did 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, 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 are an important and growing party. We 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 in.
Perhaps anxious politicians may prove that only seventeen white men
and five negroes were concerned in the late enterprise; but their very
anxiety to prove this might suggest to themselves that all is not
told. Why do they still dodge the truth? They are so anxious because
of a dim consciousness of the fact, which they did not distinctly
face, that at least a million of the free inhabitants of the United
States would have rejoiced if it had succeeded. They at most only
criticise the tacties. 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 has seen him here
can pursue successfully any other train of thought, I do not know what
he is made of. If there is any such who 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 under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the
dark.

  On the whole, my respect for my fellow-men, except as one may
outweigh a million, is not being increased these days. I have
noticed the cold-blooded way in which newspaper writers and men
generally speak of this event, as if an ordinary malefactor, though
one of unusual "pluck"- as the Governor of Virginia is reported to
have said, using the language of the cockpit, "the gamest man be
ever saw"- had been caught, and were about to be hung. He was not
dreaming of his foes when the governor thought he looked so brave.
It turns what sweetness I have to gall, to hear, or hear of, the
remarks of some of my neighbors. When we heard at first that he was
dead, one of my townsmen observed that "he died as the fool dieth";
which, pardon me, for an instant suggested a likeness in him dying
to 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 praise
a man for attacking singly an ordinary band of thieves or murderers. I
hear another ask, Yankee-like, "What will he gain by it?" as if he
expected to fill his pockets by this enterprise. Such a one has no
idea 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 of
thanks, 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 for
being hung, take the year round; but then he stands a chance to save a
considerable part of his soul-and such a soul!- when you do not. No
doubt you can get more in your market for a quart of milk than for a
quart of blood, but that is not the market that heroes carry their
blood to.

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

  The momentary charge at Balaklava, in obedience to a blundering
command, 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 some
years, against the legions of Slavery, in obedience to an infinitely
higher command, is as much more memorable than that as an
intelligent and conscientious man is superior to a machine. Do you
think 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 admirable
lives, reading their Plutarch a little, but chiefly pausing at that
feat of Putnam, who was let down into a wolf's den; and in this wise
they nourish themselves for brave and patriotic deeds some time or
other. The Tract Society could afford to print that story of Putnam.
You might open the district schools with the reading of it, for
there is nothing about Slavery or the Church in it; unless it occurs
to the reader that some pastors are wolves in sheep's clothing. "The
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions," even, might
dare to protest against that wolf. I have heard of boards, and of
American boards, but it chances that I never heard of this
particular lumber till lately. And yet I hear of Northern men, and
women, and children, by families, buying a "life-membership" in such
societies as these. A life-membership in the grave! You can get buried
cheaper than that.

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