DEAR SIR: I have just had my attention called to a seeming confliction between the statement I made to Governor Wise and that which I made at the time I received my sentence, regarding my intentions respecting the slaves we took _about the Ferry_. There need be no such confliction, and a few words of explanation will, I think, be quite sufficient. I had given Governor Wise a _full and particular_ account of that, and when called in court to say whether I had anything further to urge, I was taken wholly by surprise, as I did not expect my sentence before the others. In the hurry of the moment, I forgot much that I had before _intended to say_, and did _not_ consider the full bearing of what _I then said_. I intended to convey the idea, that it was my object to place the slaves in a condition to defend their liberties, if they would, _without any bloodshed, but not_ that I intended _to run them out of the slave States_. I was not _aware_ of any such apparent confliction until my attention _was called_ to it, and I do not suppose that a man in _my then circumstances_ should be _superhuman_ in respect to the _exact purport_ of every word he might utter. What I said to Governor Wise was spoken with all the deliberation I was master of, _and was intended for the truth_; and what I said in court was _equally intended for truth_, but required a more full explanation _than I then gave_. Please make such use of this as you think calculated to correct any _wrong_ impressions I may have given. Very respectfully yours, JOHN BROWN. _Andrew Hunter, Esq., Present._ Mr. Emerson, in his oration at the funeral services of Abraham Lincoln, held at Concord, April 19th, 1865, saw fit to compare Brown's discredited speech with the greatest orations of time. He said: His speech at Gettysburg will not easily be surpassed by words on any recorded occasion. This and one other American speech, that of John Brown to the court that tried him, and a part of Kossuth's speech at Birmingham, can only be compared with each other, and with no fourth.[472] But is this comparison really relevant? Will the historian accept Mr. Emerson's comparison of this exhibit of Brown's prevarication, with the immortal words of the immortal Lincoln? The speeches are characteristic of the men who uttered them. Mr. Lincoln did not begin his sublime oration with a falsehood. Brown made a speech October 25th, which was truly an heroic utterance and deserving of a place in history.[473] His words on that occasion, were hurled at his enemies, the "Virginians" whom he addressed. That speech was as characteristic of his splendid courage, as his speech of November 2d, was of his craftiness, for John Brown was as brave as he was crafty.