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diff --git a/old/2567.txt b/old/2567.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..17a4159 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2567.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1231 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Plea for Captain John Brown, by Henry David Thoreau + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Plea for Captain John Brown + +Author: Henry David Thoreau + +Posting Date: December 6, 2008 [EBook #2567] +Release Date: March, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PLEA FOR CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN *** + + + + +Produced by Jason Filley + + + + + +A PLEA FOR CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN + +By Henry David Thoreau + + +[Read to the citizens of Concord, Mass., Sunday Evening, October 30, +1859.] + + + +I trust that you will pardon me for being here. I do not wish to force +my thoughts upon you, but I feel forced myself. Little as I know of +Captain Brown, I would fain do my part to correct the tone and the +statements of the newspapers, and of my countrymen generally, respecting +his character and actions. It costs us nothing to be just. We can +at least express our sympathy with, and admiration of, him and his +companions, and that is what I now propose to do. + +First, as to his history. I will endeavor to omit, as much as possible, +what you have already read. I need not describe his person to you, for +probably most of you have seen and will not soon forget him. I am told +that his grandfather, John Brown, was an officer in the Revolution; that +he himself was born in Connecticut about the beginning of this century, +but early went with his father to Ohio. I heard him say that his father +was a contractor who furnished beef to the army there, in the war of +1812; that he accompanied him to the camp, and assisted him in that +employment, seeing a good deal of military life,--more, perhaps, than if +he had been a soldier; for he was often present at the councils of the +officers. Especially, he learned by experience how armies are supplied +and maintained in the field,--a work which, he observed, requires at +least as much experience and skill as to lead them in battle. He said +that few persons had any conception of the cost, even the pecuniary +cost, of firing a single bullet in war. He saw enough, at any rate, +to disgust him with a military life; indeed, to excite in his a great +abhorrence of it; so much so, that though he was tempted by the offer of +some petty office in the army, when he was about eighteen, he not only +declined that, but he also refused to train when warned, and was fined +for it. He then resolved that he would never have anything to do with +any war, unless it were a war for liberty. + +When the troubles in Kansas began, he sent several of his sons thither +to strengthen the party of the Free State men, fitting them out with +such weapons as he had; telling them that if the troubles should +increase, and there should be need of his, he would follow, to assist +them with his hand and counsel. This, as you all know, he soon after +did; and it was through his agency, far more than any other's, that +Kansas was made free. + +For a part of his life he was a surveyor, and at one time he was engaged +in wool-growing, and he went to Europe as an agent about that business. +There, as everywhere, he had his eyes about him, and made many original +observations. He said, for instance, that he saw why the soil of England +was so rich, and that of Germany (I think it was) so poor, and he +thought of writing to some of the crowned heads about it. It was because +in England the peasantry live on the soil which they cultivate, but in +Germany they are gathered into villages, at night. It is a pity that he +did not make a book of his observations. + +I should say that he was an old-fashioned man in respect for the +Constitution, and his faith in the permanence of this Union. Slavery he +deemed to be wholly opposed to these, and he was its determined foe. + +He was by descent and birth a New England farmer, a man of great +common-sense, deliberate and practical as that class is, and tenfold +more so. He was like the best of those who stood at Concord Bridge once, +on Lexington Common, and on Bunker Hill, only he was firmer and higher +principled than any that I have chanced to hear of as there. It was no +abolition lecturer that converted him. Ethan Allen and Stark, with whom +he may in some respects be compared, were rangers in a lower and less +important field. They could bravely face their country's foes, but he +had the courage to face his country herself, when she was in the wrong. +A Western writer says, to account for his escape from so many perils, +that he was concealed under a "rural exterior"; as if, in that prairie +land, a hero should, by good rights, wear a citizen's dress only. + +He did not go to the college called Harvard, good old Alma Mater as she +is. He was not fed on the pap that is there furnished. As he phrased it, +"I know no more of grammar than one of your calves." But he went to the +great university of the West, where he sedulously pursued the study of +Liberty, for which he had early betrayed a fondness, and having taken +many degrees, he finally commenced the public practice of Humanity in +Kansas, as you all know. Such were his humanities and not any study of +grammar. He would have left a Greek accent slanting the wrong way, and +righted up a falling man. + +He was one of that class of whom we hear a great deal, but, for the most +part, see nothing at all,--the Puritans. It would be in vain to kill +him. He died lately in the time of Cromwell, but he reappeared here. Why +should he not? Some of the Puritan stock are said to have come over and +settled in New England. They were a class that did something else than +celebrate their forefathers' day, and eat parched corn in remembrance +of that time. They were neither Democrats nor Republicans, but men of +simple habits, straightforward, prayerful; not thinking much of rulers +who did not fear God, not making many compromises, nor seeking after +available candidates. + +"In his camp," as one has recently written, and as I have myself heard +him state, "he permitted no profanity; no man of loose morals was +suffered to remain there, unless, indeed, as a prisoner of war. 'I would +rather,' said he, 'have the small-pox, yellow-fever, and cholera, all +together in my camp, than a man without principle.... It is a mistake, +sir, that our people make, when they think that bullies are the best +fighters, or that they are the fit men to oppose these Southerners. +Give me men of good principles,--God-fearing men,--men who respect +themselves, and with a dozen of them I will oppose any hundred such men +as these Buford ruffians.'" He said that if one offered himself to be a +soldier under him, who was forward to tell what he could or would do, +if he could only get sight of the enemy, he had but little confidence in +him. + +He was never able to find more than a score or so of recruits whom he +would accept, and only about a dozen, among them his sons, in whom he +had perfect faith. When he was here, some years ago, he showed to a +few a little manuscript book,--his "orderly book" I think he called +it,--containing the names of his company in Kansas, and the rules by +which they bound themselves; and he stated that several of them had +already sealed the contract with their blood. When some one remarked +that, with the addition of a chaplain, it would have been a perfect +Cromwellian troop, he observed that he would have been glad to add a +chaplain to the list, if he could have found one who could fill that +office worthily. It is easy enough to find one for the United States +army. I believe that he had prayers in his camp morning and evening, +nevertheless. + +He was a man of Spartan habits, and at sixty was scrupulous about +his diet at your table, excusing himself by saying that he must eat +sparingly and fare hard, as became a soldier, or one who was fitting +himself for difficult enterprises, a life of exposure. + +A man of rare common-sense and directness of speech, as of action; a +transcendentalist above all, a man of ideas and principles,--that was +what distinguished him. Not yielding to a whim or transient impulse, but +carrying out the purpose of a life. I noticed that he did not overstate +anything, but spoke within bounds. I remember, particularly, how, in +his speech here, he referred to what his family had suffered in Kansas, +without ever giving the least vent to his pent-up fire. It was a volcano +with an ordinary chimney-flue. Also referring to the deeds of certain +Border Ruffians, he said, rapidly paring away his speech, like an +experienced soldier, keeping a reserve of force and meaning, "They had +a perfect right to be hung." He was not in the least a rhetorician, was +not talking to Buncombe or his constituents anywhere, had no need to +invent anything but to tell the simple truth, and communicate his own +resolution; therefore he appeared incomparably strong, and eloquence +in Congress and elsewhere seemed to me at a discount. It was like the +speeches of Cromwell compared with those of an ordinary king. + +As for his tact and prudence, I will merely say, that at a time when +scarcely a man from the Free States was able to reach Kansas by any +direct route, at least without having his arms taken from him, he, +carrying what imperfect guns and other weapons he could collect, openly +and slowly drove an ox-cart through Missouri, apparently in the capacity +of a surveyor, with his surveying compass exposed in it, and so passed +unsuspected, and had ample opportunity to learn the designs of the +enemy. For some time after his arrival he still followed the same +profession. When, for instance, he saw a knot of the ruffians on the +prairie, discussing, of course, the single topic which then occupied +their minds, he would, perhaps, take his compass and one of his sons, +and proceed to run an imaginary line right through the very spot on +which that conclave had assembled, and when he came up to them, he would +naturally pause and have some talk with them, learning their news, and, +at last, all their plans perfectly; and having thus completed his real +survey he would resume his imaginary one, and run on his line till he +was out of sight. + +When I expressed surprise that he could live in Kansas at all, with +a price set upon his head, and so large a number, including the +authorities, exasperated against him, he accounted for it by saying, "It +is perfectly well understood that I will not be taken." Much of the time +for some years he has had to skulk in swamps, suffering from poverty and +from sickness, which was the consequence of exposure, befriended only +by Indians and a few whites. But though it might be known that he was +lurking in a particular swamp, his foes commonly did not care to go +in after him. He could even come out into a town where there were more +Border Ruffians than Free State men, and transact some business, without +delaying long, and yet not be molested; for, said he, "No little handful +of men were willing to undertake it, and a large body could not be got +together in season." + +As for his recent failure, we do not know the facts about it. It was +evidently far from being a wild and desperate attempt. His enemy, Mr. +Vallandigham, is compelled to say, that "it was among the best planned +executed conspiracies that ever failed." + +Not to mention his other successes, was it a failure, or did it show a +want of good management, to deliver from bondage a dozen human beings, +and walk off with them by broad daylight, for weeks if not months, at a +leisurely pace, through one State after another, for half the length of +the North, conspicuous to all parties, with a price set upon his head, +going into a court-room on his way and telling what he had done, thus +convincing Missouri that it was not profitable to try to hold slaves +in his neighborhood?--and this, not because the government menials were +lenient, but because they were afraid of him. + +Yet he did not attribute his success, foolishly, to "his star," or to +any magic. He said, truly, that the reason why such greatly superior +numbers quailed before him was, as one of his prisoners confessed, +because they lacked a cause,--a kind of armor which he and his party +never lacked. When the time came, few men were found willing to lay down +their lives in defence of what they knew to be wrong; they did not like +that this should be their last act in this world. + +But to make haste to his last act, and its effects. + +The newspapers seem to ignore, or perhaps are really ignorant of the +fact, that there are at least as many as two or three individuals to +a town throughout the North who think much as the present speaker does +about him and his enterprise. I do not hesitate to say that they are an +important and growing party. We aspire to be something more than stupid +and timid chattels, pretending to read history and our Bibles, but +desecrating every house and every day we breathe in. Perhaps anxious +politicians may prove that only seventeen white men and five negroes +were concerned in the late enterprise; but their very anxiety to prove +this might suggest to themselves that all is not told. Why do they still +dodge the truth? They are so anxious because of a dim consciousness of +the fact, which they do not distinctly face, that at least a million of +the free inhabitants of the United States would have rejoiced if it had +succeeded. They at most only criticise the tactics. Though we wear no +crape, the thought of that man's position and probable fate is spoiling +many a man's day here at the North for other thinking. If any one who +has seen him here can pursue successfully any other train of thought, I +do not know what he is made of. If there is any such who gets his +usual allowance of sleep, I will warrant him to fatten easily under any +circumstances which do not touch his body or purse. I put a piece of +paper and a pencil under my pillow, and when I could not sleep, I wrote +in the dark. + +On the whole, my respect for my fellow-men, except as one may outweigh +a million, is not being increased these days. I have noticed the +cold-blooded way in which newspaper writers and men generally speak +of this event, as if an ordinary malefactor, though one of unusual +"pluck,"--as the Governor of Virginia is reported to have said, using +the language of the cock-pit, "the gamest man he ever saw,"--had been +caught, and were about to be hung. He was not dreaming of his foes when +the governor thought he looked so brave. It turns what sweetness I have +to gall, to hear, or hear of, the remarks of some of my neighbors. When +we heard at first that he was dead, one of my townsmen observed that "he +died as the fool dieth"; which, pardon me, for an instant suggested a +likeness in him dying to my neighbor living. Others, craven-hearted, +said disparagingly, that "he threw his life away," because he resisted +the government. Which way have they thrown their lives, pray?--such as +would praise a man for attacking singly an ordinary band of thieves or +murderers. I hear another ask, Yankee-like, "What will he gain by it?" +as if he expected to fill his pockets by this enterprise. Such a one +has no idea of gain but in this worldly sense. If it does not lead to a +"surprise" party, if he does not get a new pair of boots, or a vote of +thanks, it must be a failure. "But he won't gain anything by it." Well, +no, I don't suppose he could get four-and-sixpence a day for being hung, +take the year round; but then he stands a chance to save a considerable +part of his soul,--and such a soul!--when you do not. No doubt you can +get more in your market for a quart of milk than for a quart of blood, +but that is not the market that heroes carry their blood to. + +Such do not know that like the seed is the fruit, and that, in the moral +world, when good seed is planted, good fruit is inevitable, and does not +depend on our watering and cultivating; that when you plant, or bury, a +hero in his field, a crop of heroes is sure to spring up. This is a seed +of such force and vitality, that it does not ask our leave to germinate. + +The momentary charge at Balaclava, in obedience to a blundering command, +proving what a perfect machine the soldier is, has, properly enough, +been celebrated by a poet laureate; but the steady, and for the most +part successful, charge of this man, for some years, against the legions +of Slavery, in obedience to an infinitely higher command, is as much +more memorable than that, as an intelligent and conscientious man is +superior to a machine. Do you think that that will go unsung? + +"Served him right,"--"A dangerous man,"--"He is undoubtedly insane." +So they proceed to live their sane, and wise, and altogether admirable +lives, reading their Plutarch a little, but chiefly pausing at that feat +of Putnam, who was let down into a wolf's den; and in this wise they +nourish themselves for brave and patriotic deeds some time or other. The +Tract Society could afford to print that story of Putnam. You might open +the district schools with the reading of it, for there is nothing about +Slavery or the Church in it; unless it occurs to the reader that +some pastors are wolves in sheep's clothing. "The American Board of +Commissioners for Foreign Missions" even, might dare to protest against +that wolf. I have heard of boards, and of American boards, but it +chances that I never heard of this particular lumber till lately. And +yet I hear of Northern men, and women, and children, by families, buying +a "life membership" in such societies as these. A life-membership in the +grave! You can get buried cheaper than that. + +Our foes are in our midst and all about us. There is hardly a house +but is divided against itself, for our foe is the all but universal +woodenness of both head and heart, the want of vitality in man, which +is the effect of our vice; and hence are begotten fear, superstition, +bigotry, persecution, and slavery of all kinds. We are mere figureheads +upon a hulk, with livers in the place of hearts. The curse is the +worship of idols, which at length changes the worshipper into a stone +image himself; and the New-Englander is just as much an idolater as +the Hindoo. This man was an exception, for he did not set up even a +political graven image between him and his God. + +A church that can never have done with excommunicating Christ while it +exists! Away with your broad and flat churches, and your narrow and tall +churches! Take a step forward, and invent a new style of out-houses. +Invent a salt that will save you, and defend our nostrils. + +The modern Christian is a man who has consented to say all the prayers +in the liturgy, provided you will let him go straight to bed and sleep +quietly afterward. All his prayers begin with "Now I lay me down to +sleep," and he is forever looking forward to the time when he shall go +to his "long rest." He has consented to perform certain old-established +charities, too, after a fashion, but he does not wish to hear of any +new-fangled ones; he doesn't wish to have any supplementary articles +added to the contract, to fit it to the present time. He shows the +whites of his eyes on the Sabbath, and the blacks all the rest of the +week. The evil is not merely a stagnation of blood, but a stagnation of +spirit. Many, no doubt, are well disposed, but sluggish by constitution +and by habit, and they cannot conceive of a man who is actuated by +higher motives than they are. Accordingly they pronounce this man +insane, for they know that they could never act as he does, as long as +they are themselves. + +We dream of foreign countries, of other times and races of men, placing +them at a distance in history or space; but let some significant event +like the present occur in our midst, and we discover, often, this +distance and this strangeness between us and our nearest neighbors. They +are our Austrias, and Chinas, and South Sea Islands. Our crowded society +becomes well spaced all at once, clean and handsome to the eye,--a +city of magnificent distances. We discover why it was that we never got +beyond compliments and surfaces with them before; we become aware of as +many versts between us and them as there are between a wandering +Tartar and a Chinese town. The thoughtful man becomes a hermit in the +thoroughfares of the market-place. Impassable seas suddenly find their +level between us, or dumb steppes stretch themselves out there. It is +the difference of constitution, of intelligence, and faith, and not +streams and mountains, that make the true and impassable boundaries +between individuals and between states. None but the like-minded can +come plenipotentiary to our court. + +I read all the newspapers I could get within a week after this event, +and I do not remember in them a single expression of sympathy for these +men. I have since seen one noble statement, in a Boston paper, not +editorial. Some voluminous sheets decided not to print the full report +of Brown's words to the exclusion of other matter. It was as if a +publisher should reject the manuscript of the New Testament, and print +Wilson's last speech. The same journal which contained this pregnant +news, was chiefly filled, in parallel columns, with the reports of the +political conventions that were being held. But the descent to them was +too steep. They should have been spared this contrast,--been printed in +an extra, at least. To turn from the voices and deeds of earnest men to +the cackling of political conventions! Office-seekers and speech-makers, +who do not so much as lay an honest egg, but wear their breasts bare +upon an egg of chalk! Their great game is the game of straws, or rather +that universal aboriginal game of the platter, at which the Indians +cried hub, bub! Exclude the reports of religious and political +conventions, and publish the words of a living man. + +But I object not so much to what they have omitted, as to what they +have inserted. Even the Liberator called it "a misguided, wild, and +apparently insane--effort." As for the herd of newspapers and magazines, +I do not chance to know an editor in the country who will deliberately +print anything which he knows will ultimately and permanently reduce +the number of his subscribers. They do not believe that it would be +expedient. How then can they print truth? If we do not say pleasant +things, they argue, nobody will attend to us. And so they do like some +travelling auctioneers, who sing an obscene song, in order to draw a +crowd around them. Republican editors, obliged to get their sentences +ready for the morning edition, and accustomed to look at everything by +the twilight of politics, express no admiration, nor true sorrow even, +but call these men "deluded fanatics,"--"mistaken men,"--"insane," or +"crazed." It suggests what a sane set of editors we are blessed with, +not "mistaken men"; who know very well on which side their bread is +buttered, at least. + +A man does a brave and humane deed, and at once, on all sides, we hear +people and parties declaring, "I didn't do it, nor countenance him to +do it, in any conceivable way. It can't be fairly inferred from my past +career." I, for one, am not interested to hear you define your position. +I don't know that I ever was, or ever shall be. I think it is mere +egotism, or impertinent at this time. Ye needn't take so much pains to +wash your skirts of him. No intelligent man will ever be convinced that +he was any creature of yours. He went and came, as he himself informs +us, "under the auspices of John Brown and nobody else." The Republican +party does not perceive how many his failure will make to vote more +correctly than they would have them. They have counted the votes of +Pennsylvania & Co., but they have not correctly counted Captain Brown's +vote. He has taken the wind out of their sails,--the little wind they +had,--and they may as well lie to and repair. + +What though he did not belong to your clique! Though you may not approve +of his method or his principles, recognize his magnanimity. Would you +not like to claim kindredship with him in that, though in no other thing +he is like, or likely, to you? Do you think that you would lose your +reputation so? What you lost at the spile, you would gain at the bung. + +If they do not mean all this, then they do not speak the truth, and say +what they mean. They are simply at their old tricks still. + +"It was always conceded to him," says one who calls him crazy, "that +he was a conscientious man, very modest in his demeanor, apparently +inoffensive, until the subject of Slavery was introduced, when he would +exhibit a feeling of indignation unparalleled." + +The slave-ship is on her way, crowded with its dying victims; new +cargoes are being added in mid-ocean; a small crew of slaveholders, +countenanced by a large body of passengers, is smothering four millions +under the hatches, and yet the politician asserts that the only proper +way by which deliverance is to be obtained, is by "the quiet diffusion +of the sentiments of humanity," without any "outbreak." As if the +sentiments of humanity were ever found unaccompanied by its deeds, and +you could disperse them, all finished to order, the pure article, as +easily as water with a watering-pot, and so lay the dust. What is that +that I hear cast overboard? The bodies of the dead that have found +deliverance. That is the way we are "diffusing" humanity, and its +sentiments with it. + +Prominent and influential editors, accustomed to deal with politicians, +men of an infinitely lower grade, say, in their ignorance, that he +acted "on the principle of revenge." They do not know the man. They must +enlarge themselves to conceive of him. I have no doubt that the time +will come when they will begin to see him as he was. They have got +to conceive of a man of faith and of religious principle, and not +a politician or an Indian; of a man who did not wait till he was +personally interfered with or thwarted in some harmless business before +he gave his life to the cause of the oppressed. + +If Walker may be considered the representative of the South, I wish +I could say that Brown was the representative of the North. He was a +superior man. He did not value his bodily life in comparison with ideal +things. He did not recognize unjust human laws, but resisted them as +he was bid. For once we are lifted out of the trivialness and dust of +politics into the region of truth and manhood. No man in America has +ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the dignity of +human nature, knowing himself for a man, and the equal of any and all +governments. In that sense he was the most American of us all. He needed +no babbling lawyer, making false issues, to defend him. He was more than +a match for all the judges that American voters, or office-holders of +whatever grade, can create. He could not have been tried by a jury +of his peers, because his peers did not exist. When a man stands up +serenely against the condemnation and vengeance of mankind, rising above +them literally by a whole body,--even though he were of late the vilest +murderer, who has settled that matter with himself,--the spectacle is +a sublime one,--didn't ye know it, ye Liberators, ye Tribunes, ye +Republicans?--and we become criminal in comparison. Do yourselves the +honor to recognize him. He needs none of your respect. + +As for the Democratic journals, they are not human enough to affect me +at all. I do not feel indignation at anything they may say. + +I am aware that I anticipate a little,--that he was still, at the last +accounts, alive in the hands of his foes; but that being the case, I +have all along found myself thinking and speaking of him as physically +dead. + +I do not believe in erecting statues to those who still live in our +hearts, whose bones have not yet crumbled in the earth around us, but +I would rather see the statue of Captain Brown in the Massachusetts +State-House yard, than that of any other man whom I know. I rejoice that +I live in this age, that I am his contemporary. + +What a contrast, when we turn to that political party which is so +anxiously shuffling him and his plot out of its way, and looking around +for some available slave holder, perhaps, to be its candidate, at least +for one who will execute the Fugitive Slave Law, and all those other +unjust laws which he took up arms to annul! + +Insane! A father and six sons, and one son-in-law, and several more +men besides,--as many at least as twelve disciples,--all struck with +insanity at once; while the same tyrant holds with a firmer gripe than +ever his four millions of slaves, and a thousand sane editors, his +abettors, are saving their country and their bacon! Just as insane were +his efforts in Kansas. Ask the tyrant who is his most dangerous foe, +the sane man or the insane? Do the thousands who know him best, who +have rejoiced at his deeds in Kansas, and have afforded him material aid +there, think him insane? Such a use of this word is a mere trope with +most who persist in using it, and I have no doubt that many of the rest +have already in silence retracted their words. + +Read his admirable answers to Mason and others. How they are dwarfed +and defeated by the contrast! On the one side, half-brutish, half-timid +questioning; on the other, truth, clear as lightning, crashing into +their obscene temples. They are made to stand with Pilate, and Gesler, +and the Inquisition. How ineffectual their speech and action! and what +a void their silence! They are but helpless tools in this great work. It +was no human power that gathered them about this preacher. + +What have Massachusetts and the North sent a few sane representatives +to Congress for, of late years?--to declare with effect what kind +of sentiments? All their speeches put together and boiled down,--and +probably they themselves will confess it,--do not match for manly +directness and force, and for simple truth, the few casual remarks of +crazy John Brown, on the floor of the Harper's Ferry engine-house,--that +man whom you are about to hang, to send to the other world, though not +to represent you there. No, he was not our representative in any sense. +He was too fair a specimen of a man to represent the like of us. Who, +then, were his constituents? If you read his words understandingly you +will find out. In his case there is no idle eloquence, no made, nor +maiden speech, no compliments to the oppressor. Truth is his inspirer, +and earnestness the polisher of his sentences. He could afford to +lose his Sharp's rifles, while he retained his faculty of speech,--a +Sharp's rifle of infinitely surer and longer range. + +And the New York Herald reports the conversation verbatim! It does not +know of what undying words it is made the vehicle. + +I have no respect for the penetration of any man who can read the report +of that conversation, and still call the principal in it insane. It has +the ring of a saner sanity than an ordinary discipline and habits +of life, than an ordinary organization, secure. Take any sentence of +it,--"Any questions that I can honorably answer, I will; not otherwise. +So far as I am myself concerned, I have told everything truthfully. I +value my word, sir." The few who talk about his vindictive spirit, while +they really admire his heroism, have no test by which to detect a noble +man, no amalgam to combine with his pure gold. They mix their own dross +with it. + +It is a relief to turn from these slanders to the testimony of his more +truthful, but frightened jailers and hangmen. Governor Wise speaks +far more justly and appreciatingly of him than any Northern editor, or +politician, or public personage, that I chance to have heard from. I +know that you can afford to hear him again on this subject. He says: +"They are themselves mistaken who take him to be madman.... He is cool, +collected, and indomitable, and it is but just to him to say, that he +was humane to his prisoners.... And he inspired me with great trust in +his integrity as a man of truth. He is a fanatic, vain and garrulous," +(I leave that part to Mr. Wise,) "but firm, truthful, and intelligent. +His men, too, who survive, are like him.... Colonel Washington says that +he was the coolest and firmest man he ever saw in defying danger and +death. With one son dead by his side, and another shot through, he felt +the pulse of his dying son with one hand, and held his rifle with the +other, and commanded his men with the utmost composure, encouraging them +to be firm, and to sell their lives as dear as they could. Of the three +white prisoners, Brown, Stephens, and Coppic, it was hard to say which +was most firm." + +Almost the first Northern men whom the slaveholder has learned to +respect! + +The testimony of Mr. Vallandigham, though less valuable, is of the +same purport, that "it is vain to underrate either the man or his +conspiracy.... He is the farthest possible removed from the ordinary +ruffian, fanatic, or madman." + +"All is quiet at Harper's Ferry," say the journals. What is the +character of that calm which follows when the law and the slaveholder +prevail? I regard this event as a touchstone designed to bring out, with +glaring distinctness, the character of this government. We needed to +be thus assisted to see it by the light of history. It needed to +see itself. When a government puts forth its strength on the side of +injustice, as ours to maintain slavery and kill the liberators of the +slave, it reveals itself a merely brute force, or worse, a demoniacal +force. It is the head of the Plug-Uglies. It is more manifest than ever +that tyranny rules. I see this government to be effectually allied with +France and Austria in oppressing mankind. There sits a tyrant holding +fettered four millions of slaves; here comes their heroic liberator. +This most hypocritical and diabolical government looks up from its +seat on the gasping four millions, and inquires with an assumption of +innocence: "What do you assault me for? Am I not an honest man? Cease +agitation on this subject, or I will make a slave of you, too, or else +hang you." + +We talk about a representative government; but what a monster of a +government is that where the noblest faculties of the mind, and the +whole heart, are not represented. A semi-human tiger or ox, stalking +over the earth, with its heart taken out and the top of its brain shot +away. Heroes have fought well on their stumps when their legs were shot +off, but I never heard of any good done by such a government as that. + +The only government that I recognize,--and it matters not how few are at +the head of it, or how small its army,--is that power that establishes +justice in the land, never that which establishes injustice. What shall +we think of a government to which all the truly brave and just men in +the land are enemies, standing between it and those whom it oppresses? A +government that pretends to be Christian and crucifies a million Christs +every day! + +Treason! Where does such treason take its rise? I cannot help thinking +of you as you deserve, ye governments. Can you dry up the fountains of +thought? High treason, when it is resistance to tyranny here below, +has its origin in, and is first committed by, the power that makes and +forever recreates man. When you have caught and hung all these human +rebels, you have accomplished nothing but your own guilt, for you have +not struck at the fountain-head. You presume to contend with a foe +against whom West Point cadets and rifled cannon point not. Can all the +art of the cannon-founder tempt matter to turn against its maker? Is +the form in which the founder thinks he casts it more essential than the +constitution of it and of himself? + +The United States have a coffle of four millions of slaves. They are +determined to keep them in this condition; and Massachusetts is one of +the confederated overseers to prevent their escape. Such are not all the +inhabitants of Massachusetts, but such are they who rule and are obeyed +here. It was Massachusetts, as well as Virginia, that put down this +insurrection at Harper's Ferry. She sent the marines there, and she will +have to pay the penalty of her sin. + +Suppose that there is a society in this State that out of its own +purse and magnanimity saves all the fugitive slaves that run to us, and +protects our colored fellow-citizens, and leaves the other work to +the government, so-called. Is not that government fast losing its +occupation, and becoming contemptible to mankind? If private men are +obliged to perform the offices of government, to protect the weak and +dispense justice, then the government becomes only a hired man, or +clerk, to perform menial or indifferent services. Of course, that is +but the shadow of a government whose existence necessitates a Vigilant +Committee. What should we think of the Oriental Cadi even, behind whom +worked in secret a vigilant committee? But such is the character of our +Northern States generally; each has its Vigilant Committee. And, to +a certain extent, these crazy governments recognize and accept this +relation. They say, virtually, "We'll be glad to work for you on these +terms, only don't make a noise about it." And thus the government, +its salary being insured, withdraws into the back shop, taking the +Constitution with it, and bestows most of its labor on repairing that. +When I hear it at work sometimes, as I go by, it reminds me, at best, +of those farmers who in winter contrive to turn a penny by following +the coopering business. And what kind of spirit is their barrel made to +hold? They speculate in stocks, and bore holes in mountains, but they +are not competent to lay out even a decent highway. The only free +road, the Underground Railroad, is owned and managed by the Vigilant +Committee. They have tunnelled under the whole breadth of the land. Such +a government is losing its power and respectability as surely as water +runs out of a leaky vessel, and is held by one that can contain it. + +I hear many condemn these men because they were so few. When were the +good and the brave ever in a majority? Would you have had him wait till +that time came?--till you and I came over to him? The very fact that he +had no rabble or troop of hirelings about him would alone distinguish +him from ordinary heroes. His company was small indeed, because few +could be found worthy to pass muster. Each one who there laid down his +life for the poor and oppressed was a picked man, culled out of many +thousands, if not millions; apparently a man of principle, of rare +courage, and devoted humanity; ready to sacrifice his life at any moment +for the benefit of his fellow-man. It may be doubted if there were as +many more their equals in these respects in all the country--I speak of +his followers only--for their leader, no doubt, scoured the land far and +wide, seeking to swell his troop. These alone were ready to step between +the oppressor and the oppressed. Surely they were the very best men you +could select to be hung. That was the greatest compliment which this +country could pay them. They were ripe for her gallows. She has tried +a long time, she has hung a good many, but never found the right one +before. + +When I think of him, and his six sons, and his son-in-law, not to +enumerate the others, enlisted for this fight, proceeding coolly, +reverently, humanely to work, for months if not years, sleeping and +waking upon it, summering and wintering the thought, without expecting +any reward but a good conscience, while almost all America stood +ranked on the other side--I say again that it affects me as a sublime +spectacle. If he had any journal advocating 'his cause,' any organ, as +the phrase is, monotonously and wearisomely playing the same old +tune, and then passing round the hat, it would have been fatal to his +efficiency. If he had acted in any way so as to be let alone by the +government, he might have been suspected. It was the fact that the +tyrant must give place to him, or he to the tyrant, that distinguished +him from all the reformers of the day that I know. + +It was his peculiar doctrine that a man has a perfect right to interfere +by force with the slaveholder, in order to rescue the slave. I agree +with him. They who are continually shocked by slavery have some right to +be shocked by the violent death of the slaveholder, but no others. +Such will be more shocked by his life than by his death. I shall not +be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds to +liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the +philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots +me nor liberates me. At any rate, I do not think it is quite sane for +one to spend his whole life in talking or writing about this matter, +unless he is continuously inspired, and I have not done so. A man may +have other affairs to attend to. I do not wish to kill nor to be killed, +but I can foresee circumstances in which both these things would be +by me unavoidable. We preserve the so-called peace of our community by +deeds of petty violence every day. Look at the policeman's billy and +handcuffs! Look at the jail! Look at the gallows! Look at the chaplain +of the regiment! We are hoping only to live safely on the outskirts of +this provisional army. So we defend ourselves and our hen-roosts, and +maintain slavery. I know that the mass of my countrymen think that the +only righteous use that can be made of Sharp's rifles and revolvers is +to fight duels with them, when we are insulted by other nations, or to +hunt Indians, or shoot fugitive slaves with them, or the like. I think +that for once the Sharp's rifles and the revolvers were employed in a +righteous cause. The tools were in the hands of one who could use them. + +The same indignation that is said to have cleared the temple once will +clear it again. The question is not about the weapon, but the spirit in +which you use it. No man has appeared in America, as yet, who loved his +fellow-man so well, and treated him so tenderly. He lived for him. He +took up his life and he laid it down for him. What sort of violence is +that which is encouraged, not by soldiers, but by peaceable citizens, +not so much by laymen as by ministers of the Gospel, not so much by the +fighting sects as by the Quakers, and not so much by Quaker men as by +Quaker women? + +This event advertises me that there is such a fact as death,--the +possibility of a man's dying. It seems as if no man had ever died in +America before; for in order to die you must first have lived. I don't +believe in the hearses, and palls, and funerals that they have had. +There was no death in the case, because there had been no life; they +merely rotted or sloughed off, pretty much as they had rotted or +sloughed along. No temple's veil was rent, only a hole dug somewhere. +Let the dead bury their dead. The best of them fairly ran down like a +clock. Franklin,--Washington,--they were let off without dying; they +were merely missing one day. I hear a good many pretend that they are +going to die; or that they have died, for aught that I know. Nonsense! +I'll defy them to do it. They haven't got life enough in them. They'll +deliquesce like fungi, and keep a hundred eulogists mopping the spot +where they left off. Only half a dozen or so have died since the world +began. Do you think that you are going to die, sir? No! there's no +hope of you. You haven't got your lesson yet. You've got to stay after +school. We make a needless ado about capital punishment,--taking lives, +when there is no life to take. Memento mori! We don't understand that +sublime sentence which some worthy got sculptured on his gravestone +once. We've interpreted it in a grovelling and snivelling sense; we've +wholly forgotten how to die. + +But be sure you do die nevertheless. Do your work, and finish it. If you +know how to begin, you will know when to end. + +These men, in teaching us how to die, have at the same time taught us +how to live. If this man's acts and words do not create a revival, it +will be the severest possible satire on the acts and words that do. It +is the best news that America has ever heard. It has already quickened +the feeble pulse of the North, and infused more and more generous blood +into her veins and heart, than any number of years of what is called +commercial and political prosperity could. How many a man who was lately +contemplating suicide has now something to live for! + +One writer says that Brown's peculiar monomania made him to be "dreaded +by the Missourians as a supernatural being." Sure enough, a hero in +the midst of us cowards is always so dreaded. He is just that thing. He +shows himself superior to nature. He has a spark of divinity in him. + + "Unless above himself he can + Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!" + +Newspaper editors argue also that it is a proof of his insanity that he +thought he was appointed to do this work which he did,--that he did not +suspect himself for a moment! They talk as if it were impossible that a +man could be "divinely appointed" in these days to do any work whatever; +as if vows and religion were out of date as connected with any man's +daily work; as if the agent to abolish slavery could only be somebody +appointed by the President, or by some political party. They talk as if +a man's death were a failure, and his continued life, be it of whatever +character, were a success. + +When I reflect to what a cause this man devoted himself, and how +religiously, and then reflect to what cause his judges and all who +condemn him so angrily and fluently devote themselves, I see that they +are as far apart as the heavens and earth are asunder. + +The amount of it is, our "leading men" are a harmless kind of folk, and +they know well enough that they were not divinely appointed, but elected +by the votes of their party. + +Who is it whose safety requires that Captain Brown be hung? Is it +indispensable to any Northern man? Is there no resource but to cast +this man also to the Minotaur? If you do not wish it, say so distinctly. +While these things are being done, beauty stands veiled and music is a +screeching lie. Think of him,--of his rare qualities!--such a man as +it takes ages to make, and ages to understand; no mock hero, nor the +representative of any party. A man such as the sun may not rise upon +again in this benighted land. To whose making went the costliest +material, the finest adamant; sent to be the redeemer of those in +captivity; and the only use to which you can put him is to hang him +at the end of a rope! You who pretend to care for Christ crucified, +consider what you are about to do to him who offered himself to be the +savior of four millions of men. + +Any man knows when he is justified, and all the wits in the world cannot +enlighten him on that point. The murderer always knows that he is justly +punished; but when a government takes the life of a man without the +consent of his conscience, it is an audacious government, and is +taking a step towards its own dissolution. Is it not possible that an +individual may be right and a government wrong? Are laws to be enforced +simply because they were made? or declared by any number of men to be +good, if they are not good? Is there any necessity for a man's being a +tool to perform a deed of which his better nature disapproves? Is it the +intention of law-makers that good men shall be hung ever? Are judges +to interpret the law according to the letter, and not the spirit? What +right have you to enter into a compact with yourself that you will do +thus or so, against the light within you? Is it for you to make up your +mind,--to form any resolution whatever,--and not accept the convictions +that are forced upon you, and which ever pass your understanding? I do +not believe in lawyers, in that mode of attacking or defending a man, +because you descend to meet the judge on his own ground, and, in cases +of the highest importance, it is of no consequence whether a man breaks +a human law or not. Let lawyers decide trivial cases. Business men may +arrange that among themselves. If they were the interpreters of the +everlasting laws which rightfully bind man, that would be another thing. +A counterfeiting law-factory, standing half in a slave land and half in +free! What kind of laws for free men can you expect from that? + +I am here to plead his cause with you. I plead not for his life, but for +his character,--his immortal life; and so it becomes your cause wholly, +and is not his in the least. Some eighteen hundred years ago Christ was +crucified; this morning, perchance, Captain Brown was hung. These are +the two ends of a chain which is not without its links. He is not Old +Brown any longer; he is an angel of light. + +I see now that it was necessary that the bravest and humanest man in +all the country should be hung. Perhaps he saw it himself. I almost fear +that I may yet hear of his deliverance, doubting if a prolonged life, if +any life, can do as much good as his death. + +"Misguided"! "Garrulous"! "Insane"! "Vindictive"! So ye write in your +easy-chairs, and thus he wounded responds from the floor of the Armory, +clear as a cloudless sky, true as the voice of nature is: "No man sent +me here; it was my own prompting and that of my Maker. I acknowledge no +master in human form." + +And in what a sweet and noble strain he proceeds, addressing his +captors, who stand over him: "I think, my friends, you are guilty of a +great wrong against God and humanity, and it would be perfectly right +for any one to interfere with you so far as to free those you willfully +and wickedly hold in bondage." + +And, referring to his movement: "It is, in my opinion, the greatest +service a man can render to God." + +"I pity the poor in bondage that have none to help them; that is why I +am here; not to gratify any personal animosity, revenge, or vindictive +spirit. It is my sympathy with the oppressed and the wronged, that are +as good as you, and as precious in the sight of God." + +You don't know your testament when you see it. + +"I want you to understand that I respect the rights of the poorest and +weakest of colored people, oppressed by the slave power, just as much as +I do those of the most wealthy and powerful." + +"I wish to say, furthermore, that you had better, all you people at the +South, prepare yourselves for a settlement of that question, that must +come up for settlement sooner than you are prepared for it. The sooner +you are prepared the better. You may dispose of me very easily. I am +nearly disposed of now; but this question is still to be settled,--this +negro question, I mean; the end of that is not yet." + +I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer +going to Rome for a subject; the poet will sing it; the historian +record it; and, with the Landing of the Pilgrims and the Declaration of +Independence, it will be the ornament of some future national gallery, +when at least the present form of slavery shall be no more here. We +shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown. Then, and not till +then, we will take our revenge. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Plea for Captain John Brown, by +Henry David Thoreau + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PLEA FOR CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN *** + +***** This file should be named 2567.txt or 2567.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/6/2567/ + +Produced by Jason Filley + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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