The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1869-05-27
From the Atlantic Monthly for December.
The han ging of Gordon, the Slave
Trader.
By EDWARD EVERETT HALE.

New York was the great centre
where the slaye-traders of the world
bought their vessels. Havana was the
great centre where they laid their plans.
Boston, New Bedford, New London,
Cadiz, Barcelona, the Western Islands,
and l know not where else, were the
minor places in the operation. The
voyages were arranged at Havana, the
ships were partly fitted up in New
York, thence they slipped to sea picked
up the rest of their equipment and the
right papers elsewhere if New York
would not answer, and brought up on
the Western Coast. / have seen the
record which Mr.. Archibald, the English
Consul and Commissioner in New
York, kept of one hundred and seventy
one of these vessels in three years.
time His secret agents boarded them
in New York Harbor, and described
them for him in detail, even down to
the brand of cigars which the captain
had in his cabin. Mr.. Archibald sent
the description to the Admiralty, and
they to the Coast. "Let me go be-
low," said an English officer, on board
a SLAYER in one of the African rivers.
"You go at your peril" said the cap
tain, brave in the perfectly regular
papers he had, in the Stars and Stripes
over his head, in the new coat of paint
he had taken at the Western Islands,
and in the fact, perhaps, that, though
he sailed a bark, he was now brig,
"You 90 below at your peril" 81 will
take the risk" said the Englishman
went below, and found all the slave
fittings, casks, cooking-stove, hand
cuffs and the rest, and Of course, seized
the vessel. The out witted captain,
white with rage, swore between his
clenched teeth, "You would not have
known me but for your bloody English
Counsel in New York. ? Almost every
man of the projectors was known to
the English government through this
steady secret service. But they allran
riot till Mr.. Lincoln came in, and then
one fine day one Gordon was arrested
for slave-trading, another day he was
tried, and another he was hanged
Yes, my friend, he was hanged.
know about what is called the sacred
ness of human life. For my part,
believe a mans life is as sacred as his
liberty, and no more so. And | believe
when his country requires either hii
life or his liberty, she may use it, if sht
takes the responsibility. In this case,
l am very glad my country took thil
responsibility. Whatever Gordon's lit'
may have been worth to him or to bill
friends, l think this country put it to
very good use when she hanged him
A storm of protest was made agains
his death. Twenty-Five thousand peo
pie petitioned Abraham Lincoln tt
spare that mans life, and Abraham
| Lincoln refused. Gordon was hanged
/ And all through the little ports and bis
ports of the United States it was known
that slave trader had been hanged
And, when that was known, the Amer
lean slave trade ended All up an(
down little African rivers that yoT
never heard the names Of, it was knowI
that an American slave trader had beer
hanged; and cowardly pirates trem
bled, and brave seamen cheered, whel
they heard it. Mothers of children
thanked such gods as they knew how
to thank; and slaves shut up in bar
racoons, waiting for the voyage, go
signal that something had happened
which was to give them freedom
That something was that Gordon wa
hanged. So far that little candle threw
its beams.
am told, and l believe, that wheI
that poor wretch. was under sentenc,
of death, bis "friends' kept him il
liquor to the momen of his death, ,--st
anxious were they lest he should com
plicate some Of them by confession
And when he was dead they celebrated
his death in the last great orgy of tn
slaye-trade in one drunken feast the,
held together, so rejoiced were the,
that they had escaped his testimony
Such is the honor among thieves!
|