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In 1851 Mr. Brown was elected to Parliament for Kent County (western Ontario), and took his seat in 1852. In 1854 he was elected for Lambton. In 1857 he was returned for two ridings at the same time: North Oxford and the City of Toronto. Called on to form an admin-i istration which was short-lived. He was mainly influential as editor of The Globe, and one of the fathers of confederation. He died on May 9th, 1880.
Brown, Henry Billings, associate-justice of the United States supreme court, was born at South Lee, Mass., March 2, 1836, and after graduating at Yale studied law and was admitted to the bar in Wayne County, Mich., in July, 1860. From 1861 to 1863 he was deputy United States marshal for his district, and from 1863 to 1868 acted as assistant United States attorney for the eastern district of Michigan. He afterwards practiced law at Detroit, and from 1875 to 1890 he was United States judge for the eastern district of his state (Michigan), and compiler for a number of years of Brown's Admiralty Reports, In January, 1891, he was appointed to, the United States supreme court as an associate-justice, taking up his residence at Washington, D. C.
Brown, John, an American abolitionist, was born at Torrington, Connecticut, May 9, 1800. Descended from one of the Pilgrims who landed in the Mayflower, he retained the old Puritan spirit of sternness. The idea of liberating the slaves early became his master passion. Having failed in business, he settled on a farm in New York state, from which he was called by his sons, who had set'tled in Kansas, to assist them in the struggle then going on between the pro-slavery and anti slavery men. Here he became a leader in the border warfare. His most famous engagements were the combat of Black Jack, where he drove back a superior force of Missourians, and the encounter from which he received the name of Ossawatomie, resisting for almost an hour a body of 500 men with only 15 men, and then making good his escape. He assisted a number of slaves to escape to Kansas, and tried to interest people in the east in his plans; but he was looked upon as a fanatic. He planned to attack slavery on its own ground, and relied on the slaves rallying to his standard to make good his attack. He even drew up a constitution
and elected officers, but claimed that he had no intention of overthrowing the government. His plan included the seizure of the United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Going to Hagerstown, Maryland, near Harper's Ferry, Brown took a farm and gradually gathered about twenty-two persons, seventeen of them being white men. Arms and ammunition were secretly shipped to him, and on the night of October 16, 1859, he seized the arsenal, liberated the slaves of the city, and captured sixty citizens. But the negroes failed to rally around him; his men were gradually picked off, though a number of the citizens were also killed; and on the morning of the i8th the door of the engine room to which he had retreated was battered down, and he and the few survivors were overpowered and captured by United States troops under Col. Robert E. Lee. Brown was taken to Charlestown, Virginia, and tried and condemned for treason and murder. To the last he preserved his dauntless bearing, freely admitted the object 01 the attack, and only deplored its failure. He was hanged December 2, 1859. His attempt and death and the investigations that followed undoubtedly had an effect in bringing to a focus the difference of opinion between the two sections of the country on the question of slavery, and hurried on the Civil War.
Brown, John (1810-1882), a Scottish author and physician, is known by his charming series of essays and short stories. He was fond of children and dogs, and his best stories are on these subjects. He wrote of nothing that he did not thoroughly know and love, saying that no one should publish anything "unless he has something to say, and has done his best to say it aright." Accordingly, his works are few but of the best quality. His rich sense of humor and his pathos make his works deeply interesting, and these two qualities reached their perfection in his stories of the uncouth but intelligent mastiff, Rob and his Friends, and the little girl, Marjorie Fleming. Spare Hours and John Leech and Other Papers comprise almost all his works.
Brown, Joseph Emerson, American politician, war governor of Georgia and for a time chief justice of the state supreme court, was born in South Carolina in 1821, and died at Atlanta, Ga., November 30, 1894. In 1849 he was elected to the state senate of Georgia, and was Democratic governor of the state successively from 1857 to 1863. When the Civil War broke out, he became an active secessionist, and on January 3, 1861, he seized Forts Pulaski and Jackson, near Savannah, a fortnight before his state seceded, and also took possession of the United States arsenal at Augusta. He warmly espoused the southern cause and was a stout supporter of the Confederate government, though he disputed the 3on
GEORGE BROWN
