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 16 
 
 .1 
 
 ,4- 
 
 A 
 FRIENDLY MISSION 
 
 John Candler's Letters 
 from America 
 
 1853-1854 
 
 *^» 
 
 Indianapolis 
 
 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 1951 
 
 i fit \mm of th£ 
 
 SEP 9 1963 
 MWEHSIIYDFIIlBini* 
 
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 The price of this Publication is One Dollar. 
 
 Members of the Indiana Historical Society are entitled to 
 one copy of each of its Publications without charge. 
 
 The Publications are available at the Office of the Society, 
 408 State Library and Historical Building, Indianapolis. 
 
INDIANA 
 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 PUBLICATIONS 
 
 VOLUME 16 
 NUMBER 1 
 
A 
 FRIENDLY MISSION 
 
 John Candler's Letters 
 from America 
 
 1853-1854 
 
 Indianapolis 
 
 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 1951 
 
HT^ J 
 
 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 In 1945 the Indiana Historical Society Library bought a 
 manuscript notebook containing copies of letters written by the 
 English Quaker John Candler to his wife while on an anti- 
 slavery mission to America in 1853 and 1854. The letters 
 were so readable and of such varied interest that the Publica- 
 tions Committee decided to issue them as one of the Society's 
 Publications series. 
 
 The letters are important not only because they show so 
 well the unstinted effort which the Friends put forth in behalf 
 of abolition, but also because of their comments on society, 
 manners, politics, and other phases of life in the United States 
 in the fifties. Candler and his three colleagues visited twenty- 
 six of the thirty-one states then in existence, interviewed 
 twenty-three of their governors, and had conferences with the 
 President. Their itinerary included a journey across Indiana 
 and a call on Governor Wright. The party traveled by steam- 
 boat, canalboat, stagecoach, railroad, and private carriage, and 
 sometimes had to resort to walking to carry out their task. In 
 fact, the picture of travel in the United States in the early 1850's 
 is no small part of the historical value of these letters. 
 
 The travelers went from state to state at a time when the 
 introduction of the subject of abolition was a dangerous thing. 
 They passed through the South unscathed when one might have 
 expected them to be asked to leave, or even to be mobbed and 
 lynched. That they were received by the governors of the 
 southern states seems surprising. Moreover, they were received 
 with courtesy and, one might add, with unbelievable patience and 
 tolerance. The governors, most of them at least, listened to 
 their lengthy memorial against slavery passively and discussed 
 the subject with them with some freedom. The sincerity, 
 earnestness, and faith of the four men who undertook this 
 Friendly mission probably account in large measure for their 
 
 (5) 
 
6 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 polite reception and safe passage. Their mission was the 
 culmination of a concern of the London Yearly Meeting to help 
 bring about complete abolition of slavery and the slave trade 
 in the world. 
 
 Slave trade had been abolished in the British Empire by act 
 of Parliament in 1807, and provisions for complete emancipa- 
 tion came in 1833. The Quakers had participated actively in 
 the antislavery movement in England, and having accomplished 
 their ends at home continued their efforts in behalf of the 
 slaves in other parts of the world. 
 
 In 1849 a special "Meeting for Sufferings" was called in 
 London to take into consideration the continued existence of 
 slavery and the slave trade. At the meeting "Friends were 
 brought to believe that it was laid upon them to represent the 
 wrongs and sorrows of Africa as occasioned by the slave-trade, 
 and the cruelty and oppression of slavery as it exists in North 
 America and the West Indies, not only to the governments of 
 those nations most deeply involved in its guilt ; but to call upon 
 the nations of Christendom all the world over to use their 
 influence in putting an end to these abominations." 1 To accom- 
 plish this a memorial to the rulers of the nations was to be 
 drawn up and presented to the Yearly Meeting for its approval. 
 
 The Meeting for Sufferings also drew up the following 
 memorial to the Queen: 
 
 To Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
 and Ireland, and the Dominions thereunto belonging. 
 
 May it please the Queen, — We, the undersigned, thy dutiful 
 and loyal subjects, representing the religious Society of Friends in 
 Great Britain and Ireland, desire respectfully to approach the 
 Throne, and in love to men, and as we reverently believe, in our 
 duty to God, to lay before thee a matter deeply affecting the well- 
 being of a large portion of the great human family. 
 
 More than a century has elapsed since our religious Society first 
 
 1 This quotation, and the memorial to the Queen, her reply, and the 
 memorial to the "Sovereigns and those in Authority" throughout the world, 
 given below, are taken from Memoirs of William Forster, edited by Benjamin 
 Seebohm (2 volumes. London, 1865), pp. 244, 246-53. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 7 
 
 believed it to be a Christian duty to advocate the rights of the 
 natives of Africa, and of those held in slavery in the western 
 world. With reverent thanksgiving to Almighty God, we recur to 
 the successive acts of our Legislature abolishing the slave-trade, 
 and subsequently releasing the slaves in our colonies from a state 
 of cruel bondage. 
 
 The continuance of the trade in slaves, as prosecuted — contrary 
 either to law or treaty — by the inhabitants of other countries, with 
 all the wickedness inseparable from this unrighteous traffic, brings 
 us into sorrow and distress. It engenders war in its direst forms, 
 breaks the bonds of social life, reduces those who may survive the 
 horrors of their transit by land and sea to hopeless slavery, and 
 withal prevents the spread of the religion of our Holy Redeemer. 
 We feel for the sufferings of the unoffending and helpless victims 
 of these abominations ; and we feel for the wrongs and miseries of 
 the multitudes still living in slavery, and subjected to its cruel 
 hardships and uncompensated toil ; and we deeply deplore the 
 degradation and the guilt which attach to the man-stealer, the 
 slaveholder, and the dealer in his fellow man. 
 
 In consideration of the magnitude of this complicated iniquity, 
 we are emboldened to ask thee, our gracious Queen, in thy inter- 
 course with the rulers of those nations which are involved in these 
 things, to use the influence of thy exalted station for terminat- 
 ing — by every pacific means — this desolating evil on the continent 
 of Africa, and for conferring immediate and unconditional freedom 
 on all those held in slavery. And we ask permission humbly and 
 plainly to declare our conviction, that it is only in the extinction of 
 Negro slavery that we can have any security for the utter termina- 
 tion of the African slave-trade. 
 
 May the Lord of heaven and earth bless thee, our beloved 
 Sovereign, and thy Royal Consort, and may his blessing rest upon 
 all thy house. We pray that, for the sake of Jesus Christ our 
 Lord, He may give thee wisdom and strength to open thy mouth 
 for the dumb, to plead the cause of the poor and of him that hath 
 no helper ; that He may prosper thee in this work of righteousness ; 
 and that, if it please Him, thou mayest live to see the day in which 
 Negro slavery and the slave-trade shall be abolished through- 
 out the earth. 
 
 To which memorial the Queen replied : 
 
 I have received your Address with much satisfaction. 
 I fully appreciate the benevolent efforts of the Society of 
 Friends on behalf of the suffering and oppressed. 
 
8 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 I am deeply sensible of the wrongs and evils inflicted by the 
 slave-trade, and my best endeavours will continue to be directed 
 towards its extinction. 
 
 The memorial to the various rulers of Christendom, ordered 
 by the Meeting for Sufferings, was prepared by William 
 Forster and presented to the ensuing London Yearly Meeting 
 and approved. 
 
 To Sovereigns and those in Authority in the Nations of 
 Europe, and in Other Parts of the World, where the 
 Christian Religion is professed. 
 
 It having pleased the Lord to bring our fathers to a sense of the 
 cruelty and wickedness of the African slave-trade, and of the 
 injustice of holding their fellow men in slavery, they were 
 strengthened to act upon the conviction wrought on their minds : 
 they set at liberty those they held in bondage, and in their faithful- 
 ness they enjoyed the answer of a good conscience towards God. In 
 that love which comes from Him their hearts were enlarged in love 
 to their neighbour, and they could not rest without endeavouring 
 to bring others to that sense of justice and mercy to which the Lord 
 had brought them. From that time to the present day we have felt 
 it to be laid upon us as a church to bear a testimony against the 
 sin of slavery. 
 
 We have believed it to be our Christian duty to represent the 
 wrongs inflicted upon the people of Africa, and repeatedly to plead 
 the cause of the slave, in addresses to our own Government. We 
 rejoice and are thankful at the progress which has been made in 
 this country and in other nations, in this cause of righteousness. 
 Hundreds of thousands of slaves have been restored to liberty, and 
 many of the nations of the civilized world are now, to a large 
 extent, delivered from the guilt of the African slave-trade — a trade 
 which the Congress of Vienna, in 1815, pronounced to be "a 
 scourge which desolates Africa, degrades Europe, and afflicts 
 humanity ;" and for the suppression of which laws have been 
 enacted. But our hearts are sorrowful in the consideration that 
 this traffic is still carried on to a large extent, and that a vast 
 amount of the population of the western world is still subject to 
 the cruelty and the wrongs of slavery. We desire to cherish this 
 sympathy, and that we may behold the increase of it amongst all 
 men everywhere. 
 
 One God is the Creator of us all ; his eyes are in every place 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 9 
 
 beholding the evil and the good. He will bring every work to 
 judgment, and every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether 
 it be evil. The families of the earth are all of one blood ; all par- 
 takers in the same corrupt nature consequent upon the fall of 
 man ; all are alike subject to infirmity, disease and death, and all 
 amenable to the same judgment after death. In the grace of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ there is no respect of persons. He tasted death 
 for every man ; all distinctions of country, tongue and colour are 
 merged in the immensity of that love in which the Father has sent 
 the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Wherever the religion of 
 the Gospel of Christ obtains its proper place within us, it softens 
 our hearts ; it brings man into fellow-feeling with his fellow-man ; 
 it brings him to regard every man as a brother, and to look 
 upon the nations of the earth as all of one family. Amongst the 
 millions of mankind there is not one beneath the notice of our 
 Father who is in heaven : if we be partakers of his love, it leads 
 us into pity for the forlorn, the helpless and the oppressed ; and it 
 constrains us to do what we can to mitigate the pain and to assuage 
 the sorrows of those who are in suffering, to befriend the friend- 
 less, and to labour for the improvement of the condition of the 
 most degraded of our race. 
 
 We are now assembled in our Yearly Meeting for the promotion 
 of charity and godliness amongst ourselves, and according to our 
 measure, for the spreading of truth and righteousness upon the 
 earth. The condition of the natives of Africa, as affected by the 
 continuance of the slave-trade, and that of the slaves in North and 
 South America, and on the islands adjacent to that continent, have 
 again awakened our sympathy. We believe it to be a duty laid upon 
 us to plead the cause of these our fellow-men. We submit to the 
 consideration of all those in authority in the nations which take up- 
 on them the name of Christ, the utter incompatibility of slavery 
 with the divine law. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself ;" 
 "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
 even so to them :" these were the precepts of our Lord. He spoke 
 as never man spoke, and of his words He declared, "Heaven and 
 earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away :" they are 
 the law of God's righteousness to all generations. We submit 
 whether, without breaking this law, it be possible for man to hold 
 or to claim a right to property in the person of his fellow-man ; 
 whether, admitting the supreme authority of this law, man can buy 
 or sell his brother ; whether he can withhold from those who labour 
 for him that which is just and equal ; whether the forced and 
 
10 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 uncompensated labour of the negro slave be not the breaking of 
 this law ; in short, whether any man or any of the nations of men 
 can, in any one of these things, violate the law of the Lord and 
 be guiltless. 
 
 For the space of three hundred years, the trade in slaves has 
 been carried on from Africa to the opposite shores of the Atlantic ; 
 and this traffic in the persons of men is still prosecuted with 
 unrelenting and unmitigated cruelty : year by year countless multi- 
 tudes are torn from all that they hold dear in life, to pass their 
 days in toil and misery. Men are still to be found so hardened in 
 heart, so bent upon the gain of oppression, and so devoid of all that 
 we deem the common feelings of humanity, as to spend their time 
 and talents in pursuit of this criminal commerce. We forbear to 
 enter in detail upon the large variety of human suffering, in- 
 separable from this complicated iniquity. But we trust we do not 
 take too much upon ourselves, in asking those whom we now ad- 
 dress to open their ears to the groaning of the oppressed, and to 
 give themselves to sympathy with their sufferings ; to think upon 
 the war, and rapine, and bloodshed, attendant upon the capture of 
 slaves in the interior of Africa — upon what they are made to endure 
 in their transit to the coast and in their passage across the ocean ; 
 and not to shrink from making themselves acquainted with the 
 horrors and the loathsomeness of the slave-ship ; to follow the 
 poor, helpless, unoffending negro, if he survive the suffering of 
 the voyage, and to think upon his condition when landed upon a 
 foreign shore, and entered upon a life of hard and hopeless 
 servitude — it may be — to be worked to death in his early manhood, 
 or to live to behold his children subjected to the same degradation 
 and oppression as himself. 
 
 Blessed is the man that considereth the poor. The blessing of 
 the Lord resteth upon him who, knowing the evil which attends his 
 neighbour's lot in life, is stretching forth his hand for the relief of 
 his poverty and distress ; and his blessing is upon those who, like 
 the Patriarch of old, are inquiring into the sorrows and hardship 
 of the poor, the fatherless, and those that have none to help them. 
 "The cause which I knew not," said he, "I searched out." 
 
 Our sympathies are wakened not for the native African alone, 
 and the victims of the African slave-trade, but we feel for those 
 who are living and labouring in a state of slavery, who were born 
 in slavery, and possibly may die subject to its privation and its 
 hardship. In those countries in which this system is upheld by 
 law, man is degraded to the condition of a beast of burthen, and 
 regarded as an article of merchandize. The slave has nothing in 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 11 
 
 life that he can call his own ; his physical powers, the limbs of his 
 body, belong to another ; it can scarcely be said that the faculties of 
 his mind are his own. All that distinguishes him as a rational 
 creature is, by the law of the State, treated as the property of 
 another. He may be a man fearing God, and desiring to approve 
 himself a disciple of Christ — we believe that there are such — what- 
 ever the consistency of his character as a Christian, and however 
 advanced in the cultivation of his mind, all avails him nothing : he 
 is still a slave, and the law allows him nothing to look to in life but 
 hopeless, helpless, friendless slavery. Endowed by his Maker with 
 capacity for enjoyment like other men, he has his social affections ; 
 he may be honourably married, and in married life surrounded by 
 offspring dear to him as his own flesh ; but he knows not the day 
 nor the hour in which he may be torn from his wife, or in which 
 his children, at their tender age, may be snatched away, sold to 
 the man-trader, and carried into far distant captivity. So long as 
 slavery is upheld by law, we can have no security for the extinction 
 of a trade in slaves. Such are the contingencies of the system 
 under every modification of which it is capable, that, until slavery 
 be abolished, men, women and children will, we fear, be imported 
 from Africa, and be bought and sold like the cattle of the field ; and 
 the barbarities of the slave-market will continue to pollute the towns 
 and villages of those islands in the West Indies in which slavery 
 exists, and in the slave-holding countries of America. 
 
 The subject is so vast, and of such manifold atrocity, we think, 
 that even the history of the whole world does not furnish a parallel 
 to its crime. We deem it scarcely possible for a man of the most 
 comprehensive mind fully to possess himself of the extent of the 
 evil. The Lord alone doth know, none but the Infinite Mind can 
 comprehend, the individual and the aggregate sufferings of those 
 subjected to these enormities. God alone can reach the heart and 
 awaken the conscience. It is our strong desire — we speak with 
 reverence and fear — it is our prayer, that He may bring everyone 
 to a sense of his own share in the guilt, and that, ceasing from his 
 iniquity, the condemnation resting upon the man-stealer and upon 
 those who trade in the persons of men may no longer attach itself 
 to anyone bearing the name of a Christian ; and that the slaveholder, 
 whether he be more or less involved in the sin of oppression, may be 
 brought to act in obedience to the law of impartial and uncompro- 
 mising equity, and, without hesitation and without delay, restore to 
 immediate and unconditional freedom every slave that he holds 
 in bondage. 
 
12 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 The Gospel of Christ is precious to us. Through the mercy of 
 God to our souls we trust we are prepared, in some degree, to 
 appreciate the means which, in his wisdom and love, He has pro- 
 vided for the redemption of the world, and the reconciling of man 
 to Himself. In the word of ancient prophecy, Christ was promised, 
 that in Him all the families of the earth might be blessed. We 
 cannot but entertain the opinion that the enlightenment of multi- 
 tudes of the inhabitants of Africa, and their participation in the 
 privileges and the consolations of the Christian religion, have been 
 much retarded by the evil deeds of many who have gone among 
 them ; and especially that the cruelty and wickedness of the slave- 
 trade have done much to keep them in ignorance of Him who died 
 for them. In that love which extends over sea and land, and seeks 
 the happiness of the whole human race, we make our appeal to those 
 with whom it lies ; and respectfully press upon them to take their 
 part, in accordance with the peaceable religion of Christ, in remov- 
 ing every impediment out of the way, that, through the grace of 
 God, the African, of every tribe and every tongue, may be brought 
 to the knowledge of the Truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 May it please the Lord Almighty to bless those who reign, and 
 those who are in authority, in every nation in which Christianity 
 is acknowledged. May his wisdom preside in all their councils, and 
 the law of his righteousness be the rule of their actions. May the 
 Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus our Saviour, be honoured wherever 
 his name is known. May his holy religion obtain its rightful in- 
 fluence in the earth ; and the people become prepared to offer praise 
 to God in the language uttered by the heavenly host — " Glory to 
 God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." 
 
 After adopting this memorial the London Yearly Meeting 
 proceeded to appoint its author, William Forster, to carry it to 
 the several sovereigns on the European continent. The courts 
 of Holland and Belgium were first visited, followed by journeys 
 to Hanover, Sweden, Denmark, and the city of Hamburg, 
 Prussia, Saxony, Austria, Bohemia, Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, 
 Baden, Switzerland, Italy, France, and Spain during the years 
 1849-51. The memorial was carried to Brazil by John Candler, 
 of Chelmsford, and Wilson Burgess, of Leicester, and to 
 Portugal by John Candler and Robert W. Fox, of Falmouth. 
 
 At the Yearly Meeting in 1853 it was decided that the time 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 13 
 
 had come for the memorial to be presented in the United States. 
 The following is taken from the minutes of that Meeting: 
 
 During the four years which have elapsed since 1849, the ad- 
 dress has been personally presented by special deputations on behalf 
 of this meeting to the most of the sovereigns of Europe, and to the 
 Emperor of Brazil, as well as to many others in authority in each 
 of the countries visited by these deputations ; and this meeting 
 thinks it right gratefully to record its reverent sense of the Divine 
 assistance which has been graciously afforded in the prosecution 
 of that part of the service which has already been accomplished. 
 
 On seriously deliberating, in the fear of the Lord, upon that 
 which may yet remain to be performed, of the religious duty laid 
 upon us as a church in this matter, we believe that the time is come 
 for presenting the address to the President and others in power in 
 the United States of America. Under a solemn sense of the weighty 
 and important character of the mission, we accordingly appoint our 
 beloved Friends, Josiah Forster, William Forster, John Candler, 
 and William Holmes, (of whom William Forster and John Candler 
 are ministers of the gospel, and Josiah Forster and William Holmes, 
 elders in our religious Society), a deputation to proceed to America, 
 and present the address to the President and other members of the 
 Federal Government, to Governors of States, and others in 
 authority in that great Republic. 
 
 William Forster, the leader of the deputation, had been in 
 America twice before on religious missions. During his first 
 visit, which lasted from 1820 to 1825, he traveled over most of 
 the settled country visiting Friends and attending meetings. His 
 second visit was made in 1845-46 as a member of a committee 
 sent by London Yearly Meeting to Indiana where a division in 
 the Yearly Meeting over antislavery proceedings had occurred. 
 At the time of his third journey he was seventy years old. 
 
 Josiah Forster, a brother of William, had accompanied his 
 brother to America in 1845. William Holmes had joined 
 William Forster in a religious mission to the Isles of Guernsey 
 and Jersey in 1844 and to Piedmont in 1852. In 1857 he was in 
 the West Indies. He died in 1867 at the age of sixty-two. 2 
 
 2 The Annual Monitor for 1868, or Obituary of the Members of the 
 Society of Friends in Great Britain and Ireland, for the Year 186/ (N.S., 
 No. 26, London, 1867), pp. 107-12. 
 
14 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 The fourth member of the deputation, the author of the 
 letters, John Candler, was sixty-six years old when he made the 
 journey. 3 He was born in Great Bardfield, Essex, March 10, 
 1787, the son of a schoolmaster. In 1799 he was apprenticed 
 to a linen draper and then opened his own shop in Chelmsford. 
 His business prospered and he was able to retire at an early age. 
 Though his formal schooling had been short, he had continued 
 his studies, particularly in the classical and modern European 
 languages.. He read widely. 
 
 Candler's parents were deeply religious people. He grew 
 up close to the church and was a devoted Bible student. Shortly 
 after coming to Chelmsford he began giving scriptural instruc- 
 tion at a Friends' school for girls, and wrote on biblical and 
 philanthropic subjects for periodicals. He first spoke in the 
 ministry when he was about twenty-six years old. Shortly 
 after settling in Chelmsford he married Maria Knight of that 
 place. It is to her that these letters are addressed. 
 
 Candler's first religious service abroad was in 1839-41, 
 when, accompanied by his wife, he sailed to the West Indies to 
 study the conditions of the emancipated Negroes. Their 
 itinerary included, besides stops in thirteen of the islands, visits 
 to Berbice and Demerara in British Guiana, a tour of Jamaica, 
 and a three-month exploration of Haiti. Before returning 
 home they made a tour of the United States. In 1849 the 
 Candlers, accompanied by George William Alexander and his 
 wife, made a second trip to the West Indies on behalf of the 
 Anti-Slavery Society, to study further the effects of emancipa- 
 tion. Before returning home they made stops in New York, 
 Philadelphia, and Washington. In 1852, as mentioned above, 
 Candler went to Portugal with the antislavery address from the 
 Meeting for Sufferings and then to Brazil on the same mission. 
 
 After his return from his mission to America in 1853-54, 
 Candler made one more long religious journey, this time to 
 
 8 A biographical sketch of Candler is given in The Annual Monitor for 
 1870, pp. 39-50. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 15 
 
 Norway, in 1862, at the age of seventy-five. He also made 
 various trips within the British Isles in religious service. 
 
 From 1842 to 1846 Candler had served as superintendent at 
 the Friends' Retreat near York, and it was while here that he 
 was recorded as a minister. He was a founder of the Chelmsford 
 Auxiliary Bible Society and acted as secretary for forty years. 
 He died at the age of eighty-two years on March 7, 1869. 
 
 Joseph Smith's A Descriptive Catalogue of Friends' Books 
 . . . (London, 1867) lists the following items by Candler: 
 
 Candler, John, A Reply to the Pamphlet of a Country Clergy- 
 man, entitled, Reasons for not attending The 
 British and Foreign Bible Society. [Anony- 
 mous.] 
 
 Chelmsford : Printed and sold by Meggy & Co. 
 
 8vo. [1812] 
 
 West Indies. — Extracts from the Journal of John 
 
 Candler, whilst travelling in Jamaica. Parts 1 and 2. 
 
 London : Harvey and Darton, Gracechurch-street. 
 
 8vo. 1840-41. 
 
 Brief Notices of Hayti: with its condition, resources, 
 
 and Prospects. 
 
 London : Thomas Ward and Co., 27, Paternoster- 
 row ; and Charles Gilpin, 5, Bishopsgate-street 
 Without. 12mo. 1842 
 
 and G. W. Alexander. — The British West Indies in 
 
 1850. See The Anti-Slavery Reporter, Vol. 6, New 
 Series. Folio. 1851. 
 
 and Wilson Burgess. Narrative of a Recent visit to 
 
 Brazil, by John Candler and Wilson Burgess: to pre- 
 sent an address on the Slave Trade and Slavery, is- 
 sued by the Religious Society of Friends. [Published 
 by The Meeting for Sufferings.] 
 
 London : Edward Marsh, Friends' Book and 
 Tract Depository, 84, Houndsditch. . . . 
 
 8vo. [1853] 
 
16 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Also included in the Catalogue is 
 
 Maria Candler and Catharine Alexander. Extracts of Letters 
 lately received from the West Indies, in regard to 
 Education and the Cholera. . . . 
 
 Folio. No Printer's name or place [1851] 
 
 In the Library of the Society of Friends in London there 
 are manuscript journals of Candler's travels in Portugal in 
 1852 and of his voyage to the West Indies and the United 
 States in 1849-50. There are also copies of memoranda 
 and letters relating to his visit to the West Indies and the 
 United States in 1839-41. 
 
 Candler copied the letters written on his last American 
 tour into the little notebook which the Indiana Historical Society 
 owns, for the use of his friend Benjamin Seebohm, who was 
 preparing his Memoirs of William Forster. The originals of 
 the letters are in the library at Haver ford College, and through 
 the courtesy of the librarian the copies have been collated with 
 the originals. Very few discrepancies were noted. Any 
 additional material found in the original letters that seemed to 
 have significance has been put in footnotes. Passages that 
 seemed unimportant have been cut out and these omissions 
 have been indicated by ellipses. Some of the long unbroken 
 passages have been paragraphed. 
 
 Candler's itinerary given at the end of the letters is from 
 original documents in the Haverford Library. 
 
 The help given by Miss Anna B. Hewitt, assistant curator 
 of the Quaker Collection at Haverford, and Miss Muriel B. 
 Hicks, assistant librarian of the Library of the Society of 
 Friends in London, is gratefully acknowledged. 
 
 Gayle Thornbrough 
 Editor 
 
Travels in America 
 
 being a series of letters from John Candler to his wife, written 
 whilst on his tour in the years 1853 and 1854, as companion 
 to Wm. Forster, Josiah Forster and Wm. Holmes. 
 
 Copied 1861 
 
 N. B. This was an Anti Slavery tour entered upon under the re- 
 ligious concern and by direction of the London Yearly Meeting. 
 
 anno 1853 
 
At sea, off Halifax Nova Scotia 9 Mo. 13th 1853 
 
 My beloved Maria 
 
 We have been now ten days at sea, having passed New- 
 foundland, and are expecting to land at Halifax to morrow 
 morning; and wishing to give thee the earliest possible intel- 
 ligence of our safe arrival, I sit down at the saloon table, under 
 a head wind strong against us, to tell thee how we all are. The 
 passengers are 140 in number : the cabin berths are not so large 
 as in the Brazilian steamers nor the seat accommodations on 
 the deck so good, but we have an excellent table, are well waited 
 upon, and our captain is most polite and agreeable. I have not 
 been once sick, and have only once withdrawn myself from the 
 saloon at meal times, and have slept soundly. The weather has 
 varied much, from warm to very cold, and from cold back 
 again to warmth and summer heat. On approaching the banks 
 of Newfoundland I could scarcely keep myself warm with my 
 great coat on and cloak around me: to day I can sit on deck 
 under lee from the wind and enjoy the sunshine and bland 
 atmosphere as we did in the region of Madeira and Tenerisse. 
 All my companions, 1 I am sorry to say, have suffered from 
 sea sickness, especially the two brothers, who have kept to their 
 beds most of the time, and when they emerge awhile to take a 
 little fresh air and to change the scene, are so weak as to need 
 help from us who are stronger ; but they are very cheerful, and 
 we all go on delightfully together. Wm Holmes was sick for 
 two or three days but is now pretty well again and is writing 
 a letter at the same table. 
 
 We have about 30 females passengers on board and some 
 young people, boys and girls, full of hilarity and enjoyment. 
 Among our men we have an English clergyman and two Ameri- 
 can doctors of divinity, with whom I have had pleasure in 
 
 1 William Forster, Josiah Forster, and William Holmes. 
 
 (19) 
 
20 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 conversing. The Englishman crossed the Atlantic about 30 
 years ago with Isaac and Anna Braithwaite, of whom he speaks 
 very respectfully : "Mrs Braithwaite," he supposes, "went over 
 to help in routing the Hicksites!" One of the American 
 clergymen was brought up, or rather lived, in a family of the 
 Hicksites, but was led to see the sad tendency of their doctrines 
 and to escape the poison : he loved Joseph John Gurney 2 and 
 attended one or two of his meetings : Mr Gurney he said, "had 
 an unction from the Holy one; all he said bespoke this." An- 
 other of our passengers is Chief Justice Shaw of Boston, who 
 as Chancery judge, delivered judgment against John Wilbur 
 and his fellow seceders on the claim they set up, as the true 
 orthodox friends, to possess certain property belonging to the 
 society. 3 I am also much pleased with Henry Tuke Parker, 
 
 2 Joseph John Gurney (1788-1846), scholar, theologian, and Quaker. 
 His sister, Elizabeth Gurney Fry, was one of the leaders in prison reform. 
 Another sister married the great antislavery leader, T. Fowell Buxton. 
 Buxton's sister was the wife of William Forster. J. J. Gurney has been 
 described as the most influential Quaker after the founders of the Society. 
 His theology was greatly influenced by his contacts with the Evangelicals 
 of his day, and this he carried over into his Quakerism. In 1836 when the 
 struggle between the Quietist and Evangelical wings of the Society came 
 to a head at London Yearly Meeting, Gurney carried the meeting with him. 
 He came to America in 1837 to help heal the breach caused by the Hicksites. 
 His Evangelical influence, however, was so great that it forced the re- 
 actionary Wilburite movement in America. See note 3 below. Dictionary of 
 National Biography, edited by Leslie Stephens and Sidney Lee (63 volumes. 
 New York and London, 1885-1900), XXIII, 363-64. 
 
 8 John Wilbur, a New England Quaker of the Quietist type, opposed the 
 Evangelical reforms of J. J. Gurney and attacked him, without mentioning 
 his name, in Letters to Friends on Some of the Primitive Doctrines of 
 Christianity (1832). When Gurney came to America Wilbur challenged him 
 several times. The former was well received by American friends, and 
 disciplinary measures were taken against Wilbur for his attack on an ap- 
 proved minister, and he was expelled from his meeting in 1843. This occa- 
 sioned a break in the New England Yearly Meeting, five hundred of his 
 supporters withdrawing to form "The Smaller Body." The Massachusetts 
 courts decided in favor of "The Larger Body" in a suit over the possession of 
 property, and "The Larger Body" was recognized by the London and Dublin 
 Yearly Meetings. Dictionary of American Biography, edited by Dumas 
 Malone (20 volumes and index. New York, 1928-37), XX, 200. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 21 
 
 a Bostonian, who tells me that his father named him Henry 
 Tuke, because he was pleased with his writings on the principles 
 of Friends. We have had one Anti-Slavery debate, which was 
 incidentally forced upon me by a South Carolinian : it was 
 conducted on both sides with composure of mind and apparent 
 good feeling and ended well : several of the Americans took the 
 right side and made me feel that a change of opinion in regard 
 to Slavery is gaining ground in some at least of the States. If 
 we leave Halifax to morrow morning at 7 o clock, as we hope 
 to do, we shall probably take tea at Boston the day after. I 
 rather suppose, in that case, that Josiah and William Forster 
 will go forward to Providence with Dr Tobey for a day or two, 
 and that Wm Holmes and myself shall make our way to New 
 York, to be at their meeting on First-day next, and that soon 
 after this we shall all meet together again at Burlington and 
 Philadelphia. Josiah Forster wishes me to say that he feels 
 himself pretty well now and that he intends to write from 
 Boston : if this letter be sent to my sister E C she will say so 
 much with his dear love to his wife, and brother and sisters. 
 Wm Forster means to write home while we lay for an hour or 
 two in still water at Halifax in the night. I have thought of 
 you at your Quarterly meeting to day and am thinking of thee 
 very very often : my health is good ; take care of thyself, and let 
 us trust that through a gracious Providence we shall not long 
 hence be together again. With much love to you all, to thy- 
 self especially 
 
 I remain most affectionately and truly Thine 
 
 JC. 
 
 City of Halifax 9th Mo. 14th 
 "Apres l'orage vient le calme," said an old Swedish gentle- 
 man to me this morning as I came early on deck; and true 
 enough we find it so. After writing the foregoing letter 
 yesterday, I went to the captains cabin to examine the chart : it 
 was blowing a gale: suddenly the ship pitched; a cataract of 
 water came rolling over the bows, and poured a river on the 
 
22 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 main deck. The sight of the sea at this moment was very 
 grand : the waves ran high and were covered with foam to the 
 very horizon. A strong gale arrested, to some extent, the motion 
 of the steamer during the night ; but this morning what a 
 change! A cloudless sky, a smooth ocean, summer warmth! 
 Thus does North America for the third time welcome me. 
 Josiah Forster is now with me in the city, quite animated in 
 feeling himself once more on firm ground. Once more, my 
 Love, farewell. We go on almost immediately to Boston. I am 
 well and in good spirits, thankful to our Heavenly father who 
 has brought us thus far safely on our way. 
 Thine faithfully 
 
 JC 
 
 No. 2 New York 9th Mo 20th 1853 
 
 We reached Boston on the 15th by moonlight, too late in 
 the evening to land. Early the next morning we quitted the 
 ship and went on shore, and found many friends ready to meet 
 and welcome us. Stephen Chase had come from Salem and 
 Samuel Boyce from Lynn : Marmaduke Cope from Rhode 
 island, where he was spending the summer; Dr Tobey from 
 Providence and Mahlon Day and Robert Murray from New 
 York. All these kind friends evinced an evident desire to serve 
 us and promote our comfort. We repaired to one of the largest 
 hotels, obtained the comfort of a good breakfast and a warm 
 bath, and then prepared ourselves to enjoy the day. On calling 
 at the Custom-house to clear our luggage Saml Boyce said to 
 the chief officer, "these friends are come on religious service to 
 this land, and have a case and package of religious books for 
 distribution : will you let them pass without examination and 
 without duty?[" After looking at the law in the matter he 
 said, we will fix a nominal value of ten dollars, on which the 
 duty will be one dollar, and will then allow you to take them 
 away. This saved us much trouble. On S B's saying to 
 another of the officers what he had told the Chief, the latter 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 23 
 
 replied "if they do as much good as Joseph Jno Gurney, the 
 more of them that come amongst us, the better." 
 
 In the evening we took a ride over Boston common, saw the 
 spot where Mary Dyer is said to have suffered death, and took 
 a general view of the city. Boston is grown an immense place 
 since thou and I were there in 1841, and is now joined by this 
 enlargement to several other towns near, making an aggregate 
 population of 200,000 persons. The panorama of the city, as 
 seen from the State House is now truly grand. 
 
 On 7th day morning we left by railway at 8 oclock and 
 arrived at New York with Mahlon Day about 1/2 past 4 pm. 
 Our route lay through the centre of Massachusetts and Con- 
 necticut, and for a long distance by the side of Connecticut 
 river. On First day we attended meeting at New York, truly 
 glad to be once more united to a large body of Friends in public 
 worship. Wm Forster and Josiah went from Boston to 
 Providence : Wm Holmes and myself only to New York. Here 
 we met good old Thomas Hillis from Long-island and Dr 
 Thomas from Baltimore. The ministerial service of the 
 morning rested mainly with these friends ; and in the afternoon 
 exclusively with the latter, who enlarged on the parable of the 
 sower with uncommon clearness and much gospel power. 
 
 Yesterday we set out, a small band of us, to view the New 
 York Chrystal Palace, which is only a fifth part as large as that 
 of London. 4 The exhibition is a good one: the statue of the 
 Greek slave is here exhibited without her chains ! 5 After a late 
 dinner at David Sands' new mansion, for a mansion it literally 
 is, we repaired to Robert J Murray's to tea, to meet the Forsters 
 who had just arrived, and many other friends who came to join 
 the party. Many were the inquiries after thee, and the expres- 
 sions of satisfaction it would have given them to see thee again 
 in this land. Mary Ann Murray and Anna Shotwell received 
 
 4 In the original letter Candler wrote: "... the building is very- 
 beautiful, but ..." 
 
 5 In the original letter Candler wrote: "... the Greek slave which was 
 exhibited in London with her chains is here exhibited without them, at least 
 the statue seems to me to be the same, but I asked no questions." 
 
24 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 thy letters and the presents with much pleasure, and sent in 
 return their kind love. How much I enjoy the company of our 
 New York friends, and their abounding hospitality! Peaches 
 are now declining in flavor, but some good ones remain : a 
 friend from the country brought us a basket of delicious ones, 
 like those that Susan Smith gave us to take on board ship when 
 we left New York in the autumn of 1850. We have them 
 served plentifully at the tea table, and with melons at dinner. 
 Susan Day, dear girl, came to me just now with "I thought 
 Friend Candler I should have found thee up stairs : I have left a 
 peach for thee["] : coming to my apartment I found two fine 
 peaches on a plate before me : how kind every body is ! I feel 
 quite thankful. 
 
 9 Mo. 22. We are now at Burlington among many dear 
 friends — the Forsters at E P Gurney's at West-hill; Wm 
 Holmes at the house of Rowland and Ann Jones, and myself 
 at W J Allinson's. After breakfast our beloved friend Rebecca 
 Allinson offered up thanksgiving for our preservation thus 
 far; and a touching prayer for us that the Holy Spirit may 
 guide us, and a blessing attend our movements. At 8 oclock 
 W Holmes and myself called on Stephen Grellet and spent a 
 delightful half hour with him and his wife: S G is finely 
 recovered and comes out to meetings, sometimes twice in the 
 day: he inquired most affectionately after thee. Richard Mott 
 met us at Rowland Jones' to dinner : the good old man, now 
 88 years of age, walks as upright as any young man, and joins 
 with a hearty zest in conversation. In the afternoon a large 
 company of us were conveyed in four carriages to West Hill, to 
 spend a long and social evening together with E P Gurney and 
 her sisters and niece. I went with Hannah Taylor in her light 
 open waggon, behind a pair of fine horses, and called first on 
 Julia Clark at her cottage in her sister's grounds, who received 
 me with great cordiality. At the hall we sat down twenty to the 
 tea table, covered, American like, with preserves and relishes. 
 Fruits and ices were served at 9 oclock. Mahlon Day and 
 Richard Mott were of our number, as also Wm and Rebecca 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 25 
 
 Allinson and their good old aunts. Julia Clark and one of her 
 sisters and their niece Harriet Kirkbride, in a very lady like 
 manner assisted the servants in waiting upon us. The old arm 
 chair of Wm Penn in which we once sat, and his silver tea 
 service are removed to Susan Smith's at Burlington. Many 
 friends told me that they hoped to have seen thee with me in 
 this my third visit to their distant land : all seemed fond of 
 thee, and many sent their love. 
 
 This morning we attended Burlington week day meeting: 
 seven ministers in the gallery, and not a word spoken. Thomas 
 Evans and Jno M Whitall from Philadelphia came over to meet 
 us, and invite us to their houses in that city. My companions 
 in travel all went to West hill to dinner : I went with Richd 
 Mott, Mahlon Day and John M Whitall to the comfortable 
 dwelling of Amelia Smith to dine there. In the evening our 
 whole company took tea at S Grellet's. The dear man seemed 
 overjoyed to be surrounded by English friends. In the course 
 of some conversation which I had with him when we were 
 alone, he said, in allusion to the distressing attacks of pain 
 which he often suffers, "I speak it with humble thankfulness to 
 my great and good Lord, that in the midst of my bodily anguish, 
 I have found some of the happiest moments of my life: my 
 desire is to cultivate an entire submission, and to be able to 
 say Thy will be done." "Tell thy dear Maria," he continued, 
 "that I hope she may share with thee in the help and comfort of 
 the good Master : we have often thought of her : it must have 
 been a trying parting to you." Rebecca and Rachel Grellet send 
 their dear love and thank thee for thy presents. When I was 
 going away S G, with his usual politeness, took me by the hand 
 and said (he is nearly blind and otherwise infirm) "I would not 
 let thee go home alone, if I were able to go with thee." 
 
 9 Mo. 23. Hannah Taylor placed her brother's carriage at 
 our disposal for a country ride on the left bank of the Delaware, 
 and to call on Richard Mott at his country residence where we 
 were regaled with an abundance of good black grapes. Before 
 quitting Burlington we all of us called again on S & R Grellet 
 
26 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 and had a parting religious opportunity together, in which 
 Wm Forster was engaged in much love to address and encourage 
 his good old friend and fellow labourer in the gospel. There 
 had been floods in this part of New Jersey. Many friends 
 came to the train to see us depart. I could hardly help saying 
 to the Allinsons as we took leave; "many towns overflow with 
 water, but Burlington overflows with kindness." 
 
 Philadelphia 9 Mo. 26th 1853 
 On arriving at the warf of this city we were met by Thomas 
 Evans and J M Whitall. The Forsters went with Thomas 
 Evans to his house in Arch Street — Wm Holmes myself and 
 Mahlon Day with J M W in his own carriage to Filbert Street. 
 J M Whitall is a frank intelligent hospitable man, and his wife 
 a person of fine presence and of liberal heart and mind : they 
 have one married daughter and a son and two daughters at 
 home with them. On 7th day morning our company had a 
 private conference with Samuel Bettle, Wm Evans, Israel 
 Morris and Thos Evans, to whom we opened our prospect of 
 servise : in the afternoon Wm Flolmes and myself, attended by 
 the son in law of our host, took a drive in his carriage to the 
 Schulkyll water works and the Pennsilvania hospital for the 
 insane. The first private call I made in the city was on Elizabeth 
 White and her daughters, who received me, as they always 
 have done, with affection and kindness. Rebecca looks very 
 poorly, but in mind and conversation is as benevolent as ever. 
 Yesterday we attended the Twelfth street meeting: Saml 
 Bettle Jr a valuable minister was absent ; the work of the minis- 
 try devolved on me, and I was enabled, much to my own relief 
 and comfort, to invite my fellow professors to come to Christ 
 and to dwell in Him. After the morning meeting I called on 
 Jane Pettit who is now a sorrowful widow in a large house 
 with large possessions, left alone to contend with the fluctua- 
 tions of life. Eight weeks ago her husband died. After being 
 unwell a few days with a bowel complaint, he sent for Doctor 
 Beesley, who feeling his pulse told him that he had only a few 
 hours to live : mortification had already begun its course. The 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 27 
 
 patient, whose voice was still strong, could scarcely comprehend 
 his own danger, but immediately dictated his will, took leave of 
 his wife and daughter and friends, and in a few hours sank 
 lifeless away. This circumstance has occasioned me grief, as 
 I felt a strong regard for Dr Pettit, and he had looked forward 
 with pleasure his widow tells me, at the thought of meeting me 
 again. So are the links of life severed ! 
 
 This morning Saml Rhoads came to convey Wm Holmes 
 and myself to spend the day at his pleasant abode at Blockley. 
 To morrow morning we all leave this city for Baltimore, and 
 on 5th day we hope to be at Washington, where our arduous 
 labors begin. May the Lord give us grace to keep near to 
 Him, and may He preserve us ! the work is one of much 
 importance and of no small difficulty. I cannot remember all 
 the messages of love given me in charge to her I love above all 
 others, and to whom my "heart untravelled" is constantly 
 turning. Many are the kind friends who would gladly have 
 given thee a domicile hadst thou crossed the ocean with me. 
 Truly glad shall I be when our work, scarcely yet begun, is 
 concluded, and I am at liberty to return to thee again. 
 
 Nobody in New England or New York could give us any 
 information about the movements of John Wilbur, but we are 
 told in this city that he leaves New York for England on the 
 28th instant, accompanied by his son Dr. Wilbur : if so, he will 
 soon be with you. Although his meetings have given him leave 
 to go to England, many of his immediate friends much dis- 
 approve it : his late visit to Pennsilvania added nothing to his 
 reputation as a travelling minister, and rather lessened than 
 increased the desire of his adherents to stand by him and support 
 the secession of which he is the cause and leader. Poor man, I 
 wish him well, but hope for his own sake that he may soon be 
 back again to his native land. And now my dear Maria farewell. 
 May the great preserver of men keep thee and bless thee. 
 I remain most affectionately & truly Thine 
 
 jc. 
 
 Isaac & Rebecca Collins have kindly called on us but we 
 have not been yet able to visit them at their home. 
 
28 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 No. 3 Baltimore 9th Mo. 28th 1853 
 
 My Beloved Maria 
 
 On our return from Blockley on 2nd day last we rode across 
 the country to call on Israel Morris, and spent our last evening 
 at Philadelphia at the house of Thomas Evans where we met a 
 large company. We have received great kindness thus far : even 
 those friends who have so long stood aloof from us seemed 
 disposed to hold out the olive branch : sympathy and good wishes 
 have been expressed in quarters where we hardly expected it. 
 
 Yesterday we left Philadelphia for this city. Thos Wistar 
 had left his home ten miles off to conduct us thus far. On 
 arriving here we found Dr Thomas & his son waiting to convey 
 us from the station to their home. Wm Forster and Wm 
 Holmes lodge there : Josiah Forster and myself are guests of 
 Galloway and Margaret Cheston's next door. I made an early 
 call on Mary Ann Fowler and Elizabeth who were greatly 
 pleased to see me. It rejoices my heart to see how exceedingly 
 pleasant to all our friends is the remembrance of thy visits to 
 this country. One friend said to me, "I remember your former 
 visit to Philadelphia with interest : I remember thee but espe- 
 cially thy wife." I thanked him in my heart for the good word : 
 it touched a tender chord within me. At dinner yesterday we 
 were regaled as on a former occasion at Baltimore with a 
 profusion of iced cream, which, as the weather is warm — the 
 thermometer 75° — was very grateful to us: today we dine at 
 Dr Thomas'. Thy kind and truly welcome letter of the 8th Inst 
 is received : continue to give me all details of home and friends. 
 
 Washington 9 Mo 28 to 10th Mo. 3rd 
 The last time we passed from Baltimore to Washington was 
 in 1849, and if thou remembers, the weather was hot, and we 
 had a storm of thunder lightning and rain : this time of per- 
 forming the journey the sky threatened us but gave no storm, 
 and now the weather is serene and clear. The city of 
 Washington, contrary to my former expectation, is fast 
 increasing in size and population, and now contains 50,000 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 29 
 
 inhabitants. They are building a monument to the memory of 
 Genl Washington which when completed will be 517 feet 
 high — the highest edifice of the known world: it is already 
 140 feet from the ground, and begins to vie with the proud 
 capital, now enlarged by extensive wings. After having waited 
 three days in consequence of the indisposition of President 
 Pierce, we have at length obtained an audience, and a pretty 
 long interview, much to our satisfaction. Wm Forster opened 
 the business in a manner calculated to make a good impression 
 on his mind. The President, on his part, took a review of the 
 past and present state of the American mind on the subject of 
 Slavery, offering no justification for it, as an institution on 
 any ground whatever, and seeming to deplore its existence : he 
 at once comprehended both our object and motives, gave us full 
 credit for sincerity and right feeling, and told us that our right 
 course (a course we had already resolved) was to proceed to 
 the Southern States where slavery prevails, and in the same 
 spirit in which we had come to him, to solicit an interview with 
 the Executive of each State. He was satisfied, he said, that 
 Governors of States would listen to a calm appeal against 
 slavery, exciting as the subject really was, and that we should 
 every where be received with respect. Acting as we did. and 
 going in the spirit which seemed to attend us, no one he thought 
 could take offence. He was satisfied with the course we took, 
 and if anything should be stated in the public papers derogatory 
 of our mission he should be quite willing to use his influence to 
 defend us from being misrepresented; and that if we should 
 return to Washington, we might put ourselves in communication 
 with him again. The manner and bearing of the President was 
 simple and polite, and his conversation christian in its character. 
 Wm Forster, on leaving, as also Josiah, expressed sympathy for 
 him and his wife in their recent bereavement of an only son by 
 accidental death on a railway, which evidently touched him : he 
 replied "Yes, we are left childless and are something desolate." 
 He accepted the parchment and immediately proceeded to join 
 
30 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 his cabinet in another room. 6 Thus one important step has been 
 taken, and others are about to follow. 7 
 
 Richmond, Virginia 10th Mo 3rd 
 On First day last at Washington we held our meeting for 
 worship at the hotel and were joined by Mary Ann Donaldson 
 who lives in that city. In the afternoon we visited the coloured 
 school at Dr Butler's episcopal place of worship: the number 
 that usually meet there is about 200. Wm. Forster addressed 
 the company with much earnestness, though briefly : Josiah 
 Forster did the same. On Second day morning, rising before 
 sunrise, we drove down to the Potomac and took passage by 
 the steam boat to Acquia Creek, where 13 years ago, if thou 
 remembers, we landed on our way to Cedar Creek, and passed 
 onward over ten miles of sandy road in lumbering coaches 
 which carried nine inside passengers each. This inconvenience 
 is now removed; and the great southern rail road begins 
 at this spot. 8 
 
 Soon after breakfast on board the steamer, the day being 
 delightful, one of moderate warmth and unclouded sunshine, I 
 placed myself under an awning, with my face toward the 
 Maryland shore, and began to read the travels of Sir Jno 
 Mandeville in the East, five hundred years ago. We have both 
 of us travelled far together : we can say with Mandeville that 
 we have seen "half the firmament of the heavens between the 
 two pole stars," and now without thee, though in good company, 
 I am left to pursue a vast journey alone. I do feel the privation 
 but endeavour to be cheerful and confiding. We are already a 
 
 6 The original letter contained the following statement : "The mes- 
 senger told us before we went up to him that he had resolved, being unwell, to 
 see no other person that day than the members of his cabinet and ourselves." 
 
 7 This paragraph in the original letter ends: "Should this letter be read 
 by any of our friends who would be likely to communicate any particulars it 
 may contain to others, let it be remembered, once for all, that nothing of 
 mine is intended for publication in 'The Friend/ or any where else : what 
 I write is private and confidential, as if sent to thyself alone." 
 
 8 In the original letter Candler added, "and by it, we pursued our 
 journey to Richmond, the capital of Virginia." 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 31 
 
 thousand miles from Halifax where we first landed, and this 
 is only a small fraction of the mighty land we expect to pass 
 over. Through mercy we are all in good health and go forward 
 happily together : Nathaniel Crenshaw and his son John met 
 us at Richmond and conducted us to the house of Mary Ladd, 
 where we are all hospitably entertained. This friend is the 
 aunt of the two young women who attracted so much of our 
 attention at Cedar Creek : thou wilt remember the conversation 
 you had together, and what she told thee about them — that 
 having been surrounded by slave girls and always waited upon 
 they could do nothing for themselves and were only fit for a 
 glass case to be looked at. I well remember the fine form and 
 face of one of them, who married, as we thought she would 
 do, out of our society : she is now in a declining state of health, 
 not expected to live many days : the other sister died suddenly 
 of cholera on board one of the Ohio steamers. 
 
 We met here from Cedar creek a woman friend who seemed 
 greatly pleased to meet me again, who asked very affectionately 
 after thee : she asked me also good humouredly, and with a 
 significant smile whether I had seen Wm Evans in Philadelphia? 
 How long some little encounters are remembered and serve to 
 amuse the mind ! We are here in the midst of slavery and 
 a slavery loving people, and feel the necessity of being very 
 cautious as to what we say : we may speak of slavery as some- 
 thing unchristian, but to say a hard word against those who 
 cherish the system is to throw a spark upon gunpowder. 
 Richmond is a city of 35,000 inhabitants, standing on the St 
 James' river : we ascended the roof of the State house and had 
 a fine panorama of the city and its environs about 15 miles 
 round. A water mill on the bank of this river in the city itself 
 turns out on an average 800 barrels of flour, equal to 560 sacks 
 every day, and sometimes makes 1000 barrels a day ! This mill is 
 only one out of many which the city contains, and is a wonder 
 in itself. 
 
32 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Bridgeport Western Virginia 10th Mo. 7th 
 Our object in going to Richmond was to wait on the 
 Governor of Virginia and present our address : this object 
 however was not attained, as he was gone to his plantation in 
 Harrison county, 360 miles distant. We had intended to go 
 from Richmond into Kentucky, but the Governor's absence 
 induced us to change our course, and proceed to Ohio, taking 
 his house by the way : we therefore returned to Baltimore. 
 Yesterday found us on the Baltimore and Ohio rail road on our 
 way to Cumberland. Thou wilt perhaps remember the beautiful 
 ride of 180 miles we took three years ago between these two 
 cities — the rocky defiles of Harper's ferry, and the number of 
 fine sweeping curves we made among them, and on the banks 
 of the Potomac. I therefore pass on without further notice. 
 Our route from Cumberland this morning was through a 
 portion of Virginia quite new to me. Three years since there 
 was no rail road in this part of the province, west of the Blue 
 ridge mountains : one of 200 miles long is now open and extends 
 to Wheeling. This road for its engineering difficulties and 
 its rapid execution is little short of a wonder : it is cut in much 
 of its length through the western slopes of the Alleghany 
 mountains, disclosing rocks and ravines and steep hills crowned 
 with forests, which none but Indians and the hunters of wild 
 animals ever penetrated. It was beautiful to observe, as we 
 rolled along, the wild woods densely filled with trees, now 
 changing from one mass of living green to the mingled tints of 
 orange, yellow, green and vermillion that so richly adorn the 
 Western world in autumn, and to notice the stupendous hills. It 
 was I assure thee a rich treat. 
 
 We took our tickets for Wheeling with leave to lay over for 
 a night by the way. At a distance therefore of 100 miles from 
 Cumberland we left the train, and took the diligence that 
 brought us to this small country town, near which the 
 Governor — Joseph Johnson — resides. We walked to his house, 
 where as a modern Cincinnatus he received us, not indeed at his 
 plough, but in a modest mansion in the midst of his plantation, 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 33 
 
 and in a manner quite unpretending. He not only granted us 
 an interview, but listened patiently to Wm Forster whilst he 
 opened our concern to him, and allowed him also to read the 
 document at full length. He gave us to understand that the 
 people of Virginia were extremely sensitive on the subject of 
 slavery, and could scarcely tolerate the interference of for- 
 eigners in regard to it, but that he was convinced of the purity 
 of our motives and would accept our address and ponder its 
 contents. Another important portion of our work is thus com- 
 pleted, and we now pass on into Ohio and thence to Kentucky. 
 I have not yet received thy second letter, but have heard of 
 its arrival. Owing to our constant change of place, letters are 
 sent on from one town to another after we have left : do not 
 therefore be surprised if I make no allusion to what you may 
 think we ought to know about. We value your letters greatly 
 when we get them, but it will prove often a long time before 
 they come to hand, as it does in this instance. My letters are 
 written in bits and scraps as time and opportunity occur : thou 
 must therefore excuse incoherencies, repetitions and blunders. 
 We are all in good health. Our kind hostess at Richmond, Mary 
 Ladd, desired me in a particular manner to commend her 
 love to thee. 
 
 On the road to Wheeling 10th Mo. 8th 
 The astounding celerity with which rail roads are laid down 
 in this country is not all advantage to the traveller. We rose 
 this morning at 4 oclock and passed through a newly cleared 
 hilly country which 15 years ago was tenanted by bears, and is 
 still overrun by wild deer, and which abounds with rattlesnakes. 
 We are now waiting by the road side. The train was due at 
 8 oclock : it is now past one, and no tidings of it. This is the 
 second time that we have had to wait nearly five hours for 
 trains due, but not arriving. The rail roads have but one track, 
 and if a train be behind its time a single half hour, it throws out 
 all the other trains on the line perhaps for half a day. Thus 
 detained, we know not what to do : we must not walk far, or 
 sleep, or sit down to write except at the peril of losing our 
 
34 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 passage; and the worst of it is we are compelled sometimes to 
 remain at spots where we are surrounded by low-lived, tobacco 
 chewing, idle trash of white men who loiter about and pester 
 us with questions. Such is our case at this spot : the country 
 around it is beautiful; the day is warm and fine, almost too 
 warm for me, and yet I cannot look about me for fear of missing 
 the train. This is a part of Virginia in which there are but 
 few slaves, and where the lands are cultivated chiefly by white 
 laborers who earn a dollar a day and are boarded lodged and 
 washed for ! The Governor is a slave owner, but whilst he told 
 us that the subject of slavery must not be discussed openly, as 
 the laws of the State forbad everything "which tended to ex- 
 cite," there were thousands of slave owners, he said, and he was 
 one of them, who wished that there was not a slave in Virginia ! 
 How to get rid of slavery, he said, and get rid of the negro race 
 was a problem which no American statesman knew how to 
 solve. The institution was, however, a bad one, and he believed 
 that at some time or other it would be abandoned. Like other 
 slave owners he justified the treatment of his own slaves as 
 humane, and complained bitterly of Harriet Beecher Stowe as 
 the misrepresenter and traducer of her country, and her 
 countrymen. Farewell 
 
 Thine most affectionately. 
 
 ]C 
 
 No. 4 Columbus Ohio 10th Mo. 12th 1853 
 
 My beloved Maria 
 
 On the evening of the day when I last wrote, the railway 
 train, which had been delayed seven hours, came up to Fetterman 
 and conveyed us to Wheeling. The new road continued to run 
 in the course of the Valley river among the Alleghanies, amidst 
 wild and lovely scenery : the morning was hazy and a slight 
 frost covered the ground : the day proved very warm and the 
 evening pleasant, and we greatly enjoyed the scenery. On 
 First day morning last we hired a carriage to take us to Mount 
 Pleasant in Ohio, distant 12 miles and reached the Friends' 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 35 
 
 meeting house about ten minutes after it had fully gathered. 
 VVm Forster preached a considerable time, and we were far 
 from regretting the effort we had made to join the congregation 
 which consisted of about 120 persons. 
 
 As soon as the meeting was over our little band divided 
 company : Wm and Josiah Forster repaired to Greenbury 
 Plummer's, Wm Holmes to Doctor Flanner's, and I walked 
 home with our former host George Jenkins, where Cyrus & Ann 
 Mendenhall joined us to dinner. In the afternoon David & 
 Rebecca Updegraft drove up, and we formed a very social 
 pleasant evening party : all seemed glad to see us amongst them 
 and I was truly glad to be welcomed by them again so heartily. 
 The next morning I called alone on Elisha Bates, who is an 
 invalid at the house of his married daughter, and sat half an 
 hour with him : the Forsters called afterwards. He expressed 
 himself much gratified with our attention and visits. He 
 retains apparently a strong attachment to Friends, and would 
 be glad, it is believed, to join us again, but of this there is at 
 present no probability, so far as membership is concerned. We 
 all of us went to David Updegraft's to dinner and sat down, a 
 large company of us to an abundant repast most hospitably 
 served : our plates w r ere loaded, American fashion like, with 
 turkey ham and beef, sweet potatoes, beet, lima beans, apple 
 sauce and tomatoes : then followed a second course of apple 
 pie, peach pie, preserves and grapes in profusion : the table 
 groaned under the weight of good things, and a loving spirit 
 pervading the whole circle, we enjoyed the feast greatly. Ann 
 Taylor, now 88 years of age, was full of conversation, and as 
 animated as her great grandchildren : she still rides on horse- 
 back and gallops on her old pony, now in his 33rd year ! She 
 held an appointed public meeting in the country on First day 
 morning. At our parting the female friends of the company 
 pressed round me to give messages of their love to thee — Ann 
 Taylor, Rebecca Updegraft, Ann Mendenhall, Sarah Jenkins 
 and Mary Binns, as others had done before ; they seemed pleased 
 to tell me of the conversations you had together in 1850. The 
 
36 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 good old lady at the Temperance hotel desired me to send her 
 love to thee, if it was worth having : "I did love her very much," 
 she said, "we had much talk together;" and then she told me 
 about thy travelling bonnet and thy meeting bonnet, and of the 
 pertinacity of the over scrupulous about these things ! 
 
 On Second afternoon we returned to Wheeling, where I met 
 John Rawlings and Dr Bates, son of Elisha Bates, who made 
 us a friendly call. Yesterday we took the stage for Zanesville, 
 and this morning, after passing through 60 miles of a fine farm 
 country, part of it through the native forest, we are now here 
 at Columbus. A general election is now going on in Ohio, and 
 the test question of the day is "Shall we demand a law to 
 prohibit the distillation and sale of ardent spirits?" A strong 
 effort is making for the Maine liquor law, already adopted by 
 five states of the Union, and expected soon to be carried here. 9 
 I have again visited the State Lunatic Asylum, and observe 
 many improvements since we were here together. 
 
 10th Mo. 14th 
 Our object in coming to Columbus, the capital of Ohio, was 
 to see the governor, but not finding him here, we took the stage 
 for Lancaster where he resides. Lancaster is 29 miles from 
 Columbus, and although we had two teams of four horses 
 each, it took us six hours to perform the journey ! On arriving 
 at this country town of 4000 inhabitants, we found a large 
 cattle fair to which thousands of people had congregated. In 
 the centre of the field was erected a hippodrome or horse-course, 
 where the horses brought for sale or to gain prizes are exercised, 
 and this was the favorite spot of assembling for the concourse. 
 One horse brought to the fair was worth 1000 dollars! The 
 cattle were very good, several oxen, cows and calves were of un- 
 mixed white and large of carcase; the fruit show was small, but 
 we observed some golden pippin apples more than twelve inches 
 
 8 For a discussion of the Ohio election see Eugene H. Roseboom, The 
 Civil War Era (The History of the State of Ohio, III, Columbus, Ohio, 
 1944), 220-25. At the election a Democratic, anti-Maine Law Assembly was 
 chosen and the temperance movement suffered a severe defeat. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 37 
 
 round, two of which were given to us, and were of fine flavour. 
 The cobs of Indian corn were magnificent : I counted on one 
 of them 1200 grains, and sometimes two such cobs grow on 
 one stalk and spring from a single grain. The land must be 
 good that can return two thousand times the quantity of seed 
 sown ! This is a great country for Indian corn : the growers 
 of it can sell it for a shilling a bushel and get rich. 
 
 In the evening the Governor of Ohio Wm Medill came 
 to us at the hotel, and remained with us two hours : he allowed 
 us to read the address at length and went into the subject of 
 slavery with us very fully. He said to us, "Gentleman I am as 
 much opposed to slavery as you are : I am opposed to it politi- 
 cally, and for the reasons also which you have given in your 
 address, but as a nation we cannot get rid of it." He says that 
 although the citizens of Ohio are enemies to slavery, they dislike 
 the colored people, and persecute them sadly. "I will give you 
 a specimen" he said. "I lately gave papers of naturalisation to 
 an Englishman, who soon after married a malatto woman, and 
 because he did so his neighbours and others would not allow 
 him to vote, although he had as much right to do so as myself." 
 As Wm Holmes and myself, on the outside of the coach this 
 morning, were talking this matter over, the coachman joined in 
 the discourse. "Is that man you speak of the one that lives 
 near Lancaster? his wife is pretty black: the people halloed 
 at him when he came to the town, I guess." We said to him, 
 if this is a free country, a man may surely do what he pleases. 
 "Well," he replied, "this is a free country, and a man may do 
 what he likes, but he must not marry a nigger." The prejudice 
 existing against the colored class is so deep and so general, and 
 at the same time so unreasonable, as not only to move my 
 commiseration, but to make me angry. Lancaster, though a 
 small town, has many church buildings, and its school rooms 
 accommodate 700 young persons, who receive gratuitously a 
 good education, embracing the languages and mathematics : the 
 town employs sixteen teachers, and the whole cost of education 
 is paid by the State. Colored children are also educated at the 
 public expense, but in schools of their own. 
 
38 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Frankfort, Kentucky 10th Mo 18th 
 From Columbus we came by railway to Cincinnati. Abram 
 Taylor came to the hotel to seek for us, and he and his brother 
 James Taylor insisted on making us all their guests. Susan 
 Howland was here on a religious visit, accompanied by her son 
 Robert and his wife, and Nathan and Mary Breed from 
 Massachusetts. Hfarrison] Alderson was also here, so that 
 we sat down, a large company, to dinner. The last mentioned 
 friends all lodged at Abram Taylor's : we had rooms allotted 
 us at James Taylor's, in the house adjoining. On First day we 
 attended Cincinnati meeting, which was large, and as some of 
 our friends have said in their journals, "the truth was in 
 dominion." Susan Howland and Wm Forster preached the 
 gospel with power, and fervent vocal prayer was offered up by 
 S H. In the evening we all met at the house of Ann Shipley, 
 now 93 years of age, with other friends of the city, and had 
 a religious meeting in her bed chamber. The dear old friend 
 is bright and clear in her faculties and loving in her spirit, and 
 has so much of good bodily health, as to lead us to believe that 
 she may live many years longer. 
 
 Yesterday morning the Kentucky stage coach, carrying 
 twelve inside, conveyed us to Lexington, the town where the 
 late Henry Clay lived and died. We crossed the broad river 
 Ohio in a large steam boat, stage horses and all, and proceeded 
 over a good road 85 miles to that place. Kentucky abounds in 
 lovely scenery, and we only lamented that so large and fine a 
 province should be clouded by the guilt of slavery. The road 
 leads in many parts through the uncleared forest, which covers 
 both hill and valley. This is the beginning of what is termed 
 the Indian summer. In the early morning is a slight frost 
 attended by haze, making a great coat needful : long before 
 noon the sun breaks out, and the weather is almost too warm, 
 and at sun-set the cold returns. The woods are now in all 
 their beauty and grandeur. In passing along we could have 
 selected hundreds of thousands of trees, each one of which for 
 richness of foliage, standing singly, would attract in England 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 39 
 
 the admiration of all observers. The colors of the foliage, just 
 nipped by the frost, are green, orange, yellow, brown and 
 crimson, and these mixed together in one immense mass, ex- 
 tending for miles together, and reflecting the radiance of a 
 clear blue sky, form a picture, the beauty of which can scarcely 
 be imagined by any one who has not seen it. 
 
 We dined at a country tavern by the way : a fine slave boy, 
 good looking and black as jet, was employed in flapping away 
 flies from the table with a bunch of peacock's feathers, and 
 seemed very happy in his occupation ; but it made me sad to 
 think that when he becomes a man he may be sold perhaps for 
 $1200 to some wretched man-dealer and be sent to the South 
 to sicken or die on some rice or sugar plantation, overworked by 
 some cruel master. I used to love to look upon our own free 
 blacks in the West Indies, but to look upon slaves, and to 
 consider what they are and what they may be, makes me 
 mournful. We do not feel our work to be less important the 
 more we go into it, especially in the Slave states. 
 
 This morning we rose at 4 o'clock and came by the rail-car 
 28 miles to Frankfort the state town, to meet the Governor. 
 One would think it must be very humiliating to men in 
 authority, themselves slave owners, to hear such truths as we 
 are compelled to utter before them in regard to the guilt of 
 slavery : but to do them justice we must say that they listen 
 composedly, and act like gentlemen : they allow us to read our 
 address to them, and evince no angry feeling. The governor 
 of Kentucky Lazarus W Powell received us politely, telling 
 us to speak to him without reserve : we did so, and the cause of 
 the slave was ably pleaded. On our leaving him Wm Forster 
 expressed his hope that we might receive as much kindness and 
 courtesy from the other State governors whom we proposed 
 to visit : he took us by the hand and said that he was sure that 
 the Governors further south would conduct themselves towards 
 us as Christian men, and as gentlemen ; and by his frank manner 
 gave us good encouragement to proceed on our service. 
 
 To morrow we return to Cincinnati, and thence proceed to 
 
40 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Indiana, but whether we shall get so far north as Back creek 
 to visit our Essex friends is doubtful. Our course lies west- 
 ward to Illinois and Missouri. We remain in pretty good 
 health, but I feel the changes of temperature, which occur 
 often, to occasion me a chronic cold which I cannot shake off. 
 The rooms are warmed by such great fires that when we step 
 into the open air we are at once in a chilling climate. It is 
 surprising to me how these Americans can sit as they do before 
 these mighty fires with their hats on, and their legs over the 
 backs of chairs in front of them, or against the mantel-piece 
 
 and escape cold as they do. 
 
 # * # 
 
 The telegraphs of this country do their work more ef- 
 fectually than ours in England. Dr Thomas of Baltimore had 
 occasion to send me a message to our hotel at Washington : the 
 clerk who attends the machine, instead of writing it off with 
 his own hand, sent a strip of paper, which the machine, acting 
 as an automaton, had printed off. I enclose it as a curiosity, 
 not having seen the like before, although the art is known in 
 England and perhaps practised. In a few days I hope to write 
 again, but as we shall soon be about 1200 miles from the sea 
 board, thou must not be surprised if my letters should seem 
 to loiter. 
 
 With dear love to you all, Thine faithfully 
 
 JC 
 
 No 5 Cincinnati 10 Mo 25th 1853 
 
 My beloved Maria 
 
 We yesterday attended the Mo. Meeting of friends in this 
 city, and took an evening meal at Ezra Bailey's. Our friends 
 the Taylors are princely men, and make us truly welcome : they 
 place their carriages at our service and themselves also, and 
 conduct us wherever we wish to go. The refuge for juvenile 
 offenders of this city, which now contains 130,000 inhabitants, 
 does great credit to its founders : everything in it and about 
 it — schools, workshops, religious instruction, diet and lodging, 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 41 
 
 has a reformatory character : all tends to improvement. William 
 Forster addressed the young people seriously and affectionately. 
 We have now travelled 1750 miles and have had an opportunity 
 of observing men and manners, and the improvements which 
 are going on everywhere. In the cities, and among merchants 
 and professional men and their families there is perhaps as 
 much of refinement as we find among the upper classes in 
 England, but the country towns of the interior exhibit, in some 
 of the inhabitants, a coarseness which is really repulsive. "We 
 live in a free country, I guess," is a common saying of the 
 common people, and this freedom gives them a license to chew 
 tobacco, to spit before you, to ask questions without limit, to 
 loiter, to drink and to talk politics. It would take a long time 
 to reconcile me to such a democracy and especially, connected as 
 it is, with a stupid hatred of the colored classes. 
 
 In Kentucky, the other day, a slave owner forced me into 
 conversation about slavery : he abused Harriet Beecher Stowe, 
 stigmatised her book as a tissue of lies, and spoke of slaves as 
 being superlatively happy! He much lamented that duelling 
 was getting out of favor, and gave me by his talk the impression 
 that the planters of Kentucky live under the dominion and 
 shadow of the wicked one. I kept my temper, replied to his 
 observations, corrected his gross misstatements : in short spoke 
 mildly, and by one single observation of my own, seemed to 
 attract his good will. A well educated man, but rather profane, 
 stood behind me and clapped me on the back — no great honor 
 I confess, and said to my opponent "What an infernal set of 
 fellows you are !" I was grieved at the expression and said 
 "Do not speak in that manner : these are hard words to use." 
 The planter rejoined, "Well I do like the Quakers," and as 
 we passed on to the tea table took his seat next me and began to 
 converse somewhat rationally. If this man however be a 
 type, and I suppose he is, of the slave holders as a class, I can 
 only say that slavery hardens the heart of man desperately, and 
 is in truth what John Wesley said of it long ago — "the sum and 
 substance of all villany." I mourn over the condition of this 
 
42 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 country, and pray in my heart that the day may speedily come 
 when all who are under oppression may become free. It rejoiced 
 my heart yesterday at the Mo. meeting to hear Harrisson 
 Alderson expatiate on the words "Remember them who are 
 in bonds as bound with them." 
 
 Before leaving this place, that singular personage Geo. 
 Knight called on us with his son. GK occasionally preaches 
 at the Hicksite meeting: thou wilt perhaps remember that he 
 said of the Hicksite body when we saw him three years ago that 
 there seemed more of the sweet anointing among them than 
 among Friends. The women friends here who know thee, the 
 Taylors especially, desire me to express the affection they feel 
 for thee, and to send their love. 
 
 Richmond Indiana 7th day morning. 
 We are now at Elijah Coffin's, 10 and intend remaining here 
 some days. The fine weather has passed away ; the rains have 
 set in; large fires and good clothing are beginning to be in- 
 dispensable. I am well provided, and my cold is gone. AVm 
 
 10 Elijah Coffin came to Indiana from North Carolina in 1824. He was 
 a distinguished businessman and devout Quaker. In his diary he made 
 mention of the visit of the English Friends: "The Yearly Meeting of 
 Friends, in London, having caused their address against slavery and the 
 slave trade to be presented, through their deputations set apart for that 
 purpose, to many of the governments of Europe; also to the government of 
 Brazil, in South America; their present deputation consisting of Josiah 
 Forster, William Forster, John Candler, and Wm. Holmes, have proceeded to 
 the United States, to present the Address to our general government, at 
 Washington City; and, also, to the state governments, severally, as they, in 
 the progress of their work, may see it proper. They have been to Washington 
 City and presented their address to the President; since that, they have 
 presented it to the governors of Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky ; and on their 
 way to Indianapolis, to present it to the governor of Indiana, they arrived at 
 Richmond, from Cincinnati, this evening. Josiah Forster and John Candler, 
 made their home at my house, and William Forster and William Holmes, 
 at Charles' [Coffin's son]." The Life of Elijah Coffin; zvith a Reminiscence, 
 by his son Charles F. Coffin, edited by his daughter, Mary C. Johnson 
 (E. Morgan & Sons, 1863), p. 116. For comments on Coffin see Bernhard 
 Knollenberg, Pioneer Sketches of the Upper Whitewater Valley Quaker 
 Stronghold of the West {Indiana Historical Society Publications, XV, No. 1, 
 Indianapolis, 1945), pp. 120-22. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 43 
 
 Holmes is an excellent traveller, and very acceptable to the 
 Americans : his manners and disposition are kind and agreeable : 
 he seems to prefer everybody to himself : he is very serviceable 
 to Wm Forster. 
 
 Indianapolis 10th Mo. 25th 
 On First day the 23rd we attended Richmond meeting, very 
 large, more than 350 persons present. Wm Forster was largely 
 engaged in testimony; most acceptably so. We took tea at 
 Wm Bell's. 11 Yesterday we all went to the Yearly meeting's 
 boarding school, 12 dined with a large company at Benjn 
 Fulghum's, 13 and passed the evening at the house of our beloved 
 friend Nathan C. Hoag. Josiah and Wm Forster did not know 
 N C Hoag before this visit to Richmond, but were much pleased 
 with him and his wife, as well they might be. We are now 
 passing away into provinces far remote, and I shall have no 
 more messages of love to thee from well known friends, but 
 I may now say once for all that when Friends have said to me 
 "do remember me to thy wife" and I have asked inquiringly, 
 dost thou remember my wife? such answers as these have been 
 returned, "I do remember her with much affection," or "I shall 
 not forget her as long as I live." So be comforted in knowing 
 that many think of thee. I do like the outburst of a warm and 
 generous nature : a fine looking country girl asked me if I had 
 seen Benjn Seebohm lately. I told her he had sent his love to 
 as many as were willing to receive it : was she one of that 
 number? "O my! that I am," was her reply, "he came to my 
 fathers house to pay us a religious visit, and only staid two 
 hours, but he got through his business so quick and so ready! 
 
 11 William Bell (1797-1871) came to America from Ireland in 1842. He 
 had edited the Irish Friend for five years. In Richmond he was active in 
 the temperance and abolition movements. Andrew W. Young, History of 
 Wayne County, Indiana . . . (Cincinnati, 1872), p. 411. 
 
 12 Earlham College, founded in 1847 as Friends' Boarding School. 
 
 18 Benjamin Fulghum and his sisters Mildred and Piety were granted 
 certificates from Contentnea Monthly Meeting in North Carolina to New 
 Garden Monthly Meeting on March 11, 1826. 
 
44 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 I never saw such a good man in all my life." B Seebohn is a 
 special favorite with the Friends of Indiana. 
 
 This morning we left Richmond and came by a railway 
 made through much of the forest to this young and vigorous 
 city, the capital of the State. I have been talking with a 
 surveyor who tells me that when he came here 32 years ago to 
 lay out the land, the forest was so thick that he could scarcely 
 see the sky for 50 miles round : it is now a city of twelve or 
 fifteen thousand inhabitants, with eight rail roads radiating 
 from it as a centre, and has a State house worthy of a large 
 province. Towns and cities spring up in this wonderful country 
 like Jonah's gourd, and the facilities of inter-communication 
 are becoming very great. The harvests of corn and fruit are 
 already abundant and the land is loaded with plenty : the first 
 settlers work very hard, the men on their farms, and women 
 within doors ; but then they get on rapidly in life and are soon 
 able to plant their children on the soil around them. An old 
 man — a Friend in this country was asked how many grand 
 children he had : he replied, "I do not know how many grand- 
 children, but I have fifty five great grand children!" The 
 young people marry early and the country seems in no danger 
 of wanting inhabitants. The legislature of this State have 
 lately altered its constitution, which now forbids any colored 
 person, not already naturalised, from ever settling in it! 14 
 
 Last evening we were called for at our hotel by Robt 
 Underhill the only member of our society, as the head of a 
 family, in Indianapolis, and took us all in his carriage to spend 
 the evening with him. This morning we met the Governor and 
 had an hour's satisfactory interview with him. He told us 
 that although he was a Colonisationist and looked to Africa as 
 
 "The new Indiana Constitution, adopted in 1851, prohibited free Negroes 
 from coming into the state. At the first meeting of the General Assembly 
 following the adoption of the Constitution a law was passed requiring every 
 Negro then in the state to register with the county clerk. In February, 1853, 
 the Assembly passed a law prohibiting Indians and persons having one 
 eighth or more of Negro blood to testify in cases in which a white person 
 was a party. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION' 45 
 
 the destined home of the colored race now in the United States, 
 he fully concurred in the principles of our Address, and would 
 present it to the Legislature. He vindicated the policy of 
 Indiana in preventing the influx from other provinces of colored 
 people into the State, accompanied as it is by an annual outlay 
 of money to promote their emigration to Liberia. The 
 Americans as a nation have very unsound views of what they 
 ought to do and what to leave undone in regard to this 
 momentous question of emigration. Liberia, however good as 
 a colony, will never lead of itself to the abolition of slavery, or 
 serve as a home for the slaves of the Southern states, if 
 emancipated, and it is a perfect delusion to imagine that it 
 ever can be so. The Governor of Indiana Joseph A Wright is 
 a polite intelligent man : he pressed us on leaving to spend the 
 evening with him at his private residence, which we gladly 
 agreed to do. He invited Robert Underbill's family to join us 
 in the visit. I forgot to mention that Robert Underhill is the 
 father in law of Dr Updegraft, 15 and of course the grandfather 
 of the very lovely boy that we saw lying asleep on the sofa 
 at Mt Pleasant in 1850 
 
 10 Mo 27 Our last evening's visit to Govr Wright was a 
 memorable one. We supped at 6 oclock, and among the good 
 provisions was a dish of fricasied chicken, served with cranberry 
 sauce — excellent. The governor stood at one end of the table, 
 his sister at the other, and in the absence of servants and of all 
 ceremony, politely waited on their Quaker guests, till all being 
 supplied, they sat down themselves and partook of the banquet 
 with them. Peaches and pears, preserved cranberries, and many 
 sorts of bread and cake were bountifully supplied. After our 
 evening meal was despatched we withdrew to the drawing 
 room : an hour's animated conversation followed, and then a 
 time of religious retirement, in which Wm Forster addressed 
 the governor, who is a widower, and has lately lost his wife, in 
 a strain of fervent christian regard, expressing a desire that all 
 
 13 Jonathan T. Updegraff was granted a certificate to Fairfield Monthly 
 Meeting in Indiana to marry Phebe Underhill, September 22, 1846. 
 
46 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 his sorrows might be sanctified to him, and that a blessing 
 might attend him and his sister and son through time and to 
 eternity. The company parted in feelings of regard and love 
 to each other, and good has flowed from the visit. We had 
 thought of going at once to Chicago, but Wm Forster feels his 
 mind attracted to a settlement of Friends westward, so that we 
 set out this afternoon, first of all, in that direction. 
 
 Terre Haute 10 Mo. 27th 
 Here we are on the border of Illinois, in the Prairie country 
 at a truly comfortable hotel. This place is distant from 
 Indianapolis 73 miles, a rail road running through the forest, 
 connecting the two cities. The rich and beautiful foliage that 
 a few days since clothed the trees is going, or gone : the leaves 
 touched by morning frosts, and beaten with rain, now strew 
 the ground, and nature is no longer what it was. This is a 
 wonderful country! Mackay makes the British isles to say 
 to the United States 
 
 "We are the older, you the younger 
 "We are the man, and you the boy." 
 
 It is very true that this country is younger than ours, but it 
 grows so fast that the boy must soon be the man, and bids fair 
 soon to be taller and stronger than its parent : his clothes get 
 too small for him before they can be said to be worn out. Towns 
 and villages, when first built, are formed of log houses or 
 framed and boarded ones : in a few years new settlers congre- 
 gate, and better and larger domiciles are required ; the first 
 erections come down and more substantial ones succeed. Every 
 town is enlarging, and new streets as well as old ones are filled 
 with bricks, boards, stone and mortar. The rail roads open 
 the forest, new farms rise on every side, and everything be- 
 speaks a giant growth! Indiana, a province only of half a 
 century, now contains about a million inhabitants ; and its 
 governor assures us that there is not a spot of twenty acres 
 together in any one part of its vast area that is unfit for 
 cultivation ! To day, tor the first time, I have seen what is 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 47 
 
 called a Prairie : but as Illinois is covered with prairie land, and 
 we are soon to travel through it, I shall give thee no description 
 of it at present. 
 
 Bloom field 16 Western Indiana 10 Mo 29th 
 
 Having engaged a covered carriage for W & J Forster, and 
 a man to drive them, and a single horse chaise for Wm Holmes 
 and myself, we left Terre Haute yesterday for an excursion to 
 this part of the Indiana back woods : the day was chilly but clear 
 and pleasant, and we enjoyed the ride. The distance for the 
 day was 28 miles and it took us seven hours to perform it, as 
 the road was muddy in some parts and corduroy in others : there 
 was only one small village on the road and very few houses. We 
 passed some apple orchards in which the trees were loaded with 
 fine fruit, and large quantities of it lay wasting on the ground. 
 
 At sun down we reached the homestead of Z a chary Morris, 
 a backwoods farmer, unexpected by himself or any of his 
 family : we asked him whether he could take us in, and our 
 driver, lodge us all and give provender to our horses? He 
 replied "Yes and welcome." His good wife was gone from 
 home to assist at a quilting in the house of a colored neighbour, 
 where a company of the new settlement women had gone for 
 an afternoon to assist in making a new quilt, and to sup 
 together. The daughter took us in and set about to prepare us 
 an evening meal, for we had travelled without dinner, and the 
 father of the family heaped logs on the keeping room fire, and 
 gave us a good blaze. We supped at seven oclock : after which, 
 according to usual custom, the whole family came together to 
 read the bible. An aged grandmother, 86 years old, was placed 
 in an arm chair opposite the open fire place and the blazing 
 wood : father, mother and seven children assembled round, and 
 these together with ourselves and the driver made fifteen in 
 company. At 9 oclock we all retired to bed, first asking the 
 usual question "At what hour do you breakfast?" "We break- 
 fast," said our host, "at half past 5 oclock, but if you would 
 
 18 Bloomingdale, originally called Bloomfield, in Parke County, Indiana. 
 
48 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 like it sooner, we can get it ready !" We thanked him, told him 
 that would be early enough for us, and requested to be called 
 in the morning. Three good beds were prepared for us in one 
 large room, and a fourth in a passage adjoining. We laid 
 ourselves down, looked through the uncurtained windows at 
 the beautiful stars and fell asleep. At a quarter to five our 
 young friend Cornelius Morris marched in upon us to light our 
 candles and announce the hour of rising: we went out of doors 
 to wash, and then sat down to breakfast. Our hostess must 
 have risen at 4 o'clock or earlier : for she had prepared us a 
 sumptuous meal consisting of hot bread, boiled and fried 
 potatos sweet potatoes, cold roast pork, peach butter, preserves, 
 coffee, milk and cream! added to all this was a flowing jug of 
 sweet cider unfermented — an excellent drink, and to a thirsty 
 man, delicious. We asked our host about his apple crop. He 
 had gathered about 200 bushels and after giving away to his 
 neighbours, had stored 175 bushels for family use. We were 
 all greatly pleased with this hospitable family : the boys, a fine 
 looking company help their father on the farm, so that he hires 
 no laborers. 
 
 At 8 oclock this morning, leaving my friends to follow, I set 
 out alone afoot on the edge of the forest for Bloomfield, three 
 miles further on in the country. Here we have attended the 
 select Monthly meeting, and stay over to morrow in order to 
 attend the usual meeting for worship. This settlement of 
 Friends covers a country eight miles long and three miles broad, 
 and comprises three meetings which contain in all about 600 
 members, as many as the whole Quarterly meeting of Essex. 
 Thus ends my long history of a short journey, and my paper 
 is filled, so that I can say no more at present. To morrow we 
 set out for Illinois. Farewell. Accept my best love. Thine 
 most affectionately. 
 
 JC. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 49 
 
 1853 
 No 6. Springfield, Illinois 11th Month 3rd 
 
 My very dear Maria 
 
 On First day last we attended Bloom field meeting and met 
 there about 300 in number. Wm Forster was engaged in 
 testimony much to the satisfaction of his friends. I went the 
 previous evening to Andrew Tomlinson's — a young married 
 man and a young minister, and much enjoyed his pious cheerful 
 conversation : he came to that settlement four years ago, a poor 
 boy, and commenced business as a blacksmith : he now has a 
 frame work house of his own, well furnished, a little land 
 adjoining, has a few dollars of ready money, and can hospitably 
 entertain his friends : so rapid is the reward of industry in this 
 remote country! Friends here have a Quarterly meeting 
 school, 17 attended by both sexes, who receive instruction under 
 one roof, but board in private families, paying for board and 
 lodging about $1.50 cents or 6/6 pr week, or working out the 
 cost by manual labor out of doors, or as helps and domestics 
 within. On First day afternoon I left my kind host Barnabas 
 Hobbs, a minister, at whose house I lodged, and set out alone 
 on foot towards a friend's house five miles distant, expecting 
 a carriage to overtake me. I missed my way, and near sunset 
 got lost in the woods. Josiah Forster followed soon after, and 
 lost his way as I did, but he found a guide who led him by a 
 near track to the highway and got safely landed without much 
 fatigue or loss of time. I knew that our course must be west- 
 ward and so followed the sun, and on reaching the open road 
 I found a young man driving a horse and gig coming in search 
 of me, and so I also soon found a home at his father's house to 
 my great comfort and joy. At this house we all lodged. The 
 orchard of this friend was so full of apples that he did not know 
 what to do with them, and his table so amply supplied with good 
 things from his farm that we made a good supper and an 
 excellent breakfast the next morning. The name of this good 
 man is Solomon Allen. 
 
 1T Bloomingdale Academy, founded as Western Manual Labor School, 
 in 1846. 
 
50 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 We returned to Terre haute by a new road. These Indian- 
 summer days are delightful: the mornings are frosty; a haze 
 comes on as the sun advances, and gives the heavens a different 
 appearance to anything we see in England, but leaves sufficient 
 warmth to exhilarate, and cheer the spirits; — and then the 
 colored tints of the woods are so rich and various that we can 
 but rejoice in what we see and feel. Now and then comes a 
 chequred day of rain and cold, and I miss my cloak, which I 
 foolishly left behind me at New York, as thinking I should not 
 need it in this region. I must buy myself a wrap of some sort 
 in Illinois or Missouri. 
 
 Journey through the prairie land 
 On third day morning at 5 oclock we left Terre haute in 
 Indiana for a journey by coach of 156 miles to the capital of 
 Illinois. We engaged an Extra, such as thou wilt remember 
 that our party hired when travelling through the state of New 
 York in 1841, taking the control of coach and driver: and 
 admitting only such passengers as we chose to accommodate. 
 These American coach masters have neither law nor reason, and 
 it is a common saying in regard to the common stage vehicles 
 that they never leave a passenger behind. If the coach is fitted 
 up for nine persons inside, they often crowd in twelve, and load 
 the top with eight or ten more; and if a female passenger asks 
 to be taken in when it is crammed with passengers, some man 
 who has a right to his seat must give way, and go outside. By 
 chartering a coach as they call it, we avoid all these annoyances. 
 Soon after leaving the boundary line of Indiana, we entered 
 the prairies of Illinois, which like Salisbury plain in England, 
 the steppes of Russia and the pampas of South America, are 
 vast grassy plains, without wood, stretching out to the horizon, 
 peopled with game like the Scotch moorlands, and with deer 
 running wild. Small villages are seen rising at great distances 
 apart along the road side, and farm dwellings scattered on the 
 wide expanse, few and far between. On one part of the road 
 we observed fields of ungathered Indian corn, white from late 
 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 51 
 
 standing, and resembling from their boundless extent under 
 the influence of light breezes a gently ruffled ocean. We 
 changed our four horses and driver at stations fourteen miles 
 apart : sometimes a wood of small trees interrupted our 
 progress, and the road ran through neglected stumps and over 
 bridges of corduroy: our rate of travel was 4 1/2 miles an 
 hour. As the evening of our first days journey drew on we 
 heard the exclamation of the prairie on fire! Looking out in 
 the dark from our closed coach windows, we saw at a supposed 
 distance of about ten miles, a river of fire, in some places nar- 
 row, in others broad, running along the country, many miles in 
 length, and illuminating the heavens with beautiful light clouds 
 of fiery smoke, curling up from the burning pastures. I thought 
 of Sodom and Gomorrah, and imagined that they must have 
 looked much the same when viewed at a distance on the plains 
 of Zoar. At ten oclock we changed horses at a farm house the 
 owner of which, having dreaded the approach of the flames had 
 gone out, as he told us afterwards, to fight the fire. He and 
 another man had set to work to plough up the pasture near his 
 homestead, so as to leave no dry grass for the fire to kindle 
 upon. As we journeyed in the night we observed the land on 
 fire in many places, once within a quarter of a mile of us, but 
 rain came on and quenched it. 
 
 At 6 oclock in the morning, after travelling 25 hours 
 without rest, we came to a poor farm house and procured 
 breakfast. The family had just risen from bed: a dirty un- 
 shaved man procured us water to wash with, and his wife 
 placed before us on a not very clean table, some fat pork chops, 
 hot bread and preserved peaches, with milk, butter and sweet 
 cider. After a long second days travel, we reached Springfield, 
 the capital of this large State, in the dark night, glad to find a 
 good hotel — that is, good for this part of the world, and bed 
 rooms with a fire in each of them. A good nights rest has 
 banished all our fatigue : we are all well : the day is bright, and 
 we rest from our travels till to morrow. It was a good thing 
 for us that we hired an Extra: if we had taken the stage, we 
 
52 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 should have been tortured. Dost thou not remember when we 
 came to Clairsville in Ohio, near Mt. Pleasant, that the landlord 
 insisted on putting in four new passengers when we were 
 already so crowded that we had no room to sit, and that we 
 threw up our places, and quitted the coach ? And dost thou not 
 remember our awful crowding from Paris to Brussels in our 
 36 hours continuous ride? Happily for us, our travelling for 
 a long time to come will now be on the railways and by 
 steam boat. 
 
 11th Month 4th When we were in Trinidad, four years 
 ago, we found some of the poor Portuguese protestants who 
 had fled from the persecutions in Madeira. About 1200 of 
 these worthy people came out to the West Indies, half of whom 
 had then left and sailed for America to settle themselves in 
 Illinois. 18 Of these emigrants, and others who have since 
 joined them, we find about 300 in this city. Our hearts have 
 turned towards them as a religious people, who bear an excellent 
 character, and are very industrious. Last evening we went to 
 their prayer meeting: on entering the large room where they 
 meet for divine worship we found one of them knelt in prayer, 
 the rest standing up : it looked like a meeting of our own 
 friends. When the prayer was over, the congregation still 
 standing, we were invited as strangers to a raised seat in front 
 of them : a hymn in Portuguese was then sung, and after that 
 a chapter of the New testament was read. One of the deacons 
 then told us that if we had anything to say, they should be glad 
 to hear us. A short silence ensued. Wm Forster in the fulness 
 of his heart and of Xian love addressed them : the deacon 
 afterwards rehearsed in Portuguese the substance of his ser- 
 mon. When he sat down I informed the company of our 
 having met some of them in Trinidad and of the christian 
 interest I felt both at that time, and since, in their welfare, and 
 encouraged them to hold on as a protestant people in the 
 soundness of faith. Josiah Forster added a few words : Wm 
 
 18 See George Rawlings Poage, "The Coming of the Portuguese," in 
 Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, XVIII (1925), 101-35. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 53 
 
 Forster then prayed for them and all of us. It proved a very 
 interesting and relieving time to us ; and when the meeting 
 ended they pressed forward, men, women and children with 
 joy to shake hands with us and to thank us for coming to see 
 them. About 120 persons were present. One good woman 
 said that she remembered me in Trinidad and our visit to the 
 Baptist chapel at Port of Spain ; another told me she had been 
 
 a servant in the family of Law, the baptist minister. All 
 
 the Portuguese in this part of Illinois are said to be doing 
 well: about 400 of them live at Jacksonville, thirty miles off: 
 the remainder here. William Forster is deeply interested about 
 them, and seems to see a leading of Divine Providence in bring- 
 ing us to this place. 
 
 Thy truly welcome letter is just come to hand, and one from 
 Sister E C : many thanks to you both for the varied information 
 they contain. To persons like ourselves, 5000 miles from 
 home, intelligence of home and our friends is grateful indeed, 
 and earnestly looked for. The currency of this country is in 
 a very unsatisfactory state : gold is plentiful — California makes 
 it so: silver is scarce and dear; dollar notes are plentiful, but 
 they are only current in the States which issue them, and when 
 we want silver in change, nobody likes to give it. The American 
 mint has lately reduced the weight of its silver coins, but not- 
 withstanding this, the bankers charge us a premium of 5 pr cent 
 to obtain it. I forgot to tell thee that in this western region 
 deer are so abundant that the commonest hotels serve venison 
 every day, and squirrels, which are good food, infest the woods 
 in such numbers that a friend in Indiana told me he had shot 
 180 of them in two days to prevent their destroying his corn! 
 The prairie hen is about as large as a pheasant : we saw two 
 covies of them feeding in the grass: opossums are shot here 
 and brought to table : wolves still abound in the forest, and 
 rattle snakes, when torpid, have been killed, they tell us, a 
 bushel at a time ! A poor man on turning up a stone was lately 
 bit by one of these animals which inflicted the wound on his 
 jugular vein: he died, it is said, in three minutes! 
 
54 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 11th Mo. 5th We took our places by the railway cars to 
 come forward, as we supposed without impediment, to Joliet — 
 180 miles, but we had many vicissitudes by the way. The 
 Americans are so eager to open new lines of railway that they 
 advertise communications of this kind as complete, and leave 
 them at the same time miserably imperfect. Our first stage of 
 the journey brought us to near Bloomington — 60 miles, where 
 two railways intersect each other. Instead of finding, as we 
 expected, a place of shelter, all the passengers were ordered to 
 descend, and the baggage was turned out and left in the open 
 road to await the arrival of a new train : fires, it is true, were 
 kindled by the road side, but had the evening been rainy, our 
 situation would have been dismal. Happily we escaped in the 
 confusion without the loss of a single article, and without 
 catching cold. At the end of a second 60 miles, we came to the 
 river Illinois, a broad, deep, and when full, a rapid stream, over 
 which it was needful to pass. A very steep inclined plane had 
 been prepared from the hill side to the bank of the river, down 
 which we passed by machinery on an open waggon, undefended 
 on the sides. A voice was heard, and the command given, 
 "Balance yourselves Gentlemen," and there we stood, a dense 
 company, going down an awful declivity in a dark night, forced 
 to suit our bodies to the sort of road we traversed. Wm Forster 
 closed his eyes to prevent trembling: I kept mine open and 
 thought our situation a perilous one : Josiah Forster stood in 
 fear : but we reached the shore without accident. Here a new 
 difficulty arose : the ferry boat was covered by a raft left open 
 like the waggon, and we stood, crowded as before, in danger of 
 falling into the stream. This difficulty surmounted, another 
 presented itself. The town of La Salle is about a mile and a 
 quarter from the Illinois river : several waggons came down for 
 the passengers, but they were too few to accommodate all, so 
 that many of us had to walk. Imagine me with a heavy carpet 
 bag in my hand, a blanket on my shoulder, and loaded with a 
 bundle of wraps confided to my care, trudging at midnight over 
 a rutty road, following a distant dim lantern which I could 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 55 
 
 not keep up with ! I was grievously weary, but before I reached 
 the station, a car came back to meet the stragglers, and gathered 
 me up among the rest. Here our sorrow ended. Beds were 
 spread on the floor of a room, and I was fortunate enough to 
 secure one for myself alone. At the end of another 60 miles 
 we came to Joliet where the Governor of the State Joel A 
 Matteson resides. This morning we had an interview with 
 him, and were well received : we read our Address to him, and 
 entered into free communication with him on the subject of 
 slavery and the position of Illinois in regard to it : he admitted 
 the correctness of our views, and promised to lay our memorial 
 before the State legislature at its next session; but like most 
 other men in authority in this country, he seems willing to bow 
 to expediency. We trust however that the earnest manner in 
 which Wm and Josiah Forster pleaded the rights of the slave 
 will yet be attended by some good. 
 
 Our work being finished in this place, we next proceeded to 
 Chicago. Again in our travels last night we saw the grand 
 prairie on fire : the flames kindled the dry grass and rushed on 
 sublimely: several farm houses were in the direction of the 
 torrent, and unless defended by circumvallation, as we supposed 
 they were, seemed destined to be devoured. I love these sights 
 of fire on a wide plain which has no limit but the horizon. The 
 common people of these parts are a poor specimen of human 
 nature — coarse, rude and profane, and we have often to 
 reprove them. 
 
 Chicago on Lake Michigan 11th Month 6th 
 Very uncertain is rail road travelling in this western region : 
 the train left for Chicago at 4 oclock yesterday: in one hour 
 with an asthmatic engine we reached the first station, seventeen 
 miles, and here we waited five hours, as the road was impass- 
 able. A train which should have passed us was thrown off the 
 track by running over five stray oxen, and as the line is single 
 we were compelled to wait till the damage was repaired. On 
 setting off to finish the journey our engine grew restive, and 
 
56 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 at every few miles kept saying "I can't go further, I must stop" ; 
 and so instead of reaching this city at 6 oclock pm, we did not 
 arrive till one in the morning. Our detention took place on 
 one of the great prairies : the night was cold ; each railway 
 carriage had a good stove fire and many of the passengers 
 fell asleep. 
 
 This young and great city of Chicago is called the Queen 
 of the lakes, as Cincinnati is termed the Queen of the West. 
 Both of these emporiums deserve honor as towns of trade and 
 commerce, but neither of them merits a queenly crown : they 
 are the resort and residence of store keepers and cattle and corn 
 dealers, redolent of dollars and cents : the people in them live for 
 the common world, and apparently for little else. It is very 
 surprising however to see what the love of money can do : 
 villages turn into towns in this land, and towns become great 
 cities in a very short time. Our company at the dinner table 
 today numbered nearly 200 persons : forty servants waited on 
 the guests, and all was done with regularity and despatch. 
 When the first course was removed, four waiters walked round 
 each table; one deposited a plate, one a knife, one a silver 
 fork, and one a spoon to each guest : all the waiters then came 
 in together, following each other, with puddings, pies and iced 
 creams in abundance, and a plentiful dessert. Dinners like 
 these, served in England, are costly : here we pay only half a dol- 
 lar a head. The worst of it is the Stage and railway taverns by 
 the road side give very inferior diet, and charge the same price. 
 
 I finish this letter now, as the packet leaves New York on 
 the 9th instant. I think of thee continually, and shall be very 
 glad when the time comes for looking homeward, but this time 
 is at present far distant : we have yet much to do and far to 
 travel. I cannot say what course we take from this place, but 
 we shall soon turn our faces southward, and visit the Slave 
 states in succession. Our First day meeting for worship in this 
 place was held at the hotel, and three friends, strangers in the 
 city, travelling through the province, joined us to our comfort. 
 Thine truly and affectionately 
 
 JC. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 57 
 
 No 7. Madison Wisconsin 11th Mo 11th 1853 
 
 My beloved Maria 
 
 Little did I suppose four years ago that I should ever 
 address thee from the extremest North Western State of North 
 America, just under the great lake Superior, but so it is ! On 
 3rd day morning last we left Chicago for this province in 
 search of its governor. The journey began to us prosperously 
 so that we hoped all would continue to run smooth, but human 
 hopes are flattering, and often end in disappointment. Our 
 first stage by railway — 92 miles brought us to the town of 
 Rock ford, from which to Madison, the capital, is 72 miles, over 
 the newly made roads of the country. We engaged a coach to 
 carry us, and to travel by it all night : our baggage was heavy, 
 and about a mile from the town we broke down — a mercy we 
 were not overturned and bruised : the driver, a rude man, took 
 down all the trunks and piled them up by the road side, telling 
 us to wait till he should return with another conveyance. We 
 could not help ourselves : so we walked up and down in the 
 rain, or sought shelter under the trees till our polite driver 
 came back. He brought with him a small covered wagon open 
 in the front, squeesed us, and our baggage into it, and drove 
 off. He intended to convey us in this vehicle 32 miles : we 
 travelled in it as far as to Beloit, 14 miles, subject to pressure 
 cold and rain, and then, finding it impossible to go farther, we 
 stopped, and remained through the night at a low country 
 tavern. The stage agent expressed his regret at the accident, 
 and promised us better accommodation on the morrow. To- 
 morrow came and with it a smaller open carriage than before : 
 
 I again squeesed, we reached Janesville, 18 miles farther, a good 
 town in Wisconsin, at 11 oclock AM, where to our joy a new 
 
 j agent procured us a good coach to carry us to Madison. How 
 
 , long dost thou suppose it took us to perform the last 42 miles : 
 Just 12 hours, that is 3 1/2 miles an hour! we arrived at mid- 
 
 i night. Poor Wm Forster bore his sorrows very meekly and so 
 did Josiah, but the evening was very cold and the ground hard 
 with frost, so that our feet stood in need of a good fire to restore 
 
58 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 the circulation. At the hotel at Madison we found every com- 
 fort; supper was prepared for us, fires were lighted in our bed 
 rooms, and we went to rest and slept soundly. So much for 
 disquietude : now for enjoyments and satisfaction. 
 
 The governor of Wisconsin Leonard J Farwell is an 
 intelligent wealthy man, who has travelled much : he resides in 
 Madison but has a country house in a part of the forest, seven 
 miles off, which overlooks one of the four beautiful small lakes 
 of this promising district. He was at that time in the country, 
 so that we hired a carriage and pair of horses, and drove to his 
 villa. Wm Holmes had found here a fellow townsman of his 
 from Alton, who put his own horse into harness and went on 
 with us, taking Wm Holmes in company. The governor's house 
 is built on a spot of ground, which was once an Indian cemetery, 
 and is still surrounded by tumuli of a departed race. On our 
 way we stopped at a large corn mill which belongs to him to 
 look at two black bears lately caught in the woods, which he 
 preserved alive on the demesne, as shewing how short a time 
 since the province he governs was rescued from the wilderness. 
 We found him at home, just returned from hunting : he received 
 us politely listened to our memorial, and entered freely into 
 conversation with us. Slavery, he said, was an enormous evil, 
 and when in Italy, and other parts of Europe, the subject had 
 been so often brought before him as a reproach to his country 
 that he felt resolved on his return to America to do his best to 
 get it removed : his fellow citizens had elected him Governor, 
 and in his first message to the Legislature he urged that body 
 to memorialise Congress on the subject, and to petition, as a 
 preliminary measure, for the repeal of the Fugitive slave law. 
 He entered so heartily into our views that we have no doubt of 
 his continuing to exert his influence for good in the great 
 cause of emancipation. 
 
 11th Month 12th We took our evening meal at the house 
 of Wm Holmes' friend Turvill, and were handsomely enter- 
 tained by him and his wife and daughters : they gave us among 
 other good things preserved plums and cranberries which they 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 59 
 
 had gathered wild, and tarts made of wild gooseberries, also 
 excellent. The lakes abound in pike and other large fish : wild 
 ducks are so abundant that the inhabitants grow tired of eating 
 them, and prairie hens are shot for game. This is really a fine 
 province, and Madison, its capital city, only 16 years old. is a 
 handsome town of three or four thousand people, laid out for 
 broad streets which begin already to be filled up with good 
 houses. The public buildings, all handsome, are a State-house 
 a Court-house and a University college. The people of Wis- 
 consin have abolished Capital punishment, they encourage 
 elementary education, and at their State election, yet scarcely 
 over, have resolved, it is believed, to adopt the Maine liquor 
 law! 19 We admire this young city and like its inhabitants. 
 Frederika Bremer, in her "Homes of the new world," speaks 
 of Wisconsin and of Madison in particular with admiration: 
 they well deserve her eulogy. 20 We are so far to the North 
 West as to be within a few miles of the spring-head of the 
 mighty Mississippi. I shall probably never see such a distant 
 land again. Wm Forster feels constrained to hold a Public 
 meeting for worship here this evening in the Independent 
 meeting house. 
 
 Janesville, First day afternoon 
 We have had a meeting for worship this morning in Wm 
 Forster's bed room. I never write a letter of friendship on a 
 First day when at home if I can avoid it, but our present 
 circumstances plead my excuse. The tavern in which we pass 
 the day affords us no private sitting room, and the company 
 
 10 Candler was too optimistic about the success of the temperance move- 
 ment in Wisconsin as he had been in Ohio, though the movement in Wisconsin 
 came nearer to winning its goal. The results of the November election as far 
 as prohibition was concerned were contradictory. The temperance candidates 
 were defeated, but a referendum on the question showed 27,000 for and 
 24,000 against prohibition. No temperance law was passed by the next 
 legislature. In 1855 a bill did pass, but was vetoed by Governor Bristow, a 
 Democrat. Francis Raney, Wisconsin. A Story of Progress (New York, 
 1940), 144. 
 
 20 Frederika Bremer, The Homes of the New World . . ., translated by 
 Mary Hewitt (2 volumes. New York, 1853), II, 627 ff. 
 
60 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 gathered in the common room is too unrefined to admit of any 
 profitable intercourse with them. I therefore retire to my own 
 bed room to take up my pen to talk a little with thee. We are 
 92° of latitude apart, making a distance in time of six hours. In 
 thinking of thee and home I make allowance as to time for 
 what you are doing, but my thoughts have been turned towards 
 you as meeting together for public worship, and as sitting by 
 your own fire sides. 
 
 After breakfast this morning, it being an Indian summer 
 day, bland and lovely, I set out alone for a solitary walk in the 
 prairie, and enjoyed it religiously : prayer and thanksgiving 
 were my portion as I thought of you, and meditated on the 
 object of our mission to this remote land. 21 In Wisconsin 
 prairie grounds are numerous, but they run between woodlands : 
 they are less in vastness than the prairies of Illinois, but more 
 grateful to the eye. These lands are favorite locations to 
 emigrants, and many are the settlers who hasten to buy them 
 up, and preoccupy them. Wisconsin, thirteen years ago con- 
 tained only 30,000 inhabitants : it now contains nearly or 
 quite 400,000, and goes on rapidly increasing : its growth as a 
 State is more giant-like than that of any other State of the 
 Union. So far as we know not a single Public meeting for 
 divine worship has been appointed by any minister of the 
 Society of Friends till Wm Forster convened the one at 
 Madison, and no "friends" remain as yet settled in the 
 province : some came to it a few years ago, but are gone further 
 westward. Iowa appears to be the Goshen of Friend-settlers; 
 and of these in that still more distant land there are already 
 many thousands. I suppose the Americans will go on settling 
 
 21 In the original letter Candler added at this point, "If I have not yet 
 given thee a correct idea of what a prairie really is, only imagine the flat 
 surface of Salisbury plain to be spread out to an almost immeasurable extent, 
 clothed in summer with grapes and wild flowers, growing three or four feet 
 high, and dwindling to the short and dry as winter approaches. Such is what 
 is called the grand prairie of Illinois : in Wisconsin and Iowa, prairie grounds 
 are numerous, but they run between woodlands, and are bounded by them: 
 they are less in vastness, but more grateful to the eye." 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 61 
 
 the wilderness till they reach California. We often see the 
 waggons of immigrants moving along the road, and the families 
 they convey encamped by the road side in the day time, or 
 sitting by blazing fires at night in the forest : whole households 
 move together, men women and young children: if they come 
 to a spot that pleases them, they stop there, cut down trees, build 
 a rude log house, put in their furniture and cooking utensils, 
 buy the section of land, and enter on a new life. They bring 
 with them a sack or two of meal, and depend on their guns for 
 wild meat till their corn grows and they can get a few hogs and 
 some cattle : their children, denizens of the woods, grow up 
 wild and rude; but as the country becomes more peopled and 
 neighbours increase they improve in civilisation. The United 
 States and Canada will soon possess as fine a population as the 
 world produces, if they will only allow Christianity to take 
 deep root within their borders, and bear its promised fruits. 
 Slavery must be abolished in the South, and prejudice against 
 the color of the skin eradicated : we may then hope in this 
 hemisphere for a bright and blessed day. 
 
 St Louis Missouri 11th Mo. 16th 
 Late last night we made the port of Alton in Western 
 Illinois, and this morning early were steaming on the Missis- 
 sippi. Alton stands on a bluff 24 miles north of St Louis, and 
 to reach the latter city, we pass the mouth of the Missouri river, 
 which unites the vast volume of its waters with the mighty 
 Mississippi. At 3 oclock this morning, by moonlight I stood 
 on the deck of our steamship and gazed on the grand spectacle. 
 The Missouri pours out a turbid flood, and stains the bosom 
 of the father of rivers to a great distance towards St Louis, 
 which is the capital of the State, but is not, I am sorry to say, the 
 seat of government. The Governor resides at Jefferson in the 
 interior, 130 miles off, and thus necessitates to us another long 
 journey by land to meet him. We had thought of making a 
 detour through Iowa, but the difficulties of doing so seemed 
 overwhelming; so that we agreed to send our memorial to its 
 
62 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 governor rather than present it in person. Iowa is a free 
 state : Missouri is a slave state ; and we conclude that if we must 
 omit some one or two of the distant provinces, it should be 
 those where slavery is unknown. 
 
 There is a great commotion just now in one part of Missouri 
 in consequence of eleven slaves having run away in a body, and 
 taken the advantage of the "underground railway" to escape. In 
 going among a people so exasperated as these slave-owners are 
 we need both wisdom and discretion. I have just read in a 
 newspaper an account of a cruel slave master in Virginia having 
 beaten a slave to death for merely running off to avoid a 
 flogging which he had done nothing to deserve! When will 
 the oppressor cease from the land, and the oppressed go free? 
 I mourn over the guilt of this guilty nation. What sacrifice 
 too great to make, if we can only be instrumental, in ever so 
 remote a degree, of lessening such enormities as these? 
 Travelling, as we often are compelled to do over bad roads by 
 night and by day, we feel it to be a sacrifice : and especially is 
 it so to Josiah & Wm Forster. We are glad however to observe 
 that the drivers of the stages and the tavern waiters, independent 
 and rude as they are generally, seem to have respect to age : they 
 take Wm Forster to be much older than he is and are sometimes 
 really attentive to him, calling him Father and Grandfather, 
 which are considered as appellations of great respect. 
 
 11th Mo. 17th The stage agent had agreed to send us 
 forward by rail road forty miles, and by stage 90 miles further 
 due west to Jefferson. The omnibus sent to bring us to the 
 station arrived, no fault of ours, two minutes too late, and 
 here we are back again to the hotel to spend another long 
 day. The inconvenience and delays of travelling in America are 
 so great as often quite to discourage us. We have been hitherto 
 mercifully preserved from dangers on the road, although we 
 have heard of accidents to others. The coach roads are in 
 many places very bad, and railway collisions frequently occur. 
 The road on which we travel to morrow is the beginning of the 
 great Pacific railway which is to stretch 2000 miles across the 
 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 63 
 
 wilderness, and through the rocky mountains to California. 
 When we reach Jefferson we shall be nearly mid-way between 
 the Atlantic and Pacific oceans: at this point our journies 
 westward terminate, and we turn to the South. What a mighty 
 continent this is, and what wonderful progress does it make! 
 The Indians keep melting away and retreating, and the white 
 man keeps driving them ocean-ward till they will soon have no 
 land they can call their own. The elks, the buffaloes and the 
 bears recede at the sound of the woodman's axe, and the whole 
 face of what a few years since was a country wholly unknown, 
 and a mystery, comes to be covered with good habitations and 
 well cultivated farms : in the physical world crooked things 
 become strait and rough places smooth. 
 
 I wish we could say of morals and religion the same 
 thing. This however is far from being the case. In these 
 remote settlements, and in the Southern States the remorseless 
 passions seem kept in ceaseless activity : almost every daily 
 newspaper gives a murder or two perpetrated somewhere : twice 
 since we landed have we seen five atrocious murders recited at 
 the same time in a single column ! A few days since on board 
 a steam boat on the Mississippi river a young Kentuckian in a 
 slight quarrel took out a revolver, discharged six bullets, and 
 shot three men and a woman to death in a few seconds of 
 time ! About a week since, the son of a slave owner, having 
 received some slight corporal punishment at school, went home, 
 fetched a pistol, returned and shot his tutor dead ! Scenes such 
 as these are common in this land. The Judge of one of the 
 courts of California told us that the gold hunting white 
 Americans of that region kill one another for next to no offense 
 at all, and that a pistol had been pointed at him, as a judge, 
 whilst sitting on the bench to administer justice! 
 
 The city of St Louis where we now are has grown so large 
 as to contain 100,000 inhabitants : the bank of the river is lined 
 in deep water for about a mile in length with leviathan steam 
 boats ready to depart for distant parts. All our party to the 
 present date are well. The weather fluctuates : one day is cold 
 
64 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 and frosty ; another has all the balm of an Indian summer, with 
 the thermometer at 60° or 65°. To day we are warm and sit 
 with the window open. The woods have lost their splendid 
 foliage and now reflect only a dull dark brown. Our lot is 
 very far from "Friends," and is likely to be so for many weeks 
 to come, but we endeavour to cheer up, and hope to see home — 
 our own loved English home, at no very distant date. We read 
 in the papers that war continues to be imminent between the 
 Turks and Russians ; that bread is getting dear in England ; that 
 riots take place in Lancashire; and that the cholera gains 
 ground in London and some other places. Commending thee, 
 my love, to the gracious care of the good sheperd who laid down 
 his life for the sheep, and who cares for thee and for all of us. 
 I remain, as ever, Thy loving husband 
 
 JC. 
 
 No. 8. Jefferson Missouri 11th Month 22nd 1853 
 
 My beloved Maria 
 
 Perplexities and toils of travel. On 6th day last we left St 
 Louis by the rail road and came to Franklin, forty miles, where 
 we took seats in the stage, and in four hours and a half — sixteen 
 miles further on, we reached Union. We had paid our fare to 
 Jefferson to travel night and day without stopping. On 
 arriving at Union we found the driver whose turn it was to 
 conduct us forward so completely drunk that we could not with 
 safety to life or limb trust ourselves to his care, especially in 
 the dark. One of these drivers a few months since had turned 
 the coach over in a fit of intoxication, and killed himself. We 
 all refused to go forward, took out our baggage and sent the 
 stage on without us. 
 
 An American country tavern is a very incommodious 
 domicile to travellers who have any refinement of manners, but 
 having no remedy we made the best of our situation. Wm 
 Forster procured a small bed room for himself, and the other 
 three of us were placed in a three bedded room together. Tak- 
 ing advantage of our compulsory stay, when morning came, we 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 65 
 
 took walks in the country. I directed my steps to a farm house, 
 and seeing the owner near one of his slaves who was at work, I 
 went up to him, told him I was a stranger, and should be glad 
 to obtain some information about that part of the province He 
 asked me to walk into his house and take a seat. He proved to 
 be a large land owner, an elder and preacher among the 
 presbyterians. Our conversation soon turned upon slavery, 
 which he attempted to prove a christian institution, and spoke 
 of his own slaves as being remarkably well treated. We debated 
 the matter calmly for an hour : he admitted himself at last to 
 be wrong: "slavery was wrong in the abstract, but as God 
 permitted it for some wise purpose to exist, we must wait till 
 He should put an end to it." I told him that slave-owners had 
 nothing to wait for : if they thought the system a bad one, they 
 should at once abandon it, by giving their slaves freedom, and 
 treating them as members of the same human family as them- 
 selves. He asked me if I was a minister? Would I preach a ser- 
 mon to them to morrow? I thought if I mentioned it to Wm 
 Forster, he might feel disposed to appoint a public meeting, as he 
 had before done in Wisconsin. In the evening the slave owner 
 came to the tavern to call on us. "Would we consent to preach 
 to them? they should be very glad to hear us." Josiah Forster 
 explained our views about the ministry; and as no religious 
 warrant was felt to convene a meeting, the subject dropped. 
 
 J F and myself called at the house of another slave ow r ner 
 and spoke with the mistress of the family, some of whose 
 slaves we saw. She said frankly "I love slavery. I w r as born in 
 Virginia, and was raised amongst slaves." We gave her a word 
 and parted. On First day last, being still detained at Union, we 
 held our usual meeting for worship together, and spent our 
 time otherwise in religious reading and walking abroad. I was 
 glad to see the poor slaves were not compelled to work on 
 the First day of the week : many, decently dressed, came to the 
 village — some to go to church, some to loiter and talk. 
 
 As the evening drew on the stage made its appearance, and 
 with it an agent despatched by the proprietors to express regret 
 
66 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 at our long delay, and to help us on. Wm Forster was now 
 unwell ; too unwell to proceed : so it was agreed that he and 
 Wm Holmes should return the next morning to St. Louis, and 
 that Josiah Forster and I should continue the journey to 
 Jefferson to visit the governor. At 6 oclock [pm] we left 
 Union, not now in a coach, but in a light covered waggon 
 drawn by four horses, and although we had but 80 miles to go, 
 such were the roads, and so difficult to traverse, that it took 
 us 25 1/2 hours to perform the journey! What a cheerless 
 night we passed! Truly glad we were that only two of us 
 encountered its inconveniences, and that two were spared. 
 Missouri is a large province, some parts of it well peopled, others 
 not so. Our road lay through an uncultivated portion, and 
 showers of rain had recently fallen. The horses, walking over 
 stumps of trees and through rocky hills, dragged us slowly 
 along, and we had three rivers to cross. Our joltings were 
 like those of the Gutters' hill in Jamaica, where we were 
 compelled to leave the carriage and walk, to avoid bruised or 
 broken bones. Early in the morning we breakfasted at a hovel 
 with our two stage drivers : this class of men are mostly 
 profane and dirty, so that we had no reason to be proud of our 
 company. During the day we passed through one continual 
 primeval forest, with but few openings for a human habitation : 
 the hills were lofty and well wooded, and the ravines deep. The 
 Osage river runs into the Mississippi : from one high bluff that 
 flanks it, we looked over a wide extent of country covered with 
 forest almost every where, and could only trace at distant in- 
 tervals the broad river running below us. Leaving our stage 
 waggon, we all walked down the steep [hill] that leads to the 
 ferry boat. I could but admire the solemn stillness of the hills, 
 the river and the bold promentories where the Osage Indians 
 formerly planted their wigwams : every thing around us looked 
 Indian-like, and carried me back in imagination to long past 
 days when canoes filled with warriors glided on the mighty 
 stream. The Osage river at this spot is as broad as the Thames 
 at London bridge. We also crossed the Gasconade and Moro 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 67 
 
 rivers, and reached Jefferson at 8 oclock pm, weary and glad 
 of a resting place. 
 
 Here is a good hotel on the right bank of the Missouri 
 river, which at this place, 150 miles from its junction with the 
 Mississippi, is nearly a mile broad. As I am writing, a 
 leviathan steam boat, filled with passengers comes up to the 
 wharf below us, and on discharging part of its cargo, proceeds 
 to St Joseph, 380 miles further on. Everything in nature 
 is great in this land. 
 
 Our object in coming here was to see the Governor to plead 
 for the slave. We found him this morning at the State-house, 
 and as we wished for a private interview he conducted us to his 
 dwelling house, his name is Sterling Price : he is a slave owner, 
 and a strong proslavery advocate. He listened to us patiently, 
 allowed us to read the Address to him, and made no observation 
 on it till we had got through : his countenance betrayed un- 
 easiness : he had been touched to the quick ; but resolved on 
 self possession he began to justify slavery and his own 
 participation in it, urging the common place topics of the good 
 treatment of slaves by their masters, and the exaggerations of 
 the Northern abolitionists. Able divines, he said, justified 
 slavery as a divine institution, and he could give us a sermon 
 lately preached in Kentucky which proved that it was so : the 
 arguments contained in it were unanswerable. I must do 
 Josiah Forster the justice to say, that he treated the matter 
 admirably, and pleaded the cause of the poor slave with great 
 ability. The governor, on parting with us, gave us his hand 
 with seeming candour, wishing us at the same time to remember 
 that to speak openly against slavery had a tendency to excite the 
 public mind and was forbidden by law. We are engaged really 
 and truly in this State, in bearding the lion in his lair, but we 
 trust in the God of Daniel to preserve us from harm. What 
 we see of slavery and of its effect on public morals makes us 
 sick at heart. Nebraska, a newly inhabited portion of the 
 western wilderness is about to become a territory, and is likely, 
 as well as Kansas to renew the agitation of the slavery question 
 
68 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 in Congress. The more agitation the better : the question can 
 never rest, till slavery is abolished. 
 
 St Louis 11th Mo. 26th 
 The governor of Missouri, who seemed to be friendly when 
 we left him, evinced a very different spirit soon after : he 
 girded on his proslavery sword, only appearing to regret that 
 he had not shewn hostility before. Late at night, after we had 
 retired to rest, he rudely returned the copy of our Address, 
 together with a copy of Jno Woolman's journal which J F had 
 given him, accompanied by an angry letter, which, if he should 
 publish it, would be very likely to stir up Lynch law against 
 us. The conduct of some official persons however has been 
 very different: Kentucky is a slave state: the Governor's 
 secretary is now here at St. Louis : he said to Wm Forster, 
 "We have not yet taken action on the papers you left us : I 
 think you had better come again." So we have some things 
 to cast us down and some to encourage us. 
 
 11th Month 28th 
 Still at this dark slavery loving capital, detained by the 
 non sailing of a New Orleans steam boat. We might have 
 sailed earlier, but some of the steamers are so un-river worthy, 
 and the commanders so reckless that we prefer waiting for the 
 safest and best. On seventh day morning we breakfast at the 
 house of Henry Stagg, who married a young friend of Cincinnati 
 whose relations we know : two of our company had also spent 
 a day and night in the country with Chas Runnals a lawyer, 
 who also married a friend. Yesterday these parties, attended 
 by a merchant of the city, who was once a member of the 
 society, and by two gentlemen, connexions of theirs, and a 
 widow woman who is still a member, came to us at our hotel 
 to attend our meeting for worship. Wm Forster was engaged 
 both in ministry and prayer. All these individuals are kindly 
 attentive to us and do what they can to help us. There is some 
 good still left in this large city of 110,000 inhabitants, though 
 we fear but little : it is said to contain an immoral population. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 69 
 
 Although to continue here so long without being able to get 
 away is very trying to our patience, we have the satisfaction 
 of being at a good hotel : we are allowed a fire in our bed 
 rooms, and sit down at an abundant table every day with about 
 120 other persons, and are attended upon by thirty young men 
 waiters. I have noticed at table many very good looking 
 American women, wives and daughters of the guests, and am 
 pleased with the general refinement of the company. Herds of 
 deer are so numerous in Missouri that venison abounds, and 
 prairie hens and grouse add to the delicacies provided for the 
 public table. Although careful not to introduce the subject of 
 slavery in common discourse, knowing how inflammable the 
 people are, we are sometimes provoked into it, or rather chal- 
 lenged to the combat, and hitherto have been favored to perform 
 our duty in this respect with a good conscience, and so far as 
 we know without losing the good will of any one. 
 
 Do not suppose, my dear Maria, that our work in this land 
 will terminate with the present year : we are now on the 
 threshold of important engagements : our visit to the Southern 
 slave states is not yet begun. I do not apprehend personal 
 danger, which some of our American friends seem to foresee 
 for us, but we look for discouragements and trials. On leaving 
 this place we proceed to Jackson in Mississippi, and have there 
 to encounter General Foote, 22 its governor, who was a senator 
 in Congress when we were at Washington in 1850, and drew 
 out his pistol in the Senate and pointed it at the breast of 
 Colonel Benton who was something less pro-slavery than 
 himself ! One of the party who attended our meeting yesterday 
 knows him well, and promises to bring us a letter of introduc- 
 tion to "His Excellency," for so they denominate Governors of 
 States good and bad alike. There is a power above that can sub- 
 due the passionate, and this power, we trust, will be our bulwark. 
 
 Afloat on the Mississippi 1 1th Mo. 30th 
 This morning at 1 1 oclock we loosed from our moorings and 
 are now once again afloat on the great river. The upper 
 
 22 Gen. Henry Stuart Foote. 
 
70 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Mississippi is that part of the stream which rising northward 
 from its source, flows down to the mouth of the Ohio, and is 
 navigable for 1800 miles : the lower Mississippi begins at the 
 junction of the Ohio and runs down 1000 miles further to the 
 gulf of Mexico. We are now between St Louis and Cairo, at 
 the mouth of the Ohio. The bank on the Missouri side is in 
 many places steep and rocky, covered with wood, and has some 
 commanding bluffs : the bank of the Illinois side is mostly low 
 but covered with timber to the water's edge. Our cabin pas- 
 sengers are 83 in number, eight of whom are women, some of 
 them young mothers, with infants. The deck passengers are 
 numerous and lodge under cover below the cabin, flanked on 
 both sides by horses, mules and cattle, of which altogether we 
 have more than a hundred on board. A sad tale remains to be 
 told. In a hold near the great chimney are cooped up seven 
 slaves — three men, two women, a girl and a boy, all on their 
 way to be sold at New Orleans. I take opportunity by stealth 
 to converse with one of the men, who is a mulatto, perhaps the 
 very son of the planter who sends him to be sold. He tells me 
 that one of the women is just separated from her husband and 
 child. On my saying to him with pity "I wish you well !" he 
 said with a sad look, "Thank you Sir." The clerk of the 
 steamboat says that they are constantly taking slaves to the 
 South for sale, and often large droves of them. 
 
 12th Mo. 1st 
 The boat made only 60 miles yesterday : at sunset it stopped 
 at St Genevieve and laid by for the night, as the captain dare 
 not pass the shoals of this part of the river in the dark, as the 
 water is low — At 9 oclock this morning we stopped at Chester 
 in Illinois to take in a cargo of flour and are again in progress. 
 The weather is fine, somewhat chilly, but the sun shines and 
 our voyage is pleasant. For many miles together we trace no 
 human habitation : now and then an opening in the forest is 
 seen where a hut is planted and large stacks of wood stand 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 71 
 
 ready as fuel for the steamers. Our berths were engaged and 
 our fares paid as far as to Vicksburg, 800 miles from St Louis, 
 but as we learn that the yellow fever has reappeared at that 
 place we are induced to pause and consider what to do. For- 
 eigners are especially cautioned to avoid localities where the 
 epidemic is known to exist. 
 
 12th Mo. 2nd 
 After passing many huge steamboats on their way up the 
 river, we came to a mooring at Girardeau and again laid by for 
 the night. The river just now is so low that the larger boats 
 find it needful to sound the channel as they go along, so that 
 we often hear the sounds, so well known to us at sea of nine and 
 a half, a quarter less twelve, and of other measurements indicat- 
 ing the depth. We have passed one large steamboat on a sand 
 bank, and pitied the poor passengers imprisoned there : not far 
 from it was the wreck of another half sunk, that was struck by 
 a snag about ten weeks ago and is now stripped of its appliances 
 and left to rot. Soon after sunset at our landing place it became 
 very dark and we had the novel sight of taking in wood by 
 torch light. A fire was kindled on the bluff and made to blaze 
 brightly, and another large fire in an expanded iron grating 
 was fed by candle-wood on board the steamer. Between these 
 two fires of light a troop of laborers descended from the high 
 bank bearing logs of wood from the piles on shore. It was a 
 scene worthy the pencil of a Rembrandt. These boats consume 
 an immensity of fire wood, and cheap as it is, it costs the captain 
 of our steamer $500 dollars a trip between St Louis and 
 New Orleans ! 
 
 We live well on board these boats : my favorite food for 
 breakfast is hot buck-wheat cake with syrup, or Indian corn 
 cake buttered, and a cup of good coffee with a draught of new 
 milk. We are now near Cairo at the confluence of the Ohio 
 and the Mississippi, both rivers being about a mile abroad, and 
 now forming one immense stream. Never, I hope, shall I see 
 such a sight again, because once more leaving the Western 
 
72 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 world, I hope never to see it again. Give me only my dear 
 home in England, and my best friend to share it with me, and 
 Ohio, and Mississippi, and Susquehanna, and Delaware, all 
 farewell ! This evening in Kentucky we have taken in a cargo 
 of 500 live turkeys, and thousands of live fowls ; in Illinois we 
 received four fat bucks and a doe, which cost only $5 a piece. 
 Indian corn and tobacco are leading articles of freight. A 
 planter, I take him to be, is just come on board with ten of his 
 slaves, who are going with him south. I said to one of the 
 Missouri captives "It is a wicked thing to transport and sell 
 you in this manner." "Yes," he replied, "it is : they treat us 
 like horses and mules : they separate us from our wives and 
 children : we do not charge it upon God ; but it must come to 
 an end." Poor slaves ! my heart mourns over you, and my 
 Spirit prays for you. Farewell, my beloved one : truly glad 
 shall I be when the time comes to meet thee again. Love to 
 you all. Thine with much affection 
 
 JC. 
 
 No 9. Still on the River 12 Mo. 6th 1853 
 
 In my last letter posted at Memphis in Tennessee, I told thee 
 we were uncertain where we should stop on our voyage south. 
 The yellow fever seems almost to have disappeared, so that we 
 now resolve to pursue our course onward to Baton Rouge, the 
 state town of Louisiana, and our lowest intended point towards 
 the gulf of Mexico. When we arrive there we shall have been 
 on the river eight days, and have navigated it more than 1000 
 miles. A change of climate has come over us : from a beginning 
 season in the North of sleet and a little snow, we are advancing, 
 though near "Christmas" to the warmth of an English summer. 
 Our present latitude is 32° : to morrow we shall be 1600 miles 
 south of London. Our progress is slow : our steamer frequently 
 stops to take in freight and to load wood. The banks of the 
 stream are now getting to a level with the water, and handsome 
 houses, the dwellings of Cotton planters, and villages of slave 
 cabins disclose themselves at intervals. The trees, which 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 73 
 
 northward had lost their verdure are here beginning to exhibit 
 a retained foliage. I love warm, clear, sunshiny weather : it 
 does me good. How different at this moment is your lot in 
 England ; but I would rather be with you than here : England 
 is free, but here are Slavery and its bitter consequences, We 
 look on the Cotton planter's thousand acres, his mansion and 
 his slave-cabins — small but well built and white washed ; and 
 at the same time ruminate on the lot of his slaves who are 
 treated as cattle and nothing better. On First day morning 
 last I landed on the left bank of the river whilst the steamer took 
 in wood, and walked toward a group of slaves. I had scarcely 
 spoken when one of the band asked me if I were a minister, and 
 they all looked at me as much as to say "Do speak a good word 
 to us." When I left them their leader took off his hat and 
 bowed to me : this was observed by a fellow passenger who soon 
 undertook to explain to me that if any of us were seen speaking 
 kindly to the slaves we should rouse the indignation of their 
 owners ! What a land to live in, and calling itself christian ! 
 
 12th Mo 7th 
 A poor irishwoman, a deck passenger, was taken with a 
 congestive chill yesterday : this morning she is a corpse ! I went 
 on shore to see the grave dug and the body buried. In one 
 voyage in the hot summer weather, this very boat, capacious 
 and airy as it is, lost seventeen passenger and sailors by death. 
 The dead are buried at the first landing place for taking in wood. 
 
 Baton Rouge 12th Month 8th 
 This town of 5000 inhabitants is handsomely built and 
 surrounded in a semi circle on land by sugar estates. We took 
 a carriage last evening and drove to a large plantation which 
 makes 600 tons of sugar at every crop. Here my companions 
 for the first time entered a cane field and saw the process of 
 sugar making. The implements and machinery of this property 
 are costly and complete : we saw the brown treacly sugar, so 
 unsightly to the eye, converted into pure dry white sugar in 
 less than five minutes of time! But the poor slaves in this 
 
74 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 region toil most piteously. A planter who owns 27 slaves, who 
 is a comparatively humane man, told Wm Holmes and me in 
 confidence that the sugar planters of Louisiana, in a general 
 way treat their slaves most awfully : during crop time, for many 
 nights together, they allow them only three hours of actual sleep, 
 and drive them to exhaustion before the crop is over : he told 
 us he only wondered how they could endure their sufferings. 
 One poor slave told Wm Forster that at this time of the year 
 they never knew when Sunday came. The calculation of the 
 Slave owners of Louisiana, when they buy new hands from the 
 North, is that if they give $1000 for a good field hand they can 
 get work enough out of him to repay his cost in three years : all 
 his labor over that period, abating the cost of food and clothing, 
 is clear and gain : in this manner they run them to death In 
 one hour from this time we are to see the Governor of the 
 State, who is himself a slave owner, and are to plead with him 
 against this horrid system. Again I say, "May the Lord help 
 and preserve us." These opportunities are trials of our faith. 
 I cannot wait to acquaint thee with the result. This afternoon 
 we hope to be on our way to Jackson in Mississippi, and thence to 
 Alabama. We are now at the extremest point of our journey. 
 Thine most affectionately 
 
 J.C. 
 
 Baton Rouge 12th Mo. 8th 1853 
 My beloved Maria, 
 
 Our interview with the Governor of Louisiana P O Hebert 23 
 which we looked forward to with anxiety and fear, is at last 
 well got over, and I feel truly thankful for it. He is a frenchman 
 by descent, a soldier by profession who fought in the Mexican 
 war : his vocation is that of a sugar planter, and he owns a 
 great many slaves. If he had not been subdued by the calm and 
 christian manner in which Josiah & William Forster stated our 
 question, he would have been as fierce as a lion : as it was, he 
 treated us on the whole fairly, listened with attention, and 
 
 28 Paul Octave Hebert. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 75 
 
 urged his objections in a moderate manner. Every now and 
 then, in denouncing what he termed the greater slavery of the 
 poor in England, his eye flashed with seeming indignation : he 
 then grew calmer, said that as we came to him as Christian 
 men, he would meet us in the same spirit. He admitted that 
 Slavery was an evil, but a necessary one ; and in taking leave of 
 us said, "You have my good wishes." Having performed our 
 duty towards this chieftain in this sad dark province, we now 
 leave Louisiana with much relief of mind, and go on to en- 
 counter fresh trials in other quarters. 
 
 Jackson Mississippi 12th Month 12th 
 The difficulties of passing by land to Jackson being almost 
 insuperable we resolved to return to Vicksburg by water, and 
 from that place to this by rail road. This morning Genl Foote 
 favored us with a long interview at the State house. "I can 
 guess your object, Gentlemen, in coming here, before you state 
 it : you hold some of our state bonds : ours is a repudiating 
 state, and you are come to me as Governor in hope of getting 
 them paid." He was soon undeceived in this matter, and he 
 and his secretary sat down with us and listened to our protesta- 
 tion against slavery. "No slave owner," said the governor, 
 "can feel hurt at what you have read : we can receive anything 
 dictated to us in such a spirit, and I feel grateful for your 
 visit : but you do not understand what slavery is in this land;" 
 and then he went on fluently and politely, urging the benefits of 
 slavery as an institution ; how it gave wealth to the nation, and 
 happiness to the slave! "There was not" he assured us, "a 
 happier race on the face of the globe than the slaves of Mis- 
 sissippi." He spoke of the province he governed as a very Eden 
 to them, and of Slavery as if it were the panacea of all social 
 evils. Whilst he was discoursing to us, a numerous band of 
 slaves, men and women, just brought, as we were told from 
 Virginia, were ranged in a long row in front of his mansion, 
 exposed for sale to the highest bidder, by a miscreant slave- 
 dealer! A most gentlemanly man is this General Foote, who 
 
76 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 directed his pistol at the breast of Senator Benton : he not only 
 listened to us courteously, and defended himself and his brother 
 planters without anger, but on our taking leave invited us to 
 sup with him at the Government house : his secretary also 
 invited us to dine. The governor is the most determined 
 pro-slavery advocate I ever saw; but notwithstanding his 
 prejudices, he has been so far worked upon by Harriet Beecher 
 Stowe, or some other agency that he would be willing, he said, 
 to see a bill passed to prevent the separation of husband and 
 wife, and of young children from their parents, and to prevent 
 the seizure of slaves by the sheriff for debt. "I had resolved, 
 Gentlemen, to recommend these measures in my forth-coming 
 speech to the Legislature, but my friends told me I must not do 
 so, as it would give rise to great excitement in the state, and 
 afford a triumph to the Abolitionists. The Northern aboli- 
 tionists are men of mischief, who would rend the Union 
 asunder." I must believe that our visit to these two Slave 
 state Governors will have some good effect, as both of them 
 were willing to yield to the force of gospel pleading so far 
 as to acknowledge themselves not affronted, and to confess 
 that their slave codes needed revision. 
 
 This afternoon we set out on a long journey of three days 
 and three nights across the country to the capital of Alabama : 
 till we arrive there Farewell. 
 
 Montgommery 12th Mo 16th 
 A very formidable journey we have had, and the only 
 wonder is that our whole party has passed through it with only 
 a moderate share of suffering, and that we are now, through 
 Divine mercy, refreshed and well. For three days and nights 
 our only rest, except for two hours in one place, and three hours 
 in another, has been in a diligence on rough roads, sometimes 
 over corduroy, and sometimes through swampy ground. Four 
 times we were compelled to quit the carriage to cross rivers by 
 ferry boats. The river Alabama is a noble stream, flowing 
 between steep banks, and here we were detained a short time by 
 a steam boat. Just as our carriage and its six horses, the 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 77 
 
 coachman and seven passengers, had taken possession of the 
 ferry-boat and had launched from shore, a steam boat turned 
 a bend of the river; and was coming down upon us at full 
 sped : the splashing of the wheels would have alarmed the 
 horses, and had we persevered in going on, all might have 
 perished. The steamer stopped her engine, our ferry boat 
 turned back, the horses were led out and driven up the bank 
 out of sight ; we went ashore and waited till the danger was 
 over. After this we crossed the river safely and resumed 
 our journey. 
 
 In coming through these southern states we have seen 
 strange sights, and heard of sad doings. A large part of the 
 country is still primeval forest, opened in some places on each 
 side of the road for cotton plantations. A cotton field of 
 Alabama at this season of the year is very different to the cotton 
 fields of Jamaica, where the plant is perennial, and yields 
 blossoms and fruit at one and the same time : here the plant dies 
 at the approach of winter, and leaves only dry stalks, and 
 bursting balls of cotton. The cotton fields of America at this 
 season wear a scraggy appearance, and are even less picturesque 
 than a stubble field in England. We saw slaves picking the 
 cotton, and otherwise laboring on the plantations, and observed 
 at different places, encamped in the woods, bands of negros on 
 their way further south under inhuman slave dealers, but none 
 of them were chained. Our fellow passengers by the stage were 
 all bound up with this sad system, as were also the tavern 
 keepers by the road side where we stopped for refreshment. 
 Twice on the journey we heard men boast of having hunted 
 down runaway slaves by blood hounds who had fled to the 
 swamps or some other secret place for concealment ; and almost 
 every where and on every occasion, the white people in the 
 presence of strangers speak of slavery as though it were to the 
 slaves the happiest life imaginable. 
 
 We are come to a town where the State legislature is in 
 session : the courts of law are open ; a multitude of people throng 
 the streets, and the hotels overflow with guests. A single 
 
78 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 indiscreet speech might expose us to all the terrors of Lynch 
 law. I feel thankful every time our work is done in these dark 
 places of the earth, and we are left at liberty to proceed. Hither- 
 to we have been mercifully preserved from harm, and our faith 
 is yet strong. Great numbers of the farmers of this province 
 are selling their improved lands and moving to Texas : the roads 
 are covered with their wagons and teams : the women and 
 children ride under cover, and the poor slaves, young and old, 
 who go with them, trudge mournfully along on foot : the white 
 men ride on horseback and act as whippers in. It is a strange 
 sight and some what picturesque to see companies of these 
 people sitting at blazing log fires in the woods at night, and 
 the wagons planted round : if it rain hard they seek the shelter 
 of log houses and barns. The talk of these slave owning people 
 distresses us : the moral sense is deadened : they put evil for 
 good and darkness for light, and justify their doings as if all 
 was approved of heaven. How glad I shall be to escape from 
 these abominations, and reach again my own roof ! 
 
 12th Mo 17th 
 Yesterday afternoon we paid a visit to the Governor of 
 Alabama Henry W Collier, and were received by him with 
 kindness and good feeling. He was once a judge, and possesses 
 superior talents for public business. After listening to the 
 memorial and to Wm Forster's judicious statements in support 
 of it, he said at once, "It is an admirable paper," and then 
 proceeded with much seriousness of manner to explain to us 
 his situation both as an individual slave owner, and as governor 
 of the State. Before he became Governor, he thought it his 
 duty, he said, to allow his young negros to read, though 
 contrary to the law to do so: since he was elected to office, the 
 law has been repealed, and all masters may now, if they please, 
 send their young slaves to school. He deeply regretted, he 
 continued, the enormities of the American internal slave trade 
 which he pronounced as little less revolting than that of Africa ; 
 and he felt so sensibly the great moral evil of separating families 
 by sale, husband from wife, and mother from child, that he had 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 79 
 
 recommended the consideration of the question to the attention 
 of the legislature. He spoke of the laws of the slave states as 
 needing immediate revision, and instead of falling back, as 
 most of the governors do, on colonisation to Liberia, as a 
 remedy and cure for slavery, he seemed to think that the condi- 
 tion of the slaves must be morally ameliorated, and that they 
 should remain in the land and become free laborers. This good 
 governor, as many other slaves masters have done, bore testi- 
 mony to the susceptibility of the negro mind to religious 
 impressions. The general opinion seems to be that there is in 
 reality more piety amongst the blacks than the whites. He 
 assured us that he had derived much instruction from the clear 
 and simple faith of some of them ; as notwithstanding their 
 disadvantages they had a clear apprehension that Christ died 
 for them, and that He is their saviour. Josiah Forster ventured 
 to ask him whether he had considered what to do with his slaves 
 when he should be removed by death from the care of them? 
 u That, Gentlemen, is a question that has often troubled me, as 
 it has done many others." In short, he exhibited so much 
 sensibility and religious feeling that I am ready to denominate 
 him the Christian Governor. 
 
 Our interview was really a touching one : the tears came 
 into my eyes on hearing the admissions which this considerate 
 and candid man seemed compelled to make, and we all parted 
 from him with feelings of affection. On going to the governor's 
 hotel and returning from it, we saw the slave trade in unblushing 
 operation. This Montgommery, the capital of Alabama, is a 
 handsome town, most agreeably situated, but exhibits sad 
 sights. In three different buildings we saw slaves, brought, we 
 suppose, from the breeding states, exposed for public sale : in 
 one room there were about 50 men and women : in another the 
 women, well dressed, sat on benches alone, and in a third a 
 company was dancing to the sound of a violin, whilst the slave 
 dealer sat in an arm chair at the door to prevent the casual 
 escape of his victims. We believe there are some kind slave 
 owners, under whose rule, slavery has something of a patri- 
 
80 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 archal character, and that a large number of the slaves are well 
 treated so far as food and clothing go, and that possibly they 
 are not overworked : we see many who seem cheerful and 
 happy as if they had no wordly care, but we hear things which 
 lead us to look beneath the surface, and there we see how evil 
 and bitter a thing it is to be in bondage. 
 
 MlLLEDGEVILLE 12th Mo 20th 
 
 On first day afternoon we walked with an American 
 clergyman to the door of a meeting house of the colored people, 
 and saw the congregation break up. About four or five 
 hundred, nearly all slaves, had assembled, and their minister, a 
 black man, was also a slave. I never saw a more creditable 
 looking set of people; nearly all were good looking and well 
 dressed, and some of them handsomely dressed. It is honorable 
 to the white inhabitants of Montgommery that they allow their 
 slaves to meet for public worship and encourage them to do so, 
 as do also some of the planters who live near the town when 
 cotton picking is not urgent. They find that religion when it is 
 the real article, as they call it, makes their slaves better servants. 
 
 On First day last, near midnight, we left Montgommery 
 for another long journey of 317 miles into the heart of Georgia, 
 which with the exception of only ten miles we performed by 
 rail road. The rail cars are comfortable vehicles, and being 
 stove-warmed in winter are good to travel in by night and 
 day. The gregarious feeding at taverns by the way side is 
 certainly not to our taste, but we must eat and drink and 
 therefore submit resignedly to the custom of the country. A 
 crowd of passengers, clean and dirty, perhaps a hundred of 
 us, sit down together in one large room, and amidst such a 
 motley where all are equal, there will always be found of the 
 rude and vulgar whose contiguity is far from refreshing; be- 
 sides, such is the hurried haste of meals that unless we consent 
 to devour the food, we go away without taking enough. 
 
 Georgia, like Mississippi and Alabama, is to a large extent 
 a cotton producing country, and in coming along we passed of 
 course through a tract of cotton plantations. A large number 
 
 
A FRIENPLy MISSION' 81 
 
 of the poorer lands arc held by white men who are too poor to 
 hold, or to hire slaves, and who bring into the market by free 
 labor from 5 to 50 bales of cotton pr annum, worth about £8 
 Sterling pr bale, besides corn and pork for their own subsistence. 
 A planter tells me this morning that he thinks one fifth of all 
 the cotton of Georgia is the produce of free labor. 
 
 I told thee in my letter from Saint Louis of the unkind and 
 acrimonius letter which we received before leaving that city 
 from the governor of Missouri. Since our departure he has 
 published an attack upon us in the Missouri Examiner news- 
 paper, which has been seen by our friends in Philadelphia, and 
 been spoken of in a letter to one of our company. We cannot 
 expect in such a mission as ours that all things should run 
 smooth, and that all should be joy: we laid our account before 
 hand with some discomforts and sufferings, but as long as the 
 cause we advocate does not suffer, we are content to endure 
 whatever is permitted to come. As a contrast to Governor 
 Price of Missouri, I have already stated the kindness and 
 courtesy we have thus far met with in the Southern States, and 
 may now tell thee that our own government at home is satisfied 
 with the course we take. The British minister at Washington in 
 a despatch to Lord Clarendon informs him of our having called 
 on him with our credentials, and says in regard to us that we 
 "have not come to America with fire and sword," and that he 
 was glad to have seen us. This we learn from a nephew of 
 Henry Bidwell's who is a clerk in the foreign office. I am 
 quite satisfied from all we have heard that our course of pro- 
 ceeding gives satisfaction to the rulers in this land generally, so 
 that taking all things we are in good cheer. The last night we 
 passed on our journey hitherward was at Macon, a very hand- 
 some town of Georgia, where we could only remain for a few 
 hours. It was cold and frosty : Orion shone in the clear atmos- 
 phere with unusual splendor : this morning it is warmer : the 
 sun shines delightfully ; the ever green glades are refreshing 
 to the eye, and even the swamps are not unpleasing. 
 
82 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Evening 9 oclock 
 So fears come and vanish! Our expectations of being well 
 received by Governor H V Johnson 24 were not very strong, but 
 he granted us an interview at his private house and treated us 
 in a kind manner. "He differed from us altogether," he 
 said, "in regard to Slavery as an institution : we considered it 
 a sin : he thought it consistent both with law and gospel, and 
 that it was likely to be a means ultimately of a great blessing to 
 Africa, and of making that vast continent a christian country : 
 he respected our motives and accepted our memorial, but so long 
 as we treated slavery as a sin we should make no impression on 
 the minds of Southern slave holders." "We treated the sub- 
 ject," he continued, "in a way not calculated to give offence : we 
 were not like his own country men, the Northern abolitionists, 
 but still our object was the same, and that a pernicious one : it 
 was the same music breathed in softer notes." He did not give 
 us his blessing at parting, but he involuntarily at last spoke of 
 Slavery as a curse fastened on America by England, and said 
 that many slave owners believed that the Almighty in his 
 providence would make way for its removal. It is a great 
 matter to have accomplished so much as we have done in the 
 South. To morrow we leave this place for South Carolina My 
 next letter will give thee an account of our visit to that province, 
 and perhaps of Wm Forster's beginning religious engagements 
 among the Friends of North Carolina and Western Tennessee. 
 Once more, my Love, farewell. I long for the time of our 
 recrossing the Atlantic but we must not hurry. Peace and 
 joy be with thee. 
 
 Thine faithfully 
 
 J.C 
 
 24 Herschel V. Johnson. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 83 
 
 Nos. 10 and 11 Columbia SC. 12 Mo. 23rd 1853 
 
 My beloved Maria 
 
 Of all the States of N America, South Carolina is the 
 fiercest defender of Slavery : how we shall fare in this capital 
 remains to be seen : our object is unknown, and we wait to see 
 the Governor John L Manning. The distance from the capital 
 of Georgia is 140 miles, and in passing from one to the other, 
 partly by stage, partly by railway, we came through a level 
 country : for 70 or 80 miles we saw neither a single hill, nor any 
 rolling land, but extensive pine forests, in some places sinking 
 into swamps. The open parts of the country are cultivated in 
 corn, cotton and rice : the rice harvest was over, so that we saw 
 none in ear, and the large cotton fields were nearly bare, as the 
 crop was gathered, and only a few small pods too poor to collect, 
 were left on the naked stalks. If the climate of these Southern 
 slave states were like ours in England, the level plains would 
 wear a desolate appearance and the swamps would displease 
 and frighten us : but as it is the face of nature is rather agreeable 
 than otherwise: the ever green pines in rich profusion are 
 relieving to the eye, and the dark brown dead leaves of the oak 
 and hickory, as a contrast, heighten the effect. To day it rains 
 and the sky is covered with clouds, but the weather is warm and 
 we look for fine days to succeed. In travelling from Milledge- 
 ville we had with us a fellow passenger, one of the legislators of 
 Georgia, who told us that they had passed a law to prevent 
 slaves from other states being brought into Georgia for sale. 
 On inquiring of him the ground of this seemingly humane 
 provision we found that it was based on no humanity at all, but 
 simply on this, that the State had already slaves enough, and the 
 Legislature was resolved that no more money should go out of 
 it for the purchase of new ones, to which practise, as buyers 
 on credit, the planters had become addicted to their own 
 disadvantage. Everything in Slavery resolves itself into a 
 question of money profit to the landowner : dollars outweigh 
 all moral considerations. It is true that, owing to the advance 
 of enlightened public opinion in the North and in Europe, the 
 
84 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 condition of the slaves is gradually becoming ameliorated, but 
 still the generality of masters are almost dead to moral feeling 
 in the matter, and only act because constrained to do so by 
 pressure from without. 
 
 We are just returned from the State House after a con- 
 fidential and strictly private interview with Governor Manning, 
 not even his private secretary being present. The governor is 
 a fine young man about 40 years of age, and is a large proprietor 
 of slaves, of whom, he tells us, he owns five hundred : his 
 countenance beams with intelligence and good will. He not 
 only received us politely, as a true gentleman, but listened and 
 conversed with us in the seeming spirit of a Christian man. He 
 was too wary, as the governor of a rampant pro-slavery state, to 
 commit himself or the system by any concessions, but he was 
 evidently touched in his religious feelings, and urged nothing 
 in defence of it. To hear such words as our Address contains, 
 and not to resent them ; to listen to us as foreigners and not to 
 complain of our interference ; to acknowledge, as he did, that 
 our motives were pure, and worthy of all respect, is to me a 
 proof that this governor is not only a gentleman, but that there 
 is something in him better than himself, to the authority of 
 which he bows. I cannot help feeling a regard for this polite 
 slave owner. Without justifying himself, or boasting of his 
 kindness to his slaves, as most of the planters do, he gave us to 
 understand that he felt his responsibility both as a ruler and as 
 a private person, and that it was his endeavour, in regard to his 
 own servants, and in regard to slavery itself, to maintain a good 
 conscience towards his God. The cruelties attendant on ir- 
 responsible power were beginning, he said, to be reprobated by 
 the community at large, and that ameliorations are going 
 forward. Lord Morpeth, 25 he told us, had been his guest for 
 a week and had inspected his plantations, and he should be glad 
 to give us the opportunity of seeing some of the estates of 
 South Carolina. We had a friendly parting, and shall remember 
 
 "George Howard, Sixth Earl of Carlisle (1773-1848), styled Lord 
 Morpeth. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 85 
 
 the interview with comparative satisfaction. Another trial of 
 our faith is got well over, and we now look with increasing 
 confidence to the future. Four other slave states only remain 
 to be visited. 
 
 Nashville, Tennessee 12 Mo 27th 
 
 To arrive at this city where the Governor of Tennessee 
 resides, we found it necessary to retrace our steps by rail road 
 three hundred miles, although not precisely through the same 
 district of country, and we travelled the whole of that distance 
 without once stopping to rest. A senator of Georgia was one 
 of our travelling companions, who gave us a deplorable picture 
 of the state of morals among the planters of that large province. 
 He assured us that few of what are termed the better white 
 people went abroad without a loaded pistol, a dirk or a bowie 
 knife, to be ready to revenge any supposed insult, and that even 
 magistrates and judges conformed themselves in this respect 
 to the public practise. The consequence is that duels, murders 
 and stabbings are of frequent occurrence, which we see con- 
 firmed almost every day in the public papers. Laws enacted 
 against such crimes are unavailing so long as the public senti- 
 ment favors them : "Laws," said one of the Governors to 
 
 "must be the outburst or exponent of public feelings, or 
 they become a dead letter." 
 
 From Atlanta in Georgia to the borders of Tennessee, the 
 country, no longer a level pine forest, rises into hills covered 
 with oak timber, and in summer time must be beautiful; but 
 we are now in the beginning of winter, and even in this southern 
 region the snow yesterday was several inches deep, and the 
 ponds were frozen : hail and snow came down at the same time : 
 at night we require much bed clothing to keep us tolerably 
 warm, and I find my woollen jacket an indispensable garment 
 in the open air. One part of our journey yesterday was per- 
 formed by steam boat on the river Tennessee, one of those 
 many magnificent streams that intersect this mighty land: we 
 thought the scenery on its banks almost equal to anything in 
 America — steep banks, broken rocks and lofty wood covered 
 
86 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 hills ! We had crossed two great rivers, the Savannah and the 
 Alabama only a few days before, but these, running through 
 a level country, disclosed but little of the beauty or grandeur 
 of nature. What we have thus far seen of Tennessee would 
 lead me to pronounce it the garden state of the Union : its main 
 produce is maize and cotton. In summing up the amount of 
 our travels since we landed at Boston, I find it to be 6018 
 miles; we have been in twenty one states of the Union out of 
 thirty one, and this is the extremest point in any direction to 
 which our wanderings extend. We have only to visit the 
 meetings of Friends in this province, and in North Carolina 
 and Virginia, and then we look northward, eastward and home- 
 ward. Much however remains to be done in connection with 
 our mission, and you must not expect to see me home under 
 four months from this date. Much as I long to see thee again 
 we must finish our work now we are here that we may have no 
 misgivings for neglected duty when we get back to England. 
 
 12th Month 28th 1853 
 Just returned from seeing the Governor Andrew Johnson, a 
 thoughtful considerate well meaning man, who entered fully 
 into the subject with us, and in conclusion thanked us for the 
 visit. He holds four domestic slaves by purchase, but none for 
 gain. He admitted that our motives in thus travelling to 
 enlighten the conscience of slave owners must be pure, and that 
 our conduct being conciliatory was likely to promote the object 
 in view. Had the same line of conduct been followed by the 
 Northern abolitionists ; had appeals by christian persuasion been 
 adopted instead of unsparing denunciation, several of the States 
 by this time, he said, would have been ready to grant emancipa- 
 tion. He told us, what we had heard before, that gambling, as 
 a vice, prevailed extensively in the Slave states : even in 
 Washington, he said, a man might stand at the door of his 
 house and look upon two or three known gambling houses and 
 not dare to interfere : the laws were stringent against gambling, 
 but like all other laws of the country not in harmony with the 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 87 
 
 popular feeling, were almost a dead letter. What a comment 
 is this on the democracy of a nation ! From 500 to 1000 people 
 in this city of Nashville alone (which contains about 16,000 
 inhabitants) are said to subsist thus by plundering their 
 neighbours and strangers. The unrighteousness of the system 
 of slavery, by sapping all the foundations of morality, conduces 
 greatly to this social ruin. 
 
 I have been this afternoon to the Capitol, a new edifice, 
 which when completed will have cost the community nearly two 
 millions of dollars ! From the upper rooms is a good view of 
 the city, which lies in a basin surrounded by good farming land, 
 and from which hills rise all around covered with forest : at the 
 foot of the city, and through the valley flows the Cumberland 
 river, over which is a long suspension bridge, somewhat 
 handsome, but inferior to those built over the Niagara near the 
 Falls and over the Ohio at Wheeling in Virginia. The 
 facilities for travelling in this portion of the earth are surpris- 
 ingly great when we consider how young the nation is. Out 
 of the 6000 miles we have already traversed, about 1300 have 
 been performed by stage coaches, 1500 on the rivers by steam 
 boats and 3200 by railway. Steam boat travelling is cheap, that 
 by railway is about equal to our second class fares, but stages 
 are dear owing to the badness of the roads. We have seen the 
 rough and the smooth and have had some suffering as well as 
 enjoyment. It is surprising to me that the two brothers should 
 have borne up so well : they are now as well as when they left 
 home, and notwithstanding Wm Forster's arduous engagements 
 yet to come, I trust that he will be favored to reach home in 
 safety, and health, and if so we doubt not with peace. 
 
 Friendsville East Tennessee 1st Mo 3rd 1854 
 From Nashville we returned to Chattanooga by railway, 
 except ten miles by steam on the river Tennessee. At 
 Chattanooga we rested one night and the next day reached 
 Louden, making from Nashville a journey of 280 miles. On 
 7th day last we hired at this place a carriage and horses with 
 
88 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 a driver, and a saddle horse to ride upon, and thus partly riding 
 and partly walking we traversed ten miles of very bad road in 
 five hours, crossing one broad river in a ferry boat. On 
 stopping at a Friends' house by the road side we found the old 
 man and two of his sons killing or rather skinning a calf : we 
 took them, they said, at a nonplus, but they would take us in and 
 do for us as well as they could. It was a poor farm house, and 
 as another Friend, better to do in the world, lived only a mile 
 and a half off we agreed to divide : so leaving Wm Forster and 
 Wm Holmes at this spot, Josiah Forster and myself, attended 
 by a pilot, made our way through the woods and over a creek 
 to the house of James Allen where we received from him and 
 his wife a kind and cordial welcome. 
 Let me now describe 
 
 A Farmers life in Eastern Tennessee 
 
 James Allen has a pretty good homestead, and a wife and 
 nine children, eight girls and an infant boy : two of the girls are 
 able to help their mother, and one, the oldest of them is at 
 New-garden school in North Carolina. There is no servant in 
 the family : the husband with one young man — a Friend, to help 
 him, performs the work of 100 acres, sometimes hiring a 
 laborer for a few weeks at a time. The wife attends to her 
 family cares, milks the cows, weaves cloth for the family to 
 wear, and does in fact all that a large household can demand at 
 the hand of mistress and domestics combined. These good 
 people have a great abundance of the good things of this life: 
 during our stay with them, the table was furnished at each meal 
 with stewed chicken, sausage meat, preserved peaches, bread- 
 kind, coffee and milk. I felt grieved, however, to observe the 
 continual toil to which they were subject; and my wonder was 
 how such an amazing amount of work could be got through 
 without the breaking down of mind and body. The farmers of 
 Tennessee toil as hard as. the day laborers of England: but 
 then, unlike our English laborers, they keep gathering into the 
 garner, adding to their property, and making way for their 
 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 89 
 
 children to enter on land of their own when they become of 
 age to do so. One practise is common here which we cannot 
 approve. If a larger company comes together at table than can 
 sit down at one time, the women wait on the men, and sit down 
 to their meal when the men rise up: this is so contrary to the 
 general customs of America that we may almost wonder how 
 the practise crept in. 
 
 I left with our friend Matilda Allen, the wife of our host 
 a copy of the Life of Elizabeth Fry, and a packet of the 
 haberdashery which my sister E C furnished me with for the 
 good housewifes of the Western wilderness. Whilst Matilda 
 was looking at the articles her husband stood by, and said 
 "What have to pay for them?" I said, nothing: my sister had 
 put them into my hands to give to my friends in remote places, 
 where they could not run every hour to a shop to buy them. 
 "Thy sister," said Matilda, "must be a very kind woman : these 
 things will be very useful to me : I cannot get such thread and 
 cotton and tape here, and am often without good needles : do 
 q'ive my love to thy sister when thee gets back to England." The 
 husband said to me, when he understood they were a gift, "I 
 fear thee cannot afford it." The same sort of testimony to the 
 value of these little articles was given me by another friend 
 at whose house we lodged. 
 
 Kxoxville 1st Mo. 4th 1854 
 On First day morning when James Allen had fed his pigs, 
 Josiah Forster and myself set out through the woods to 
 meeting: James Allen saddled a horse for himself and his wife, 
 and he carrying the infant in his arms, they both followed 
 us, and the girls walked with us and the young man. The 
 meeting house was a dark log cabin without a window, but 
 with an opening in the side for light and ventilation: a large 
 fire was blazing on the floor and the room was grievously 
 warm and close. Here we found assembled a rustic company 
 of about forty or fifty persons, mostly Friends, to whom Wm 
 Forster ministered in gospel power. The men were dressed in 
 
90 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 home made woollen clothes dyed of light blue, and some had 
 crimson vests : the women also were curiously dressed ; and we 
 formed a motley assemblage to look at. Wm Forster, who 
 could not walk so far, was conveyed to meeting in an open 
 waggon by the old friend at whose house he lodged. 
 
 The next morning we had an appointed meeting at Friends- 
 ville to which J F. and myself set out again on foot, four miles 
 through the forest to attend it. Here we met a congregation 
 of a hundred persons : it was worth going a long way to be 
 present at such a meeting: Wm Forster preached, and it was 
 indeed a memorable opportunity. After it was over the 
 company flocked around us, and we spent a very agreeable day 
 amongst them, calling on some of their families. 
 
 Our object now was to get forward to another district, forty 
 miles off, where other Tennessee Friends reside, to hold a 
 meeting or two with them. It so happened that a store keeper 
 was going to Knoxville which lay in our route, and he kindly 
 of f erred to take us and our luggage in a covered waggon drawn 
 by four horses. On 3rd day morning at noon we began the 
 journey, our first stage being nine miles, which we performed 
 in four hours ! Three of us walked much of the way : at last, a 
 little before sun-set we came to a broad deep river which we 
 crossed in a ferry boat navigated by a female slave and a white 
 boy. It was owing to the extraordinary skill and activity of 
 this black woman that the wagon and horses were not all 
 plunged into the stream : we had all got safely over, and the 
 ferry boat then went back for the wagon and team : before they 
 reached the shore one of the wheels by some mishap got over 
 the side of the boat and deranged the balance : this was perceived 
 at once by the woman, who by surprising promptitude and 
 strength saved the whole from shipwreck. Passing up a steep 
 bank we came to the Ferry House, which we found one of the 
 best ordered little taverns we had seen in America. An excellent 
 supper was served us at 7 oclock, and two good rooms, each 
 with two beds, and furnished with a large log fire were pre- 
 pared for our accommodation. Our friend, the wagon driver 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 91 
 
 and his son slept on the floor of the room in which J F 
 and myself rested. 
 
 At seven oclock this morning we were all ready to resume 
 our journey except Wm Forster who not feeling well, having 
 taken cold at Friendsville, was unable to proceed. It was agreed 
 therefore to remain at the Ferry house another day to rest, and 
 as we expected letters at Knoxville and it was needful to arrange 
 for the further prosecution of our journey onward from that 
 town, I agreed to walk there, the distance being only thirteen 
 miles to prepare for their arrival and to hire conveyances. I am 
 now at a small hotel alone for the evening, waiting for their 
 coming up to morrow to join me. Many are the sad tales we 
 hear of the working of slavery : we passed by houses yesterday 
 in which slaves were recently murdered by their masters or their 
 masters by them, and another in which eight mulatto slaves 
 were sold by auction at the death of their own father, who died 
 without a will, leaving them in bondage. They were bought by 
 slave traders, and were chained and sent off to the South. Our 
 friend the driver was present at the sale and describes the scene 
 as a heart-rending one indeed. With a fullness of love I now 
 conclude and remain thy very affectionate. 
 
 JC. 
 
 1st Month 5th 
 As I left the ferry yesterday morning early on my solitary 
 walk alone, the sky being clear, and the sun just risen, I looked 
 on the broad river, its steep wooded banks, and the near and 
 distant hills, and exclaimed involuntarily to myself, "How 
 beautiful, how beautiful ! What a lovely country is this !" The 
 state of Tennessee is rich in natural grandeur. On going to 
 the Post office I found to my great joy thy deeply interesting 
 letter of the 7th ultimo. How can I thank thee enough for it? 
 
92 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 No. 12 Low's Ferry on the River Holstox 
 
 12 miles from Knoxville East Tenxessee 1st Mo 8th 1854 
 My beloved Maria 
 
 Although this is First-day and not a day for letter writing, 
 our present circumstances more than warrant my devoting it to 
 this purpose. In my last letter from Knoxville I told thee I 
 was waiting solitary and alone at the hotel expecting my com- 
 panions. Very anxiously did I look out for the wagon and 
 team, often going to an eminence which commanded a view of 
 the hill down which they must descend : sunset came, and no 
 company arrived. The next morning therefore I engaged a 
 light carriage and a man to drive me and came back to the ferry 
 house. Here I found our beloved friend Wm Forster sick 
 and in a suffering state : he had taken no nourishment worth 
 mentioning for two days, and was in much pain. At night it 
 was found needful to search for a physician. Our host, Samuel 
 Lowe, who is a kind considerate man undertook the task and 
 after riding over and through the woods for six hours in the 
 dark brought the welcome intelligence that Dr Nelson would 
 come in the course of a few hours, or before the day was over. 
 He came in the evening, examined his patient, pronounced the 
 disorder Pneumonia, and said he was very sick. The lancet 
 was freely used, and our poor patient felt relieved, but had 
 not much rest that night. Wm Holmes sat up with him and 
 nursed him the night through. . . . Last night it was my turn 
 to sit up and I watched by the bed side seven hours : there was 
 less apparent suffering than there had been, but he acknowledged 
 to me that it was hard work, as his breathing was very oppres- 
 sive. The Doctor is just come, and pronounces his patient 
 better : the disease is not arrested, he says, but the symptoms are 
 so far favorable that he shall have no farther recourse to active 
 means, but shall treat him gently. It is a cause of thankfulness to 
 us that as illness is come, it has overtaken us at this spot where 
 all is quiet, the accommodations good, the landlord and his wife 
 kind, and where the country is beautiful. The weather is cold, 
 the nights are frosty, and the snow lies deep on the ground. . . . 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 93 
 
 1st Month 9th 1854 
 The doctor is not yet again come, but our patient has had a 
 quieter night, with some rest : his pains afe fewer and the fever 
 seems to be going : we have now good hope of his recovery, 
 unless the disorder should' run into typhoid, as it sometimes 
 does. ... 
 
 Third day morning the 10th 
 Doctor Nelson came again last night, lodged here on the 
 floor and left this morning. Our patient is much better: he 
 had some refreshing sleep in the night and has taken a very 
 little nourishment; which circumstances confirm our hope 
 of his early recovery. . . . Yesterday Ephraim Lee, an elder, 
 and the head of the society in this quarter, rode over to see us. 
 He has a large store of anecdote which he made use of to amuse 
 us. He is a devoted temperance man : at the request of his 
 neighbours he delivered them lately a public address on the 
 Temperance movement. "I never studied any subject in all my 
 life," he said to me, "as I studied that: I went wholly on scrip- 
 ture and began at Genesis : I told them I believed the forbidden 
 fruit of Eden contained an intoxicating quality, and that was 
 the reason why it was forbidden." Indeed! I said: that was a 
 new thought to me ; how did the people take it ? "Why, they 
 stared at me mightily," he replied, "but I was never more 
 convinced of anything." So we see there are people in America, 
 as well as in England, who know how to drag in scripture and 
 to misuse it. The old gentleman, who is very kind and very 
 garrulous, told us some odd things about some travelling 
 ministers whom he had known or heard of in his younger 
 days, but enough of this now. I walked out this morning two 
 miles and a half through the deep snow for exercise and have 
 taken no cold : my health continues remarkably good. The 
 time of our separation seems to be very long, and this 
 detention of ours in the wilderness adds to the burdensome- 
 ness of the feeling, but afflictions are sent for a wise end, and 
 I cultivate resignation. 
 
94 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Fourth day the 11th 
 Our hopes, so strong yesterday, are now somewhat abated : 
 pains in the left side have returned acutely so as to prove that 
 inflammatory disease lingers in the system : frequent pains and 
 faintness with scarcely any nourishment for seven days, are 
 enough to exhaust the strongest men, and our patient is not so 
 strong as many men much older than himself. . . . 
 
 The state of the slaves in this land often oppresses my mind 
 with deep religious concern for their welfare; my relief seems 
 only in prayer : so inveterately do the planters cleave to slavery ; 
 so determined is the great mass of the democracy to uphold it, 
 that humanly speaking there is no prospect of a change; but 
 prayer is a mighty weapon, and I feel confident that in mercy or 
 in judgment, He who rules in the heavens will bring this 
 iniquity to an end. In this part of Tennessee, notwithstanding 
 a general hard heartedness on the subject, a few of the slave 
 holders have been awakened to a consciousness of the sin, who 
 have manumitted their slaves, and have sent them well cared 
 for to Liberia. We are informed of one man who liberated 
 fifteen of his servants in this way, but his wife, who owned 
 two in her own right, could not be brought to give them liberty. 
 From all we hear of slave owners, some women appear to be 
 the severest in exacting service and inflicting stripes. The 
 name of H B Stowe is appalling to these despots, although they 
 endeavour to laugh off the feelings her works occasion. The 
 Southern Quarterly Review acknowledges that she has struck 
 a blow at Slavery from which it can never recover ; and yet so 
 inconsistent is the writer that he recommends, in order to 
 strengthen what has been thus rudely shaken, that the African 
 slave trade should be revived in America to extend the system 
 and make it perpetual ! My honest opinion is that either slavery 
 as an institution must soon cease in the Southern States, or the 
 Union must fall to pieces. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 95 
 
 Note 
 
 After writing thus far and before resuming my pen, I met 
 with a serious accident and dislocated my left shoulder. 
 Josiah Forster appended the following lines 
 
 Fifth day morning 1st Mo. 12th 1854 
 
 Do not dear Friend be alarmed at seeing my hand writing. 
 I think there is no occasion for that : I now write from dictation 
 of thy dear husband. 
 
 "Having carelessly fallen and bruised my arm, my friend 
 J. F. writes the concluding paragraph. We rejoice to be able to 
 say that our patient is decidedly better; the pain has materially 
 subsided, and I now have good hope of his early recovery. This 
 is the intelligence that I wish to have communicated to our 
 friends at Ipswich." Farewell, most affectionately 
 
 JC. 
 
 This is too laconic. I must add that thy dear husband was 
 sitting in my brother's bed room last night to render any 
 assistance that might be needed. He went out into the porch 
 for a piece of wood for the fire, fell and bruised, we think, the 
 muscles under the left shoulder. It occasions him much suf- 
 fering, but we hope it will pass off in two or three days. We 
 hope to render him what assistance may be in our power. W r e 
 feel for him. 
 
 In much love, Thine 
 
 Josiah Forster. 
 
 No. 13 Low's Ferry Tennessee 1st Month 15th 1854 
 
 My beloved Maria 
 
 When my friend Josiah Forster penned for me the con- 
 cluding lines of my last letter I was in a state of suffering in 
 my left arm and shoulder, and my whole frame was shattered. 
 For ten long and wearisome hours I sat and walked and waited 
 the arrival of the doctor. At length he came and J F and 
 \\ H carefully helped him to remove my clothes : whilst 
 
96 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 examining the shoulder to find out where the mischief lay, the 
 pain was so acute and severe that I almost fainted. I said to 
 him as he kept on with his manipulations, "I cannot stand much 
 of this :" his cool answer was "You must stand it, and a good 
 deal more." He pronounced it a dislocation of the shoulder 
 and I looked forward to protracted pain and suffering. After 
 some farther examination he placed his thumb under the 
 offending joint, and with a skill and dexterity, perhaps never 
 surpassed, gently forced it into its socket, and said with a smile 
 "the work is done." I felt immediate relief from distressing 
 pain, and was filled with joy and thankfulness. They now 
 wrapped my naked waist and shoulder in a woolen scarf, ad- 
 ministered some madeira wine and water, put me to bed, and 
 I fell asleep. This sleep, though not the most refreshing, 
 repaired me a little, as I had been kept awake for the thirty 
 previous hours. From the moment the bone was set the healing 
 process seemed to begin, and has been going on to the present 
 hour. This account of myself will not be tedious to thee, what- 
 ever it may be to others and therefore I enter into detail. . . . 
 
 Third day 1st Mo 17th 
 . . . The population thin and spare that surrounds us at 
 this place consists of farmers and mechanics, some of them 
 holding slaves, and some from poverty or principle holding 
 none. Our landlord here at the ferry house has four slaves, a 
 mother and three children, and here we see the workings of 
 slavery under what are called good owners. Still the scripture 
 holds true, "a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit." The 
 slave mother is a stout healthy young woman who has two 
 children by a former connection, and an infant by her present 
 husband who lives under another master across the river two 
 miles off, and is allowed only to visit her once a week, coming 
 on 7th day evening and returning to his labor on 2nd day 
 morning: other domestic comfort they have none, and of this 
 they may be deprived at any time by the caprice or insolvency of 
 either of their reputed owners, and perhaps never see each other 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 97 
 
 again! The woman is cheerful and seems to be contented, and 
 probably is as well satisfied with her condition as if she were 
 free : she works hard at the ferry oar, but is not overworked as 
 some slaves are ; her physical wants are supplied, and she cares 
 for little more. But look at her children, only half attended to, 
 unwashed and dirty, devoted to as much drudgery as they can 
 well perform, and without education or religious instruction 
 suffered to go on to mature age ! 
 
 Another slave owner who has eighteen slaves came the other 
 night to relieve us and sit up with Wm Forster — a kind benevo- 
 lent looking man who rendered us essential service, but who 
 justifies slavery as a sort of patriarchal institution, because he 
 gives his people food to eat and clothes to wear, and treats 
 them, as he says, well. So long as the animal in the slaves is 
 cared for, slave owners seem to be contented : they have done 
 their duty, and deserve praise ! Conscience is lulled : they know 
 the abominations of slave keeping and the cruelties often 
 inflicted by wicked masters, but they overlook these things, and 
 say in general terms the slaves are well off and very happy, and 
 thus they settle down. Slavery and Christianity can never 
 coexist and flourish together : of this we may be quite sure, and 
 here I take leave of the subject. 
 
 Fourth day the 18th 
 Wm Holmes rode through the forest for the doctor yester- 
 day but could not find him as he had travelled far a head, nor 
 is he come yet. Happily for us, a good neighbour, another 
 slave owner, came to share the duties of the night, so that I was 
 relieved from watching and had a long refreshing sleep. Our 
 sick friend is again better : he sleeps well, changes his room for 
 fresh air and begins to take and relish small portions of solid 
 food : he now thinks he has sufficient internal strength left to 
 warrant our removing him, and intreats us to try the experiment. 
 
 Sixth day the 20th 
 Six days have elapsed since the doctor left us : twice has he 
 been sent for, and he is not come yet. Happily for us our 
 
98 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 patient gains a little strength, and still thinks himself able to 
 bear being removed to Knoxville. . . . 
 
 The river is so swelled by the recent thaw and rains as to 
 make the passage across it doubtful and difficult. Not a single 
 friend from the other side has ventured over for six days 
 past : doctor and friends all keep aloof. . . . The river has 
 risen 15 feet; trees and drift wood, swept from the banks, are 
 floating in continued masses down the rushing stream : the 
 weather is bland and warm, succeeding a thunder storm. Sitting 
 alone by night and solitary walks by day afford me much room 
 for meditation : I think of you all with tender affection, and 
 indulge the hope of soon meeting you again. Farewell till 
 we reach Knoxville. 
 
 7th day the 21st 
 No Knoxville reached yet! The floods are out and nearly 
 all communications are cut off from the surrounding neighbour- 
 hood : perhaps it is better for us, as W F is anxious to be 
 removed and is not fit to go. No doctor comes near us and 
 we cannot cross the water in search of a new physician. . . . 
 
 First day evening the 22nd 
 Our poor patient was restless and uneasy in the night and 
 required almost constant attention, but is somewhat better to 
 day. Dr Rogers from Knoxville succeeded in reaching us this 
 afternoon at 3 oclock : after long inquiry into his case and much 
 examination he is of the judgment that he may be removed in 
 a few days : there is certainly some constitutional strength 
 remaining; more nourishment is taken, and the voice has 
 sometimes its usual compass and power. . . . 
 
 The broad river has at length overflowed its banks, and 
 two boats lashed together, laden with wheat and flour, have 
 broken from their moorings and are gone restlessly down the 
 flood with two men on board at the peril of their lives : we shall 
 be anxious to hear of them as they are said to be unacquainted 
 with the river navigation. Many passengers are detained on 
 this side of the water who cannot cross it owing to its danger : 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 99 
 
 one sick man lodged on the floor in our bed room ; others who 
 were well have been turned away to seek for shelter and rest a 
 mile or two off. Thou wilt see by my statement that we must 
 continue here a while longer. Again my dearest Farewell 
 Thine &c 
 
 JC 
 
 No. 14 Low's Ferry Tennessee 5th day 1st Mo 25th 1854 
 My beloved Maria 
 
 On third day last our new doctor came a second time and 
 one of our friends from across the river. This afforded me a 
 good opportunity of leaving the sick chamber for one day and 
 night, of which I gladly availed myself. That night at the 
 House of Norris and Elizabeth Allen, who received me with 
 great cordiality, I obtained a long unbroken rest, and the next 
 morning attended with them their meeting at Friendsville, where 
 I found from 40 to 50 friends, men and women, with scarcely 
 any young people. At the conclusion of the meeting I delivered 
 to the company assembled a message of love from Wm Forster 
 which was very acceptable to them, as they feel a strong interest 
 in his case, which now assumes an alarming appearance. I dined 
 with Ephraim Lee, who saddled his horse and piloted me 
 through the near wood to the forest road which leads to the 
 ferry, and which, after losing myself twice, I reached before 
 sun down. . . . 
 
 The weather before the floods set in was often so very cold 
 that we kept up large fires day and night. Samuel Low, our 
 host, tells me that during the last 30 days we have consumed in 
 the house more than twenty young oaks thinned from the 
 forest, each tree measuring at the lower part of the trunk four 
 feet and a half in circumference, and forty feet in height. What 
 a destruction of fine young trees this seems to be ; yet the forest 
 is the better for it, as the remaining timber grows larger and 
 better for the openings made. My sister E C need not fear for 
 us the contiguity of wolves, as they shun the habitations of 
 settlers ; nor have we yet encountered any snakes. The in- 
 habitants do indeed go armed through the woods but this is 
 
100 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 for the purpose of destroying game, such as deer, quails, 
 partridges, squirrels and wild turkeys. 
 
 The retired and quiet township of Friendsville, almost 
 exclusively settled by members of our own society was the other 
 day, for the first time, insulted and dishonored by the passage 
 through it of a gang of slaves for the Southern market. One 
 of the captives said to Wm Lee "I do not mind doing the work 
 of a slave, but to be marched thus and sold like cattle is more 
 than I know how to stand." And this is free America! The 
 fugitive slave law is losing its honor in the South owing to the 
 difficulties and expense attending the working of it. A pro- 
 slavery paper now condemns it as a cruel blunder on the part of 
 Southern statesmen and says it works bad for slave owners in 
 two ways ; it increases the cost of capture, making it a monied 
 loss, and it draws on the Institution of slavery the odium of 
 Europe. A candid admission, and true. 
 
 Friendsville 6th day afternoon. 
 
 Death of William Forster 
 
 At 4 oclock this morning after I had gone to rest W Holmes 
 came to my bed side and asked me if it were my wish to see the 
 final close? I rose immediately and went to the adjoining 
 room : it was a moment of great solemnity. The doctor and his 
 assistant, Josiah Forster, Wm Holmes and myself stood at the 
 bed side : there had been no struggle, no apparent suffering; the 
 dying man supported by pillows had breathed gently, slower and 
 slower, till the doctor, who felt his chest, withdrew his hand 
 and said "All is now over." Our beloved friend and brother 
 breathed his last at ten minutes past 4 oclock on the 27th of 
 1st Month 1854. In this country interments take place very 
 early after death, so that it was needful for me to cross the 
 river and come to Friendsville to make arrangements for the 
 burial To morrow morning, accompanied by some of our 
 friends, I am to return to the river side: the remains are to 
 be brought over at one oclock pm : two wagons and horses are 
 to be here to receive the coffin and accommodate the followers, 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 101 
 
 and we are to come to the dwelling house of Ephraim Lee near 
 the meeting house. On 1st day morning the funeral is to take 
 place. I have been to the burial ground to select a spot for the 
 grave and have chosen a vacant place midway between the 
 two entrance doors, which may at any future time be readily 
 pointed out to inquirers. . . . 
 
 Louden East Tennessee 1st Mo 30 1854 
 After a long and refreshing night's rest at Ephraim Lee's 
 I returned to the Ferry, accompanied by himself, Francis Jones, 
 Thomas Jones and John Hackney to attend the remains of our 
 beloved friend to their final resting place. The river was again 
 so swelled by late heavy rains as to render the navigation of it 
 somewhat perilous, but the master of the ferry boat having 
 obtained some assisting ferry men from other points of the 
 stream, succeeded in bringing over the coffin and our two 
 friends Josiah Forster and Wm Holmes, and landing them 
 safely in the field of a planter which was overflowed by the 
 rushing waters. Here a wagon was in waiting to receive them, 
 and a carriage also. We had now eight miles to travel over a 
 rough and difficult road, but reached our destination before 
 sun down on 7th day evening: we drove through a creek to 
 Ephraim Lee's dwelling house where the corpse was deposited. 
 J F and W H remained there also that night and I walked to 
 Norris Allen's, half a mile further on. On First day morning 
 the remains borne on a wagon were conveyed to the burial 
 ground, and not a few of us followed in procession. A large 
 company had assembled at the ground. After a short time of 
 silence the coffin was lowered into a deep dry grave, and we 
 all remained at the side of it till it was filled up and covered in, 
 and a rough stone was placed at each end of it, according to the 
 custom of the country. 26 The usual meeting place for public 
 
 26 William Forster's grave, marked by a simple stone bearing only his 
 name and enclosed by an iron fence, may be seen in the Friends Cemetery in 
 Friendsville today. The girls' dormitory at the Friendsville Academy is 
 named the William Forster Home for Girls. The Academy is in its ninety- 
 fourth year. Mrs. Elizabeth Beals, Friendsville, Tenn., to the editor, 
 October 1, 1950. 
 
102 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 worship followed, attended by at least 250 persons. I had 
 hoped that if any ministerial service were required of any of 
 us it might be permitted to fall mainly on David Morgan, a 
 minister of Friendsville meeting: it was so ordered, however, 
 that the duty, a solemn one, fell chiefly on thy husband, who 
 was concerned to enlarge on the text "whose faith follow, con- 
 sidering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ the same 
 yesterday, to day and for ever." Josiah Forster spoke a few 
 words when the grave was closed and again before we left the 
 meetinghouse. My heart was too full and my religious concern 
 too strong to allow me to leave the congregation without offer- 
 ing up vocal prayer with praise and thanksgiving. 
 
 This morning we took leave of our Tennessee friends and 
 after an eight hours journey of only sixteen miles, are now here 
 ready to leave by the rail road early to morrow morning on our 
 way to North Carolina. Just as we entered the doors of the 
 hotel we met our good friend Doctor Taylor of Burlington who 
 had travelled day and night, nearly 1000 miles by railway to 
 come thus far to visit and assist his honored friend, and to 
 administer to him as a medical attendant. He had got into the 
 coach and gone down to the river side to be ferried over, but 
 was obliged to return to the hotel, as the waters were too high 
 to allow either the mails or the passengers to cross. In meeting 
 us he was saved the need of prosecuting his long journey any 
 further onward and now agrees to join us to morrow on his 
 way northward back to Burlington. Stephen Grellet, he tells 
 us, is again unwell, and Richard Mott dangerously so. We 
 now hope to be in Philadelphia in eighteen days. Excuse this 
 hasty and imperfect sketch of late solemn events, but I have 
 written in some haste as anxious not to lose a mail, and to 
 let thee have the mournful intelligence, now conveyed, as soon 
 as possible. I conclude somewhat abruptly, but with feelings 
 of deep affection and remain as ever 
 
 Thine &c 
 
 ]C. 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 103 
 
 Charlotte North Carolina 2nd Mo 2nd 1854 
 No 15 
 My beloved Maria 
 
 My last letter ended with a brief account of the funeral of 
 our departed friend. The sickness and death of this good man 
 are topics on which I could freely enlarge but it will be better 
 to reserve the subject for conversation when we meet again in 
 dear Old England. On 3rd day morning last we left Tennessee 
 in company with our interesting friend Joseph Taylor. The 
 roads in the western parts of North Carolina were too bad to 
 allow of our pursuing the usual stage route to New Garden, a 
 distance of 350 miles, where the Yearly meeting of that province 
 is held, and where Friends have a boarding school which we 
 wished to visit. This circumstance somewhat troubled us as it 
 compelled us to retrace our steps through Georgia and South 
 Carolina to Columbia. The distance to Raleigh in North 
 Carolina where the Governor resides, is much greater by this 
 route than the other, but as it is by rail road all the way we 
 prefer it. We reached Columbia yesterday and being informed 
 that if we came onward to this place, 105 miles, we should be 
 able to reach New Garden by stage, only ninety miles further, 
 we came on intending to do so. On arriving here we found the 
 plan impracticable : the stage conveyance was suspended for the 
 winter and no private accommodation could be hired, as the 
 livery and stable keepers refused to furnish us with horses. We 
 now therefore go back to Columbia and give up all thoughts of 
 reaching any settlement of Friends in North Carolina, which is 
 a great disappointment to us. Thou canst guess what the state 
 of the common roads of this country is after rain and thaws 
 when I tell thee that in coming from Friendsville to Loudon in 
 Tennessee, the mules of our wagon plunged into a mud hole 
 and fell, and we had to dig out the wagon by long fir poles, used 
 as levers, and that we were nearly upset in coming up a steep 
 bank by the river side. Winter travelling in almost every part 
 of N America, where there are no rail roads, is intolerably bad. 
 and we have endured much suffering from this cause. 
 
104 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 In the railway car this morning, a fellow passenger, an 
 Englishman, came to me and said, "I am told you are travelling 
 on an Anti-slavery mission : you must be extremely prudent : 
 this is dangerous ground : excuse my freedom : I gather my 
 intelligence from two gentlemen, who have been conversing 
 together on the seat before me." A very mischievous paper 
 "The New York Herald," which has a great circulation in the 
 South, has pointed us out as abolitionists, but we are so strictly 
 on our guard that we fear nothing. 
 
 The climate of this region at this time of the year, when 
 no rain falls, is exceedingly pleasant : the sun shines delightfully 
 to day, and our journey through the pine forest has been very 
 gratifying. Extensive clearings by the road side disclose at 
 intervals the cotton plantations with the slaves at work, and 
 we pass numerous depots at which are stages piled high with 
 bales of cotton ready for transport. We have been within six 
 hours of Charleston, the great shipping port, and have not 
 turned out of our course to visit it. This I call practical self 
 denial. Charleston, New Orleans and Savannah : we have been 
 near them all and shunned them all. 
 
 1st day morning at 6 oclock 
 On reaching the Peedee river we left the railway cars and 
 took a new train on the opposite bank, being ferried over the 
 stream by moonlight. Before reaching Wilmington, the trade 
 capital of North Carolina we left this train, descended into a 
 steam boat and were navigated across the Cape Fear river. 
 Wilmington is a good town of 9000 inhabitants, and here we 
 spent a quiet devotional day of rest and enjoyment. This 
 morning we repaired to the railway station, and took seats for 
 the North, arriving at this place ( Weldon) 162 miles to dinner. 
 The land through which we have passed is one unceasing pine 
 forest, interspersed in some parts with dwarf oak as under- 
 wood. There are a few openings of clear land by the way for 
 corn and cotton plantations, but in every part of the road, near 
 and distant, we were surrounded by a dense mass of living 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 105 
 
 pine. These pine trees are the wealth of the country, whose 
 soil is sandy and poor : the owners of the forest scarify them 
 on one side for about six feet from the surface of the ground 
 and suffer them to bleed turpentine, which trickles down into 
 a hole at the foot of each tree, and is ladled out for manufacture 
 and distillation. Rosin, tar and spirits of turpentine, the 
 products of the wood, are packed in barrels and sent to Wilm- 
 ington for shipment abroad. Manufactories are planted in the 
 open woods, and some of the processes were in operation as we 
 passed. This trade, with charcoal burning, and the cutting 
 down trees for timber is the staple commerce of a large part of 
 North Carolina. To morrow we proceed 100 miles onward to 
 Raleigh the State capital to meet the governor. 
 
 Raleigh NC. 2nd Month 7th 
 Although we arrived late an immediate interview was 
 granted to us, and we sat with the governor David S Reid an 
 hour and a half. He admitted that if he had been brought up 
 in a country where slavery was unknown, he should be ready to 
 think of the institution as we did, and condemn it on the same 
 grounds, but that having been identified with it from his 
 boyhood and always taught to regard it as expedient, he was 
 not prepared to recommend immediate emancipation. He 
 respected the Society of Friends, he said, and honored our 
 motives, and was gratified with the interview, but at the same 
 time he thought us one-sided in our views. We parted on 
 friendly terms, and left the province with relieved minds. 
 
 Baltimore 2nd Mo. 11th 
 The country from Raleigh through the heart of Virginia 
 towards Maryland has less of pine woods and is more of a farm 
 country than we have seen for several days past : cotton is cul- 
 tivated but chiefly maize and tobacco. We reached Richmond, 
 the capital of Virginia on the 8th inst, where we spent a day 
 among our friends, dining at Mary Ladd's, and taking tea at 
 the house of Micaijah Bates, nephew of Elisha Bates, with him 
 and his numerous family : yesterday we left that city and passing 
 
106 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 through Washington came on to Baltimore, to the hospitable 
 house of Galloway and Margaret Cheston. We are none of 
 us the guests of Doctor Thomas, as his wife is just confined. 
 The doctor and his son, and Samuel Hillis of Delaware came in 
 to spend an hour with us. Josiah Forster gave a brief recital 
 of his brother's sickness and death : a solemn sadness rested on 
 the company, and Samuel Hillis sat and wept. This latter 
 friend had just been at Washington with a deputation of 
 Friends of Pennsilvania to present a memorial to Congress 
 against a bill to establish a new territory to be called Nebraska 
 with the liberty of introducing a slave population, and thus 
 extending the bounds of slavery to gratify the cupidity and 
 thirst for domination of the Southern planters. This bill re- 
 news the agitation of 1850 and alarms the North. The Presi- 
 dent conversed with the Friends who went on this service and 
 spoke to them of his great satisfaction with the visit we paid 
 him four months ago. He seemed concerned to hear of the 
 death of Wm Forster, of whom he spoke highly, and desired 
 them to say to the remainder of the band that it was his wish 
 we should pay him another visit, which we intend to do before 
 we finally leave the country. It seems that during our former 
 two days stay at Washington our departed friend (which we 
 did not know before) had sought and obtained, alone and un- 
 attended, an interview with the President and his wife, and 
 that his manner and counsel had made a deep impression on 
 their minds : hence we suppose their desire to see us again. 
 But now for something more remarkable. I see it stated 
 in the Friends' Review that Brazil has taken up the question of 
 Slavery, as well as the slave trade, in right earnest, and that a 
 bill is before its legislature to decree the freedom of all children 
 of slaves hereafter to be born, and of captives who may be 
 brought to the country. If this bill should pass and become 
 law, the system of slavery in that land will have received its 
 death blow. Brazil, a popish country may perhaps put to shame 
 the governments of America where a purer faith is professed, 
 and where the people boast of being more enlightened and more 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 107 
 
 free than any other nation of the globe. Our mission here is 
 making its way among some Friends who were at first opposed 
 to our movements : a sympathy is felt towards us in our object 
 to an extent unlooked for, and unknown before. 
 
 It seems as if we could now look forward almost to a 
 stated time for leaving these shores : we have many States of 
 the Union yet to traverse and much remains to be done, but my 
 hope is, that accompanied by Mahlon Day and his daughter, we 
 may leave New York by one of the Collins' steamers on the 
 fourth of 4th month next : but more of this hereafter. Nathaniel 
 Sands of Rio Janeiro informs his brothers at New York that the 
 Emperor had sent one of his courtiers to solicit a copy of my 
 narrative of our visit to Brazil for his own perusal. Perhaps 
 our visit may have proved useful in promoting, in some degree, 
 the increased feeling of the country in favor of a better 
 state of things. 
 
 Philadelphia 2nd Mo. 15th 
 On 7th day evening last we had the satisfaction of meeting 
 at Baltimore several friends from the North who came to that 
 city to manifest their sympathy towards Josiah Forster on the 
 loss of his brother. A large company of us assembled at 
 Galloway Cheston's. Eliza P Gurney came from Burlington, 
 Marmaduke Cope, John & Mary Whitall and another friend 
 from Philadelphia, and Mahlon Day and David Sands were 
 there from New York. On 1st day morning the attendance at 
 meeting was large. Eliza P Gurney in testimony alluded 
 pathetically to the removal of our dear friend and preached us 
 a truly evangelical sermon : another public testimony was borne 
 and prayer was offered up. In the afternoon some ministerial 
 service devolved on a young man of Baltimore meeting and on 
 James Brown from Peekskill in the state of New York. Some 
 of our company dined at Joseph King's and a much larger 
 number of us took tea at Isaac Tyson's in the evening. 
 
 On 2nd day morning, accompanied by a friend, we went by 
 railway to Annapolis the state town of Maryland to call on the 
 Governor and present our address. The governor Thos W 
 
108 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Lygon is a slave holder himself and is connected by marriage 
 with some of the largest and most unrelenting slave owners of 
 the State. Our Baltimore friends fearing that our reception 
 might prove an untoward one, had taken the precaution to enlist 
 one of the senators on our side, who met us when we reached 
 Annapolis and introduced us to Governor Lygon. It was well 
 that they had smoothed the way for us, or we should probably 
 have found rough treatment. As it was, our interview was 
 pretty satisfactory; the governor listened without much im- 
 patience to some parts of the memorial, and to JF's remarks in 
 support of its object. He thanked us, I think, for calling on 
 him, but expressed his belief that we had chosen a very un- 
 propitious time for attempting to influence his mind against 
 slavery, as Congress and the nation at large were distracted on 
 the subject, and it would be impossible for us to make slave 
 owners believe that our motives were disinterested and pure : 
 they would charge us with a wish to inflame passion and foment 
 and increase strife. Such were the opinions of the governor of 
 Maryland : but he behaved to us not uncivilly, and we seemed 
 to part pretty good friends — 
 
 Before leaving Baltimore I called on Ann Pounteney, now 
 a very aged friend who, thou will perhaps remember when we 
 called on her in 1841, introduced us to her "butterfly daughter" : 
 this daughter then in the gaiety of youth, blooming and light 
 hearted, is now a widow with two children at her mother's 
 house : another sister was sick in bed, who felt a great regard 
 and love for Wm Forster, and when she heard of his decease the 
 tears of sorrow rolled down her cheeks. The death of our late 
 friend W F. occasions an extraordinary flow of sympathy in 
 this land, where his religious services are remembered with 
 thankfulness by many. All that has happened is in best wisdom, 
 and will prove, we cannot doubt, to the good of the Church 
 and to the furtherance of the good cause which our mission to 
 America was intended to promote. 
 
 This morning I attended Twelfth street meeting and dined 
 afterwards with Samuel Bettle Junr; then walked with him 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 109 
 
 through the city to call on some of our dear friends who had 
 shewed so much kindness to us in 1841 and in 1850. We supped 
 together at Marmaduke Cope's and then parted. I feel much 
 attached to Saml Bettle Jr : he is a man very much after my own 
 heart, and his wife is a very agreeable friend. Yesterday morn- 
 ing Marmaduke Cope and Saml Bettle Junr took me to the 
 colored college school to examine some of the pupils : our 
 company dined at M Cope's and were joined there by Anthony 
 and Mary Kimber and Dr Caspar Wistar, the warm hearted 
 abolitionist. Dr. Wistar remembered thy admiration of his 
 fine horse and asked me whether thy love for these noble 
 animals continued? After calling on Dr. Beesley and his wife 
 and daughter, Wm. Holmes, Mahlon Day and myself went 
 down to Elizabeth White's to spend the evening : truly kind they 
 all were and much did we enjoy the visit. Rebecca White 
 continues very poorly and thinks of going to Santa Cruz for 
 the improvement of her health : she gave me two books for 
 thee — Longfellow's poems on slavery, and a recent edition of 
 Whittier's miscellaneous poems. Wm J Allinson came from 
 Burlington this morning to meet us — kind, sympathising and 
 warm hearted as ever. To day we dine at Thomas Evans', and 
 are this evening to meet a large party at his hospitable house for 
 religious reading and social converse : to morrow we spend the 
 day partly at Moses Brown's and partly with our friends — our 
 very kind friends, Isaac and Rebecca Collins. On Second day 
 morning we leave for New Jersey. Our good friend Mahlon 
 Day is anxious that I should accompany him to the next Dublin 
 Yearly meeting, which begins on the 30th of 4th Month next. 
 We hope to arrive at Liverpool about the 26th. Let me there- 
 fore request thee, my Love, to prepare to leave home to meet 
 me there, and to go with Mahlon and Mary Day, and their 
 daughter Susan and myself across the channel to Ireland. Think 
 of it and endeavour to meet my wishes. Once more with dear 
 love to you all Farewell. 
 Thine &c. 
 
 JC. 
 
110 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 No 16. Burlington New Jersey 2 Mo 21st 1854 
 
 My beloved Maria 
 
 On 7th day morning last, attended by our benevolent friend 
 Isaac Collins, we visited the penitentiary, the Refuge for 
 colored destitute children and the Girard college. . . . Yester- 
 day morning we left Philadelphia : Joseph Taylor and Dillwyn 
 Smith came from Burlington to meet us, and many friends 
 went down with us to the Delaware to see us on board the steam 
 boat. On arriving at Burlington we went immediately to S & R 
 Grellet's and sat with them discoursing on the late mournful 
 event in Tennessee. Stephen Grellet and Richard Mott still 
 get out to meeting. At noon E P Gurney came with her 
 carriage and took J F and W H to West-hill, and I repaired to 
 my comfortable home at Wm J Allinson's. This was the day 
 fixed on for our going to Trenton the State-town of New 
 Jersey to present our address to the Governor, but in such a 
 climate as that of this winter, nothing is certain. A storm 
 came upon us from the N E, and so much snow fell in the 
 night as to block up the rail roads. Joseph Taylor has set out 
 for West-hill to see if we can penetrate the blockade in that 
 quarter and hold communication with the prisoners there. We 
 were all to have dined with Richard Mott at his house in the 
 country, but this pleasure we must now forego till we can 
 sleigh over the frozen snow. What a comfort to me that I am 
 under a good roof, surrounded by kind friends, and sitting 
 at a warm fire! . . . 
 
 New York 2nd Mo. 24th 
 On 4th day the 22nd our very kind friend Joseph Taylor 
 came to W J Allinson's with his elegant sleigh and a pair of 
 horses, furnished with a belt of bells, to drive us to Hanchocas 
 [ ?] meeting, four miles off. This was the first sleighing I had 
 ever witnessed, and of course I enjoyed it. . . . Yesterday the 
 railway tracks being clear, we left Burlington for Trenton, 
 attended its week day meeting, twenty five of us present, and 
 afterwards called on Governor Rodman M Price at the State 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 111 
 
 house, who said to us on parting "I thank you sincerely for 
 this visit and for your admirable document : you have my 
 warmest sympathies." Leaving Trenton, which is a handsome 
 city, we came on to Amboy : unhappily the steam boat did not 
 get off till late in the evening, having met with an accident, so 
 that we did not reach New York till midnight. As it was too 
 late to go to Mahlon Day's we repaired to the Astor House, 
 which tho' an immense establishment, was full, and we came 
 on to Irving's hotel. The secretary at Astor house, when we ex- 
 pressed our disappointment at not being taken in, said shrewdly 
 and bluntly "you should have brought a hotel with you." 
 
 New Bedford Massachusets 2 Mo 25th 
 . . . At 4 oclock we left the wharf at New York by the 
 Commodore steam boat for New England, and reached this 
 place at six oclock this morning, where we received a most kind 
 and hearty welcome from Susan Howland, at whose house W H 
 and myself are guests : J F is gone to Matthew Howland's. . . . 
 Mahlon Day has engaged a passage for himself and Susan, and 
 us three, by the "Arctic" to sail from New York on the 15th of 
 4th Month : my hope is still to meet thee there and to take thee 
 with us to Dublin. Lindley M Hoag is returned in good 
 health : poor Jno Wilbur is likely soon to be in England : he is 
 a disappointed man, who went out from us to make a party, but 
 who now finds that he has taken great pains to little purpose. 
 
 Providence Rhode island 2 Mo. 27th 
 At New Bedford yesterday we attended both meetings, dined 
 at Susan Howlands, and supped at her son's. . . . This morning 
 we reached Providence and found Dr Tobey with his carriage 
 at the station ready to convey us to his house. At 3 oclock the 
 Governor of Rhode island Francis M Dimond politely came 
 to call on us, and receive our memorial : he had once, he told 
 us, been a planter in Cuba, and since that time the American 
 consul in Hayti : he had seen slavery in all its horrors, and was 
 now prepared to condemn it as a dreadful reproach to his 
 
112 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 country. He spoke of the internal slave trade of America also 
 in terms of strong indignation, and expressed the satisfaction 
 he felt with our visit to this land and his hope that it would 
 have a salutary effect. Once again I thank thee and my sister 
 for your interesting letters : these letters and one from my 
 friend Ann Alexander keep me well informed of things at 
 home, and are very grateful to me. 
 
 Lynn, Massachusets 3rd Mo. 1st 
 Leaving Dr Tobey's hospitable mansion we came on by 
 railway to Boston, where we found the Governor of the State 
 Emery Washburn and had a long private and very satisfactory 
 interview with him. Massachussets as a State takes strong 
 ground against slavery and sends one of its ablest citizens to 
 Congress to lift up a voice against it. I am now again among 
 friends with whom we are both familiar, and the messages of 
 love to thee are too numerous to repeat. Ruth Basset of Lynn 
 has kept in her work basket a small parcel of worsted thou left 
 behind thee in 1850, and says it has reminded her of thee almost 
 every day ever since. 
 
 On taking leave of Lynn after meeting this morning we 
 came on to Dover in New Hampshire where we saw the 
 Governor Noah Martin before we retired to rest. He told 
 us that so far from being an apologist for slavery he agreed 
 with us in all our views and thanked us for our protest against 
 it, which he should read over again and again, and for our 
 visit. New Hampshire, he said, like all the other states of 
 New England, hated slavery. 
 
 In coming from Lynn we stopped at Salem and took tea at 
 the house of Stephen Chase who read to us a part of the plead- 
 ings of Rufus Choate in the court at Boston, in which he 
 defended our Friends of New England against the charge of 
 John Wilbur of unsoundness in their faith, and vindicated the 
 memory of Joseph John Gurney. He carried the court com- 
 pletely with him and obtained a decree in their favor which 
 establishes their right to all the meeting house property in the 
 
A FRIEXDLY MISSION 113 
 
 State. The road to New Hampshire runs partly by the side of 
 the Merrimack river, rendered classical by the poems of John G 
 Whittier, who resides on its banks : we passed within a few 
 miles of his house, but could not stop to see him. 
 
 Dover New Hampshire 3rd Mo. 2nd 
 Our course is still north eastward : we are about to start for 
 Augusta in Maine, 120 miles distant, which is the extremest 
 point to which our wanderings will extend : from thence we 
 return to New York, after which we have five other capitals of 
 Free states to visit, viz of Connecticut, New York, Vermont 
 Pennsilvania and Delaware : we have also to return to Washing- 
 ton to visit the President and to call on the members of his 
 cabinet. . . . With dearest love. Thine faithfully 
 
 JC. 
 
 No 17 Philadelphia 3rd Month 10th 1854 
 
 My beloved Maria 
 
 Since I wrote last week we have commenced and finished 
 a journey through New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. The 
 state of Maine stretches far to the North east, and has long and 
 hard winters. Samuel Taylor had told us to expect to find 
 cold weather and we found it : the mercury stood a few weeks 
 ago at 28° below zero, and Samuel Boyce of Lynn told us that 
 about that time, as he was driving Dr Tobey in an open carriage, 
 the tears ran down the Doctor's cheeks, and formed an icicle on 
 his nose ! We entered Maine a little below the city of Portland, 
 and posted on to Augusta, the capital. The rivers and coves 
 of the ocean were all chain bound with ice, and except on the 
 rail roads all travelling was performed in sledges. The hills 
 and valleys were covered deep with frozen snow, but so beauti- 
 ful was the day, so clear in sunshine, that we enjoyed every 
 thing we saw. Woods of maple, oak, birch and pine abounded, 
 and rose gracefully from their bosom of snow : the farm 
 houses, well built, were the very type of prosperity, and we 
 could but think what a delightful land it must be in the 
 summer and autumn. 
 
114 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 At Augusta we found our valued friend Jno D Lang waiting 
 for us, who communicated to us the unwelcome news that the 
 Governor had expected us the day before, and that finding it 
 impossible to remain longer in the city, he had left it a few 
 hours before and was gone to his home 40 miles distant. Our 
 plans had been formed : we were to return to the south next day 
 and could not follow him : so we resolved to go with J D Lang 
 to Vassalborough and lodge at his house. In a few minutes a 
 commodious and handsome sleigh came to the door of the 
 hotel, drawn by two spirited horses with the usual paraphernalia 
 of bells : we wrapt buffalo skins about us, and seated in the car 
 soon bounded off over snow and ice, river and land, just as they 
 lay before us. The river Kennebec, here about 1500 feet wide, 
 was frozen to the depth of nearly three feet, and formed a solid 
 winter road through the valley, over which we travelled six 
 miles, and then emerging through its left bank, ascended a snow 
 hill, and went six miles further amidst drifts of snow by a 
 sledge track till we came to our delightful resting place. The 
 moon had risen, the stars shone brilliantly: the colors of the 
 clouds were beautifully chaste, such as I had never seen before, 
 and all nature in its winter garb was charming. Numerous were 
 the sleighs drawn by horses and oxen that we passed both on the 
 river and land, making music with their bells to announce that 
 they were near : our young team moved on merrily without a 
 trip and we were really a happy group. Our friends in the 
 Slave states of Tennessee and N Carolina, have but little idea 
 of refinement, and remain contented in most places with a 
 material existence; but how different the tastes and condition 
 of some of the Friends of Maine! Here at Vassalboro they 
 have good houses and great domestic comfort, and provide a 
 good education for their children. 
 
 John Lang is a farmer and a cutter of wood for the lumber 
 market, and what I delight to tell is a sound gospel minister : he 
 has an excellent wife, two sons and two daughters, who all 
 received us with a kind christian welcome. In the midst of good 
 books, by a blazing log fire and with cheerful conversation we 
 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 115 
 
 spent a happy evening together, and then each of us taking his 
 wax taper retired to a separate well warmed apartment to rest. 
 At 2 oclock the next morning Thomas Lang, the eldest son, 
 knocked at our chamber doors and roused us for an early 
 breakfast, and at 1/2 past three we were again seated in the 
 family sleigh. Thomas took the reins and drove us part of the 
 way over a frozen lake and enlivened us with stories of a 
 woodcutter's life. When about 19 years of age he had a 
 tendency to bronchitis and congestion of the lungs, and thinking 
 that exercise and hardship would do him good, he persuaded his 
 father to let him encamp a winter among the woods and wield 
 the axe. Many times, he said, had he slept on the bare snow for 
 his bed when the thermometer was 20° below zero, without a 
 blanket to cover him; and this mode of living he thought good 
 for a cold! The people of Maine live often to a great age. 
 There is a meeting of Friends near Vassalboro', in which a 
 short time since there were twenty two old people whose ages 
 averaged more than eighty, and where one friend now lives who 
 is 96 years old, whose grandfather lived in the days of the 
 Pilgrim fathers! I love the State of Maine, and shall long 
 remember with joy its good dwellings, its hills and its frozen 
 fields. The wife of J D Lang sends her love to thee: she met 
 thee at Newport in Rhode-island and was one of the company 
 in 1841 that we sailed with in the steam boat to Providence after 
 the Yearly meeting. "I was sea sick in the cabin" she said, "and 
 thy wife sympathised with me as having gone through the 
 same trial." 
 
 On returning through Connecticut we called on the Governor 
 of that State Charles H Pond who thanked us for our visit and 
 promised to use his influence to promote the extinction of 
 slavery : he seemed, however, to be himself under the opposing 
 influence of a democratic party spirit, and to be resolved to 
 stand on the democratic side with the Government at Washing- 
 ton, which at this very moment is endeavouring to enlarge the 
 area of slavery, thus making it increasingly a national crime. 
 
 On 7th day last we again reached the city of New York, 
 
116 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 spent First day there and on Third day morning left for 
 Albany. James Brown of Peekskill, who lives on the line of 
 road conducted us to his house to lodge. Peekskill is at the 
 beginning of the Highlands, which run out to the Catskill 
 mountains, and commands a lovely view of the river Hudson : 
 here also we found an interesting family of young friends and 
 excellent accommodations. The river Hudson was frozen over, 
 and on arriving at the station opposite to Albany we left the 
 cars and walked across. 
 
 The Governor of New York Horatio Seymour was at the 
 State house, and granted us an immediate audience. Seated 
 in his arm chair, he listened to our memorial and our pleadings 
 in support of it, and then with ease and dignity addressed us 
 in observation and reply. He spoke for about an hour with 
 fluency and great good sense in extenuation of his party in the 
 course they were taking in regard to the question at issue. We 
 had taken, he said, the high ground of moral obligation, and if 
 the subject were to be tested by that alone, our plea was ir- 
 resistible. He however, as a statesman, and the party he acted 
 with were bound to look at expediency : to agitate the question 
 was sure to irritate the Southern states and might lead to a 
 disruption of the Union. He then expatiated on the advantages 
 of union under a Federal head, and shewed us demonstratively 
 how many blessings resulted from such a government. "Here," 
 he said, "in the State of New York, which contains three 
 millions of people, we have not a single soldier, and the Federal 
 government has only an army of 9000 men to keep the peace, not 
 of a single nation, but of a whole continent : you as Friends 
 cannot but call this a blessing." He told us that the Union 
 must be preserved although slavery should linger : he hated 
 slavery, but he was not so disheartened about the evil as some 
 men were, because he could see the elements of decay in the 
 institution itself. An immense immigration of free laborers 
 from Europe and Asia took place every year : in 25 years not 
 less than ten millions of laborers would be added to the popula- 
 tion of the United States, which would so reduce the wages of 
 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 117 
 
 labor as to render slavery unprofitable, and it must then of 
 necessity fall. The Slave states, he said, which continued to 
 find slave labor profitable were only six in number: the others 
 of them raised slaves for the market, and this market must 
 gradually diminish as a free population extended. "I am almost 
 ashamed," he continued, "to take the lower ground of political 
 expediency, but I wish you to see how complicated the question 
 is, and how difficult it is for us to grapple with it." The 
 conclusion he came to was this that it was better to let slavery 
 die a natural death than to attempt to kill it by an agitation 
 which must endanger the Union, and introduce perhaps greater 
 evils than slavery itself. With all his eloquence and all his 
 urbanity, I saw in him the politician who was willing to leave 
 Christianity in abeyance, rather than proceed resolutely to do 
 what is right. When we parted I told him that whilst as an 
 individual I could agree with him in some of his views I felt 
 bound to dissent from the deductions he had drawn. "I did 
 wish," I told him, "that throwing his political economics 
 aside, or only allowing them a secondary place, he would look 
 at the subject in a purely gospel light, and judge it by that 
 standard." "Do Governor," I said "give our Address a patient 
 consideration" : "I will do so," he replied. The name of this 
 talented governor is Horatio Seymour. He offered us the use 
 of his carriage to survey the city and acted the part of a 
 true gentleman. 
 
 Josiah Forster now left Albany and returned to New York, 
 and Wm Holmes and myself proceeded to Vermont. It was a 
 grand ride through a country of lofty hills, on which the snow 
 lingered, that we took to Bennington, where Governor John S 
 Robinson resided : our visit to him I shall dismiss in a few 
 words. Although elected to be the ruler of a free state, he 
 proved himself in conversation to be a hard flinty democrat 
 who would rather see Slavery continue till doomsday than 
 break faith with his party. I could have told him, but abstained 
 from doing so, that the democracy which justified and upholds 
 slavery is a mockery and a lie. 
 
118 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Leaving Vermont we now returned to New York and came 
 on at once to Philadelphia, where we now are. How truly kind 
 our friends are ! John M Whitall, with his christian frankness 
 says to us "Be at home, Friends, my carriage and horses are at 
 your service; call them when you please." I long to see you 
 all again : we are now counting the weeks and shall soon count 
 the days — first, Liverpool, then Dublin, then London, and then 
 home ! Rejoiced shall I be on landing in England to learn that 
 peace is restored to Europe, but fear it will be far otherwise. I 
 look for an awful conflict and the ultimate shaking of thrones. 
 
 2nd Month 14th 
 Your letters just come to hand, full of interesting matter, 
 afford pleasure to our Philadelphia friends : how much more 
 to myself ! I am somewhat sorry that I cannot reply to all my 
 correspondents, but my time just now is so intensely occupied 
 that I can only write to thee. Our mornings here are devoted 
 to Antislavery work, and the evening of each day to visiting : if 
 we had a month to spare instead of a week, so many are the 
 invitations we receive, we could scarcely accept them all. The 
 Governor of Pennsilvania William Bigler another governor of 
 the democratic party which reprobates attacks on slavery, is now 
 in Philadelphia, and has given us a hasty interview. Charity is 
 said to be cold; but this functionary of the state is colder still. 
 City of brotherly love and sylvan province of William Penn, 
 what are you come to? We have now only the governor of 
 Delaware to call upon, and this we leave doing till we go for 
 the last time to Washington. The Nebraska bill for extending 
 the area of Slavery excites the North greatly ; a petition against 
 it has been signed by 3000 ministers of religion and very 
 numerous are the public meetings to denounce it. The Senate, 
 however, has passed it and the Administration helps it on ! . . . 
 
 3rd Month 16th 
 The pe[ti]tion of Congress of the 3000 clergymen against 
 the Nebraska Bill has stung the Southern members to madness. 
 It was denounced by one of the Senators as outrageous and 
 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 119 
 
 wicked, because it speaks of the judgments of heaven as likely 
 to fall on the country if such a bill pass into law. "Who gave 
 these men authority to speak in the name of the Almighty and 
 to denounce us for doing our duty?" These discussions and 
 debates are doing good, as they lay bare the abomination of 
 slavery as a national institution. 27 The North now considers 
 itself insulted by the Senate and New York is about to convene 
 an indignation meeting to support the petitioners. Thus the ball 
 rolls on ! It would please thee to see how busy we are in pre- 
 paring thousands of circulars to send by post to all parts of the 
 Union : we have taken possession of James Whitall's com- 
 modious private room for this purpose, and sit down eight of 
 us together all hard at work ; some in writing, others in cutting 
 and affixing postage stamps. Our company consists of Mary 
 Whitall, her daughter Mary, a daughter of Marmaduke C 
 Cope's, Thos Kimber Jr, Wistar Evans, Edward Sharpless, 
 Wm Holmes and myself ; and Marmaduke C Cope kindly assists 
 us over the way at his own house. To morrow afternoon we 
 visit some friends in the city, and on 7th day go into the 
 country with our excellent friends the Whitalls to visit their 
 married daughter. Next week we go again to Washington. 
 Give my dear love to all my friends. Once more Farewell. 
 
 JC 
 
 No 18 Baltimore 3rd Month 24th 1854 
 
 My beloved Maria 
 
 Another kind letter from thee of the 3rd inst came to hand 
 in due course since I dispatched my last a week ago. Since that 
 time we have made our last journey to Washington to call on 
 the members of the Administration, and to take leave of 
 President Pierce. So hard hearted are his Cabinet towards 
 
 :T For the introduction of the memorial from over three thousand mem- 
 bers of the New England clergy into the United States Senate and the en- 
 suing debate, see Congressional Globe, 33 Congress, 1 session, 617 ff. The 
 introduction of the memorial into the House of Representatives was protested 
 by William W. Boyce, of South Carolina, and it was not received by the 
 House. Ibid., 625. 
 
120 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 the slave that the cause of emancipation seems almost a hopeless 
 one. The President invited us to dine with him, but this we 
 declined. We called however by permission at the White House 
 in the evening, and had some conversation with him and his 
 wife, and a female friend of theirs, which somewhat cheered 
 us. During our stay at the Capital we paid a visit, rather too 
 hurried a one, to Gerritt Smith, that true hearted abolitionist, 
 now a member of Congress, and received a call at our hotel 
 from Charles Sumner the distinguished senator from Massa- 
 chusetts, a counterpart in mind and person to the late Sir Fowell 
 Buxton. Elihu Burritt, who is there intent on his beneficent 
 plan of ocean postage, also called on us. We had an introduc- 
 tion to that noble minded woman Dorothea L Dix, modest, 
 intellectual and agreeable, the ardent friend to poor lunatics, 
 whose services in the cause of philanthropy place her by the side 
 of Elizabeth Fry. The Congress has assigned her an alcove in 
 the library where she can readily communicate with its members, 
 who listen to her recommendations, and assist her plans; her 
 wisdom, like all true wisdom, has a practical bearing : she has 
 directed the building at Trenton in New Jersey of what is said 
 to be the best Lunatic asylum in the world. . . . 
 
 3rd Month 25th 
 On taking the car from Baltimore this morning, who should 
 I meet on the platform but John Wright the merchant of Rio 
 Janeiro, with whom and his family we spent some days at the 
 boarding house at Tejucca? He had heard of my being at 
 Baltimore, in which city he now resides, and came to press me 
 to spend a few days with him : he made particular inquiry about 
 thee, and said how glad he and his wife and children would be 
 to have thee with them here. He said, and this was much for 
 a slave owner to say "Your visit to Brazil has done much good." 
 We arrived at Wilmington Delaware at 2 oclock, dined at 
 John Tatum's, and spent the evening with Samuel and Margaret 
 Hillis, who with their daughter Gulielma Howland laid it as 
 a charge upon me to communicate from them a message of 
 clear love to thee. 
 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 121 
 
 Philadelphia 3rd Mo. 26th 
 Once again in the ''Quaker city," but only as passing through 
 it. Thomas Kimber takes us all this afternoon to West 
 town — 26 miles, to spend to morrow (First day) at the Friends' 
 boarding school. A not unfriendly paragraph in the "Public 
 ledger" this morning announces our journey to Washington 
 and our interview with the Heads of departments, but concludes 
 with recommending to our attention and care the destitute poor 
 of England, who are not so well fed and looked after as the 
 pampered slaves of the South! A note also from Charles 
 Sumner dated "Senate House March 23rd" in which he says 
 "Your visit to my country inspires my reverence. It was a 
 beautiful conception and it has been conducted in a spirit equally 
 beautiful. Among the grateful hearts which you leave behind, 
 1 hope you will not forget your sincere friend Charles Sumner." 
 I think thou wilt find in Whittier's poems an address to him 
 as one of the warm hearted friends of freedom. This day three 
 weeks, all being well, we shall leave New York. I think much 
 of our sister at Nismes, and shall be glad to hear of her 
 improvement in health. I do hope that her broken foot is 
 restored and that all pain is gone : send my dear love to her. 
 
 West town 3rd Mo. 27th 
 This place is situated in a good farming district amidst well 
 cultivated hills, and pleases me much. Hannah Snowden the 
 matron of the establishment is an admirable woman and receives 
 us very cordially. The school contains 240 children, and a fine 
 company they are. We attended both their meetings for worship 
 yesterday held on the premises, instead of going to Westchester 
 four miles off : in the evening we took tea at John Bennington's 
 at the farm. JB. whose connexions reside at Wakefield, informs 
 me that our nephew JWC is to be married to Eliza Spence in 
 a few weeks. What should prevent our attending the marriage ? 
 I intend writing once more before quitting this country, but it 
 is a great comfort to me to think that in about a month I shall 
 meet thee at Liverpool. The remainder of this week is to be 
 given to the completion of our Anti slavery work, and to a little 
 
122 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 social visiting among our friends in Philadelphia : part of the 
 next week will be devoted to Burlington, and the remainder of 
 our time in this land to New York, Flushing on Long island, and 
 the banks of the river Hudson. Near Newburgh, on the Hudson, 
 I hope to spend a day or two with our kind and venerable friend 
 Nathaniel Sands, where we rested on our way to Niagara in 
 1841. Rebecca White has placed in my hands, packed in a tin 
 case, a tree of humming birds, two of which are native 
 American : these are a present for thee, and may grace our 
 mantel piece. Our friends in Philadelphia, both old and new, 
 and our friends everywhere in this distant land, shew us much 
 love : we could spend many weeks among them paying social 
 visits if we had the time to do so. J M Whitall and his family 
 overflow with kindness, and seem as if they would do any thing 
 for us. J M Whitall, poor dear man, is now ill of an intermittent 
 fever, but is getting better. I have rarely seen a man so frank 
 and generous and kind, so altogether christianlike, and his wife 
 is like the one spoken of by Solomon, "her children rise up and 
 call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her." W T hen 
 at Burlington next week I shall spend a day or two at West-hill, 
 the seat of E P Gurney ; Hannah Paul, her aunt, is deceased and 
 was buried yesterday. This letter has been written by snatches, 
 as I could find time, and may be taken as the conclusion of my 
 travelling notes and narrative. What follows in due course must 
 be delivered viva voce. With love to every body, but above 
 all to thee I remain, as ever, faithfully Thine &c 
 
 JC. 
 
ITINERARY 
 
 9 Mo 
 
 
 
 RAIL- 
 
 STAGE 
 
 
 Routes in America boat 
 
 ROAD 
 
 COACH 
 
 14 
 
 Arrived at Halifax Nova Scotia 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 and thence by same Steamer to 
 Boston 2980 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 Boston to New York 
 
 240 
 
 
 20 
 23 
 27 
 
 To Burlington New Jersey 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 Baltimore 
 
 80 
 16 
 99 
 
 
 28 
 3 
 
 Washington President Pierce 
 Richmond Virginia 
 Return to Baltimore 
 
 40 
 131 
 171 
 
 
 6 
 7 
 8 
 
 Cumberland Maryland 
 Bridgeport Gov Johnson Virginia 
 Wheeling and Mount Pleasant 
 in Ohio 
 
 178 
 117 
 
 130 
 
 
 11 
 
 Zanesville Ohio 
 
 
 85 
 
 12 
 14 
 
 Columbus the capital of Ohio 
 Lancanster to Gov Medill & 
 
 
 59 
 
 
 back to Columbus 
 
 
 58 
 
 16 
 
 Cincinnati 
 
 118 
 
 
 17 
 
 Lexington Kentucky 
 
 
 85 
 
 
 2980 
 
 1320 
 
 287 
 
 18 
 
 To Frankfort Governor Powell 
 
 
 
 19 
 
 Kentucky 
 Cincinnati Ohio 
 
 
 28 
 113 
 
 21 
 
 Richmond Indiana 
 
 60 
 
 
 25 
 28 
 
 Indianapolis Gov Wright Do. 
 Terre haute Do. 
 
 68 
 
 73 
 
 
 29 
 
 Bloom field settlement of 
 
 
 
 
 Friends & back 
 
 
 66 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 Terre haute to Springfield Illinois 
 Joliet Gov Matteson Do. 
 
 180 
 
 156 
 
 5 
 8 
 
 Chicago Do. 
 Madison Wisconsin 
 
 40 
 70 
 
 86 
 
 11 
 
 Tour round the Lake 
 
 
 
 
 Gov Farwell Do. 
 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 14 
 
 Madison Return to Chicago Illinois 
 St Louis Missouri 18 
 
 70 
 274 
 
 86 
 
 (123) 
 
124 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 1853 Routes in America boat 
 
 23 Jefferson City 
 
 Gov Price Do. 
 
 back to St Louis Do. 
 
 29 On the Mississippi to Vicksburg 802 
 12 Mo. 6 Do. Gov Hebert to Baton 
 
 rouge Louisiana 260 
 
 RAIL- 
 
 STAGE 
 
 ROAD 
 
 COACH 
 
 36 
 
 100 
 
 36 
 
 100 
 
 1080 2227 1037 
 
 12 Mo. 7 On the Mississippi back to 
 
 Vicksburg 260 
 
 11 To Jackson Gov Foote Mississippi 60 
 
 12 Montgommery Gov Collier 
 
 Alabama 265 
 
 18 Milledgeville Gov Johnson 
 
 Georgia 317 
 
 22 Columbia Gov Manning 
 
 S Carolina 143 
 
 24 Atlanta Georgia 305 
 
 26 Chattanooga Tennessee 144 
 
 Bridgeport Alabama on the 
 Tennessee river 55 
 
 Nashville Gov Johnson Tennessee 125 
 
 29 Return to Chattanooga Do. 154 
 
 30 Lowden & thence to Low's 
 
 Ferry on the Houlston 156 
 
 1854 At Lows Ferry Wm Forster 
 
 fell sick and died 
 
 Journies in and out to 
 
 Friendsville & Knoxville 60 
 
 2 Mo. 1 Lows Ferry to Columbia South 
 
 Carolina 468 
 
 3 Charlotte North Carolina & back 
 
 to Columbia 214 
 
 Wilmington North Carolina 195 
 
 6 Weldon Do. 162 
 
 1395 4670 1362 
 
 2 Mo. 7 Weldon To Raleigh 
 
 Gov Reid N Carolina 100 
 
 By Richmond Virginia to 
 
 Washington 301 
 
A FRIENDLY MISSION 125 
 
 1854 
 
 
 RAIL- STAGE 
 
 Routes in America boat 
 
 ROAD COACH 
 
 Baltimore Gov [Lygon] and 
 
 
 Annapolis 
 
 120 
 
 Burlington New Jersey 
 
 115 
 
 New Bedford & Boston 
 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 400 
 
 Gov Price Trenton NJ 
 
 
 Gov [Dimond] Providence R I 
 
 
 Gov [Washburn] Boston Mass 
 
 
 Boston to Augusta Maine 
 
 165 
 
 New York by Connecticut 
 
 355 
 
 Gov Pond Do. 
 
 
 Gov Seymour New York 
 
 
 By Albany Gov Robinson 
 
 
 to Vermont 
 
 250 
 
 New York 
 
 250 
 
 Philadelphia Gov Bigler 
 
 92 
 
 Journies in and out from 
 
 
 Philadelphia 30 
 
 71 111 
 
 Washington & back to New York 
 
 374 
 
 1425 7266 1376 
 
 3rd Month New York to Newburgh & back 120 
 
 Journies in and out of New York 30 20 
 
 1575 7266 1396 
 
 Recapitulation 
 
 Voyage from England to America 2980 
 
 Travels in America by Steam boat 1575 
 
 Do do Railway 7266 
 
 Do by Diligence and private conveyance 1396 
 
 Voyage from America to England 2980 
 
 16,197 
 
 Total Miles traversed 
 
 At sea 5960 By land 10,237 
 
 First visit to America 1841 Second do 1850 
 
 Third visit 1853-1854. Total of miles travelled in that 
 
 land 16,000 States visited 26 out of 31 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Agriculture, 36-37, 44. See also Cot- 
 ton, Fruit. 
 
 Albany (N. Y.), 116. 
 
 Alderson, Harrison, 38, 42. 
 
 Allen, Elizabeth, 99. 
 
 Allen, James, Tennessee farmer, 88- 
 89. 
 
 Allen, Matilda, 89. 
 
 Allen, Norris and Elizabeth, 99, 101. 
 
 Allen, Solomon, 49. 
 
 Allenson, Rebecca, 24-25. 
 
 Allenson, W. J., 24, 25, 109, 110. 
 
 Alton (111.), 61. 
 
 Annapolis (Md.), 107. 
 
 Bailey, Ezra, 40. 
 
 Baltimore (Md.), 28, 105-7. 
 
 Bates, Dr. , son of Elisha 
 
 Bates, 36. 
 
 Bates, Elisha, 35, 105. 
 
 Bates, Micaijah, 105. 
 
 Baton Rouge (La.), 72, 73-75. 
 
 Beesley, Dr. , 26, 109. 
 
 Bell, William, 43. 
 
 Beloit (Wis.), 57. 
 
 Bertie, Samuel, 26. 
 
 Bettle, Samuel, Jr., 26, 108-9. 
 
 Bigler, William, governor of Penn- 
 sylvania, 118. 
 
 Binns, Mary, 35. 
 
 Bloomfield, see Bloomingdale. 
 
 Bloomingdale (Ind.), 47-48. 
 
 Bloomingdale Academy, 49. 
 
 Boston (Mass.), 22-23, 112. 
 
 Boyce, Samuel, of Lynn (Mass.), 
 22, 113. 
 
 Boyce, William W., of South Caro- 
 lina, 119n. 
 
 Braithwaite, Ann and Isaac, 20. 
 
 Brazil, and slavery, 106, 107, 120. 
 
 Breed, Nathan and Mary, 38. 
 
 Bremer, Fredericka, cited, 59. 
 
 Brown, James, of Peekskill (N. Y.), 
 
 107, 116. 
 Burgess, William, of Leicester, 12. 
 Burlington (N. J.), 24-26, 110. 
 Burritt, Elihu, 120. 
 
 Candler, John, sketch, 14-15 ; carries 
 memorial to Brazil and Portugal, 
 12; published writings, 15; to 
 carry memorial to United States, 
 13; suffers dislocated shoulder, 
 95-96. 
 
 Candler, Maria Knight, 14, 16. 
 
 Cattle, 36. 
 
 Chase, Stephen, of Salem (Mass.), 
 22, 112. 
 
 Chattanooga (Tenn.), 87. 
 
 Cheston, Galloway and Margaret, 28, 
 106, 107. 
 
 Chicago (111.), 55, 56. 
 
 Cincinnati (Ohio), 38, 40-42, 56. 
 
 Clark, Julia, 24, 25. 
 
 Climate, see Weather and climate. 
 
 Coffin, Charles, 42n. 
 
 Coffin, Elijah, 42. 
 
 Collier, Henry W., governor of 
 Alabama, 78-79. 
 
 Collins, Isaac and Rebecca, 27, 109, 
 110. 
 
 Colonization, of Negroes, 44-45, 79. 
 
 Connecticut, 115. 
 
 Cope, Marmaduke, 22, 109, 119. 
 
 Corn, 37. 
 
 Cotton, 77, 80-81, 83, 104. 
 
 Crenshaw, John, 31. 
 
 Crenshaw, Nathaniel, 31. 
 
 Crystal Palace, 23. 
 
 Currency, in United States, 53. 
 
 Day, Mahlon, of New York, 22, 23, 
 
 25, 107, 109, 111. 
 Day, Mary, 109. 
 Day, Susan, 109. 
 
 (129) 
 
130 
 
 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Dimond, Francis M., governor of 
 
 Rhode Island, 111-12. 
 Dix, Dorothea L., 120. 
 Donaldson, Mary Ann, 30. 
 Dyer, Mary, 23. 
 
 Earlham College, 43n. 
 Evans, Thomas, 25, 26, 28, 109. 
 Evans, William, 26, 31. 
 Evans, Wistar, 119. 
 
 Fair, at Lancaster, Ohio, 36-37. 
 
 Farm life, of Indiana, 47-48; of 
 Tennessee, 88-89. 
 
 Farwell, Leonard J., governor of 
 Wisconsin, 58. 
 
 Ferries, Illinois River, 54; Alabama 
 River, 76-77; Holston River, 90. 
 
 Flanner, Dr. , 35. 
 
 Floods, on Holston River, 98-99. 
 
 Food and meals, 24, 35, 45, 48, 51, 
 53, 56, 69, 71. 
 
 Foote, Gen. Henry Stuart, governor 
 of Mississippi, 69, 75-76. 
 
 Forests, western Virginia, 32; Ken- 
 tucky, 38-39; Missouri, 66; South 
 Carolina, 83; North Carolina, 
 104-5. 
 
 Forster, Josiah, to carry memorial 
 to United States, 13. 
 
 Forster, William, sketch, 13; carries 
 memorial to European sovereigns, 
 12; to carry memorial to United 
 States, 13 ; ill in Missouri, 66 ; 
 last illness and death, 91-102. 
 
 Fowler, Elizabeth, 28. 
 
 Fowler, Mary Ann, 28. 
 
 Fox, Robert W., of Falmouth, 12. 
 
 Frankfort (Ky.), 39. 
 
 Friendsville (Tenn.), 88 ff. 
 
 Friendsville Academy, lOln. 
 
 Fruit, 24, 25, 36-37, 47, 48, 49, 58-59. 
 
 Fugitive slave law, 100. 
 
 Fulghum, Benjamin, 43. 
 
 Game, 53, 59, 100. 
 
 Georgia, 80-82. 
 
 Grellet, Rebecca, 25, 110. 
 
 Grellet, Stephen, 24, 102, 110. 
 Gurney, Eliza P., 24, 110, 122. 
 Gurney, Joseph John, 20, 112. 
 
 Hackney, John, of Tennessee, 101. 
 
 Halifax (N.S.), 19, 21. 
 
 Health, in Maine, 115; yellow fever, 
 
 71, 72. 
 Hebert, Paul Octave, governor of 
 
 Louisiana, 74-75. 
 Hillis, Margaret, 120. 
 Hillis, Samuel, 106, 120. 
 Hillis, Thomas, 23. 
 Hoag, Lindley M., 111. 
 Hoag, Nathan C, 43. 
 Hobbs, Barnabas, 49. 
 Holmes, William, sketch, 13 ; to 
 
 carry memorial to United States, 
 
 13. 
 Holston River, flood, 98-99. 
 Horses, 36. 
 Hotels and taverns, Beloit (Wis.), 
 
 57; Madison (Wis.), 58; Janes ville 
 
 (Wis.), 159-60; Union (Mo.), 64; 
 
 Jefferson City (Mo.), 67; St. 
 
 Louis, 69; Georgia, 80; Lowe's 
 
 Ferry (Tenn.), 90; New York 
 
 City, 111. 
 Howland, Matthew, 111. 
 Howland, Robert, 38. 
 Howland, Susan, 38, 111. 
 
 Illinois, 50-56. 
 
 Immigration into the West, 60-61, 78. 
 
 Indiana, 42-50 ; constitutional provi- 
 sions regarding free Negroes, 44; 
 rapid changes in, 44, 46. 
 
 Indianapolis (Ind.), 44-46. 
 
 Iowa, 60, 61, 62. 
 
 Janesville (Wis.), 57, 59-60. 
 
 Jefferson City (Mo.), 61, 62, 67. 
 
 Jefferson City Jefferson Examiner, 
 81. 
 
 Jenkins, Sarah, 35. 
 
 Johnson, Andrew, governor of Ten- 
 nessee, 86-87. 
 
 Johnson, Herschel V., governor of 
 Georgia, 82. 
 
INDEX 
 
 131 
 
 Johnson, Joseph, governor of Vir- 
 ginia, 32-33, 34. 
 Joliet (111.), 54. 
 
 Jones, Francis, of Tennessee, 101. 
 Jones, Rowland and Ann, 24. 
 Jones, Thomas, of Tennessee, 101. 
 
 Kansas-Nebraska issue, 67-68. 
 
 Kennebec River, 114. 
 
 Kentucky, 38-39, 68. 
 
 Kimber, Anthony and Mary, 109. 
 
 ECimber, Thomas, Jr., 119, 121. 
 
 King, Joseph, 107. 
 
 Kirkbride, Harriet, 25. 
 
 Knight, George, 42. 
 
 Knoxville (Tenn.), 90. 
 
 Ladd, Mary, 31, 105. 
 
 Lancaster (Ohio), 36-37. 
 
 Lang, John D., 114-15. 
 
 Lang, Thomas, 115. 
 
 Lee, Ephraim, 93, 99, 100. 
 
 Lexington (Ky.), 38. 
 
 London Yearly Meeting, 8, 12-13. 
 
 Louden (Tenn.), 87. 
 
 Louisiana, 72-75. 
 
 Lowe, Samuel, 92, 99. 
 
 Lowe's (Low's) Ferry (Tenn.), 
 
 90 ff. 
 Lygon, Thomas W., governor of 
 
 Maryland, 107-8. 
 Lynch law, threat of, 78. 
 Lynn (Mass.), 112. 
 
 Macon (Ga.), 81. 
 
 Madison (Wis.), 57-59. 
 
 Maine, 113-14. 
 
 Maine liquor law, 36, 59. 
 
 Manners and society, 34, 40, 41, 51 ; 
 stage drivers, 62, 64, 66; in Indi- 
 anapolis, 45 ; waiters, 62 ; at Indi- 
 ana farm, 47-48; in St. Louis, 68, 
 69 ; in eastern Tennessee, 88-89 ; 
 in Maine, 114. 
 
 Manning, John L., governor of South 
 Carolina, 83, 84-85. 
 
 Martin, Noah, governor of New 
 Hampshire, 112. 
 
 Maryland, 105-8. 
 
 Massachusetts, 112. 
 
 Matteson, Joel A., governor of Illi- 
 nois, 55. 
 
 Meals, see Food and meals. 
 
 Memorial to the Sovereigns . . ., 
 8-12. 
 
 Medill, William, governor of Ohio, 
 37. 
 
 Meeting for Sufferings, London, 
 concern for slavery and slave 
 trade, 6 ff. 
 
 Mendenhall, Ann, 35. 
 
 Mendenhall, Cyrus, 35. 
 
 Mississippi, state of, 75-76. 
 
 Mississippi River, 69-70. 
 
 Missouri, 61-68. 
 
 Missouri River, 61. 
 
 Montgomery (Ala.), 77-80. 
 
 Morals, 63, 85. 
 
 Morgan, David, of Friendsville, 102. 
 
 Morpeth, Lord, George Howard, 
 Sixth Earl of Carlisle, 84. 
 
 Morris, Israel, 26, 28. 
 
 Morris, Zachary, 47-48. 
 
 Mott, Richard, 24, 25, 102, 110. 
 
 Mount Pleasant (Ohio), 34-36. 
 
 Murders, 63, 85. 
 
 Murray, Mary Ann, 23. 
 
 Murray, Robert, 22, 23. 
 
 Nashville (Tenn.), 87. 
 
 Nebraska, question of slavery in, 
 118-19. 
 
 Negroes, free, attitude toward, in 
 Ohio, 37; status in Indiana, 44. 
 
 Nelson, Dr. William W., of Ten- 
 nessee, 93. 
 
 New Bedford (Mass.), 111. 
 
 New Garden (N. C), 103. 
 
 New Hampshire, 112. 
 
 New Jersey, 110-11. 
 
 New York, state of, 116-17. 
 
 New York City (N. Y.), 23-24, 110- 
 11. 
 
 New York Herald, 104. 
 
 North Carolina, 103-5. 
 
 Ohio, 34-38. 
 
132 
 
 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Osage River, 66. 
 
 Parker, Henry Tuke, 20-21. 
 
 Paul, Hannah, 122. 
 
 Peekskill (N. Y.), 116. 
 
 Pennsylvania, 118. 
 
 Pettit, Jane, 26. 
 
 Pettit, Dr. Thomas M., of Phila- 
 delphia, 26-27. 
 
 Philadelphia (Pa.), 26-28, 118. 
 
 Pierce, Franklin, 29-30, 119-20. 
 
 Plummer, Greenbury, 35. 
 
 Pond, Charles H., governor of Con- 
 necticut, 115. 
 
 Portuguese, settlement in Illinois, 
 52-53. 
 
 Powell, Lazarus W., governor of 
 Kentucky, 39. 
 
 Price, Rodman M., governor of New 
 Jersey, 110-11. 
 
 Price, Sterling, governor of Mis- 
 souri, 67-68, 81. 
 
 Prices, free-labor cotton, 81 ; meals, 
 56; transportation, 87. 
 
 Providence (R. I.), 111-12. 
 
 Prairie fires, 51, 55. 
 
 Prairies, in Indiana, 46-47; Illinois, 
 50, 60; Wisconsin, 60. 
 
 Railroads, accidents, 55, 62 ; accom- 
 modations, 80; fares, 87; incon- 
 veniences of traveling on, 33-34; 
 mileage traveled by, 123-25; plan- 
 ned to Pacific, 62-63 ; from Wash- 
 ington, D. C, to Richmond, 30; 
 between Richmond and Cumber- 
 land, 32; to Wheeling, 33-34; 
 across Indiana, 44, 46; Spring- 
 field (111.) to Joliet, 54-55; Joliet 
 to Chicago, 55-56; Chicago to 
 Rockford, 57; St. Louis to Frank- 
 lin (Mo.), 64; Vicksburg to Jack- 
 son (Miss.), 75; Montgomery 
 (Ala.) to Milledgeville (Ga.), 80- 
 81 ; Milledgeville to Columbia 
 (S. C), 83; Columbia to Nash- 
 ville (Tenn.), 85; Nashville to 
 Chattanooga, 87; Charlotte (N. 
 
 C), to Raleigh, 104-5; Raleigh to 
 Richmond (Va.), 105. 
 
 Raleigh (N. C), 105. 
 
 Rawlings, John, 36. 
 
 Reid, David S., governor of North 
 Carolina, 105. 
 
 Rhoads, Samuel, 27. 
 
 Rhode Island, 111-12. 
 
 Richmond (Ind.), 42-44. 
 
 Richmond (Va.), 31-32, 105. 
 
 Roads, Alabama, 76; Indiana, 47; 
 Missouri, 62, 66; North Carolina, 
 103 ; Tennessee, 87-88, 101. 
 
 Robinson, John S., governor of Ver- 
 mont, 117. 
 
 Rodgers (Rogers), Dr. James, of 
 Knoxville, 98. 
 
 Runnals, Charles, 68. 
 
 St. Louis (Mo.), 61, 63, 68-69. 
 
 Salem (Mass.), 112. 
 
 Sands, David, 23, 107. 
 
 Sands, Nathaniel, 107, 122. 
 
 Seebohm, Benjamin, 43-44. 
 
 Seymour, Horatio, governor of New 
 York, 116-17. 
 
 Sharpless, Edward, 119. 
 
 Shaw, Lemuel, of Boston, 20. 
 
 Shipley, Ann, 38. 
 
 Shotwell, Anna, 23. 
 
 Slavery, and slaves, in British Em- 
 pire, 6; in Brazil, 106, 107, 120; 
 memorial against, 8-12; admission 
 into Nebraska, 67-68, 118-19; com- 
 ments and conversations on, 39, 
 41, 62, 65, 72, 73-74, 77, 79-80, 
 83-84, 91, 94, 96-97, 100; education 
 of, 78; President Pierce on, 29; 
 Governor Johnson of Virginia on, 
 33, 34; Governor Medill of Ohio 
 on, 37; Governor Wright of Indi- 
 ana on, 44-45 ; Governor Matteson 
 of Illinois on, 55 ; Governor Far- 
 well of Wisconsin on. 58; Gover- 
 nor Price of Missouri, on, 67; 
 Governor Hebert of Louisiana on, 
 74-75 ; Governor Foote of Missis- 
 sippi on, 75 ; Governor Collier of 
 
INDEX 
 
 133 
 
 Alabama on, 78-79; Governor 
 Johnson of Georgia on, 82; Gover- 
 nor Manning of South Carolina 
 on, 84-85; Governor Johnson of 
 Tennessee on, 86-87 ; Governor Reid 
 of Xorth Carolina on, 105; Gover- 
 nor Lygon of Maryland on, 108; 
 Governor Price of New Jersey on, 
 111; Governor Dimond of Rhode 
 Island on, 111-12 ; Governor Martin 
 of New Hampshire on, 112; Gover- 
 nor Seymour of New York on, 
 116-17; Governor Robinson of 
 Vermont on, 117; Governor Big- 
 ler of Pennsylvania on, 118. 
 
 Slave trade, abolished in British Em- 
 pire, 6 ; memorial against, 8-12 ; 
 within United States, 75, 78-79, 
 91, 106. 
 
 Sleighs, in New Jersey, 110; in 
 Maine, 113, 114. 
 
 Smith, Amelia, 25. 
 
 Smith, Dillwyn, 110. 
 
 Smith, Gerritt, 120. 
 
 Smith, Susan, 24, 25. 
 
 Snowden, Hannah, 121. 
 
 Society, see Manners and society. 
 
 South Carolina, 83-85. 
 
 Springfield (111.), 51-53. 
 
 Stagecoaches, carriages, etc., fares, 
 87; mileage traveled by, 123-25; 
 inconveniences of travel by, 47, 50, 
 51-52; between Wheeling and 
 Mount Pleasant (Ohio), 34; 
 Wheeling to Zanesville, 36 ; Terre 
 Haute to Springfield (111.), 50- 
 52; Rockford to Madison, 57-58; 
 Franklin (Mo.) to Jefferson City, 
 64-67; Jackson (Miss.) to Mont- 
 gomery (Ala.), 76-77; Louden 
 (Tenn.) to Friendsville, 87-88. 
 
 Stagg, Henry, 68. 
 
 Steamboats, accidents, 71 ; cargo, 72 ; 
 fares, 87 ; food served on, 71 ; 
 mileage traveled by, 123-25 ; At- 
 lantic, 19; Mississippi, 61, 68, 69; 
 
 on Missouri River, 67; Tennessee 
 
 River, 85. 
 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 41, 76, 94. 
 Sugar industry, Louisiana, 73. 
 Sumner, Charles, 120, 121. 
 
 Tatum, John, 120. 
 
 Taylor, Abram, 38. 
 
 Taylor, Ann, 35. 
 
 Taylor, Hannah, 24, 25. 
 
 Taylor, James, 38. 
 
 Taylor, Dr. Joseph W. (?), of 
 Burlington (N. J.), 102, 103, 110. 
 
 Taylor, Samuel, 113. 
 
 Telegraph, 40. 
 
 Temperance, 36, 59. 
 
 Tennessee, 85-102; farmer's life in, 
 88-89. 
 
 Tennessee River, 85-86. 
 
 Terre Haute (Ind.), 46, 50. 
 
 Texas, emigrants bound for, 78. 
 
 Thomas, Dr. , of Baltimore, 
 
 23, 28, 106. 
 
 Tobey, Dr. Samuel B., of Provi- 
 dence, 21, 22, 111. 
 
 Tomlinson, Andrew, 49. 
 
 Travel and transportation, difficul- 
 ties of, 33-34, 47, 50-52, 54, 55-56, 
 57-58, 64, 65-67, 68, 76-77, 103; 
 cost of, 87 ; see also Railroads ; 
 Roads ; Sleighs ; Stagecoaches, 
 carriages, etc. 
 
 Trenton (N. J.), 110. 
 
 Trinidad, 52, 53. 
 
 Turpentine, 105. 
 
 Turvill, , of Madison (Wis.), 
 
 58-59. 
 
 Tyson, Isaac, 107. 
 
 Underground Railroad, 62. 
 Underhill, Robert, 44, 45. 
 Union (Mo.), 64-66. 
 Updegraff, Jonathan T., 45n. 
 Updegraff, David and Rebecca, 35. 
 
 Vermont, 117. 
 
 Victoria, Queen, memorial to, and 
 reply, 6-8. 
 
134 
 
 INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 Virginia, 31-34. 
 
 Washburn, Emery, governor of Mas- 
 sachusetts, 112. 
 
 Washington (D. C), 28-30, 119-20. 
 
 Weather and climate, on Atlantic 
 Ocean, 19; storm off Halifax, 21; 
 Indian summer, 38 ; fluctuation in, 
 63-64; Louisiana, 72, 73; in South, 
 83 ; in Tennessee, 85 ; snowstorm 
 in New Jersey, 110; in Maine, 
 113-14, 115. 
 
 Western Manual Labor Institute, 49. 
 
 Whitall, John M., 25, 26, 107, 122. 
 
 Whitall, Mary, 107, 119. 
 White, Elizabeth, 26, 109. 
 White, Rebecca, 109, 122. 
 Whittier, John Greenleaf, 113. 
 Wilbur, John, 20, 111, 112. 
 Wilmington (N. C), 104. 
 Wisconsin, 57-61. 
 Wistar, Dr. Caspar, 109. 
 Wistar, Thomas, 28. 
 Wright, Joseph A., governor of In- 
 diana, 44-46. 
 
 Yellow fever, 71, 72.