Showing posts with label Pennsylvania RR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pennsylvania RR. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

S. Colhoun to William Preston Smith, December 1, 1859

Philadelphia, Dec. 1st, 1859.
W. P. Smith, Esq.

Dear Sir:

I cut the enclosed slip from the editiorial of this afternoon's “Bulletin:”

“TRICKS UPON TRAVELERS.—The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company will have no reason to thank the army of Gov. Wise for the manner in which he treats their trains and passengers. In the severest days of the Austrian police system there were no such high-handed proceedings towards travelers. Every train, it appears, is stopped at Harper's Ferry, and armed men pass through every car, hunting for spies, insurgents and sympathizers with Brown. In one case, three Cincinnati merchants, on their way to Baltimore, were actually taken out of the cars and imprisoned, because they spoke kindly of the poor creature who is to be hung to-morrow. This is the Virginia idea of freedom. Travelers will please take notice.”

Everybody appears desirous of making the most out of “Old John Brown," and if it is true that several Cincinnati merchants have been taken out of your cars at Harper's Ferry, the “Bulletin” thinks it should be used as a spoke to strengthen the wheels of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

We presume your Company took a personal interest at once, in protecting the Cincinnati sufferers. I send you the enclosed as an “on dit.”

Yours, truly,
S. COLHOUN.

SOURCE: B. H. Richardson, Annapolis, Maryland, Publisher, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection at Harper's Ferry, 17th October, 1859, p. 73