His fighting was of the prevailing type, justifiable, if at all, only on the score of defensive retaliation, and some of his acts were as criminal and atrocious as the worst of those committed by the Border Ruffians.[1] His losses, one son murdered, another wounded to the death, and a third rendered insane from cruel treatment, are scarcely compensated by the transitory notoriety he gathered in a few fool-hardy skirmishes.
[Sidenote] James Redpath, "Life of John Brown," p.

48.
[Sidenote] Sanborn, in the "Atlantic," April, 1872.
These varied experiences give us something of a clue to his character: a strong will; great physical energy; sanguine, fanatical temperament; unbounded courage and little wisdom; crude, visionary ideality; the inspiration of biblical precepts and Old Testament hero-worship; and ambition curbed to irritation by the hard fetters of labor, privation, and enforced endurance.

In association, habit, language, and conduct, he was clean, but coarse; honest, but rude.

In disposition he mingled the sacrificing tenderness with the sacrificial sternness of his prototypes in Jewish history.

He could lay his own child on the altar without a pang.