A[bram] Pryne to Frederick Douglass, January 14, 1859 [second letter]

BLOODY MR. RAINES—VALIANT MISSISSIPPI.

DEAR DOUGLASS:—I have received a letter from Ripley, Miss., from which I extract the following choice paragraph. The writer informs me that he has just finished reading my debate with Brownlow, and says:

"Let me tell you, Abram Pryne, that with one Mississippi regiment, I can whip every d——d abolition Yankee north of Mason & Dixon's line; and let me further say that if you put your foot on Southern territory, you will be instantly clothed with a coat of tar and feathers. LEE H. RAINES.

RIPLEY, Miss., Dec. 6, 1858."

Now, I am not in the habit of holding correspondence with thieves, least of all with man-thieves; but I can hide my pen-knife and paper scissors, and button up my pocket, if this fellow should ever presume upon the notice I take of his letter to visit me, or I can hire a policeman to watch him, and so I venture a reply.

I admit that the Herculean feat of mobbing me might be performed by the State of Mississippi, for when you consider that I am a young clergyman, weighing but 130 lbs., and in poor health at that, such a heroic feat is quite possible for Mississippi. Yes, so far as strength and courage is concerned, I think that the united civil and military powers of that State, by making such "an effort" as Miss Fox exhorted poor Fanny to make, in Dickens' veracious history of Domby and Son, would accomplish the deed. But where, oh! doughty Raines, is the tar and feathers to come from? There is the rub! Your State treasury is empty, and you have "nary red" with which to buy a gallon of tar, or the feathers from a single grey goose! What will you do in this dilapidated state of your State finances? You could tar and feather me, do doubt; but you must first catch me, and then, what is much worse for you, you must "raise the wind" with which to buy the tar and feathers. No doubt you will reply, we can send North and buy in on "tick." Not so fast, my great Mississippi financier. That game is played out. Since that clever set of legislation by which

you repudiated your State debt, do you suppose that any Yankee merchant would trust your State for a gallon of tar, or any thrifty Northern housewife give you credit on a pound of feathers? Not a bit of it. You are quite too well known for that. So I am safe—for although you are so rich in courage, chivalry and patriotism, that you might tar and feather an invalid preacher, you are so poor in the "sinews of war," that you could not buy the tar and feathers, and so you will not reap the harvest of glory which such and enterprise might produce.

But you can whip the North with a single Mississippi regiment! Well, I will not cast the shadow of an engenrous doubt over the boasted valor of a State which could tar and feather a preacher, if somebody would only furnish feathers and tar; but you must excuse me from modestly asking where, oh! valiant Mississippian, is your one regiment to come from? Before you answer this rather pertinent question, please glance your patriotic eye over the following inventory of your State armament. The Vicksburg Whig gives the following inventory of the arms belonging to the State discovered to be on hand:

"4 flint-lock muskets—all rusty, and no breaches to at least two.

1 cannon.

7 bayonets—rusty, with no points.

A pile of belts and scabbards, but no swords.

50 cartridge boxes."

The Whig adds:

"We are happy to inform them, however, that we have no privates—the Legislature having dispensed with that useless portion of the army."

Now, oh! valiant and bloody Raines, where is that one brave Abolitionist-eating regiment to come from? And then when these fiery soldiers are enlisted, who will equip them?—True, you might buy shoes from Lynn, and muskets from New York every day; but you have not got the tin, and you have done the Lynn shoemakers and the Lowell shirt makers, the Boston hatters and New York armorers out of their bills quite too often already, for them to trust you, while your treasury is empty, and those old bills are unsettled. It is sad that such a glorious enterprise as that of whipping out all the North by one fell swoop of your Mississippi regiment, should

fail for these vulgar reasons; but there is no help for it, oh! valiant Raines, and so you must chafe in inglorious poverty and peace, or air you patriotism by whipping your chambermaid! But there is some relief. You can follow the illustrious example of the brave State of Georgia, and pass a law to prohibit the sale of that book which has so prompted you to

——"cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war!"

In the meantime, I shall sleep at ease, because you are too poor to buy the tar and feahers, or to raise that single bloody regiment. Yours, tarless and featherless,

A. PRYNE.