page_0002

file have gone where the wicked cease
from troubling and the weary one at
rest. They are not to be mourned.
We should rather rejoice that such
lives as theirs were possible to our
planet. You may remember that
much of the feeling which [?illed] me
at Nantucket more than forty years
ago, arose from the surprise that
whitemen and women could feel for
the woes of my race and were willing
to encounter every species of wrong
and abuse to remove those woes.
It was to me a tremendous revelation.
I had not thought such people
possible. All I had seen a few

years before were of a totally different
character. Now when any one of the
noble band of early abolitionists falls– no
matter how distant I feel as if I ought
to be there to say all hail and farewell!
I felt especially so yesterday when I
learned that our precious friend Benjamin
[Ferris?], one of the finest and best of
men, fell like a rife shock. I can
never forget his benignant countenance
as he gave me his hand a few weeks
ago. But I am not answering your
question. I was in the early autumn
somewhat ailing, around but not at
the top in health and some how
the press got hold of the facts