The Chronicle LEVIN. FRIDAY JANUARY. 28. 1916. "JOHN BROWN'S BODY"

Horowhenua Chronicle, 28 January 1916, Page 2

The Chronicle LEVIN. FRIDAY JANUARY. 28. 1916. "JOHN BROWN'S BODY"

When the i!ev J. ,j. IS'Ol til. of (Jliristchurcn, uti cr e d his luijiistilied eulogy dI "Joli 11 Brown/' .Auiimn's tinsel patriot, Tiie Chronicle took him to task i'or his improper eulogy oi a virtual murderer. At least one Levin citizen took exception to our statement til the ca.se as against the American zealot, aiicT especially to that part oi our charge that tei mod liim a murderer. Vet the lact remains actual, and the failure of the Rev. J. J. .North to attempt to justify his "bright exemplar" must be taken as an admission ol' the force of our contention, seeing that his eulogy of the war was so undisguised when it re 1 erred to his ••glorious example." i'rom an exchange we reprodiico an account ol the matter that will threw light on the Lccurrcnee. The account rims as 1 oliow.s Though one has heard much of "John Brown',s Body" m connection with the tnigedy ol Miss Cave]], the parallel consists only in the in.l ration afforded by the two examp'u . John Brown was a fanatical opponent of sh'very who, m 1809, established an armed vamp at llarper s Kerry with the intention of assisting fugitive negroes to escape to Canada. With eighteen men he marched upon and captured an nndclended arsenal, for which offence--an act ol war against the United States Government—he and his surviving companions were convicted and hanged. It was an illcoiisideicd enterprise (tor it tinned out that the negroes were not a.t all anxious to cscape), but as tin embodiment of the .Northern liatied ol slavery,- his name became a watchword m the ensuing conflict. It was not until over eighteen months later that the famous song made its appeaitilice. There IS a good deal of uncertainty .about its history, but it is now generally believed to have been lirst sung on July 18, 1801, by the 12th Massachusetts l{eginicut in marching through the streets of Boston on their way to the. Souta. Both words and tune had just been im Both words and tune had just baen improvised (as our men at the Front are improvising words and tunes to-day) by four men of the regiment. The foregoing oi the tacts leaves merely lo inference what really are incontrovertible renJi (-lea: namely, the nets of lirown and Jiis men ill dragging defenceless people from their beds anil shouting them in cold blood. It is the readiness of some the present German combatants to behave in this manner, and the regrettable disposition of some people in high oHice amongst um to condone reprisals ol like nature, that forms one ol the sorriest pictures in the development of a small section of firebrands amongst us. vVhen public men in Xew Zealand do thus—and there are newspaper men a.s well as emotional preachers who do so -the result is a fostering ol unhealtiiy emotionalism that must prove detrimental to the hotly politic, und therefore it becomes the duty of every citizen who keeps an even judgment to say fearlesly what he feels in respct ol such issues. To do so may earn a temporary obloquy in quarters that are unreasonable; but a populua'rity that depends upon readiness to subvert tnie principles of right is unworthy of aceptance.