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.
_______________
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
