Concord, May 8,
1859.
This evening I hear Captain Brown speak at the town hall on
Kansas affairs, and the part taken by him in the late troubles there. He tells
his story with surpassing simplicity and sense, impressing us all deeply by his
courage and religious earnestness. Our best people listen to his words, —
Emerson, Thoreau, Judge Hoar, my wife; and some of them contribute something in
aid of his plans without asking particulars, such confidence does he inspire in
his integrity and abilities. I have a few words with him after his speech, and
find him superior to legal traditions, and a disciple of the Right in ideality
and the affairs of state. He is Sanborn's guest, and stays for a day only. A
young man named Anderson accompanies him. They go armed, I am told, and will
defend themselves, if necessary. I believe they are now on their way to Connecticut
and farther south; but the Captain leaves us much in the dark concerning his
destination and designs for the coming months. Yet he does not conceal his
hatred of slavery, nor his readiness to strike a blow for freedom at the proper
moment. I infer it is his intention to run off as many slaves as he can, and so
render that property insecure to the master. I think him equal to anything he
dares, — the man to do the deed, if it must be done, and with the martyr's
temper and purpose. Nature obviously was deeply intent in the making of him. He
is of imposing appearance, personally, —tall, with square shoulders and
standing; eyes of deep gray, and couchant, as if ready to spring at the least
rustling, dauntless yet kindly; his hair shooting backward from low down on his
forehead; nose trenchant and Romanesque; set lips, his voice suppressed yet
metallic, suggesting deep reserves; decided mouth; the countenance and frame
charged with power throughout. Since here last he has added a flowing beard,
which gives the soldierly air and the port of an apostle. Though sixty years
old, he is agile and alert, and ready for any audacity, in any crisis. I think
him about the manliest man I have ever seen, — the typo and synonym of the
Just. I wished to see and speak with him under circumstances permitting of
large discourse. I am curious concerning his matured opinions on the great
questions, — as of personal independence, the citizen's relation to the State,
the right of resistance, slavery, the higher law, temperance, the pleas and
reasons for freedom, and ideas generally. Houses and hospitalities were
invented for the entertainment of such questions, — for the great guests of
manliness and nobility thus entering and speaking face to face:—
Man is his own star; and the soul
that can
Render an honest and a perfect man
Commands all light, all influence,
all fate.
Nothing to him falls early or too
late:
Our acts our angels are, — or good
or ill,
Our fatal shadows, that walk by us
still.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of
John Brown, p. 504-5
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