All construed it into a belief, on the part of a large proportion of the Northern people, that John Brown was entirely justifiable.

His wild invasion of the South, they apprehended, would be repeated as opportunity offered on a larger scale and with more deadly purpose.

This opinion was stimulated and developed for political ends by many whose intelligence should have led them to more enlightened views.

False charges being constantly repeated and plied with incessant zeal, the most radical misconception became fixed in the Southern mind.

It was idle for the Republican party to declare that their aim was only to prevent the extension of slavery to free territory, and that they were pledged not to interfere with its existence in the States.