The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-29
A LETTER OF OTHER DAYS
WHICH IS 4 V1LUIBLE CONTRJ-
 BUTTON TO HISTORY
Written by Connecticut Lady, n Na- tive of North Branf0rd-An Author and Newspaper Exciting Anti-S1avery Times Recalled.

Anti-S1avery Times Recalled.
 The following letter, taken from the
 Boston Transcript, is valuable contri-
 button to history, bearing upon ante
 bellum events, and it also has a distinct
 1ocal interest, since the writer was a
 Connecticut woman. Miss Martha Rus
 sell was born in North Branford in 1877.
 Sometime in the fifties she removed to
 Washington D. C., and spent many
 years in. that city. She was a frequent
 contributor to the leading papers and
 magazines of the day, and published
 aeveral volumes of stories of New Eng
 yand life. As the following letter indi
 1ates, she was an earnest advocate of
 Bell is well remembered by the old resi-
 dents of New Haven and was greatly
 Beloved by all with whom she came in
 contact. She died in Westfield, N. J.,
 May, 1S99 and was brought to fer old
 home in North Branford for burial.
 The letter follows:
 Boston, June 2, 1854.
 Dear Cousin-Did you ever feel every
 drop of blood in you boiling and seeth-
 ing, throbbing and burning, until it
 seemed you should suffocate? Did you
 ever set your teeth hard together to
 keep down the spirit that was urging
 you to do something to cool your in
 dignation that good and wise people
 would call vioence-treason.
 I have felt all this to-day. I have
 seen that poor slave, Anthony Burns,
 carried back into slavery! I saw him
 In the midst of the marshalPs' posse
 and guarded by a whole brigade of city
 troops and several companies of United
 States marines. As the Commonwealth
 building overlooks Court Square and
 commands a view of State street clear
 aown to the wharf, I went up there at
 an early hour to wait the decision of
 the commissioner. Court Square was
 one sea of swaying, moving heads
 opening now and then for the passage Df a detachment of troops or line of vehicles. As soon as the decision was known, there were groans and hisses, black draperies were strung from the | windows of several buildings on' Court | street, and when your letter was put l into my hand I was helping to drape | the flag of the United States in black. | There were six flags belonging to the | office and we draped them all in heavy mourning and put them out the win dows; then they strung pieces of black \. cloth across the street, knotted in deep festoons, from the office to the building on the corner of Washington and Court streets and beneath the black drapery the procession had to pass. Down State street the street was festooned in like manner in one or two places, and there were two flags out union down." un- derneath which the procession was obliged to pass.
 The city troops to the number of several hundred paraded the streets and were detached to guard every avenue which opened on State street or Court street. The whole police force was on hand They succeeded in clearing the crowd from Court Square and down Washington street on either hand to some distance, where detachment was placed to keep the crowd back, but they would get--in, and many of them sue ceeded in keeping on the sidewalks. One policeman threw up his badge of E office and refused to act in such dirty business, and I wish you could have heard the shouts and exclamation with which his decision was received by the crowd A coffin, painted black with the , word Liberty inscribed upon it, was brought and placed on the corner of d and State streets just by 2 the Commonwealth building. The po- lice attempted to take 1t, but the men who brought it, aided by the crowd, were too much for them they finally 1t by ropes from room in i the building used as an office for an Insurance company. The city troops 5 were finally obliged to act as special po- ice, and then there was company of cavalry riding up and down the street " 1ooted and hissed by the crowd. ct This brigade of city troops Gndepen- lent companies) it is said by the city e' papers were ordered out by the governor o keep the peace of the city, but they u II reality acted as guard to the slave u ,atchers. The governor is an old anti SC lavery Whig, or was elected as such. a He was here this week. on onday, and p eivered an address before the Bible so- b. iety. Do you suppose he advocated bl ending Bibles to the sums or that he nj remembered Mrs. Douglas in Virginia? e It has been anniversary week, cousin; bt here have been religious meetings of ce Il kinds; all sorts of societies have re- ci eived aid and comfort; many honest ta nd well-meaning words have been dc poken in behalf of "heretics and heath- tn h." there has been a great deal of F' hristian talk but not Christian action ta nough to keep this poor, suffering lack man from going back to be lite ed lilly whipped to death, as Thomas Sims Al as. an And, I do not censure the clergy en- F't rely for all this; they are but the ch outh-pieces of the parishes generally; c1s Ut do censure the rich and respecta- WE e Christian people here. They did not ml ant the man to go back; they would III zen have bought him q am glad they snl ,uldn't) dozen times over, but it was w, and he must go back. If they had "h 1t used their private influence with the sl9t ayor, with the commissioner, the rol ave man need not have gone back. to -hy, General Wilson told me yesterday bo. at he and Dr. Howe went to Blank erl Id begged him to use private infiu all ce in favor of the slave, and they spe ere met with excuses, deprecations of fat e law; but it was law he obeyed. If the anry Wilson had been governor of massachusetts, that slave would never nee ve been sent back. I tell you, Rus as H. that I believe such men as Garri- wh