Why Did John Brown's Raid

On October 16, 1859, John Brown, a radical abolitionist of the North, led a small army of 18 men into the small town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He seized the arms and ammunition in the federal arsenal and planned to arm slaves to instigate slave rebellions in the South. He was captured by the militia and Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee’s troops, and was quickly sentenced to death. John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry received polarized comments. While he was hailed as a martyr by Chicago’s Republican press, Democratic newspaper in South Carolina and Illinois condemned him as a criminal. At the same time, the Northern press did not ask for the execration of Brown’s penalty in hopes of preserving the Union, but the South viewed this event as another strong reason for seceding. John Brown’s raid has a profound effect on deepening sectional and partisan divide between North and South.
Press and Tribune was a leading daily newspaper in Chicago, Illinois. Politically, it was characterized as a Republican press against
Although initially the Northern press expressed deep sympathy for Brown, saying that “we would be glad to avert the axe which hangs over the old man's head”, the impending secession crisis and the coming presidential election of 1860 required Northern press to be very careful with their political opinions. At that moment, the North’s chief political endeavor was to prevent rather than hastening Southern states from seceding. In one of its editorials, Chicago’s Press and Tribune characterized this raid as a “fanaticism action” and stated sincerely that “as long as we are a part of the Union, supporting the constitution and the laws”, Old Brown was answerable for the “legal consequence of his act”(2). The Northern newspaper had done their best to calm the slaveholders down and persuade them to stay in the