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Show Whittier and Garrifon. A CORUECTION :* Tio sTo:::-;, Jan. 13, 18GO. '\Y:-.r. I,I.OYD GARIUSO~. D ear t:;ir : In your eritici. m of ~1r. ·whittier's poem on J ohn Brown, you h ave made one error, whieh, I notice, is shaxed by many of the old warrior's friends. You say,- "He pcrillcd ull that wns dear to him. not to nchicYO liberty for him!'clf, or th o~o of llis own compll'xion . lJUi to Lrc:1l\ tll · f~;:lt t'r~ of n. rnro 'n()t color ed lilw his own,' most witl; edly nltiHH'l'l'U, uuh·cnmlly pro~criucd. ILIHI Rnbjcclcd to a b onungo full of unutl~mlll•• wot' and h orror. But. t'\'Cil in their behalf, !Jo sou ght no rcn:ugo, but only (if pos~illle) a pea· I exodus from \ ' ir..:iuia." John Brown did not intend to make any exodus from Virginia, peaceful or otherwise, but to liberate the slaves in their native Rtntc, and to support them there. The idea that he intended to make nn exodus, comes from his reference to his exploit in Missouri, whit h " ·a given as an explanation of the fact that slaves might be liberated without bloocbhc.cl; not as an indication of the mode by 'vhich he intended to operate in Virginia. IIa vc you not seen his letter of explanation to Mr. Hunter ? By reading it, you will sec that there was no r eal contradiction in his statements. Now comes the que tion, How did he ihtcnd to support himself in Virginia without insurrection? :Mr. Emer,on never ~aid a truer word than when he described J ohn Brown a - a pure Idealist. It " ·oulcl have been ns easy to drive a shadow into the centre of n bloc:k of granite as to force a pro-slavery falsehood into hif> brain or heart. Truly r eg-arded, is it not a conc:cssion to the Southern creed, to call a rising of the Rlavcs an in;-;nrreetion ? The whites of the South arc now in insurrection. .. outhcrn society for two centuries ha b een an insurrection. John Bro\\'n, therf'forc, went down to Yirginia not to incite, but to extinguish, insurrection. He went down to Virginia as an Abolitionist and Compensntionist- to free the slaves, and pay them for their past unrequited services. If any man had presumed to oppose this righteous action, John Brown would have summarily r esisted him to the death. That was the r eason why he bought pikes, and Sharp(•'s ritlcs, and rev~lvers. lie did not design to go northward, but toward South Carolina anu Alabama. lie intended to put the Declaration of Independence through from Harper's Fcny to the Gulf of Mexico. * }"'rom lbe Liberator, Jan. 13, 1860. Whittier and Garrifon. 3 11 There was no intentional deception 1. J h n th C n ° n rown's 1 c ourt or elsewhere. lie n either intend 1 . . angungc to · · . ec , It 1s true t · · CXCtte lllSUlTCCtlOn even in the v·. · . . ' 0 lnCltC Or ll ' n gmw. sense of the wo ·d b wou c have been resisted by the t . . , . 1 . ) t unts whose w ; ut as he 1ck d . 1 u.n domyg , he would unquestion·lbly h . · e " or ( he was < ave st1rrcd up a te. ··bl twn. ct, to say that he would 1 b 111 . uwc ccn the cause of .t . e r rvolu-the cnmc of , lavery with the mantl f 1 . . ' 1 , 1s to cover r < c o egttl111acy. Yours truly ' JA~IES REDI'ATII. REPLY OF WlliT1'IER. l\i D • l-:.. .· . A;'IIESBURY, 15th, 1st mo., 1860. "B y eat ~ tiend GmTI on : In thy notice f . f' 0 · 0 my art1 ·le on rown o awatomic' " pub]I'. ·11 Cd 1. 'Ccntly .m the N y I Independent, thou ha. t, unintentionally I ew OJ' ( · · t' A c. ' am sure done me lnJU.S ICC. part from what thee o well I- ' f ., .. P ·o(i' . d "new o my lrfelon()" thI fe: ltO llSI an. princi pic ' I need o n I Y . ll . .., Ccl thy att ·ntwn to e ac ' t mt m almost every instance the ·t' 1 • f . thou hast t d ' aJ IC es rom w h tch fjO' . < q~o c . ~assage.s contain ing warlike allusion and foult c ' con tam (lJ tmct and emphatic declarations of the c Ire yI l peaceful character of the Ant'~-~ 1a· ve•i .y enterpn:.- ;c · a nl-cqua y emphatic denunciations of war and v· 1 . : ~( behalf: In th fii"t . c. • • . IO encc m 1ts I y . quotatwn, the qua1If)·In0' line 1 . I • t 1C Ol'iO'inaJ J o :; W IIC 1, Ill b c ' connect t IC two part:s of the ex~ ti·ca ct, a rc om1. ttc d : " To Freedom's perilled altar bear T The freeman's and the Chri<"- ti•'a n'.s WtrW l e-ongue, p en, and vote, and prayer ! , follIonw t. he ar. tic'.l fei from , ' ,1l l·C 1 1 tl1 Y second quotation is made the mg sign' lCant tanza is the key-note of the whole: ' "Up ~ow for freedom!- not in strife f,tke tllat your sterncrfatliers saw TIL; , awjalwaste of human life, ' 'l'IIC glory and tlze guilt of 1car. But brealc tlie cliClin, the yoke nwwve, ~I nd smite to earth Oppression's ?'Od lYtth those nu'ld arms of Truth and J,orr, ~Made rnigl,ty through tl1e living God." |