BROWN. 560 BROWN. them he was encouraged and materially aided in his efforts to free the blacks. The culmination of long secret planning came in the fall of 1859, when, after having as a blind taken a farm near his objective point, he led a band of fewer than a score of followers into Harper's Ferry on tlie night of October 10. lS5t). and seized the national arsenal, thus giving what he sujjjjosed would be the signal for a general insurrection of the slaves. This audacious act, however, resulted only in calamity for the participants, and in so embitter- ing and arousing the South as to make any peaceful arrangement of the slavery problem a still more remote probability. Troops of the regular army, under conuuand of Robert E. Lee (q.v.i soon regained control of the arsenal, and captured Brown and his followers. Brown was tried, convicted of "treason, and of conspiring and advising with slaves and others to rebel, and of murder in the first degree:" was sentenced to death, and was executed at Cliarlestown, W. Va., December 2. 1S5!). He was buried at North Elba, N. Y. During the following years a popular song in the Xorth had the refrain: " John Brown's body lies a niouMering in the grave, But his soul goes niareliint? on." The general apjiroval of his deed in the North served only to impress upon the South the ex- tremes to which certain Northerners might go, and the futility of hoping for any uncontested maintenance of slavery in the Union. Brown's biographer. Sanborn, has said: "Although .John Brown would have justified a slave insurrection, or indeed almost any means of destroying slavery, he did not seek to incite general insurrection among the Southern slaves. The venture in which he lost his life was not an insurrection in any sense of the word, but an invasion or foray." On the other hand, a recent writer, speaking of the Harper's Ferry affair, has said that "itwascrime, and nothing but crime, conunon crime .ind i)ul)lic crime, crime that made violent and destructive means possible and actu;>l, and seemingly neces- sary for the attainment in the Tnited States of that principle of the world's civilization which has decreed the ])ersonal freedom of all men." Of his twenty children, eight died in early child- hood. The sons who grew to manhood took an active part in their father's work and obeyed him imiilicitly. Five of them removed to Kansas in 18r)4 and immediately entered with enthusiasm into the struggle with the pro-slavery settlers; and four of tliem participated in the Harjier's Ferry raid, of which Owen Brown, who died in 18S!I. was long the only survivor. A work en- titled Life ami Loiters of John Brown, Liberator of Kansas and Martyr of Virginia, edited by F. B. Sanborn (Boston, 1885), gives a sympa- thetic and exliaustive biography. For an unfa- vorable estimate of Brown, consult Burgess. The Ciril War and the f'onstitution (New York, 1001). For a judicial estimate, consult Rhodes, }Iislori) of the T'niled Stales from the Compro- mise of ISoO (New York. 1803). BROWN, John (173ti-88). A Scottish phy- sician, the founder of the Brunonian system of medicine. He was born at Buncle Parish, Ber- wickshire, the son of a day laborer. He was educated at the granunar school of Duns, in which he was subsequently an usher, and after studying medicine at the Edinburgh University, became tutor to the children of the celebrated Dr. Cullen, and assistant in his university lec- tures. He took the degree of M.D. at the Uni versify of Saint Andrews in 1779, and in 17S0 published his Elcmenta Mcdicinw. -According to ills system, all diseases are divided into the sthenic, or those depending on an excess of ex- citement, and the asthenic, those resulting from a deliciency of it; the former to be removed by debilitating medicine, as opium, and the latter by stimulants, such as wine and brandy. His system gave rise to much oi)position, but his par- tisans were numerous, and for a time hisopinions had some influence. He was also the author of Ohserralions on the Old 8i/steni of Physic (1787). Hi 1780. overwhelmed with debt, he removed to London, where he died of apoplexy in 1788. His W(n-ks, with a menuur by his son, Dr. William Cullen Brown, a|)peared in 1804 (3 vols.) . BROWN, .John- (173G-1803). An American merchant, born in Providence, R. I., the most energetic of the four sons of James Brown ( lC(i6-1732), commonly known as the 'Brown brothers.' He was very successful in business, and was also prominent in politics, especially during the Revolutionary War. Foreseeing this contlict, he brought to this country in his shijjs large quantities of powder which was supplied to the army at Cambridge when the soldiers had only about four rounds to the man. He organized and led the party which, on .lune 17, 1772, de- stroyed the "British sloop-of-war Oaspee, and was active in the anti-slavery movement. He served in Congress from 1799 to 1801. For twenty years he was the treasurer of the Rhode Island College (now Brown University). He laid the coi'ner-stone of the first building of that institution, and contributed generously to its endowment fund. BROWN, .loii.N- (1744-80). An American soldier, liorn in Sandisfield, Mass. He graduated at Vale in 1771. studied law in Providence, and ' practiced his profession in what is now .Johns- town. N. Y., where he became a King's attorney. In 1774 he was sent to Canada to urge the peojde there to join the tliirteen Colonies in tlieir oppo- sition to the arbitrary measures of the British (iovernment. He was with Ethan .Mien at the capture of Ticonderoga. and at t^iu'bce when .Montgomery was killed. Soon afterwards he was made a lieutenant-colonel in the Continental .rmy. In 1777 he surprised the outposts at Ticonderoga, was with (Jates when Burgoyne surrendered, and was killed by Indians wliile on the way to help Schuyler in the Jlohawk Valley cam]iaign of 1780. BROWN, .Tonx, D.D. (1784-1858). A Scottish religious author, grandson of John Brown of Haddington. He was born July 12, 1784, near Whitburn. Linlithgowshire. He studied in Edin- burgh Universitv (1707-1800) and the theologi- cal hall of the church in Selkirk (1800-04). In 18()G he was ordained to the i>astorate of a Burgher clmrch in Biggar. a small town in Lan- arkshire, where he labored for fifteen years, eni- ])loving his leisure hours in tjuise studies which sul)se(iuently enabled him to take a high rank as a biblical expositor. In 1822 he was transferred to Ro.se Street Church, Edinburgh, and in 1829 to Broughton Place Churcli in the same city. In 1834 he was appointed professor of ])astoral and exegetieal theology in connection with the asso- ciate synod. In 1847 he passed with his congre-
