Worcester, October 27,1859
Dearest Mother:
While you are
dreaming of me in this alarming manner, I am placidly laying out a new bed of
crocuses and tulips for the spring, and buying at auction a second-hand
tapestry Brussels, quite handsome, for seventy cents a yard, to put in the
study. This afternoon an African brother visits us, not for insurrectionary
purposes, but to aid in putting down the same on the study floor.
Of course I think
enough about Brown, though I don't feel sure that his acquittal or rescue
would do half as much good as his being executed; so strong is the personal sympathy
with him. We have done what we could for him by sending counsel and in other
ways that must be nameless. By we I mean Dr. Howe, W. Phillips, J. A.
Andrew, and myself. If the trial lasts into next week, it is possible to make
some further arrangements for his legal protection. But beyond this no way
seems open for anything; there is (as far as one can say such a thing) no chance
for forcible assistance, and next to none for stratagem. Never was there a case
which seemed more perfectly impracticable: and so far as any service on the
spot is concerned, there are others who could perform it better than I. Had I
been a lawyer, however, I should probably have gone on at once, to act at least
temporarily as his Counsel. A young man from Boston named Hoyt has gone on for
this, and probably Montgomery Blair, of Washington, will be there to-day, to
conduct the case.
SOURCE: Mary Potter
Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth
Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 85-6
No comments:
Post a Comment