John Brown in Kansas
settled, like a steadfast Yankee farmer,
Brave and godly,
with four sons, all stalwart men of might.
There he spoke aloud for Freedom, and the Border-strife grew
warmer,
Till the Rangers
fired his dwelling, in his absence, in the night:[5]
And Old
Brown
Osawatomie
Brown,
Came homeward in the morning—to find his house burned down
Then he grasped his trusty rifle and boldly fought for
Freedom,
Smote from border
unto border the fierce, invading band;[10]
And he and his brave boys vowed—so might Heaven help and
speed
‘em!—
They would save
those grand old prairies from the curse that
blights the land:
.And Old Brown,[15]
Osawatomie
Brown,
Said, “Boys, the Lord will aid us!” and he shoved his ramrod
down.
And the Lord did
aid these men, and the labored day and even,
Saving Kansas from its peril;
and their very lives seemed
charmed,[20]
Till the Ruffians killed one son, in the blessed light of
Heaven—
In cold blood the
fellows slew him, as he journeyed all unarmed:
And Old
Brown,
Osawatomie
Brown,
Shed not a tear, but shut his teeth and frowned a terrible
frown![25]
Then they seized another brave boy—not amid the heat of
battle,
But in peace,
behind his plow-share,—and they loaded him with
chains,
And with pikes, before their horses, even as the goad their
cattle,
Drive him cruelly,
for their sport, and at last blew out his brains:[30]
And Old
Brown,
Osawatomie
Brown,
Raised his right hand up to Heaven, calling Heaven’s
vengeance down.
And he swore a fearful oath, by the name of the Almighty,
He would hunt this
ravening evil that had scathed and torn[35]
him so;
He would seize it by the vitals; he would crush it day and
night; he
Would so pursue its
footsteps, so return it blow for blow,
That Old
Brown,
Osawatomie
Brown,[40]
Should be a name to swear by, in backwoods or in town!
Then his beard became more grizzled, and his wild blue eye
grew wilder,
And more sharply
curved his hawk’s nose, snuffing battle from afar;
And he and the two boys left, though the Kansas strife waxed milder,
Grew more sullen,
till was over the bloody Border War,[45]
And Old
Brown,
Osawatomie
Brown,
Had gone crazy, as they reckoned by his fearful glare and
frown.
So he left the plains of Kansas and their bitter woes behind him,
Slept off into Virginia, where the statesmen
all are born,[50]
Hired a farm by Harper’s Ferry, and no one knew where to
find him,
Or whether he’d
turned parson, or was jacketed and shorn;
For Old
Brown,
Osawatomie
Brown,
Mad as he was, knew texts enough to wear a parson’s gown.[55]
He bought no plows and harrows, spades and shovels, or such
trifles,
But quietly to his
rancho there came, by every train,
Boxes full of pikes and pistols, and his well-beloved
Sharp’s rifles;
And eighteen other
madmen joined their leader there again:[60]
Says Old
Brown,
Osawatomie
Brown,
“Boys, we have got an army large enough to whip the town!”
“Whip the town, and seize the muskets, free the negroes and
then arm
them;[65]
Carry the County
and the State, aye, and all the potent South.
On their own heads be the slaughter, if their victims rise
to harm them—
These Virginians,
who believed not, nor would heed the warning
mouth.”
Says Old
Brown[70]
Osawatomie
Brown,
“The world shall see a Republic, or my name is not John
Brown.”
'T was the sixteenth of October, on the evening of a Sunday:
"This good work," declared
the captain, "shall be on a holy night!"
It was on a Sunday evening, and before the noon of Monday, [75] With two sons, and Captain Stephens,
fifteen privates—black and
white—
Captain Brown,
Osawatomie Brown,
Marched across the bridged Potomac,
and knocked the sentinel down; [80]
Took the guarded armory-building, and the muskets and the
cannon; Captured all the county majors and the
colonels, one by one;
Scared to death each gallant scion of Virginia
they ran on, And before the noon of Monday, I say,
the deed was done.
Mad Old Brown, [85]
Osawatomie Brown,
With his eighteen other crazy men, went in and took the town.
Very little noise and bluster, little smell of powder made he; It was all done in the midnight, like
the Emperor's coup d'état.
"Cut the wires! Stop the rail-cars! Hold the streets and bridges!" [90]
said he,
Then declared the new Republic, with himself for guiding star,—
This Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown;
And the bold two thousand citizens ran off and left the town. [95]
Then was riding and railroading and expressing here and thither; And the Martinsburg Sharpshooters and
the Charlestown Volun-
teers,
And the Shepherdstown and Winchester Militia hastened whither Old Brown was said to muster his ten
thousand grenadiers. [100]
General Brown!
Osawatomie Brown!!
Behind whose rampant banner all the North was pouring down.
But at last, 't is said, some prisoners escaped from Old Brown's durance, And the effervescent valor of Ye
Chivalry broke forth, [105]
When they learned that nineteen madmen had the marvellous assur-
ance— Only nineteen—thus to seize the place
and drive them straight about;
And Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown, [110]
Found an army come to take him, encamped around the town.
But to storm, with all the forces I have mentioned, was too risky; So they hurried off to Richmond for the
Government Marines,
Tore them from their weeping matrons, fired their souls with Bourbon
whiskey, [115]
Till they battered down Brown's castle with their ladders and machines;
And Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown,
Received three bayonet stabs, and a cut on his brave old crown.
Tallyho! the old Virginia
gentry gather to the baying! [120] In they rushed and killed the game,
shooting lustily away;
And whene'er they slew a rebel, those who came too late for slaying, Not to lose a share of glory, fired
their bullets in his clay;
And Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown, [125]
Saw his sons fall dead beside him, and between them laid him down.
How the conquerors wore their laurels; how they hastened on the
trial; How Old Brown was placed, half dying,
on the Charlestown Court-
House floor; [130]
How he spoke his grand oration, in the scorn of all denial;
What the brave old madman told them,—these are known the
country o'er.
"Hang Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown," [135]
Said the judge, "and all such rebels!" with his most judicial frown.
But, Virginians, don't do it! for I tell you that the flagon, Filled with blood of Old Brown's
offspring, was first poured by
Southern hands;
And each drop from Old Brown's life-veins, like the red gore of the [140]
dragon,
May spring up a vengeful Fury, hissing through your slave-worn
lands!
And Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown, [145]
May trouble you more than ever, when you've nailed his coffin down!