Reviews, Notes and Comments 217
A LATE ESTIMATE OF JOHN BROWN
The time will never come, perhaps, when
there will
not be conflicting opinions in regard
to John Brown
and his mission. It is remarkable,
however, how well,
without any special advocate, his
character stands the
test of time. In spite of the critical
portions of the
biography written by Oswald Garrison
Villard and the
severe attack, occupying an entire
volume, by Hill
Peebles Wilson, written for a
consideration said to have
been $5,000, the fame of the old
anti-slavery warrior
survives. In a carefully written survey
of his life by
Gamaliel Bradford, in his recent volume
entitled
Damaged Souls, after considering all the evidence to
date, the author concludes with this
interesting estimate:
Something magnetic in his obsession
touched men of the
most diverse temperaments and powers,
roused them to think
and feel and work as he did.
Take his immediate followers, take that
group of boys, or
little more than boys, who gathered
about him with unquestioning
loyalty in the last desperate venture.
They were not especially
religious. Even Brown's own sons did
not adopt his orthodox
interpretation of the Bible. But every
man of the company had
imbibed the spirit of sacrifice, every
man was ready to give his
life for the cause their leader had
preached to them, every man
believed that what he said should be
done must be done. "They
perfectly worshiped the ground the old
fellow trod on," said a
Southern observer who had no sympathy
with them except in the
admiration of splendid courage.
Nor was it only over those who came
under his immediate
command that Brown exercised the
magnetism of inspiration and
stimulus. After his capture and during
his imprisonment he
was surrounded by bitter enemies. But
they grew to respect
him and some apparently to have a
personal regard for him.
Even when they condemned his cause,
they esteemed his spirit
of sacrifice and his superb singleness
of purpose. In the years
before the crisis came he met some of
the keenest and most
intelligent men in the United States
and they saw and felt in
him a man of power, a man of will, a man of ideals
above and