's
business,"--"upsetting the tables of the money-changers"--preaching
sedition, opposing the good old religion--"making himself greater than
Abraham," and at the same time "keeping company" with very low people;
but behold the change! He was a great miracle-worker, in his day, but
time has worked for him a greater miracle than all his miracles, for
now his name stands for all that is desirable in government, noble in
life, orderly and beautiful in society. That which time has done for
other great men of his class, that will time certainly do for John
Brown. The brightest gems shine at first with subdued light, and the
strongest characters are subject to the same limitations. Under the
influence of adverse education and hereditary bias, few things are
more difficult than to render impartial justice. Men hold up their
hands to Heaven, and swear they will do justice, but what are oaths
against prejudice and against inclination! In the face of
high-sounding professions and affirmations we know well how hard it is
for a Turk to do justice to a Christian, or for a Christian to do
justice to a Jew. How hard for an Englishman to do justice to an
Irishman, for an Irishman to do justice to an Englishman, harder still
for an American tainted by slavery to do justice to the Negro or the
Negro's friends. "John Brown," said the late Wm. H. Seward, "was
justly hanged." "John Brown," said the late John A. Andrew, "was
right." It is easy to perceive the sources of these two opposite
judgments: the one was the verdict of slave-holding and
panic-stricken Virginia, the other was the verdict of the best heart
and brain of free old Massachusetts. One was the heated judgment of
the passing and passionate hour, and the other was the calm, clear,
unimpeachable judgment of the broad, illimitable future.

There is, however, one aspect of the present subject quite worthy of
notice, for it makes the hero of Harper's Ferry in some degree an
exception to the general rules to which I have just now adverted.
Despite the hold which slavery had at that time on the country,
despite the popular prejudice against the Negro, despite the shock
which the first alarm occasioned, almost from the first John Brown
received a large measure of sympathy and appreciation. New England
recognized in him the spirit which brought the pilgrims to Plymouth
rock and hailed him as a martyr and saint. True he had broken the law,
true he had struck for a despised people, true