Dawn Mills, Canada West,

Jan. 6th, 1849.

I am no pugilist, but on the contrary, so much of a non-resistant, that it is with extreme reluctance that I ever wield a weapon even in self-defence. I noticed in the North Star of the 22d ult., a letter from Wm. P. NewmanNewman, William P.

, from the nature and spirit of which he appears to have been much excited by a letter of mine published in the Liberator, and copied from that into your paper. I have no compunctions of conscience about the said letter, and am prepared to reaffirm every word of it. Mr. Newman begins with saying, "It reminds him of certain resolutions published in the Oberlin Evangelist of Oct. 13th, 1847, over the signature of Hamilton Hill, untruer and blacker than which no resolutions were every concocted out of Hades." Why my unoffending letter, which certainly infringed upon no one, should have "reminded him of certain resolutions published in Oberlin" more than a year before, I am unable to see, as there is no apparent affinity between them. My letter said nothing about Mr. Newman. It made no allusion to any resolutions concerning him, either good or bad; and I cannot understand his straining and far-fetching to introduce irrelevant matters, unless it was to show his skill in making a magnant dash at one against whom he had some private antipathy. Hamilton Hill is able to defend himself, and will doubtlessly do so when an attack upon him has any claims to manliness. He is a noble-minded Englishman, of sterling worth, in whose honesty, integrity, and philanthropy, the people of Oberlin, and all true friends of Oberlin, have the fullest confidence, as indicated by the responsible office of treasurer, which he has held there for eight or nine years. A truer friend of the oppressed is not to be found. As in all fairness, Mr. Newman should have introduced the resolutions to which he alluded, or said nothing about them, it becomes my duty to make them known, and also their source. They emanated from the Wesleyan Methodist Conference of Canada, in July, 1847. I sent them to Hamilton Hill, and he made use of them as he thought proper.

Here they are, with a preamble just as they were passed by the conference, and signed by the Chairman and Secretary:

"At a Convention of the Third Annual Conference of the True Wesleyan Connexion of Canada, in the township of Dawn, Canada West, on the 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st of July, 1847, a letter was presented, giving an account of some statements that had been made in a meeting at Oberlin by William P. Newman, respecting the Rev. Hiram WilsonWilson, Hiram

Born in Acworth, New Hampshire, Hiram Wilson (1803-64) studied at Oneida Institute and then Lane Seminary, where he was one of the abolitionist "Rebels." He completed his religious studies at Oberlin under Charles Finney. Together with ex-slave Josiah Henson and Quaker James C. Fuller, in 1841 Wilson cofounded the British-American Institute, a manual labor school for fugitive slaves at Dawn, near Chatham, Canada West. Wilson traveled to England and across the North fundraising, but financial problems plagued the institute, and he resigned as its head in 1849. In the 1850s he headed another school for fugitive slave refugees in St. Catherines, Canada West, supported by the American Missionary Association. Harriet Tubman brought slaves whom she rescued to Wilson's St. Catherine's school. Lawrence Thomas Lesick, The Lane Rebels: Evangelicalism and Antislavery in Antebellum America (Metuchen, N.J., 1980), 168, 181, 191; Jason H. Silverman, Unwelcome Guests: Canada West's Response to American Fugitive Slaves, 1800-1865 (Millwood, N.Y., 1985), 30, 54-56, 116; William H. Pease and Jane H. Pease, Black Utopia: Negro Communal Experiments in America (Madison, Wis., 1963), 64, 68; idem, Bound with Them in Chains, 115-39. , at which meeting the said Wm. P. Newman stated that the Rev. Hiram Wilson could not preach in any colored church in Canada. There being delegates from five different circuits, numbering seventeen, a question was asked, after the reading of the letter, whether any of these seventeen delegates knew of a disposition existing in any of the churches where they had travelled, to close their doors against the Rev. Hiram Wilson, or prohibition from preaching in any of their places of worship. Time being given for an answer, every delegate stated, without hesitation, that no such feeling or spirit existed in their neighborhood. The following resolutions were then offered and adopted without a dissenting voice:

"1st. Resolved, That whereas Wm. P. Newman has reported in a meeting at Oberlin, in the United States, that the Rev. Hiram Wilson is not allowed to preach in any of the colored churches in Canada, this conference deems it their duty to say that said report is founded in falsehood.

"2d. That this conference highly appreciate the labors of love of the Rev. Hiram Wilson, both among and for the colored people of this Province, and earnestly hopes that his life may be spared, that he may see the consummation of his indefatigable efforts.

"3d. Resolved, That the foregoing resolutions be entered among the proceedings of this conference, and a copy of the same be signed by the Chairman and Secretary and presented to our brother, the Rev. Hiram Wilson.

"Josiah Henson, Ch'n.

"Isaac J. Henson, Sec'y."

These are the resolutions alluded to in Mr Newman's letter, and notwithstanding his attempt to spurn them as falsehoods, they are the naked truth, my own experience and consciousness bearing testimony and concurring with the statement of the conference. The, if truthful, he stated publicly at Oberlin that which was absolutely false. If untruthful, then the colored Wesleyan Conference in Canada fabricated and voted a lie. So I have no controversy with Mr. Newman on that point: neither has Hamilton Hill. It lies between him and the conference. That Mr. Newman stated publicly at Oberlin what is alleged against him, and contradicted in the first resolution of the conference, there can be no manner of doubt. It came to me through two authentic channels: one was Hamilton Hill, the other a committee of three persons, appointed at Oberlin in Feb., 1847, who wrote on the 23d of that month to the committee of the Canada Mission in Rochester, and communicated the same thing. Now if Mr. Newman will get along with the matter honorably, I will endeavor, in the meantime to attend to my own appropriate business.

When I wrote to the Liberator, I wrote as a missionary and benefactor of the refugees in this country. I had then no official connection with the Dawn Institute, and have not at present. I do not feel called upon to answer sixteen interrogatories for Mr. Newman, over the heads of trustees and committeemen, for whose proceedings, whether good, bad or indifferent, I am not at all responsible; especially after saying, as he does, and then challenging contradiction, that "hitherto the institution has been the curse of our people in Canada," which of course tangles up and implicates himself in bad business, for he was here acting officially in the midst of "the curse" for nearly two years, sustaining and increasing it. Whether he did this wittingly or unwitthingly, we are not informed. If wittingly, then he must have been superlatively base coin—if unwittingly, he must have been stupid indeed!

He professes to sympathize with me in my "want of friends." I have no want of friends, as Mr. Newman supposes, nor am I in want of his sympathy, unless so expressed as to evince sincerity. I wish it understood that my footing here is manly and independent. God being my helper, I shall do right,

and be sustained and blessed in well-doing, although my reward comes not from those whose welfare I seek.

My hands are full. I am furnishing the best of instruction to rising of 50 scholar during the week, my wife and Mrs. Parker assisting me. We have also a peculiarly interesting Sabbath-school of 70 scholars. Superintending this school in the morning, and preaching in the afternoon, constitutes my regular Sabbath-day labors, and yet I have frequent appointments to fill in Dawn and vicinity besides. We are doing all we can for the benefit of the refugees and children. So far as in my power, I have been eyes to the blind and feet to the lame,"—have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and instructed the ignorant, for more than twelve years; but my days in Canada are numbered, and I shall soon leave, with an approving conscience, to seek some other field of labor. I hope, however, to pass through my thirteenth winter campaign, which is now successfully in progress, before leaving. Wherever Divine Providence may lead me, I shall hope to toil on in the great cause of Christian philanthropy even unto death; but not in the entanglements of pro-slavery fellowship, nor under sectarian auspices. I trust that the Lord will raise up friends for the suffering slave and the forlorn fugitive, and that this field will continue to be cultivated by more faithful and worthy hands.

You will do me a favor to give this an early insertion in the North Star, but I am not disposed, like my antagonist, to beg notoriety in "the Ram's Horn, the Emancipator, the Contributor, the Oberlin Evangelist, American Missionary," &c., "with the view of obliging the public."

Very respectfully yours,

Hiram WilsonWilson, Hiram

Born in Acworth, New Hampshire, Hiram Wilson (1803-64) studied at Oneida Institute and then Lane Seminary, where he was one of the abolitionist "Rebels." He completed his religious studies at Oberlin under Charles Finney. Together with ex-slave Josiah Henson and Quaker James C. Fuller, in 1841 Wilson cofounded the British-American Institute, a manual labor school for fugitive slaves at Dawn, near Chatham, Canada West. Wilson traveled to England and across the North fundraising, but financial problems plagued the institute, and he resigned as its head in 1849. In the 1850s he headed another school for fugitive slave refugees in St. Catherines, Canada West, supported by the American Missionary Association. Harriet Tubman brought slaves whom she rescued to Wilson's St. Catherine's school. Lawrence Thomas Lesick, The Lane Rebels: Evangelicalism and Antislavery in Antebellum America (Metuchen, N.J., 1980), 168, 181, 191; Jason H. Silverman, Unwelcome Guests: Canada West's Response to American Fugitive Slaves, 1800-1865 (Millwood, N.Y., 1985), 30, 54-56, 116; William H. Pease and Jane H. Pease, Black Utopia: Negro Communal Experiments in America (Madison, Wis., 1963), 64, 68; idem, Bound with Them in Chains, 115-39. .