E-mail:
Jack Balkin: jackbalkin at yahoo.com
Bruce Ackerman bruce.ackerman at yale.edu
Ian Ayres ian.ayres at yale.edu
Corey Brettschneider corey_brettschneider at brown.edu
Mary Dudziak mary.l.dudziak at emory.edu
Joey Fishkin joey.fishkin at gmail.com
Heather Gerken heather.gerken at yale.edu
Abbe Gluck abbe.gluck at yale.edu
Mark Graber mgraber at law.umaryland.edu
Stephen Griffin sgriffin at tulane.edu
Jonathan Hafetz jonathan.hafetz at shu.edu
Jeremy Kessler jkessler at law.columbia.edu
Andrew Koppelman akoppelman at law.northwestern.edu
Marty Lederman msl46 at law.georgetown.edu
Sanford Levinson slevinson at law.utexas.edu
David Luban david.luban at gmail.com
Gerard Magliocca gmaglioc at iupui.edu
Jason Mazzone mazzonej at illinois.edu
Linda McClain lmcclain at bu.edu
John Mikhail mikhail at law.georgetown.edu
Frank Pasquale pasquale.frank at gmail.com
Nate Persily npersily at gmail.com
Michael Stokes Paulsen michaelstokespaulsen at gmail.com
Deborah Pearlstein dpearlst at yu.edu
Rick Pildes rick.pildes at nyu.edu
David Pozen dpozen at law.columbia.edu
Richard Primus raprimus at umich.edu
K. Sabeel Rahmansabeel.rahman at brooklaw.edu
Alice Ristroph alice.ristroph at shu.edu
Neil Siegel siegel at law.duke.edu
David Super david.super at law.georgetown.edu
Brian Tamanaha btamanaha at wulaw.wustl.edu
Nelson Tebbe nelson.tebbe at brooklaw.edu
Mark Tushnet mtushnet at law.harvard.edu
Adam Winkler winkler at ucla.edu
There is a large scholarly literature that tries to
associate political beliefs with types of character:Democrats tend to be this kind of people,
Republicans tend to be like that, etc.In a country with a two-party system, in which very different people are
forced to permanently inhabit the same political coalitions, this kind of
argument was always dubious.A new
disconfirmation comes from Steven Lubet’s wonderful new book, John
Brown’s Spy.
The book tells the story of John E. Cook, whom Brown trusted
more than anyone else with the plans to capture the armory at Harper’s Ferry in
1859.The two men were, for a time, the
closest of political allies.Yet the
book makes clear the dramatic difference in their political imaginations.Brown was an abstemious idealist who cared
only for whatever was necessary to end slavery. In the moral realm, he was a
prude.Cook, on the other hand, was a
boaster hungry for heroic adventures, who had drifted around the country
leaving a trail of pregnant women behind him until he met Brown.His storybook-hero attitude toward politics
proved disastrous when he told Brown that he was sure that there would be a slave
uprising to support them.In his
reconnaissance of the places and people around the armory, he had in fact found
no evidence that that was the case, but it made a better story and he somehow
persuaded himself, and then Brown, to believe it.
The difference between them became clear after both were
captured, following the failed raid – Cook initially escaped, and for ten days,
he was the most wanted man in American history. Brown went to the gallows
cheerfully, confident that his death would serve the abolitionist cause.Cook, however, betrayed his companions with a
full confession that implicated fellow abolitionists, forcing Frederick
Douglass, among others, to flee to Canada.Brown rejoiced in his martyrdom.Cook nearly managed a spectacular prison escape just before his
execution.They were politically united
at the extreme, violent end of the abolitionist spectrum.Yet they inhabited different moral and
imaginative universes.
If you know someone’s politics, you really don’t know that
much about them.