should be made, other States may do as Massachusetts did in Mum Bet’s time. If every citizen
had leave to do what he would with his own, — to
pay his negroes wages, instead of giving them
food, clothing, and habitation, he woidd at once
save money, find his fortunes rising, and hope
again to keep the first place in the cotton-markets
of the world. Since it was proved by Govern-
ment returns, that the value of the entire produce
of the slave States, — cotton, tobacco, sugar, and
everything else that is grown, — is less than the
hay-crop alone of the free States, the planters
have been as anxious as so small a minority of
the nation might well be. If free-labour were
made at once more accessible to them by the fall
of the restrictive laws under which they live, the
course would be open to them once more, and
they would themselves free their labourers as fast
as the friends of free government could wish.
But this is their own affair. The national share
in the institution is that which concerns both
sections of the Union.
How stands the greyheaded old man who has precipitated this question?
Old Brown thought only of freeing as many negroes as he could reach: and he attempted it in a wild sort of way, from which anybody whom he had consulted would have augured nothing but failure and destruction. Destruction to his own life will apparently be the result. He is sentenced to death; and will probably become a martyr, idolised by all negroes. But a failure his scheme is not. This is partly owing to his having applied an unexpected test to the security of a slave-holding society, under the circumstances of the time: and more perhaps to the influence of his personal bearing on all witnesses.
At first, he was with difficulty preserved from death at the hands of the citizens, though he lay on the ground wounded. By degrees, one citizen after another became interested in what he said, and inquisitive about what he thought. In a few hours, the great work was done; — he had opened a new world to a whole community. The Governor, Honourable Senators, chief citizens of every class, approached the old yeoman with deference, with gentleness, with overwhelming interest. They ceased to reproach him, and perhaps to pity him; and people out of doors began to think them bewitched. All this was because of the great discovery he had been the occasion of their making.
What was this discovery?
It was that a robust-minded yeoman, a God-fearing man, reared in the primitive course of Bible-study, who was pure from worldly aims, actually believed the personal freedom of men of any race a cause worth living and dying for. Under the coerced press, and the restricted preaching and literature of the slave States, such a notion had never found entrance to the understandings of the citizens, who had fancied all abolitionists to be thieves and cowards. Old Brown’s devotedness to his cause, and his indifference to his own fate, at once fascinated every generous-minded man who came near him. His new admirers would have deferred his trial till he could obtain counsel of his own choice, and till he had somewhat recovered from his wounds: — wounds in the head, which at times impaired his memory: but the frightened community would hear of no delay; and Old Brown was carried on his bed into court.
My readers have probably seen some account of his trial; and have registered in their minds his short speech on receiving his sentence of death. The voice and manner of that speech will no more be forgotten on the spot than the matter and the words.
Before what I write is read in print, his fate for life or death will be known. Nothing short of the enthusiasm of his enemies could afford hope of his life (if indeed we may speak of hope when a childless man, so wretched and bereaved, may be abundantly willing to die): but there is obviously an expectation that the few will try their influence to save him against the rage and terror of the many. It will take a longer time to ascertain what he has really done for the cause to which he devoted himself in so desperate a way. The apprehension that he had done mischief, and set back the date of peace and safety, vanished at once. He has done no harm to the negroes. Probably he has rendered the best service possible to the masters, by bringing them to some understanding with their fellow-citizens of the other section. Time will show the rest.
Thus did Mum Bet introduce the remarkable series of periods which were to effect the emancipation of the negroes of North America; — and thus has Old Brown opened what we call the beginning of the end. Whatever the future fortunes of the Great Republic may be, the space begun and ended by these two original personages will be considered the true crisis of the moral fortunes of the community.I. S.
[While the above is going to press, the American Mail, which has just arrived, informs us, that the excitement in Virginia, arising out of the Harper’s Ferry affair, seems only abated for the instant, to revive with augmented energy. On the 17th ult. the most alarming accounts were forwarded from Charlestown to Richmond, to the effect that a movement for the liberation of Brown was hourly anticipated, and that various bams and sheds had been fired by confederates of the incarcerated martyr. This exciting news produced the effect that was to be anticipated. Large bodies of troops were at once placed under arms at Richmond and at Alexandria, with orders to move next morning upon the scene of contemplated hostilities. The panic throughout the State suddenly attained the wildest stage. Indiscriminate arrests were made; the eye of partial justice fixing itself more especially upon the pedlars, who are to be found in every village and upon every road. Several of these were imprisoned; and the pursuit of them appeared to be universal. These incidents are a further disclosure of the importance ascribed to Brown and his attempt by politicians in the United States. While Englishmen, for the most part, look upon it as a desperate and chimerical venture, in the States its
political consequences are more fearfully apprehended. Ed. O. A. W.]