inued, "is a national
institution; but it does no good for the slave." He thought it an
excuse very well adapted for weak men with tender consciences. Most
men who were afraid to fight, and too honest to be silent, deceived
themselves that they discharged their duties to the slave by
denouncing in fiery words the oppressor. His ideas of duty were far
different; the slaves, in his eyes, were prisoners of war; their
tyrants, as he held, had taken up the sword, and must perish by it.
This was his view of the great question of slavery.

The widow of the late Major George L. Stearns gives the following
personal recollections of John Brown, in a bright and entertaining
style. Mrs. Stearns's noble husband was very intimately related to the
"old hero," and what Mrs. Stearns writes is of great value.

"The passage of the Fugitive-Slave Bill in 1850, followed by the
virtual repeal of the Missouri Compromise, under the name of the
Kansas Nebraska Act, in 1854, alarmed all sane people for the
safety of republican institutions; and the excitement reached a
white heat when, on the 22d of May, 1856, Charles Sumner was
murderously assaulted in the Senate chamber by Preston S. Brooks,
of South Carolina, for words spoken in debate: the celebrated
speech of the 19th and 20th of May, known as 'The Crime Against
Kansas.' That same week the town of Lawrence in the territory of
Kansas was sacked and burned in the interest of the slave power.
The atrocities committed by the 'Border Ruffians' upon the
free-State settlers sent a thrill of terror through all
law-abiding communities. In Boston the citizens gathered in
Faneuil Hall to consider what could be done, and a committee was
chosen, with Dr. S. G. Howe as chairman, for the relief of
Kansas, called the 'Kansas Relief Committee.' After some $18,000
or $20,000 had been collected, chiefly in Boston, and forwarded
to Kansas, the interest flagged, and Mr. Stearns, who had been
working with that committee, saw the need of more energetic
action; so one day he went to Dr. Howe, and told him he was ready
to give _all_ his time, and much of his money, to push forward
the work. Dr. Howe seeing that here was the man for the hour,
immediately resigned, and Mr. Stearns was chosen unanimously
chairman of the 'Massachusetts State Kansas Committee,' which
took the place of the one fi