<l n="1"><hi rend="italic"><ref target="#ref_20376">Hanging from the beam</ref>,</hi><note xml:id="ref_20376">Stanton Garner brings in the reactions of Melville's contemporaries in order to show how much the country was torn as to how to view Brown's actions. Garner cites Hawthorne's private musing that "If Emerson chooses to plant John Brown's gallows on Mount Calvery, the moral and religious sense of mankind will insist on its being placed between the crosses of the two thieves, and not side by side with that of the Savior" (46). This is a clear indictment of the views of Brown as a Christ figure. Yet, Melville makes strong allusions to Christ in the poem. Melville may be expressing, as Garner believes, a mixture of alarm and admiration for Brown's actions (46).</note></l>
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