TRIAL OF CAPTAIN BROWN.

Marlborough Press, Volume I, Issue 9, 2 March 1860, Page 4

TRIAL OF CAPTAIN BROWN.

“ Old Brown,” as he is commonly called, was put upon his trial at Charlestown, on the 27th October, for instigating the insurrection at Harper’s Ferry, the court having refused, after hearing testimony to his physical condition, and appeals of counsel on his behalf, to postpone the case. He was brought into court on a bed, with four severe wounds in various parts of his body, and arraigned while unable to sit up without assistance. The trial closed on the 31st, Brown being found guilty of treason and murder, and sentenced to death. Many prominent men, however, have not hesitated to express their sympathy with the captain. Mr. W. L. Garnson, writing in the Boston Liberator , says:— “As to the plot itself, it is evident that few or none were privy to it, except the little band directly engaged in it; for though Captain Brown had many to sympathise with him in different parts of the country, in view of hi 3 terrible bereavements, perils, and sufferings in Kansas, in defence of the freedom of that territory against border ruffian invasion, and were disposed to contribute not only to relieve his necessities, but also to facilitate the escape of slaves through his instrumentality to Canada; still, an enterprise so wild and futile as this could not have received any countenance in that direction. As to Captain Brown, all who know him personally are united in the conviction that a more honest, conscientious, truthful, brave, disinterested man (however misguided) does not exist; that he possesses a deeply religious nature, powerfully wrought upon by the trials through which he passed; and he sincerely believes himself to have been raised up by God to deliver the oppressed in this country in the way he had chosen ; that when he affirms that he had no other motive for his conduct at Harper’s Ferry, except to break the chains of the oppressed, by the shedding of the least possible amount of human blood, he speaks the truth; and that if he shall be put to death he will not die ignobly, but as a martyr to his sympathy for a suffering race, and in defence of the sacred and inalienable rights of man, and will, therefore deserve to be held in grateful and honourable remembrance. It will be a terrible losing day for all slavedom when John Brown and his associates are brought to the gallows. It will be sowing seed broadcast for a harvest of retribution.”

The Rev. Mr. Beecher says of him: —“Now; as he is in the depressing, the most trying circumstances, no one can fail to discover in this same old man a manly, straightforward, independent soul, which rises high above all those among whom he is at present, however insane he may be. I shrink from the folly of the bloody fray in which he was engaged; I shrink further from the bloody fray that will follow it; but while I do, I feel that by and by, when people will read the record of the whole tragic scene, they will wonder at and admire the bearing of the old man, who, through all his misfortunes, woes, and suffering, maintained a dignity and independence, and a sentiment which only shines in full brilliancy when contrasted with the conduct of his accusers, who possess their reason.” John Brown’s execution took place at Charlestown on the 2nd December. The accounts say that Brown went to the gal-

lews with the courage of a martyr and died like a Christian. Before leaving the gaol, he charged Cook with having deceived him in relation to the support he was to receive from the slaves. —Illustrated Times.