[273] to the venerable warrior. Conscious of having tried to do his duty, he serenely awaited his preappointed fate. What was it to him that he would be brutally accused of having sought to lay “waste, with fire and sword, the fairest land under the cope of Heaven?” of having proposed to murder innocent women, or having conspired against the lives and happiness of thousands? Knowing that he had obeyed the Divine behest only by listening to the poor that cried; that he had done unto others as he would have desired that others should have done unto him; he was neither to be awed into fear, nor softened into gratitude, to the enemies of his God: and thus he aroused, by the modest manliness of his demeanor, the astonishment-- almost the veneration-- of the able but distorted intellect who stood beside him. When Governor Wise, on his return to Richmond, appeared before the people, he thus spoke of the wounded Liberator:
They are themselves mistaken who take him to be a madman. He is a bundle of the best nerves I ever saw, cut and thrust, and bleeding and in bonds. He is a man of clear head, of courage, fortitude, and simple ingenuousness. He is cool, collected, and indomitable, and it is but just to him to say, that he was humane to his prisoners, as attested to me by Col. Washington and Mr. Mills, and he inspired me with great trust in his integrity, as a man of truth. He is a fanatic, vain and garrulous, but firm, and truthful, and intelligent. His men, too, who survive, except the free negroes with him, are like him. He professes to be a Christian, in communion with the Congregationalist Church of the North, and openly preaches his purpose of universal emancipation: and the negroes themselves were to be the agents, by means of arms, led on by white commanders. When Col. Washington was taken, his watch, and plate, and jewels, and money were demanded, to create what they call a “ safety fund,” to compensate the liberators for the trouble and expense of taking away his slaves. This, by a law, was to be done with all slaveholders. Washington, of course, refused to deliver up any thing; and it is remarkable, that the only thing of material value which they took, besides his slaves, was the sword of Frederick the Great, which was sent to General Washington. This was taken by Stevens to Brown, and the latter commanded his men with that sword in this fight against the peace and safety of Washington's native State! He promised Col. Washington to return it to him when he was done with it. And Col. Washington says that he, Brown, was the coolest and firmest man he ever saw in defying danger and death. With one son dead by his side, and another shot through, he felt the pulse of his lying son with one hand and held his rifle with the other, and commanded his men with the utmost composure, encouraging them to be firm, and to sell their lives as dearly as they could.
