Samuel Gridley Howe to Congressman Horace Mann, Thursday, January 6, 1853

Boston, Thursday, 6th Jan. 1853.

My Dear Mann: — You will see that the Commonwealth has gone into new hands. I was foolish enough to re-invest in the concern — but I ought not to say foolish either, for I did not wish to see it go down with dishonour. I wished to nail the anti-slavery flag to the mast and see her swim or sink with that flying.

Downer, Alley, Sewall, Baldwin¹ and myself own the concern. I have been for some time doing the Spirit of the Press and helping in my way. How do you like her looks now? I am going to try to get Wright² to work. Can you not help us from Washington, or find someone who will send us an occasional letter? Would you think of taking hold of the paper after the fourth of March as editor in chief, that is, director of the political pop-gun, and make of it a cannon? You would be called upon for only four or five columns a week. We are going to pay our contributors as much as we can, but that is as yet only one dollar a column; we shall pay more if the income will allow it.

There is what seems to me a squeamishness among members of Congress about being known as writers for the press.

If you cannot send us anything, let us know who can.

Ever faithfully,

S. G. Howe.

________________

¹ Messrs. Samuel Downer, J. B. Alley, S. E. Sewall, and J. B. Baldwin.

Mr. Mann once wrote thus to Samuel Gridley Howe concerning Downer:

“. . . Boston seemed more than half empty when I found you were not in it. But I saw Downer, who is almost enough to save a city. If, when Abraham drove that sharp Yankee bargain about saving Sodom, higgling and screwing and beating down, until he reduced the number of the righteous to ten;—if the Lord could have been induced to lower his terms from that number, I can conceive of his saying: ‘Well, if you can find one Sam. Downer there, I'll spare the cursed city for him. . . .’”

² Elizur Wright.

SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 388-9

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

.

² Elizur Wright.

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

Samuel Gridley Howe to Horace Mann, December 29, 1850

South Boston, Dec. 29th, 1850.

My Dear Mann: — It is not as you say, out of sight out of mind, as far as regards my feelings towards you. I was too grateful for your letter to answer it in the hurry and turmoil in which I have been. I have been looking and longing for a leisure hour to confer with you, and I seize the first one I have had.

Shall I tell you all about myself? A part of each day I have to fight for life; if I do not take at least one cold bath I get sick; and if after each bath I do not take smart exercise for at least half an hour I should turn into an icicle and die. I am up at half-past five, and chilled down and warmed up again by half-past six, for the first exercise at the Institution. I have to work there and to walk some six miles daily and see to my idiots, and worry the rest of the time.

I have been hard at work in all odd hours writing a paper upon, or rather against, the proposed State Reform School for Girls. I suppose it will be published and I shall send you a copy. My ground is that we should not build a great central House of Reformation and gather the girls there, because the principle ought to be that of separation and diffusion, not of congregation of vicious persons, because the girls will be exposed to public gaze, and get the character of bad girls, and learn to think themselves such; because we have thousands and thousands of natural reform schools, viz. virtuous families, in which they ought to be received and reformed, & c., &c. The Boys' Reform School costs, with the interest on the capital, $27,000 per annum. I maintain that with half this sum we may place the girls in good families, paying a bonus and giving their services as domestics, and support a corps of women whose business it shall be to visit them and see to them. But you will see my plan.

I have been put upon the Board of Trustees (of four) to get up the new Free-soil paper, and a precious mess I have made of it, — for it takes so much of my time as not to leave enough for sleep. I send you the prospectus which I published last evening.

I have nearly closed a bargain with Elizur Wright to merge his Chronotype¹ in ours and to work as sub-editor on a salary of $1300. He is to do the office work, news, etc.; to have a bit in his mouth and say nothing editorially that the Chief does not approve. The Chief was to be Palfrey, but yesterday he threw a bombshell into the Free-soil camp in shape of a Confidential Circular to the Members of the Legislature, calling upon them not to unite with the Democrats and to have nothing to do with the plan of selling a Governor and buying a senator. This alarms our trustees, and though I think it is the true doctrine I cannot make them think so. I never could see how this coalition was anything but a compounding with the devil: a bad thing done that a good thing might come out of it; (to use an absurd figure, for good never can come out of evil). However, perhaps it is my stupidity, for wiser and better men than I approve it. Sumner and others took a good deal of pains once to convince me (and succeeded in doing so) that it was necessary to carry Free-soil principles into State elections: now they want to unconvince me, and to prove to me that it is not necessary to have a Free-soil Governor or to vote for one.

We have a fund raised for our paper, and can carry it on for some time at least. We have a good deal of talent that can be worked in; Wright (a host in himself), Hildreth, Adams, Palfrey and Bird, Bradburn and others. We shall be, for the first few weeks, dependent on labours of love, and hope you can help us. Can you not send something that will be useful?

I have seen G. B. Emerson several times, and he sought occasion to talk with me about you. He is a very singular man. He has much war in his elements. He wants to be generous and true and high, but has not enough back-bone. He said he was about to write a notice of your labours (which as he said were really prodigious and unparalleled) when your Notes appeared; and then, said he, “I found it would be of no use, that people would not hear,” &c., &c. He did not know how much he yielded to the blast; how much nobler it would have been for him then to have spoken and turned the public clamour. Finding how much he made of the Notes, I put it to him whether he and others were not treating you as though you had been guilty of some moral delinquency, of some unprincipled act, whereas, according to the worst showing of your worst enemies, you had shown nothing but bad temper and bad taste. He could say nothing. He admits and deplores, as he says to me, the demoralizing influence of D—— W——² upon the public of New England.

I compared him to a great black mountain which possessed the power of disturbing the moral compass, and producing moral shipwreck, and he admitted the truth of the comparison.

I tell you, Mann, you gave the old fellow a terrible shaking; his hold upon the public of the North is loosened very much; there is a feeling of disgust gradually spreading through the community, and it only needs something to crystallize round to assume vast proportions. If any one should set forth, strongly and vividly, the falsehood and treason to virtue and right which is implied by this worship of an immoral, drunken debauchee, people would see it and be ashamed of it. They would see that they are but little better, in the homage they render to mere strength of intellect, than the savages in their homage to mere bodily prowess.

I have had some occasion to know something of your successor³ and his mode of doing business, — but what a falling off! It took me nearly a week to get an answer to a question about the rules of the Normal School, and the answer was finally from a sub saying that it was the opinion of the Secretary, &c. &c. that the rule was so and so, but he would ascertain, &c.

There will be very busy and exciting times here this week and the next, and no man can say what the end will be. The Democrats will try to outwit the Free-soilers, but these are upon their guard. Sumner cannot strongly will one way or another: my advice is worth little because I know little about the machinery, — but my love for Sumner makes me wish that he could be exalted by something better than a coalition which I regard as rather iniquitous.

Sumner feels very anxious and disturbed about it: he means to be perfectly upright and conscientious, and will not compromise any of his high principles. It will be hard for him to escape unpleasant dilemmas. He dislikes to give up his dreams of a quiet literary life. He is a rare and noble spirit, too good for the political ring.

Remember me kindly to Madame, and believe me, dear Mann,

Ever thine,

S. G. Howe.

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¹ A paper edited by Wright.

² Daniel Webster.

³ The new Secretary of the Board of Education.

SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 330-3