I should love to tell of the generous, daring, self-sacrificing
conflicts with the abettors and minions of the slaveholders in
different parts of our country. But I must leave those bright pages to
be written by the historian of those times, and confine myself to that
part of the field where I saw and was engaged in the fight.
In the early part of the summer of 1851 Mr. Webster travelled quite
extensively about the country, exerting all his personal and official
influence, and the remnants of his eloquence, to persuade the people
to yield themselves to the requirements of the Fugitive Slave Law. On
the 5th or 6th of June he came to Syracuse. He stood in a small balcony
overlooking the yard in front of our City Hall and the intervening
street. Of course he had a large audience. But his hearers generally
were disappointed in his appearance and speech, and those who were
not already members of the proslavery party were much offended at his
authoritative, dictatorial, commanding tones and language. There is
no need that I should give an abstract of what he said. It was but a
rehash of his infamous speech in Congress on the 7th of March, 1850.
At or near the close he said, in his severest manner, “Those persons
in this city who mean to oppose the execution of the Fugitive Slave
Law are traitors! traitors!! traitors!!! This law ought to be obeyed,
and it will be enforced,--yes, it shall be enforced; in the city of
Syracuse it shall be enforced, and that, too, in the midst of the next
antislavery Convention, if then there shall be any occasion to enforce
it.” Indignation flashed from many eyes in that assembly, and one might
almost hear the gritting of teeth in defiance of the threat.
I stated on page 354 that at the meeting on the 12th of October, 1850,
we commenced an association to co-operate and to bear one another’s
burdens in defence of any among us who should be arrested as slaves.
Many came into our agreement. We fixed upon a rendezvous, and agreed
that any one of our number, who might know or hear of a person in
danger, should toll the bell of an adjoining meeting-house in a
particular manner, and that, on hearing that signal, we would all
repair at once to the spot, ready to do and to dare whatever might
seem to be necessary. Two or three times in the ensuing twelve months
the alarm was given, but the cause for action was removed by the time
we reached our rendezvous, excepting in one case, when it was thought
advisable to send a guard to protect a threatened man to Auburn or
Rochester.
But on the first day of October, 1851, a real and, as it proved to
be, a signal case was given us. Whether it was given on that day
intentionally to fulfil Mr. Webster’s prediction is known only to those
who have not yet divulged the secret. There was, however, on that day
an antislavery convention in Syracuse, and, moreover, a meeting of the
County Agricultural Society, so that our city was unusually full of
people, which proved to be favorable to our enterprise.
Just as I was about to rise from my dinner on that day I heard the
signal-bell, and hurried towards the appointed place, nearly a mile
from my home. But I had not gone half-way before I met the report that
Jerry McHenry had been claimed as a slave, arrested by the police, and
taken to the office of the Commissioner. So I turned my steps thither.
The nearer I got to the place, the more persons I met, all excited,
many of them infuriated by the thought that a man among us was to be
carried away into slavery.
Jerry was an athletic mulatto, who had been residing in Syracuse
for a number of years, and working quite expertly, it was said, as
a cooper. I found him in the presence of the Commissioner with the
District Attorney, who was conducting the trial,--a one-sided process,
in which the agent of the claimant alone was to be heard in proof,
that the prisoner was an escaped slave belonging to a Mr. Reynolds,
of Missouri. The doomed man was not to be allowed to state his own
case, nor refute the testimony of his adversary, however false it
might be. While we were attending to the novel proceedings, Jerry, not
being closely guarded, slipped out of the room under the guidance of
a young man of more zeal than discretion, and in a moment was in the
street below. The crowd cheered and made way for him, but no vehicle
having been provided to help his escape, he was left to depend upon his
agility as a runner. Being manacled, he could not do his best; but he
had got off nearly half a mile, before the police officers and their
partisans overtook him. I was not there to witness the meeting; but it
was said the rencounter was a furious one. Jerry fought like a tiger,
but fought against overwhelming odds. He was attacked behind and before
and soon subdued. He was battered and bruised, his clothes sadly torn
and bloody, and one rib cracked, if not broken. In this plight he was
thrown upon a carman’s wagon, two policemen sat upon him, one across
his legs, the other across his body, and thus confined he was brought
down through the centre of the city, and put into a back room of the
police office, the whole _posse_ being gathered there to guard him.
The people, citizens and strangers, were alike indignant. As I passed
amongst them I heard nothing but execrations and threats of release.
Two or three times men came to me and said, “Mr. May, speak the word,
and we’ll have Jerry out.” “And what will you do with him,” I replied,
“when you get him out? You have just seen the bad effect of one
ill-advised attempt to rescue him. Wait until proper arrangements are
made. Stay near here to help at the right moment and in the right way.
In a little while it will be quite dark, and then the poor fellow can
be easily disposed of.”
Presently the Chief of the Police came to me, and said, “Jerry is in a
perfect rage, a fury of passion; do come in and see if you can quiet
him.” So I followed into the little room where he was confined. He was
indeed a horrible object. I was left alone with him, and sat down by
his side. So soon as I could get him to hear me, I said, “Jerry, do
try to be calm.” “Would you be calm,” he roared out, “with these irons
on you? What have I done to be treated so? Take off these handcuffs,
and then if I do not fight my way through these fellows that have got
me here,--then you may make me a slave.” Thus he raved on, until in a
momentary interval I whispered, “Jerry, we are going to rescue you; do
be more quiet!” “Who are you?” he cried. “How do I know you can or will
rescue me?” After a while I told him by snatches what we meant to do,
who I was, and how many there were who had come resolved to save him
from slavery. At length he seemed to believe me, became more tranquil,
and consented to lie down, so I left him. Immediately after I went to
the office of the late Dr. Hiram Hoyt, where I found twenty or thirty
picked men laying a plan for the rescue. Among them was Gerrit Smith,
who happened to be in town attending the Liberty Party Convention. It
was agreed that a skilful and bold driver in a strong buggy, with the
fleetest horse to be got in the city, should be stationed not far off
to receive Jerry, when he should be brought out. Then to drive hither
and thither about the city until he saw no one pursuing him; not to
attempt to get out of town, because it was reported that every exit was
well guarded, but to return to a certain point near the centre of the
city, where he would find two men waiting to receive his charge. With
them he was to leave Jerry, and know nothing about the place of his
retreat.
At a given signal the doors and windows of the police office were to
be demolished at once, and the rescuers to rush in and fill the room,
press around and upon the officers, overwhelming them by their numbers,
not by blows, and so soon as they were confined and powerless by the
pressure of bodies about them, several men were to take up Jerry and
bear him to the buggy aforesaid. Strict injunctions were given, and it
was agreed not intentionally to injure the policemen. Gerrit Smith and
several others pressed this caution very urgently upon those who were
gathered in Dr. Hoyt’s office. And the last thing I said as we were
coming away was, “If any one is to be injured in this fray, I hope it
may be one of our own party.”
The plan laid down as I have sketched it was well and quickly executed,
about eight o’clock in the evening. The police office was soon in
our possession. One officer in a fright jumped out of a window and
seriously injured himself. Another officer fired a pistol and slightly
wounded one of the rescuers. With these exceptions there were no
personal injuries. The driver of the buggy managed adroitly, escaped
all pursuers, and about nine o’clock delivered Jerry into the hands of
Mr. Jason S. Hoyt and Mr. James Davis. They led him not many steps to
the house of the late Caleb Davis, who with his wife promptly consented
to give the poor fellow a shelter in their house, at the corner of
Genesee and Orange Streets. Here they at once cut off his shackles,
and after some refreshing food put him to bed. Now the excitement was
over, Jerry was utterly exhausted, and soon became very feverish. A
physician was called, who dressed his wounds and administered such
medicine as was applicable. But rest, sleep, was what he needed, and
he enjoyed them undisturbed for five days,--only four or five persons,
besides Mr. and Mrs. Davis, knowing what had become of Jerry. It
was generally supposed he had gone to Canada. But the next Sunday
evening, just after dark, a covered wagon with a span of very fleet
horses was seen standing for a few minutes near the door of Mr. Caleb
Davis’s house. Mr. Jason S. Hoyt and Mr. James Davis were seen to
help a somewhat infirm man into the vehicle, jump in themselves, and
start off at a rapid rate. Suspicion was awakened, and several of
the “patriots” of our city set off in pursuit of the “traitors.” The
chase was a hot one for eight or ten miles, but Jerry’s deliverers had
the advantage on the start, and in the speed of the horses that were
bearing him to liberty. They took him that night about twenty miles to
the house of a Mr. Ames, a Quaker, in the town of Mexico. There he was
kept concealed several days, and then conveyed to the house of a Mr.
Clarke, on the confines of the city of Oswego. This gentleman searched
diligently nearly a week for a vessel that would take Jerry across
to the dominions of the British Queen. He dared not trust a Yankee
captain, and the English vessels were so narrowly watched, that it was
not until several days had elapsed that he was able to find one who
would undertake to transport a fugitive slave over the lake. At length
the captain of a small craft agreed to set sail after dark, and when
well off on the lake to hoist a light to the top of his mast, that his
whereabouts might be known. Mr. Clarke took Jerry to a less frequented
part of the shore, embarked with him in a small boat, and rowed him
to the little schooner of the friendly captain. By him he was taken
to Kingston, where he soon was established again in the business of
a cooper. Not many days after his arrival there we received a letter
from him, expressing in the warmest terms his gratitude for what the
Abolitionists in Syracuse had done in his behalf. After pouring out a
heartful of thanks to us, he assured us that he had been led to think
more than ever before of his indebtedness to God,--the ultimate Source
of all goodness,--and had been brought to the resolution to lead a
purer, better life than he had ever done. We heard afterwards that he
was well married, and was living comfortably and respectably. But, ere
the fourth year of his deliverance had closed, he was borne away to
that world where there never was and never will be a slaveholder nor a
slave.
Foiled in their attempt to lay a tribute at the feet of the Southern
oligarchy, the officers of the United States Government set about to
punish us “traitors,” who had evinced so much more regard for “the
rights of man conferred by God” than for a wicked law enacted by
Congress. Eighteen of us were indicted. The accusation was brought
before Judge Conkling at Auburn. Thither, therefore, the accused
were taken. But we went accompanied by nearly a hundred of our
fellow-citizens, many of them the most prominent men of Syracuse, with
not a few ladies. So soon as the indictment was granted, and bailors
called for, Hon. William H. Seward stepped forward and put his name
first upon the bond. His good example was promptly followed, and the
required amount was quickly pledged by a number of our most responsible
gentlemen. Mr. Seward then invited the rescuers of Jerry and their
friends, especially the ladies, to his house, where all were hospitably
entertained until it was time for us to return to Syracuse.
But the hand of law was not laid upon the friends of Jerry alone. James
Lear, the agent of his claimant, and the Deputy Marshal who assisted
him, were arrested on warrants for attempting to kidnap a citizen of
Syracuse. They, however, easily escaped conviction on the plea that
they were acting under a law of the United States.
Many of the political newspapers were emphatic in their condemnation
of our resistance to the law, and only a few ventured to justify it.
_The Advertiser_ and _The American_ of Rochester, _The Gazette_ and
_Observer_ of Utica, _The Oneida Whig_, _The Register_, _The Argus_,
and _The Express_ of Albany, _The Courier and Inquirer_ and _The
Express_ of New York, although of opposite political parties, were
agreed in pronouncing “the rescue of Jerry a disgraceful, demoralizing,
and alarming act.”
A mass convention of the citizens of Onondaga County, called to
consider the propriety of the rescue, met in our City Hall on the 15th
of October, and with entire unanimity passed a series of resolutions
fully justifying and applauding the deed.
Ten days afterwards, an opposing convention of the city and county was
held in the same place, and sent forth an opposite opinion, but not
without dissent.
In one of our city papers I was called out by three of my
fellow-citizens as the one more responsible than any other for the
rescue of Jerry, and was challenged to justify such an open defiance of
a law of my country. Thus was the subject kept before the public, and
the questions involved in it were pretty thoroughly discussed.
Meanwhile the United States District Attorney was not neglectful of
his official duty. He summoned several of the indicted ones to trial
at Buffalo, at Albany, and at Canandaigua. But he did not obtain a
conviction in either case. Gerrit Smith, Charles A. Wheaton, and myself
published in the papers an acknowledgment that we had assisted all we
could in the rescue of Jerry; that we were ready for trial; would give
the Court no trouble as to the fact, and should rest our defence upon
the unconstitutionality and extreme wickedness of the Fugitive Slave
Law. The Attorney did not, however, see fit to bring the matter to that
test. He brought a poor colored man--Enoch Reed--to trial at Albany,
and summoned me as one of the witnesses against him. When called to the
stand to tell the jury all that I knew of Mr. Reed’s participation in
the rescue, I testified that I saw him doing what hundreds of others
did or attempted to do, and that he was not particularly conspicuous in
that good work. The Attorney was much offended. He assured the Judge
that I knew much more about the matter than I had told the jury, and
requested him to remind me of my oath to tell the whole truth. When
the Court had so admonished me, I bowed and said: “May it please your
Honor, I do know all about the rescue of Jerry; and if the prosecuting
officer will arraign Gerrit Smith, Charles A. Wheaton or myself, I
shall have occasion to tell the jury all about the transaction. I have
now truly given the jury all the testimony I have to give respecting
the prisoner at the bar.”
Of course Enoch Reed was acquitted, and no other one of those indicted
was convicted. The last attempt to procure a conviction was made at
Canandaigua, before Judge Hall, of the United States District Court,
in the autumn of 1852. A few days before the setting of that Court,
Mr. Gerrit Smith sent copies of a handbill to be distributed in that
village and the surrounding country, announcing that he would be in
Canandaigua at the time of the Court, and speak to the people who might
assemble to hear him, on the atrocious wickedness of the Fugitive Slave
Law.
On his arrival at Canandaigua, Mr. Smith found all the public buildings
closed against him. He therefore requested that a wagon might be drawn
into an adjoining pasture, and notice given that he would speak there.
At the appointed hour a large assembly had gathered to hear him. He
addressed them in his most impressive manner. He exposed fully the
great iniquity that was about to be attempted in the court-room hard
by,--the iniquity of sentencing a man as guilty of a crime for doing
that which, in the sight of God, was innocent, praiseworthy,--yes,
required by the Golden Rule. He argued to the jurors, who might be in
the crowd surrounding him, that, whatever might be the testimony given
them to prove that Jerry was a slave; whatever words might be quoted
from statutes or constitutions to show that a man can be by law turned
into a slave, a chattel, the property of another man, they nevertheless
might, with a good conscience, bring in a verdict acquitting any one of
crime, who should be accused before them of having helped to rescue a
fellow-man from those who would make him a slave. “If,” said he, “the
ablest lawyer should argue before you, and quote authorities to prove
that an article which you know to be wood is stone or iron, would you
consent to regard it as stone or iron, and bring in a verdict based
upon such a supposition, even though the judge in his charge should
instruct you so to do? I trust not. So neither should any argument or
amount of testimony or weight of authorities satisfy you that a man is
a chattel. Jurors cannot be bound more than other persons to believe an
absurdity.”
The United States Attorney, Mr. Garvin, found that he could not empanel
a jury upon which there were not several who had formed an opinion
against the law. So he let all the “Jerry Rescue Causes” fall to the
ground forever.
At the time of this his boldest, most defiant act, Mr. Smith was a
member of Congress. For this reason “his contempt of the Court,” “his
disrespect for the forms of law, the precedents of judicial decisions,
and the authority of the constitution,” was pronounced by “the wise and
prudent” to be the more shameful, mischievous, and alarming. But “the
common people” could not be easily convinced that any wrong could be so
great as enslaving a man, nor that it was criminal to help him escape
from servile bondage.
My readers will readily believe that we exulted not a little in the
triumph of our exploit. For several years afterwards we celebrated the
1st of October as the anniversary of the greatest event in the history
of Syracuse. Either because, in 1852, there was no hall in our city
capacious enough to accommodate so large a meeting as we expected,
or else because we could not obtain the most capacious hall,--for
one or the other of these reasons,--the first anniversary of the
Rescue of Jerry was celebrated in the rotunda of the New York Central
Railroad, just then completed for the accommodation of the engines.
John Wilkinson, Esq., at that time President of the road, promptly,
and without our solicitation, proffered the use of the building, large
enough to hold thousands. It was well filled. Gerrit Smith presided,
and the speeches made by him, by Mr. Garrison, and other prominent
Abolitionists, together with the letters of congratulation received
from Hon. Charles Sumner, Rev. Theodore Parker, and others, would fill
a volume, half the size of this, with the most exalted political and
moral sentiments, and not a few passages of sublime eloquence.
After our triumph over the Fugitive Slave Law, we Abolitionists in
Central New York enjoyed for several years a season of comparative
peace. We held our regular and our occasional antislavery meetings
without molestation, and were encouraged in the belief that our
sentiments were coming to be more generally received. The Republican
party was evidently bound to become an abolition party. Hon. Charles
Sumner was doing excellent service in the Senate of the United States,
and Hon. Henry Wilson and others in Congress were seconding his
efforts, to bring the legislators of our nation to see and own that the
institution of slavery was utterly incompatible with a free, democratic
government, and irreconcilable with the Christian religion.
Still we could perceive no signs of repentance in the slaveholding
States, and had despaired of a _peaceful_ settlement of the great
controversy. How soon the appeal to the arbitrament of war would come
we could not predict; but we saw it to be inevitable. All, therefore,
that remained for the friends of our country and of humanity to do, was
diligently to disseminate throughout the non-slaveholding States a just
appreciation of the great question at issue between the North and the
South; a true respect for the God-given rights of man, which our nation
had so impiously dared to trample upon; and the sincere belief that
nothing less than the extermination of slavery from our borders could
insure the true union of the States and the prosperity of our Republic.
To this work of patriotism, as well as benevolence, therefore, we
addressed ourselves so long as the terrible chastisement which our
nation had incurred was delayed.
Wellnigh exhausted by my unremitted attention to the duties of my
profession, and to the several great reforms that have signalized the
last fifty years, I was persuaded to go to Europe for recreation and
the recovery of my health. I spent six months of the year 1859 on the
Continent, and three months in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Numerous as are the interesting places and persons to be seen in
each of these last-named countries, I must confess that my greatest
attraction to them was the expectation of seeing many of the friends of
liberty, who had co-operated so generously with us for the abolition
of slavery. And in this respect I was not disappointed. I lectured
by request to large audiences in several of the chief cities of the
kingdom. But, what was much better, I had meetings for conversation
with the prominent Abolitionists, especially in London, Glasgow, and
Dublin. These were numerously attended, and the intelligent questions
put to me, by those who were so well informed and so deeply interested
in the cause of my enslaved countrymen, saved me from misspending a
minute on the commonplaces of the subject, and led me to give our
friends the most recent information of the kinds they craved.
I remember particularly the conversations that I had in Glasgow
and Dublin. The former was held in the ample, well-stored library
room of Professor Nichol of the University of that city. His wife
was, a few years before, Miss Elizabeth Pease, one of the earliest,
best-informed, and most liberal of our English fellow-laborers. He
promptly concurred with her in cordially inviting me to his home. And
on my second or third visit, he had gathered there to meet me the
prominent Abolitionists of the city and immediate neighborhood. He
presided at the meeting, and introduced me in a most comprehensive and
impressive speech on human freedom,--the paramount right of man,--of
all men,--demanding protection wherever it was denied or endangered
from all who can give it aid, without consideration of distance or
nationality. That well-spent evening I shall never forget, especially
his and his wife’s contributions of wise thought and elevated
sentiment. But my too brief personal acquaintance with them is kept
more sacred in my memory by his death, which happened soon after, and
an intensely interesting incident connected with it.
At Dublin and its vicinity I spent a fortnight,--too short a time. But
I had the happiness, while there, of seeing face to face several of
our warm-hearted sympathizers and active co-laborers, especially James
Haughton, Esq., and Richard D. Webb. The former I found to be more
engaged in the cause of Peace, and much more of Temperance, than in
the antislavery cause. Indeed, in the cause of Temperance he had done
then, and has done since, more than any other man in Ireland, excepting
Father Matthew. Still, he had always been, and was then, heartily in
earnest for the abolition of slavery everywhere.
But Richard D. Webb could hardly have taken a more active part with
American Abolitionists, or have rendered us much more valuable
services, if he had been a countryman of ours, and living in our
midst. The readers of _The Liberator_ cannot have forgotten how often
communications from his pen appeared in its columns, nor how thorough
an acquaintance they evinced with whatever pertained to our conflict
with “the peculiar institution,” that great anomaly in our democracy.
Mr. Webb was afterwards the author of an excellent memoir of John
Brown, whose “soul is still marching on,”--the spirit of whose hatred
of oppression, and sympathy with the down-trodden, is spreading wider
and descending deeper into the hearts of our people, and will continue
so to spread, until every vestige of slavery shall be effaced from
our land, and all the inhabitants thereof shall enjoy equal rights
and privileges on the same conditions. Mr. Webb’s memoir shows how
justly he appreciated and how heartily he admired the intentions of
John Brown, whatever he thought of the expediency of his plan of
operations. For a week I enjoyed the hospitality of Mrs. Edmundson, and
at her house met one evening many of the moral _élite_ of Dublin, for
conversation respecting the conflict with slavery in our country. Their
inquiries showed them to be very well informed on the subject, and
alive to whatever then seemed likely to affect the issue favorably or
unfavorably.
Lord Morpeth, who was at that time Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,
graciously invited me to lunch with him. He had visited our country a
few years before, and had manifested while here the deepest interest
in the principles and purposes of the Abolitionists. I was delighted
to find that he and his sister, Lady Howard, continued to be as much
concerned as ever for our success.
On my return from Europe, early in November, 1859, the steamer stopped
as usual at Halifax. There we first received the tidings of John
Brown’s raid, and the failure of his enterprise. I felt at once that
it was “the beginning of the end” of our conflict with slavery. There
were several Southern gentlemen and ladies among our fellow-passengers,
and Northern sympathizers with them, as well as others of opposite
opinions. During our short passage from Halifax to Boston there was
evidently a deep excitement in many bosoms. Occasionally words of
bitter execration escaped the lips of one and another of the proslavery
party. But there was no dispute or general conversation upon the
subject. The event, of which we had just heard, was a portent of too
much magnitude to be hastily estimated, and the consequences thereof
flippantly foretold.
On my arrival in Boston, and the next day in Syracuse, I found the
public in a state of high excitement; and for two or three months the
case of John Brown was the subject of continual debate in private
circles as well as public meetings. The murmurs and threats that came
daily from the South, intimated plainly enough that the slaveholding
oligarchy were preparing for something harsher than a war of words.
They were gathering themselves to rule or ruin our Republic. Under
the imbecile administration of Mr. Buchanan, the Secretary of War,
John B. Floyd, could do as he saw fit in his department. It was
observed that the arms and ammunition of the nation, with the greater
part of the small army needed in times of peace, were removed and
disposed of in such places as would make them most available to the
Southerners, if the emergency for which they were preparing should
come. They awaited only the issue of the next presidential contest.
The first ten months of the year 1860 were given to that contest. All
the strength of the two political parties was put in requisition,
drawn out, and fully tested and compared. And when victory crowned
the friends of freedom and human rights,--when the election of Mr.
Lincoln was proclaimed,--then came forth from the South the fierce
cry of disunion, and the standard of a new Confederacy was set up. It
is not my intention to enter upon the period of our Civil War. These
Recollections will close with occurrences before the fall of Fort
Sumter.
In pursuance of a plan adopted several years before, by the American
Antislavery Society, arrangements were made early in December, 1860, to
hold our annual conventions during the months of January and February,
in Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany, and in a dozen other of the principal
cities and villages between the two extremes. We who had devoted
ourselves so assiduously for a quarter of a century or more to the
subversion of the slavery in our land, of course had many thoughts and
feelings upon the subject at that time, which pressed for utterance.
We were the last persons who could be indifferent to the state of our
country in 1860, or be silent in view of it. Nor had we any reason then
to suppose that our counsels and admonitions would be particularly
unacceptable to the people, as we were then frequently assured that the
public sentiment of New York, as well as New England, had become quite
antislavery.
We were not a little surprised, therefore, at the new outbreak of
violent opposition in Boston, and afterwards in Buffalo and other
places. About the middle of January I attended the convention at
Rochester, where we were rudely treated and grossly insulted. I could
no longer doubt that there was a concerted plan, among the Democrats
everywhere, to evince a revival of their zeal in behalf of their
Southern partisans by breaking up our meetings. And it appeared that
the Republicans were afraid to take the responsibility, and incur the
new odium of protecting our conventions in their constitutional rights.
Still I hoped better things of Syracuse.
But a few days before the time appointed for our Convention, I was
earnestly requested by the Mayor of the city to prevent the holding of
such a meeting. I replied I would do so, if there was indeed so little
respect for the liberty of speech in Syracuse that the assembly would
be violently dispersed. In answer to this, his Honor assured me that,
much as he wished we would forbear to exercise our undoubted right,
still, if we felt it to be our duty to hold the convention, “he would
fearlessly use every means at his command to secure order, and to
prevent any interference with our proceedings.” Thus he took from me
the only apology I could offer to our Committee of Arrangements for
interposing to prevent the assembling of a meeting, which they had
called in accordance with the duty assigned them.
A day or two afterwards I received a letter, written probably at the
solicitation of the Mayor, and signed by twenty of the most respectable
gentlemen of Syracuse (ten of them prominent members of my church),
urging me to prevent the holding of the convention, as “they were
credibly informed that an organized and forcible effort would be made
to oppose us, and a collision might ensue between the police force
of the city and a lawless mob.” Still, they assured me that they
recognized our right to hold such a convention, and “that they should
be in duty bound to aid in protecting us if we did assemble.” I felt
obliged to answer them very much as I had answered the Mayor, and added
what follows:--
“In common with my associates, I am very sincere in believing that the
principles we inculcate, and the measures we advise, are the only ones
that can (without war) extirpate from our country the root of that evil
which now overshadows us, and threatens our ruin. We have much to say
to the people, much that we deem it very important that they should
hear and believe, lest they bow themselves to another compromise with
the slaveholding oligarchy, which for many years has really ruled our
Republic, and which nothing will satisfy but the entire subjugation of
our liberties to their supposed interests.
“We perceive that the ‘strong’ men of the Republican party are
trembling, and concession and compromise are coming to be their policy.
We deprecate their fears, their want of confidence in moral principle
and in God. We therefore feel deeply urged to cry aloud, and warn the
people of the snare into which politicians would lead them. We are
bound at least to _offer_ to them the word of truth, whether they will
hear or whether they will forbear.
“If, gentlemen, you had assured me that our proposed meeting will be
violently assaulted; that those who may assemble peacefully to listen
will not be allowed to hear us; that they will be dispersed with insult
if not with personal injury; and that you, gentlemen of influence as
you are, shall stand aside and let the violent have their way; then I
should have felt it to be incumbent on me to advertise the friends of
liberty and humanity that it would not be worth their while to convene
here, as it would be only to be dispersed.
“But, gentlemen, as you generously ‘affirm,’ in the letter before me,
‘that your duties as citizens will require you to aid in extending
protection to our convention, in case it shall be convened, in the
exercise of all the rights which all deliberative bodies may claim,’
and as the Mayor of our city has assured me that ‘he shall fearlessly
use every means at his command to secure order and to prevent any
interference with our proceedings,’ I should not be justified in
assuming the responsibility of postponing the convention. For,
gentlemen, if you will do what you acknowledge to be your duty, and if
the Mayor will fulfil his generous promise, I am confident the rioters
will be overawed, the liberty of speech will be vindicated, and our
city rescued from a deep disgrace.
“Yours, gentlemen, in great haste, but very respectfully,
“SAMUEL J. MAY.”
Just before the hour appointed for the opening of the convention, on
the 29th of January, 1861, I went to the hall which I had hired for its
accommodation. It was already fully occupied by the rioters. A meeting
had been organized, and the chairman was making his introductory
speech. So soon as he had finished it, I addressed him: “Mr. Chairman,
there is some mistake here, or a greater wrong. More than a week ago I
engaged this hall for our Annual Antislavery Convention to be held at
this hour.” Immediately, several rough men turned violently upon me,
touched my head and face with their doubled fists, and swore they would
knock me down, and thrust me out of the hall, if I said another word.
Meanwhile, the Rev. Mr. Strieby, of the Plymouth Church, had succeeded
in getting upon the platform, and had commenced a remonstrance, when he
was set upon in like manner, and threatened with being thrown down and
put out, if he did not desist at once.
The only police officer that I saw in the hall soon after rose,
addressed the chairman and said: “I came here, Sir, by order of the
Mayor, who had heard that there was to be a disturbance, and that the
liberty of speech would be outraged here. But I see no indications of
such an intended wrong. The meeting seems to me to be an orderly one,
properly organized. I approve the objects of the meeting as set forth
in your introductory speech, and trust you will have a quiet time.”
Thus dispossessed, we of course retired, and, after consultation,
agreed to gather as many of the members of the intended convention,
as could be found, at the dwelling-house of Dr. R. W. Pease, who
generously proffered us the use of it. A large number of ladies
and gentlemen assembled there early in the evening, and were duly
organized. Pertinent and impressive addresses were made by Beriah
Green, Aaron M. Powell, Susan B. Anthony, C. D. B. Mills, and others,
after which a series of resolutions was passed, of which the following
were the most important:--
“_Resolved_, That the only escape for nations, as well as
individuals, from sin and its consequences, is by the way of
unfeigned repentance; and that our proud Republic must go down
in ruin, unless the people shall be brought to repentance,--shall
be persuaded to ‘cease to do evil, and learn to do well; to seek
justice, relieve the oppressed.’ Compromises with the wrong-doers
will only plunge us deeper in their iniquity. Civil war will not
settle the difficulty, but complicate it all the more, and superadd
rapine and murder to the sin of slaveholding. The dissolution of
the Union, even, may not relieve us; for if slavery still remains
in the land, it will be a perpetual trouble to the inhabitants
thereof, whether they be separate or whether they be united;
slavery must be abolished, or there can be no peace within these
borders.
“_Resolved_, That our General Government ought to abolish all
Fugitive Slave Laws; for, unless they can dethrone God, the people
will ever be under higher obligations to obey him than to obey any
laws, any constitutions that men may have framed and enacted. And
the law of God requires us to befriend the friendless, to succor
the distressed, to hide the outcast, to deliver the oppressed.
“_Resolved_, That as the people of the free States have from the
beginning been partakers in the iniquity of slavery,--accomplices
of the oppressors of the poor laborers at the South,--therefore we
ought to join hands with them in any well-devised measures for the
emancipation of their bondmen. Our wealth and the wealth of the
nation ought to be put in requisition, to relieve those who may
impoverish themselves by setting their captives free; to furnish
the freed men with such comforts, conveniences, implements of labor
as they may need; and to establish such educational and religious
institutions as will be indispensable everywhere, to enable them,
and, yet more, their children and children’s children, to become
what the free people, the citizens of self-governing states, ought
to be,--_intelligent_, _moral_, _religious_.
“_Resolved_, That the abolition of slavery is the great concern of
the American people,--‘the one thing needful’ for them,--without
which there can be no union, no peace, no political virtue, no
real, lasting prosperity in all these once United States.
“_Resolved_, That, so far from its being untimely or inappropriate
to stand forth for unpopular truths, in seasons of great popular
excitement, apprehension, and wide passionate denial of them,
it is then pre-eminently timely, appropriate, and all vitally
important, whether regarded in view of the paramount obligations
of fealty to the Supreme King, or the sacred considerations of the
redemption and welfare of mankind; and as it behooved then most of
all to speak for Jesus, when Jesus was arraigned for condemnation
and crucifixion, as it has ever been the bounden and, sooner or
later, the well-acknowledged duty of every friend of the truth in
past history to stand firm, and ever firmer in its behalf, amid
whatever wave of passion, malignity, and madness, even though the
multitude all shout, Crucify! and devils be gathered thick as tiles
on the house-tops of Worms to devour; so at the present hour it
sacredly behooves Abolitionists to abide fast by their principles,
and in the very midst of the present storm of passion and insane
folly, in face of every assault, whether of threat or infliction,
to speak for the slave and for man; and, with an earnestness
and pointed emphasis unknown before, to press home upon their
countrymen the question daily becoming more imminent and vital,
whether the few vestiges of freedom yet remaining shall be blotted
out, and this entire land overswept with tyranny, violence, and
blood.”
The members of the Convention refused to make any further attempt to
hold a public meeting, but the citizens who were present at Dr. Pease’s
house resolved to attempt a meeting the next forenoon in the hall from
which the convention had been expelled, for the express purpose of
testing the faithfulness of the city authorities, and manifesting a
just indignation at the outrage which had been perpetrated in our midst
upon some of the fundamental rights of a free people. But the attempt
was frustrated by the same rioters that had ruled the day before.
And the following night the mob celebrated their too successful
onslaught upon popular liberty by a procession led by a band of music,
with transparent banners, bearing these inscriptions:--
“FREEDOM OF SPEECH, BUT NOT TREASON.”
“THE RIGHTS OF THE SOUTH MUST BE PROTECTED.”
“ABOLITIONISM NO LONGER IN SYRACUSE.”
“THE JERRY RESCUERS PLAYED OUT.”
Prominently in the procession there were carried two large-sized
effigies,--one of a man the other of a woman,--the former bearing
my name, the latter Miss Anthony’s. After parading through some of
the principal streets, the procession repaired to Hanover Square,
the centre of the business part of our city, and there amid shouts,
hootings, mingled with disgusting profanity and ribaldry, the effigies
were burned up; but not the great realities for which we were
contending.
* * * * *
For more than thirty years the Abolitionists had been endeavoring to
rouse the people to exterminate slavery by moral, ecclesiastical,
and political instrumentalities, urging them to their duty by every
religious consideration, and by reiterating the solemn admonition of
Thomas Jefferson, that “If they would not liberate the enslaved in the
land by the generous energies of their own minds and hearts, the slaves
would be liberated by the awful processes of civil and servile war.”
But the counsels of the Abolitionists were spurned, their sentiments
and purposes were shamelessly misrepresented, their characters
traduced, their property destroyed, their persons maltreated. And
lo! our country, favored of Heaven above all others, was given up to
fratricidal, parricidal, and for a while we feared it would be suicidal
war.
God be praised! the threatened dissolution of our Union was averted.
But discord still reigns in the land. Our country is not surely saved.
It was right that our Federal Government should be forbearing in their
treatment of the Southern Rebels, because the people of the North had
been, to so great an extent, their partners in the enslavement of our
fellow-men, that it would have ill become us to have punished them
condignly. But our Government has been guilty of great injustice to the
colored population of the South, who were all loyal throughout the war.
These should not have been left as they have been, in a great measure,
at the mercy of their former masters. Homes and adequate portions of
the land (they so long had cultivated without compensation) ought to
have been secured to every family of the Freedmen, and some provision
for their education should have been made. With these and the elective
franchise conferred upon them, the Freedmen might safely have been left
to maintain themselves in their new condition, and work themselves out
of the evils that were enforced upon them by their long enslavement.
May the sad experience of the past prompt and impel our nation, before
it be too late, to do all for the colored population of our country,
South and North, that righteousness demands at our hands.