is sins, his youthful desertion from the British army,
his financial dishonor at New Haven, his overbearing self-assertion,
and yet he added, when telling of the attitude of the members of
Congress towards Arnold, that "these stern patriots, regarding virtue
as essential to true honor, did not consider great examples of valor,
resource, and energy even of arousing and sustaining the military
ardor of a country as an adequate counterpoise to a dereliction of
principle and a compromising integrity." "How far a judicious policy
and a pure patriotism were combined on this occasion," writes Sparks,
"as to what extent party zeal contributed to warp the judgment, we
need not now inquire."

And here, my friends, is our solemn warning against war. No inquiry
will ever justify war. War is justified only upon the sad assumption
that, as men are "poor weak mortals" and naturally wicked, they will
go to war, and justice fails where might makes right. Who thinks I can
here and now fully justify John Brown as a soldier, if he was too
aggressive in attack or too ardent in his antagonism of a dastardly
traitor whom he knew through and through, but whom Washington,
Schuyler, and other generals felt obliged to support? Perhaps not
fully justify on the grounds that seem necessary to the success of
war, but I can fully support Brown as a man who fought nobly for his
country and in defence of the unprotected inhabitants of the Mohawk
Valley, who was never false to his aims as an American patriot, who
served with distinction under Allen, Montgomery, Schuyler, Arnold,
Lincoln, and Van Rensselaer, and finally died while attempting to
defend the Canajoharie settlements from the hostile attack of a
murderous foe and acting in obedience to the command of his superior
officer.

When the Massachusetts government understood the situation at Lake
Champlain, Brown was appointed major of the Berkshire Regiment, and
sent again to Canada with four scouts. This time the business was very
dangerous. The French Canadians often helped him, but he might have
been treated as a spy, and a military police chased him for many miles
with two parties of fifty men each. On his return he reached Crown
Point within a day of the time General Schuyler had expected him,
after five days on the lake in a canoe. Early in August, 1775, he
urged by letter and every other means in his power the immediate
invasion of Canada. Soon he was put in command of a flotilla on Lake
Ch