John Brown’s body lies slumbering in the grave;
John Brown was noble, loyal and brave;
His mission on earth was to rescue and to save,
And his soul goes rolling on!
Chorus: Glory, glory, Hallelujah! (Etc.)
The Rebels in the South can never make it pay
While John Brown’s mission speeds on its way,
For Freedom and Right will surely win the day,
As his soul goes rolling on!
This was all the song—but two verses. A short time after this a little newsboy stopped me and told me that he had made up a new verse for my song; and upon asking him to sing it, he sang:
“We’ll hang Jeff. Davis on a sour apple-tree!”
repeating the same line three times. I laughed, and told him I would think it over.
In the theatre when I gave the song was a Frenchman named C. Francois, well known to the early settlers of Leavenworth, who was the leader of a glee club, composed of the actors, who sang nicely many national airs and ballads. Mr. Francois, about the time I sang the song, went to New York, and, I learn, returned by way of Massachusetts, and I am led to believe that it was through his means that the song reached the Eastern States as quickly as it did; and I also have good reason for believing that the Seventh Kansas and Fiftieth Illinois regiments carried the song South a little later.
These are the facts as they occurred; and I may say, in closing, that I am pleased to note that the little acorn has developed into the mighty oak, and John Brown’s name is one of the imperishable monuments that now adorn a free and united country; and the colored people of the South and North can unite under the glorious banner of Liberty in preserving the name and love for him who freely gave his life for their liberty and freedom.
I have heard severe criticism on the part of Southerners regarding the illustrious dead, but I often remember the olden story, in the Holy Book, of similar criticism made by the enemies of Christ, and I also read that “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”