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  I have told him that you will give him board, lodging (washing?) a room by himself to study in, when not engaged with Willie, with fire when the season requires, and a hundred dollars a year. He says, it is an object with him to earn some money beyond his expenses, which he supposes the above named terms will about cover, and that his health now will not allow him to stipulate for any manual labor: he therefore wishes to know if there is any clerical labor from your office or from any other office, known to you—which he can add to his means of support. He is sure that his handwriting is not so careless, but that he can make it legible for such work. He would like to know if there be such employment attainable, pending the time when he shall procure for himself literary labor from some quarter in New York. He further says he shall be ready to come as soon as 1 April, if you wish, & he asks whether it will be convenient to you to advance to him $20. before he comes, in case it is agreed between you that he shall come.—I recite this last proposition as he made it, but I can easily do it myself, if you prefer. You shall write in reply either to H. D. Thoreau or to me. Lidian & Elizabeth are charmed with the project, & think it auspicious on both sides only Lidian cannot spare Henry.

  It was the speaker’s aim to show what the State and above all the Church had to do, and now, alas! Have done, with Texas and Slavery and how much, on the other hand, the individuals should have to do with Church and State. These were fair themes, and not mistimed; and his words were addressed to ‘fit audience, and not few.’

  We must give Mr. Phillips the credit of being a clean, erect, and what was once called a consistent man. He at least is not responsible for slaver, nor for American Independence; for the hypocrisy and superstition of the Church, nor the timity and selfishness of the State; nor for the difference and willing ignorance of any. He stands so distinctly, so firmly, and so effectively, alone, and one honest man is so much more than a host, that we cannot but feel that we cannot but feel that he does himself injustice when he reminds us of ‘the American Society, which he represents.’ It is rare that we have the pleasure of listening to so clear and orthadox a speaker, who obviously has so few crack or flaws in his moral nature—who, having words at his command in a remarkable degree, has much more than words, if there should fail, in his unquestionable earnestness and integrity— and, aside from their admiration at his rhetoric, secures the genuine respect of his audience. He unconsciously tells his biography as he proceeds, and we see him early and earnestly deliberating on these subjects, and wisely and bravely, without counsel or consent of any, occupying a ground at first, from which the varying tides of public opinion cannot drive him.

  No one could mistake the genuine modesty and truth with which he affirmed, when speaking of the framers of the Constitution,—‘I am wiser than they,’ who with him has improved these sixty years’ experience of its working; or the uncompromising consistency and frankness of the prayer which concluded, not like the Thanksgiving proclamations, with —‘God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,’ but God dash it into a thousand pieces, there there shall not remain a fragment on which a man can stand, and dare not to tell his name—referring to the case of Frederick—————; to our disgrace we know what to call him, unless Scotland will lend us the spoils of one of her Douglasses, out of history or fiction, for a season, till we be hospitable and brave enough to hear his proper name, a fugitive slave in one more sense than we; who has proved himself the possessor of a fair intellect, and has won a colorless reputation in these parts; and who, we trust, will be as superior to degradation from the sympathies of freedom, as from the anticipathies of Slavery. When, said Mr. Phillips, he communicated to a New-Bedford audience, the other day, his purpose of writing his life, and telling his name, and the name of his master, and the place he ran from, the murmur ran around the room, and was anxiously whispered by the sons of the Pilgrims, ‘He had better not!’ and it was echoed under the shadow of Concord monument, ‘He had better not!’

  We would fain express our appreciation of the freedom and steady wisdom, so rare in the reformer, with which he declared that he was not born to abolish slavery, but to do right, We have heard a few, a very few, good political speakers, who afforded us the pleasures of great intellectual power and acuteness, of soldier-like steadiness, and of a graceful and natural oratory; but in this man the audience might detect a sort of moral principle and integrity, which was more stable than their firmness, more discriminating that his own intellect, and more graceful than his rhetoric, which was not working for temporary or trivial ends. It is so rare and encouraging to listen to an orator, who is content with another alliance than with the popular party, or even with the sympathising school of the martyrs, who can afford sometimes to be his own auditor if the mob stay away, and hears himself without reproof, that we feel ourselves in danger of slandering all mankind by affirming, that here is one, who is at the same time an eloquent speaker and a righteous man.

  Perhaps, on the whole the most interesting fact elicited by these addresses, is the readiness of the people at large, of whatever sect or party, to entertain with good will and hospitality, the most revolutionary and heretical opinions, when frankly and adequately, and in some sort of cheerfully, expressed, Such clear and candid declarations of opinion served like an electuary to whet and clarify the intellect all parties and furnished each one with an additional argument for that right he asserted.

  We considered Mr. Phillips one of the most conspicuous and efficient champions of a true Church and State now in the field, and would say to him, such as are like him—‘God speed you.’ If you know of any champions in the ranks of his opponents, who has the valor and courtesy even of Paynim chivalry, if not the Christian graces and refinement of this knight, you will do us a service by directing hm to these fields forthwith, where the lists are now open, and he shall be hospitably entertained. For as yet the Red-cross knight has shown us only the gallant device upon his shield, and his admirable command of his steed, prancing and curvetting in the empty lists; but we wait to see who, in the actual breaking of lances, will come tumbling upon the plain.

  This book has many merits. It will be attractive to lovers of nature, in every sense, that is, to naturalists, and to poets, as Isaak Walton. It will be attractive to scholars for its excellent literature, & to all thoughtful persons for its originality & profoundness. The narrative of the little voyage, though faithful, is a very slender thread for such big beads & ingots as are strung on it. It is really a book of results of the studies of years.

  Would you like to print this book into your American Library? It is quite ready, & the whole can be sent to you at once. It has never yet been offered to any publisher. If you wish to see the MS. I suppose Mr Thoreau would readily send it to you. I am only desirous that you should propose to him good terms, & give his book the great advantages of being known which your circulation ensures.

  Mr Thoreau is the author of an Article on Carlyle, now printed & printing in Graham’s last & coming Magazine, & some papers in the Dial; but he has done nothing half so good as his new book. He is well known to Mr. Hawthorn also.

  I see the Populus (apparently tremuloides, not grandidentata) at the end of the railroad causeway, showing the down of its ament. Bigelow makes it flower in April, the grandidentata in May.

  I see the sand flowing in the Cut and hear the harp at the same time. Who shall say that the primitive forces are not still at work? Nature has not lost her pristine vigor, neither has he who sees this. To see the first dust fly is a pleasant sight. I saw it on the east side of till’ Deep Cut.

  C. [William Ellery Channing] says he saw a gull to-day.

  P.M.—To Ball’s Hill along river. My companion tempts me to certain licenses of speech, i.e. to reckless and sweeping expressions which I am wont to regret that I have used . . .

  The ice is all out of the river proper, and all spoiled even on Walden.

  Elbridge Hayden and Poland affirm that they saw a brown thrasher sitting on the top of an apple tree by the road near Hubbard’s and singing after his fashion on the 5th. I suggested the shrike, which they do not know, but they say it was a brown bird.

  Hayden saw a bluebird yesterday.

  P.M.—To Great Meadows.

  Comes out pleasant after a raw forenoon with a flurry of snow, already gone.

  Allow me to thank you for the Comp’d’m of the U. S. census, which has come safely to hand. It looks as full of facts as a chestnut of meat. I expect to nibble at it for many years.

  I read with pleasure your pertinent Address before the Merc. Lit. Association, sent me long ago.

Yrs truly
Henry D. Thoreau

  I thank you for yours of the 10th. I hope we shall agree to know each other better, and that we shall be able to talk over some matters on which we agree, with others on which we may differ.

  I will say now that money shall not divide us—that is, I am very sure that I shall be willing to pay such sum as you will consider satisfactory. I will not attempt to fix on a price just now, as I wish to write to Mrs. Greeley in Europe and induce her (if I can) to return somewhat earlier in view of the prospect of securing your services.

  I concur entirely in your suggestion that both parties be left at liberty to terminate the engagement when either shall see fit. But I trust no such termination will be deemed advisable, for a year or two at least; and I hope at least a part of your books and other surrounding will follow you to our cottage in the woods after you shall have had time to pronounce us endurable.

  I will write by Saturday’s steamer to Mrs. Greeley, and trust you will make no arrangements incompatible with that we contemplate until further communication between us. I expect to have you join us, if you will, in early summer.

  Your obliged friend,
  Horace Greeley