Studies in American History 
249 
alacrity and removed his old felt hat. He made no speech. 
None would have been permitted. The sheriff adjusted the 
noose about his neck and pulled the white cap^^ down over his 
head. He was now standing on the death-trap momentarily 
expecting to be launched into eternity, but all was not ready. 
Some of the military companies were not yet in position. For 
ten minutes or more he stood in that awful position without 
the slightest sign of fear or trembling, erect and firm. Finally 
an officer called out to the sheriff that they were ready. The 
sheriff did not understand, and the statement had to be re- 
peated. He then descended the stairs and with a single blow 
from a sharp hatchet cut the rope which sustained the trap, 
and John Brown was hanging between heaven and earth. 
Colonel Preston, the officer on duty, broke the awful silence by 
exclaiming, “So perish all such enemies of Virginia: all such 
enemies of the Union : all such foes of the human race.'’ Such 
was doubtless the sentiment of the entire South.^^ 
In the North, especially where Abolitionists and those of 
like views prevailed, there were strong expressions of sym- 
pathy. Louisa M. Alcott wrote in her diary that December 
2 was “the day of execution of St. John, the Just”.®^ Mr. 
Emerson spoke of Brown as “that new Saint . . . who 
. . . will make the gallows glorious like the cross”.^'^ Long- 
fellow wrote in his diary: “This will be a great day in our 
history; even now, as I write, they are leading old John 
Brown to execution in Virginia for attempting to rescue 
slaves. This is sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind, which 
will come soon.”^-^ Thoreau, Emerson, and others spoke at a 
public meeting on December 2 in the town hall at Concord, 
Mass. Their sentiments were expressed without reserve.^® 
51 Colonel Donovan told the writer that a woman living in the North, an admirer 
of John Brown, had made of the purest white wool, — the emblem of purity, — a cap 
which she sent to the sheriff and asked that it be pulled down over the old Puritan’s 
head when he was to be hanged. Her request was granted. Perhaps it is the only 
case on record where a man was hanged with a white cap over his head instead of a 
black one. 
52 Life and Letters of M. J . Preston, 111 ff. ; M. Halstead, in the Independent, 
December 1, 1898 ; Colonel Donovan, in Ohio Arehaetological and Histwical Quarterly, 
XXX, 332, 333. Colonel Preston’s account was written a few hours after the execution. 
Colonel Donovan was also present and made notes of all that happened. Halstead was 
present but his account was prepared from memory long afterward. 
55 Life and Letters of Louisa M. Alcott, 105. 
5^ James Elliot Cabot, Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Boston, 1888), 597. 
55 Samuel Longfellow, Life of H. W. Longfellow (Boston, 1886), II, 347. 
5® Sanborn, Life and Letters of John Bro^vn, 629, quoting from Mr. Alcott’s diary of 
December 2, 1859. 
