The dangers of dabbling in a good cause

Gentle readers, I’ll bet you’ve never heard of the Secret Six. Neither had I until a few years ago.

The Secret Six, as they came to be known, were Boston’s first limousine liberals. Most came from distinguished Boston stock and were all strong abolitionists in the period leading up to the Civil War. They gave money to the militant abolitionist John Brown, who would be considered a terrorist today, knowing he would use the donations in violent ways. When Brown failed, all but one ran like cowards away from their association with him.***

On the evening of Oct. 16, 1859, Brown staged his suicidal attack on the federal armory in Harpers Ferry, W.Va. His goal was to trigger a slave uprising in the area that would spread through the South and destroy slavery.

Nothing frightened Southerners more than the specter of a slave uprising. This is why the name Santo Domingo was on the lips of the Six, shorthand for the successful slave revolt led by Toussaint L’Ouverture in what is now Haiti on the island of Santo Domingo to forge a new country.

The raid was a fiasco. Brown’s small band was quickly overwhelmed by a detachment of Marines under command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert E Lee, and he was hanged on Dec. 2 of that year. (Brown’s Southern captors grew to admire him for his willingness to die for what he believed in.)***

The Six admired him for his manliness. Their regard for Brown implicitly exposed their own deficiencies. They were effete. They wanted someone else to do the dirty work, so they swooned over him. This speaks to their limousine liberalism. Boston reeked of effeteness during its entire 19th-century run of intellectual superiority...

...”As for the Secret Six, they were like people playing with matches in a room full of gasoline who leave when the fire starts”...

Vile human nature never changes. It is only the enforcement of law against those who take life and liberty which contains it. These rich Bostonians, who considered themselves “intellectually” superior but probably could not have survived on the street for a month, secretly put their money behind someone who was a blood thirsty killer. I would place a big bet on the idea that John Brown, in his heart, did not care a whit about slaves..He just loved killing. And, look at some of those who supported him..Left wing UNITARIAN MINISTERS and members of the ARTS crowd, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, public pacifists, using their name recognition to support evil. Does this remind you of our educational and entertainment community today..I thought of so many as I read this article. John Brown was a killer used by elites to do the dirty work they lusted for but did not have the courage to carry out themselves. It is as simple as that.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.