WILLIAM STILL:--_Dear Friend and Brother_--A thousand thanks for
your good, generous letter!
It was so kind of you to have in mind my intense interest and
anxiety in the success and fate of poor Concklin! That he
desired and intended to hazard an attempt of the kind, I well
understood; but what particular one, or that he had actually
embarked in the enterprise, I had not been able to learn.
His memory will ever be among the sacredly cherished with me. He
certainly displayed more real disinterestedness, more earnest,
unassuming devotedness, than those who _claim_ to be the
sincerest friends of the slave can often boast. What more
_Saviour_-like than the _willing_ sacrifice he has rendered!
Never shall I forget that night of our extremest peril (as we
supposed), when he came and so heartily proffered his services
at the hazard of his liberty, of life even, in behalf of William
L. Chaplin.
_Such_ generosity! at _such_ a moment! The emotions it awakened
no words can bespeak! They are to be sought but in the inner
chambers of one's own soul! He as earnestly devised the means,
as calmly counted the cost, and as unshrinkingly turned him to
the task, as if it were his own freedom he would have won.
Through his homely features, and humble garb, the intrepidity of
soul came out in all its lustre! Heroism, in its native majesty,
_commanded_ one's admiration and love!
Most truly can I enter into your sorrows, and painfully
appreciate the pang of disappointment which must have followed
this sad intelligence. But so inadequate are words to the
consoling of such griefs, it were almost cruel to attempt to
syllable one's sympathies.
I cannot bear to believe, that Concklin has been actually
murdered, and yet I hardly dare hope it is otherwise.
And the poor slaves, for whom he periled so much, into what
depths of hopelessness and woe are they again plunged! But the
deeper and blacker for the loss of their dearly sought and
new-found freedom. How long must wrongs like these go
unredressed? "_How long, O God, how long_?"
Very truly yours,