The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-04-03
THOMAS CLARKSON, THE
ENEMY OF SLAVERY.

had WrltI6ns thirty years DoTOrt
when senior bachelor in ST. Johns
College, Cambridge, successful
es say on the question, SIS involun-
tary slavery justiGable2" That
es say determined the entire course o.
his life. He spent twenty years in
gathering, arran ging, and disseminat
ing the sickening mass of facts that
marked the character of the slave
trade.
He told me that. during the early
portion Of that period, there were
many days during which he collected
evidence so replete with horrors and
atrocities that he returned home, in
the evening, with a burning sensa-
ton in his head which rendered sleep
impossible, until he had applied fol
hours bondages soaked in coolest
water to forehead and temples,
to allay the fever of the brain. rooo,
But what chiefly lives inny
lection is the graphic account he gave
me of an interview which, after sever
al years thus spent, he obtaind,
through the influence of Wilberforce,
with William Pitt, then Prime Min
lister.
With the directness of master
mind that great man plunged into
the subject at once. 81 know that
you have bestowed much study on
this matter, Mr.. Clarkson," he said;
''but | want details. Can you give
them?''
"Yes. if you will allow your Sec
rotary to bring in some books which
I lefi in the antechamber.
Four or five ponderous folios,
labelled respectively Day Book,
Journal, and Ledger, were produced.
Pitt mentioned the names of some
we'll known SLAYER (the ship Brooks,
I think it was), and asked; ''Do you
know anything about herr
eyes; do you wish to see an account
of her last voyage?"
Pitt asserting, Clarkson, after
referring to the index of his journals
labelled "Slave- Voyages, ''handet
the volume, open at the narrative
demands, to the minister, who read il
with the closest attention; then asked
''Do you know the names of the
officers and sailors who were shipped
for this voyage?"
''Here they are, opening one o.
the ledgers at a page headed, "Tht
Ship Brooks
"Ah! did you taAe the testimony
Of any Of these sailors?"
II did, of this one,''-pointing t,
his name: land here it is, =" opening
the ledger at another page, headed
with the mans name.
Pitt read his testimony from TIT
first word to the last. ''Any other?'
he then asked.
Ciarkson gave him three or four
more to read, which he perused WI
the same care, then added, ST
surgeon; did you examine him?''
"Here is his testimony"
TIE minister ran it over, taking
notes as he did so. Gan importani
witness that, Mr.. Clarkson. Car
you tell where he is to be found?''
"Just at present he is at sea; bu
the Brooks will be in during thu
summer, and then his address will
be" giving it. ~
''Can the sailor witnesses be pre-
cured if they are wanted?''
"Next summer they can easily b
found" And Clarkson, having copiec
from a ledger the names of the board
lighthouses in Liverpool which eacl
respectively frequented when on shor
handed them to the minister.
Amy more vessels?" asked Mr.. Pit
twenty or thirty more, if you hav
time to examine the testimony regard
ing them"
81 shall make time It is a yer,
important inquiry
This rapid cross-examination
Clarkson told me, lasted three or fou
hours, during which, he said, MI
Pitt must have looked over attentive
ly not less than a hundred pages {
manuscript. To every questio
mt CIarLnnn had a ontiaEanhnr