Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1904-08-17
SHERMAN NJ. BOOTH DEAD,
Noted Abolitionist Identified with
Early Wisconsin History.
,ANTI-SLAVERY EDITOR.
Burial-Survived by Widow
and Six Children.

Sherman NJ. Booth, one of the last of
The abolitionists whose activities were
identified with the history of a half cent
ury ago, died at his home in Chicago
"Wednesday, August 10, at the age Of go
years.
He came to Wisconsin in 1S4S. ten
days before the admission of the state
90 the Union, and took charge of the
Wisconsin Freeman, in whose columns
he exploited his anti-slavery views. He
sEas among the most cordially hated of
the abolition party.
Sherman NJ. Booth one OF the last of
the great abolitionists. and a contem-
Rorary Of William Lloyd Garrison,
Charles Sumner and other men of pro-
nounced views during the ante bellum
days, is dead. News Of his passing, at
1he age Of 90 years, at his home, 81
North Campbell avenue, Chicago, was
received in Milwaukee last Wednesday
night. The body of Mr.. Booth was
brought to Milwaukee on Friday for
burial
The venerable abolitionist, editor and
speaker tainted away while sitting in
his yard in Chicago, and the end came
soon after he was removed to his house.
He is survived by his wife, Augusta NJ.
Bo8th, and six children, Mary Ella
Booth, Mrs Robert Stanley, Mrs. Ches-
Ley r. Perry, Sherman M. Booth, Jr.,
f. Blanche and Laura V. Booth
Dir. Booth was a native of New York.
yFaere he early partook CT those strong
lessons III our early national life which
nayee1 the way for one of his pronounced
character to take the subsequent promi-
rselt stand as an intense hater of slavery
which he did take and which placed him
alongside. of such men as Garrison and
Summer in the intensity of his feelings
against that which Lincoln declared to
E9a the greatest curse of our national
existence
AS he grew up his feelings became
more and more pronounced, until his
writings and speeches did much to FIRE
fhe northern heart, as did his historic
Eifie through the streets of Milwaukee,
In March, 1854, when he learned of the
imprisonment in the Jail here of the flu
ag7tive slave, Glover, who had been ar
Eested and brought here 10y United States
officers under the fugitive slave law
As he rode through the streets calling to
freemen to turn out to the public meet
ing, the very soul of peaceful Milwau-
kee was stirred to it's depths by his deep
sarnestness and the result of the attitude
TIpon that occasion of Sherman M. Booth
sEas, perhaps, more than to any other
direct incident, the forcible liberation
iand carrying off of the slave, who was
Waukesha and thence escaped to Can
.ada-
AIR. Booth came to Milwaukee on May
is, 1913. or, as he himself stated in his
address before the Editorial association
at Madison in 1897, just ten days before
Wisconsin was admitted as a state of the
Union. He came for the purpose of edit
ing the American Freeman, owned at the
time by C.. G. DIN, which had just been
moved here from Waukesha. He bought
n half interest in the paper and changed
Its name to the Wisconsin Freeman His
single purpose, he declared, was to aid to
the fullest extent of his powers in max
ing this q free country to all people, black
and white. His whole heart was in the
effort, and If any man ever stood firm
for the brotherhood Of man, that advo-
cate was Sherman nj. Booth. Every
sll8er Of his intense being was afire in
the cause. To this he added a strong
Fntellectual being and good deal of OBJ
serTation. He had but one set of prin-
fFpless and he always wrote just what
ms himself believed, not what some one
<zSse told nim.
<tf the great questions preceding the
WE he said in q famous speech forty
years ago:
There was something deeper in the
struggle in which L was engaged than
questions of technical law. There was
Something higher than decisions of courts
elf2 the constitutionality or unconstitu-
tasaality Of the fugitive slave act 1t
YEAS the old battle-not yet ended-be-
tween freedom and slavery; between the
rights OF the toiling many and the spe-
Gza1 privileges Of the aristocratic few. 1t
Was outlawed right against despotic pow
ssr- 1T was divine mercy against Internal
cruelty; it was the reforming spirit Of
Humanity against the boldest robbery of
national freedom and honor and per-
as9nal liberty ever dignifed by the name
xy@F Ia IN hn iu of
HI wes Magma Charta against unmitigat-
Sasf despotism."
When Mr.. Booth assumed editorial
GFu1y in Wisconsin there were twenty
five acting editors located in the various
t0wns Of the state, Of whom, he said in
&1s1r five now living, William e. Cramer,
NJ a. Tenney, Beriah Brown, II. w.
@funnison and Sam Ryan
Incidents of the Glover Rescue
Since for his activity in the Glover
rescue Mr.. Booth became a prisoner CT
SE1e United States, and his case was
dragged in weary lengths through the
courts. Incidents of his part in that his
9Sric Milwaukee episode form perhaps
ahs most interesting event with which he
w-as actively identified. Of that event
z1s himself declared:
3@In riding through the streets of Mil
waulzee to call public meeting, [ did
mot cry, as was reported and sworn to-
~Freemen to the rescue A forcible res
a.a7e was never my purpose. [ aimed
simply TO secure for Glover a fair trial
and competent counsel. And in calling
Ehe meeting / used but two forms of
speech, viz, All freemen, or 'All free
citizens who are opposed to being made
slaves or slave-catchers, turn out to
meeting in the courthouse square at .
O'Clock, the only variation being that