Miami to Frederick Douglass, March 23, 1860

CINCINNATI LETTER

MR. EDITOR:—I begin this letter, as I did my last, by writing of Levi Coffin and his boarders. Among the recent arrivals at his Mansion of Humanity are a Kentucky gentleman and his sister, who were compelled to flee from their native State, leaving parents, children and property behind. They resided in the south-eastern part of the State near the Cumberland Mountains, had never been identified with abolitionists in any measure whatever, but were members of the Methodist Church, North, which in that region is sufficient to render a man an object of dislike and suspicion to his neighbors.

During the Harper's Ferry excitement, he avowed a belief in the purity of John Brown's motives, and declared it would be a great shame to hang him; he further admitted, 'that in the case of a struggle between the master and slave, his sympathies would be with the right.' This was sufficient. The next day his sister, who was his housekeeper, came to him where he was working, and informed him that a large party of men had visited his house, declaring they meant to take and hang him. Not finding him on his own farm, they had departed searching for him. There as no time to lose, so putting on the coat which his sister had brought, he fled, she being led by her great affection for her brother resolved to share his flight. For days and nights they traveled through the woods, fearing to allow themselves to be seen until they neared the Ohio River. They crossed at Ironton, took passage there for Cincinnati. At the upper landing they came ashore, fearing in their ignorance that they might be taken back into Kentucky should they be recognized. Timidly they wandered through the suburbs inquiring of boys for the residences of colored people. At last they found a colored family by whom they were welcomed, and directed to Levi's house. I don't wish anybody bad luck, but fugitive slaves have been such powerful advocates of Anti-Slavery doctrine, that

I would like to see a few thousand white fugitives appealing to the people of the North to use their power and abolish the monster evil.

We have had a visit from Mr. Chas. H. Langston, who has so long and so honorably been connected with the efforts made by the colored people of Ohio for equal rights. Mr. Langston is a close thinker, and an industrious and earnest worker. His answer to Mr. Jefferson's query, 'What further is to be done with them?' was complete and exhaustive. I will attempt no analysis of it, for space would fail ere I could do justice to my theme. He should be invited to repeat it elsewhere.

I once heard Thos. Corwin make an answer to Mr. Jefferson's question. He was on the stump, surrounded by an amused and enthusiastic crowd. Thundering out at the top of his voice the question, 'What shall be done with the niggers?' he paused, screwed his mobile countenance into one of its most comical phases, and drawled, 'Let the niggers alone, they aint agoin' to hurt ye.' I hope he will repeat his advice to those gentlemen of the Republican party, who are anxious to put a colonization plank into the Chicago platform.

The Colonization movement is attracting some attention here, through the efforts of the Rev. Mr. Orcutt, who holds, I believe, the position of Secretary to the Society. Several meetings have been held exhibiting the usual characteristics of such meetings, a baker's dozen of Judges, millionaires and D.D.'s come together, declare that the Colonization Society is a very good thing, and colored men should all go to Africa, this they do to empty benches. They are intensely respectable, and most dolefully inefficient—Mr. Orcutt has been invited to speak before the Cincinnati Anti-Slavery Society, all the members of which are colored; and I prophesy that when he has finished his discourse, the people will plainly, and for the hundredth time, indicate their position on the question. I will

send you the resolutions if I can procure them.

I desire to make an apology to the Lyceum before I close. Did you ever, Mr. Editor, while a school boy, put a small whistle into your mouth, and gently expand your lungs, not meaning to make a noise, but only to see how much breath is required to fill it, and the treacherous thing screeched right out in school? Do you remember the mirth of the boys, the wrath of the teacher, and your own most unhappy fate? If you do, then you can imagine my predicament when the letter containing a notice of the Lyceum found its way here. Had I not taken refuge in that secure retreat where Junis has so long played at hide-and-seek with the learned world, there is no knowing what would have been done to me. Perhaps there might have been murder, as in the case of Morgan, and more recently because of the asinine disclosures concerning the Sons of Malta. Having no stomach for fight, I hereby recant. The Lyceum is not the Institution. There never has been a rain on their meeting nights. They have accomplished great things. They have piled Ossas upon Pelions of eloquence; the schools of Alexandria and Athens need no longer be mentioned in histories; the stream of knowledge has reversed its course, and wise men may be shortly expected to come from the west.—As for the Senator of whom I spoke, he is not burly, he is delicately small, infinitesimal—any size that suits him; as for his being a Roman, anybody that ever saw him knows he is nothing of the sort.

YOURS,

MIAMI.

CINCINNATI, March 23rd, 1860.