... He is cool, collected, and indomitable, and it is but
just to him to say that he was humane to his prisoners.... And he
inspired me with great trust in his integrity as a man of truth. He is
a fanatic, vain and garrulous" (I leave that part to Mr. Wise), "but
firm, truthful, and intelligent. His men, too, who survive, are like
him.... Colonel Washington says that he was the coolest and firmest
man he ever saw in defying danger and death. With one son dead by
his side, and another shot through, he felt the pulse of his dying son
with one hand, and held his rifle with the other, and commanded his
men with the utmost composure, encouraging them to be firm, and to
sell their lives as dear as they could. Of the three white
prisoners, Brown, Stevens, and Coppoc, it was hard to say which was
most firm."
Almost the first Northern men whom the slaveholder has learned to
respect!
The testimony of Mr. Vallandigham, though less valuable, is of the
same purport, that "it is vain to underrate either the man or his
conspiracy.... He is the farthest possible removed from the ordinary
ruffian, fanatic, or madman."
"All is quiet at Harper's Ferry," say the journals.
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