CONCORD, August 3, 1860.
MR. BLAKE,--I some time ago asked Channing if he would not spend a
week with me on Monadnock; but he did not answer decidedly. Lately he
has talked of an excursion somewhere, but I said that _now_ I must
wait till my sister returned from Plymouth, N. H. She has
returned,--and accordingly, on receiving your note this morning, I
made known its contents to Channing, in order to see how far I was
engaged with him. The result is that he decides to go to Monadnock
to-morrow morning;[95] so I must defer making an excursion with you
and Brown to another season. Perhaps you will call as you pass the
mountain. I send this by the earliest mail.
P. S.--That was a very insufficient visit which you made here the last
time. My mother is better, though far from well; and if you should
chance along here any time after your journey, I trust that we shall
all do better.
* * * * *
The mention by Thoreau of John Brown and my "case" recalls to me an
incident of those excited days which followed the attack by Brown on
slavery in Virginia. The day after Brown's death, but before the
execution of his comrades, I received a message from the late Dr.
David Thayer of Boston, implying, as I thought, that a son of Brown
was at his house, whither I hurried to meet him. Instead, I found
young F. J. Merriam of Boston, who had escaped with Owen Brown from
Harper's Ferry, and was now in Boston to raise another party against
the slaveholders. He was unfit to lead or even join in such a
desperate undertaking, and we insisted he should return to safety in
Canada,--a large reward being offered for his seizure. He agreed to go
back to Canada that night by the Fitchburg Railroad; but in his
hot-headed way he took the wrong train, which ran no farther than
Concord,--and found himself in the early evening at my house, where my
sister received him, but insisted that I should not see him, lest I
might be questioned about my guest. While he had supper and went to
bed, I posted down to Mr. Emerson's and engaged his horse and covered
wagon, to be ready at sunrise,--he asking no questions. In the same
way I engaged Mr. Thoreau to drive his friend's horse to South Acton
the next morning, and there put on board the first Canadian train a
Mr. Lockwood, whom he would find at my house. Thoreau readily consented,
asked no questions, walked to the Emerson stable the next morning,
found the horse ready, drove him to my door, and took up Merriam,
under the name of Lockwood,--neither knowing who the other was.
Merriam was so flighty that, though he had agreed to go to Montreal,
and knew that his life might depend on getting there early, he declared
he must see Mr. Emerson, to lay before him his plan for invading the
South, and consult him about some moral questions that troubled his
mind. His companion listened gravely,--and hurried the horse towards
Acton. Merriam grew more positive and suspicious,--"Perhaps YOU are
Mr. Emerson; you look somewhat like him."[96] "No, I am not," said
Thoreau, and drove steadily away from Concord. "Well, then, I am going
back," said the youth, and flung himself out of the wagon. How Thoreau
got him in again, he never told me; but I suspected some judicious
force, accompanying the grave persuasive speech natural to our friend.
At any rate, he took his man to Acton, saw him safe on the train, and
reported to me that "Mr. Lockwood had taken passage for Canada," where
he arrived that night. Nothing more passed between us until, more than
two years after, he inquired one day, in his last illness, who my
fugitive was. Merriam was then out of danger in that way, and had been
for months a soldier in the Union army, where he died. I therefore
said that "Lockwood" was the grandson of his mother's old friend,
Francis Jackson, and had escaped from Maryland. In return he gave me
the odd incidents of their drive, and mentioned that he had spoken of
the affair to his mother only since his illness. So reticent and
practically useful could he be; as Channing says, "He made no useless
professions, never asked one of those questions which destroy all
relation; but he was on the spot at the time, he meant friendship,
and meant nothing else, and stood by it without the slightest
abatement."