Presented
by the Author to Storer College,
the proceeds to go to the endowment of a
John Brown Professorship.
In substance, this address, now for the first time published, wasprepared several years ago, and has been delivered in many parts ofthe North. Its publication now in pamphlet form is due to its deliveryat Harper's Ferry, W. Va., on Decoration day, 1881, and to the factthat the proceeds from the sale of it are to be used toward theendowment of a John Brown Professorship in Storer College, Harper'sFerry—an institution mainly devoted to the education of coloredyouth.
That such an address could be delivered at such a place, at such atime, is strikingly significant, and illustrates the rapid, vast andwonderful changes through which the American people have been passingsince 1859. Twenty years ago Frederick Douglass and others were mobbedin the city of Boston, and driven from Tremont Temple for utteringsentiments concerning John Brown similar to those contained in thisaddress. Yet now he goes freely to the very spot where John Browncommitted the offense which caused all Virginia to clamor for hislife, and without reserve or qualification, commends him as a hero andmartyr in the cause of liberty. This incident is rendered all the moresignificant by the fact that Hon. Andrew Hunter, of Charlestown,—theDistrict Attorney who prosecuted John Brown and secured hisexecution,—sat on the platform directly behind Mr. Douglass duringthe delivery of the entire address and at the close of it shook handswith him, and congratulated him, and invited him to Charlestown (whereJohn Brown was hanged), adding that if Robert E. Lee were living, hewould give him his hand also.
Not to fan the flame of sectional animosity now happily in the processof rapid and I hope permanent extinction; not to revive and keep alivea sense of shame and remorse for a great national crime, which hasbrought its own punishment, in loss of treasure, tears and blood; notto recount the long list of wrongs, inflicted on my race during morethan two hundred years of merciless bondage; nor yet to draw, from thelabyrinths of far-off centuries, incidents and achievements wherewithto rouse your passions, and enkindle your enthusiasm, but to pay ajust debt long due, to vindicate in some degree a great historicalcharacter, of our own time and country, one with whom I was myselfwell acquainted, and whose friendship and confidence it was my goodfortune to share, and to give you such recollections, impressions andfacts, as I can, of a grand, brave and good old man, and especially topromote a better understanding of the raid upon Harper's Ferry ofwhich he was the chief, is the object of this address.
In all the thirty years' conflict with slavery, if we except the latetremendous war, there is no subject which in its interest andimportance will be remembered longer, or will form a more thrillingchapter in American history than this strange, wild, bloody andmournful drama. The story of it is still fresh in the minds of manywho now hear me, but for the sake of those who may have forgotten itsdetails, and in order to have our subject in its entire range morefully and clearly before us at the outset, I will briefly state thefacts in that extraordinary transaction.
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