Owing to the length of time that elapsed between the decease and the time the body was delivered into the charge of Dr. Holmes, the process of embalming has been somewhat difficult, and consequently the appearance of the remains is not so natural as it otherwise would have been. Last evening the body was placed in an erect position, in order to allow the injected fluid to settle in the veins and arteries, so as to give to the face a more natural appearance. The swelling has entirely disappeared from the neck and face, and the decomposition which had set in had been checked. The remains will not be enshrouded until this morning, when they will be placed in the coffin, enclosed in a white merino robe with a satin collar, satin cord about the waist, and a black neckerchief about the neck.
Yesterday afternoon the father, sisters, and wife of the deceased were permitted to view the remains. His wife removed the breast-pin and a miniature of their child from about his neck, which she had placed there but a few days previous to his execution. She is but eighteen years of age, and has an infant four months old. She is from Harper's Ferry, Va., where she was married about seventeen months since. She, as well as the other relatives, was overwhelmed with sorrow, and it was some moments before they were sufficiently recovered to be enabled to leave the body. The refusal of the Consistories of the Lee Avenue and Fourth Reformed Dutch Churches to permit the services to be held in their edifices has given rise to the expression of much feeling, and many of the friends of the deceased infer that this refusal is made from a fear of censure on the part of some of the members of their congregations, in allowing a Christian burial to the remains.
In the little burial-ground at Oberlin, Lorain County, Ohio, there is a monument dedicated to the memory of three of the John Brown Men, as follows:
L. S. Leary, died at Harper's Ferry, Oct. 20, 1859, aged 24 years.
S. Green, died at Charlestown, Virginia, Dec. 2, 1850, aged 28 years.
J. A. Copeland, died at Charlestown, Virginia, Dec. 2, 1859, aged 25 years.
The monument bears the following inscription:
These Colored citizens of Oberlin, the heroic associates of the Immortal John Brown, gave their lives for the Slave.
THE NEGRO ARTIST OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY ON THE CAPITOL.
When the bronze castings were being completed at the foundry of Mr. Mills, near Bladensburg, his foreman, who had superintended the work from the beginning, and who was receiving eight dollars per day, struck, and demanded ten dollars, assuring Mr. M. that the advance must be granted him, as nobody in America, except himself, could complete the work. Mr. M. felt that the demand was exorbitant, and appealed in his dilemma to the slaves who were assisting in the moulding. "I can do that well," said one of them, an intelligent and ingenious servant, who had been intimately engaged in the various processes. The striker was dismissed, and the negro, assisted occasionally by the finer skill of his master, took the striker's place as superintendent, and the work went on. The black master-builder lifted the ponderous, uncouth masses, and bolted them together, joint by joint, piece by piece, till they blended into the majestic "Freedom," who to-day lifts her head in the blue clouds above Washington, invoking a benediction upon the imperilled Republic!
Was there a prophecy in that moment when the slave became the artist, and with rare poetic justice, reconstructed the beautiful symbol of freedom for America?[143]