A Visit to the United States in 1841 Part 5

[Footnote A: "Human flesh is now the great staple of Virginia, In the legislature of this State, in 1833, Thomas Jefferson Randolph declared that Virginia had been converted into 'one grand menagerie, where men are reared for the market, like oxen for the shambles.' This same gentleman thus compared the foreign with the domestic traffic: 'The trader (African) receives the slave, a stranger in aspect, language and manner, from the merchant who brought him from the interior. But _here_, sir, individuals whom the master has known from infancy,--whom he has seen sporting in the innocent gambols of childhood,--who have been accustomed to look to him for protection,--he tears from the mother's arms, exiles into a foreign country, among a strange people, subject to cruel task-masters. In my opinion, it is much worse.'--Mr. Gholson, of Virginia, in his speech in the legislature of that State, January 18, 1831, says: 'The master forgoes the service of the female slave, has her nursed and attended during the period of her gestation, and raises the helpless and infant offspring. The value of the property justifies the expense; and I do not hesitate to say, that in its increase consists much of our wealth.'--Professor Dew, now President of the College of William and Mary, Virginia, in his review of the debate in the Virginia legislature, 1831-3, speaking of the revenue arising from the trade, says: 'A full equivalent being thus left in the place of the slave, this emigration becomes an advantage to the State, and does not check the black population as much as at first view we might imagine; because it furnishes every inducement to the master to attend to the negroes, to _encourage breeding_, and to cause the greatest number possible to be raised. Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising State, for other States.'--Mr. C.F. Mercer a.s.serted, in the Virginia Convention of 1829, 'The tables of the natural growth of the slave population demonstrate; when compared with the increase of its numbers in the commonwealth for twenty years past, that an annual revenue of not less than a million and a half of dollars is derived from the exportation of a part of this population.'"--_Judge Jay's View_, _pages_ 88, 89.]

Very soon after our arrival, we proceeded to the House of Representatives, then sitting, and were favored, by introductions from a member, with seats behind the Speaker's chair. The subject before the House was, of course, peculiarly interesting to me, being the proposed re-enactment of the "gag;" a rule of the House, by which pet.i.tions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, are laid upon the table, without being read or referred, and thus are virtually rejected.

One of the speakers, William Slade, of Vermont, who was opposed to the "gag," told the pro-slavery members that they were greatly mistaken in supposing that such a measure would suppress the anti-slavery feeling of the country. They might, for a time, block up the Potomac, but it would only be to direct its waters into a new channel; in the same way as the rejection of anti-slavery pet.i.tions had resulted in the formation of a third abolition political party, which was now regularly organized and in the field. Having previously heard much of the virulence of the pro-slavery members, I was particularly impressed with the silence and attention with which they listened to this speech, and with the feeling which seemed evidently to prevail, that the subject could no longer be met with contempt and ridicule. One of the liberal members told me afterwards, that they felt themselves in a different atmosphere to what they did two years ago, both in the House and in the city, when touching upon this subject. Before the debate closed, the House divided on the question, whether ex-president Adams, the veteran defender of the const.i.tutional right of pet.i.tion, and who had brought forward this motion for the repeal of the "gag," was ent.i.tled to the right of reply.

This was decided in his favor, and the House adjourned till the beginning of the following week.

In the afternoon, I proceeded, by a steam packet, with one of my friends, to Alexandria, about six miles distant, on the other side of the Potomac. A merchant, to whom I had an introduction, kindly accompanied us to a slave-trading establishment there, which is considered the princ.i.p.al one in the District. The proprietor was absent; but the person in charge, a stout, middle-aged man, with a good-natured countenance, that little indicated his employment, readily consented to show us over the establishment. On pa.s.sing behind the house, we looked through a grated iron door, into a square court or yard, with very high walls, in which were about fifty slaves. Some of the younger ones were dancing to a fiddle, an affecting proof, in their situation, of the degradation caused by slavery. There were others, who seemed a prey to silent dejection. Among these was a woman, who had run away from her master twelve years ago, and had married and lived ever since as a free person. She was at last discovered, taken and sold, along with her child, and would shortly be s.h.i.+pped to New Orleans, unless her husband could raise the means of her redemption, which we understood he was endeavoring to do. If he failed, they are lost to him for ever. Another melancholy looking woman was here with her nine children, the whole family having been sold away from their husband and father, to this slave-dealer, for two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. This unfeeling separation is but the beginning of their sorrows. They will, in all probability, be re-sold at New Orleans, scattered and divided, until not perhaps two of them are left together. The most able-bodied negro I saw, cost the slave-dealer six hundred and eighty-five dollars.

Our guide told us that they sometimes sent from this house from fifteen hundred to two thousand slaves to the South in a year, and that they occasionally had three hundred to four hundred at once in their possession. That the trade was not now so brisk, but that prices were rising. The return and profits of this traffic appear to be entirely regulated by the fluctuations in the value of the cotton. Women are worth one-third less than men. But one instance of complete escape ever occurred from these premises, though some of the slaves were occasionally trusted out in the fields. He showed us the substantial clothing, shoes, &c., with which the slaves were supplied when sent to the South; a practice, I fear, enforced more by the cupidity of the buyers, than the humanity of the seller. Our informant stated, in answer to inquiries, that by the general testimony of the slaves purchased, they were treated better by the planters than was the case ten years ago. He also admitted the evils of the system, and said, with apparent sincerity, he wished it was put an end to.

We went afterwards to the city jail, to see a youth whose case I had heard of in Delaware, who had come to Alexandria on board a vessel, and had here been seized and imprisoned on suspicion of being a slave, not having any doc.u.ment to prove his freedom. He had now been incarcerated for near twelve months, and though admitted by the jailer and every one else to be free, he was about to be sold in a few days into slavery for a term, in order to pay the jail-fees, amounting to eighty dollars. In the evening on returning to Was.h.i.+ngton, we paid a visit by appointment to John Quincy Adams, ex-president of the United States; who though considerably more than seventy years of age, is yet one of the most a.s.siduous and energetic members of the House of Representatives, and one of the most influential public men of the day. To this must be added the far higher praise that his distinguished powers are employed in the service of humanity, truth, and justice. How rare is it to witness such a union of intellectual and moral greatness! Posterity will do justice to his fame, when slavery shall exist only in the records of the past, and when it shall be related with wonder, that this venerable man, standing almost alone in his defence of the right of pet.i.tion, received daily anonymous letters threatening him with a.s.sa.s.sination. He received us very kindly, and in the course of conversation expressed how much importance he attached to the late repeal of the "nine months law," in the State of New York, as a favorable indication of the current of public feeling. He did not appear sanguinely to antic.i.p.ate that he should be in a majority on his pending motion for the repeal of the "gag."

One of the princ.i.p.al objects of my visit to Was.h.i.+ngton was to present an Address to the President, from the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. In the course of my inquiries of various official persons, members of Congress, et cet., I found that to obtain an audience for the express purpose would be very difficult, as no member of Congress appeared willing to undertake the unpopular service of introducing the bearer of such a doc.u.ment. I was not disposed to apply to the British Amba.s.sador, who on some occasions had shown a want of sympathy with the anti-slavery cause. I found, however, that it was not contrary to etiquette, in this country, for a private individual to address a note to the President, to which, in ordinary courtesy, according to the custom of the place, he has a right to expect a reply.

I would remark, however, that nothing is more easy than to gain access to the President; but I felt that to avail myself of those facilities, to place in his hands a doc.u.ment which he might object to receive, would be uncandid. I therefore addressed a note to him, stating that I was the bearer of a memorial from the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society, signed by Thomas Clarkson, addressed to the President of the United States, in which I said, "It may, perhaps, be right to state, that the memorial refers to slavery and the slave-trade in the United States, and that it was written before the death of General Harrison was known in Europe." I then asked permission to present it.

To this I received no reply. We were afterwards introduced to the President, by a member of Congress, who evinced an anxiety that I should make no reference to the memorial; and the President, on his part, made no allusion to it, or to my letter to himself. After this interview, we proceeded to the Senate, but it had risen just as we entered. I had a short conversation with Henry Clay, who alluded to Joseph John Gurney's work on the West Indies, which I need scarcely add, is written in a series of letters to this statesman. He said that the recent short crop of sugar in Jamaica was a proof that the author had been misled in the favorable information he had collected, and also that this deficiency in the crop was a proof not only of the idleness, but of the immorality of the negroes. He accused my companion, John G. Whittier, of deserting him, after having been his warm friend; and on J.W.'s giving his reasons for so doing, he complained that the abolitionists improperly interfered with the affairs of the South, though he made an exception in favor of the Society of Friends. He inquired if J.G. Whittier was a "Friend" in regular standing, evidently intimating a doubt on that point, on account of his being so decided an abolitionist. The praise of such men is the strongest testimony that could be adduced to the declension of the Society of Friends in anti-slavery zeal. To a great extent I fear their sentiments on this subject have been held traditionally; and that in many cases, they have not only done nothing themselves, but by example and precept have condemned the activity of others; I trust, however, a brighter day in regard to their labors is approaching. I feel disinclined to take leave of Henry Clay, without some animadversions which, on the public character of a public man, I may offer without any breach of propriety. In early life, that is in some part of the last century, he supported measures tending to the "eradication of slavery"

in Kentucky, and at various periods since, he has indulged in cheap declamation against slavery, though he is not known to have committed himself by a solitary act of manumission. On the contrary, having commenced life with a single slave, he has industriously increased the number to upwards of seventy. As a statesman, his conduct on this question has been consistently pro-slavery. He indefatigably negotiated for the recovery of fugitive slaves from Canada, when Secretary of State, though without success. In the Senate he successfully carried through the admission of Missouri into the Union, as a slave State. He has resisted a late promising movement in Kentucky in favor of emanc.i.p.ation; and lastly, in one of his most elaborate speeches, made just before the late presidential election, the proceedings of the abolitionists were reviewed and condemned, and he utterly renounced all sympathy with their object. By way of apology for his early indiscretion, he observes, "but if I had been then, or were _now_, a citizen of any of the planting States--the southern or southwestern States--I should have opposed, and would continue to oppose, any scheme whatever of emanc.i.p.ation, gradual or immediate."

In this extract, and throughout the whole speech, slavery is treated as a pecuniary question, and the grand argument against abolition, is the loss of property that would ensue. Joseph John Gurney, who appears to have been favorably impressed by Henry Clay's professions of liberality, his courteous bearing, and consummate address, manifested a laudable anxiety that so influential a statesman should be better informed on the point on which he seemed so much in the dark; he therefore addressed to him his excellent "Letters on the West Indies," of which the great argument is, that emanc.i.p.ation has been followed by great prosperity to the planters, and attended with abundant blessings, temporal and spiritual, to the other cla.s.ses, and that the same course would necessarily be followed by the same results in the United States. He has acc.u.mulated proof upon proof of his conclusions supplied by personal and extensive investigation in the British Colonies. But Henry Clay shews no sign of conviction. Yet though he made to us the absurd remark, already quoted, on Joseph John Gurney's work, I have too high an opinion of his understanding to think him the victim of his own sophistry. He is a lawyer and a statesman. He is accustomed to weigh evidence, and to discriminate facts. I have little doubt that all my valued friend would have taught him, he knew already. He could not be ignorant of the contrast presented by his own State of Kentucky, and the adjoining State of Ohio, and that the difference is solely owing to slavery. If J.J.

Gurney could have shewn that abolition would soon be the high road to the President's chair, it is not improbable that he would have made an ill.u.s.trious convert to anti-slavery principles. Henry Clay's celebrated speech before alluded to, was delivered in the character of a candidate for the Presidency just before the last election--it was prepared with great care, and rehea.r.s.ed beforehand to a select number of his political friends. The whig party being the strongest, and he being the foremost man of that party, he might be looked upon as President-elect, if he could but conciliate the south, by wiping off the cloud of abolitionism that faintly obscured his reputation. He succeeded to his heart's desire in his immediate object, but eventually, by this very speech, completely destroyed his sole chance of success, and was ultimately withdrawn from the contest. Thus does ambition overleap itself.[A]

[Footnote A: As a practical commentary on Henry Clay's professions of a regard for the cause of human liberty, I append the following advertis.e.m.e.nt, which, about two years ago, was circulated in Ohio:

"THREE HUNDRED DOLLAR'S REWARD.

"_Run away_ from James Kendall, in Bourbon County, Ky., to whom he was hired the present year, on Sat.u.r.day night last, the 14th instant, a negro man, named Somerset, about twenty-six years of age, five feet, seven or eight inches high, of a dark copper color, having a deep scar on his right cheek, occasioned by a burn, stout made, countenance bold and determined, and voice coa.r.s.e. His clothing it is thought unnecessary to describe, as he may have already changed it.

"ALSO,

"From E. Muir, of the same county, on the same night, (and supposed to have gone in company,) a negro man, named Bob, about twenty-nine years old, near six feet high, weighing about 180 or 90 pounds, of a dark copper color, of a pleasant countenance, uncommonly smooth face, and a remarkable small hand for a negro of his size. He spells and reads a little. His clothing was a greenish jean coat and black cloth pantaloons.

"We will give the above reward for the delivery of said negroes to the undersigned, or their confinement in jail, so that we get them; or 150 dollars for either of them, if taken out of the State, or 100 dollars for them, or 50 dollars for either, if taken out of the county, and in the State.

"HENRY CLAY, Senior,

"E. MUIR.

"_Bourbon Co. Ky., Sept_. 17, 1839."

On leaving the Senate House, we drove to a slave-dealer's establishment, near at hand, and within sight of the _Capitol_. I have given some particulars of this visit elsewhere, which I need not repeat. I cast my eye on some portraits and caricatures of abolitionists, British and American, among whom Daniel O'Connell figured in a.s.sociation with Arthur Tappan, and the ex-president Adams. The young man in charge of the establishment began to explain them, for our amus.e.m.e.nt; on which, one of my companions pointed to me, and informed him I was an English abolitionist. He looked uneasy at our presence, and evidently desirous we should not prolong our stay. He told us there were five or six other dealers in the city who had no buildings of their own, and who kept their slaves here, or at the public city jail, at thirty-four cents per diem, the difference in comfort being wholly on the side of the private establishments.

We subsequently visited the city jail, to which reference is made in the letter below, and were able to confirm this statement from our own observation.

We left for Baltimore this afternoon. Although I had not succeeded in presenting the address before-mentioned to the President, I little regretted the failure, being convinced that it would not be less generally read by the public on that account, and in this I have not been disappointed. I proceeded at once, the next morning, to Philadelphia; and here I concluded to print and publish the following letter, which, was sent, through the post, to the President, and to each member of the Senate and House of Representatives.

"_To the Abolitionists of the United States_.

"I was commissioned by the committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, to present a memorial from them to your President, and proceeded to Was.h.i.+ngton, a few days ago, accompanied by John G. Whittier, of Ma.s.sachusetts, and a friend from the State of Delaware.

"It was my first visit to the seat of legislation of your great republic. On our arrival we went to the House of Representatives, then in session. A member from Maryland was speaking on our entrance, who was the author of a resolution, which had been carried in a former Congress, excluding nearly three millions of your countrymen, on whom every species of wrong and outrage is committed with impunity, from all right of pet.i.tion, either by them selves or their friends. He was advocating the re-enactment of this very resolution for the present Congress, and stated that he had a letter from your President approving the measure. Although I believe I do not speak too strongly when I say an attempt to enforce such a resolution by any crowned head in the civilized world, would be inevitably followed by a revolution, yet it seemed evident that no small portion of your _present_ members were in favor of it.

It was with no ordinary emotion that I saw the venerable ex-president Adams at his post, n.o.bly contending against this violation of the rights of his countrymen, and I could not but regret that, with one or two exceptions, be appeared to find little support from his younger colleagues of the free States.

"The same day we visited one of the well-known slave-trading establishments at Alexandria. On pa.s.sing to it we were shewn the costly mansion of its late proprietor, who has lately retired on a large property acquired by the sale of native born Americans.

In an open enclosure, with high walls which it is impossible to scale, with a strong iron-barred door, and in which we were told that there were sometimes from three to four hundred persons crowded, we saw about fifty slaves. Amongst the number thus incarcerated was a woman with nine children, who had been cruelly separated from their husband and father, and would probably be shortly sent to New Orleans, where they would never be likely to see him again, and where the mother may be for ever severed from every one of her children, and each of them sold to a separate master. From thence we went to the Alexandria city jail, where we saw a young man who was admitted to be free even by the jailer himself. He had been seized and committed in the hope that he might prove a slave, and that the party detaining him would receive a reward. He had been kept there nearly twelve months because he could not pay the jail fees, and instead of obtaining any redress for false imprisonment, was about to be sold into slavery for a term to reimburse these fees.

"The next morning I was desirous of handing to the President the memorial, of which the following is a copy:

"'_Address to the President of the United States, from the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society_.

"'SIR,--As the head of a great Confederacy of States, justly valuing their free const.i.tution and political organization, and tenacious of their rights and their character, the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society, through their esteemed coadjutor and representative, Joseph Sturge, would respectfully approach you in behalf of millions of their fellow-men, held in bondage in the United States. Those millions are denied, not only the immunities enjoyed by the citizens of your great republic generally, and of the equal privileges and the impartial protection of the civil law, but are deprived of their personal rights, so that they cease to be regarded and treated, under your otherwise n.o.ble inst.i.tutions, as MEN, except in the commission of crime, when the utmost rigor of your penal statutes is invoked and enforced against them; but are reduced to the degraded condition of "chattels personal in the hands of their owners and possessors, to _all intents, constructions, and purposes, whatsoever_."

"'This is the language and the law of slavery; and under this law, guarded with jealousy by their political inst.i.tutions, the slaveholders of the South rest their claims to property in man But, sir, there are claims anterior to all human laws, and superior to all political inst.i.tutions, which are immutable in their nature,--claims which are the birthright of every human being, of every clime, and of every color,--claims which G.o.d has conferred, and which man cannot destroy without sacrilege, or infringe without sin. Personal liberty is among these, the greatest and best, for it is the root of all other rights, the conservative principle of human a.s.sociations, the spring of public virtues, and essential to national strength and greatness.

"'The monstrous and wicked a.s.sumption of power by man, over his fellow man, which slavery implies, is alike abhorrent to the moral sense of mankind; to the immutable principles of justice; to the righteous laws of G.o.d; and to the benevolent principles of the gospel.

It is, therefore, indignantly repudiated by all the fundamental laws of all truly enlightened and civilized communities, and by none more emphatically than by that over which, Sir, it is your honor to preside.

"'The great doctrine, that G.o.d hath "created all men equal, and endowed them with certain inalienable rights, and that amongst these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," is affirmed in your Declaration of Independence, and justified in the theory of your const.i.tutional laws. But there is a stain upon your glory; slavery, in its most abject and revolting form, pollutes your soil; the wailings of slaves mingle with your songs of liberty; and the clank of their chains is heard, in horrid discord with the chorus of your triumphs.

"'The records of your States are not less distinguished by their wise provisions for securing the order and maintaining the inst.i.tutions of your country, than by their ingenious devices for riveting the chains, and perpetuating the degradation of your colored brethren; their education is branded as a crime against the State--their freedom is dreaded as a blasting pestilence--the bare suggestion of their emanc.i.p.ation is proscribed as treason to the cause of American independence.

"'These things are uttered in sorrow; for the committee deeply deplore the flagrant inconsistency, so glaringly displayed between the lofty principles embodied in the great charter of your liberties, and the evil practices which have been permitted to grow up under it, to mar its beauty and impair its strength. But it is not on these grounds alone, or chiefly, that they deplore the existence of slavery in the United States. Manifold as are the evils which flow from it--dehumanizing as are its tendencies--fearful as its reaction confessedly is on its supporters,--the reproach of its existence does not terminate on the inst.i.tutions which gave it birth: the sublime principles and benign spirit of Christianity are dishonored by it. In the light of Divine Truth it stands revealed, in all its hideous deformity, a crime against G.o.d,--a daring usurpation of the prerogative and authority of the Most High! It is as a violation of His righteous laws, an outrage on His glorious attributes, a renunciation of the claims of His blessed gospel, that they especially deplore the countenance and support it receives among you; and, in the spirit of Christian love and fraternal solicitude, would counsel its immediate and complete overthrow, as a solemn and imperative duty, the performance of which no sordid reasons should be permitted to r.e.t.a.r.d--no political considerations prevent. Slavery is a sin against G.o.d, and ought, therefore, to be abolished.

"'The utter extinction of slavery, and its sister abomination, the internal slave-trade of the United States, second only in horror and extent to the African, and in some of its features even more revolting, can only be argued, by the philanthropy of this country, on the abstract principles of moral and religious duty; and to those principles the people of your great republic are pledged on the side of freedom beyond every nation in the world!

"'The negro, by nature our equal, made like ourselves in the image of his Creator, gifted by the same intelligence, impelled by the same pa.s.sions and affections, and redeemed by the same Savior, is reduced by cupidity and oppression below the level of the brute, spoiled of his humanity, plundered of his rights, and often hurried to a premature grave, the miserable victim of avarice and heedless tyranny! Men have presumptuously dared to wrest from their fellows the most precious of their rights--to intercept as far as they may the bounty and grace of the Almighty--to close the door to their intellectual progress--to shut every avenue to their moral and religious improvement, to stand between them and their Maker! It is against this crime the committee protest as men and as Christians, and earnestly but respectfully call upon you, Sir, to use the influence with which you are invested, to bring it to a peaceful and speedy close; and, may you in closing your public career, in the latest hours of your existence on earth, be consoled with the reflection that you have not despised the afflictions of the afflicted, but that faithful to the trust of your high stewards.h.i.+p, you have been "just, ruling in the fear of the Lord," that you have executed judgment for the oppressed, and have aided in the deliverance of your country from its greatest crime, and its chiefest reproach.

"'On behalf of the Committee,

"'THOMAS CLARKSON.

"'British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, for the Abolition of Slavery and the Slave-trade throughout the world.

"'27, _New Broad Street, London, March 5th_, 1841.'

"I thought it most candid to address a letter to the President informing him of the character of the foregoing memorial, rather than take advantage of a merely formal introduction to present it, without a previous explanation. To this letter no reply was received, and no allusion was made to it by the President at a subsequent introduction, which we had to him. It may be proper to mention in this connection, that memorials of a similar character, bearing upon slavery and the slave-trade, signed by the venerable Clarkson, have been presented to different Heads of Governments, in other parts of the world, and have been uniformly received with marked respect.

"Previous to our departure, we visited a private slave-trading establishment in the city, and looked in upon a group of human beings herded together like cattle for the market, within an enclosure of high brick walls surrounding the jail. The young man in attendance, informed us that there were five or six other regular slave-dealers in the city, who, having no jails of their own, either placed their slaves at this establishment, or in the public CITY PRISON. The former was generally preferred, on account of its superior accommodations in respect to food and lodging. On my making some remarks to the young man on the nature of his occupation, he significantly, and as I think, very justly replied, that he knew of no reasons for condemning slave-traders, which did not equally apply to slave-holders. You will bear in mind that this was said within view of the Capitol, where slave-holders control your national legislation, and within a few minutes' walk of that mansion where a slave-holder sits in the presidential chair, placed there by your votes; and it is certainly no marvel, that, with such high examples in his favor, the humble slave-dealer of the District should feel himself in honorable company, and really regard his occupation as one of respectability and public utility.

"From thence we proceeded to the city prison, an old and loathsome building, where we examined two ranges of small stone cells, in which were a large number of colored prisoners. We noticed five or six in a single cell, barely large enough for a solitary tenant, under a heat as intense as that of the tropics.

The keeper stated that in rainy seasons the prison was uncomfortably wet. The place had to us a painful interest, from the fact that here Dr. Crandall, a citizen of the free States, was confined until his health was completely broken down, and was finally released only to find a grave, for the crime of having circulated a pamphlet on emanc.i.p.ation, written by one of the friends who accompanied me.[A] On inquiry of the keeper, he informed us that slaves were admitted into his cells, and kept for their owners at the rate of thirty-four cents per day, and that transfers of them from one master to another sometimes took place during their confinement; thus corroborating the testimony of the keeper of the private jail before mentioned, that this city prison, the property of the people of the United States, and for the rebuilding of which, a large sum of your money has been appropriated, is made use of by the dealers in human beings as a place of deposit and market; and thus you, in common with your fellow citizens, are made indirect partic.i.p.ators in a traffic equal in atrocity to that foreign trade, the suppression of which, to use the words of your President in his late message, 'is required by the public honor, and the promptings of humanity.'

[Footnote A: On being released from prison, Dr. Crandall went to Kingston, Jamaica, to recruit his health. A gentleman of that city, W. Wemyss Anderson, found him in his lodgings, solitary and friendless, and rapidly sinking under his disease. He took him, though a perfect stranger, into his own house; and the last days of Dr. Crandall were soothed by the kind sympathy and attentions of a Christian family. It was also manifest, that he enjoyed the suns.h.i.+ne of inward peace, and the rich consolations of the gospel. His kind host, whom I count it a privilege to call my friend, obeyed, in this instance, the apostolic injunction, and experienced the consequent reward, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."]

"As one who has devoted much of his humble labors to the cause you wish to promote, I perhaps shall be excused for thus stating these facts to you, as they all pa.s.sed before my personal observation in the course of a few hours. I shall deem it right to publish them in Europe, where I am about shortly to return.