Mr. Wilson was present at the time spoken of by Mr. Gaither, and said one of the officers came out and said he had discovered more than he expected, and remarked, my hopes are more than realized. He could not recollect exactly the number of papers the officer said he had found, but thought it was one hundred or a hundred and twenty. Some one in the crowd said "we ought to take the damned rascal and hang him up on one of the trees opposite." The witness then went away.
Mr. Judson, Representative in Congress from Connecticut, had known Crandall from his boyhood. Crandall studied with witness's family physician,
and acquired a good reputation; nobody stood better in the neighborhood. After he had finished his education he removed to Peekskill, since which witness had been in the habit of seeing him frequently; and he had always known him as a peaceable citizen. The precise year when Crandall was admitted he could not recollect, but it was about 1827 or 1828. Witness had not seen him for two years till he saw him here in prison, and had never heard aught against him till now. Mr. Judson also testified, that the prisoner was a brother of Prudence Crandall, and that at the time of the difficulty with her and her school for blacks in Connecticut, he met Crandall on board the boat on his way home from New York; that he talked with him about that school, and the prisoner said he was going to break it up; that he did not know as he should be able to do it, for his sister Prudence was obstinate, but his other sister, who was with her, he knew he could get away. Crandall then continued home with the witness, and exerted himself with as much zeal as any one could to break up the school.
Dr. Sewall testified that the traverser came to him some time in the spring to get a license to practice in the District, and showed him two letters of high recommendation. He had some conversation with Crandall upon subjects of science and upon his knowledge of medicine and surgery, and formed a high opinion of his talents and acquirements. He advised the defendant by no means to abandon the practice of his profession for entering upon botany or chemistry, but if he could do that without interfering with practice, it might do; he thought him too well qualified in the profession to give it up. Crandall also showed the witness a diploma, which was regularly signed, and he gave a verbal license to practice, and said at the meeting of the Board he would have a regular license made out. He had no reason to believe, from his conversation with the prisoner, that he had any object in view except the pursuit of his profession. All the stories that he had talked upon the subject of abolition with witness, and given him Anti-Slavery papers, were mere idle talk.
Mr. Howard said he was sheriff of Winchester county, where Crandall lived, and identified the handwriting of signatures to a letter of recommendation which Crandall brought with him, and which was allowed in evidence. All the signers were respectable men. Witness thinks he should have known if any Anti-Slavery Society existed there—but he knew of none. He also remembered that Crandall delivered lectures on chemistry there, and he attended them.
Mr. Ward, Representative from the district where Crandall resided, knew that he had lived there seven or eight years, and that he had a high reputation as a respectable man, and a good physician.
Mr. Austin was now a resident in Georgetown, but formerly lived in Peekskill, where he knew the prisoner, who lived in his family three years. He came then in consequence of having raised up Mrs. Austin from a dangerous sickness. Witness was a lawyer, and knew Crandall's reputation to be high as a physician and surgeon, far and near. Witness was President of a Temperance Society, and Crandall was Secretary; he did not know of any Anti-Slavery Society, and did not know or believe that the prisoner belonged to any, or had any thing to do with them. Crandall came on at his request to accompany Mrs. A., who, with her two children, were always severely sick in travelling; and returned home soon after, when he came
back again to stop here to teach botany. He came to witness's house on his return, and was taken sick soon after and confined to his room. Witness was not a subscriber for the Emancipator, though he understood one of the numbers in court was addressed to him. He never saw any abolition papers in Crandall's possession. If he had, they would have attracted his attention. Witness did not know how the large box of books and papers came on, but supposed they came by water when Crandall came the second time. He could not say distinctly, but he thought a Mr. Dennison, an abolition agent, once left some abolition pamphlets at his house for himself, and some for Crandall. He could not identify them in court as the same, and he could not swear whether the endorsement on them was in Crandall's handwriting or not.
Mrs. Austin said she had known the prisoner as long as Mr. Austin, and that his conduct in her family was irreproachable. She remembered Mr. Dennison's having left pamphlets for Crandall and her husband, but could not say those in court were the same, but they were similar. Crandall came at her husband's request, to accompany the family, because they were sick in travelling. He did not wish to come further than New York, and would not consent to come further than Philadelphia; but as Mr. Austin did not meet them there, he kindly came on to Washington. She was cleaning up the house, preparatory to leaving it, and gave Crandall the large box; and asked his permission to put into it his books and papers. These pamphlets were lying as waste paper in the garret, and she threw them with others into the box. Saw that some of them had writing on, but didn't know of any with writing on in the trunk. The box was sent round by water, but he brought the trunk when he came on the second time. He did not carry it to the house when he arrived at night, but it was sent over in the morning. Crandall was immediately taken sick, and witness frequently went to the trunk for various purposes, and saw a package nicely done up, which she supposed to be books. The package remained just as it was tied up at the bookstore, till six or eight days before the prisoner's arrest, when she had curiosity to know what it contained, and he consented that she might open it.
Some conversation was held between witness and prisoner, before and after opening, which the court refused to admit in evidence.