Certainly no volume ever met with higher or more extensive endorsement.
From the time the author announced his intention to prepare a book from
his notes and records until it was given to the public, it was the
subject of favorable comment by leading minds of the country, without
reference to race. Since its publication it has received the endorsement
of the Press generally, and of Statesmen, Preachers, Lawyers, Doctors,
Students, in fact men of all ranks.
Brief Extracts from Letters to the Author by Prominent Men.
_FROM HON. HENRY WILSON, LATE VICE PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES_.
I have glanced over a few pages of your History of the Underground
Railroad, _and I most earnestly commend it_. You have done a good work.
This story of the heroic conduct of fugitives from oppression, and of
the devotion of their friends, will be read with deep interest,
especially by the old friends of the slave in the stern struggle through
which we have passed. I hope your labors will be rewarded by a grateful
public.
* * * * *
_FROM HORACE GREELEY_.
_Dear Sir:_--For most of the years I have lived, the escape of fugitives
from slavery, and their efforts to baffle the human and other
bloodhounds who tracked them, formed the romance of American History.
That romance is now ended, and our grandchildren will hardly believe its
leading incidents except on _irresistible testimony_. I rejoice that you
are collecting and presenting _that testimony_, and heartily wish you a
great success.
* * * * *
_FROM HON. CHARLES SUMMER, LATE U.S. SENATOR FROM MASS._
The Underground Railroad has performed its part, but must always be
remembered gratefully, as one of the peculiar institutions of our
country. I cannot think of it without a throbbing heart.
You do well to commemorate those associated with it by service or by
benefit--the saviors and the saved. The army of the late war has had its
"Roll of Honor." You will give us two other, rolls, worthy of equal
honor--the roll of fugitives from slavery, helped on their way to
freedom, and also the roll of their self-sacrificing benefactors. I
always hesitated which to honor most, the fugitive slave or the citizen
who helped him, in defiance of unjust laws. Your book will teach us to
honor both.
* * * * *
_FROM JOHN G. WHITTIER_.
The story of the escaped fugitives--the perils, the terrors of pursuit
and re-capture--the shrewdness which baffled the human blood-hounds--the
untiring zeal and devotion of the friends of the slave in the free
States, are well described.
_The book is more interesting than any romance_. It will be of permanent
value to the historian of the country, during the anti-slavery struggle.
_I cheerfully commend it to the public favor_.
* * * * *
_FROM J. WHEATON SMITH, D.D._
I am happy to find that material for this interesting work exists. I had
feared that much which will be here recorded, would perish with the
brave and worthy men who were personally interested. These verities of
history contain the interest of romance, and our children's children
will read them with wonder and admiration.
* * * * *
_FROM, HON. S.P. CHASE, LATE CHIEF JUSTICE U.S. SUPREME COURT_.
_Your book will certainly be an interesting one. No one probably has had
equal opportunities with yourself of listening to the narratives of
fugitive slaves. No one will repeat them more truthfully, and no stories
can be more fraught with interest than theirs_. Let us rejoice, that, in
our country, such narratives can never be heard again.
* * * * *
_FROM WM. LLOYD GARRISON_.
I congratulate you that, after much patient research, careful
preparation, and untiring labor, you have completed your voluminous work
on "THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD." I am sure your work will be found to be
_one of absorbing interest, worthy of the widest patronage, and
historically valuable as pertaining to the tremendous struggle for the
abolition of chattel slavery in our land. No phase of that struggle was
so crowded wifh thrilling incidents, heroic adventures, and
self-sacrificing efforts as the one you have undertaken to portray, and
with which you were so closely connected, to wit:_ "THE UNDERGROUND
RAILROAD." While it will be contemplated with shame, sadness, and
astonishment, by posterity, it will serve vividly to illustrate the
perils which everywhere confronted the fugitives from the Southern
"house of bondage," and to which those who dared to give them food and
shelter were also subjected.
* * * * *
_FROM GEN. O.O. HOWARD_.
You could not prepare a work that would afford more instruction and
interest to me than a detailed history of the operations of the
so-called "UNDERGROUND RAILROAD." _I am delighted_ at the casual
examination I have been permitted to give it. Thousands will rise up to
call you blessed for your faithful record of our "legalized crime," and
its graphic terrible consequences set forth by you in _such true
pictures and plain words_.
* * * * *
_HON. CARL SCHURZ, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR_.
I have no doubt you can make the narrative a very interesting
contribution to the history of an important period of our national
development. It will be calculated to strengthen in the whole American
people a just sense of the beneficent results of the great social
revolution we have achieved, and to inspire the people of your own race
with a high appreciation of the blessings of liberty they now enjoy.
* * * * *
_FROM HON. W.D. KELLEY, CONGRESSMAN FROM PA._
The stories you tell with admirable simplicity and directness of the
suffering heroically endured by such numbers of poor fugitives, will
instruct and inspire many who have regarded the American slave as a
member of an inferior race.
_Office_ "THE PRESS," _Philadelphia, Pa.__My Dear Sir:_--I have read
most of the proof sheets of your forthcoming book, entitled "THE
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD," and have just examined the letter-press
preparatory to its publication, and the accompanying engravings, and I
cannot refrain from stating, that I believe it to be a consummate work
of its kind. Its chief merit, of course, consists in its _extraordinary
revelations_ of the injustice and cruelty of the dead system of slavery,
but it is gratifying to notice that it will be printed and sent forth to
the world in so complete and admirable a style, _I commend it most
cheerfully as a book that every citizen should have in his library._
Very truly, yours,