Boston, November 1,1859.
. . . The Natural History, Horticultural, and other
societies are making great efforts to secure a long parallelogram of the
new-made land west of the Public Garden and parallel with the lower part of the
Milldam, about the Toll-gate, and they have good hopes of succeeding. They have
already prepared plans for large and elegant structures for their accommodation
severally. You would be surprised to see the extent of solid ground 'that has
already been formed in this quarter, and the style of the sandstone buildings that
have been commenced just below the Public Garden. That part of the city bids
fair to be a place of palaces, in comparison with which Beacon Street and Mount
Vernon Street will be but second-rate or less.
The papers will give you accounts of the late occurrences at
Harper's Ferry. Brown, the leader in this almost crazy attempt, had already
earned great honour with the friends of freedom by his bravery in Kansas. He
had suffered cruelly at the hands of the Missouri propagandists of slavery,
having seen two of his sons killed by them while helping to defend him, and
having suffered wounds and indignities on his own person. He has shown in his
late attempt great heroism and even humanity, with a most extraordinary want of
knowledge and judgment. His fate excites great sympathy, and I believe that
should the sentence of the law be carried out to his execution, new strength
will be given to the anti-slavery movement in the Northern States. I think the
Executive of Virginia will endeavour to commute the sentence. There has been
something very impressive and almost sublime in the manliness and spirit he has
shown during the trial. . . .
SOURCE: Emma
Savage Rogers & William T. Sedgwick, Life and Letters of William
Barton Rogers, Volume 2, p. 15-6
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