140.
In the country at large, as in Congress, the John Brown raid excited bitter discussion and radically diverse comment--some execrating him as a deservedly punished felon, while others exalted him as a saint.
His Boston friends particularly, who had encouraged him with voice or money, were extravagant in their demonstrations of approval and admiration.

On the day of his execution religious services were held, and funeral bells were tolled.

"The road to heaven," said Theodore Parker, "is as short from the gallows as from a throne; perhaps, also, as easy." "Some eighteen hundred years ago," said Thoreau, "Christ was crucified; this morning, perchance, Captain Brown was hung.

These are the two ends of a chain which is not without its links." Emerson, using a yet stronger figure, had already called him "a new saint, waiting yet his martyrdom, and who, if he shall suffer, will make the gallows glorious like the cross." [Sidenote] Lecture at Brooklyn, November 1, 1859.
[Sidenote] "Echoes of Harper's Ferry," p.

48.
[Sidenote] Letter to Committee of Merchants, December 20, 1859.
Ibid., p.