HENRY D. THOEBAU 7 



is no previous question. " The fact that the politi- 

 cian fears," he says, referring to the repeal of the 

 Tugitive Slave Law, "is merely that there is less 

 honor among thieves than was supposed, and not 

 the fact that they are thieves. " For the most part, 

 Thoreau's political tracts and addresses seem a little 

 petulant and willful, and fall just short of enlisting 

 one's sympathies; and his carrying his opposition 

 to the state to the point of allowing himself to be 

 put iu jail rather than pay a paltry tax, savors a 

 little bit of the grotesque and the melodramatic. 

 But his plea for John Brown when the whole coun- 

 try was disowning him, abolitionists and all, fully 

 satisfies one's sense of the fitness of things. It 

 does not overshoot the mark. The mark was high, 

 and the attitude of the speaker was high and scorn- 

 ful, and uncompromising in the extreme. It was 

 ju.st the occasion required to show Thoreau's metal. 

 "If this man's acts and words do not create a revi- 

 val, it will be the severest possible satire on the 

 acts and words that do. It is the best news that 

 America has ever heard." "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 ! " 

 "Do yourselves the honor to recognize him; he 



