On December 2nd, 1859, a tall, thin, 59-year-old man rode on a wooden box in an open wagon.

The box was his coffin.

He was going to his execution.

He just handed his jailer a note.

I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with blood.

I vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed, it might be done.

For most of his life, John Brown had been an obscure shepherd and tanner.

Now, it was a national symbol.

Brown goes from being a very minor figure in the abolitionist war against slavery

to the emblematic figure of that, the defining figure in some ways.

To abolitionists, John Brown was a hero, a saintly man who killed for his beliefs.

But others saw him as the embodiment of evil, a murderer, and lunatic.

John. John Brown was fighting for the American creed, putting into practice the words of Thomas Jefferson, that the tree of liberty should be watered with the blood of tyrants. Brown carved a canyon in public opinion that split north and south, and no longer were there any ties.

Brown had taken his sword and sliced the connections.

The South rejoiced in the execution.

But throughout the north, church bells told for him.

Some 1800 years ago, Christ was crucified.

This morning, Captain Brown was hung.

He is not old Brown any longer.

He is an angel of light.

Henry David Thoreau.

The President Hello everyone.

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