A Plea for Captain John Brown

“It costs us nothing to be just.”

Thoreau wants his audience to shift their perspective of Brown’s character; he reminds them that giving Brown a fair shake instead of rushing to conclusions is asking very little of them.

“I should say that he was an old-fashioned man in respect for the Constitution, and his faith in the permanence of this Union.”

Many of the abolitionists were concerned that Brown acted without consideration of the delicate Union. Here, Thoreau tells the audience that Brown shared in their convictions about the composition of the nation.

“Such were his humanities and not any study of grammar. He would have left a Greek accent slanting the wrong way, and righted up a falling man.”

Thoreau suggests that Brown was a man of the people. He may not have had the education to know which way a Greek accent leans, but he had something far more important: the conviction to help his fellow man.