Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad/Chapter XX
CHAPTER XX.
The great central depot of the institution in this State was in Onondaga County, where a great many fugitives were protected, fed and clothed, and sent on their way rejoicing by that noble man, Rev. J. W. Loguen. Mr. Loguen was himself a fugitive. I am not able to relate the particular incidents of his escape, though I have heard him lecture several times, as he said little about himself or his personal adventures. He is respected and beloved by all classes in Syracuse, where he has lived many years, and no other man could have done so much for the U. G. R. R. as he did, yet his friends did not deem it safe for him to remain there after the enactment of the fugitive slave law, but he could not be induced to leave. He was arrested for setting that law at defiance, and aiding in the rescue of the slave Jerry, and was tried for the offense in Albany. The jury disagreed, and he was tried again in Canandaigua, with the same result. The man who claimed him as a slave knew where he was, and Mr. Loguen’s friends feared that he would be seized by government officials when beyond the protection of the friends who surrounded him at his home, but he always said that “he apprehended no danger; if the old man wanted him he hoped he would come himself, but if he thought it best to send somebody else, it was all the same to him. He was not going to Canada or to Tennessee, nor would he ask the aid of his friends, but he gave notice to all concerned that he should trust in Loguen and in Providence for protection, and principally and first of all in Loguen.”
When the Presidential campaign of 1852 was in progress, Mr. Loguen was invited to speak in a certain village in Chautauqua Co., on the lake shore. He had a large audience, and delivered an eloquent address. Some person asked him to relate his adventures in making his escape from slavery. He respectfully declined saying anything about himself, but spoke of the sufferings endured by his sister, which he witnessed, but could do nothing to protect her. Because she would not submit to his brutal conduct, her master tied her thumbs together, and with a cord over a pulley, drew her up until she stood on her toes, then whipped her bare back until she fainted. As soon as she could go she ran away. The old fellow overtook her ten miles from home, tied a rope around her neck and made her run home. When she became exhausted and fell, he would drag her by the neck, then wait until she could stand up and start again. This was a pretty hard story, and it was not strange that the audience did not all believe it. When Mr. Loguen sat down, a man arose and said he did not believe the story, and denounced the speaker for uttering the slander. After he sat down, a gentleman near the door arose and said he should like to sav a few words. He began by saying that he lived in Stewart Co., Tennessee, near Cumberland, where the speaker said he came from, and where his sister was so shockingly abused. He should have said nothing but for the remarks of the last speaker, who doubted the statement of Mr. Loguen, “but,” said he, “having lived in Tennessee all my life, I regret to have to say that I do not doubt the story. He told it as no man could have told it who had not seen it. I would not say that such cruelty is common, but it is too frequent not to be known to any man who has lived among slaves. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for allowing a stranger to indorse the veracity of the speaker.” Of course, Mr. Loguen’s character was vindicated, for the man was a slaveholder, and even a Democrat could not object to his testimony.
At the close of the meeting the last named gentleman sought an interview with Mr. Loguen, and told him that he was stopping in town over night, and learning that a colored man was going to speak, he had come to hear what he had to say, “and,” he said, “I could do no less than I did, as the people here seem to know nothing of our ways.” After talking awhile about men and things in Tennessee, he asked Mr. Loguen the name of the man he had lived with in Cumberland. Mr. Loguen declined answering the question, when the gentleman said, “You need have no fear of me, I shall not hurt you.” “I presume not,” said Loguen, “but since the fugitive slave law was passed my friends advise me to go to Canada, or to some place where I am not known as a fugitive, but I am going to stay where I choose to stay, and go where I choose to go, and I hope no one will ever try to enforce that law on me, not that I fear anything for myself, but somebody will get hurt.”
Large rewards in cash and political honors awaited the delivery of Loguen in Tennessee, and there were Democrats enough who wanted them, but nobody ever got the rewards, for both Loguen and Providence stood in the way. Loguen was a prophet, a type of our times, and has lived to see the prophecy fulfilled. “The lost cause” offered all the offices and all the treasure of the nation for the delivery of all the people, both white and black, into the hands of the slave power, but Grant & Colfax stood in the way; the nation is safe; nobody will be hurt.
The remote influences that have worked in the hearts of the people, leading on to their final results in establishing the U. G. R. R., as related briefly in this sketch, were suggested to my memory by the open declaration by the party of Seymour and Blair in the South, that their election would restore to them all that they fought for in the rebellion, and inaugurate all the barbarities of slavery. Can Christians, then, vote for such men? Can they speak, act, and vote in favor of annulling the word of God and our Declaration of Independence? Not unless their souls are so encased in copper that no ray of light has illuminated them in these many years. The election of Grant is liberty and peace.