JOHN W. HURN¹John White Hurn (1823-87), born in Norwich, England, was a telegraph operator in Cincinnati and later in Philadelphia. Hurn also engaged in a photography business while in Philadelphia, taking a daguerreotype of Douglass sometime around 1859 that has been reproduced frequently. When Douglass was lecturing in Philadelphia in October 1859, Hurn temporarily suppressed a telegram that ordered Douglass’s arrest for complicity in the Harpers Ferry raid. Instead of delivering the telegram to the Philadelphia sheriff, Hurn alerted Douglass, who fled the city. Hurn later moved to New Jersey and became a newspaper editor. Douglass to John W. Hurn, 12 June 1882, Frederick Douglass Mss., LNArc; , 28 April 1854; Washington (D.C.) , 21 February 1895; C. S. Williams, (Cincinnati, 1853), 193, 378; , ser. 1, 2:472; Bessie Bristol Mason, “Louis Jules Gabriel Boussard Mounier,” , 23:160 (January 1938). TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Philadelphia, [Pa.] 24 Aug[ust] 1856.

FRIEND DOUGLASS:—

Allow me to congratulate you on the higher position you have assumed. I say , for it is the greatest of human achievements to sacrifice the cherished sentiments of years, and bring the mind from a contemplation of the lofty ideal of political perfection, to the necessities and struggles of to-day. Besides the opposition of your own sense of consistency, (the jewel that is worshipped as the Koh-i-noor²The Koh-i-noor was the largest known diamond in the world in the 1850s. Its name in Persian means “Mountain of Light.” Discovered in India and owned by several Indian dynasties, the Koh-i-noor later came into possession of the British East India Company in 1850 and later the British monarchy. Edwin Streeter, (London, 1882), 116-35. of morals,) you have to endure the misrepresentation of enemies, and the misunderstanding of friends. But I am happy to see that you have triumphed in spirit over all, and are bringing up your “war contingent” where it can be made available to assault at least the outworks of slavery. These outworks are often the most important of the enemy’s position. At the siege of Toulon,³Toulon was the first successful major military engagement in the career of Napoleon Bonaparte. On 16 September 1793, Bonaparte, only a captain at the time, was appointed commander of the French artillery at the siege of Toulon. Held by the British and their French Royalist allies, Toulon boasted what many considered one of the finest harbors in the Mediterranean and was the headquarters of the French Mediterranean fleet. Bonaparte convinced his senior officers that the key to retaking the city was a hill called the Needle Point (l’Aiguillette), which lay on a promontory at the entrance to the harbor. After taking Needle Point and strategically placing his artillery around it, Bonaparte rained a continual artillery barrage on the British fleet at anchor in the harbor. After several days of being under direct fire, the fleet was forced to evacuate, leaving the city open to attack. Following a series of successful assaults on the remaining allied infantry positions—Bonaparte had his horse shot out from under him and received what would be his only real battle wound, a bayonet
thrust to the thigh, in the final assault—the French retook Toulon on 19 December 1793. Bonaparte, who had been raised to the rank of major in October, was promoted to brigadier general in recognition of his efforts at Toulon. Steven Englund, (New York, 2004), 61-65; General Sir James Marshall-Cornwall, (London, 1967), 35-40. the genius of the young Napoleon⁴Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was emperor of France from 1804 to 1815. saw that a certain outstanding tower was the true point of attack. They took it, and the city fell. The Malakoff⁵The Malakoff and the Redan were the two most important forts protecting the city of Sebastopol, which was home to the Russian Black Sea fleet. Almost exactly one year after placing the city under siege, the British and French launched a simultaneous attack on the two forts in September 1855. While the French succeeded in taking the Malakoff, the Russians were able to hold off the
British forces attacking the Redan. The French turned the Malakoff’s guns against the Redan, and the Russians were forced to abandon it, allowing the British to take possession. Less than twenty-four hours later, the Russians pulled their forces out of Sebastopol, burned what remained of the Black Sea fleet, and destroyed the city’s fortifications. Although hostilities dragged on until February 1856, the Crimean War effectively ended with the fall of Sebastopol. R. G. Grant, ed., (New York, 2011), 597; Adrian Gilbert, (Guilford, Conn., 2003), 183-85. was not Sebastopol, but , in possession of the Allies, the city was untenable.—Kansas is now the Malakoff of the slave power. An outwork, thrown up within the last two years, but strong in its foundation, and commanding in position, be taken as the prelude to further conquests. Left in possession of the slave power, the Senate necessarily continues for many years to come its ally. Taken by the forces of Freedom, the Senate may soon be ranged upon the side of the right. Is not this worth fighting for? The anti-slavery man who refuses to unite with others for the prohibition of slavery in Kansas, because they are not prepared to join him in abolishing it in all the Southern States, resembles a farmer who will not help his neighbors to prevent an inundation of their mutual possessions, because they are not willing to engage in the task of draining the lake from which the water flows. His plan may be the most effectual for future prevention, but they have not sufficient force to accomplish that, and unless they immediately and earnestly labor for present protection, they are overwhelmed by the rushing waters, and their fertile fields are forever added to its bounds.

A true physician will not refuse to ameliorate the condition of his patient, because he cannot be certain of a permanent and radical cure—nor to prevent the spread of a disease, because he cannot eradicate its cause—nor will a sensible sick man object to the course, but will gladly avail himself of such aid as he can get now, as the only possible stepping stone to future improvement. Besides, if it be useless and wrong to labor for Freedom in Kansas, because we cannot at the same time secure it in Georgia and Alabama, then it would also be absurd to work for its triumph there unless we could do the same in Russia and Brazil, and we at once become the Quixotes⁶Hurn likens those who do not support the prohibition of slavery in Kansas without its simultaneous abolishment in Georgia and Alabama to the romantic idealist Don Quixote, the eponymous character in Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s picaresque novel, published in 1605. Quixote assumes the role of a knight-errant, long after the age of chivalry, and embarks on a quest to make right all that he imagines wrong with his world. Brewer, , 1134. of political righteousness.

With those who assert that slavery should be abolished everywhere, I cordially agree, and extend the application of the principle to all other forms of wrong, wishing that a universal vote could be taken on the question, and I have no doubt it would be carried in the abstract by immense majorities. But,

“Why thus longing why forever sighing,
For the far off, unattained and dim?”⁷Harriet Winslow Sewall, “Why Thus Longing?” in (Cambridge, Mass., 1889), 19-21.

The work for us to set ourselves about, is that which there is a fair prospect of accomplishing, wherein all the strength of the cause can be united, and no effort wasted. This combination exists in the case of Kansas, and success there will be an earnest of further and final victory, for,

“Freedom’s battle once begun,
Though baffled oft is ever won.”
In this instance I trust not to be,
“Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son.”⁸ Hurn quotes Lord Byron’s poem “The Giaour.” Byron, , 3:43-44.

Yours, truly,

J. W. HURN.

PLSr: , 5 September 1856.