John Brown - ‘the most American of us all’

August 16, 2009 | Filed Under General, Portraits | Leave a Comment 

This is the statue commemorating John Brown and the legions of enslaved blacks whose cause he died for 150 years ago this year. Four million Americans – in a country of 30 million people, founded on the principle that “all men are created equal” – were slaves at the time. Brown was hanged for treason on Dec. 2, 1859, after storming the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His goal, and that of the brave men who stood with him, was to strike a blow, real and symbolic, against the sacrilege of slavery. He was deemed insane at the time but the raid is now widely seen as the spark that ignited the American Civil War. Henry David Thoreau, the great Transcendental writer who knew Brown, made an impassioned and futile plea for his life, calling him “the most American of us all.” Brown went unbowed to the gallows. His body was returned to his farm at North Elba, near Lake Placid, N.Y., and is buried there near the spot where this statue commemorates his life. The Civil War, which began to save the union and became a war against slavery, lasted from 1861 to 1865. More than 620,000 lives were lost – the bloodiest war in American history. The Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863. — David Blaikie. John Brown (Abolitionist)

‘This green and pleasant land’

August 9, 2009 | Filed Under General | Leave a Comment 

Every now and then, I hear the voice of Tommy Douglas, rising like a prairie wind, imploring Canadians to set aside their differences and build a new Jerusalem “in this green and pleasant land.” I can’t be certain I actually heard Douglas use the phrase when I encountered him in my journalistic days. But it seems I must have at one time or other. I know he loved the image - taken from William Blake’s hymn, Jerusalem - and invoked it on many occasions to appeal to the better instincts of our nature. I always associate it with his love of Canada, and the courageous and decent life he lived. Often, when I look back from a hilltop, or round a turn in a country road, and behold another majestic vista, the memory is there. It happened again over the weekend when I came upon this lovely field near Saint-Placide, Que. – David Blaikie