The Kansas herald of freedom., 1857-04-18
GcMhpqieatiops.

I
Tribute to whom Tribute is Due.
ELI THATEa AND ORGANIZED xNiaRArfos.
BosToS, March q, 1857.
To THE EDITOR OF TIE HEaALD OF
FREEDoM:-Fame is very pretty bau-
bic to contend for or bestow; but to
render exact and equal justice to all
men without regard to their social,
political or religious distinctions,
should be the aspiration and the con-
duct of every one, everywhere and al
ways-the private citizen as well as
the public historian. Give every man
Lis due, even if it is necessary to pre-
sent him with-a cipher But, if he
merits more,it is unjust to withholdit.
It is thought, by the friends of free
Kansas here. that in the chapter of
Kansas History, published in the Her
aid of February 2Sth, you have. perhaps,
and most probably without designing
it. failed to do justice to the origina-
tor of the New England Emigrant Aid
Company. l will briefly state the
facts which are advanced to support
this opinion.
You say, speaking of the Nebraska
Bill-"After the passage of the bill,
the party of freedom Immediately or
ganized for the purpose of giving in
formation to the country of the act
now passed, and also of adopting the
only remedy remaining in the hands
of the people for the correction of the
evils which had been inflicted by the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise.
So monstrous were these as
sumptions, and so subversive of honor
and Justice was this act considered,
that the people Of the free States made
arrangements for securing again those
rights which had been so rudely torn
from them. Resolutions were formed
to come to the Territory-to reside
upon its soil, and thus take possession
of the domain SO wisely dedicated to
Freedom from the foundation of the
Government. The first Society in or
der for this purpose was formed in
Washington, d. c., in June, 1854,
of which j. q. Goodrich, of Mass,
was elected President 1t was styled
the Union Emigration Society"
| Again = "Other companies were
formed under various names, but all
having in view the same general OBJ
iect. The American Settlement Com
pany in New York, and the Emigrant
Aid Company of Massachusetts were
the most distinguished for their activ-
ity and success
No great plan sver originated from
a general conception. An earnest and
widespread desire for some plan, in
practical affairs, is not desirable only,
but necessary for its speedy and career.
ing success; but the plan itself, if the
emergency is a novel one, has always
come, and always does and always
must spring from the brain of one
man only. .-..
It is to Eli Thayer, that men accu-
rately informed of public opinion in
Massachusetts and the other Northern
States at the epoch you refer to, tell
me, more than to any other person, OF
party of freedom, that the Free State
party is now indebted for its exist.
ence.
Twas in Georgia at the time, and
well remember the indignant outburst
of the planters when the plan of or.
ganized emigration was announced
Northern opinion I had no means of
ascertaining: ami write, therefore.
from oral and printed testimony only.
After the passage of the Nebraska
Bill, there was a widespread feeling
of indignant despair-but a yearning
for some practical plan to defeat Its
evident and most infamous purposes.
No plan, however, except the made
Iquate remedy of ordinary emigration
was publicly suggested, until Eli
Thayer, at that time member of the
Massachusetts, Legislature, obtained a
charter for the Emigrant Aid Compa-
ny the first Association of that
name; which was passed, without a
single dissenting vote, by both branch
es of the General Court, approved by
the Governor in April, and accepted
by the corporators on the 4th of May,
1854.
The mere fact of the passage of the
Charter, and the public discussion of
the plan--.ithe plan of freedom, . as
the n. Y. Tribune justly named it,
the defiant spirit it manifested, the
enthusiastic support it Immediately
receised--the yeils of Indignation It
instantly called out from the sepulchre-
throsts of the Slavery Propsgandists
and their Northern allies,-by arous-
ing the hopes OF the people of the
Free States, and re-awakening the
daredevil element of our national
character, which had been dormant,
more or less. since the Mexican war,
did more to save Kansas. by turning
emigration thither, than all the speech
es of all the orators in Congress and
out of it,-thsn all the articles, furi-
Gus and innumerable, which the Drop
sled Dwarf of Illinois, by his Nebras-
ka Bill, had occasioned.
Our political iiterature-which had
become 8 literature Of despair-was
transformed into q literature of exui-
tation and inprecation. The plan of
freedom. originated by Dir. Thayer,
was published in the n. z. Daily Tri-
bune of May %, 1854. warmly COM
mended by that powerful journal, and