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The Life and Letters of John Brown, Liberator of Kansas and Martyr of Virginia
Excerpt from The Life and Letters of John Brown: Liberator of Kansas, and Martyr of Virginia
To complete, Lanfrey says: Do not misconstrue events; history is not a school of fatalism, but one long plea for the freedom of man. In this pleading chronicle there are few chapters more pathetic than the career of my old friend john brown, which I long Since undertook to set forth, though strangely delayed in completing my task. It was begun in those dismal years when the Southern oligarchy and their humble followers at the North still controlled our degraded politics; and it has been continued through all the vicissitudes, the anxieties, and the assured repose of subsequent years. More than once in those earlier days recurred to me that gloomy magniloquence of the Roman annalist, where Tacitus complains that the tyranny of Domitian had suppressed the unheralded renown of Agricola: Patient sufferance we Showed, no doubt. Our ancestors saw the extreme of license, but we of servility for our inquisitors would permit us neither to hear nor to tell, - and we might have lost the use of memory along with free Speech, if to forget had been no harder than to forego praise. Now at last the occasion has returned, and we Speak out but few of us are left, survivors of others, and even of our old selves, so many years have passed over us in silence.
To complete, Lanfrey says: Do not misconstrue events; history is not a school of fatalism, but one long plea for the freedom of man. In this pleading chronicle there are few chapters more pathetic than the career of my old friend john brown, which I long Since undertook to set forth, though strangely delayed in completing my task. It was begun in those dismal years when the Southern oligarchy and their humble followers at the North still controlled our degraded politics; and it has been continued through all the vicissitudes, the anxieties, and the assured repose of subsequent years. More than once in those earlier days recurred to me that gloomy magniloquence of the Roman annalist, where Tacitus complains that the tyranny of Domitian had suppressed the unheralded renown of Agricola: Patient sufferance we Showed, no doubt. Our ancestors saw the extreme of license, but we of servility for our inquisitors would permit us neither to hear nor to tell, - and we might have lost the use of memory along with free Speech, if to forget had been no harder than to forego praise. Now at last the occasion has returned, and we Speak out but few of us are left, survivors of others, and even of our old selves, so many years have passed over us in silence.
676 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1885
About the author
Franklin Benjamin Sanborn
296 books9 followersFranklin Benjamin Sanborn (December 15, 1831 – February 24, 1917) was an American journalist, author, and reformer. Sanborn was a social scientist, and a memorialist of American transcendentalism who wrote early biographies of many of the movement's key figures. He founded the American Social Science Association, in 1865, "to treat wisely the great social problems of the day". He was a member of the Secret Six, or "Committee of Six", which funded the militant abolitionist John Brown.
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April 7, 2011
After you've read a few secondary histories (and perhaps before you read them) this is really the closest you can get to the voices and reality of the era of John Brown. This is essential reading for your John Brown studies. It is largely or entirely available through Google Books too, but I find the paper copy useful.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review