THE PURITAN HAD SETTELED NEW ENGLAND AND FIXED THE PRINCIPALS BOTH OF ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL LIFE. THE CIVILIZED NATION HE SET UP WAS COMPACT AND COMERCIAL. HE ORGANIZED IT IN TOWNS AND TOWNSHIPS. THE MEETING HOUSE WAS THE CENTER, THE SOURCE OF ALL POWER AND AUTHORITY. NO DWELLING COULD BE BUILT FURTHER THAN TWO MILES FROM A CHURCH AND ATTENDANCE ON WORSHIP WAS MADE COMPULSERY BY LAW.
THE SECRET OF JOHN BROWNS POWER LAY IN A MYSTIC APPEAL TO THE PURITAN CONSCIENCE. HE HAD BEEN FROM CHILDHOOD AFFECTED WITH THIS CONSCIENCE IN ITS MOST MALIGNANT FORM. HE KNEW INSTINCTIVELY ITS PROCESS OF ACTION.
THE SOUTH, AGAINST WHOSE LIFE BROWN WAS ORGANIZING HIS MILITANT CRUSADE, WAS AGRICULTURAL, SCATTERED, INDIVIDUAL. INDIVIDUALISIM WAS A PASSION OF THE SOUTHERNER, LIBERTY WAS HIS BATTLE CRY. HE SCORNED THE " AUTHORITY " OF THE CHURCH AND WORSHIPPED GOD ACCORDING TO THE DICTATES OF HIS CONSCIENCE. THE COURT HOUSE, NOT THE MEETING HOUSE, WAS HIS FORUM, AND HE RODE THERE THROUGH MILES OF VERGIN FOREST TO DESPUTE WITH HIS NEIGHBOR.
THE MENTAL PROCESS OF THE PURITAN, THEREFORE, WERE DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT FROM THAT OF THE SOUTHERNER. THE PURITAN MIND WAS GIVEN TO HOURS OF GRIM REPRESSION WHICH IS CALLED " CONVICTION OF SIN ." RESISTANCE BECAME THE PRIME LAW OF LIFE. THE WORLD WAS A THING OF EVEL. A MORASS OF SIN TO BE ATTACKED, TO BE REFORMED, TO BE "ABOLISHED." THE SOUTHERNER PRECEIVED THE EVILS OF SLAVERY LONG BEFORE THE PURITAN, BUT HE MADE A POOR ABOLITIONEST. THE PURITAN WAS BORN AN ABOLITIONEST. HE SHOULD NOT ONLY RESIST AND ATTCCK THE WORLD; HE SHOULD HATE IT. HE EARLY LEARNED TO LOVE THE PLEASURE OF HATING. HE HATED HIMSELF IF NO MORE PROMISING VICTIM LOOMED ON THE HORIZON. HE EARLY BECAME THE FOREMOST PERSECUTOR AND VICE-CRUSADER OF THE NEW WORLD. HE MADE WITCH-HUNTING ONE OF THE SPORTS OF NEW ENGLAND.
WHEN NOT BUSY WITH SOME FORM OF WITCH HUNT, THE PURITAN FOUND AN OUTLET FOR REPRESSED INSTINCTS IN THE FEROCITY WITH WHICH THEY FOUGHT THE INDIANS OR WORKED TO ACHIEVE THE CONQUEST OF NATURE AND LAY UP WORLDELY GOODS FOR HIMSELF AND HIS CHILDREN. PROSPERITY, THEREFORE, BECAME THE SECOND PRINCIPAL IF RELIGION, NEXT TO VICE CRUSADING. WHEN HE SUCCEDED IN BUSINESS , HE PRAISED GOD FOR HIS TENDER MERCIES. HIS GOODS AND CHATTLES BECAME THE VISABLE EVIDANCE OF HIS LOVE. THE ONLY HOLIDAY HE ESTABLISHED OR PERMITTED WAS THE DAY ON WHICH HE PUBICLY THANKED GOD FOR THE GOODS WHICH HE HAD DERIVERED. THROUGH HIM THANKSGIVING DAY BECAME A NATIONAL FESTIVAL AND THROUGH HIM A RELIGIOUS REVERANCE FOR WORLDLY SUCCESS HAS BECOME A NATIONAL IDEAL.
THE INNER LIFE OF A PURITAN WAS SOUL-FEAR. DRIVEN BY FEAR AND REPRESSION HE ATACKED HIS ROCK-RIBBED COUNTRY, IT'S THIN SOIL, IT'S SAVAGE ENEMIES AND HIS OWN FELLOW COMPEDITORS WITH FURY.
AND HE SUCCEEDED
THE ODDS AGAINST HIM SHARPENED HIS POWERS, MADE KEEN HIS MIND,AND TOUGHENED HIS MUSCLES.
THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, ON THE OTHER HAND, REPRESENTED THE SHARPEST CONTRAST TO THIS MENTAL AND PHYSICAL ATTITUDE TOWARD LIFE. HE CAME OF THE STOCK OF THE ENGLISH SQUIRE. AND IF HE CAME FROM ELSEWHERE HE FOUND THE ENGLISH IDEAL ALREADY ESTABLISHED AND ACCEPTED IT AS HIS OWN.
THE JOY OF LIVING, NOT THE HORROR OF LIFE, WAS THE MAINSPRING OF HIS ACTION AND THE SECERET OF HIS CHARACTER. THE PURITAN HATED PLAY. THE SOUTHERNER LOVED PLAY. HE DREAMED OF A LIFE FULL OF SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL LEISURE. HE ENJOYED HIS RELIGION. HE DID NOT AGONIZE OVER IT. HIS CHARACTER WAS GENIAL. HE HATED FEAR AND DROVE IT FROM HIS SOUL. HE LOVED A FIDDLE AND BANJO. HE WAS BRAVE. HE WAS LOYAL TO HIS FRIENDS. HE LOVED HIS HOME AND HIS KIN. HE DESPISED TRADE. HE DISLIKED HARD WORK.
TO THIS HOUR IN THE COUNTRY'S LIFE HIS IDEAL HAD DOMINATED THE NATION.
THE PURITAN ABOLITIONIST NOW CHALLENGED THIS IDEAL FOR A FIGHT TO THE FINISH. SLAVERY WAS PROTECTED BY THE CONSTITUTION. ALL RIGHT, THEY BURN THE CONSTITUTION AND DENOUNCE IT AS A COVENANT WITH DEATH, AN AGREEMENT WITH HELL. THEY BEGIN A PROPAGANDA TO INCITE SERVIL INSURECTION IN THE SOUTH. THEY DENOUNCE THE SLAVE OWNER AS A FIEND. EVEN THE GREATEST WRITERS OF THE NORTH CAUGHT THE CONTAGION OF THIS MANIA. LONGFELLOW, LOWELL, WHITTIER, AND EMERSON USED THEIR PENS TO BLACKEN THE NAME OF THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE. FROM PLATFORM, PULPIT AND FORUM, THROUGH PAMPLET, MAGAZINE, WEEKLEY AND DAILEY NEWS PAPERS THE STREAM OF ABUSE POURED FORTH IN EVER-IN-CREASING VOLUME.
THAT THE PROUD SOUTHERNER WOULD RESENT THE INJUSTICE OF THIS WHOLESALE INDICTMENT WAS INEVITABLE. THEIR HABIT OF MIND, THEIR BORN INSTINCT OF LEADERSHIP, THEIR LOVE OF INDEPENDANCE, THEIR HATERD OF DICTATION, THEIR SENSE OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE BUILDING OF THE REPUBLIC WOULD RESENT IT. THEIR CRITICS NOT ONLY HAD BEEN SLAVE HOLDERS THEMSELVES AS LONG AS IT PAID COMMERCIALY, BUT THEIR SKIPPERS WERE NOW SAILING THE SEAS IN VIOLATION OF SOUTHERN LAWS PROHIBITING SLAVE TRADE. OUR EARLY SLAVE TRADERS WERE NEARLY ALL PURITANS. WHEN ONE OF THEIR SHIPS CAME INTO PORT, THE MINISTER MET HER AT THE WARF , KNELT IN PRAYER AND THANKED ALMIGHETY GOD FOR ONE MORE CARGO OF HEATHEN SAVED FROM HELL.
BROWN'S WHOLE PLAN OF ATTCAK WAS BASED ON CERTANITY OF RESENTMANT FROM THE SOUTH. HE SET OUT TO PROVOKE HIS OPPONENTS. THIS PORPOUS WAS NOW THE INSPIRATION OF EVERY ACT OF HIS LIFE.
BROWN HAD BECAME A MAN OF ACTION.
AND BY ACTION HE MENT EXACTLY WHAT THE MODERN SOCIAL ANARCIST MEANS BY DIRECT ACTION. THE PLAN HE HAD DEVELOPED WAS TO COME TO "CLOSE QUARTERS " WITH SLAVERY. HE HAD ORGANIZED A BAND TO KILL EVERY OFFICER OF THE LAW WHO ATTEMPED TO ENFORCE THE PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES RELATING TO SLAVERY HIS EYES WERE FIXED ON THE SOUTH.
THEIR COULD BE NO DOUBT ABOUT THE ABNORMALITY OF THE MAN WHO HAD CONSTITUTED HIMSELF THE CHOSEN INSTURMENT OF ALMIGHETY GOD TO DESTROY CHATTEL SLAVERY IN THE SOUTH.
HE CLAMED A DIVINE COMMISSION FOR ACTION AND THEY DID NOT PAUSE TO EXAMINE HIS CREDENTIALS. HE HAD FAILED AT EVERY ENTERPRISE HE HAD UNDERTAKEN. THEN HE SUDEENLY REALIZED HIS POWER OVER THE PURITAN IMAGINATION.
TO BROWN'S MIND, FROM THE DAY OF HIS DEVOTION TO THE FIXED IDEA OF DESTROYING SLAVERY IN THE SOUTH, "ACTION" HAD BUT ONE MEANING ---- BLOOBSHED. HE KNEW THAT REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS ARE MATTERS OF BELIEF. HE ASSERTED BELIEFS. THE ELECT BELIEVED. THE DAMMED REFUSED TO BELIEVE.
