his actions in the raid on Harper's Ferry.
You say that John Brown "was perfectly willing to kill innocent people . . . " I wish I could say that I saw into Brown's mind, heart and motives with such clarity. Stephen Oates' biography To Purge This Land With Blood paints the picture of a deeply troubled Brown, one we might even call by today's standards 'mentally ill'. (Don't have ready access to the biography at the moment, so am relying on memory from reading it again a couple years ago.)
When we firebombed Dresden during World War II, we killed many innocent people. But I think most of us would agree that the cause of stopping Hitler and the Nazis rendered such deaths somewhat more justifiable. I suppose there are radical pacifists who would argue that the cause of stopping Hitler did not justify the loss of even a single innocent. But their (radical pacifists') number is probably statistically almost a zero.
Now look what you made me do.-- I've gone and triggered Godwin's Law! 
On a positive note, our sub-thread here demonstrates why history, done properly, is far more than names and dates.
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