Peterboro, February 26th, 1860.
S. L. M. Barlow, Esq.:
Sir: I have your letter
of 22d inst. Mr. Smith desires me to say that his attention was called at
the same time to all the references to himself in your “Manifesto.” That he
complained of but one, was by no means because he acquiesced in the others.
Compared with that one, the others are of no importance. That one is a sheer
fabrication. Of all in it that you attribute to him he had done nothing. But in
the other references, your responsibility is only for your opinions of what he
confesses he had done.
It is true that Mr.
Smith did at the close of his long letter to Mr. Thomas on other subjects,
(dated 27th August,) assert the probability of servile insurrections, and the
possibility of their success, as reasons why the people should, at the ballot-box,
put an end to slavery. But, pray, what responsible connection is there between
this and the “Central Association,” or the sad occurrence at Harper's Ferry?
The like thing he did in scores of meetings, in his tour through this State in
1858; and never was he more full and faithful at this point than in his speech
on the Nebraska Bill. (See pages 200, etc., of the volume of his Congressional
Speeches.) In fact, it is for more than a quarter of a century that he has been
continually testifying that unless the American people hasten to put away
slavery peacefully, it will go out in blood. His only regret in respect to such
testimony is, that it has not availed to persuade, or, if you prefer, to frighten
the people, both of the North and the South, into his own deep and abiding
belief that slavery will die a violent death unless speedily put to a peaceful
one. As to Harper's Ferry, Mr. Smith is not aware that he had seen or heard the
name of that village, or thought of itself or its name, for years immediately
preceding the scene of violence there last October.
Mr. Smith readily
admits that his letter to John Brown in your "Manifesto" does not
exaggerate his love and admiration of the man, whom, during the many years of
his intimate relations with him, both in business and friendship, he was
accustomed to regard as unsurpassed, for truthfulness, disinterestedness, and a
noble and sublime spirit. No wonder that, regarding him in this light, Mr.
Smith did, from the time Capt. Brown started for Kansas, in the spring of 1855,
put money into his hand whenever he opened it for money. No wonder, that during
the last four years of Capt. Brown's life, Mr. Smith sent very many bank-drafts
to him, and to names which the Captain furnished. Whether his call was for
fifty dollars or for two hundred and fifty, was all the same. It was never refused.
I scarcely need add that no one feels deeper sorrow than does Mr. Smith, that
his precious, nay idolized friend, was led into the mistake of shedding blood
in his last attempt to help slaves get free. Indeed, it was that mistake which
completed the prostration of the miserable health of Mr. Smith's body and
brain. What little strength the most obstinate dyspepsia, following up typhoid
fever and dropsy, had left him, was swept away by the horrible news from
Virginia. You put your own assumed and entirely unauthorized interpretation upon
Mr. Smith's use of the words “Kansas work.” What he meant by these words is
what Capt. Brown, in his public meeting, held in this village a few weeks
before the date of Mr. Smith's letter, described as his latest “Kansas work,” —
namely, the removing of slaves without violence to a land where they can be
free.
To return to your
letter: I hardly need say that it is unsatisfactory to Mr. Smith. It evidently
was not intended to be satisfactory to him. It adds studied insults to the
cruel and immeasurable wrongs you had previously done him. You had done what
you could to blacken his reputation; and now, when arraigned for it, the whole
extent of your concession is, that he shall have the privilege of wiping off
the blacking if he can. It is as if you had called your innocent fellow-man a
cut-throat, and then, wiping your mouth, had told him that you would retract
the bad name, if only he would consent to degrade himself so far as to deny
that the bad name fits him. In the depths of your malice — a malice
unmitigated, as your own letter shows, by the least semblance, and scarcely by
the least pretense, of a particle of evidence to justify your accusation — you
did him all the injury you could; and now, when called on to repair it, you
send him a letter which but deepens it. I need not characterize that letter. It
characterizes itself. There is not a right-minded man, North or South, but
would pronounce your treatment of Mr. Smith to be base, infamous, and wicked to
the last degree — and this, too, according to your own presentation of the case
in your own letter. Let your Committee think of their deliberate and enormous
crime against Mr. Smith, and then sleep over it if they can. When he was within
forty-eight hours of death, in the judgment of the physicians into whose hands
he then passed; and when he knew not one person from another; and when his
family were too much afflicted to read the newspapers — that Committee was
busy, with Satanic industry and Satanic venom, in circulating over the whole
land a falsehood of their own coinage, that could not have failed to fill with
the hatred and loathing of him ten thousand hearts, both North and South, that
had before loved and honored him.
Mr. Smith is not
unmindful that you were moved to defame him by party rather than personal
objects; and he confesses that he has no sympathy with the Republican party. He
will not greatly deplore the advantages you may gain over it. But he must
protest against your gaining them at his expense — especially at so great
expense as having the most atrocious and injurious falsehoods told of himself.
Mr. Smith is an Abolitionist, and not, as you would have it believed, a
Republican. The odium of his principles belongs all to himself; and it is not
right that the Republican party should suffer at all from it. But although Mr.
Smith is an Abolitionist, he has friends and relatives both at the North and
South. Moreover, he thinks quite as highly of Southern as of Northern character.
I add, that although he has purchased the freedom of many slaves, and not a few
of them within two or three hours’ drive of Harper's Ferry, and that although
he is a very willing contributor to “Underground Railroads,” he would
nevertheless not have any slave seek his freedom at the expense of killing his
master. He has always said that he would rather remain a slave for life than
get his liberty by bloodshed.
Respectfully yours,
Chas. D. Miller.
SOURCE: Gerrit
Smith, Gerrit Smith and the Vigilant Association of the City of
New-York, p. 7-11
