|
Brown
was defended by able counsel from Virginia and other States, including
the Hon. Dan W. Voorhees, of Indiana. He was convicted and condemned;
his trial lasted nearly a month; and Brown himself, admitted that it was
fair and impartial.
He
was condemned to be executed on Dec. 2nd, 1859. His. counsel asked the
Court of Appeals for a stay of execution, but this was refused.
After Brown was convicted and waiting his
execution, Madam ! Rumor had it that Northern sympathizers would make an
effort to release him, but Gov. Wise had about 1,000 State troops in and
about Charleston, and among these were cadets from the Virginia Military
Institute under command' of Col. F. M. Smith; Maj. T. J. (Stonewall)
Jackson was present in command of the cadet artillery .
After
the execution on Dec.2nd, Jackson wrote to his wife and said, that his
command was in front of the cadets, all facing South. He also said,
"I put a portion of the artillery under Mr. Trueheart, on the left,
and I remained with the other on the right, and other troops were in
different positions about the scaffold."
"It
was a solemn scene, to think that a man in the vigor of health must m a
few moments enter eternity. "
"I
sent up a petition that he might be saved. I hope he was prepared to
die; but I am doubtful."
On
the day of Brown's execution, bells were tolled and guns were fired in
many places in the North, and public meetings were held for the purpose
of glorifying his bloody deeds, and midnight assassin assaults,
recognizing him as a martyr to their works and teachings. His name
became a slogan to the men who afterwards overran the South.
It
is interesting to note the men who were more or less connected with the
investigation, capture and execution of JohnBrown and his comrades, and
who figured greatly in our civil war as Confederate generals. They were
S. Cooper, R. E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, J. E. B. Stewart, John B. Floyd
and Henry A. Wise, also Colonels J. C. Faulkner and A. R. Boteler. In :
a committee appointed by the U.S. Senate to inquire into the facts
concerning the invasion, were Jefferson Davis and J. M. Mason, and they
had before them as witnesses Hon. W. H. Seward, J. R. Geddings, Henry
Wilson and Andrew Hunter. John A. Andrews, Governor of Massachusetts
secured the funds to pay Brown ' s counsel.
About
this time appeared one of the most remarkable and dastardly publications
that was ever written, in its hatred and malignity towards the Southern
people. This was II Uncle Tom's Cabin," written by Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe. She was a sister of Henry Ward Beecher, the man of God,
who, when the Kansas trouble was going on, got up in his church in
Brooklyn and subscribed twenty-five Sharpe's rifles to murder the border
ruffians, as he called the Southern sympathizers in Kansas, and said,
"that he would raise the money to pay for them in his church the
next Sunday", which he did.
What
an unholy aspect it was to behold a pretended follower of the meek and
lowly Jesus, whose teachings have always been "peace on earth, good
will towards men," aiding, abetting and advising the shedding of
blood, murder, arson and lawlessness, instead of praying to God, the
ruler of the affairs of men, to pour oil on the troubled waters. |
