No man in America has ever stood up so persistently for the dignity of human nature, knowing himself for man and the equal of any and all governments. He could not have been tried by his peers, for his peers did not exist....
He did not go to Harvard. He was not fed on the pap that is there furnished, but he went to the University of the West where he studied the science of Liberty, and having taken his degree, he finally commenced the practice of humanity in Kansas.
Of Thoreau, Mr. Alcott wrote in his diary, Saturday. November 5, 1859:
... Thoreau talks freely and enthusiastically about Brown, denouncing the Union, the President, the States, and Virginia particularly; wishes to publish his late speech, and has seen Boston publishers, but failed to find any to print it for him.[495]
Mr. Sanborn said:
Such was the man—of the best New England blood, of the stock of the Plymouth Pilgrims, and bred up like them "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord"—who was selected by God, and knew himself to be so chosen, to overthrow the bulwark of oppression in America. He seems to have declared a definite plan of attacking slavery in one of its strongholds, by force, as early as 1839; and it was to obtain money for this enterprise that he engaged in land-speculations and wool-merchandise for the next ten or twelve years.... Other men might have been spared but Brown was indispensable.[496]
Said Wendell Phillips:
God makes him the text, and all he asks of our comparatively cowardly lips is to preach the sermon, and say to the American people that, whether this old man succeeded in a worldly sense or not, he stood as a representative of law, of government, of right, of justice, of religion, and they were pirates that gathered about him, and sought to wreak vengeance by taking his life. The banks of the Potomac are doubly dear now to History and to Man! The dust of Washington rests there; and History will see forever on that river side the brave old man on his pallet, whose dust, when God calls him hence, the Father of his Country would be proud to make room for beside his own.
Mr. Higginson said:
Such men as he needed are not to be found ordinarily; they must be reared. John Brown did not merely look for men, therefore, he reared them in his sons.
John A. Andrew, who did not believe that Brown was present or in any way connected with the robberies and murders on the Pottawatomie, said:
Whatever may be thought of John Brown's acts, John Brown himself was right.
The Rev. Theodore Parker, who believed in slave insurrections and their horrors, wrote:
Let the American State hang his body and the American Church damn his soul. Still, the blessing of such as are ready to perish will fall on him, and the universal justice of the Infinitely Perfect God will make him welcome home. The road to heaven is as short from the gallows as from the throne.
Mr. Emerson said:
That new saint, than whom none purer or more brave was ever led by love of men into conflict and death—the new saint awaiting his martyrdom, and who, if he shall suffer, will make the gallows glorious like the cross.
Into a carnival of rhetoric so picturesque, Mr. John James Ingalls could not fail to enter the lists and compete for the prize. Poising his shining lance he delivered this thrust:
But the three men of this era who will loom forever against the remotest horizon of time, as the pyramids above the voiceless desert, or the mountain peaks above the subordinate plains, are Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and Old John Brown of Osawatomie.
Victor Hugo said:
The punishment of John Brown may consolidate slavery in Virginia, but it will certainly shatter the American Democracy. You preserve your shame but you kill your glory.
Similar exhibits, in the hyperbolical optimism that constitutes this promotion by wind, might be added hereto indefinitely; for the output of such fantastical flights was limited only by the boundaries of taste and imagination. Probably the best things have been said. But that does not wholly discourage the later generations. Emulation in the phrase making competition still places a premium upon inconsistency. Mr. Villard said fifty years after:
In Virginia, John Brown atoned for Pottawatomie by the nobility of his philosophy and his sublime devotion to principle, even on the gallows.
Perhaps nowhere else than in the peculiar philosophy of those who attribute virtue to Brown as a motive for vice, may we find nobility in dissimulation; atonement without reconciliation; and the sublimity of devotion to principle in the denial of the truth. Awaiting death in the Charlestown jail, Brown denied that he had been a party to the murders and the robberies on the Pottawatomie; and went from the gallows into the presence of the Almighty to answer for both his participation in that horror and for his repeated denials of having been personally concerned in it.[497]
December 10, 1911, Mr. Clyde McGee, of Chicago, said, among many other worked-over things:
It grew upon him as he prayed, for John Brown was a man who talked with God as confidently as a friend speaketh with friend.[498]
When Brown and his sons planned, during March and April and May, 1856, to steal Doyle's, and Wilkinson's, and other settlers' horses and leave the country; they planned, as a precautionary measure, to first make widows and orphans of the wives and children of these men, and then to steal the horses; not from the dead men, but from the weeping women and helpless children. Who think you talked with Brown and his swaggering sons as "friend speaketh with friend" during the time their plans were being made for these assassinations and robberies, and while they executed them: The Almighty, or the Devil? Brown was not sure who it was that prompted him to incite the slaves to strike for their liberty, by assassinating their masters. He answered Mr. Vallandigham at Harper's Ferry:
No man sent me here; it was my own prompting and that of my Maker, or that of the Devil; whichever you please to ascribe it to. I acknowledge no master in human form.[499]
Kansas has done much in honor of John Brown. An association, organized for the purpose, erected a stately monument at Osawatomie, which was dedicated to his memory August 30, 1877, by Kansas' most picturesque orator and statesman, the late John James Ingalls. Later, the patriotic women connected with the society of the Grand Army of the Republic, in Kansas, purchased the site of the Battle of Osawatomie, for a "State Park": which was dedicated, as such, by ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, August 30, 1910. Also, the State Legislature of 1895, authorized a society to place a statue of Brown in the national hall of fame, Statuary Hall, in the rotunda of the national capitol; thus, to the world, certifying his life and public services to have been the most conspicuous and illustrious of all its citizens. The text of the resolution concerning this statue is as follows:
Whereas, The Lincoln Sailors' and Soldiers' National Monument Association now has in process of construction a statue or monument of John Brown; and
Whereas, Said association has made application to the authorities at Washington to have such monument put in statuary hall in the capitol building, and has been advised by the general government that before this permission could be granted a request from the legislature of the State of Kansas would be necessary: therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate Concurring therein, That we hereby request the proper authorities in charge of the United States Statuary hall, at Washington, D. C., to permit such monument to be placed therein; be it further
Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to each of our senators and representatives in Washington, D. C.
For a reason unexplained by his later biographers, the authority to confer this honor upon Brown—the highest honor within the power of the State to bestow—was never exercised; a delinquency which excites a suspicion that the resolution stated conditions, as existing, which did not exist.
At the head of the schedule of assumptions concerning the innocence of Brown's intentions, the purity of his motives, and the exaltation of his devotion to humanity, is his "martyrdom." This item has been illuminated with a halo of holiness. As "Christ died to make men holy," so Brown is said to have died to "make men free." No one has claimed that Hugh Forbes was an humanitarian, or other than an adventurer. Yet in relation to Brown's insurrection, the minds of the two men—John Brown and Hugh Forbes—met in full accord; there was agreement between them. Together they planned the invasion of the South, for the promotion of their personal fortunes. Their aims, their ambitions, and their hopes were identical. If Brown's exchequer had been ample, Forbes too would have appeared at Harper's Ferry and there would have been a pair of martyrs there: "Two of a kind."
The logic of the fiction of his martyrdom is founded upon the assumption that Brown held an option upon his life which he elected to forfeit; and that he offered it as a sacrifice: that he chose to die, as the Redeemer of Men died; and in thus dying made "the gallows glorious like the cross." Brown did not contemplate dying at Harper's Ferry any more than did Hugh Forbes, or Stevens, or Cook, or Kagi: and he would not have died at Charlestown if he could have controlled the event. These men knew that some of them would, probably, die, but each passed the subject over lightly, believing that in some inscrutable way, if fatalities occurred, it would be some of the others who would fall. Men of their type "die but once." Brown accepted the chances of war as did his followers, and as Forbes sought the opportunity of doing. Men who have similarly risked their lives, times almost without number, are not impressed by such martyrdoms. To his faithful Sanborn, Brown wrote: "I am now rather anxious to live for a few years."[500] He desired to live to organize, and to command the army of the Provisional Government: and to be the head of a new nation: a new "United States." He hoped for longevity, that he might wear the honors and enjoy the fame and the emoluments of his prospective achievement.
The years of Brown's life were a constant, persistent, strenuous struggle to get money. As to the means which should be employed in the getting of it, he was indifferent. In his philosophy, results were paramount; the means to the end were of no consequence. A stranger to honor, he violated every confidence that should be held sacred among men: and in his avarice trampled upon every law, moral and statute, human and Divine. Consistent with the speculative instinct so distinctly characteristic of his life, his greatest or principal object was to get money, and to get it quickly.
Mr. Villard asserts that Brown's greatest or principal object was to assault slavery, and so entitles an important chapter in the recent biography. Assuming his premises to be correct, he commences the chapter with this inquiry:
When was it that John Brown, practical shepherd, tanner, farmer, surveyor, cattle expert, real-estate speculator and wool merchant, first conceived what he calls in his autobiography "his greatest or principal object" in life—the forcible overthrow of slavery in his native land? The question is not an idle one, etc.[501]
The question, nevertheless, is an idle one. During the interview which Brown gave out at Harper's Ferry, October 18th, Mr. Vallandigham asked him this pointed question: "How long have you been engaged in this business?"[502] To which Brown replied:
From the breaking out of the difficulties in Kansas. Four of my sons had gone there to settle and they wanted me to go.[503]
Also, Brown stated over his signature, in March, 1859, that it was "since 1855" that it had been his judgment that the way to successfully oppose slavery "would be to meddle directly with the peculiar institution."[504] That he had the subject under consideration prior to 1845 is expressly discredited by Brown, in his autobiography, in the statement that he was "averse to military affairs"; that he refused to "train or drill; but paid fines & got along like a Quaker until his age finally cleared him of military duty."[505]
The record of Brown's life, prior to 1857, is barren of any contemporaneous expression by him or by any member of his family which even remotely suggests the possibility that he might have contemplated attempting a forcible assault against slavery. If his mind had been preoccupied with a desire of such overshadowing importance the fact would have shone in the letters which he wrote to his children January 23, and August 6, 1852, relating to the conduct of their lives.[506] There is much, however, in this history which discredits the assumption that he gave the subject any consideration whatever. A man whose life was a "burning" devotion to an ambition so heroic as to become the "David of the Goliath of Slavery,"[507] ought to have shown some personal interest in the matter; he should not have left it wholly to his panegyrists. It appears however that the peaceful "tanner and shepherd" was so unconscious of having any object in life worth living for that he "felt," during this time, "a strong and steady desire to die";[508] a condition of mind wholly inconsistent with heroism or with one "burning" to bear arms, or with a "man of war emerging from the chrysalis of peace."[509] The assumptions upon which Mr. Villard relies for the relevancy of his question are gratuitous. The chapter is a scholarly example, put forth by a scholar, of the art of making "much ado about nothing."
It would be proper to say that the conquest of the Southern States was the greatest or principal undertaking in Brown's career, and that it was in 1857 that he first planned to attempt it. His capture of Pate's horses and mules at Black Jack in June; and the days which he spent in stealing cattle, at and around Osawatomie, during the last days of August, 1856; and his plundering in Missouri and Kansas in 1858, may be called meddling with slavery; though grafting upon the anti-slavery sentiment of the time, would more accurately describe the relation, if any, of his operations to slavery.
There was this difference between Nat Turner and John Brown: the negro was a religious fanatic; he was sincere and consistent. Falsehood, deception, greed, selfishness, are not attributes of fanaticism, but they are characteristic of Brown's life. The sincerity of his "death-bed" professions of godliness, and of sympathy for the men in bondage, is discredited by the actions of a lifetime as conspicuous for its turpitude as it was barren of virtues. Neither charitable deed, nor manifestation of a benevolent, or of a patriotic spirit, appears, even incidentally, along the lines of his life, to break the monotone of selfishness that distinguishes it. In public affairs he took no part worthy of consideration.
Mr. Gill gave up a view of his natural or unassumed personality that is consistently discreditable, and Brown's correspondence is a confirmation of that estimate. It teaches the lesson that he administered his deportment to suit the circumstances of the occasion existing at the time; and that it covered the entire range of the various phases of human intercourse; from that of a coarse, brutal vulgarity, to the saintliness of his latest metamorphosis; from the use of language so distinctly vulgar and obscene, as to be, in the opinion of the writer, unprintable,[510] to the crafty assumptions of godliness contained in his letter to the innocent Quakeress.[511]
Brown was crafty in the sublimest degree of the art. His craftiness was a distinction. It will be difficult to find in our literature a more interesting example of the refinements of the art than the piece which he set for Mrs. Stearns: his "Old Brown's Farewell: to the Plymouth Rocks; Bunker Hill Monuments; Charter Oaks; and Uncle Toms Cabbins." In the setting, and in the dramatic execution of the play, he exhibited the perfection of the actor. The paper was not drawn for Mr. Parker to read to his congregation. Brown was not "casting his pearls before swine." It was for Mrs. Stearns personally that the paper was written; it was her heart that he intended to touch, and her generous emotions that he intended to prey upon. How successfully he played the part she has related.[512]
Of Brown, it may be truthfully said that within the limits of his resources, he did nothing in a small way, nor did he move with a faint heart. With him, there was neither halting nor trifling in action. He was consistently an adventurer. His theology scorned all creeds. Without capital he was a plunger among speculators. The deception which he practiced upon the New England Woolen Company netted him a fortune little below the average of that period. In the commission business he was an acrobat, rather than a merchant: his operations were a series of feats in commercial gymnastics. Chafing because of the restrictions of an extreme poverty that kept him "like a toad under a harrow," he determined to burst the bands of his environment, and there was a massacre in the valley of the Pottawatomie out of which he rode with a herd of horses. And he would have ridden away from Black Jack with Pate's horses and mules, if Pate had not deceived him, and led him to believe that he held his sons—John and Jason—prisoners, as hostages. A guerrilla leader for six days, he drove two hundred and fifty head of cattle into his camp at Osawatomie, and in 1858, as a Kansas raider, he dwarfed the operations of James Montgomery. In the East, as a crafty imposter and grafter, he secured $30,000 in cash and plunder, and attempted a coup upon the Legislatures of Massachusetts and New York for $200,000 more. And then, within one year from the date of the outburst of his determination to be freed from poverty, he indulged hopes of a successful conquest: hopes of riches and of fame. An habitual cruelty in his domestic life, which is more than hinted at by his friend and confidant, George R. Gill, nerved his hand to execute the ferocious butchery of his neighbors on the Pottawatomie, and steeled his heart to incite the slaves at Harper's Ferry to emulate the example of Southampton. His attempt at revolution was not the result of a previous conviction and consecration to duty and to the cause of humanity, but of a growth—the indulgence and development of an abnormal passion for speculation: the culmination downward of his speculative and criminal instincts. Closing a commercial sas indulging the reasonable hope that in the new country he would find opportunity to improve his condition. In the horses owned by the Shermans, and by other well-to-do neighbors, he saw, and grasped, the opportunity—a desperate one—to make a "coup to restore his fortunes." Out of that plunge in robbery and murder came the leader of a gang of horse thieves—the chrysalis of the guerrilla captain of Osawatomie.
Driven out of the Territory by the establishment of order, the crafty marauder raided the East as the militant defender of Kansas. In the practice of his impositions there, he met and established confidential relations with men who plotted against the life of the nation; men who planned how to provoke a revolution; how best to "split the Union";[513] men who wished "success to every slave insurrection." From this atmosphere, pregnant with the sentiment of disloyalty to the Union, Brown derived the inspiration which encouraged him to plan to do what his mentors had not the courage to undertake. Out of his negotiations with them came money; munitions of war; Hugh Forbes, the revolutionist; mutual planning for a revolution, and a dream of empire.
John Brown will live in history; but his name will not be found among the names of those who have wrought for humanity and for righteousness; or among the names of the martyrs and the saints who "washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
"YET SHALL HE LIVE": but it will be as a soldier of fortune, an adventurer. He will take his place in history as such: and will rank among adventurers as Napoleon ranks among marshals: as Captain Kidd among pirates: and as Jonathan Wild among thieves.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I
CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE LATE D. W. WILDER CONCERNING JOHN BROWN
Topeka, Kansas, Dec. 18th, 1902.
General D. W. Wilder, Hiawatha, Kansas.
My Dear General:
I would like to have you kindly tell me something valuable about John Brown. I listened to your tribute to his memory, read before the Historical Society on the 2nd inst. It recalled the admiration which I entertained for the "Old Hero" throughout the many years of my life; from young manhood up to about four years ago; when I attempted to write a sketch of his life. It was in reading up to obtain data for this sketch that the idol, which my credulity, I suppose, or imagination had set up, went utterly to pieces in my hands. I read faithfully what his biographers, Sanborn, and Redpath, and the other fellows, have written about him, but none of them give up any valuable facts. They all seem to be long on eulogy. They do overtime on that. The whole performance is a continuous eulogium; but historical facts, upon which to predicate a story, or upon which his "immortal fame" is supposed to rest, are painfully lacking.... These are some of the things which I went up against when I tried in good faith to write about him, and they broke me all up, so I had to quit. John Brown, the "Hero" and "Martyr," is a creation—Charlestown furnished a simple text and the genius of his generation did the rest. The brilliant minds of this age have exploited him in literary effects, in prose, in poetry and oratory. They have placarded him "upon the walls of time"; but I am compelled to believe that his fame thus acquired, will not survive. The "why" may "repel the philosophic searcher," but it cannot "defy" the historical searchers. History has no enigmas.
I will be very glad indeed to have your opinions on this business.
Very truly yours,
Hill P. Wilson.
In this letter the writer asked Mr. Wilder for his opinion upon Brown's motives in their relation to several incidents that occurred in his life. His reply is as follows:[514]
Hiawatha, Kansas, Dec. 20, 1902.
My Dear Wilson:
... You have stood on various platforms and made many political speeches. Did any of them endorse the sentiments you now hold? The elder Booth, a man of genius, once staggered up to the footlights and said to the crowded house: "You are all drunk," and staggered off.
You think the people of your county, your state, your country and of the civilized world, including its noblest spirits, do not know a hero, an emancipator—first of his state, then of his nation. Only one Kansan has made a speech that thrilled the world and is immortal. You never read it. Only one Kansan lives in poetry, in song, in human hearts, and is the constant theme of the historian, the dramatist, the man of letters. You think he was a fool. The whole world has pronounced its verdict on John Brown.
Yours truly,
D. W. Wilder.
To this letter the writer replied:
Topeka, Kans., January 3, 1903.
My Dear General:
Your letter of the 20th ult., is received. I told you that I had gone the limit of my vocabulary in expressing my admiration of John Brown. I read the "speech that thrilled the world." I have read the poetry and have sung the songs. I make the point that the speeches, the poetry, and the songs are all there is behind John Brown. When I asked you about some historical facts, you gave me more oratory. It seems to have become a habit. If you ever analyze this man's character, you will reverse your estimate of him.
The world sees Brown fighting, heroically, in the engine-house at Harper's Ferry, but it does not inquire how he came to be there. It was his death, and not his life, that gave him renown. Usually it is a man's life—his actions, that determine his place among men. If it be true that one unimpeachable fact will set aside the most plausible opposing theory, then Brown's fame will not survive. The facts of his life impeach the popular verdict.
Very truly yours,
Hill P. Wilson.
General D. W. Wilder, Hiawatha, Kansas.
APPENDIX II
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE JOHN BROWN RAID BY THE HON. ALEXANDER R. BOTELER, A VIRGINIAN WHO WITNESSED THE FIGHT
Taken from The Century
On entering the room where John Brown was, I found him alone, lying on the floor on his left side, and with his back turned toward me. The right side of his face was smeared with blood from a sword cut on his head, causing his grim and grizzled countenance to look like that of some aboriginal savage with his war-paint on. Approaching him I began the conversation with the inquiry:
"Captain Brown, are you hurt anywhere except on the head?"
"Yes, in my side, here," said he, indicating the place with his hand.
I then told him that a surgeon would be in presently to attend to his wounds, and expressed the hope that they were not very serious. Thereupon he asked me who I was, and on giving him my name he muttered as if speaking to himself.
"Yes, yes—I know you now—member of congress—this district."
I then asked the question:
"Captain, what brought you here?"
"To free your slaves," was the reply.
"How did you expect to accomplish it with the small force you brought with you?"
"I expected help."
"Where, whence, and from whom, Captain, did you expect it?"
"Here and from elsewhere," he answered.
"Did you expect to get assistance from whites here as well as from the blacks?" was my next question.
"I did," he replied.
"Then," said I, "you have been disappointed in not getting it from either?"
"Yes," he muttered, "I have—been—disappointed."
Then I asked him who planned his movement on Harper's Ferry, to which he replied: "I planned it all myself," and upon my remarking that it was a sad affair for him and the country, and that I trusted no one would follow his example by undertaking a similar raid, he made no response. I next inquired if he had any family besides the sons who accompanied him on his incursion, to which he replied by telling me he had a wife and children in the State of New York at North Elba, and on my then asking if he would like to write to them and let them know how he was, he quickly responded:
"Yes, I would like to send them a letter."
"Very well," I said, "you doubtless will be permitted to do so. But, Captain," I added, "probably you understand that, being in the hands of the civil authorities of the State, your letters will have to be seen by them before they can be sent."
"Certainly," he said.
"Then, with that understanding," continued I. "There will, I am sure, be no objection to your writing home; and although I have no authority in the premises, I promise to do what I can to have your wishes in that respect complied with."
"Thank you—thank you, sir," he said repeating his acknowledgment for the proffered favor and, for the first time, turning his head toward me.
In my desire to hear him distinctly, I had placed myself by his side, with one knee resting on the floor; so that, when he turned, it brought his face quite close to mine, and I remember well the earnest gaze of the gray eye that looked straight into mine. I then remarked:
"Captain, we, too, have wives and children. This attempt of yours to interfere with our slaves has created great excitement and naturally causes anxiety on account of our families. Now, let me ask you: Is this failure of yours likely to be followed by similar attempts to create disaffection among our servants and bring upon our homes the horrors of a servile war?"
"Time will show," was his significant reply.
Just then a Catholic priest appeared at the door of the room. He had been administering the last consolations of religion to Quinn, the marine, who was dying in the adjoining office; and the moment Brown saw him he became violently angry, and plainly showed, by the expression of his countenance, how capable he was of feeling "hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness."
"Go out of here—I don't want you about me—go out!" was the salutation he gave the priest, who, bowing gravely, immediately retired. Whereupon I arose from the floor, and bidding Brown good-morning, likewise left him.
In the entry leading to the room where Brown was, I met Major Russell, of the marine corps, who was going to see him, and I detailed to him the conversation I had just had. Meeting the major subsequently he told me that when he entered the apartment Brown was standing up—with his clothes unfastened—examining the wound in his side, and that, as soon as he saw him, forthwith resumed his former position on the floor; which incident tended to confirm the impression I had already formed, that there was a good deal of vitality left in the old man, notwithstanding his wounds—a fact more fully developed that evening after I had left Harper's Ferry for home, when he had his spirited and historic talk with Wise, Hunter and Vallandigham.
APPENDIX III
THE CONSTITUTION ADOPTED AT CHATHAM, CANADA
Copy of the Constitution, adopted at Chatham, Canada, May 8, 1858. Mason Report, p. 48.
PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION AND ORDINANCE FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES
PREAMBLE
Whereas, slavery throughout its entire existence in the United States, is none other than a most barbarous, unprovoked, and unjustifiable war of one portion of its citizens upon another portion, the only conditions of which are perpetual imprisonment and hopeless servitude or absolute extermination; in utter disregard of those eternal and self-evident truths set forth in our Declaration of Independence: Therefore,
We, citizens of the United States, and the Oppressed People, who, by a decision of the Supreme Court are declared to have no rights which the White Man is bound to respect; together with all other people degraded by the laws thereof, Do, for the time being ordain and establish for ourselves, the following PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION and ORDINANCES, the better to protect our Persons, Property, Lives and Liberties; and to govern our actions:
ARTICLE I
QUALIFICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP
All persons of mature age, whether Proscribed, oppressed, and enslaved Citizens, or of the Proscribed or oppressed races of the United States, who shall agree to sustain and enforce the Provisional Constitution and Ordinance of this organization, together with all minor children of such persons, shall be held to be fully entitled to protection under the same.
ARTICLE II
BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT
The provisional government of this organization shall consist of three branches, viz.: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial.
ARTICLE III
LEGISLATIVE
The legislative branch shall be a Congress or House of Representatives, composed of not less than five, or more than ten members, who shall be elected by all the citizens of mature age and of sound mind, connected with this organization; and who shall remain in office for three years, unless sooner removed for misconduct, inability, or death. A majority of such members shall constitute a quorum.
ARTICLE IV
EXECUTIVE
The executive branch of this organization shall consist of a President and Vice-President, who shall be chosen by the citizens or members of this organization, and each of whom shall hold his office for three years, unless sooner removed by death, or for inability or misconduct.
ARTICLE V
JUDICIAL
The judicial branch of this organization shall consist of one Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court, and of four Associate Judges of said Court; each constituting a Circuit Court. They shall each be chosen in the same manner as the President, and shall continue in office until their places have been filled in the same manner by election of the citizens. Said court shall have jurisdiction in all civil or criminal causes, arising under this constitution, except breaches of the Rules of War.
ARTICLE VI
VALIDITY OF ENACTMENTS
All enactments of the legislative branch shall, to become valid during the first three years, have the approbation of the President and the Commander-in-Chief of the Army.
ARTICLE VII
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
A Commander-in-Chief of the army shall be chosen by the President, Vice-President, a majority of the Provisional Congress, and of the Supreme Court, and he shall receive his commission from the President, signed by the Vice-President, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the Secretary of War: and he shall hold his office for three years, unless removed by death, or on proof of incapacity of misbehavior. He shall, unless under arrest (and till his place is actually filled as provided by the constitution) direct all movements of the army, and advise with any allies. He shall, however, be tried, removed, or punished, on complaint by the President, by, at least, three general officers, or a majority of the House of Representatives, or of the Supreme Court; which House of Representatives (the President presiding); the Vice President, and the members of the Supreme Court, shall constitute a court-martial, for his trial; with power to remove or punish, as the case may require; and to fill his place as above provided.
ARTICLE VIII
OFFICERS
A Treasurer, Secretary of State, Secretary of War, and Secretary of the Treasury, shall each be chosen for the first three years, in the same way and manner as the Commander-in-Chief; subject to trial or removal on complaint of the President, Vice-President, or Commander in Chief, to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; or on complaint of the majority of the members of said court, or the Provisional Congress. The Supreme Court shall have power to try or punish either of those officers; and their places shall be filled as before.
ARTICLE IX
SECRETARY OF WAR
The Secretary of War shall be under the immediate directions of the Commander in Chief; who may temporarily fill his place, in case of arrest, or of any inability to serve.
ARTICLE X
CONGRESS OR HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
The House of Representatives shall make ordinances for the appointment (by the President or otherwise) of all civil officers except those already named; and shall have power to make all laws and ordinances for the general good, not inconsistent with this Constitution and these ordinances.
ARTICLE XI
APPROPRIATION OF MONEY, ETC.
The Provisional Congress shall have power to appropriate money or other property actually in the hands of the Treasurer, to any object calculated to promote the general good, so far as may be consistent with the provisions of this Constitution; and may in certain cases, appropriate, for a moderate compensation of agents, or persons not members of this organization, for important service they are known to have rendered.
ARTICLE XII
SPECIAL DUTIES
It shall be the duty of Congress to provide for the instant removal of any civil officer or policeman, who becomes habitually intoxicated, or who is addicted to other immoral conduct, or to any neglect or unfaithfulness in the discharge of his official duties. Congress shall also be a standing committee of safety, for the purpose of obtaining important information; and shall be in constant communication with the Commander-in-Chief; the members of which shall each, as also the President and Vice-President, members of the Supreme Court, and Secretary of State, have full power to issue warrants returnable as Congress shall ordain (naming Witnesses etc) upon their own information, without the formality of a complaint. Complaint shall be made immediately after arrest, and before trial; the party arrested to be served with a copy at once.
ARTICLE XIII
TRIAL OF PRESIDENT AND OTHER OFFICERS
The President and Vice President may either of them be tried, removed, or punished, on complaint made by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, by a majority of the House of Representatives, which House, together with the Associate Judges of the Supreme Court, the whole to be presided over by the Chief Justice in the cases of the trial of the Vice President, shall have full power to try such officers, to remove, or punish as the case may require, and to fill any vacancy so occurring, the same as in the case of the Commander-in-Chief.
ARTICLE XIV
TRIAL OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
The members of the House of Representatives may, any and all of them, be tried, and on conviction, removed or punished on complaint before the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, made by any number of members of said House, exceeding one third, which House, with the Vice President and Associate Judges of the Supreme Court, shall constitute the proper tribunal, with power to fill such vacancies.
ARTICLE XV
IMPEACHMENT OF JUDGES
Any member of the Supreme Court, tried, convicted, or punished by removal or otherwise, on complaint to the President, who shall, in such case, preside; the Vice-President, House of Representatives, and other members of the Supreme Court, constituting the proper tribunal (with power to fill vacancies); on complaint of a majority of said House of Representatives, or of the Supreme Court; a majority of the whole having power to decide.
ARTICLE XVI
DUTIES OF PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY OF STATE
The President, with the Secretary of State, shall immediately upon entering on the duties of their office, give special attention to secure, from amongst their own people, men of integrity, intelligence, and good business habits and capacity; and above all, of first rate moral and religious character and influence, to act as civil officers of every description and grade, as well as teachers, chaplains, physicians, surgeons, mechanics, agents of every description, clerks and messengers. They shall make special effort to induce at the earliest possible period, persons and families of that description, to locate themselves within the limits secured by this organization; and shall, moreover, from time to time, supply the names and residence of such persons to the Congress, for their special notice and information, as among the most important of their duties, and the President is hereby authorized and empowered to afford special aid to such individuals, from such moderate appropriations as the Congress shall be able and may deem it advisable to make for that object.
The President and Secretary of State, and in case of disagreement, the Vice-President shall appoint all civil officers, but shall not have power to remove any officer. All removals shall be the result of a fair trial, whether civil or military.
ARTICLE XVII
FURTHER DUTIES
It shall be the duty of the President and Secretary of State, to find out (as soon as possible) the real friends, as well as the enemies of this organization in every part of the country; to secure among them, innkeepers, private postmasters, private mail contractors, messengers and agents: through whom may be obtained correct and regular information, constantly; recruits for the service, places of deposit and sale; together with needed supplies: and it shall be matter of special regard to secure such facilities through the Northern States.
ARTICLE XVIII
DUTIES OF THE PRESIDENT
It shall be the duty of the President, as well as the House of Representatives, at all times, to inform the Commander-in-Chief of any matter that may require his attention, or that may affect the public safety.
ARTICLE XIX
DUTY OF PRESIDENT—CONTINUED
It shall be the duty of the President to see that the provisional ordinances of this organization, and those made by Congress, are properly and faithfully executed; and he may in cases of great urgency call on the Commander-in-Chief of the army, or other officers for aid; it being, however, intended that a sufficient civil police shall always be in readiness to secure implicit obedience to law.
ARTICLE XX
THE VICE-PRESIDENT
The Vice-President shall be the presiding officer of the Provisional Congress and in case of tie shall give the casting vote.
ARTICLE XXI
VACANCIES
In case of death, removal, or inability of the President, the Vice-President, and next to him, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, shall be the President during the remainder of the term: and the place of Chief-Justice thus made vacant shall be filled by Congress from some of the members of said Court; and places of the Vice-President and Associate Justice thus made vacant, filled by an election by the united action of the Provisional Congress and members of the Supreme Court. All other vacancies, not heretofore specially provided for, shall, during the first three years, be filled by the united action of the President, Vice-President, Supreme Court, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army.
ARTICLE XXII
PUNISHMENT OF CRIMES
The punishment of crimes not capital, except in the case of insubordinate convicts or other prisoners, shall be (so far as may be) by hard labor on the public works, roads, etc.
ARTICLE XXIII
ARMY APPOINTMENTS
It shall be the duty of all commissioned officers of the army to name candidates of merit for office or elevation to the Commander-in-Chief, who, with the Secretary of War, and, in cases of disagreement, the President, shall be the appointing power of the army: and all commissions of military officers shall bear the signatures of the Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary of War. And it shall be the special duty of the Secretary of War to keep for constant reference of the Commander-in-Chief a full list of names of persons nominated for office, or elevation, by officers of the army, with the name and rank of the officer nominating, stating distinctly but briefly the grounds for such notice or nomination. The Commander-in-Chief shall not have power to remove or punish any officer or soldier; but he may order their arrest and trial at any time, by court-martial.
ARTICLE XXIV
COURT-MARTIALS
Court martials for Companies, Regiments, Brigades, etc., shall be called by the chief officer of each command, on complaint to him by any officer, or any five privates, in such command, and shall consist of not less than five nor more than nine officers, and privates, one-half of whom shall not be lower in rank than the person on trial, to be chosen by the three highest officers in the command, which officers shall not be a part of such court. The chief officer of any command shall, of course be tried by a court-martial of the command above his own. All decisions affecting the lives of persons, or office of persons holding commission, must, before taking full effect, have the signature of the Commander-in-Chief, who may also, on the recommendation of, at least, one-third of the members of the court martial finding any sentence, grant a reprieve or commutation of the same.
ARTICLE XXV
SALARIES
No person connected with this organization shall be entitled to any salary, pay, or emoluments, other than a competent support of himself and family, unless it be from an equal dividend, made of public property, on the establishment of peace, or of special provision by treaty; which provision shall be made for all persons who may have been in any active civil or military service at any time previous to any hostile action for Liberty and Equality.
ARTICLE XXVI
TREATIES OF PEACE
Before any treaty of peace shall take effect, it shall be signed by the President and Vice-President, the Commander-in-Chief, a majority of the House of Representatives, a majority of the Supreme Court, and a majority of all general officers of the army.
ARTICLE XXVII
DUTY OF THE MILITARY
It shall be the duty of the Commander-in-Chief, and all officers and soldiers of the army, to afford special protection when needed, to Congress, or any member thereof; to the President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury and Secretary of War; and to afford general protection to all civil officers, other persons having right to the same.
ARTICLE XXVIII
PROPERTY
All captured or confiscated property, and all property the product of the labor of those belonging to this organization and their families, shall be held as the property of the whole, equally, without distinction; and may be used for the common benefit, or disposed of for the same object; and any person, officer or otherwise, who shall improperly retain, secrete, use, or needlessly destroy such property, or property found, captured, or confiscated, belonging to the enemy, or shall willfully neglect to render a full and fair statement of such property by him so taken or held, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction, shall be punished accordingly.
ARTICLE XXIX
SAFETY OR INTELLIGENCE FUND
All money, plate, watches or jewelry, captured by honorable warfare, found, taken or confiscated, belonging to the enemy, shall be held sacred, to constitute a liberal safety or intelligence fund; and any person who shall improperly retain, dispose of, hide, use, or destroy such money or other article above mentioned, contrary to the provisions and spirit of this article, shall be deemed guilty of theft, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished accordingly. The Treasurer shall furnish the Commander-in-Chief at all times with a full statement of the condition of such fund and its nature.
ARTICLE XXX
THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF AND THE TREASURY
The Commander-in-Chief shall have power to draw from the Treasury the money and other property of the fund provided for it in ARTICLE twenty-ninth, but his orders shall be signed also by the Secretary of War, who shall keep strict account of the same; subject to examination by any member of Congress, or general officer.
ARTICLE XXXI
SURPLUS OF THE SAFETY OR INTELLIGENCE FUND
It shall be the duty of the Commander-in-Chief to advise the President of any surplus of the Safety or Intelligence Fund; who shall have power to draw such surplus (his order being also signed by the Secretary of State) to enable him to carry out the provisions of Article Seventeenth.
ARTICLE XXXII
PRISONERS
No person, after having surrendered himself or herself a prisoner, and who shall properly demean himself or herself as such, to any officer or private connected with this organization, shall afterward be put to death, or be subject to any corporal punishment, without first having had the benefit of a fair and impartial trial: nor shall any prisoner be treated with any kind of cruelty, disrespect, insult, or needless severity: but it shall be the duty of all persons, male and female, connected herewith, at all times and under all circumstances, to treat all such prisoners with every degree of respect and kindness the nature of the circumstances will admit of; and to insist on a like course of conduct from all others, as in the fear of Almighty God, to whose care and keeping we commit our cause.
ARTICLE XXXIII
VOLUNTARIES
All persons who may come forward and shall voluntarily deliver up their slaves, and have their names registered on the Books of the organization, shall, so long as they continue at peace, be entitled to the fullest protection of person and property, though not connected with this organization, and shall be treated as friends, and not merely as persons neutral.
ARTICLE XXXIV
NEUTRALS
The persons and property of all non-slaveholders who shall remain absolute neutral, shall be respected so far as the circumstances can allow of it; but they shall not be entitled to any active protection.
ARTICLE XXXV
NO NEEDLESS WASTE
The needless waste or destruction of any useful property or article, by fire, throwing open of fences, fields, buildings, or needless killing of animals, or injury of either, shall not be tolerated at any time or place, but shall be promptly and properly punished.
ARTICLE XXXVI
PROPERTY CONFISCATED
The entire and real property of all persons known to be acting either directly or indirectly with or for the enemy, or found in arms with them, or found wilfully holding slaves, shall be confiscated and taken, whenever and wherever it may be found, in either free or slave States.
ARTICLE XXXVII
DESERTION
Persons convicted, on impartial trial, of desertion to the enemy after becoming members, acting as spies, or of treacherous surrender of property, arms, ammunition, provisions, or supplies of any kind, roads, bridges, persons or fortifications shall be put to death and their entire property confiscated.
ARTICLE XXXVIII
VIOLATION OF PAROLE OF HONOR
Persons proven to be guilty of taking up arms after having been set at liberty on parole of honor, or, after the same, to have taken an active part with or for the enemy, direct or indirect, shall be put to death and their entire property confiscated.
ARTICLE XXXIX
ALL MUST LABOR
All persons connected in any way with this organization, and who may be entitled to full protection under it, shall be held as under obligation to labor in some way for the general good, and any persons refusing, or neglecting so to do, shall on conviction receive a suitable and appropriate punishment.
ARTICLE XL
IRREGULARITIES
Profane Swearing, filthy conversation, indecent behavior, or indecent exposure of person, or intoxication, or quarreling, shall not be allowed or tolerated, neither unlawful intercourse of the sexes.
ARTICLE XLI
CRIMES
Persons convicted of the forcible violation of any female prisoner shall be put to death.
ARTICLE XLII
THE MARRIAGE RELATION—SCHOOLS—THE SABBATH
The marriage relation shall be at all times respected, and the families kept together as far as possible, and broken families encouraged to re-unite, and intelligence offices established for that purpose, schools and churches established, as soon as may be, for the purpose of religious and other instructions; and the first day of the week regarded as a day of rest and appropriated to moral and religious instruction and improvement; relief to the suffering, instruction of the young and ignorant, and the encouragement of personal cleanliness; nor shall any person be required on that day to perform ordinary manual labor, unless in extremely urgent cases.
ARTICLE XLIII
CARRY ARMS OPENLY
All persons known to be of good character, and of sound mind and suitable age, who are connected with this organization, whether male or female, shall be encouraged to carry arms openly.
ARTICLE XLIV
NO PERSON TO CARRY CONCEALED WEAPONS
No person within the limits of the conquered territory, except regularly appointed policemen, express officers of the army, mail carriers, or other fully accredited messengers of the Congress, President, Vice-President, members of the Supreme Court, or commissioned officers of the army—and those only under peculiar circumstances—shall be allowed, at any time, to carry concealed weapons; and any person not specially authorized so to do, who shall be found so doing, shall be deemed a suspicious person, and may be at once arrested by any officer, soldier, or citizen, without the formality of a complaint or warrant, and may at once be subject to thorough search, and shall have his or her case thoroughly investigated; and be dealt with as circumstances, or proof, may require.
ARTICLE XLV
PERSONS TO BE SEIZED
Persons within the limits of the territory holden by this organization, not connected with this organization, having arms at all, concealed or otherwise, shall be seized at once, or taken in charge of by some vigilant officer; and their case thoroughly investigated: and it shall be the duty of all citizens and soldiers, as well as officers, to arrest such parties as are named in this and the preceding Section or Article, without formality of complaint or warrant: and they shall be placed in charge of proper officer for examination or for safe keeping.
ARTICLE XLVI
THESE ARTICLES NOT FOR THE OVERTHROW OF GOVERNMENT
The foregoing articles shall not be construed so as in any way to encourage the overthrow of any State Government of the United States: and look to no dissolution of the Union, but simply to Amendment and Repeal. And our Flag shall be the same as our Fathers fought under in the Revolution.
ARTICLE XLVII
NO PLURALITY OF OFFICES
No two offices specially provided for, by this Instrument, shall be filled by the same person at the same time.
ARTICLE XLVIII
OATH
Every Officer, civil or military, connected with this organization, shall, before entering upon the duties of his office, make solemn oath or affirmation, to abide by and support this Provisional Constitution and these Ordinances. Also, every Citizen and Soldier, before being fully recognized as such, shall do the same.