The Indiana State sentinel., 1874-06-30
ANTI-SLAVERY REMINISCENT
CES, p
A STORY TELLER.

| ANECDOTES AND RECOLLECTIONS CONCERNING
THE UNDERGROUND RAILRoADs"-CHAR-
ACTERISrIC SAYINGS AND DOINGs OF BEN
! WADE, LEVI COFFIN, AND OTHER ABOLITION
ISIS. sf-fb br----i
1 General James s. Brisbin writes to the
Chicago Tribune concerning the late anti
slavery reunion, and he takes occasion to
add some valuable and very interesting
"reminiscences of his own knowledge: Why
did not the old man Brisbin, when talking
about mis- dead friend, Gamaliel Bailey. also
tell us of the underground railway. and his
connection with it? How, in the days of
slavery, he and Levi Coffin brought up i,e-
! grCes from Memphis and Nashville in store
boxes, labeled "Cotton Picker" "Cotton
Planter" Zone Cotton Machine" etc.
How, on one occasion, at Louisville, when
the steamboat hands rolled a package on the
wharf, the nigger sloshed, about so
he broke the box and rolled out, to the as
| tonishment OF the Kentuckiaps who never af-
terward would allow any Southern package
consigned 10 Levy Coffin to pass without a
i careful examination? Why, too, did not the
Doctor .ell Us the destruction of the Aboli-
ton newspaper at Covington, Kentucky,
| and how it was pitched into the Ohio river
by mob? should have liked also 10 have
heard Levi Coffin explain, as he once did to
me, the difficulty of hiding away niggers
ana still telling the truth when the Marshal
came hunting for them.
/ lScene-BefOre the war; house in Gin
| cinnati. Two negroes. newly arrived, and
evidently plantation hands, eating heartily
in the kitchen. Two planters and the Mar
shall OF Cincinnati coming hastily up the
street. A lady (Aunt Katie) enters the par
lor hurriedly, and, addressing a broad
brimmed Quaker, speaks:]
"Levi, make thee haste, L see strange men
coming with that pestilenJ Marshal"
(Levi goes out and meets the men at the
gate.)
Marshal-Good morning, friend Coffin.
| We are seeking for two runaways.
Coffin-Two escaped slaves thee would re-
| capture?
Marshal and both owners-Yes, yes Can
you tell US where they are?
Coffin-Was one boy very black and rather
heavy set; the other yellow and but slightly
| built?
Both owners-Yes, yes, You describe
them exactly. -.-a e..
Coffin-I saw two such BOYS, not half an
hour since, pass this gate; and il you haste,
you may yet oyertake them at the depot
before the train leaves.
Away go the marshal and r
i THE SLAVE OWNERS,
while Coffin re-enters the house, and, ad-
dressing his wife, says:
"Mark, Katie, did but say the boys passed
the gate, but said not whether they went in
or out. Go, hurry them with their meal,
while hitch up the old gray horse, and
drive the poor souls station or two beyond
the city, where they can embark with
safety.'
1t would De interesting to know what has
become of the old white horse. He must
have died long ago; and if ever the colored
people go TO erecting monuments TO men
who set them free, they ought not to forget
the faithful old beast who hauled more than
three hundred their race on their way TO
freedom. 1t would have been almost worth
a trip to Chicago to see the living actors OF
"Uncle Toms Csbin,' and have gazed once
more on the benevolent faces OF
, Levi Coffin and his old wife, Aunt
hattie, he now over seventy-three, and she
seventy-one years of age. Coffin was the
! leading spirit of the underground railroad,
and really the president of that peculiar in
stitution from 1886 to 1868, when it ceased to
be necessary, the negroes being set free by
Abraham Lincoln, except those in Kentucky
where brancn of the mysterious road, with
General Burbridge, John M. Palmer and
} myself as conductors, was operated az late as
1864 and 1865. Mr.. Coffin went to live in
Cincinnati, and often bad at his house, and
secreted about the city, as many as eight tu-
he forwarded to freedom 1S9 slaves; and,
} during the thirty-five years of his active
connection with the anti-slavery cause, Coffin
fed, clothed, sheltered, and aided to escape
over 5000 slaves. Even after the war he dij
not cease his exertions in behalf of the
; country and England, and forwarded thou
sands of cases of shoes and clothing, and
, tons of food, all over the South. was then
in Kentucky, and can testify to the great
good the Anti-Slavery Aid Society did in
. helping along the poor negroes OF that state.
|. WHY did not Levi Coffin give us a full ae-
, count of his anti-slavery experience? Ii
, would have formed an intensely interesting
and instructive page in the proceedings o.
the late convention. The attendance of
OLD BEN WADE
should have been secured, and the old Ohio
war horse should have been brought out and
made to speak of those days when he, Sum
ner. and Wilson bore the anti-slavery
. standard aloft in the Senate OF the United
States. How strangely the proceedings o.
the Senate before the war now read. The
!. LacCmpton bill is under consideration, and
Mr.. Toombs, of Georgia, referring to the mi
: noritY-of which Mr.. Wade is one-says
''The majority have rights and duties, and
trust there is fidelity enough to themselves
, and their principles, and the country, In the
majority, to stand together at all. hazards
and crush this factious minority" In.
stantly Mr.. Wade is on his feet, and shaking
! his fist at Toombs, roars out: Shave care
] have care, sir; you can't crush me nor my
4 people. You can never conquer us; we viii
die first. 1 may fall here in the Senate
chamber, but will never make any COM
promise with any such men. You may
bring majority and outvote me; but, SC
help me God, will neither compromise MOI
o be crushed" Then there is confusion and
/ excitement, and one of those violent scenes
j so common in those days but Mr.. Wade
!. stands firm, and bears his state proudly for
I ward in the face of the whole slave power
v The Senate is proceeding quietly
:: and Mr.. Evans, of South Carolina
r. a grave and good old man.. i;
n speaking of the anti-slavery doctrinse
and exhibiting a COPY of Garrison IS Liberatol
with its horrible pictures of slavery. Turn
ing to Mr.. Wade, who sat near him, the
senator asks: "It is not too bad that such 9
R paper should be allowed to exist? Can i
: be possible that any patriotic citizen of the
: North will tolerate such an abomination?'
Senator Wade puts on his spectacles, and
It looking at the title of the paper, exclaims
ri In ur,rrrira. .sINhu Sanafnr Eyans In