John Brown by Luisa May Alcott

No breath of shame can touch his shield,
Nor ages dim its shine
Living he made life beautiful
Dying, made death divine.

The execution of John Brown it was hoped would put an end to the pesky black demand for dignified co-existence.

"John Brown's body lies a -moulding in the grave
But his soul goes marching on."

John Brown's eloquent final address to the court included the following.

" I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfeed as I have done - as I have always freely admitted I have done - in behalf of his dispised poor, was not wrong but right.
Now if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and the blood of millions in this slave country, whose, whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments - I submit, so let it be done."

Alan Dershowitz contends, "Orsini's attempt on Louis Napoleon, and John Brown's attempt at Harper's Ferry were, in their philosophy, prcisely the same."