Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/194

168 to practical politics, displayed unsurpassed energy and courage. We recalled their forceful prophecies of the possible educative results for the negroes at the dedication of the Robert Shaw monument in Boston in May, 1898. Booker T. Washington was given the ovation of this occasion as he uttered his magnetic words which established, beyond all doubt, the actual mental power, at least in one example, evolved by education and encouragement from one born and bred in slavery and now recognized throughout the world as among the most honored of Americans.

In that rare volume, "Echoes from Harper's Ferry," edited by James Eedpath in 1860, Thoreau's "Plea for Captain Brown" has initial place, beside orations by Emerson and Wendell Phillips. A chance allusion in a letter indicates that Thoreau tried to get his plea printed for the benefit of the Brown family,—another evidence of his genuine helpfulness. At the commemoration services at Concord in December, 1859, Thoreau had the most important part. His personal remarks show how strongly he was moved by the pathos of the affair. He referred with emotion to the woman, (wife of Judge Russell) who visited Brown in prison to mend his sabre-riven clothes and brought away, as a sacred memento, a pin marked with blood-stains.