The Journal, in spite of its prudent disclaimers
before
the election, really justifies Brown's attempt at servile
insurrection and civil war, and devotes solid columns of
its last evening's issue to his defence.
-- [Argus.]
The Argus knows very well that the Journal "really" does nothing of the kind. We have, from first to last, condemned the raid at Harper's Ferry, as inexcusably foolish and criminal. In charging to the contrary, the Argus not only does a very silly but a very malicious thing. It "bears false witness," with its eyes open, and thus does what Gov. Wise admits John Brown, with all his faults, would be ashamed to do.
Not only does the Journal not "justify
Brown's attempt at servile insurrection," but it
is a significant fact that, of the hundreds of
speeches from the platform and of sermons
from the pulpit, which have grown out of this
raid, not more than two of them even attempt
any such "justification." They may speak well
of the man, and eulogize his courage and truthfulness.
But so does Gov. Wise. They may
ridicule the "panic" which the criminal invasion
caused. So does the Argus. They may
ridicule the "parade and fuss" which Gov. Wise
is making at Charlestown. So does the Argus.
Indeed, on this point its language is even more
scathing than any thing uttered by either
Cheever, Beecher, or Phillips. They may
have spoken of Brown as a "hero." So has
the Argus, charging upon Gov. Wise (and not
upon the Journal) the responsibility of having
"made the prisoners HEROES, for the purpose of
sharing in the clap-trap." They may have
depreciated the execution of these "heroes;" but
so has the Argus -- denouncing the Courier and
Enquirer and Richmond Whig for clamoring for
their death, because "any mode of summary
execution would suit the necessities of those
journals better than delay and cool investigation."
They and we may have predicted that the execution
of John Brown would intensify the existing
excitement; and so has the Argus, which
says: "We are not certain but the Journal is
right. We fear this is but the 'beginning of the end.'"
But while the Argus has been thus chiming in
with the humors of Beecher, Cheever and
Phillips, because it could thereby gratify the
malice which it cherishes toward Gov. Wise on
account of the castigation which it received from
him in the "Donnelly Letter" controversy, it is
silent on the subject of Secretary Floyd's criminal
complicity with the Harper's Ferry insurrection.
Nor has it a word of rebuke for the forcible
expulsion of school-masters, pedlars and
music teachers from Virginia, on suspicion of
abolition sympathies; for the imprisonment of
peaceable men, journeying through Charlestown
on the cars, for having, in Ohio, uttered words
which Virginia spies deemed incendiary; or for
the arrest of a quiet Quaker in the city of Washington
for exercising the inalienable right of
Free Speech. It can utter falsehoods
about its
neighbors, but it dare not tell the truth about
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