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diff --git a/old/apcjb11.txt b/old/apcjb11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..85161a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/apcjb11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1190 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext A Plea for Captain John Brown, by Thoreau +#4 in our series by Henry David Thoreau + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +Title: A Plea for Captain John Brown + +Author: Henry David Thoreau. + +Release Date: March 1, 2001 [EBook #2567] +[Most recently updated on August 4, 2007] + +Edition: 11 + +Language: English + + +Project Gutenberg Etext A Plea for Captain John Brown, by Thoreau +*******This file should be named apcjb11.txt or apcjb11.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, apcjb12.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, apcjb10a.txt + + +This etext was prepared by Jason Filley, St. Louis, Missouri. + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Jason Filley, St. Louis, Missouri. + + + + + +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 Sharpe's +rifles, while he retained his faculty of speech,--a Sharpe'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 who +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, for 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 your 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 Project Gutenberg Etext A Plea for Captain John Brown, by Thoreau + |