We shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown."
Could it be possible that this Captain Brown should have his
Pinturicchio? Well, might it not be so since Victor Hugo, living in
exile, had also given Brown an apotheosis? Abigail also had Walt
Whitman's _Leaves of Grass_, who was preaching the doctrine of
brotherhood, democracy, resistance to the law.
"What sort of country is this?" I asked Abigail. "Can every one set
himself up as a judge of the laws and disobey them if he chooses? If you
had heard Douglas' speech you would be convinced that this sort of mania
will cease or there will be war. Even Emerson is among these idealistic
rebels, for he says that it is a lack of health to cry 'madman' at a
hero as he passes. I think the Bible is responsible for much of this
turmoil and foolish rebellion, if not all of it. Lincoln founded his
campaign upon the Bible: a house divided against itself cannot stand.
And just because Christ is taken as divine, every word and act of his is
lived up to by some madman as justification for acts like those of
Brown."
In the meantime Abigail had found among her papers the words of Victor
Hugo: "He is not a New Englander," she said, "nor an American idealist.
And he says--I'll translate it for you: 'In killing Brown the Southern
States have committed a crime which will take its place among the
calamities of history.
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