all his might, ‘what were you doing in Kansas or anywhere with these outrageous criminals and disturbers of your country’s peace ? I want you to tell me how you came in such company.’

“Cook then dropped his hand and looked firmly in Gov. Willard’s face, and his blue eyes distended and flashed, and as he raised his upper lip I could see those fine white teeth shine. Said he: ‘Ashbel, I went to Kansas three years ago to get my living and disturb no man. I had no intention of disturbing the peace anywhere, but the border ruffians had come into Kansas to do as they pleased. I was going from Leavenworth to Lawrence with a cherished friend, Alexander Stuart, when a band of these border ruffians rode up to us and fired "upon us, and they killed my friend by. my side. His blood was spilled upon my garments. He died in my arms. I raised my rifle and emptied two of their saddles. For this act a price was put upon my head, and I was hunted like a wolf.’ As Cook spoke these words he"turned his face from his brother-in-law and looked right at James M. Mason, as if he instinctively guessed that man to be in sympathy with those border ruffians. Mason was a proud man, but as he heard these words his mind seemed to be disturbed, and the young fellow looked him through. “Gov. Willard then spoke up and said: ‘John, if that was the case it will account for your being in Kansas, but what are you doing here in this peaceful community among a band of assassins?’ Cook, who had been aroused before, as if resenting the reflections upon his companions and their motives, hesitated a moment and said: ‘Yes, I am here.’ He gave that dreamy * look out of the window again, and then returning the gaze of his brother-in-law, though in a more softened way, he said: ‘Ashbel, when I was in Kansas I learned to hate slavery. I felt that it was not right to keep men enslaved, and I did for these men what I wou d expect them to do for me if I was in their place. I came to set them free if I could. Gov. Willard remarked that" it had been a poor business, or something to that effect Cook said: ‘Well, lam disappointed in the slave. I put arms in his hands, and he would

not fight. I thought he wduld fight for his freedom. He has not done so, but I cannot feel that I tried to do wrong when I came to help him.’ ‘John,’ said Gov. Willard, ‘your sister is my wife. And I have made np my mind to stand by you. You are in peril of your life. I shall not desert you.’ ‘Ashbel,’ replied Cook, ‘my life has been in peril for two years, day and flight. I have been in peril all the time. This is” nothing new to me.’ ‘But, John,’ said Gov. Willard, ‘you have never’ been in such peril as you are in now. Every probability of a criminal death is before you. What will your old father and mother think when they come to see you?’ Cook now showed emotion, and something of a shudder went through him. For a moment he broke down.” Said I: “How was he dressed, Mr. Voorhees?”

“He wore a corduroy suit of drab color. His hair was rather wild and uncoinbed. He had been brought across the country from Pennsylvania and had been but a few hours in the jail when he got there. He looked like a boy. Indeed he was only 23 years old. Yet underneath that gentleness was a rather serious nature. I should think he wee five feet nine inches high. He was litfnt and wiry. His countenance was generally mild, but would be highly expressive. His voice was soft and low as a woman’s. As I looked at him with my anti-abolition feelings, a conviction of the tremendous significance of this sentimental,crusading hostility to slavery depressed me. It had entered into the house of my friend, and here it was no longer in distant Kansas, but right among us, Democrats’ as we were. We left Cook at the first interview with our minds still disturbed, and sought our quarters’ From that time onward I saw him daily.” I inquired pf Mr. Voorhees about the secial connections of Cook and of Governor Willard. “Cook,” said Mr. Voorhees, “was the enly son of very respectable, upright parents in Connecticut. He had four sisters, one of whom married a Mr. Crowley, a prosperous merchant in New York; another married Mr, Stanton, of New York, also a man of consideration; a third married Governor Willard; the fourth sister, Katie, was unmarried, and, I think, never was married. John Cook, studied law at Williamsburgh, New York, with Mr. Stearns. Mr. Stearns’ daughter is the wife of Homer A. Nelson, former member of Congress and Secretary of State in New York. She remembers Cook well when he was in her father’s office in Williamsburgh and how much children took to him. He had a very pleasant way with young children. He did not complete his studies, I think, but went to Kansas when he was about 20. Governor Willard was born in Utica, New York, of old Massachusetts stock, and it is said that his great-great uncle was executed at Salem, Massachusetts, for hostility to the authorities there who were hanging witches. The Cook girls were bright and vivacious, and had fine characters. Governor Willard’s wife had been a schoolteacher in southern Indiana when he came there to settle: They were very fond of each other Willard had , the consumption. Governor Willard died while Governor, and his widow survived him but a little while. Their son is the leader of the Indiana Legislature, is a Democrat, and has twice supported me for Senator. They had a daughter, who is married to a gentleman at Liverpool, England.” Said I: “Did Captain Cook; of Harper’s Ferry, leave posterity ?” “Yes; he had a child which was only about 4 months old when he was executed. That child lives at Bloomington, Hlinois, and is now a fine boy or young man. The mother, -a bom Cook married at Harper’s Ferry, and whom he dearly is a respectable lady, and has long been married to her second husband.”’ Said I: “Mr. Voorhees, you were saying that Captain Cook had not been responsible line of argument ‘leaving him out of the usual motives or status of Brown’s men?”

“Why," said the Senator, “we who had come there to save pook’s life had no other purpose than that. All that we were looking to was his sister and parents. To that single end I bent my whole argument. I was a Democrat, and an anti-Abolition Democrat. John Brown and his raid were at the moment the subject of universal execration. I made up my mind if possible to save Cook’s life by putting him in the position of a young man under the magnetism of Brown. So I denounced the Abolitionists as not only responsible for this raid, but for misleading this young man. I used every point within my reach to that end. There was not the least chance any other way to get him off, and not much in that perhaps. But I took the desperate chance. Now,” said Mr. Voorhees, “it is a singular fact that Cook neither before nor during nor after my defense ever alluded to it When I was making my speech, with Governor Willard sitting near me and Cook not far off, and while I was denouncing the who would so pervert tins fair-haired wanderer, I saw Cook's face at one time looking at me with a most extraordinary expression of countenance. It was that of astonishment, as if he was surprised that I should take that way of defending him. I have no doubt myself but that old John Brown inferred from my speech that Cook had deserted his" cause. The anti-slavery papers may have fallen into that inference. But there is nothing whatever to sustain it in real fact. Cook never repudiated his companions. He always spoke of John Brown to me in terms of the highest admiration. He spoke of his associates with equal respect. He simply allowed his brother-in-law for the sake of his sisters to use what legal line he choose, but he never made a suggestion nor did anything to alter my firm conviction that he was a sincere fanatac in that extraordinary performance.” Mr. Voorhees remarked: “Since time has elapsed, and I am speaking of things in their actualities, let me say this: There never was, probably, in this world such a remarkable band of men as thSl of John Brown. Think of it I All of the band were mere youths, almost boys, except Brown himself, an t he was perhaps 60 years of age. They fought with him in the most unflinch-

ing way, lost their lives with a courage unsurpassed, and those who remained to be executed were cool, consistent and firm in the end. None of then went to the gallows with more braver; than John Cook. In some respects he surpasses all the rest in force pf char acter. I heard him order his own colfin. After he was sentenced to death instead of giving way to despair, he sat down and wrote that most wonderful letter to his wife and mother, telling them to bring up his boy to understand in what cause he had died. John JJrown probably thought from the nature ol my defense that Cook was not firm, but that was an error. When Cook went to the scaffold with young Coppick, his cell-mate, and the death cap had been pulled over their faces, he said: ‘Ned, where is-your hand? Let me take your hand.’ They grasped each other’s pinioned bands, and died in perfect composure.” As another instance of Cook’s coolness, Mr. Voorhees said that he was a superb handler ofarms, and that Leyris Washington had remarked to him (Voorhees) that Cook could take a revolver in, each hand, and alternately lifting his hands could drive a bujlet through a spot as big as one’s eye. I was led to inquire about Gov. Wise’s refusal to pardon Cook. Mr. V oorhees said: I can not talk to ypu about that matter, "'i felt indignant toward Wise on account of my friend Gov. Willard, but I shall not speak on that subject except to tell you that I went to Richmond with Willard when he asked Wise to pardon his brother-in-law. Wise could not brave the public opinion. Willard went into another room with him, and when he came out I heard him say: ‘Gov. Wise, all 1 shall ask of you now is to let me have the body of my wife’s brother.’ Wise sat down and wrote the order. As we walked down the hill, Willard being ahead of me, I stepped to his side and ho said: Tam Governor of Indiana and Mr. Wise is Governor of Virginia. If his wifos brother were condemned to death in Indiana, and the public opinion of that State were howling at my doors, he should not have one minute to wait for his pardon.’ It was a bitter hour,” said Mr. Voorhees, “and as both parties are dead I will not say more about it.” Said I: “Senator, did you see anything of John Brown and the other men ?”

“Yes; they were trying John Brown when I reached Harper’s Ferry. He looked to me like a substantial old farmer. There wts nothing'Vicious or very particular abdnt his face except his firmness. He had some intellectual ability, too, and would conduct parts of the cross-examination or concede statements by witnesses before they were made. When he got tired he would say to the court that he could not stand it any more that day, and the court was generally adjourned for him. He was a remarkable instance of how a popular impression of a wrong will lift a man out of his ordinary level when he rises against the wrong. Any ideal cause which a man espouses and gives his life and courage to will him intellectually and even morally. Brown put into action what other people were talking about, and so he rose to be the perfect hero to those young men. Young Coppick, who was hanged with Cook, was a bright, plain, candid young fellow. Stevens, another of Brown’s men, seemed to us Democrats who went there, to be somewhat more of the ruffian than Cook or Coppick.” “Did the Willard family feel that their brother’s death was a disgrace ?” “No. Gov. Willard did not live long, but there was a hardening in his mind on the slavery question. Cook’s sisters became anti-slavery in their feelings. I think they set their faces against that condition of things which brought that boy to hiS end. But there we are,” said Voorhees, “like the first little vessel caught on the lee-shore, with the great ocean of the war coming on behind us.”— “Gath” in Cincinnati Enquirer.