Gerrit Smith to Frederick Douglass, February 24, 1853
Peterboro, [N.Y.] 24 Feb[ruary] 1853.
Mr. DOUGLASS :—
The account in yesterday’s Tribune1Horace Greeley founded the New York Tribune in 1841. Following stints editing two small campaign papers, the Log Cabin and the Jeffersonian, Greeley printed the first four-page, five-column issue of the Tribune on 10 April 1841. Conceived as a “cheap” political paper that honest workingmen could turn to for moral direction and nonpartisan political analysis, the Tribune was to be antislavery, anti-rum, anti-tobacco, anti-seduction, anti-grogshops, anti-brothel, and anti-gambling house, among other things. With the financial talents of the Whig lawyer Thomas McElrath, Greeley built the Tribune into a profitable enterprise, printing a daily morning edition as well as a weekly edition, which was sold mainly by $2 yearly subscription. Within only a few years, the Tribune became the leader in national news, and Greeley was the best-known newspaperman in the country. George H. Douglas, (Westport, Conn., 1999), 39-43; Louis M. Starr, (New York, 1954), 98-116; , 8:806—08. of the meeting in Syracuse, 22d inst.,
is not free from mistakes.
Ist. It represents the meeting to have been a Free Democratic State
Convention, whereas it was a Liberty Party State Convention.2The Liberty party remnant, led by Gerrit Smith, held a convention on 22 February 1853 at the Congregational Church in Syracuse, New York. In an article entitled “Free Democratic State Convention,” the New York Daily Tribune reported the resolutions passed and recorded Gerrit Smith’s comments about the Jerry Rescue trials in its 24 February issue. The convention was covered in greater detail in the 4 March issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper. The convention’s attendees were members of the Liberty party; both Douglass and Gerrit Smith were in attendance. Topics included the association of the Liberty party with other parties, the Fugitive Slave Law, criticism of the judiciary conducting the Jerry Rescue trials, the Constitution as it related to the issue of slavery, prejudice, future prospects for blacks, and the anticipation of a financial gift from Harriet Beecher Stowe to endow a manual-labor college. New York , 24 February 1853; , 4 March 1853; , ser. 1, 2:xxxiii.
2d. It makes me compare Judge Hall3Nathan Kelsey Hall (1810-74) was born and educated in Marcellus, Onondaga County, New York. He studied law with Millard Fillmore, and the two men formed a legal practice together. In 1842, Hall was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Erie County. He remained on the bench until he was elected to the state assembly in 1845, then to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1847, serving only one term. Hall continued to practice law until Fillmore appointed him postmaster general in 1850. He later briefly held the position of secretary of the interior, and Fillmore appointed him federal judge of the Northern District of New York in 1852. He remained on the bench until his death. FDP, 11 February 1853; New York , 3 March 1874; David McAdam et al., eds., , 2 vols. (New York, 1897), 2:341; James O. Putnam, “Nathan Kelsey Hall,” P 4:285—98 (1896); Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 6 vols. (New York, 1888-89), 3:43; Robert Sobel, ed., (Westport, Conn., 1990), 158-59; (online); , 6:183; , 8:141-42. with the infamous Jeffries.4Gerrit Smith refers to the British judge George Jeffreys (1645-89), who was often referred to as the “hanging judge.” Jeffreys was born at his family estate, Acton Park, near Wrexham in Denbighshire, England. He attended Cambridge University without graduating and joined the bar in 1668. Jeffreys was elected common sergeant of London in 1671, knighted by Charles II, and became a member of the king’s counsel in 1677. Jeffreys maintained a hard line against those accused of treason or seditious writing, often using his powers of persuasion to sway hung juries. With the accession of James II, Jeffreys was elevated to chief justice of the King’s Bench in 1683, raised to the peerage as first Baron Jeffreys of Wem in 1685, and became lord chancellor. Jeffreys earned his nickname as a result of his involvement in the “Bloody Assizes,” proceedings related to a rebellion mounted by the Duke of Monmouth and his followers against James II. Of the 2,600 people who were detained, almost half confessed to treason, 1,381 were tried, most were convicted, and 200 were executed. The remainder and those who confessed were sent to the West Indies. Humphrey W. Woolrych, (Philadelphia,1852), 149-206; H. B. Irving, (New York, 1898), 258-308; Juliet Gardiner, ed., (London, 2000), 458; George E. Cokayne, , rev. ed., 6 vols. 1910-59; Gloucester, Eng., 2000), 3:83-84.
But what I said was, that the practice in the U. S. Courts in Philadelphia,
Boston, and Albany, in requiring Jurors to swear to uphold an enactment
for slavery,5While no record could be located of the judicial practice requiring jurors to swear to uphold an enactment for slavery, it was common for judges to instruct juries that their decisions had to be based on law rather than conscience. In Van Metre v. Mitchell, heard in Pennsylvania in October 1853, Circuit Justice Robert Grier instructed the jury to disregard personal feelings about human rights and reach a decision considering only the legalities of the case involving the Fugitive Slave Law. Other cases featuring similar jury instructions include Giltner v. Gorham in Michigan, 1848; the United States v. Morris in Boston, May 1851; and Weimer v. Sloane in Ohio, October 1854. , 30 vols. (St. Paul, Minn., 1894-97), 10:432, 28:1039; Stanley W. Campbell, (1968; Chapel Hill, N.C., 1970), 137-38; Robert M. Cover, (New Haven, Conn., 1975), 231-32, 260-61; Jeffrey Abramson, (New York, 1994), 80-81. if the Judge shall tell them it is constitutional, is an encroach-
ment on the rights of Jurors, of which even Jeffries himself was not guilty.
3d. It makes me say, that one of the Jurors in the Enoch Reed6Enoch Reed (?-1853) participated in the 1 October 1851 raid in Syracuse to free Jerry
McHenry. All but one of the participants in the Jerry Rescue were charged with treason, but were later acquitted. Reed was the only man to be convicted. He died before his appeal could be heard. Lib., 17 June 1853; Campbell, Slave Catchers, 156; Paul Finkelman et. al., eds., , 3 vols. (New York, 2006), 2:76. case
“avowed, that the conviction was caused by physical exhaustion."7The New York Daily Tribune claimed that Gerrit Smith asserted that one of the jurors at Enoch Reed’s trial, a Mr. Waggoner, expressed regret over the verdict and attributed his guilty vote to exhaustion. The article also quoted Smith as having stated that “the course pursued by Judge Hall at Albany ... surpassed in outrage anything in the conduct of the infamous Jeffries.” Smith was pleased at the outcome of the trials, but stated that he “would have been more gratified had the accused boldly avowed their agency in the Jerry rescue.” He indicated that he would have done so, and that he and the Reverend Samuel J. May were the responsible rescuers of Jerry, an assertion with which May agreed. Smith claimed that if he were put on trial, he would admit all. Smith and May were never tried. Smith noted that he sat by Judge Nathan K. Hall during the rescue trials, that he argued his case against slavery to the judge, and that he “brought him round virtually to his position upon the question of Slavery.” New York , 24 February 1853; , 4 March 1853. That it
was so caused was, however, but the opinion, which Mr. May8Samuel Joseph May (1797-1871), a prominent Unitarian minister from Boston, was an active Garrisonian abolitionist. He worked to integrate his congregations and shocked his parishioners by inviting Angelina Grimké to address them on the subject of abolition. A general agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society in the early 1830s, May also advocated women’s rights, temperance, peace, and the abolition of capital punishment. In 1845 he moved to Syracuse, New York, where he became active in the Underground Railroad. Donald Yacovone, (Philadelphia, 1991); , 6:447-48. and I ex-
pressed in the Convention. What Mr. May and I said of this Juror was, that
he appeared to regret the verdict. Another Juror,[]also, as I was informed
by District Attorney Colvin,9Andrew J. Colvin (1808-89) began his legal career at the age of sixteen, when he joined the law office of Martin Van Buren. Colvin served as city attorney and corporation counsel for Albany, New York, before becoming district attorney of Albany County. Colvin also served as counsel for the defense in the Jerry Rescue Trials of 1853. In 1859 he was elected to the New York State Senate. Colvin voted for the first appropriation of equipment for Northern troops and encouraged his colleagues to do likewise following the attack on Fort Sumter. Upon his retirement from the state senate, Colvin continued his private law practice in Albany. New York , 27 January 1853, 21 July 1889. regretted it.
4th. It makes me say, that, were I on trial, I would “tell all about
it"—that is, about the rescue of Jerry. This was said by Mr. May—not by
myself.
5th. It leaves room for the belief, that I boasted in the Convention,
that I had argued Judge Hall into my “position on the question of slavery.”
Indeed, I wish, that I had been able to do so. But I have no evidence, that I
was. It is true, that, in a conversation with me, he declared, that he would
forcibly resist a certain outrage upon his family; and it is, therefore, true,
that he c[a]nnot, without great and guilty inconsistency, punish the forc-
ible resistance of an attempt to enslave. But it is not true, that this decla-
ration of the Judge was produced by any power of argument on my part.
GERRIT SMITH.
PLSr: FDP, 4 March 1853.