Parker Pillsbury, to whom this letter went, was an old friend of the
Thoreau family, with whom he became intimate in the antislavery
agitation, wherein they took part, while he was a famous orator,
celebrated by Emerson in one of his essays. Mr. Pillsbury visited
Thoreau in his last illness, when he could scarcely speak above a
whisper, and, having made to him some remark concerning the future
life, Thoreau replied, "My friend, one world at a time." His petulant
words in this letter concerning national affairs would hardly have
been said a few days later, when, at the call of Abraham Lincoln, the
people rose to protect their government, and every President's Message
became of thrilling interest, even to Thoreau.
Arrangements were now making for the invalid, about whose health his
friends had been anxious for some years, to travel for a better
climate than the New England spring affords, and early in May Thoreau
set out for the upper Mississippi. He thus missed the last letter sent
to him by his English friend Cholmondeley, which I answered, then
forwarded to him at Redwing, in Minnesota. It is of interest enough to
be given here.