[BROADSIDE] OLD JOHN BROWN. THE "IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT" AT HARPER'S FERRY

Item Details

OLD JOHN BROWN. THE "IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT" AT HARPER'S FERRY.

[Printer unidentified, late 1859.] [Anonymous] Slip broadside, approximately 5¼ × 16 inches, printed in a single column within an ornamental typographic border. Untrimmed, foxing, stains, creases, edgewear, 

Issued in the immediate aftermath of John Brown's raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in October 1859, this anonymous political song offers a sharply critical view of Brown and the abolitionist movement. Rather than portraying Brown as a martyr, the verses associate him with Gerrit Smith, Republican agitation, and the sectional tensions then engulfing the nation. Such anti-Brown songs formed part of the intense political debate preceding Lincoln's election and the outbreak of the Civil War.

Old John Brown, a man of renown,

Whose crimes are an unwritten story,

Has carved his name on the pillar of fame,

And covered his future with glory.

The opening stanza of the present song was printed in H. Clay Pate's John Brown as Viewed by H. Clay Pate (New York, 1859), p. 19, providing contemporary evidence that the verses were already in circulation shortly after the Harper's Ferry raid. Despite that contemporary appearance, the present broadside has not been identified in standard online bibliographical resources consulted to date. No record of this title has been located in OCLC/WorldCat, Rare Book Hub, Google Books, the online catalog of the American Antiquarian Society, or the Brown Univ..Harris Broadside Collection.

The absence of an imprint is consistent with inexpensive topical song sheets produced for rapid circulation during political controversies. Whether the present broadside represents the first separate printing of the song, or a later issue from an otherwise unrecorded press, remains to be determined.

Provenance: Contemporary ownership within the Davenport family Litchfield County, Connecticut.

References: H. Clay Pate, John Brown as Viewed by H. Clay Pate (New York, 1859), p. 19.

OLD JOHN BROWN.
THE "IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT" AT HARPER'S FERRY.
Old John Brown, a man of renown, Whose crimes are an unwritten store, Has carved his name on the pillar of fame, And covered his future with glory.
The Virginians say that a bloody affray Plann'd by a Kansas Nero, Has taken place to the world's disgrace, And the leader styled a hero.
That this same Brown, a Republican clown, The blackest that ever was known. Since Satan gave rule to his satanic school From his high imperial throne,
Set on by a crew of his damnable hue, Would frighten the "Old Diminion." By an iusurrection, their mode of election, And the bird of Columbia pinion.