A contemporary who had known him long and intimately--who had
appreciated his devotion to freedom, who had shared with him some of the
perils consequent upon aiding the fleeing fugitives, and who belonged to
the race with whom Garrett sympathized, and for whose elevation and
freedom he labored so assiduously with an overflowing heart of tender
regard and sympathy--penned the following words, touching the sad event:
CHATHAM, C.W., January 30, 1871.
To MR. HENRY GARRETT:--Dear Sir:--I have just heard, through the
kindness of my friend, Mrs. Graves, of the death of your dear
father; the intelligence makes me feel sad and sorrowful; I
sincerely sympathize with you and all your brothers and sisters,
in your mournful bereavement; but you do not mourn without hope,
for you have an assurance in his death that your loss is his
infinite gain. For he was a good Christian, a good husband, a
good father, a good citizen, and a truly good Samaritan, for his
heart, his hand and his purse, were ever open to the wants of
suffering humanity, wherever he found it; irrespective of the
country, religion, or complexion of the sufferer. Hence there
are many more who mourn his loss, as well as yourselves; and I
know, verily, that many a silent tear was shed by his
fellow-citizens, both white and colored, when he took his
departure; especially the colored ones; for he loved them with a
brother's love, not because they were colored, but because they
were oppressed, and, like John Brown, he loved them to the last;
that was manifest by his request that they should be his
bearers. I can better feel than I have language to express the
mournful and sorrowing pride that must have stirred the inmost
souls of those men of color, who had the honor conferred on them
of bearing his mortal remains to their last resting-place, when
they thought of what a sacred trust was committed to their
hands. We are told to mark the perfect man, and behold the
upright, for the end of that man is peace; and such was the end
of your dear father, and he has gone to join the innumerable
company of the spirits of the just, made perfect on the other
side of the river, where there is a rest remaining for all the
children of God. My brother, Abraham D. Shadd, and my sister
Amelia, join their love and condolence with mine to you all,
hoping that the virtues of your father may be a guiding star to
you all, until you meet him again in that happy place, where
parting will be no more, forever.
Your humble friend, ELIZABETH J. WILLIAMS.
From the learned and the unlearned, from those in high places and from
those in humble stations, many testimonials reached the family,
respecting this great friend of the slave, but it is doubtful, whether a
single epistle from any one, was more affectingly appreciated by the
bereaved family, than the epistle just quoted from Elizabeth J.
Williams.
The Slave's most eloquent advocate, Wendell Phillips, in the "National
Standard," of February 4, 1871, in honor of the departed, bore the
following pertinent testimony to his great worth in the cause of
Liberty.
"I should not dare to trust my memory for the number of fugitive
slaves this brave old friend has helped to safety and
freedom--nearly three thousand, I believe. What a rich life to
look back on! How skilful and adroit he was, in eluding the
hunters! How patient in waiting days and weeks, keeping the poor
fugitives hidden meanwhile, till it was safe to venture on the
highway! What whole-hearted devotion, what unselfish giving of
time, means, and everything else to this work of brotherly love!
What house in Delaware, so honorable in history, as that where
hunted men fled, and were sure to find refuge. It was the North
Star to many a fainting heart. This century has grand scenes to
show and boast of among its fellows. But few transcend that
auction-block where the sheriff was selling all Garrett's goods
for the crime (!) of giving a breakfast to a family of fugitive
slaves. As the sale closed, the officer turns to Garrett,
saying: 'Thomas, I hope you'll never be caught at this again.'
"'Friend,' was the reply, 'I haven't a dollar in the world, but
if thee knows a fugitive who needs a breakfast, send him to me.'
"Over such a scene, Luther and Howard and Clarkson clapped their
hands.
"Such a speech redeems the long infamy of the State. It is
endurable, the having of such a blot as Delaware in our history,
when it has once been the home of such a man. I remember well
the just pride with which he told me, that after that sale,
pro-slavery as Wilmington was, he could have a discount at the
bank as readily as any man in the city. Though the laws robbed
him, his fellow-citizens could not but respect and trust him,
love and honor him.
"The city has never had, we believe, a man die in it worthy of a
statue. We advise it to seize this opportunity to honor itself
and perpetuate the good name of its worthiest citizen, by
immortalizing some street, spot, shaft or building with his
name.
"Brave, generous, high-souled, sturdy, outspoken friend of all
that needed aid or sympathy, farewell for these scenes! In times
to come, when friendless men and hated ideas need champions, God
grant them as gallant and successful ones as you have been, and
may the State you honored grow worthy of you. WENDELL PHILLIPS."
Likewise in the "National Standard," the editor, Aaron M. Powell, who
attended the funeral, paid the following glowing tribute to the moral,
religious, and anti-slavery character of the slave's friend:
On the 24th inst., Thomas Garrett, in his eighty-second year,
passed on to the higher life. A week previous we had visited him
in his sick chamber, and, on leaving him felt that he must go
hence ere long. He was the same strong, resolute man in spirit
to the last. He looked forward to the welcome change with
perfect serenity and peace of mind. And well he might, for he
had indeed fought the good fight and been faithful unto the end.
He was most widely known for his services to fugitive slaves.
Twenty-five hundred and forty-five he had preserved a record of;
and he had assisted somewhat more than two hundred prior to the
commencement of the record. Picture to the mind's eye this
remarkable procession of nearly three thousand men, women and
children fleeing from Slavery, and finding in this brave,
large-hearted man, a friend equal to their needs in so critical
an emergency! No wonder he was feared by the slave-holders, not
alone of his own State, but of the whole South. If their human
chattels once reached his outpost, there was indeed little hope
of their reclamation. The friend and helper of fugitives from
Slavery, truly their Moses, he was more than this, he was the
discriminating, outspoken, uncompromising opponent of Slavery
itself. He was one of the strongest pillars and one of the most
efficient working-members of the American Anti-slavery Society.
He was an abolitionist of the most radical and pronounced
character, though a resident of a slave State, and through all
the period wherein to be an abolitionist was to put in jeopardy,
not only reputation and property, but life itself. Though he
rarely addressed public meetings, his presence imparted much
strength to others, was "weighty" in the best Quaker sense. He
was of the rare type of character, represented by Francis
Jackson and James Mott.
Thomas Garrett was a member of the Society of Friends, and as
such, served by the striking contrast of his own life and
character, with the average of the Society, to exemplify to the
world the real, genuine Quakerism. It is not at all to the
credit of his fellow-members, that it must be said of them, that
when he was bearing the cross and doing the work for which he is
now so universally honored, they, many of them, were not only
not in sympathy with him, but would undoubtedly, if they had had
the requisite vitality and courage, have cut him off from their
denominational fellowship. He was a sincere, earnest believer in
the cardinal point of Quakerism, the Divine presence in the
human soul--this furnishes the key to his action through life.
This divine attribute he regarded not as the birth-right of
Friends alone, not of one race, sex or class, but of all
mankind. Therefore was he an abolitionist; therefore was he
interested in the cause of the Indians; therefore was he
enlisted in the cause of equal rights for women; therefore was
he a friend of temperance, of oppressed and needy working-men
and women, world-wide in the scope of his philanthropic
sympathy, and broadly catholic, and comprehensive in his views
of religious life and duty. He was the soul of honor in
business. His experience, when deprived at sixty, of every
dollar of his property for having obeyed God rather than man, in
assisting fugitives from Slavery, and the promptness with which
his friends came forward with proffered co-operation, furnishes
a lesson which all should ponder well. He had little respect
for, or patience with shams of any kind, in religious, political
or social life.
As we looked upon Thomas Garrett's calm, serene face, mature in
a ripe old age, still shadowing forth kindliness of heart,
firmness of purpose, discriminating intelligence, conscientious,
manly uprightness, death never seemed more beautiful:
"Why, what is Death but Life
In other forms of being? Life without
The coarser attributes of men, the dull
And momently decaying frame which holds
The ethereal spirit in, and binds it down
To brotherhood with brutes! There's no
Such thing as Death; what's so-called is but
The beginning of a new existence, a fresh
Segment of the eternal round of change."