Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/340

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Refutation of Romances of John Brown's Execution.
339

tinent and ours. It has found further development in assassinations, of the Czar in Russia, of the Emperor in Germany, of your own Lord Lieutenant and Secretary in Ireland, and of our own President. There are many points of resemblance between the behavior of John Brown and Guiteau; both claimed to be "God's Man," to be doing God's work, to be receiving strength from God; and Guiteau exceeded Brown in the resolution with which he met death. I cannot imagine that any man will use Guiteau's death as the analogue of Christ's; no more should John Brown's be so used.

But truth and brotherly kindness have required me to write this letter to you privately, to give you the opportunity of making the proper correction and amende.

Yours very truly,

Abner C. Hopkins.

P.S. I take the liberty of referring you to Rev. Frank Aglionby, of the Church of England, whose charge is near Oxford. This I do, however, without his knowledge or consent. A.C.H.


[NOTE.—We feel constrained to say that, while it was very proper for Dr. Hopkins to give Mr. Hughes a reference in England, those of us who knew his record as the chaplain of the Second Virginia regiment, and after the capture of most of those gallant men at Spotsylvania Courthouse, an efficient member of the staff of General John B. Gordon, and as conspicuous for gallantry as for the irreproachable character of a minister of the Gospel which he has ever maintained, need no confirmation of any statement which Dr. A. C. Hopkins may make.

J. Wm. Jones, Sec'y S.H.S.]


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Exact Copy of Affidavit made by Captain John Avis, the Jailer and Executioner of Captain John Brown.


AFFIDAVIT.

I.John Avis, a Justice of the Peace of the County of Jefferson, State of West Virginia, under oath do solemnly declare that I was Deputy Sheriff and Jailer of Jefferson county, Virginia, in 1859, during the whole time that Captain John Brown was in prison and