If there was a time and place we could say the modern U.S. left was born it would be at Cincinnati’s Arbeiter Hall on December, 4 1859. There, August Willich and Der Socialer Arbeiter-Verein joined forces with militant Black Cincinnati in mobilizing support for John Brown and his army in the aftermath of Harper’s Ferry, including a multi-racial rally complete with torches and red flags. German revolutionary immigrants uniting with Black radicals like Peter H. Clark, possibly the first Black socialist in the US, in a multilingual, internationalist, working class gathering over the very American struggle against slavery at the martyrdom of John Brown. The radical Black abolitionist ‘Weekly Anglo-African’ reports on that seminal gathering, including the full text of the resolution passed.

‘John Brown Meeting in Cincinnati’ from The Weekly Anglo-African (New York). Vol. 1 No. 22. December 17, 1859.

A meeting of those persons sympathizing with John Brown was held in Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon, at 2 o’clock, at the large hall of the German Institute, on Vine street.

The hall was overcrowded. The colored people marched in in a body, with their banner. The tribune was decorated with black and white crape, and in front of it was the inscription, “In memory of John Brown.” On the sides of the tribune were posted the pictures of George Washington and Thomas Paine, and the American flag, wrapped in crape, was posted behind the tribune.

The meeting was called by the “Social Working Men’s Association,” and Mr. Sipel presided. The speakers were Messrs. August Willich, editor of “The Republikaner;” the Rev. M.D. Conway, Peter H. Clark, (colored,) Y. Montaldo, a Spaniard, who spoke in French, and B. Froman.

The speeches were loudly applauded, and the following resolutions were adopted unanimously and by acclamation, after which the meeting adjourned:

Resolved, That the meeting declares its unqualified admiration and approval of the motives of old John Brown’s act.

Resolved, That these motives do equal honor to his manhood and his love of freedom, and showed clearly the sense of duty under which he was ever ready to live and die.

Resolved, That the institution of slavery, in conflict with which John Brown offered up his life, never had, has not now, and never can have, any foundation in justice, but is only the result of force and of fraud, differing in no respect of principle from the early bondage of Western Europe or from the serfdom of Russia, which are condemned by the voice of history as crimes against human nature.

Resolved, That the principle of slavery stands in such irreconcilable conflict not only with the principle of the Republic, but also with the cause for which the fathers of the Republic fought, that the one can only exist through the denial or destruction of the other.

Resolved, That such an interpretation of the Constitution as to acknowledge the rightfulness of the existence of slavery is an infamy, and an insult to the fathers of the Republic in their graves.

Resolved, That through the preservation of the Union at the expense of the declared principles of the Republic—which are founded upon human rights—and at the expense of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, the sanction of slavery is secured at the enormous sacrifice of human freedom, and at the risk of its entire destruction in this part of the world.

Resolved, That the act of John Brown has powerfully contributed to bring out the hidden consciousness of the majority of the people as to the principles involved, and compelled the masses come out of their indecision, and declare themselves for one or the other side; only by such a universal discrimination of parties is the freedom of the Republic to be secured; and that by his act John Brown has entitled himself to the approval and the reverence of all the freemen of the Republic.

Resolved, That the genuine greatness and character of John Brown are signalized as well through the motives of his act as through the actual results of the same, and in the manly devotion and tranquil courage which he afterwards confronted his fate, converting that which was intended to be a death of shame into an honorable and glorious martyr’s death.

Resolved, That this assemblage count him worthy to assume a place among the fathers of the Republic, and to be reckoned among those heroes who have sacrificed themselves for the welfare of mankind.