[383] A correspondent of the Baltimore American gives this additional testimony to John Brown's fidelity:
Captain Brown has also recovered, and is getting quite active. He refuses to receive any ministers who countenance slavery, telling them to go home and read their Bibles. Rev. Alfred Griffith had an interview with him a few days since, which lasted for nearly an hour, principally on the subject of slavery. They quoted Scripture to sustain their views, and had quite a clashing time of it; but neither was able to convince the other of the correctness of their peculiar doctrines.Another writer says:
Brown was visited yesterday by Rev. James H. March, of the M. E. Church. The reverend gentleman having advanced an argument in favor of the institution of slavery as it now exists, Brown replied to him, saying, “ My dear sir, you know nothing about Christianity; you will have to learn the A B C's in the lesson of Christianity, as I find you entirely ignorant of the meaning of the word. I, of course, respect you as a gentleman; but it is as a heathen gentleman.” The reverend gentleman here thought it best to draw such a discussion to a close, and therefore withdrew.Let the churches of America blush in shame in presence of the faithful Christian of Charlestown jail. Was ever testimony against slavery so firmly or so worthily borne? The effect of it was noteworthy. The clergy-men of Charlestown refused to pray for John Brown before his execution, although that custom is immemorial, and Christianity enjoins the duty of praying even for our enemies. To Mr. Lowry, in speaking of the Pottawattomie executions, and the person who accused him of having killed the ruffians, he said that he was mistaken in supposing that the charge needed any refutation from him. “Time and the honest verdict of posterity,” he said, “will approve of every act of mine to prevent slavery from being established in Kansas. I never shed the blood of a fellow-man, except in self-defence or in promotion of a righteous cause.” Mr. Lowry adds:
