Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/341

 340 Southern Historical Society Papers.

on trial for his conduct in what is familiarly known as the Harper's Ferry Raid ; that I was with him daily during this whole period; that the personal relations between him and me were of the most pleasant character ; that Sheriff James W. Campbell and I escorted him from his cell the morning of his execution, one on either side of him; that Sheriff Campbell and I rode with Captain Brown in a wagon from the jail door to the scaffold, one on either side ; that I heard every word that Captain Brown spoke from the time he left the jail till his death; that Sheriff Campbell (now deceased) and I were the only persons with him on the scaffold.

I have this day read, in the early part of Chapter VIII, of a book styled the " Manliness of Christ," by Thomas Hughes, Q. C. New York: American Book Exchange. Tribune Building. 1880 the following paragraph, to-wit:

" Now, I freely admit that there is no recorded end of a life that I know of more entirely brave and manly than this one of Captain John Brown, of which we know every minutest detail, as it happened in the full glare of our modern life not twenty years ago. About that, I think, there would scarcely be disagreement anywhere. The very men who allowed him to lie in his bloody clothes till the day of his execution, and then hanged him, recognized this. ' You are a game man, Captain Brown, the Southern sheriff said in the wagon. ' Yes,' he answered, 'I was so brought up. It was one of my mother's lessons. From infancy I have not suffered from physical fear. I have suffered a thousand times more from bashfulness;' and then he kissed a negro child in its mother's arms and walked cheerfully on to the scaffold, thankful that he was 'allowed to die for a cause, and not merely to pay the debt of nature as all must.' '

Respecting the statements contained in the above paragraph, quoted from the book above mentioned, I solemnly declare:

i. That Captain John Brown was not "allowed to lie in his bloody clothes till the day of his execution," but that he was furnished with a change of clothing as promptly as prisoners in such condition usually are; that he was allowed all the clothing he desired; and that his washing was done at his will, without cost to himself. As an officer, charged with his custody, I saw that he was at all times and by all persons treated kindly, properly and respectfully. I have no recol- lection that there ever was any attempt made to humiliate or maltreat him. Captain Brown took many occasions to thank me for my kind- ness to him, and spoke of it to many persons, including his wife. In further proof of the kindness he received at my hands, I will state that