The second war with Great Britain broke out with an incident in which the Negro in the navy was especially conspicuous. The Chesapeake, an American war vessel was hailed, fired upon and forced to strike her colors, by the British. She was then boarded and searched and four persons taken from her decks, claimed as deserters from the English navy. Three of these were Negroes and one white. The Negroes were finally dismissed with a reprimand and the white man hanged. Five years later hostilities began on land and no opposition was manifested toward the employment of Negro soldiers. Laws were passed, especially in New York, authorizing the formation of regiments of blacks with white officers. It is remarkable that although the successful insurrection of St. Domingo was so recent, and many refugees from that country at that time were in the United States, and our country had also but lately come into possession of a large French element by the Louisiana purchase, there was no fear of a servile insurrection in this country. The free colored men of New Orleans, under the proclamation of the narrow-minded Jackson, rallied to the defence of that city and bore themselves with commendable valor in that useless battle. The war closed, however, and the glory of the Negro soldier who fought in it soon expired in the dismal gloom of a race-slavery becoming daily more wide-spread and hopeless. John Brown's movement was military in character and contemplated the creation of an army of liberated slaves; but its early suppression prevented any display of Negro valor or genius. Its leader must ever receive the homage due those who are so moved by the woes of others as to overlook all considerations of policy and personal risk. As a plot for the destruction of life it fell far short of the Nat Turner insurrection which swept off fifty-seven persons within a few hours. In purpose the two episodes agree. They both aim at the liberation of the slave; both were led by fanatics, the reflex production of the cruelty of slavery, and both ended in the melancholy death of their heroic leaders. Turner's was the insurrection of the slave and was not free from the mad violence of revenge; Brown's was the insurrection of the friend of the slave, and was governed by the high and noble purpose of freedom. The insurrections of Denmark Vesey in South Carolina, in 1822, and of Nat Turner, in Virginia, in 1831, show conclusively that the Negro slave possessed the courage, the cunning, the secretiveness and the intelligence to fight for his freedom. These two attempts were sufficiently broad and intelligent, when taken into consideration with the enforced ignorance of the slave, to prove the Negro even in his forlorn condition capable of daring great things. Of the probable thousands who were engaged in the Denmark Vesey insurrection, only fifteen were convicted, and these died heroically without revealing anything connected with the plot.