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A Plea for Captain John Brown By: Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) |
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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... Continue reading book >>
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