There was still hope that John Brown might be saved and excitement ran
high. Some like Higginson, unwilling to let him die, wanted to rescue
him, but Brown forbade it. Others wanted to kidnap Governor Wise of
Virginia and hold him on the high seas, a hostage for John Brown.
Wendell Phillips was one of these. Parker Pillsbury, sending Susan the
latest news from "the seat of war" and signing his letter, "Faithfully
and fervently yours," wrote, "My voice is against any attempt at
rescue. It would inevitably, I fear, lead to bloodshed which could not
compensate nor be compensated. If the people dare murder their victim,
as they are determined to do, and in the name of the law ... the moral
effect of the execution will be without a parallel since the scenes on
Calvary eighteen hundred years ago, and the halter that day sanctified
shall be the cord to draw millions to salvation."[87]

On Friday, December 2, 1859, John Brown was hanged. Through the North,
church bells tolled and prayers were said for him. Everywhere people
gathered together to mourn and honor or to condemn. In New York City,
at a big meeting which overflowed to the streets, it was resolved
"that we regard the recent outrage at Harper's Ferry as a crime, not
only against the State of Virginia, but against the Union itself...."
In Boston, however, Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke to a tremendous audience
of "the new saint, than whom none purer or more brave was ever led by
love of man into conflict and death ... who will make the gallows
glorious," and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recorded in his diary, "This
will be a great day in our history; the date of a new revolution." Far
away in France, Victor Hugo declared, "The eyes of Europe are fixed on
America. The hanging of John Brown will open a latent fissure that
will finally split the union asunder.... You preserve your shame, but
you kill your glory."[88]

In Rochester, three hundred people assembled. All were friends of the
cause and there was no unfriendly disturbance to mar the proceedings.
Susan presided and Parker Pillsbury, in her opinion, made "the
grandest speech of his life," for it was the only occasion he ever
found fully wicked enough to warrant "his terrific invective."[89]

Thus these two militant abolitionists, Susan B. Anthony and Parker
Pillsbury, joined hundreds of others throughout the nation in honoring
John Brown, sensing the portent of his martyrdom and prophesying that
his soul would go marchi