Lincoln echoes John Brown's speech to the court.
"Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved -... had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so called great, or in the behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right. Every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment....
"I believe that to have interfered as I have done, as I have always freely admitted I have done, in behalf of his despised poor, I did not wrong but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I say let it be done."
And later on the day he went to the gallows. ""I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done."
Preachers such as Wright are in a good and strong U.S. tradition of religious egalitarianism. Only the intellectual elite can be truly shocked. It is nice to see that radical religious egalitarianism survives outside of the confines of the status quo.
Jerry
Jerry