But Judge Richard Parker, third in a judicial family that reached back to the American Revolution, was equally stern of eye and strong of jaw. Then, according to the pledge he had given to Brown, he returned to the enginehouse. - Did you witness any of the proceedings for which this party is to be tried? On December 2, John Brown, wearing a black frock coat and pants, a black slouch hat, and red slippers, was led into the street by his guards and saw some 1,500 armed men deployed. But the contrary is true. What was there to debate, really? "The Trial of John Brown, at Charlestown, Virginia, for Treason and Murder." There was not a sound in the courtroom when this terrible story ended. Two weeks before the attack, one of the younger raiders, William H. Leeman, wrote home: “I am now in a Southern Slave State and before I leave it, it will be a free state, Mother. On Wednesday, November 2, everyone expected an early ruling by Judge Parker. His plan, however, came to a tragic end at Harper’s Ferry, VA, when guards were killed as he seized the federal armory and only a few slaves joined his revolt. But the larger lie concerned the intentions of his Harpers Ferry raid. John Brown's Trial is an important book on an important subject. Cannon are stationed in front of the Court House, and an armed guard is patrolling around the jail. Neither he nor his prosecutor could see that they were duelling John Brown for the minds and hearts of millions of neutral northerners. The videos are designed to support lessons for the secondary A year and a half later, Governor Wise, out of office, inspired a detachment of Virginians to seize the same Harpers Ferry arsenal, an act of reckless violence which did much to help the secessionists carry the day in the Virginia Convention. I am ready for my fate. They also need to include answers to the guiding questions within their arguments: ©2012 Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership • What were the cultural issues that divided the nation? A study of the correspondence of other members of the band and of the memoirs of those who knew Brown makes it clear that he never intended to repeat his Missouri raid “on a larger scale.” His provisional constitution meant what it said. The trial must go on, but Chilton could at its close ask for “an arrest of judgment.”. I do not say this to injure them, but as regretting their weakness. Stephens has three balls in his head, and had two in his breast and one in his arm. The Cleveland. As for these gentlemen, the news of Harpers Ferry turned their blood to ice water. In a letter to a cousin, he consoled himself that he had “never since I can remember required a great amount of sleep: so that I conclude that I have already enjoyed full an average amount of waking hours with those who reach their ‘three scores and ten.’ ”. Hunter gave up and allowed the parade of witnesses to continue, but he did not even bother to cross-examine them. A very short delay would be all I would ask. A work from the collections of the de Young and Legion of Honor museums of San Francisco, CA. Later in the night Brown had come to Phelps to guarantee personally the safety of the train, which then proceeded to Monocacy, Maryland, where Phelps telegraphed the first alarm. You are also being sequestered, so that you are not prejudiced by either side. Trial of John Brown 1859. Out of these 24, the counsel for the prisoner had a right to strike off eight, and then twelve are drawn by ballot out of the remaining sixteen. To win the only victory left for his fierce puritan soul, he was prepared to lie and dissemble again and again. We found several persons in the room and had levelled our guns at him when Mrs. Foulke’s sister threw herself before him and begged us to leave him to the laws. "John Brown's Trial" is a well-chosen title for Mr. McGinty's fine legal history. God has given the strength of these hills to freedom; they were placed here to aid the emancipation of your race.”. Northern newspapers, unaware of Hoyt’s real mission, were enraged. --The Jurors of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in and for the body of the County of Jefferson, duly impaneled, and attending upon the Circuit Court of said county, upon their oaths do present that John Brown, Aaron C. Stephens, alias Aaron D. Stephens, and Edwin Coppie, white men, and Shields Green and John Copland, free Negroes, together with divers other evil-minded and traitorous persons to the Jurors unknown, not having the fear of God before their eyes, but being moved and seduced by the false and malignant counsel of other evil and traitorous persons and the instigations of the devil, did, severally, on the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth days of the month of October, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, and on divers other days before and after that time, within the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the County of Jefferson aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction of this Court, with other confederates to the Jurors unknown, feloniously and Traitorously make rebellion and levy war against the said Commonwealth of Virginia, and to effect, carry out, and fulfill their said wicked and treasonable ends and purposes did, then and there, as a band of organized soldiers, attack, seize, and hold a certain part and place within the county and State aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction aforesaid, known and called by the name of Harper's Ferry, and then and there did forcibly capture, make prisoners of, and detain divers good and loyal citizens of said Commonwealth, to wit: Lewis W. Washington, John M. Allstadt, Archibald M. Kitzmiller, Benjamin J. The Court stated that it would assign them any members of the bar they might select. Federal Identification Number (EIN): 54-1426643. I did not ask to have my life spared. John Brown's request for a delay I do not intend to detain the court, but barely wish to say, as I have been promised a fair trial, that I am not in circumstances that enable me to attend a trial, owing to the state of my health. Again the Judge insisted that time was of the essence and denied the motion. It teaches me, further, to “remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them.” I endeavor to act up to that instruction. Hunter took one look at him and wrote to Governor Wise, “A beardless boy came in last night as Brown’s counsel. The initial reports, based on rumors, trumpeted news of a military invasion and an uprising involving thousands of slaves. 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