 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
| 762 THE UNDERGROUND RAIL ROAD. for a slave. * * * Ohio ha« become a kind of » negro banting ground, a new Congo's coast and Guinea's shore. A man was kidnapped almost under the shadow of our capital. Oh, was it not dreadful ? * * * Oh, may the living God prepare me for an earnest and faithful advocacy of the cause of justice and right!" In those days the blows struck by the hero, John Brown, were agitating the nation. Scarcely was it possible for a living soul to be more deeply affected than tliia female advocate. Nor did her sympathies end in mere Words. She tendered material aid as well .as heartfelt commiseration. To John Brown's wife * ghe sent through the writer the following letter: LETTEB TO JOHH BBOWH's WIFE. FAEMEE CEHTEE, OHIO, Nov. 14th. Mr DEAR MADAM :—In an hour like this the common words of sympathy may seem like idle words, and yet I want to say something to you, the noble wife of the hero of the nineteenth century. Belonging to the race your dear husband reached forth hia hand to aesist, I need not tell you that my sympathies are with yon. I thank you for the brave •words yon have spoken. A republic that produces unch a wife and mother may hope for better davs. Our heart may grow more hopeful for humanity when it sees the sublime sacrifice it is about to receive from bis hands. Not in vain has your dear husband periled all, if the martyrdom of one hero is worth more than the life of a million cowards. From "the prison comes forth a shout of triumph over that power whose ethics are robbery of the feeble and oppression of the weak, the trophies of whose chivalry are a plundered cradle and a scourged and bleeding woman. Dear sister, I tbauk yon for the brave and no-bl« words that you have spoken. Enclosed I send you a few dollars as a token of my gratitude, reverence and love. Yours respectfully, FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS. Post Office address : care of William Still, 107 Fifth St., Philadelphia, Penn. May God, our own God, sustain you in the hour of trial. If there is one thing on earth. I can do for you or yours, let me be apprized. I am at your service. Not forgetting Brown's comrades, -who were then lying iii prison under sentence of death, true to the best impulses of her generous heart, she thus wrote relative to these ill-fated prisoners,from Montpelier, Dec. 12th: " I thank yon for complying with jny request. (She had previously ordered a box of things to be forwarded to them.) And also that you wrote to them. You Bee Brown towered up BO bravely that these doomed and fated men may have been almost overlooked, and juat think that I am able to send one ray through the night around them. And as their letters came too late to answer in time, I am better satisfied that yon wrote. I hope the things will reach them. Poor doomed and fated men I Why did you not send them more things? Please send me the bill of expense. * * Bend me word what I can do for the fugitives. Do you need any money ? Do I not owe you on the old bill (pledge)? Look carefully and gee if 1 fiave paid all. Along with this letter I send you one for Mr. Stephens (one of Brown'js men), and would ask you to send him a box of nice things every week tfll be dies or is acquitted. I understand the balls have not been^extracted from him. HM not this suffering been overshadowed by th& glory that gathered around the brave old • Mr*. Harper pwwd two week« with lira. Brown ai tb« hoaM of the writer while »ho was awaiting the execution of her hnibud, ud fjTnp»tkU»d with her moit deeply. |