A. Bronson Alcott writes in his journal:
Thoreau calls with Barker, who is passing the winter here, having left Leominster where he has been preaching for a year or two. Thoreau is impatient with the politicians, the state of the country, the State itself, and with statesmen generally; accuses the Republican party roundly of duplicity, and ends by calling me to an account for my favorable opinions of Seward and the Administration which takes charge of the national affairs today.
(The Journals of Bronson Alcott, 337)
