On page [283] I have spoken of Harriet Tubman. She deserves to be placed first on the list of American heroines. Having escaped from slavery twenty-two years ago, she set about devising ways and means to help her kindred and acquaintances out of bondage. She first succeeded in leading off her brother, with his wife and several children. Then she helped her aged parents from slavery in Virginia to a free and comfortable home in Auburn, N. Y. Thus encouraged she continued for several years her semi-annual raids into the Southern plantations. Twelve or fifteen times she went. Most adroitly did she evade the patrols and the pursuers. Very large sums of money were offered for her capture, but in vain. She succeeded in assisting nearly two hundred persons to escape from slavery.
When the war broke out she felt, as she said, that “the good Lord has come down to deliver my people, and I must go and help him.” She went into Georgia and Florida, attached herself to the army, performed an incredible amount of labor as a cook, a laundress, and a nurse, still more as the leader of soldiers in scouting parties and raids. She seemed to know no fear and scarcely ever fatigue. They called her their Moses. And several of the officers testified that her services were of so great value, that she was entitled to a pension from the Government. The life of this remarkable woman has been written by a lady,—Mrs. Bradford,—and published in Auburn, N. Y. I hope many of my readers will procure copies of it, that they may know more about Harriet Tubman.
Appendix VII.
The saddest, most astounding evidence of the demoralization of our Northern citizens in respect to slavery, and of Mr. Webster’s depraving influence upon them, is given in the following letter addressed to him soon after the delivery of his speech on the 7th of March,—signed by eight hundred of the prominent citizens of Massachusetts. I have given the names of a few as specimens of the whole.
From the Boston Daily Advertiser of April 2, 1850.
To the Hon. Daniel Webster:
Sir,—Impressed with the magnitude and importance of the service to the Constitution and the Union which you have rendered by your recent speech in the Senate of the United States on the subject of slavery, we desire to express to you our deep obligation for what this speech has done and is doing to enlighten the public mind, and to bring the present crisis in our national affairs to a fortunate and peaceful termination. As citizens of the United States, we wish to thank you for recalling us to our duties under the Constitution, and for the broad, national, and patriotic views which you have sent with the weight of your great authority, and with the power of your unanswerable reasoning into every corner of the Union.
It is, permit us to say, sir, no common good which you have thus done for the country. In a time of almost unprecedented excitement, when the minds of men have been bewildered by an apparent conflict of duties, and when multitudes have been unable to find solid ground on which to rest with security and peace, you have pointed out to a whole people the path of duty, have convinced the understanding and touched the conscience of a nation. You have met this great exigency as a patriot and a statesman, and although the debt of gratitude which the people of this country owe to you was large before, you have increased it by a peculiar service, which is felt throughout the land.
We desire, therefore, to express to you our entire concurrence in the sentiments of your speech, and our heartfelt thanks for the inestimable aid it has afforded towards the preservation and perpetuation of the Union. For this purpose, we respectfully present to you this, our Address of thanks and congratulation, in reference to this most interesting and important occasion in your public life.
We have the honor to be, with the highest respect,
Your obedient servants,
T. H. Perkins,
Charles C. Parsons,
Thomas B. Wales,
Caleb Loring,
Wm. Appleton,
James Savage,
Charles P. Curtis,
Charles Jackson,
George Ticknor,
Benj. R. Curtis,
Rufus Choate,
Josiah Bradlee,
Edward G. Loring,
Thomas B. Curtis,
Francis J. Oliver,
J. A. Lowell,
J. W. Page,
Thomas C. Amory,
Benj. Loring,
Giles Lodge,
Wm. P. Mason,
Wm. Sturgis,
W. H. Prescott,
Samuel T. Armstrong,
Samuel A. Eliot,
James Jackson,
Moses Stuart,[S]
Leonard Woods,[S]
Ralph Emerson,[S]
Jared Sparks,[T]
C. C. Felton,[U]
And over seven hundred others.
THE END.
Cambridge: Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.
[FOOTNOTES]
[A] This chapter was written in June, 1867, and I give it here as it first came from my pen.