No More Learning

So he left the plains of Kansas and their bitter woes behind
him,
Slipt off into Virginia, where the statesmen all are born,
Hired a farm by Harper's Ferry, and no one knew where to
find him,
Or whether he'd turned parson, or was jacketed and shorn;
For Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown,
Mad as he was, knew texts enough to wear a parson's
gown.

He bought no ploughs and harrows, spades and shovels, and
such trifles;
But quietly to his rancho there came, by every train,
Boxes full of pikes and pistols, and his well-beloved Sharp's
rifles;
And eighteen other madmen joined their leader there again.
Says Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown,
"Boys, we've got an army large enough to march and take
the town! "

"Take the town, and seize the muskets, free the negroes and
then arm them;
Carry the County and the State, ay, and all the potent South.
On their own heads be the slaughter, if their victims rise to
harm them--
These Virginians! who believed not, nor would heed the
warning mouth. "
Says Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown,
"The world shall see a Republic, or my name is not John
Brown. "

'T was the sixteenth of October, on the evening of a Sunday:
"This good work," declared the captain, "shall be on a holy
night! "
It was on a Sunday evening, and before the noon of Monday,
With two sons, and Captain Stephens, fifteen privates--black
and white,
Captain Brown,
Osawatomie Brown,
Marched across the bridged Potomac, and knocked the sentry down;

Took the guarded armory-building, and the muskets and the cannon;
Captured all the county majors and the colonels, one by one;
Scared to death each gallant scion of Virginia they ran on,
And before the noon of Monday, I say, the deed was done.
Mad Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown,
With his eighteen other crazy men, went in and took the town.

Very little noise and bluster, little smell of powder made he;
It was all done in the midnight, like the Emperor's
_coup d'etat_.
"Cut the wires! Stop the rail-cars! Hold the streets and
bridges! " said he,
Then declared the new Republic, with himself for guiding star,--
This Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown;
And the bold two thousand citizens ran off and left the town.
Then was riding and railroading and expressing here and thither;
And the Martinsburg Sharpshooters and the Charlestown
Volunteers,
And the Shepherdstown and Winchester Militia hastened whither
Old Brown was said to muster his ten thousand grenadiers.
General Brown!
Osawatomie Brown! !
Behind whose rampant banner all the North was pouring down.

But at last, 't is said, some prisoners escaped from Old Brown's
durance,
And the effervescent valor of the Chivalry broke out,
When they learned that nineteen madmen had the marvelous
assurance--
Only nineteen--thus to seize the place and drive them straight
about;
And Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown,
Found an army come to take him, encamped around the town.

But to storm, with all the forces I have mentioned, was too risky;
So they hurried off to Richmond for the Government Marines,
Tore them from their weeping matrons, fired their souls with
Bourbon whiskey,
Till they battered down Brown's castle with their ladders and
machines;
And Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown,
Received three bayonet stabs, and a cut on his brave old crown.

Tallyho! the old Virginia gentry gather to the baying!
In they rushed and killed the game, shooting lustily away;
And whene'er they slew a rebel, those who came too late for
slaying,
Not to lose a share of glory, fired their bullets in his clay;
And Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown,
Saw his sons fall dead beside him, and between them laid him
down.

How the conquerors wore their laurels; how they hastened on
the trial;
How Old Brown was placed, half dying, on the Charlestown
court-house floor;
How he spoke his grand oration, in the scorn of all denial;
What the brave old madman told them,--these are known
the country o'er.
"Hang Old Brown,
Osawatomie Brown. "
Said the judge, "and all such rebels! " with his most judicial
frown.

But, Virginians, don't do it! for I tell you that the flagon,
Filled with blood of Old Brown's offspring, was first poured
by Southern hands;
And each drop from Old Brown's life-veins, like the red gore
of the dragon,
May spring up a vengeful Fury, hissing through your slave-worn
lands!