| OCR Text |
Show 22 Henry D. Thoreau. bl d and when be came up to them, 1 lave bad assem e ' .. . 1 t mt cone c d haYe some talk wtth t 1cm, he ~vould na.turally p:~~e :tn last, all their plans perfectly; learning .thetr new~m le~ed his real survey, he would reand l1avmg th~s c P u run on his line till he was sume his imagmary one, an out of sight. . 0 at he could live in l{ansas at \Vl I expressed surpnsc lc len " . . t n his beau and so large a number, a11, with a pnce se .. upo ,;: crated' aCYainst him, he account .. including the a~thontiJe~, exa }cctiy welt understood that I will 1 ~ "t b saymCY " tIS peH C( or l y " o' h f tl time for some years he has lmd not be taken. 1\iuc 0 lC · ·l· to kulk m. swamps, su ftie n·n O" from poverty and from stc .. nes ' o . d 1 1 b . conse ucnce of exposure, bcfnen et on y y wluch was the q. 1 CY} it miCYht be known Indians and a few whites. But t lOUb 1 . t> 1 that he was lurking m. a par t.t cu 1·a i• swamp' hts foes commo.n tY did not care to go m. a~lt e' r b. llc could even come ont m o liD. F. a town where there wei. e m ore Border Ruffians th.a n l J ce ~ n and transa~t some business, without delaymg ong~ State me ' t. 1 t d . for said he, "No little handful of and yet not Lle mo es c ' ld t men were willing to undertake it, and a large body cou no be got tocrether m. season. " b t "t As fOl~ his recent failure, we do not know the facts a ou I . It was evidently far from being a wild and de perate a~tem,;~; !lis enemy, :1\'Ir. Vallandingham, is compelled to s~y, : lnt h 1 t was among the best planned and executed conspu·aciCs t a ever failed." . . . did Not to mention his other successes, was It a f:ulure, OI it show a want of good management, to deliver from bondage a dozen human beings, and walk off with them by broad daylicrht for weeks if not month 'at a leisurely pace, through ~nc s7at~ after another, for half the length of the North, .con. piCU- ous to all parties, with a pn.c e set upon 11 ·1 s l l ca£ d ' bc romCYb mto a court room on his way and telling what he had done, thu: convincinCY Missouri that it was not profitable to try to hol sla vcs in bhis neighborhood ? -and this, not because the gov4 Henry D. Thoreau. ernmcnt menials were lenient, but because they were afraid of him. Yet he did not attribute hi ~ success, fooli. hly, to " his star," or to any magic. l-Ie said, truly, that the rca on why such greatly uperior numbers quailed before him, wa , as one of his prisoners confessed, because they lacked a cause- a kind of armor which he and hi~ 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 !tis la t 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 arc an important and growing party. 1Ve 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 m. Perhaps anxious politicians may prove that only seventeen white men and fh·e negroes were concerned in the late enterpri e ; but their very anxiety to prove this might suggc, t to themselves that all i ~ not told. 'Vhy do they still dodge the truth? They arc i:iO anxious becau e 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 ucceeded. They at mo t 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 ha seen him here can pur::mc succcs fully any other train of thought, I do not know what he is made of. If there i · any such wl10 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 |
