"Politically speaking, the murder of John Brown would be an uncorrectable sin. It would create in the Union a latent fissure that would in the long run dislocate it. Brown's agony might perhaps consolidate slavery in Virginia, but it would certainly shake the whole American democracy. You save your shame, but you kill your glory. Morally speaking, it seems a part of the human light would put itself out, that the very notion of justice and injustice would hide itself in darkness, on that day where one would see the assassination of Emancipation by Liberty itself." ---Victor Hugo
We live, all of us, in the shadow of murdering our better angels for the sake of placating the devils that built this nation of woe. John Brown told us how it would have to be, that blood and countless gallons of the stuff, would have to be spilled to make lasting change. He frankly acknowledged that he hadn't spilled near enough of the stuff to make a real difference.