The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-03-25
THE MILLER TRAGEDY.

We find in the Chester county papers the
following proceedings of public meeting rela-
tive to the Miller tragedy:
EAST NOTTINGHAM, February 7, 1852.
very numerous and respectable meeting of
persons interested in the recent deplorable kid
assembled in the scbOol-house at Hopewel on
Friday evening, the 9th instant The meeting
was called partly to effect an organization of
effort in the prosecution of the suit for the
freedom of Rachel Parker, and other matters
pertaining to the case and partly to hear from
the physicians who lately examined the body
of Joseph c. Miller statement of their in
vestigatiOns and conclusions and was called
to order by Isaac Spear, Esq and on motion,
was organized by the appointment of William
c. Worth, Esq, of Lancaster county, President,
and John McClurg, of Lower Oxford, and
Thos Hamil of New London township Vice
Presidents, and Dr. John N. Rowland, and d.
D. Dckey, of East Nottingham, Secretaries
On motion, committee of five were appointed
to draft preamble and resolutions expressive
of the sense of the meeting; and while they
were thus engaged, Drs. Hutchinson and
Dickey being present by request were heard,
and gave a circumstantial statement of their
critical anatomical examination of the body Of
Joseph c. Miller, and of the subsequent analy-
sis of his stomach, finally expressing their un-
wavering conviction that Miller died from the
effects of poison, and was never hung until
after death had already done its work and
this belief the whole auditory, after hearing
their interesting and very explicit statements,
unhesitatingy concurred in. Some business
relative to the recovery of the sister of Rachel
Parker, who had recently been kidnapped and
sold, and to the raising of funds for the prose-
cution of the suits, was then transacted, after
which the committee reported the following
preamble and resolutions which were unani-
mously adopted:
Whereas it has been proven that a certain
Thomas McCreary, of Elkton, Cecil county
Maryland, with others as Infamous as himself
entered on the twenty-ninth day of December
last the peaceful domcl of our late friend and
felow-citizen Joseph c. Miller, West Noting
ham township Chester county, Pennsylvania
and by force and violence kidnapped and car
ried away out of the State of her birth Rachel
Parker, an intelligent free colored girl, long an
inmate of the family, into the State Of Mary
land, there to be sold into perpetual slavery:
And whereas our lamented friend Joseph {.
Miller, encouraged by our laws and the prompt
ings of n kind and benevolent heart, in com
pany with others equally humane pursued
these negro stealers to Baltimore, Maryland,
were assisted by some noble and glowing
citizens of that city, succeeded in having the
principal thief arrested, and in wrestling the
girl from his unwilling grasp; and then, after
being most kindly entertained by generous
and hospitable Baltimorean, they were seated
in the night line Of ears, hoping soon to be
again returned to their absent and anxious
families, and to the love and comforts of home
but alas for the success of human calculations
and human hopes Our friend Miller having
occasion to leave the cars for moment the
coad tutors and abettors, or tools Of the kid
nappers, fearful doubtless of his testimony,
steakhily hurried him, AZ we believe, away
from his friends, and then, by deception or
force. inhumanly administered 10 him guam
tity of arsenic that death might ensue, and
yet no outward trace be found and then to
cloak their foul iniquity, conveyed him into the
country, where he was found, and, as a cum
ming rue hung him by the neck, to induce the
belief that he had put violent end to himself,
thus recklessly blasting eternally, as they
hoped. the reputation of our friend in his
death:
And whereas the body of our friend was
meanly, almost brutally buried, by the officers
of the first inquest:
And whereas the testimony of our most es-
teemed and respectable countrymen was lightly
regarded by many citizens of Maryland and
Baltimore
And whereas certain John Merritt one Of
McCreary's conductors, by his testimony re-
Gently given in Baltimore, blackened and sui
lied the fair fame Of our deceased friend, by
oaths that we believe to be false: Therefore,
Resofred, That from a personal knowledge
and intimate acquaintance with the girl Rachel
Parker, ON the part Of many of ms we know
and believe her TO be free-born citizen of our
county.
Resolved, That we honor the humanity and
benevolcnce Of our late friend Joseph c. Miller.
IN his earnest pursuit Of the williams who desc.
Grated the sanctity Of his home, by forcibly
stealing from it the young girl under his pro-
lection, and that we feelingly lament his de-
plorabe and untimely end
Resolved, That from the testimony we have
heard from the physicians making the recent
examination Of his body aud stomach, and
from other circumstances it is our unwavering
conviction and belief that Joseph c. Miller was
MURDERED by the administration Of arsenic to
him by some person or persons unknown, con-
nected with the abduction or detention of the
GIRL and who afterwards suspended him by the
neck, where he was found, that it might be