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Chapter 1: the child and his ancestors.
December 2, 1859.
How, worthily, write the Life of worthy John Brown?
The task is as difficult as the man was heroic.
In every part and phase of it, numerous and serious obstacles present themselves.
For to-day John Brown was ranged by a semi-barbarous Commonwealth, as a traitor, murderer, and robber, and fifteen despotic States are rejoicing at his death; while, in the free North, every noble heart is sighing at his fate, or admiring his devotion to the principles of justice, or cursing the executioners of their warrior-saint.
Thus opposite are the views men have of him; and this is the first difficulty that confronts his biographer.
But putting it aside, by utterly disregarding the opinions and denunciations of the mob, looking steadily at the old man only, and drawing him as he strove to be and was,--a warrior of the Lord and of Gideon: to satisfy the public expectation, and, at the same time, to do justice to the hero of their hearts, is a far more important, and a still more embarrassing task.
For an immediate publication is demanded; and it is 