[379] Herald,--and from so very prejudiced a source, it is an important testimony to John Brown's character and courage:
A person visiting Brown in jail, and seeing him for the first time, ,with an estimate formed of the man from his conduct during the trial and the speeches there delivered by him, would find his preconceived opinions rapidly disappear before the subject of them. It is true that, acting under excitement and from the consciousness that he was surrounded by his enemies, Brown frequently indulged in irascible remarks, feeling somewhat secure in the protection of the law whose victim he must be, while, at the same time, he dared, and, indeed, seemed to court, the worst his foes could do, thinking, perhaps, that he might Escape the slower and more vengeful process of the law. In this state of feeling, sensitive as an enthusiast in giving to the world the motives of an act which, to his own diseased mind, was great and good, but which the world must condemn, he claimed with petulance and impatience those delays in the administration of the law which neither his crimes nor the circumstances of the court could fairly admit of. His object in this was, as he himself said, to give the world a fair opportunity of judging of his motives. If this opportunity was to be denied him, a summary quietus from one of the Sharpe's rifles in the hands of his enemies was all he next most desired. Now that he has received at the hands of justice and fair play all the delay that he could possibly hope for — a trial protracted over five days--with the fullest publicity given to the statements of those witnesses who testified most directly and generously to his humanity to his prisoners in the Armory at Harper's Ferry, he is satisfied, and awaits the result with that calm firmness which is the sure characteristic of a brave man.
What Brown was most anxious to establish in the eves of the world, during the trial, was his claim to being considered humane and merciful from his conduct to his prisoners. Whatever good quality a man possesses in any marked degree he is most anxious to have acknowledged at a time when circumstances point the other way; and so it was with Brown. Though his deeds in the Kansas border wars did not entitle him to be considered either as humane, or as averse to the shedding of blood, certainly his prisoners at Harper's Ferry had no fault to find with him on that score. They frankly acknowledged his humanity and courtesy towards them. At all events, the opinions formed of the man from the darker features of his life would fade before the influence of a personal interview with him in prison. Now that his fate has been decided by the just and proper process of law, he feels resigned to it. He no longer indulges in complaints and invectives. He rarely adverts to his trial; but whenever he does, he pays a tribute to all concerned — Judge, counsel, and witnesses. He speaks freely upon all subjects but one, and that is the death of his sons. From his taciturnity he has been adjudged as entirely callous as to the fate of his sons and the other unfortunate victims of his mad enterprise ; but this is a very great mistake, and arises from ignorance of the human heart. He avoids the subject, it is true, but in waiving it, should it be started, the observer can mark and understand the feeling which confines it to his own heart. He speaks freely
