Poplar Ridge, Jan. 6, 1848.

Dear Friend Douglass:—Events do happen which ought to be told to expose the utter shamelessness of their authors. I have not the vanity, however, to suppose that I can chronicle them in such a manner as to interest your readers. I do often wish that I had the power of giving vent to my indignation, when I have the misfortune to witness what I did yesterday, at Northville, in this county.

A Locofoco ex-judge and a Whig Presbyterian deacon were in conversation, on the subject of the Mexican war. The deacon expressed the opinion, unqualifiedly, that the war was justifiable on the part of the United States; and he thought that our "national honor" required that we should prosecute it vigorously, until we compel the Mexicans to pay the expenses of it, and give us an "honorable peace."

Of course, the ex-functionary of state subscribed to all this, and said, farther, that we ought to push the matter through, "right or wrong."

The church where this patriotic deacon attends was built new last year, and dedicated to the "worship of God, and to be kept for that purpose only;" and, consequently, is not opened to the friends of the slave.

This fact is one of a thousand which show that on the CHURCH rests the responsibility of the iniquities of the land. Let her rottenness be exposed, and let her go down to posterity, hated and despised of all honest men, as she is now of God.

Yours, for Truth and Freedom,

H. COLLINSCollins, Hezekiah

Hezekiah Collins (1798–1877) was a teacher and farmer who lived in Cayuga County, New York, in the 1840s and 1850s. He was born in Rhode Island and moved to New York in the 1830s. In addition to farming and teaching, Collins operated a small merchandising business for a period. After his time in New York, he settled in Hamilton County, Indiana, where he raised cattle. There, Collins helped to erect a Quaker Meeting House in the countryside of Hamilton County. His home was said to be a haven for those traveling the Underground Railroad. “Scipio, P. O.,” Auburn (N.Y.) Journal and Advertiser, 26 January 1842; “First Indiana State Fair,” Richmond (Ind.) Palladium, 1 November 1852; 1840 and 1850 U. S. Census, Ledyard, Cayuga, New York; 1860 and 1870 U. S. Census, Clay Township, Hamilton, Indiana; Augustus Finch Shirts, A History of the Formation, Settlement and Development of Hamilton County, Indiana (Noblesville, Ind.: Augustus Finch Shirts, 1901), 148; 739. .