=432. John Brown’s Raid.=—In the later months of 1859 the country in all its parts was greatly moved by a fanatical attempt to induce the slaves of Virginia to revolt and insist upon freedom. John Brown,[193] who, as we have seen, played a conspicuous part in the Kansas difficulties, held the views of the abolitionists with all the stern severity of a seventeenth century Puritan. He believed that slavery was the “sum of all abominations,” and that he must devote himself to its overthrow. In July, 1859, he rented two houses on the Maryland side of the Potomac, about four miles from Harper’s Ferry. Here arms were collected, and on the 16th of October Brown mustered eighteen men, five of whom were negroes, for his intended attack. They cut the telegraph wires, and seized the watchman on the bridge; then, crossing to the Virginia side, Brown and two followers broke into the United States armory, and, binding the watchman, remained on guard. Before midnight he was master of Harper’s Ferry. But the inevitable result followed. The negroes refused to revolt, and soon the raiders were surrounded by an overwhelming force. They fought desperately, and did not surrender until, of the nineteen, ten had been killed. Four escaped and five were taken prisoners. Brown himself, after receiving several wounds in the head and body, was cut down and captured. Notwithstanding his wounds, he was brought to trial eight days after his arrest and, after a fair examination, was condemned to be hanged on the 2d of December. He died in the unwavering belief that he had contributed to a great cause. Almost the whole nation was thrown into an uproar. Republicans generally disavowed and condemned the act, but the people of the South had their fears multiplied. =433. Resolutions of Jefferson Davis.=—On February 2, 1860, Jefferson Davis, who had already come to be recognized as the ablest leader of the Southern Democrats, submitted to the Senate a series of resolutions designed to formulate the Southern party doctrine. The most significant and important of these resolutions was the fourth, which declared that “neither Congress, nor a Territorial Legislature, whether by direct legislation or by legislation of an indirect and unfriendly character, possesses power to annul or impair the constitutional right of any citizen of the United States to take his slave property into the common territories, and there hold and enjoy the same while the territorial condition remains.” This resolution was no doubt intended not only to formulate a doctrine for the guidance of the South, but also to inflict a fatal stab upon Douglas, for the Illinois Senator had taken the ground, in the “Freeport Doctrine,” that notwithstanding the Dred Scott Decision, the people of a territory could make slavery impossible by what he called “unfriendly legislation.”