The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1860-01-21
Letter to Henry Ward l,.echer.

Letter to Henry Ward Bsecher.
We insert the following letter at the re-
quest of several leading democrats of this
city, who regard it as so exactly adopted
to the case of some leading abolitionists
hereabouts that it almost seems to have
been written with special vie~~to their
case. In the St Louis paper, from. which
we copy, it is addressed as "a friendly let
ter, full of brotherly love- to Henry Ward
Beecher the John Brown preacher" from
Professor Mcdowell, of St Louis:
ST LOUIS, Dec. Sth, 1859
| TO the Rec. Henry Ward Becchr:
SIR:-This is the morning of the ami
| versary of the crossing of the Delaware"
by George Washington, and the battle of
Trenton. The governor of Missouri has
appointed to day day of thanksgiving in
memory of the achievements of the "fath-
er of his country" And keep It with
two-fold feeling of filial duty, for George
Washington and my own father, who was
with him on that dreadful night and the
two succeeding days. do most heartily
thank God, my father in Heaven for their
deliverance in that most perilotrs xNven-
ice as He did the Red Sea, to safely land
on that stormy night that small but heroic
band to battle with the enemies. of liberty
and made them successful against five
times their lumber | thank him for the
freedom and prosperity of our common
country, both north and south; and /
thank Him for the preservation of our
Union beneath the hollow of MS hand
But above all things have thanked Him
that He has not made me such a man as
Henry Ward Beecher. with heart full of
such black ingratitude for the achievement
of human liberty by that heroic band /
thank Him that not one drop Of blood
flows in my veins, or in the veins of my
family for disunion; and there still lives
the same love of liberty in my humble bo-
som, that impelled them to battle and to
cross the Delaware, and would impel me
to cross the Mississippi to battle with the
foes of this Union--the only hope for civil
and religious liberty for the human race
Sir, let me reason with you. and carefully
read what | write you, that you may see
yourself as others see you. You profess to
be christian, yet in no wise do you fol-
low in the footsteps of your Master, or are
actuated by the spirit of His religion
His was OF peace, yours OF the sword, His
was forbearance, yours assaults, even unto
death upon your friends and country-
He purchased no weapon even to he turn
ed upon his enemies; while yours is the
religion of the bowie knife and the rifle.
His was mercy, yours is murder You
would turn the brutal negro upon the un-
suspecting white man and the defenseless
white women, and see them gloat on mvT-
der and rapine. He would gather little
! oh n Il to t,I1 IL
cOnsign innocent white girls Of Your own
race, to the brutal embrace of an African
/ therefore cannot address you as minis
ter of the christian religion, or follower
of Jesus; but as heartless, unfceiing un-
compromising knave. too wise TO act with
out deadly purpose, too little religion to
be bigot or fanatic, but possessing the
power to make fools and fanatics of 9TH
ers. In your church but recently. you
have raised money to excite insurrection
in my native country, and when the damn
ing deed Is done, say with hypoeritical
cant, Il did not do it; that n6 force
should be used except moral sua. ION. -
You send men TO apply the torch 10 your
neighbor's dwelling, and excite, ,hlaaisycsea
to murder white men, then say you only
wish to Eberate the siars Such conduct
no reason can justify. no honest chti >tian
can approve Jesus Christ lived in a pro-
vince of the Roman Empire and never ex-
cited feelings of anger in man against his
feiiow-man, and never plotted treason
against the government under which he
lived; but said, render unto Caesar what
is Cesars, servants be obedient unto your
masters, and that, too, when there were
siXty-three millions Of white slaves in the
empire.
81 fcr ic
that you wish to confer boon upon the
human race, why prefer the black and in
( ferior race to the white-why spare the
one and butcher the other? SIR if yoar
philanthropy must be exercised, why not
begin your moral suasion,' your bowie
knives, Sharpes rifles, and blooashed in
I Africa, the parent country, where the field
/ Is wider and the harvest ripe? But, sir,
/ turn in at home and look upon Yourself
cleanse first the Lazar house of your great
eastern cities before you begin the work
of reform in Kentucky and Virginia; and
when your work is finished at home. If
not partial to color. we would invite your
philanthropic efforts to Asia, where there
are 400 millions more degraded than the
I African of your own country. Why eX
cite men to fi,natical deeds which must
both destroy the country and themselves?
: Why press the southern states to dsunion
when obstruction will fall alike on both
north and south? If this Union is dis
solved we must of necessity be engulied
in the maelstrom of European politics and
European wars, and 60 down forever as 9
nation or a republic
Pause then, sir, and lift the veil of the
future which is just before you. and sta,
the fanatical hand now lifted to strike
If you do not, like Macbeth, your owI
sleep will be murdered and the sleep O
thousands. You shall never wash the
stain of the blood of your relatives from
your own hands, the hands of your wife Oh
the hands of your sister, Harriet Beechel
Stowe Call around you Senator Seward
Wendell Phillips, Joshua GisJNngs, ane
Fred. Douglass, and visit your first victim
in lunatic asylum, Gerrit Smith. Call
prayer meeting and pray old.-A,own and
his confederates out of purgatssy, perhaps
from hell, where all of you should have
gone before Ask God tos;yp you 70
your wickedness; wash your 16ithy gar
ments, go thy way and sin no more, sin n,
longer against your conscience and you
country's constitution No longer liz
against nature and common sense, ane
make negroes your equals whiLs you will
not give your sons in marriage and Negro
husbands for your daughters
Your knowledge of national history cal
but convince you of the truthfulness of tn,
best authorities that there is 40. identit,
of origin, no equality in mental or physica
organization, and that the negro has beel
what he is, for four thousand years, enc
will be the same for four thousand years t.
come. The white man has scarcely provee
the problem of fselfgovernment-th negr
never has and never can.
My dear sir, you mistake the position o
the north and yourself-neither your me
. raj suasion nor your Sharpes rifle can sui
due or terrify the people of the south
you look through medium that nlagnife
yourselves, while it diminishes others
Allow me to draw the Dicture,- The grea