it’s pretty good. i’d like to get the book, but it’s like 20USD per volume!

Or, you can read what I published a little while back, it is here:
http://varikingston.wordpress.com/files/2007/09/syndicus-piece.doc

Not to split hairs, but I think, John Brown is known for the raid on Harper’s Ferry as a whole, including his capture, trial, and execution, not just for the fact that he was violent. I could be wrong on that count, though. I’m sort of an ‘American Civil War phile’, and so my view may deviate from the norm.

I understand that there are strategic and moral reasons for abstaining from, or even actively working against the use of, violence when pursuing the goal of abolition. I’d be interested in hearing your arguments in that vein, as I respect anyone struggling for freedom for our cousins, and want to contribute in the most effective way that I can.

I don’t take the route of violence myself, not because I believe it to be wrong, but because I am too cowardly and selfish to accept the consequences. I’m too well institutionalized, socialized, and programmed not to obey the rules. It makes me feel about three inches tall.

That said, I’d never condemn someone who followed in Brown’s footsteps.

I think that the most effective liberation movements – the IRA, the PLO, even, though I disagree with them, the Anti-abortion groups, best achieve, or at least move towards their goals because they have both military and political wings.

It’s hard to write this the way I want, with the political and legal climate in the U$ being what it is.

I’ll satisfy myself with answering your questions.

I don’t think JB’s position was better b/c he advocated violence. I do think his motives were more pure than those of Abe, but just like animals don’t care _why_ people don’t eat them, only that they aren’t eaten, I don’t think the people freed by the Emancipation Proclamation cared that it was a political action, not a moral one. The slaves in Union territory that were not emancipated by it were probably troubled, though. I think to them, John Brown was more a hero than Lincoln. Though for them, both Lincoln, and John Brown failed to deliver, and ultimately, what matters in this war is results, not intentions.