Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/363

. Trial of John Brown. 357

Trial of John Brown.

ITS IMPARTIALITY AND DECORUM VINDICATED.

The death of Hon. Andrew Hunter, which recently occurred at his residence at Charlestown, in Jefferson county, West Virginia, has revived interest in the trial of John Brown and his associates, in which Mr. Hunter bore so conspicuous and distinguished a part.

A well-known German writer, Dr. Herman Von Hoist, Privy Coun- cilor and Professor in the University of Freiburg,* has announced that Brown's trial was not a fair and impartial one. Dr. Von Hoist has written several valuable and able works on the institutions of this country, and has usually been careful and, for a foreigner, singularly accurate in his statements. In the judgment instanced, he has erred I assume not wilfully, but in ignorance of the facts. In proof of this, I give the following account of the celebrated trial from notes taken at the time.f The crime for which Brown was tried, convicted, and executed may be briefly summarized passing over the troubles in Kansas and on the Missouri borders (in which Brown played no inconsiderable or law-abiding part) growing out of the agitation of the slavery question.

In August, 1859, he began his operations to take possession of Harper's Ferry, in Virginia, with the avowed purpose of freeing the slaves. There was an arsenal there, and a large number of guns stored in it. His confederates have been stated as being in number twenty-two besides himself; of these, six were colored men.|


 * The Constitution and Democracy of the United States. Von Hoist.

t The Life, Trial, and Conviction of Captain John Brown, known as " Old Brown of Ossawatomi," with a full account of the Attempted Insurrection at Harper's Ferry. Compiled from Official and Authentic Sources. New York : R. M. Dewitt. See also a Report of Colonel R. E. Lee to the War Department, of date October 19, 1859^^. Com. No. 278, XXXVI Con- gress, First Session which document gives also the " Provisional Constitu- tion and Ordinance for the.People of the United States," devised by Brown.

t The venerable Judge Richard Parker, who presided at the trial, writes, of date February 19, 1889, as to this computation : "There is at least doubt, as on the trial a witness proved he had counted the party as they crossed the bridge at the Ferry, and they were from seventy-five to one hundred in number, and another witness stated that he saw at least one hundred of them in the town also Brown stated that he expected large reinforcements."