Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 4

[134] John Brown's trusted friend, George L. Stearns, as Assistant Adjutant-General of the United States for the enrolment of colored troops, with headquarters at Nashville— “appointed to do, under the stars and stripes, in broad daylight, by wholesale, what Virginia murdered Brown for trying to do in detail.” Speech of Wendell Phillips, Jan. 28, 1864. There was the case of an indignant Union General who directed a brutal slave-owner¹ to be tied up and flogged by the slave women whom he² had himself been scourging. Colored schools in South³ Carolina and Louisiana and a camp of colored soldiers in⁴ Kansas bore the name of William Lloyd Garrison; and one of the gunners who aimed the first great Parrott gun⁵ at Charleston was a Liberator subscriber. But scenes and events still more dramatic and impressive were to come, and it is not probable that the United States will ever see the parallel in this respect of the ninety days ending with the month of April, 1865.

Threatened by the triumphant Northern march of Sherman's army, the rebel forces defending Fort Sumter and Charleston abandoned both, and they fell into the hands of the Union forces on the 18th of February. Three days later the 55th Massachusetts Regiment entered the city, singing exultantly the John Brown song; and when Lieut.⁶ George Thompson Garrison halted his company in the streets, he was greeted by James Redpath, the biographer of John Brown, and the then correspondent of the New York Tribune. Redpath it was who now went promptly⁷ to work to establish free schools in the deserted ‘cradle of secession,’ ignoring all complexional distinctions among the pupils. The slave-pens were broken open, and mottoes from Isaiah, Garrison, and John Brown inscribed⁸ therein; and the steps of the auction-block in the Mart, up which so many thousands of unhappy victims had walked to meet their fate, were sent to Boston, there to be exhibited in meetings in behalf of the freedmen, and to incite contributions for the educational societies. Their first appearance was at Music Hall, together with the sign⁹ (‘Mart’) which had hung in front of the auction-house,