EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR., THE GENTLE BOY HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1692

September 22, Thursday (Old Style): Magistrate Samuel Sewall –the progenitor of the Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. of Scituate in the Bay Colony who would begin to attend the Concord Academy in Concord in June 1839 and of the Ellen Devereux Sewall to whom Henry Thoreau would propose– was involved in the offing of 19 women of Salem for being in league with Satan. On this one day Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Mary Towne Estey or Easty (whose sister, Goodwife Rebecca Towne Nurse, had already been taken to the gallows), Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker were hanged.

FINAL EXECUTIONS

Jo. Wilkinson of Sowerby and final beheadings on the famous Halifax Gibbet December 30, 1648 Anthony Mitchell

Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, hanged for witchcraft in the American colonies Mary Towne Estey or Easty, “...what a sad thing it is to see Eight Firebrands of September 22, 1692 Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Hell hanging there” Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker

last person to get actually hanged in England, for 1709 Henry Young being judged to have been defeated by his oppo- nent in a Trial by Combat

Mary Towne Easty: “...if it be possible no more innocent blood be shed...... I am clear of this sin.”

The Reverend Nicholas Noyes: “What a sad thing to see eight firebrands of hell hanging there.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY William Hathorne’s son John Hathorne (1641-1717), a chip off the old block, a Colonel in the Massachusetts Militia and a deputy to the General Court in Boston, was a Magistrate during this episode in which in addition to the hangings of this day one woman had a short time before been tortured to death.1 WITCH

1. Nathaniel Hawthorne, a descendant, would be much troubled by a curse Sarah Good had placed on her executioners, “God will give you Blood to drink.”

His tale “The Gentle Boy” of 1831 would make reference to this history.

Let us thank God for having given us such ancestors; and let each successive generation thank him, not less fervently, for being one step further from them in the march of the ages. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Major American Witchcraft Cases

1647 Elizabeth Kendall, Alse Young 1663 Mary Barnes

1648 Margaret Jones, Mary Johnson 1666 Elizabeth Seager

1651 Alice Lake, Mrs. (Lizzy) Kendal, Goody 1669 Katherine (Kateran) Harrison Bassett, Mary Parsons

1652 John Carrington, Joan Carrington 1683 Nicholas Disborough, Margaret Mattson

1653 Elizabeth “Goody” Knapp, Elizabeth 1688 Annie “Goody” Glover Godman

1654 Lydia Gilbert, Kath Grady, Mary Lee 1692 Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Towne Nurse, Sarah Good, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Wildes, Mary Staplies, Mercy Disborough, Elizabeth Clawson, Mary Harvey, Hannah Harvey, Goody Miller, Giles Cory, Mary Towne Estey, Reverend George Burrough, George Jacobs, Sr., John Proctor, John Willard, Martha Carrier, Sarah Good, Martha Corey, Margaret Scott, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Ward- well, Mary Parker, Tituba

1655 Elizabeth Godman, Nicholas Bayley, 1693 Hugh Crotia, Mercy Disborough Goodwife Bayley, Ann Hibbins

1657 William Meaker 1697 Winifred Benham, Senr., Winifred Ben- ham, Junr.

1658 Elizabeth Garlick, Elizabeth Richardson, 1724 Sarah Spencer Katherine Grade

1661 Nicholas Jennings, Margaret Jennings 1768 —— Norton

1662 Nathaniel Greensmith, Rebecca 1801 Sagoyewatha “Red Jacket” Greensmith, Mary Sanford, Andrew San- ford, Goody Ayres, Katherine Palmer, Judith Varlett, James Walkley HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY January 14, Thursday (1696, Old Style): This was the Fast Day set by the General Court to expiate the Salem witchcraft episode. Judge Samuel Sewall had had some bad events occur in his family that had caused him to suspect that he and his were being punished of God. So this progenitor of the Ellen Devereux Sewall and Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. of Thoreau’s love stood in his pew in the South Church of Boston while the Reverend Samuel Willard read out his statement, that the Sewall family had been cursed of God because of the trials, and that he Samuel did take “the Blame and shame” upon himself, and read out his petition for the pardon of God and men. The twelve jurors of the Salem witchcraft trial of September 22, 1692 were in attendance to acknowledge that they had “unwittingly and unwillingly” brought

upon ourselves and this people of the Lord the guilt of innocent blood.

The judge did then and there publicly admit the injustice of the witch hangings he had ordered on Gallows Hill in Salem.

[The Score So Far: Seven judges, one repentant.] HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1820

August 23, Wednesday: In Boston, Edmund Quincy Sewall, a divinity student studying with the Reverend Ezra Ripley at the Old Manse in Concord, and Caroline Ward, daughter of Colonel Joseph Ward (deceased) and Prudence Bird Ward, did the right thing, the bride being already 2 or 3 months pregnant. The illicit pregnancy would not impact the father’s career as a minister (the wedding document would be made to bear the date July 19, 1820). The couple would produce 1st Ellen Devereux Sewall and then Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr.

Here is a sketch Waldo Emerson drew in his journal, of his dorm room at Harvard College, which was Hollis 15: HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1828

February 29, Friday: La muette de Portici, an opera by Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber to words of Scribe and Delavigne, was performed for the initial time, at the Paris Opera. It was a great success with the public.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts to the Reverend Edmund Quincy Sewall and Caroline Ward Sewall of Scituate, Massachusetts. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1837

In South Scituate, Massachusetts a relative of the Mays, Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr., little brother of Ellen Devereux Sewall, began a journal “by the suggestion of Mr. Alcott.” BRONSON ALCOTT

August 10, Thursday: John Downes took Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr., the same age as his daughter Frances Downes, son of the Reverend Edmund Quincy Sewall, Sr. of Scituate’s First Parish Unitarian Church whom he knew, to Fulling Brook2 in Scituate to collect caddis-fly larvae.

Bernardo de Sa Nogueira de Figueiredo, visconde e barao de Sa Bandeira, replaced Antonio Dias de Oliveira as Prime Minister of Portugal.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 10th of 8 M / Our Meeting was rather smaller than usual, but I thought was a solid good opportunity - Towards the close Father prayed & after spoke a few words. - John Farnum, Marmaduke Cope & his wife & Sister sat the evening with us. — it was a pleasant interview - they are Philadelphians. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

From the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society: E. Q. Sewall his Journal Thursday August 10th 1837. Forenoon. Went to school. Afternoon. Staid at home, and went to the Post Office. After supper we all went to the Fulling brook except Ellen who went to visit her friend Sarah Cole. We got some very pretty roses and other flowers, and had a very pleasant time.

August 11, Friday: The Liberator.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 11th of 8th M 1837 / Today Augusta Deshon an old Scholar at the YMB School & a relation of mine by the Wanton connection from New London called to see us & spent the day - She is an innocent girl & very sweet spirited - We were very glad to have her company— We had Eliza & Mary Gould with us at tea. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday. Went to school all day. Just before tea as Enoch and I were carrying some oats into the barn on the handles of two rakes, we upset twice which made me laugh very much. I forgot to say in the proper place that we had company at school this afternoon a cousin of the schoolmistress I believe.

2. Now called First Herring Brook. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

August 12, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday afternoon I went with Mr. Downes to the Fulling brook for the purpose of getting some Cadis worms who form for themselves cases of small stones sticks and other materials. I found some cases which had the worms in them besides a snail and many other cases which were empty.

August 13, Sunday: Robert Schumann proposed to Clara Wieck.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 13th of 8 M / Our Meeting pretty well attended in the Morning & to me a lively good meeting tho’ there was some preaching which streightened me - In the Afternoon it was a heavy time as to the body, having caught a cold & felt quite unwell - again streightened with the preaching, but see no way to labour, every attempt to labour makes the case worse, hence we are subject to occasional suffering. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday. In the forenoon I went to church. Mr. White3 preached from Revelations 21st Chapter 5th verse. “And he that sat on the throne said. “Behold make all things new.” In the afternoon I staid home with George.

August 16, Wednesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday 16th. In the forenoon I went to school. In the afternoon I staid at home expecting to go to the beach with Mr. Downes but I was disappointed.

August 17, Thursday: John Downes took his daughter Frances, Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr., Ellen Devereux Sewall and her friend Sarah Cole, and their aunt (Miss Prudence Ward?) to the beach at Scituate. In his journal Edmund reported that:

Mr D[ownes] lost his [hand glass] but did not go back [to the beach] to look for it. He sent to father a bottle of sea water with animals in it on some pieces of rock weed....

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 17th of 8 M / Our Meeting today was rather small & tho’ 3. Possibly the Reverend William Hunt White (1798-1853), at the time minister of the First Parish in Littleton, Massachusetts. William B. Sprague, ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN PULPIT, 9 vols. (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1859-69), 8:535. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY it was attended with one trying circumstance It was nevertheless a good solid Meeting & my own mind favourd with the Arisings of life. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday. In the forenoon my aunt4 my sister and myself with Mr. D and his daughter went to the beach. On our way we called for S. Cole. Our party then consisted of six persons. George came to meet us on our return and we gave him some shells and stones which we had promised him and with which he was very much pleased. Mr D lost his glass5 but he did not go back to look for it. He sent to father a bottle of salt water with animals in it on some pieces of rock-weed. The animals looked like mould and there were things that looked like hairs sticking up from the rock weed where the animals were. If they were touched with a straw the animal would bring them down flat on the rock weed. The animals died before we got home on account of the changed state of the water.

August 19, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday. Staid at home all day there being no school. In the forenoon George and I went to Mr. Wade’s for some butter. We brought it home in our cart with a shade of boughs over it. While we were there Thomas S. James rode up there in Mr. W’s cart and, as he was returning home he stopped at our house and ate dinner with us. In the afternoon I went to the Post Office. When I got home I went berrying. After I had been there a spell George Mother and aunt came and joined me.

August 20, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 20th of 8th M 1837 / Our Meetings were comfortable Father had short offerings in each. — When we can get thro’ a Meeting & feel that no hurt is done it is cause of thanksgiving. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 20th. Went to church all day. Mr. Prouty told the children who attend the Sunday School all to be present next Sunday as they might hear something which would please them. I believe this is to be a Sunday School celebration.

4. Prudence Ward (1795-1874). 5. “A hand glass” (EQS Jr. footnote). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY August 21, Monday: Waldo Emerson to his journal:

What means all the monitory tone of the world of life, of literature, of tradition? Man is fallen, Man is banished; an exile; he is in earth whilst there is a heaven. What do these apologues mean? These seem to him traditions of memory. But they are the whispers of hope and Hope is the voice of the Supreme Being to the Individual. We say Paradise was; Adam fell, the Golden Age; & the like. We mean man is not as he ought to be; but our way of painting this is on Time, and we say Was.

Samuel Ripley Bartlett was baptized in Concord.

Richard Wagner arrived in Riga, with Christine Wilhelmine “Minna” Planer Wagner, to take up a position as musical director of the theater there.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 21 of 8 M / This Afternoon I unexpectedly met with the Widow of Wm Shotwell who recently died at Edw Wings in Tiverton. I was glad to fall in with her & spend a few moments in sympathy with her & her children tho’ it was on the Head of the Long Wharf while they were waiting for the Steam Boat to come from Providence to take them in - Wm Shotwell & his wife came from NYork some weeks ago on a visit to his brother in Law Edw Wing & wife in Tiverton & after spending some time Pleasantly, he was taken sick of Cholera Morbus, which was corrected by Medicine after which he was soon taken in a fit & died & was buried on 5th day last the 17th in Friends burying ground at Fall River. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday. Went to school all day. In the forenoon I wrote all the time. After school I went to the P. Office. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY August 29, Tuesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary, mentioning his grandmother Prudence Bird Ward (1765-1844), and adding that “I had not wrote for a week in my Journal at this time so that this wasn’t the next day” (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 29th. I had not written for a week and I cannot remember the events that have happened. But I hope folks who read this if any-body ever does will excuse me. In the morning my aunt and my grand-mother went away. I went to school all day. The next day my father and mother went in the morning to Cambridge and left Ellen George and myself at home. I went to school all day. In the afternoon I came home in a rain and was wet through.

August 31, Thursday: La preghiera di un popolo, a hymn by Gaetano Donizetti for solo voices, chorus and orchestra, was performed for the initial time, in Teatro San Carlo, Naples.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday 31st. In the forenoon I went to school and in the afternoon to the Post Office. In the evening my mother and father returned. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

At noon, at University Hall in Cambridge, 200 academics lined up in their pecking order and marched west, to the music of a band, into the 1st Parish Church that had been erected where Mrs. Anne Hutchinson had been examined before her exile for heresy. In this structure they intended to hear an address “Man Thinking” by the Reverend Waldo Emerson,6 an honorary member of the  society who had been retained at the eleventh hour (after they had been turned down by the orator of their choice).

THE LIST OF LECTURES

The records of that society assert that the Reverend Emerson’s oration, of 1¼ hour, was “in the misty, dreamy, unintelligible style of Swedenborg, Coleridge, and Carlyle.” The last paragraph of this address included a quote from Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, here rendered in boldface:

6. Which would be retitled and printed in 1841 as “THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR”. VIEW THIS ONLINE HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Another sign of our times, also marked by an analogous political movement, is, the new importance given to the single person. Every thing that tends to insulate the individual, — to surround him with barriers of natural respect, so that each man shall feel the world is his, and man shall treat with man as a sovereign state with a sovereign state; — tends to true union as well as greatness. “I learned,” said the melancholy Pestalozzi, “that no man in God’s wide earth is either willing or able to help any other man.” Help must come from the bosom alone. The scholar is that man who must take up into himself all the ability of the time, all the contributions of the past, all the hopes of the future. He must be an university of knowledges. If there be one lesson more than another, which should pierce his ear, it is, The world is nothing, the man is all; in yourself is the law of all nature, and you know not yet how a globule of sap ascends; in yourself slumbers the whole of Reason; it is for you to know all, it is for you to dare all. …this confidence in the unsearched might of man belongs, by all motives, by all prophecy, by all preparation, to the American Scholar. We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. The spirit of the American freeman is already suspected to be timid, imitative, tame. Public and private avarice make the air we breathe thick and fat. The scholar is decent, indolent, complaisant. See already the tragic consequence. The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself. There is no work for any but the decorous and the complaisant. Young men of the fairest promise, who begin life upon our shores, inflated by the mountain winds, shined upon by all the stars of God, find the earth below not in unison with these, — but are hindered from action by the disgust which the principles on which business is managed inspire, and turn drudges, or die of disgust, — some of them suicides. What is the remedy? They did not yet see, and thousands of young men as hopeful now crowding to the barriers for the career, do not yet see, that, if the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him. Patience, — patience; — with the shades of all the good and great for company; and for solace, the perspective of your own infinite life; and for work, the study and the communication of principles, the making those instincts prevalent, the conversion of the world. Is it not the chief disgrace in the world, not to be an unit; — not to be reckoned one character; — not to yield that peculiar fruit which each man was created to bear, but to be reckoned in the gross, in the hundred, or the thousand, of the party, the section, to which we belong; and our opinion predicted geographically, as the north, or the south? Not so, brothers and friends, — please God, ours shall not be so. We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds. The study of letters shall be no longer a name for pity, for doubt, and for sensual indulgence. The dread of man and the love of man shall be a wall of defence and a wreath of joy around all. A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Richard Henry Dana, Jr., once Emerson’s pupil, was there, back from his two years before the mast and graduating first in his Harvard College class and preparing to take up the study of law at Harvard’s Dane Law School. James Russell Lowell was there and later stated that the day was “an event without any parallel in our

literary annals” (it is hard to imagine how what the lecturer had to offer might have been without any parallel in our literary annals, since basically he was merely channeling schoolmaster Noah Webster, Jr.’s bloviation of 1783, “America must be as independent in literature as she is in politics, as famous for arts as for arms”). Emerson’s heresy lasted however an hour and a quarter, after which all dined in University Hall. Davidem Henricum Thoreau was not apparent either at this Cambridge bloviation, or at its festive table. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Thoreau had not really won much recognition in college, except for a couple of $25.00 scholarships, and except for the recognition a student obtains by being difficult. The administration summed up his attitude in this manner, carefully pointing out that it had, despite his resistance, done everything that might be expected of it:

He had … imbibed some notions concerning emulation and college rank which had a natural tendency to diminish his zeal, if not his exertions. His instructors were impressed with the conviction that he was indifferent, even to a degree that was faulty…. I appreciate very fully the goodness of his heart and the strictness of his moral principle; and have done as much for him as, under the circumstances, was possible.

But today we would say he was, for a Comp Lit undergrad student, well “trained:” by the time he left, he had read not only the Greek and Latin canon, but also widely in Italian, French, Spanish, and German literatures (Sanskrit, Chinese, and Arabic literatures were of course encountered in translation). Luckily, as he left higher 7 education, he was able to retain his access to that omphalos of the universe, the Harvard library. We can only be grateful that there was no Sierra Press in 1843, and that no publisher cut a contract with this writer fresh from college, to produce a series of glossy-illustration nature books or “miscellanies” to lay on the nation’s coffee-tables for beaucoup bucks, and that for lack of a such a contract, this young writer had to go back to his home town and rusticate and take nature hikes. Dr. Edward Waldo Emerson’s comment on this significant ceremonial day, late in his life, was:

Highly interesting it is to find that Thoreau at twenty, in his “Part” at Commencement, pleaded for the life that, later, he carried out. An observer from the stars, he imagines, “of our planet and the restless animal for whose sake it was contrived, where he found one man to admire with him his fair dwelling-place, the ninety and nine would be scraping together a little of the gilded dust upon its surface.... Let men, true to their natures, cultivate the moral affections, lead manly and independent lives; ...The sea will not stagnate, the earth will be as green as ever, and the air as pure. This curious world ... sublime revelations of Nature.”

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 31st of 8th M 1837 / Took a Carryall & rode to Portsmouth with my wife & Mary Williams to attend the Monthly Meeting — Mary Hicks & Hannah Hale preached — To me both Meetings were hard uncomfortable seasons - We dined at Shadrach Chases & it being Rainy came home early. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

The Phi Beta Kappa address that the Reverend Emerson delivered at the Brattle Street Church in Cambridge on this occasion has been described by Philip Cafaro as “what remains America’s most famous commencement speech.” –Silly me, I thought America’s most famous commencement address was this one that Kurt Vonnegut did not deliver at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997:

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’97. Wear Sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really 7. There’s an oft-repeated story that Thoreau refused to accept his Harvard diploma, which I showed you above. This is from Lawrence and Lee’s play “The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail”:

HENRY: (embracing him) John! JOHN: Welcome home. How’s your overstuffed brain? HENRY: I’ve forgotten everything already. JOHN: At least you’ve got a diploma! HENRY: No, I don’t. JOHN: Why not? HENRY: They charge you a dollar. And I wouldn’t pay it. JOHN: But think how Mama would love it — your diploma from Harvard, framed on the wall! HENRY: Let every sheep keep his own skin.

He did pay his $2.50 diploma fee, he did go to his commencement, he did receive his A.B. sheepskin. Davidem Henricum Thoreaus did say “Let every sheep keep but his own skin” ( November 14, 1847) and “Harvard College was partly built by a lottery. My father tells me he bought a ticket in it” ( January 27, 1855). When he made a speech at this commencement, as we have seen, what he told his classmates and superiors was “This curious world which we inhabit is more wonderful than it is convenient; more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used.” What happened, how this repudiation-of-diploma story got started, was that Harvard offered, for an extra $10.00 and no additional work, to magically transform A.B. degrees into A.M. degrees, that is, despite Thoreau’s academic record, to make him a Master after the fact. Six members of the class of 1837 earned an advanced degree, and an additional 21 received the advanced degree through this painless learning, but Mr. Thoreau entirely ignored Harvard’s meretricious fund-raising scheme ( Cameron). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY looked. You are not as fat as you imagine. Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday. Do one thing every day that scares you. Sing. Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours. Floss. Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself. Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements. Stretch. Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t. Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone. Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own. Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room. Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly. Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young. Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel. Accept certain inalienable truths. Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders. Respect your elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out. Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth. But trust me on the sunscreen.

Fall: In Scituate, when her father John Downes went off to work, young Frances Downes remained and boarded with Enoch and Maria Cole. That summer, the Sewalls had lived half a mile from the Coles, in a farmhouse on Brushy Hill that the Coles had purchased in 1832 but had never moved into. The Sewalls, upon moving to Scituate in 1831, had been obliged to rent the farmhouse (which the Rev. Edmund Quincy Sewall, Sr.’s late predecessor had owned) because housing was very tight and (more importantly) because they couldn’t afford to buy a house of their own. Shortly thereafter (in 1832), the Coles had purchased the house and 37 acres from the Sewalls’s original landlord. Since housing continued to be scarce, however, the Coles had permitted the Sewalls to remain in their house indefinitely.

September 1, Friday: The Liberator.

In a dense fog at 7AM, John Shepard Keyes had clambered atop Deacon Brown’s accommodation stage in Concord, with black leather trunk and carpet bag — he was on his way to become a Harvard Man! Real homesick I was till the fog lifted as we drove over the Lexington hills and changed horses there, and drove on to Cambridge by the foot of the locks, now ‘Arlington Heights’ and Menotomy, or West Cambridge now Arlington by Porters just beginning as a cattle market, down North Avenue then a solitary country road, till the college buildings came in sight, grey with age, but the yard gay with students and the life of the opening term. Stopping at the posts in the old wooden fence behind Holworthy the grumbling Deacon helped me in with my trunk to my room No. 9 lower floor middle entry of Holworthy Hall, then a much despised, now a much coveted apartment. Here I began my college course, with a bed and washstand in my sleeping room, a small bureau and table two chairs and a locker a pail, lamp, and washbowl, and naught else, save a pine bookcase and standing desk so cheap and cumbrous that some Concord boy of former generations had left them as transmittendences to Concord students of whom I was then the only representative. These were duly welcomed and inscribed and I in turn transmitted them to my successors but they have long since departed, split up I guess for kindlings, or sold for a pittance by the more luxurious denizens of later years. At any rate when my son, who inquired for them in his college life, no trace or memory of them could be found. Here and thus I settled myself for what was to come— My chum, a tall lank red haired uncouth fellow from Scituate, Ephraim Otis by name, soon made his appearance, even more meagrely fitted out than I and as much greener as he was older and as different as Concord from Scituate. How soon after I thoroughly hated and despised him I wont undertake to say. I believe it was before supper that night if it wasnt before dinner. What his miserly curmudgeon of a father, and my polished and courtly but anxious parent were thinking of when they yoked up such an unlike pair, I never understood. Mine I suppose went on the Concord rule of getting an old sedate and studious chum for the wild fellows that were sent from that county seat. My class only numbered forty five on entering and had as its numbers showed come in at the lowest ebb of the tide in the college life of the nineteenth century. Josiah Quincy was the President, and HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY almost in his dotage, the Professors Channing Ware Beck Sales were nearly or quite in the same state, and the younger ones Fellow Pierce Longfellow Webster, Bowen and Lovering had none of their subsequent fame or reputation The scholarship and instruction were poorer, and inferior than ever before or since, so that it was at this beginning of its second century at the turning point of slack water. We had that to find out and to me certainly no student it didnt occur till I came in after years to look back on it and discover the fact. Of course I was then much more interested in the football game with the sophs and the anticipated hazing night than in lessons or text books. The first I had practised much on the common at home and could run well, and kick a fair bit and though I helped considerably we I believe were beaten in all or nearly all of our three games with the sophomores though when the juniors came to our aid and the seniors to theirs, we beat them, thanks to Baker’s prowess and Ganson’s knocks and Austins speed and Kings height all of them junior heroes to us that night. The hazing was mild and merciful to me who bought my peace with a bowl of punch from Willards, but my chum who refused to share the expense, was worse treated. It was rather horseplay without malice & not at all up to the raw head and bloody bones of which I have heard both before and since. Of my class whom I soon came to know every member as we recited together in nearly all our studies, there were but few who made much impression early. Sedgwick facile primus, a rosy cheeked handsome nephew of Miss Sedwick the authoress, soon showed to the front in both lessons and class meetings, Higginson the youngest member, from Cambridge where his family lived on intimate terms with all the professors, was soon prominent while the Boston, New York, and other city boys for a time carried off the honors by their better dress and greater fitness for display I think I took kindly to college life at any rate before the Christmas vacation I had got to know every one in college by sight and name had built a bonfire or two in the yard simply because it was prohibited had joined Mr. Simmons Sunday class, and learned the way to the race track and stables beyond Porters, had on the night of November election in a big snow storm, had my first spree in H’y 18. Tuckerman’s room, of boiled sweet potatoes &c with something to wash it down, and though coming very near to it had not lost my matriculation— As to studies I did as little as I could but had ransacked the library for books I had heard of but never read, and as then we had free access to the alcoves had learned where to find the treasures. I had some privates, but hadnt got to a public admonition and thorougly hated professors and tutors, & mildly even proctors, while for my elbow neighbours and the Worcester boys I had formed quite a friendship, and I might add the Portsmouth also. I remember nothing else in especial save a Sunday at home once a month, on one or two of which I walked up to save the stage fare, for money was short in the panic of 37, and on other Saturdays exploring Boston very thoroughly taking supper at the Parkers and walking up the lonely road from East Cambridge with my classmate Hall of that locality. J.S. KEYES AUTOBIOGRAPHY HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Boston’s volunteer fire brigades having proved in the recent riots pertaining to the Irish to be a source of rowdyism as well as a source of political cronyism, Mayor Samuel Eliot decided it was high time that his city transited a full-time professional fire department.

The “Hedge Club” met again, this time at the home of Waldo Emerson in Concord. 17 transcendental souls attended (counting female transcendental souls).

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 1st of 9th M 1837 / Attended this PM the funeral of Henry Goddards wife, he being a descendent from friends & once a member of Society She was buried in Friends Ground in the Medow field. — This Afternoon David Buffum read me a letter he had received from Philad. announcing the Arrival in this Country of Joseph John Gurney from England on a religious visit to friends in this country. — he Arrived in Philadelphia on 6th day the 25th of 7th M 1837 after a long passage of about seven Weeks. — After staying some days in Philadelphia he set out for Ohio Yearly Meeting accompanied by John Paul. - RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday September 1st. I “went to school all day” in my own phrase which I am tired of myself but to say the truth I cannot think of any other which will express the same meaning. Mrs. Litchfield made us a present of some beans and when I went to carry back the basket she sent back another full of apples and pears. I think she was very kind.

September 2, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday. In the forenoon I went to school. In the afternoon there being no school I went to Mrs. Litchfield’s and huckleberrying. I climbed up some tall trees and had a very pleasant time. I went to the harbor besides.

September 3, Sunday: When freed from the ice in July, George Back had turned homeward. On this day his ship arrived in a sinking condition at Lough Swilly in Ireland. THE FROZEN NORTH

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 3rd of 9th M / Both our meetings were good Solid seasons to me —Father had offerings in both - Recd a letter this morning from Nathan Kite of Philad. giving some acct of J J Gurneys arrival &c RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Sunday I went to church all day and staid at noon.

September 2, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday. In the forenoon I went to school. In the afternoon there being no school I went to Mrs. Litchfield’s and huckleberrying. I climbed up some tall trees and had a very pleasant time. I went to the harbor besides.

September 3, Sunday: When freed from the ice in July, George Back had turned homeward. On this day his ship arrived in a sinking condition at Lough Swilly in Ireland. THE FROZEN NORTH

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 3rd of 9th M / Both our meetings were good Solid seasons to me —Father had offerings in both - Recd a letter this morning from Nathan Kite of Philad. giving some acct of J J Gurneys arrival &c RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday I went to church all day and staid at noon.

September 4, Monday: Opening of the 1st (special) session of the 25th US Congress, with 129 Democrats and 119 Whigs. Representative James Knox Polk (Democrat of Tennessee) was still Speaker of the House of Representatives. Richard Biddle had been elected to this body as a member of the Anti-Masonic movement. During this special session called by President Martin Van Buren to deal with the urgent issue of the financial panic, petitions against the practice in the United States of America of human enslavement —not being considered such an urgent issue— were fated to be “discarded without consideration.”

The following description of the general financial panic of this year is from Robert Allison’s THE ANECDOTES OF GLASGOW, published in 1892: During the commercial crisis and panic of 1837 which swept over the country, Glasgow, as a great mercantile and industrious centre, suffered severely. Prices of all kinds of manufactured goods sunk to nearly one half; many workers were thrown idle, and the wages of those still employed were reduced, which reduction again led to general and foolish strikes, at the instance of their trade unions; first, of the operative cotton- spinners in and around Glasgow, and soon after of the whole colliers and iron miners in Lanarkshire. The effect of these two strikes was to let loose, upon an already over-distressed community, above 80,000 persons, all in a state of utter destitution, and yielding implicit obedience to their trade leaders. To cope with this formidable and well-organised HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY body there was, in and round Glasgow, a police force of only 280 men. Bands of 800 to 1000 men traversed the streets, with banners flying and drums beating; and the colliers assembled in such numbers as to render any attempt to disperse them, except by military force, out of the question. Many violent assaults were made on the nobs or new hands, who took place of the men out on strike, and at length, on the 22nd July of that year, a new hand was shot dead on one of the streets of Glasgow. The masters met and offered a reward of 500 pounds for the discovery of the persons implicated in the murder three days later two informers disclosed to the Sheriff a plot “to assassinate the new hands and master-manufacturers in Glasgow, one after another, till the demands of the combined workmen were complied with.” (As result the organising committee was arrested by the sheriff on 29 July at Black Boy Tavern, Gallowgate) On Monday following the cotton-spinners met on Glasgow Green, and by a great majority resolved to resume their work on the masters’ terms; and on Tuesday the courageous sheriff had the delight of seeing the whole of the tall chimneys in Calton and Bridgeton sending forth their wonted smoke, after a stoppage of three months. The trial of the cotton-spinners came on at Edinburgh on the 8th January, 1838; and resulted in the whole of the would- be assassins receiving sentence of transportation for 7 years.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday In the afternoon I went to the harbor. In the morning I drew George about the yard in our cart before school.

September 5, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 5th of 9th M / This Morning rose early & got on Board the Steam Boat & went to Providence & attended the sub School HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY committee — Mary Ann Barker left the School & went in the Boat this PM with her Brother Josiah & Sister Martha to Louisiana - The School was left in the charge Emeline Aldrich & Mary Osborn untill the next Meeting of the Genl Committee - returned home in the Afternoon RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 5th. In the morning I went with Rolla to the blacksmith’s for him to be shod but he was not at home. After I had got home, I went with George to the store. Afternoon my mother and Father went away to take tea leaving the rest of us at home. They did not come home till late in the evening and Ellen and I had a very pleasant time.

September 6, Wednesday-September 16, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary on this Wednesday (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday. In the morning I drew George about the yard in the cart. I have made a regulation to do this every morning after breakfast. But I must stop now for the present, because my pen is like a stick and also because I have nothing else to say.

The Reverend Hersey B. Goodwin had died, Edward Jarvis had become a physician and left Concord, and Lemuel Shattuck had also left town, moving to Cambridge and becoming a Boston public official. The attempt made by these three educators to put the educational principles of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi into practice at the Town School was a thing of the past. The School Committee had fallen into the hands of the Reverend Barzillai Frost (chair), Nehemiah Ball (secretary), and Sherman Barrett, conservatives who seemed much more interested in their own local internecine political struggles than in the welfare of the students. Ball had a decided interest in the public school system of Concord because of his 7 children, 4 were at the time enrolled:

13 Caroline

11 Augusta

9 Angelina

8 Ephraim

(The 7th child, Nehemiah Ball, Jr. –the one who really could have benefitted from some disciplining– was at this point still in the Ball home, a rugrat.)

However, it is clear that this father and school board member didn’t have a clue as to how best to represent his interest. Perhaps he had paid too much attention to the Reverend Ripley’s sermon on the discipline of children. The cream of the college crop was being skimmed by the private Concord Academy, leaving in the public system the children of the poor, the dullards, and the discipline problems. Money for the school was being raised by a town tax, supplemented by small donations and by some state aid. The budget this year would be $2,132.55, of which the Centre District, the section of the system which occupied the brick building at the town center and three other more remotely located buildings, would receive $1,119.59. The head of the prudential committee of the Centre District was the owner of the local grocery store, Charles B. Davis, and it would be HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY he who would hire as the new teacher replacing Eliezer J. Marsh a recent local college graduate, Henry Thoreau. Hiring a recent local graduate of Harvard College has been pretty much the tradition since 1700. Davis would agree to pay Thoreau $500 a year, which, although it would render him by far the highest paid of the more than sixteen teachers employed in the system, was $100 less than had been paid in the previous year to Marsh. After Thoreau resigned the school would close for 3 days and re-open under Thoreau’s classmate William Allen. Here is what happened as it would be reconstructed (or very likely, invented) by Ellery Channing in his THOREAU THE POET-NATURALIST effort of 1873: Another school experience was the town school in Concord, which he took after leaving college, announcing that he should not flog, but would talk morals as punishment instead. A fortnight sped glibly along, when a knowing deacon, one of the school committee, [Nehemiah Ball] walked in and told Mr. Thoreau that he must flog and use the ferule, or the school would spoil. So he did, ferruling six of his pupils after school, one of whom was the maid-servant in his own house [13-year-old Eliza Jane Durant]. But it did not suit well with his conscience, and he reported to the committee that he should no longer keep their school, as they interfered with his arrangements; and they could keep it.

So this is the context in which Thoreau “Kept town school a fortnight.”8 Upon having attained an enviable new status as College Graduate, in a society in which fewer than one in a thousand were college graduates as opposed to more than fifty in a thousand today, Thoreau had taken up a $500/year teaching position at Concord’s Central Grammar School. He was to supervise two male teachers making $100/year and two female teachers making $40/year as well as teach 100 boys in this public school of over 300 students a third of whom were absent on any given day. He was to be not merely teacher but chief teacher, that is, master of the school. Less than two weeks later he walked after his confrontation with Ball: when his teaching style of seeking out the enthusiasms of his students and building upon them was summarily disapproved by this trustee after a monitoring of Thoreau’s class, and he was evidently instructed that he would be expected to beat his students for discipline, he deliberately misconstrued the order and caned a number of the students at random, including the Thoreau’s own servant girl.9 One can imagine him saying to himself “If there must be innocent victims of this system in which vicious grown-ups have all the power, at least they will know that they are innocent, and victims.”10

Jonathan Messerli has commented, in exactly the only and solitary reference to Thoreau in his biography of

8. It is to be noted that this schoolhouse was not equipped with any sort of cowhide whip. The only disciplinary device in the building would have been the schoolmaster’s “ferule” or pointer. 9. Would this Ball family have been residing on a farm in the vicinity of Ball’s Hill (Gleason D9)? Would Nehemiah Ball be the father or the grandfather of Benjamin West Ball, whom Waldo Emerson evidently would take on as his neophyte after the “Pick- brained” Thoreau had been palmed off on his brother, Judge William Emerson, in Staten Island? 10. I wonder what was the relationship between Thoreau’s action here and Bronson Alcott’s theory of education, and how much this incident had to do with Alcott’s later becoming a leader in the Concord public school system. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Horace Mann, Sr., that

At the very time when Mann was poring over pedagogical writings in Boston, twenty miles to the west in Concord, the young Henry Thoreau, fresh from Harvard, was finding that conditions in his classroom made it impossible to try out his educational ideas. After a two-week trial, he gave up. Believing that “cowhide was a non-conductor,” he refused to whip his charges even though parents expected him to lay it on. Meanwhile at the other end of the state in a country school outside Pittsfield, Herman Melville stuck it out for the winter season, then left, thoroughly disgusted. Clearly, the few able persons who did teach often left the schools, impelled like pawns by an educational version of Gresham’s Law in which the good were replaced by the bad.

Now, there are a number of things wrong here and the first of them is that this is the only consideration given to any Thoreau in a treatment which to be barely adequate should have made repeated mention of the interactions between the Thoreau and the Mann families. I will mention a couple more of the things that are wrong here, and then let it pass. There were no “parents” involved in the Concord episode, which entirely consisted of Thoreau and his young charges versus the authorities, who were older, virtually elderly, men. Thoreau did not cease trying out his educational ideas but merely moved into a private venue where he would not be prevented from implementing these ideas. Most importantly, and directly contrary to what Messerli asserts, Thoreau did not refuse to whip his charges. What he refused to do was pretend that such whipping amounted to “punishment” or “correction” rather than amounting to precisely what it was, a customary torture of the helpless by those in authority over them. When ordered by a member of the school committee to effect this pretense, he instead lined up a number of his pupils, pupils who were not only innocent but also were not even so much as being accused of any wrongdoing –including the maid who worked in his own home– and lashed them all equally and indiscriminately. That his students did not understand why he did this to them, even after they had grown up, even after they had had years to think about it, can be understood and forgiven of them. That the school board did not comprehend why it was that he conducted this little demonstration of the minuscule yet relevant difference between torture and correction can be attributed to the obtuseness of the members of the school board. That a historian is incapable of understanding something like this, I am overcome, I will be forced to allow to pass without comment.

In regard to the failure of the American dream of progress through progressive education and reform, Messerli offers that “so dazzling was the prospect, that Mann and his countless co-workers could not conceive of the possibility that those who would follow in their footsteps might actually build a suffocating and sometimes mind-numbing establishmentarian bureaucracy.” My response to this is that Messerli is here giving Mann far too much credit. He is here giving Mann credit for having implemented a situation which Mann merely helped to legitimate and perpetuate. Mann did not create conditions for the emergence of a new mind-numbing establishmentarian bureaucracy in public education, for that mind-numbing establishmentarian bureaucracy already existed long before our great Mann came along. What Horace Mann, Sr. did was merely provide this entrenched bureaucracy with a new lease on life by providing it with a new legitimating ideology of faith in the American dream and faith in progress through the reduction of ignorance. He was not an innovator but a running dog, not a creator but a pitchman. Why is something that is so obvious as this not obvious to our historians?

Are they victims of a Great Mann school of historicism? HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

“Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.” — Henry Adams, THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS

[Later thoughts: One of the prime ways we can insolently sabotage inane instructions that we do not want to obey, is to carry them out quite literally, in a manner that demonstrates how inane we perceive them to be. For instance: if someone were told to clean up their room by emptying their trash can, and felt badly about the manner in which the instruction had been given, they might empty their trash can — onto the floor. That would be obeying the instruction as given, without achieving its intent. It’s called sending a message. That’s what Henry did. When told that he was expected to enforce discipline by applying the cowhide, what he did was apply the cowhide precisely in a manner that would destroy, rather than produce, discipline. Instead of punishing discriminately, by punishing specific wrongdoers for specific faults, he punished indiscriminately, irregardless of fault, entirely at random. It’s called sending a message. One thing that causes me to wonder is, that schoolteachers in his era actually had two instruments of punishment, the hickory ferrule and the cowhide lash. There was not one but two levels of punishment. The hickory ferrule was used by the schoolmaster to beat the palm of a student who was not learning quickly enough, or was not paying attention, or was tardy, or did not stack his firearm by the door of the classroom — something slight. The cowhide was used to lash the legs of a student guilty of a more major infraction, such as sassing his teacher, fighting, being obstreperous, threatening the teacher with his gun or his knife, etc. In the story we hear about Thoreau, we find ourselves concerned only with the cowhide lash, with no mention being made of the hickory ferrule. I’ve always wondered why there is, in this story, no mention of the schoolmaster’s ferrule, which he also used as a pointer. Might it be that Henry had no objection to the application of this ferrule, objecting only to the application of the whip? Or, is it possible, might it be that this story originated at a later point in time, after the people who were telling the story, and the people to whom this story was being told, had quite forgotten that way back in 1837 and 1838, when this incident was allegedly taking place, there had been two discrete instruments of corporal punishment in the public school classroom? Incidentally, it appears that this is a story that did in fact originate at a later point in time. It is not a story which we first have record of, being first told as of 1837 or 1838, contemporaneous with the supposed actual event, but a story which we first have record of, being recounted at a later date. Such stories are always to some degree suspect.]11

September 7, Thursday: In South Scituate, Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. attended a Sunday school celebration organized by his father’s cousin, the Reverend Samuel Joseph May, pastor of the Second Parish Unitarian Church.12 In the evening he wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society):

Thursday evening. I have now a great deal to say and I am determined to spin it out as long as I can. Last night I went to the harbor and brought home some horse-briar leaves to trim our baskets but they were not used as we had several yards of leaves sent us all fixed to put on to the baskets. Today in the afternoon we had our Sunday School Celebration. It was in Alewin Grove. The scholars all went before Mr. A’s house where they 11. We may well note that it would not be until 1841 that Thoreau would consult THE LAWS OF MENU and there discover that it was allowed that “a wife, a son, a slave, a pupil, ... who have committed faults, may be beaten with ropes or split bamboo, but on the back part of the body only, never on noble parts.” We may well note also that in his selections from that ancient treatise, he would refrain from excerpting any such materials. 12.Scituate’s two Unitarian ministers, the Reverends Edmund Quincy Sewall, Sr. and Samuel Joseph May, were related by marriage through Sewall’s aunt Dorothy and May’s father, Colonel Joseph May. In 1830 Bronson Alcott had married Samuel May’s sister Abigail (Abba). Alcott visited the Mays in South Scituate in 1839 to recuperate from the Temple School debacle, and apparently had visited at least once before, since Edmund noted that he began his journal in 1837 “by the suggestion of Mr. Alcott.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY were formed into a procession each under his own teacher. The children marched by two’s and in the order of their classes. I being in the 1st class was in the first part of it. The way from the road to the grove was lined on both sides with people between whom we marched up to the place where the ministers and two or three other people sat which was a raised platform with a bench on it with green pine branches driven into the ground all round. There were several hundred people present including the children who were in number above 300, and formed quite a long procession. Mr. Carter made an address. He said that kindness and obedience were the duties of children, and related this anecdote. “A stage was entirely filled with gentlemen when a little girl wished to get in. She said ‘If the people in the stage will be kind to me I will be kind to them.’” After the exercises were finished the procession marched to the table which was very long. When we arrived at it we divided and passed in single columns on each side of it. With the aid of the spectators we ate up every eatable on the table except a few apples. I had a very pleasant time, though rather tired. Mother wanted me to stay and help Ellen bring home the baskets and had told me in the forenoon that I should perhaps. I didn’t know that she wanted me particularly to and as I could not find Ellen, I came without doing it; so that when I got home I had to go to meet sister.13

James Richardson, Jr. of Dedham, Massachusetts wrote to his classmate Henry Thoreau of Concord for help in coming to teach at the Concord Academy:

I heard from you, also, that Concord Academy, lately under the care of Mr Phineas Allen of Northfield, is now vacant of a preceptor; should Mr. Hoar find it difficult to get a scholar — college-distinguished, perhaps he would take up with one, who, though in many respects a critical thinker, and a careful philosopher of language among other things, has never distinguished himself in his class as a regular attendant on college studies and rules, if so, would you do me the kindness to mention my name to him, as of one intending to make teaching his profession, at least for a part of his life.

(This would come to nothing, and Richardson eventually would become a minister. Thoreau himself would teach at the academy subsequent to his resignation from the Concord public school system.)

Dedham, September 7th, 1837.

Friend Thoreau, After you had finished your part in the Performances of Commence- ment, (the tone and sentiment of which by the way I liked much, as

13. There is an account of this celebration in a letter from Caroline Ward Sewall to Prudence Bird Ward, September 11, 1837, Sewall Family Papers, AAS. She wrote that the children “formed a procession with their teachers & the clergymen at their head — including all the ministers in town except the Methodist, who did not think proper to join.” She concludes the account of this event writing, “I have so filled my paper with the picnic that one would think I had taken up Edmund’s resolution which I read in his journal ‘now I have something to say, I intend to spin it out and make the most of it.’” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY being of a sound philosophy,) I hardly saw you again at all. Neither at Mr Quincy’s levee, neither at any of our Classmates’ evening en- tertainments, did I find you, though for the purpose of taking a fare- well, and leaving you some memento of an old chum, as well as on matters of business, I much wished to see your face once more. Of course you must be present at our October meeting, — notice of the time and place for which will be given in the Newspapers. I hear that you are comfortably located, in your native town, as the guardian of its children, in the immediate vicinity, I suppose, of one of our most distinguished Apostles of the Future — R.W. Emerson, and situated under the ministry of our old friend Rev Barzillai Frost, to whom please make my remembrances. I heard from you, also, that Con- cord Academy, lately under the care of Mr Phineas Allen of North- field, is now vacant of a preceptor; should Mr Hoar find it difficult to get a scholar — college-distinguished, perhaps he would take up with one, who, though in many respects a critical thinker, and a careful philosopher of language among other things, has never dis- tinguished himself in his class as a regular attendant on college studies and rules. If so, could you do me the kindness to mention my name to him, as of one intending to make teaching his profession, at least for a part of his life. If recommendations are necessary, Presi- dent Quincy has offered me one, and I can easily get others. My old instructor Mr Kimball gave, and gives me credit for having quite a genius for Mathematics, though I studied them so little in College; and I think that Dr Beck will approve me as something of a Lati- nist.— I did intend going to a distance, but my father’s and other friends’ wishes, beside my own desire of a proximity to Harvard and her Library, has constrained me. I have had the offer and opportu- nity of several places, but the distance or smallness of salary were objections, I should like to hear about Concord Academy from you, if it is not engaged. Hoping that your situation affords you every ad- vantage for continuing your mental education and developement I am with esteem & respect yr classmate & friend James Richardson jr

P. S. I hope you will tell me something about your situation, state of mind, course of reading, &c; and any advice you have to offer will be gratefully accepted. Should the place, alluded to above, be filled, any place, that you may hear spoken of, with a reasonable salary, would perhaps answer for your humble serv’t —R—

September 7?, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal, perhaps a little confused about the day of the month: 5th day 8th of 9th M 1837 / Our Meeting was small & tho’ very quiet was not a season of that life & spirit which I desired — HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Father had short offerings. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

September 8, Friday: The Liberator.

Lowell Mason attended a rehearsal of St. Paul by Felix Mendelssohn at Exeter Hall, London and was introduced to the composer.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday. In the forenoon I went with Enoch cranberrying. We staid all the forenoon. I got over a peck. In the afternoon sister called for myself and the two Frances’s14 and we took a walk to Aylwin Grove for the purpose of finding a cheese tray which had been left there. We found it at Mr. Aylwin’s where it had been carried by some one. We made some oak trimming which we put around our necks. I had a very pleasant time.

September 9, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 9th of 9 M / This Afternoon Our much esteemed & very kind young friend Avis Harris came down from Providence in the Steam Boat to See us we were very glad to have an opportunity to repay some of her kind attention to us at the house of her late venerable grandfather Moses Brown where I in particularly as well as our son John have been kindly treated by her. - RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday. In the morning I went to Mr. Wade’s about some money after which I went to Mr. May’s with a letter from father.15 I met him on the road going to the harbor in a wagon with John He was carrying some apples to the packet to send them to Boston.16 He took the letter and I got in and rode to the corner when I got out. On his return he called to see father and John and I had a nice play. In the afternoon I went to the harbor and lost my knife value 15 cents.

At the age of 24, in 1828, William Whipper had lectured on moral reform. At this point he began to publish in the Reverend Samuel Eli Cornish’s New-York newspaper The Colored American his speech as “Address on Non-Resistance to Offensive Aggression.” Mr. President: The above resolution presupposes that if there were no God to guide and govern the destinies of man on this planet, no Bible to light his path through the wilds of sin, darkness and error, and no religion to give him a glorious and lasting consolation while traversing the gloomy vale of despondency, and to light up his soul anew with fresh influence from the fountain of Divine grace — that mankind might enjoy an exalted state of civilization, peace and quietude in their 14. “F. Downes was boarding with Mrs. Cole at this time” (EQS Jr. footnote). 15. The Reverend Samuel J. May. 16. John Edward May (1829-1902), son of the Reverend Samuel J. May. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY social, civil and international relations, far beyond that which Christians now enjoy, guarded and protected by the great Author of all good and the doctrines of the Prince of Peace. “But, sir, while I am assuming the position that the cause of peace amongst mankind may be promoted without the scriptures, I would not, for a single moment, sanction the often made assertion that the doctrines of the holy scriptures justify war — for they are in my humble opinion its greatest enemy. And I further believe, that as soon as they become fully understood, and practically adopted, wars, and strife will cease. I believe that every argument urged in favor of what is termed a “just and necessary war,” or physical self-defense, is at enmity with the letter, and spirit of the scriptures, and when they emanate from its professed advocates should be repudiated, as inimical to the principles they profess, and a reproach to Christianity itself. I have said this much in favor of the influence of the scriptures, on the subject of peace. It is neither my intention, nor my province, under the present resolution, to give proofs for my belief by quotations from holy writ. That portion of the discussion, I shall leave to the minister to the altar, and the learned and biblical theologian. Though I may make a few incidental quotations hereafter, I shall now pass on for a few brief moments to the resolution under consideration, viz.: The resolution asserts that the practice of non-resistance to physical aggression is consistent with reason. A very distinguished man asserts, “that reason is that distinguishing characteristic that separates man from the brute creation,” and that this power was bestowed upon him by his Maker, that he might be capable of subduing all subordinate intelligences to his will.” It is this power when exerted in its full force, that enables him to conquer the animals of the forest, and which makes him lord of creation. There is a right, and a wrong method of reasoning. The latter is governed by our animal impulses, and wicked desires, without regard to the end to be attained. The former fixes its premises, in great fundamental, and unalterable truths—surveys the magnitude of the objects, and the difficulties to be surmounted, and calls to its aid the resources of enlightened wisdom, as a landmark by which to conduct its operations. It is self-evident, that when the greatest difficulties surround us, we should summon our noblest powers. “Man is a being formed for action as well as contemplation”; for this purpose there are interwoven in his constitution, powers, instincts, feelings and affections, which have a reference to his improvement in virtue, and which excite him to promote the happiness of others. When we behold them by their noble sentiments, exhibiting sublime virtues and performing illustrious actions, we ascribe the same to the goodness of their hearts, their great reasoning powers and intellectual abilities. For were it not for these high human endowments we should never behold men in seasons of calamity, displaying tranquility and fortitude in the midst of difficulties and dangers, enduring poverty and distress with a noble heroism, suffering injuries and affronts with patience and serenity—stifling resentment when they have it in their power to inflict vengeance—displaying kindness and generosity towards enemies and slanderers—submitting to pain and disgrace in order to promote the prosperity of their friends and relatives, or the great interests of the human race. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Such acts may be considered by persons of influence and rank as the offspring of pusillanimity, because they themselves are either incapable of conceiving the purity of the motives from which they emanate, or are too deeply engulfed in the ruder passions of our nature, to allow them to bestow a just tribute to the efforts of enlightened reason. It is happy for us to contemplate, that every age, both of the pagan and the Christian world, has been blessed, that they always have fastened their attention on the noblest gifts of our nature, and that they now still shine as ornaments to the human race, connecting the interests of one generation with that of another. Rollin, in speaking of Aristides and Just, says “that an extraordinary greatness of souls made him superior to every passion. Interest, pleasure, ambition, resentment and judgment, were extinguished in him by the love of virtue and his country,” and just in proportion as we cultivate our intellectual faculties, we shall strengthen our reasoning powers, and be prepared to become his imitators. Our country and the world have become the munificent patron of many powerful, existing evils, that have spread their devastating influence over the best interests of the human race. One of which is the adopting of the savage custom of wars, and fighting as a redress of grievances, instead of some means more consistent with reason and civilization. The great law of love forbids our doing aught against the interests of our fellow men. It is altogether inconsistent with reason and common sense, for persons when they deem themselves insulted, by the vulgar aspersions of others, to maltreat their bodies for the acts of their minds. Yet how frequently do we observe those that are blest by nature and education, (and if they would but aspire to acts that bear a parallel to their dignified minds, they would shine as illustrious stars, in the created throngs,) that degrade themselves by practicing this barbarous custom, suited only to tyrants—because in this they may be justly ranked with the untutored savages of the animals of the forest, that are impelled only by instinct. Another fatal error arises from the belief that the only method of maintaining peace, is always to be ready for war. The spirit of war can never be destroyed by all the butcheries and persecutions the human mind can invent. The history of all the “bloody tragedies,” by which the earth has been drenched by human blood, cannot be justified in the conclusion, for it is the spirit of conquest that feeds it—Thomas Dick, after collecting the general statistics of those that have perished by the all desolating pestilence of war, says “it will not be overrating the destruction of human life, if we affirm, that one tenth of the human race has been destroyed by the ravages of war,”—and if this estimate be admitted, it will follow that more than fourteen thousand millions of beings have been slaughtered in war since the beginning of the world, which is about eighteen times the number of its present inhabitants. This calculation proceeds from a geographical estimate, “that since the Mosaic creation one hundred and forty-five thousand millions of being have existed.” But, sir, it is not my intention to give a dissertation, on the subject of national wars, although it appropriately belongs to my subject. I decline it only for the simple reason, that it would be inapplicable to us as a people, while we may be more HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY profitably employed in inveighing against the same evil as practiced by ourselves, although it exists under another form, but equally obnoxious to the principles of reason and Christianity. My reason for referring to national wars was to exhibit by plain demonstration that the war principle, which is the production of human passions, has never been, nor can ever be, conquered by its own elements. Hence, if we ever expect the word of prophecy to be fulfilled— “when the swords shall be turned into plough-shares, and the spears into pruning-hooks, and that the nations of the earth shall learn war no more,” we must seek the destruction of the principle that animates, quickens, and feeds it, by the elevation of another more powerful, and omnipotent, and preservative; or mankind will continue, age after age, to march on in their made career, until the mighty current of time will doubtless sweep thousands of millions more into endless perdition, beyond the reach of mercy, and the hope of future bliss. Thus the very bones, sinews, muscles, and immortal mind, that God, in his infinite mercy has bestowed on man, that he might work out his own glory, and extend the principles of “Righteousness, justice, peace on earth, and good-will to their fellow men,” are constantly employed in protracting the period when the glorious millennium shall illumine our world, “and righteousness cover the earth as the water of the great deep.” Now let us solemnly ask ourselves is it reasonable, that for the real or supposed injuries that have been inflicted on mankind from the beginning to the present day, that the attempted redress of the same should have cost so much misery, pain, sweat, blood, and tears, and treasure? Most certainly not; since the very means used has measurably entailed the evil a thousand fold, on coming generations. If man’s superiority over the brute creation consists only in his reasoning powers and rationality of mind; his various methods of practicing violence towards his fellow creatures, has in many cases placed him on a level with, and sometimes below many species of the quadruped race. We search in vain amongst the animal race to find a parallel, for their cruelties to each other on their own species, that is faithfully recorded in history of wars and bloodshed, that have devoured empires, desolated kingdoms, overthrown government, and well nigh aimed at the total annihilation of the human race. There are many species of animals that are so amiable in their disposition to each other, that they might well be considered an eminent pattern for mankind in their present rude condition. The sheep, the ox, the horse, and many other animals exist in a state of comparative quietude, both among themselves, and the other races of animals when compared with man. And if it were possible for them to know the will of their Author, and enjoy that communion all with the Creator of all worlds, all men and all animals, they might justly be entitled to a distinction above all other species of creation, that had made greater departures from the will of the divine government. It is evidently necessary that man should at all times bear in mind his origin and his end. That it is not because he was born a ruler, and superior to all other orders of creation, that he continually reigns above them—it is because he has made a right use of the powers that God has given him or rising in the scale of existence. The rich bequest of Heaven to man, was a natural body, a reasonable soul, and an immortal mind. With these he is HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY rendered capable through wisdom of Providence, or ascending to the throne of angels, or descending to the abyss of devils. Hence there seems to be a relation between man and the animal creation, that subsists, neither in their origin nor their end, but satisfactorily exhibits that man may exist in a state of purity, as far superior to their, as future happiness is to this world, and as far inferior, as we are distant from future misery. There is scarcely a single fact more worthy of indelible record, that the utter inefficiency of human punishments, to cure human evils. The history of wars, exhibits a hopeless, as well as a fatal lesson, to all such enterprises. All the associated powers of human governments have been placed in requisition to quell and subdue the spirit of passion; without improving the condition of the human family. Human bodies have been lacerated with whips and scourges—prisons and penitentiaries have been erected for the immolation of human victims—the gibbet and halter have performed their office - while the increase of crime has kept pace with the genius of punishment, and the whole march of mind seems to have been employed in evading penal enactments, and inventing new methods of destroying the blessings of the social state, not recognized by human codes. If mankind ever expects to enjoy a state of peace and quietude, they must at all times be ready to sacrifice on the altar of principle, the rude passions that animate them. This they can only perform by exerting their reasoning powers. If there be those that desire to overlook the offences of others, and rise above those inflictions that are the offspring of passion, they must seek for protection in something higher than human power. They must place their faith in Him who is able to protect them from danger, or they will soon fall prey to the wicked artifices of their wicked enemies. Human passion is the hallucination of a distempered mind. It renders the subject of it like a ship upon the ocean, without ballast, or cargo, always in danger of being wrecked by every breeze. Phrenologically speaking, a mind that is subject to he fluctuating whims of passion, is without the organ of order, “which is nature’s first law.” Our reasoning powers ought to be the helm that should guide us through the shoals and quicksands of life. I am aware that there are those who consider the non-resistance wholly impracticable. But I trust that but few such can be found, that have adopted the injunction of the Messiah for their guide and future hope, for he commands us to “love our enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you.” These words were peculiarly applicable at the period they were uttered, and had a direct reference to the wars and strifes that then convulsed the world, and they are equally applicable at this moment. If the Christian church had at her beginning made herself the enemy of war, the evil would doubtless have been abolished throughout Christendom. The Christians of the present day do not seem to regard the principles of peace as binding, or they are unwilling to become subject to the Divine government. Human governments then, as well as now, were too feeble to stay the ravages of passion and crime, and hence there was an evident necessity for the imperious command, “Whomsoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn unto him the other also.” And now, Mr. President, I rest my argument on the ground, that HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY whatever is Scriptural is right, and that whatever is right, is reasonable, and from this invulnerable position I mean not to stray, for the sake of any expediency whatever. The doctrine evidently taught by the scriptural quotation, evidently instructs us that resistance to physical aggression is wholly unnecessary as well as unrighteous, and subjects the transgressor to the penalty due from a willful departure from the moral and Divine law. Therefore every act of disobedience to the commands of Christian duty, in relation to our fellow men, may fairly be deemed unreasonable, as it is at enmity with our true interests and the welfare of human society. We are further instructed to turn away from the evil one, rather than waste our strength, influence and passions, in a conflict that must in the end prove very injurious to both. But some one perhaps is ready to raise an objection against this method of brooking the insults of others; and believes it right to refer to the maxim “that self- defense is the first law of nature.” I will readily agree that it is the unbounded duty of every individual to defend himself against both the vulgar and false aspersions of a wicked world. But then I contend that his weapons should be his reasoning powers. That since a kind Providence has bestowed on him the power of speech, and the ability to reason, he degrades his Creator by engulfing himself in the turmoils of passion, and physical conflict. A mode of warfare practiced by barbarous tribes in their native forests, and suited only to those animals that are alone endowed with the powers of instinct. Nor is it possible to suppose that men can pursue such a course, without first parting with their reason. We often see men, while under the reigning influence of passion, as fit subjects for the lunatic asylum, as any that are confined in the lunatic asylum on account of insanity. In every possible and impartial view we take of the subject, we find that physical conflict militates against the interest of the parties in collision. If I, in conflict with mine enemy, overcome him by my superior physical powers, or my skill in battle, I neither wholly subdue him, nor convince him or the justice of my cause. His spirit becomes still more enraged, and he will seek retaliation and conquest on some future occasion, that may seem to him more propitious. If I intimidate him I have made him a slave, while I reign a despot; and our relation will continue unnatural, as well as dangerous to each other, until our friendship has become fully restored. And what has been gained by this barbarous method of warfare, when both parties become losers thereby? Yet this single case illustrates the value of all personal conflicts. But let us pursue this subject in a more dignified view, I mean as it respects the moral and Divine government. Is it possible that any Christian man or woman, that will flog and maltreat their fellow beings, can be in earnest, when they with apparent devotion; ask their heavenly Father to “forgive their trespass as they forgive others?” Surely they must be asking God to punish them—or when they say “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” do they mean that they should run headlong into both, with all their infuriated madness? Certainly not. Who would not be more willing to apply to them insincerity of motive, and that they knew not what they were doing, rather than suppose that intelligent minds would be capable of such gross inconsistency. Would it not prove infinitely better in times of HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY trials and difficulties, to leave the temper, and temptation behind, and pursue our course onward? But says the objector, there will be no safety nor security in this method from the insults of the vulgar and the brutal attacks of the assassin. I am inclined to believe to the contrary, and will be borne out in that belief by the evidence, of those that have pursued this Christian course of conduct. A writer under the signature of Philopacificus, while “taking a solemn view of the custom of war,” says, “There are two sets of professed Christians in this country, which, as sects, are peculiar in their opinions respecting the lawfulness of war, and the right of repelling injury by violence.” These are the Quakers and Shakers. They are remarkably pacific. Now we ask, does it appear from experience, that their forbearing spirit brings on them a greater portion of injury and insults, than what is experienced by people of other sects? Is not the reverse of this true in fact? There may indeed be some such instances of gross depravity as a person taking advantage of their pacific character, to do them an injury with the hope of impunity. But in general it is believed their pacific principles and spirit command the esteem, even of the vicious, and operate as a shield from insult and abuse. The question may be brought home to every society. How seldom do children of a mild and forbearing temper experience insults or injury, compared with the waspish, who will sting if they are touched? The same inquiry may be made in respect to persons of these opposite descriptions of every age, and in every situation of life, and the result will prove favorable to the point in question. When William Penn took the government of Pennsylvania, he distinctly avowed to the Indians, his forbearing and pacific principles, and his benevolent wishes for uninterrupted peace with them. On these principles the government was administered while it remained in the hands of the Quakers. This was an illustrious example of government on religious principles, worthy of imitation by all the nations of the earth. I am happy to state, that there are various incidents related by travelers, both among the native Africans and Indians, where lives have been saved by the presentation of a pacific attitude, when they would have otherwise fallen prey to savage barbarity. It has been my purpose to exhibit reason as a great safeguard, at all times capable of dethroning passion and alleviating our condition in periods of the greatest trouble and difficulty, and of being a powerful handmaid in achieving a triumph of the principles of universal peace. I have also thus far treated the subject as a grand fundamental principle, universal in its nature, and binding alike on every member of the human family. But if there be a single class of people in these United States, on which these duties are more imperative and binding, than another, that class is the colored population of this country, both free and enslaved. Situated as we are, among a people that recognize the lawfulness of slavery, and more of whom sympathize with the oppressor than the oppressed, it requires us to pursue our course calmly onward, with much self-denial, patience and perseverance. We must be prepared at all times, to meet the scoffs and scorns of the vulgar and indecent—the contemptible frowns of haughty tyrants, and the blighting mildew of a popular and sinful HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY prejudice. If amidst these difficulties we can but possess our souls in patience, we shall finally triumph over our enemies. But among the various duties that devolve on us, not the least is that which relates to ourselves. We must learn on all occasions to rebuke the spirit of violence, both in sentiment and practice. God has said, “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay it.” The laws of the land guarantee the protection of our persons from personal violence, and whoever for any cause, inflicts a single blow on a fellow being, violates the laws of God and of his country, and has no just claim to being regarded as a Christian or a good citizen. As a people we have suffered much from the pestilential influence of mob violence that has spread its devastating influence over our country. And it is to me no matter of astonishment that they continue to exist. They do but put in practice a common every day theory that pervades every neighborhood, and almost every family, viz.: That it is right, under certain circumstances, to violate all law, both civil and national, and abuse, kick and cuff your fellow man, when they deem that he has offended or insulted the community in which he resides. Whenever the passions of individuals rise above all laws, human and divine, then they are in the first stages of anarchy, and then every act prosecuted under the influence of this spirit, necessarily extends itself beyond the boundary of our laws. The act of the multitude is carried out on the principle of combination, which is the grand lever by which machinery as well as man is impelled in this fruitful age. There is no difference in principle between the acts of a few individuals, and those of a thousand, while actuated by the spirit of passion, dethroning reason, the laws of our country and the liberty of man. Hence every individual that either aids or abets an act of personal violence towards the humblest individual is guilty of sustaining the detestable practice of mobocratic violence. Yet such is the general spirit that pervades our common country, and receives its sanction from places of high honor and trust, that it is patriotism to disregard the laws. It is but reasonable to suppose the individuals, guided by like views and motives, will on some occasions concentrate their power, and carry on their operations on a large scale. Unless the hearts and reasoning powers of man become improved, it is impossible for the most sagacious mind to augur the consequences. The spirit of passion has become so implanted in human bosoms, that the laws of our country give countenance to the same, by exhibiting lenity for those who are under its influence. This is doubtless a great error in legislation, because it not only pre-supposes the irrationality of man, but gives him a plea of innocence, in behalf of his idiotism. The only sure method of conquering these evils is to commend a reform in ourselves, and then the spirit of passion will soon be destroyed in individuals, and communities, and governments, and then the ground-work will be fully laid for a speedy triumph of the principles of universal peace. The love of power is one of the greatest human infirmities, and with it comes the usurping influence of despotism, the mother of slavery. Show me any country or people where despotism reigns triumphant, and I will exhibit to your view the spirit of slavery, whether the same be incorporated in the government or HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY not. It is this demon-like spirit of passion that sends forth its poignant influence over professedly civilized nations, as well as the more barbarous tribes. Its effects on the human interest is the same, whether it emanates from the subjugator of Poland—the throne of Britain—the torrid zone of the South, or the genial clime of Pennsylvania; from the white, the red, or the black man - whether he be of European or African descent - or the native Indian that resides in the wilds of the forest, their combined action is at war with the principles of peace, and the liberty of the world. How different is the exercise of this love of power, when exercised by man, or enforced by human governments, to the exercise of Him who holds all “power over the heavens, earth, and seas, and all that in them is.” With God, all is in order— with man, all confusion. The planets perform their annual revolutions —the tides ebb and flow—the seas obey. His command - the whole government of universal worlds are sustained by His wisdom and power - each invariably performing the course marked out by their great Author, because they are impelled by His love. But with man, governments are impelled by the law of force; hence despotism becomes an ingredient in all human governments. The power of reason is the noblest gift of Heaven to man, because it assimilates man to his Maker. And were he to improve his mind by cultivating his reasoning powers, his acts of life would bear the impress of Deity, indelibly stamped upon them. If human governments bore any direct resemblance to the government of God, they would be mild in their operation, and the principles of universal peace would become implanted in every mind. Wars, fighting, and strifes would cease —there would be a signal triumph of truth over error—the principles of peace, justice, righteousness, and universal love would guide and direct mankind onward in that sublime path marked out by the great Prince of Peace. And now my friends, let us cease to be guided by the influence of a wild and beguiling passion—the wicked and foolish fantasies of pride, folly and lustful ambition—the alluring the detestable examples of despotism and governments—the sickly sensibility of those who from false notions of honor, attempt to promote the ends of justice, by placing “righteousness under their feet,” and are at all times ready to imbue their hands in a fellow creature’s blood, for the purpose of satisfying their voracious appetites for crime, murder and revenge. I say from them let us turn away, for a terrible retaliation must shortly await them, even in this life. The moral powers of this nation and the world is fast wakening from the sleep of ages, and wielding a swift besom, that will sweep from the fact of the earth error and iniquity with the power of a whirlwind. But a few years ago and dueling was considered necessary to personal honor, and the professional Christian, or the most upright citizen might barter away the lives and happiness of a nation with his guilty traffic in ardent spirits, with impunity. But now a regenerated public sentiment not only repudiates their conduct, but consigns them with “body and soul murderers.” Though the right to be free has been deemed inalienable by this nation, from a period antecedent to the declaration of American Independence, yet a mental fog hovered over this nation on the subject of slavery that had well nigh sealed her doom, were it not that in the Providence of God a few noble spirits arose in the might of moral power to her HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY rescue. They girded on the power of truth, for their shield, and the principles of peace for their buckler and thus boldly pierced through the incrustrations of a false and fatal philosophy, and from the incision, sprang forth the light of glorious liberty, disseminating its delectable rays over the dark chasms of slavery, and lighting up the vision of the vision of a ruined world. And the effect has been to awaken the nation to her duty with regard to the rights of man—to render slaveholders despicable and guilty of robbery and murder—and in many places, those that profess Christianity have been unchurched, denied the privilege of Christian fellowship. And the same moral power is now awakening in the cause of peace, and will bring disgrace and dishonor on all who engage in wars and fighting. The period is fast approaching when the church, as at present constituted, must undergo one of the severest contests she has met with since her foundation, because in so many cases she has refused to sustain her own principles. The moral warfare that is now commenced will not cease if the issue should be a dissolution of both church and state. The time has already come when those believe that intemperance, slavery, war and fighting is sinful, and it will soon arrive when those who practice either their rights to enjoy Christian fellowship will be questioned. And now, Mr. President, I shall give a few practical illustrations, and then I shall have done. It appears by history that there have been many faithful advocates of peace since the apostolic age, but none have ever given a more powerful impetus to the cause of peace, than the modern abolitionists. They have been beater and stoned, mobbed and persecuted from city to city, and never returned evil for evil, but submissively, as a sheep brought before the shearer have they endured scoffings and scourges for the cause’s sake, while they prayed for their prosecutors. And how miraculously they have been preserved in the midst of a thousand dangers from without and within. Up to the present moment not the life of a single individual has been sacrificed on the altar of popular fury. Had they have set out in this glorious undertaking of freeing 2,500,000 human beings, with the war-cry of “liberty or death,” they would have been long since demolished, or a civil war would have ensued; thus would have dyed the national soil with human blood. And now let me ask you, was not their method of attacking the system of human slavery the most reasonable? And would not their policy have been correct, even if we were to lay aside their Christian motives? Their weapons were reason and moral truth, and on them they desired to stand or fall—and so it will be in all causes that are sustained form just and Christian principles, they will ultimately triumph. Now let us suppose for a single moment what would have been our case, if they had started on the principle, that “resistance to tyrants is obedience to God”? — what would have been our condition, together with that of the slave population? Why, we should have doubtless perished by the sword, or been praying for the destruction of our enemies, and probably engaged in the same bloody warfare. And now we are indebted to the modern abolitionists more than to any other class of men for the instructions we have received from the dissemination of their principles, or we would not at this moment be associated here to advocate the cause of moral reform - of temperance, education, peace and universal liberty. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Therefore let us, like them, obliterate from our minds the idea of revenge, and from our hearts all wicked intentions towards each other and the world, and we shall b able through the blessing of Almighty God, to so much to establish the principles of universal peace. Let us not think the world has no regard for our efforts — they are looking forward to them with intense interest and anxiety. The enemies of the abolitionists are exhibiting a regard for the power of their principles that they are unwilling to acknowledge, although it is every where known over the country, that abolitionists “will not fight,” yet they distrust their own strength so much, that they frequently muster a whole neighborhood of from 50 to 300 men, with sticks, stones, rotten eggs and bowie knives, to mob and beat a single individual probably in his “teens,” whose heart’s law is non-resistance. There is another way in which they do us honor — they admit the right of all people to fight for their liberty, but colored people and abolitionists—plainly inferring that they are too good for the performance of such unchristian acts—and lastly, while we endeavor to control our own passions and keep them in subjection, let us be mindful of the weakness of others; and for acts of wickedness of others; and for acts of wickedness committed against us, let us reciprocate in the spirit of kindness. If they continue their injustice towards us, let us always decide that their reasoning powers are defective, and that it is with men as the laws of mechanics — large bodies move slowly, while smaller ones are easily propelled with swift velocity. In every case of passion that presents itself, the subject is one of pity rather than derision, and in his cooler moments let us earnestly advise him to improve his understanding, by cultivating his intellectual powers, and thus exhibit his close alliance with God, who is the author of all wisdom, peace, justice, righteousness and truth. And in conclusion, felt it always be our aim to live in a spirit of unity with each other, supporting one common cause, by spreading our influence for the good of mankind, with the hope that the period will ultimately arrive when the principles of universal peace will triumph throughout the world.

September 10, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 10 of 9 M / Our Meetings were seasons of not much life to me, but heavy & depressed — they were about as well attended for numbers as they usually are tho’ a number who usually attend were absent. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 10th I went to church in the forenoon. In the afternoon I staid at home with G. I entirely forgot to say in the right place that Father and mother went to Norton, Father having an exchange with Mr. Bridge a minister in that town.17 They came 17. Rev. Asarelah Morse Bridge, minister of the Congregational parish in Norton, Massachusetts, from 1836 to 1840. See George Faber Clark, A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF NORTON, BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS, FROM 1669 TO 1859 (Boston: Crosby, Nichols,1859), 194-96. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY home about 10 o’clock.

September 11, Monday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday 11th. In the evening I wound eight balls of yarn. I also went to Mrs. Turner’s to carry the paper and she sent us some beans, and Mary sent us some stersions. I took off my shoes for the purpose of climbing up a tree and forgot to bring them home.

September 12, Tuesday: In Boston during this month a mob of Irish-haters had attacked a military formation of the Irish-dominated Montgomery Guards. There was such animosity within the militia in regard to its Irish units, that a military review scheduled for this day on Boston Common had to be suspended.

Samuel Wesley attended a recital by Felix Mendelssohn at All Saints, Newgate Street, London. After the concert, Wesley was asked to play. His performance received praise from Mendelssohn, to which he responded, “You should have heard me forty years ago.”

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday. In the afternoon I staid at home to play with George my Mother and sister having gone away to take tea. Mr, Clapp’s pigs got out and went up to our house. Mary Turner and I drove them back and had grand fun running after them.

September 13, Wednesday: Friedrich Wieck received a letter from Robert Schumann asking for his daughter Clara Wieck’s hand. Wieck would be evasive.

Richard Wagner conducted in Riga for the initial time, in a performance of a comic opera by Carl Blum to which Wagner added an aria.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday. In the morning I went to the harbor. On my return, I lost a letter which I had at first missed it at the “Parsonage House” and was so foolish as not to go back for it, by which I might probably have found it but thinking it was of no consequence I went on till I got clear home when I was obliged to go the whole way back to look for it. Father and mother lectured me so severely for my carelessness and foolishness that I do not think I shall ever do so again and I am sure I hope I shall not. After I got home from my search for the letter which was not successful and rested myself a while I set out for Mr. May’s. On the way I called at Mrs. Litchfield’s to give her her basket and she gave me a drink of cider and some pears. I went on to the place I was bound to and John and I had a nice time climbing up trees in their orchard. I did not get home till late in the afternoon. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY September 14, Thursday: At the direction of Nehemiah Ball, the secretary of the Concord Town School’s committee, preceptor Henry Thoreau began to ferule the children.

He did not respond by feruling any of the four Ball children present in this school system:

13 Caroline

11 Augusta

9 Angelina

8 Ephraim

but 6 of his pupils “got it” after school, one of whom, 13-year-old Eliza Jane Durant, was a maidservant in his own house. He deliberately attacked these youths without making the usual pretense that this sort of teacherly abuse was any specific punishment for any specific misdeed. One can imagine him saying to himself “If there must be innocent victims of this system in which vicious grown-ups have all the power, at least the young victims will know they are victims.” The school board failed to comprehend why their teacher had offered this demonstration of the minuscule yet relevant difference between torture and correction — but cannot such noncomprehension be fully explained in terms of the thickness of the board?

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Of Thursday and Friday I cannot remember anything but “Don’t view me with a critic’s eye But Pass my imperfections by.”

September 16, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday afternoon I went to the harbor and got a letter which I was lucky enough not to lose. On my way home I got some cows18 for Frances who wanted them for the purpose of sticking legs into them and playing with them. After I got home I helped Enoch 18. “Things that grow on a plant the proper name of which is milk weed” (EQS Jr. footnote). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY get in wood.

September 17, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday I went to meeting and staid at noon. Mr. Phips preached. After meeting in the afternoon at 7 oclock I went to an Anti Slavery lecture by Mr. Codding who related several anecdotes. One of these was this. A man who was intoxicated was approaching a tree, staggered himself and looking at the tree said, “how that tree staggers!” Another was of a boy who had been almost drowned who said, “I’ll never go into the water again till I have learned to swim.” there were several others which he related. After Mr. C. had done Mr. Garrison made some remarks the meeting was done about half past 9. I sat in the gallery. After the meeting was done there was a contribution. I put nine- pence into the hat. I forgot to say that Mr. Somebody for I forget who said it that the petition of the English women for the abolition of slavery was signed by 181,000 and required four men to carry it up to Parliament. What a large petition!

September 18, Monday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday Late in the evening I went to Dr. Fuller’s19 for some things for Father’s cough.

September 19, Tuesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday afternoon I asked to come home from school after I had said all my lessons. I went with mother and sister to the harbor to be measured in order to have some clothes made. I bought a new knife of Mr. E. Jenkins for 20 cents. The first use of it was in my Journal in scratching out.

September 20, Wednesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday. In the morning I went to the office.

19. Milton Fuller (1799-1885) practiced medicine in Scituate, Massachusetts, until 1841. See Egbert Cleave, CLEAVE’S BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPAEDIA OF HOMEOPATHIC PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS (Philadelphia: Galaxy Publishing, 1873), 1:435-37. Fuller was a member of the Scituate school committee in 1838. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY September 21, Thursday: Piano Concerto no.2 op.40 by Felix Mendelssohn was performed for the initial time, in Birmingham.

In Concord, at the Town School, William Allen took over the classroom vacated by Henry Thoreau. Not all the students immediately returned.

Albert Hazlett was born in Pennsylvania. This man would not be one of those to take part in the fight at Harpers Ferry but nevertheless would be belatedly hanged, along with John E. Cook who had escaped from that fight by climbing a tree and who later identified him to the prosecutors. Before the raid he had been working on his brother’s farm in western Pennsylvania, and had joined the others at Kennedy Farm in the early part of September 1859. He would be arrested on October 22d, 1859 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, near Chambersburg, where he was using the name “William Harrison,” would be extradited to Virginia, would be tried and sentenced at the spring term of the Court, and on March 16th, 1860 would be hanged for his complicity with the raiders.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday afternoon George and I went to the stone heap with some rubbish. After we got back we went again.

September 22, Friday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday. Cousin John came a few minutes before tea.20

September 23, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday. In the afternoon I went to the harbor.

20. Probably John Gallison Sewall (1822-1674), son of Edmund Quincy Sewall, Sr.’s brother Henry Devereux Sewall. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

A sharing agreement was entered into by Samuel F.B. Morse, with Dr. Leonard Gale. Also, Alfred Lewis Vail received a 4/16th share among the “Morse Patentees,” later to be reduced to an 2/16th share in order to add Representative Francis Ormand Jonathan Smith of Maine to the syndicate at 4/16th share. Vail’s task would be to improve the mechanical operation of the telegraph device he was using in his demonstrations at the City College of New-York. During this month, also, Morse filed at the US Patent Office a caveat for a patent on his telegraph.

Charles T. Jackson would note in the following year, in his Second Report of the Geology of the Public Lands, that with his party on this day he had ascended to the summit of Mount Ktaadn, where they had experienced a snowstorm. They made barometric observations and Jackson, noting that this Maine mountain was composed entirely of granite, and that erratic boulders littered its surface inferred that the mountain had been entirely covered by the waters during the deluge of Noah. TIMELINE OF THE MAINE WOODS

THE MAINE WOODS: Ktaadn, whose name is an Indian word signifying highest land, was first ascended by white men in 1804. It was visited by Professor J.W. Bailey of West Point in 1836; by Dr. Charles T. Jackson, the State Geologist, in 1837; and by two young men from Boston in 1845. All these have given accounts of their expeditions. Since I was there, two or three other parties have made the excursion, and told their stories. Besides these, very few, even among backwoodsmen and hunters, have ever climbed it, and it will be a long time before the tide of fashionable travel sets that way. The mountainous region of the State of Maine stretches from near the White Mountains, northeasterly one hundred and sixty miles, to the head of the Aroostook River, and is about sixty miles wide. The wild or unsettled portion is far more extensive. So that some hours only of travel in this direction will carry the curious to the verge of a primitive forest, more interesting, perhaps, on all accounts, than they would reach by going a thousand miles westward.

CHARLES TURNER, JR. JACOB WHITMAN BAILEY DR. CHARLES T. JACKSON EDWARD EVERETT HALE WILLIAM FRANCIS CHANNING

September 24, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Sunday. In the forenoon I went to meeting. In the afternoon I staid at home with George.

October: The Sewalls having found other lodgings, the Coles, after a wait of 5 years, were able to move into their commodious Brushy Hill farmhouse. John Downes’s young daughter Frances Downes, who had been living with the Sewalls in that farmhouse, remained in the farmhouse when the Sewalls moved out, and boarded with the Coles. However, her (or her father’s) primary contact in Scituate seems to have been not the Coles but the Sewalls. ELLEN DEVEREUX SEWALL EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR.

October 1, Sunday: In Japan, after a rule of 44 years, the 11th Tokugawa shogun Ienari resigned and the shogunate of Tokugawa Ieyoshi began.

Felix Mendelssohn arrivedin Leipzig from London via Frankfurt only hours before he was scheduled to conduct the 1st concert of the new Gewandhaus season.

Waldo Emerson to his journal:

Lidian grieves aloud about the wretched negro in the horrors of the middle passage; and they are bad enough. But to such as she, these crucifixions do not come. They come to the obtuse & barbarous to whom they are not horrid but only a little worse than the old sufferings. They exchange a cannibal war for a stinking hold. They have gratifications which would be none to Lidian.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 1st of 10th M 1837 / Our Morning Meeting was a good solid silent one — In the Afternoon after Meeting had been gathered about a quarter of an hour a friend came looking very plain whom I did not recognize at all & made his way for the high seat & took his seat on the first rising after he had sat some time he rose & preached a very good lively & Spiritual sermon & soon after kneeled in solemn supplication much to our satisfaction & comfort - It proved to be our friend William Gifford from Falmouth on Cape Cod, who was bound in a vessel to NYork but the Wind being a head put into Newport & arrived here so as to be at Meeting rather late but very Satisfactory to all.— he drank tea with Job Sherman & after coming in & sitting with us a while, I gave him some books, & waited on him to the Wharf where he took a boat & went on board his vessel which lay in the harbour RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday October 1st. I have neglected to write for a week because I was engaged in writing a letter to my aunt which looked so HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY that I was almost ashamed to send it. A few evenings ago we finished the “Youth’s Letter Writer” a book given to me by my aunt which we had been reading aloud.21 Yesterday I did the following errands for mother. In the first place I went to Mr Jenkins’s for some apples with George. When I got home, I helped Enoch dig some potatoes. When he had done, he went to get some apples and we went with him. After this I went to the store for some molasses to make a pandowdy. I forgot to mention that we had pudding for dinner every day this week. In the afternoon I helped husk corn, the first part of the time. After we had done, I went to both the stores for some candles as we had used up our oil, but they had none. As I was coming back Mr. Clapp told me that perhaps his mother could sell us some. I went there and was fortunate enough to get them. We have not had candles to burn before since I can rember [sic] and for the first time in my life I went to bed with a candle. I staid at home with G. all day. [“Sunday,” he added in a footnote] When Father and I were untackling the horse I went to pull off the saddle but could not get it off his tail when he gave a spring and ran off with it hanging to his tail which looked funny enough.

October 4, Wednesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday. We had a fire at school for the first time this summer. We22 read aloud in Fr. Downes “Fairy Book” which I borrowed of her.23

October 5, Thursday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday 5th. In the afternoon I went to the harbor. Besides going to the Post Office I went to get my clothes and to both stores. At Mr. A’s Dr. Thomas24 asked me if I had any books to read now. I told him no, and he lent me a book called “The History of St. Dominggo” in two volumes.25 In the morning my sister went to Dorchester to spend a week at Mr. Goddard’s. Father carried her to the boat in the chaise

October 7, Saturday: Sengai Gibon’s jisei farewell poem to life: He who comes knows only his coming He who goes knows only his end. To be saved from the chasm Why cling to the cliff? Clouds floating low Never know where the breezes will blow them.

21. John Farrar, THE YOUTH’S LETTER-WRITER (New York: R. Bartlett and S. Raynor, 1834). 22. “In the evening we read…” (Typescript). 23. THE FAIRY-BOOK: ILLUSTRATED WITH CUTS ON WOOD (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1837). 24. Doctor Francis Thomas, son of Rev. Nehemiah Thomas, the Reverend Sewall’s predecessor. Old Scituate (Scituate: Chief Justice Cushing Chapter, D.A.R., 1921), 207. 25. Jonathan Brown, THE HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OF ST. DOMINGO, 2 volumes. (Philadelphia, 1837). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Famous Last Words:

“What school is more profitably instructive than the death-bed of the righteous, impressing the understanding with a convincing evidence, that they have not followed cunningly devised fables, but solid substantial truth.” — A COLLECTION OF MEMORIALS CONCERNING DIVERS DECEASED MINISTERS, Philadelphia, 1787 “The death bed scenes & observations even of the best & wisest afford but a sorry picture of our humanity. Some men endeavor to live a constrained life — to subject their whole lives to their will as he who said he might give a sign if he were conscious after his head was cut off — but he gave no sign Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows.” —Thoreau’s JOURNAL, March 12, 1853

399 BCE Socrates drinking the hemlock “Crito, I owe a cock to Æsclepius.”

27 CE Jesus being crucified “It is finished.” [John 19:30]

February 5, 1256 Doyu his jisei farewell poem to life In all my six and fifty years No miracles occurred. For the Buddhas and the Great Ones of the Faith, I have questions in my heart. And if I say, “Today, this hour I leave the world,” There’s nothing in it. Day after day, Does not the sun rise in the east?

October 8, 1272 Goku Kyonen his jisei farewell poem to life The truth embodied in the Buddhas Of the future, present, past; The teaching we received from the Fathers of our faith Can all be found at the tip of my stick.

October 17, 1280 Enni Ben’en his jisei farewell poem to life All my life I taught Zen to the people— Nine and seventy years. He who sees not things as they are Will never know Zen.

August 21, 1281 Ingo his jisei farewell poem to life Three and seventy years I’ve drawn pure water from the fire— Now I become a tiny bug. With a touch of my body I shatter all worlds. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

October 12, 1333 Giun his jisei farewell poem to life All doctrines split asunder Zen teaching cast away— Fourscore years and one, The sky now cracks and falls The earth cleaves open— In the heart of the fire Lies a hidden spring.

February 26, 1370 Daido Ichi’i his jisei farewell poem to life A tune of non-being Filling the void: Spring sun Snow whiteness Bright clouds Clear wind.

February 20, 1387 Bassui Tokushō his jisei farewell poem to life “Look straight ahead. What’s there? If you see it as it is You will never err.”

1415 John Huss being burned at the stake “O, holy simplicity!”

June 27, 1428 Kaso Sodon his jisei farewell poem to life A drop of water freezes instantly— My seven years and seventy. All changes at a blow Springs of water welling from the fire.

May 30, 1431 Joan of Arc being burned at the stake “Hold the cross high so I may see it through the flames.”

November 21, 1481 Ikkyū Sōjun his jisei farewell poem to life In all the kingdom southward From the center of the earth Where is he who understands my Zen? Should the master Kido himself appear He wouldn’t be worth a worn-out cent.

May 4, 1534 Father John Houghton as he was being disemboweled “And what wilt thou do with my heart, O Christ?”

July 6, 1535 Sir Thomas More being beheaded “The King’s good servant, but God’s First.”

1536 Anne Boleyn being beheaded “Oh God, have pity on my soul.”

February 18, 1546 Martin Luther found on his chamber table “We are beggars: this is true.”

July 16, 1546 Anne Askew being burned at the stake “There he misseth, and speaketh without the book”

June 24, 1548 Kogaku Soko his jisei farewell poem to life My final words are these: As I fall I throw all on a high mountain peak— Lo! All creation shatters; thus it is That I destroy Zen doctrine.

January 27, 1568 Dairin Soto his jisei farewell poem to life My whole life long I’ve sharpened my sword And now, face to face with death I unsheathe it, and lo— The blade is broken— Alas!

1601 Tycho Brahe unsolicited comment “Let me not seem to have lived in vain.”

1618 Sir Walter Raleigh his wife would embalm his head and “Strike, man, strike.” keep it near her in a red leather bag HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

October 1, 1643 Kogetsu Sogan his jisei farewell poem to life Katsu! Katsu! Katsu! Katsu!

1649 Charles I the chopper was to wait for a signal “Stay for the sign.” that the king had prepared himself

1659 Friend Marmaduke Ste- unsolicited comments made over the Friend Marmaduke: “We suffer not as evil-doers venson and Friend Wil- muting roll of a drum intended to pre- but for conscience’ sake.” Friend William: “I die liam Robinson vent such remarks from being heard for Christ.”

1660 Friend Mary Dyer asked at her execution “Nay, first a child; then a young man; whether they should pray for her soul then a strong man, before an elder of Christ Jesus.”

October 1, 1661 Gudō Toshoku his jisei farewell poem to life “I have finished my task. It is now up to my followers to work for mankind.”

July 16, 1669 Daigu Sōchiku his jisei farewell poem to life Needles pierce my ailing body, and my pain grows greater. This life of mine, which has been like a disease — what is its meaning? In all the world I haven’t a single friend to whom I can unburden my soul. Truly all that appears to the eye is only a flower that blooms in a day.

1681 Headman Ockanickon of the Mantas are the “Leaping Frogs” “Be plain and fair to all, both Indian the Mantas group of the Lenape tribe and Christian, as I have been.”

May 15, 1688 Mukai Chine her jisei farewell poem to life It lights up as lightly as it fades: a firefly.

1692 Massachusetts Bay being pressed to death for refusing to “Add more weight that my misery colonist Giles Corey cooperate in his trial for witchcraft may be the sooner ended.”

October 12, 1694 Matsuo Chūemon his jisei farewell poem to life On a journey, ill: Munefusa (Bashō) my dream goes wandering over withered fields.

January 10, 1696 Gesshū Sōko his jisei farewell poem to life Inhale, exhale Forward, back Living, dying: Arrows, let flown each to each Meet midway and slice The void in aimless flight— Thus I return to the source.

January 4, 1718 Aki no Bo his jisei farewell poem to life The fourth day of the new year: what better day to leave the world?

October 6, 1721 Dōkyō Etan his jisei farewell poem to life Here in the shadow of death it is hard To utter the final word. I’ll only say, then, “Without saying,” Nothing more, Nothing more.

1777 John Bartram during a spasm of pain “I want to die.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

December 25, 1783 Yosa no Buson his jisei farewell poem to life (he Of late the nights would die on January 17, 1784) are dawning plum-blossom white.

1790 Benjamin Franklin unsolicited comment “A dying man can do nothing easy.”

July 24, 1792 Bufo his jisei farewell poem to life Oh, I don’t care where autumn clouds are drifting to.

1793 Louis Capet, being beheaded in the Place de la Con- “I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; King Louis XVI of France corde I Pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.”

1793 Jean-Paul Marat reviewing a list of names “They shall all be guillotined.”

1793 Citizen Marie Antoinette stepping on the foot of her executioner “Pardonnez-moi, monsieur.”

1794 George Jacques Danton he had been convicted of not having “Show my head to the people. made adequate use of the guillotine It is worth seeing.”

December 24, 1794 Chirin his jisei farewell poem to life In earth and sky no grain of dust— snow on the foothills.

1798 Giovanni Casanova having spent his life collecting sequen- “I have lived as a philosopher and died tially and in tandem 132 pubic scalps as a Christian.”

1799 George Washington fearing being buried alive (a common “’Tis well.” fear for that period), he was being heartily reassured by his physician

August 25, 1804 Gengen’ichi his jisei farewell poem to life Morning glory even though you wither dawn will break anew.

1806 Charles Dickinson he was dueling with Andrew Jackson “Why have you put out the lights?”

September 3, 1806 Chogo his jisei farewell poem to life I long for people— then again I loathe them: end of autumn.

1809 Thomas Paine his physician asked whether he wished “I have no wish to believe on that subject.” to believe Jesus to be the son of God

June 28, 1820 Seisetsu Shucho his jisei farewell poem to life My hour draws near and I am still alive. Drawn by the chains of death I take my leave. The King of Hades has decreed Tomorrow I shall be his slave.

1821 John Keats dying of TB in Rome “Severn … I am dying … I shall die easy … don’t be frightened … be firm and thank God it has come.”

May 2, 1823 Kiko his jisei farewell poem to life That which blossoms falls, the way of all flesh in this world of flowers. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1825 Phebe Walker Bliss Emer- died in Concord “Don’t call Dr. Ripley his boots squeak so, son Ripley Mr. Emerson used to step so softly, his boots never squeaked.”

November 27, 1825 Gazen his jisei farewell poem to life I lean against the stove and lo! eternity.

1826 Thomas Jefferson died at 12:50PM “Is it the 4th? —Ah.”

August 25, 1826 Retsuzan his jisei farewell poem to life The night I understood this is a world of dew, I woke up from my sleep.

1826 John Adams died at 5: 30PM — Jefferson actually “Thomas Jefferson still surv...” had, in Virginia, predeceased him

November 19, 1827 Kobayashi Issa his jisei farewell poem to life What matters if I live on— a tortoise lives a hundred times as long.

1830 King George IV early one morning in Windsor Castle “Good God, what is this? — My boy, this is death.”

January 6, 1831 Ryokan his jisei farewell poem to life Now it reveals its hidden side and now the other — thus it falls, an autumn leaf.

1832 Sam Sharpe being hanged after an unsuccessful “I would rather die on yonder gallows than live in slave revolt on the island of Jamaica slavery.”

May 12, 1835 Hanri his jisei farewell poem to life My life: echoes of a clucking tongue above pure waters.

1836 James Madison unsolicited comment “I always talk better lying down.”

October 7, 1837 Sengai Gibon his jisei farewell poem to life He who comes knows only his coming He who goes knows only his end. To be saved from the chasm Why cling to the cliff? Clouds floating low Never know where the breezes will blow them.

1846 Benjamin Robert Haydon final entry in 38-year journal before “Stretch me no longer on this tough world. offing himself — Lear”

October 31, 1847 Kyohaku his jisei farewell poem to life I am not worthy of this crimson carpet: autumn maple leaves.

1848 John Quincy Adams had just voted “no” on war on Mexico “This is the last of earth. I am composed.”

December 5, 1848 Shofu his jisei farewell poem to life One moon— one me— snow-covered field path. x x his jisei farewell poem to life x

1849 Washington Goode offered a cup of water before being “This is the last Cochituate water that I shall ever hanged in Boston drink.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1849 Edgar Allan Poe in bad shape in Baltimore “Lord help my poor soul.”

April 12, 1849 Katsushika Hokusai his jisei farewell poem to life Now as a spirit I shall roam the summer fields.

1849 Frederic Chopin dying of tuberculosis “Swear to make them cut me open, so that I won’t be buried alive.”

1850 John Caldwell Calhoun unsolicited comment “The South! The poor South! God knows what will become of her.”

1851 John James Audubon shooting at sitting ducks on his estate, “You go down that side of Long Pond and I’ll go at age 66 despite stroke and senility down this side and we’ll get the ducks!”

December 4, 1851 Kizan his jisei farewell poem to life When I am gone will someone care for the chrysanthemum I leave?

1852 Daniel Webster his attendant was tardy “I still live!” in administering some brandy

July 15, 1855 Enryo his jisei farewell poem to life Autumn waters of this world wake me from my drunkenness.

1857 Auguste Comte he had been making himself the pope “What an irreparable loss!” of a religion of science, “Positivism”

August 16, 1858 Namagusai Tazukuri his jisei farewell poem to life In fall the willow tree recalls its bygone glory.

March 23, 1859 Hakuen his jisei farewell poem to life What is it but a dream? The blossoming as well lasts only seven cycles.

1859 John Brown request “I am ready at any time — do not keep me waiting.”

July 27, 1860 Kinko his jisei farewell poem to life Within the vast and empty autumn night dawn breaks.

1862 Henry David Thoreau he was editing manuscript “moose ... Indian”

June 11, 1863 Bairyu his jisei farewell poem to life O hydrangea— you change and change back to your primal color.

1864 General John Sedgwick Battle of Spotsylvania “They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance.”

1865 Abraham Lincoln on stage, an actor ad-libbed a reference The President laughed to the presence of the President

1865 John Wilkes Booth with his leg broken, surrounded by “Useless ... useless.” relentlessly angry armed men, in a burning barn

November 5, 1868 Amano Hachiro his jisei farewell poem to life Lightning flickers only in the north: the moon is overcast. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1872 Samuel F.B. Morse doctor tapped on his chest and said: “Very good, very good.” “This is the way we doctors telegraph, Professor.”

October 29, 1872 Otsuchi his jisei farewell poem to life O white chrysanthemum— man, too, passes his prime.

1872 Horace Greeley Whitelaw Reid took over the Tribune “You son of a bitch, you stole my newspaper!” March 28, 1878 Gizan Zenrai his jisei farewell poem to life I was born into this world I leave it at my death. Into a thousand towns My legs have carried me, And countless homes— What are all these? A moon reflected in the water A flower floating in the sky. Ho!

1881 Billy the Kid in the dark, he heard Pat Garrett enter “Who is it?”

August 16, 1881 Rokushi his jisei farewell poem to life I wake up from a seventy-five-year dream to millet porridge.

1882 Charles Darwin fundamentalists tell lying stories of his “I am not the least afraid to die.” abandoning his heretical theories in favor of Christ Jesus and His salvation

January 4, 1882 Hankai his jisei farewell poem to life The year is ending: I have not left my heart behind.

1883 Sojourner Truth advice for us all “Be a follower of the Lord Jesus.”

1883 Karl Marx his housekeeper asked him whether he “Last words are for fools who haven’t said had any last words enough.”

1886 Emily Dickinson unsolicited comment “I must go in, the fog is rising.”

April 11, 1886 Fuso his jisei farewell poem to life Upon the lotus flower morning dew is thinning out.

1887 Henry Ward Beecher unsolicited comment “Now comes the mystery.”

1888 Louisa May Alcott unsolicited comment “Thus far the Lord has led me on.”

1890 Joseph Cary Merrick the actor John Hurt, pretending to be “Nothing ever dies.” The Elephant Man in a movie

August 25, 1890 Okyo his jisei farewell poem to life This phantasm of falling petals vanishes into moon and flowers....

1891 Phineas Taylor Barnum inquiry “How were the circus receipts today at Madison Square Garden?” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

January 2, 1893 Nakamichi his jisei farewell poem to life At the crossroad of my life and death a cuckoo cries.

Ice in a hot world my life melts.

1894 George Inness witnessing the sunset, he threw his “My God! oh, how beautiful!” hands into the air and fell

February 1903 Baiko his jisei farewell poem to life Plum petals falling I look up — the sky, a clear crisp moon.

1910 Leo Tolstòy asked to reconcile with the church “Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six.”

1912 Robert Scott freezing to death at the South Pole “It seems a pity, but I do not think that I can write more.”

November 29, 1914 Bokusui his jisei farewell poem to life A parting word? The melting snow is odorless.

January 29, 1919 Getsurei his jisei farewell poem to life Stumble, fall, slide down the snow slope.

August 31, 1920 Koson his jisei farewell poem to life I die the evening of the day the hibiscus blooms.

August 2, 1922 Alexander Graham Bell When his deaf wife pleaded “Aleck, “No.” please don’t leave me,” he spelled “no” in her hand.

1923 Pancho Villa retired with a general’s salary, he vis- “Don’t let it end like this. ited the local bank and was ambushed Tell them I said something.” on July 23, 1923 in Parral, Chihuahua

April 27, 1923 Saruo his jisei farewell poem to life Cherry blossoms fall on a half-eaten dumpling.

1926 Luther Burbank Three months before he had admitted that he did not believe in an afterlife; “I don’t feel good.” he died in a frenzy of daily hate-mail.

February 20, 1926 Meisetsu his jisei farewell poem to life My only hope against the cold— one hot-water bottle.

1927 Isadora Duncan The long white scarf around her neck “Adieu, mes amis, got caught in the wheel of her car. je vais à l’amour.”

July 24, 1927 Ryūnosuke Aku- his jisei farewell poem to life One spot, alone tagawa, “Gaki” left glowing in the dark: my snotty nose.

March 14, 1932 George Eastman Suicide note — he shot himself. “My work is done. Why wait?” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

May 31, 1935 Oto his jisei farewell poem to life At night my sleep embraces the summer shadows of my life.

1936 George V, King of It was suggested that he might recuper- “Bugger Bogner.” England ate at Bogner Regis

1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt having a massive cerebral hemorrhage “I have a terrific headache.”

1945 Adolf Hitler as hypothesized by Kurt Vonnegut “I never asked to be born in the first place.”

1946 Alfred Rosenberg hangman asked if he had last words “No.”

1965 Winston Churchill slipping into a 9-day coma “I’m bored with it all.”

1977 Gary Gilmore being inventively executed “Let’s do it.”

1997 Diana, Princess of Wales per French police records “My God. What’s happened?”

1998 Richard Feynman unsolicited comment “I’d hate to die twice, It’s so boring.”

1998 Karla Fay Tucker Governor George W. Bush refused “I am going to be face to face with Jesus now.... I requests from Christian organizations will see you all when you get there. I will wait for based upon her alleged conversion you.”

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday. In the morning I went to get some apples which were not taken shaken off the tree as they were winter apples but were picked off by hand and put into a basket which had a pot- hook fastened onto it that they might hang it to the limb of the tree. I got up into the tree and helped pick them off till school time. In the afternoon we went to get apples from a great tree which bears four kinds of apples. George and I went home before they had done gathering the tree. Just before tea we or rather I went with Enoch again, but not to the same tree. I shook one tree which had not many apples on it which made me feel very great. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY October 8, Sunday: Waldo Emerson to his journal:26

The young Southerner comes here a spoiled child with graceful manners, excellent self command, very good to be spoiled more, but good for nothing else, a mere parader. He has conversed so much with rifles, horses, & dogs that he is become himself a rifle, a horse, & a dog and in civil educated company where anything human is going forward he is dumb & unhappy; like an Indian in a church. Treat them with great deference as we often do, and they accept it all as their due without misgiving. Give them an inch & they take a mile. They are mere bladders of conceit.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 8th of 10th M / Went to Meeting this Morning Which was a very solid reverend sitting, but finding myself under the necessity to come out before it was quite time to conclude, I did so & found on coming out I was in much pain from a Stricture on the Bladder & did not return — I was so much unwell that I did not attend the Afternoon Meeting - RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday. The letter which I had lost was given to me by Mr. Tilden who had found it. In the afternoon I staid at home with George.

THE FALLACY OF MOMENTISM: THIS STARRY UNIVERSE DOES NOT CONSIST OF A SEQUENCE OF MOMENTS. THAT IS A FIGMENT, ONE WE HAVE RECOURSE TO IN ORDER TO PRIVILEGE TIME OVER CHANGE, APRIVILEGING THAT MAKES CHANGE SEEM UNREAL, DERIVATIVE, A MERE APPEARANCE. IN FACT IT IS CHANGE AND ONLY CHANGE WHICH WE EXPERIENCE AS REALITY, TIME BEING BY WAY OF RADICAL CONTRAST UNEXPERIENCED — A MERE INTELLECTUAL CONSTRUCT.

26. Something I personally marvel at: there are revelatory texts such as the above lying about, pointing to an inbred cultural hostility between northern and southern white Americans from the get-go, and yet our historians are forever striving to construct plausible explanations for why the United States of America would need to pass through a spasm of civil war. If a wife were to author such a sentiment in regard to a husband or a husband in regard to a wife, would we not regard the collapse of such a union to be at most postponable, and inevitably succeeded by an intensely bitter divorce? –Would this civil war be about the prospects of the blacks? – Come on, folks, get a clue: would this divorce be about the prospects of the children? We know perfectly well that the divorce wouldn’t be about the children no matter how much the children would get mentioned — and we therefore know perfectly well that our civil war wouldn’t be over slavery no matter how much slavery would come to be mentioned as a justification. US CIVIL WAR HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY THERE EXISTS NO SUCH THING AS A MOMENT. NO “INSTANT” HAS EVER FOR AN INSTANT EXISTED.

October 9, Monday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday. We took up Mother’s Geranium and put it in a pot. It had long [ADDED: large] roots and was growing finely. The Hydrangia was not dead as we thought but another plant was growing up by its side, so we took it up and put it in the same pot at one side.

October 10, Tuesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday. In the morning Miss Hatch gave me a new writing-book as I finished my old one yesterday. In the afternoon I went to Deacon Curtis’s and had a very pleasant time. He gave me some apples to carry home which I picked up under the tree. Father went to the Post Office just before we started and found a letter for me from Aunt in answer to my letter. I read it there and read it aloud again in the evening.

October 11, Wednesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday 11th. In the afternoon Mother and F. went while I was gone to school to make some calls and left my supper but they came home before supper. Wednesday. In the morning I took a walk with George in the fields. We got some nuts and pretty leaves and a last year’s bird’s nest, which he uses to put his nuts in.

The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY October 12, Thursday: At Constantine (Qusantina) west of Tunis in Algeria, Charles, Comte de Damremont, Governor-General of French North Africa, fell in combat.

Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe of the Perkins Institute for the Blind began to teach the alphabet to still-cute little blind, deaf, and mute Laura Bridgman:27

Helen Keller is now Perkins’ best-known deaf-and-blind graduate, but just as famous in her day was Laura Bridgman, who went to the school only five years after it opened. When Dr Howe taught her the use of language it was the first case of its kind recorded. We should think of things of this kind when we read of the atmosphere of hope and excitement then; and when we read Emerson and Thoreau urging their readers to cultivate the self and not to trust to institutions and philanthropies. We should also remember how tightly integrated this society was. Dr Howe was the husband of Julia Ward Howe, and they took their wedding journey in Europe with Horace Mann, Sr. and his bride, investigating new methods of teaching. A bust of Laura Bridgman was executed by Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, and copies were distributed at the expense of Mrs Peter Chardon Brooks, wife of one of Boston’s leading philanthropists, mother of Mrs Edward Everett, Mrs Nathaniel Frothingham, Mrs Charles Francis Adams, grandmother therefore of Henry Adams, Brooks Adams, and so on. All Boston was involved in its institutions. - Martin Green, THE PROBLEM OF BOSTON (London: Longmans, Green and Co, Ltd., 1966), page 49.

How amusing it would be to be able to inform Martin Green, quoted above, that Henry Thoreau would make application on March 9, 1841 to teach at the Perkins institution despite this air of philanthropy which Green presumes he so mistrusted, and of the fact that in 1861 Thoreau would visit Minnesota with the firstborn son of the deceased Horace Mann, Sr. and his bride. Boston society seems to have been even more tightly integrated than Green has succeeded in imagining - though that is not so very important. What I would suggest that it would be important for Green to learn is that Thoreau’s attitudes are no-way near so easily reducible, as he seems to suppose, to a variety of trivial self-cultivation or to a knee-jerk disdain for all things social.

27. In this year, also, because they were under attack by William Lloyd Garrison, the Perkins Institute for the Blind condescended to admit one token deserving blind black child. (All you other blind black children can just go pound salt.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY LAURA DEWEY BRIDGMAN

She was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on the twenty-first of December, 1829, She is described as having been a very sprightly and pretty infant, with bright blue eyes. She was, however, so puny and feeble until she was a year and a half old, that her parents hardly hoped to rear her. She was subject to severe fits, which seemed to rack her frame almost beyond her power of endurance: and life was held by the feeblest tenure: but when a year and a half old, she seemed to rally; the dangerous symptoms subsided; and at twenty months old she was perfectly well. Then her mental powers, hitherto stinted in their growth, rapidly developed themselves; and during the four months of health which she enjoyed, she appears (making due allowance for a fond mother’s account) to have displayed a considerable degree of intelligence. But suddenly she sickened again; her disease raged with great violence during five weeks, when her eyes and ears were inflamed, suppurated, and their contents were discharged. But though sight and hearing were gone for ever, the poor child’s sufferings were not ended. The fever raged during seven weeks; for five months she was kept in bed in a darkened room; it was a year before she could walk unsupported, and two years before she could sit up all day. It was now observed that her sense of smell was almost entirely destroyed; and, consequently, that her taste was much blunted. It was not until four years of age that the poor child’s bodily health seemed restored, and she was able to enter upon her apprenticeship of life and the world. But what a situation was hers! The darkness and the silence of the tomb were around her: no mother’s smile called forth her answering smile, no father’s voice taught her to imitate his sounds: - they, brothers and sisters, were but forms of matter which resisted her touch, but which differed not from the furniture of the house, save in warmth, and in the power of locomotion; and not even in these respects from the dog and the cat. But the immortal spirit which had been implanted within her could not die, nor be maimed nor mutilated; and though most of its avenues of communication with the world were cut off, it began to manifest itself through the others. As soon as she could walk, she began to explore the room, and then the house; she became familiar with the form, density, weight, and heat, of every article she could lay her hands upon. She followed her mother, and felt her hands and arms, as she was occupied about the house; and her disposition to imitate, led her to repeat everything herself. She even learned to sew a little, and to knit. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY LAURA DEWEY BRIDGMAN

At this time, I was so fortunate as to hear of the child and immediately hastened to Hanover to see her. I found her with a well-formed figure; a strongly-marked, nervous-sanguine temperament; a large and beautifully-shaped head; and the whole system in healthy action. The parents were easily induced to consent to her coming to Boston, and on the 4th of October, 1837, they brought her to the Institution. For a while, she was much bewildered; and after waiting about two weeks, until she became acquainted with her new locality, and somewhat familiar with the inmates, the attempt was made to give her knowledge of arbitrary signs by which she could interchange thoughts with others. There was one of two ways to be adopted: either to go on to build up a language of signs on the basis of the natural language which she had already commenced herself, or to teach her the purely arbitrary language in common use: that is, to give her a sign for every individual thing, or to give her a knowledge of letters by combination of which she might express her idea of the existence, and the mode and condition of existence, of any thing. The former would have been easy, but very ineffectual; the latter seemed very difficult, but, if accomplished, very effectual. I determined therefore to try the latter. The first experiments were made by taking articles in common use, such as knives, forks, spoons, keys, &c., and pasting upon them labels with their names printed in raised letters. These she felt very carefully, and soon, of course. distinguished that the crooked lines spoon, differed as much from the crooked lines key, as the spoon differed from the key in form. Then small detached labels, with the same words printed upon them, were put into her hands; and she soon observed that they were similar to the ones pasted on the articles She showed her perception of this similarity by laying the label key upon the key, and the label spoon upon the spoon. She was encouraged here by the natural sign of approbation, patting on the head. The same process was then repeated with all the articles which she could handle; and she very easily learned to place the proper labels upon them. It was evident, however, that the only intellectual exercise was that of imitation and memory. She recollected that the label book was placed upon a book, and she repeated the process first from imitation, next from memory, with only the motive of love of approbation, but apparently without the intellectual perception of any relation between the things. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY LAURA DEWEY BRIDGMAN

After a while, instead of labels, the individual letters were given to her on detached bits of paper: they were arranged side by side so as to spell book, key, &c.; then they were mixed up in a heap and a sign was made for her to arrange them herself so as to express the words book, key, &c.; and she did so. Hitherto, the process had been mechanical, and the success about as great as teaching a very knowing dog a variety of tricks. The poor child had sat in mute amazement, and patiently imitated everything her teacher did; but now the truth began to flash upon her: her intellect began to work: she perceived that here was a way by which she could herself make up a sign of anything that was in her own mind, and show it to another mind; and at once her countenance lighted up with a human expression: it was no longer a dog, or parrot: it was an immortal spirit, eagerly seizing upon a new link of union with other spirits! I could almost fix upon the moment when this truth dawned upon her mind, and spread its light to her countenance; I saw that the great obstacle was overcome; and that henceforward nothing but patient and persevering, but plain and straightforward, efforts were to be used The result thus far, is quickly related, and easily conceived; but not so was the process; for many weeks of apparently unprofitable labour were passed before it was effected. When it was said above, that a sign was made, it was intended to say, that the action was performed by her teacher, she feeling his hands, and then imitating the motion. The next step was to procure a set of metal types, with the different letters of the alphabet cast upon their ends; also a board, in which were square holes, into which holes she could set the types; so that the letters on their ends could alone be felt above the surface. Then, on any article being handed to her, for instance a pencil, or a watch, she would select the component letters, and arrange them on her board, and read them with apparent pleasure. She was exercised for several weeks in this way, until her vocabulary became extensive; and then the important step was taken of teaching her how to represent the different letters by the position of her fingers, instead of the cumbrous apparatus of the board and types. She accomplished this speedily and easily, for her intellect had begun to work in aid of her teacher, and her progress was rapid. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY LAURA DEWEY BRIDGMAN

This was the period, about three months after she had commenced, that the first report of her case was made, in which it was stated that she has just learned the manual alphabet, as used by the deaf mutes, and it is a subject of delight and wonder to see how rapidly, correctly, and eagerly, she goes on with her labours. Her teacher gives her a new object, for instance, a pencil, first lets her examine it, and get an idea of its use, then teaches her how to spell it by making the signs for the letters with her own fingers the child grasps her hand, and feels her fingers, as the different letters are formed; she turns her head a little on one side like a person listening closely; her lips are apart; she seems scarcely to breathe; and her countenance, at first anxious gradually changes to a smile, as she comprehends the lesson. She then holds up her tiny fingers, and spells the word in the manual alphabet; next, she takes her types and arranges her letters; and last, to make sure that she is right, she takes the whole of the types composing the word, and places them upon or in contact with the pencil, or whatever the object may be. The whole of the succeeding year was passed in gratifying her eager inquiries for the names of every object which she could possibly handle; in exercising her in the use of the manual alphabet; in extending in every possible way her knowledge of the physical relations of things; and in proper care of her health. At the end of the year a report of her case was made, from which the following is an extract. It has been ascertained beyond the possibility of doubt that she cannot see a ray of light, cannot hear the least sound, and never exercises her sense of smell, if she have any. Thus her mind dwells in darkness and stillness, as profound as that of a closed tomb at midnight. Of beautiful sights, and sweet sounds, and pleasant odours, she has no conception; nevertheless, she seems as happy and playful as a bird or a lamb; and the employment of her intellectual faculties, or the acquirement of a new idea, gives her a vivid pleasure, which is plainly marked in her expressive features. She never seems to repine, but has all the buoyancy and gaiety of childhood. She is fond of fun and frolic, and when playing with the rest of the children, her shrill laugh sounds loudest of the group. When left alone, she seems very happy if she have her knitting or sewing, and will busy herself for hours; if she have no occupation, HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY LAURA DEWEY BRIDGMAN

she evidently amuses herself by imaginary dialogues, or by recalling past impressions; she counts with her fingers, or spells out names of things which she has recently learned, in the manual alphabet of the deaf mutes In this lonely self-communion she seems to reason, reflect, and argue; if she spell a word wrong with the fingers of her right hand, she instantly strikes it with her left, as her teacher does, in sign of disapprobation; if right, then she pats herself upon the head, and looks pleased. She sometimes purposely spells a word wrong with the left hand, looks roguish for a moment and laughs, and then with the right hand strikes the left, as if to correct it. During the year she has attained great dexterity in the use of the manual alphabet of the deaf mutes; and she spells out the words and sentences which she knows, so fast and so deftly, that only those accustomed to this language can follow with the eye the rapid motions of her fingers. But wonderful as is the rapidity with which she writes her thoughts upon the air, still more so is the ease and accuracy with which she reads the words thus written by another; grasping their hands in hers, and following every movement of their fingers, as letter after letter conveys their meaning to her mind. It is in this way that she converses with her blind playmates, and nothing can more forcibly show the power of mind in forcing matter to its purpose than a meeting between them. For if great talent and skill are necessary for two pantomimes to paint their thoughts and feelings by the movements of the body, and the expression of the countenance, how much greater the difficulty when darkness shrouds them both, and the one can hear no sound. When Laura is walking through a passage-way, with her hands spread before her, she knows instantly every one she meets, and passes them with a sign of recognition: but if it be a girl of her own age, and especially if it be one of her favourites, there is instantly a bright smile of recognition, a twining of arms, a grasping of hands, and a swift telegraphing upon the tiny fingers; whose rapid evolutions convey the thoughts and feelings from the outposts of one mind to those of the other. There are questions and answers, exchanges of joy or sorrow, there are kissings and partings, just as between little children with all their senses. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY LAURA DEWEY BRIDGMAN

During this year, and six months after she had left home, her mother came to visit her, and the scene of their meeting was an interesting one. The mother stood some time, gazing with overflowing eyes upon her unfortunate child, who, all unconscious of her presence, was playing about the room. Presently Laura ran against her, and at once began feeling her hands, examining her dress, and trying to find out if she knew her; but not succeeding in this, she turned away as from a stranger, and the poor woman could not conceal the pang she felt, at finding that her beloved child did not know her. She then gave Laura a string of beads which she used to wear at home, which were recognised by the child at once, who, with much joy, put them around her neck, and sought me eagerly to say she understood the string was from her home. The mother now sought to caress her, but poor Laura repelled her, preferring to be with her acquaintances. Another article from home was now given her, and she began to look much interested; she examined the stranger much closer, and gave me to understand that she knew she came from Hanover; she even endured her caresses, but would leave her with indifference at the slightest signal. The distress of the mother was now painful to behold; for, although she had feared that she should not be recognised, the painful reality of being treated with cold indifference by a darling child, was too much for woman’s nature to bear. After a while, on the mother taking hold of her again, a vague idea seemed to flit across Laura’s mind, that this could not be a stranger; she therefore felt her hands very eagerly, while her countenance assumed an expression of intense interest; she became very pale; and then suddenly red; hope seemed struggling with doubt and anxiety, and never were contending emotions more strongly painted upon the human face: at this moment of painful uncertainty, the mother drew her close to her side, and kissed her fondly, when at once the truth flashed upon the child, and all mistrust and anxiety disappeared from her face, as with an expression of exceeding joy she eagerly nestled to the bosom of her parent, and yielded herself to her fond embraces. After this, the beads were all unheeded; the playthings which were offered to her were utterly disregarded; her playmates, for whom but a moment before she gladly left the stranger, now vainly strove to pull her from her mother; and though she yielded her usual instantaneous obedience to my signal to follow me, it was evidently with painful reluctance. She clung close to me, as if bewildered and fearful; and when, after a moment, I took her to her mother, she sprang to her arms, and clung to her with eager joy. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY LAURA DEWEY BRIDGMAN

The subsequent parting between them, showed alike the affection, the intelligence, and the resolution of the child. Laura accompanied her mother to the door, clinging close to her all the way, until they arrived at the threshold, where she paused, and felt around, to ascertain who was near her. Perceiving the matron, of whom she is very fond, she grasped her with one hand, holding on convulsively to her mother with the other; and thus she stood for a moment; then she dropped her mother’s hand; put her handkerchief to her eyes; and turning round, clung sobbing to the matron; while her mother departed, with emotions as deep as those of her child. * * * * * * It has been remarked in former reports, that she can distinguish different degrees of intellect in others, and that she soon regarded, almost with contempt, a new-comer, when, after a few days, she discovered her weakness of mind. This unamiable part of her character has been more strongly developed during the past year. She chooses for her friends and companions, those children who are intelligent, and can talk best with her; and she evidently dislikes to be with those who are deficient in intellect, unless, indeed, she can make them serve her purposes, which she is evidently inclined to do. She takes advantage of them, and makes them wait upon her, in a manner that she knows she could not exact of others; and in various ways shows her Saxon blood. She is fond of having other children noticed and caressed by the teachers, and those whom she respects; but this must not be carried too far, or she becomes jealous. She wants to have her share, which, if not the lion’s, is the greater part; and if she does not get it, she says, My mother will love me. Her tendency to imitation is so strong, that it leads her to actions which must be entirely incomprehensible to her, and which can give her no other pleasure than the gratification of an internal faculty. She has been known to sit for half an hour, holding a book before her sightless eyes, and moving her lips, as she has observed seeing people do when reading. She one day pretended that her doll was sick; and went through all the motions of tending it, and giving it medicine; she then put it carefully to bed, and placed a bottle of hot water to its feet, laughing all the time most heartily. When I came home, she insisted upon my going to see it, and feel its pulse; and when I told her to put a blister on its back, she seemed to enjoy it amazingly, and almost screamed with delight. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY LAURA DEWEY BRIDGMAN

Her social feelings, and her affections, are very strong; and when she is sitting at work, or at her studies, by the side of one of her little friends, she will break off from her task every few moments, to hug and kiss them with an earnestness and warmth that is touching to behold. When left alone, she occupies and apparently amuses herself. and seems quite contented; and so strong seems to be the natural tendency of thought to put on the garb of language, that she often soliloquizes in the finger language slow and tedious as it is. But it is only when alone, that she is quiet: for if she becomes sensible of the presence of any one near her, she is restless until she can sit close beside them, hold their hand, and converse with them by signs. In her intellectual character it is pleasing to observe an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and a quick perception of the relations of things. In her moral character, it is beautiful to behold her continual gladness, her keen enjoyment of existence, her expansive love, her unhesitating confidence, her sympathy with suffering, her conscientiousness, truthfulness, and hopefulness.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary, adding that this had happened during the afternoon (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday. I went to the harbor.

October 13, Friday: The Liberator.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday [13th]. In the evening there was a total eclipse of the moon but we saw but little of it. I went up in Mr. Cole’s shop and had a very pleasant time shelling beans.

At great cost, Constantine (Qusantina), west of Tunis in Algeria, fell to French troops.

Henry Thoreau wrote from Concord to his former classmate Henry Vose, who was teaching school in the town of Butternuts in upstate New York. Concord Oct. 13th 37 Friend Vose You don’t know how much I envy you your comfortable settlement – almost sine-cure– in the region of Butternuts. How art thou pleased with the lay of the land and the look of the people? Do the rills tinkle and fume, and bubble and purl, and trickle and meander as thou ex- pected’st, or are the natives less absorbed in the pursuit of gain than the good clever homespun and respectable people of New England? HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY I presume that by this time you have commenced pedagogueizing in good earnest. Methinks I see thee, perched on learning’s little stool, thy jet black boots luxuriating upon a well-polished fender, while round thee are ranged some half dozen small specimens of humani- ty, thirsting for an idea: Pens to mend, and hands to guide. O who would a schoolmaster be? Why I to be sure. The fact is, here I have been vegetating for the last three months. “The clock sends to bed at ten, and calls me again at eight.” Indeed, I deem “conformity one of the best arts of life”. Now should you hear of any situation in your neighborhood, or indeed any other, which you think would suit me, such as your own, for in- stance, you will much oblige me by dropping a line on the subject, or, I should rather say, by making mention of it in your answer to this. I received a catalogue from Harvard, the other day, and therein found Classmate Hildreth set down as assistant instructor in Elocu- tion, Chas Dall divinity student — Clarke and Dana law do, and C.S.W. resident graduate. How we apples swim! Can you realize that we too can now moralize about College pranks, and reflect upon the pleasures of a College life, as among the things that are past? May’st thou ever remember as a fellow soldier {MS torn} the campaign of —37 Yr friend and classmate Thoreau. P.S. I have no time for apologies.

October 14, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday. In the afternoon I went to the harbor.

October 15, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday. Our Sunday School left off today. Mr. Prouty reviewed us in our books. Afterwards we gave up our books. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY October 22, Sunday: “I make my first entry today.” “Began the big Red Journal.” This was beginning of regular journal-keeping for Henry Thoreau. At some point during 1837 or 1838 Thoreau would inscribe as an epigraph in the front of his private journal, reflecting the usual sentiment one finds in such journals, the “would you just please leave me the hell alone” sentiment to be found in Robert Burton’s “Anatomy of Melancholy.” For Waldo Emerson owned Volume I of the 10th edition of this work, published in London in 1804, and Thoreau utilized lines 65-68 of “The Author’s Abstract of Melancholy” as this epigraph: Friends and companions, get you gone! ’Tis my desire to be alone; Ne’er well, but when my thoughts and I Do domineer in privacy.

As we will see, the above is a sentiment which Thoreau will later, in WALDEN; OR, LIFE IN THE WOODS, quite disavow. Another epigraph he included at the head of his journal would wear considerably better. This was an epigraph from Rector George Herbert’s “The Church Porch,” as follows: By all means use sometimes to be alone, Salute thyself. See what thy soul doth wear. Dare to look in thy chest; for’tis thy own: And tumble up and down what thou find’s there. Who cannot rest till he good fellows find, He breaks up house, turns out of doors his mind.

THE TEMPLE

Thoreau’s former classmate Henry Vose, teaching school in upstate New York, responded to the letter he had received from Thoreau in Concord on the previous day. Butternuts. Oct. 22nd. 1837. Friend Thoreau I received by yesterday’s mail your favor of the 13th. with great pleasure, and proceed at once to indite you a line of condolence on your having nothing to do. I suspect you wrote that letter during a fit of ennui or the blues. You begin at once by expressing your envy of my happy situation, and mourn over your fate, which condemns you to loiter about Concord, and grub among clamshells. If this were your only source of enjoyment while in C. you would truly be a piti- able object. But I know that it is not. I well remember that “antique and fishlike office” of Major Nelson, [to whom and Mr Dennis and Bemis, and J Thoreau I wish to be remembered]; and still more viv- idly do I remember the fairer portion of the community in C. If from HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY these two grand fountain heads of amusement in that ancient town, united with its delightful walks and your own internal resources, you cannot find an ample fund of enjoyment, while waiting for a situa- tion, you deserve to be haunted by blue devils for the rest of your days. I am surprised that, in writing a letter of two pages and a half to a friend and “fellow soldier of the –37th” at a distance of 300 miles, you should have forgotten to say a single word of the news of C. In lamenting your own fate you have omitted to even hint at any of the events that have occurred since I left. However this must be fully rec- tified in your next. Say something of the Yeoman’s Gazette and of the politics of the town and county, of the events, that are daily transpir- ing there, &c. I am sorry I know of no situation whatever at present for you. I, in this little, secluded town of B. am the last person in the world to hear of one. But If I do, you may be assured that I will inform you of it at once, and do all in my power to obtain it for you. With my own situation I am highly pleased. My duties afford me quite as much labor as I wish for, and are interesting and useful to me. Out of school hours I find a great plenty to do, and time passes rapidly and pleasantly. Please request friend W. Allen to drop me a line and to inform of his success with his school. You will please excuse the brevity of this: but as it is getting late, and every body has been long in bed but my- self, and I am deuced sleepy I must close. Write soon and long, and I shall try to do better in my next. Yours truly Henry Vose.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 22nd of 10th M / Father Rodman was at Meeting forenoon & Afternoon & is the first time he has attended in about six weeks - He appeared in Both Meetings satifactorily, & we were glad to have him with us again - his health is much better than it was, tho’ his body is very feeble.- RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday. In the morning George and I went to the stone heap. We threw stones at pieces of old crockery which we carried with us. We got us two sticks. In the morning I stuck up a long stick with my handkerchief tied to the end of it for a flag. In the afternoon father and sister returned. Father brought a great box of spermaceti candles. He brought George a picture book. He also gave a book apiece to three oter [sic] children. George and I carried them to their owners and got some peaches. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY November 1, Wednesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): November 1st. We moved last week to Mr. Vinals. We had been packing up for two days. It rained a little but as we had everything packed up we were obliged to go. I walked down with a basket of china with the first load of things and staid all the time. We found Mr. Vinal had not moved and I had to go to the harbor to get somebody to send for him. He soon came and moved immediately. I helped unload the carts. The only accidents were that a piece of carpet was drenched not in blood but in quince syrup and that some sour-milk was spilt. I slept on the floor in my bedroom. It is a very pretty room. George sleeps with me all the time now. The next day we were busy unpacking and putting things in their places. The carpenters came next day to work on the wood-house. We were almost stunned with the noise.

Somewhere between the 1st and the 10th of the month, Henry Thoreau copied out of Hugh Murray’s HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF BRITISH INDIA the following information about the epochs of the universe:

The Maha Yug, or great divine age, through which mankind are now passing, consists of four human ages, the last and worst of which is at present revolving. These ages, of unequal and continually decreasing length, are the Satya Yug, which lasted ______1,728,000 years. Treta Yug ______1,296,000 Dwapar Yug 864,000 Cali Yug, which is to last 432,000 Of the dark era in which we live, only about five thousand years have yet elapsed. … 4,320,000,000 form “the grand anomalistic period called a calpa, and fantastically assigned as a day of Brama.”

November 5, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 5th of 11th M 1837 / The day being Stormy Our Meetings were Small but solid & good In the Morning Eliza Chase had a short offering.- I took tea with my cousin Henry Gould & family - RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday. Mr. More preached. It was very cold, but I had to walk to meeting. I staid at noon. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Henry Thoreau to his journal:

TRUTH

Nov. 5. Truth strikes us from behind, and in the dark, as well as from before and in broad daylight.

November 7, Tuesday: By continuous testing and improvement of successive apparatuses, Samuel F.B. Morse had found that he could send a telegraph message through 10 miles of electric wire, arranged on reels in Dr. Leonard Gale’s university lecture room. At this point the fecklessly superior Dr. Charles T. Jackson, never having dirtied his hands with any experiments whatever (excepting, of course, the possibility of “thought experiments” of the sort that would be indulged in by Albert Einstein as he would pioneer a theory of relativity), dispatched a letter (a letter later of course to be produced in court), stating what their joint shipboard Electric Telegraph project had been, to the testing of which by experiment they had agreed in the stateroom on their way home from Havre on the coast of France to New-York on the coast of America. It was all his idea. He was the brains of the outfit and Morse had been merely his servant carrying out his bidding: I was enthusiastically describing the various and wonderful properties of electricity and electro magnetism before yourself, Mr. Rives, Mr. Fisher, and others, at table after dinner, while the company were all listeners, and appeared to me, were somewhat incredulous, they knowing little or nothing of the subject. I mentioned, among many other things, that I had seen the electric spark pass instantaneously without any appreciable loss of time, 400 times around the great lecture room of the Sorbonne. This evidently surprised the company, and I then asked if they had not read of Dr. Franklin’s experiment, in which he caused electricity to go a journey of 20 miles by means of a wire stretched up the Thames, the water being made a portion of the circuit. The answer was from yourself, that you had not read it. After a short discussion as to the instantaneous nature of the passage, one of the party, either Mr. Rives or Mr. Fisher, said it would be well if we could send news in the same rapid manner: to which you replied, Why can’t we? I then proceeded to inform you, in reply to your question, how it might be done.

1st. I observed that electricity might be made visible in any part of the circuit by dividing the wire, when a spark would be seen at the intersection. 2d. That it could be made to perforate paper, if interposed between the disconnected wires. 3d. Saline compounds might be decomposed, so as to produce colors on paper. The 2d and 3d projects were finally adopted for future trial, since they could be made to furnish permanent records. The saline substances mentioned, were certain salts of lead, such as the ascetate and carbonate which an interrupted electro galvanic current would decompose and leave a black mark on the paper. Next, tumeric paper was to be dipped in a neutral salt, say sulphate of soda, and then acted upon by the galvanic current. This would produce brown marks from presence of free disengaged alkali. Platina points were proposed to effect the changes of color. I then observed, that it would be easy to devise a method of reading the markings. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Here the conversation changed for a while, and was resumed by you the next day after breakfast. You then questioned me again on every point of the invention, and said that you had been thinking much about it, and, pencil in hand, proposed a method of decyphering the markings, the dots and marks being made regularly. This was a subject of discussion, and we both took part in it; but I acknowledge that you did most in planning the numeration of the marks. You at first proposed, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7, 8, 9, 0, and subsequently reduced the number to five figures and an 0.

In another version of this letter, one which Dr. Jackson would produce as a court deposition (Dr. Jackson never told the same story twice, his details ever altering each time he was disproven and disgraced, and his stories ever improving each time he related them to a new audience), his words become “I remember distinctly every word of the conversation that took place in the cabin of the Sully, the substance of which is contained in my above proposals.” Morse’s response in court would be that if all of the above was true, what Dr. Jackson was purporting to invent had amounted to an electrochemical telegraph, whereas what Morse had in fact invented and patented and developed was something entirely different, an electromagnetic telegraph. Morse would base his case on the alternatives, that either Dr. Jackson had not in fact invented any electromagnetic telegraph at all, or –for a hairy-ass alternative– Dr. Jackson had somehow inadvertently neglected to claim something that pertained to him. Morse would issue a jibe: “Those who know Dr. Jackson will readily acquit him of omitting to claim all that belonged to him in the way of discovery or invention.” You will acknowledge that you were at that time wholly unacquainted with the history and management of electricity and electro-magnetism, while I was perfectly familiar with the subject, it having been one of my favorite studies from boyhood up to that time, and I had enjoyed every possible advantage in acquiring a full knowledge of the subject during my studies in the scientific schools of Paris and elsewhere. ... I knew every experiment mentioned from my own frequent practice in making them. It was to me no unwrought problem, but a matter of absolute certainty. I was not making conjectures but reporting the facts of chemical and physical science. ... You will not, I presume, venture to maintain, that you at that time knew anything about electro-magnetism more than what you learned from me.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday. The carpenters went away having finished their work.

November 9, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 9th of 11th M / Our Meeting small - Father & Eliza Chase both had small offerings. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday. I paid Mr. Cole a visit. Enoch was in the barn husking. They treated me to red apples and loaded me with things to carry HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY home. I also went to Mrs. Elms to carry the papers. I forgot to say that a vessel was off all day sunday and was expected to go to pieces but she got into Plymouth safe.

Henry Thoreau to his journal:

STILL STREAMS RUN DEEPEST

Nov. 9. It is the rill whose “silver sands and pebbles sing eternal ditties with the spring.” The early frosts bridge its narrow channel, and its querulous note is hushed. Only the flickering sunlight on its sandy bottom attracts the beholder. But there are souls whose depths are never fathomed, — on whose bottom the sun never shines. We get a distant view from the precipitous banks, but never a draught from their mid-channels. Only a sunken rock or fallen oak can provoke a murmur, and their surface is a stranger to the icy fetters which bind fast a thousand contributory rills.

A WEEK: Whole weeks and months of my summer life slide away in PEOPLE OF thin volumes like mist and smoke, till at length, some warm A WEEK morning, perchance, I see a sheet of mist blown down the brook to the swamp, and I float as high above the fields with it. I can recall to mind the stillest summer hours, in which the grasshopper sings over the mulleins, and there is a valor in that time the bare memory of which is armor that can laugh at any blow of fortune. For our lifetime the strains of a harp are heard to swell and die alternately, and death is but “the pause when the blast is recollecting itself.” We lay awake a long while, listening to the murmurs of the brook, in the angle formed by whose bank with the river our tent was pitched, and there was a sort of human interest in its story, which ceases not in freshet or in drought the livelong [page 242] summer, and the profounder lapse of the river was quite drowned by its din. But the rill, whose “Silver sands and pebbles sing Eternal ditties with the spring,” is silenced by the first frosts of winter, while mightier streams, on whose bottom the sun never shines, clogged with sunken rocks and the ruins of forests, from whose surface comes up no murmur, are strangers to the icy fetters which bind fast a thousand contributary rills. I dreamed this night of an event which had occurred long before. It was a difference with a Friend, which had not ceased to give me pain, though I had no cause to blame myself. But in my dream ideal justice was at length done me for his suspicions, and I received that compensation which I had never obtained in my waking hours. I was unspeakably soothed and rejoiced, even after I awoke, because in dreams we never deceive ourselves, nor are deceived, and this seemed to have the authority of a final judgment.

WALTER RALEIGH HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY November 10, Friday: The Liberator provided A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF ANTI-SLAVERY WORKS, FOR SALE BY ISAAC KNAPP: ABOLITIONISM

ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE, ADAMS’ LETTERS, ADAMS’ ORATION, ADIN BALLOU’S DISCOURSE, ANTI-SLAVERY CATECHISM, ANTI-SLAVERY MANUAL, ANTI-SLAVERY RECORD, ARCHY MOORE, AUTHENTIC ANECDOTES OF AMERICAN SLAVERY, BARROWS ON THE SLAVE QUESTION, BIRNEY’S SECOND LETTER, BOURNE’S PICTURE, BRITISH APPRENTICESHIPS, CHANNING ON SLAVERY, CHANNING ON TEXAS, CHARLES BALL, CHLOE SPEAR, CRANDALL’S TRIAL, DISCUSSION, DISSERTATION ON SERVITUDE, DRESSER, STONES’ LETTERS, &C., ENEMIES OF THE CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED, EVILS AND CURE, GODWIN ON SLAVERY, GRANVILLE SHARP, GUSTAVUS VASSA, IMPORTANT PAMPHLET, JAMES JACKSON, JAY’S INQUIRY, JUVENILE POEMS, KENTUCKY ADDRESS, LEMUEL HAYNES, LIBERTY, MEMOIR OF PHILLIS WHEATLEY, MISS BEECHER REVIEWED, MISS GRIMKE’S APPEAL, MISS GRIMKE’S EPISTLE, MOTT’S SKETCHES, MRS. CHILD’S APPEAL, MRS. STEWART’S PRODUCTIONS, OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, OUR LIBERTIES IN DANGER, PHILLIS WHEATLEY, RANKIN’S LETTERS, RIGHT AND WRONG IN BOSTON, SLAVE PRODUCE, SLAVE’S FRIEND, SMITH’S BIBLE ARGUMENT, SONGS OF THE FREE, STANTON’S REMARKS, STEWART’S WEST INDIA QUESTION, HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY TESTIMONY OF GOD AGAINST SLAVERY, THE FOUNTAIN, THE GENEROUS PLANTER, THE NEGRO PEW, THE OASIS, THOMPSON AT MANCHESTER, THOMPSON IN AMERICA, THOMPSON IN G. BRITAIN, THOMPSON’S LECTURES AND DEBATES, VALUABLE DOCUMENTS, VIGILANCE COMMITTEE, WHITTIER’S POEMS, WILBERFORCE.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. had written in his diary, clearly having gotten the date wrong (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): November 8th. Mr Clapp came yesterday and brought us some apples. I have gone backwards down the kitchen stairs turning a somerset each time.

November 12, Sunday: Robert Schumann’s Impromptus op.5 and Piano Sonatas opp.11&14 were favorably reviewed in the Paris Gazette musicale. While he was cheered by this review, he has never heard of its author Franz Liszt.

Clara Wieck gave her initial concert in Prague, at the Conservatory, and was awarded 13 curtain calls.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 12 of 11 M / The Morning was Rainy & our Meeting small & silent — In the Afternoon It was pleasant & larger than usual for the Afternoon Meeting - Father had a short testimony & I thought bothe Meetings were solid & pretty good. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary, again getting the date wrong (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 11th. We have been reading aloud evenings lately “Life of Schiller.”28 Last Thursday Father went to the Association. He took me as far as the blacksmith’s shop where I got out and went to Mr. May’s to spend the day. In the morning John and I went to the saw-mill, On the way we set squirrel traps on the walls consisting of stones balanced on the wall which if he trod on them would fall roll down. When we came back we went to a little pond which was frozen over. We got a pole out on the ice accidentally [sic] and had grand fun trying to get it for the ice was not strong enough to bear us but we got it at last. In the afternoon we went to the saw-mill again. On our way we saw a young pine tree the top of which was tied down when it was very small and which had grown so. We untied it but it would not spring up. When we got there we amused ourselves by making the dirt and sand run down a steep place which we called making mills. Afterwards we went into the pine woods. We then went back to Mrs. Mays and ate supper soon after which Father came to take

28. Thomas Carlyle, THE LIFE OF FRIEDRICH SCHILLER (Boston: Carter, Hendee, 1833). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY me home. They sent mother several things and John lent me some books.

Henry Thoreau to his journal:

DISCIPLINE

Nov. 12. I yet lack discernment to distinguish the whole lesson of to-day; but it is not lost, — it will come to me at last. My desire is to know what I have lived, that I may know how to live henceforth.

November 17, Friday: The Liberator.

Francis Jackson Meriam was born in Framingham, Massachusetts. He was not only the grandson but also the namesake of the Garrisonian abolitionist and Boston historian Francis Jackson. He would be a young manic-depressive with but one good eye.

November 17: Sunrise. Now the king of day plays at bo-peep round the world’s corner and every cottage window smiles a golden smile –a very picture of glee– I see the water glistening in the eye. The smothered breathings of awakening day strike the ear with an undulatory motion –over hill and dale, pasture and woodland, come they to me, and I am at home in the world.29 The Sky. If there is nothing new on earth, still there is something new in the heavens. We have always a resource in the skies. They are constantly turning a new page to view. The wind sets the types in this blue ground, and the inquiring may always read a new truth.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday. Mr. Litchfield came to set our grate.

November 30, Thanksgiving, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 30th of 11 M / Our Moy [Monthly] Meeting held in Town - In the first Wm Gifford (from Falmouth Cape Cod being here in his vessel wind bound for NYork) attended & was very acceptable in testimony. Father Rodman Hannah Dennis & Hannah Hall Preached a little. — In the last Meeting we had some Trial, but the right thing prevailed & some of us rejoiced in it. — After Meeting the wind being favourd Wm Gifford went immediately HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY on board his vessel & set sail - his company was very comfortable to some of us — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thanksgiving Day November 30th Since I wrote last we have lighted a coal fire in the grate as our coal has come. Mother and father went to visit Mrs. Wade who gave us a spy glass and George and me a book apiece. George and I have made us a corn barn the frame is of staves and it is all thatched with hay. We have had a grand time today we had Mr. Whitman to dine with us the butcher brought us a turkey and a goose for dinner.

December 30, Saturday: Henry Thoreau wrote to the Reverend Orestes Augustus Brownson in Canton, Massachusetts:

My apology for this letter is to ask your assistance in obtaining employment.... I seek a situation as a teacher of a small school, or assistant in a large one, or, what is more desireable, as private tutor in a gentleman’s family.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 30 of 12 M 1837 / This day finishes my 56th Year. It has been remarkably clear Warm & pleasant weather & I took a Walk down Spring Street quite to Coggeshalls Beach & so round to Rocky Farm by Lilley Pond up Thames Street home - My reflections were of a serious but pleasant cast & on the way I stoped & took a look into the Coggeshall burying ground where lays John Coggeshall who was Father to my Great Great Grandmother Wait

29. William M. White’s version of the above journal entry is:

Now the king of day plays at bo-peep Round the world’s corner, And every cottage window smiles a golden smile,— A very picture of glee.

I see the water glistening in the eye.

The smothered breathings of awakening day Strike the ear with an undulating motion; Over hill and dale, Pasture and woodland, Come they to me, And I am at home in the world. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Gould — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): December 30th On saturday of Thanksgiving week Uncle George and Aunty arrived.30 Uncle brought me a penknife and George a top. We spent several evenings of the week in a game which Aunt introduced. Each person wrote a question and a word which were all thrown in a bunch and each took a question and a word taking care not to get the one he wrote himself and the question must be answered so as to bring in the word. Mr. Russel31 has been here this week delivering two lectures on elocution. I went to both. He read and recited several pieces both poetry and prose. The night he delivered the second we had several gentlemen here to take tea. Last night Ellen went to Mr. Beal’s and spent the evening. When it was time for her to come home I went to escort her back. This afternoon George and I went to Mill to get some meal, we carried the bag in our cart, but there was nobody there so we had to come home without it.

30. George W. Ward (1802-1855) and his sister Prudence Ward. Caroline wrote to her brother Dennis Ward from Boston, April 5, 1838, “Mother is with our children at Scituate. I asked P. to come & stay with them, but as she had been there this winter, mother liked to come.” Sewall Family Papers, American Antiquarian Society. 31. William Russell (1798-1873), author of several textbooks on elocution and other subjects. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1838

January 1, Monday: A setting of Psalm 42 for solo voices, chorus, orchestra and organ by Felix Mendelssohn was performed for the initial time, in Leipzig.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 1st of 1st M 1838 / I have been favoured today with quiet & feelings of spiritual life & favour, & surely my outward blessings ought to be numbered, for I have received them ——32

RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): January 1st, 1838. It is new Year’s day today. Last night Father drilled me a great deal about beginning the new year with good resolutions &c. Father’s grate evidently meant to begin a new course of life as that was the only reason that could be assigned for the inexplicable course it pursued that of going entirely out last night but it is lighted again. I worked a spare hour on a house which with the aid of George I have nearly finished. Our school was visited this afternoon by one of the former teachers Celia Young.

January 4, Thursday: Charles Stratton was born (a dwarf, he would be made famous by P.T. Barnum as “General Tom Thumb” and as “Tiny Tim”).

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 4th of 1st M 1838 / Our meeting was small but the Silence was favourd - A young man from Little Compton was there & preached - I thought he was concerned to do good, but unskilled in his administration — Father also had a short offering — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS 32. Stephen Wanton Gould Diary, 1836-1838: The Gould family papers are stored under control number 2033 at the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections of Cornell University Library, Box 9 Folder 16: September 1, 1836-September 20, 1838; also on microfilm, see Series 7. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): 4th. We have been reading aloud that is mother Ellen and I as Father is occupied with other things generally in the evenings. I have read it through once but I find it very interesting the second time. Father performed the part of a doctor last night and I anticipated that of a grave-digger this morning because one of our hens was sick something stuck in her crop which Father by repeated strokings pushed down and the hen got well in the course of the night. Georgy and I have finished our house and a kind of tent beside it for a stable and fenced in our yard.

January 14, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 14th. Poor Rolla sprained his foot the other day. He was capering in the field and it was in throwing his legs about somehow he sprained it.

January 28, Sunday: Joseph Wolff arrived at Southampton upon the completion of his Atlantic crossing.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 28th of 1st M 1838 / Our Meetings were both silent -but I thought both were solemn & very quiet seasons. — Recd a kind letter from my friend John Farnum now in Philad. accompnaying a Book oriention[?] which was very acceptable — In the evening we had a short call from our young friends Thomas Nichols, Thos Gould & Thos B Buffum & have in the course of the Day & remainder of the eveng written an Answer to a letter recd some days ago from Ephriam M Huntington respecting a periodical he proposes publishing - my views are that the time has not yet come for him to proceed in it — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 28. Rolla is very little better now. Father took him out as far as the hen-yard fence and he walked very little better. I have got a pair of skaits now but the ice is all broken up and melted now, owing to the extreme warm weather which is very remarkable at this season of the year. As for the errands George and I do it is sufficient to say they are innumerable for almost every day there is some little errand to do such as going to the Post Office, &c. There have been very high tides yesterday and today and the road about Captain Wells is covered and indeed all along that street the road is covered with sea-weed and stuff brought up by the tide. The tide also brought a boat from the edge of the creek clear up to close by the bars33 before our house and George and I went and played in it a good while after the tide had gone down. Mr. Phips exchanged with father today and I went to meeting this morning and staid at home with George this afternoon. 33. Typescript: lane. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

February 4, Sunday: In this day’s issue of Revue et Gazette Musicale, Heinrich Heine termed Frédéric François Chopin “a poet of sound.”

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 4th of 2nd M 1838 / Attended Meetings, in the forenoon Father Rodman was there & had satisfactory offerings — Silent in the Afternoon Mother Rodman seems very low this evening - & it looks as if the time of her probation is nearly closed — She seems nearly worn out, tho’ she may last some time longer — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 4th February. Our school left off yesterday, and there were a great many of the neighbors came in. There were Doctor Thomas and five others there father did not go. George and I went and played in the aforesaid boat. Today I expected to go this morning and stay at noon but Mr. Paley Allen brought a horse so that mother and Ellen went and I staid with George all day. I was going to carry him home, when Mr. Allen who had come down across the fields overtook me before I had got out of the yard.

February 6, Tuesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 6th. I ought to have mentioned that we are now reading “Carlyles History of the French Revolution” aloud evenings. We have got nearly through the second volume, and when we have finished it we have another book called “History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella” to read in three large volumes.34 Mary Turner came here this afternoon a little while with her mother and brought George and me two turnovers which mother paid off with four hearts and rounds, Rolla is very little better now and we are very much afraid we shall lose him. He bears but very little weight on it but he eats as much as ever.

April 8, Sunday: The Great Western set out on its maiden voyage from Bristol, England, to New-York harbor

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 8 of 4 M / Meetings pretty well attended, & pretty solid seasons, especially in the Morning

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday, April 8th, 1838. I have not written for a great while and in the mean time many important circumstances have passed. In the first place Father and mother are in Boston at the Hospital. Father has had his head operated upon for the removal 34. William H. Prescott, HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA, THE CATHOLIC, 3 vols. (Boston: American Stationers’ Company, 1838). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY of his disease in his head. The thing was performed by Doctor Heywood.35 “It was found that the bone was depressed inwards and that a small point of bone adhered to the membrane which covers the brain.” It was first proposed by Dr. Thomas. He brought a book which contained an account of two cases similar to his in which relief had been obtained by an operation. Father was easily convinced for he said he would have the most painful operation rather than be plauged [sic] by this disease. He went and has had it performed. Mother went with him as nurse. The operation took up 37 minutes. 3 doctors ran to tell mother as soon as it was over. He bore it without flinching. I knew he would. But to return to affairs at home. Mr M. Shane the tailor is dead. Mr. May performed the funeral and left Miss Coffin at our house. They staid to tea. They brought a book to lend me consisting of all the numbers of the Peoples Magazine bound up, which I like very much.36 Our Cockerel is dead also. Mr. Wallcut preached here the first Sunday Mr. Smith the second and Mr. Sibley the two last Sundays and fast day. Mr. M. Shanes room was robbed by Mr. Beals hostler and another man. Father is getting well so fast that last night [we had a letter] from mother stating that he walked to Aunt Eliza’s yesterday morning!37 How happy we should be if he should indeed recover and come home! How thankful we ought to be to God for this great mercy!

April 9, Monday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday. In the fornoon I went to school. In the afternoon I went up to our meeting-house to a library meeting to tell Mr. Lincoln Merrit that we could not find the Library Records which he had asked sister to send up by me. I found at the meeting house that there was nobody there so I went to his house and found him there and delivered my errand.

35. The operation was performed by Dr. George Hayward (1791-1863), who published a contemporary medical account of it. 36. The People’s Magazine was published in Boston by Lilly, Wait, & Co. from 1833 to 1836. 37. Elizabeth Quincy Sewall (1798-1848), his father’s sister. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY April 10, Tuesday: Franz Liszt arrived in Vienna from Venice.

A rather more than less typical society for abstinence from alcoholic beverages, the Cork Total Abstinence Society, was founded in Ireland by Father Theobald Mathew. In this token preserved by the sworn adherents, the Reverend is depicted doffing his hat and gesturing in benediction before a kneeling group of men and women. “MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND GRANT YOU STRENGTH / AND GRACE TO HELP YOUR PROMISE” The obverse records upon a cross the exact words of their standard pledge of total abstinence, “PLEDGE / I PROMISE TO ABSTAIN FROM ALL INTOXICATING DRINKS / EXCEPT USED MEDICINALLY AND BY ORDER OF A MEDICAL MAN AND TO DISCOUNTENANCE THE CAUSE & PRACTICE OF INTEMPERANCE.”

THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday. Did nothing especial except going to the Post Office and got nothing for my pains then.

April 11, Wednesday: The Texas-American Convention to Terminate Reclamations.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday. In the afternoon I staid at home to split wood but Mr. Allen came and took the job out of my hands. Had four eggs today. After Mr. Allen had done splitting wood he came in to see us. We supped upon brown bread the crusts of which resembled leather.

In a 140-page diary apparently written by one Timothy Prescott of Concord during the period April 1, 1830- April 12, 1840, there appears the following entry under this date:

“David H. Thorough delivered a lecture before the Lyceum.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Now, let’s see if we can fill in the silences here. In order to figure out what Henry had been offering in this lecture upon which Timothy Prescott made no comment other than getting the lecturer’s name slightly wrong, perhaps we should choose a particular piece of proverbial wisdom and imagine that Henry had been speaking of that particular proverb (that had originally stood for a truth but had become hackneyed and had begun to deceive people and make them forget other important truths with which it is in conflict, so that it had come to “stand for another thing, it may be for a lie”). Henry had just come through an episode in which he had disappointed the Town School’s committee collectively due to the fact that one of them, who had become the group’s secretary perhaps because he was the worst of them, had the disgusting idea that schoolchildren qua schoolchildren were in need of regular feruling, and because also that malign committee had forgotten the important truth, that what we are here for is to try to help other people, rather than hurt them. So, in our effort to figure out what Henry was offering to the inattentive audience at this lecture, let us select the following hackneyed proverbial saying: Spare the rod and spoil the child. Now, I (Austin Meredith) have chosen the above saying because my maternal grandmother Sylvia Mae Long Mattox, who in my childhood on the farm in Clay City, Indiana used day after day to find one excuse or another to take me down into the basement and whip me until blood filled my socks, since something like this piece of hackneyed proverbial wisdom was to be perused in the BOOK OF PROVERBS in the BIBLE (the one thing besides our weekly newspaper that she allowed herself, or me, to read). She had read this old book through from cover to cover, a chapter a day skipping nothing — she had apparently done this several times over. This saying may well have originally stood for an important truth, of course –for indeed our young are in need of guidance and some guidance must of course be negative– but there are also other important truths such as that we ought to be trying to treat others as we ourselves would want to be treated, etc. My maternal grandmother having forgotten under the influence of this “spare the rod and spoil the child” proverb, that had begun to distract her, these other less convenient truths –such as that we ought to be trying to treat others as we ourselves would want to be treated– so perhaps Thoreau would have opinioned that in her mind this proverb had come to “stand for another thing, it may be for a lie.” What it had come to stand for, it would seem to me – remembering well my situation as a fatherless child with a twisted spine– was the idea that “If it helps me feel good to abuse others, and if I am in charge of someone who is utterly defenseless, then I can allow myself to make up some excuse and I can go ahead.” Her only concern was that I rinse out my socks promptly in cold water, since warm water makes blood stains set in cloth, and since, if my teacher at school saw such stains on my socks, she might raise questions.

So let’s go back to Concord in the 19th Century where we have this school board, and where we have this one member, Nehemiah Ball, who since “[t]he mass never comes up to the standard of its best member, but on the contrary degrades itself to a level with the lowest,” apparently was the worst of them all and so they had made him their secretary. This Cro-Magnon school committee had acted as one, embracing the reprehensible attitude of their secretary.

It’s beginning to sound like that lecture had been a Thorough one. Henry offered in this lecture that when such happens to a proverb “we are obliged, in order to preserve its significance, to write it anew.” How had Henry HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY actually written the proverb new on his last day as a teacher in the Concord public school? –He had deliberately attacked six of his pupils at random (one, 13-year-old Eliza Jane Durant, was a maidservant in his own house) without making the usual pretense that this sort of teacherly abuse was any specific punishment for any specific misdeed. One can imagine him saying to himself “If there must be innocent victims of this system in which vicious grown-ups have all the power, at least the young victims will know they are victims.” The school board had failed to comprehend why their teacher had offered this demonstration of the minuscule yet relevant difference between torture and correction — but in this lyceum lecture, was Henry not explaining the matter to them?

Nathaniel Hawthorne to his AMERICAN NOTEBOOKS, as rendered into poetry by Robert Peters:

The Tooth-Pulling A man holds the patient’s head. The country doctor produces a rusty pair of iron forceps. The tooth is wedged between the two largest in the head. The forceps are introduced. A turn of the doctor’s hand. The patient begins to utter a cry, the tooth comes out, bloody, with four prongs. The patient spits out blood, pays the doctor ninepence, pockets the tooth. The spectators are in glee and admiration.

April 11, 1838

Robert Peters. HAWTHORNE: POEMS ADAPTED FROM THE AMERICAN NOTEBOOKS. Fairfax CA: Poet-Skin / Red Hill Press, 1977

April 13, Friday: The Liberator.

Miss Prudence Ward wrote more to her sister, Mrs. Edmund Quincy Sewall, Sr. of Scituate:

...To-day, April 13, Henry has had a letter from President Quincy, of Harvard, speaking of a school in Alexandria, Virginia, to be opened the 5th of May. He is willing to take it, and if accepted, this may alter or delay their journey....

What is missing here is an awareness that a guy who has just gotten fired as a schoolteacher and has standards of personal honesty is not going to get hired to a schoolteaching job that requires him to recount his previous schoolteaching experience. HENRY THOREAU

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 13 of 4 M / Aaron White & Francis Fletcher a young man with Aarons daughter & a daughter of Daniel Tisdale spent the forenoon with us their company was interesting & we were glad HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY of further acquaintance with them RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday. I received a letter from mother last night stating that Father was staying at Aunt Eliza’s and that they intended to come home next week on Tuesday or Wednesday. He is getting well very fast and will require no more medical attention but he is restricted from meat and tea and coffee. I am very anxious for them to come home and so are all of us. Today there was no school because the mistress felt unwell. In the afternoon Miss Adeline Beal made a call upon us. We are to go to Mrs. Curtis’s for the milk next week.

April 14, Saturday: The Yeoman’s Gazette included the ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SCHOOL COMMITTEE FOR THE YEAR ENDING 6 MARCH 1838, which carried their comment about their experience with teacher Henry Thoreau “None of Concord’s schools this year has fallen below mediocrity. We would however mention an interruption, in the fall term of the Centre Grammar School, and the winter term of District number 4, which was occasioned by a change in masters and produced the usual evil attendant on that event.”

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday. Had no school all day. In the afternoon I went to Mr. Allen’s and to Mr. Parker’s. Had a bad question whether George would go but concluded he wouldn’t. This day was also marked by George and Ellen being more than usually tyrannical. Forgot to mention that there was no school yesterday afternoon because the school mam didn’t feel well. Read through “The District School as it was”38 night before last and yesterday afternoon, and also “Life in the Wilds” partly through last night.39 The last Messenger was very dry, nothing but politics and such stuff.40 Mr. Hodges is to preach tomorrow.

April 15, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday. Mr. Hodges sister and I rode to meeting in the morning. I staid at noon and they went home. I spent the chief part of the noon time up in the gallery, hearing them play on the bass viol and violin. Just as we were going from the meeting house door to the chaise as Mr. Hodges looked round for Mr. Allen (intending to speak to him) his hat blew off and he had to chase it for a little way. It was lucky that it got stopped by a wall or it might have blown a good ways. George didn’t feel quite well today. Forgot to mention that we received a letter from mother last night by Mr. H. stating that they went to Danvers Thursday afternoon.

Henry Thoreau to his journal:

38. Warren Burton, THE DISTRICT SCHOOL AS IT WAS: BY ONE WHO WENT TO IT (Boston: Carter, Hendee, 1833) and other editions. 39. Harriet Martineau, LIFE IN THE WILDS: A TALE (Boston: Leonard C. Bowles, 1832). 40. Probably the Boston Weekly Messenger, a newspaper. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY CONVERSATION April 15. Thomas Fuller relates that “in Merionethshire, in Wales, there are high mountains, whose hanging tops come so close together that shepherds on the tops of several hills may audibly talk together, yet will it be a day’s journey for their bodies to meet, so vast is the hollowness of the valleys betwixt them.” As much may be said in a moral sense of our intercourse in the plains, for, though we may audibly converse together, yet is there so vast a gulf of hollowness between that we are actually many days’ journey from a veritable communication.

GOOD THOUGHTS IN BAD TIMES

April 18, Wednesday: Franz Liszt appeared in a Vienna concert to benefit victims of recent floods in Pest. This was an enormous success. “Recalled 15 to 18 times. A packed house. Universal amazement. Thalberg hardly exists at the moment in the memory of the Viennese. Never have I had such a success.”

Clara Wieck played Robert Schumann’s Carnaval for Franz Liszt in Vienna, as well as Liszt’s own Divertissement sur la cavatine de Pacini “I tuoi frequenti palpiti.” Clara noted that Liszt made motions as if he were playing along, and moved his body with the music — very obviously he was enjoying himself.

Waldo Emerson lectured at the Concord Lyceum in Concord (this was the introductory lecture of his “Human Culture” series). THE LIST OF LECTURES

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday. Dear Father and mother have got home! They arrived HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY last night in the stage. They brought George and me some sugar plums, besides a great deal of cloth of different kinds and many eatables. Aunt Ann sent us some gingerbread nuts and ginger bread.41 Father brought home the bone that has troubled him so long for us to see.

April 29, Sunday: After Liszt’s 3d concert in Vienna, Franz Liszt and Sigismund Thalberg were the dinner guests of Prince Metternich.

Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 29th of 4th M 1838 / Between 1 & 2 OClock this morning our Dear Friend Benjamin Freeborn Died at His House at Portsmouth, & information was given our in Meeting today that his funeral is to be on 3rd day next at 1 OClock at Friends Meeting house in Portsmouth. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

This day was spent chiefly in meeting with the saints in this place, and in administering unto them, the word of Life.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 29th. We have a new Cockerel now a black one. I have written a letter to Uncle George by Mr. May who intends to go to New York tomorrow. I went on Friday afternoon to a school- house by Dr. Fuller’s to give the mistress (a Miss Briggs) who resides in the other parish the packet to send it to Mr. May. Father is now gone to a funeral. Mr. Hodges preached today and Mr. Brooks last Sunday.

Governor Everett of Massachusetts wrote from Boston to Edmund Quincy: DEAR SIR,— I have your favor of the 21st, accompanied with the volume containing the account of the tour of Messrs. Thome and Kimball in the West Indies, for which you will be pleased to accept my thanks. I have perused this highly interesting narrative with the greatest satisfaction. From the moment of the passage of the law, making provision for the immediate or prospective abolition of slavery in the British colonial possessions, I have looked with the deepest solicitude for tidings of its operation. The success of the measure, as it seemed to me, would afford a better hope than had before existed, that a like blessing might be enjoyed by those portions of the United States where slavery prevails. The only ground on which I had been accustomed to hear the continuance of slavery defended at the South, was that of necessity, and the impossibility of abolishing it without producing consequences of the most disastrous character to both parties. The passage of a law providing for the emancipation of nearly a million of slaves in the British colonies, seemed to afford full opportunity of bringing this momentous question to the decisive test of experience. If the result proved satisfactory, I have never doubted that it would seal the fate of slavery throughout the civilised world. As far as the 41. Anne Henchman Sewall (1793-1848), his father’s sister. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY observations of Messrs. Thome and Kimball extended, the result is of the most gratifying character. It appears to place beyond a doubt, that the experiment of immediate emancipation, adopted by the colonial Legislature of Antigua, has fully succeeded in that island; and the plan of apprenticeship in other portions of the West Indies, as well as could have been expected from the obvious inherent vices of that measure. It has given me new views of the practicability of emancipation. It has been effected in Antigua, as appears from unquestionable authorities contained in the work of Messrs. Thome and Kimball, not merely without danger to the master, but without any sacrifice of his interest. I cannot but think that the information collected in the volume will have a powerful effect on public opinion, not only in the northern states, but in the slaveholding states. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY May 2, Wednesday: Mormon history: This day was also spent in writing history, and lectures on grammer. by President [Sidney] Rigdon.

Waldo Emerson lectured at the Concord Lyceum in Concord. This was the 3d lecture of the series, “The Head.” THE LIST OF LECTURES

Miss Prudence Ward wrote more to her sister in Scituate, Mrs. Edmund Quincy Sewall, Sr.:

...Mr. Thoreau has begun to prepare his garden, and I have been digging the flower-beds. Henry has left us this morning, to try and obtain a school at the eastward (in Maine). John has taken one in West Roxbury. Helen is in another part of Roxbury, establishing herself in a boarding and day-school. Sophia will probably be wanted there as an assistant; so the family are disposed of. I shall miss the juvenile members very much; for they are the most important part of the establishment....

JOHN THOREAU, SR. JOHN THOREAU, JR. HELEN LOUISA THOREAU SOPHIA E. THOREAU

“Went to Maine for a school.” Searching for a teaching position with a letter of recommendation from Waldo Emerson in his pocket, Henry Thoreau was taking a steamer out of Boston past Gloucester’s Eastern Point and Cape Ann to Portland, to travel through Brunswick, Bath, Gardiner, Hallowell, Augusta, China, Bangor, HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Oldtown, Belfast, Castine, Thomaston, Bath, and Portland and back to Boston. Passing Nahant, he was underimpressed at the sight of the Frederic Tudor “Rockwood” estate and its ugly fences:

THE MAINE WOODS: But Maine, perhaps, will soon be where Massachusetts is. A good part of her territory is already as bare and commonplace as much of our neighborhood, and her villages generally are not so well shaded as ours. We seem to think that the earth must go through the ordeal of sheep-pasturage before it is habitable by man. Consider Nahant, the resort of all the fashion of Boston, — which peninsula I saw but indistinctly in the twilight, when I steamed by it, and thought that it was unchanged since the discovery. John Smith described it in 1614 as “the Mattahunts, two pleasant isles of groves, gardens, and cornfields”; and others tell us that it was once well wooded, and even furnished timber to build the wharves of Boston. Now it is difficult to make a tree grow there, and the visitor comes away with a vision of Mr. Tudor’s ugly fences, a rod high, designed to protect a few pear-shrubs. And what are we coming to in our Middlesex towns? — a bald, staring town-house, or meeting-house, and a bare liberty-pole, as leafless as it is fruitless, for all I can see. We shall be obliged to import the timber for the last, hereafter, or splice such sticks as we have; — and our ideas of liberty are equally mean with these. The very willow-rows lopped every three years for fuel or powder, — and every sizable pine and oak, or other forest tree, cut down within the memory of man! As if individual speculators were to be allowed to export the clouds out of the sky, or the stars out of the firmament, one by one. We shall be reduced to gnaw the very crust of the earth for nutriment.

While he was in Oldtown he would meet an old Indian on the dock who would point up the Penobscot and inform Thoreau that:

Two or three miles up that river one beautiful country.

TIMELINE OF THE MAINE WOODS Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday May 2nd. Last night a man came to our house with two letters from Mr. May with an offer of Mr. M’s horse while he is gone which will be about a fortnight it is expected. We are to feed him of course and in return father is to have the use of him. Father went around yesterday to take the census of the children in the district. Mrs. Whitaker came today on a visit to stay a day or two. Sister took the kitten out of her hole tonight and showed her to us. When Ellen tried to put her back into the hole she found her “guilty of loving liberty better than slavery” as the abolitionists would express it for as fast as she put her into the hole to the old cat, she liked better to stay on the hay and would run out again. I staid at home this afternoon and employed myself in carrying manure into the garden. We saw a large vessel off shore tonight which fired two guns which shook the house saw also the smoke of them. Also a vessel with jury-masts (which we supposed to be a new one going HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY to Boston to be rigged) went by this afternoon. Forgot to mention that the man42 who came with the offer of Mr. May’s horse sent a man this morning with the horse.

May 3, Thursday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday. In the forernoon I went to school or rather to the school house for there was no school. When I arrived I found that the mistress had not got there but that the scholars had and had made a good fire. We romped about a good while till a brother of the mistress [came] who said that she could not come, probably on account of the rain though he did not say so. Upon this the scolars dropped away till there were but a few there and at last I dropped away myself. In the afternoon we took it for granted there would be no school so I staid at home.

May 4, Friday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday. Was tormented with itching all day. In the evening I looked at my arm which itched most then and found a large red spot there. Mrs. W. said she thought salt and water might stop the itching and it did for when I went to bed the spot had disappeared.

May 5, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday. Very rainy all day but had a school. I got wet through coming home from school and had to change my clothes.

May 6, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday. Our Sunday School commenced today. The children were not all there on account of the weather probably.

May 7, Monday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday. In the forenoon I went to engage Mr. William Young to come and work in the garden. He consented to come.

May 12, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 12th of 5th M 1838 / This Afternoon I took a walk round the Hill & called to see Fanny Davis a sick colourd woman - from there I went into the Clifton Burying ground & visited the Graves of several of my Ancestors of the Wanton Clarke & Rodman family -tho’ they all passed out of time before I was in existance yet I love to see their resting place on earth - Many of their Names are familiar to me by the Records of the Monthly Meeting & by anecdotes of many ancient people who remembered some of them, 42. “See page 20” (EQS Jr. footnote). This apparently refers to the events of the beginning of this entry. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY their Devotion too the good cause is yet in rememberance, & I have no doubt their Spirits are in heaven singing Halilujah to the Lord God & the Lamb, whom they served with their whole heart & while on earth. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday 12th. Father and I were engaged in planting potatoes all the morning. We have got nearly all our vegetables planted namely Peas Beets both red and yellow Summer Squashes Cucumber’s, Parsnip, Vegetable Oysters, Radishes, Lettuce, and two rows of sweet corn. I wrote to Aunt Prudence day before yesterday. Uncle Henry came in upon us Wednesday night and went away the next morning.43 Dr. Kendall is to preach tomorrow. He came in the evening and brought Mrs. K. with him. We saw a large ship go by today.

May 13, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 13 of 5 M / Our Meetings were remarkably good solid & nearly silent seasons - In the Morning particularly, I thought I had seldom Known a more reverend quiet setting, it seemed as if the people were sensible what they came to Meeting for & when the Meeting broke they were not in a hurry to leave their seats. Father had a short communication toward the close. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary, presumably on this Sunday (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday. In the forenoon I went to meeting and to Sunday School too of course. In the afternoon I staid at home alone.

June 2, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. ended this initial diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday June 2nd I have neglected to write for a long time so that many things have given me the slip. In the first place Father has preached himself the last two Sundays. John May came to visit me some week between now and the time I wrote last. He came of a Monday and staid till Wednesday. I escorted him home as far as Mr. Henry Clapps. We taught him to play dominos while he was here. He slept with me. Last Sunday Mr. May exchanged with father in the afternoon and after meeting when he went home he carried me home with him in the chaise. I staid there all night and [he] brought me as far as H.C.’s shop. John gave me a very handsome horn [or possibly, bow] painted red. Mr. May lent me two volumes of a book called “Library of Entertaining Knowledge.”44

43. Henry Devereux Sewall (1786-1845). 44. Probably THE MONTHLY REPOSITORY, AND LIBRARY OF ENTERTAINING KNOWLEDGE, published in New York from 1830 to 1834. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1839

February 13, Wednesday: When the lawyer Heinrich Blumner died he left a bequest of 20,000 thaler. At the recommendation of Felix Mendelssohn, this money would found the Leipzig Conservatory.

Frédéric François Chopin, George Sand, and her children left Palma aboard a boat conveying 100 pigs to Barcelona.

Guatemala seceded from Central America.

After a lapse, Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. began a 2d diary. From the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society: Scituate February 13th 1839 I first kept a journal by the suggestion of Mr Alcott and found it very pleasant so that I now begin another. Wednesday 13th. We finished “Marmion” last night with the “Lady of the Lake”45 Mr Morrison46 had been so kind as to lend us. I do not like “M” quite so well as “L.L.” except the last part of the 6th Canto. Some of the songs in both are very beautiful I think. I went to a “parsing school” composed of some of our sc^h^ool who study Grammar to which I belong. Saw Venus for the first time to know her. It seemed quite red to me but perhaps that was because it was so near the horizon. Father went to Hingham today to a meeting of the trustees of Derby Academy.47 It is a beautiful day for winter today. Mother and Mrs. C. Vinal came into our school this afternoon. I ought to have mentioned before that I am reading Arabian “Nights Entertainments.”48 It is a much larger book than I expected. Read a silly story from a newspaper in the evening.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday 14th It was very wet & muddy all day. I went to Mr Allens store in the evening and left an umbrella there through carelessness. There was water communication from Mr Curtis’s to Capt Webbs by way of the gutters.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday 15th. Order of things underfoot the same viz terribly muddy. Mother went to Mrs Charles Vinals to spend the afternoon. 45. Poems by Sir Walter Scott. 46. The Christian name of “Mr. Morrison” (Nathaniel Holmes Morison [1815-1890]) is supplied in a biographical sketch entitled “From Notes Taken by Caroline S. Abbot,” in the manuscript transcription of the 4 diaries, Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society. See also George Abbot Morison, NATHANIEL MORISON AND HIS DESCENDANTS (Peterborough, N.H.: Peterborough Historical Society, 1951), 112-17. 47. Derby Academy in Hingham, Massachusetts, opened in 1791. Edmund’s father had been a trustee from 1834 and would continue as a trustee until 1848. 48. THE ARABIAN NIGHTS’ ENTERTAINMENTS, published in many British and American editions. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday 16th. Nothing particular happened except that we devoted the whole forenoon at school to ciphering and that a certain couple of boys49 who live near acted like brats as they were.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 17th. Mr Dorr preached. The text in the morning was from the 18th chapter of John 37th verse. “To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” The afternoon text was from Luke 24th chapter 6th verse. “He is not here but is risen.” I went to meeting in the morning and staid at noon. I took a book out of the library called an “Oasis.”50 My schoolmaster Mr Morrison came and took tea and spent the evening.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday 18th Mr D went away in the morning. Mr Morrison came in the evening and invited Sister to a ball to be held tomorrow night. Mr G Allen also came in the evening and staid very late.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 19th Mr May and his family and Mr Peirce with his, children excepted came and drank tea.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday 20th. I went to a parsing school in the evening.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday 21st. I went to a lecture on astronomy in the evening by Mr Morrison. He began by a history51 of astronomy. Afterwards he described the Ptolemaic System, with its absurdities. They supposed the earth to remain stationary and the Sun Moon planets and satellites to be revolving around it. They supposed the sky to be solid because they supposed the force which set the universe in motion to be applied to the outer surface of the wheel and unless there was a communication between the outer and inner planets the former would continue to revolve but the latter would of course stop. Through this solid sky they thought there were seven openings in which the planets revolved and which they called the “seven Heavens.” Copernicus was born in 1472 and died in 1543 in the 71st year of his age. He delayed 49. Edmund added that “Names of the two boys were G Ward EQ Sewall.” 50. THE OASIS (Boston: Allen and Ticknor, 1834) was an antislavery annual edited by Lydia Maria Child. 51. “Or rather a slight sketch of the history” (Edmund footnote). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY the publication of his work many years after it was written and did not live to be persecuted for it for the first printed copy was placed in his hands a few hours before his death. Mr. M. then showed that astronemers [sic] must know the distances of the sun and moon to predict eclipses so exactly and therefore it was not mere guess work of astronomers when they said that the sun was 95,000,000 miles from the earth and the moon 240,000. He then began to treat of the sun. Its diameter is 880,000 miles. He said one could not form any idea of so vast a sphere. The most obvious appearance of the sun’s disk is that of large dark spots on its surface. The most probable theory of these spots is that of Sir William Herschel who supposes the sun to be an opaque body and surrounded by two strata of clouds the upper self luminous and the under next the sun opaque. When these clouds break away but the upper open wider than the lower the opaque body of the sun is the spot itself and the inner clouds the penumbra by which it is surrounded. The attraction of gravitation is 27 times as great as that at the earth. A common man weighing 160 lbs on earth would weigh over 2 tons at the sun and the sun being as soft as a bed[?] of the finest powders he would sink many miles into its surface or be crushed by his own enormous weight. It is not probable that the sun is inhabited on account of its great heat. He said that it had been calculated that when a certain comet (I forget what its time of appearance was) was nearest the sun the heat in the comet was sufficient to evaporate steel and even platina52 which is the least fusible metal we know. Next to the sun as we suppose (for he said that there might be several between it and the sun without our seeing them they would be so covered with the suns light) is Mercury. It is 37,000,000 miles from the sun and revolves around it in 3 months. It is about the same density as lead and is the smallest planet except the asteroids being only 3200 miles in diameter. Then Venus comes at 68,000,000 miles diameter ?^from^ the sun and revolving around it in 7 ½ months. He said that the poles of Venus were about the climate of Georgia.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): On Friday the 22d and Saturday the 23d nothing particular happened.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 24th Mr Kent preached. He went to Duxbury on Saturday and came over in the morning. He brought his daughter Ella whom he had carried to Duxbury to make a visit to her aunt but the child being homesick he was obliged to carry her home again! I went to meeting in the morning. The text was the 2d Epistle to the Corinthians 13th chapter 8th verse. “For we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth.” In the afternoon I staid at home with George. I took a book out of the library called the “Sabbath day Book.”53 I committed to memory a little piece by Mr Willis on a ‘child tired of play’ beginning

52. Platinum. 53. THE SABBATH-DAY BOOK FOR BOYS AND GIRLS (Boston: John Allen, 1835). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY “Tired of play, Tired of play,” “How hast thou spent this livelong day”54

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday 25th. Nothing particular.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 26th In the afternoon I went with the cart and George to Mr Prentiss store an expedition which I have reason to rember [sic] on account of the trouble it put me to.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday 27th In the forenoon I discovered my boots to be burnt to my cost for they being stiff and hard to put on father pounded one of them and it tore a great hole.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday 28th. it is my birthday today as nearly as I shall come to it this year.55 In the evening I went to the second and last lecture on Astronomy by Mr Morrison in which he treated of the moon and superior planets. The moon is 2,180 miles in diameter and 240,000 miles from the earth. When viewed through a telescope mountains and great caverns some of them 40 miles in diameter and 4 miles deep. There are three kinds of mountains in the moon. The first rise from level plains in the form of a sugarloaf, the second long ranges 3 or 400 miles in length, and the third (which is entirely peculiar to the moon) are circular ranges with a mountain of the first class in the middle the area of the circle being level. The sun is 4 hours in rising above the horizon and a lunar day is 15 of our days. During the long night of 15 days the earth (which is 13 times larger to the moon than the full moon to us) always appears stationary if the observer is stationary. The planet next to the earth is Mars which is 145,000,000 miles from the sun. Vesta is next and the smallest planet being only 230 miles in diameter Juno is next of which I don’t remember the diameter. Ceres comes next 1625 miles in diameter and Pallas is last at 2000 miles diameter. Then comes Jupiter “Whose huge gigantic bulk Dances in ether like the lightest leaf”

the largest planet in the system his diameter is 89,000 miles in diameter and has 4 moons and revolves around the sun in 12 years. Then we come to where Saturn

54. Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806-1867), “On the Picture of a ‘Child Tired of Play,’” published in THE YOUTH’S KEEPSAKE: A CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR’S GIFT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE (Boston: Carter and Hendee, 1831), 176-77. 55. Edmund was born on February 29. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY “girt with a lucid zone in gloomy pomp Sits like an exalted monarch.”56 He has 7 moons and 2 rings is 79000 miles diameter and goes round the sun in 30 years. Uranus comes last is 35000 miles in diameter and goes round it in 84 years. He read Herschels recipe for an orrery. Take a globe 2 feet in diameter for the sun. Represent Mercury by a grain of mustard seed Venus by a pea the Earth by a pea mars by a large pins head Jupiter by a orange Saturn by a small orange and Uranus by a small plum.

March 1, Friday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday March 1st. In the evening Mr Morrison came and pointed out to Ellen and me Mars and Jupiter. He also brought a map of the stars which was not colored like ours but rather better executed.

March 2, Saturday: Advertisement for the Concord Academy under Preceptor John Thoreau, Jr.:

When Pascal et Chambord, a vaudeville by Jacques Offenbach to words of Bourgeois and Brisebarre, was performed for the initial time, at the Palais-Royal in Paris, it flopped.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday 2d. In the afternoon a company of boys marched through the streets as trainers with drum and fife. Mr M. came and brought the “Lay of the last Minstrel.”57

March 3, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 3d In the forenoon there was no sermon on account of the small number of hearers caused by bad weather. In the afternoon there was a regular meeting. George and I staid at home all day.

56. These two quotations are based on “A Summer Evening’s Meditation,” by Anna Laetitia Barbauld. While the first quotation is accurate, Barbauld actually wrote that Saturn Girt with a lucid zone, majestic sits In gloomy grandeur, like an exil’d queen. WORKS OF ANNA LAETITIA BARBAULD, 3 vols. (Boston: David Reed, 1826) and other editions. 57. A poem by Sir Walter Scott published in numerous American editions beginning in 1805. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY March 5, Tuesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday and Tuesday 4th and 5th nothing particular happened.

March 6, Wednesday: Waldo Emerson lectured in Boston (Mechanics’ Apprentices’ Association) on “Intellectual Integrity.” THE LIST OF LECTURES

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday. In the after noon Messrs May and Sewall came into our school. Miss H D Allen brought “Rollo at work”58 and an annual called the “Violet”59 yesterday. and I have read the former and several stories from the latter.

March 7, Thursday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday 7th Nothing particular happened.

March 8, Friday: Bronson Alcott reported to Margaret Fuller that he feared Jones Very would die or become “hopelessly mad.” At this point, six months of the year which he had allotted to himself had passed, and Very was isolating himself in his room at home at 154 Federal Street in Salem, for a sustained period of solitary concentration, writing sonnets about the manifestation of deity on this earth, upon which to be alive is to be dead and to be dead, alive.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday 8th was the last day of our school. A book was sent round today and yesterday for the scholars to write in as a sample for the master to take with him.60 Many however didn’t get a chance to write in it. In the afternoon the school was examined. 12 persons came into the school including the committee.61 The examination went off very well. I had a large lug to bring home my books.

58. Jacob Abbott, ROLLO AT WORK; OR, THE WAY FOR A BOY TO LEARN TO BE INDUSTRIOUS (Boston: T.H. Carter, 1838). 59. Miss Leslie, ed., THE VIOLET: A CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR’S GIFT, OR BIRTHDAY PRESENT, 1839 (Philadelphia: E.L. Carey and A. Hart, [1838]). 60. Edmund added in a footnote: “I wrote / I must answer my questions / And must not play / For committee are coming / And tis the last day.” 61. The committee in 1838 included Edwin’s father and Samuel J. May. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY March 9, Saturday: The war between Mexico and France was brought to an end as Mexico promised to pay compensation and French troops began to withdraw.

Prussia limited the work week, for children, to 51 hours.

Oliver Brown, the youngest of John Brown’s sons to reach adulthood, was born in Franklin, Ohio. He would be a bookish lad.

(This son would be shot dead at the age of 20 while standing as a sentinel at the river bridge in Harpers Ferry.)

Advertisement for the Concord Academy under Preceptor John Thoreau, Jr.:

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday 9th I began a letter to aunt. I am reading “Travels in Egypt Arabia Petraea and the Holy land.”62

March 10, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 10th Mr McReading preached in the forenoon from Romans 10 chapter 17th verse “So then truth cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Father preached in the afternoon.

March 11, Monday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday 11th nothing particular

62. John Lloyd Stephens, INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN EGYPT, ARABIA PETRÆA, AND THE HOLY LAND, 2 volumes (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1837). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

March 12, Tuesday: At a meeting of blacks at the 3rd Christian Church in New Bedford, Frederick Douglass opposed the idea of African colonization. This was his first public speaking.63

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 12th Enoch came in the morning and Mr and Mrs Cole and Mrs Turner in the afternoon to take tea.

March 13, Wednesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday 13th Mother and Father and George went to Mr Leonards in the afternoon. I forgot to mention that we received a packet from Uncle George containing a letter to each of us and the first volume bound up of a book (of which we had read a part before in numbers) called Nicholas Nickleby on Monday.64 I also got a book from the Library on Sunday called Cousin Elizabeth of which 63. In this year Douglass would be licensed to preach by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church of New Bedford (a congregation distinct from the African Methodist Episcopal Church of New Bedford), although it would probably be too much to refer to him as “Reverend Douglass” — since it appears that he was not so addressed during his lifetime. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY I afterwards found we had two or three copies at home.65

March 16, Saturday: Advertisement for the Concord Academy under Preceptor John Thoreau, Jr.:

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday Friday and Saturday the 14th 15th and 16th brought their plays and squabbles and screams and mischief to George and me as usual. I learn that we are to have another mans school in the High School House (part public and part private that is some district money is appropriated to it and there is a kind of subscription by those who put their names down in a paper that was carried round by “one Stone” as a book would say.

March 17, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 17th Mr Barett from Boston66 preached in the morning from Mark 10th chapter 21st verse “One thing thou lackest.” He said that people who are generally good but did not possess some one of the virtues wondered they did not have the benefits they had been taught to expect from a virtuous course of life and illustrated it by familiar examples. In the afternoon he preached from Daniel 3d chapter 18th verse “Be it known unto thee o king that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” He spoke of their firm principle, described principle and men who had none and exhorted his hearers to promote principle by every means in their power. Father read aloud the proclamation for Fast day in the afternoon. In coming home from meeting in the afternoon we saw a large ship neither very far out nor very near in.

March 18, Monday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday 18th. School did not begin as expected. I may as well mention here that it did not begin until the Monday after. I took out yesterday a book from the Library, the 2d volume of “Parent’s Assistant.”67

64. Charles Dickens, THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, published in multiple American editions beginning in 1839. 65. COUSIN ELIZABETH, BY THE AUTHOR OF “A VISIT TO THE SEA-SIDE” (Boston: Leonard C. Bowles, 1830). 66. Possibly Benjamin Fiske Barnett (1808-1892). 67. Maria Edgeworth, THE PARENT’S ASSISTANT; OR, STORIES FOR CHILDREN, 3 volumes. Multiple editions from 1809. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

March 20, Wednesday: Waldo Emerson lectured at the Concord Lyceum in Concord. This was the initial of a total of 7 lectures from the “Human Life” series, “Home.” THE LIST OF LECTURES

Lydia Maria Child petitioned the Massachusetts House of Representatives to abolish antiamalgamation legislation. William H. Leeman was born. He would be recruited in Maine as a 17-year-old very impressed with John Brown. Being of a rather wild disposition, he would early leave his home in Maine. Educated in the public schools of Saco and Hallowell, Maine, he would be working in a shoe factory in Haverhill, Massachusetts at the age of 14. In 1856 he would enter the Kansas Territory with the second Massachusetts colony of that year, and become a member of Captain Brown’s “Volunteer Regulars” on September 9, 1856. He would fight well at Osawatomie when but 17 years old. Owen Brown would find him hard to control at Springdale, Iowa. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY George B. Gill would say of him that he had “a good intellect with great ingenuity.” By the raid upon Harpers Ferry he would have reached the age of 20. The youngest of the raiders, he would make a mad dash out of the relative safety of the armory to swim down the Potomac River but two militiamen would catch up with him and shoot him down on an islet in the river. His body would be used for target practice for hours by the drunken citizenry, until the hail of bullets would push it into the current and it would be carried downstream. Mrs. Annie Brown Adams would write of him: “He was only a boy. He smoked a good deal and drank sometimes; but perhaps people would not think that so very wicked now. He was very handsome and very attractive.”

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th. nothing particular.

March 21, Thursday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday 21st do do. We have been finishing “Oliver Twist” by HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY “Boz” alias Mr Charles Dickens.68 During this vacation I have been manufacturing things for George as daggers and bayonets.

The American Anti-Slavery Society put out the 9th issue of its “omnibus” entitled The Anti- Slavery Examiner: NO. 9. THE ANTI-SLAVERY EXAMINER. * * * * * LETTER OF GERRIT SMITH, TO HON. HENRY CLAY. * * * * * NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, NO. 143 NASSAU STREET. — 1839. * * * * * This No. contains 3-1/2 sheets.--Postage, under 100 miles, 6 cts. over 100, 10 cts.

_Please Read and circulate_.

LETTER. * * * * * PETERBORO, MARCH 21, 1839. HON. HENRY CLAY: DEAR SIR, In the Annual Meeting of the American Colonization Society, held in the Capitol in the city of Washington, December, 1835, you commented on a speech made by myself, the previous autumn. Your objections to that speech formed the principal subject matter of your remarks. Does not this fact somewhat mitigate the great presumption of which I feel myself guilty, in undertaking, all unhonored and humble as I am, to review the production of one of the most distinguished statesmen of the age? Until the appearance of your celebrated speech on the subject of slavery, I had supposed that you cherished a sacred regard for the right of petition. I now find, that you value it no more highly than they do, who make open war upon it. Indeed, you admit, that, in relation to this right, “there is no substantial difference between” them and yourself. Instead of rebuking, you compliment them; and, in saying that “the majority of the

68. Charles Dickens, OLIVER TWIST; OR, THE PARISH BOY’S PROGRESS, published in multiple American editions beginning in 1838. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Senate” would not “violate the right of petition in any case, in which, according to its judgment, the object of the petition could be safely or properly granted,” you show to what destructive conditions you subject this absolute right. Your doctrine is, that in those cases, where the object of the petition is such, as the supplicated party can approve, previously to any discussion of its merits--there, and there only, exists the right of petition. For aught I see, you are no more to be regarded as the friend of this right, than is the conspicuous gentleman[A]69 who framed the Report on that subject, which was presented to the Senate of my state the last month. That gentleman admits the sacredness of “the right to petition on any subject;” and yet, in the same breath, he insists on the equal sacredness of the right to refuse to attend to a petition. He manifestly failed to bear in mind, that a right to petition implies the correlative right to be heard. How different are the statesmen, who insist “on the right to refuse to attend to a petition,” from Him, who says, “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.” And who are poor, if it be not those for whom the abolitionists cry? They must even cry by proxy. For, in the language of John Quincy Adams, the champion of the right of petition, “The slave is not permitted to cry for mercy--to plead for pardon--to utter the shriek of perishing nature for relief.” It may be well to remark, that the error, which I have pointed out in the Report in question, lies in the premises of the principal argument of that paper; and that the correction of this error is necessarily attended with the destruction of the premises, and with the overthrow of the argument, which is built upon them. [Footnote A: Colonel Young.] I surely need not stop to vindicate the right of petition. It is a natural right--one that human laws can guarantee, but can neither create nor destroy. It is an interesting fact, that the Amendment to the Federal Constitution, which guarantees the right of petition, was opposed in the Congress of 1789 as superfluous. It was argued, that this is “a self-evident, inalienable right, which the people possess,” and that “it would never be called in question.” What a change in fifty years! You deny the power of Congress to abolish the inter-state traffic in human beings; and, inasmuch as you say, that the right “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states,” does not include the right to prohibit and destroy commerce; and, inasmuch as it is understood, that it was in virtue of the right to regulate commerce, that Congress enacted laws to restrain our participation in the “African slave trade,” you perhaps also deny, that Congress had the power to enact such laws. The history of the times in which the Federal Constitution was framed and adopted, justifies the belief, that the clause of that instrument under consideration conveys the power, which Congress exercised. For instance, Governor Randolph, when speaking in the Virginia Convention of 1788, of the clause which declares, that “the migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by Congress prior to the year 1808,” said, “This is an exception from the power of 69. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY regulating commerce, and the restriction is to continue only till 1808. Then Congress can, by the exercise of that power, prevent future importations.” Were I, however, to admit that the right “to regulate commerce,” does not include the right to prohibit and destroy commerce, it nevertheless would not follow, that Congress might not prohibit or destroy certain branches of commerce. It might need to do so, in order to preserve our general commerce with a state or nation. So large a proportion of the cloths of Turkey might be fraught with the contagion of the plague, as to make it necessary for our Government to forbid the importation of all cloths from that country, and thus totally destroy one branch of our commerce with it, to the end that the other branches might be preserved. No inconsiderable evidence that Congress has the right to prohibit or destroy a branch of commerce, is to be found in the fact, that it has done so. From March, 1794, to May, 1820, it enacted several laws, which went to prohibit or destroy, and, in the end, did prohibit or destroy the trade of this country with Africa in human beings. And, if Congress has the power to pass embargo laws, has it not the power to prohibit or destroy commerce altogether? It is, however, wholly immaterial, whether Congress could prohibit our participation in the “African slave trade,” in virtue of the clause which empowers it “to regulate commerce.” That the Constitution does, in some one or more of its passages, convey the power, is manifest from the testimony of the Constitution itself. The first clause of the ninth section says: “The migration or importation of such persons, as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to they year 1808.” Now the implication in this clause of the existence of the power in question, is as conclusive, as would be the express and positive grant of it. You will observe, too, that the power of Congress over “migration or importation,” which this clause implies, is a power not merely to “regulate,” as you define the word, but to “prohibit.” It is clear, then, that Congress had the power to interdict our trade in human beings with Africa. But, in view of what has been said on that point--in view of the language of the Federal Constitution--of the proceedings of the Convention, which framed it--and of the cotemporary public sentiment--is it any less clear, that Congress has the power to interdict the inter-state traffic in human beings? There are some, who assert that the words “migration” and “importation,” instead of referring, as I maintain they do--the former to the removal of slaves from state to state, and the latter to their introduction from Africa--are used in the Constitution as synonyms, and refer exclusively to the “African slave trade.” But there is surely no ground for the imputation of such utter tautology, if we recollect that the Constitution was written by scholars, and that remarkable pains were taken to clear it of all superfluous words--a Committee having been appointed for that special purpose. But, it may be asked, Why, in reference to the taking of slaves from one state to another, use the word “migration,” which denotes voluntary removal? One answer is--that it can be used with as much propriety in that HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY case, as in the removal of slaves from Africa--the removal in the one case being no less involuntary than in the other. Another answer is--that the framers of the Constitution selected the word “migration,” because of its congruity with that of “persons,” under which their virtuous shame sought to conceal from posterity the existence of seven hundred thousand slaves amongst a people, who had but recently entered upon their national career, with the solemn declaration, that “all men are created equal.” John Jay, whose great celebrity is partly owing to his very able expositions of the Constitution, says: “To me, the constitutional authority of the Congress to prohibit the migration _and_ importation of slaves into any of the states, does not appear questionable.” If the disjunctive between “migration” and “importation” in the Constitution, argues their reference to the same thing, Mr. Jay’s copulative argues more strongly, that, in his judgment, they refer to different things. The law of Congress constituting the “Territory of Orleans,” was enacted in 1804. It fully recognizes the power of that body to prohibit the trade in slaves between a territory and the states. But, if Congress had this power, why had it not as clear a power to prohibit, at that time, the trade in slaves between any two of the states? It might have prohibited it, but for the constitutional suspension of the exercise of the power. The term of that suspension closed, however, in 1808; and, since that year, Congress has had as full power to abolish the whole slave trade between the states, as it had in 1804 to abolish the like trade between the Territory of Orleans and the states. But, notwithstanding the conclusive evidence, that the Constitution empowers Congress to abolish the inter-state slave trade, it is incomprehensible to many, that such states as Virginia and Maryland should have consented to deprive themselves of the benefit of selling their slaves into other states. It is incomprehensible, only because they look upon such states in the light of their present character and present interests. It will no longer be so, if they will bear in mind, that slave labor was then, as it is now, unprofitable for ordinary agriculture, and that Whitney’s cotton-gin, which gave great value to such labor, was not yet invented, and that the purchase of Louisiana, which has had so great an effect to extend and perpetuate the dominion of slavery, was not yet made. It will no longer be incomprehensible to them, if they will recollect, that, at the period in question, American slavery was regarded as a rapidly decaying, if not already expiring institution. It will no longer be so, if they will recollect, how small was the price of slaves then, compared with their present value; and that, during the ten years, which followed the passage of the Act of Virginia in 1782, legalizing manumissions, her citizens emancipated slaves to the number of nearly one-twentieth of the whole amount of her slaves in that year. To learn whether your native Virginia clung in the year 1787 to the inter-state traffic in human flesh, we must take our post of observation, not amongst her degenerate sons, who, in 1836, sold men, women, and children, to the amount of twenty- four millions of dollars--not amongst her President Dews, who write books in favor of breeding human stock for exportation-- but amongst her Washingtons, and Jeffersons, and Henrys, and HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Masons, who, at the period when the Constitution was framed, freely expressed their abhorrence of slavery. But, however confident you may be, that Congress has not the lawful power to abolish the branch of commerce in question; nevertheless, would the abolition of it be so clearly and grossly unconstitutional, as to justify the contempt with which the numerous petitions for the measure are treated, and the impeachment of their fidelity to the Constitution, and of their patriotism and purity, which the petitioners are made to endure? I was about to take it for granted, that, although you deny the power of Congress to abolish the inter-state traffic in human beings, you do not justify the traffic--when I recollected the intimation in your speech, that there is no such traffic. For, when you speak of “the slave trade between the states,” and add- -”or, as it is described in abolition petitions, the traffic in human beings between the states”--do you not intimate there is no such traffic? Whence this language? Do you not believe slaves are human beings? And do you not believe that they suffer under the disruption of the dearest earthly ties, as human beings suffer? I will not detain you to hear what we of the North think of this internal slave trade. But I will call your attention to what is thought of it in your own Kentucky and in your native Virginia. Says the “Address of the Presbyterian Synod of Kentucky to the Churches in 1835:”--”Brothers and sisters, parents and children, husbands and wives, are torn asunder, and permitted to see each other no more. Those acts are daily occurring in the midst of us. The shrieks and the agony often witnessed on such occasions, proclaim with a trumpet tongue the iniquity and cruelty of the system. There is not a neighborhood where these heart-rending scenes are not displayed. There is not a village or road that does not behold the sad procession of manacled outcasts, whose chains and mournful countenances tell that they are exiled by force from all that their hearts hold dear.” Says Thomas Jefferson Randolph, in the Virginia Legislature in 1832, when speaking of this trade: “It is a practice, and an increasing practice, in parts of Virginia, to rear slaves for market. How can an honourable mind, a patriot, and a lover of his country, bear to see this ancient dominion, rendered illustrious by the noble devotion and patriotism of her sons in the cause of liberty, converted into one grand menagerie, where men are to be reared for the market like oxen for the shambles. Is it better--is it not worse than the (foreign) slave trade--that trade which enlisted the labor of the good and wise of every creed and every clime to abolish? The (foreign) trader receives the slave, a stranger in language, aspect, and manner, from the merchant who has brought him from the interior. The ties of father, mother, husband, and child, have already been rent in twain; before he receives him, his soul has become callous. But here, sir, individuals whom the master has known from infancy, whom he has seen sporting in the innocent gambols of childhood--who have been accustomed to look to him for protection, he tears from the mother’s arms, and sells into a strange country--among strange people, subject to cruel taskmasters.” You are in favor of increasing the number of slave states. The terms of the celebrated “Missouri compromise” warrant, in your judgment, the increase. But, notwithstanding you admit, that HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY this unholy compromise, in which tranquillity was purchased at the expense of humanity and righteousness, does not “in terms embrace the case,” and “is not absolutely binding and obligatory;” you, nevertheless, make no attempt whatever to do away any one of the conclusive objections, which are urged against such increase. You do not attempt to show how the multiplication of slave states can consist with the constitutional duty of the “United States to guarantee to every state in the Union a republican form of government,” any more than if it were perfectly clear, that a government is republican under which one half of the people are lawfully engaged in buying and selling the other half; or than if the doctrine that “all men are created equal” were not the fundamental and distinctive doctrine of a republican government. You no more vindicate the proposition to enlarge the realm of slavery, than if the proposition were as obviously in harmony with, as it is opposed to the anti-slavery tenor and policy of the Constitution--the rights of man--and the laws of God. You are perhaps of the number of those, who, believing, that a state can change its Constitution as it pleases, deem it futile in Congress to require, that States, on entering the Union, shall have anti-slavery Constitutions. The Framers of the Federal Constitution doubtless foresaw the possibility of treachery, on the part of the new States, in the matter of slavery: and the restriction in that instrument to the old States--”the States now existing”--of the right to participate in the internal and “African slave trade” may be ascribed to the motive of diminishing, if not indeed of entirely preventing, temptation to such treachery. The Ordinance concerning the North-west Territory, passed by the Congress of 1787, and ratified by the Congress of 1790, shows, so far as those bodies can be regarded as correct interpreters of the Constitution which was framed in 1787, and adopted in 1789, that slavery was not to have a constitutional existence in the new States. The Ordinance continues the privilege of recapturing fugitive slaves in the North-west Territory to the “existing States.” Slaves in that territory, to be the subjects of lawful recapture, must in the language of the Ordinance, owe “labour or service in one of the _original_ States.” I close what I have to say on this topic, with the remark, that were it admitted, that the reasons for the increase of the number of slave States are sound and satisfactory, it nevertheless would not follow, that the moral and constitutional wrong of preventing that increase is so palpable, as to justify the scorn and insult, which are heaped by Congress upon this hundred thousand petitioners for this measure. It has hitherto been supposed, that you distinctly and fully admitted the Constitutional power of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. But, on this point, as on that of the right of petition, you have for reasons known to yourself, suddenly and greatly changed your tone. Whilst your speech argues, at no small length, that Congress has not the right to abolish slavery in the District, all that it says in favor of the Constitutional power to abolish it, is that “the language (of the Constitution) may _possibly_ be sufficiently comprehensive to include a power of abolition.” “Faint praise dams;” and your very reluctant and qualified concession of the HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Constitutional power under consideration, is to be construed, rather as a denial than a concession. Until I acquire the skill of making white whiter, and black blacker, I shall have nothing to say in proof of the Constitutional power of Congress over slavery in the District of Columbia, beyond referring to the terms, in which the Constitution so plainly conveys this power. That instrument authorises Congress “to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such District.” If these words do not confer the power, it is manifest that no words could confer it. I will add that, never, until the last few years, had doubts been expressed, that these words do fully confer that power. You will, perhaps, say, that Virginia and Maryland made their cessions of the territory, which constitutes the District of Columbia, with reservations on the subject of slavery. We answer, that none were expressed;[A]70 and that if there had been, Congress would not, and in view of the language of the Constitution, could not, have accepted the cessions. You may then say, that they would not have ceded the territory, had it occurred to them, that Congress would have cleared it of slavery; and that, this being the fact, Congress could not thus clear it, without being guilty of bad faith, and of an ungenerous and unjustifiable surprise on those States. There are several reasons for believing, that those States, not only did not, at the period in question, cherish a dread of the abolition of slavery; but that the public sentiment within them was decidedly in favor of its speedy abolition. At that period, their most distinguished statesmen were trumpet-tongued against slavery. At that period, there was both a Virginia and a Maryland society “for promoting the abolition of slavery;” and, it was then, that, with the entire consent of Virginia and Maryland, effectual measures were adopted to preclude slavery from that large territory, which has since given Ohio and several other States to the Union. On this subject, as on that of the inter- state slave trade, we misinterpret Virginia and Maryland, by not considering, how unlike was their temper in relation to slavery, amidst the decays and dying throes of that institution half a century ago, to what it is now, when slavery is not only revivified, but has become the predominant interest and giant power of the nation. We forget, that our whole country was, at that time, smitten with love for the holy cause of impartial and universal liberty. To judge correctly of the view, which our Revolutionary fathers took of oppression, we must go back and stand by their side, in their struggles against it,--we must survey them through the medium of the anti-slavery sentiment of their own times, and not impute to them the pro-slavery spirit so rampant in ours. [Footnote A: There is a proviso in the Act of Virginia. It was on this, that three years ago, in the Senate of the United States, Benjamin Watkins Leigh built his argument against the constitutional power of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. I well remember that you then denied the soundness of his argument. This superfluous proviso virtually forbids Congress to pass laws, which shall “affect the rights of individuals” in the ceded territory. Amongst the inviolable “rights” was that of holding slaves, as Mr. Leigh contended. I regret, that, in replying to him, you did not make use of the fact, that all the members of Congress from Virginia voted in favor of the Ordinance, which abolished slavery in the North-West Territory; and this too, notwithstanding, that, in the Act of 1784, by which she ceded the North-West Territory to the Confederacy, she provided, that the “citizens of Virginia” in the said Territory, many of whom held slaves, should “be protected in the enjoyment of their rights.” This fact furnishes striking evidence that at, or about, the time of the cession by Virginia of her portion of the District of Columbia, her statesmen believed, that the right to hold slaves in those portions of our country under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress, was not beyond 70. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY the reach of the controlling power of Congress.] I will, however, suppose it true, that Virginia and Maryland would not have made the cessions in question, had they foreseen, that Congress would abolish slavery in the District of Columbia:--and yet, I affirm, that it would be the duty of Congress to abolish it. Had there been State Prisons in the territory, at the time Congress acquired jurisdiction over it, and had Congress immediately opened their doors, and turned loose hundreds of depraved and bloody criminals, there would indeed have been abundant occasion for complaint. But, had the exercise of its power in the premises extended no farther than to the liberation of such convicts, as, on a re-examination of their cases, were found to be clearly guiltless of the crimes charged upon them; the sternest justice could not have objected to such an occasion for the rejoicing of mercy. And are not the thousands in the District, for whose liberation Congress is besought, unjustly deprived of their liberty? Not only are they guiltless, but they are even unaccused of such crimes, as in the judgment of any, justly work a forfeiture of liberty. And what do Virginia and Maryland ask? Is it, that Congress shall resubject to their control those thousands of deeply wronged men? No--for this Congress cannot do. They ask, that Congress shall fulfil the tyrant wishes of these States. They ask, that the whole people of the United States--those who hate, as well as those who love slavery, shall, by their representatives, assume the guilty and awful responsibility of perpetuating the enslavement of their innocent fellow men:--of chaining the bodies and crushing the wills, and blotting out the minds of such, as have neither transgressed, nor even been accused of having transgressed, a single human law. And the crime, which Virginia and Maryland, and they, who sympathise with them, would have the nation perpetrate, is, not simply that of prolonging the captivity of those, who were slaves before the cession--for but a handful of them are now remaining in the District. Most of the present number became slaves under the authority of this guilty nation. Their wrongs originated with Congress: and Congress is asked, not only to perpetuate their oppression, but to fasten the yoke of slavery on generations yet unborn. There are those, who advocate the recession of the District of Columbia. If the nation were to consent to this, without having previously exercised her power to “break every yoke” of slavery in the District, the blood of those so cruelly left there in “the house of bondage,” would remain indelible and damning upon her skirts:--and this too, whether Virginia and Maryland did or did not intend to vest Congress with any power over slavery. It is enough, that the nation has the power “to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain,” to make her fearfully guilty before God, if she “forbear” to exercise it. Suppose, I were to obtain a lease of my neighbor’s barn for the single and express purpose of securing my crops; and that I should find, chained up in one of its dark corners, an innocent fellow man, whom that neighbor was subjecting to the process of a lingering death; ought I to pause and recall President Wayland’s, “Limitations of Human Responsibility,” and finally let the poor sufferer remain in his chains; or ought I not rather, promptly to respond to the laws of my nature and my HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY nature’s God, and let him go free? But, to make this case analogous to that we have been considering--to that, which imposes its claims on Congress--we must strike out entirely the condition of the lease, and with it all possible doubts of my right to release the victim of my neighbor’s murderous hate. I am entirely willing to yield, for the sake of argument, that Virginia and Maryland, when ceding the territory which constitutes the District of Columbia, did not anticipate, and did not choose the abolition of slavery in it. To make the admission stronger, I will allow, that these States were, at the time of the cession, as warmly opposed to the abolition of slavery in the District as they are said to be now: and to make it stronger still, I will allow, that the abolition of slavery in the District would prove deeply injurious, not only to Virginia and Maryland but to the nation at large. And, after all these admissions, I must still insist, that Congress is under perfectly plain moral obligation to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. They, who are deterred from favoring the abolition of slavery in the District by the apprehension, that Virginia and Maryland, if not, indeed, the nation at large, might suffer injurious consequences from the measure, overlook the fact, that there is a third party in the case. It is common to regard the nation as constituting one of the parties--Virginia and Maryland another, and the only other. But in point of fact, there is a third party. Of what does it consist? Of horses, oxen, and other brutes? Then we need not be greatly concerned about it--since its rights in that case, would be obviously subordinate to those of the other parties. Again, if such be the composition of this third party, we are not to be greatly troubled, that President Wayland and thousands of others entirely overlook its rights and interests; though they ought to be somewhat mindful even of brutes. But, this third party is composed, not of brutes--but of men--of the seven thousand men in the District, who have fallen under the iron hoofs of slavery--and who, because they are men, have rights equal to, and as sacred as the rights of any other men- -rights, moreover, which cannot be innocently encroached on, even to the breadth of one hair, whether under the plea of “state necessity”--of the perils of emancipation--or under any other plea, which conscience-smitten and cowardly tyranny can suggest. If these lines shall ever be so favored, as to fall under the eye of the venerable and beloved John Quincy Adams, I beg, that, when he shall have read them, he will solemnly inquire of his heart, whether, if he should ever be left to vote against the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and thus stab deeply the cause of civil liberty, of humanity, and of God; the guilty act would not result from overlooking the rights and interests, and even the existence itself, of a third party in the case--and from considering the claims of the nation and those of Virginia and Maryland, as the only claims on which he was called to pass, because they were the claims of the only parties, of which he was aware. You admit that “the first duty of Congress in relation to the District, of Columbia, is to render it available, comfortable, and convenient as a seat of the government of the whole Union.” I thank you for an admission, which can be used, with great HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY effect, against the many, who maintain, that Congress is as much bound to consult the interests and wishes of the inhabitants of the District, and be governed by them, as a State Legislature is to study and serve the interests and wishes of its constituents. The inhabitants of the District have taken up their residence in it, aware, that the paramount object of Congressional legislation is not their, but the nation’s advantage. They judge, that their disfranchisement and the other disadvantages attending their residence are more than balanced by their favorable position for participating in Governmental patronage and other benefits. They know, that they have no better right to complain, that the legislation of Congress is not dictated by a primary regard to their interests, than has the Colonization Society, of which you are President, to complain, that the Capitol, in which it holds its annual meetings, is not constructed and fitted up in the best possible manner for such occasions. They know, that to sacrifice the design and main object of that building to its occasional and incidental uses, would be an absurdity no greater than would Congress be guilty of in shaping its legislation to the views of the thirty thousand white inhabitants of the District of Columbia, at the expense of neglecting the will and interests of the nation. You feel, that there is no hazard in your admission, that the paramount object in relation to the District of Columbia, is its suitableness for a seat of Government, since you accompany that admission with the denial, that the presence of slavery interferes with such suitableness. But is it not a matter of deep regret, that the place, in which our national laws are made- -that the place from which the sentiment and fashion of the whole country derive so much of their tone and direction--should cherish a system, which you have often admitted, is at war with the first principles of our religion and civil polity;[A]71 and the influences of which are no less pervading and controlling than corrupting? Is it not a matter of deep regret, that they, whom other governments send to our own, and to whom, on account of their superior intellect and influence, it is our desire, as it is our duty, to commend our free institutions, should be obliged to learn their lessons of practical republicanism amidst the monuments and abominations of slavery? Is it no objection to the District of Columbia, as the seat of our Government, that slavery, which concerns the political and moral interests of the nation, more than any other subject coming within the range of legislation, is not allowed to be discussed there--either within or without the Halls of Congress? It is one of the doctrines of slavery, that slavery shall not be discussed. Some of its advocates are frank enough to avow, as the reason for this prohibition, that slavery cannot bear to be discussed. In your speech before the American Colonization Society in 1835, to which I have referred, you distinctly take the ground, that slavery is a subject not open to general discussion. Very far am I from believing, that you would employ, or intentionally countenance violence, to prevent such discussion. Nevertheless, it is to this doctrine of non-discussion, which you and others put forth, that the North is indebted for her pro-slavery mobs, and the South for her pro-slavery Lynchings. The declarations 71. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY of such men as Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, that slavery is a question not to be discussed, are a license to mobs to burn up halls and break up abolition meetings, and destroy abolition presses, and murder abolition editors. Had such men held the opposite doctrine, and admitted, yea, and insisted, as it was their duty to do, that every question in morals and politics is a legitimate subject of free discussion--the District of Columbia would be far less objectionable, as the seat of our Government. In that case the lamented Dr. Crandall would not have been seized in the city of Washington on the suspicion of being an abolitionist, and thrown into prison, and subjected to distresses of mind and body, which resulted in his premature death. Had there been no slavery in the District, this outrage would not have been committed; and the murders, chargeable on the bloodiest of all bloody institutions, would have been one less than they now are. Talk of the slaveholding District of Columbia being a suitable locality for the seat of our Government! Why, Sir, a distinguished member of Congress was threatened there with an indictment for the _crime_ of presenting, or rather of proposing to present, a petition to the body with which he was connected! Indeed the occasion of the speech, on which I am now commenting, was the _impudent_ protest of inhabitants of that District against the right of the American people to petition their own Congress, in relation to matters of vital importance to the seat of their own Government! I take occasion here to admit, that I have seen but references to this protest--not the protest itself. I presume, that it is not dissimilar, in its spirit, to the petition presented about the same time by Mr. Moore in the other House of Congress--his speech on which, he complains was ungenerously anticipated by yours on the petition presented by yourself. As the petition presented by Mr. Moore is short, I will copy it, that I may say to you with the more effect--how unfit is the spirit of a slaveholding people, as illustrated in this petition, to be the spirit of the people at the seat of a free Government! [Footnote A: “It (slavery) is a sin and a curse both to the master and the slave:”--_Henry Clay_.] “_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_: The petition of the undersigned, citizens of the District of Columbia represents--That they have witnessed with deep regret the attempts which are making _to disturb the integrity_ of the Union by a BAND OF FANATICS, embracing men, women, and children, who cease not day and night to crowd the tables of your halls with SEDITIOUS MEMORIALS--and solicit your honorable bodies that you will, in your wisdom, henceforth give neither support nor countenance to such UNHALLOWED ATTEMPTS, but that you will, in the most emphatic manner, set the seal of your disapprobation upon all such FOUL AND UNNATURAL EFFORTS, by refusing not only to READ and REFER, but also to RECEIVE any papers which either directly or indirectly, or by implication, aim at any interference with the rights of your petitioners, or of those of any citizen of any of the States or Territories of the United States, or of this District of which we are inhabitants.” A Legislature should be imbued with a free, independent, fearless spirit. But it cannot be, where discussion is overawed and interdicted, or its boundaries at all contracted. Wherever HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY slavery reigns, the freedom of discussion is not tolerated: and whenever slavery exists, there slavery reigns;--reigns too with that exclusive spirit of Turkish despotism, that, “bears no brother near the throne.” You agree with President Wayland, that it is as improper for Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, as to create it in some place in the free States, over which it has jurisdiction. As improper, in the judgment of an eminent statesman, and of a no less eminent divine, to destroy what they both admit to be a system of unrighteousness, as to establish it! As improper to restrain as to practice, a violation of God’s law! What will other countries and coming ages think of the politics of our statesmen and the ethics of our divines? But, besides its immorality, Congress has no Constitutional right to create slavery. You have not yet presumed to deny positively, that Congress has the right to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia; and, notwithstanding the intimation in your speech, you will not presume to affirm, that Congress has the Constitutional right to enact laws reducing to, or holding in slavery, the inhabitants of West Point, or any other locality in the free States, over which it has exclusive jurisdiction. I would here remark, that the law of Congress, which revived the operation of the laws of Virginia and Maryland in the District of Columbia, being, so far as it respects the slave laws of those States, a violation of the Federal Constitution, should be held of no avail towards legalizing slavery in the District--and the subjects of that slavery, should, consequently, be declared by our Courts unconditionally free. You will admit that slavery is a system of surpassing injustice:--but an avowed object of the Constitution is to “establish justice.” You will admit that it utterly annihilates the liberty of its victims:--but another of the avowed objects of the Constitution is to “secure the blessings of liberty.” You will admit, that slavery does, and necessarily must, regard its victims as _chattels_. The Constitution, on the contrary, speaks of them as nothing short of _persons_. Roger Sherman, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a framer of the Federal Constitution, and a member of the first Congress under it, denied that this instrument considers slaves “as a species of property.” Mr. Madison, in the 54th No. of the Federalist admits, that the Constitution “regards them as inhabitants.” Many cases might be cited, in which Congress has, in consonance with the Constitution, refused to recognize slaves as property. It was the expectation, as well as the desire of the framers of the Constitution, that slavery should soon cease to exist is our country; and, but for the laws, which both Congress and the slave States, have, in flagrant violation of the letter and spirit and obvious policy of the Constitution, enacted in behalf of slavery, that vice would, ere this, have disappeared from our land. Look, for instance, at the laws enacted in the fact of the clause: “The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States”-- laws too, which the States that enacted them, will not consent to repeal, until they consent to abandon slavery. It is by these laws, that they shut out the colored people of the North, the presence of a single individual of whom so alarms them with the HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY prospect of a servile insurrection, that they immediately imprison him. Such was the view of the Federal Constitution taken by James Wilson one of its framers, that, without, as I presume, claiming for Congress any direct power over slavery in the slave States, he declared that it possessed “power to exterminate slavery from within our borders.” It was probably under a like view, that Benjamin Franklin, another of its framers, and Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and other men of glorious and blessed memory, petitioned the first Congress under the Constitution to “countenance the restoration to liberty of those unhappy men,” (the slaves of our country). And in what light that same Congress viewed the Constitution may be inferred from the fact, that, by a special act, it ratified the celebrated Ordinance, by the terms of which slavery was forbidden for ever in the North West Territory. It is worthy of note, that the avowed object of the Ordinance harmonizes with that of the Constitution: and that the Ordinance was passed the same year that the Constitution was drafted, is a fact, on which we can strongly rely to justify a reference to the spirit of the one instrument for illustrating the spirit of the other. What the spirit of the Ordinance is, and in what light they who passed it, regarded “republics, their laws and constitutions,” may be inferred from the following declaration in the Ordinance of its grand object: “For extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which form the basis wherever these Republics, their laws and constitutions are erected; to fix and establish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments, which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said territory, &c.; it is hereby ordained and declared that the following articles, &c.” One of these articles is that, which has been referred to, and which declares that “there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Territory.” You will perhaps make light of my reference to James Wilson and Benjamin Franklin, for I recollect you say, that, “When the Constitution was about going into operation, its powers were not well understood by the community at large, and remained to be accurately interpreted and defined.” Nevertheless, I think it wise to repose more confidence in the views, which the framers of the Constitution took of the spirit and principles of that instrument, than in the definitions and interpretations of the pro-slavery generation, which has succeeded them. It should be regarded as no inconsiderable evidence of the anti- slavery genius and policy of the Constitution, that Congress promptly interdicted slavery in the first portion of territory, and that, too, a territory of vast extent, over which it acquired jurisdiction. And is it not a perfectly reasonable supposition, that the seat of our Government would not have been polluted by the presence of slavery, had Congress acted on that subject by itself, instead of losing sight of it in the wholesale legislation, by which the laws of Virginia and Maryland were revived in the District? If the Federal Constitution be not anti-slavery in its general scope and character; if it be not impregnated with the principles of universal liberty; why was it necessary, in order to restrain Congress, for a limited period, from acting against the slave trade, which is but a branch or incident of slavery, HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY to have a clause to that end in the Constitution? The fact that the framers of the Constitution refused to blot its pages with the word “slave” or “slavery;” and that, by periphrase and the substitution of “persons” for “slaves,” they sought to conceal from posterity and the world the mortifying fact, that slavery existed under a government based on the principle, that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed,” contains volumes of proof, that they looked upon American slavery as a decaying institution; and that they would naturally shape the Constitution to the abridgment and the extinction, rather than the extension and perpetuity of the giant vice of the country. It is not to be denied, that the Constitution tolerates a limited measure of slavery: but it tolerates this measure only as the exception to its rule of impartial and universal liberty. Were it otherwise, the principles of that instrument could be pleaded to justify the holding of men as property, in cases, other than those specifically provided for in it. Were it otherwise, these principles might be appealed to, as well to sanction the enslavement of men, as the capture of wild beasts. Were it otherwise, the American people might be Constitutionally realizing the prophet’s declaration: “they all lie in wait for blood: they hunt every man his brother with a net.” But mere principles, whether in or out of the Constitution, do not avail to justify and uphold slavery. Says Lord Mansfield in the famous Somerset case: “The state of slavery is of such a nature, that it is incapable of being now introduced by courts of justice upon mere reasoning or inferences from any principles, natural or political; it must take its rise from _positive law_; the origin of it can in no country or age be traced back to any other source. A case so odious as the condition of slaves, must be taken strictly.” Grotius says, that “slavery places man in an unnatural relation to man--a relation which nothing but positive law can sustain.” All are aware, that, by the common law, man cannot have property in man; and that wherever that law is not counteracted on this point by positive law, “slaves cannot breathe,” and their “shackles fall.” I scarcely need add, that the Federal Constitution does, in the main, accord with the common law. In the words of a very able writer: “The common law is the grand element of the United States Constitution. All its fundamental provisions are instinct with its spirit; and its existence, principles, and paramount authority, are presupposed and assumed throughout the whole.” To argue the anti-slavery character of the Federal Constitution, it is not necessary to take the high ground of some, that whatever in the Constitution favors slavery is void, because opposed to the principles and general tenor of that instrument. Much less is it necessary to take the still higher ground, that every law in favor of slavery, in whatever code or connection it may be found, is utterly invalid because of its plain contravention of the law of nature. To maintain my position, that the Constitution is anti-slavery in its general character, and that constitutional slavery is, at the most, but an exception to that general character, it was not necessary to take either of these grounds; though, had I been disposed to take even the higher of them, I should not have lacked the countenance of the most weighty authorities. “The law of HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY nature,” says Blackstone, “being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this.” The same writer says, that “The law of nature requires, that man should pursue his own true and substantial happiness.” But that slavery allows this pursuit to its victims, no one will pretend. “There is a law,” says Henry Brougham, “above all the enactments of human codes. It is the law written by the finger of God on the heart of man; and by that law, unchangeable and eternal, while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and abhor blood, they shall reject with indignation the wild and guilty phantasy, that man can hold property in man.” I add no more to what I have said on the subject of slavery in the District of Columbia, than to ask, as I have done in relation to the inter-state slave trade and the annexation of slave states, whether petitions for its abolition argue so great a contempt of the Constitution, and so entire a recklessness of propriety, as to merit the treatment which they receive at the hands of Congress. Admitting that Congress has not the constitutional power to abolish slavery in the District-- admitting that it has not the constitutional power to destroy what itself has established--admitting, too, that if it has the power, it ought not to exercise it;--nevertheless, is the case so perfectly clear, that the petitioners for the measure deserve all the abuse and odium which their representatives in Congress heap upon them? In a word, do not the three classes of petitions to which you refer, merit, at the hands of those representatives, the candid and patient consideration which, until I read your acknowledgment, that, in relation to these petitions, “there is no substantial difference between” yourself and those, who are in favor of thrusting them aside undebated, unconsidered, and even unread, I always supposed you were willing to have bestowed on them? I pass to the examination of your charges against the abolitionists. _They contemn the “rights of property.”_ This charge you prefer against the abolitionists, not because they believe that a Legislature has the right to abolish slavery, nor because they deny that slaves are legally property; for this obvious truth they do not deny. But you prefer it, because they believe that man cannot rightfully be a subject of property. Abolitionists believe, to use words, which I have already quoted, that it is “a wild and guilty phantasy, that man can hold property in man.” They believe, that to claim property in the exalted being, whom God has made in His own image, and but “a little lower than the angels,” is scarcely less absurd than to claim it in the Creator himself. You take the position, that human laws can rightfully reduce a race of men to property; and that the outrage, to use your own language, is “sanctioned and sanctified” by “two hundred years” continuance of it. Abolitionists, on the contrary, trace back man’s inalienable self-ownership to enactments of the Divine Legislator, and to the bright morning of time, when he came forth from the hand of his Maker, “crowned with glory and honor,” invested with self- HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY control, and with dominion over the brute and inanimate creation. You soothe the conscience of the slaveholder, by reminding him, that the relation, which he has assumed towards his down-trodden fellow-man, is lawful. The abolitionist protests, that the wickedness of the relation is none the less, because it is legalized. In charging abolitionists with condemning “the rights of property,” you mistake the innocent for the guilty party. Were you to be so unhappy as to fall into the hands of a kidnapper, and be reduced to a slave, and were I to remonstrate, though in vain, with your oppressor, who would you think was the despiser of “the rights of property”--myself, or the oppressor? As you would judge in that case, so judges every slave in his similar case. The man-stealer’s complaint, that his “rights of property” in his stolen fellow men are not adequately respected by the abolitionist, recalls to my mind a very similar, and but little more ludicrous case of conscientious regard for the “rights of property.” A traveler was plundered of the whole of his large sum of money. He pleaded successfully with the robber for a little of it to enable him to reach his home. But, putting his hand rather deeper into the bag of stolen coins than comported with the views of the robber, he was arrested with the cry, “Why, man, have you no conscience?” You will perhaps inquire, whether abolitionists regard all the slaves of the South as stolen--as well those born at the South, as those, who were confessedly stolen from Africa? I answer, that we do--that every helpless new-born infant, on which the chivalry of the South pounces, is, in our judgment, the owner of itself--that we consider, that the crime of man-stealing which is so terribly denounced in the BIBLE, does not consist, as is alleged, in stealing a slave from a third person, but in stealing him from himself--in depriving him of self control, and subjecting him, as property, to the absolute control of another. Joseph’s declaration, that he “was stolen,” favors this definition of man-stealing. Jewish Commentators authorise it. Money, as it does not own itself, cannot be stolen from itself But when we reflect, that man is the owner of himself, it does not surprise us, that wresting away his inalienable rights--his very manhood--should have been called man-stealing. Whilst on this subject of “the rights of property,” I am reminded of your “third impediment to abolition.” This “impediment” consists in the fact of the great value of the southern slaves- -which, according to your estimation, is not less than “twelve hundred millions of dollars.” I will adopt your estimate, and thus spare myself from going into the abhorrent calculation of the worth in dollars and cents of immortal man--of the worth of “the image of God.” I thank you for your virtual admission, that this wealth is grasped with a tenacity proportioned to its vast amount. Many of the wisest and best men of the North have been led into the belief that the slaveholders of the South are too humane and generous to hold their slaves fur the sake of gain. Even Dr. Channing was a subject of this delusion; and it is well remembered, that his too favorable opinions of his fellow men, made it difficult to disabuse him of it. Northern Christians have been ready to believe, that the South would give up her slaves, because of her conscious lack of title to them. But in what age of the world have impenitent men failed to cling as HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY closely to that, which they had obtained by fraud, as to their honest acquisitions? Indeed, it is demonstrable on philosophical principles, that the more stupendous the fraud, the more tenacious is the hold upon that, which is gotten by it. I trust, that your admission to which I have just referred, will have no small effect to prevent the Northern apologist for slavery from repeating the remark that the South would gladly liberate her slaves, if she saw any prospect of bettering the condition of the objects of her tender and solicitous benevolence. I trust, too, that this admission will go far to prove the emptiness of your declaration, that the abolitionists “have thrown back for half a century the prospect of any species of emancipation of the African race, gradual or immediate, in any of the states,” and the emptiness of your declaration, that, “prior to the agitation of this subject of abolition, there was a progressive melioration in the condition of slaves throughout all the slave states,” and that “in some of them, schools of instruction were opened,” &c.; and I further trust, that this admission will render harmless your intimation, that this “melioration” and these “schools” were intended to prepare the slaves for freedom. After what you have said of the great value of the slaves, and of the obstacle it presents to emancipation, you will meet with little success in your endeavors to convince the world, that the South was preparing to give up the “twelve hundred millions of dollars,” and that the naughty abolitionists have postponed her gratification “for half a century.” If your views of the immense value of the slaves, and of the consequent opposition to their freedom, be correct, then the hatred of the South towards the abolitionists must be, not because their movements tend to lengthen, but because they tend to shorten the period of her possession of the “twelve hundred millions of dollars.” May I ask you, whether, whilst the South clings to these “twelve hundred millions of dollars,” it is not somewhat hypocritical in her to be complaining, that the abolitionists are fastening the “twelve hundred millions of dollars” to her? And may I ask you, whether there is not a little inconsistency between your own lamentations over this work of the abolitionists, and your intimation that the South will never consent to give up her slaves, until the impossibility, of paying her “twelve hundred millions of dollars” for them, shall have been accomplished? Puerile and insulting as is your proposition to the abolitionists to raise “twelve hundred millions of dollars” for the purchase of the slaves, it is nevertheless instructive; inasmuch as it shows, that, in your judgment, the South is as little willing to give up her slaves, as the abolitionists are able to pay “twelve hundred millions of dollars” for them; and how unable the abolitionists are to pay a sum of money far greater than the whole amount of money in the world, I need not explain. But if the South must have “twelve hundred millions of dollars” to induce her to liberate her present number of slaves, how can you expect success fur your scheme of ridding her of several times the present number, “in the progress of some one hundred and fifty, or two hundred years?” Do you reply, that, although she must have “four hundred dollars” a-piece for them, if she sell them to the abolitionists, she is, nevertheless, willing to let the Colonization Society have them without charge? There is abundant proof, that she is not. During the twenty-two years HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY of the existence of that Society, not so many slaves have been emancipated and given to it for expatriation, as are born in a single week. As a proof that the sympathies of the South are all with the slaveholding and _real_ character of this two-faced institution, and not at all with the abolition purposes and tendencies, which it professes at the North, none of its Presidents, (and slave-holders only are deemed worthy to preside over it,) has ever contributed from his stock of slaves to swell those bands of emigrants, who, leaving our shores in the character of “nuisances,” are instantly transformed, to use your own language, into “missionaries, carrying with them credentials in the holy cause of Christianity, civilization, and free institutions.” But you were not in earnest, when you held up the idea in your recent speech, that the rapidly multiplying millions of our colored countrymen would be expatriated. What you said on that point was but to indulge in declamation, and to round off a paragraph. It is in that part of your speech where you say that “no practical scheme for their removal or separation from us has yet been devised or proposed,” that you exhibit your real sentiments on this subject, and impliedly admit the deceitfulness of the pretensions of the American Colonization Society. Before closing my remarks on the topic of “the rights of property,” I will admit the truth of your charge, that _Abolitionists deny, that the slaveholder is entitled to “compensation” for his slaves_. Abolitionists do not know, why he, who steals men is, any more than he, who steals horses, entitled to “compensation” for releasing his plunder. They do not know, why he, who has exacted thirty years’ unrequited toil from the sinews of his poor oppressed brother, should be paid for letting that poor oppressed brother labor for himself the remaining ten or twenty years of his life. But, it is said, that the South bought her slaves of the North, and that we of the North ought therefore to compensate the South for liberating them. If there are individuals at the North, who have sold slaves, I am free to admit, that they should promptly surrender their ill-gotten gains; and no less promptly should the inheritors of such gains surrender them. But, however this may be, and whatever debt may be due on this score, from the North to the South, certain it is, that on no principle of sound ethics, can the South hold to the persons of the innocent slaves, as security for the payment of the debt. Your state and mine, and I would it were so with all others, no longer allow the imprisonment of the debtor as a means of coercing payment from him. How much less, then, should they allow the creditor to promote the security of his debt by imprisoning a third person--and one who is wholly innocent of contracting the debt? But who is imprisoned, if it be not he, who is shut up in “the house of bondage?” And who is more entirely innocent than he, of the guilty transactions between his seller and buyer? Another of your charges against abolitionists is, _that, although “utterly destitute of Constitutional or other rightful power--living in totally distinct communities--as alien to the communities in which the subject on which they would operate resides, so far as concerns political power over that subject, as if they lived in Africa or Asia; they nevertheless promulgate HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY to the world their purpose to be, to manumit forthwith, and without compensation, and without moral preparation, three millions of negro slaves, under jurisdictions altogether separated from those under which they live.”_ I will group with this charge several others of the same class. _1._ _Abolitionists neglect the fact, that “the slavery which exists amongst us (southern people) is our affair--not theirs- -and that they have no more just concern with it, than they have with slavery as it exists throughout the world.”_ _2._ _They are regardless of the “deficiency of the powers of the General Government, and of the acknowledged and incontestable powers of the States.”_ _3._ “Superficial men (meaning no doubt abolitionists) confound the totally different cases together of the powers of the British Parliament and those of the Congress of the United States in the matter of slavery.”_ Are these charges any thing more than the imagery of your own fancy, or selections from the numberless slanders of a time- serving and corrupt press? If they are founded on facts, it is in your power to state the facts. For my own part, I am utterly ignorant of any, even the least, justification for them. I am utterly ignorant that the abolitionists hold any peculiar views in relation to the powers of the General or State Governments. I do not believe, that one in a hundred of them supposes, that slavery in the states is a legitimate subject of federal legislation. I believe, that a majority of the intelligent men amongst them accord much more to the claims of “state sovereignty,” and approach far more nearly to the character of “strict constructionists,” than does the distinguished statesman, who charges them with such latitudinarian notions. There may be persons in our country, who believe that Congress has the absolute power over all American slavery, which the British Parliament had over all British slavery; and that Congress can abolish slavery in the slave states, because Great Britain abolished it in her West India Islands; but, I do not know them; and were I to look for them, I certainly should not confine my search to abolitionists--for abolitionists, as it is very natural they should be, are far better instructed in the subject of slavery and its connections with civil government, than are the community in general. It is passing strange, that you, or any other man, who is not playing a desperate game, should, in the face of the Constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which “admits, that each state, in which slavery exists, has, by the Constitution of the United States, the exclusive right to legislate in regard to the abolition of slavery in said state;” make such charges, as you have done. In an Address “To the Public,” dated September 3, 1835, and subscribed by the President, Treasurer, the three Secretaries, and the other five members of the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society, we find the following language. 1. “We hold that Congress has no more right to abolish slavery in the Southern states than in the French West India Islands. Of course we desire no national legislation on the subject. 2. We hold that slavery can only be lawfully abolished by the HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY legislatures of the several states in which it prevails, and that the exercise of any other than moral influence to induce such abolition is unconstitutional.” But what slavery is it that the abolitionists call on Congress to abolish? Is it that in the slave states? No--it is that in the District of Columbia and in the territories--none other. And is it not a fair implication of their petitions, that this is the only slavery, which, in the judgment of the petitioners, Congress has power to abolish? Nevertheless, it is in the face of this implication, that you make your array of charges. Is it true, however, that the North has nothing more to do with slavery in the states, than with slavery in a foreign country? Does it not concern the North, that, whilst it takes many thousands of her voters to be entitled to a representative in Congress, there are districts at the South, where, by means of slavery, a few hundred voters enjoy this benefit. Again, since the North regards herself as responsible in common with the South, for the continuance of slavery in the District of Columbia and in the Territories, and for the continuance of the interstate traffic in human beings; and since she believes slavery in the slave states to be the occasion of these crimes, and that they will all of necessity immediately cease when slavery ceases--is it not right, that she should feel that she has a “just concern with slavery?” Again, is it nothing to the people of the North, that they may be called on, in obedience to a requirement of the federal constitution, to shoulder their muskets to quell “domestic violence?” But, who does not know, that this requirement owes its existence solely to the apprehension of servile insurrections?--or, in other words, to the existence of slavery in the slave states? Again, when our guiltless brothers escape from the southern prison-house, and come among us, we are under constitutional obligation to deliver them up to their stony-hearted pursuers. And is not slavery in the slave states, which is the occasion of our obligation to commit this outrage on humanity and on the law of God, a matter of “just concern to us?” To what too, but slavery, in the slave states, is to be ascribed the long standing insult of our government towards that of Hayti? To what but that, our national disadvantages and losses from the want of diplomatic relations between the two governments? To what so much, as to slavery in the slave states, are owing the corruption in our national councils, and the worst of our legislation? But scarcely any thing should go farther to inspire the North with a sense of her “just concern” in the subject of slavery in the slave states, than the fact, that slavery is the parent of the cruel and murderous prejudice, which crushes and kills her colored people; and, that it is but too probable, that the child will live as long as its parent. And has the North no “just concern” with the slavery of the slave states, when there is so much reason to fear that our whole blood-guilty nation is threatened with God’s destroying wrath on account of it? There is another respect in which we of the North have a “just concern” with the slavery of the slave states. We see nearly three millions of our fellow men in those states robbed of body, mind, will, and soul--denied marriage and the reading of the Bible, and marketed as beasts. We see them in a word crushed in the iron folds of slavery. Our nature--the laws written upon its HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY very foundations--the Bible, with its injunctions “to remember them that are in bonds as bound with them,” and to “open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction”--all require us to feel and to express what we feel for these wretched millions. I said, that we see this misery. There are many amongst us--they are anti-abolitionists--who do not see it; and to them God says; “but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse.” I add, that we of the North must feel concerned about slavery in the slave states, because of our obligation to pity the deluded, hard-hearted, and bloody oppressors in those states: and to manifest our love for them by rebuking their unsurpassed sin. And, notwithstanding pro-slavery statesmen at the North, who wink at the iniquity of slave holding, and pro-slavery clergymen at the North, who cry, “peace, peace” to the slaveholder, and sew “pillows to armholes,” tell us, that by our honest and open rebuke of the slaveholder, we shall incur his enduring hatred; we, nevertheless, believe that “open rebuke is better than secret love,” and that, in the end, we shall enjoy more Southern favor than they, whose secret love is too prudent and spurious to deal faithfully with the objects of its regard. “He that rebuketh a man, afterward shall find more favor than he that flattereth with the tongue.” The command, “thou shall in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him,” is one, which the abolitionist feels, that he is bound to obey, as well in the case of the slaveholder, as in that of any other sinner. And the question: “who is my neighbor,” is so answered by the Savior, as to show, that not he of our vicinity, nor even he of our country, is alone our “neighbor.” The abolitionists of the North hold, that they have certainly as much “just concern” with slavery in the slave states, as the temperance men of the North have with “intemperance” at the South. And I would here remark, that the weapons with which the abolitionists of the North attack slavery in the slave states are the same, and no other than the same, with those, which the North employs against the vice of intemperance at the South. I add too, that were you to say, that northern temperance men disregard “the deficiency of the powers of the General Government,” and also “the acknowledged and incontestable powers of the states;” your charge would be as suitable as when it is applied to northern abolitionists. You ascribe to us “the purpose to manumit the three millions of negro slaves.” Here again you greatly misrepresent us, by holding us up as employing coercive, instead of persuasive, means for the accomplishment of our object. Our “purpose” is to persuade others to “manumit.” The slaveholders themselves are to “manumit.” It is evident, that others cannot “manumit” for them. If the North were endeavoring to persuade the South to give up the growing of cotton, you would not say, it is the purpose of the North to give it up. But, as well might you, as to say, that it is the “purpose” of the abolitionists to “manumit.” It is very much by such misrepresentations, that the prejudices against abolitionists are fed and sustained. How soon they would die of atrophy, if they, who influence the public mind and mould public opinion, would tell but the simple truth about abolitionists. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY You say, that the abolitionists would have the slaves manumitted “without compensation and without moral preparation.” I have already said enough on the point of “compensation.” It is true, that they would have them manumitted immediately:--for they believe slavery is sin, and that therefore the slaveholder has no right to protract the bondage of his slaves for a single year, or for a single day or hour;--not even, were he to do so to afford them “a moral preparation” for freedom, or to accomplish any other of the kindest and best purposes. They believe, that the relation of slaveholder, as it essentially and indispensably involves the reduction of men to chattelship, cannot, under any plea whatever, be continued with innocence, for a single moment. If it can be--if the plain laws of God, in respect to marriage and religious instruction and many other blessings, of which chattelized man is plundered, can be innocently violated--why credit any longer the assertion of the Bible, that “sin is the transgression of the law?”--why not get a new definition of sin? Another reason with abolitionists in favor of immediate manumission, is, that the slaves do not, as a body, acquire, whilst in slavery, any “moral preparation” for freedom. To learn to swim we must be allowed the use of water. To learn the exercises of a freeman, we must enjoy he element of liberty. I will not say, that slaves cannot be taught, to some extent, the duties of freemen. Some knowledge of the art of swimming may be acquired before entering the water. I have not forgotten what you affirm about the “progressive melioration in the condition of slaves,” and the opening of “schools of instruction” for them “prior to the agitation of the subject of abolition;” nor, have I forgotten, that I could not read it without feeling, that the creations of your fancy, rather than the facts of history, supplied this information. Instances, rare instances, of such “melioration” and of such “schools of instruction,” I doubt not there have been: but, I am confident, that the Southern slaves have been sunk in depths of ignorance proportioned to the profits of their labor. I have not the least belief, that the proportion of readers amongst them is one half so great, as it was before the invention of Whitney’s cotton gin. Permit me to call your attention to a few of the numberless evidences, that slavery is a poor school for “moral preparation” for freedom. 1st. Slavery turns its victims into thieves. “Who should be astonished,” says Thomas S. Clay, a very distinguished slaveholder of Georgia, “if the negro takes from the field or corn-house the supplies necessary for his craving appetite and then justifies his act, and denies that it is stealing?” What debasement in the slave does the same gentleman’s remedy for theft indicate? “If,” says he, “the negro is informed, that if he does not steal, he shall receive rice as an allowance; and if he does steal, he shall not, a motive is held out which will counteract the temptation to pilfer.” 2nd. Slavery reeks with licentiousness. Another son of the South says, that the slaveholder’s kitchen is a brothel, and a southern village a Sodom. The elaborate defence of slavery by Chancellor Harper of South Carolina justifies the heaviest accusations, that have been brought against it on the score of licentiousness. How could you blame us for deeply abhorring slavery, even were we to view it in no other light than that in which the Dews and Harpers and its other advocates present it? 3rd. Slavery puts HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY the master in the place of God, and the master’s law in the place of God’s law! “The negro,” says Thomas S. Clay, “is seldom taught to feel, that he is punished for breaking God’s law! He only knows his master as law-giver and executioner, and the sole object held up to his view is to make him a more obedient and profitable slave. He oftener hears that he shall be punished if he steals, than if he breaks the Sabbath or swears; and thus he sees the very threatenings of God brought to bear on his master’s interests. It is very manifest to him, that his own good is very far from forming the primary reason for his chastisement: his master’s interests are to be secured at all events;--God’s claims are secondary, or enforced merely for the purpose of advancing those of his owner. His own benefit is the residuum after this double distillation of moral motive--a mere accident.” 4th. The laws of nearly all the slave-states forbid the teaching of the slaves to read. The abundant declarations, that those laws are without exception, a consequence of the present agitation of the question of slavery are glaringly false. Many of these laws were enacted long before this agitation; and some of them long before you and I were born. Say the three hundred and fifty-three gentlemen of the District of Abbeville and Edgefield in South Carolina, who, the last year, broke up a system of oral religious instruction, which the Methodist Conference of that State had established amongst their slaves: “Intelligence and slavery have no affinity for each other.” And when those same gentlemen declare, that “verbal and lecturing instruction will increase a desire with the black population to learn”--that “the progress and diffusion of knowledge will be a consequence”--and that “a progressive system of improvement will be introduced, that will ultimately revolutionize our civil institutions,” they admit, that the prohibition of “intelligence” to the slaves is the settled and necessary policy of slavery, and not, as you would have us believe, a temporary expedient occasioned by the present “agitation of this subject of abolition.” 5th. Slavery--the system, which forbids marriage and the reading of the Bible-- does of necessity turn its subjects into heathens. A Report of the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, made five years ago, says: “Who could credit it, that in these years of revival and benevolent effort--that, in this Christian Republic, there are over two millions of human beings in the condition of heathen, and in some respects in a worse condition? They may be justly considered the heathen of this Christian country, and will bear comparison with heathen in any country in the world.” I will finish what I have to say on this point of “moral preparation” for freedom, with the remark, that the history of slavery in no country warrants your implication, that slaves acquire such “moral preparation.” The British Parliament substituted an apprenticeship for slavery with the express design, that it should afford a “moral preparation” for freedom. And yet, if you will read the reports of late visitors to the British West Indies, you will find, that the planters admit, that they made no use of the advantages of the apprenticeship to prepare their servants for liberty. Their own gain--not the slaves’--was their ruling motive, during the term of the apprenticeship, as well as preceding it. Another of your charges is, _that the abolitionists “have increased the rigors of legislation against slaves in most if HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY not all the slave States_.” And suppose, that our principles and measures have occasioned this evil--are they therefore wrong?--and are we, therefore, involved in sin? The principles and measures of Moses and Aaron were the occasion of a similar evil. Does it follow, that those principles and measures were wrong, and that Moses and Aaron were responsible for the sin of Pharaoh’s increased oppressiveness? The truth, which Jesus Christ preached on the earth, is emphatically peace: but its power on the depravity of the human heart made it the occasion of division and violence. That depravity was the guilty cause of the division and violence. The truth was but the innocent occasion of them. To make it responsible for the effects of that depravity would be as unreasonable, as it is to make the holy principles of the anti-slavery cause responsible for the wickedness which they occasion: and to make the great Preacher Himself responsible for the division and violence, would be but to carry out the absurdity, of which the public are guilty, in holding abolitionists responsible for the mobs, which are got up against them. These mobs, by the way, are called “abolition mobs.” A similar misnomer would pronounce the mob, that should tear down your house and shoot your wife, “Henry Clay’s mob.” Harriet Martineau, in stating the fact, that the mobs of 1834, in the city of New York, were set down to the wrong account, says, that the abolitionists were told, that “they had no business to scare the city with the sight of their burning property and demolished churches!” No doubt the light of truth, which the abolitionists are pouring into the dark den of slavery, greatly excites the monster’s wrath: and it may be, that he vents a measure of it on the helpless and innocent victims within his grasp. Be it so;--it is nevertheless, not the Ithuriel spear of truth, that is to be held guilty of the harm:--it is the monster’s own depravity, which cannot “endure Touch of celestial temper, but returns Of force to its own likeness.”[A] [Footnote A: This is a reference to a passage in Milton’s Paradise Lost, in which Satan in disguise is touched by the spear of the archangel Ithuriel and is thereby forced to return to his own form.] I am, however, far from believing, that the treatment of the slaves is rendered any more rigorous and cruel by the agitation of the subject of slavery. I am very far from believing, that it is any harsher now than it was before the organization of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Fugitive slaves tell us, it is not: and, inasmuch as the slaveholders are, and, by both words and actions, abundantly show, that they feel that they are, arraigned by the abolitionists before the bar of the civilized world, to answer to the charges of perpetrating cruelties on their slaves, it would, unless indeed, they are of the number of those “whose glory is in their shame,” be most unphilosophical to conclude, that they are multiplying proofs of the truth of those charges, more rapidly than at any former stage of their barbarities. That slaveholders are not insensible to public opinion and to the value of a good character was strikingly exhibited by Mr. Calhoun, in his place in the Senate of the United States, when he followed his frank disclaimer of all suspicion, that the abolitionists are meditating a war HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY against the slaveholder’s person, with remarks evincive of his sensitiveness under the war, which they are waging against the slaveholder’s character. A fact occurs to me, which goes to show, that the slaveholders feel themselves to be put upon their good behavior by the abolitionists. Although slaves are murdered every day at the South, yet never, until very recently, if at all, has the case occurred, in which a white man has been executed at the South for the murder of a slave. A few months ago, the Southern newspapers brought us copies of the document, containing the refusal of Governor Butler of South Carolina to pardon a man, who had been convicted of the murder of a slave. This document dwells on the protection due to the slave; and, if I fully recollect its character, an abolitionist himself could hardly have prepared a more appropriate paper for the occasion. Whence such a document--whence, in the editorial captions to this document, the exultation over its triumphant refutations of the slanders of the abolitionists against the South--but, that Governor Butler feels--but, that the writes of those captions feel--that the abolitionists have put the South upon her good behavior. Another of your charges is, _that the abolitionists oppose “the project of colonisation.”_ Having, under another head, made some remarks on this “project,” I will only add, that we must oppose the American Colonization Society, because it denies the sinfulness of slavery, and the duty of immediate, unqualified emancipation. Its avowed doctrine is, that, unless emancipation he accompanied by expatriation, perpetual slavery is to be preferred to it. Not to oppose that Society, would be the guiltiest treachery to our holy religion, which requires immediate and unconditional repentance of sin. Not to oppose it, would be to uphold slavery. Not to oppose it, would be to abandon the Anti-Slavery Society. Do you ask, why, if this be the character of the American Colonization Society, many, who are now abolitionists, continued in it so long? I answer for myself, that, until near the period of my withdrawal from it, I had very inadequate conceptions of the wickedness, both of that Society, and of slavery. For having felt the unequalled sin of slavery no more deeply--for feeling it now no more deeply, I confess myself to be altogether without excuse. The great criminality of my long continuance in the Colonization Society is perhaps somewhat palliated by the fact, that the strongest proofs of the wicked character and tendencies of the Society were not exhibited, until it spread out its wing over slavery to shelter the monster from the earnest and effective blows of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Another of your charges is, that the abolitionists, in declaring “that their object is not to stimulate the action of the General Government, _but to operate upon the States themselves, in which the institution of domestic slavery exists,” are evidently insincere, since the “abolition societies and movements are all confined to the free Slates_.” I readily admit, that our object is the abolition of slavery, as well in the slave States, as in other portions of the Nation, where it exists. But, does it follow, because only an insignificant share of our “abolition societies and movements” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY is in those States, that we therefore depend for the abolition of slavery in them on the General Government, rather than on moral influence? I need not repeat, that the charge of our looking to the General Government for such abolition is refuted by the language of the Constitution of the Anti-Slavery Society. You may, however, ask--”why, if you do not look to the General Government for it, is not the great proportion of your means of moral influence in the slave States, where is the great body of the slaves?” I answer that, in the first place, the South does not permit us to have them there; and that, in the words of one of your fellow Senators, and in the very similar words of another--both uttered on the floor of the Senate--”if the abolitionists come to the South, the South will hang them.” Pardon the remark, that it seems very disingenuous in you to draw conclusions unfavorable to the sincerity of the abolitionists from premises so notoriously false, as are those which imply, that it is entirely at their own option, whether the abolitionists shall have their “societies and movements” in the free or slave States. I continue to answer your question, by saying, in the second place, that, had the abolitionists full liberty to multiply their “societies and movements” in the slave States, they would probably think it best to have the great proportion of them yet awhile in the free States. To rectify public opinion on the subject of slavery is a leading object with abolitionists. This object is already realized to the extent of a thorough anti-slavery sentiment in Great Britain, as poor Andrew Stevenson, for whom you apologise, can testify. Indeed, the great power and pressure of that sentiment are the only apology left to this disgraced and miserable man for uttering a bald falsehood in vindication of Virginia morals. He above all other men, must feel the truth of the distinguished Thomas Fowel Buxton’s declaration, that “England is turned into one great Anti-Slavery Society.” Now, Sir, it is such a change, as abolitionists have been the instruments of producing in Great Britain, that we hope to see produced in the free States. We hope to see public sentiment in these States so altered, that such of their laws, as uphold and countenance slavery, will be repealed--so altered, that the present brutal treatment of the colored population in them will give place to a treatment dictated by justice, humanity, and brotherly and Christian love;--so altered, that there will be thousands, where now there are not hundreds, to class the products of slave labor with other stolen goods, and to refuse to eat and to wear that, which is wet with the tears, and red with the blood of “the poor innocents,” whose bondage is continued, because men are more concerned to buy what is cheap, than what is honestly acquired;- -so altered, that our Missionary and other religious Societies will remember, that God says: “I hate robbery for burnt- offering,” and will forbear to send their agents after that plunder, which, as it is obtained at the sacrifice of the body and soul of the plundered, is infinitely more unfit, than the products of ordinary theft, to come into the Lord’s treasury. And, when the warm desires of our hearts, on these points, shall be realized, the fifty thousand Southerners, who annually visit the North, for purposes of business and pleasure, will not all return to their homes, self-complacent and exulting, as now, when they carry with them the suffrages of the North in favor of slavery: but numbers of them will return to pursue the HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY thoughts inspired by their travels amongst the enemies of oppression--and, in the sequel, they will let their “oppressed go free.” It were almost as easy for the sun to call up vegetation by the side of an iceberg, as for the abolitionists to move the South extensively, whilst their influence is counteracted by a pro- slavery spirit at the North. How vain would be the attempt to reform the drunkards of your town of Lexington, whilst the sober in it continue to drink intoxicating liquors! The first step in the reformation is to induce the sober to change their habits, and create that total abstinence-atmosphere, in the breathing of which, the drunkard lives,--and, for the want of which, he dies. The first step, in the merciful work of delivering the slaveholder from his sin, is similar. It is to bring him under the influence of a corrected public opinion--of an anti-slavery sentiment:--and they, who are to be depended on to contribute to this public opinion--to make up this anti-slavery sentiment- -are those, who are not bound up in the iron habits, and blinded by the mighty interests of the slaveholder. To depend on slaveholders to give the lead to public opinion in the anti- slavery enterprise, would be no less absurd, than to begin the temperance reformation with drunkards, and to look to them to produce the influences, which are indispensable to their own redemption. You say of the abolitionists, _that “they are in favor of amalgamation.”_ The Anti-Slavery Society is, as its name imports, a society to oppose slavery--not to “make matches.” Whether abolitionists are inclined to amalgamation more than anti-abolitionists are, I will not here take upon myself to decide. So far, as you and I may be regarded as representatives of these two parties, and so far as our marriages argue our tastes in this matter, the abolitionists and anti-abolitionists may be set down, as equally disposed to couple white with white and black with black--for our wives, as you are aware, are both white. I will here mention, as it may further argue the similarity in the matrimonial tastes of abolitionists and anti-abolitionists, the fact so grateful to us in the days, when we were “workers together” in promoting the “scheme of Colonization,” that our wives are natives of the same town. I have a somewhat extensive acquaintance at the North; and I can truly say, that I do not know a white abolitionist, who is the reputed father of a colored child. At the South there are several hundred thousand persons, whose yellow skins testify, that the white man’s blood courses through their veins. Whether the honorable portion of their parentage is to be ascribed exclusively to the few abolitionists scattered over the South- -and who, under such supposition, must, indeed, be prodigies of industry and prolificness--or whether anti-abolitionists there have, notwithstanding all their pious horror of “amalgamation,” been contributing to it, you can better judge than myself. That slavery is a great amalgamator, no one acquainted with the blended colors of the South will, for a moment, deny. But, that an increasing amalgamation would attend the liberation of the slaves, is quite improbable, when we reflect, that the extensive occasions of the present mixture are the extreme debasement of HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY the blacks and their entire subjection to the will of the whites; and that even should the debasement continue under a state of freedom, the subjection would not. It is true, that the colored population of our country might in a state of freedom, attain to an equality with the whites; and that a multiplication of instances of matrimonial union between the two races might be a consequence of this equality: but, beside, that this would be a lawful and sinless union, instead of the adulterous and wicked one, which is the fruit of slavery, would not the improved condition of our down-trodden brethren be a blessing infinitely overbalancing all the violations of our taste, which it might occasion? I say violations of _our_ taste;--for we must bear in mind that, offensive as the intermixture of different races may be to us, the country or age, which practices it, has no sympathy whatever with our feeling on this point. How strongly and painfully it argues the immorality and irreligion of the American people, that they should look so complacently on the “amalgamation,” which tramples the seventh commandment under foot, and yet be so offended at that, which has the sanction of lawful wedlock! When the Vice President of this Nation was in nomination for his present office, it was objected to him, that he had a family of colored children. The defence, set up by his partisans, was, that, although he had such a family, he nevertheless was not married to their mother! The defence was successful; and the charge lost all its odiousness; and the Vice President’s popularity was retrieved, when, it turned out, that he was only the adulterous, and not the married father of his children! I am aware, that many take the ground, that we must keep the slaves in slavery to prevent the matrimonial “amalgamation,” which, they apprehend, would be a fruit of freedom. But, however great a good, abolitionists might deem the separation of the white and black races, and however deeply they might be impressed with the power of slavery to promote this separation, they nevertheless, dare not “do evil, that good may come:”--they dare not seek to promote this separation, at the fearful expense of upholding, or in anywise, countenancing a humanity-crushing and God-defying system of oppression. Another charge against the abolitionists is implied in the inquiry you make, _whether since they do not “furnish in their own families or persons examples of intermarriage, they intend to contaminate the industrious and laborious classes of society of the North by a revolting admixture of the black element.”_ This inquiry shows how difficult it is for southern minds, accustomed as they have ever been to identify labor with slavery, to conceive the true character and position of such “classes” at the North; and also how ignorant they are of the composition of our Anti-Slavery societies. To correct your misapprehensions on these points, I will briefly say, in the first place, that the laborers of the North are freemen and not slaves;--that they marry whom they please, and are neither paired nor unpaired to suit the interests of the breeder, or seller, or buyer, of human stock:--and, in the second place, that the abolitionists, instead of being a body of persons distinct from “the industrious and laborious classes,” do, more than nineteen twentieths of them, belong to those “classes.” You HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY have fallen into great error in supposing, that _abolitionists_ generally belong to the wealthy and aristocratic classes. This, to a great extent, is true of _anti-abolitionists_. Have you never heard the boast, that there have been anti-abolition mobs, which consisted of “gentlemen of property and standing?” You charge upon abolitionists “_the purpose to create a pinching competition between black labor and white labor;” and add, that “on the supposition of abolition the black class, migrating into the free states, would enter into competition with the white class, diminishing the wages of their labor_.” In making this charge, as well as in making that which immediately precedes it, you have fallen into the error, that abolitionists do not belong to “the industrious and laborious classes.” In point of fact, the abolitionists belong so generally to these classes, that if your charge be true, they must have the strange “purpose” of “pinching” themselves. Whether “the black class” would, or would not migrate, I am much more pleased to have you say what you do on this point, though it be at the expense of your consistency, than to have you say, as you do in another part of your speech, that abolition “would end in the extermination or subjugation of the one race or the other.” It appears to me highly improbable, that emancipation would be followed by the migration of the emancipated. Emancipation, which has already added fifty per cent. to the value of estates in the British West Indies, would immediately add as much to the value of the soil of the South. Much more of it would be brought into use; and, notwithstanding the undoubted truth, that the freedman performs twice as much labor as when a slave, the South would require, instead of any diminution, a very great increase of the number of her laborers. The laboring population of the British West India Islands, is one-third as large as that of the southern states; and yet, since these islands have got rid of slavery, and have entered on their career of enterprize and industry, they find this population, great as it is, insufficient to meet the increased demand for labor. As you are aware, they are already inviting laborers of this and other countries to supply the deficiency. But what is the amount of cultivable land in those islands, compared with that in all the southern states? It is not so extensive as the like land in your single state. But you may suppose, that, in the event of the emancipation of her slaves, the South would prefer white laborers. I know not why she should. Such are, for the most part, unaccustomed to her kinds of labor, and they would exact, because they would need, far greater wages than those, who had never been indulged beyond the gratification of their simplest wants. There is another point of view, in which it is still more improbable, that the black laborers of the South would be displaced by immigrations of white laborers. The proverbial attachment of the slave to his “bornin-ground,” (the place of his nativity,) would greatly contribute to his contentment with low wages, at the hands of his old master. As an evidence of the strong attachment of our southern colored brethren to their birth-places, I remark, that, whilst the free colored population of the free states increased from 1820 to 1830 but nineteen per cent., the like population HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY in the slave states increased, in the same period, thirty five per cent;--and this, too, notwithstanding the operation of those oppressive and cruel laws, whose enactment was dictated by the settled policy of expelling the free blacks from the South. That, in the event of the abolition of southern slavery, the emancipated slaves would migrate to the North, rather than elsewhere, is very improbable. Whilst our climate would be unfriendly to them, and whilst they would be strangers to our modes of agriculture, the sugar and cotton fields of Texas, the West Indies, and other portions of the earth, would invite them to congenial employments beneath congenial skies. That, in case southern slavery is abolished, the colored population of the North would be drawn off to unite with their race at the South, is, for reasons too obvious to mention, far more probable than the reverse. It will be difficult for you to persuade the North, that she would suffer in a pecuniary point of view by the extirpation of slavery. The consumption of the laborers at the South would keep pace with the improvement and elevation of their condition, and would very soon impart a powerful impulse to many branches of Northern industry. Another of your charges is in the following words: “The subject of slavery within the District of Florida,” and that “of the right of Congress to prohibit the removal of slaves from one state to another,” are, with abolitionists, “but so many masked batteries, concealing the real and ultimate point of attack. That point of attack is the institution of domestic slavery, as it exists in those states.” If you mean by this charge, that abolitionists think that the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and in Florida, and the suppression of the interstate traffic in human beings are, in themselves, of but little moment, you mistake. If you mean, that they think them of less importance than the abolition of slavery in the slave states, you are right; and if you further mean, that they prize those objects more highly, and pursue them more zealously, because they think, that success in them will set in motion very powerful, if not indeed resistless influences against slavery in the slave states, you are right in this also. I am aware, that the latter concession brings abolitionists under the condemnation of that celebrated book, written by a _modern_ limiter of “human responsibility”--not by the _ancient_ one, who exclaimed, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” In that book, to which, by the way, the infamous Atherton Resolutions are indebted for their keynote, and grand pervading idea, we find the doctrine, that even if it were the duty of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, the North nevertheless should not seek for such abolition, unless the object of it be “ultimate within itself.” If it be “for the sake of something ulterior” also--if for the sake of inducing the slaveholders of the slave states to emancipate their slaves-- then we should not seek for it. Let us try this doctrine in another application--in one, where its distinguished author will not feel so much delicacy, and so much fear of giving offence. His reason why we should not go for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, unless our object in it be “ultimate within itself,” and unaccompanied by the object of producing an HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY influence against slavery in the slave states, is, that the Federal Constitution has left the matter of slavery in the slave states to those states themselves. But will President Wayland say, that it has done so to any greater extent, than it has left the matter of gambling-houses and brothels in those states to those states themselves? He will not, if he consider the subject:--though, I doubt not, that when he wrote his bad book, he was under the prevailing error, that the Federal Constitution tied up the hands and limited the power of the American people in respect to slavery, more than to any other vice. But to the other application. We will suppose, that Great Britain has put down the gambling-houses and brothels in her wide dominions--that Mexico has done likewise; and that the George Thompsons, and Charles Stuarts, and other men of God, have come from England to beseech the people of the northern states to do likewise within their respective jurisdictions;-- and we will further suppose, that those foreign missionaries, knowing the obstinate and infatuated attachment of the people of the southern states to their gambling-houses and brothels, should attempt, and successfully, too, to blend with the motive of the people of the northern states to get rid of their own gambling houses and brothels, the motive of influencing the people of the southern states to get rid of theirs--what, we ask, would this eminent divine advise in such a case? Would he have the people of the northern states go on in their good work, and rejoice in the prospect, not only that these polluting and ruinous establishments would soon cease to exist within all their limits, but that the influence of their overthrow would be fatal to the like establishments in the southern states? To be consistent with himself--with the doctrine in question--he must reply in the negative. To be consistent with himself, he must advise the people of the northern states to let their own gambling-houses and brothels stand, until they can make the object of their abolishment “ultimate within itself;”--until they can expel from their hearts the cherished hope, that the purification of their own states of these haunts of wickedness would exert an influence to induce the people of their sister states to enter upon a similar work of purity and righteousness. But I trust, that President Wayland would not desire to be consistent with himself on this point. I trust that he would have the magnanimity to throw away this perhaps most pernicious doctrine of a pernicious book, which every reader of it must see was written to flatter and please the slaveholder and arrest the progress of the anti-slavery cause. How great the sin of seizing on this very time, when special efforts are being made to enlist the world’s sympathies in behalf of the millions of our robbed, outraged, crushed countrymen--how great the sin, of seizing on such a time to attempt to neutralize those efforts, by ascribing to the oppressors of these millions a characteristic “nobleness”--”enthusiastic attachment to personal right”-- ”disinterestedness which has always marked the southern character”--and a superiority to all others “in making any sacrifice for the public good!” It is this sin--this heinous sin--of which President Wayland has to repent. If he pities the slave, it is because he knows, that the qualities, which he ascribes to the slaveholder, do not, in fact, belong to him. On the other hand, if he believes the slaveholder to be, what he represents him to be, he does not--in the very nature of things, HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY he cannot--pity the slave. He must rather rejoice, that the slave has fallen into the hands of one, who, though he has the name, cannot have the heart, and cannot continue in the relation of a slaveholder. If John Hook, for having mingled his discordant and selfish cries with the acclamations of victory and then general joy, deserved Patrick Henry’s memorable rebuke, what does he not deserve, who finds it in his heart to arrest the swelling tide of pity for the oppressed by praises of the oppressor, and to drown the public lament over the slave’s subjection to absolute power, in the congratulation, that the slaveholder who exercises that power, is a being of characteristic “nobleness,” “disinterestedness,” and “sacrifice” of self-interest? President Wayland may perhaps say, that the moral influence, which he is unwilling to have exerted over the slaveholder, is not that, which is simply persuasive, but that, which is constraining--not that, which is simply inducing, but that, which is compelling. I cheerfully admit, that it is infinitely better to induce men to do right from their own approbation of the right, than it is to shame them, or in any other wise constrain them, to do so; but I can never admit, that I am not at liberty to effect the release of my colored brother from the fangs of his murderous oppressor, when I can do so by bringing public opinion to bear upon that oppressor, and to fill him with uneasiness and shame. I have not, overlooked the distinction taken by the reverend gentleman; though, I confess that, to a mind no less obtuse than my own, it is very little better than “a distinction without a difference.” Whilst he denies, that I can, as an American citizen, rightfully labor for the abolition of slavery in the slave states, or even in the District of Columbia; he would perhaps, admit that, as a man, I might do so. But am I not interested, as an American citizen, to have every part of my country cleared of vice, and of whatever perils its free institutions? Am I not interested, as such, to promote the overthrow of gambling and rum drinking establishments in South Carolina?--but why any more than to promote the overthrow of slavery? In fine, am I not interested, as an American citizen, to have my country, and my whole country, “right in the sight of God?” If not, I had better not be an American citizen. I say no more on the subject of the sophistries of President Wayland’s book on, “The limitations of human responsibility;” nor would I have said what I have, were it not that it is in reply to the like sophistries couched in that objection of yours, which I have now been considering. Another of your charges against the abolitionists is, _that they seek to “stimulate the rage of the people of the free states against the people of the slave states. Advertisements of fugitive slaves and of slaves to be sold are carefully collected and blazoned forth to infuse a spirit of detestation and hatred against one entire and the largest section of the Union.”_ The slaveholders of the South represent slavery as a heaven-born institution--themselves as patriarchs and patterns of benevolence--and their slaves, as their tenderly treated and happy dependents. The abolitionists, on the contrary, think that slavery is from hell--that slaveholders are the worst of HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY robbers--and that their slaves are the wretched victims of unsurpassed cruelties. Now, how do abolitionists propose to settle the points at issue?--by fanciful pictures of the abominations of slavery to countervail the like pictures of its blessedness?--by mere assertions against slavery, to balance mere assertions in its favor? No--but by the perfectly reasonable and fair means of examining slavery in the light of its own code--of judging of the character of the slaveholder in the light of his own conduct--and of arguing the condition of the slave from unequivocal evidences of the light in which the slave himself views it. To this end we publish extracts from the southern slave code, which go to show that slavery subjects its victims to the absolute control of their erring fellow men--that it withholds from them marriage and the Bible--that it classes them with brutes and things--and annihilates the distinctions between mind and matter. To this end we republish in part, or entirely, pamphlets and books, in which southern men exhibit, with their own pens, some of the horrid features of slavery. To this end we also republish such advertisements as you refer to- -advertisements in which immortal beings, made in the image of God, and redeemed by a Savior’s blood, and breathed upon by the Holy Spirit, are offered to be sold, at public auction, or sheriff’s sale, in connection with cows, and horses, and ploughs: and, sometimes we call special attention to the common fact, that the husband and wife, the parent and infant child, are advertised to be sold together or separately, as shall best suit purchasers. It is to this end also, that we often republish specimens of the other class of advertisements to which you refer. Some of the advertisements of this class identify the fugitive slave by the scars, which the whip, or the manacles and fetters, or the rifle had made on his person. Some of them offer a reward for his head!--and it is to this same end, that we often refer to the ten thousands, who have fled from southern slavery, and the fifty fold that number, who have unsuccessfully attempted to fly from it. How unutterable must be the horrors of the southern prison house, and how strong and undying the inherent love of liberty to induce these wretched fellow beings to brave the perils which cluster so thickly and frightfully around their attempted escape? That love is indeed _undying_. The three hundred and fifty-three South Carolina gentlemen, to whom I have referred, admit, that even “the old negro man, whose head is white with age, raises his thoughts to look through the vista which will terminate his bondage.” I put it to your candor--can you object to the reasonableness and fairness of these modes, which abolitionists have adopted for establishing the truth on the points at issue between themselves and slaveholders? But, you may say that our republication of your own representations of slavery proceeds from unkind motives, and serves to stir up the “hatred,” and “rage of the people of the free states against the people of the slave states.” If such be an effect of the republication, although not at all responsible for it, we deeply regret it; and, as to our motives, we can only meet the affirmation of their unkindness with a simple denial. Were we, however, to admit the unkindness of our motives, and that we do not always adhere to the apostolic motto, of “speaking the truth in love”--would the admission change the features of slavery, or make it any the less a system of pollution and blood? Is the accused any the HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY less a murderer, because of the improper motives with which his accuser brings forward the conclusive proof of his blood- guiltiness? We often see, in the speeches and writings of the South, that slaveholders claim as absolute and as rightful a property in their slaves, as in their cattle. Whence then their sensitiveness under our republication of the advertisements, is which they offer to sell their human stock? If the south will republish the advertisements of our property, we will only not be displeased, but will thank her; and any rebukes she may see fit to pour upon us, for offering particular kinds of property, will be very patiently borne, in view of the benefit we shall reap from her copies of our advertisements. A further charge in your speech is, _that the abolitionists pursue their object “reckless of all consequences, however calamitous they may be;” that they have no horror of a “civil war,” or “a dissolution of the Union;” that theirs is “a bloody road,” and “their purpose is abolition, universal abolition, peaceably if it can, forcibly if it must.”_ It is true that, the abolitionists pursue their object, undisturbed by apprehensions of consequences; but it is not true, that they pursue it “reckless of consequences.” We believe that they, who unflinchingly press the claims of God’s truth, deserve to be considered as far less “reckless of consequences,” than they, who, suffering themselves to be thrown into a panic by apprehensions of some mischievous results, local or general, immediate or remote, are guilty of compromising the truth, and substituting corrupt expediency for it. We believe that the consequences of obeying the truth and following God are good-- only good--and that too, not only in eternity, but in time also. We believe, that had the confidently anticipated deluge of blood followed the abolition of slavery in the British West Indies, the calamity would have been the consequence, not of abolition, but of resistance to it. The insanity, which has been known to follow the exhibition of the claims of Christianity, is to be charged on the refusal to fall in with those claims, and not on our holy religion. But, notwithstanding, we deem it our duty and privilege to confine ourselves to the word of the Lord, and to make that word suffice to prevent all fears of consequences; we, nevertheless, employ additional means to dispel the alarms of those, who insist on walking “by sight;” and, in thus accommodating ourselves to their want of faith, we are justified by the example of Him, who, though he said, “blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed,” nevertheless permitted an unbelieving disciple, both to see and to touch the prints of the nails and the spear. When dealing with such unbelievers, we do not confine ourselves to the “thus saith the Lord”--to the Divine command, to “let the oppressed go free and break every yoke”--to the fact, that God is an abolitionist: but we also show how contrary to all sound philosophy is the fear, that the slave, on whom have been heaped all imaginable outrages, will, when those outrages are exchanged for justice and mercy, turn and rend his penitent master. When dealing with such unbelievers, we advert to the fact, that the insurrections at the South have been the work of slaves--not one of them of HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY persons discharged from slavery: we show how happy were the fruits of emancipation in St. Domingo: and that the “horrors of St. Domingo,” by the parading of which so many have been deterred from espousing our righteous cause, were the result of the attempt to re-establish slavery. When dealing with them, we ask attention to the present peaceful, prosperous, and happy condition of the British West India Islands, which so triumphantly falsifies the predictions, that bankruptcy, violence, bloodshed, and utter ruin would follow the liberation of their slaves. We point these fearful and unbelieving ones to the fact of the very favorable influence of the abolition of slavery on the price of real estate in those islands; to that of the present rapid multiplication of schools and churches in them; to the fact, that since the abolition of slavery, on the first day of August 1834, not a white man in all those islands has been struck down by the arm of a colored man; and then we ask them whether in view of such facts, they are not prepared to believe, that God connects safety with obedience, and that it is best to “trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding.” On the subject of “a dissolution of the Union,” I have only to say, that, on the one hand, there is nothing in my judgment, which, under God, would tend so much to preserve our Republic, as the carrying out into all our social, political and religious institutions of its great foundation principle, that “all men are created equal;” and that, on the other hand, the flagrant violation of that principle in the system of slavery, is doing more than all thing, else to hasten the destruction of the Republic. I am aware, that one of the doctrines of the South is, that “slavery is the corner-stone of the republican edifice.” But, if it be true, that our political institutions harmonize with, and are sustained by slavery, then the sooner we exchange them for others the better. I am aware, that it is said, both at the North and at the South, that it is essential to the preservation of the Union. But, greatly as I love the Union, and much as I would sacrifice for its righteous continuance, I cannot hesitate to say, that if slavery be an indispensable cement, the sooner it is dissolved the better. I am not displeased, that you call ours “a bloody road”--for this language does not necessarily implicate our motives; but I am greatly surprised that you charge upon us the wicked and murderous “purpose” of a forcible abolition. In reply to this imputation, I need only refer you to the Constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society--to the Declaration of the Convention which framed it--and to our characters, for pledges, that we design no force, and are not likely to stain our souls with the crime of murder. That Constitution says: “This society will never, in any way, countenance the oppressed in vindicating their rights by resorting to physical force.” The Declaration says “Our principles forbid the doing of evil that good may come, and lead us to reject, and to entreat the oppressed to reject, the use of all carnal weapons for deliverance from bondage. Our measures shall be such only, as the opposition of moral purity to moral corruption--the destruction of error by the potency of truth--the overthrow of prejudice by the power of love--and the abolition of slavery by the spirit of repentance.” As to our characters they are before the world. You would probably look HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY in vain through our ranks for a horse-racer, a gambler, a profane person, a rum-drinker, or a duellist. More than nine-tenths of us deny the rightfulness of offensive, and a large majority, even that of defensive national wars. A still larger majority believe, that deadly weapons should not be used in cases of individual strife. And, if you should ask, “where in the free States are the increasing numbers of men and women, who believe, that the religion of the unresisting ‘Lamb of God’ forbids recourse to such weapons, in all circumstances, either by nations or individuals?”--the answer is, “to a man, to a woman, in the ranks of the abolitionists.” You and others will judge for yourselves, how probable it is, that the persons, whom I have described, will prove worthy of being held up as murderers. The last of your charges against the abolitionists, which I shall examine, is the following: _Having begun “their operations by professing to employ only persuasive means,” they “have ceased to employ the instruments of reason and persuasion,” and “they now propose to substitute the powers of the ballot box;” and “the inevitable tendency of their proceedings is if these should be found insufficient, to invoke finally the more potent powers of the bayonet.”_ If the slaveholders would but let us draw on them for the six or eight thousand dollars, which we expend monthly to sustain our presses and lecturers, they would then know, from an experience too painful to be forgotten, how truthless is your declaration, that we “have ceased to employ the instruments of reason and persuasion.” You and your friends, at first, employed “persuasive means” against “the sub-treasury system.” Afterwards, you rallied voters against it. Now, if this fail, will you resort to “the more potent powers of the bayonet?” You promptly and indignantly answer, “No.” But, why will you not? Is it because the prominent opposers of that system have more moral worth — more religious horror of blood — than Arthur Tappan, William Jay, and their prominent abolition friends? Were such to be your answer, the public would judge, whether the men of peace and purity, who compose the mass of abolitionists, would be more likely than the Clays and Wises and the great body of the followers of these Congressional leaders to betake themselves from a disappointment at “the ballot-box” to “the more potent powers of the bayonet?” You say, that we “_now_ propose to substitute the powers of the ballot-box,” as if it were only of late, that we had proposed to do so. What then means the following language in our Constitution: “The society will also endeavor in a Constitutional way to influence Congress to put an end to the domestic slave-trade, and to abolish slavery in all those portions of our common country, which come under its control-- especially in the District of Columbia--and likewise to prevent the extension of it to any State, that may be hereafter admitted to the Union?” What then means the following language in the “Declaration” of the Convention, which framed our Constitution: “We also maintain, that there are at the present time the highest obligations resting upon the people of the Free States to remove slavery by moral and political action, as prescribed in the Constitution of the United States?” If it be for the first time, that we “_now_ propose” “political action,” what means it, that HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY anti-slavery presses have, from year to year, called on abolitionists to remember the slave at the polls? You are deceived on this point; and the rapid growth of our cause has been the occasion of your deception. You suppose, because it is only within the last few months, that you have heard of abolitionists in this country carrying their cause to “the ballot box,” that it is only within the last few months that they have done so. But, in point of fact, some of them have done so for several years. It was not, however, until the last year or two, when the number of abolitionists had become considerable, and their hope of producing an impression on the Elections proportionately strong, that many of them were seen bringing their abolition principles to the “ballot-box.” Nor was it until the Elections of the last Autumn, that abolition action at “the ballot-box” had become so extensive, as to apprise the Nation, that it is a principle with abolitionists to “remember” in one place as well as in another--at the polls as well as in the closet--”them that are in bonds.” The fact that, at the last State Election, there were three or four hundred abolition votes given in the County in which I reside, is no more real because of its wide spread interest, than the comparatively unheard of fact, that about one hundred such votes were given the year before. By the way, when I hear complaints of abolition action at the “ballot-box,” I can hardly refrain from believing, that they are made ironically. When I hear complaints, that the abolitionists of this State rallied, as such, at the last State Election, I cannot easily avoid suspecting, that the purpose of such complaints is the malicious one of reviving in our breasts the truly stinging and shame-filling recollection, that some five-sixths of the voters in our ranks, either openly apostatized from our principles, or took it into their heads, that the better way to vote for the slave and the anti-slavery cause was to vote for their respective political parties. You would be less afraid of the abolitionists, if I should tell you that more than ten thousand of them in this State voted at the last State Election, for candidates for law makers, who were openly in favor of the law of this State, which creates slavery, and of other laws, which countenance and uphold it. And you would owe me for one of your heartiest laughs, were I to tell you, that there are abolitionists--professed abolitionists--yes, actual members of the Anti-Slavery Society--who, carrying out this delusion of helping the slave by helping their “party,” say, that they would vote even for a slaveholder, if their party should nominate him. Let me remark, however, that I am happy to be able to inform you, that this delusion--at least in my own State--is fast passing away; and that thousands of the abolitionists who, in voting last Autumn for Gov. Marey or Gov. Seward, took the first step in the way, that leads to voting for the slaveholder himself, are now not only refusing to take another step in that inconsistent and wicked way, but are repenting deeply of that, which they have already taken in it. Much as you dislike, not to say _dread_, abolition action at “the ballot-box,” I presume, that I need not spend any time in explaining to you the inconsistency of which an abolitionist is guilty, who votes for an upholder of slavery. A wholesome citizen would not vote fur a candidate for a law maker, who is in favor of laws, which authorize gaming-houses or _groggeries_. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY But, in the eye of one, who his attempted to take the “guage and dimensions” of the hell of slavery, the laws, which authorize slaveholding, far transcend in wickedness, those, which authorize gaming-houses or _groggeries_. You would not vote for a candidate for a law-maker, who is in favor of “the sub-treasury system.” But compared with the evil of slavery, what is that of the most pernicious currency scheme ever devised? It is to be “counted as the small dust of the balance.” If you would withhold your vote in the case supposed--how gross in your eyes must be the inconsistency of the abolitionist, who casts his vote on the side of the system of fathomless iniquity! I have already remarked on “the third” of the “impediments” or “obstacles” to emancipation, which you bring to view. _”The first impediment,” you say, “is the utter and absolute want of all power on the part of the General Government to effect the purpose.”_ But because there is this want on the part of the General Government, it does not follow, that it also exists on the part of the States: nor does it follow, that it also exists on the part of the slaveholders themselves. It is a poor plea of your neighbor for continuing to hold his fellow man in slavery, that neither the Federal Government nor the State of Kentucky has power to emancipate them. Such a plea is about as valid, as that of the girl for not having performed the task, which her mistress had assigned to her. “I was tied to the table.” “Who tied you there?” “I tied myself there.” _”The next obstacle,” you say, “in the way of abolition arises out of the fact of the presence in the slave states of three millions of slaves.”_ This is, indeed a formidable “obstacle:” and I admit, that it is as much more difficult for the impenitent slaveholder to surmount it, than it would be if there were but one million of slaves, as it is for the impenitent thief to restore the money he has stolen, than it would be, if the sum were one third as great. But, be not discouraged, dear sir, with this view of the case. Notwithstanding the magnitude of the obstacle, the warmest desires of your heart for the abolition of slavery, may yet be realized. Be thankful, that repentance can avail in every case of iniquity; that it can loosen the grasp of the man-thief, as well as that of the money-thief: of the oppressors of thousands as well as of hundreds:--of “three millions,” as well as of one million. But, were I to allow, that the obstacle in question, is as great, as you regard it--nevertheless will it not increase with the lapse of years, and become less superable the longer the work of abolition is postponed? I suppose, however, that it is not to be disguised, that, notwithstanding the occasional attempts in the course of your speech to create a different impression, you are in favor of perpetual slavery; and that all you say about “ultra abolitionists” in distinction from “abolitionists,” and about “gradual emancipation,” in distinction from “immediate emancipation,” is said, but to please those, who sincerely make, and are gulled by, such distinctions. I do not forget, that you say, that the abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania was proper. But, most obviously, you say it, to win favor with the anti- slavery portion of the North, and to sustain the world’s opinion HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY of your devotion to the cause of universal liberty;--for, having made this small concession to that holy cause--small indeed, since Pennsylvania never at any one time, had five thousand slaves--you, straightway, renew your claims to the confidence of slaveholders, by assuring them, that you are opposed to “any scheme whatever of emancipation, gradual or immediate,” in States where the slave population is extensive;--and, for proof of the sincerity of your declaration, you refer them to the fact of your recent open and effective opposition to the overthrow of slavery in your own State. The South is opposed to gradual, as well as to immediate emancipation: and, were she, indeed, to enter upon a scheme of gradual emancipation, she would speedily abandon it. The objections to swelling the number of her free colored population, whilst she continued to hold their brethren of the same race in bondage, would be found too real and alarming to justify her perseverance in the scheme. How strange, that men at the North, who think soundly on other subjects, should deduce the feasibility of gradual emancipation in the slave states--in some of which the slaves outnumber the free--from the fact of the like emancipation of the comparative handful of slaves in New York and Pennsylvania! You say, “_It is frequently asked, what will become of the African race among us? Are they forever to remain in bondage? That question was asked more than half a century ago. It has been answered by fifty years of prosperity_.” The wicked man, “spreading himself like the green bay tree,” would answer this question, as you have. They, who “walk after their own lusts, saying, where is the promise of his coming-- for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation?” would answer it, as you have. They, whose “heart is fully set in them to do evil, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily,” would answer it, as you have. But, however you or they may answer it, and although God may delay his “coming” and the execution of his “sentence,” it, nevertheless, remains true, that “it shall be well with them that fear God, but it shall not be well with the wicked.” “Fifty years of prosperity!” On whose testimony do we learn, that the last “fifty years” have been “years of prosperity” to the South?--on the testimony of oppressors or on that of the oppressed?--on that of her two hundred and fifty thousand slaveholders--for this is the sum total of the tyrants, who rule the South and rule this nation--or on that of her two millions and three quarters of bleeding and crushed slaves? It may well be, that those of the South, who “have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton and have nourished their hearts as in a day of slaughter,” should speak of “prosperity:” but, before we admit, that the “prosperity,” of which they speak, is that of the South, instead of themselves merely, we must turn our weeping eyes to the “laborers, who have reaped down” their oppressors’ “fields without wages,” and the “cries” of whom “are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth;” and we must also take into the account the tears, and sweat, and groans, and blood, of the millions of similar laborers, whom, during the last “fifty years,” death has mercifully released from Southern HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY bondage. Talks the slaveholder of the “prosperity” of the South? It is but his own “prosperity”--and a “prosperity,” such as the wolf may boast, when gorging on the flock. You say, _that the people of the North would not think it “neighborly and friendly” if “the people of the slave states were to form societies, subsidize presses, make large pecuniary contributions, &c. to burn the beautiful capitals, destroy the productive manufactories, and sink the gallant ships of the northern states_.” Indeed, they would not! But, if you were to go to such pains, and expense for the purpose of relieving our poor, doubling our wealth, and promoting the spiritual interests of both rich and poor--then we should bless you for practising a benevolence towards us, so like that, which abolitionists practise towards you; and then our children, and children’s children, would bless your memories, even as your children and children’s children will, if southern slavery be peacefully abolished, bless our memories, and lament that their ancestors had been guilty of construing our love into hatred, and our purpose of naught but good into a purpose of unmingled evil. Near the close of your speech is the remark: “_I prefer the liberty of my own country to that of any other people_.” Another distinguished American statesman uttered the applauded sentiment: “My country--my whole country--and nothing but my country;”--and a scarcely less distinguished countryman of ours commanded the public praise, by saying: “My country right--but my country, right or wrong.” Such are the expressions of _patriotism_ of that idolized compound of selfish and base affections! Were I writing for the favor, instead of the welfare of my fellow-men, I should praise rather than denounce patriotism. Were I writing in accordance with the maxims of a corrupt world, instead of the truth of Jesus Christ, I should defend and extol, rather than rebuke the doctrine, that we may prefer the interests of one section of the human family to those of another. If patriotism, in the ordinary acceptation of the word, be right, then the Bible is wrong--for that blessed book requires us to love all men, even as we love ourselves. How contrary to its spirit and precepts, that, “Lands intersected by a narrow frith, Abhor each other, Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else, Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.” There are many, who consider that the doctrine of loving all our fellow men as ourselves, belongs, to use your words, “to a sublime but impracticable philosophy.” Let them, however, but devoutly ask Him, who enjoins it, to warm and expand their selfish and contracted hearts with its influences; and they will know, by sweet experience, that under the grace of God, the doctrine is no less “practicable” than “sublime.” Not a few seem to suppose, that he, who has come to regard the whole world as his country, and all mankind as his countrymen, will have less love of home and country than the patriot has, who makes his own nation, and no other, the cherished object of his affections. But did the Saviour, when on earth, love any individual the less, because the love of His great heart was poured out, in equal HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY tides, over the whole human family? And would He not, even in the eyes of the patriot himself, be stamped with imperfection, were it, to appear, that one nation shares less than another in His “loving-kindness” and that “His tender mercies are (not) over all his works?” Blessed be His holy name, that He was cast down the “middle wall of partition” between the Jew and Gentile!--that there is no respect of persons with Him!--that “Greek” and “Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond” and “free,” are equal before Him! Having said, “_I prefer the liberty of my own country to that of any other people_,” you add--”_and the liberty of my own race to that of any other race.”_ How perfectly natural, that the one sentiment should follow the other! How perfectly natural, that he who can limit his love by state or national lines, should be also capable of confining it to certain varieties of the human complexion! How perfectly natural, that, he who is guilty of the insane and wicked prejudice against his fellow men, because they happen to be born a dozen, or a hundred, or a thousand miles from the place of his nativity, should foster the no less insane and wicked prejudice against the “skin not colored like his own!” How different is man from God! “He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” But were man invested with supreme control, he would not distribute blessings impartially even amongst the “good” and the “just.” You close your speech with advice and an appeal to abolitionists. Are you sure that an appeal, to exert the most winning influence upon our hearts, would not have come from some other source better than from one who, not content with endeavoring to show the pernicious tendency of our principles and measures, freely imputes to us bloody and murderous motives? Are you sure, that you, who ascribe to us designs more diabolical than those of burning “beautiful capitals,” and destroying “productive manufactories,” and sinking “gallant ships,” are our most suitable adviser? We have, however, waved all exception on this score to your appeal and advice, and exposed our minds and hearts to the whole power and influence of your speech. And now we ask, that you, in turn, will hear us. Presuming that you are too generous to refuse the reciprocation, we proceed to call on you to stay your efforts at quenching the world’s sympathy for the slave--at arresting the progress of liberal, humane, and Christian sentiments--at upholding slavery against that Almighty arm, which now, “after so long a time,” is revealed for its destruction. We urge you to worthier and more hopeful employments. Exert your great powers for the repeal of the matchlessly wicked laws enacted to crush the Saviour’s poor. Set a happy and an influential example to your fellow slaveholders, by a righteous treatment of those, whom you unrighteously hold in bondage. Set them this example, by humbling yourself before God and your assembled slaves, in unfeigned penitence for the deep and measureless wrongs you have done the guiltless victims of your oppression--by paying those _men_, (speak of them, think of them, no longer, as _brutes_ and _things_)--by paying these, who are my brother men and your brother men, the “hire” you have so long withheld from them, and “which crieth” to Heaven, because it “is of you kept back”--by breaking the galling yoke from their necks, and letting them “go free.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Do you shrink from our advice--and say, that obedience to its just requirements would impoverish you? Infinitely better, that you be honestly poor than dishonestly rich. Infinitely better to “do justly,” and be a Lazarus; than to become a Croesus, by clinging to and accumulating ill-gotten gains. Do you add to the fear of poverty, that of losing your honors--those which are anticipated, as well as those, which already deck your brow? Allow us to assure you, that it will be impossible for you to redeem “Henry Clay, the statesman,” and “Henry Clay, the orator,” or even “Henry Clay, the President of the United States,” from the contempt of a slavery-loathing posterity, otherwise than by coupling with those designations the inexpressibly more honorable distinction of “HENRY CLAY, THE EMANCIPATOR.” I remain, Your friend, GERRIT SMITH.

March 22, Friday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday 22d. Tried to make a bonfire in the afternoon but did not succeed. In the evening Ellen brought home a Dutch pipe apiece for G and me. They have very long and brittle stems.

March 23, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday 23d In the morning George and I blew soap bubbles with our new pipes. In the afternoon had a nice bonfire and burned up all our old cornstalks and all the dried grass which I got off of the front yard. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

At this point in journalism, it was a fad to use humorously incorrect initialisms. Journalists were trying out for instance such idioms as “K.Y.,” meaning “know yuse” or “no use” (but this was an innovation that fortunately would never catch on). However, in this day’s issue the Boston Morning Post pioneered something that would indeed catch on, catch on big time, world wide: “o.k. — all correct” (so, despite whatever you have heard, the term “OK” did not originate as a misspelling by Andrew Jackson, or as a Choctaw word, or as a superior brand of Army biscuit — it stood, quite simply, for “oll korrekt”).

Advertisement for the Concord Academy under Preceptor John Thoreau, Jr.: HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY March 30, Saturday: Advertisement for the Concord Academy under Preceptor John Thoreau, Jr.:

March 31, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 31st I have neglected my Journal now for a whole week so that I can’t remember all its events. Thursday was Fast day. Mr Leonard preached in the afternoon from Proverbs 14th 34th Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people. On Friday afternoon I went with Sis to Mr. Samuel Hatch’s and had a nice time. I learned (partly) to play gammon and chequers. The rest of the day nothing particular. Today father preached from John 10th 10th “I am come that ye might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.” in the afternoon [ditto ditto ditto ditto]

April 1, Monday: Le lac des fees, an opera by Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber to words of Scribe and Melesville, was performed for the initial time, at the Paris Opera.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday April 1st. Received from Mr Morison a letter and “Dicks Celestial Scenery” a book treating of the planetary system.72 The rest of this week went on as common. I had several minor bonfires and answered Mr M’s letter. On Saturday I cleaned out the henhouse and went to see William Vinal.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 7th. was Communion day. I staid at home with George in the forenoon. In the afternoon I went to meeting. The text was James 4th 8th “Draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh to you.” The rest of this week went on as usual. We had an April rain in the last part of it which did much good to the grass. The last two days which were cold chilly rainy days we had no fire in the schoolhouse. There were 21 scholars at school on Friday morning but in the afternoon only 12 or 14 only 2 of which were girls and and on Saturday the population consisted of 12 boys kicking their heels and stomping on their toes with a view to prevent the blood from freezing. On Saturday morning I found a bench ^desk^ torn up by the roots and transplanted to the top of the broad aisle - an event which the unfortunate desk had long ago anticipated its fate for it had long been terribly rickety as 72. Thomas Dick, CELESTIAL SCENERY; OR, THE WONDERS OF THE PLANETARY SYSTEM DISPLAYED; ILLUSTRATING THE PERFECTIONS OF DEITY AND A PLURALITY OF WORLDS (Brookfield, Mass.: E. and L. Merriam, 1838). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY are also most of the other front desks as the organ of destructiveness is strikingly developed in some of them to judge by by their actions. I was one of the sufferers on each day and can say that for myself. I ^hardly^ never was more uncomfortable. I received a letter from Uncle Dennis73 and finished “Dicks Celestial Scenery” which I like very much indeed. Enoch Gardner was appointed Librarian and Treasurer of the Library last Sunday or Sunday before – says he shan’t accept but I guess he will.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): the rest of this The next week went off as usual and so did the time up to this day – April 24th.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): [Thursday] 25th. Our first daffy blossomed today and Mother sent it to little Charlotte May.74 In the afternoon I staid from school and went to hire Mr Clay to work.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday 26th Mother and sister planted their first lot of flower seeds. In the evening I carried off our old Cockerel in a basket borrowed for the purpose and changed him for a white one at Captain Bowers’s.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday 27th Mr Clay came in the morning and dined with us. He made quick work of it for he made all the beds in the fore noon. We planted all our potatoes, a good deal of corn 2 beds of onions 1 of parsnips and 1 of peas. We received a box from Aunt Prudence containing two caps trimmed with pink ribbon for Mother and a letter.

May 12, Sunday: At Paris, Republicans armed themselves with stolen weapons and attempted an insurrection, attacking the Palais de Justice and the Hotel de Ville. They killed a small number of soldiers and held positions until late afternoon, when troops retook the buildings. At various points in the city barricades were erected, and insurgents attacked some National Guard positions. By 9PM the troops had regained all positions and restored order, with 94 fatalities. At 10PM Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult, duc de Dalmatie replaced Louis Matthieu, Comte Mole as prime minister of France.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday May 12th In the morning the text was from Matthew 6th 73. Dennis Ward (1799-1878). 74. Charlotte Coffin May (b. 1833), daughter of Samuel J. and Lucretia May. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY chapter 33d v “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you” and in the afternoon from the 1st Epistle to Timothy, 5th chapter 1st v. “Rebuke not an elder but entreat him as a father and the younger men as brothers.” After meeting in the afternoon while going out of church he [EQS Sr.] received a letter from his uncle May stating that Uncle Charles had had an ill turn & was left speechless. Father set off after supper to go to Danvers.75 Our peas have come up now & we planted Melons and part of our Chinese corn. I have been reading “Milman’s History of the Jews” and am now in the third volume.76 We are reading aloud “Sparks’s life of Washington.”77

[Sunday of WEEK, in regard to the year 1839] As we thus dipped our way along between fresh masses of foliage overrun with the grape and smaller flowering vines, the surface was so calm, and both air and water so transparent, that the flight of a kingfisher or robin over the river was as distinctly seen reflected in the water below as in the air above. The birds seemed to flit through submerged groves, alighting on the yielding sprays, and their clear notes to come up from below.

“While it was old, the canal between the Concord and the Merrimack just above Billerica Falls plainly revealed its youthfulness in comparison to the untouched lands about it. Thoreau noted that birds that fed in, and creatures which swam in the waters were the first to be at home in the man-made water-way. Plants adjust themselves more slowly to areas disturbed by man.” -Cruickshank, Helen Gere. THOREAU ON BIRDS (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964)

[Sunday of WEEK] This canal, which is the oldest in the country, and has even an antique look beside the more modern railroads, is fed by the Concord, so that we were still floating on its familiar waters. It is so much water which the river lets for the advantage of commerce. There appeared some want of harmony in its scenery, since it is not of equal date with the woods and meadows through which it is led, and we missed the conciliatory influence of time on land and water; but in the lapse of ages, Nature will recover and indemnify herself, and gradually plant fit shrubs and flowers along its borders. Already the kingfisher sat upon a pine over the water, and the bream and pickerel swam below.

Sunday sep 1st [1839] We passed the noon under an oak on the banks of the canal in chelmsford. From Ball’s hill which is the St Anne’s of Concord voyageurs to Billerica meeting house the river is twice or three times as broad as in Concord– A deep and dark stream, flowing between gentle hills and occasional cliffs, and well wooded all the way It is one long lake bordered with willows. The boatmen call it a dead stream. For long reaches you can see but few traces of any village. It seemed a natural sabbath today — a stillness so intense that it could not be heightened. There was not breeze enough to ruffle the water. The cattle stood up to their bellies in the river and made you think of Rembrandt. we encamped under some oaks in Tyngsboro, on the east bank of the Merrimack, just below the ferry.

The hardest material obeys the same law with the most fluid. Trees are but rivers of sap and woody fibre flowing from the atmosphere and emptying in to the earth by their trunks — as their roots flow upward to 75. Edmund’s father’s uncle Joseph May (1760-1841), who was Samuel J. May’s brother. Edmund’s father’s brother Charles Chauncy Sewall (1802-1886) was pastor of the First Unitarian Church in Danvers, Massachusetts, from its founding in 1827 until 1841. 76. Henry Hart Milman, THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS: FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME, 3 volumes. (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1837). 77. Jared Sparks, THE LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON (Boston: Ferdinand Andrews, 1839). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY the surface. And in the heavens there are rivers of stars and milky ways– There are rivers of rock on the surface and rivers of ore in the bowels of the earth. From this point the river runs perfectly straight for a mile or more to Carlisle bridge — which consists of 20 piers — and in the distance its surface looks like a cobweb gleaming in the sun. {Two-fifths page blank} In the morning the whole river and adjacent country was covered by a dense fog — through which the smoke of our fire curled up like a subtler mist. But before we had rowed many rods the fog dispersed as by magic and only a slight steam curled up from the surface of the water.– We reached the falls in Billerica before noon, where we left the river for the canal, which runs six miles through the woods to the Merrimack at Middlesex. As we did not care to loitre in this part of our voyage while one ran along the tow path drawing the boat by a cord, the other kept it off from the shore with a pole, so that we accomplished the whole distance in little more than an hour. There is some abruptness and want of harmony in this scenery since the canal is not of equal date with the forests and meadows it runs through. You miss the conciliatory influence of time on land and water. In the lapse of ages no doubt nature will recover and idemnify herself. Gradually fit shrubs and flowers will be planted along the borders. Already the king-fisher sits on a pine over the water, and the dace and pickerel swim below. All works pass directly out of the hands of the architect. and though he has bungled she will perfect them at last. Her own fish-hawks hover over our fish-ponds were pleased to find that our boat would float in M. water By noon we were fairly launched upon the bosom of the merrimack — having passed through the locks at Middlesex — and felt as if we were on the ocean stream itself. Beaver river comes in a little lower down draining the meadows of Pelham, Windham, and Londonderry, the Irish settlers of which latter town were the first to introduce the potatoe into N.E. {One-fourth page blank} Two men called out from the steep and wooded banks to be taken as far as Nashua but we were too deeply laden– As we glided away from them with even sweeps while the fates scattered oil in our course — as the sun was sinking behind the willows of the distant shore, — we could see them far off over the water — running along the shore and climbing over the rocks and fallen trees like ants till they reached a spot where a broad stream poured its placid tribute into the Merrimack– When a mile distant we could see them preparing to ford the stream– But whether they got safely through or went round by the source, we never learned. Thus nature puts the busiest merchant to pilgrim’s shifts. She soon drives us to staff and scrip and scallop shell. The Mississippi the Nile the Ganges can their personality be denied? have they not a personal history in the annals of the world– These journeying atoms from the andes and ural and mountains of the moon — by villas — villages — and mists — with the moccasined tread of an Indian warrior. Their sources not yet drained. The mountains of the moon send their tribute to the pasha as they did to Pharoah without fail. though he most collect the rest of his revenue at the point of the bayonnette Consider the phenomena of morn — or eve — and you will say that Nature has perfected herself by an eternity of practice– Evening stealing over the fields– The stars come to bathe in retired waters The shadows of the trees creeping farther and farther into the meadows. And a myriad phenomena beside. Occasionally a canal boat with its large white sail glided around a promontory a quarter of a mile before us and changed the scene in an instant– Occasionally attaching ourselves to its side we would float back in company awhile — interchanging a word with the voyageurs and obtaining a draught of cooler water from their stores. Occasionally we had to muster all our energy to get round a point where the river broke rippling over rocks and the maples trailed their branches in the stream. The rain had pattered all night And now the whole country wept, the drops falling in the river, and on the alder, and in the pastures, but instead of any bow in the heavens there was the trill of the tree sparrow all the morning. The cheery faith of this little bird atoned for the silence of the whole woodland quire.

May 15, Wednesday: Lewis Tappan urged Gerrit Smith to shun the Nonresistance Society, because nonresistance to evil was “part and parcel of a system of innovations that will, so far as they succeed, overturn all that is valuable.” The wealthy Smith’s donation to the society was the largest it would ever receive — but he never would join. TAPPAN FAMILY Waldo Emerson lectured at the Concord Lyceum in Concord. This was the 7th and final lecture of the current series, “Demonology.” THE LIST OF LECTURES

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday 15th. Father got home today. Cousin Joseph is coming HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY to spend a fortnight with me a week from next Monday.78 He sent me a ball of his own making and Mary sent a little one to George.

May 19, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 19th Mr More preached all day. The text A.M. was from Matthew 16th chapter 24th v. “And whosoever would follow me let him take up his cross and deny himself and follow me,” P.M. Isaiah 3d chap 10th v. “Say ye unto the righteous that it shall be well with him for he shall eat the fruit of his doings.” Took out the 1st volume of “Mackintosh’s History of England.”79

May 20, Monday: The remaining assets of the Northampton Silk Company that had been so heavily invested in by Samuel Whitmarsh were sold to a group of the stockholders for a mere $40,000.

SWEETS Some silk manufacturing continued. The company leased 20 acres of its old farmed-out mulberry-bush hill WITHOUT acreage to David Lee Child for experiments with sugar beets. SLAVERY

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday 20th My vacation began today. We planted the whole upper slip of the garden. Our corn is up a good deal of it and some of the Chinese corn is too. Our melons are coming up and some bush beans, our peas are two [illegible word] high. None of the onions have come up or parsnips either to my knowledge. We have got planted in the upper slip 9 hills cucumbers 14 do Chinese corn 24 do winter squashes and 28 do sweet corn.

May 21, Tuesday: Henry Thoreau included a snippet from Sir Walter Scott’s “Lady of the Lake” in his journal:

Self-culture

Who knows how incessant a surveillance a strong man may maintain over himself — how far subject passion and appetite to reason, and lead the life his imagination paints? Well has the poet said— “by manly mind Not e’en in sleep is will resigned.” By a strong effort, may he not command even his brute body in unconscious moments?

78. Joseph Sewall (1827-1917), son of Thomas Robie Sewall and Elizabeth Quincy Sewall. 79. James Mackintosh, THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, 3 volumes. (Philadelphia: Carey and Lea, 1830-1833). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 21st. We planted another bed of bush beans, another of peas and one of summer squashes. We planted some lettuce over one end of the parsnip bed and dug over a bed, planted part with pole beans and cut off the rest for a small bed for something else. The following shows how ^what^ the beds are planted with. Whole number of beds is 20. Pole Beans 2 2/3 Melons 2 Bush beans 2 Peas 2 Onions 2 Parsnips & lettuce 21 Summer squash 1 Cabbages 1 Planted 13 2/3 Unoccupied 6 1/3 Total 20

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): AUGUSTSunday 18th. Mr Bulfinch from Washington (D.C.) preached.80 He had with him his mother in law and his little daughter. They staid at the tavern. We have now a fine brood of six chickens. Sunday 18th Mr Briggs of Plymouth preached.81 He had his wife with him. In the morning I had a chase after our horse. He had run away when let out of the pasture in the morning and after breakfast I went for him. I made two inquiries both had seen the horse in the road to the beach. I proceeded up the road and found her in a pasture at least a mile and a half from home. Mr Welch was in the field and helped me catch him. The pasture was very large so that he had a great deal of room to run about. There was a ^thick^ seafog and the grass was so wet that before I had run half a dozen rods in it my feet were perfectly soaked in which ^state^ they continued till I got home. After a vast deal of scampering we made him jump over the fence into the road when I supposed he would go straight home but the very first corner we came to he “set out” to run up the wrong road but a man came along on horse back and helped me get him into the right road again. The man inquired “if my folks warn’t [illegible word blotted out] fools to send me after such a wild critter as that.” The next division of the road we came to Kate of course went up the wrong road and I submitted hoping to bring her to the right road by a lane, but she would by no means go down the lane but kept on. A boy coming alone helped me stop her but instead of going right she ran down a lane having bars at the end of it which stopped her. When I drove her out again she went down the road by which she had come up from the main road and to crown all when she got to the main road instead of going towards home she went the other way. Mr Spalding was coming along and helped me and we had much ado to keep her out of the lanes the rest of 80. The Reverend Stephen G. Bulfinch was minister of the Unitarian Church of Washington DC from 1838 to 1844. 81. The Reverend George W. Briggs (1810-1895) was minister of the First Church in Plymouth from 1838 to 1853. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY the way. We got her safe home at last and I was so tired that I could not go to meeting in the forenoon.

May 22, Wednesday: After 3 months in Marseilles, Frédéric François Chopin, George Sand, and her children left for her estate in Berry.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday 22d. It was rainy in the morning and wet all day. In the morning George and I played at indians in the chaise house. In the evening I wrote to Uncle George.

May 23, Thursday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday 23d. We stuck our peas today and planted a few potatoes in a corner between the common corn & the upper slip, also planted a few hills in the lower part of the garden. Our corn has all come up & is likely to do well, the Chinese corn d[itt]o. Mr. William Vinal gave us 4 potatoes of a peculiar kind which is called “Hoghorns.” They are long slim potatoes. We planted them.

May 24, Friday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday 24th, was a rainy day. A fair was held at Marshfield for the Post Office of which Father wrote 3 letters and mother & sister each one. Ellen did not expect to go but Charles Bowers coming for her she went.

May 25, Saturday: Waldo Emerson’s 36th birthday.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday 25th. In the afternoon Father and Mother went to Kingston with a hired horse as our horse has been sick of the horse distemper several days. George & I went to Mr Porter’s to engage the horse.

May 26, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 26th Mr Sweet preached AM from Ecclesiastes 12th 1st “Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth when the evil days come not or the years draw nigh in which ye shall say ‘I have no pleasure in them.’” P.M. from the 55th Psalm 19th verse. “Because they have no changes they fear not God.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY May 27, Monday: Birth of Friend Daniel Ricketson’s 2d son Walton.82 He would be educated at the Friends Academy of New Bedford, would become an artist, and would never marry.

Waldo Emerson to his journal:

A great genius must come & preach self reliance. Our people are timid, desponding, recreant whimperers. If they fail in their first enterprises they lose all heart. If the young merchant fails, men say he is RUINED. If the finest genius studies at the Cambridge Divinity College, and is not ordained within a year afterwards in Boston, or New York, it seems to his friend & himself that he is justified in being disheartened & in complaining for the rest of his life. a sturdy New Hampshire man or Vermonter who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, & so forth, in successive years, and always like a cat falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these Boston dolls. My brave Henry here who is content to live now, & feels no shame in not studying any profession, for he does not postpone his life but lives already — pours contempt on these crybabies of routine & Boston. He has not one chance but a hundred chances. Now let a stern preacher arise who shall reveal the resources of Man, & tell men they are not leaning willows, but can & must detach themselves, that a man, a woman, is a sovereign eternity, born to shed healing to the nations; that he should be ashamed of our compassion; & that the moment he acts from himself, tossing the laws, the books, the idolatries, the customs, out of the window, we pity him, we pity her no more, but thank & revere them; that with the exercise of self trust new powers shall appear.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday 27th. We planted 10 rows of bush beans in 2 beds in the part of the garden lying between the upper slip & the great alley and the 2 rows of potatoes which we planted on the edge of the corn the other day. 3 of the 10 rows, i.e. one of the beds was planted with white beans for baking, the other bed is occupied with two kinds of bush bean 3 rows of one, 2 of the other. Below the beans we planted 6 hills winter squashes. George wanted a garden of his own and father gave him a little piece (about 3 feet by 1 foot 6 inches in which he planted two rows beans (across his bed garden), & the rest with lettuce. Cousin J. did not come.

82. An alleged runic signature of Leif Eriksson with date MI would be observed on a boulder lying on the beach at No Man’s Land, an island off Martha’s Vineyard, around 1920. It would form the basis of a book by Edward F. Gray, LEIF ERIKSSON DISCOVERER OF AMERICA (Oxford, 1930), in which it is illustrated. Opinions of runic experts were so disappointing that Mr. Gray finally concluded (page 159) that it was carved by some later explorer such as Verrazzano or Gosnold as a “monument to Lief” [sic]. The inscription has been thoroughly investigated by Edmund B. Delabarre and Charles W. Brown for The New England Quarterly, VIII (1935), 365-78. They concluded that it had been carved in the twentieth century by some joker, probably Walton Ricketson (1839- 1923) of New Bedford. Refer to Samuel Eliot Morison’s THE EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. THE NORTHERN VOYAGES A.D. 500-1600. NY: Oxford UP, 1971. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY May 28, Tuesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 28th. We discovered that our potatoes were beginning to show their heads & commenced hoeing corn the 1st time. J. d. n. c [J did not come]

May 31, Friday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday Thursday & Friday [29th-31st] nothing especial. J. d. n. c. Sister & I were invited (Friday) to take a sail in Mr Simeon Bates’ boat with Misses M. Bowles & M[ary]. H. Lincoln. We expect to go. On Friday afternoon G and I went to try on my jacket and to buy us some candy. I found a packet in the road & left it at Mr Allen’s store to find an owner. George bought 2 sticks of candy & I one.

June 1, Saturday: Frédéric François Chopin, George Sand and her children arrive from Marseilles at her chateau Nohant in Berry. It is the first time he has seen it.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday June 1st. Ellen & I were disappointed of our sail for though it was bright & pleasant in the early part of the day it clouded over & was unpleasant in the afternoon. Mary B. and Mary L. went to ask if it would be safe & pleasant to go out & found it would not. Mr Bates had carried out 12 men in the morning of whom 10 were so seasick that he described them as dead. In the afternoon a pedlar came of whom I bought a box of leads for my pencil he having some that just fitted it. In the afternoon I parted off one of my boxes so as to have one part for my money and the other for my pencils. Since the 28th we have planted 2 1/3 beds 1 of early turnip Beet one of long blood Beet & one ^third^ of carrots. On Friday I carried a decoction of tobacco and wet all the vines with it to keep off bugs. Joseph did not come but the stage went by so that I thought he was coming.

June 2, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 2d. In the morning I staid with George. In the afternoon the text was from the Epistle of James 2d chapter 12th v. “So speak ye and so do as they that be judged by the law of liberty.” We walked to and from meeting because the horse was so dirty that it would have taken a good while to clean her.

June 3, Monday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday 3d. We found out that our sweet corn, another the spot of winter squash & our cucumbers had come up also the things in G’s garden. Mr May came in the afternoon but his stay was HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY shortened by his horse running away.

June 4, Tuesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 4th We planted 1 bed of carrots having heard that they might be given to horses & 2 beds English turnips. We have only 1 empty bed & that is prepared for planting. We are afraid we shall be obliged to plant our onions over again for not one has come up yet. I said Mr Curtis’ had come up but this might be a mistake. Commenced hoeing potatoes 1st time. In the afternoon I went to Mr Cole’s & staid to tea. I rode the horse to plough a considerable while. Mrs Cole sent Ellen some flowers among which were some horse chesnut flowers. Two ladies stopped to admire them on the way home. When I got home I found Cousin Joseph. He is smaller than I expected, he not being so large as I though nearly a year older. I will now give a condensed account of the events of his visit. For the first few days we played ninepins & minor things, except a grand excursion to the other end of the 4th cliff on Thursday and to the Dunnon rock the same day. On the former we set off about 7 and got back between 11 & 12 & went right off to the rock. I had some difficulty saw great numbers of birds nests consisting of holes in the cliff about the top not more than a foot and a half at the most from it. For ¼ of a mile of the farther part of the 4th cliff I should think there were not 3 square feet of the part mentioned that had not a hole in it and sometimes the same surface would have 11 or 12. I should think there were 5000 swallows in the 3d & 4th cliffs including young ones.

June 9, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): On Sunday the text all day was from Acts 20th 21st.

June 12, Wednesday: The 1st baseball game was played in America. At Cooperstown, New York, Abner Doubleday had devised the game of baseball. Supposedly.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): On Wednesday we walked up to Mr May’s. John had been up about ¼ of an hour. We had a very pleasant time. There were bats about the house and we tried to force them out of their holes. We raised but few and those we could not catch. They looked like swallows.

June 13, Thursday: Prince Milos Obrenovic I of Serbia abdicated for lack of support, in favor of his son Milan Obrenovic II.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY The next day we went to the 1st and 2nd cliffs. Did not come back by way of the 3d cliff but came out by the mill at the harbor and got across the gate. We picked some green goose berries and should have got more had it not been unpleasant.

June 14, Friday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): We have had the front yard mowed and got in the hay on Friday. I expect to go to Boston & Concord on Saturday with Joseph83 [illegible word] & to see the Giraffe. This has been awful writing I know. I am ashamed of it.

A Chartist petition with 1,200,000 signatures was presented to Parliament.

Recollecting that Waldo Emerson had once attempted to improve upon the voice of the Holy Spirit by the alteration of a line in the sonnet “In Him we live, and move, and have our being,” Jones Very was finally able to overcome his cabin fever. He left his chamber. First he visited Bronson Alcott, attired in his customarily meticulous black suit and frock coat, with large black hat and black walking-stick. While with the Alcotts, the Reverend Orestes Augustus Brownson happened to drop by, and “They say opposite each other at the table; but were sundered by spaces immeasurable.” Then Very went on to the Emersons in Concord, and would stay three days, arguing with Emerson about which materials to include in the book, in what sequence to place the sonnets, etc. Unfortunately, during this visit, Emerson attempted a humorous treatment of his difficult guest and this treatment came across as the most relentless mockery, with Mrs. Lidian Emerson sympathetically attempting to provide the only emotional resources available to Very in that household. When Very insisted on no changes to the sonnets because “such was the will of God,” Emerson countered with “Cannot the Spirit parse and spell?” and declared that “We cannot permit the Holy Ghost to be careless (and in one instance) to talk bad grammar.” Edwin Gittleman summarizes:

He was quick to answer every one of Very’s “speeches,” and later (for the entertainment of mutual friends) he recounted in detail how cleverly he had “dealt” with him.[p.337]

What Waldo wanted, of course, above all else, was a volume which would look good and sell well. Prudent and a good read. What the author wanted, of course, above all else, was to remain utterly faithful to the instructions which he believed he was receiving from above. Emerson won, exhausting Very not only through intransigence but with off-putting sarcasm, and the eventual volume would succeed in de-emphasizing all the prophecy, all the apocalypticism, and all the evangelical enthusiasm which, to its author, were its very core.

June 15, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday 15th. We (Joe & I) went up today on this day in the stage to Hingham, there to take the boat. The stage when we got in, contained but one passenger, but accessions were made to the number till the Stage was full enough for comfort. At this latter stage of our progress there were as near as I can remember there were 4 boys on the front seat, (including ourselves), 3 women on the middle seat & 2 women and a girl on the back seat – total 10, besides I believe there were one or two men outside. I made 83. Edmund’s cousin Joseph. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY a sad mistake at the first accession to our party. Two ladies got in & I thinking that they would like the middle seat got on to the back seat (which I have now found is considered the most eligible for ladies) when our companion said “perhaps the ladies would like the back seat” so I scrambled back with all haste and established myself on the forward seat where we continued the rest of the way. On arriving at the Old Colony House the steam boat was just in sight. We paid our fare there. Mine was 21 ¼ cents. When the steam boat stopped the steam was let off with great noise. It rushed through the pipes very swiftly. We soon went on board and the baggage was put on the upper deck. When we set off the paddle wheels made a great quantity of foam which they continued to do the whole way. The forward deck and after part of the upper deck were the coolest parts of the boat & we were on the former a good deal. We did not go into either cabin but spent the whole time on deck. We saw the great furnaces and the firemen ^who were^ all sweating profusely in the exercise of their hot vocation. The mate’s office (I don’t know what else to call it) was in the forward part of the upper deck. There was a wheel with an axle in it which communicates by ropes & rods with the tiller it being his business to steer the boat. At the ringing [of] the third bell I went and paid the captain 18 or 19 cents I do not know which and received my ticket. The shore looked very pretty in some places & there were many islands which we passed. Boston in the distance looked very grim & smoky. I saw several large ships in the harbor at the wharves. When we arrived at Liverpool wharf our tickets were taken as we came out of the boat and receiving our basket which we carried alternately proceeded to uncle Thomas’84 office but found it locked up as he had gone home to dinner. We got the key and having put our basket into the office locked it up and as we could not hang up the key again we brought it home. After dinner we all85 went to see the Giraffe.86 Uncle Thomas paid for all of us. There were also exhibited an Ibex, 2 Gensbock [Gemsbock], a young Gazelle and two Mocos. These last resembled monkeys and were good jumpers. They were tied to the railing at first but at length the man untied one of them and put him on the back of the Giraffe but he not liking his situation sprung for the pole which supported the tent say 6 or 8 feet up and caught by the ropes about it. He was tied to the fence again. Either the other or the same one was done the same by and did the same, and they were then tied to the pole up and down which they travelled with ease by means of the ropes. The Ibex had long horns I should think about 1 ½ or 2 feet long he being I should think not more than 2 ½ feet from the top of the head to the root of the tail. These horns had rings on them for about half their length. They had brass balls on the tips probably to prevent his hurting them people. The Gazelle came out side the railing and a little boy chased him when he turned round and butted him with his little horns. The Giraffe is 16 feet high and is expected to grow much taller being only 32 months old. It is a female, the male having died in N. York. A basket suspended by a rope passing through a pulley at the top 84. Thomas Robie Sewall (1792-1864), who was married to Edmund’s aunt Elizabeth Quincy Sewall. 85. “Uncle T. Aunt E Mary Frances Joseph & I” (Edmund’s footnote). That is, Thomas Robie Sewall, his wife Elizabeth, and 3 of their children: Mary (b. 1829), Frances (b. 1834), and Joseph (b. 1827). 86. This exhibition began on June 11, on which date an advertisement for it appeared in the Boston Morning Post. The advertisement states, “The proprietors of this novel collection, having excluded all animals of an offensive nature, render this exhibition highly interesting to all classes, and has delighted thousands of the intelligent and moral of both sexes.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY against the pole was used to give him his food except such as was given to him by his visitors. Several green boughs were tied to the basket while I was there which she stripped of their leaves with her tongue. Some clover was so put into the basket which she eat. She is very fond of apples which were given her by the visitors in great q[uantity] cut in pieces as big or bigger than a walnut. She kept going round to receive them. She took them with her tongue which she coiled bent round the piece and drew it into her mouth. I gave her one piece. – A boy was going to give it to her but she dropped it. Joseph picked it up and gave it to me and I gave it to her. She seemed to like it none the worse on account of the sawdust with which it was covered. At length the man requested the people to give her no more for fear of hurting her. Before this Uncle and Aunt had gone leaving us children to see as long as we pleased. The carriage in which the Giraffe travels was also exhibited. It is a very high one, of course. The male was probably handsomer than this that being the general law with regard to the beauty of the sexes of animals man excluded. Price of admission 25 cents children under 10 half price. It was in Court st. From Court street we sent home the girls and went to the barbers. I had to wait a good while. Cost of having hair cut 12 ½ cents. After going to Aunt Elizabeth’s and after staying there a good while went to Uncle’s office. He was not there and we waited some time before he came. When he did we soon went with him and bought a straw hat for me bringing up the basket at the same time. They asked 75 cts at first for the hat but sold it at 62 ½ cts. We then went home.

June 16, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 16th. I went to meeting all day. In the morning Mr Gannett preached from [three words crossed out] in the afternoon, another man, but not Dr. Channing.87 I have forgotten the texts. There were but 3 male and 1 female singer exclusive of the organist. The organ did not meet my expectations. Uncle Thomas’ pew is in the gallery. They use the same collection of hymns that we do. I went up to see aunt Ann in her chamber.88

87. The Sewalls evidently attended the Federal Street Church in Boston. In this period Ezra Stiles Gannett (1801-1871) was assistant to the minister, William Ellery Channing (1780-1842). 88. Probably Anne Henchman Sewall (1793-1848). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY June 17, Monday: The widow of Revolutionary War officer Joseph Ward and her daughter Prudence, having been long-term boarders in the Thoreau boardinghouse, their nephew Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr., age 11, came to stay there with Prudence and was enrolled among the 25 or so boys who were in the school kept by SAMUEL SEWALL the Thoreau brothers. Henry Thoreau dedicated his poem on sympathy “To a Gentle Boy” to suggest a similarity of temperament between Edmund and the title character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale THE GENTLE BOY, which had appeared in a magazine called Token in 1832 and had then been included in the volume TWICE- TOLD TALES in 1837, and this highly regarded poem was widely circulated in the Thoreau and Sewall extended families — although Edmund was to comment later that he had been somewhat embarrassed at all this attention. This has been taken as an instance of Thoreau’s latent sexual attraction to males rather than females, but it was not so taken at that time: the Sewall family’s response was to ask Henry, in fairness, if he couldn’t write one also for Edmund’s little brother.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday 17th. Father came with the chaise. He had left Mother “down town” to do some shopping. I showed told him that I had bought “Cock Robin” for George.89 He told me thought that I had better have laid out my pence for something [else] as it was too silly for a boy 5 years old. I tho’t so too afterwards. I rode with him to a stable in Charles St. where we left the horse & Chaise. We (Father & I) then went to speak a passage for Mother and I in the Concord stage. On the way Father had a new crystal set in his watch. The ^stage^ office was in Hanover St. & nearly opposite to Dr. Brandreth’s90 office for the sale of his “vegetable Universal Pills.” There was a piece of printed cloth in each window of Dr. B.’s office, one of which set forth the virtues of the pills & the other the reason they were so effective. The latter ran as follows: “For as there is only one principle of life So there is only one principle of disease And only one method of cure. That method is to purge & purify the Body.” The former says among their puffs, “all you have to do is to procure the genuine Article.” I don’t see upon what pretence Dr. B himself can ever manage die for he can get the “genuine Article” unless of old age. We went up into Aunt A’s chamber just before we went away. Aunt Ann & Grandma Sewall91 gave 75 cents to George and me making 97 ½ cts. for me. The stage came about 3 ½ o’clock & we went off. After a ride of 16 miles we arrived. Mrs. Thoreau got some supper for Mother & I. They have a very pretty flower garden & their sitting room opens right into it. I can’t recollect what days things happened so I shall have to tell what happened during the visit. We had a beautiful S sail while we were there in a boat which Messrs John & Henry T. made themselves.92 – It was on Concord river. The boat was not quite large enough to hold us all viz. Mother, Aunt, Messrs J & H T., Frank (one of the boys who board there) & my self, so Messrs J & H walked alternately on the bank

89. “I forgot to mention this in my account of Saturday’s proceedings. It cost 12 ½ cts” (Edmund footnote). THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF COCK ROBIN was a popular children’s book published in many editions from the eighteenth century. 90. Benjamin Brandreth (1807-1880) came to the United States from England in 1835 to sell the pills his grandfather William Brandreth had formulated. 91. Abigail Devereux Sewall (1781-1847). 92. The Musketaquid, built by John and Henry Thoreau in the spring of 1839. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY generally taking Frank with them. We had ^not^ the benefit of a good wind so that we used the sail but little. After sailing a considerable time Mother, Aunt, and Mr. H. Thoreau went home leaving us in the boat. We then went up the North branch of the river. On our way we landed on a large rock w^h^ere Mr. Thoreau said parties were in the habit of coming to make chowder & eat it. The remains of fires ^kindled^ for that purpose were seen in on on different parts of it. He said that when he was 8 or 9 years old a party of about 20, (of whom he was one) came there to make merry. First they had some water melons. Then they made a chowder. There was a very selfish fellow among them & when the chowder was done as he liked his cool, he took out his share and set it to cool. When it was about cool & the rest of the party were getting theirs he looked round and saw a great yellow dog belonging to the party eating it, sow he lost his share of that. Then they had some eggs. He fished out his eggs the largest he could find. The last one he took was a very large one which he thought would be very fine. Upon breaking them the last spoilt all the rest. At last some of them agreed to each give him an egg. One of the party had shot a robin. H[e] took it by the legs and threw it up carelessly when it came down in this fellow’s plate. He was very angry, & threw his plate at the dog. We went into the boat with him and proceeded till we found a boat which Mr T. knew to belong to a Mr. Haynes, moored. We heard one report of a gun in the woods and went to see him shoot. He is the best marksman in Concord. He was firing with a rifle at a mark a little larger than a dollar at a distance of 55 yards or 10 rods. He never failed to hit it in some part while I was there. He had two dogs with him. When Mr. H. went home we went too. When we were nearly at the place where the boat was fastened we found the other 3 boys who board there whom we took in. That night Mr. T. went out to practice shooting. He fired att a piece of birch bark which we stuck up against a sand bank. He hit 2 of 3 times. He fired once at a cent not 5 or 6 feet off and hit it—we never saw the cent again. He also fired with shot at a cent which was blued with powder. Mr. H. Thoreau also went with me & the boys to “Dover Cliffs.” The upper part of it is a rock the lower is covered with bushes. I & one of the boys when we were at the bottom climbed up to a fissure in the rock. I rolled down a stone which made the boys below jump out of the way. When they went away to school Mr. T and I staid behind and visited Walden pond which is 90 feet deep on an average. The water is so clear that you can see the bottom where it is 9 or 10 feet deep.93 We found a boat there and sailed across to a bar which runs out into the pond which is a good place to fish. There are only 2 places in the whole circumference of the pond where it is shallow near the shore and in most other parts 4 steps into the pond would make the water over my head.

93. On June 22d, Henry Thoreau wrote about Edmund in his journal. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY July 20, Saturday: Miss Ellen Devereux Sewall, age 17, joined her young brother, Master Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr., and her aunt, Miss Prudence Ward, at the Thoreau boardinghouse in Concord, for a stay of a couple of weeks. Both John Thoreau, Jr., age 24, and his younger brother Henry Thoreau, would be falling in love with Ellen — who was also at that time being courted by another Harvard man:

GOD IN CONCORD by Jane Langton © 1992 Penguin Books USA Inc. 39 There is no remedy for love but to love more. Journal, July 25, 1839 Viking Penguin

Hope Fry didn’t know what to do about Ananda Singh. Here he was in her own house, sleeping in the room across ISBN 0-670-84260-5 — PS3562.A515G58

Thoreau would take her to see the camelopard (giraffe) that was on tour through Concord, and take her and her aunt sailing. The only request he would refuse would be her request that he accompany her to church on a Sunday morning. They would play a phrenology game: manipulating Ellen’s cranium, Henry would announce that he could feel no bumps at all (which, in the evaluations of the time, was an ambiguous reading indicative either of idiocy or genius).

July 20. THE BREEZE’S INVITATION Come let’s roam the breezy pastures, Where the freest zephyrs blow, Batten on the oak tree’s rustle, And the pleasant insect bustle, Dripping with the streamlet’s flow.

What if 1 no wings do wear, Thro’ this solid-seeming air 1 can skim like any swallow; Whoso dareth let her follow, And we’ll be a jovial pair.

Like two careless swifts let’s sail, Zephyrus shall think for me; Over hill and over dale, Riding on the easy gale, We will scan the earth and sea.

Yonder see that willow tree HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Winnowing the buxom air; You a gnat and I a bee, With our merry minstrelsy We will make a concert there.

One green leaf shall be our screen, Till the sun cloth go to bed, I the king and you the queen Of that peaceful little green, Without any subject’s aid.

To our music Time will linger, And earth open wide her car, Nor shall any need to tarry To immortal verse to marry Such sweet music as he’ll hear.

Nature doth have her dawn each day, But mine are far between; Content, I cry, for, sooth to say, Mine brightest are, I weep.

For when my sun doth deign to rise, Though it be her noontide, Her fairest field in shadow lies, Nor can my light abide.

Sometimes I bask me in her day, Conversing with my mate; But, if we interchange one ray, Forthwith her heats abate.

Through his discourse I climb and see, As from some eastern hill, A brighter morrow rise to me Than lieth in her skill.

As ’t were two summer rla.vs in one. Two Sundays come together, Our rays united make one sun. With fairest summer weather.

June 22, Saturday: At the age of 12 John Rollin Ridge (Chee-squa-ta-law-ny, “Yellow Bird”) witnessed his father John Ridge (Skah-tle-loh-skee, “Yellow Bird”) being stabbed to death in their family home on Honey Creek, by a group of 25 tribal political opponents, adherents of the Cherokee leader John Ross (Koo-wi-s-gu- wi, “Mysterious Little White Bird”). He and his mother Sarah Bird Northrup would flee to Fayettesville, Arkansas, where he would receive his initial two years of schooling from Sophia Sawyer.

There had been arguments over finances, and as of this day (or perhaps the following day) the Reverend Lemuel Capen resigned as the pastor for the Hawes Place Society of South Boston.

For the usual fee the Captain General of Cuba issued fraudulent transportation permits. In total Joseph Cinqué would have been in a slave barracoon of Havana for 10 days. THE MIDDLE PASSAGE LA AMISTAD RACE SLAVERY

June 22, Saturday: That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another’s. We see so much only as we HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY possess.

We see so much only as we possess.

June 22, Saturday: I have within the last few days come into contact with a pure uncompromising spirit, that is somewhere wandering in the atmosphere, but settles not positively anywhere. Some persons carry about them the air and conviction of virtue, though they themselves are unconscious of it — and are even backward to appreciate it in others. Such it is impossible not to love — still is their loveliness, as it were, independent of them, so that you seem not to lose it when they are absent, for when they are near it is like an invisible presence which attends you.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): The day we went away Saturday Grandma gave me 50 cts. & Mother 25 to buy something for George. While I was in Concord I bought Ellen a white fan which cost 16 cts, and a lamp of white wax which cost four pence. The stage came at 6 ½ oclock. I forgot to say that We visited the monument it which is of Granite in the middle of the old road.94 The space between it and the road is planted with trees. I saw the grave of 2 British soldiers marked by 2 rough stones. We had a pleasant ride. Aunt went with us. It was a rainy day. Mother and Aunt were set down at the Hospital and I went on to the stage office where they soon came for me. We had a good deal of shopping to do and we went into a good many stores. We went into a confectioners and mother bought me an ice cream. It was very good tasted but so cold that I could eat but little of it so mother bought me a cheese cake. We bought a horse & cart for George at a toy shop. When we had done shopping we went to Aunt Eliza’s and sent Joe off for a hackney coach to carry us to the steamboat. It came immediately and we got in. The boat soon started. On board Mother paid me the 62 ½ cents which I gave for my hat. I bought me a piece of cake on board. We came home in the stage. The following is an account of my expenditures & receipts in this visit Paid. Recd. Owned before 4.05 ¼ For E.’s Fan 16 cts 87 ½ 45 ¼ For ribbon 3 41 ¾ Now own 4.50 ½ For Wax 6 ¼ Gained 45 ¼95 For “Cock Robin” 12 ½ For Cake. _4___ 41 ¾ George was delighted with his horse & cart. Mr Morrison came in the evening on a visit.

June 23, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society):

94. The monument to the Concord Fight of April 19, 1775 was dedicated in 1837. 95. Edmund seems to have made a mathematical error here. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Sunday 23d. Mr. Allen of Pembroke preached all day from Matthew 6th 34th “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

June 24, Monday: Gustavus Franklin Swift, who would found Swift & Company, was born.

The 1st photography exhibition took place, in France. It showed the work of inventor Hippolyte Bayard.

Robert Schumann contacted Wilhelm Einert, a Leipzig attorney, to begin legal proceedings to get married with Clara Wieck without the consent of her father.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday 24th. Nothing special. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Henry Thoreau wrote, in honor of Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr., age 11, the poem “Sympathy.” Lately alas I knew a gentle boy, Whose features all were cast in Virtue’s mould, As one she had designed for Beauty’s toy, But after manned him for her own strong-hold. On every side he open was as day, That you might see no lack of strength within, For walls and ports do only serve alway For a pretence to feebleness and sin. Say not that Cæsar was victorious, With toil and strife who stormed the House of Fame; In other sense this youth was glorious, Himself a kingdom wheresoe’er he came. No strength went out to get him victory, When all was income of its own accord; For where he went none other was to see, But all were parcel of their noble lord. He forayed like the subtle breeze of summer, That stilly shows fresh landscapes to the eyes, And revolutions worked without a murmur, Or rustling of a leaf beneath the skies. So was I taken unawares by this, I quite forgot my homage to confess; Yet now am forced to know, though hard it is, I might have loved him, had I loved him less. Each moment, as we nearer drew to each, A stern respect withheld us farther yet, So that we seemed beyond each other’s reach, And less acquainted than when first we met. We two were one while we did sympathize, So could we not the simplest bargain drive; And what avails it now that we are wise, If absence doth this doubleness contrive? Eternity may not the chance repeat, But I must tread my single way alone, In sad remembrance that we once did meet, And know that bliss irrevocably gone. The spheres henceforth my elegy shall sing, For elegy has other subject none; Each strain of music in my ears shall ring Knell of departure from that other one. Make haste and celebrate my tragedy; With fitting strain resound ye woods and fields; Sorrow is dearer in such case to me Than all the joys other occasion yields. Is‘t then too late the damage to repair? Distance, forsooth, from my weak grasp hath reft The empty husk, and clutched the useless tare, But in my hands the wheat and kernel left.

If I but love that virtue which he is, Though it be scented in the morning air, Still shall we be truest acquaintances, HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Nor mortals know a sympathy more rare.

Which calls for some explanation. I will give you here the illustration provided by Sophia Peabody (Hawthorne) and a lengthy synopsis provided in the curiously titled SALEM IS MY DWELLING PLACE: ABIOGRAPHY OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE / BY EDWIN HAV ILA ND MILLER (Iowa City IA: U of Iowa P, 1991):

“The Gentle Boy” is the story of a beautiful youth called Ilbrahim, a Quaker with a Turkish name who at six years of age is orphaned by the Puritan theocracy because of the religious beliefs of his parents. On an autumn day about 1659, a “slender and light-clad little boy” leans “his face upon a hillock of fresh-turned and half-frozen earth.” Half-starved because the jailers have denied him and his father food, he has witnessed his father’s hanging from a scaffold beneath a fir tree and has watched his mother disappear into the wilderness, “to perish there by hunger or wild beasts.” The authorities spare the child in what they consider an act of kindness but make no provision for his welfare. The truth, however, is that the Puritans have made official and seemingly final an orphandom which began almost at birth, since Ilbrahim’s parents have sacrificed him to their religious persuasion. For years their flights from country to country denied the youth the opportunity to establish roots in any society or to form relationships. As his mother later reveals in her wild harangue to the Puritan congregation, she has placed God’s will, as intuited by her inner light, above the nurturing of Ilbrahim. If the lad wishes himself dead—three times he insists that “my home is here” on the grave of his father—it is not an instance of nineteenth-century sentimentality but an all-too-human response of a child who, denied the love needed to survive in an unloving environment, represses his rage and craves the release of death to escape terrors and losses too gigantic for his undeveloped body and his hungry heart to deal with. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

The illustration provided by Sophia Peabody (Hawthorne) HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Ilbrahim is found on his father’s grave by Tobias Pearson, a Puritan who with difficulty has struggled into middle age, hounded earlier by financial failure in England and then, in the New World, robbed of his children who could not survive transplantation to the harsh climate of New England. According to the Puritan hierarchy, Tobias has been punished by the loss of children because of his materialistic motivations in coming to the new Eden. In an attempt to remake his life and at the same time to gain community approval, he becomes “a Representative to the General Court, and an approved Lieutenant in the train-bands.” His semimilitary attire veils an underlying anxiety which evidences itself in tremulousness, pallor, and vacillation. When Tobias discovers Ilbrahim and lays a hand on his shoulder, the boy trembles “under his hand,” which becomes the central motif in the tale, expressive of a desperate emotional need. When the Puritan learns that Ilbrahim is a Quaker he withdraws his hand “as if he were touching a loathsome reptile.” Then, with characteristic vacillation, his fear of censure by the community giving way to compassion, he takes up the boy “in his arms,” wraps him in his cloak, and carries him: “‘Look up, child,’ said the Puritan to Ilbrahim, whose faint head had sunk upon his shoulder, ‘there is our home.’” Tobias’s wife, Dorothy, “a matronly woman,” sits before a fire. Dramatically but tenderly, Tobias thrusts aside the cloak and unveils Ilbrahim’s face. “Be kind to him,” he says to his wife, “even as if he were of those dear ones who have departed from us.” Such advice is scarcely necessary to a woman with an infinite capacity to love. “Dry your tears,” she says, “and be my child, as I will be your mother.” When she puts the child to bed that evening he occupies “the little bed, from which her own children had successively been borne to another resting place.” The reaction of the townspeople to the “adoption” of the orphaned child is immediate and hostile, and Tobias is “both hissed and hooted.” When the three go to Sabbath services, Ilbrahim, “clad in the new mourning suit,” walks between Tobias and Dorothy, “each holding a hand.” The Puritan adults gaze stonily at the trio, and Ilbrahim hears “the reviling voices of the little children.” At this first confrontation Ilbrahim is betrayed, not by Dorothy, who draws him protectively “closer to her,” but by Tobias, who wavers self- protectively, finding “it difficult to sustain their united and disapproving gaze.” Trapped by the fears of his years, Tobias cannot know what his momentary hesitation means to an unusually sensitive youth. If the boy is “wanting in the stamina for self-support,” Tobias is paralyzed by “self-suspicion” and “nervous agitation.” The agony of the relationship between “father and son” is that both have deep dependency needs. Fearful of censure and unsure of himself, perhaps even uncomfortable in the role of father, Tobias cannot make the personal loving gesture to Ilbrahim, his affection growing “daily less productive of familiar caresses.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

After the clergyman in “black velvet scull-cap” warns his audience not to thwart God’s will by showing pity to Quakers, a “muffled female”—it is Ilbrahim’s mother, Catharine—mounts the rostrum and divests herself of cloak and hood. Her Quaker diatribe is as unloving and inhuman as the sermon of the Puritan. “Muffled” in her faith, she appears almost to welcome the prospect of martyrdom and the release of death. At the conclusion of her selfjustifying but self- indulgent sermon, Ilbrahim runs to her and throws his arms around her. “I am here, mother, it is I, and I will go with thee to prison.” At the touch of the warm hand Catharine is no longer the would-be martyr but a mother “as in the first moment when I pressed thee to my bosom.” “It would seem,” the narrator comments at this point, “that the indulgence of natural love had given her mind a momentary sense of its errors, and made her know how far she had strayed from duty, in following the dictates of a wild fanaticism.” As Catharine, perhaps with a “momentary” awareness of what she has denied to her son, hides her face on his head, her raven hair covering him “like a veil,” Tobias becomes “agitated and uneasy,” oppressed with “guilt,” but Dorothy, “taking Ilbrahim’s hand,” offers to become his mother and asks for the natural mother’s blessing. The voice “within” tells Catharine, “Break the bonds of natural affection, martyr thy love, and know that in all these things eternal wisdom hath its ends.” She whispers her decision to Ilbrahim, who at first sobs and clings to her but suddenly becomes “passive.” “Having held her hands over his head in mental prayer, she was ready to depart.” The blessing, a “mental prayer” rather than a caress, is a nonverbal communication that every child dreads, “I do not want thee.” That winter, nurtured “with the gentle care of one who handles a butterfly,” Ilbrahim finds the Pearson house a home. Within its protective shelter he is filled with “airy gaiety,” “a domesticated sunbeam,” but there are also “moments of deep depression,” “from wounded love” and his awareness that “his equals in age, partook of the enmity of their parents.” Stigmatized by his religion and baptized with a foreign name that sets him apart in a Puritan society, Ilbrahim silently broods over “a residue of unappropriated love.” As comforting and comfortable as it is, the Pearson house is a prison since he cannot venture beyond its doors. One day a Puritan lad two years older than Ilbrahim falls from a nearby tree, and Dorothy, always the attentive mother, takes him in. In effect she presents Ilbrahim with a brother. The invalid is as ugly and grotesque, almost snakelike in appearance, as Ilbrahim is beautiful and ethereal. Ilbrahim caters to him “with a fond jealousy” and relates tales “of human tenderness” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

drawn from the romantic atmosphere of his “barbaric birthplace.” After the boy leaves, Ilbrahim does not see him again until one summer day when he discovers him with a group of Puritan boys. When Ilbrahim approaches timidly, the “baby-fiends” attack him with sticks and stones, displaying “an instinct of destruction, far more loathsome than the blood-thirstiness of manhood.” The invalid calls out, “Fear not, Ilbrahim, come hither and take my hand.” When Ilbrahim offers his hand, the “foul-hearted little villain” lifts his crutch and strikes him on the mouth, the mouth which has related tales of “human tenderness.” It is the last wound, the final rejection. The acts of the howling “unbreeched fanatics” foretell a dismal future, that Ilbrahim will never find a home in this community to appropriate his love. He begins “to pine and droop like a cankered rosebud.” For the Pearsons it is the same story continued: their children “had left their native country blooming like roses, and like roses they had perished in foreign soil.” Ilbrahim recovers from the physical wounds but not from “the injury done to his sensitive spirit.” He is now moody, sometimes sullen, and when Dorothy attempts “to revive his former sportiveness,” he runs and hides, refusing “even the hand of kindness.” Punishing himself, as though undeserving of kindness, he rejects Dorothy’s love as the invalid rejected his. In his dreams at night he cries, “Mother! Mother!” Dorothy silently endures rejection, still continuing to give of herself as is her wont, but Tobias experiences a physical and emotional collapse similar to that of his adopted son. Because Ilbrahim is “dearer to me than all my buried ones,” Tobias has attempted to play father, not by spontaneous and tactile expressions of affection but by imitation of the natural father. He has embraced the Quaker faith despite doubts he cannot put to rest and suffers imprisonment and economic harassment. His love, he feels, becomes “poison,” for once more he is to be a father in a childless household. He finds himself guilty, “an accursed man.” Cut off from the community and even from the child and needing a father as much as Ilbrahim does, Tobias seeks solace and guidance from a Quaker patriarch on a stormy night as the youth lies dying on the deathbed of the earlier Pearson offspring. As Tobias leaned “his forehead on his hands, his teeth were firmly closed; and his frame was tremulous at intervals with a nervous agitation.” The patriarch makes a confession which he intends as a lesson. Years ago he abandoned his daughter on her “dying bed” after wrestling with two “inner” voices, one telling him to go forth and the other upbraiding him as a “cruel parent.” Now after the passage of time a “hale and weather-beaten old man,” he has no doubts as to the rightness of his decision. If Ilbrahim fails to find in Tobias an adequate, loving paternal figure, the Quaker fails to fulfill Tobias’s expectations, for he has gained neither in wisdom nor in feeling, only in years. The tale of the elder Quaker, then, is one more instance of the failure of the fathers, one more instance of the abandonment and rejection of children. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Suddenly Catharine comes in out of the storm to announce “glad tidings,” that King Charles II has ordered the colonists to cease persecuting Quakers. The patriarch informs her of the burden of proselytizing her faith and “leading an infant by the hand”: “his tottering footsteps shall impede thine own no more.” Shuddering, appalled, she wails, “Hath He crushed my very heart in his hand?” Her shriek is answered by “the very faint voice of a child.” Moments before he hears his mother’s voice Ilbrahim begins to shiver and takes Dorothy’s hand “in both of his.” Catharine draws the child to her breast, where he nestles “with no violence of joy.” Looking into her face “and reading its agony,” Ilbrahim pronounces his own benediction: “Mourn not, dearest mother. I am happy now.” At the breast which the mother has denied him he dies and goes home to his father. “The Gentle Boy” resonates on the deepest affective levels — a child’s need for father and mother, home, caressing hands, and peers, for love and security. After its anonymous appearance in the Token in 1832 it became Hawthorne’s most popular tale.

Walter Roy Harding would offer the readership of the Journal of Homosexuality the suggestion that Henry Thoreau’s homoerotic attraction to Edmund was what lay behind his proposal of marriage to Edmund’s sister Ellen Devereux Sewall: And then there is Thoreau’s interest in Edmund Sewall, the eleven-year-old brother96 of Ellen, who was later a pupil in Thoreau’s boarding school. Young Sewall had come to Concord to visit his grandmother, Mrs. Joseph Ward, who was the star boarder in the Thoreau household, on June 17, 1839. Five days later Thoreau wrote in his JOURNAL: I have within the last few days come into contact, with a pure, uncompromising spirit, that is somewhere wandering in the atmosphere, but settles not positively anywhere. Some persons carry about them the air and conviction of virtue, though they themselves are unconscious of it, and are even backward to appreciate it in others. Such it is impossible not to love; still Is their loveliness, as it were, independent of them, so that you seem not to lose it when they are absent, for when they are near it is like an invisible presence which attends you. (PRINCETON JOURNAL I:74) Two days later Thoreau wrote his well-known poem “Sympathy” about Edmund, saying in part: Lately, alas, I knew a gentle boy, Whose features all were cast in Virtue’s mould, As one she had designed for Beauty’s toy, But after manned him for her own stronghold .... So I was taken unawares by this, I quite forgot my homage to confess; Yet now am forced to know, though hard it is, 96. As for Thoreau’s interest in boys, George Frisbie Hoar, who grew up in Concord with Thoreau, said, “I knew Thoreau very intimately.... He was very fond of small boys” (AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SEVENTY YEARS. New York, 1903, I, 70). And George W. Cooke, who also knew the Concord scene well, said, “Thoreau loved the society of boys” (“The Two Thoreaus,” Independent, XLVIII. December 10, 1896, 1672). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY I might have loved him, had I loved him less. (PRINCETON JOURNAL I:76)

It is obvious, 1 believe, from a reading of both the poem and the journal entry that Thoreau’s relationship with Edmund was a highly rarified and intellectual one, with little if any of the physical about it. As Thoreau said on another occasion, “In all cases we esteem rather the suggested ideal than the actual man” (JOURNAL II:232). Thoreau gave a copy of the poem to Edmund who showed it to his parents. They apparently seeing nothing wrong with it not only asked Thoreau to write another poem for Edmund’s younger brother, but later enrolled Edmund as a boarding pupil in Thoreau’s school. There were others however who were disturbed by the tenor of the poem. Both Emerson and Frank Sanborn, Thoreau’s friend and biographer, insisted that Thoreau had written the poem about Ellen despite irrefutable evidence that Thoreau had written the poem before he ever met Ellen. In October of 1840, Thoreau wrote another series of interesting entries in his Journal: October 17, 1840. In the presence of my friend I am ashamed of my fingers and toes. I have no feature so fair its my love for him. There is more than maiden modesty between us, ...We should sooner blot out the sun than disturb friendship.... October 19, 1840. My friend dwells in the distant horizon as rich as an eastern city there. There he sails all lonely under the edge of the sky, but thoughts go out silently from me and belay him.... He seems to move in a burnished atmosphere, while I peer in upon him from surrounding spaces of Cimmerian darkness, His house is incandescent to my eye, while I have no house, but only a neighborhood to his.... October 20, 1840. My friend is the apology for my life. In him are the spaces which my orbit traverses. (PRINCETON JOURNAL 1:190-2) Note that all the pronouns are masculine. No one has as yet succeeded in identifying the subject of these entries, but it should be noted that he also says in his entry for the 18th “I cannot make a disclosure—you should see my secret” (PRINCETON JOURNAL I:191). It should also be noted that immediately after writing these entries, Thoreau wrote his letter to Ellen Sewall proposing marriage, Could it be that suddenly realizing he was getting involved in a relationship that would have been condemned by his contemporaries, he leaped violently in the opposite direction to prove to both society and himself that he was “normal”?

June 23, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 23d. Mr. Allen of Pembroke preached all day from Matthew 6th 34th “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY June 24, Monday: Gustavus Franklin Swift, who would found Swift & Company, was born.

The 1st photography exhibition took place, in France. It showed the work of inventor Hippolyte Bayard.

Robert Schumann contacted Wilhelm Einert, a Leipzig attorney, to begin legal proceedings to get married with Clara Wieck without the consent of her father.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday 24th. Nothing special. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Henry Thoreau wrote, in honor of Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr., age 11, the poem “Sympathy.” Lately alas I knew a gentle boy, Whose features all were cast in Virtue’s mould, As one she had designed for Beauty’s toy, But after manned him for her own strong-hold. On every side he open was as day, That you might see no lack of strength within, For walls and ports do only serve alway For a pretence to feebleness and sin. Say not that Cæsar was victorious, With toil and strife who stormed the House of Fame; In other sense this youth was glorious, Himself a kingdom wheresoe’er he came. No strength went out to get him victory, When all was income of its own accord; For where he went none other was to see, But all were parcel of their noble lord. He forayed like the subtle breeze of summer, That stilly shows fresh landscapes to the eyes, And revolutions worked without a murmur, Or rustling of a leaf beneath the skies. So was I taken unawares by this, I quite forgot my homage to confess; Yet now am forced to know, though hard it is, I might have loved him, had I loved him less. Each moment, as we nearer drew to each, A stern respect withheld us farther yet, So that we seemed beyond each other’s reach, And less acquainted than when first we met. We two were one while we did sympathize, So could we not the simplest bargain drive; And what avails it now that we are wise, If absence doth this doubleness contrive? Eternity may not the chance repeat, But I must tread my single way alone, In sad remembrance that we once did meet, And know that bliss irrevocably gone. The spheres henceforth my elegy shall sing, For elegy has other subject none; Each strain of music in my ears shall ring Knell of departure from that other one. Make haste and celebrate my tragedy; With fitting strain resound ye woods and fields; Sorrow is dearer in such case to me Than all the joys other occasion yields. Is‘t then too late the damage to repair? Distance, forsooth, from my weak grasp hath reft The empty husk, and clutched the useless tare, But in my hands the wheat and kernel left.

If I but love that virtue which he is, Though it be scented in the morning air, Still shall we be truest acquaintances, HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Nor mortals know a sympathy more rare.

Which calls for some explanation. I will give you here the illustration provided by Sophia Peabody (Hawthorne) and a lengthy synopsis provided in the curiously titled SALEM IS MY DWELLING PLACE: ABIOGRAPHY OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE / BY EDWIN HAV ILA ND MILLER (Iowa City IA: U of Iowa P, 1991):

“The Gentle Boy” is the story of a beautiful youth called Ilbrahim, a Quaker with a Turkish name who at six years of age is orphaned by the Puritan theocracy because of the religious beliefs of his parents. On an autumn day about 1659, a “slender and light-clad little boy” leans “his face upon a hillock of fresh-turned and half-frozen earth.” Half-starved because the jailers have denied him and his father food, he has witnessed his father’s hanging from a scaffold beneath a fir tree and has watched his mother disappear into the wilderness, “to perish there by hunger or wild beasts.” The authorities spare the child in what they consider an act of kindness but make no provision for his welfare. The truth, however, is that the Puritans have made official and seemingly final an orphandom which began almost at birth, since Ilbrahim’s parents have sacrificed him to their religious persuasion. For years their flights from country to country denied the youth the opportunity to establish roots in any society or to form relationships. As his mother later reveals in her wild harangue to the Puritan congregation, she has placed God’s will, as intuited by her inner light, above the nurturing of Ilbrahim. If the lad wishes himself dead—three times he insists that “my home is here” on the grave of his father—it is not an instance of nineteenth-century sentimentality but an all-too-human response of a child who, denied the love needed to survive in an unloving environment, represses his rage and craves the release of death to escape terrors and losses too gigantic for his undeveloped body and his hungry heart to deal with. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

The illustration provided by Sophia Peabody (Hawthorne) HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Ilbrahim is found on his father’s grave by Tobias Pearson, a Puritan who with difficulty has struggled into middle age, hounded earlier by financial failure in England and then, in the New World, robbed of his children who could not survive transplantation to the harsh climate of New England. According to the Puritan hierarchy, Tobias has been punished by the loss of children because of his materialistic motivations in coming to the new Eden. In an attempt to remake his life and at the same time to gain community approval, he becomes “a Representative to the General Court, and an approved Lieutenant in the train-bands.” His semimilitary attire veils an underlying anxiety which evidences itself in tremulousness, pallor, and vacillation. When Tobias discovers Ilbrahim and lays a hand on his shoulder, the boy trembles “under his hand,” which becomes the central motif in the tale, expressive of a desperate emotional need. When the Puritan learns that Ilbrahim is a Quaker he withdraws his hand “as if he were touching a loathsome reptile.” Then, with characteristic vacillation, his fear of censure by the community giving way to compassion, he takes up the boy “in his arms,” wraps him in his cloak, and carries him: “‘Look up, child,’ said the Puritan to Ilbrahim, whose faint head had sunk upon his shoulder, ‘there is our home.’” Tobias’s wife, Dorothy, “a matronly woman,” sits before a fire. Dramatically but tenderly, Tobias thrusts aside the cloak and unveils Ilbrahim’s face. “Be kind to him,” he says to his wife, “even as if he were of those dear ones who have departed from us.” Such advice is scarcely necessary to a woman with an infinite capacity to love. “Dry your tears,” she says, “and be my child, as I will be your mother.” When she puts the child to bed that evening he occupies “the little bed, from which her own children had successively been borne to another resting place.” The reaction of the townspeople to the “adoption” of the orphaned child is immediate and hostile, and Tobias is “both hissed and hooted.” When the three go to Sabbath services, Ilbrahim, “clad in the new mourning suit,” walks between Tobias and Dorothy, “each holding a hand.” The Puritan adults gaze stonily at the trio, and Ilbrahim hears “the reviling voices of the little children.” At this first confrontation Ilbrahim is betrayed, not by Dorothy, who draws him protectively “closer to her,” but by Tobias, who wavers self- protectively, finding “it difficult to sustain their united and disapproving gaze.” Trapped by the fears of his years, Tobias cannot know what his momentary hesitation means to an unusually sensitive youth. If the boy is “wanting in the stamina for self-support,” Tobias is paralyzed by “self-suspicion” and “nervous agitation.” The agony of the relationship between “father and son” is that both have deep dependency needs. Fearful of censure and unsure of himself, perhaps even uncomfortable in the role of father, Tobias cannot make the personal loving gesture to Ilbrahim, his affection growing “daily less productive of familiar caresses.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

After the clergyman in “black velvet scull-cap” warns his audience not to thwart God’s will by showing pity to Quakers, a “muffled female”—it is Ilbrahim’s mother, Catharine—mounts the rostrum and divests herself of cloak and hood. Her Quaker diatribe is as unloving and inhuman as the sermon of the Puritan. “Muffled” in her faith, she appears almost to welcome the prospect of martyrdom and the release of death. At the conclusion of her selfjustifying but self- indulgent sermon, Ilbrahim runs to her and throws his arms around her. “I am here, mother, it is I, and I will go with thee to prison.” At the touch of the warm hand Catharine is no longer the would-be martyr but a mother “as in the first moment when I pressed thee to my bosom.” “It would seem,” the narrator comments at this point, “that the indulgence of natural love had given her mind a momentary sense of its errors, and made her know how far she had strayed from duty, in following the dictates of a wild fanaticism.” As Catharine, perhaps with a “momentary” awareness of what she has denied to her son, hides her face on his head, her raven hair covering him “like a veil,” Tobias becomes “agitated and uneasy,” oppressed with “guilt,” but Dorothy, “taking Ilbrahim’s hand,” offers to become his mother and asks for the natural mother’s blessing. The voice “within” tells Catharine, “Break the bonds of natural affection, martyr thy love, and know that in all these things eternal wisdom hath its ends.” She whispers her decision to Ilbrahim, who at first sobs and clings to her but suddenly becomes “passive.” “Having held her hands over his head in mental prayer, she was ready to depart.” The blessing, a “mental prayer” rather than a caress, is a nonverbal communication that every child dreads, “I do not want thee.” That winter, nurtured “with the gentle care of one who handles a butterfly,” Ilbrahim finds the Pearson house a home. Within its protective shelter he is filled with “airy gaiety,” “a domesticated sunbeam,” but there are also “moments of deep depression,” “from wounded love” and his awareness that “his equals in age, partook of the enmity of their parents.” Stigmatized by his religion and baptized with a foreign name that sets him apart in a Puritan society, Ilbrahim silently broods over “a residue of unappropriated love.” As comforting and comfortable as it is, the Pearson house is a prison since he cannot venture beyond its doors. One day a Puritan lad two years older than Ilbrahim falls from a nearby tree, and Dorothy, always the attentive mother, takes him in. In effect she presents Ilbrahim with a brother. The invalid is as ugly and grotesque, almost snakelike in appearance, as Ilbrahim is beautiful and ethereal. Ilbrahim caters to him “with a fond jealousy” and relates tales “of human tenderness” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

drawn from the romantic atmosphere of his “barbaric birthplace.” After the boy leaves, Ilbrahim does not see him again until one summer day when he discovers him with a group of Puritan boys. When Ilbrahim approaches timidly, the “baby-fiends” attack him with sticks and stones, displaying “an instinct of destruction, far more loathsome than the blood-thirstiness of manhood.” The invalid calls out, “Fear not, Ilbrahim, come hither and take my hand.” When Ilbrahim offers his hand, the “foul-hearted little villain” lifts his crutch and strikes him on the mouth, the mouth which has related tales of “human tenderness.” It is the last wound, the final rejection. The acts of the howling “unbreeched fanatics” foretell a dismal future, that Ilbrahim will never find a home in this community to appropriate his love. He begins “to pine and droop like a cankered rosebud.” For the Pearsons it is the same story continued: their children “had left their native country blooming like roses, and like roses they had perished in foreign soil.” Ilbrahim recovers from the physical wounds but not from “the injury done to his sensitive spirit.” He is now moody, sometimes sullen, and when Dorothy attempts “to revive his former sportiveness,” he runs and hides, refusing “even the hand of kindness.” Punishing himself, as though undeserving of kindness, he rejects Dorothy’s love as the invalid rejected his. In his dreams at night he cries, “Mother! Mother!” Dorothy silently endures rejection, still continuing to give of herself as is her wont, but Tobias experiences a physical and emotional collapse similar to that of his adopted son. Because Ilbrahim is “dearer to me than all my buried ones,” Tobias has attempted to play father, not by spontaneous and tactile expressions of affection but by imitation of the natural father. He has embraced the Quaker faith despite doubts he cannot put to rest and suffers imprisonment and economic harassment. His love, he feels, becomes “poison,” for once more he is to be a father in a childless household. He finds himself guilty, “an accursed man.” Cut off from the community and even from the child and needing a father as much as Ilbrahim does, Tobias seeks solace and guidance from a Quaker patriarch on a stormy night as the youth lies dying on the deathbed of the earlier Pearson offspring. As Tobias leaned “his forehead on his hands, his teeth were firmly closed; and his frame was tremulous at intervals with a nervous agitation.” The patriarch makes a confession which he intends as a lesson. Years ago he abandoned his daughter on her “dying bed” after wrestling with two “inner” voices, one telling him to go forth and the other upbraiding him as a “cruel parent.” Now after the passage of time a “hale and weather-beaten old man,” he has no doubts as to the rightness of his decision. If Ilbrahim fails to find in Tobias an adequate, loving paternal figure, the Quaker fails to fulfill Tobias’s expectations, for he has gained neither in wisdom nor in feeling, only in years. The tale of the elder Quaker, then, is one more instance of the failure of the fathers, one more instance of the abandonment and rejection of children. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Suddenly Catharine comes in out of the storm to announce “glad tidings,” that King Charles II has ordered the colonists to cease persecuting Quakers. The patriarch informs her of the burden of proselytizing her faith and “leading an infant by the hand”: “his tottering footsteps shall impede thine own no more.” Shuddering, appalled, she wails, “Hath He crushed my very heart in his hand?” Her shriek is answered by “the very faint voice of a child.” Moments before he hears his mother’s voice Ilbrahim begins to shiver and takes Dorothy’s hand “in both of his.” Catharine draws the child to her breast, where he nestles “with no violence of joy.” Looking into her face “and reading its agony,” Ilbrahim pronounces his own benediction: “Mourn not, dearest mother. I am happy now.” At the breast which the mother has denied him he dies and goes home to his father. “The Gentle Boy” resonates on the deepest affective levels — a child’s need for father and mother, home, caressing hands, and peers, for love and security. After its anonymous appearance in the Token in 1832 it became Hawthorne’s most popular tale.

Walter Roy Harding would offer the readership of the Journal of Homosexuality the suggestion that Henry Thoreau’s homoerotic attraction to Edmund was what lay behind his proposal of marriage to Edmund’s sister Ellen Devereux Sewall: And then there is Thoreau’s interest in Edmund Sewall, the eleven-year-old brother97 of Ellen, who was later a pupil in Thoreau’s boarding school. Young Sewall had come to Concord to visit his grandmother, Mrs. Joseph Ward, who was the star boarder in the Thoreau household, on June 17, 1839. Five days later Thoreau wrote in his JOURNAL: I have within the last few days come into contact, with a pure, uncompromising spirit, that is somewhere wandering in the atmosphere, but settles not positively anywhere. Some persons carry about them the air and conviction of virtue, though they themselves are unconscious of it, and are even backward to appreciate it in others. Such it is impossible not to love; still Is their loveliness, as it were, independent of them, so that you seem not to lose it when they are absent, for when they are near it is like an invisible presence which attends you. (PRINCETON JOURNAL I:74) Two days later Thoreau wrote his well-known poem “Sympathy” about Edmund, saying in part: Lately, alas, I knew a gentle boy, Whose features all were cast in Virtue’s mould, As one she had designed for Beauty’s toy, But after manned him for her own stronghold .... So I was taken unawares by this, I quite forgot my homage to confess; Yet now am forced to know, though hard it is, 97. As for Thoreau’s interest in boys, George Frisbie Hoar, who grew up in Concord with Thoreau, said, “I knew Thoreau very intimately.... He was very fond of small boys” (AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SEVENTY YEARS. New York, 1903, I, 70). And George W. Cooke, who also knew the Concord scene well, said, “Thoreau loved the society of boys” (“The Two Thoreaus,” Independent, XLVIII. December 10, 1896, 1672). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY I might have loved him, had I loved him less. (PRINCETON JOURNAL I:76)

It is obvious, 1 believe, from a reading of both the poem and the journal entry that Thoreau’s relationship with Edmund was a highly rarified and intellectual one, with little if any of the physical about it. As Thoreau said on another occasion, “In all cases we esteem rather the suggested ideal than the actual man” (JOURNAL II:232). Thoreau gave a copy of the poem to Edmund who showed it to his parents. They apparently seeing nothing wrong with it not only asked Thoreau to write another poem for Edmund’s younger brother, but later enrolled Edmund as a boarding pupil in Thoreau’s school. There were others however who were disturbed by the tenor of the poem. Both Emerson and Frank Sanborn, Thoreau’s friend and biographer, insisted that Thoreau had written the poem about Ellen despite irrefutable evidence that Thoreau had written the poem before he ever met Ellen. In October of 1840, Thoreau wrote another series of interesting entries in his Journal: October 17, 1840. In the presence of my friend I am ashamed of my fingers and toes. I have no feature so fair its my love for him. There is more than maiden modesty between us, ...We should sooner blot out the sun than disturb friendship.... October 19, 1840. My friend dwells in the distant horizon as rich as an eastern city there. There he sails all lonely under the edge of the sky, but thoughts go out silently from me and belay him.... He seems to move in a burnished atmosphere, while I peer in upon him from surrounding spaces of Cimmerian darkness, His house is incandescent to my eye, while I have no house, but only a neighborhood to his.... October 20, 1840. My friend is the apology for my life. In him are the spaces which my orbit traverses. (PRINCETON JOURNAL 1:190-2) Note that all the pronouns are masculine. No one has as yet succeeded in identifying the subject of these entries, but it should be noted that he also says in his entry for the 18th “I cannot make a disclosure—you should see my secret” (PRINCETON JOURNAL I:191). It should also be noted that immediately after writing these entries, Thoreau wrote his letter to Ellen Sewall proposing marriage, Could it be that suddenly realizing he was getting involved in a relationship that would have been condemned by his contemporaries, he leaped violently in the opposite direction to prove to both society and himself that he was “normal”?

June 25, Tuesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 25th In the evening we I had a delightful sail on the harbor. It was about half past eight when we got under weigh. It was a beautiful moonlight night and the water was smooth as glass. Arrived at the wharf Dr. Thomas asked John Hawthorn who was in a boat to carry us to colonel Young’s boat which he did. We then hoisted our sails (Captain Henry Vinal went with us to HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY navigate the boat) & Dr. T. steered. Mr. Morrison sat or stood in the bow, & I was variable. There was very little wind indeed & we went very slowly ^most of the way^ across the harbor. We went about a mile & then came back. We managed to keep in a breeze most of the way and went pretty fast. Sometimes the Breeze would be but 4 or 3 rods as we could see by the look of the water. It looked dark where there was wind. We came up to the wharf ahead of the Ontario & fastened the boat. By the by I asked the Dr. T. what such a schooner as the Ontario (she is a large topsail schooner) was worth – he said about 5000 dollars. In going out we hailed a schooner – “What schooner’s that”? “What” Capt. Vinal repeated the question. “The Pyretis” which Dr. Thomas said had just arrived from the South. All this I forgot to say when I described the former part of our voyage. We went down & back railroad fashion.

June 26, Wednesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday 26th. I was unexpectedly invited to a sail with Mr. M. & Dr. Thomas by the latter. We went out between 1 & 2. The provisions were a bottle marked Alcohol (filled with water) a bottle of cider and half a dozen crackers. We had to beat going out of the harbor. We sailed about a great while till we wanted to fish. We then asked leave of a boat to make fast to it as we had no anchor. They gave permission but it took us so long to furl our sails that we drifted out of the way of it and made fast to another. We had not got our jib down as we did not know how to furl it so the man whose name was Goodwin furled it for us. He gave us a little bait for our hooks. We caught together 12 or 15 fish. I caught 1. We could see the fish in the water sometimes. Sometimes they would [illegible word blotted out] come and put their nose to my hook and then go away again. When we left we picked out 9 for me to carry home and gave the rest to Capt. Goodwin. When we left there were many boats round the place and vessels were coming in from all quarters towards it. I counted between 20 and 30 fishing schooners in sight. They throw ground mackerel overboard to raise the fish from the bottom and then throw their lines overboard and hook the fish. Sometimes they have two or three hooks on one line and I saw two fish hauled up this way at once. I saw several of my quondam schoolmates out fishing. Joseph Colman, John Hawthorn and John Jones and Thomas Curtis. Upon the whole I think this was as pleasant a day as I ever passed. I had not the least symptom of sea-sickness nor did I feel afraid at all though Dr. Thomas had never before sailed a boat. We beat into the harbor the wind having changed and reached home between 3 & 4.

June 27, Thursday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday June 27th 1839. We had two fresh mackerel for breakfast & three for dinner which we caught ourselves as related in the preceding volume. They were very good though rather lean. We had Mr & Mrs. May do.do. Bates do.do. Simmons to tea. In the HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY afternoon I hoed potatoes. In the evening I went with Mr Morrison and Ellen to a meeting on Normal Schools. We went in Mr May’s carry-all with Mr & Mrs. May. Mr May was one of the speakers.

June 28, Friday: A Paris court fined Nicolò Paganini 20,000 francs plus interest and costs for the failure of his “Casino Paganini,” and threatened arrest for debt and imprisonment for ten years if he failed to fulfil the claims made against the project. He appealed and, losing the appeal, would be obliged to pay 50,000 francs rather than 20,000.

That evening Don José Ruiz and Don Pedro Montez took their coffle of purchased slaves from the Havana barracoon to their coastal vessel, La Amistad.98 By 8PM the vessel was loaded and at midnight it slipped out to sea, with the slaves in the hold with iron collars on their necks. (Those collars would shortly be removed from all but Joseph Cinqué — because he had been threatening to attempt an escape.)

THE MIDDLE PASSAGE RACE SLAVERY Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday 28th. It was a rainy day.

June 29, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): 98. This vessel had originated in a shipyard of Baltimore as the Friendship. I wonder whether, with such a name, it had been constructed by a Quaker shipbuilder. (Note that the US National Park Service, with the support of the Salem Partnership, is currently building a full size reproduction of a Salem merchant vessel that had been named Friendship, but this Salem merchant vessel was not the same as this Friendship of which we here speak, which had been constructed in a Baltimore shipyard and which eventually became the Spanish Cuban coastal vessel La Amistad of the Amistad mutiny. This Salem square-rigged, 342-ton three-master had been begun in 1796 in the Stage Point yard of Enos Briggs and was registered in 1797 by its owners Jerathmiel Peirce and Aaron Waite. It was 104 feet long and 27 feet wide and the depth of the hold was 13 feet, 9 inches, which is just enormously larger than the La Amistad. The Salem merchant vessel made at least 15 voyages to places such as China, Java, Sumatra, Madras, London, Hamburg, Archangel, and St. Petersburg before it was captured by the British during the War of 1812. The Friendship II now being constructed is to be permanently berthed at Derby Wharf at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Saturday 29th. Mr Morrison went away. Mr Edmund Whitman came early in the afternoon and took dinner and tea with us. He brought a Mr Osgood with him. Ellen went away at 1 ½ o’clock in the afternoon with Mr H. Bowers & Miss M. Bowers to Hingham.

June 29, Saturday or 30, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 29. 30th. Mr Farley preached in the morning from the 1st Epistle of John, 4th 7th. “Brethren let us love one another for love is of God.” In the afternoon a child was christened. Father made some of the prayers and read some of the hymns and Mr F. performed the rest of the exercises. Mr George Leonard came over to preach for father in the afternoon so he but finding Mr F. he sat in the pew.

Aboard La Amistad, still in his slave collar, Joseph Cinqué found a nail and hid it in his armpit.

THE MIDDLE PASSAGE RACE SLAVERY

Robert Bartlett wrote his sister Rebecca Bartlett, just prior to his being elected as a tutor at Harvard College at a salary of $700: You must tell father and mother that I have an English oration to deliver next Commencement, at the end of the vacation, and it is important that I should do the best I possibly can. I have been working on it, but I cannot finish it here this term. I must have time for stillness and study in the vacation. They must consent to my stopping here for a fortnight or so. It is a hard sacrifice for me, as hard as it is for all of you, but I know it is for the best. I must be here among my books and books not mine, which it is impossible for me to obtain in Plymouth. Here, too, I can occasionally in vacation go into the college library. If father and mother feel how important it is that I should do well, I am sure they will be willing. They must write me about it. The term ends July 19, which is Friday. I shall want to stay her until about Monday, August 5, perhaps a little time after that. If you can leave to go to Westbrook about that time, I shall be exceedingly glad to go with you. I think it will be better for me on several accounts not to be in Plymouth any considerable time next vacation. I do not want my mind disturbed and bothered by being there with E.W.C. [Elizabeth HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Crowell White] until after my oration is over.

NEVER READ AHEAD! TO APPRECIATE THE NIGHT OF JUNE 29TH/ 30TH, 1839 AT ALL ONE MUST APPRECIATE IT AS A TODAY (THE FOLLOWING DAY, TOMORROW, IS BUT A PORTION OF THE UNREALIZED FUTURE AND IFFY AT BEST).

July 1, Monday night: Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II died in Constantinople and was succeeded by his son Abdulmejid I. Pursuant to the defeat at Nezib, the Ottoman fleet sailed to Egypt and surrendered to Mohammed Ali.

Having used the nail to pick the lock on the collar about his neck, and then having freed others, Joseph Cinqué and the other slaves below decks in La Amistad discovered boxes of sugar cane knives. The knives had square steel handles and blades that gradually widened to a thickness of 3 inches at the tip. THE MIDDLE PASSAGE RACE SLAVERY

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday July 1st. I began to keep an account book. I swallowed a ninepence in the afternoon without hurting myself. I never heard of it again.

“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY

The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY July 2, Tuesday: In the Minnesota Territory, each Ojibwa band began to go home the same way it came. But it appears that the two bereaved sons of the Pillager band set up an ambush in tall grass near the south-eastern shore of Lake Harriet, by a path that ran on the east side of the lake and then on to a great body of timber, a wild pigeon grove, in what is now a rather posh district of Minneapolis (in our own era, the popular poet Robert Bly, for instance, would reside there –between expeditions to the primeval forest to beat his tom-tom in his male-sensitivity circles– before his Mrs. divorced him). They were going to get some revenge.

When Hku-pa Choki Mahzah “Middle Iron Wing,” also known as “The Badger,” went pigeon hunting before dawn, he walked right into the ambush set up by the two Pillagers and didn’t have a chance.

After this act of revenge the Pillager warriors would attempt to hide out at the Minnehaha Falls. The Lakota who found and killed them there later said the two had hidden on the ledge behind the Minnehaha falls “as if they were behind a big white blanket.”

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 2d. In the morning Mr Davis Litchfield came and white washed the ceiling of our parlor twice. He gave us the white wash which remained. I received a letter from Aunt Prudence. I began to study “Smith’s Geography” and got my first lesson in it.99 I began with Europe.

July 3, Wednesday: The 1st public normal school in the United States of America opened in Lexington, Massachusetts.100 Students had to be at least 16 years old to attend. On this first day only three girls showed up, but, by the end of the year, 25 students would be enrolled. This experiment by Headmaster Cyrus Pierce would be so successful that Massachusetts would open several more of these normal schools over the next couple of years.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday 3d. Nothing special happened.

99. Roswell C. Smith, GEOGRAPHY ON THE PRODUCTIVE SYSTEM: FOR SCHOOLS, ACADEMIES, AND FAMILIES (Philadelphia: W. Marshall, 1835). 100. A private such institution had been created in 1823 at Concord Corners, Vermont on the New Hampshire border. A “normal school” is a school where high school graduates train to become primary school teachers (such a service is now provided by the “Department of Education” of a college). In 19th-Century-speak the institution was “normal” because it established a “norm,” an elevated uniform standard. Shortly, this public institution would be relocated from Lexington to Framingham, where it is now referred to as Framingham State University. By the way, those who can do, those who can’t teach, and those who can’t teach teach others how to teach. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

In the Minnesota Territory, in the morning, Marpiyawicasta Man of the Clouds’ son-in-law Rupacoka II “One Who Drifts” went out to hunt pigeons. He took the path past Lake Harriet and, when his body was recovered, he had been scalped. The Reverend Stephens of the Lake Harriet mission brought the news to101 the fort, while Reverend Pond attempted to explain to the savages what the Christian thing to do would be:

When the Dakota was killed at Lake Harriet, I was there a few minutes after he was killed, and saw in the tall grass the trail of the Chippewas [Ojibwa] leading to a small cluster of young poplars. There were no tracks leading from the grove, and all knew that they were there. We afterwards learned that they remained there till dark. I urged the Indians to try to kill them, but though there were as many as fifty armed Dakotas, they refused to go near them, and leaving them to escape, started off in pursuit of the Mille Lacs Indians.

Man of the Clouds, who had been a pacifist since the age of 25, refused to engage in yet another round of retributions in this intertribal feud, and commented that war begot only war. His brother-in-law Zitkadanduta Red Bird seized command as temporary war chief. With the prior knowledge and concurrence of officers at Fort Snelling, a war party of 150 Dakotas prepared to go after the unsuspecting Mille Lacs band that went up the Mississippi, and others prepared to go after the unsuspecting band that had left with fur trader William R. Aitkin the morning before to go to La Pointe by way of the St. Croix River. The Dakota war parties assembled at St. Anthony “Place where the Water Falls.” The Reverend Samuel W. Pond watched the war party ferry itself across the Mississippi by detachments, in the available canoes, near sundown just above Hennepin Island, and watched as the medicine-man-turned-war- chief Red Bird blessed each warrior in turn. He would report that “The agent [Major Taliaferro] had already given them permission to retaliate in case any of them should be killed.” According to Pond, the Dakotas decided not to pursue the offending Pillager band because they “would be watching and probably ready for them.” Instead, they made bold to attack the Mille Lacs and St. Croix bands of Ojibwa “who would suspect no danger.” The band of Ojibwa that was with William R. Aitkin were intercepted drunk by a war party led by Zitkadanduta Red Bird, in a ravine near Stillwater where Minnesota Penitentiary is now located, and 21 of them were killed and 29 wounded. However, the Dakotas lost 16 warriors in addition to their war leader.

101. The Reverend S.W. Pond wrote on “Indian Warfare in Minnesota” in Shakopee in March 1870, and his account has been published in Volume III for 1870-1880, pages 129-138 of the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society (St. Paul MN: Published by the Society, 1880). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

[You will note that the Stillwater prison is not listed in current travel literature –unless this prison is included implicitly under “cozy bed and breakfasts”– as shown below:]

Stillwater One of Minnesota’s oldest cities, Stillwater is nestled into the bluffs and hills that rise above the scenic St. Croix. Walking tours of downtown Stillwater take visitors past many of its historic buildings, and browsers can also tour the Northern Vineyard Winery or local Wolf Brewery Caves, Aamodt’s Apple Farm, or take a ride on sternwheeler excursions or the Rivertown Trolley. Popular with fine diners, the Minnesota Zephyr dinner train offers both haute cuisine and great views of the river. Cozy bed and breakfasts and historic inns abound in Stillwater, such as the classic Lowell Inn and the rustic Outing Lodge at Pine Point. Stillwater events to watch for include the Rivertown Art Fair in May, Taste of St. Croix in June, Lumberjack Days in July, Music on the Waterfront in July and August, Valley Antique Show and Sale in September, Fall Colors Art Fair in October and a Victorian Christmas in November. Call 612-439-7700 for more information. — The City Pages “Annual Manual,” 1992-1993

The white people who had set up this encounter in the ravine near Stillwater in 1839 had very definitely achieved their objective of exacerbating the tension between the peoples they were intent on dominating: “divide and conquer, but pose as a mediator” was an old trick, and it had worked again.

We interrupt this account to bring you a news flash: even as late as 1915 the race war continued, for a 350- pound Indian brave was attacking white passers-by in front of Byron Mosier’s Cigar Store in downtown Stillwater, Minnesota: HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Indian Brave Tomahawking White People in

Downtown Stillwater MN in 1915 HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Meanwhile, the other Dakota war party intercepted the women and children of the Mille Lacs band of Ojibwa that had gone up the river, while they were occupied in their Rum River portage. The Mille Lacs men were away hunting. An old man Mazomani orated: “Let them all die.… The Great Spirit has delivered them to us!” As the Dakota warriors charged, some of the Mille Lacs women didn’t even drop the packs from their backs. They had just taken part in this big friendly party at the white father’s fort and had no awareness of the act of retribution by the brothers of the Pillager band. Only the young women who could run the fastest escaped. The right reverend was keeping score:102

Extract from a Memorandum book of Indian Murders

At Lake Harriet, one Dakota by Ojibwa.

On Rum river, and at Stillwater, ninety-one Ojibwas killed by Dakotas in one day — Dakota loss seventeen. This broke up the Dakota Mission station at Lake Harriet.

Our national birthday, Thursday the 4th of July: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 35th birthday.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday 4th. was “Independent day.” In the morning I went with George to the cliff to take a walk and got some flowers for mother. When we got to the bars to go home we missed the scissors which we had carried to cut off the flowers with. George said that he had put them into the basket on top of the flowers. They were not there then however so we went back to look for them supposing that they must have dropped out. We looked round but could not find them and supposed that they had fallen into the holes with which a part of the path abounds. These holes are bog holes and full of water. I then missed the basket. George said that I took it when we began to look for the scissors. So we looked round for that till I spied it by the bars where I had set it down. We then took up the basket and as I was carrying it home what should I see but the scissors poking their noses out of a hole in the bottom of the basket. In coming home we caught some “polywogles” alias tadpoles in a little pond and put them in a bog hole. When we had done looking at them we let them out again. About 9 o’clock I went with Father to hear Mr Garrison deliver an Anti Slavery Address.103 The house104 was very full. There was a contribution taken after it. There were two hymns sung and a prayer made. There was a meeting in the afternoon also but we did not go to it. Those who staid to it patronised a baker who was there and who I saw selling gingerbread.

102. From the Dakota Tawaxitku Kin, or The Dakota Friend, St. Paul, Minnesota, May 1852. 103. William Lloyd Garrison’s address was delivered at the annual meeting of the Plymouth County Anti-Slavery Society. It would appear in the Liberator on July 19th. 104. Edmund added: “Mr. May’s meeting house.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Ground was broken in East Lexington, Massachusetts for a unique octagonal Unitarian church structure, designed by the Reverend Charles Follen (this octagonal building still stands, as the oldest church structure in Lexington). In his prayer at the groundbreaking the Reverend declared the mission of his church — and this mission statement now on a memorial to him in the churchyard: [May] this church never be desecrated by intolerance, or bigotry, or party spirit; more especially its doors might never be closed against any one, who would plead in it the cause of oppressed humanity; within its walls all unjust and cruel distinctions might cease, and [there] all men might meet as brethren.

In Hagerstown, Maryland, the only 2 soldiers of the American Revolution of that vicinity still alive sat proudly in a carriage drawn by white horses.

On Staten Island, between 20,000 and 30,000 children were gathered to celebrate a Sunday School Scholars National Jubilee while, in New-York harbor, 1,000 ships were “gaily dressed in honor of the day.”

In Boston, 1500 men gathered at Faneuil Hall in support of a Temperance Reformation. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY In Norwich, Connecticut, at a sabbath school celebration, one of the students read excerpts from the Declaration of Independence while wearing “the identical cap” that had been worn by William Williams of that state at the time he had placed his signature upon that document.

In Tennessee, the McMinnville Gazette published a “Declaration of Independence for an Independant Treasury,” and the text of this would be reprinted in the Washington DC Globe.

At Norfolk, Virginia, an elephant “attached to the menagerie” was induced to swim across the harbor from Town Point to the Portsmouth side and back. CELEBRATING OUR B-DAY HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY There was a 91-scalp victory dance on the east shore of Lake Calhoun, just south of Minneapolis in the Minnesota Territory. One of the scalps was of the bride from the wedding at the fort (one can’t help but notice that in none of the accounts has any white recorder of these events gone to the trouble of recording her name). In regard to that scalp dance, one of the white people did register a comment:

“It seemed as if hell had emptied itself here.”

Henry Thoreau was inspired to perpetrate a poem, in honor of an illustrated 3-volume set of famous British poems which he was at the moment perusing, THE BOOK OF GEMS. THE POETS AND ARTISTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. EDITED BY S.C. HALL (London: Saunders and Otley, Conduit Street): THE BOOK OF GEMS, I THE BOOK OF GEMS, II THE BOOK OF GEMS, III

July 4. THE “BOOK OF GEMS”

With cunning plates the polished leaves were decked, Each one a window to the poet’s world, So rich a prospect that you might suspect In that small space all paradise unfurled.

It was a right delightful road to go, Marching through pastures of such fair herbage, O’er hill and dale it led, and to and fro, From bard to bard, making an easy stage;

Where ever and anon I slaked my thirst Like a tired traveller at some poet’s well, Which from the teeming ground did bubbling burst, And tinkling thence adown the page it fell. Still through the leaves its music you might hear, Till other springs fell faintly on the ear.105

July 5, Friday: Timothy Alden, Jr. died outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The grave is in the Greendale Cemetery in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

July 6, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday 6th. George and I were roused at our own request at 4 o’clock as Ellen was to go away in the stage at 4 ½ to be gone a month. She went. She is to go to Brookline first to see her friend Louisa Goddard a fortnight and will spend the other fort night at Concord with Aunt P. and Grandmother.

105. Thoreau’s extracts from these three unremarkable volumes assembled at London by S.C. Hall between 1836 and 1838 are to be found in his Literary Notebook 1840-1848 and his Miscellaneous Extracts 1836-1840. SAMUEL CARTER HALL HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

July 7, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 7th. In the morning Father preached from John 19th 2d and 3d verses. “Then the soldiers platted a crown of thorns and put it upon his head and they put on him a purple robe and said Hail King of the Jews.” In the after noon ^afternoon^ he preached from Malachi 2d. 2d. In the afternoon latter part of the afternoon service I felt a little sick at my stomach. I threw from my stomach after I got home and did not eat my supper. I took some warm water which I afterwards threw up but which had no effect on me. About 5 o’clock I laid down and did not get up till next morning when I was well.

July 8, Monday: John D. Rockefeller was born.106

When Prince Milan Obrenovic II of Serbia died he was succeeded by his brother Michael, under a 3-person regency council.

Mehmed Husrev Pasha replaced Mehmed Emin Rauf Pasha as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday 8th. See 3d.

July 9, Tuesday: Waldo Emerson wrote to Margaret Fuller:

JONES VERY I am editing Very’s little book. Three Essays; and verses. Out of two hundred poems, I have selected sixty six that really possess rare merit. The book is to cost 75 cents, and I beg you to announce its coming value to all buyers. If it sells, our prophet will get $150 which, little though it be, he wants.

His contract in Riga not having been renewed, Richard Wagner and his wife Christine Wilhelmine “Minna” Planer Wagner stayed one step ahead of their creditors by abandoning Mitau near Riga, heading toward Paris.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 9th. Mr Chandler began to mow Mr Vinal’s field.

July 10, Wednesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday 10th. Our part of the grass was cut. I undertook the management of it.

106. And immediately, one may presume, he began to monopolize his mother’s attention. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

According to the Caledonian Mercury of Edinburgh, Scotland for August 1st, “11th — On the 3d of June, embarked at Halifax on board HM. brig Ringdove, one officer, two serjeants [sic], and 30 rank and file, with women and children; and on board HM. steamer Medea, one officer, two serjeants, one drummer, and 50 rank and file, with women and children, for Sydney, Cape Breton, to relieve the detachment stationed there, which was to return to headquarters in the Ringdove. One company, under the command of Major Thoreau, embarked at Halifax on the 4th of June, on board HMS. Andromache for Charlottetown, Prince Edward’s Island. The men, women, and luggage, left at Halifax on the departure of the service companies for Canada, arrived at Quebec in the Pique the 22d of June, were landed next day and joined the corps. The Montreal Gazette announces the arrival of the band at Quebec, which, during the past winter has been quartered at Chambly, in the steam boat Canada, from Montreal. Two companies of the regiment still remain at Chambly.” According to an article in the Freeman’s Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser of Dublin, Ireland of July 19th, in Canada “Part of the 37th regiment, under Major Thoreau, replaced the 23d at Prince Edward’s Island on the 10th.”

“A YANKEE IN CANADA”: This is the site where a real battle once took place, to commemorate which they have had a sham fight here almost every day since. The Highlanders manœuvred very well, and if the precision of their movements was less remarkable, they did not appear so stiffly erect as the English or Royal Irish, but had a more elastic and graceful gait, like a herd of their own red deer, or as if accustomed to stepping down the sides of mountains. But they made a sad impression on the whole, for it was obvious that all true manhood was in the process of being drilled out of them. I have no doubt that soldiers well drilled are as a class peculiarly destitute of originality and independence. The officers appeared like men dressed above their condition. It is impossible to give the soldier a good education without making him a deserter. His natural foe is the government that drills him. What would any philanthropist who felt an interest in these men’s welfare naturally do, but first of all teach them so to respect themselves that they could not be hired for this work, whatever might be the consequences to this government or that; — not drill a few, but educate all. I observed one older man among them, grey as a wharf-rat and supple as the devil, marching lock-step with the rest, who would have to pay for that elastic gait.

MAJOR JOHN THOREAU

July 11, Thursday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday 11th. There were three thunder showers in the day and a very violent one in the night which wet our hay a good deal.

Sir Charles Theophilus Metcalfe was appointed to be governor of Jamaica (he would perform in that capacity from September 26, 1839 to May 21, 1842).

ANNURSNACK July 11. At length we leave the river and take to the road which leads to the hilltop, if by any means we may spy out what manner of earth we inhabit. East, west, north, and south, it is farm and parish, this world of ours. One may see how at convenient, eternal intervals men have settled themselves, without thought for the universe. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY How little matters it all they have built and delved there in the valley! It is after all but a feature in the landscape. Still the vast impulse of nature breathes over all. The eternal winds sweep across the interval to-day, bringing mist and haze to shut out their works. Still the crow caws from Nawshawtuct to Annursnack, as no feeble tradesman nor smith may do. And in all swamps the hum of mosquitoes drowns this modern hum of industry.

EVERY MAN IS A ROMAN FORUM All things are up and down, east and west, to me. In me is the forum out of which go the Appian and Sacred ways, and a thousand beside, to the ends of the World. If I forget my centralness, and say a bean winds with or against the sun, and not right or left, it will not be true south of the equator.

July 12, Friday: By a vote of 235 over 46 the British Parliament rejected the Chartist petition bearing 1,200,000 signatures. Democracy is not the way we do government here. Definitely not.

The Cherokee nation Act of Union brought together the eastern and western Cherokee Nations. TRAIL OF TEARS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday 12th. was a beautiful hay day. In the afternoon George & I got in our hay. I turned it twice during the day.

July 13, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday 13th. Mr Vinal Charles & Lucius came in the morning to stack up the hay in his field. He set up the four great poles very near Mr W. Vinal’s barn. We then made a kind of floor of rails to prevent the hay from lying on the ground. We then began to carry in the hay. I say we because I helped him all day. We got in a part of it I should think about half in the forenoon.107 We should have worked longer but a shower came up which Mr Vinal thought would be a very heavy one but which was only a gentle rain for a few minutes. In the afternoon we worked at it again and finished the job. The stack however is not near full as he intends to put in the hay of the orchard which is not yet cut and to finish with salt hay.

July 14, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 14th. In the morning I went to meeting when the text was from John 2d. 3d. In the afternoon I staid at home.

107. Edmund added: “There were as I afterwards found 42 racks 27 were carried in the forenoon.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY July 16, Tuesday: Robert Schumann filed a complaint against Friedrich Wieck in Leipzig, asking the court of appeal for permission to get married with his daughter Clara Wieck.

Waltz in G for orchestra by Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka was performed for the initial time, at the Winter Palace, St. Petersburg.

Over the past couple of days Cherokee warriors and the Texas militia had been battling on the Neches River, producing more than 100 corpses. TRAIL OF TEARS

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday or Tuesday I don’t know which Mr Vinal tore down his stack and got the hay into Mr W. Vinals barn or rather got in the hay and tore down the stack. I stowed it away. On Tuesday night and Wednesday the orchard was mowed.

July 18, Thursday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday 18th. I helped pole the hay in the orchard and get in that part of it which was dry enough.

Meanwhile, the scholars of Concord strutted their stuff.

July 18. THE ASSABET Up this pleasant stream let’s row For the livelong summer’s day, Sprinkling foam where’er we go In wreaths as white as driven snow. Ply the oars! away! away!

Now we glide along the shore, Chucking lilies as we go, While the yellow-sanded floor Doggedly resists the oar, Like some turtle dull and slow.

Now we stein the middle tide, Plowing through the deepest soil; Ridges pile on either side, While we through the furrow glide, Reaping bubbles for our toil.

Dew before and drought behind, Onward all doth seem to fly; Naught contents the eager mind, Only rapids new are kind, Forward arc the earth and sky.

Sudden music strikes the ear, Leaking out from yonder bank, Fit such voyagers to cheer. Sure there must be Naiads here, Who have kindly played this prank.

There I know the cunning pack HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Where yon self-sufficient rill All its telltale hath kept back, Through the meadows held its clack, And now bubbleth its fill.

Silent flows the parent stream, And if rocks do lie below Smothers with her waves the din, As it were a youthful sin, Just as still and just as slow.

But this gleeful little rill, Purling round its storied pebble, Tinkles to the selfsame tune From December until June, Nor doth any drought enfeeble.

See the sun behind the willows, Rising through the golden haze, How he gleams along the billows, Their white crests the easy pillows Of his do-,v-besprinkled rays.

Forward press we to the dawning, For Aurora leads the way, Sultry noon and twilight scorning; In each dewdrop of the morning Lies the promise of a day.

Rivers from the sun do flow, Springing with the dewy morn; Voyageurs ’gainst time do row, Idle noon nor sunset know, Ever even with tile dawn.

Since that first “Away! away!” Many a lengthy league we’ve rowed, Still the sparrow on the spray Hastes to usher in the day With her simple stanza’d ode.

July 19, Friday: After crossing into Prussia, Richard and Minna Wagner board ship in Pillau (Baltiysk), making for Paris. On their way, the couple was in a carriage accident, which shortly thereafter caused Minna to miscarry. They have to sneak on to the ship and hide, since they crossed into Prussia illegally and Wagner is fleeing creditors in Riga.

A Leipzig court orders an attempt to arbitrate between Friedrich Wieck and Robert Schumann in the case of Clara Wieck.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday 19th. Father went away at 4 ½ o’clock in the morning for Cambridge with Mr Leonard in the carryall of the latter. He came to our house with his horse and carriage left his horse here and put in our horse. I finished Mr V. and I finished getting in the rest of the hay. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY July 23, Tuesday: Anton Rubinstein made his debut in Moscow, playing a movement from the A-minor concerto of Hummel and pieces by Field, Henselt, Thalberg, and Liszt.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): 19th to 23d nothing of importance happened. Tuesday 23d. In the afternoon we set out to Mr May’s hoping to get there before a shower should come on but before we had got a great way it began to rain and we turned back. When the shower was over we started again. I had a very pleasant time.

July 28, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): 23d to 28th. See 8th. Sunday 28th. Mr May preached in the morning from Job 27th. 6th. “My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live” and Mr Phipps in the afternoon from 1st Galatians 4th. 18th. “It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing.”

August 1, Thursday: Waldo Emerson reported that “Last night came to me a beautiful poem from Henry Thoreau, ‘Sympathy.’ The purest strain & the loftiest, I think, that has yet pealed from this unpoetic American forest.”

COMMENTARY: [I am going to include several pages of commentary here, because the above was the poem that would become the controversial “To a Gentle Boy.”]

There’ve been Gay Pride parades in which posters of Henry Thoreau have been proudly carried. The evidence that he was gay was that he wrote a poem to one of his students, the little brother of the girl to whom he proposed marriage, and from the circumstance that after she turned him down he never did marry. Let us go into this in order to see that it is a simpleminded and as wrong as the idea of long standing, that Thoreau had no sense of humor. This is going to be a bit complicated, so pay attention. William Sewell [Willem Séwel Amsterdammer] published THE HISTORY OF THE RISE, INCREASE AND PROGRESS OF THE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS in English as a corrective to Gerard Croese’s HISTORY OF QUAKERISM. The records of the Salem library show that Nathaniel Hawthorne used their edition of this book for a week in 1828 and a month in 1829. The book recounted the activities of some of his ancestors, such as his great-great-great-grandfather William Hathorne (1607-1681) who sailed on the Arbella in 1630, settling in Dorchester in New England and then moving to Salem, who served at the rank of major in wars against the Americans, who became a magistrate and judge of the Puritans, and who had one Anne Coleman whipped out of the town of Salem for HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY being a Quaker:

...naked from the waist upward, and bound to the tail of a cart, is dragged through the Main-street at the pace of a brisk walk, while the constable follows with a whip of knotted cords. A strong-armed fellow is that constable; and each time that he flourishes his lash in the air, you see a frown wrinkling and twisting his brow, and, at the same instant, a smile upon his lips. He loves his business, faithful officer that he is, and puts his soul into every stroke, zealous to fulfill the injunction of Major Hawthorne’s warrant, in the spirit and to the letter. There came down a stroke that has drawn blood! Ten such stripes are to be given in Salem, ten in Boston, and ten in Dedham; and, with those thirty stripes of blood upon her, she is to be driven into the forest.... Heaven grant that, as the rain of so many years has wept upon it, time after time, and washed it all away, so there may have been a dew of mercy, to cleanse this cruel blood-stain out of the record of the persecutor’s life!

And such as William’s son John Hathorne (1641-1717), a chip off the old block, a colonel in the Massachusetts militia and a deputy to the General Court in Boston who was a magistrate during the Salem witch episode which featured one person being tortured to death and 19 hanged. Hawthorne was much stimulated by the blood curse that Sarah Good had placed on her executioners, “God will give you Blood to drink.” His tale “The Gentle Boy” of 1831 made reference to this history.

Let us thank God for having given us such ancestors; and let each successive generation thank him, not less fervently, for being one step further from them in the march of the ages.

This was Hawthorne in 1840, according to a portrait painter, Samuel Stillman Osgood:

“The Gentle Boy” was published anonymously in a gift annual of The Token magazine in 1831, and then republished under Hawthorne’s name as a part of TWICE-TOLD TALES in 1832 and 1837 after deletion of the detail that, in being attacked by a gang of vicious Puritan children, the gentle Quaker boy had been struck in “a tender part.” The book THE GENTLE BOY: A TWICE-TOLD TALE, when published in 1839, was dedicated to Sophia Amelia Peabody (to become Sophia Peabody Hawthorne), some of whose ancestors are also in Sewel’s history, and included a drawing by her. Printing was interrupted briefly to make the boy’s countenance more gentle in the engraved version of the drawing. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

In 1842 Nathaniel and Sophia Peabody got married and moved to Concord, where Thoreau had just prepared for them a large garden. Although Hawthorne was vague on the spelling of Thoreau’s name, and his bride thought Thoreau repulsively ugly, Thoreau visited them several times in the Old Manse where Waldo Emerson had penned “Nature,” and for $7.00 sold them the boat he and his brother had used on their famous trip – so that they could row out and pluck pond lilies. Although Thoreau read little fiction, he could not have been unaware of their newly republished “Gentle Boy” story, at least by its title.

With this background, we can now consider the gay speculation about the poem Thoreau wrote to his pupil Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr., “Once there was a gentle boy.” Is this poem’s emphasis on the nonmasculine characteristics of a young boy to be interpreted as evidence of a homoerotic longing on Thoreau’s part, or, since the age of eleven is not the age of sexual maturity, interpreted as evidence of an incipient pederasty? No, because the poem’s use of “gentle boy” might well have been a deliberate tie-in to the Hawthorne story. We must ask, what might have been the motivation for calling this particular story to Edmund’s attention? There are several reasons having nothing to do with sexuality or with Thoreau’s personal needs. The nonviolent Quaker boy in the story is treated with utter viciousness by a gang of local Puritan children, and in particular by one boy whom he had nursed with kindness and attention during an illness. Was Edmund, a visitor in Concord, having trouble being accepted by some of the local children in Thoreau’s school? This 108 historian William Sewell referred to by Hawthorne, was he one of Edmund’s ancestors? Were some of the people described in that history Sewall ancestors, as some were Ha(w)thorne ancestors and some Peabody ancestors? If so, the Thoreau family would surely have been aware of it, since they had known intimately at least three generations of the Sewall family starting with Mrs. Joseph Ward, Cynthia Thoreau’s star boarder, the widow of a colonel in the American revolutionary army, the mother of Caroline Ward who in turn was the mother of Ellen Devereux Sewall and Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr.

Hawthorne’s story is of a boy in an adoptive family, a “little quiet, lovely boy” who is heartsick for his parents. In the tale, in the face of the most extreme religious persecution of Friends by Puritans, the boy’s birth mother had violated her “duties of the present life” by “fixing her attention wholly on” her future life: she left her child with this Puritan family to venture on a “mistaken errand” of “unbridled fanaticism.” That is, after being whipped out of town by the Puritans, she followed a spirit leading to become a traveling Friend. At the end, the boy’s mother returns to him.

Hawthorne’s tale involves the hanging of an innocent person. Would this have been of interest to Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr.? Yes, for a Sewall was involved in the hanging of the nineteen witches in Salem on September 22, 1692. This Samuel Sewall was a lifelong bigot (he once refused to sell a plot of land because the bidders wanted to build a church, and they were Protestants but not of his own denomination) but he was worse than a bigot: not only did he hang women for being in league with the devil, he helped condemn and hang one of his Harvard peers, the Reverend George Burrough –whom he had once heard preach on the Sermon on the Mount– for being in league with the devil. It was an interesting period, a period in which one could lose control of oneself and cry out during the Puritan service, and be suspected of having acquired a taint of Quakerism, and be placed in great personal danger. And that was an interesting day, August 16, 1692: an arresting officer for the court, one John Willard, was “cried out upon” for doubting the guilt of the accused,

108. According to Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges’s 1988 A DICTIONARY OF SURNAMES (Oxford UP), “Sewall” is a variant of “Sewell,” which can be from the Old English “Sigeweald,” meaning government by right of conquest, or “Sœ¯weald” [œ with ¯ over it], meaning rule over the sea – an appropriate name for a family that included some wealthy shipbuilders in Maine! The same dictionary of surnames denies Thoreau’s derivation of his name from Thor, the god of lightning, giving “Thoreau,” “Thoret,” “Thoré,” and “Thorez” as variants of “Thorel,” a nickname for a strong or violent individual (like Uncle “J.C.” Charles Jones Dunbar!), from the Old French “t(h)or(el)” meaning bull. However, this dictionary allows that the name may also have originated in a diminutive of an aphetic short form of the given name “Maturin,” or that it may be from a medieval given name which was an aphetic short form of various names such as “Victor” and “Salvador” (“Salvador” is equivalent to the Hebrew “Yehoshua”), or that it may be related to an Italian/Spanish nickname for a lusty person, or metonymic occupational name for a tender of bulls: “Toro!” (Now going to a bullfight in Spain and rooting for the bull, something I had the opportunity to do when I was a teenager, couldn’t be the same for me.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY and was hanged beside the Reverend Burrough. We find this in Sewall’s diary:

Mr. Burrough by his Speech, Prayer, protestation of his Innocence, did much move unthinking persons, which occasions their speaking hardly concerning his being executed.

A few years later, after some bad events in his family, Samuel suffered pangs of conscience: a public fast was declared for January 14, 1697 and he stood in Old South Church in Boston while the minister read a statement that the Sewall family had been cursed of God because of the trials, and that he took “the Blame and shame” upon himself. The twelve jurors were in attendance to acknowledge that they had “unwittingly and unwillingly” brought “upon ourselves and this people of the Lord the guilt of innocent blood.”

This Puritan’s son, the Reverend Joseph Sewall, was the father of Samuel Sewall, who was the father of Samuel Sewall, Jr., who was the father of the Reverend Edmund Quincy Sewall, Sr., who was of course Master Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr.’s father. It is an interesting question, how a teacher can help a young man like this venture into his manhood, after the decency of manliness has been utterly destroyed as an option for him in such a manner, by the indecency of a male ancestor. I would suggest that teacher Thoreau’s tactic – to emphasize to this lad Edmund the nominally feminine virtue of gentleness by providing him with a poem into which to grow – constitutes a legitimate and even profound maneuver on extremely difficult terrain. I would suggest, in addition, that those who seek to appropriate Thoreau by interpreting this “Once there was a gentle boy” poem as evidence of an unconscious erotic impulse are, in effect, debasing him. Debasing him not by accusing him of homosexuality – for it is not base to be gay – but by interpreting a complex and difficult situation in a manner that is merely simpleminded and doctrinaire. I want to emphasize the open-endedness of the questions involved: was Edmund, the new boy in town, having the sort of trouble with his peers that would have caused him to be in the situation of the gentle boy in the Hawthorne tale – ganged up against, beaten as a sissy? The American Antiquarian Society in Worcester has preserved pages of Edmund’s Concord journal that may contain an answer. And what exactly was the perception of a blood guilt and an inherited shame among the Sewels and Sewells and Seawells and Sewalls? We should be led by this story, not into considerations of eroticism among 19th-Century virgins (which would be a mere shallow –not demeaning, surely, but surely both appropriative and dismissive– sidetrack) but into a full consideration of how a compassionate and concerned teacher like Henry Thoreau can help a young male pupil grow to maturity even in a situation in which the option “manhood” has for this pupil been virtually eliminated – by the foul deed and foul mind of a Samuel Sewall, his blood ancestor.

We need to begin to take into account various of the cultural influences upon Thoreau which we have not previously been considering due to the fact that few people read the dead languages anymore. There’s quite a body of ancient evidence to indicate that the poet Virgil may well have been by inclination a pederast, and the scholar S. Lilja confirms that Virgil’s apparent sexual persona does inform a great deal of his poetry, including of course his AENEID. If one refers to John F. Makowski’s “Nisus and Euryalus: a Platonic Relationship,” in HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Classical Journal (1985) 1-15, and also to J. Griffin’s LATIN POETS AND ROMAN LIFE, one finds that: • In Virgil’s autobiographical poetry of the Catalepton, poems 5 and 7, in which he sings of Sextus his cura curarum and of the boy aptly named Pothos, poems for the authenticity of which Buechler and Richmond indicate that there is now strong consensus, Thoreau could have read of a sexuality seems to have been grounded in life experience rather than merely to have been following in the literary convention we now term “posing as sodomites.” • In Donatus’s life of Virgil, Thoreau could have read: “(sc. Vergilius) libidinis in pueros pronioris, quorum maxime dilexit Cebetem et Alexandrum, quem secunda bucolicorum ecloga Alexim appellat, donatum sibi ab Asinio Pollione, utrumque non ineruditum, Cebetem vero et poetam.” Donatus goes on to say that Virgil, invited by a friend to partake of a heterosexual liaison, “verum pertinacissime recusasse.” • Apuleius Apologia 10 pretty much agrees with the picture presented to Thoreau by Donatus. • By the time of Martial a joking tradition was in place that the Muse behind Virgil’s prodigious poetic output was his Alexis, his love slave, given to him (note the divergence from Servius) by Maecenas rather than by Pollio. See epigrams 5.6, 6.68, 7.29, 8.56, 8.73 in which he attributes the sad state of contemporary poetry to the failure of patrons to provide poets with beautiful boys a la Maecenas and Virgil. This material was available to Thoreau. • Juvenal echoes this tradition in Satire 7.69. • In Philargyrius, Thoreau could have read: “Alexim dicunt Alexandrum, qui fuit servus Asinii Pollionis, quem Vergilius, rogatus ad prandium cum vidisset in ministerio omnium pulcherrimum, dilexit eumque dono accepit. Caesarem quidam acceperunt, formosum in operibus et gloria. alii puerum Caesaris, quem si laudasset, gratem rem Caesari fecisset. nam Vergilius dicitur in pueros habuisse amorem: nec enim turpiter eum diligebat. alii Corydona, Asinii Pollionis puerum adamatum a Vergilio ferunt, eumque a domino datum. . .” • What did Servius mean to say to Thoreau, and to us, when he offered that Virgil had not loved boys turpiter (disgracefully)? Possibly Servius meant that Virgil had been able to do so without loss of personal dignity (the courting of the beloved, whether woman or boy, could involve erotic service that was seen as beneath the dignity of a free man), the other that he did so without ever achieving, or perhaps even pursuing, physical consummation (which would have taken the form of sodomizing the lad if he was willing to submit, but Dover’s GREEK HOMOSEXUALITY --which seems to be in large part valid for Roman society as well-- shows that nice boys were supposed to say no in thunder and that men who insisted upon using their penises might have to settle for intercrural satisfaction). We should probably take into account as well the poetry of a man who died in the same year as Virgil, Albius Tibullus, from whom Thoreau would quote (or would suppose he was quoting) in WALDEN. What is conventionally known as “Book 1” of Tibullus contains poems on his beloved Delia but also several on a beloved boy named Marathus (4, 8, 9); these can offer some insight into the process of courting a boy. Another possibility, of course, is simply that Virgil’s love had nothing cruel or abusive about it, but perhaps the most plausible explanation for judging a liaison as turpis is the man’s loss of dignity in becoming enslaved to the object of his desire, his loss of face. Two examples that come to mind from Virgil’s own time are Anthony’s passion for Cleopatra and Maecenas’s scandalous affair with the ballet-dancer Bathyllus. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Horsfall’s COMPANION TO THE STUDY OF VIRGIL summarizes the “evidence” such as it is. Although he demonstrates that there is not one detail in the ancient LIVES OF VIRGIL that can be taken at face value, the persistent availability of such materials about the life of Virgil has been such as to make this a moot point. Whether true or false it has obviously had an influence, and may well have had an influence of some sort on Thoreau. Those scholars could all be found to have been mistaken, and yet we will still need to deal with the manner in which Virgil was being received during the first half of the 19th Century, and I am not certain that we have done that, and of course it is important, in dealing with a situation such as Thoreau’s temporary involvement with the gentle young Sewall boy, that we most carefully do that. In none of these texts, nor in Servius, would Thoreau have been able to find any suggestion of a condemnation of what Virgil was projecting as being his proclivities. DUNBAR FAMILY HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY William Sewell. THE HISTORY OF THE RISE, INCREASE AND PROGRESS, OF THE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS; WITH SEVERAL REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES INTERMIXED, WRITTEN ORIGINALLY IN LOW-DUTCH, AND ALſO TRANſLATED INTO ENGLISH, BY WILLIAM SEWEL. THE THIRD EDITION, CORRECTED. The title varies slightly from edition to edition (1722, 1725, 1728, 1774, 1776, 1811, 1844), for instance ...WITH SEVERAL REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES INTERMIXED, TO WHICH IS PREFIXED A BRIEF MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, COMPILED FROM VAR IO US SOURCES, and WRITTEN ORIGINALLY IN LOW DUTCH, AND TRANSLATED BY HIMSELF INTO ENGLISH, Baker & Crane, No. 158 Pearl-Street, New-York. The author’s name was, according to Alexander Chalmers’s GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY of 1812-1817, Volume 27, page 361, a recognized variant of “Sewell”: there was a Henry Sewall who spelled his name also as Sewell and Seawell, and there was a loyalist “Sewall” who changed the family name to “Sewell” in London in order to confuse the American authorities and better protect his children in America –and his American properties– after being proscribed. Among recorded immigrants, the “United States Index to Records of Aliens’ Declarations” show a proportion of 1 Sewel, 11 Sewalls, and 30 Sewells. Henry Thoreau first encountered this book in this 1774 3d edition prepared and sold by Isaac Collins of Burlington, New-Jersey:

WM. SEWEL’S 3D ED., VOL. I WM. SEWEL’S 3D ED., VOL. II HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

FIGURING OUT WHAT AMOUNTS TO A “HISTORICAL CONTEXT” IS WHAT THE CRAFT OF HISTORICIZING AMOUNTS TO, AND THIS NECESSITATES DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE SET OF EVENTS THAT MUST HAVE TAKEN PLACE BEFORE EVENT E COULD BECOME POSSIBLE, AND MOST CAREFULLY DISTINGUISHING THEM FROM ANOTHER SET OF EVENTS THAT COULD NOT POSSIBLY OCCUR UNTIL SUBSEQUENT TO EVENT E.

August 3, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday to Saturday as usual. Saturday August 3d. Sister came home in the morning stage from Concord. She came in the evening stage. We had expected her in the stage from the second boat and little George waited for her at the gate an hour. The reason she did not come in the afternoon stage was that she did not know there was any stage from the second boat. She was well but rather hoarse from riding in the wind. She brought me a present from Louisa Goddard a little book called “Nina.”109 Mrs. Goddard had also given to her “Tales of a Grandfather.”110

August 4, Sunday: Annie Jean Silsbee was born to William Silsbee and Charlotte Lyman Silsbee.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 4th. Poor father had one of his spasms. He was taken in the very beginning of the sermon. It was not a very bad attack. (Mem. I began to go to school last Monday. We have Wednesday and Saturday afternoons to play in. We begin at 8 ½ and 2 and leave off at 11 ½ and 5. Mr John Beal is teacher.)

The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project

109. Maria Elizabeth Budden, NINA, AN ICELANDIC TALE (Boston: Munroe and Francis; New York: Charles S. Francis, [1826 or 1827?]). 110. Sir Walter Scott, TALES OF A GRANDFATHER: BEING TALES TAKEN FROM SCOTTISH HISTORY, multiple American editions beginning in 1828. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY August 5, Monday: Ebenezer Bailey had just relocated his school for boys from Roxbury to Lynn, Massachusetts, and his alma mater, Yale College had just awarded him the Master of Arts degree, when on this day he died in Lynn.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday 5th. I did nothing of importance.

September 1, Sunday: After prayers on board the New Zealand Company vessel Tory, Colonel William Wakefield and his 19-year-old nephew Edward Jerningham Wakefield went ashore on Queen Charlotte’s Sound of the island of New Zealand at the whaling town Te-awa-iti. “There were about twenty houses presented to our view; the walls generally constructed of wattled supple-jack, called kareau, filled in with clay; the roof thatched with reeds; and a large unsightly chimney at one of the ends, constructed of either the same materials as the walls, or of stones heaped together by rude masonry. Dicky Barrett’s house, or ware [whare] as it is called in maori or native language, was a very superior edifice, built of sawn timber, floored and lined inside, and sheltered in front by an ample veranda. A long room was half full of natives and whalers. His wife E Rangi, a fine stately woman, gave us a dignified welcome; and his pretty half-caste children laughed and commented on our appearance, to some of their mother’s relations, in their own language. He had three girls of his own, and had adopted a son of an old trader and friend of his named Jacky Love, who was on his death- bed, regretted by the natives as one of themselves. He had married a young chieftainess of great rank, and his son Dan was treated with that universal respect and kindness to which he was entitled by the character of his father and the rank of his mother.... There were about twenty-five half-caste children at Te-awa-iti. They were all strikingly comely, and many of them quite fair, with light hair and rosy cheeks; active and hardy as the goats with which the settlement also swarmed. The women of the whalers were remarkable for their cleanliness and the order which they preserved in their companion’s house. They were most of them dressed in loose gowns or printed calico, and their hair, generally very fine, was always clean and well-combed.”

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Last Sunday Mr Dwight preached all day from Philippians 3d 20th. “Our conversation is in heaven.” The sermons were very long all days. In the afternoon father gave notice that there would be no more meetings till the house was repaired. They were to have taken out the pews today.111

September 1, Sunday: [Sunday of WEEK] As we thus dipped our way along between fresh masses of foliage overrun with the grape and smaller flowering vines, the surface was so calm, and both air and water so transparent, that the flight of a kingfisher or robin over the river was as distinctly seen reflected in the water below as in the air above. The birds seemed to flit through submerged groves, alighting on the yielding sprays,

111. On the repairs see OLD SCITUATE (Scituate: Chief Justice Cushing Chapter, D.A.R., 1921), 167. In a letter dated September 10, 1839, Edmund’s father wrote to Dennis Ward that he was suffering from “my annual catarrh & cough” and having one of his old attacks. He tells Ward he was planning to resign, but the parish didn’t want him to. “I have not preached at all since my illness, but have hired a substitute. Last spring the Parish voted that when the Meeting House was [being] repaired I should have leave of absence. The House is now in the hands of the Carpenters. And I should immediately set out on a journey had I any means. But I have spent my last dollar in supplying my pulpit. Thirty dollars since my attack in August. My situation has never been so dark and discouraging.” Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY and their clear notes to come up from below. MIDDLESEX CANAL

“While it was old, the canal between the Concord and the Merrimack just above Billerica Falls plainly revealed its youthfulness in comparison to the untouched lands about it. Thoreau noted that birds that fed in, and creatures which swam in the waters were the first to be at home in the man-made water-way. Plants adjust themselves more slowly to areas disturbed by man.” -Cruickshank, Helen Gere. THOREAU ON BIRDS (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964)

[Sunday of WEEK] This canal, which is the oldest in the country, and has even an antique look beside the more modern railroads, is fed by the Concord, so that we were still floating on its familiar waters. It is so much water which the river lets for the advantage of commerce. There appeared some want of harmony in its scenery, since it was not of equal date with the woods and meadows through which it is led, and we missed the conciliatory influence of time on land and water; but in the lapse of ages, Nature will recover and indemnify herself, and gradually plant fit shrubs and flowers along its borders. Already the kingfisher sat upon a pine over the water, and the bream and pickerel swam below.

Sunday Sep 1st: We glided over the broad bosom of the merrimack between Middlesex and Tyngsboro at noon, here a quarter of a mile wide, while the rattling of our oars was echoed over the water to those villages, and their slight sounds to us. Their harbors lay as smooth and fairy like as the Lido, or Syracuse or Rhodes in our imaginations. Like a strange piratical craft we flitted past the dwellings of noble home-staying men — seeming to float upon a tide which came up to every villager’s breast, as conspicuous as if we were on an eminence. Communicating with the villas and hills and forests on either hand by the glances we sent to them, or the echoes we awakened. We glanced up many a pleasant ravine with its farm house in the distance, where some contributory stream came in, Again the site of a saw-mill, and a few forsaken eel pots were all that greeted us. {One-third page blank} Our thoughts reverted to Arabia Persia and Hindostan — the lands of contemplation — and dwelling place of the ruminant nations. And in the experience of those noon tides we found an apology and an instinct for the opium — betel — and tobacco chewers. Mount Saber, according to the French traveller and naturalist Botta is celebrated for producing the Kat tree. Of which “The soft tops of the twigs and tender leaves are eaten,” says his reviewer, “and produce an agreeable soothing excitement, restoring from fatigue, banishing sleep, and disposing to the enjoyment of conversation.” What a dignified oriental life might be lived along this stream, browsing the tree tops — and chewing mallows and apple tree buds like the camelopards — rabbits and partridges. Salmon Brook runs under the rail-way — but we sailed up far enough into the meadows which border it, to learn its piscatorial history from a haymaker on its banks. He told us that silver eel was formerly abundant here, and pointed to some sinker creels at its mouth. TOBACCO OPIUM

Salmon Brook Silver eels Pennichook Wooden creels Ye sweet waters of my brain These the baits that still allure When shall I look And dragon fly Or cast the hook That floated by In thy waves again? May they still endure?

Sunday 1st At a 3d of a mile over the water we heard distinctly children repeating their catechism in a cottage by the river side– While in the broad shallows between a herd of cows were cooling their hides and waging war with the mosquitoes. While we sail here we can remember unreservedly those friends who dwell far away on the banks and by the HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY sources of this very river and people this world for us — without any harsh and unfriendly interruptions. (2, 27)

Sunday sep 1st We passed the noon under an oak on the banks of the canal in chelmsford. From Ball’s hill which is the St Anne’s of Concord voyageurs to Billerica meeting house the river is twice or three times as broad as in Concord– A deep and dark stream, flowing between gentle hills and occasional cliffs, and well wooded all the way It is one long lake bordered with willows. The boatmen call it a dead stream. For long reaches you can see but few traces of any village. It seemed a natural sabbath today — a stillness so intense that it could not be heightened. There was not breeze enough to ruffle the water. The cattle stood up to their bellies in the river and made you think of Rembrandt. we encamped under some oaks in Tyngsboro, on the east bank of the Merrimack, just below the ferry. MIDDLESEX CANAL

September 3, Tuesday: Clara Wieck moved in with her mother in Berlin.

The 1st anniversary of Frederick Douglass’s freedom, which we may well elect to celebrate in lieu of an unknown slave birthday.

“It has been a source of great annoyance to me, never to have a birthday.”

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday September 3d. I have shamefully neglected my Journal lately, and have let several weeks pass unnoticed. Uncle Henry came with his son John who was about to enter college. He went to meeting in the forenoon and went off to Cohasset in a hired chaise in the afternoon. I staid at home to see them off.

September 3: Tuesday We passed a boat before sunrise, and though we could not distinguish it for HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY the fog, the few dull sounds we heard, carried with them a sense of weight and irresistible motion which was impressive. {Four-fifths page blank} If ever our idea of a friends is realised it will be in some broad and generous natural person — as frank as the daylight — in whose presence our behavior will be as simple and unconstrained, as the wanderer amid the recesses of the hills. The language of excitement is picturesque merely — but not so with enthusiasm You must be calm before you can utter oracles– What was the excitement of the Delphic priestess compared with the calm wisdom of Socrates! God is calm Enthusiasm is a supernatural serenity. {Two-fifths page blank} Rivers are the natural highways of all nations, not only levelling and removing obstacles from the path of the traveller — quenching his thirst — and bearing him on their bosom, but conducting him through the most interesting scenery of a country most rich in natural phenomena, through the most populous portions of the globe where the animal and vegetable kingdoms attain the greatest perfection. {Three-fifths page blank} We passed a man on the shore fishing with a long birch pole and a dog at his side — standing like caryatides under the cope of heaven– We passed so near as to agitate his float with our oars, and drive luck away for an indefinite term — but when we had rowed a mile as straight as an arrow with our faces toward him, he still stood with the proverbial patience of a fisherman the only object to relieve the eye in the extended meadow — under the other side of heaven — and there would stand abiding his luck — till he took his way home at evening with his fish — — He and his dog! (it was a superior contemplative dog) may they fare well. I trust we shall meet again. He was no chimera or vision to me. When we had passed the bridge we saw men haying far off in the meadows, their heads moving like the herds grass. In the distance the wind seemed to bend all alike.112

Plum Island, at the mouth of this river [The Merrimack] to whose formation, perhaps, these very banks have sent their contribution, is a similar desert of drifting sand, of various colors, blown into graceful curves by the wind. It is a mere sand-bar exposed, stretching nine miles parallel to the coast, and, exclusive of the marsh on the inside, rarely more than half a mile wide. There are but half a dozen houses on it, and it is almost without a tree, or a sod, or any green thing with which a country-man is familiar. The thin vegetation stands half buried in sand as in drifting snow. The only shrub, the beach plum, which gives the island its name, grows but a few feet high; but this is so abundant that parties of a hundred at once come from the mainland and down the Merrimack, in September, pitch their tents, and gather the plums, which are good to eat raw and to preserve. The graceful and delicate beach pea, too, grows abundantly amid the sand, and several strange moss-like and succulent plants. The island for its whole length is scalloped into low hills, not more than twenty feet high, by the wind, and, excepting a faint trail on the edge of the marsh, is as trackless as Sahara. There are dreary bluffs of sand and valleys plowed by the wind, where you might expect to discover the bones of a caravan. Schooners come from Boston to load with the sand for masons’ uses, and in a few hours the wind obliterates all traces of their work. Yet you have only to dig a foot or two anywhere to come to fresh water; and you are surprised to learn that woodchucks abound here, and foxes are found, though you see not where they can burrow or hide themselves. I have walked down the whole length of its broad beach at low tide, at which time alone you can find a firm ground to walk on, and probably Massachusetts does not furnish a more grand and dreary walk. On the seaside there are only a distant sail and a few coots to break the grand monotony. A solitary stake stuck up, or a sharper sand-hill than usual, is remarkable as a landmark for miles; while for music you hear only the ceaseless sound of the surf, and the dreary peep of the beach-birds. BEACH PLUM PLUM ISLAND

112.The poet W.H. Auden has in 1962 brought forward a snippet from this day’s entry as:

THE VIKING BOOK OF APHORISMS, A PERSONAL SELECTION BY W.H. AUDEN…

Pg Topic Aphorism Selected by Auden out of Thoreau

6 7 The Talker The language of excitement is picturesque merely — but not so with enthusiasm You must be calm before you can utter oracles. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Near Litchfield, Thoreau saw an extensive desert area where sand had blown into dunes ten and twelve feet high. This recalled to his mind Plum Island, which he had visited in the past, for he thought some of this desert sand might well be borne down the Merrimack to its mouth not far from Newburyport, and there form part of that island so well known to the birding clan. Of course, Thoreau did not come nearer to Plum Island on this river trip than the junction of the Concord and Merrimack, some thirty miles away. But Thoreau’s description of Plum Island is especially interesting to bird watchers. In his GUIDE TO BIRD FINDING, Dr. Olin Sewall Pettingill, Jr., calls this one of the most famous ornithological areas of the eastern United States. Birds traveling north or south along the Atlantic coast funnel over this area, and multitudes drop down to rest and feed there. A trip to this island is particularly rewarding during the peak of shorebird migration in spring and fall. The half-dozen houses of Thoreau’s day have multiplied many times over. Nevertheless, ripe beach plums may still be picked there in September. Untracked sand, particularly in winter or after storms, may still be found. The fact that Thoreau mentioned only a few beach birds running on the sand and some coots (scoters) riding the waves behind the surf reveals clearly that his interest in birds was dormant when he visited Plum Island. C. Russell Mason, then Executive Director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society, after an early September visit to Plum Island with Dr. Roger Tory Peterson, wrote, “Every shore-bird in the book can be found on Plum Island, and as for gulls, if rare species appear on the north-east coast, they will almost surely be spotted at Plum Island.” Plum Island is one of the most important areas covered by the Newburyport Christmas Bird Count. This Count is made at a time when weather is severe and one would expect bird life in that bleak area to be at a low ebb. Yet on the 1962 Count when winds blew off the ocean and the temperature scarcely rose into the thirties, when snow covered the ground and all the ponds were frozen, eighty-eight species and about twenty-eight thousand individual birds were seen. -Cruickshank, Helen Gere. THOREAU ON BIRDS (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964) HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY September 3: Tuesday The banks of the Merrimack are steep and clayey for the most part and trickling with water — and where a spring oozes out a few feet above the level of the river, the boatmen cut a trough out of a slab with their axes and place it so as to receive the water, and fill their jugs conveniently. Bursting out from under the root of a pine or a rock, sometimes this purer and cooler water is collected into a little basin close to the edge of and level with the river — a fountain head of the Merrimack.– so near along lifes stream lie the fountains of innocence and youth — making fertile the margin of its turbid stream. Let the voyageur replenish his vessel at these uncontaminated sources.– Some youthful spring perchance still empties with tinkling music into the oldest river, even when it is falling into the sea. I imagine that its music is distinguished by the river gods from the general lapse of the stream and falls sweeter upon their ears in proportion as it is nearer the sea. As thus the evaporations of the river feed these unsuspected springs which filter through its banks so our aspirations fall back again in springs upon the margin of our life’s stream to refresh and purify it. The routine of these boatmen’s lives suggests to me how indifferent all employments are, and how any may be infinitely noble and poetic in the eyes of men, if pursued with sufficient boyancy and freedom. For the most part they carry down wood and bring back stores for the country, piling the wood so as to leave a little shelter in one part where they may sleep, or retire from the rain if they choose. I can hardly imagine a more healthy employment, or more favorable to contemplation, or the observation of nature.– In no weather subject to great exposure — as the lumberers of Maine — and in summer inhaling the healthfullest breezes. But slightly encumbered with clothing — frequently with the head and feet bare. From morning till night the boatman walks backwards and forwards on the side of his boat, now stooping with his shoulder to the pole, then drawing it back slowly to set it again — meanwhile moving steadily and majestically forward through an endless valley, amid an ever changing scenery, — now distinguishing his course for a mile or two — and now finding himself shut in by a sudden turn of the river, in a small woodland lake. All the phenomena which surround him are simple and grand– The graceful majestic motion of his craft, must communicate something of the same to his character. So will he over forward to his objects on land. There is something impressive and stately in this motion which he assists. He feels the slow irresistible motion under him with pride as if it were the impetus of his own energy. At noon his horn is heard echoing from shore to shore to give notice of his approach — to the farmer’s wife with whom he is to take his dinner — frequently in such retired scenes that only muskrats and king fisher’s seem to hear.

Tuesday sep 3d About noon we passed the village of Merrimac were some carpenters were at work mending a scow on the shore. The strokes of their mallets echoed from shore to shore and up and down the river, and their tools gleamed in the sun a quarter of a mile from us, which made boat building seem as ancient and honorable as agriculture, and we realized how there might be a naval as well as pastoral life– We thought of a traveller building his boat on the banks of the stream under the heavens– As we glided past at a distance these out-door workmen seemed to have added some dignity to their labor by its publickness — it seemed a part of the industry of nature like the work of hornets and mud wasps The whole history of commerce was made plain in this scow turned bottom upward on the shore. Thus men begin to go down upon the sea in ships. There was Iolchos and the launching of the Argo. ——

The waves slowly beat Just to keep the noon sweet And no sound is floated oer Save the mallet on shore Which echoing on high Seems a caulking the sky We passed some shag-bark trees on the opposite shore skirting the waters edge. The first I had ever seen On the sandy shore of the Merrimack opposite to Tyngsboro, we first discovered the blue bell– A pleasant sight it must be to the Scotchman in Lowell mills. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY The moon now rises to her absolute rule, And the husbandman and hunter Acknowledge her for their mistress. Asters and golden reign in the fields And the life everlasting withers not. The fields are reaped and shorn of their pride But an inward verdure still crowns them The thistle scatters its down on the pool And yellow leaves clothe the vine– And nought disturbs the serious life of men. But behind the sheaves and under the sod There lurks a ripe fruit which the reapers have not gathered The true harvest of the year Which it bears forever. With fondness annually watering and maturing it. But man never severs the stalk Which bears this palatable fruit.

Mills of Lowell The hardest material obeys the same law with the most fluid. Trees are but rivers of sap and woody fibre flowing from the atmosphere and emptying in to the earth by their trunks — as their roots flow upward to the surface. And in the heavens there are rivers of stars and milky ways– There are rivers of rock on the surface and rivers of ore in the bowels of the earth. From this point the river runs perfectly straight for a mile or more to Carlisle bridge — which consists of 20 piers — and in the distance its surface looks like a cobweb gleaming in the sun. {Two-fifths page blank} In the morning the whole river and adjacent country was covered by a dense fog — through which the smoke of our fire curled up like a subtler mist. But before we had rowed many rods the fog dispersed as by magic and only a slight steam curled up from the surface of the water.– We reached the falls in Billerica before noon, where we left the river for the canal, which runs six miles through the woods to the Merrimack at Middlesex. As we did not care to loitre in this part of our voyage while one ran along the tow path drawing the boat by a cord, the other kept it off from the shore with a pole, so that we accomplished the whole distance in little more than an hour. There is some abruptness and want of harmony in this scenery since the canal is not of equal date with the forests and meadows it runs through. You miss the conciliatory influence of time on land and water. In the lapse of ages no doubt nature will recover and idemnify herself. Gradually fit shrubs and flowers will be planted along the borders Already the king-fisher sits on a pine over the water, and the dace and pickerel swim below. All works pass directly out of the hands of the architect. and though he has bungled she will perfect them at last. Her own fish-hawks hover over our fish-ponds HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY were pleased to find that our boat would float in M. water By noon we were fairly launched upon the bosom of the merrimack — having passed through the locks at Middlesex — and felt as if we were on the ocean stream itself. Beaver river comes in a little lower down draining the meadows of Pelham, Windham, and Londonderry, the Irish settlers of which latter town were the first to introduce the potatoe into N.E. {One-fourth page blank} POTATO Two men called out from the steep and wooded banks to be taken as far as Nashua but we were too deeply laden– As we glided away from them with even sweeps while the fates scattered oil in our course — as the sun was sinking behind the willows of the distant shore, — we could see them far off over the water — running along the shore and climbing over the rocks and fallen trees like ants till they reached a spot where a broad stream poured its placid tribute into the Merrimack– When a mile distant we could see them preparing to ford the stream– But whether they got safely through or went round by the source, we never learned. Thus nature puts the busiest merchant to pilgrim’s shifts. She soon drives us to staff and scrip and scallop shell. The Mississippi the Nile the Ganges can their personality be denied? have they not a personal history in the annals of the world– These journeying atoms from the andes and ural and mountains of the moon — by villas — villages — and mists — with the moccasined tread of an Indian warrior. Their sources not yet drained. The mountains of the moon send their tribute to the pasha as they did to Pharoah without fail. though he most collect the rest of his revenue at the point of the bayonnette Consider the phenomena of morn — or eve — and you will say that Nature has perfected herself by an eternity of practice– Evening stealing over the fields– The stars come to bathe in retired waters The shadows of the trees creeping farther and farther into the meadows. And a myriad phenomena beside. Occasionally a canal boat with its large white sail glided around a promontory a quarter of a mile before us and changed the scene in an instant– Occasionally attaching ourselves to its side we would float back in company awhile — interchanging a word with the voyageurs and obtaining a draught of cooler water from their stores. Occasionally we had to muster all our energy to get round a point where the river broke rippling over rocks and the maples trailed their branches in the stream. The rain had pattered all night And now the whole country wept, the drops falling in the river, and on the alder, and in the pastures, but instead of any bow in the heavens there was the trill of the tree sparrow all the morning. The cheery faith of this little bird atoned for the silence of the whole woodland quire. MIDDLESEX CANAL

Tuesday– At intervals when there was a suitable reach in the river — we caught sight of the Goffstown mountain — the Indian Un-can-nu-nuc rising before us, on the left of the river– “The far blue mountain.” {One-fourth page blank} We soon after saw the Piscataquoag emptying in on our left — and heard the falls of Amoskieg above. It was here according to tradition that the sachem Wonolanset resided, and when at war with the mohawks his tribe are said to have concealed their provisions in the cavities of the rocks in the upper part of the falls The descent is 54 feet in half a mile. The manchester manufacturing company have constructed a canal here — through which we passed. Above the falls the river spreads out into a lake — stretching up toward Hooksett– We could see several canal boats at intervals of a mile or more standing up to Hooksett with a light breeze. With their broad sails set they moved slowly up the stream in the sluggish and fitful breeze — as if impelled by some mysterious counter current — like Antediluvian birds. A grand motion so slow and steady. For the most part they were returning empty, or at most with a few passengers aboard. As we rowed near to one which was just getting under way, the steers man offered to take us in tow — but when we came along side we found that he intended to take us on board, as otherwise we should retard his own voyage too much — but as we were too heavy to be lifted aboard — we left him and proceeded up the stream a half a mile to the shade of some maples to spend our noon In the course of half an hour several boats passed up the river at intervals of half a mile — and among them came the boat we have mentioned, keeping the middle of the stream and when within speaking distance the steers man called out if we would come along side now he would take us in tow. But not heeding their taunts we made no haste to give chase until our preparations were made — by which time they were a quarter of a mile ahead. Then with our own sails set — and plying our four oars, we were soon along side of them — and we glided close under their side, we quietly promised if they would throw us a rope that we would take them in tow. And then we gradually overhauled each boat in succession untill we had the river to ourselves again. No man was ever party to a secure and settled friendship — it is no more a constant phenomenon than meteors and lightning– It is a war of positions of silent tactics. With a fair wind and the current in our favor we commenced our return voyage, sitting at ease in our boat and conversing, or in silence watching, for the last sign of each reach in the river, as a bend concealed it from view. The lumbermen who were throwing down wood from the top of the high bank, 30 or 40 feet above the water, that it might be sent down the river — paused in their work to watch our retreating sail. {One-fifth page blank} In summer I live out of doors and have only impulses and feelings which are all for action– And must wait for the quiet & stillness and longer nights of Autumn and Winter, before any thought will subside. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY ______I mark the summer’s swift decline The springing sward its grave clothes weaves Oh could I catch the sounds remote Could I but tell to human ear The strains which on the breezes float And sing the requiem of the dying year. None of the feathered race have yet realized my conception of the woodland depths. I had fancied that their plumage would assume stronger and more dazzling colors, like the brighter tints of evening, in proportion as I advanced farther into the darkness and solitude of the forest. The red election, brought from their depth, did in some degree answer my expectation — gleaming like a coal of fire amid the pines. In Autumn what may be termed the dry colors preponderate in Summer the moist. The Asters and golden rod are the livery which nature wears at present. The golden rod alone seem to express all the ripeness of the autumn, and sheds its mellow lustre on the fields as if the now declining summer sun had bequeathed its hues to it. Asters everywhere spot the fields like so many fallen stars.

Thoreau shot a Passenger Pigeon, one of a large flock near the mouth of the Souhegan River, and broiled it for supper. Scientists are not sure why these birds, once fantastically abundant, became extinct. Some attribute it to excessive slaughter on the breeding grounds and throughout the year. Some believe the destruction of the beech and oak forests was largely responsible. Some believe that the numbers having been severely reduced by overshooting, the species was no longer able to reproduce. Thoreau’s concern about the dead pigeon was philosophical. Did he have a right to kill such a beautiful bird? Having killed it, he decided it should be eaten and not wasted.? Though Thoreau seldom saw a dead bird in the woods or fields, had he visited a nesting place of colonial birds, or walked along the drift of an ocean beach, he would have seen many dead birds. Probably the majority of song birds are finally caught and eaten by other creatures. Most of those that do die of disease or age, being quite small, are eaten by insects, mice, or even snakes, for the latter have been seen eating birds killed on highways. Certainly birds are never translated, as some of the Old Testament prophets were said to have been, being taken directly from earth to heaven without dying. –Cruickshank, Helen Gere. THOREAU ON BIRDS (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964)

[Tuesday of WEEK. American Passenger Pigeon Ectopistes migratorius near the mouth of the Souhegan River.] During the heat of the day, we rested on a large island a mile above the mouth of this river, pastured by a herd of cattle, with steep banks and scattered elms and oaks, and a sufficient channel for canal- boats on each side. When we made a fire to boil some rice for our dinner, the flames spreading amid the dry grass, and the smoke curling silently upward and casting grotesque shadows on the ground, seemed phenomena of the noon, and we fancied that we progressed up the stream without effort, and as naturally as the wind and tide went down, not outraging the calm days by unworthy bustle or impatience. The woods on the neighboring shore were alive with pigeons, which were moving south, looking for mast, but now, like ourselves, spending their noon in the shade. We could hear the slight, wiry, winnowing sound of their wings as they changed their roosts from time to time, and their gentle and tremulous cooing. They sojourned with us during the noon-tide, greater travellers far than we. You may frequently discover a single pair sitting upon the lower branches of the white pine in the depths of the woods, at this hour of the day, so silent and solitary, and with such a hermit-like HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY appearance, as if they had never strayed beyond its skirts, while the acorn which was gathered in the forests of Maine is still undigested in their crops. We obtained one of these handsome birds, which lingered too long upon its perch, and plucked and broiled it here with some other game, to be carried along for our supper; for, beside provisions which we carried with us, we depended mainly on the river and forest for our supply. It is true, it did not seem to be putting this bird to its right use to pluck off its feathers, and extract its entrails, and broil its carcass on the coals; but we heroically persevered, nevertheless, waiting for further information. The same regard for Nature which excited our sympathy for her creatures nerved our hands to carry through what we had begun. For we would be honorable to the party we deserted; we would fulfill fate, and so at length, perhaps, detect the secret innocence of these incessant tragedies which Heaven allows. Nature herself has not provided the most graceful end for her creatures. What becomes of all these birds that people the air and forest for our solacement? The sparrows seem always chipper, never infirm. We do not see their bodies lie about. Yet there is a tragedy at the end of each one of their lives. They must perish miserably, not one of them is translated. True, “not a sparrow falleth to the ground without our Heavenly Father’s knowledge,” but they do fall, nevertheless. That night the Thoreau brothers camped “In [the township of] Bedford, on the west bank [of the Merrimack River], opposite a large rock, above Coos Falls.” Did they, due to rainy weather, completely miss the northern lights display of that night? The next morning, as they shoved off, they would see a Green-backed Heron Butorides striatus. Ross/Adams commentary

TIMELINE OF A WEEK

September 5, Thursday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday 5th. In the evening sister and I went to Capt. Bowers’. We heard several tunes played (on the harpsichord) and sung among which were “Three blind Mice” and “The Pilot on the deep.”113 The words of the latter I think are very fine. I learned them by heart. They are as follows– “‘O Pilot ‘tis a fearful night There’s danger on the deep I[‘]ll come and pace the deck with thee I do not dare to sleep.’

‘Go down’ the sailor cried, ‘go down This is no place for thee Fear not but trust in Providence Wherever thou may’st be.’

‘O Pilot dangers often met We all are apt to slight, And though hast known these raging waves But to subdue their might.’

‘It is not apathy’ he cried ‘That gives this strength to me. Fear not but trust in Providence Wherever thou may’st be,

On such a night the sea engulphed My father’s lifeless form My only brother’s boat went down In just so wild a storm, And such perhaps may be my fate, But still I say to thee, 113. Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839), “The Pilot.” Music by Sidney Nelson (1800-1862). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Fear not but trust in Providence Wherever thou may’st be.’” The lightning appeared differently from what I ever saw it before. It looked like a ball of fire running along under the horizon and occasionally rising partially above it. We had a very pleasant time and got safe home a little after 9 o’clock.

Again the intrepid Thoreau brothers had fortified themselves against the damp with hot cocoa:

A WEEK: (September 5, Thursday, 1839) There we went to bed that summer evening, on a sloping shelf in the bank, a couple of rods from our boat, which was drawn up on the sand, and just behind a thin fringe of oaks which bordered the river; without having disturbed any inhabitants but the spiders in the grass, which came out by the light of our lamp, and crawled over our buffaloes. When we looked out from under the tent, the trees were seen dimly through the mist, and a cool dew hung upon the grass, which seemed to rejoice in the night, and with the damp air we inhaled a solid fragrance. Having eaten our supper of hot cocoa and bread and watermelon, we soon grew weary of conversing, and writing in our journals, and, putting out the lantern which hung from the tent- pole, fell asleep.

COCOA The brothers would leave their Musketaquid on the bank of the Merrimack River near the village of Hooksett NH and hoof it 10 miles to Concord, New Hampshire.

“On Thursday, Thoreau and his brother halted at a point east of Uncannunuc Mountain near Manchester, New Hampshire. They hung their tent and buffalo robes in a farmer’s barn to dry and then continued on foot up the Merrimack until it became the Pemigewasset and then the Wild Amonoosuck to its very fountainhead. This part of the adventure is not included in the book. However, Thursday morning as the brothers lay in their tent listening to the rain, they found such enjoyment in birds as those who never venture into a wet world can never know.”

[Thursday of WEEK] When we awoke this morning, we heard the faint, deliberate, and ominous sound of raindrops on our cotton roof. The rain had pattered all night, and now the whole country wept, the drops falling in the river, and on the alders, and in the pastures, and instead of any bow in the heavens, there was the trill of the hair-bird all the morning. The cheery faith of this little bird atoned for the silence of the whole woodland choir beside.... The birds draw closer and are more familiar under the thick foliage, seemingly composing new strains upon their roots against the sunshine. What were the amusements of the drawing room and the library in comparison, if we had them here?

Sept 5th walked to Concord 10 miles HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY September 6, Friday: Spain demanded that the United States release La Amistad and return its slave cargo to Cuba.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday 6th. In the afternoon my school did not keep because the master was headachy, so I set to pulling up weeds in the garden. We had our first melon in the evening but it was a bad 1.

The intrepid Thoreau brothers took the stage from Concord, New Hampshire to Plymouth, New Hampshire, then hiked through Thornton, Peeling, and Lincoln to Franconia below Mount Washington in the Presidential Range (Agiocochuck, elevation 6,288 feet). TIMELINE OF A WEEK

John and Henry presumably both climbed and descended along the 1819 Crawford Path that begins at Crawford Notch and follows along the treeless ridge line, passing Mt. Eisenhower and Mt. Monroe and the Lake of the Clouds at about 5,000 feet to the summit of Mt. Washington. Thoreau’s description of the actual climb, in A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS, would be succinct: HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

A WEEK: Wandering on through notches which the streams had made, PEOPLE OF by the side and over the brows of hoar hills and mountains, across A WEEK the stumpy, rocky, forested, and bepastured country, we at length crossed on prostrate trees over the Amonoosuck, and breathed the free air of Unappropriated Land. Thus, in fair days as well as foul, we had traced up the river to which our native stream is a tributary, until from Merrimack it became the Pemigewasset that leaped by our side, and when we had passed its fountain-head, the Wild Amonoosuck, whose puny channel was crossed at a stride, guiding us toward its distant source among the mountains, and at length, without its guidance, we were enabled to reach the summit of AGIOCOCHOOK. “Sweet days, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky, Sweet dews shall weep thy fall to-night, For thou must die.” — HERBERT

When we returned to Hooksett, a week afterward, the melon man, in whose corn-barn we had hung our tent and buffaloes and other things to dry, was already picking his hops, with many women and children to help him. We bought one watermelon, the largest in his patch, to carry with us for ballast. It was Nathan’s, which he might sell if he wished, having been conveyed to him in the green state, and owned daily by his eyes. After due consultation with “Father,” the bargain was concluded, — we to buy it at a venture on the vine, green or ripe, our risk, and pay “what the gentlemen pleased.” It proved to be ripe; for we had had honest experience in selecting this fruit.

RECTOR GEORGE HERBERT

Thoreau’s text does not remain at this elevation. With the words “When we returned to Hookset...” he embarked the brothers upon their literary return voyage downriver. The full poem “Vertue” by Rector George Herbert in his 1633 THE TEMPLE had been as follows: Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridall of the earth and skie: The dew shall weep thy fall to night; For thou must die. Sweet rose, whose hue angrie and brave Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye: Thy root is ever in its grave And thou must die. Sweet spring, full of sweet dayes and roses, A box where sweets compacted lie; My musick shows ye have your closes, And all must die.

Onely a sweet and vertuous soul, Like season’d timber, never gives; But though the whole world turn to coal, HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Then chiefly lives.

THE TEMPLE

We may note that our adventurous author has referred earlier, in the text of A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS, to the poem “The Elixir” among the literary remainders of Herbert:

A WEEK: It required some rudeness to disturb with our boat the PEOPLE OF mirror-like surface of the water, in which every twig and blade A WEEK of grass was so faithfully reflected; too faithfully indeed for art to imitate, for only Nature may exaggerate herself. The shallowest still water is unfathomable. Wherever the trees and skies are reflected, there is more than Atlantic depth, and no danger of fancy running aground. We notice that it required a separate intention of the eye, a more free and abstracted vision, to see the reflected trees and the sky, than to see the river bottom merely; and so are there manifold visions in the direction of every object, and even the most opaque reflect the heavens from their surface. Some men have their eyes naturally intended to the one and some to the other object. “A man that looks on glass, On it may stay his eye, Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass, And the heavens espy.” Two men in a skiff, whom we passed hereabouts, floating buoyantly amid the reflections of the trees, like a feather in mid-air, or a leaf which is wafted gently from its twig to the water without turning over, seemed still in their element, and to have very delicately availed themselves of the natural laws. Their floating there was a beautiful and successful experiment in natural philosophy, and it served to ennoble in our eyes the art of navigation; for as birds fly and fishes swim, so these men sailed. It reminded us how much fairer and nobler all the actions of man might be, and that our life in its whole economy might be as beautiful as the fairest works of art or nature.

RECTOR GEORGE HERBERT HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

Teach me, my God and King, In all things thee to see, And what I do in any thing, To do it as for thee: Not rudely, as a beast, To runne into an action; But still to make thee prepossest, And give it his perfection. A man that looks on glasse, On it may stay his eye; Or if he pleaseth, through it passe, And then the heav’n espie. All may of thee partake: Nothing can be so mean, Which with his tincture (for thy sake) Will not grow bright and clean. A servant with this clause Makes drudgerie divine: Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws, Makes that and th’ action fine. This is the famous stone That turneth all to gold: For that which God doth touch and own Cannot for lesse be told. THE TEMPLE

THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

September 7, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday 7th We began to cut our stalks.

September 8, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 8th. Ellen and I went to the Methodist meeting in the The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY forenoon and staid at home in the afternoon. Father’s cold was too bad to admit of his going out. Nearly all Father’s nights this week were very bad indeed.114

September 15, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 15th. Ellen and I went to the Calvinist meeting. Mr Simmons preached from Romans 12th 20th and 21st. all day I sat “up gallery.”

September 16, Monday: Richard Wagner and his wife Christine Wilhelmine “Minna” Planer Wagner, armed with introductions from Giacomo Meyerbeer, reached Paris for the 1st time. Wagner expressed disappointment with the city.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday 16th Father and mother went away early in the morning in the stage between 5 and 6 o’clock. They intended to go to Niagara Falls if fathers cough is better for going into the country. They will probably be gone for 3 or 4 weeks. Miss Sarah Otis is to spend the nights and indeed the larger part of her time with us “to make it her home here” as father expressed it.

The dashing Thoreau brothers, just back from their excellent adventure, heard that the Reverend Edmund Quincy Sewall, Sr. and Mrs. Edmund Quincy Sewall were vacationing at Niagara Falls, and so dashing brother John Thoreau, Jr. promptly dashed off to Scituate in order to be able to visit Miss Ellen Devereux Sewall in her home — while she was without adult supervision (George and Edmund, her younger brothers, were the only chaperonage). Meanwhile the younger brother, Henry Thoreau, left behind in Concord, worked furiously at his essay on bravery, at his essay on friendship, at his translation of Æschylus’s PROMETHEUS BOUND, and at his essay on the satirist Aulus Persius Flaccus:

The life of a wise man is most of all extemporaneous, for he lives out of an eternity which includes all time.

All questions rely on the present for their solution. Time measures nothing but itself.

114. The thickness and color of the ink in this line suggest that it was written at the same time as the entry for the 15th rather than that of the 8th. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY September 17, Tuesday evening: Shah Shoojah-ool-Moolk (who looked a whole lot like Osama bin Laden, and one of whose bracelets contained the Koh-i-Noor diamond), grateful for restoration to the throne of Afghanistan, staged a grand dunbar in the courtyard of the Harem Serae of the Bala Hissar in Kabul at which he presented a number of British poo-bahs with a gee-gaw he was terming “The order of the Dooranee Empire.” History does not record whether drinks were served, but history does record that the tray of these gee-gaws was empty before the shah got to the end of the line of attending poo-bahs, and that therefore he would need to have additional gee-gaws (differing slightly in the number of their stars and rays) manufactured later and sent around to the various Brits who had been obliged to leave the ceremony empty-handed.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 17th. Mr Hawthorn came at noon to split some wood for us and brought us two mackerel.

September 17, 1839: –Nature never makes haste; her systems revolve at an even pace. The bud swells imperceptibly — without hurry or confusion, as though the short spring days were an eternity. All her operations seem separately for the time, the single object for which all things tarry.– Why, then, should man hasten as if anything less than eternity were allotted for the least deed? Let him consume never so many æons, so that he go about the meanest task well, though it be but the paring of his nails. If the setting sun seems to hurry him to improve the day while it lasts, the chant of the crickets fails not to reassure him, even-measured as of old, teaching him to take his own time henceforth forever. The wise man is restful, never restless or impatient. He each moment abides there where he is, as some walkers actually rest the whole body at each step, while others never relax the muscles of the leg till the accumulated fatigue obliges them to stop short. As the wise is not anxious that time wait for him, neither does he wait for it.

September 22, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 22d. Miss O. George and I went to the methodist meeting. G. sat with Miss O. I sat up gallery. Ellen went to the Calvinist meeting in the morning rode home with Miss Mary Bowers took dinner there and rode to Marshfield with them to the Episcopal meeting. The Bishop was to preach. She had not intended to stay to tea but Bishop Griswold115 and the minister were invited to take tea at Mrs. Bowers’ and she wished to see them very much so she staid too. George and I began to be frightened about her (Miss O had gone to spend the afternoon at her brothers) and we were sating our hunger with every thing we could find and we were attacking some brown bread crusts when Ellen came home. George and I thought we should be starved to death for Ellen and tother went leaving us a supper but without telling us that they did so. We did not find it out till they came home.

September 25, Wednesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday 25th. We received a letter from dear Father and Mother. They were then (the Friday before) at Albany and were to go to Syracuse per rail road cars the next morning where they probably spent Sunday. Father had got much better of his cold and had less asthma.

115. Alexander Viets Griswold (1766-1843). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

France made itself the 1st European nation to recognize the independence of the Republic of Texas.

At the 1st anniversary meeting of the New England Non-Resistance Society, the Reverend Samuel Joseph May waxed positively Thoreauvian, offering that: I find that I place every year less value on organization, as I more clearly discern the power that resides in the individual.

At this meeting the Reverend Adin Ballou advocated that the purpose of nonresistance was “neither to purify nor to subvert human governments, but to advance in the earth that kingdom of peace and righteousness, which supersedes all such governments.” He opinioned, however, that not everyone was capable immediately of perfect self-government, that there were some humans “who will not be in willing subjection to the divine,” and for those, at least in the short run, coercion was “a necessary evil.”

Remarks of Adin Ballou at the First Annual Meeting of the Non-Resistance Society, held in Boston, Sept. 25, 1839.116

Friend President — ‘Where the Spirit of The Lord is, there is liberty.’ I feel that the Spirit of the Lord is in this meeting, and that all who participate in its discussions are at liberty to express their convictions and peculiar views in their own way, without fear of offending each other. We are of various religious connexions, and have not only different opinions on many points, but

116. NON-RESISTANCE IN RELATION TO HUMAN GOVERNMENTS (Boston MA: Non-resistance Society, 1839) HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY different modes of thought and expression. Be it so; since we come together in love for the consideration and promotion of that grand virtue of Christianity without which all others become practically unfruitful. For my own part, I am not only not offended at hearing opinions and ideas expressed here contrary in some respects to my own, but I am happy to hear them delivered with that freedom and independence which evinces the absence of even a suspicion that any one can take offence. This is a sure presage of the triumph of truth over all our errors, whatever they may be, or whoever may hold them. My views of the subject presented in the resolution just submitted may not entirely coincide with those of my friends; but I offer them frankly, expecting that they will be accepted or rejected, as each individual may judge that they deserve. I perceive with joy that a divine instinct, if so I may term it, actuates my brethren and sisters of this convention in favor of non-resistance. This instinct is strong, and true as the needle to the pole; while at the same time few of us clearly understand how a non-resistant should carry out his principles, especially with respect to human government. The heart is right though the head may err. We love the blessed principle of non-resistance, though perhaps not sufficiently acute and discriminating, either to state or defend it always correctly. Hence we are not to be argued down by polemic ingenuity and eloquence; which however confounding is yet unconvincing, that on the whole we are not right. If I can contribute any thing towards a better understanding of this important subject, so as to obviate any of its seeming difficulties, I shall deem myself happy in the privilege of being for a few moments a speaker. The resolution before us is in these words:-’Resolved, That it is the object of this Society neither to purify nor to subvert human governments, but to advance in the earth that kingdom of peace and righteousness, which supersedes all such governments.’ In speaking to this resolution, I do so, not formally and technically in the name of this Society (of which I am not a member) but simply as a non-resistant, in defence of the common cause in which we are all engaged. I therefore take the resolution as if it read: ‘Resolved, That it is the object of all true non-resistants’ &. What then are the capital points which it embraces? It seems to suggest three general inquiries, viz. What is human government? What is divine government? What is the object of non-resistants with respect to human government? What is human government? It is the will of man-whether of one, few, many or all, in a state or nation — exercising absolute authority over man, by means of cunning and physical force. This will may be ascertained, declared and executed, with or without written constitutions and laws, regularly or irregularly, in moderation or in violence; still it is alike human government under all forms and administrations, the will of man exercising absolute authority over man, by means of cunning and physical force. It may be patriarchal, hierarchal, monarchal, aristocratical, democratical, or mobocratical — still it answers to this definition. It originates in man, depends on man, and makes man the lord — the slave of man. What is the divine government? It is the infallible will of God prescribing the duty of moral agents, and claiming their primary HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY undivided allegiance, as indispensable to the enjoyment of pure and endless happiness. In the resolution it is denominated ‘the kingdom and reign of Christ.’ The kingdom of Christ is the kingdom of God; for what is Christ’s is God’s. The Father dwelleth in the Son, and without HIM the Son can do nothing. In this kingdom the all perfect God is sole King, Lawgiver, and Judge. He divides his authority with no creature; he is absolute Sovereign; he claims the whole heart, mind, and strength. His throne is in the spirit, and he writes his law on the understanding. Whosoever will not obey him implicitly is not yet delivered from the kingdom of darkness, and abides in moral death. From this it appears that human government, properly so called, can in no case be either superior to, or coequal with, the divine. Can this conclusion be avoided? There are three, and but three cases, in which human government may dispute supremacy with the divine. 1. When God requires one thing and man requires the contrary. In this case, whom ought we to obey? All christians must answer, with the faithful apostles of old, ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.’ But must we disobey parents, patriarchs, priests, kings, nobles, presidents, governors, generals, legislatures, constitutions, armies, mobs, all rather than disobey God? We MUST; and then patiently endure the penal consequences. Then surely human government is nothing against the government of God. 2. Human government and divine government sometimes agree in prescribing the same duty; i. e. God and man both require the same thing. In this case ought not the reverence of human authority constitute at least a part of the motive for doing right. We will see. Did man originate this duty? No. Did he first declare it? No. Has he added one iota of obligation to it? No. God originated it, first declared it, and made it in the highest possible degree obligatory. Human government has merely borrowed it, reechoed, and interwoven it with the tissue of its own enactments. How then can the christian turn his back on Jehovah, and make his low obeisance to man? Or how can he divide his reverence between the divine and mere human authority? How can he perform this duty any more willingly or faithfully, because human government has reenacted it? Evidently be cannot. He will feel that it is the Creator’s law, not the creature’s; that he is under the highest possible obligation to perform it from reverence to God alone. Man has adopted it, and incorporated it with his own devices, but he has added nothing to its rightfulness or force. Here again human government is virtually nothing. It has not even a claim of joint reverence with that of the divine. 3. Human legislators enact many laws for the relief, convenience, and general welfare of mankind, which are demonstrably right and salutary, but which God never expressly authorized in detail. In this case has not human authority a primary claim to our reverence? Let us see. What is the motive from which a true christian will perform these requirements of man? Must he not first be convinced that they are in perfect harmony with the great law of love to God and man — that they agree with what list the divine Lawgiver has expressly required? Doubtless. Well, when fully convinced of this, what are they to him but mere amplifications of the heavenly law-new applications of its plain principles — more minute details of acknowledged general duty? What, therefore, is demonstrably right, he will feel bound to approve and HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY scrupulously practice, not for human government’s sake, but for righteousness sake — or, in other words, for the divine government’s sake. This must be his great motive; for no other would be a holy motive. It is one thing to discover new items of duty-new applications of moral obligation-and another to create them. Men may discover and point out new details- circumstantial peculiarities of duty-but he cannot create principles, nor originate moral obligation. The infinite Father has preoccupied this whole field. What then if the Legislature discover a new item of duty, arising out of a new combination of circumstances, and enact a good law for the observance of that duty, with pains and penalties annexed; or what if a Convention like this discover the existence of such an item of duty, and affirm it in the form of a solemn resolution; the duty once made plain, no matter how, would not the truly good man be under precisely the same obligation to perform it? And if the Legislature should afterwards without cause repeat such law, and enact a bad one in its stead; or if this Convention should not affirm the existence of the duty before declared, would not the enlightened christian be under precisely the same obligation still? None of these supposed circumstances ought to weigh a feather upon the conscience. The sense of obligation must look directly to the Great Source of moral perfection, and the grand controlling motive of a holy heart in the performance of every duty must be, God requires it-it is right-it is best. We must perform all our duties as out unto God, and not unto man. The conclusion is therefore unavoidable, that the will of man [human government] whether in one, a thousand, or many millions, has no intrinsic authority-no moral supremacy-and no rightful claim to the allegiance of man. It has no original, inherent authority whatsoever over the conscience. What then becomes of human government, as contradistinguished from the divine government? Is it not a mere cypher? When it opposes God’s government it is nothing; when it agrees with his government it is nothing; and when it discovers a new item of duty-a new application of the general law of God-it is nothing. We now arrive at the third inquiry suggested in the resolution before us, viz. What is the object of non-resistants with respect to human government? Is it their object to purify it, to reform it? No; for our principles forbid us to take any part in the management of its machinery. We can neither fight for it, legislate in it, hold its offices, vote at its elections, nor act any political part within its pale. To purify, to reform it — if such were our object-we must actively participate in its management. Moreover, if human government, properly so called, is what I have shown it to be, there can be no such thing as purifying it. Where there is nothing but dross, there is nothing to retire. Separate from what is commonly considered human government all that it has borrowed, or stolen from the divine, and what remains? What is there in the mere human worth purifying-capable of purification? Nothing. Again; is it our object to subvert human government-to overthrow it-to turn it upside down? By no means. We utterly disclaim any such object. We are no Jacobins, Revolutionists, Anarchists; though often slanderously so denominated. And here I must be permitted to make some explanations, demanded by the public misapprehension of our real position and general movement. It seems to be taken for granted, that we have started a crusade to force the practice HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY of non-resistance upon nations, states, bodies politic and all existing organizations of human society; which is considered tantamount to an attempt for the violent subversion of human government. This is a very great mistake. We are not so insane as to imagine any such result practicable in the nature of things. We put our enterprize on purely christian grounds, and depend for success wholly on the use of christian means. We have nothing to do with nations, states, and bullies politic, merely as such; for they have neither souls nor consciences. We address ourselves to individuals, who have both soul and conscience, and expect to affect organized masses of men only through their individual members. And as to any kind of force, other than that of truth and love sustained by a consistent example, as non- resistants, we utterly eschew it, with respect to all moral agents, collectively and individually. We very well know that neither bodies politic, nor individuals, can practise christian non-resistance while actuated by the spirit of this world and void of christian principle, that is to say, while they are radically anti-christian in feeling, motive, conduct, and moral character. We are not so wild and visionary as to expect such impossibilities. Nor do we go against all human government in favor of no government. We make no such issue. On the contrary, we believe it to be among the irrevocable ordinations of God, that all who will not be governed by Him shall be governed by one another-shall be tyrannized over by one another; that so long as men will indulge the lust of dominion, they shall be filled with the it fruits of slavery; that they who will not be obedient to the law of love, shall bow down under the yoke of physical force; that ‘they who take the sword shall perish with the sword and that while so many as twenty ambitious, proud, selfish revengeful, sinful men remain in any corner of the world, they shall be subject to a human government of violence among themselves. If men will make themselves sick, physic is a necessary evil. If they will not observe the laws of health, they must bow to the dictation of doctors. If they will be gluttons, drunkards, debauches, and pugilists, they must make the best of emetics, cathartics, cautery, amputation, and whatever else ensues. So if men will not be governed by God, it is their doom to be enslaved one by another. And in this view, human government -defective as it is, bad as it is- is a necessary evil to those who will not be in willing subjection to the divine. Its restraints are better than no restraints at all-and its evils are preventives of greater. For thus it is that selfishness is made to thwart selfishness, pride to humble pride, revenge to check revenge, cruelty to deter cruelty, and wrath to punish wrath; that the vile lusts of men, overruled by infinite wisdom, may counterwork and destroy each other. In this way human government grows out of the disorder of rebellious moral natures, and will continue, by inevitable consequence, in some form or other among men, till HE whose right it is to reign ‘shall be all in all.’ Meantime, non-resistants are required by their principles not to resist any of the ordinances of these governments by physical force, however unjust and wicked; but to be subject to the powers that be, either actively or passively. Actively, in doing whatever they require that is agreeable to the law of God, or which may be innocently consented to. Passively, in the patient sufferance of their penalties, whenever duty to the divine government requires that man should HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY be disobeyed. No unnecessary offence is to be given to Caesar; but his tribute money is to be rendered to him, and his taxes quietly paid; while at the same time the things which belong unto God are to be most scrupulously rendered to HIM, regardless alike of the favor or the frowns of all the governments earth. What then is to be the object of non-resistants with respect to human governments-if it is neither to purify nor subvert them? The resolution declares that it is to supersede them. To supersede them with what? With the kingdom of Christ. How? By the spiritual regeneration of their individual subjects-by implanting in their minds higher principles of feeling and action — by giving them heavenly instead of earthly motives. And now, to understand this process of superseding, let us consider the nature of Christ’s kingdom. It is not an outward, temporal kingdom, like those of this world. It is spiritual, moral, eternal. When the Jews demanded information about the coming of this kingdom, ignorantly expecting it to appear with unparalleled external majesty, pomp, and circumstance, Jesus replied: ‘The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall men say, lo here, or lo there; for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.’ When before Pilate, charged by his enemies with having set himself up against Cæsar as a king, he said-’My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence.’ When his yet worldly minded disciples strove among themselves which should be greatest in his kingdom, he washed their feet with his own hands, for an example, and declared unto them that he among them who would be greatest should be least of all, and servant of all. He forbade them to exercise lordship, after the manner of carnal men among the nations of the earth, but to esteem each other better than themselves, and to regard humility as the only true greatness; to vie with each other-not for the highest, but for the lowest place — not for a chance to rule, but for a chance to serve-not for the blessedness of receiving, but for that of giving-not for the praise of man, but for the approval of God-not for the prerogative of inflicting physical suffering for righteousness’ sake, but for the privilege of enduring it. Hence he made himself the great Exemplar of non- resistants; and ‘when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to HIM that judgeth righteously; enduring every insult, reproach; cruelty, and torture of his enemies, with unprovokable patience, and unconquerable love; forgiving his most deadly persecutors, and expiring with a prayer upon his lips for their salvation. Thus he overcame evil, with good; and, leaving behind him the Alexanders and Cæsars of this world in their base murderous glory, earned for himself a name which is above every name, whether in this world or that to come; being highly exalted at the DIVINE RIGHT HAND, ‘that unto him every knee should bow, of things in heaven, in earth, and under the earth-and every tongue confess him Lord to the glory of God the Father. Such is the Lord and Master of christians; whom they are to obey and vari imitate, rather than Moses, or Samuel, or David, or Solomon, or Elijah, or Daniel, or even John. His kingdom is the kingdom of heaven; wherein all legislative, judicial, and avenging power is vested exclusively in that High and Holy One, who cannot ERR, either in sentiment, judgment, or action. Of this kingdom the HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY apostle truly says-it ‘is not meat and drink; but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’ The fruit of its spirit, he further says — ‘is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.’ ‘Now they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.’ Having learned to renounce carnal weapons of defence, worldly honors, political preferments, and a vain dependence on the operations of human government for the care of moral disorders, they cease to avenge themselves on evil doers, either on their own responsibility as individuals, or on that of the State through its penal laws. They deem it their duty to forgive, not punish — to yield unto wrath and suffer wrong, without recompensing evil for evil-rereferring their cause always unto Him who had said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay,’ — and thus obeying Christ in his injunction, to love enemies; bless them that curse, do good to them that hate, and pray for the despiteful and persecuting. This is the doctrine and practice which non-resistants profess to have embraced, and according to the tenor of which they propose to supersede all human government with the divine. This is the real object of their present movement. They cease to take any active part in the affairs of human government. They cease to put their trust in the wisdom of man for guidance, or in the arm of flesh for protection. Yet they stand not in the attitude of antagonists to human government; nor can they allow themselves to be mistaken for anarchists, nor be considered as willing to give any just cause of offence to the ‘powers that be.’ Neither can they enter into any quarrel with professedly good men, who feel called to no higher mission than that of reigning or serving in the kingdoms of this world. But we hear a voice from above, saying — ‘What is that to thee? follow thou me.’ — And we deem it our privilege, through whatever of reproach or suffering we may be called, to show unto all good men whose reliance is even secondarily upon human government for the conversion of the world, ‘a more excellent way.’ And now, what is there so horrible, so dangerous, so alarming in all this? Why are we so misunderstood, misrepresented and denounced? These principles and this cause must prevail if christianity itself shall prevail; and blessed are they among our opposers, whose mistaken zeal shall not betray them into a warfare against God. But the cry salutes our ears from the open months even of professing christians.– ‘Non-resistance is impracticable in the present state of the world; you must wait till the millennium.’ I answer; ‘to him that believeth all things are possible.’ Let the power of love and forbearance be faithfully exemplified, and it will remove mountains. And as to the millennium, what is it? Is it a state of things to come about like the seasons, by the HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY revolution of the planets? Is it to be the result of some

arbitrary mechanical process? or of a mere chemical agency? Is it to be the effect of physical or of moral causes? Alas! how many are expecting the millennium to come ‘with observation;’ just as the Jews of old were expecting the kingdom of God; not knowing that this millennium and kingdom, must be within men, before it can ever be around them. Let us have the spirit of the millennium and do the works of the millennium. Then will the millennium have already come; and then will it speedily embosom the whole earth. What is this cry of impracticability, but a cry of rebellion against the living God? What though under preliminary dispensations he winked at the ignorance of mankind, and even commanded his chosen servants to act a conspicuous part in the great system of governmental violence: this was only until ‘the times of reformation.’ In Christ He annuls the temporary ordinances of revenge, and commands forbearance — non- resistance to the physical violence of man, even of the most injurious. Hear his ‘Revised Statutes,’ — ‘Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.’ Now is it impracticable to obey this holy commandment? Is not God the best judge of what is practicable? Who has a right to question the expediency or practicability of what the Infinite Father through his Son has enjoined. And let us be careful not to narrow down the meaning of this commandment. It is much more comprehensive than most expositors have been willing to allow. It forbids not merely all personal, individual, self-assumed right of retaliation, but all revenge at law-all procuring of punishment to our injurers in the way of legal prosecution and judicial sentence. It goes this whole length. When our Lord says-’Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’-he refers to the Mosaic Statute Law. By consulting Exodus 21: 22-25; Leviticus 24: 19, 20, and Deuteronomy 19: 18-21, we find the HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Statutes referred to; according to which life must be given ‘for life, breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe.’ The injured party, or his friends in his stead, had their redress and revenge at law. They might not take the business into their own hands, but must enter their complaint in due form to the elders of their town or city, and have a fair trial of the accused before the proper tribunals. When the sentence of the judges had been pronounced, it was executed in legal form; the criminal being doomed to suffer the same injury to life or limb, which he be(! caused to his neighbor. Thus when a man had received a wound from his fellow man, or lost an eye, or a tooth, a hand or a foot, he had his revenge at law; by due process of which he could thrust out an eye: or a tooth, or cut off a hand or a foot, or inflict any other injury which had been indicted on him. But however salutary this statute, and however necessary to the good order of society in the opinion of political moralists, the great Master of christians has abrogated it, end commanded his followers not to resist evil not to resist it even according to law-not to procure punishment to their injurers through the regular judicial medium; but to bear all indignities, insults, assaults and wrongs, with forgiving meekness and patience. Here then is an end to controversy, with all who mean to be wholly Christ’s; they must be non-resistants. Who dares to question the rectitude, propriety, practicability, or expediency, of doing what the All-wise God has thus plainly required? Is it one who calls Christ Lord and Master? Alas! for the faithless, distrustful man. Do not such hear the words of Christ, in just reproof — saying ‘Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I command?’ But all this passes for nothing with many, who exclaim — ‘What are you going to do with the wolves and tigers of human kind? Are you going to give them full range for their prey? Will you invite the thief, the robber, the burglar, the murderer-to come and carry off your property, ravish away your treasures, spoil your house, butcher your wife and children, and shed your own heart’s blood? Will you be such a fool, such an enemy to yourself, your family and society? Will you encourage all manner of rapine and bloodshed, by assurances that you will never resist, nor even prosecute the basest ruffians?’ ‘What a terrible appeal is this? how full of frightful images, and horrid anticipations of evil, from the practice of non- resistance. But if I am a christian, will such appeals move me? Am I a christian, and do I doubt that God will protect me and mine against all the thieves, robbers and murderers in the world, while I conscientiously do my duty? Am I more willing to rely upon forbidden means of defence, than upon the power of HIM who doeth his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth-and who hath said, ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee?’ ‘But are you sure that God will always render your property, person and life secure from these attacks?’ No; for it may be best that I should suffer-that I should even lose all things earthly. What then; is treasure on earth my only treasure? is worldly substance my chief good; is this life my only life? What if I should actually lose my money; have I not treasure laid up in heaven, where neither moth, nor rust, nor thieves can touch it? What if I should suffer great HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY cruelties in my person ‘for righteousness sake;’ should I therefore be miserable? What if I should lose my own life and that of my family; should I not find life eternal for them and myself? I may be robbed, but I shall still be rich; I may be murdered, but I shall live forevermore; I way suffer the loss of all things earthly, but I shall gain all things heavenly. If I cannot confidently say this, am I a christian? ‘Who then shall harm us, if we be followers of that which is good?’ I have a right to expect, and I do confidently expect, that in practising the sublime virtue of non-resistance for the kingdom of heaven’s sake, God will keep all that I commit to him in perfect safety, even here on earth, as long as it is for my good to be exempted from loss and suffering. I do firmly believe that in acting out these principles steadily and consistently, I shall continue longer uninjured, longer in the enjoyment of life, longer safe from the depredations, assaults and murderous violence of wicked men, than with all the swords, guns, pistols, dirks, peace officers, sheriffs, judges, prisons and gallows of the world. If this is the faith of a fool, then am I willing to be accounted a fool, till time shall test the merits of my position. It may not prove to be such great folly after all. ‘Well, says the objector, I should like to know how you would manage matters, if the ruffian should actually break into your house with settled intent to rob and murder; would you shrink back coward like, and see your wife and children slaughtered before your eyes?’ I cannot tell how I might act in such a dreadful emergency — how weak and frail I should prove. But I can tell how I ought to act — how I should wish to act. If a firm, consistent non- resistant, I should prove myself no coward; for it requires the noblest courage, the highest fortitude, to be a true non- resistant. If what I ought to be, I should be calm, and unruffled by the alarm at my door. I should meet my wretched fellow-man with a spirit, and air, a salutation, a deportment, so Christ- like, so little expected, so confounding, so morally irresistible, that in all probability his weapons of violence and death would fall harmless to his side. I would say — ‘friend, why comest thou hither? surely not to injure those who wish thee nothing but good? This house is one of peace and friendship to all mankind. If thou art cold, warm thyself at our fire; if hungry, refresh thyself at our table; if thou art weary, sleep in our bed; if thou art destitute, poor, and needy, freely take of our goods. Come, let us be friends, that God may keep us all from evil and bless us with his protection.’ What would be the effect of such treatment as this? Would it not completely overcome the feelings of the invader, so as either to make him retreat inoffensively out of the house, or at least forbear all meditated violence? Would it not be incomparably safer than o rush o the shattered door, half distracted with alarm, grasping some deadly weapon and bearing i aloft, looking fiery wrath, and mad defiance at the enemy? How soon would follow the mortal encounter, and how extremely uncertain the issue? The moment I appeared in such an attitude, (just the thing expected) would not coolness and well trained muscular force be almost sure to seal the fate of myself and family? But in acting the non- resistant part, should I not be likely, in nine cases out of ten, to escape with perfect safety? [’Yes,’ said a brother, ‘in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. — Yea, and perhaps nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand. Not however, to HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY expect too much; suppose the robber should not be wholly deterred; would he, it worst, seek any thing beyond mere booty? Would not our lives and persons escape untouched? It would hardly be worth his while to murder or mangle those who opposed no force to his depredations. But we will make the case utterly desperate. Contrary to all probability, we will suppose that no moral majesty, no calm and dignified remonstrance, no divine interposition, availed any thing towards the prevention of the slaughter of an innocent family; what then would I do in the last resort? I would gather my loved ones in a group behind my person; I would cover their retreat to the farthest corner of our room; and there in their front would I receive the blows of the murderer. I would say to him — ‘Since nothing but our blood will satisfy thy thirst, I commend my all to that God in whom I trust. He will receive us to his bosom; and may he have mercy on thee. Strike if thou wilt; but thou must come through my poor body to the bodies of these helpless victims!’ Well, suppose the horrible tragedy complete, and our butchered remains all lying silent in their gore; what then? We are all dead; we fell clinging to each other in a moment the pains of death were over; the ‘debt of nature’ is paid, where are we now? Where? Annihilated? Miserable? No! Our happy spirits, conveyed by holy angels, wing their lightning flight to the bowers of paradise- to the home of the blest-to the blissful arms of an approving Redeemer — to the welcome embrace ‘of the just made perfect.’ Who would not rather pass away thus unstained with blood, into the joys of that Lord, who himself quenched the fiery darts of his malicious murderers with his own vital blood, than to purchase a few days of mortal life by precipitating into eternity a fellow creature, with his millstone of unrepentant crime about his neck? Is it so dreadful a thing for the christian to be hurried to heaven — to be sent into eternal life a little before his natural time — to have all his pains of dissolution crowded into a moment? Is life on earth, (brief at longest, and often embittered by distressing ills,) of so much value, that we would murder, rather than be murdered? O, let me die the death of the christian non-resistant, and let my last end be like his! Let me suffer and die with Christ, that I also may live and reign with him. The conclusion then is, in a vast majority of cases the non-resistant would remain unharmed by the sons of violence, and that in he worst supposable case, he would only be hurried out of this life, with his dear family, into a better. But rejoins the objector — ‘I consider it the duty of a christian to look to the good of society at large, and to contribute what he can, in a lawful way, o the security of life, person and property around him. Therefore let him assist in bringing malefactors to justice, and not shrink from aiding the magistrate in preserving the bulwarks of order.’ And so we are to throw away God’s judgment of what is best, and trample under foot the solemn injunction of Christ! Well, what shall we gain by this infidelity and rebellion? ‘Nay, — but we are in duty bound to love our neighbor — to seek the peace and welfare of society — to do our part towards protecting the innocent and helpless against the ravages of merciless wolves — to maintain wholesome penal restraints.’ Answer. We think we are seeking this great end more effectually, as non-resistants, than we could do by becoming informers, prosecutors, jailers or hang- men. ‘An ounce of preventive is worth more than a pound of HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY curative.’ But at all events, since we cannot fight, nor go to law for ourselves or our dearest relatives, we must decline doing so for any other description of persons. It is a favorite argument of our opposers, that we are not required to love our neighbors BETTER than ourselves. Whether this argument be sound or not, perhaps it is not now necessary to affirm; but it is certainly a very conclusive one, or ought to be, with the objector in this case, to show the unreasonableness of requiring us to do more for our neighbors in society at large, than for ourselves, our wives and children. We must act on the same principles, and pursue the same general course with respect to all; and in so doing ‘we stand or fall to our own master.’ But we want the best men in office, the best laws and the best administration of government. Will you be recreant to your trust as citizens? Will you withhold your votes from the side and cause of light? Will you leave knaves and villains to govern the world?’ Answer. We expect to do as much towards keeping the world in order by a straight-forward, consistent, exemplary practice of our principles, nay more, than by voting, office-holding, legislating, or punishing criminals. A truly good man wields an influence on our ground great and salutary wherever he is known. It is not by the poor test of numbers that righteousness can gain its deserved respect in the world. It is not by getting into places of worldly power and emolument, that christians are to promote human welfare. It is not by fighting with carnal weapons, and wielding the instruments of legal vengeance, that they can hope to strengthen the bonds of moral restraint. Majorities often decree folly and iniquity. Power oftener corrupts its possessor, than benefits the powerless. The real power which restrains the world is moral power, acting silently and unostentatiously within and upon the soul. He, therefore, who has the fewest outward signs of authority, will, if wise and holy, contribute most to the good order of mankind. Besides, even unprincipled men in office are compelled to bow to a strong public sentiment, superinduced by the efforts of good men in private life. They are not wanting in vanity to be esteemed the friends of virtue, and from this motive generally conform their laws and proceedings more or less to a right general opinion. If we can do any thing towards promoting a sound morality, as we hope to do we shall make our influence felt without envy, not only in the lowest depths of society, but ion the high places of political power. I expect, if true to my sense of duty, to do as much in my town and community towards preserving wholesome moral order, as if clothed with the official dignity of a first select-man, a representative to General Court, a justice of the peace, or even a member of Congress. Whatever my natural ambition might have coveted in the blindness of unchastened nature, I now envy not Governor, Presidents, or Monarchs, their stations of usefulness and glory; but feel that in humble obscurity I have a higher mission assigned me, in the faithful fulfillment of which it may be my privilege to do more for my race, than if elevated to either of their world-envied seats. Every true non-resistant will be a great conservator of public as well as private morals. Away then with the intrigues and tricks of political ambition, the petty squabbles of partizans and office-holders, the hollow bluster of demagogues, and the capricious admiration of a tickled multitude. Let us obey God, declare the truth, walk in love, and deserve the gratitude of HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY the world, though we never receive it. ‘But should non-resistants ever become the great majority in any community, pray how would they get on with public affairs. There must be highways, and bridges, and school houses, and education, and almshouses, and hospitals.’ Very well; nothing easier than for communities of christian non-resistants to get along with all these matters. Suppose them to meet, in those days, from time to time within each town, or more general community, voluntarily, just as we are here assembled. Suppose them all anxious to know their duty, and ready to do it, as soon as clearly pointed out. Then of course the wisest will speak to attentive ears and upright minds. They will propose measures, discuss them in friendship, and come to a conclusion in favor of the best without wounding personal vanity, or breeding a quarrel with each other’s selfishness. The law of love and the counsels of wisdom will prevail without strife, and all be eager to contribute their full share of expense and effort to the object. Instead of the leading few striving, as now who shall be first and greatest, the strife will then be who shall have the least authority. And among the mass, instead of the strife, as now, who shall bear the lightest burden, the only strife will be who shall do most for the promoting of every good work. Happy days, whenever they arrive! If there shall be any poor in those days, or any insane, or any unlettered, or unaccommodated travellers, they will soon be abundantly provided for, without the aid of physical force, pains or penalties. God hasten that blessed era of love and peace, and grant success to all our well directed efforts in this holy cause. Thus finally may all human governments be superseded by the divine government, and the kingdoms of this world be swallowed up in the one all-glorious kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, having freely expressed my views and feelings on the subject of the resolution presented, I submit them to the consideration of the friends; hoping that they will receive into good and honest hearts whatever is worth retaining, and the worthless cast away.

October 4, Friday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday October 4th. We had another letter from Father written at Niagara Falls. With the falls he is not at all disappointed but rather they exceeded his expectations. They had been also to Trenton Falls. He was entirely rid of his cold and getting better every day. Mother was well.

December: During this month the brothers John Thoreau, Jr. and Henry Thoreau, and Miss Prudence Ward from the Thoreau boardinghouse in Concord, visited Miss Ellen Devereux Sewall in Scituate, Massachusetts. Henry sent to Miss Ellen’s father the Reverend Edmund Quincy Sewall, Sr. as a Christmas present Jones Very’s new volume of poems, and John sent to Miss Ellen herself some opals, and to Ellen’s little brother Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. some books. Afterward, during this month, Henry also sent to Miss Ellen some of his own poems, along with the counsel that she refuse the use of tea and coffee.

December: The Romans “made Fortune surname to Fortitude,” for fortitude is that alchemy that turns all things to good fortune. The man of fortitude, whom the Latins called fortis, is no other than that lucky person whom fors favors, or vir summae fortis. If we will, every bark may “carry Cæsar and Cæsar’s fortune.” The HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY brave man stays at home. For an impenetrable shield, stand inside yourself; he was an arrant coward who first made shields of brass. For armor of proof, mea virtute me involvo (I wrap myself in my virtue);117

“Tumble me down, and I will sit Upon my ruins, smiling yet.”118

The bravest deed, which for the most part is left quite out of history, which alone wants the staleness of a deed done and the uncertainty of a deed doing, is the life of a great man. To perform exploits is to be temporarily bold, as becomes a courage that ebbs and flows, the soul quite vanquished by its own deed subsiding into indifference and cowardice: but the exploit of a brave life consists in its momentary completeness.

By dint of wind and stringed instruments the coward endeavours to put the best face on the matter — whistles to keep his courage up.

117. This is a reference to Horace that Henry Thoreau would insert into his “The Service,” rejected during his lifetime but eventually to be published in 1902: “THE SERVICE” IN 1902 Thoreau had the following volumes of Horace’s variorum writings in his personal library: HORACE’S OPERA HORACE’S OPERA HORACE’S OPERA HORACE’S OPERA HORACE’S OPERA 118. Robert Herrick’s poem “To Fortune.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1840

March 28, Saturday: After a lapse Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. began a 3d diary. From the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society: Concord, March 28th 1840 I came here last Monday afternoon in the stage. I left Father at Boston whither we had come in the chaise. I am to go to Messrs Thoreaus school for 3 months. There are three other boys who board here and go to the school – Charles Jesse & Joseph. Charles came up with me in the stage. I study in the morning Solid Geometry, Geography and grammar and in the afternoon read, spell or say definition119 from the reading lesson, say Latin & Algebra. I write every other morning. Saturday is given to writing composition.120 We boarders write home once a fort-night if we choose. I wrote to mother today. This was a day of misfortunes. At noon Charles & I fired upon a party of boys going by in the road. A skirmish ensued and we being inferior in force although Joseph and Jesse had joined us were driven into the house except Charles who was chased away by the boys. We boys in the house being desirous of seeing the marauders ran into the entry where there was an open window and (as we afterwards found) a pudding cooling to look out of the window. None of us saw the pudding till it was lying bottom upwards on the ground and each declared that he was not conscious of knocking it over. As for myself I did not know anything about there being any pudding till some body called out that the pudding was knocked over. I had therefore to make a dinner on salt fish which I hate. After dinner we took a walk along the river and eat some cranberries and checkerberries. When we got back I carried my letter to the Post Office and solaced myself with two apples and two figs procured at the “Exchange.” When I got home Mr. John gave me another fig so I did very well till supper time. Just before supper Joseph who was leaning the back of his chair against the wall slipped down hurt him self some and the chair more for one of the upright rods at the back was started. I believe nobody knows of this but us boys and I hope it will not be discovered before its time. In the evening a small bottle of blue ink was upset on the table cloth. P.S. I’m sorry the pudding was lost for it was a baked rice one such as I should have liked.

119.2. Horace Hosmer, who was a student at the Concord Academy during the summer months of 1840, recalled that “We had one exercise called defining, but defiling would describe it better. Poetical gems were mangled and then rolled in the mud. It must have been awful to John but he was very patient.” Horace Hosmer to S.A. Jones, May 2, 1892, quoted in REMEMBRANCES OF CONCORD AND THE THOREAUS: LETTERS OF HORACE HOSMER TO DR. S.A. JONES, ed, George Hendrick (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977), 74. 120.3. Penciled note by Edmund in margin: “(specimen of composition attached).” See “Three Student Compositions by Edmund Quincy Sewall Jr” at the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY April 1, Wednesday: For the first time the Alcott girls began to attend a school not taught by their own father. Anna Alcott was a student, probably a scholarship student, of John Thoreau, Jr. and Henry David Thoreau at Concord Academy, while Elizabeth Sewall Alcott and Louisa May Alcott were at the kinder-school run by Mary Russell in the Emerson home. We have a record of this period from a 10-year-old new student that summer who was John Junior’s student rather than Henry’s, Horace Rice Hosmer. Dr. Edward Waldo Emerson described Horace as a child who “craved affection.” As a grown-up, Horace would inform Dr. Emerson that

Henry was not loved in the school. He had his scholars upstairs. I was with John only. John was the more human, loving; understood and thought of others. Henry thought more about himself. He was a conscientious teacher, but rigid. He would not take a man’s money for nothing: if a boy were sent to him, he could make him do all he could. No, he was not disagreeable. I learned to understand him later. I think that he was then in the green-apple stage.

Another pupil was Thomas Hosmer of Bedford, who would grow up to be a dentist in Boston, but who at the time was walking to Concord for classes with another Bedford boy, B.W. Lee, who would later relocate to Newport, Vermont. Thomas Hosmer wrote Dr. Emerson to relate of Thoreau that:

I have seen children catch him by the hand, as he was going home from school, to walk with him and hear more.

One of the outings the class had this spring was a walk to Fairhaven Hill, where they did a survey of the hill and the adjacent shoreline of the river. A student’s comment on this field-work with surveying instruments was that of the brothers, Henry was the more active during the surveying.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): April 1st. I had a nice sail on the river yesterday after school. Messrs John and Henry T. rowed and Jesse and I were passengers. We went up the river against the wind and then sailed down to the monument where we got out with the intention of all embarking again, but Mr. J and Jesse being near the monument and Mr H. and I near the boat we jumped in and went across to the abutment of the ^former^ bridge on the opposite side.121 I suppose that we should have come back for them if they had staid but they went off with the sail which we had left on the bank. Mr. H. rowed up the river a little way and got out. We had not the keys of the boat and should have been obliged to leave her without being securely fastened or have hauled her up on the shore if Joseph had not come down with the keys. He got two wet feet for his pains. Mr. T had sent for some clams and in the evening Mr. J. and I had a fire in our room to cook some clams for our private eating. We roasted a few and then he went down and got some in a nondescript vessel which they call a monkey to boil. We eat the clams and then he put a little butter into the broth to make it taste good and brought up two hunks of brown bread crust to eat. But alas! as we were sipping the broth out of clamshells (the monkey being put on two sticks of wood across our knees) Mr. John got something in his throat which made him cough and shake so that it upset all on to the floor. We wiped up what 121. The monument to the Battle of Concord dedicated in 1838. The span of the old North Bridge of Revolutionary fame had been demolished in 1793. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY little went on the carpet and gave the rug a beat to make it dry. We soon went to bed after this and I dreamed of eating clams. I received a “Hingham Patriot” from home today. I bought two oranges and gave Joseph Keyes one and Jesse half of another. Jesse gave me some raisons [sic]. In the evening we had a nice time. Before supper Mr John had made a fire in our room and we boiled a “monkey” full of clams leaving them to cool while we eat supper. After supper we went and eat them and they were delicious. Then we put some more clams into the broth to boil and Mr John went down and got the boys and they all came up into the room. When they were done and cool we eat them broth and all and then put one [sic] another lot which we eat also. We had been rendered cautious by our last nights misfortune and had a box for a table when eating and a seat when waiting for them to be done. We also set the monkey into a tin pan so that if it did upset it might be saved if possible from going on the carpet. We met with not [sic] accident however saving that a single clam dropped out of the window where they were put to cool which was afterwards brought in and eaten by Charles. We then went to the Lyceum expecting that a Phrenologist would lecture.122 His apparatus was there but the lecturer had not arrived. A man there set out his casts and several real skulls on the desk but immediately put them back again. One of the skulls was that of a British soldier who fell in the Battle of Concord. It was dug up in Lincoln. It was only the upper half of the head. There was the bullet hole through which the ball which killed him had passed.123 A Mr. Haskins lectured on Roger Williams the founder of Rhode Island – a description of his life.124 Bought 2 cents worth of burnt almonds going home. I forgot to say while speaking of the lecture that he said that the Pilgrims were so poor that when a man had invited his neighbor to a dish of clams (very apropos to our clam feast) he returned thanks that they were permitted “such of the abundance of the seas and of treasures hid in the sand.”125 When I got home I found a bundle from home with letters from Father Sister and dear little Georgy and Cornelius Nepos a Latin work.126 Mother held Georgy’s hand while he wrote. It seems that Father went to Uncle Charles’ the afternoon I left him and came back in the evening.127 He staid at Uncles [sic] Thomas’s till one oclock and then, seeing a storm coming up and fearful of being caught in the chaise by the deep snow began to return home. He had not gone far when the storm came on rain hail and sleet right in his face. Poor Katy was so tired he had to let her walk 122. The series of lectures on phrenology, which actually began on April 3, was delivered by Walton Felch (1790-1872), author of A PHRENOLOGICAL CHART (Brookfield, Mass.: E. and L. Merriam, 1839). A notice of the lecture series appeared in the Yeoman’s Gazette, April 18, 1840, p. 3. 123. “I visited a retired—now almost unused graveyard in Lincoln to-day where (5) British soldiers lie buried who fell on the 19th April ’75. Edmund Wheeler—grandfather of William—who lived in the old house now pulled down near the present—went over the next day & carted them to this ground— A few years ago one Felch a Phrenologist by leave of the select men dug up—and took away two skulls. The skeletons were very large—probably those of grenadiers. Wm Wheeler who was present—told me this— He said that he had heard old Mr. Child, who lived opposite—say that when one soldier was shot he leaped right up his full length out of the ranks and fell dead. & he Wm Wheeler—saw a bullet hole through & through one of the skulls.” Henry D. Thoreau, JOURNAL, ed. John C. Broderick et al., vol. 3, 1848-1851 (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1990), 73, May 31, 1850. 124. David Greene Haskins, a Harvard classmate of Henry Thoreau’s, and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1st cousin. 125. “They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and the treasures hid in the sand” (DEUTERONOMY 33:19). 126. Cornelius Nepos, DE VITA EXCELLENTIUM IMPERATORUM, published in Boston in 1826 and Philadelphia in 1833. 127. The Reverend Charles Chauncy Sewall. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY slowly the last 5 miles.128 His letter to Mr John was it seems safe in this pocket when he got home. Georgy wrote that father had brought him “a hymnbook and “Jonas’ stories”129 and some oranges and sugar plums and a drum of figs for us all.” Favorite is sitting and the rest of the things well. Mother set the chimney on fire in her anxiety to make a good fire for father to sit by and two of the neighbors came to see what the matter was and whether the house was on fire. Ellens school will probably begin in a fortnight. I never knew before how delightful it is to have letters from home when away from it.

April 2, Thursday: Nearly a full year after Gerrit Smith’s letter of gift, John Brown was at Oberlin College in conference with the Prudential Committee of the College. After some discussion he made a proposal in writing: Oberlin 2d April 1840 Gentlemen of the Prudential Committee In negotiating in regard to the Virginia lands or any investigation to be made in regard to the title or boundary of those lands I wish to be perfectly frank. I wish to see those lands with a particular view to settle my family on them if I can find encouragement sufficient to justify me in so doing, and in offering my service as a surveyor, am not induced to do it for the sake of getting employment or wages. If you are disposed to send me I will charge you but one dollar pr day with the addition of a moderate allowance for such expense as shall of necessity be incurred.... If I should settle my family on those lands I believe I could be the means of rendering them a source of allmost immediate income to your institution, and believe the institution can well afford to be quite liberal towards a family like my own who should go to commence a settlement uppon them. The three eldest of my children are sons, all resolute, energetic, intelligent boys & as I trust of verry decided religious character, such as I think will if they are continued will prove to be valuable members of any community, or faithful and competent agents should they be kneeded. The business we now follow is mainly wool growing in which branch I have been hitherto prosperous. Respectfully yours, John Brown.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): April 2d is fast-day. We had very unappropriately the best breakfast we have had since I came here consisting of flap- jacks. I went to meeting all day and to a Anti-Slavery lecture by Mr Woodbury in the evening.130 Dr Ripley was at meeting in the afternoon.131

April 3, Friday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society):

128. The Reverend Charles Chauncy Sewall’s horse. 129. Jacob Abbott, Jonas’s Stories: Related to Rollo and Lucy (Boston: Ticknor, 1839). 130. The Reverend James Trask Woodbury (1803-1861), pastor of the Congregational Church in Acton, Massachusetts. 131. The Reverend Ezra Ripley. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY April 3d Mr John had the colic so badly last night that he did not come into school in the morning. In the evening went to the phrenological lecture which was pretty interesting. (N.B. I made an erroneous statement about this lecturer a few days ago. I said he had not come up from Boston. He had been engaged on the supposition that Mr Haskins would not come but as Mr H. did come he had to give place). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

The colored citizens of Boston defended, in the pages of The Liberator, the manner in which that gazette had been being administered by William Lloyd Garrison: HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

John Brown’s proposal was accepted and he became an agent of Oberlin College, authorized “to enter upon, HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY explore and occupy, a certain tract of land in the County of Tyler in the state of Virginia ... to lease or rent the said lands or any part thereof ... to demand and receive and if necessary sue for and collect any and all moneys due for rent or damage due from tenants or former occupants ... and to do all other acts and things ... which the Board of Trustees may themselves lawfully do” (this formal power of attorney bore the signatures of President Asa Mahan and Secretary Levi Burnell, with an official seal).

The Institute provided its new agent with a $50 cash advance. Secretary Burnell immediately corresponded to advise Trustee Owen Brown of the action they had taken: “Should he [your son John Brown] succeed in clearing up titles without difficulty or lawsuits, it would be easy, as it appears to me, to make provision for religious and school privileges, and by proper efforts, with the blessing of God, soon see that wilderness bud and blossom as the rose.”

April 4, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote a school essay on birds (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): The Ostrich is a very large bird which lives in Africa. It’s wings are so small that is cannot fly but they assist the bird in running. It’s colour I do not know. Some of their feathers are very handsome and are worn by ladies in their bonnets. The nest is merely a large hole scraped in the sand. The eggs are said to be sometimes 30 or 30 in one nest and are very large. They have very strong stomachs which are capable of receiving iron and glass without injury. They have been some times brought to this country for a show. I saw some once in Boston. I have never heard what their food consists of, and so not see what they can find in these deserts, unless it be the large insects which are said to infest them. The eagle is also a large bird. They have very strong wings and legs feet which last are armed with very large hooked claws. I have heard of an eagle who when he was shot had a fish in his claws weighing fifteen pounds. Their food is small birds and animals and the bald eagle also has a great liking for fish which he often obtains by robbing the Fish Hawk. Their sight is exceedingly acute and they are able to look at the sun without winking. The nest is built of large sticks on high rocks and cliffs. The eggs are but few in number and when the young have grown big enough to take care of themselves they are said to be driven away by their parents. Falcons are large birds too and were once much used in sporting being trained to pursue and bring down small game of which its food consists. Great sums were paid for them. Their flight is astonishingly rapid and I have read that they fly from Iceland where they breed, to the north of Scotland and back in a day. One had also escaped from the king of Denmark and was found in Malta 24 hours afterward. The above respectfully submitted by E.Q. Sewall who hopes to be excused for mistakes.

He also wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): April 4th. Wrote composition about birds.132 Mr Thoreau said that he should give me something to write about of which I did not 132. See “Three Student Compositions by Edmund Quincy Sewall Jr” at the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY know much about so I wrote on the Ostrich the Eagle and Falcon which every body knows some thing about. I suppose he thought I should write about Bobolinks and Chicadees of which I am wholly ignorant. I cunningly took half a sheet of paper to write on so on the whole I managed to fill out my pages. In the afternoon went to the jail with the boys.133 It has a high brick wall around it with stone laid along the top in which are stuck sharp spikes. The windows were secured with strong bars of iron. Saw a smokehouse in the jail yard for manufacturing bacon out of pork. Played about a good while there and then came home.

April 4: We look to windward for fair weather.

April 5, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote a little note to his young cousin Mary Sewall Ward (1832-1904), daughter of Dennis Ward (1799-1878) and Mary Watson Ward (1804-1889) of Spencer, Massachusetts. From the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society: Sunday 5th Don’t know what sunday school lesson is but believe it is in John 14.2 v. Aunt thinks I had better write my next letter home out of school and so write composition on Saturday. I don’t know whether I shall do so or not. (Evening). The text in the morning was from 1 Corinthians 13th chapter 8th verse. Some one preached for Mr Frost.134 In the afternoon Aunt and I went to Mr Means Meeting and he preached from 2d Cor 5th 10th. After meeting I wrote a little note to cousin Mary who is to take a long journey with her father and Mother. Dr Gallup135 offered to take anything that Aunt would like to send so she wrote a letter to Uncle Dennis and Aunt Mary and Grandmother sent little Mary a very pretty bag.

April 6, Monday: Henry Thoreau wrote to David Greene Haskins from Concord.

Concord Ap. 6th 1840 Dear Haskins, I improve this the first opportunity of sending your cloak by the Ac- commodation Stage. I hope that the next time you visit Concord Nature will postpone her snow-storms, and, if you have a lecture in your pocket, the Lyceum be in a situation to pay somewhat in proportion to the value re- ceived. Yrs &c. Henry D. Thoreau

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society):

133. “The present jail was built of stone in 1788, and received its first tenants the April following. It is 65 feet long, 32 wide, 3 stories high, and has 18 apartments, 7 of which are for criminals. It cost £3,094.” Lemuel Shattuck, A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD (Boston: Russell, Odiorne; Concord: John Stacy, 1835), 208. 134. The Reverend Barzillai Frost (1804-1858), assistant pastor of the First Parish who would succeed the Reverend Ezra Ripley upon his death in 1841. 135. Doctor William Gallup (1805-1883), a physician in Concord, Massachusetts. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Monday [6th] Went to a Phrenological lecture in the evening. The man is to deliver 4 more lectures on the same subject. He lectured on the animal organs ^on a part of the inferior impulses^ of man Amativeness, Philoprogenitiveness, Adhesiveness and Inhabitiveness.

April 7, Tuesday: The Whig government in London survived a Tory assault led by Sir Robert Peel, based on the immorality of helping Chinese sustain a drug habit that was, in their own nation, illegal. The successful defense of the government’s secret conduct was based on the principle of free trade, that the Chinese people had a right to purchase whatever they were “disposed to buy,” and what “other people were disposed to sell them” — even if whatever that was might be an enormously profitable but enormously dangerous substance such as opium.136

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday. Went to another lecture from the same man on the organs of Alimentiveness, Vitativeness, Combativeness, Destructiveness, Secretiveness, Constructiveness, Cautiousness, Love of Approbation, and Self Esteem. I think he said that the next lecture would be on the ^superior impulses^ of man and would be very interesting.

April 8, Wednesday: Waldo Emerson lectured at the Concord Lyceum in Concord. This was the 2d lecture of the series: “Literature.” THE LIST OF LECTURES

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday Went to a lecture from Mr Emerson in the evening. It was on Literature.137 I was not at all interested. He is a tall man with piercing blue eyes. One of his ideas was that everyone should think for themselves. I forgot to say that the masters invited Albert Bacon138 and Joseph Keyes and we went to try to get some pine knots to go spearing with.139 We got but few because we didn’t go to the right place for them. What we did get we left there and when we came home we had some lemonade. Then we played ‘I spy’ till most suppertime when the two boys went home.

136. On our contemporary American political scene, this stance is known as libertarianism. 137. This was “the second lecture of his course on ‘The Present Age’” and had first been delivered at the New York Mercantile Library on March 17. Concord Lyceum minutes quoted in “Early Records of the Concord Lyceum,” in Kenneth Walter Cameron, TRANSCENDENTAL CLIMATE: NEW RESOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF EMERSON, THOREAU AND THEIR CONTEMPORARIES (Hartford: Transcendental Books, 1963), 3:694. See Robert E. Spiller and Wallace E. William, eds., THE EARLY LECTURES OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1972), 3:202. The essay was published under the title “Thoughts on Modern Literature” in the October 1840 issue of The Dial. 138. Albert Thompson Bacon (1827-1893), from Bedford, Massachusetts. See Thomas W. Baldwin, MICHAEL BACON OF DEDHAM, 1640 AND HIS DESCENDANTS (Cambridge: n.p., 1915), 94-95. Albert’s first cousin Jerome Augustus Bacon was also attending Concord Academy in the summer of 1840 (REMEMBRANCES OF CONCORD AND THE THOREAUS, 73). 139. On spear fishing, see introduction. Henry Thoreau described the process in detail in his 1842 essay, “The Natural History of Massachusetts.” He also wrote, “Silas Hosmer tells me of his going a-spearing in Concord River up in Southboro once with some friends of his. It is a mere brook there, and they went along the bank without any boat, one carrying a large basket of pine and another the crate and a third the spear. It was hard work. He afterward showed them how they did here, by going in midsummer with them and catching a great many.” Thoreau, JOURNAL, 7:447-48, entry for August 2d, 1855. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

The Reverend John Stetson Barry got married with Louisa Young, who was a niece of his sister Adaline’s husband.

April 8: How shall I help myself? By withdrawing into the garret and associating with spiders and mice, determining to meet myself face to face sooner or later. Completely silent and attentive I will be this hour, and the next, and forever. The most positive life that history notices has been a constant retiring out of life, a wiping one’s hands of it, seeing how mean it is, and having nothing to do with it.

April 10, Friday: William Cooper Nell registered the following advertisement in William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator:

[Isn’t the above an interesting advertisement? This Rhode Island storekeeper does not want just any person to enter his service, but specifies that what he needs is a teenager, and male, and of color. Why is it, do you suppose, that he needs specifically a teenager? Why is it, do you suppose, that he needs specifically a male? Why is it, do you suppose, that he needs specifically a person of color? He pledges that he intends to treat this new entry-level employee “in all respects without regard to complexion” — but how can we believe this? If a potential employer has no intention to abuse the new employee –underpaying and overworking him relentlessly– why on the face of God’s green earth would anyone need to insist upon exactly these specifics? He’s saying, in effect: “I specifically require someone who’s marginal and utterly vulnerable and without resources — and you must trust me when I tell you that I have no intention of taking advantage of this person’s defenselessness.”]

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday. I went to another lecture on phrenology. It was on the superior impulses of men viz. Firmness, Conscientiousness, Reverence, Hope, Benevolence, Mirthfulness and Ideality and I believe another of which I have forgotten the name.140 The next lecture will be on the intellectual powers of man and the last on Education and the application of Phrenology.

April 11, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday. In the afternoon we went off into the woods with a parcel of the boys of the school where I played a while and drank out [sic] a jug of lemonade we had carried with us. We then left the jug till we came back and started for Walden pond. As we were coming back we saw Aunt and Mr. Thoreau and I went and joined her while the rest of the boys kept on. We went to Goose pond where we heard a tremendous chirping of

140. Edmund failed to recollect 2 of the faculties cited in Felch’s 1839 PHRENOLOGICAL CHART: “Imitation” and “Marvelousness” (page 14). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY frogs.141 It has been disputed whether the noise was caused by frogs so we were very curious to know what it was. Mr Thoreau however caught 3 very small frogs two of them in the very act of chirping. While bringing them home one of them chirped in his hat. He carried them to Mr Emerson in a tumbler of water. They chirped there also.

April 12, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): On Sunday morning I believe he put them into a barrel with some rainwater in it. he threw in some sticks for them to rest on. They some times rested on these sticks. They sometimes crawled up the side of the barrel. I saw one of them chirping he had swelled out the loose skin of his chest like a little bladder. Sunday [12th]. I went to meeting all day. Mr Frost preached in the morning from Matthew 6th 19th and 20th. ‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth’ &c., and in the afternoon from Ecclesiastes 9th 2d. “All things shall come alike to all, there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the clean and to the unclean, to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not, as is the good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath.” At night we heard the frogs peeping and on Monday morning they were nowhere to be seen. They had probably crawled out of some hole in the cover of the barrel and made for the river as Mrs Thoreau affirmed that when she heard them in the night their voices seemed to recede in that direction. Mr Thoreau intended to have preserved them in spirits.

April 14, Tuesday: John Brown set out from Franklin Mills, Ohio, and began to note every item of expense against his $50 cash advance in a little book, to the half cent. When he would return on May 16th, the book would reveal about $33 in expenses for Oberlin College including charges for guides and other help.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday. Charles Joseph and I went to Mrs Hoar’s to take tea and see Frisbee.142 Jesse could not go on account of the an earache. We had a very pleasant time and came home at eight.

141. Probably spring peepers, called Hylodes Pickeringii by Henry Thoreau JOURNAL (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin 1906) 9:301-02, entry for March 26, 1857) The modern name is Pseudacris crucifer. These small frogs can still be heard in the spring in New England. 142. George Frisbie Hoar (1826-1904), the future US Senator, was the son of Samuel and Sarah Hoar and a student at the Concord Academy in this period. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY April 15, Wednesday: Waldo Emerson lectured at the Concord Lyceum in Concord. This was the 3d lecture of the series: “Politics.” THE LIST OF LECTURES

He wrote Margaret Fuller that Henry Thoreau had “too mean an opinion of ‘Persius’” to revise it himself, but was willing that it be published in The Dial if it would appear as is, or if the editors would care themselves to revise it. “AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS”

Birth on this day of Judge William Emerson and Susan Woodward Haven Emerson (daughter of John and Ann Haven of Portsmouth, New Hampshire)’s 2d son Dr. John Haven Emerson, to be called “Haven.”

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday. In the morning Aunt and I took a short walk before school in search of flowers to “Hubbard’s Grove”143 where they are generally very early. We found nothing but some maple blossoms evergreen and swamp willow. Saw several turtles in little brooks. In the afternoon the boys and I went down to see Messrs Thoreau tar the bottom of their boat with a mixture of resin and tallow 4 pounds of the former to half a pound of the latter. I got very angry with Jesse for rubbing my face with water while we were trying to spatter and wet each other. Acted as foolishly as naughtily — laid down on my face on the grass and cried. After a while I got up and we were all friends again. The expedition cost me however a pair of wet feet. Mr John went in the boat144 and got Thursday some sweet briars when he had fixed it. Charles Joseph & I went down with a wheelbarrow and got them out of the boat.

April 16, Thursday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday Mr Thoreau had his land ploughed. The boys are at work fixing their gardens. They have bought them some little hoes to work with. Mrs. Thoreau is also fixing her flower garden. After school Mrs. T, Aunt, Mr H.T. and I went to Mr Alcott’s. His little girl comes to our school she is my second cousin.145 I had the honor of carrying some yeast in a bottle for Mrs. A. Mr Alcott has plenty of seeds and tools as Mr Henry says.

April 17, Friday: Waldo Emerson lectured at the Concord Lyceum in Concord. This was the 4th lecture of the series: “Private Life.” THE LIST OF LECTURES

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): 143. Edmund apparently originally ended this entry with the words “wet feet,” began the next entry, and then decided to add the last sentence, “Mr John….” 144. On the east side of the Sudbury River, a little less than two miles from the village center. 145. At this time Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888) had just moved to Concord with his family. The “little girl” EQS Jr. mentions was probably Anna Alcott (Madelon Bedell, THE ALCOTTS: BIOGRAPHY OF A FAMILY [New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1980], 152). Anna Alcott’s grandfather Samuel Sewall was the brother of Edmund’s grandmother Dorothy Sewall May (T.P. Wright, SOME DESCENDANTS OF SAMUEL SEWALL AND ELIZABETH QUINCY [n.p., 1958]). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Friday. In the evening we boys went to mr Hoars and played with Frisbee, Dr Slop (Joseph Brooks) and Jerome Richardson.146 We came home about eight and found that Mrs. Thoreau had left orders that we should go to bed at half past eight in penalty of going at 7 the next evening. When I thought it was about the time I looked and found it was five minutes past it so I went off to bed very luckily as it happened for by so doing I escaped in all probability having a share in a certain unpleasant scrape which occurred shortly after. I received a paper from home. read it aloud.

April 17: Farewell, etiquette! My neighbor inhabits a hollow sycamore, and I a beech tree. What then becomes of morning calls with cards, and deference paid to door-knockers and front entries, and presiding at one’s own table?

April 18, Saturday: The widower Reverend Enoch Pratt got remarried again, with Lucy Jenkins Alley. The couple would produce 3 additional children.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday 18th. I wrote composition about berries. Mr. John read it aloud for which I was very sorry because it was not worth it. He also read the autobiographies of F. Hoar and Gorham Bartlett on account of Thanksgiving day.147 The substance of the latter was that the writer went to see one of his uncles with his whole family. They did not get there in time to go to meeting being an hour before dinner time. There were three tables set because one would not hold all. (I think there were 13 children) and 3 turkeys served, with pudding and tarts afterwards. When dinner was done the children took the remainder of the tarts out to play with them. They went into the barn where they ate the tarts which made many of the children sick. In the evening they set on a gallon of molasses for candy but it did not get done and when they tried to pull it, it all stuck to their fingers. The children in their play forgot to wash their hands so that when they went to bed it stuck to the pillows and their hair was all plastered up with it. The writer’s family went home at half past ten and the next morning two of them were sick. So ended the joys of Thanksgiving day. To return to sober facts At noon Mr John and I went to the post office. He bought some oranges and gave me one. We got weighed in at Mr Shattuck’s store148 he weighed 117 lbs. He invited Alexander and Andrew Beath (from Cuba) to go to sail with him.149 He also invited me. In the afternoon we went accordingly. Alexander came up and said that 146. Joseph Brooks is described as “the janitor boy” at Concord Academy by Hosmer in REMEMBRANCES OF CONCORD AND THE THOREAUS, 75. Jerome A. Richardson (1830-1887) was the son of Jackson Richardson (1808-1835) and Sarah Dakin Richardson (1809-1896) of Concord. See Albert H. Dakin, DESCENDANTS OF THOMAS DAKIN OF CONCORD, MASS (Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle Publishing, 1948), 90. 147. Gorham Bartlett (born 1826, son of Doctor Josiah Bartlett), a student at the Concord Academy. See REMEMBRANCES OF CONCORD AND THE THOREAUS, 73. 148. Daniel Shattuck (1790-1867) operated a general store in Concord from 1821. 149. The Beaths were students at Concord Academy. The Reverend George Moore (1811-1847) of Concord wrote in his diary on July 12, 1839, “I find that I am to have a charge also—my brother [Henry (1806-1844), just returned from Cuba] is accompanied by two Cuba boys, to be placed under my care and sent to school. These are the sons of Mrs. Beath, with whom my brother has spent most of his time on the island of Cuba. She has been in fact a mother to him, and I know not what he would have done without her aid and care. And I am glad now that I can repay in some degree her kindness by attending to her sons’ education.” MOORE FAMILY PAPERS, AAS, quoted in Kenneth Walter Cameron, TRANSCENDENTAL EPILOGUE, (Hartford: Transcendental Books, c1965-c1982, 2:265. Cf. also REMEMBRANCES OF CONCORD AND THE THOREAUS, 73. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Andrew had gone to eat his dinner and would wait for us on a bridge. Accordingly we got in and sometimes rowed, sometimes sailed down the stream. We found the wind was not exactly fair to go to Bedford as we intended. Once when we were rounding a point we were right broadside to the wind and waves and Mr T and Alex could hardly keep the boat from driving right on shore. The waves beat in and splattered us all over. At last we got round. We went with very great speed sometimes when we were sailing. When we got to the bridge we hauled up the boat and tipped the water out of her. Andrew was there. We stayed there a little while. The boat soon dried. We got into her again and went under the bridge. The river being now high a great deal of meadow was overflowed. We got aground several times and sometimes took down the sail and Mr. T & A rowed. We could see the cranberries at the bottom. So we went on till we got below Ball’s hill in Bedford. There we fastened hauled up the boat and got out. We looked round in a field for arrowheads but none were found except one which was broken and the point of another. Mr Thoreau found a young turtle no bigger than a cent. We determined to go to the top of a hill to see the prospect. Andrew went back to the boat. Mr Thoreau gave him the turtle to put in the water. We went in towards the hill. We passed near the house of Lee150 one of the scholars and saw him and his father at work in a field. He was rolling in grass seed with a heavy roller drawn by oxen. He said that he had found a piece of an Indian implement that morning. Mr T. stood and talked so long with Mr L. that I became tired and went back to the boat where I found Andrew and cut me a stick and picked cranberries but the latter were a combinations of bad tastes and I threw them into the river. I tied my hand kerchief to a big pine stick and set it up occasionally for a flag. After a good while Mr T. and Alexander came back. They had not been to the hill after all. They had the piece of an Indian tool which Lee had given to Mr Thoreau and which Mr T has given to me. It seems to have been used for digging at least Mr John thinks. He says he has a whole one with a hole to put the thumb through and marks for the fingers. Mr Henry thinks it is not probable that the Indians would have used it and that they would be much more likely to use a piece of slate or some other flat stone. I do not know whether I shall preserve it or not. At length we set out to come back having eaten a small luncheon which Mr John produced from one of the cuddies of his boat. I sat in the cow to be pilot and Andrew in the stern the other two rowed. We got aground once or twice but had not much trouble in getting off again. We fastened the boat again near Mr Barrett’s house and hid the oars. We then walked home. We found some housatonias151 a little flower which Aunt has looked for unsuccessfully several times. We got home about 7 oclock and had our some supper. Aunt had an attack of the colic. I washed me of course and then went to bed.

150. Benjamin W. Lee, b. 1824, the son of [E]liab Lee of Concord, a farmer. Daniel W. Howe, HOWE GENEALOGIES (Haverhill, Mass.: Record Publishing, 1929), 108. 151. Probably Edmund misheard houstonia, the flower popularly called the bluet. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY April 19, Easter Sunday: Yet again Patriots’ Day fell on the day on which Christians were to celebrate the ascent of Christ to the throne of his Father in Heaven — and yet again New England’s political orators rose to this considerable challenge!152

(The above illustrates how the trick is done.)

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 19th Mr Frost preached in the morning from Jonah 1st 1st & 2d, “Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Ammitai saying Arise go to Nineveh and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me,” and in the afternoon from Jonah 3d, 1st & 2d verses. “And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying Arise go unto Nineveh that great city and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” I got some Alcohol for Mr. J.

April l9: The infinite bustle of Nature of a summer’s noon, or her infinite silence of a summer’s night, gives utterance to no dogma. They do not say to us even with a seer’s assurance, that this or that law is immutable and so ever and only can the universe exist. But they are the indifferent occasion for all things and the annulment of all laws.

April 20, Monday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society):

152. The good news was, this cultural coincidence would not arise in our calendar again, for the remainder of the century. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Monday In the morning early we heard the sound of bells and cannon and found that they were celebrating the 19th of April. I got up and went to see the fire. The cannon was opposite the gunhouse and they were firing it as fast as they could load. When they had done they put the cannon into the gunhouse again and I came back. Some of the boys had been up ringing the Academy bell. At sundown they fired again in a field behind the school house. I went to see them and then went to a phrenological lecture the last of the course on Education &c. He had a representation of a ladder with 9 rounds, which were different states of man.

April 20: The universe will not wait to be explained. Whoever seriously attempts a theory of it is already behind his age. His yea has reserved no nay for the morrow The wisest solution is no better than dissolution — Already the seer whispers his convictions to bare walls — no audience in the land can attend to them.

An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. — To my neighbors who have risen in mist and rain I Thoreau as tell of that clear sunrise and the singing of birds as some traditionary mythus. I look back to those fresh but now remote hours as to the old dawn of time, when a solid and blooming health reigned — and every deed was Ornithologist simple and heroic.

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April 21, Tuesday: Waldo Emerson wrote Margaret Fuller that he was going to “roll up” with Henry Thoreau’s essay on the Roman satirist Aulus Persius Flaccus, “AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS.” “I read it through this morning & forsee that it may give you some hesitations.... I wish it were shorter.” THE DIAL

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday 21st. Joseph was up in the tree just before tea time fixing his bluebird box and I was up there too when Aunt invited me to go to the Misses Thoreaus’ So I got down and went. We came back to tea.

April 22, Wednesday: Waldo Emerson lectured at the Concord Lyceum in Concord. This was the 5th lecture of the series: “Reforms.” THE LIST OF LECTURES

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday In the afternoon Mr J., Charles, Jesse and I went to HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Goose Pond. It began to rain before we got there and we had to get under trees. We went home after Mr John had ungratefully fired his gun into the tree we had just been resting under. We stopped into a Mr Tuttle’s barn on our return. A new kind of swallows had built their nests under the eaves last season but they were all gone now. It had nearly stopped raining when we set out from the barn and soon ceased entirely. Mr John stopped into a house where he expected to see his aunt. We went on and soon got home. He did not see her however. When I got home I printed a little letter to Georgy as Aunt expects to send a bundle soon. I sent him a picture drawn by one of the boys in a very patriotic spirit of an eagle standing on a rock with a flag in her bill and a cannon. I expect to write to father and mother.

April 22: Thales was the first of the Greeks who taught that souls are immortal — and it takes equal wisdom to discern this old fact to-day. What the first philosopher taught the last will have to repeat– The world makes no progress.

I cannot turn on my heel in a carpeted room — what a gap in the morning is a breakfast — a supper supersedes the sunset.

Methinks I hear the ranz des vaches and shall soon be tempted to desert.153

Will not one thick garment suffice for three thin ones? Thus I shall be less compound, and can lay my hands on myself in the dark.

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April 24, Friday: Waldo Emerson lectured at the Concord Lyceum in Concord. This was the 6th lecture of the series, “Religion.” THE LIST OF LECTURES

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday After school Mr John went out with his gun and the boys and I went with him. He shot a bay ringed finch to examine.

April 25, Saturday: Margaret Fuller wrote Waldo Emerson that Henry Thoreau’s revised essay on the Roman satirist Aulus Persius Flaccus would appear in the initial issue of THE DIAL. “AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS”

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday In the afternoon Mr J. Thoreau took Joseph and I out 153. Isn’t this an interesting pun! I don’t know whether the spelling difference was being observed in America, so that “desert,” a place devoid of life, with its derivative “to desert,” to abandon one’s post and flee into the desert, and to obtain one’s “deserts,” one’s due reward or punishment for one’s conduct, could always be distinguished in writing from “dessert,” the sweet course at the end of a meal. However, if there was such a distinction observed in spelling in America at that time, Thoreau clearly was eliding that distinction here, as in hearing the “ranz des vaches” he is being tempted not only to desert his post (as the armed Swiss guard at the Tuilleries if given an opportunity to hear the ranz des vaches might be tempted by homesickness to flee France for Switzerland) and flee to his homeland, but also to substitute the sweet course of his supper, his dessert, for the experience of something else in his life — as he has already made a gap in his morning by having breakfast, and as he has already missed the sunset by attending instead the supper. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

with him in his boat. He carried his gun. We went to Barnett’s hill where Mr John and I got out leaving Joe in the boat. H Mr J. shot two birds on the same tree. He first shot a bay ringed finch which he had got the evening before and as soon as he had loaded again shot the other. He then came up but and gave me a string to tie the birds to. He then went back to the boat and Mr J. soon shot a bird on the ground which afterwards proved to be the Rush Sparrow. The other was the Chipping Sparrow. Then we went back to the boat and proceeded up the river. We saw great numbers of blackbirds, at one of which Mr. John fired when very near but with no effect except frightening him. We presently came back and lounged round on the hill a long time without HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY seeing any birds that we wanted. We at last went home.

April 26, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday I went to church all day. Grandmother went in the forenoon. There was a report that Dr. Ripley was to preach part of the day but he did not. Mr. Frost did not preach at home. I cannot remember where the texts were. Miss More my sunday school teacher invited us scholars to go maying with her friday afternoon.

April 27, Monday: Edward Whymper, who would become the 1st person to scale the Matterhorn, was born, but for the time being was just another infant.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Monday After School Mr John went into the woods with J Keyes, Sam Burr,154 Jesse and myself. He carried his gun and a rope to play with. We threw the rope over the top of a small pine that had been bent by the snow and swung. We also tried to wind each other up in it and tied it up on two trees to tumble over. We 154. Samuel Cushing Burr (born 1830) “committed suicide after a wild and dissipated life” and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. John S. Keyes, “Memoir of Samuel Burr,” MEMOIRS OF MEMBERS OF THE SOCIAL CIRCLE IN CONCORD, SECOND SERIES (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1888), 213. Cf. Walter Harding, THE DAYS OF HENRY THOREAU (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), 76; and REMEMBRANCES OF CONCORD AND THE THOREAUS, 73. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY jumped over it too. Mr Thoreau shot a Hermit Thrush which is a rare bird and a black and white creeper. The former is a reddish brown bird. There is a strange difference in the accounts of this bird in one respect – Audubon and Wilson say that it is mute while Nuthall says it has powers nearly equal to those of the nightingale.155 The latter I at once recognized as the little ^stuffed^ bird which Mrs. Simmons sent us.

Waldo Emerson wrote Margaret Fuller that Henry Thoreau had again revised his essay on the Roman satirist Aulus Persius Flaccus and that it had become excellent. “AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS” THE DIAL

April 28, Tuesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote a school essay on fished (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Trout are a freshwater fish and said to be very good eating. I know nothing at all of their size, shape, color, habits, or haunts for the reason that I never saw one in my life. Pickerel are good to eat, but I don’t know how good, of some size no doubt but I don’t know of what size, — probably has some food but I don’t know what it is, — must live somewhere but I don’t know what places they like best — all this for the above reason, that I never saw or heard one described. Pouts. Good to eat. I don’t know if they are the same with the hornpout which I have seen about 4 inches long. I remember once I had a new jackknife and was itching to try it’s edge on something, and as we went to school we fished out a hornpout from a pool and as he lay upon the grass I transfixed him with my knife. Cold blooded heartless murderer that I was! but it is some satisfaction to know that the victim was coldblooded also. Poor murdered innocent! he deserved a better fate. I remember no freshwater fish of whom I know anything. I pass on to salt- water fish. Whales are useful in furnishing oil and whalebone. They are the largest of living creatures. Sharks are pretty large fish. They are voracious fish and are dangerous to divers in some countries. They are said to have 7 rows of teeth. Swordfish are remarkable for having a long pointed horn on their snout. They attack whales and give them severe wounds. They have been known to pierce the bottom of a boat or even of a ship. Salmon are I believe a salt-water fish though they come up into the rivers once a year. They spring up falls of considerable height. They are very good eating. Mackerel are a small fish — real good. They are caught with hooks or with a gaff. They are salted in barrels. They are marked Nos. 1, 2 and 3 according to their quality. Cod are mostly salted and dried. They are abominable when salted, as are all salt fish to my taste. They are caught in

155. John James Audubon, ORNITHOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHY; OR, AN ACCOUNT OF THE HABITS OF THE BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (Philadelphia, 1832-39); Alexander Wilson, AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; OR, THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES (Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep, 1808-14); Thomas Nuttall, A MANUAL OF THE ORNITHOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES AND OF CANADA (Cambridge, 1832) and later editions. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY great numbers on the banks of Newfoundland. Haddock are about the size of a cod. They have a long stripe along their sides. I have heard that this was occasioned by Old Nick. Happening to be at work one day hammering the rocks and placing them in some dangerous positions, the old gentleman dropped out his hammer into the sea and stepping down to get it up took up a haddock instead and the marks of his fingers are to be seen to this day as he had just been employed in stirring the brimstone fire and had got his hands ashy[?]. Menhaden is are sometimes eaten. I remember a time when a great haul of them was made and a gentleman put a great many of them in one of his fields for manure. The field was right beside the lane through which I went to school and when the wind blew toward the road O! what a stench! We used to hold our noses and run by as fast as we could leg it. The way we pinched our noses was a caution not to meddle with pincers. I would have rather have rode in a chaise with a skunk in the box. Edmund Quincy Sewall.

He also wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Tuesday I received a letter from Ellen. (This reminds me that I did not put down that I had a letter from Father last week.) After school Mr John and I went out into the woods, but saw nothing. In the evening I went to the last concert of the “Euterpians.”156 One of the pieces was the Schoolmaster’s song. Ellen said in her letter that she had 23 scholars and expected two or three more and that we are to have some more chickens. Betty began to set but speckleback drove her off and kept the nest herself.

May 1, Friday: Waldo Emerson lectured at the Concord Lyceum in Concord. This was the 8th lecture of the series, “Education.” THE LIST OF LECTURES

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Friday May 1st. School did not keep this day. It was cloudy and threatened to rain but this did not prevent out going with Mr John up the river in his boat. When a little way up the river we came to a small rocky island on which some wild columbines were growing. We went upon Barrett’s hill and saw there a wood tortoise. Soon after it began to rain and we went down under the shelter of some very high hemlock trees which formed a pretty good shelter from the rain with the assistance of our umbrellas. Here we stayed a long while. We saw a thorn bush by the side of the river some of the thorns of which were an inch and a half long. Mr John went out in an interval of the rain and shot a chewink and brought in another wood tortoise larger than the other. After we had looked at the chewink he was thrown into the river. The last showers were accompanied with thunder and lightning though we did not see the latter. At last it stopped raining and 156. The Euterpian Vocalists, a quartet from Boston, gave concerts in Concord on April 21st and April 28th at Goodrich’s Hall [Tavern?] in Concord. Notices and advertisements for this second concert appeared in the Freeman for April 24th and in the Yeoman’s Gazette for April 25th. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY we broke off some shadblossoms in great branches and carried them home. On our way we got the honeysuckle or wild columbine we had seen in going up. The boat was fastened at a little distance from the common anchorage. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

The 1st adhesive postage stamp (the “Penny Black” of England, 64 million of them, printed by the inventor Jacob Perkins) was issued — an idea whose time would arrive on Wednesday, May 6th. The volume of postal correspondence increased by two orders of magnitude.157 These first stamps showed Queen Victoria, with a black head for a penny letter and a blue head for a twopenny letter.

At this point lightweight paper was being used for letters sent abroad, because the weight of a letter determined the postage to be paid. English postage rates for overseas mail were 12 times as high as American rates, a shilling rather than a penny even at the minimal weight. Envelopes were coming into use for enclosing mail, although pre-gummed envelopes like this fine example would not be available until quite a bit later, during the 1870s:

157. We owe the idea to Rowland Hill (1795-1879), a retired Brit schoolteacher who in 1837 had written POST OFFICE REFORM: ITS IMPORTANCE AND PRACTICABILITY. By the time of the writing of WALDEN, letter postage in the USA would have become a minimum of three cents:

WALDEN: For my part, I could easily do without the post-office. I think that there are very few important communications made through it. To speak critically, I never received more than one or two letters in my life –I wrote this some years ago– that were worth the postage. The penny-post is, commonly, an institution through which you seriously offer a man that penny for his thoughts which is so often safely offered in jest. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

May 2, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday 2d. After dinner Jesse and I went down to the boat to get the paddles and saw six turtles of different sorts going and coming. In the afternoon I went with Miss Sophia Thoreau Miss Prudence Ward and Miss Anna Alcott, Mr John Thoreau and Master Jesse Harding to the cliffs via the boiling springs. When at the springs Mr John invented a funnel shaped drinking vessel made of birch bark for the ladies to drink from. I went into the bushes a little way and hearing a rustling among the leaves I saw two rabbits running away. I got a wet foot in trying to get Aunt some water from the chief spring. I took of [sic] my stocking and having wrung it well stuck it on a stick to dry which I carried along with me. When I had got almost to the cliff I put it on again. We had to go through an orchard by the way in which we commonly go but the cartpath was ploughed up so we went round by a path in the woods and came out at a part of the cliffs where I had never been before. But in proceeding we soon came to a place where I had been and we went part way down the cliff and stayed there a long while. I had very good fun in swinging round in the tops of ^young^ trees. I cut me a walnut stick with Jesse’s help but when he wanted to get him one too we could not find a suitable sapling. On our return we gathered plenty of wild columbines and some violets. We rested again at the boiling spring. I saw the small Pox burying-ground which has but one stone in it which was erected in memory of Mrs. Sarah Potter who died of small pox taken in the natural way in 1792.158 May 3, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 3d. Dr Ripley preached in the afternoon an extemporaneous sermon which he declared his last. The paper says that he was 90 the Friday before.159 158. The “Smallpox Cemetery” is near the intersection of Fairhaven Road and the present-day Route 2. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

May 9, Saturday: In Marion, Alabama, Sam Houston got married with Margaret Lea.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday 9th. I wrote to Ellen. I took dinner at the Misses Thoreaus from whence I went to Mr Keyes’ with the boys and then to Capt More’s farm.160 They carried off a sow and ^six or^?eight little pigs in a cart. I carried one little piggy and put him in the cart. They were to carry off another pig and her 9 children the same afternoon. We came home then. In the evening I washed me in our room and locked the doors. I forgot to unlock them again though I am quite sure I attempted to unfasten one which is held by a button over the latch but the button probably slipped down again and the other escaped my mind completely. Mr John came to bed very late when all the other folks were in bed except Aunt. He came to one door and tried to open it but it was fastened. He then went to the other door and not being able to open that had to call to me so loud to wake me up and make me comprehend that he waked all the other grown up folks although I do not think the boys heard him.

May 10, Sunday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Sunday 10th A gentleman preached whose name I do not know. In the afternoon his text was “Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many days.” He said that some thought this referred to sowing some grain that grew in wet spots upon the low country when overflowed so that it would be covered by the sediment of the water which when soon retiring the grain would spring up and produce a harvest. But he said that Judea was a hilly country and not likely to have such a grain but that he now thought that it probably referred to the commerce carried on in corn in the reign of David & Solomon. The sermon in the morning was to prove that there was more good than evil in the universe, but I do not remember the text. Miss More was not at church so Mr Rockwood Hoar heard us recite.161 In the evening After supper Mr John and I went to the red bridge.162 The railing was all cut over with names many of which were effaced by time and weather. I saw Ellen’s name cut in the wood between the ^initials^ of Mr J. and Mr. H Thoreau which bore date 1830 and ‘35. Mr Henry’s name ^initials^ was cut very neatly and deep. We saw an old vane which had been placed on the first meetinghouse of any size in Concord. It bore date in 16—. When the old meetinghouse was pulled down to give place to the present church in 1712 the vane was placed on the old Court house and when the latter was pulled down someone put it in his barn where it now is. 159. Ezra Ripley was born on May 1, 1751, and thus this was actually his 89th birthday. 160. “In 1843 Captain Abel Moore, the old jailer, resigned and moved from the county house to his farm on the Lexington Road.” John S. Keyes, “Samuel Staples,” MEMOIRS OF MEMBERS OF THE SOCIAL CIRCLE IN CONCORD, FOURTH SERIES (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1909), 136. 161. Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar (1816-1895), George Frisbie Hoar’s older brother and future attorney general of the United States. 162. Ellen had visited her Ward relatives in Concord the previous summer. The red bridge was on the Lowell road between Concord and Carlisle. See THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE OFFICERS OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD MASSACHUSETTS FROM JANUARY 1, 1921 TO DECEMBER 31, 1921 (Concord: Thomas Todd), [97]. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

May 13, Wednesday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Wednesday In the afternoon I went with Mr John and Martha Osmer163 and Anna Alcott Charles and Joseph. We went in the boat to Anursnick that is as near the hill as we could get and then walked up. When we went up some one was generally on shore walking by the side of the river. I was out some of the time. We saw a turtle on a stick sunning himself. We went on shore on the island and staid a few minutes. As we were walking up through the fields to the hill we saw two wood tortoises. We drank some water at a spring of the hill and when we got to the top there was a very extensive prospect. We could look down on the tops of other hills so that they seemed almost level. We got some sassafras coming home. When we got into the boat we went quite fast with the stream and in an hour reached home. We boys got out of the boat a little before Mr John and the girls did and he rowed them up to the landing. (I forgot to say that I got a bundle from home on Tuesday. There was a letter from Georgy directed to “E Q Sewall Watergruel”164 which is the epithet given me by the boys, and one from Father. George says he gets along pleasantly at school and I hope well.)

The Transcendental Club met at the Emerson home. Among the attenders were Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, the Reverend Cyrus Augustus Bartol, Robert Bartlett, Margaret Fuller, the Reverends Frederic Henry Hedge and Caleb Stetson, and Jones Very. They discussed the topic “The Inspiration of the Prophet and Bard, the Nature of Poetry, and the Causes of the Sterility of Poetic Inspiration in Our Age and Country.” (Strangely, with such a topic, Very did not seem to have anything insightful to offer. He was still issuing his declarative pronouncements but his sources for his inspiration did not seem to be helping him come up with interesting things to say.)

THE TASK OF THE HISTORIAN IS TO CREATE HINDSIGHT WHILE INTERCEPTING ANY ILLUSION OF FORESIGHT. NOTHING A HUMAN CAN SEE CAN EVER BE SEEN AS IF THROUGH THE EYE OF GOD. THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO’S CENTER OF THE AMERICAN WEST HAS AS ITS OFFICIAL MOTTO “TURNING HINDSIGHT INTO FORESIGHT” — WHICH INDICATES THAT ONLY PANDERERS ARE WELCOME THERE. IN A BOOK THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT HISTORY, ISSUED BY RANDOM HOUSE IN 2016, I FIND THE PHRASE “LOOKED UPON FROM THE BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF HISTORY, ....” ONLY A MERE STORYTELLER, NEVER A HISTORIAN, COULD HAVE PENNED SUCH A PHRASE —

163. Possibly Martha Hosmer (born 1829), daughter of Cyrus and Lydia Parkman Wheeler Hosmer. 164. “Who made that wit of water gruel, / A judge of Admiralty, Sewall?” in John Trumbull, M’FINGAL: A MODERN EPIC POEM; OR, THE TOWN MEETING (Philadelphia: William and Thomas Bradford, 1775) and later editions. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY BECAUSE NO BIRD HAS EVER FLOWN OVER HISTORY.

May 14, Thursday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. wrote in his diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Thursday. After school I went with Mr John to practice with his gun at a mark five rods off. He fired 6 or 8 shots apiece only two of my balls hit the wall board and of those only one grazed the corner. The other was my last shot and went inside the ring. We brought home the targets. I loaded most of the guns which I fired.

May 14: War is the sympathy of concussion– We would fain rub one against another — its rub may be friction merely but it would rather be titillation.… Let not the faithful sorrow that he has no ear for the more fickle and subtle harmonies of creation, if he be awake to the slower measure of virtue and truth. If his pulse does not beat in unison with the musician’s quips and turns, it accords with the pulse beat of the ages.

May 16, Saturday: When John Brown had set out from Franklin Mills, Ohio to act under power of attorney for Oberlin College, he had begun to note his expenses in a little book to the half cent. At this point he returned and the book indicated about $33 in expenses including charges for guides and other help (presumably he would be able to return about $17 of his $50 cash advance to the college).

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. made what would be the last entry in his last diary (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): Saturday I wrote composition. Mr John at first told me to write about “Yankee ingenuity and enterprise” but I did not see how I could possibly make anything of it so he gave me “the biography of my uncle Ben” to write.165 After dinner Mr John asked Charles, Jesse & I to go down to his boat haul it up, empty it out and run a hot iron over a particular spot where it leaked some to make the tar melt and run into the crack. So the iron was heated red-hot in the blacksmith’s fire and we went down and hauled up the boat and tipped her over. Then we tipped her up on one side and Charles was trying to run the iron over when Mr John came up with Gorham Bartlett and his sister and a Miss Pritchard whom he was going to take out in the boat.166 So the boat having been fixed was hauled up again and tipped over again and launched. We saw them go off and then we went home and went with Aunt up the turnpike and past Mr Tuttles to a meadow. The new kind of swallows had got to Mr Tuttle’s barn for the first day this season. We rested under an apple tree and watched them bringing mud to build their nests. Mr T’s bees were busy in the blossoms overhead and made a very pleasant sound. When we got to the meadow we looked round for flowers. The owner had been attempting to make a cranberry meadow and had built an embankment across the meadow but a large place of it was washed away. We found a good many flowers. Charles found a ground bird’s The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project

165. This fictional biography is reproduced as part of the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society. 166. Gorham Bartlett had two sisters at this time: Martha (born 1824) and Elizabeth (borh 1830). Martha is listed as a student at Concord Academy by Harding (DAYS OF HENRY THOREAU, 76); Hosmer refers to “the Bartlett girls” attending the school in the summer of 1840 (REMEMBRANCES OF CONCORD AND THE THOREAUS, 73). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY nest and I found a flower composed of one pelat [sic] with the edges lapped over each other and the top goes off to a point and bends over. We soon went back and went out to fish at the turnpike brook as we had seen some pouts there. We ate some bread and butter that we might not be obliged to come back to supper. I lost my knife and tore my trousers and got nothing after all. Charles caught an eel and after that we had a bite all round from some fish or other but could not catch him. When we got home we Charles cleaned his eel. Charles lent me a hook cork and lead and Jesse a pole and line. We found that Mr John and his party had been up to Anursnick and had seen a rattlesnake or rather Gorham saw him and Mr John heard him rattle. They saw a kingfisher dive and supposed he brought up a fish. This Saturday, May 16th, 1840, the diary ends, apparently midway of the three months I spent in Concord EQS

He also handed in an essay on his Uncle Ben (per the Sewall Family Papers at the American Antiquarian Society): My uncle Benjamin was a portly gentleman of 49 when I was born. I remember how he used to trot [?] me on his knee to the tune “This is the way the ladies ride” &c. And when I grew older he used to tell me many stories about himself and his adventures so that I know his history which I will now relate. He was born in the town of Toddyville in the state of Connecticut about the year of our Lord 1782 just before the war ended. According to his own account he had always been remarkably courageous, as a proof of which he declared that after he was 9 years old he was never afraid of a rat. He acknowledged that he had [correction mark?] previously somewhat afraid when he was sent down cellar but the following [inserted above line] circumstance proved that rate could be vanquished by a cool and courageous person. His father who was a farmer loved hard cider like a certain other person much talked of at the present day and when he came home from the tavern often wanted a glass to top off with just before he went to bed. On the present occasion Uncle Ben happened to be up and his father sent him down stairs to the well known barrel. He went with fear and trembling for he fancied he saw some huge rat ready to snap at his nose at every step of the stairs. But he did not dare to ask his father to excuse him for fear it would only bring a box on the ear and a repetition of the command. On his way he went by a closet in the cellar the door of which was open. He thought he heard a rat gnawing. He looked — there was certainly one of the monsters making a hole in a fine cheese. He was so terrified that he did not dare to scream lest he should attract the attention of the animal so he crept softly upstairs. His father saw him and seized the pitcher intending to take a heavy swig but finding it empty hit Ben a tremendous slap exclaiming “Why did you not get the cider as I told you to?” “There is a rat in the closet father” said poor Ben as well as he could for tears and terror, “and he is eating one of mother’s cheeses.” His mother hearing this sprang up “Show me the rat” said she “and it’s the last time he’ll steal cheese I can tell him.” So saying she snatched up the tamp in HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY one hand and the shovel in the other and came down like a thunderbolt into the cellar. “There is a rat I declare” said she as she reached the closet and as the poor creature sprang from the cheese she gave him a blow which almost cut him in two and killed him on the spot. Uncle Ben who had followed and seen this wondrous deed picked up the carcase and was never again afraid of rat or mouse. “If mother can kill them I’m sure I can” said he. As he grew up he became a great sportsman as his father had died in the mean time and there was a rusty old horse pistol upstairs which he used to crack off on the 4th of July whenever he could make up a ninepence to buy some powder. He used to pick up a shot sometimes and he used to make slugs out of old nails and all sorts of things. He also put in stones on occasion. On the 4th of July he had been more than usually fortunate in procuring ammunition for he had bought a shilling’s worth of powder, had three buckshot and 4[?] wrought nails which he had found bent up for slugs. Besides these he had a lead bullet which one of the boys had given him. These he eked out with stones. As last he had fired away the chief part of his ammunition and determined to put the last rest into one charge. It consisted of 4 fingers of powder, the bullet three slugs and 4 small stones. A gang of boys had gathered round him and he was just priming when some boys came up with a poor cat whom they were going to drown. “Hold on a minute said Uncle Ben and I’ll shoot her.” The [?] cat was accordingly held out at arm’s length by one of the boys by the hind legs the forelegs being tied and a stone hung round her neck so that she was forced to hang perpendicularly and could not help herself. Uncle Ben put the barrel of the pistol close to the ear of the cat and fired. Her head was entirely blown away and they threw the carcase into the brush. “Ever after that” said Uncle Ben “I loved sporting.” [illegible, crossed out] He was then 12 years old. At the age of 17 he shot a skunk after having his clothes thoroughly perfumed. A few years after this he had the end of one of his fingers blown off by his own beloved pistol. He was filled with wrath and when the wound was heald he took the pistol, filled it with powder and stopped off the muzzle tightly. He then put it on one side of a board fence and tied it firmly to a stake. Then he tied a string to the trigger and putting it through a crack in the fence pulled it and the pistol was blown to pieces. [illegible, crossed out] after his mother died he kept bachelor’s hall in an old house and lived by his field and garden. He died when he was 88 years old. Such is a skeleton of the life of uncle Ben. Edmund Quincy Sewall. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1847

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. graduated from Harvard College. In this year or possibly the following one, some 20 or 21 years of age, he sat for his Daguerreotype (see following screen). He would become a civil and railroad engineer and would become successively Superintendent of the Delaware Railroad, Superintendent at New Orleans of the N.O.I. and Gr. N. Railroad, Superintendent of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, Treasurer of the Duluth Railroad, Superintendent of the Duluth Railroad, and finally Controller of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad.

William Rounseville Alger graduated at Harvard Divinity School, and immediately was ordained and became a pastor at a Unitarian Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

NEW “HARVARD MEN” Thomas Wentworth Higginson: “Another tonic in the way of cultured companionship was that of James Elliot Cabot, fresh from a German university, –then a rare experience,– he being, however, most un-German in clearness and terseness. I remember that when I complained to him of not understanding Immanuel Kant’s ‘Critique of pure reason,’ in English, he answered tranquilly that he could not; that having read it twice in German he had thought he comprehended it, but that Meiklejohn’s translation was beyond making out. These men were not in the Harvard Divinity School, but I met their equals there. The leading men of a college class gravitated then as naturally to the Divinity School as now to the Law School; even though, like myself, they passed to other pursuits afterward. I met there such men as Thomas Hill, afterward President of Harvard College; Octavius B. Frothingham; William Rounseville Alger; Samuel Longfellow and Samuel Johnson, who compiled at Divinity Hall their collection of hymns, — a volume called modestly “A book of hymns,” and more profanely named from its editors’ familiar names “The Sam book.” Longfellow was one of the born saints, but with a breadth and manliness not always to be found in that class; he was also a genuine poet, like his elder brother, whose biographer he afterward became. Johnson, a man of brilliant gifts and much personal charm, is now best known by his later work on ‘Oriental Religions.’ It is a curious fact that many of their youthful hymns as well as some of my own, appearing originally in this heterodox work, have long since found their way into the most orthodox and respectable collections.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1852

November 27, Saturday: Ada, Countess of Lovelace, only child of Lord and Lady Byron, died.

Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. got married with Louisa “Louise” Kilham Lovett in Beverly, Massachusetts, daughter of Samuel Porter Lovett and Lucy Chatham Lovett. The marriage was conducted by the Reverend Edmund Quincy Sewall, Sr. of Cohasset, with the assistance of the Reverend Christopher T. Thayer. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1853

September 20, Tuesday: Theodore Lovett Sewall was born to Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. and Louisa “Louise” Kilham Lovett Sewall (he would die on December 23, 1895).

On this day Elisha Graves Otis sold his 1st “hoist machine,” or elevator, featuring the automatic safety brake he would only belatedly patent (Patent #31,128 of January 15, 1861). Otis would open a small enterprise on the bank of the Hudson River in Yonkers, New York, in a space in a bedstead factory of which he would remain the foreman. It would take awhile for the full implications to sink in, of the tiny little fact that if the ropes were to break his platform would not fall and you wouldn’t get killed, so at 1st business would be quite slow.

Sept. 20. About Hinckley's camp I saw the Fringilla hyemalis; also a bird a little smaller, maybe, brownish and yellowish, with some white tail-feathers, which I think makes the tull-lull sound, hopping on the wood-pile. Is not this the myrtle-bird? Their note interested me because I formerly had many a chase in a spring morning in the direction of this sound, in vain, to identify the bird. The lumberers said it came round the camps, and they gave it a vulgar name. Also, about the carry, a chubby sparrow with dark-brown or black stripes on the head. Saw a large and new woodpecker, probably the red-headed, making a noise like the pigeon woodpecker...... There was one woman on board, who got in at the Kineo House, who looked oddly in the one saloon for gentlemen and ladies, amid the red shirts of the lumbermen. It rained very hard while we were aboard the steamer. We had a small sloop in tow, and another stopped to speak with us, to inquire after a man who was missing. A fortnight before, he had left his horse and carriage at Sawyer’s, saying that he was going to get a moose and should be back in two day. He set out in a birch alone from the south end of the lake. At length they had sent the horse home, which brought on his friends, who were now looking for him and feared that he was lost in the lake. It was not very wise to set out in a canoe from the south end of the lake to kill a moose in two days. They thought that if he had fallen in with one Whitton, a hunter, he was safe enough. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1855

April 12, Thursday: Edmund Devereux Sewall was born to Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. and Louisa “Louise” Kilham Lovett Sewall (he would die on March 30, 1923).

Charles Usherwood wrote about shells falling from the sky, in his service journal outside Sebastopal, as if he were describing spring weather events: “Day was fine and the bombardment heavier than the previous day’s. — During the night rapid shelling.”

Karl Marx wrote from 28 Dean Street, Soho, London to his good old buddy Friedrich Engels: I am thinking of coming up to Manchester with my wife on Wednesday; she must have a change of scene for a few days. Unless I let you know to the contrary, Wednesday will be the day. I shall at any rate be writing again on Monday. Needless to say, the house has been very desolate and bereft since the death of the dear child who was its life and soul. I cannot tell you how we miss the child at every turn. I've already had my share of bad luck but only now do I know what real unhappiness is. I feel broken down. Since the funeral I have been fortunate enough to have such splitting headaches that I can neither think nor hear nor see. Amid all the fearful torments I have recently had to endure, the thought of you and your friendship has always sustained me, as has the hope that there is still something sensible for us to do together in the world. Your K.M. My wife has just brought me a line or two for you, which I enclose.

April 12. Still falls a little snow and rain this morning, though the ground is not whitened. I hear a purple finch, nevertheless, on an elm, steadily warbling and uttering a sharp chip from time to time. P.M. — To Cliffs and Hubbard’s Close. Fair with drifting clouds, but cold and windy. At the spring brook I see some skunk-cabbage leaves already four or five inches high and partly unrolled. From the Cliff Hill the mountains are again thickly clad with snow, and, the wind being northwest, this coldness is accounted for. I hear it fell fourteen or fifteen inches deep in Vermont. As I sit in a sheltered place on the Cliffs, I look over the pond with my glass, but see no living thing. Soon after, I saw a boat on Lee’s meadow just inside the button-bushes on the west of the pond, about a mile distant, and, raising my glass, I saw one man paddling in the stern and another in white pantaloons standing up in the bow, ready to shoot. Presently I saw the last raise his gun, take aim, and fire into the bushes, though I heard no sound from over the dashing waves, but merely saw the smoke as in a picture. There was a strong wind from the northwest, while I was looking southwest. The gunner then pointed out the course while his companion paddled and struck the game in the water with a paddle, and I distinctly saw him lift up a muskrat by the tail. In a few moments, very nearly the same actions were repeated, though this time I did not see the rat raised. Then, turning my glass down the stream, I saw, on the Miles meadow shore about half a mile distant, a man whom I knew emptying his boat of fat pine roots which he had got for spearing, while his dog was digging at a woodchuck’s hole close by. For a week past I have frequently seen the tracks of woodchucks in the sand. Golden saxifrage out at Hubbard’s Close, — one, at least, effete. It may have been the 10th. The grass has within ten days shot up very perceptibly in shallow water and about springs. In the last place it forms dense moss-like tufts in some cases; also some warm southward banks are considerably greened, and some hollows where the ice has recently melted, but generally there is no obvious greening as yet. It is at most a mere radical greenness, which you must seek to find. Cowslip will apparently open in two days at Hubbard’s Close. (Not 16th, but apparently touched by frost, but probably some by Second Division. Vide 18th.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1860

November 28, Wednesday: Caroline Ward Sewall was born to Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. and Louisa “Louise” Kilham Lovett Sewall (she would die on April 21, 1939).

At this point many British freight trains had no continuous braking system, the only available brakes being those of the locomotive itself, plus the caboose at the end of the train. The caboose was equipped with a handbrake so that if one of the couplings between the cars should break loose, both the front and rear portions of the train could be brought to a stand. On this evening the 8:30PM passenger train of the North London Railway Company started punctually from Fenchurch Street for Hampstead, and consisted of a tank-engine with 7 carriages. The last of these was the caboose or “brake-carriage,” containing a compartment for a guard, and to the final 3 of the cars was attached a continuous brake known as a “Chambers’ patent break.” This train had proceeded for merely 128 yards and had accumulated a speed of, perhaps, 6 or 7 miles an hour — when the 1st 4 of its carriages left the rails. The driver in the engine, in front, and the guard in the break-carriage, behind, seem to have experienced at the same moment a “jerk in the train,” since they both activated their brakes. The train was brought to a standstill within 15 or 20 yards, and there was no damage and nobody got hurt.

Christian Karl Josias, Freiherr von Bunsen died. Before dying he asked his wife Frances Waddington Bunsen to publish recollections of their common life; she would comply in 1868 with a volume of memoirs containing much private correspondence.

Governor Samuel Medary requested US troops be used to control a situation in Linn and Bourbon counties in Kansas. THE 2D GREAT AMERICAN DISUNION

November 28: P.M.– To Annursnack. Looking from the hilltop, I should say that there was more oak woodland than pine to be seen, especially in the north and northeast, but it is somewhat difficult to distinguish all in the gleaming sunlight of mid-afternoon. Most of the oak, however, is quite young. As for pines, I cannot say surely which kind is most prevalent, not being certain about the most distant woods. The white pine is much the most dispersed, and grows oftener in low ground than the pitch pine does. It oftenest forms mixed woods with oak, etc., growing in straight or meandering lines, occasionally swelling into a dense grove. The pitch pines commonly occupy a dry soil – a plain or brow of a hill, often the site of an old grain-field or pasture – and are much the most seclusive, for, being a new wood, oaks, etc., have had no opportunity to grow up there, if they could. I look down now on the top of a pitch pine wood southwest of Brooks’s Pigeon-place, and its top, so nearly level, has a peculiarly rich and crispy look in the sun. Its limbs are short and its plumes stout as compared with the white pine and are of a yellowish green. There are many handsome young walnuts ten or twelve feet high scattered over the southeast side of Annursnack, or above the orchard. How came they there? Were they planted before a wood was cut? It is remarkable how this tree loves a hillside. Behind G.M. Barrett’s barn a scarlet oak stump 18 1/2 inches [in] diameter and about 94 rings, which has sent up a sprout two or three years since. On the plain just north of the east end of G.M.B.’s oaks, many oaks were sawed off about a year ago. Those I look at are seedlings and very sound and rings very distinct and handsome. Generally no sprouts from them, though one white oak sprout had been killed by frost. One white oak, 17 inches [in] diameter, has 100 rings. A second, 16 1/2 " " " also 100 " The last has two centres which coalesced at the thirtieth ring, which went round them both including old bark between them. This was an instance of natural grafting. Many seem to be so constituted that they can respect only somebody who is dead or something which is distant. The less you get, the happier and the richer you are. The rich man’s son gets cocoanuts, and the poor man’s, pignuts; but the worst of it is that the former never goes a-cocoanutting, and so he never gets the cream of the cocoanut as the latter does the cream of the pignut. That on which commerce seizes is always the very coarsest part of a fruit, –the mere husk and rind, in fact, –for HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY her hands are very clumsy. This is what fills the holds of ships, is exported and imported, pays duties, and is finally sold at the shops. It is a grand fact that you cannot make the finer fruits or parts of fruits matter of commerce. You may buy a servant or slave, in short, but you cannot buy a friend. You can’t buy the finer part of any fruit –i.e. the highest use and enjoyment of it. You cannot buy the pleasure which it yields to him who truly plucks it; you can’t buy a good appetite even. What are all the oranges imported into England to the hips and haws in her hedges? She could easily spare the one, but not the others. Ask Wordsworth, or any of her poets, which is the most to him. The mass of men are very easily imposed on. They have their runways in which they always travel, and are sure to fall into any pit or box trap set therein. Whatever a great many grown-up boys are seriously engaged in is considered great and good, and, as such, is sure of the recognition of the churchman and statesman. What, for instance, are the blue juniper berries in the pasture, which the cowboy remembers so far as they are beautiful merely, to church or state? Mere trifles which deserve and get no protection. As an object of beauty, though significant to all who really live in the country, they do not receive the protection of any community. Anybody may grub up all that exist. But as an article of commerce they command the attention of the civilized world. I read that “several hundred tons of them are imported annually from the continent” into England to flavor gin with; “but even this quantity,” says my author, “is quite insufficient to meet the enormous consumption of the fiery liquid, and the deficiency is made up by spirits of turpentine.” Go to the English Government, which, of course, is representative of the people, and ask, What is the use of juniper berries? The answer is, To flavor gin with. This is the gross abuse of juniper berries, with which an enlightened Government–if ever there shall be one–will have nothing to do. Let us make distinctions, call things by the right names. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1862

June 27, Sunday: Samuel Lovett Sewall was born to Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. and Louisa “Louise” Kilham Lovett Sewall (he would die on January 7, 1938).

Union forces began bombarding Vicksburg, Mississippi.

There was fighting at Gaines’ Mill / First Cold Harbor, Virginia. Confederate forces broke through the Union lines, forcing the northerners back to Harrison’s Landing. The fighting resulted in 15,587 total casualties. The rebels relieved pressure on Richmond but could not exploit their advantage.

There was fighting at Garnett’s Farm / Golding’s Farm. The struggle there would continue into the following day. US CIVIL WAR HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1867

January 7, Monday: A congressional investigation of President Andrew Johnson began.

Frederick Farley Sewall was born to Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. and Louisa “Louise” Kilham Lovett Sewall (he would become an architect, but would die on October 29, 1906 at the age of 39). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1868

April 27, Monday: George Quincy Sewall was born to Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. and Louisa “Louise” Kilham Lovett Sewall (this infant would die on December 18, 1869). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1869

December 18, Saturday: Dawn. Louis Moreau Gottschalk died at Tijuca, Brazil, of peritonitis following a burst appendix, at the age of 40.

George Quincy Sewall, born to Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. and Louisa “Louise” Kilham Lovett Sewall during the previous year, died. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1871

October 16, Monday: The German Parliament met in a renovated porcelain warehouse on the Leipzigerstrasse in Berlin (it would meet there for the following 23 years).

Louise Lovett Sewall was born in Delaware to Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. and Louisa “Louise” Kilham Lovett Sewall (she would die at the age of 76 on December 14, 1947 in Illinois). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1876

George T. Sewall, Ellen Devereux Sewall’s younger brother who had been one of Henry Thoreau’s pupils,167 went with 3 other young men in a boat toward Mount Ktaadn. Their account would be published in the year 2000 as TO KATAHDIN: THE 1876 ADVENTURES OF FOUR YOUNG MEN AND A BOAT (Gardiner ME: Tilbury House, introduction by Neil Rolde, afterword by Irvin C. “Buzz” Caverly, Jr., Director of Baxter State Park).

167. Notice that this “George T. Sewall” is not Ellen’s brother Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1880

The 10th federal census.

The family of Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. appears in the federal census at St. Paul, Minnesota.

Caleb G. Forshey of New Orleans was listed as a civil engineer crippled by paralysis.

John Brown, Jr. of South Bass Island in Lake Erie was listed as a grape grower, living with wife Wealthy Brown and children John Brown and Edith Brown (Edith would get married with Thomas B. Alexander, an actor and for many years the mayor of the island’s town, Put-in-Bay).

As of 1790 the center of the human population of the USA had been a little town just about a day’s travel inland HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY from Baltimore. By this period the center of population had relocated.

(Nowadays, of course, we’ve all been coming from one or another center in Missouri.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1908

September 26, Saturday: Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. died at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin at 80 years of age.

Scientific American ran an article on the construction of the Wright aeroplane. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1926

T.M. Raysor, an English professor specializing in Coleridge, had married a descendant of Miss Prudence Ward and of Miss Ellen Devereux Sewall, and had learned a thing or to from the idle chatter of his in-laws. What

had he learned? That they were of the opinion that their lodger ancestor living in the Thoreau boardinghouse had had a conversation with Henry Thoreau, in which he had confessed to her the following simplistic equivalences:

lost hound Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. lost bay horse John Thoreau, Jr. lost turtle-dove Ellen Devereux Sewall

Was there any sort of document to support the “memory” of these in-laws? No. There was nothing whatever to indicate that one of them had not simply made this up. Nevertheless, the good professor placed a “Love Story of Thoreau” in Studies in Philology 23, alleging the above. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

WALDEN: In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line. You will pardon some obscurities, for there are more secrets in my trade than in most men’s, and yet not voluntarily kept, but inseparable from its very nature. I would gladly tell all that I know about it, and never paint “No Admittance” on my gate. I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle-dove, and am still on their trail. Many are the travellers I have spoken concerning them, describing their tracks and what calls they answered to. I have met one or two who had heard the hound, and the tramp of the horse, and even seen the dove disappear behind a cloud, and they seemed as anxious to recover them as if they had lost them themselves. To anticipate, not the sunrise and the dawn merely, but, if possible, Nature herself! How many mornings, summer and winter, before yet any neighbor was stirring about his business, have I been about mine! No doubt many of my townsmen have met me returning from this enterprise, farmers starting for Boston in the twilight, or woodchoppers going to their work. It is true, I never assisted the sun materially in his rising, but, doubt not, it was of the last importance only to be present at it.

(Refer to Raymond Adams’s “Thoreau’s Growth at Walden,” Christian Register 224 [1945]: 268-70.)

The The WALDEN other parable analyses

According to Professor Thomas Middleton Raysor, his in-laws made him do it: Miss Sewall ... told her story to her daughters, who have now expressed their willingness for its publication. Two of Ellen Sewall’s daughters, Mrs. George Davenport of Los Angeles and Mrs. L. O. Koopman of Cambridge, Mass., wrote down the story which she had told them separately. This account ... is the basis of this article. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Since the account supplied to Professor Raysor by these 2 of his in-laws, Mrs. George Davenport of Los Angeles, California and Mrs. L.O. Koopman of Cambridge, Massachusetts –that Thoreau’s lost hound was their relative Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr., that his lost bay horse was his brother John Thoreau, Jr., and that his lost turtle-dove was their relative Ellen Devereux Sewall– is patently absurd as an interpretation of the passage, it is obvious that somebody has concocted out of whole cloth what they considered to be a plausible literary exegesis. Now it may be that Miss Prudence Crandall was the liar, or it may be that some intermediary descendant was the liar, or that Mrs. Davenport and Mrs. Koopman were liars, or that Professor Raysor was a liar. —This family tale can only have originated as a plausible invention because Thoreau simply was not, at the time of its origination, in search for any one of this trio of personages. However, I don’t care enough to investigate which of these persons it was who originated this obvious fabrication.

The identification of these fabulous animals with Edmund Sewall, John Thoreau, and Ellen Sewall ... is both naïve and absurd. For no one of these three was Thoreau, by any stretch of the imagination, still searching.

— Henry Seidel Canby, THOREAU (Boston MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1939)

By the way, you won’t need to remind me to never look at anything that Professor Raysor, a Coleridge expert, ever wrote about Samuel Taylor Coleridge. As far as I am concerned, merely by passing along a fabrication like this, whether or not he personally originated it, he has discredited himself as a scholar.

During this year Henry Seidel Canby became editor-in-chief for the newly formed Book-of-the-Month Club (he would fill that position until 1954). HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1976

Moller, Mary Elkins. “Thoreau, Womankind, and Sexuality.” ESQ 22 (1976): 123-48 HOMOSEXUALITY HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

“A Review From Professor Ross’s Seminar”

FIRST REVIEW: In this article Moller analyzes Henry Thoreau’s attitudes toward women FandIRST his REVIEW own: Insexuality. this article She identifies Moller analyzes two popular HENRY opinions THOREAU regarding ’s attitudes this subject: toward thatwomen Thoreauand his was own “a sexuality. woman-hater, She andidentifies that his two feeling popular about opinions sex was regarding consistently this negative.”subject: that Moller, Thoreau however, was “a woman-hater,recognizes aand “functional that his feelingdistinction” about sexbetween was Thoreau’sconsistently view negative.” of women inMoller, general however, and his viewrecognizes of sexuality a “functional and proceeds distinction” to prove thebetween “striking Thoreau’s contradictions” view of women — thein “frequentgeneral and ambivalence” his view of — sexualityexisting betweenand proceeds them. to prove the “striking contradictions” — the “frequent ambivalence” — existing Thoreau’sbetween them. relationships with the members of his own family, reveal that “there is little in what is known ... which would have disposed him to serious or chronic misogyny.”Thoreau’s relationshipsHe had a good with relationship the members withof his his own active family, mother reveal [ Cynthiathat “there Dunbar is Thoreaulittle ],in awhat close is knownrelationship ... which with would his haveolder disposed sister Helenhim to Louisa serious Thoreau or chronic, and aftermisogyny.” Helen’s Hedeath, had an aincreasingly good relationship strong relationship with withhis hisactive other sistermother CYNTHIA DUNBAR THOREAU Sophia[ Elizabeth Thoreau ],. Anda althoughclose therelationship death of his with brother his John older Thoreau, sister Jr. madeHELEN the L OUISAfamily THOREAU “quite lopsidedly, and after female,” Helen’s Thoreau’s death, “escapes” an increasinglyinto the countryside strong arerelationship balanced bywith his his desired other returnssister toS OPHIAthe E.Concord THOREAU home. . And although the death of his brother JOHN THOREAU, JR. made the family “quite lopsidedly female,” DuringThoreau’s the “escapes” years 1837-1842, into the countrysidehis “impressionable are balanced years,” by hisseveral desired women returns evoked to Thoreau’sthe CONCORD response. home. Among these is Margaret Fuller, the intelligent, strong-willed editor of THE DIAL, with whom he maintained a constant though never intimate friendship.During the yearsIn contrast 1837-1842, to hishis admiration“impressionable of Margaret, years,” Thoreauseveral revealedwomen evoked his impatienceThoreau’s response.with the lecturerAmong these Mrs. Elizabethis MARGARET Oakes FULLER Smith, , whosethe intelligent, “flirtatiousness strong- or THE DIAL frivolity”willed editor annoyed of him. Thoreau , with included whom heseveral maintained “exasperated a constant outbursts” though innever his JintimateOURNAL as friendship. he reacted In against contrast the to stereotypical his admiration “ideal of Margaret, woman”: Thoreauthe woman revealed whose hispriority impatience was “to with be asthe pretty lecturer and charmingMRS. ELIZABETH as possible, O. SMITH and , aswhose pliant, “flirtatiousness and helpless oras necessary,frivolity” inannoyed order him.to attract Thoreau the included admiration several of men.” “exasperated While he outbursts”condemned women’s in his J“slavery”OURNAL as tohe fashion reacted and against to the theidea stereotypical of marriage, he“ideal praised woman”: Waldo theEmerson woman’s whoseaunt, Marypriority Moody was Emerson “to be, as for pretty her andwisdom charming and clear as possible, thinking. and Thoreau as pliant, also and maintained helpless positiveas necessary, relationships in order to with attract other the women admiration in the ofConcord men.” Whilecommunity, he condemned women suchwomen’s as Emerson’s“slavery” daughtersto fashion [ Ellenand toEmerson the ideaand Edithof marriage, Emerson ],he Sophiapraised Peabody Emerson’s Hawthorne aunt,, Mrs.MARY Mary MOODY Peabody EMERSON Mann, ,for etc. her wisdom and clear thinking. Thoreau also maintained positive relationships with other women in the Concord community, women such as However,Emerson’s there weredaughters four women [to EwhomLLEN EThoreauMERSON was attractedand romanticallyEDITH EMERSON during ], 1837-1845.SOPHIA PEABODY The H AWTHORNEfirst was, Mrs.MRS . LucyHORACE Jackson MANN , Brownetc., Mrs. Lidian Emerson’s elder sister. Although she was twenty years older than he, Thoreau revealed a “half younger-brotherlyHowever, there were and four half women lover-like” to whom Thoreauaffection was for attracted her. It romanticallywas Ellen Devereux during Sewall1837-1845., however, The first to whom was ThoreauMRS . LeventuallyUCY JACKSON Bproposed.ROWN , Mrs.During aL IDIANvisit EMERSON with her ’s grandmotherelder sister. then Although living she with was the twenty Thoreaus, years Ellenolder sparkedthan he, the Thoreau interest revealed of both a “half John andyounger-brotherly Henry. Later, afterand Johnhalf had lover-like”proposed to Ellen,affection been initiallyfor her. accepted It thenwas rejected,ELLEN D EVEREUXHenry SaskedEWALL for, however,her hand toin whommarriage Thoreau but eventually was also proposed.refused. ThisDuring was a Thoreau’svisit with “closest her grandmother brush with then matrimony.” living withHis thirdthe Thoreaus,romantic encounterEllen sparked was withthe Maryinterest Ellen of Russellboth John, a andyoung Henry. friend Later, of the after Emersons John hadwho proposedsometimes to acted Ellen, as beenthe children’sinitially accepted governess. then While rejected, both sheHenry and asked Thoreau for herwere hand living in marriagein the Emerson but was home, also theyrefused. developed This wasa strong Thoreau’s mutual “closest attraction. brush with matrimony.” His third romantic encounter was with MARY RUSSELL , a young friend of the Emersons who sometimes Butacted it as was the Mrs. children’s Lidian Emersongoverness. for Whilewhom Thoreauboth she probably and Thoreau maintained were living the longestin the sustainedEmerson home, admiration they developed and attraction. a strong Gettingmutual attraction.to know Lydia during his residences in the Emerson home, Thoreau wrote letters to her that were often intimate in tone, althoughBut it was there M isRS . noLIDIAN evidence “ASIA” J“thatACKSON any EMERSON physical for intimacy whom Thoreau ever tookprobably place.” maintained Thoreau realizedthe longest Lydian sustained was “ultimately admiration inaccessible” and attraction. and eventuallyGetting to decidedknow Lydia he wouldduring never his residences in the Emerson home, Thoreau wrote letters to her that were often intimate in tone, although there is no evidence “that any physical intimacy ever took place.” Thoreau realized Lydian was “ultimately inaccessible” and eventually HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

“A Review From Professor Ross’s Seminar”

marry. This decision did not seem to be based solely on the fact that he could not marry the woman he loved or on some critics’ assumption that he was not capable of propagation. Indeed, Thoreau appeared to be “an extraordinarily sensuous man” who had “by no means lost all interest in sexual love.” His view of love and marriage, however, seemed to be ambivalent. While taking offense at Channing’s vulgar allusions to sex, Henry Thoreau often maintained a seemingly “puritanical” attitude: he expressed “diffidence and shame” regarding his thoughts in the piece “Chastity and Sensuality” and in a journal entry expressed “disgust” toward his own body with its sexual desires. Nevertheless, Thoreau at times wrote idealistically of the “passionate love between men and women,” revealing “his own yearning for a mate.” And in many different passages Thoreau used “erotically suggestive imagery” or “sex-related figures of speech.” Clearly Thoreau was not “hostile” to the idea of sexual love but “acknowledged his own sexuality, and that of every other man and woman, as a valued part of his and their emotional nature and thus at the core of a sympathetic relatedness to all other human beings.” [Janet B. Ergino (Sommers), May 1989] HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

“A Review From Professor Ross’s Seminar”

SECOND REVIEW: A long article the sole purpose of which seems to be to prove that Thoreau was heterosexual, had sexual attractions to several women (we know which ones), and perhaps was actually sexually active. Moller makes a distinction between Thoreau’s general attitude toward women and his feelings for specific women. She points out his idealization of women and contrasts it with the way he felt about young, non-intellectual women. “What Thoreau reacted against was a traditional stereotype of ideal womanhood: the assumption that the first business of any girl or woman is to be as pretty and charming as possible” to attract a mate and that intellect and independence are dangerous. She then cites several journal passages which are critical of women’s frivolity and explores Thoreau’s feelings toward older, intellectual women, such as Mary Moody Emerson and Mrs. Lidian Emerson. Moller discounts homosexual tendencies that Thoreau might have had with a cursory look at his poem “Sympathy” (the “gentle boy” poem). She calls his attraction to Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. “a fleeting emotional complication.” She does not however mention any journal passages from that time which are also homoerotic and celebrate masculinity. She cites four passages that illustrate Thoreau’s feelings for Ellen Devereux Sewall at that time, though she admits that by the time he proposed to her he probably wasn’t seriously interested. She, of course, spends a lot of time on the relationship with Lidian Emerson and points out the passionate letters. She contrasts the letters from Staten Island to later letters which treat Lidian as a sister. Finally Moller discusses “Love” and “Chastity and Sensuality.” Her conclusion is that Thoreau meant “control” when he said “chastity” and not “celibacy.” She asserts that sexual love was not necessarily taboo for Thoreau unless it was outside of a truly affectionate and highly intellectual relationship. She suggests that Thoreau may have been sexually active himself, though he probably was limited to wet dreams and masturbation. The point of all this sex talk, of course, is to find out what Thoreau’s sexuality had to do with his writing and his views of women, ideas of purity, etc. Moller doesn’t discuss Thoreau’s asceticism at all and largely ignores his feelings toward men and the sexuality that may have been behind it. The article seems to be a justification of Thoreau as a lover of women and not a misogynist. [James J. Berg, May 8, 1989] HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY

1983

Walter Roy Harding. “Thoreau and Eros,” pages 145-159 in THOREAU’S PSYCHOLOGY. Gozzi, Raymond D., ed. HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Lanham MD: UP of America, 1983 “A Review From Professor Ross’s Seminar”

Henry Thoreau’s respected biographer, Walter Roy Harding, notes the reluctance of Thoreau scholars to deal with an important aspect of Thoreau’s character, his sexuality, that seems vital to the understanding of Thoreau. Harding argues convincingly that Thoreau was a non-active homosexual. Harding’s argument rests on twelve points: the “gentle-boy” poem written to Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr., the many references in his journals to boys whom he found attractive and the single reference to an attractive woman, the amorous comments he makes about a specific but unnamed man in his Journal of October, 1840, the “more than platonic warmth” of the “Friendship” essay inA WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS, his preoccupation with nude male bodies as evidenced in his journals, subconscious evidence such as his spelling of “buoyant” as “boyant,” Thoreau’s frequent comments on the physiques of laborers in both his JOURNAL, in WALDEN, and in WEEK, his relatively few comments on women, his attraction only to “safe” women much older than him, his cynicism toward marriage, his troubled courtship of Ellen Devereux Sewall, Edmund’s sister, which eventually breaks down, and the repeated comments by Thoreau’s friends that he was not tempted by the opposite sex, that Thoreau was pure. Harding argues that Thoreau was “too conditioned by the society he lived in to accept them [his homosexual inclinations], and too conscientious to indulge them.” He argues that Thoreau’s sexuality has four implications for the understanding of his works: It may help to explain the striking amount of guilt Thoreau expresses in the journals, and it could be what caused Thoreau to rebel against his society. Thoreau’s repressed sexuality could be explain by the many times he uses the word love to describe his affection for things in nature, and it could explain Thoreau’s tremendous creative energy, energy that might be partially due to his efforts to sublimate his sexual desires. (Scott G. Kassner, February 14, 1986) As stated in the previous review, Harding’s argument is that there is ample evidence to suggest that Thoreau was a “non-practicing” homosexual. My reason for reviewing the article again was to see how detailed his information was and find out what it meant for Thoreau’s writing. First Harding cites earlier suggestions that Thoreau’s writings have strong homoerotic tones. He then discusses twelve areas of interest that support his thesis, the most interesting of which are the “gentle boy” poem, written to Edmund; his essay on friendship in WEEK, which Harding says is written with “a warmth that is somewhat more than platonic”; and Thoreau’s many descriptions of and appreciation for nude men and workers physiques. Harding can only speculate on Thoreau’s sexual activity and suggests that Thoreau may have remained a virgin all of his life. The evidence cited for this contention is Thoreau’s emphasis on purity, comments on his purity by his acquaintances, and, perhaps the most unreliable argument, that there is generally no known gossip about homosexual activity by Thoreau or his friends in Concord during Thoreau’s lifetime. Thoreau’s homoerotic tendencies are important in understanding his work, Harding asserts, because they help explain possible sources for the strong guilt feelings found in much of his unpublished writings, his early rebellion against society, and his creative force. Harding also suggests that Thoreau may have sublimated his homosexuality into his love for nature. In a footnote, Harding says he has done more research on the topic since this paper was given in 1978 which largely substantiates his claims. (James J. Berg, April 20, 1989) HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY Everett and Laraine Fergenson’s “A Personality Profile of Henry David Thoreau: A New Method in Psycho- History” appeared in Raymond D. Gozzi’s THOREAU’S PSYCHOLOGY (Lanham, Maryland: UP of America). “A Review From Professor Ross’s Seminar”

Everett Fergenson, Director of the Institute for Behaviorial Analysis at the Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken NJ, and his wife Laraine, sent some twenty Thoreau scholars a series of questions from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and asked them to answer the questions as they believed that Henry David Thoreau would have in 1854. The Fergensons compiled the responses and determined how Thoreau’s personality measured on the MMPI scales. Their outstanding finding is that Thoreau registered high on the “male sexual inversion scale,” that he was homoerotic and was plagued by conflicts inhibiting his sexual expression. As the Fergensons and some of the responding scholars point out, this type of psycho-historical research poses difficulties. 1stly, the test compared Thoreau to thirty-seven year old men living today and not his contemporaries. Thus, Thoreau’s frank but platonic love for an Edmund Quincy Sewall, Jr. has implications in this homophobic age of which Thoreau, Edmund, or Edmund’s parents never would have dreamed. 2dly, the scholars note that Thoreau was an artist who played with words, and they wonder how literally he would have taken the test questions. 3dly, they recognize Thoreau as having several different personalities: the literary Thoreau, the biographical Thoreau, and the strident Thoreau would answer the questions on the test differently. The Fergenson’s results generally agree with the Thoreau we know from his work and biographies. While it is interesting to “give” a modern psychological test to a historical figure, I am not sure it reveals very much. The MMPI and other personality tests are designed chiefly to measure the personalities of people whose biographies are unknown. In Thoreau’s case, we have both biography and a body of work to explore. (Scott G. Kassner, January 29, 1986) HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2018. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at .

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

Prepared: May 1, 2018 HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button.

Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with . Arrgh.

ONE OF THE PRIMARY FUNCTIONS OF THE HISTORIAN IS TO HELP US CONSTRAIN STORYTELLING. IF, FOR INSTANCE, A POLITICIAN PRESENTS HIMSELF AS THE MESSIAH, WE HISTORIANS CAN PULL UP ONE OR ANOTHER OF THE MANY THOUSANDS OF HISTORIES OF JESUS CHRIST AND GO “NO, HERE’S A MESSIAH, AND YOU WILL NOTE THAT ON THIS LIST OF THE VARIOUS MESSIAHS THAT WE HAVE PLACED ON RECORD, THE NAME OF JESUS IS PRECEDED BY THE NAMES OF 5 OTHER IDENTIFIED MESSIAH CLAIMANTS AND HAS BEEN SUCCEEDED TO DATE BY THE NAMES OF MULTIPLE OTHER IDENTIFIED AND RECORDED MESSIAH CLAIMANTS.” HISTORY IS NOT PRIMARILY ABOUT RECORDING WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED, BECAUSE PRIMARILY IS ABOUT SETTING NEEDED LIMITS ON OUR CREDULOUS STORYTELLING.

YOU WILL UNDERSTAND MY GREEN-LETTER COMMENTARIES SUCH AS THIS ONE, AS SOON AS YOU GRASP THAT YOU ARE DEALING HERE WITH A COMMITTED BERGSONIAN. IN 1922 IN PARIS, WHEN ALBERT EINSTEIN AND HENRI-LOUIS BERGSON FACED OFF OVER THE NATURE OF TIME, EINSTEIN CONSIDERED BERGSON’S CONCEPTION OF TIME TO BE UNSCIENTIFIC, AMOUNTING TO A MERE PIECE OF SUBJECTIVITY, WHEREAS BERGSON CONSIDERED EINSTEIN’S CONCEPTION OF TIME HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY TO BE UNSCIENTIFIC, AMOUNTING TO A MERE PIECE OF PRESUMPTUOUS ILL-CONSIDERED METAPHYSICS. ILYA PRIGOGINE WOULD POINT OUT THAT “IT IS TRUE THAT BERGSON HAD NOT UNDERSTOOD EINSTEIN. BUT IT IS ALSO TRUE THAT EINSTEIN HAD NOT UNDERSTOOD BERGSON. BERGSON WAS FASCINATED BY THE ROLE OF CREATIVITY, OF NOVELTY IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE. BUT EINSTEIN DID NOT WANT ANY DIRECTED TIME. HE REPEATED OFTEN THAT TIME, MORE PRECISELY THE ARROW OF TIME, IS AN ‘ILLUSION.’ SO, THESE IDEOLOGIES SEEM TO BE IRRECONCILABLE.” AS LONG AS YOU ARE TRAPPED IN THE ILL-CONSIDERED EINSTEINIAN MINDSET, TRAPPED BY THE PRESUMPTUOUS ILL-CONSIDERED METAPHYSICS OF SPURIOUS METAPHORS THAT HAD TRAPPED HIS GREAT MIND — YOU WILL HAVE NO CLUE WHATEVER WHAT I AM RANTING AT YOU ABOUT. RATHER THAN BEING OF THE OPINION OF BOETHIUS, WHO WROTE IN 523AD THAT GOD, BEING ETERNAL, MUST BE “OUTSIDE” TIME AND ABLE TO VIEW THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE AS INDIFFERENTLY AND UNCHANGINGLY PRESENT IN HIS ONE WHOLE CREATION, I AM OF THE OPINION OF MAIMONIDES, WHO WROTE IN THE 12TH CENTURY THAT ACCORDING TO THE TALMUD FREE WILL IS GRANTED TO EVERY PERSON BY GOD SO THAT WE MAY BE JUDGED ACCORDING TO OUR ACTIONS. AS GERSONIDES POINTED OUT IN THE 14TH CENTURY, THERE ARE DECIDED LIMITS TO FOREKNOWLEDGE, AS GOD CANNOT KNOW IN ADVANCE WHICH CHOICE A FREE INDIVIDUAL, IN HIS OR HER FREEDOM, WILL MAKE: “I HAVE SET BEFORE YOU LIFE AND DEATH, BLESSING AND CURSE: THEREFORE CHOOSE LIFE.”

I AM A NEGATIVE PHILOSOPHER, NOT A POSITIVE ONE: PHILOSOPHY NOT BEING ANY SORT OF SCIENCE, I WOULD HOLD THAT ANY PHILOSOPHICAL ASSERTION THAT TRAVELS UNDER THE PRETENSE THAT IT IS FACTUAL AND ACTUAL MUST BE, TO THE CONTRARY, NECESSARILY SPURIOUS AND UNSUBSTANTIATED. A GOOD EXAMPLE IS HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY THE OFT-HEARD SUPPOSITION “GOD KNOWS THE FUTURE.” AS A NEGATIVIST I NEGATE ANY AND ALL SUCH ASSERTIONS. THAT DOES NOT REQUIRE ME TO REPLACE THESE PSEUDOFACTUAL PHILOSOPHICAL ASSERTIONS WITH MY OWN COUNTERCLAIMS, SUCH AS A POSITIVE ASSERTION THAT IN ORDER TO ALLOW FOR FREE WILL AND FREEDOM OF DECISION “GOD CANNOT KNOW THE FUTURE.” I DO NOT INTEND TO TAKE YOUR GRITTY, GRIMY TEDDY BEAR AWAY FROM YOU AND PRESENT YOU WITH A CUTE CUDDLY PANDA. I WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR TEDDY LEAVING YOU EMPTY-ARMED. I HAVE SAID THAT RATHER THAN BEING OF THE OPINION OF BOETHIUS, WHO WROTE IN 523AD THAT GOD, BEING ETERNAL, MUST BE “OUTSIDE” TIME AND ABLE TO VIEW THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE AS INDIFFERENTLY AND UNCHANGINGLY PRESENT IN HIS ONE WHOLE CREATION, I AM INCLINED TO THE OPINION OF MAIMONIDES, WHO WROTE IN THE 12TH CENTURY THAT ACCORDING TO THE TALMUD FREE WILL IS GRANTED TO EVERY PERSON BY GOD SO THAT WE MAY BE JUDGED ACCORDING TO OUR ACTIONS. AS GERSONIDES POINTED OUT IN THE 14TH CENTURY, THERE ARE DECIDED LIMITS TO FOREKNOWLEDGE, AS GOD CANNOT KNOW IN ADVANCE WHICH CHOICE A FREE INDIVIDUAL, IN HIS OR HER FREEDOM, WILL MAKE: “I HAVE SET BEFORE YOU LIFE AND DEATH, BLESSING AND CURSE: THEREFORE CHOOSE LIFE.” HOWEVER, I WAS LYING WHEN I SAID THAT. ACTUALLY I HAVE NO PREFERENCE FOR THE PSEUDOPHILOSOPHICAL RANTINGS OF MAIMONIDES AND GERSONIDES OVER THE PSEUDOPHILOSOPHICAL RANTINGS OF BOETHIUS. I AM ENTIRELY NEGATIVE. THERE IS NOT A POSITIVE BONE IN MY BODY.

IT IS A PROBLEM, FOR A “PHILOSOPHER OF HISTORY” SUCH AS MYSELF (AUSTIN MEREDITH), THAT PEOPLE WHO HAVE HEARD THAT THERE IS SUCH A THING AS “HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY” –PEOPLE WHO MAY HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY EVEN HAVE GONE TO THE LENGTHS OF CONSULTING ONE OR ANOTHER “HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY” SUCH AS THAT CREATED BY UEBERWEG IN THE 19TH CENTURY– HAVE NEVER SO MUCH AS CONTEMPLATED THAT THERE MIGHT BE SUCH A THING AS ALTERNATIVE PHILOSOPHIES OF HISTORY BASED ON DIFFERENT UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE NATURE OF TIME. THE GIST OF MY PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY, BASED ON MY OWN UNDERSTANDING OF THE NATURE OF TIME, IS AS FOLLOWS: OUR SO- CALLED HISTORIANS ARE DOING IT EXACTLY WRONG. IN THEIR FABRICATIONS ABOUT HISTORY, THEY ARE CHRONIC ANTICIPATORS. THEY PERPETUALLY OFFER TO THEIR UNSUSPECTING AUDIENCES THAT ACCOUNTS THEY HAVE PATCHED TOGETHER IN THE LIGHT OF SUBSEQUENT EVENTS ILLUMINATE OUR PRESENT CONDITION. THEIR CONSTRUCTED PASTS BECOME OUR PREAMBLE FOR OUR PRESENT AGENDAS. THESE ACADEMIC PSEUDO-HISTORIANS WHO ENGAGE IN THIS ANTICIPATION AGENDA ARE WELL PAID BUT THEY OFFEND AGAINST REALITY. ANY HISTORY CONSTRUCTED IN THE LIGHT OF SUBSEQUENT EVENTS CAN AMOUNT TO NOTHING MORE THAN SPURIOUS MAKE-MAKE-BELIEVE, SPECIAL PLEADING. THE WARNING OF THE HIPPIE WAS “NEVER TRUST ANYONE OVER 30!” THE WARNING I PROFFER IS: “DON’T CREDIT ANY HISTORY THAT IS CREDIBLE. WHEN ANY OF THIS BEGINS TO MAKE ANY SENSE, DOUBLE-BEWARE!” TO BE SPECIFIC, THIS KOUROO DATABASE IS JUST CHOCK-FULL OF HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGIES. IF ANY OF THESE PROFFERED HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGIES ARE MORE THAN MERELY ACCURATE, IF ANY OF THEM OVER AND ABOVE THEIR ACCURACY BEGIN TO APPEAR TO YOU TO PROVIDE ANY PLAUSIBLE EXPLANATIONS OF OUR PRESENT CONDITION, THAT SHOULD BE ENOUGH TO MAKE YOUR SUSPICION- ANTENNAE BEGIN TO VIBRATE AND HUM. BIGTIME! I AM NOT CREATING THESE ACCURATE CHRONOLOGIES TO HELP YOU GROK YOUR PRESENT CONDITION. I AM CREATING THESE ACCURATE

The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY CHRONOLOGIES TO HELP YOU NON-GROK YOUR PRESENT CONDITION.

THE FALLACY OF MOMENTISM: THIS STARRY UNIVERSE DOES NOT CONSIST OF A SEQUENCE OF MOMENTS. THAT IS A FIGMENT, ONE WE HAVE RECOURSE TO IN ORDER TO PRIVILEGE TIME OVER CHANGE, APRIVILEGING THAT MAKES CHANGE SEEM UNREAL, DERIVATIVE, A MERE APPEARANCE. IN FACT IT IS CHANGE AND ONLY CHANGE WHICH WE EXPERIENCE AS REALITY, TIME BEING BY WAY OF RADICAL CONTRAST UNEXPERIENCED — A MERE INTELLECTUAL CONSTRUCT. THERE EXISTS NO SUCH THING AS A MOMENT. NO “INSTANT” HAS EVER FOR AN INSTANT EXISTED.

BETWEEN ANY TWO MOMENTS ARE AN INFINITE NUMBER OF MOMENTS, AND BETWEEN THESE OTHER MOMENTS LIKEWISE AN INFINITE NUMBER, THERE BEING NO ATOMIC MOMENT JUST AS THERE IS NO ATOMIC POINT ALONG A LINE. MOMENTS ARE THEREFORE FIGMENTS. THE PRESENT MOMENT IS A MOMENT AND AS SUCH IS A FIGMENT, A FLIGHT OF THE IMAGINATION TO WHICH NOTHING REAL CORRESPONDS. SINCE PAST MOMENTS HAVE PASSED OUT OF EXISTENCE AND FUTURE MOMENTS HAVE YET TO ARRIVE, WE NOTE THAT THE PRESENT MOMENT IS ALL THAT EVER EXISTS — AND YET THE PRESENT MOMENT BEING A

The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY MOMENT IS A FIGMENT TO WHICH NOTHING IN REALITY CORRESPONDS.

FIGURING OUT WHAT AMOUNTS TO A “HISTORICAL CONTEXT” IS WHAT THE CRAFT OF HISTORICIZING AMOUNTS TO, AND THIS NECESSITATES DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE SET OF EVENTS THAT MUST HAVE TAKEN PLACE BEFORE EVENT E COULD BECOME POSSIBLE, AND MOST CAREFULLY DISTINGUISHING THEM FROM ANOTHER SET OF EVENTS THAT COULD NOT POSSIBLY OCCUR UNTIL SUBSEQUENT TO EVENT E.

HISTORY’S NOT MADE OF WOULD. WHEN SOMEONE REVEALS, FOR INSTANCE, THAT A PARTICULAR INFANT WOULD INVENT THE SEWING MACHINE, S/HE DISCLOSES THAT WHAT IS BEING CRAFTED IS NOT REALITY BUT PREDESTINARIANISM. THE HISTORIAN IS SETTING CHRONOLOGY TO “SHUFFLE,” WHICH IS NOT A PERMISSIBLE OPTION BECAUSE IN THE REAL WORLD SUCH SHUFFLE IS IMPOSSIBLE. THE RULE OF REALITY IS THAT THE FUTURE HASN’T EVER HAPPENED, YET. THERE IS NO SUCH “BIRD’S EYE VIEW” AS THIS IN THE REAL WORLD, FOR IN THE REAL WORLD NO REAL BIRD HAS EVER GLIMPSED AN

The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY ACTUAL HISTORICAL SEQUENCE.

YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT EITHER THE REALITY OF TIME OVER THAT OF CHANGE, OR CHANGE OVER TIME — IT’S PARMENIDES, OR HERACLITUS. I HAVE GONE WITH HERACLITUS.

ONE COULD BE ELSEWHERE, AS ELSEWHERE DOES EXIST. ONE CANNOT BE ELSEWHEN SINCE ELSEWHEN DOES NOT. (TO THE WILLING MANY THINGS CAN BE EXPLAINED, THAT FOR THE UNWILLING WILL REMAIN FOREVER MYSTERIOUS.)

IT IS NO COINCIDENCE THAT IT IS MORTALS WHO CONSUME OUR HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS, FOR WHAT WE ARE ATTEMPTING TO DO IS EVADE THE RESTRICTIONS OF THE HUMAN LIFESPAN. (IMMORTALS,

The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY WITH NOTHING TO LIVE FOR, TAKE NO HEED OF OUR STORIES.)

CONTINGENCY ALTHOUGH VERY MANY OUTCOMES ARE OVERDETERMINED, WE TRUST THAT SOMETIMES WE ACTUALLY MAKE REAL CHOICES. “THIS IS THE ONLY WAY, WE SAY, BUT THERE ARE AS MANY WAYS AS THERE CAN BE DRAWN RADII FROM ONE CENTRE.”

THE AGE OF REASON WAS A PIPE DREAM, OR AT BEST A PROJECT. ACTUALLY, HUMANS HAVE ALMOST NO CLUE WHAT THEY ARE DOING, WHILE CREDITING THEIR OWN LIES ABOUT WHY THEY ARE DOING IT.

TRALFAMADORIANS EXPERIENCE REALITY IN 4 DIMENSIONS RATHER THAN 3 AND HAVE SIMULTANEOUS ACCESS TO PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. THEY ARE ABLE TO SEE ALONG THE TIMELINE OF THE UNIVERSE TO THE EXACT TIME AND PLACE AT WHICH AS THE RESULT OF A TRALFAMADORIAN EXPERIMENT, THE UNIVERSE IS ANNIHILATED. BILLY PILGRIM, WHILE CAGED IN A TRALFAMADORIAN ZOO, ACQUIRES THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARD TIME, AND SO WHEN HE RETURNS TO EARTH, HE BECOMES A HISTORIAN VERY LIKE ALL OUR OTHER HISTORIANS: The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY ALTHOUGH HE CANNOT HIMSELF SEE INTO THE FUTURE THE WAY THE TRALFAMADORIANS DO, LIKE ALL OUR OTHER HUMAN HISTORIANS DO HE PRETENDS TO BE ABLE TO SEE ALL PERIODS OF OUR PAST TRAJECTORY NOT WITH THE EYES OF THE PEOPLE WHO WERE LIVING DURING THOSE PERIODS, BUT WITH THE OVERARCHING EYE OF GOD. THIS ENABLES HIM TO PRETEND TO BE VERY VERY WISE AND TO SOUND VERY VERY IMPRESSIVE!

THE PROBLEM IS THAT THE HISTORIAN TYPICALLY SUPPOSES NOW TO BE THE WHY OF THEN. THE REALITY IS VERY MUCH TO THE CONTRARY, FOR NOW IS NOT THE WHY OF THEN: INSTEAD, THEN WAS THE HOW OF NOW. ANOTHER WAY TO SAY THIS IS THAT HISTORIANS WHO ANTICIPATE OFFEND AGAINST REALITY. A HISTORY WRITTEN IN THE LIGHT OF SUBSEQUENT EVENTS AMOUNTS TO SPURIOUS MAKE- BELIEVE. TO DO A GOOD JOB OF RECORDING HISTORY, ONE MUST BECOME IGNORANT (OR FEIGN IGNORANCE) OF EVERYTHING THAT WE NOW KNOW TO HAVE FOLLOWED.

IS HISTORY A SCIENCE? ASTRONOMY IS A SCIENCE, FOR IT IS A STUDY OF REAL OBJECTS CALLED “STARS” (AND SUCHLIKE) SITUATED AT VARIOUS REAL LOCATIONS IN THE DIMENSIONS OF SPACE. WERE HISTORY A SCIENCE LIKE ASTRONOMY, IT WOULD NEED TO BE A SCIENCE OF EVENTS (AND SUCHLIKE) AT VARIOUS REAL SITUATIONS IN THE DIMENSION OF TIME. HOWEVER, IT WOULD NEED TO PROVIDE AN OVERVIEW OF ALL SUCH EVENTS, NOT ONLY THOSE AT VARIOUS REAL The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY SITUATIONS IN THE PAST PORTION OF TIME, BUT ALSO THOSE AT VARIOUS REAL SITUATIONS IN THE FUTURE PORTION OF TIME. AND NOTHING IN THE FUTURE NOW EXISTS, WHICH IS WHY WE REFER TO IT AS “FUTURE.” IT IS FUTURE NOT MERELY BECAUSE WE DON’T KNOW ABOUT IT YET, BUT BECAUSE IT IS INDEFINITE AND UNDEFINED. GOD HAS NOT YET CREATED IT, PROVIDING IT WITH ITS “DEFINITUDE.” THEREFORE THIS WOULD BE A SPURIOUS METAPHOR: IN THE SENSE IN WHICH ASTRONOMY IS SCIENCE, HISTORY IS NOT. WHEN HISTORIANS PRETEND TO BE DOING SCIENCE, THEY ARE ATTEMPTING TO REMOVE REALITY FROM THE LAP OF GOD.

ESSENCE IS BLUR. SPECIFICITY, THE OPPOSITE OF ESSENCE, IS OF THE NATURE OF TRUTH.

ESSENCES ARE FUZZY, GENERIC, CONCEPTUAL; ARISTOTLE WAS RIGHT WHEN HE INSISTED THAT ALL TRUTH IS SPECIFIC AND PARTICULAR (AND WRONG WHEN HE CHARACTERIZED TRUTH AS A GENERALIZATION).

“HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE” BEING A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY POINT IN TIME (JUST AS THE PERSPECTIVE IN A PAINTING IS A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN SPACE), TO “LOOK AT THE COURSE OF HISTORY MORE GENERALLY” WOULD BE TO SACRIFICE PERSPECTIVE ALTOGETHER. THIS IS FANTASY-LAND, YOU’RE FOOLING YOURSELF. THERE CANNOT BE ANY SUCH THINGIE, AS SUCH A PERSPECTIVE.

YOUR GARDEN-VARIETY ACADEMIC HISTORIAN INVITES YOU TO CLIMB ABOARD A HOVERING TIME MACHINE TO SKIM IN METATIME BACK ACROSS THE GEOLOGY OF OUR PAST TIMESLICES, WHILE OFFERING UP A GARDEN VARIETY OF COGENT ASSESSMENTS OF OUR PROGRESSION. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP! YOU SHOULD REFUSE THIS HELICOPTERISH OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORICAL PAST, FOR IN THE REAL WORLD THINGS HAPPEN ONLY AS THEY HAPPEN. WHAT THIS SORT WRITES AMOUNTS, LIKE MERE “SCIENCE FICTION,” MERELY TO “HISTORY FICTION”: IT’SNOT WORTH YOUR ATTENTION.

THE TASK OF THE HISTORIAN IS TO CREATE HINDSIGHT WHILE INTERCEPTING ANY ILLUSION OF FORESIGHT. NOTHING A HUMAN CAN SEE CAN EVER BE SEEN AS IF THROUGH THE EYE OF GOD. THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO’S CENTER OF THE AMERICAN WEST HAS AS ITS OFFICIAL MOTTO “TURNING HINDSIGHT INTO FORESIGHT” — WHICH INDICATES THAT ONLY PANDERERS ARE WELCOME THERE. IN A BOOK THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT HISTORY, ISSUED BY RANDOM HOUSE IN 2016, I FIND THE PHRASE “LOOKED UPON FROM THE BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF HISTORY, ....” ONLY A MERE STORYTELLER, The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY NEVER A HISTORIAN, COULD HAVE PENNED SUCH A PHRASE — BECAUSE NO BIRD HAS EVER FLOWN OVER HISTORY.

NEVER READ AHEAD! TO APPRECIATE DATE AT ALL ONE MUST APPRECIATE IT AS A TODAY (THE FOLLOWING DAY, TOMORROW, IS BUT A PORTION OF THE UNREALIZED FUTURE AND IFFY AT BEST).

“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION,

The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY

“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY

NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT

NO-ONE’S LIFE IS EVER NOT DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HAPPENSTANCE

The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.

THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND

The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF

CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT

DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.

The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Gentle Boy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2018. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at .

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

Prepared: May 1, 2018 HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button.

Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in HDT WHAT? INDEX

EDMUND QUINCY SEWALL, JR. THE GENTLE BOY the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with . Arrgh.