Echoes of Harper's Ferry

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1860 edition. Excerpt: ... I. Letters From Northern Men. JOHN BROWN, when in prison at Charlestown, Virginia, received a large number of letters of sympathy from different parts of the Northern States. None of them designed for publication, and written, mostly, from the heart, they indicate more clearly the sentiment of the people than any other utterances that the old man's glorious act called forth. Many of his corrcspendents asked for his autograph or begged for a lock of his hair; but the greater part of such notes and such requests I suppress. Other letters, by persons who would be known, even if their initials only were published, I find it, also, expedient to omit. Dividing them into their natural order, as, Letters from Northern Men, from John Brown's Relatives, and from Northern Women, I need make no apology, I feel, for occupying so much of my volume with these interesting evidences of a Christian Republicanism in America. Without other preface, then, than to request you to note how superior, in every respect, are the letters of the women, and quietly to suggest the question, whether, upon the whole, the possession of political rights by them would very greatly hasten the approach of Chaos, I submit these records of John Brown's recognition as a just man and a Christian hero to the heads and the hearts of the American Nation. FROM JOHN BROWN'S OLD SCHOOLMASTER. Litchfifi.h, Connecticut, Nov. 8. To John Brown, now in bonds. My Dear Friend: In the hope that you are permitted to receive letters from those who have known and esteemed you in other years, I desire to send you a few lines to assure you that I hold your name in pleasant remembrance among the associations of early life. I know you have not forgotten the winter of 1816-17, when yourself and your...