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Criminal trial held at Charles Town

Virginia v. John Brown was a criminal trial held in Charles Town, Virginia, in October 1859. The abolitionist John Brown was quickly prosecuted for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, murder, and inciting a slave insurrection, all part of his raid on the United States federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. (Since 1863, both Charles Town and Harpers Ferry have been located in West Virginia.) He was found guilty of all charges, sentenced to death, and was executed by hanging on December 2. He was the first person executed for treason in the United States. It was in many respects a most remarkable trial. Capital cases have been exceedingly few in the history of our country where trial and conviction have followed so quickly upon the commission of the offense. Within a fortnight from the time when Brown had struck what he believed to be a righteous blow against what he felt to be the greatest sin of the age he was a condemned felon, with only thirty days between his life and the hangman's noose. During most of the trial Brown, unable to stand, lay on a pallet.

On October 16, 1859, Brown led (counting himself) 22 armed men, 5 black and 17 white, to Harpers Ferry, an important railroad, river, and canal junction. His goal was to seize the federal arsenal there and then, using the captured arms, lead a slave insurrection across the South. Brown and his men engaged in a two day standoff with local militia and federal troops, in which ten of his men were shot or killed, five were captured, and five escaped. Of Brown's three sons participating, Oliver and Watson were killed during the fight, Watson surviving in agony for another day. Owen escaped and later fought in the Union Army.

Considering its aftermath, it was arguably the most important criminal trial in the history of the country, for it was closely related to the war that quickly followed. According to historian Karen Whitman, "The conduct of John Brown during his incarceration and trial was so strong and unwavering that slavery went on trial rather than slavery's captive." According to Brian McGinty, the "Brown of history" was thus born in his trial. Had Brown died before his trial, he would have been "condemned as a madman and relegated to a footnote of history". Robert McGlone added that "the trial did magnify and exalt his image. But Brown's own efforts to fashion his ultimate public persona began long before the raid and culminated only in the weeks that followed his dramatic speech at his sentencing." After his arrest, Brown engaged in extensive correspondence. After the conviction and sentencing, the judge permitted him to have visitors, and in his final month aliveVirginia law required that a month elapse between sentencing and executionhe gave interviews to reporters or anyone else who wanted to talk to him. All of this was facilitated by the "just and humane" jailor of Jefferson County, Captain John Avis, who "does all for his prisoners that his duty allows him to", and had a "sincere respect" for Brown. Brown's last meal, and the last time he saw his wife, was with the jailer's family, in their apartment at the jail.

Brown faced a grand jury on Tuesday, October 25, 1859, just eight days after his capture in the armory. Brown was brought into court "accompanied by a body of armed men. Cannon were stationed in front of the court house [see illustration], and an armed guard were patrolling round the jail." that there was not even standing room. Also on the 26th, M. Johnson, the United States Marshall from Cleveland, Ohio, arrived and identified Copeland as a fugitive from justice in Ohio.

The next question was what legal counsel Brown was to have. The Court assigned two "Virginians and pro slavery men", John Faulkner and Lawson Botts, as counsel for him and the other accused. Brown did not accept them; he told the judge that he had sent for counsel, "who have not had time to reach here". Brown asked for "a delay of two or three days" for his counsel to arrive. Prosecuting attorney Hunter said that delay would be dangerous; there was "exceeding pressure on the resources of the community". He asked that Brown's body be examined by a doctor, who did not find that Brown's health required delay. The remainder of October 26 was used to choose jurors. Also on the 26th, abolitionist Lydia Maria Child sent Wise a letter to deliver to Brown, and asked to be permitted to nurse him. Wise responded that she was free to go to Charles Town, that he had forwarded her letter there, but only the court could allow her access. Child sold her piano to raise funds for Brown's family. After publishing it in newspapers, where it was widely read, she also published in book form, to raise money, her correspondence with and relating to Brown. It sold over 300,000 copies, A court appointed lawyer said that a Virginia court could only try Brown for acts committed in Virginia, not in Maryland or on federal property (the arsenal). State counsel denied this was relevant. Brown, having received by telegraph news from a lawyer in Ohio, asked for a delay of one day; this was denied. The state attorney said that Brown's real motive was "to give to his friends the time and opportunity to organize a rescue."

The prosecuting attorney for Jefferson County was Charles R. Harding, "whose daily occupations [drinking] are not of the nature to fit for the management of an important case". He was not on the same level as the defense attorneys. He agreed, unhappily, to be replaced for these cases, as Wise wanted, by Wise's personal attorney, Andrew Hunter. A Northern newspaper described Hunter as a "furious advocate of slavery". The prosecuting attorney, then, was Hunter, whose office was in Charles Town, despite the fact that in writing he referred to himself as the Assistant Prosecuting Attorney. He wrote the indictment. The central prosecution witness in the trial was Colonel Lewis Washington, great grandnephew of George Washington, who had been kidnapped out of his home, Beall Air, and held hostage near the Federal Armory. His slaves were militarily "impressed" (conscripted) by Brown, but they took no active part in the insurrection, he said. Other local witnesses testified to the seizure of the federal armory, the appearance of Virginia militia groups, and shootings on the railroad bridge. Other evidence described the U. S. Marines' raid on the fire engine house where Brown and his men were barricaded. U. S. Army Colonel Robert E. Lee and cavalry officer J. E. B. Stuart led the Marine raid, and it freed the hostages and ended the standoff. Lee did not appear at the trial to testify, but instead filed an affidavit to the court with his account of the Marines' raid. The manuscript evidence was of particular interest to the judge and jury. Many documents were found on the Maryland farm rented by John Brown under the alias Isaac Smith. These included hundreds of undistributed copies of a previously unknown Provisional Constitution for an anti slavery government. These documents clinched the treason and pre meditated murder charges against Brown. The prosecution concluded its examination of witnesses. The defense called witnesses, but they did not appear as subpoenas had not been served on them. Mr. Hoyt said that other counsel for Brown would arrive that evening. Both court appointed attorneys then resigned, and the trial was adjourned until the next day. The final plea by the defense team for mercy concerned the circumstances surrounding the death of two of John Brown's men, who were apparently fired upon and killed by the Virginia militia while under a flag of truce. The armed community surrounding the Federal Arsenal did not hold their fire when Brown's men emerged to parley. This incident is noticeable upon a close reading of the published testimony, but is generally neglected in more popular accounts. If the rebels under a flag of truce were deliberately fired upon, it does not appear to have been a major issue to the judge and jury. The defense's closing argument was given by Hiram Griswold, a lawyer from Cleveland, Ohio, who arrived on October 31. Griswold was well known as an abolitionist; he had helped fugitive slaves, and was representing Brown pro bono. In contrast, Chilton was no abolitionist, and only became involved after supporters of Brown promised to pay a very high fee, $1,000 (1000.0 in 1859 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years). Brown, while making various suggestions to his attorneys, was frustrated because under Virginia law, defendants were not allowed to testify, the assumption being that they had reason not to tell the truth. One of Brown's attorneys made "a motion for an arrest of judgment", but it was not argued. "Counsel on both sides being too much exhausted to go on, the motion was ordered to stand over until tomorrow, and Brown was again removed unsentenced to prison" (actually to the Jefferson County jail).]] Brown's sentencing took place on November 2, 1859. As Virginia court procedure required, Brown was first asked to stand and say if there was reason sentence should not be passed upon him. He arosehe could now stand unassistedand made what his first biographer called "[his] last speech". It was reproduced in full in at least 52 American newspapers, making the front page of the New York Times, the Richmond Dispatch, and several other papers. Wm. Lloyd Garrison printed it on a broadside and had it for sale in The Liberator's office (reproduced in Gallery, below). After Brown completed his speech, the entire courtroom sat in silence. According to one journalist news source: "The only demonstration made was by the clapping of the hands [applauding] of one man in the crowd, who is not a resident of Jefferson County. This was promptly suppressed, and much regret is expressed by the citizens at its occurrence." The judge then sentenced Brown to death by hanging, to take place in a month, on December 2. An appeal to the Virginia Court of Appeals (a petition for a Writ of Error) was not successful. Delegations called on both Hoyt and Sennott to warn them of violence if they did not leave; the mayor said he had no force with which to resist the lynch mob expected to assemble the next day, Sunday. "The people of Charlestown are wholly given up to hatred of all Northern visitors." Wise received many communicationsone source says "thousands",urging him to mitigate Brown's sentence. For example, New York City Mayor Fernando Wood, who would seriously propose that New York City secede from the Union so as to continue the cotton trade with the Confederacy, and who strongly opposed the Thirteenth Amendment ending slavery, wrote Wise on November 2. He advocated sending Brown to prison instead of executing him, saying that it was in the South's interest to do so; it would benefit the South more to behave magnanimously toward a fanatic, with whom there was sympathy, than to execute him. Wise replied that in his view Brown should be hung, and he regretted not having gotten to Harpers Ferry fast enough to declare martial law and execute the rebels through court martial. Brown's trial was fair and "it was impossible not to convict him." As Governor, he had nothing to do with Brown's death sentence; he did not have to sign a death warrant. His only possible involvement was from his power to pardon, and he had received "petitions, prayers, threats from almost every Free State in the Union," warning that Brown's execution would turn him into a martyr. But Wise stated that as Governor he did not have authority to pardon a traitor, only the House of Burgesses could. For the other charges, Wise believed that it would not be wise to "spare a murderer, a robber, a traitor," because of "public sentiment elsewhere". He also refused to declare Brown insane, which would have spared his life and put him in a mental hospital; Brown's supporter Gerrit Smith was forced to do that. Public sentiment in Virginia clearly wanted Brown executed. Wise was spoken of as a possible presidential candidate, and a pardon or reprieve could have ended his political career. The Richmond Enquirer, backing Wise as a presidential candidate on November 10, said that because of Wise's handling of "the Harper's Ferry affair" his "stock has gone up one hundred percent".

After a number of other reports of rescue plans from various surrounding states, Hunter received on November 19 a telegraphic dispatch from "United States Marshal Johnson of Ohio," and Governor Wise one from the Governor of Ohio, stating that a large number of men, from 600 to 1,000, were arming under the leadership of John Brown, Jr., to attempt to retake the prisoners. After Hunter informed Governor Wise, and Wise telegraphed President Buchanan, Buchanan sent two companies of artillery from Fort Monroe to Harpers Ferry. Wise sent "detectives" to Harpers Ferry, charging Hunter to use them to investigate rescue efforts from Ohio. "I sent one to Oberlin, who joined the party there, slept one night in the same bed as John Brown, Jr., and reported to me their doings out and out," said Hunter. Hunter had "troops" moved to block entry from Ohio into Virginia. Nothing significant came of any of these rescue plans.

During the month between his conviction and the day of his execution, Brown wrote over 100 letters, in which he described his vision of a post slavery America in eloquent and spiritual terms. Most of them, and a few letters to him, were immediately published in newspapers and pamphlets. They were hugely influential in accelerating the abolition movement and putting slaveholders on the defensive. He had previously been prevented by the Court from "making a full statement of his motives and intentions through the press", as he desired; the Court had "refused all access to reporters". blockquote|He states that he welcomes every one, and that he is preaching, even in jail, with great effect, upon the enormities of slavery. "I have had a great many rare opportunities for 'preaching righteousness in the great congregation'" []. He wrote to his wife that he had received so many "kind and encouraging letters" that he could not possibly reply to them all. "I do not think that I ever enjoyed life better than since my confinement here," he wrote on November 24. On November 28, Brown wrote the following to an Ohio friend, Daniel R. Tilden:

A meeting was held in the Tremont Temple, Boston, on November 19, "in aid of the suffering families of John Brown and his associates". Attendance was over 2,000. Presiding was John A. Andrew; his speech and his other testimony supporting Brown, including "John Brown and John A. Andrew" (pp. 13–15), reprinted from the Boston Traveller, were published in 1860 to help his successful campaign for Governor of Massachusetts.

His visitors included his pro slavery enemy from Kansas Henry Clay Pate, who came 175 mile (282 km) from his home in Petersburg to Charles Town to see Brown. They prepared a statement, witnessed by Capt. John Avis and two others, about events at the Battle of Black Jack.

John repeatedly expressed his desire that Mary not visit him, as that would "add to my affliction, & cannot possibly do me any good". It would use some of her scant resources, and subject her to being "a gazing stock throughout the whole journey, to be remarked upon in every look, word and action by all sorts of creatures and all sorts of papers." Mary did, however, reach Charles Town, and was allowed by Virginia Governor Wise to visit Brown for several hours on December 1, though she was not allowed to stay with him overnight.

Brown was not the only happy man present. For those who supported slavery, the execution of Brown was a momentous event. Finally abolitionists were starting to be dealt with appropriately. The rope with which Brown was to be hung, made of South Carolina cotton, as visitors were told, was on display in the Sheriff's office. The Southern press was there in force. Hundreds of people visited the carpenter making Brown's coffin, asking for a piece of the board. Yet there were "very few strangers", according to a reporter who concealed his name.) Members of the Young Guard, from Richmond, went door to door, "treating the fair occupants to some vocal as well as instrumental music." A military band, arrived from Richmond, briefly made everything "gleeful". The fife and kettle drum were heard "continually". He was so interested in seeing it that he abandoned rehearsals at the Richmond Theater and travelled to Charles Town specifically for this purpose. So as to gain access that the public would not have, he donned for one day a borrowed uniform of the Richmond Grays, Planter and pro slavery activist Edmund Ruffin, traditionally credited with firing the first shot of the Civil War (at Fort Sumter, where he traveled for the purpose), did the same. That Governor Wise would not be present made the paper, as did the fact that his son, newspaper editor O. Jennings Wise, was there as a militia member. as did the mayor of Charles Town (see below). A prospective visitor from northwestern Pennsylvania, where Brown had lived for 11 years, was told in Philadelphia not to proceed, as martial law had in fact been declared in "the country around Charlestown". Militia had been stationed in Charles Town continuously from the arrest until the execution, to prevent a much feared armed rescue of Brown. Military orders for the day of execution had 14 points. The telegraph was restricted to military use. As further protection, "a field piece loaded with grape and canister had been planted directly in front of and aimed at the scaffold, so as to blow poor Brown's body to smithereens in the event of attempted rescue." "The outer line of military will be nearly a mile (1.4 km) from the scaffold, and the inner line so distant that not a word John Brown may speak can be heard."

Governor Wise had John's body released to his widow Mary, who was awaiting it in Harpers Ferry. She and supporters traveled, via Philadelphia, Troy, New York, and Rutland, Vermont, to John Brown's Farm, in North Elba, New York, near the modern village of Lake Placid. The funeral and burial took place there on December 8, 1859. Rev. Joshua Young presided. Wendell Phillips spoke.

"In the minds of Southerners, Brown was the greatest threat to slavery the South had ever witnessed." His execution on December 2 was what most white Southerners wanted, but it gave them little relief from their panic. "The South was visibly beside itself with rage and terror." According to Dennis Frye, formerly the chief historian at the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, "this was the South's Pearl Harbor, its ground zero". Northern inspired revolt of their allegedly happy enslaved was the South's worst nightmare, and it was taken for granted that others would soon follow in Brown's footsteps. In the North the result was the opposite. "We shall be a thousand times more Anti Slavery than we ever dared to think of being before," proclaimed a Massachusetts newspaper.

Across the North, except for the large cities which feared the economic effect of Southern secession (Boston, New York, Philadelphia), the day Brown was hanged was treated as a day of national calamity: bells were rung, meetings held, speeches and sermons given, the flag flown at half mast. Huge prayer meetings were held in Concord, New Bedford, Worcester, and Plymouth, Massachusetts, and many other cities. Churches and temples were full of mourners. The chapel of Yale College was draped in mourning. In Concord, Massachusetts, a ceremony was held at the Town Hall, in which an organ had been placed for the occasion. Henry Thoreau was a key speaker, as was Ralph Waldo Emerson. The "celebrated" words of President Thomas Jefferson on slavery were read. A considerable portion of the Wisdom of Solomon was read. In Boston, flags were at half mast, and memorial services were held in the public schools. A year later, however, an attempt by Wm. Lloyd Garrison, James Redpath, Franklin B. Sanborn, and Frederick Douglass to commemorate the execution in Tremont Temple could not take place because they were met with violence. In Albany, New York, Brown received a slow 100 gun salute. In Syracuse, New York, City Hall was "densely packed" with citizens, who listened to over three hours of speeches and contributed "a large amount of money" to aid his family. The City Hall bell was rung 63 times, "the strokes corresponding with Brown's age". In Philadelphia, a sympathy meeting was held in Shiloh Hall; December 2 was designated "Martyr Day". In National Hall there was that evening "an extensive Brown meeting", with "an overflow crowd of more than 4,000". Three letters Brown sent from jail were read, and Theodore Tilton, whose speech was immediately published, compared the "martyr" Brown with Biblical figures and other historical martyrs. In Cleveland there was a crowd of 5,000; the Melodeon was draped in mourning. Across a main street was a banner with the quote: "I do not think I can better honor the cause I love than to die for it". Some businesses closed; in Akron, court adjourned. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 100 guns were fired at noon. In Montreal, there were "numerously attended" meetings on December 2, at which a collection for Brown's family was taken. In Port au Prince, Haiti, there were three days of mourning, all flags were at half mast, and houses and the cathedral were draped in black. They raised $2,240 (2240.0 in 1860 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years) to assist his widow Mary, which she had not received as of July 1860; later they sent $1,600 to Mary and $200 each to Cook's and Leahy's widows, John Brown Jr., Owen Brown, and Osborne Anderson. Haitians also sent to the U. S. 2,000 bags of coffee, of each, to be sold to benefit the fund. Avenue John Brown is the only major street anywhere in the world named for Brown. There is also an avenue named for abolitionist Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner. In the United States, as of July 1860, $6,150 (~$ in ) had been raised to help the Brown widows and others affected by the raid. In Princeton, New Jersey, on December 3 students demonstrated against Brown, and burned William H. Seward and Henry Ward Beecher in effigy. In Boston, on December 8, former Massachusetts Governors Edward Everett and Levi Lincoln Jr. addressed an anti John Brown rally, that filled Faneuil Hall to capacity. The participation of former president Franklin Pierce had been announced, but he sent a letter of regret.

The barns of all the members of the jury that convicted Brown were burned by slaves. On December 2, 1859, the day of his hanging, "the farm of a ruthless slaveholder killed at Harper's Ferry was burned, and his livestock poisoned by slaves." "Slaves in Maryland stopped a westbound train, carrying the rebellion into a different county, and five were arrested after trying to organize a horse and carriage 'stampede' to freedom." There was a "mass movement of self liberation" among the slaves of Jefferson County. Barns were burned in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, and letters threatened further violence. Jerry, an enslaved man from nearby Clarke County, Virginia, was in January 1860 convicted of inciting a slave insurrection.

"The attempt of John Brown has not had much effect, but the manner in which that attempt is received at the North is what has done the injury. The orations, speeches, sympathy, approval, the proposal to toll bells, close stores, &c., without any public manifestation to the contrary, has created a state of feeling at the South that is not to be described. In all our previous troubles I never had a shadow of fear as to the Union. But now I acknowledge that my fears amount almost to conviction that we shall see on the 5th [of December 1859] the last Congress of the present Union assemble. The cry for dissolution is sincere and unanimous. It is no longer the ultras and the fire eaters." "The execution of these prisoners is yet [1901] memorable in Virginia as one of the most impressive exhibitions ever given in the history of the State. It would have been eminently wise for the Virginia governor to have treated Brown and his followers as fanatical [insane] beyond full responsibility to the law, but the ostentatious exhibition of vengeance that came up from Virginia did much to deepen and widen the anti slavery sentiment of the North. [H]e gave his life in such heroic devotion to his cause that the Northern people were impressed far beyond what they themselves had knowledge of." There were 45 actors, most residents of Charles Town. Actual antiques were used; among other things, the man playing Brown was shackled with the handcuffs Brown had worn. Most of the words spoken were almost identical with those said at the trial. The title comes from this line in the text: "At times in history a man appears, pointed like a compass at one stara man of iron, an anvil on which God beats out his purposes." The trial was reenacted in 2019 by students from Shenandoah University. A version will be available at Shenandoah Valley Civil War Museum, in Winchester, Virginia.