by Henry David Thoreau

1853

I TRUST that you will pardon me for being here. I do not wish toforce my thoughts upon you, but I feel forced myself. Little as I knowof Captain Brown, I would fain do my part to correct the tone andthe statements of the newspapers, and of my countrymen generally,respecting his character and actions. It costs us nothing to bejust. 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 aspossible, what you have already read. I need not describe his personto you, for probably most of you have seen and will not soon forgethim. I am told that his grandfather, John Brown, was an officer in theRevolution; that he himself was born in Connecticut about thebeginning of this century, but early went with his father to Ohio. Iheard him say that his father was a contractor who furnished beef tothe army there, in the War of 1812; that he accompanied him to thecamp, and assisted him in that employment, seeing a good deal ofmilitary life- more, perhaps, than if he had been a soldier; for hewas often present at the councils of the officers. Especially, helearned by experience how armies are supplied and maintained in thefield- a work which, he observed, requires at least as much experienceand skill as to lead them in battle. He said that few persons hadany conception of the cost, even the pecuniary cost, of firing asingle bullet in war. He saw enough, at any rate, to disgust himwith a military life; indeed, to excite in him a great abhorrence ofit; so much so, that though he was tempted by the offer of somepetty office in the army, when he was about eighteen, he not onlydeclined that, but he also refused to train when warned, and was finedfor it. He then resolved that he would never have anything to dowith any war, unless it were a war for liberty.

When the troubles in Kansas began, he sent several of his sonsthither to strengthen the party of the Free State men, fitting themout with such weapons as he had; telling them that if the troublesshould increase, and there should be need of him, he would follow,to assist them with his hand and counsel. This, as you all know, hesoon after did; and it was through his agency, far more than anyother's, that Kansas was made free.

For a part of his life he was a surveyor, and at one time he wasengaged in wool-growing, and he went to Europe as an agent aboutthat business. There, as everywhere, he had his eyes about him, andmade many original observations. He said, for instance, that he sawwhy the soil of England was so rich, and that of Germany (I think itwas) so poor, and he thought of writing to some of the crowned headsabout it. It was because in England the peasantry live on the soilwhich they cultivate, but in Germany they are gathered into villagesat night. It is a pity that he did not make a book of hisobservations.

I should say that he was an old-fashioned man in his respect for theConstitution, and his faith in the permanence of this Union. Slaveryhe deemed to be wholly opposed to these, and he was its determinedfoe.

He was by descent and birth a New England farmer, a man of greatcommon sense, deliberate and practical as that class is, and tenfoldmore so. He was like the best of those who stood at Concord Bridgeonce, on Lexington Common, and on Bunker Hill, only he was firmerand higher-principled than any that I have chanced to hear of asthere. It was no abolition lecturer that converted him. Ethan Allenand Stark, with whom he may in some respects be compared, were rangersin a lower and less important field. They could bravely face theircountry's foes, but he had the courage to face his country herselfwhen she was in the wrong. A Western writer says, to account for hisescape from so many perils, that he was concealed under a "ruralexterior"; 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 Materas she is. He was not fed on the pap that is there furnished. As hephrased it, "I know no more of grammar than one of your calves." Buthe went to the great university of the West, where he sedulouslypursued the study of Liberty, for which he had early betrayed afondness, and having taken many degrees, he finally commenced thepublic practice of Humanity in Kansas, as you all know. Such werehis humanities, and not any study of grammar. He would have left aGreek 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, forthe most part, see nothing at all- the Puritans. It would be in vainto kill him. He died lately in the time of Cromwell, but he reappearedhere. Why should he not? Some of the Puritan stock are said to havecome over and settled in New England. They were a class that didsomething else than celebrate their forefathers' day, and eatparched corn in remembrance of that time. They were neitherDemocrats nor Republicans, but men of simple habits, straightforward,prayerful; not thinking much of rulers who did not fear God, notmaking many compromises, nor seeking after available candidates.

"In his camp," as one has recently written, and as I have myselfheard him state, "he permitted no profanity; no man of loose moralswas suffered to remain there, unless, indeed, as a prisoner of war. 'Iwould rather,' said he, 'have the small-pox, yellow fever, andcholera, all together in my camp, than a man without principle....It is a mistake, sir, that our people make, when they think thatbullies are the best fighters, or that they are the fit men tooppose these Southerners. Give me men of good principles-God-fearing men- men who respect themselves, and with a dozen ofthem I will oppose any hundred such men as these Buford ruffians.'" Hesaid that if one offered himself to be a soldier under him, who wasforward to tell what he could or would do if he could only get sightof the enemy, he had but little confidence in him.

He was never able to find more than a score or so of recruits whomhe would accept, and only about a dozen, among them his sons, inwhom he had perfect faith. When he was here, some years ago, he showedto a few a little manuscript book- his "orderly book" I think hecalled it- containing the names of his company in Kansas, and therules by which they bound themselves; and he stated that several ofthem had already sealed the contract with their blood. When some oneremarked that, with the addition of a chaplain, it would have been aperfect Cromwellian troop, he observed that he would have been glad toadd a chaplain to the list, if he could have found one who couldfill that office worthily. It is easy enough to find one for theUnited States Army. I believe that he had prayers in his campmorning and evening, nevertheless.

He was a man of Spartan habits, and at sixty was scrupulous abouthis diet at your table, excusing himself by saying that he must eatsparingly and fare hard, as became a soldier, or one who was fittinghimself for difficult enterprises, a life of exposure.

A man of rare common sense and directness of speech, as of action; atranscendentalist above all, a man of ideas and principles- that waswhat distinguished him. Not yielding to a whim or transient impulse,but carrying out the purpose of a life. I noticed that he did notoverstate anything, but spoke within bounds. I remember, particularly,how, in his speech here, he referred to what his family had sufferedin Kansas, without ever giving the least vent to his pent-up fire.It was a volcano with an ordinary chimney-flue. Also referring tothe deeds of certain Border Ruffians, he said, rapidly paring away hisspeech, like an experienced soldier, keeping a reserve of force andmeaning, "They had a perfect right to be hung." He was not in theleast a rhetorician, was not talking to Buncombe or his constituentsanywhere, had no need to invent anything but to tell the simple truth,and communicate his own resolution; therefore he appeared incomparablystrong, and eloquence in Congress and elsewhere seemed to me at adiscount. It was like the speeches of Cromwell compared with thoseof an ordinary king.

As for his tact and prudence, I will merely say, that at a time whenscarcely a man from the Free States was able to reach Kansas by anydirect 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 thecapacity of a surveyor, with his surveying compass exposed in it,and so passed unsuspected, and had ample opportunity to learn thedesigns of the enemy. For some time after his arrival he stillfollowed the same profession. When, for instance, he saw a knot of theruffians on the prairie, discussing, of course, the single topic whichthen occupied their minds, he would, perhaps, take his compass and oneof his sons, and proceed to run an imaginary line right through thevery spot on which that conclave had assembled, and when he came up tothem, he would naturally pause and have some talk with them,learning their news, and, at last, all their plans perfectly; andhaving thus completed his real survey he would resume his imaginaryone, 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 theauthorities, exasperated against him, he accounted for it by saying,"It is perfectly well understood that I will not be taken." Much ofthe time for some years he has had to skulk in swamps, sufferingfrom poverty, and from sickness which was the consequence of exposure,befriended only by Indians and a few whites. But though it might beknown that he was lurking in a particular swamp, his foes commonly didnot care to go in after him. He could even come out into a townwhere there were more Border Ruffians than Free State men, andtransact some business, without delaying long, and yet not bemolested; for, said he, "no little handful of men were willing toundertake 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 wasevidently far from being a wild and desperate attempt. His enemy Mr.Vallandigham is compelled to say that "it was among the best plannedand executed conspiracies that ever failed."

Not to mention his other successes, was it a failure, or did it showa want of good management, to deliver from bondage a dozen humanbeings, and walk off with them by broad daylight, for weeks if notmonths, at a leisurely pace, through one State after another, for halfthe length of the North, conspicuous to all parties, with a priceset upon his head, going into a court-room on his way and telling whathe had done, thus convincing Missouri that it was not profitable totry to hold slaves in his neighborhood?- and this, not because thegovernment menials were lenient, but because they were afraid of him.

Yet he did not attribute his success, foolishly, to "his star," orto any magic. He said, truly, that the reason why such greatlysuperior numbers quailed before him was, as one of his prisonersconfessed, because they lacked a cause- a kind of armor which he andhis party never lacked. When the time came, few men were found willingto lay down their lives in defence of what they knew to be wrong; theydid 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, ofthe fact that there are at least as many as two or three individualsto a town throughout the North who think much as the present speakerdoes about him and his enterprise. I do not hesitate to say thatthey are an important and growing party. We aspire to be somethingmore than stupid and timid chattels, pretending to read history andour Bibles, but desecrating every house and every day we breathe in.Perhaps anxious politicians may prove that only seventeen white menand five negroes were concerned in the late enterprise; but their veryanxiety to prove this might suggest to themselves that all is nottold. Why do they still dodge the truth? They are so anxious becauseof a dim consciousness of the fact, which they did not distinctlyface, that at least a million of the free inhabitants of the UnitedStates would have rejoiced if it had succeeded. They at most onlycriticise the tacties. Though we wear no crape, the thought of thatman's position and probable fate is spoiling many a man's day hereat the North for other thinking. If any one who has seen him herecan pursue successfully any other train of thought, I do not know whathe is made of. If there is any such who gets his usual allowance ofsleep, I will warrant him to fatten easily under any circumstanceswhich do not touch his body or purse. I put a piece of paper and apencil under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in thedark.

On the whole, my respect for my fellow-men, except as one mayoutweigh a million, is not being increased these days. I havenoticed the cold-blooded way in which newspaper writers and mengenerally speak of this event, as if an ordinary malefactor, thoughone of unusual "pluck"- as the Governor of Virginia is reported tohave said, using the language of the cockpit, "the gamest man beever saw"- had been caught, and were about to be hung. He was notdreaming of his foes when the governor thought he looked so brave.It turns what sweetness I have to gall, to hear, or hear of, theremarks of some of my neighbors. When we heard at first that he wasdead, one of my townsmen observed that "he died as the fool dieth";which, pardon me, for an instant suggested a likeness in him dyingto 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 praisea man for attacking singly an ordinary band of thieves or murderers. Ihear another ask, Yankee-like, "What will he gain by it?" as if heexpected to fill his pockets by this enterprise. Such a one has noidea 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 ofthanks, 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 forbeing hung, take the year round; but then he stands a chance to save aconsiderable part of his soul-and such a soul!- when you do not. Nodoubt you can get more in your market for a quart of milk than for aquart of blood, but that is not the market that heroes carry theirblood to.

Such do not know that like the seed is the fruit, and that, in themoral world, when good seed is planted, good fruit is inevitable,and does not depend on our watering and cultivating; that when youplant, or bury, a hero in his field, a crop of heroes is sure tospring up. This is a seed of such force and vitality, that it does notask our leave to germinate.

The momentary charge at Balaklava, in obedience to a blunderingcommand, 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 someyears, against the legions of Slavery, in obedience to an infinitelyhigher command, is as much more memorable than that as anintelligent and conscientious man is superior to a machine. Do youthink 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 admirablelives, reading their Plutarch a little, but chiefly pausing at thatfeat of Putnam, who was let down into a wolf's den; and in this wisethey nourish themselves for brave and patriotic deeds some time orother. The Tract Society could afford to print that story of Putnam.You might open the district schools with the reading of it, forthere is nothing about Slavery or the Church in it; unless it occursto the reader that some pastors are wolves in sheep's clothing. "TheAmerican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions," even, mightdare to protest against that wolf. I have heard of boards, and ofAmerican boards, but it chances that I never heard of thisparticular lumber till lately. And yet I hear of Northern men, andwomen, and children, by families, buying a "life-membership" in suchsocieties as these. A life-membership in the grave! You can get buriedcheaper than that.

Our foes are in our midst and all about us. There is hardly ahouse but is divided against itself, for our foe is the all butuniversal woodenness of both head and heart, the want of vitality inman, which is the effect of our vice; and hence are begotten fear,superstition, bigotry, persecution, and slavery of all kinds. We aremere figure-heads upon a bulk, with livers in the place of hearts. Thecurse is the worship of idols, which at length changes theworshipper into a stone image himself; and the New Englander is justas much an idolater as the Hindoo. This man was an exception, for hedid not set up even a political graven image between him and his God.

A church that can never have done with excommunicating Christwhile it exists! Away with your broad and flat churches, and yournarrow and tall churches! Take a step forward, and invent a newstyle of out-houses. Invent a salt that will save you, and defendour nostrils.

The modern Christian is a man who has consented to say all theprayers in the liturgy, provided you will let him go straight to bedand sleep quietly afterward. All his prayers begin with "Now I layme down to sleep," and he is forever looking forward to the timewhen he shall go to his "long rest." He has consented to performcertain old-established charities, too, after a fashion, but he doesnot wish to hear of any new-fangled ones; he doesn't wish to haveany supplementary articles added to the contract, to fit it to thepresent time. He shows the whites of his eyes on the Sabbath, andthe blacks all the rest of the week. The evil is not merely astagnation of blood, but a stagnation of spirit. Many, no doubt, arewell disposed, but sluggish by constitution and by habit, and theycannot conceive of a man who is actuated by higher motives than theyare. Accordingly they pronounce this man insane, for they know thatthey 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 somesignificant event like the present occur in our midst, and wediscover, often, this distance and this strangeness between us and ournearest neighbors. They are our Austrias, and Chinas, and South SeaIslands. Our crowded society becomes well spaced all at once, cleanand handsome to the eye- a city of magnificent distances. Wediscover why it was that we never got beyond compliments andsurfaces with them before; we become aware of as many versts betweenus and them as there are between a wandering Tartar and a Chinesetown. The thoughtful man becomes a hermit in the thoroughfares ofthe market-place. Impassable seas suddenly find their level betweenus, or dumb steppes stretch themselves out there. It is the differenceof constitution, of intelligence, and faith, and not streams andmountains, that make the true and impassable boundaries betweenindividuals and between states. None but the like-minded can comeplenipotentiary to our court.

I read all the newspapers I could get within a week after thisevent, and I do not remember in them a single expression of sympathyfor these men. I have since seen one noble statement, in a Bostonpaper, not editorial. Some voluminous sheets decided not to printthe full report of Brown's words to the exclusion of other matter.It was as if a publisher should reject the manuscript of the NewTestament, and print Wilson's last speech. The same journal whichcontained this pregnant news was chiefly filled, in parallelcolumns, with the reports of the political conventions that were beingheld. But the descent to them was too steep. They should have beenspared this contrast- been printed in an extra, at least. To turn fromthe voices and deeds of earnest men to the cackling of politicialconventions! Office-seekers and speech-makers, who do not so much aslay an honest egg, but wear their breasts bare upon an egg of chalk!Their great game is the game of straws, or rather that universalaboriginal game of the platter, at which the Indians cried hub, bub!Exclude the reports of religious and political conventions, andpublish the words of a living man.

But I object not so much to what they have omitted as to what theyhave inserted. Even the Liberator called it "a misguided, wild, andapparently insane-effort." As for the herd of newspapers andmagazines, I do not chance to know an editor in the country who willdeliberately print anything which he knows will ultimately andpermanently reduce the number of his subscribers. They do notbelieve that it would be expedient. How then can they print truth?If we do not say pleasant things, they argue, nobody will attend tous. And so they do like some travelling auctioneers, who sing anobscene song, in order to draw a crowd around them. Republicaneditors, 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 suggestswhat 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, wehear people and parties declaring, "I didn't do it, nor countenancehim to do it, in any conceivable way. It can't be fairly inferred frommy past career." I, for one, am not interested to hear you define yourposition. I don't know that I ever was or ever shall be. I think it ismere egotism, or impertinent at this time. Ye needn't take so muchpains to wash your skirts of him. No intelligent man will ever beconvinced that he was any creature of yours. He went and came, as hehimself informs us, "under the auspices of John Brown and nobodyelse." The Republican Party does not perceive how many his failurewill make to vote more correctly than they would have them. Theyhave counted the votes of Pennsylvania & Co., but they have notcorrectly counted Captain Brown's vote. He has taken the wind out oftheir sails- the little wind they had- and they may as well lie to andrepair.

What though he did not belong to your clique! Though you may notapprove of his method or his principles, recognize his magnanimity.Would you not like to claim kindredship with him in that, though in noother thing he is like, or likely, to you? Do you think that you wouldlose your reputation so? What you lost at the spile, you would gain atthe 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; newcargoes are being added in mid-ocean; a small crew of slaveholders,countenanced by a large body of passengers, is smothering fourmillions under the hatches, and yet the politician asserts that theonly proper way by which deliverance is to be obtained is by "thequiet diffusion of the sentiments of humanity," without any"outbreak." As if the sentiments of humanity were ever foundunaccompanied by its deeds, and you could disperse them, allfinished to order, the pure article, as easily as water with awatering-pot, and so lay the dust. What is that that I hear castoverboard? The bodies of the dead that have found deliverance. That isthe way we are "diffusing" humanity, and its sentiments with it.

Prominent and influential editors, accustomed to deal withpoliticians, men of an infinitely lower grade, say, in theirignorance, that he acted "on the principle of revenge." They do notknow the man. They must enlarge themselves to conceive of him. Ihave no doubt that the time will come when they will begin to seehim as he was. They have got to conceive of a man of faith and ofreligious principle, and not a politician or an Indian; of a man whodid not wait till he was personally interfered with or thwarted insome harmless business before he gave his life to the cause of theoppressed.

If Walker may be considered the representative of the South, Iwish I could say that Brown was the representative of the North. Hewas a superior man. He did not value his bodily life in comparisonwith ideal things. He did not recognize unjust human laws, butresisted them as he was bid. For once we are lifted out of thetrivialness and dust of politics into the region of truth and manhood.No man in America has ever stood up so persistently and effectivelyfor the dignity of human nature, knowing himself for a man, and theequal of any and all governments. In that sense he was the mostAmerican of us all. He needed no babbling lawyer, making false issues,to defend him. He was more than a match for all the judges thatAmerican voters, or office-holders of whatever grade, can create. Hecould not have been tried by a jury of his peers, because his peersdid not exist. When a man stands up serenely against thecondemnation and vengeance of mankind, rising above them literallyby a whole body- even though he were of late the vilest murderer,who has settled that matter with himself- the spectacle is a sublimeone- didn't ye know it, ye Liberators, ye Tribunes, ye Republicans?-and we become criminal in comparison. Do yourselves the honor torecognize him. He needs none of your respect.

As for the Democratic journals, they are not human enough toaffect 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 thelast accounts, alive in the hands of his foes; but that being thecase, I have all along found myself thinking and speaking of him asphysically dead.

I do not believe in erecting statues to those who still live inour hearts, whose bones have not yet crumbled in the earth aroundus, but I would rather see the statue of Captain Brown in theMassachusetts 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 soanxiously shuffling him and his plot out of its way, and lookingaround for some available slaveholder, perhaps, to be its candidate,at least for one who will execute the Fugitive Slave Law, and allthose other unjust laws which he took up arms to annul!

Insane! A father and six sons, and one son-in-law, and severalmore men besides- as many at least as twelve disciples- all struckwith insanity at once; while the same tyrant holds with a firmer gripethan ever his four millions of slaves, and a thousand sane editors,his abettors, are saving their country and their bacon! just as insanewere his efforts in Kansas. Ask the tyrant who is his most dangerousfoe, the sane man or the insane? Do the thousands who know him best,who have rejoiced at his deeds in Kansas, and have afforded himmaterial aid there, think him insane? Such a use of this word is amere trope with most who persist in using it, and I have no doubt thatmany of the rest have already in silence retracted their words.

Read his admirable answers to Mason and others. How they are dwarfedand 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 withPilate, and Gessler, and the Inquisition. How ineffectual their speechand action! and what a void their silence! They are but helpless toolsin this great work. It was no human power that gathered them aboutthis preacher.

What have Massachusetts and the North sent a few sanerepresentatives to Congress for, of late years?- to declare witheffect what kind of sentiments? All their speeches put together andboiled down- and probably they themselves will confess it- do notmatch for manly directness and force, and for simple truth, the fewcasual remarks of crazy John Brown on the floor of the Harper'sFerry engine-house- that man whom you are about to hang, to send tothe other world, though not to represent you there. No, he was not ourrepresentative in any sense. He was too fair a specimen of a man torepresent the like of us. Who, then, were his constituents? If youread his words understandingly you will find out. In his case there isno idle eloquence, no made, nor maiden speech, no compliments to theoppressor. Truth is his inspirer, and earnestness the polisher ofhis sentences. He could afford to lose his Sharp's rifles, while heretained his faculty of speech- a Sharp's rifle of infinitely surerand longer range. And the New York Herald reports the conversation verbatim! It doesnot know of what undying words it is made the vehicle.

I have no respect for the penetration of any man who can read thereport of that conversation and still call the principal in it insane.It has the ring of a saner sanity than an ordinary discipline andhabits of life, than an ordinary organization, secure. Take anysentence of it- "Any questions that I can honorably answer, I will;not otherwise. So far as I am myself concerned, I have told everythingtruthfully. I value my word, sir." The few who talk about hisvindictive spirit, while they really admire his heroism, have notest by which to detect a noble man, no amalgam to combine with hispure gold. They mix their own dross with it.

It is a relief to turn from these slanders to the testimony of hismore truthful, but frightened jailers and hangmen. Governor Wisespeaks far more justly and appreciatingly of him than any Northerneditor, or politician, or public personage, that I chance to haveheard from. I know that you can afford to hear him again on thissubject. He says: "They are themselves mistaken who take him to be amadman.... He is cool, collected, and indomitable, and it is butjust to him to say that he was humane to his prisoners.... And heinspired me with great trust in his integrity as a man of truth. He isa fanatic, vain and garrulous" (I leave that part to Mr. Wise), "butfirm, truthful, and intelligent. His men, too, who survive, are likehim.... Colonel Washington says that he was the coolest and firmestman he ever saw in defying danger and death. With one son dead byhis side, and another shot through, he felt the pulse of his dying sonwith one hand, and held his rifle with the other, and commanded hismen with the utmost composure, encouraging them to be firm, and tosell their lives as dear as they could. Of the three whiteprisoners, Brown, Stevens, and Coppoc, it was hard to say which wasmost firm."

Almost the first Northern men whom the slaveholder has learned torespect!

The testimony of Mr. Vallandigham, though less valuable, is of thesame purport, that "it is vain to underrate either the man or hisconspiracy.... He is the farthest possible removed from the ordinaryruffian, fanatic, or madman."

"All is quiet at Harper's Ferry," say the journals. What is thecharacter of that calm which follows when the law and theslaveholder prevail? I regard this event as a touchstone designed tobring out, with glaring distinctness, the character of thisgovernment. We needed to be thus assisted to see it by the light ofhistory. It needed to see itself. When a government puts forth itsstrength on the side of injustice, as ours to maintain slavery andkill the liberators of the slave, it reveals itself a merely bruteforce, or worse, a demoniacal force. It is the head of thePlug-Uglies. It is more manifest than ever that tyranny rules. I seethis government to be effectually allied with France and Austria inoppressing mankind. There sits a tyrant holding fettered four millionsof slaves; here comes their heroic liberator. This most hypocriticaland diabolical government looks up from its seat on the gasping fourmillions, and inquires with an assumption of innocence: "What do youassault me for? Am I not an honest man? Cease agitation on thissubject, or I will make a slave of you, too, or else hang you."

We talk about a representative government; but what a monster of agovernment is that where the noblest faculties of the mind, and thewhole heart, are not represented! A semihuman tiger or ox, stalkingover the earth, with its heart taken out and the top of its brain shotaway. Heroes have fought well on their stumps when their legs wereshot off, but I never heard of any good done by such a government asthat.

The only government that I recognize- and it matters not how few areat the head of it, or how small its army- is that power thatestablishes justice in the land, never that which establishesinjustice. What shall we think of a government to which all thetruly brave and just men in the land are enemies, standing betweenit and those whom it oppresses? A government that pretends to beChristian and crucifies a million Christs every day!

Treason! Where does such treason take its rise? I cannot helpthinking of you as you deserve, ye governments. Can you dry up thefountains of thought? High treason, when it is resistance to tyrannyhere below, has its origin in, and is first committed by, the powerthat makes and forever re-creates man. When you have caught and hungall these human rebels, you have accomplished nothing but your ownguilt, for you have not struck at the fountain-head. You presume tocontend with a foe against whom West Point cadets and rifled cannonpoint not. Can all the art of the cannon-founder tempt matter toturn against its maker? Is the form in which the founder thinks hecasts it more essential than the constitution of it and of himself?

The United States have a coffle of four millions of slaves. They aredetermined to keep them in this condition; and Massachusetts is one ofthe confederated overseers to prevent their escape. Such are not allthe inhabitants of Massachusetts, but such are they who rule and areobeyed here. It was Massachusetts, as well as Virginia, that putdown this insurrection at Harper's Ferry. She sent the marinesthere, and she will have to pay the penalty of her sin.

Suppose that there is a society in this State that out of its ownpurse and magnanimity saves all the fugitive slaves that run to us,and protects our colored fellow-citizens, and leaves the other work tothe government, so called. Is not that government fast losing itsoccupation, and becoming contemptible to mankind? If private men areobliged to perform the offices of government, to protect the weakand dispense justice, then the government becomes only a hired man, orclerk, to perform menial or indifferent services. Of course, that isbut the shadow of a government whose existence necessitates a VigilantCommittee. What should we think of the Oriental Cadi even, behind whomworked in secret a Vigilant Committee? But such is the character ofour Northern States generally; each has its Vigilant Committee. And,to a certain extent, these crazy governments recognize and accept thisrelation. They say, virtually, "We'll be glad to work for you on theseterms, only don't make a noise about it." And thus the government, itssalary being insured, withdraws into the back shop, taking theConstitution 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, atbest, of those farmers who in winter contrive to turn a penny byfollowing the coopering business. And what kind of spirit is theirbarrel made to hold? They speculate in stocks, and bore holes inmountains, but they are not competent to lay out even a decenthighway. The only free road, the Underground Railroad, is owned andmanaged by the Vigilant Committee. They have tunnelled under the wholebreadth of the land. Such a government is losing its power andrespectability as surely as water runs out of a leaky vessel, and isheld by one that can contain it.

I hear many condemn these men because they were so few. When werethe good and the brave ever in a majority? Would you have had him waittill that time came?- till you and I came over to him? The very factthat he had no rabble or troop of hirelings about him would alonedistinguish him from ordinary heroes. His company was small indeed,because few could be found worthy to pass muster. Each one who therelaid down his life for the poor and oppressed was a picked man, culledout of many thousands, if not millions; apparently a man of principle,of rare courage, and devoted humanity; ready to sacrifice his lifeat any moment for the benefit of his fellow-man. It may be doubtedif there were as many more their equals in these respects in all thecountry- I speak of his followers only- for their leader, no doubt,scoured the land far and wide, seeking to swell his troop. These alonewere ready to step between the oppressor and the oppressed. Surelythey were the very best men you could select to be hung. That wasthe greatest compliment which this country could pay them. They wereripe for her gallows. She has tried a long time, she has hung a goodmany, but never found the right one before.

When I think of him, and his six sons, and his son-in-law, not toenumerate the others, enlisted for this fight, proceeding coolly,reverently, humanely to work, for months if not years, sleeping andwaking upon it, summering and wintering the thought, without expectingany reward but a good conscience, while almost all America stoodranked on the other side- I say again that it affects me as asublime spectacle. If he had had any journal advocating "his cause,"any organ, as the phrase is, monotonously and wearisomely playingthe same old tune, and then passing round the hat, it would havebeen fatal to his efficiency. If he had acted in any way so as to belet alone by the government, he might have been suspected. It wasthe fact that the tyrant must give place to him, or he to thetyrant, that distinguished him from all the reformers of the daythat I know.

It was his peculiar doctrine that a man has a perfect right tointerfere by force with the slaveholder, in order to rescue the slave.I agree with him. They who are continually shocked by slavery havesome right to be shocked by the violent death of the slaveholder,but no others. Such will be more shocked by his life than by hisdeath. I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his methodwho quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I speak for the slavewhen I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to thatphilanthropy 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 intalking or writing about this matter, unless he is continuouslyinspired, and I have not done so. A man may have other affairs toattend to. I do not wish to kill nor to be killed, but I can foreseecircumstances in which both these things would be by me unavoidable.We preserve the so-called peace of our community by deeds of pettyviolence every day. Look at the policeman's billy and handcuffs!Look at the jail! Look at the gallows! Look at the chaplain of theregiment! We are hoping only to live safely on the outskirts of thisprovisional army. So we defend ourselves and our hen-roosts, andmaintain slavery. I know that the mass of my countrymen think that theonly righteous use that can be made of Sharp's rifles and revolvers isto fight duels with them, when we are insulted by other nations, or tohunt Indians, or shoot fugitive slaves with them, or the like. I thinkthat for once the Sharp's rifles and the revolvers were employed ina righteous cause. The tools were in the hands of one who could usethem.

The same indignation that is said to have cleared the temple oncewill clear it again. The question is not about the weapon, but thespirit 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. Helived for him. He took up his life and he laid it down for him. Whatsort of violence is that which is encouraged, not by soldiers, butby peaceable citizens, not so much by laymen as by ministers of theGospel, not so much by the fighting sects as by the Quakers, and notso much by Quaker men as by Quaker women?

This event advertises me that there is such a fact as death- thepossibility of a man's dying. It seems as if no man had ever died inAmerica before; for in order to die you must first have lived. I don'tbelieve in the hearses, and palls, and funerals that they have had.There was no death in the case, because there had been no life; theymerely rotted or sloughed off, pretty much as they had rotted orsloughed along. No temple's veil was rent, only a hole dugsomewhere. Let the dead bury their dead. The best of them fairly randown like a clock. Franklin- Washington- they were let off withoutdying; they were merely missing one day. I hear a good many pretendthat they are going to die; or that they have died, for aught that Iknow. Nonsense! I'll defy them to do it. They haven't got lifeenough in them. They'll deliquesce like fungi, and keep a hundredeulogists mopping the spot where they left off. Only half a dozen orso have died since the world began. Do you think that you are going todie, 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 aboutcapital punishment- taking lives, when there is no life to take.Memento mori! We don't understand that sublime sentence which someworthy got sculptured on his gravestone once. We've interpreted itin a grovelling and snivelling sense; we've wholly forgotten how todie.

But be sure you do die nevertheless. Do your work, and finish it. Ifyou know how to begin, you will know when to end.

These men, in teaching us how to die, have at the same time taughtus how to live. If this man's acts and words do not create arevival, it will be the severest possible satire on the acts and wordsthat do. It is the best news that America has ever heard. It hasalready quickened the feeble pulse of the North, and infused moreand more generous blood into her veins and heart than any number ofyears of what is called commercial and political prosperity could. Howmany a man who was lately contemplating suicide has now something tolive for!

One writer says that Brown's peculiar monomania made him to be"dreaded by the Missourians as a supernatural being." Sure enough, ahero in the midst of us cowards is always so dreaded. He is justthat thing. He shows himself superior to nature. He has a spark ofdivinity 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 thathe thought he was appointed to do this work which he did- that hedid not suspect himself for a moment! They talk as if it wereimpossible that a man could be "divinely appointed" in these days todo any work whatever; as if vows and religion were out of date asconnected with any man's daily work; as if the agent to abolishslavery could only be somebody appointed by the President, or bysome 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 howreligiously, and then reflect to what cause his judges and all whocondemn him so angrily and fluently devote themselves, I see that theyare as far apart as the heavens and earth are asunder.

The amount of it is, our "leading men" are a harmless kind offolk, 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 itindispensable to any Northern man? Is there no resource but to castthis man also to the Minotaur? If you do not wish it, say sodistinctly. While these things are being done, beauty stands veiledand music is a screeching lie. Think of him- of his rarequalities!- such a man as it takes ages to make, and ages tounderstand; no mock hero, nor the representative of any party. A mansuch as the sun may not rise upon again in this benighted land. Towhose making went the costliest material, the finest adamant; sentto be the redeemer of those in captivity; and the only use to whichyou can put him is to hang him at the end of a rope! You who pretendto care for Christ crucified, consider what you are about to do to himwho offered himself to be the saviour of four millions of men.

Any man knows when he is justified, and all the wits in the worldcannot enlighten him on that point. The murderer always knows thathe is justly punished; but when a government takes the life of a manwithout the consent of his conscience, it is an audaciousgovernment, and is taking a step towards its own dissolution. Is itnot possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong?Are laws to be enforced simply because they were made? or declaredby any number of men to be good, if they are not good? Is there anynecessity for a man's being a tool to perform a deed of which hisbetter nature disapproves? Is it the intention of law-makers that goodmen shall be hung ever? Are judges to interpret the law according tothe letter, and not the spirit? What right have you to enter into acompact with yourself that you will do thus or so, against the lightwithin you? Is it for you to make up your mind- to form any resolutionwhatever- and not accept the convictions that are forced upon you, andwhich ever pass your understanding? I do not believe in lawyers, inthat mode of attacking or defending a man, because you descend to meetthe judge on his own ground, and, in cases of the highestimportance, it is of no consequence whether a man breaks a human lawor not. Let lawyers decide trivial cases. Business men may arrangethat among themselves. If they were the interpreters of theeverlasting laws which rightfully bind man, that would be anotherthing. A counterfeiting law-factory, standing half in a slave land andhalf in a free! What kind of laws for free men can you expect fromthat?

I am here to plead his cause with you. I plead not for his life, butfor his character- his immortal life; and so it becomes your causewholly, and is not his in the least. Some eighteen hundred years agoChrist was crucified; this morning, perchance, Captain Brown was hung.These are the two ends of a chain which is not without its links. Heis not Old Brown any longer; he is an angel of light.

I see now that it was necessary that the bravest and humanest man inall the country should be hung. Perhaps he saw it himself. I almostfear that I may yet hear of his deliverance, doubting if a prolongedlife, if any life, can do as much good as his death.

"Misguided!" "Garrulous!" "Insane!" "Vindictive!" So ye write inyour easy-chairs, and thus he wounded responds from the floor of thearmory, 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 hiscaptors, who stand over him: "I think, my friends, you are guilty of agreat wrong against God and humanity, and it would be perfectlyright for any one to interfere with you, so far as to free those youwilfully and wickedly hold in bondage."

And, referring to his movement: "It is, in my opinion, thegreatest service a man can render to God."

"I pity the poor in bondage that have none to help them; that is whyI am here; not to gratify any personal animosity, revenge, orvindictive spirit. It is my sympathy with the oppressed and thewronged, that are as good as you, and as precious in the sight ofGod."

You don't know your testament when you see it.

"I want you to understand that I respect the rights of the poorestand weakest of colored people, oppressed by the slave power, just asmuch as I do those of the most wealthy and powerful."

"I wish to say, furthermore, that you had better, all you peopleat the South, prepare yourselves for a settlement of that question,that must come up for settlement sooner than you are prepared forit. The sooner you are prepared the better. You may dispose of me veryeasily. I am nearly disposed of now; but this question is still tobe 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 longergoing to Rome for a subject; the poet will sing it; the historianrecord it; and, with the Landing of the Pilgrims and the Declarationof Independence, it will be the ornament of some future nationalgallery, when at least the present form of slavery shall be no morehere. We shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown. Then, andnot till then, we will take our revenge.

THE END