On Saturday morning, when the visitors left, an immense concourse followed to the wharf; the steamer seemed loaded with floral gifts, the graceful ovation of the colored people to their friends. Cheer after cheer resounded for a parting word from them. They were answered by Messrs. Thompson and Tilton; at last came forth the immortal Garrison in answer to an irresistible call.
Major Delany, describing this parting scene at the dock, says, “The mind was forcibly carried back to the days of the young and ardent advocate of emancipation, incarcerated in a Baltimore prison, peering through the gates and bars, hurling defiance at his cowardly opponents, exclaiming, ‘No difficulty, no dangers, shall deter me: at the East or at the West, at the North or at the South, wherever Providence may call me, my voice shall be heard in behalf of the perishing slave, and against the claims of his oppressors.’ Again did the mind revert to him in after years, as a man of high integrity in the city of Boston, led as a beast to the slaughter, with the lyncher’s rope around his neck, only escaping death by imprisonment. When exhausted, he fell to the floor, exclaiming, ‘Never was man so glad to get into prison before!’ And in this his last speech he was more sublime than ever. There he stood in the harbor of Charleston, surrounded by the emancipated slave, giving his last anti-slavery advice:—
“‘And now, my friends, I bid you farewell. I have always advocated non-resistance; but this much I say to you, Come what will never do you submit again to slavery! Do anything; die first! But don’t submit again to them—never again be slaves. Farewell.’
“When the steamer gracefully glided from the pier, the music struck up in stirring strains, shouts rent the air, and the masses, after gazing with tearful eyes, commenced slowly retracing their steps homeward. Never can I forget the scenes transpiring in this eventful week of my arrival at Charleston, nor on different similar occasions during my official station there.”
At a meeting of the colored citizens of Charleston, South Carolina, held at Zion Presbyterian Church, March 29, 1865, the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted:—
Whereas it is fitting that an expression should be given to the sentiments of deep-seated gratitude that pervade our breasts, be it
Resolved, 1. That by the timely arrival of the army of the United States in the city of Charleston, on the 18th of February, 1865, our city was saved from a vast conflagration, our houses from devastation, and our persons from those indignities that they would have been subjected to.
Resolved, 2. That our thanks are due, and are hereby freely tendered, to the district commander, Brigadier General Hatch, and through him to the officers and soldiers under his command, for the protection that they have so readily and so impartially bestowed since their occupation of this city.