A Plea for Captain John Brown | Page 3

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This etext was prepared by Jason Filley, St. Louis, Missouri.

A Plea for Captain John Brown
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