xtent, these crazy governments recognize and accept this
relation. They say, virtually, "We'll be glad to work for you on these
terms, only don't make a noise about it." And thus the government,
its salary being insured, withdraws into the back shop, taking the
Constitution with it, and bestows most of its labor on repairing that.
When I hear it at work sometimes, as I go by, it reminds me, at best,
of those farmers who in winter contrive to turn a penny by following
the coopering business. And what kind of spirit is their barrel made to
hold? They speculate in stocks, and bore holes in mountains, but they
are not competent to lay out even a decent highway. The only free
road, the Underground Railroad, is owned and managed by the Vigilant
Committee. They have tunnelled under the whole breadth of the land. Such
a government is losing its power and respectability as surely as water
runs out of a leaky vessel, and is held by one that can contain it.

I hear many condemn these men because they were so few. When were the
good and the brave ever in a majority? Would you have had him wait till
that time came?--till you and I came over to him? The very fact that he
had no rabble or troop of hirelings about him would alone distinguish
him from ordinary heroes. His company was small indeed, because few
could be found worthy to pass muster. Each one who there laid down his
life for the poor and oppressed was a picked man, culled out of many
thousands, if not millions; apparently a man of principle, of rare
courage, and devoted humanity; ready to sacrifice his life at any moment
for the benefit of his fellow-man. It may be doubted if there were as
many more their equals in these respects in all the country--I speak of
his followers only--for their leader, no doubt, scoured the land far and
wide, seeking to swell his troop. These alone were ready to step between
the oppressor and the oppressed. Surely they were the very best men you
could select to be hung. That was the greatest compliment which this
country could pay them. They were ripe for her gallows. She has tried
a long time, she has hung a good many, but never found the right one
before.

When I think of him, and his six sons, and his son-in-law, not to
enumerate the others, enlisted for this fight, proceeding coolly,
reverently, humanely to work, for months if not years, sleeping and
waking upon it, summering and wintering the thought, without expecting
any reward but a goo