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Show "IT was much- n very notable interposition of Providence in John Brown's behalf- that he was led out from the influence of the church as fur as the upholding of Slavery was concerned; thnt he was plucked, as a brand from the uurning, out of this department of her snnres. But her mischievous doctrine that the true God is the 1 God of battles'- that the universal Father is the 1 Lord of hosts,' author~ izing some of his children to hang, behead, stab, and shoot othersthis detestable doctrine the chm·ch hn.d instilled into him so effectually that he never escaped from it. And he probably never took pains even to look at the question of non-resistance as an open qu0stion; n doctrine that might, perhaps, be true; a principle which might, as its advocates declared, lie at the very root of Christianity. Nothing, then, could be more unjust than to judge him by the same standard as if he had recognized this principle. "'rVe cannot have grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles. But we can, we must say, that, so far as his light extended, John Brown nobly, gloriously, did his duty to the slave." I. JoHN G. WHITTIER AND WM. L LoYD G ARRISON. 1/{J IIENEVER an heroic act is done in Freedom's cause l' f or name, every one naturally turns to John G. \Vhitticr for a song fit to celebrate and con. cerate it. 1\Inny eyes wcro directed to him when John Brown fell; and many eyes were filled with tears when the poet poke. For the noble vctcnm singer sadly di appointed them; nnd murmurs of inju tice filled the homes of the old warrior'~ friend~. 1 have been spared the labor anu pain of cri tici ing \Vhi tticr in this instance, by one who c devotion to Freedom and oppo ition to war no man doubts- 'Villiam Lloyd Garrison; who e comments, (as they appeared in the '' Liberator,") I append to the verses of the anti- lavery poet: BROWN OF' OSAWATOMIE. J onN BROWN of Osawatomie Spake on his dying day : "I will not have, to shrive my soul, A priest in Slavery's pay; But, let some poor slave-mother, 'Yhom I have striven to free, With her children, from the gallows-stair, Put up n prayer for me ! " John Brown of O!:!awntomie, They led him out to die; And, lo ! -a poor Rlave mother 'Vith her little child pressed nigh. (~03) |
