Victor Hugo’s Address to the People of Hayti, (with comment on John Brown)

Appearing in the Liberator, March 9, 1860  “A white and a black Republic are sisters, the same as a white and a black man are brothers.  There is only one humanity, because there is only one God…. I have been sadly deceived in that fraternity of races, the Southern States of the American Union.  In killing John Brown, they have committed a crime which will take its place among the calamities of history.  The rupture of  the Union will fatally follow the assasination of Brown …. I am afflicted at heart in thinking of this crime and this fault.  As to John Brown, he was an apostle and a hero.  The gibbet has only increased his glory, and made him a martyr.   Black and white, all brothers, all equal, let us rally one and more around that principle of all principles …Liberty. ” Signed, Your friend, Victor Hugo, and followed by “I love your Republic. Let your people know it.”