John Brown failed in his original intentions of creating a new country in the Appalachians and triggering a slave revolt. He more than succeeded in becoming a martyr for the abolitionist cause and giving something to rally behind. Also the civil war was inevitable by the time John Brown did his raid on Harpers Ferry, he was simply the Prologue not the cause, even if Brown was a Ghandi like figure there would’ve still be a civil war since the South was not going to give up the institution of slavery without a fight.