John Brown

Baffling article today by Bill Bennett. It looks like he cut and pasted the section on John Brown from a reasonably good high school text book.

And it ends with this.

He was charged with "treason" against Virginia and tried in a state court. This was further evidence of President Buchanan's doughface policies, since Brown's target was the federal arsenal. The verdict was a foregone conclusion. Sentenced to be hanged, Brown addressed the court:

Yep - ends in mid stream.

Presumably they will fix it later (heck they might have by the time you read this).

What's interesting is wondering what use Bennett intended to make of Brown. Could go either way. Brown could be an example of a man willing to put the right thing the moral thing above his own personal comfort or the demands of a wicked society. Or it could be an example of how we once treated an American traitor and how we should treat traitors now. Bennett provides evidence to support either conclusion.

Anyway let's close with a quote from Brown himself. "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think vainly, flattered myself that, without very much bloodshed, it might be done."