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The Natick Resolution, or, Resistance to slaveholders the right and duty of southern slaves and northern freemen (XHTML)
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2006-06-05 17:14
A militant antislavery tract calling for violent overthrow of slavery, published by Henry Clarke Wright in Boston in 1859. Digitized by the Antislavery Literature Project.
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<p class="MsoBodyText">The Natick Resolution, or, Resistance to slaveholders the
right and duty of southern slaves and northern freemen</p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Henry Clarke
Wright</span></b><a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title="" id="_ftnref1"><span
class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style='color:black'><span
class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:black'>[1]</span></span></span></span></a></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>This is an annotated text of <i>The Natick Resolution</i>,
published by its author in Boston in 1859. Original spelling, punctuation and
page citations have been retained; minor typographic errors have been
corrected.</span></b></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>This electronic edition has been prepared for the
Antislavery Literature Project, Arizona State University, a public education
project working in cooperation with the EServer, Iowa State University. Digitization has been supported by a grant from the Institute for Humanities
Research, Arizona State University.</span></b></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Editorial annotation by
Joe Lockard. Digitization by April Brannon. All rights reserved by the Antislavery
Literature Project. Permission for non-commercial educational use is granted.</span></b><br clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
</p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>[page 1]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:black'>________________</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>LETTER TO
JOHN BROWN.</span></b></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>TWO LETTERS
TO GOVERNOR WISE.</span></b></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>LETTER TO
THE RICHMOND ENQUIRER.</span></b></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>LETTER TO
CAPT. AVIS.</span></b></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>LETTER TO
HENRY WILSON. </span></b></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center'><b><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>LETTER TO WM. LLOYD GARRISON.</span></b></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center'><b><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>__________________</span></b></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>[unnumbered page 2]</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>[page 3]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>THE NATICK RESOLUTION.</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>LETTER TO JOHN
BROWN.</span></p>
<p align="right" style='text-align:right;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'>Natick</span><span
style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'>, </span><span style='color:black'>Mass.</span><span
style='color:black'>, Nov. 21st, 1859. </span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'>Capt. John Brown</span><span
style='color:black'>:</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'> Dear and Honored Friend</span><span
style='color:black'>—(for the friend of the slave is my dear and honored
friend)—A very large, and enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of this town,
without regard to political or religious creeds, was held last evening, for
the purpose of considering and acting upon the following resolution:—</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> Whereas, Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God;
therefore, </span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:
none'><i><span style='color:black'>Resolved, </span></i><span style='color:
black'>That it is the right and duty of the slaves to resist their masters, and
the right and duty of the people of the North to incite them to resistance, and
to aid them in it.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> This resolution was adopted by the meeting without a
dissenting voice. Though a United States Senator (Henry Wilson) and a United
States Postmaster were present, yet not a voice was raised against it by them,
nor by any one else, nor against the sentiments it contains. The meeting
appointed me a committee to forward their resolution to you. In compliance with
their request, and with the promptings of my own heart, I forward it.</span></p>
<p><span style='color:black'> The resolution, as you will
see, simply affirms the right and duty of resistance, not merely to slavery as
a principle or an abstraction, but to slaveholders, the living embodiment of
slavery. The South embody slavery and resistance to</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p><span style='color:black'>[page 4]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center'><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>THE NATICK RESOLUTION</span></p>
<p><span style='color:black'>liberty in their whole life. We
would arouse the North to embody liberty and resistance to slavery in their
whole life. Wherever the people of the south live, whether in domestic, social,
ecclesiastical, political or commercial life, they embody <i>death to liberty</i>.
We would stir up the people of the North to embody <i>death to slavery</i> wherever they live. In whatever relations they live, we would incite them to
embody liberty as the South does slavery. <i>Death to slavery</i> should, and
will, ere long, be the watchword of every domestic and social circle, of every
political and religious party, and of every literary and commercial
establishment, in the North.</span></p>
<p><span style='color:black'> The blessings of the God of
the oppressed rest upon you! This is the prayer of thousands who have known you
for years, and entirely sympathize with you in one great object of your life — <i>i.
e.</i>, to arouse this nation to look the sin, the shame of slavery in the
face. We have felt the deepest interest in your plans and movements, as we have
known watched them the last four years; and we have wondered that those who
hold to armed resistance to tyrants have not more cheerfully and numerously
gathered around your standard of insurrection against slaveholders.</span></p>
<p><span style='color:black'> The government and God of
this nation daily and hourly proclaim to the people of the North, and to the
slaves of the South, their right and duty of armed resistance to slaveholders.
You hastened to obey that call to duty made by your country and your God.
Virginia herself called you to resist slaveholders, and to free the slaves, by
arms and blood, if need be. Why should Virginia hang you? You have only done
what she has exhorted you to do from the day of your birth. Why should the
North call you a "fanatic,</span><span style='color:black'>" a "maniac,"
a "ruffian," a "marauder," a "murderer," an "assassin"?
You have only done what the religion, the government and God of the nation, for
seventy years, proclaimed to be your right and your duty.</span></p>
<p><span style='color:black'> Twelve days hence, Virginia
will hang your body, but she will not hang John Brown. Better to die a traitor
to Virginia, than to live a traitor to yourself and your God. This nation of
twenty-five million will kill your body for treason against them; but had you
not done as you have, you would have died a living death for treason against
God, as he spoke<br clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
[page 5]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>LETTER TO JOHN
BROWN.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>to you in the depths of your own soul. Acting in obedience
to the dictates of your conscience and the behests of your God, you have
rendered yourself worthy the honor and glory of a gallows at the hands of
slaveholders, who live, not merely as pirates do, to plunder and kill, but for
a purpose far more cruel and inhuman — <i>i. e., </i>to turn human beings into
chattels.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> Who would not thus render himself deserving a gallows
at such hands? The highest honor Virginia or the Union can bestow on the
champion of liberty, and the living resistant of slavery, is a gallows. From
this day, let the friends of the slave march forth to battle with slavery,
whether the conflict be on the domestic, social, religious, political or
military arena, under the symbol of the gallows, with the martyr and champion
of liberty hanging on it.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> You must die, as to your corporeal existence. Your
visible, tangible presence will no more inspire and urge us onto the
conflict; but John Brown, the <span style='text-transform:uppercase'>man, </span>the
defender of liberty, the assailant of slavery, and the friend of the slave,
will live and be with us, to inspire us, to incite us, to spur us up and lead
us on to a still closer and more resolute and deadly assault upon slaveholding.
You die, conscious that by the gallows you have triumphed, and answered the one
great end of your life more effectually than you would have done had you run
off thousands of slaves. You triumph by the gallows, not by running off slaves.
The nation is aroused. It must now meet slavery face to face, and see it in its
deformity and its results. In every department of life, it must meet it and
fight it, till it dies, and liberty is "proclaimed throughout all the
land, to all the inhabitants thereof."</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> You dear friend, whose memory will ever be precious,
as that of the slaveholder will ever be detested, have kept your anti-slavery
faith; you have fought a good fight, and may say, "Henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of glory, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give
me in the day when the last slave shall be free. Now, Lord, lettest thou thy
servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Millions
will follow thee, weeping, to the gallows. In pitying accents I hear thee say
to them, "Friends of the slave! weep not for me, but weep for yourselves
and your country; for in this conflict with slavery, there, is not an</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>[page 6]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>THE NATICK
RESOLUTION.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>attribute of the Almighty that can take sides, with the oppressor."
Your execution is but the beginning of that death struggle with slaveholders,
which must end in striking the last fetter from the last slave. On the
scaffold, thou wilt hear thy God, and the slave’s God, saying unto thee,
"Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I have
chosen thee; thou art my servant; I will strengthen thee; I will help thee;
yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. All they that
were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as
nothing; they that strive with thee shall perish; the [anti-slavery] whirlwind
shall scatter them." My spirit is with thy spirit, in the dungeon and on
the scaffold.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> Thine, for the slave, and against the slaveholder,
unto death,</span></p>
<p align="right" style='text-align:right;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:black'>HENRY C. WRIGHT.</span></p>
<p style='background:
white;text-autospace:none'><span style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'>_____________</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'>The </span><span style='color:
black'>above letter to John Brown, with the resolution passed at Natick,
November 20th, 1859, was forwarded to Gov. Wise, of Virginia, accompanied with
the following note, requesting him to deliver it to Capt. Brown, then in
prison, awaiting his execution:—</span></p>
<p align="right" style='text-align:right;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'>Natick, </span><span style='color:black'>Mass., Nov. 21st, 1859.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'>Henry </span><span
style='color:black'>A. <span style='text-transform:uppercase'>Wise, </span>Governor
of Virginia:</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'> Sir,</span><span
style='color:black'>—Enclosed is a resolution adopted by the people of Natick,
Mass., the residence of the Hon. Henry Wilson. At their request, I forward it
to John Brown, with a letter to him. The resolution and letter may give peace
and satisfaction to him in his last hours. However repulsive the sentiments
may be to you, and to the people over whom you preside, they may sustain him on
the scaffold. The appeal is to your magnanimity and justice to put them into
his hands.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:
none'><span style='color:black'>You think he has done foolishly and wickedly.
We think his object has been noble, and his motives disinterested,</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>[page 7]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>LETTER TO CAPT.
AVIS.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>heroic and sublime. We ask not his life, but we do ask that
you would let him know that he lives, and ever will live, in the hearts of his
long-tried personal friends, and of the friends of freedom and the enemies of
slaveholding through out the North.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> Grant to us and to him this favor, and our sincere
thanks shall be yours, though our hearts must ever protest against the
injustice and political insanity that, for an effort so truly humane, grand and
heroic, shall consign his body to the gallows.</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:black'>Thine,</span></p>
<p align="right" style='text-align:right;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:black'>HENRY C. WRIGHT.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> _______________</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> A <span style='text-transform:uppercase'>copy </span>of
the letter to Brown, with the resolution passed at Natick, November 20th, 1859,
was also sent to Capt. Avis, keeper of the jail in which Brown was confined,
awaiting execution, with the following note: —</span></p>
<p align="right" style='text-align:right;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'>Natick, </span><span style='color:black'>Mass., Nov. 21st, 1859.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'>Captain </span><span
style='color:black'>Avis:</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> SIR — Pardon this intrusion by an utter stranger. God
bless you for your kindness to John Brown in these, his last hours!</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> If consistent with your feelings as a man, and your
duties as a jailor, you would oblige me by presenting the enclosed to him for
his perusal. It is a resolution adopted by the citizens of Natick, Mass., as
expressive of their views on a subject now assuming paramount importance
throughout the North. Though the sentiments of the resolution and of the
accompanying letter may be repugnant to you, it can do no harm to allow your
prisoner to read them, that he may stand on the scaffold knowing that he is
fully understood and appreciated by those who have known and sympathized with
his plans and movements the past few years, and that, through his death, he
will serve the cause he so much loves more effectually, it may be, than he
could have done by his life.</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>[page 8]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>THE NATICK
RESOLUTION.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> God bless the single-hearted, grand and kingly man! He
seems to us as one clothed with light and majesty as with a garment. Could he
but be spared, there are thousands who would cheerfully take his place, and
welcome the gallows in his stead. But he must die, as to corporeal existance,
and in his death will consist his greatest triumph.</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:black'>Thine,</span></p>
<p align="right" style='text-align:right;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:black'>HENRY C. WRIGHT.</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>_____________</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>LETTER TO THE
RICHMOND ENQUIRER.</span></p>
<p align="right" style='text-align:right;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'>Natick, </span><span style='color:black'>Mass., Nov. 21st, 1859.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>To <span style='text-transform:uppercase'>the Editor of the
Richmond Enquirer</span>: —</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'> Sir,—</span><span
style='color:black'>A large and enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of this
town (the residence of Hon. Henry Wilson) was held last evening, called to
consider the following resolution:—</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> "Whereas, Resistance to tyrants is obedience to
God; therefore,</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><i><span
style='color:black'> </span></i><span style='color:black'>"<i>Resolved, </i>That it is the right and duty of the slaves to resist their masters; and
it is the right and duty of the people of the North to incite slaves to
resistance, and to aid them in it."</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> This was adopted; and though a United States Senator
(Hon. Henry Wilson) and a United States Postmaster were present, not a
dissentient voice was raised against it.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> The resolution utters the thought of Massachusetts, of
New England, and of New York. I have reason to know it does.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><i><span
style='color:black'> Insurrection, </span></i><span style='color:black'>—
resistance on the part of the slaves and of the North against slaveholders, —
is the one idea of the people. That insurrection is the right and duty of
slaves, is the one controlling thought of the masses here. Though</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>[page 9]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>LETTER TO THE
RICHMOND ENQUIRER.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>our Senators and Representatives in Congress dare not avow
this as their opinion in Washington, at home, among their constituents, they
countenance and sustain it by direct advocacy, or by silence. The North has
reason to expect it of them, the coming session, that they will openly advocate
the doctrine and practice of insurrection and resistance, as the right and duty
of the slaves of the South and of the people of the non-slave States. We have
much reason to hope that, come what may, they will do it.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> It was asserted in the above meeting, that John Brown,
at Harper’s Ferry, had truly embodied the general idea of the North, and had
done no more than his simple duty to himself, to the slave, to the slaveholder,
to his country, and his God. There are thousands among those who have known his
plans and movements the past four or five years, and have sympathized with him,
and who have known of his call, <i>as he believes, </i>from God to do a deed
that would arouse the South and the nation to consider the sin and danger of
slavery, and who have known also of his unfaltering determination to do that
deed, and strike that blow, who would now cheerfully take his place in the
dungeon and welcome the gallows in his stead, if thereby he might be spared to
lead on the mustering sons of liberty to free the slaves, and crush the power
of those who live by whipping and selling women, and by "trafficking in
slaves, and the souls of men."</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> The sin of this nation, as it was asserted in that
meeting, is to be taken away, not by Christ, but by John Brown. Christ, as
represented by those who are called by his name, has proved a dead failure, as
a power to free the slaves. John Brown is and will be a power far more
efficient. The nation is to be saved, not by the blood of Christ, (as that is
now administered,) but by the blood of John Brown, which, as administered by
Abolitionists, will prove the "power of God and the wisdom of God" to
resist slaveholders, and bring them to repentance. John Brown and him hung will
do that for the slaves and for those who enslave them which Christ and Him
crucified has never been made to do. The blood of Christ, as dispensed by the
American Church and clergy, has been the most nutritious aliment of American
slavery, and has been made to add only to its growth, and</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>[page 10]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>THE NATICK,
RESOLUTION.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>power; but the blood of Brown, as it will be dispensed by
the friends of justice and humanity, will be its certain death, while it will
add energetic life and resistless power to liberty.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> Redemption is to come to the slave and his oppressors,
not by the Cross of Christ, as it is preached among us, but by the gallows of
Brown. The Cross of Christ — as borne aloft before this nation — has been and
now is a bulwark of defence, a tower of strength, a munition of rocks, — <span
style='text-transform:uppercase'>the Gibraltar </span>of American slaveholders;
the Gallows of Brown, as it will be borne aloft in front of the hosts of freedom
— the true army of the living God against slavery — does and will strike terror
to their hearts, and consternation into the ranks of slave-breeders and
slave-traders, drive them from their strongholds, and make them a hissing and
byword to all lands.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> Henceforth, the slaves and their friends in the North
will know nothing but John Brown and him hung; and they have only to shriek his
name through the midnight chambers of repose of the merciless, but shivering,
cowering, slave-drivers, to carry dismay to their guilty hearts. Slaveholders,
and. their allies and abettors, have known and will continue to know, nothing
but Christ and him crucified, as they have learned Him from their slaveholding
priests and churches; and they have raised and will continue to raise Him from
the sepulcher of the dead past, only to sanctify "the sum of all villany,"
as embodied in themselves. John Brown and him hanged will be the inspiration
and slogan of the aroused slaves and their friends, till the four millions, now
held and used as chattels, bought and sold, and herded together in concubinage
as brutes, punished with death for every attempt to raise themselves to the
condition of men and women, and compelled to feel after God and immortality
amid beasts and creeping things, shall be regenerated and redeemed.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> This may seem to you <i>madness. </i>It is so, as
viewed from the slaveholding stand-point. But, it is the madness of the Good
Samaritan and of Paul; it is the madness of Jesus Christ; the madness of one
who sees and worships God in the <i>living, </i>rather than in the <i>dead; </i>in
the living slave, rather than in a dead Jesus; in a living, rather than in a
dead Christ. It is the madness of one who, on the public</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>[page 11]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>LETTER TO GOV.
WISE.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>arena of life, by word and by deed, has sought to incite
the slaves and the entire nation to a living, practical resistance to slaveholders,
in every department of life, and who has taught the people of the North, for
twenty-five years, that the purest, sublimest, and most acceptable worship they
could render to the God of Justice and Liberty is — <span style='text-transform:
uppercase'>"to</span></span><span style='text-transform:uppercase'> break
every yoke, and let the oppressed go free.<span style='color:black'>"</span></span></p>
<p align="right" style='text-align:right;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:black'>HENRY C. WRIGHT.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> _____________</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>LETTER TO HENRY
A. WISE,</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'>Written
on the day in which he killed john brown for seeking to give freedom to slaves.</span></p>
<p align="right" style='text-align:right;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'>Boston, </span><span style='color:black'>Friday, Dec. 2d, 1859.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>To <span style='text-transform:uppercase'>Henry </span>A. <span
style='text-transform:uppercase'>Wise, </span>Governor of Virginia:</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black;text-transform:uppercase'> Sir,</span><span
style='color:black'>—This is the day and this the hour in which John Brown is
being hanged by you. His dead body is now hanging on a gallows, and the eyes of
twenty-five millions of this nation are fixed upon it. You erected that
gallows, you dragged him to it, you tied that rope around his neck, you bound
his hands and his feet, you drew that cap over his eyes, and having thus
rendered him blind and helpless, you broke his neck.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> At fifteen minutes past eleven o’clock, A. M., this
day, you murdered John Brown! The entire nation saw you do it, and is a witness
against you. Yourself, Virginia, and the nation, at this hour, adjudge you a
murderer.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> Why did you hang him? This is the one thought of the
nation. You must answer it. How? You yourself have pronounced him one of "the
truest, bravest, most sincere and noble" men you ever saw. You and your
accomplices in this deed of blood assure us that the nation contained not a
more "sincere, honest, heroic and conscientious man." Why, then, did
you kill him?</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>[page 12]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>THE NATICK
RESOLUTION.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> Had he made an effort to rescue you, your wife and
daughters, your mother and sisters from slavery and from the vengeance, the
wrath, the rape and rapine of your slaves, would you have hung him? No. But he
sought to rescue slaves from the wrath, rape and rapine of yourself and your
fellow slave-breeders and slave-traders, and you killed him. Had he done for
you and them the very deeds for which you have hung him, you and they would
have pronounced him innocent, and crowned him with glory.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> Your slaves have as good a right to enslave you, as
you have to enslave them. They have as good a right to scourge your naked back,
to drive you to unpaid toil, to sell you as a beast, to shoot you and tear you
to pieces with bloodhounds, if you run away, as you have to do these things to
them. They have as good a right to subject your wife and daughters, and your
mother and sisters, to their passions, as you have to subject theirs to yours.
They have as good a right to perpetrate robbery, murder, rape and rapine upon
you and your confederates in slave-breeding and slave-trading, and upon your
wives and children, as you have to perpetrate like outrages upon them. They
have as good a right to defend themselves and families against you and your
associates in plunder and rapine, as you have to defend your-selves against
them. You and your co-workers in crime call on the North to come down and
defend you and your families against your slaves. They come and defend you, and
you thank them. The slaves call on John Brown to come down and deliver them and
their families from your lusts and your cruelties, and defend their property,
their liberties and lives against you. You say it is the duty of the North to
defend you against the slaves. John Brown and his God told him it was his duty
to defend the slaves against you. He came to Virginia to do so, and for doing
his duty, you have hung him. Are you not a <i>murderer?</i></span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> What says Virginia of your deed? The slaves and all
the world look on the seal with which, as Governor of the State, you stamp your
letters and all public documents. What do they see? <span style='text-transform:
uppercase'>Virginia, </span>standing with one foot on the neck of a prostrate <span
style='text-transform:uppercase'>slaveholder, </span>whose head she has just
cut off, and holding in her right hand the sword with which she did the deed,
all reeking with his blood. Proud and</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>[page 13]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>LETTER TO GOV.
WISE.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>exultant she stands, and in the consciousness of having
done a meritorious deed, by ridding the world of a monster and Humanity of its
most malignant foe, she challenges the homage of all for what she has done, and
in her pride of victory exclaims: — <i>Sic semper tyrannis</i>—"Thus
always deal with slaveholders" — <i>i e.</i>, cut their heads off.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> Thus Virginia, the State over which you are so proud
to preside, says to your slaves, and to all slaves in the State, and in the
United States, and in all the world<span style='text-transform:uppercase'>— </span>"<span
style='text-transform:uppercase'>Cut off your masters’ heads." </span>Not
content with mere words, she <i>pictures </i>to them her own proud achievement,
and calls on them to look at her in the very act of vanquishing her direst foe,
and of beheading him; thus <i>inciting </i>them, by an appeal to the eye as
well as to the ear, to resistance, to insurrection, and to blood.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> In her Constitution, Virginia says to her slaves;
"You are born as free as are your masters, and have the same God-given
right to your earnings, to yourselves, your wives, husbands, children and
homes as they have." She is ever sounding in the ears of the slaves —
"Give me liberty or give me death!" — "Resistance to <i>slaveholders </i>is obedience to God. " All the slaveholders and white men and women in
Virginia are ever saying to the slaves, "If you, or any others, were to do
unto us as we are daily and hourly doing unto you, we would kill, slay and
destroy you. If we were in your places, we would kill every man, woman and
child that should attempt to prevent us from getting and maintaining our
freedom." Thus your State appeals to the slaves, to <i>incite </i>them to
a bloody insurrection.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> You, sir, make this appeal to the slaves, and to the
people of the North. You flaunt this most ferocious and bloodthirsty prayer
in their faces every time you set your official seal to a commission, a
warrant, a draft, a law, or any document: By this act, your prayer to the
slave is, "Arise! and cut off the heads of all slaveholders!" — and
you invoke the North to come and help them. John Brown heard your prayer, and
the prayer of Virginia. In answer to it, he came to Harper’s Ferry. He there
sought to rescue men and women from the condition of brutes and chattels, and
to restore to them their God-given and State-acknowledged rights. He did not
aim to do the bloody deed to slaveholders which</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>[page 14]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>THE NATICK
RESOLUTION.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>you and Virginia exhorted him to do — <i>i. e., </i><span
style='text-transform:uppercase'>behead tiiem</span>! No; he was kind to the
tyrants, to his own injury. He simply sought to lead some slaves, imbruted by
you and your copartners in crime, to a land of freedom. By your official seal
and Constitution, and your historical reminiscences, you invited John Brown to
come to Harper’s Ferry and run off slaves and to kill all who should oppose
him. You and Virginia, declared that it was the right and duty of the slaves to
rise against their masters, and to gain their freedom by running away, or by
beheading their oppressors; and you told him it was his right and duty to help
them. John Brown came, with twenty-one assistants, to help him in a work which
you and all Virginia acknowledge would have been a work of love, justice, and
humanity, had it been done to free you from slavery. You mustered the State,
called on the United States to hasten to your aid, surrounded the
self-forgetting hero and his little band, and shot or hung them, deeming that
you did a brave and heroic act! You mustered the State and nation to the
defence of your property, your wives and children, your houses and lives,
against twenty-one men, who had no thought of harm to you, but simply thought
to give freedom to slaves. Such bravery must, one day, be appreciated. He was
as innocent as were Washington, Lafayette, Franklin, Jefferson, Hancock, and
Patrick Henry, and far more deserving the approval of mankind. You took him,
bound him hand and foot, blindfolded him, and then broke his neck! Yourself and
Virginia being witnesses, are you not a <span style='text-transform:uppercase'>murderer</span>?
Verily, you have your reward!</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> Why have you and Virginia hung John Brown? To defend
your property, (your slaves,) your liberty and lives, against robbery and
murder; and your wives and daughters, your mothers and sisters, against rape
and rapine. And not being able to defend yourselves, you and Virginia called on
the United States to come and help you. You do, then, hold that it is a right
and duty to shoot and hang and behead people in defence of liberty, life and
home?</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'> You, then, and Virginia, being witnesses, it is the
right and duty of the slaves to defend their earnings, their liberty and lives,
by arms and blood; and their wives and daughters against the rapine of their
masters. You and your fellow slave-breeders and slave-traders live by robbing</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:black'>[page 15]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#323232'>LETTER TO
GOV. WISE.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'>slaves of their labor, by invading their homes, and
ravishing their wives, daughters and sisters, and plundering their nurseries
and cradles; and by murdering them, if they attempt to defend themselves and
their families. So, in the very act of hanging Brown to defend yourself, you
justify him in doing the deed for which you hang him!</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> Slaves of the South! People of the North! Look at
the commission of Judge Parker, who sentenced Brown to be hung; look at the
commission of General Taliaferro, who heads the troops of Virginia and of the
United States, now surrounding the gallows on which hangs his murdered body;
open the commission of Captain Avis, the jailor, and of Sheriff Campbell, who
now stand by that murdered body! Whose name is on all these? Not that of Henry
A. Wise, Governor of Virginia. What seal is that? <span style='text-transform:
uppercase'>Virginia </span>— her foot on the prostrate and headless form of a
slaveholder!</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> Once more: that <span style='text-transform:uppercase'>death-warrant </span>! Look at it! The name of Henry A. Wise is there. What is the import of
that seal? To the slaves it says: Arise! Cut off your masters' heads! Kill,
slay and destroy all who would enslave you, or molest you in your efforts to
secure your freedom!</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> To John Brown it says, </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>Hasten to Harper’s Ferry; incite the slaves to run away,
and help them to exterminate all who shall attempt to impede their exodus!</span><span
style='color:black'>"</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> Thus, in the very death-warrant under which Brown is
hung, you and Virginia pronounce him innocent of all evil, and justify the very
deed for which you hang him. In every way, you pronounce him guiltless. Yet,
you have hung him! Are you not a murderer? Yes! Henry A. Wise and Virginia
being witnesses. Yes!<i> </i>the heart, the conscience, the reason and history
of the nation being witnesses. Yes! by the testimony of mankind, and by the
voice of God.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> Dream not that John Brown will appear in this
world’s history as </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>a fool,</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>a fanatic,</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>a robber,</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>a ruffian,</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>a madman,</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>a monomaniac,</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>a marauder,</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> or </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>a murderer.</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> His plan was formed in wisdom and righteousness; and
was executed in purest justice, goodness and benevolence, according to the
religion and government of Virginia, and of the United States; and according to
the convictions of ninety-nine out of every hundred of the people.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> What was his object? To arouse the nation to
consider the sin, the shame, and the danger of slavery, with a view</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'>[page 16]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#323232'>THE NATICK
RESOLUTION.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'>to its abolition. What was his plan of action? <span
style='text-transform:uppercase'>Running slaves off, </span>or <i>dying </i>in
the attempt. Either would answer his purpose. This he knew, and was prepared
for the alternative. Death at your hands overtook him in the attempt, and when
in the act of breaking his neck, your word was heard throughout the land,
saying, "Surely, this is a just man!" Has he failed? Never was the
life of man — death, rather—a more complete success.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> What has been the one ruling thought of Virginia,
and of every slave State, and of the Union, the past two months? John Brown and
Harper’s Ferry! What the one spoken and unspoken word of the entire nation?
John Brown and Harper’s Ferry! The one pulsation of the nation’s heart has
been, — John Brown and him hung, <i>for seeking to free slaves! </i>John Brown, <i>the friend of the slave, </i>has edited every paper, presided over every
domestic and social circle, over every prayer, conference and church meeting,
over every pulpit and platform, and over every Legislative, Judicial and
Executive department of government; and he will edit every paper, and govern
Virginia and all the States, and preside over Congress, guide its
deliberations, and control all political caucuses and elections, for one year
to come.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> In a word, John Brown and him hung will be the one
thought of the nation; and John Brown and him hung for </span><span
style='color:black'>"</span><i><span style='color:#323232'>bearing the
yoke of the oppressed as if upon his own neck,</span></i><span
style='color:black'>"</span><i><span style='color:#323232'> </span></i><span
style='color:#323232'>is now, and will continue to be, the one deep and
humiliating feeling that will fill every heart with grief, sadness, shame,
indignation and loathing. John Brown has triumphed; and that, too, according to
his expectations, in death.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> You have murdered him; but you, Virginia, and the
nation, retire from the bloody deed a thousand-fold more impotent to defend
slavery than you were before. You have murdered his body; but John Brown holds
you, Virginia, the nation, and slavery, in his firm, determined grasp, more
completely than he ever did before.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> May John Brown and him hung be to you, Virginia, and
the nation, what Christ and him crucified was to his executioner "A savor
of life unto life, and not of death unto death!</span><span style='color:black'>"</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> Thine, for eternal life to freedom, and a speedy
death to slavery,</span></p>
<p align="right" style='text-align:right;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#323232'>HENRY C.
WRIGHT.</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'>[page 17]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#323232'>LETTER TO
HON. HENRY WILSON,</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:#323232;text-transform:uppercase'>touching
the natick resolution and servile resistance and insurrection.</span></p>
<p align="right" style='text-align:right;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='color:#323232;text-transform:uppercase'>Boston, </span><span style='color:#323232'>Dec, 10th, 1859.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232;text-transform:uppercase'>Hon. Henry Wilson</span><span
style='color:#323232'>:</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232;text-transform:uppercase'> Sir,</span><span
style='color:#323232'>—In the Senate of the United States, you were called
upon, on Tuesday, December 6th, to give an account of yourself to the
slave-drivers for attending a meeting in Natick, called to discuss a resolution
affirming "the right and duty of slaves to resist their masters, and the
right and duty of the North to aid them." A Mr. Brown asked you, in an
insolent tone — "Were you present to countenance such a meeting?" You
explained and said, </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>It was a lecture attended generally by Democrats and
others; that nobody interrupted the proceedings; that <i>only </i>some dozen
Garrison Abolitionists Voted for the resolution, and that the great mass of the
meeting came from <i>curiosity." </i>The slave-driver who held the lash
over you said, </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>I am satisfied!</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> But another, Mr. Iverson, still flourished the lash over
you, taunting you because, "being a Senator from Massachusetts, you heard
such treasonable sentiments avowed at a public meeting, in your own town, and
did not at once rebuke them, instead of sitting and giving silent assent to
them</span><span style='color:black'>"</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> Instead of rebuking those insolent lords of the lash
for presuming to dictate to you your course of conduct at home, among your
neighbors, you submissively attempted to explain to them the whys and
wherefors of your action, <i>out </i>of Congress, as if anxious to deprecate
their frowns and stripes.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> That meeting was called by public notice to discuss
the question of </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>Resistance to slaveholders as obedience to God, in
reference to John Brown at Harper’s Ferry.</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> It was hoped and expected that both sides would be
heard. It was stated at the opening of the meeting, <i>you being present, </i>that
it was not a lecture, but a meeting for discussion. A prominent citizen of
Natick was appointed chairman, who</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'>[page 18]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#323232'>THE NATICK
RESOLUTION.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'>introduced Mr. Wright, who read the resolution and commented
on it some forty minutes, and gave way. You (if I mistake not, <i>by name) </i>were
invited, with others, to give your views for or against it, as your reason and
conscience should dictate. You declined, as was your right and duty, if your
own reason so decided. Though all would have gladly heard you, none blamed you
for your silence.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> It was urged in that meeting, that it was the right
and duty of the slaves, and of the North, to embody their resistance to
slaveholders in every department of life, wherever they deemed it right to live
— in domestic, social, ecclesiastical, political and commercial life; and that
it was the right of the slaves to defend themselves against the lusts, the
thefts, robbery and rapine of their masters, by arms and blood, in the same
sense that it is the right of the masters to defend themselves against like
outrages on the part of the slaves.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> As to military resistance, Mr. Wright denied that it
was ever <i>right </i>or <i>expedient. </i>At the same time, he said, if ever
it was right to resist tyrants by arms, it was the right and duty of the
slaves, and of the North, to resist slaveholders; that if ever one human being
deserved death at the hand of another, (which Mr. Wright denied, ) every
slaveholder deserved it at the hand of the slave; and that, according to the
religion, the government, the popular opinion and universal history of the
nation, John Brown had done right, and only his duty to God and Humanity, in
resolving to run off slaves, and to shoot down all who should oppose him in his
God-appointed work.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> Three things were distinctly urged in that meeting,
as taught by the ministers, legislators, judges, presidents and governors of
the entire nation. (1) The right of slaves to run away; (2) their right to
defend themselves against all who shall attempt to molest them; (3) their right
to call on the people of the North to aid them, and the duty of the North to <i>incite </i>them to run away, and to defend them against all, whether governmental
officials or not, who shall oppose their exodus.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> It was urged upon Henry Wilson, Charles Sumner, William
H. Seward, John P. Hale, and all Northern Senators and Representatives, in and
out of Congress, as a duty, to</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'>[page 19]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#323232'>LETTER TO THE
HON. HENRY WILSON.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><i><span
style='color:#323232'>incite </span></i><span style='color:#323232'>slaves to
insurrection and resistance of soul against slaveholders, and all who would
enslave them. The hope was expressed that the slaveholders in Congress would
bring Northern members to the test, that they might have an opportunity to
affirm in Congress the sentiments they are known to entertain at home — <i>i. e</i>.,
that it is the right and duty of slaves to seek freedom by running away, and to
defend themselves against all who would intercept them, and that it is the
right and duty of the North to <i>incite </i>and <i>aid </i>them thus to get
their freedom.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> Such sentiments were uttered in that meeting in your
hearing, and not one word was said by you or any one against them. And it was
said that your silence would be taken for consent. Why, then, do you intimate
that you were silent because you did not wish "to <i>interrupt </i>the proceeding</span><span
style='color:black'>"</span><span style='color:#323232'>? You well know
that, had you spoken, not one would have considered it an interruption. The
feeling was that you were silent because your sense of justice, truth and
humanity forbade you to oppose the resolution. I do not believe there were ten
persons in the meeting who would have said that it is not right for slaves to
run away, or that John Brown did not do right in inciting them to run away; and
in helping to defend them against all who should oppose them.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> It was not </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>curiosity,</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> but sympathy with Brown, that brought them there. It
would be difficult for you to convince your neighbors that it was not a deep
interest in the life and fate of Brown that brought you there. It is true, as
Iverson says, </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>by your silence, you gave your sanction to the
resolution. </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>You were invited to oppose it; you declined. Had you
openly and earnestly sustained it, there were not probably ten in the hall, I
doubt if there was one, who would not have admired you all the more for it.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> I allude to this meeting, not because it is worthy
of special notice in itself; for thousands like it are being held on the same
subject all over the North, in which stronger sentiments, it may be, are urged
without contradiction; but because you and other members of the Senate and of
the House are trying to throw glamour in the eyes of Southern members, and make
them think that Republicans have no sympathy with Brown and his efforts to run
off slaves, and</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'>[page 20]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#323232'>THE NATICK
RESOLUTION.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'>by so doing to arouse the nation to its great sin and
danger. You would have them think that </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>regret and condemnation</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> of Brown and his objects are universal at the North.
Well may they, in their terror and agony, ask you, </span><span
style='color:black'>"</span><span style='color:#323232'>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 and 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 —</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>You take a queer way to show it.</span><span
style='color:black'>"</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> 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, </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>That, in view of the execution of John Brown in Virginia,
the Senate do now adjourn.</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> This motion was negatived — ayes, 8; nays, 11. At 12,
noon, Mr. Luce again moved, </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'>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.</span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232'> A debate ensued.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232;text-transform:uppercase'> </span><span
style='color:black'>"</span><span style='color:#323232;text-transform:
uppercase'>Mr. Odiorne, </span><span style='color:#323232'>of Suffolk,
expressed admiration for Brown as a man; declaring that he had the greatest
sympathy with him.</span><span style='color:black'>"</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232;text-transform:uppercase'>Mr. Walker, </span><span
style='color:#323232'>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.</span><span
style='color:black'>"</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232;text-transform:uppercase'>Mr. Davis, </span><span
style='color:#323232'>of Bristol, did not propose to condemn the acts of Brown,
as he wished them to be judged by posterity;</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'>[page 21]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#323232'>LETTER TO
HON. HENRY WILSON.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'>and he felt sure that <i>no more heroic or brighter name
would be found in history, than that of old Osawatomie Brown. </i>Brown, with
the Constitution of the United States in one hand, and the Golden Rule in the
other, marched straight forward and attacked the Slave Power, and he was to be
honored for it.</span><span style='color:black'>"</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232;text-transform:uppercase'>Mr. Walker, </span><span
style='color:#323232'>of Hampden, said he did not believe, as a lawyer, that
John Brown had been legally convicted of treason or murder. While he did not
wish to go into the slave States to run off slaves himself, yet he did not
object to others doing it in any way they saw fit.</span><span
style='color:black'>"</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:
none'><span style='color:black'>"</span><span style='color:#323232;
text-transform:uppercase'>Mr. HOTCHKISS, </span><span style='color:#323232'>of
Franklin, said he was a States Rights man, in the fullest sense; but he thought
it would be as perfectly proper to adjourn out of sympathy for Brown as for any
other great and good man; and he considered John Brown <i>one of the noblest
works of God. </i>If Brown had done wrong, it was an error of the head, and not
of the heart. He held the Governor of Virginia guilty of wilful murder, and
this act would be the hanging of the Governor and of the whole State of
Virginia. Brown had not been proved guilty."</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> On this second motion, the vote was — yeas, 12;
nays, 20. Such was the spirit and action of the Senate. But one spoke
condemnatory of Brown and his deeds. Remember, the Senate is almost entirely
Republican. All who spoke in favor of Brown were such. Read the above, and then
tell the slaveholders that Republicans have no sympathy with Brown, and no
responsibility for his deeds! What will they think of you? Would that
Republicans would avow their work and glory in it; for this is the richest
fruit they have ever borne, — so far as it is theirs.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> In the House, at the opening of the session, Mr. <span
style='text-transform:uppercase'>Ray, </span>of Nantucket, — moved </span><span
style='color:black'>"</span><span style='color:#323232'>That, for the
great respect we have for the truthfulness and faith that John Brown has in man
and his religion, and the strong sympathy for the love of liberty (the avowed
principle of Massachusetts) for which he is this day to die, this House do now
adjourn.</span><span style='color:black'>"</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232;text-transform:uppercase'>Mr. Robinson, </span><span
style='color:#323232'>of Middleboro’, was unwilling to say John Brown was
right, though he respected him, and thought his motives good.</span><span
style='color:black'>"</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'>[page 22]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#323232'>THE NATICK
RESOLUTION.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> </span><span style='color:black'>"</span><span
style='color:#323232;text-transform:uppercase'>Mr. Griffin, </span><span
style='color:#323232'>of Malden, said, the spirit of the order is merely a
tribute to the piety and integrity of John Brown. Let us imitate old Brown, and
attend to the business God and our constituents have given us to do. He had his
views of John Brown and of his value to the race; but this was not the place to
express them. In other places, it might be done.</span><span style='color:black'>"</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> It was done in a meeting of three thousand in the
Tremont Temple, that very night, — called for the purpose of expressing
sympathy for Brown, and abhorrence of his murder by the Governor of Virginia.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> In this meeting, S. E. Sewall, a much respected
lawyer of Boston, and a leading Republican, said: — </span><span
style='color:black'>"</span><span style='color:#323232'>Under these
circumstances, whether John Brown was technically guilty of any offence against
the laws of Virginia or not, he had not had a fair trial, and his execution is
therefore <span style='text-transform:uppercase'>butchery </span>and <span
style='text-transform:uppercase'>murder, </span>and the Judge and Governor were
only the tools of Virginia in carrying out this <span style='text-transform:
uppercase'>judicial assassination. </span>As it is, Governor Wise seems likely
to be pilloried by history at the side of Pontius Pilate, as the man who shed
innocent blood in violation of his own convictions of right, to satisfy the
clamor of a deluded populace, crying, "Crucify him! crucify him!"</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> Mr. Griffin, at the same meeting, said: "He
undertook to defend Pontius Pilate against a comparison with Governor Wise. The
chairman should apologize to the memory of Pontius Pilate for the comparison.</span><span
style='color:black'>"</span><span style='color:#323232'> (Uproarious
applause.)</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> With such facts before them, what must the
slaveholding Senators think of your assertion, that Brown and his deeds excite
only "regret and condemnation" among Republicans? Brown, Iverson,
Mason, and all the Senators from the South, justly tremble for themselves,
their wives and their children. They frankly declare to you and to the nation
their terror and agony. They say the North sympathizes with Brown and his
deeds, and in so doing seeks to incite insurrection, rebellion, and resistance
among their slaves. It is true. Their fears are well founded. Why seek to lull
them into security till the storm shall burst upon them in a way they dream not
of, — as it surely will, and deluge their homes and their plantations with
blood, unless they escape</span></p>
<br
clear="all" style='page-break-before:always' />
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'>[page 23]</span></p>
<p align="center" style='text-align:center;background:white;
text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#323232'>LETTER TO
HON. HENRY WILSON</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'>by repentance and emancipation? Why should you seek to
quiet their guilty consciences and awakened terrors?</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> The masses of the North are in sympathy with Brown
and his deeds. In no State is this more true than in that which you represent.
In no place in the State is that sympathy more vital than in your own immediate
neighborhood; as if your presence there had only tended to kindle the flame and
keep it blazing.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> Millions in the North rejoice that the slaveholders
in Congress bring you and all your associates in politics to this one test, — <i>i.e.</i>, <i>Is resistance to slaveholders the right and duty of the slaves and of the
North</i>? Will you and your fellow-Republicans help to kill the slaves if they
attempt to defend themselves, their wives and children against the rape,
rapine, robbery and murder perpetrated on them, daily, by their masters, or
will you side with the slaves against the masters? Was John Brown a traitor
against God and humanity? Henry Wilson and Charles Sumner will never say he was.</span></p>
<p style='background:white;text-autospace:none'><span
style='color:#323232'> Slaveholders may well turn pale with terror. As
Iverson and Mason say, "they sleep on the brink of a volcano.</span><span
style='color:black'> "</span><span style='color:#323232'> They know they
deserve death, <i>on their own showing, </i>at the hands of their slaves. They
feel, hourly, their victim’s knife at their throats; his dagger at their
hearts, and his torch at their dwellings; and their wives and daughters outraged
by those whose wives and daughters, mothers and sisters, they themselves have
ravished. If they will persist in turning men and women into brutes and
chattels, they must abide the results of their inhuman deeds. Their reward is
sure and terrible. The bayonets of the North will not much longer defend them.
I would that you and your associates in Congress were as true to liberty as the
South is to slavery; that you would, in every department of life, as truly
embody resistance to slavery, as they do resistance to liberty. Then this </span><span
style='color:black'>"</span><span style='color:#323232'>irrepressible
conflict</span><span style='color:black'>" </span><span style='color:#323232'>would
soon be ended; and the <span style='text-transform:uppercase'>Higher Law </span>be
the <i>only </i>rule of action, <i>in </i>Congress as well as <i>out </i>of it.
For the Constitution and the enactments of Congress are but so much blank
paper, and will be set at nought as such, when they are opposed to that <span
style='text-transfo