I trust that you will pardon me for being here. I do not wish to force mythoughts upon you, but I feel forced myself. Little as I know of Captain Brown,I would fain do my part to correct the tone and the statements of thenewspapers, and of my countrymen generally, respecting his character andactions. It costs us nothing to be just. We can at least express our sympathywith, and admiration of, him and his companions, and that is what I now proposeto do.
First, as to his history. I will endeavor to omit, as much as possible, whatyou have already read. I need not describe his person to you, for probably mostof you have seen and will not soon forget him. I am told that his grandfather,John Brown, was an officer in the Revolution; that he himself was born inConnecticut about the beginning of this century, but early went with his fatherto Ohio. I heard him say that his father was a contractor who furnished beef tothe army there, in the war of 1812; that he accompanied him to the camp, andassisted him in that employment, seeing a good deal of military life, more,perhaps, than if he had been a soldier, for he was often present at thecouncils of the officers. Especially, he learned by experience how armies aresupplied and maintained in the field—a work which, he observed, requiresat least as much experience and skill as to lead them in battle. He said thatfew persons had any conception of the cost, even the pecuniary cost, of firinga single bullet in war. He saw enough, at any rate, to disgust him with amilitary life, indeed to excite in him a great abhorrence of it; so much so,that though he was tempted by the offer of some petty office in the army, whenhe was about eighteen, he not only declined that, but he also refused to trainwhen warned, and was fined for it. He then resolved that he would never haveanything to do with any war, unless it were a war for liberty.
When the troubles in Kansas began, he sent several of his sons thither tostrengthen the party of the Free State men, fitting them out with such weaponsas he had; telling them that if the troubles should increase, and there shouldbe need of him, he would follow, to assist them with his hand and counsel.This, as you all know, he soon after did; and it was through his agency, farmore than any other’s, that Kansas was made free.
For a part of his life he was a surveyor, and at one time he was engaged inwool-growing, and he went to Europe as an agent about that business. There, aseverywhere, he had his eyes about him, and made many original observations. Hesaid, for instance, that he saw why the soil of England was so rich, and thatof Germany (I think it was) so poor, and he thought of writing to some of thecrowned heads about it. It was because in England the peasantry live on thesoil which they cultivate, but in Germany they are gathered into villages, atnight. It is a pity that he did not make a book of his observations.
I should say that he was an old-fashioned man in respect for the Constitution,and his faith in the permanence of this Union. Slavery he deemed to be whollyopposed to these, and he was its determined foe.
He was by descent and birth a New England farmer, a man of great common sense,deliberate and practical as that class is, and tenfold more so. He was like thebest of those who stood at Concord Bridge once, on Lexington Common, and onBunker Hill, only he was firmer and higher principled than any that I havechanced to hear of as there. It was no abolition lecturer that converted him.Ethan Allen and Stark, with whom he may in some respects be compar