A Visit to the United States in 1841 Part 13

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE YEARLY MEETING OF FRIENDS, HELD IN PHILADELPHIA, APPOINTED FOR THE GRADUAL CIVILIZATION, &C., OF THE INDIAN NATIVES, PRESENTED TO THE MEETING, FOURTH MONTH 21ST, 1841, AND DIRECTED TO BE PRINTED FOR THE USE OF THE MEMBERS.

"TO THE YEARLY MEETING.

"The Committee charged with promoting the Gradual Improvement and Civilization of the Indian Natives, report:--

"That although they have given attention to this interesting concern, there are but few subjects in their operations, since the last report, which require notice. The Indians have been in a very unsettled condition during the past year, in consequence of the embarra.s.sment and distress produced by the ratification of the treaty, and their uncertainty as to the best course to be pursued by them in their trying and perplexing circ.u.mstances.

They still cling to the hope that they shall be able to ward off the calamity which threatens them, either through the favorable disposition of the new Administration and Senate, to give their case a re-hearing, or by an Appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. Small as the hope afforded by these sources may appear to a disinterested observer, they are buoyed up by it, and seem as unwilling as ever, to look toward relinquis.h.i.+ng their present homes.

"In a communication addressed to the committee, dated Tunesa.s.sah, Fifth Month 24th, 1840, signed by ten chiefs, they say, 'Although, the information of the ratification of the treaty is distressing to us, yet it is a satisfaction to hear from you, and to learn that you still remember us in our troubles, and are disposed to advise and a.s.sist us. The intelligence of the confirmation of the treaty caused many of our women to shed tears of sorrow. We are sensible that we stand in need of the advice of our friends. Our minds are unaltered on the subject of emigration.' Another dated Cold Spring, Twelfth Month 8th, 1840, holds this language: 'Brothers, we continue to feel relative to the treaty as we have ever felt. We cannot regard it as an act of our nation, or hold it to be binding on us. We still consider, that in justice, the land is at this time as much our own as ever it was. We have done nothing to forfeit our right to it; and have come to a conclusion to remain upon it as long as we can enjoy it in peace.' 'We trust in the Great Spirit: to Him we submit our cause.'

"A letter from the Senecas, residing at Tonawanda, was addressed to the Committee, from which the following extracts are taken:

"'By the help of the Great Spirit we have met in open council this 23d day of the Fifth Month, 1840, for the purpose of deliberating on the right course for us to pursue under the late act of the government of the United States relating to our lands. Brothers, we are in trouble; we have been told that the President has ratified a treaty, by which these lands are sold from our possession. We look to you and solicit your advice and your sympathy under the acc.u.mulating difficulties that now surround us. We feel more than ever, our need of the help of the great and good Spirit, to guide us aright. May his council ever preserve and direct us all in true wisdom.

"'It is known to you, brothers, that at different times our people have been induced to cede, by stipulated treaties, to the government of the United States, various tracts of our territory, until it is so reduced that it barely affords us a home. We had hoped by these liberal concessions to secure the quiet and unmolested possession of this small residue, but we have abundant reason to fear that we have been mistaken. The agent and surveyor of a company of land speculators, known as the Ogden Company, have been on here to lay out our land into lots, to be sold from us to the whites. We have protested against it, and have forbidden their proceeding.

"'Brothers, what we want, is that you should intercede with the United States government on our behalf. We do not want to leave our lands. We are willing that the emigrating party should sell out their rights, but we are not willing that they should sell ours.

"'Brothers, we want the President of the United States to know that we are for peace; that we only ask the possession of our just rights. We have kept in good faith all our agreements with the government. In our innocence of any violation we ask its protection. In our weakness we look to it for justice and mercy. We desire to live upon our lands in peace and harmony. We love Tonawanda. It is the residue left us of the land of our forefathers. We have no wish to leave it. Here are our cultivated fields, our houses, our wives and children, and our firesides--and here we wish to lay our bones in peace.

"'Brothers, in conclusion, we desire to express our sincere thanks to you for your friendly a.s.sistance in times past, and at the same time earnestly solicit your further attention and advice. Brothers, may the Great Spirit befriend you all--farewell.'

"Desirous of rendering such aid as might be in our power, a correspondence has been held with some members of Congress, on the subject of the treaty, and other matters connected with it; and recently, two of our number visited Was.h.i.+ngton, and were a.s.sured by the present Secretary of War, under whose immediate charge the Indian affairs are placed, that it was his determination, and that of the other officers of the government, to give to the treaty, and the circ.u.mstances attending its procurement, a thorough examination; and to adopt such a course respecting it, as justice and humanity to the Indians would dictate.

"The friends who have for several years resided at Tunesa.s.sah still continue to occupy the farm, and have charge of the saw and grist mills and other improvements. The farm, during the past year, has yielded about thirty-five tons of hay, two hundred bushels of potatoes, one hundred bushels of oats, and one hundred bushels of apples. Notwithstanding the unsettlement produced by the treaty during the past season, the Indians have raised an adequate supply of provisions to keep them comfortably during the year; and they manifest an increased desire to avoid the use of ardent spirits, and to have their children educated.

In their letter of the Twelfth Month last, the chiefs say, 'We are more engaged to have our children educated than we have heretofore been. There are at this time three schools in operation on this reservation, for the instruction of our youth.'

"Our friend, Joseph Batty, in a letter dated 28th of Second Month last, says, 'The Indians have held several temperance councils this winter. The chiefs--with the exception of two, who were not present--have all signed a pledge to abstain from the use of all intoxicating liquors, and appear engaged to bring about a reform among their people; but the influence of the whites among them is prejudicial to their improvement in this and other respects.'

"By direction of the Committee,

"THOMAS WISTAR, _Clerk_.

"_Philadelphia, 4th Month 15th, 1841_."

APPENDIX D. P. 44.

ELISHA TYSON.

The following particulars of this memorable person are chiefly taken from a work, now very scarce, ent.i.tled "The Life of Elisha Tyson, the Philanthropist, by a Citizen of Baltimore."

"The eldest known ancestor of Mr. Tyson was a German Quaker, converted to the faith of Fox by the preaching of William Penn.

Persecuted by the government of his native country for his religion, he gathered up his all and followed Penn to England; with whom, and at whose request, he afterwards embarked for America, and was among the first settlers of Pennsylvania. He established himself within what are now called the environs of Philadelphia, married the daughter of an English settler, and became the happy father of sons and daughters. From these, many descendants have been derived.

"Elisha Tyson was one of the great grandsons in direct descent of the German Quaker, and was born on the spot which he had chosen for his residence. The religion and virtues of this ancestor were instilled into the minds of his children and children's children, to the third and fourth generation--not by transmission of blood, but by the force of a guarded and a Christian education. In the subject of this memoir, they blazed forth with superior l.u.s.tre. From his infancy he was conspicuous in his neighborhood for that benevolence of heart and intrepidity of soul, which so highly distinguished him in after life."

In his early manhood he removed to Baltimore, in the slave State of Maryland. Here, from his first residence, he took an active part in various benevolent and public spirited enterprises, although he had to struggle with early difficulties, having no resources for his support but honesty, industry, and perseverance. The cause of the oppressed slaves very soon engaged his attention, and his unwearied exertions in their behalf ceased not till the close of a long and energetic life. In the following quotation, describing the American slave trade, although the past tense is employed by his biographer, yet if Louisiana be subst.i.tuted for Georgia, the whole representation is true of the present time. That dreadful traffic has increased many fold since the date here alluded to, at which E. Tyson's career of benevolence commenced.

"Even the most creditable merchants felt no compunction in speculating in the flesh and blood of their own species. These articles of merchandize were as common as wheat and tobacco, and ranked with these as a staple of Maryland. This state of things was naturally productive of scenes of cruelty. Georgia was then the great receptacle of that portion of these unfortunate beings, who were exported beyond the limits of their native soil; and the worst name given to Tartarus itself could not be more appalling to their imaginations than the name of that sister State. And when we consider the dreadful consequences suffered by the victims of this traffic; a separation like that of death between the nearest and dearest relatives; a banishment for ever from the land of their nativity and the scenes of their youth; the painful inflictions by the hands of slave drivers, to whom cruelty was rendered delightful by its frequent exercise; with many other sufferings too numerous to mention, we cannot wonder at this horror on the part of these unfortunate beings, and that it should cause them to use all the means in their power to avoid so terrible a destiny. The slave-trader, aware of all this, and fearful lest his victims might seek safety by flight, became increasingly careful of his property. With these men, and upon such subjects, care is cruelty; and thus the apparent necessity of the case came in aid of the favorite disposition of their minds. They charged their victims with being the authors of that cruelty, which had its true origin in their own remorseless hearts. Their plea for additional rigor, being plausibly urged, was favorably received by a community darkened by prejudice. Few regarded with pity, and most with stoical indifference, this barbarous correction for crimes antic.i.p.ated, and rigorous penance for offences existing only in the diabolical fancies of their tormentors. The truth is, it was the love these poor wretches bore their wives, children, and native soil, for which they were punished. They were commonly bound two and two by chains, riveted to iron collars fastened around their necks, more and more closely, as their drivers had more and more reason to suspect a desire to escape. If they were conveyed in wagons, as they sometimes were, additional chains were so fixed, as to connect the right ancle of one with the left ancle of another, so that they were fastened foot to foot, and neck to neck.

If a disposition to complain, or to grieve, was manifested by any of them, the mouths of such were instantly stopped with a gag. If, notwithstanding this, the overflowings of sorrow found a pa.s.sage through other channels, they were checked by the 'scourge inexorable;'--the cruel monsters thus endeavoring to lessen the appearance of pain, by increasing its reality. These were scenes of ordinary occurrence; troops of these poor slaves were continually seen fettered as before described, marching two and two, with commanders before and behind, swords by their sides, and pistols in their belts--the triumphant victors over unarmed women and children. The sufferings of their victims, were, if possible, increased, when they were compelled to stop for the night. They were crowded in cellars, and loaded with an additional number of fetters. On those routes usually taken by them to the South, stated taverns were selected as their resting places for the night. In these, dungeons under ground were specially contrived for their reception. Iron staples, with rings in them, were fixed at proper places in the walls; to these, chains were welded; and to these chains the fetters of the prisoners were locked, as the means of certain safety. It was usual every day for these slave-drivers to keep a strict record of the imagined offences of their slaves; which, if not to their satisfaction expiated by suffering during the day, remained upon the register until its close; when, in the midst of midnight dungeon horrors, goaded with a weight of fetters, in addition to those which had galled them during their weary march, these reputed sins were atoned by their blood, which was made to trickle down 'the scourge with triple thongs.'"

Such was the evil with which Elisha Tyson, when "young, solitary, and friendless," undertook to grapple; the means he chiefly employed, were such as tended to purify and enlighten public opinion.

"He had two princ.i.p.al modes of operating upon the public mind; by conversation in public and private places, and by the press.

Through the means of the first, he worked upon the feelings and sentiments of the higher and more influential cla.s.ses; by means of the latter, he influenced in a great degree, the ma.s.s of the community. In private conversation, his arguments were so cogent, his appeals so energetic, and his manner so sincere and disinterested, that few could avoid conviction. It is true, indeed, as it regards the press, that he did not publish very much of his own composing; but he procured the publication of a vast deal of his own dictating. By his arguments and entreaties, he aroused the zeal of many individuals, each of whom enlisted himself as a kind of voluntary amanuensis, who wrote and published his dictations. Many important essays have in this way been communicated to the public."

But he undertook also, services requiring a yet sterner resolution, and more heroic perseverance, services which demanded that he himself should be in bondage neither to riches, honor, nor reputation, since his exertions endangered all his personal interests in such a community as that by which he was surrounded.

"Of those held in servitude, two cla.s.ses of beings felt in a peculiar manner the kindness and sympathy of Mr. Tyson--those ent.i.tled to their freedom, and illegally held in slavery--and those, who, though not illegally kept in bondage, yet were treated with inhumanity by their masters.

"Where he had reason to believe that a person claimed as a slave was ent.i.tled to his freedom, he would, in the first place, in order to avoid litigation, lay before the reputed owner, the grounds of his belief. If these were disregarded, he then proceeded to employ counsel, by whom a pet.i.tion for freedom was filed in the proper court, and the case prosecuted to a final determination. What excited most astonishment in these trials, was the extraordinary success which attended him. Very few were the cases in which he was defeated; and his failure even in these, was more generally owing to the want of testimony, than to the want of justice on his side. To enumerate his successes, would be as impossible, on account of their vast number, as it would be tedious on account of their similarity to each other.

Whole families were often liberated by a single verdict, the fate of one relative deciding the fate of many. And often ancestors, after pa.s.sing a long life in illegal slavery, sprung at last, like the chrysalis in autumn, into new existence, beneath the genial rays of the sun of liberty, which shed at the same time its benign influence upon their children, and children's children.

"The t.i.tles of the individuals, thus liberated, to their freedom, were variously derived. Sometimes from deeds of manumission, long suppressed, and at last brought to light, by the searching scrutiny of Tyson--sometimes from the genealogy of the pet.i.tioner, traced by him to some Indian or white maternal ancestor--sometimes from the right to freedom, claimed by birth, but attempted to be destroyed by the rapacity of some vile kidnapper, and sometimes from the violation of those of our laws which manumitted slaves imported from foreign parts.

"The labors of Mr. Tyson, were not confined to a single district--they extended over the whole of Maryland. There is not a county in it, which has not felt his influence, or a court of justice, whose records do not bear proud testimonials of his triumphs over tyranny. Throwing out of calculation the many liberations indirectly resulting from his efforts, we speak more than barely within bounds, when we say, that he has been the means, under Providence, of rescuing at least two thousand human beings from the galling yoke of a slavery, which, but for him, would have been perpetual.

"And here let me join my readers in expressions of wonder and astonishment at this extraordinary display of human benevolence, in the person of a single individual--unsupported by power, wealth, or t.i.tle, beneath the frowns of society, and against a torrent of prejudice."

In the year 1789 an "Abolition Society," (see antecedent pages 23 and 24,) was formed in Baltimore, of which Elisha Tyson was a member until its dissolution, seven years afterwards.

"From that time, Mr. Tyson supported alone the cause of emanc.i.p.ation in Maryland. Alone, I mean, as the sole director and prime mover of the machinery by which that cause was maintained. a.s.sisted, he was, no doubt, from time to time; but that a.s.sistance was procured through his influence, or rendered effectual under his inspection and advice.[A]

[Footnote A: "One of the most active a.s.sistants was his brother Jesse, much younger than Elisha. He followed him to this State a few years after the arrival of the latter, was an active member of the Abolition Society, and continued, to the day of his death, to co-operate with Elisha."]

"The slave traffic gave rise to an evil still greater--I mean the crime of _kidnapping_. If the horrors arising from the first were so great as I have described them, how shall I depict those of the other! Slaves only were the victims of the slave trade.

In pa.s.sing from hand to hand, they merely exchanged one condition of slavery for another. And though on such occasions they fell from a less degree of misery into a greater, they could not number among their privations any thing so bitter as the loss of liberty. It was this that made the difference between them and the victims of the kidnapper; not that they laid their hands exclusively upon the freeman, for sometimes their rapacity seized upon a slave. But this was very seldom, for the vigilance of slave owners was always alive to detect, and their vengeance to punish such daring felony. In almost all cases of man stealing, the stolen beings were of those who had tasted the sweets of liberty. To the kidnapper, who made these his prey, there were great facilities for escaping with impunity; not only because, in the depth and darkness of a dungeon, his limbs loaded with fetters, and utterance choked with a gag, his suffering could not be made visible or audible, but also because the deadness of sensibility on this subject, which still pervaded the public, though in a less degree than formerly, seemed to have unnerved every eye and palsied every ear. Sights of misery pa.s.sed darkly before the one and sounds of wo fell lifeless on the other.

"On one occasion Mr. Tyson received intelligence that three colored persons, supposed to have been kidnapped, had been seen under suspicious circ.u.mstances, late in the evening, with a notorious slave-trader, in a carriage, which was then moving rapidly towards a quarter of the precincts of Baltimore in which there was a den of man-hunters. It was late in the day when he received the information, which was immediately communicated to the proper authorities. As the testimony offered to these was not, in their opinion, sufficiently strong to induce them to act instantaneously, Mr. Tyson was obliged to seek for aid in other quarters. He accordingly requested certain individuals, who had sometimes lent him their a.s.sistance, to accompany him to the scene of suspicion, in order to obtain, if possible, additional proof. One after another made excuse, (some telling him that the evidence was too weak to justify any effort, and others saying that it would be better to postpone the business for the next morning,) until Mr. Tyson saw himself without the hope of foreign a.s.sistance. But he did not yield or despair--one hope yet remained, and that rested on himself. Alone he determined to search out the den of thieves, to see and judge for himself. If there was no foundation for his suspicions, to dismiss them; if they were true, to call in the aid of the civil power, for the punishment of guilt and the rescue of innocence.

"So much time had been spent in receiving the excuses of his friends, that it was late at night when he set out, on foot and without a single weapon of defence. In the midst of silence and darkness, he marched along until he arrived at the place of destination. It was situated in the very skirts of the city--a public tavern in appearance, but almost exclusively appropriated to a band of slave-traders. Here they conveyed their prey, whether stolen or purchased; here they held their midnight orgies, and revelled in the midst of misery. The keeper of this place was himself one of the party, and therefore not very scrupulous about the sort of victims his companions chose to place beneath his care. Mr. Tyson ascended the door-sill, and, for a moment, listened, if perchance he might hear the sounds of wo. Suddenly a loud laugh broke upon his ears, which was soon lost in a chorus of laughter. Indignant at the sound, he reached forth his hand and rapped with his whole might. No answer was received. He rapped again--all was silence. He then applied himself to the fastening of the door, and finding it unlocked, opened it and entered. Suddenly four men made their appearance.

They had been carousing around a table which stood in the centre of a room, and when a little alarmed by the rapping at the door, they had gone in different directions to seize their weapons.

Mr. Tyson immediately recognised in the countenance of one of these, who appeared to be their leader, the slave-trader whose conduct had given rise to the suspicions that had brought him thither. Nor was it many moments before the person and character of Mr. Tyson became known.