and of humanity, and that nothing that I or all my family have
sacrificed or suffered will be lost. Do not feel ashamed on my account,
nor for one moment despair of the cause, or grow weary of well-doing. I
bless God I never felt stronger confidence in the certain and near
approach of a bright morning and glorious day than I have felt, and do
now feel, since my confinement here." In a previous letter to his
family, he said, "Never forget the poor, nor think anything you bestow
on them to be lost to you, even though they may be as black as
Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian eunuch, who cared for Jeremiah in the pit of
the dungeon, or as black as the one to whom Philip preached Christ.
'Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them.'" As he stepped out
of the jail-door, on his way to the gallows, "a black woman, with a
little child in her arms, stood near his way. The twain were of the
despised race for whose emancipation and elevation to the dignity of the
children of God he was about to lay down his life. His thoughts at that
moment none can know except as his acts interpret them. He stopped for a
moment in his course, stooped over, and with the tenderness of one whose
love is as broad as the brotherhood of man, kissed it affectionately. As
he came upon an eminence near the gallows, he cast his eye over the
beautiful landscape, and followed the windings of the Blue Ridge
Mountains in the distance. He looked up earnestly at the sun, and sky,
and all about, and then remarked, 'This is a beautiful country. I have
not cast my eyes over it before.'" "You are more cheerful than I am,
Captain Brown," said the undertaker, who sat with him in the wagon.
"Yes," answered the old man, "I ought to be." "'Gentlemen, good-by,' he
said to two acquaintances, as he passed from the wagon to the scaffold,
which he was first to mount. As he quietly awaited the necessary
arrangements, he surveyed the scenery unmoved, looking principally in
the direction of the people, in the far distance. 'There is no faltering
in his step, wrote one who saw him, 'but firmly and erect he stands
amid the almost breathless lines of soldiery that surround him. With a
graceful motion of his pinioned right arm he takes the slouched hat from
his head and carelessly casts it upon the platform by his side. His
elbows and ankles are pinioned, the white cap is drawn over his eyes,
the hangman's rope is adjusted around his neck.' 'Captain Brown,' said
the sheriff, 'you are not standing on the drop. Will you come forward?'
'I can't see you, gentlemen,' was the old man's answer, unfalteringly
spoken; 'you must lead me.' The sheriff led his prisoner forward to the
centre of the drop. 'Shall I give you a handkerchief,' he then asked,
'and let you drop it as a signal?' 'No; I am ready at any time; but do
not keep me needlessly waiting.'"
"Give the corpse a good dose of arsenic, and make sure work of it!"
exclaimed a captain of Virginia militia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account