warn the Government of the proposed attack. We hoped in this way to induce the Secretary to send a strong military guard to Harper’s Ferry, which would at once become known to the old emancipator and avert the dreaded tragedy. But it was not to be.
We anxiously watched the papers for many weeks to learn whether the letters had accomplished their mission. Two months passed by and we began to hope the expedition had been abandoned. But on Monday, October 24th, the weekly mail brought our Tribune and there we read the fatal news. The blow had fallen, the second battle in the war for emancipation had been fought and lost. John Brown was desperately wounded, most of his little band were killed, wounded and captured.
A short time before the execution of the undaunted leader and his surviving comrades, this letter of warning came to light and was published in the principal papers of the country, as related by Secretary Floyd in his testimony before the Senate committee. Whether the other letter ever reached him is unknown. But in the course of his evidence he states that he frequently received anonymous letters and gave no attention to them, among which he mentions one from Philadelphia.
Almost half a century has passed away since the tragedy at Harper’s Ferry. As insignificant as was the affair when viewed as a battle, the impression that it has made upon impartial, thinking people throughout the civilized world has hardly been surpassed by any great conflict of modern times. When such men as Emerson, Theodore Parker, Frederic Douglass, Gerrit Smith, Wendell Phillips, and even Governor Henry A. Wise, the great German historian Von Holst, Victor Hugo and Louis Blanc, were profoundly impressed with the life and martyrdom of John Brown, the smaller men and short-sighted politicians who have never comprehended his sublime ideals can well be left to sneer at his battles for freedom of the slaves.
