Page:The Natick resolution, or, resistance to slaveholders.djvu/22

20 by so doing to arouse the nation to its great sin and danger. You would have them think that "regret and condemnation" of Brown and his objects are universal at the North. Well may they, in their terror and agony, ask you, "What mean those mighty gatherings, and that tolling of bells all over the North on the day of his execution? What mean those speeches eulogistic of Brown and his doings, and so condemnatory of Wise, and Virginia, and their doings? What means the almost universal applause bestowed on the remark of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the most prominent literary man, lecturer and moral philosopher in the nation, that the execution of the hero and saint of Harper's Ferry, 'Will make the gallows as glorious as the cross'? Why was it that the seizure, trial aud execution of Brown, as a felon, swelled the Republican vote at the recent elections in the Northern States? Will you, in the face of ten thousand facts like these, still assure the quaking slaveholders that Republicans have no sympathy with Brown? Well may they retort upon you—"You take a queer way to show it."

Please show the doings of the Massachusetts Legislature on the day of the execution (Friday, December 2d) to the slaveholders, and tell them that is evidence of the truth of your remarks! What were they? In the Senate, soon as the session was opened, Mr. Luce, of the Island District, moved, "That, in view of the execution of John Brown in Virginia, the Senate do now adjourn." This motion was negatived—ayes, 8; nays, 11. At 12, noon, Mr. Luce again moved, "That, as it was probably about this time that John Brown was being executed in Virginia, as an expression of sympathy for him, the Senate do now adjourn." A debate ensued.

, of Suffolk, expressed admiration for Brown as a man; declaring that he had the greatest sympathy with him."

, of Hampden, said he yielded to no man in sympathy for Brown. He looked at the action of Virginia as unjust, and condemned the unseemly haste with which the trial and execution had been hurried forward."

, of Bristol, did not propose to condemn the acts of Brown, as he wished them to be judged by posterity;