Samuel Gridley Howe to Horace Mann, February 18, 1851

Boston, Tuesday, Feb. 18th, 1851.

My Dear Mann: — There is nothing new or extraordinary here, except that I have half an hour's leisure, and if no loafer comes in I'll pen you a note before the mail closes.

All the “decency and respectability” is sadly shocked by the recent practical declaration of independence by Shadrach,¹ who had no taste for the fiery furnace of slavery. There is not a blush of shame, not an expression of indignation at the thought that a man must fly from Massachusetts to the shelter of the red cross of England to save himself from the bloodhounds of slavery.

We know that the rescuers were armed, but had orders not to show a weapon unless by the command and example of their leader, himself a fugitive and an old neighbour and friend of Shadrach's.

When Shadrach had got into Vermont and among his friends he fell down upon his knees and poured out his fervent thanksgiving to God in a manner to draw tears from the eyes of my informant who was with him. May God give him good speed, and may thousands follow him.

The prosecution of Wright² is all gammon, of course. It will be very well to try to fix the blame upon one of the editors of the Commonwealth, for that will, they think, damage Sumner; but it may cut two ways. Wright has, however, much damaged Sumner without doing any good by what he has written. I have no time to enter into an account of the singular position of the paper; and there is the less need because, at the meeting this evening, we shall put an end to the present embarrassing condition of things. It will probably go into the hands of F. W. Bird, and the divergence between the two sections of the Free-soil party will become manifest and its extent defined.

I am sorry to part company with some of the Coalitionists, and not particularly pleased to strike hands with Adams, who has, entre nous, behaved unjustifiably in refusing to pay his subscription; but it cannot be otherwise. I think the party is disgracing itself by such steps as the election of Rantoul, and then, after the rascally behaviour of the Democrats, going on dividing such paltry spoil as the Western Railroad Direction.

They are, however, finally taking such measures as will elect Sumner if it is possible to elect him, which I doubt. I mean I doubt whether it is possible to bring the real power which the party possesses in its numbers and its position, to bear effectually upon the election. They have at last organized a Committee in the Legislature and gone systematically to work. We outsiders too shall bring what guns we have to bear upon the waverers and bolters, and shall try to stiffen up the House.

I am afraid, however, of some of our people: I don't know John Mills, but from what I can learn he never will be well enough to throw a vote for Sumner as long as he needs a vote: if the election of S. is sure M. might vote.

Amasa Walker talks loud and flatters Sumner: but he is dazzled; the Democrats would like him; they want a nose of wax and to have the free use of it for four years, which they would have after '52 if he were there. They have been after him, and he lets people whom he knows throw votes for him, without blowing them sky high.

But here comes a loafer, and it is but five minutes to four — so good-bye.

S. G. Howe.

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¹ Shadrach, a fugitive slave, was rescued by Lewis Hayden and a party of negroes under the general advice and direction of Elizur Wright, then editor of the Chronotype, February 18, 1851. He was taken across Cambridge bridge to West Cambridge, now Arlington; there changed carriages and was taken to Concord; there changed again and carried to Sudbury, and from there to Mrs. Olive Drake's in Leominster. Two or three coloured men were indicted under the fugitive slave law, and on the jury which tried them was my neighbour, the Concord blacksmith, Edwin Bigelow. Mr. C. F. Adams in his life of R. H. Dana, Jr. tells the story, but incorrectly. I heard Mr. D. himself tell it (who was counsel for the indicted negroes) and afterwards asked my neighbour about it, one day before 1868, when he came over to put some hinges on my great gate. He said:

“I was drawn on the jury for the United States Court in Boston, and did not know whether I could take the oath to try the case impartially; but I saw Shattuck Hartwell of Littleton our foreman take it, and thought if he could, I could. We heard the evidence, and did not agree. A year or two after that Mrs. Bigelow was at the Watercure in Brattleboro, and I went up to spend a Sunday with her there. Mr. Dana was there with his wife, also an invalid. He recognized me as one of the jury, and said, ‘I have always wanted to ask some juryman why they failed to convict in that case. You remember the witness J. told us how Shadrach was taken to West Cambridge, then to Concord, and then to Sudbury, where the trail was lost, — and how the defendant was connected with the first part of the flight?’ ‘Yes, I recall all that’' ‘Well, what hindered you from convicting on such plain evidence?’ ‘You recall, Mr. Dana, that they changed carriages in Concord, and that some other man drove the party to Sudbury?’ Yes, he remembered that. ‘Well, I was the man that drove from Concord to Sudbury.’ This seemed to answer Mr. Dana's question.”

Mr. B. also told me that Shadrach's rescuers brought him to the door of Mrs. Nathan Brooks, across the Sudbury Road from Mrs. Bigelow's. Mr. Brooks was a lawyer, an old Whig, and was shocked that his wife should aid breakers of the law; but before he left the neighbourhood that night, the good man had given him an old hat, and Mrs. Brooks had fed and warmed him.

At Mrs. Drake's, to avoid suspicion, Shadrach was put into petticoats, and supplied with a black bonnet and veil, and in this guise taken to a Leominster prayer-meeting. After a day or two he was sent on into Vermont, and from there to Canada.

F. B. S

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² Elizur Wright.

SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 339-41