230 



AMERICAN JOURNEY. 



[Chap. V. 



State. I was very sorry to bid it farewell ; not without adding 

 a stone to the tower, which is being raised another story as the 

 money comes in." 



On his way to Washington, he had pleasant visits to several 

 naturalists who asked him to examine their collections. -When 

 one gentleman spoke to him of the harm which the Abolitionists 

 were doing, and that slavery " ought entirely to be left alone," 

 Philip silenced him by quietly saying, " That was what all the 

 devils said in our Lord's day ; and Caiaphas and all the people 

 thought that the Lord was ruining the nation." 



At Philadelphia he again boarded with Mr. Still (see p. 202), 

 and heard many particulars respecting the negroes and the 

 Harper's Ferry affair of October 16th. John Brown (p. 196) 

 was hanged, December 2. Philip was much surprised at the 

 effect it had produced, and wrote : " When I first read the 

 account in the papers, I thought it a madcap thing, out of 

 which no good could possibly come ; and that it would retard 

 anti-slavery, and that none but a few fighting Abolitionists 

 would approve it. But the event has been different. There 

 has been a very general sympathy with it among the Re- 

 publicans, and everybody in the North (except the most violent 

 Democrats) admires the man. Even several of the Southerners 

 were obliged to do honour to his character, and I don't wonder 

 at it. Peace-man as I am, I am constrained to admire his 

 noble character in the gaol. If one admires any fighter for 

 liberty, one must him. Tell, Washington, and other heroes, 

 were fighting for their own freedom and their own people : this 

 man laid down his life for the oppressed of a despised race. 

 Others fought in the spirit of revenge ; he did not wish to fight 

 at all; and when he had the lives of his opponents in his 

 power, he refused to take them. The means he adopted I 

 cannot justify. In England any such thing would be considered 

 a riot, and would be put down at once, and all the world would 

 condemn the act. Here even Democratic papers call him 

 Captain Brown, and print all sorts of things in praise of his 

 character. I greatly admired his simple, straightforward way 

 of turning off the slave-holding parsons who came to whitewash 



