H[enry] O. Wagoner to Frederick Douglass, February 8, 1854
LETTER FROM H. O. WAGONER.
CHICAGO, Feb. 8th, 1854.
FRIEND DOUGLASS: MY DEAR SIR:—Up-
per "Egypt" is still alive, and by the bless-
ing of God, I trust she will keep alive. She
awoke up from her long slumbers, soon after
the passage of the late Illinois "Black Law"
—and the vitality of a people is indicated
by the degree of activity which they mani-
fest.
We had a well-attended and enthusiastic
mass meeting last evening, to express our
indignation in reference to the notorious
John Mitchel.
The meeting was organized by appointing
Jno. Jones, Chairman, and B. J. Smith, Sec-
retary.
On motion, William Johnson stated the
object of the meeting.
I broke off at the foregoing sentence to go
to the Nebraska meeting, from which I have
just returned; and it is now 11 o'clock at
night. But what shall I say of the charac-
ter of this meeting? I was "touched at it;
confused by it; charmed with it; proud of
it." It has inspired me with renewed hope,
brighter and happier future for our oppress-
ed people of this land. There, in that
meeting, I saw many of the most intimate
personal friends and supporters of the so-
called "Little Giant." These men, from the
force of circumstances, were forced into pe-
culiar positions, and hence impelled, invol-
untarily, to say many things which commit-
ted them on the side of freedom, and which
nothing else could have forced them into,
and caused them to utter such sentiments as
I heard on that occasion by old line Demo-
crats and Whigs, save the hell-black and
heaven-daring "Nebraska Bill" of your wor-
thy name-sake. Though prejudiced against
these men by party, and almost every other
political consideration, yet, on this occasion,
I felt all the force and charms of their elo-
quence. This Nebraska Bill, after all, is
certainly a God-send, and will, in my opin-
ion, work out a "far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory" for our cause. It
will serve to add another link in the chain of
freedom, which is now being wrought out in
this country. But it does appear as though
there were some special Providence in this
matter.
But to return from this disgression. I was
about to say, that after the object of the
meeting was stated by William Johnson,
Byrd Parker moved that a committee of five
be appointed by the Chairman to draft reso-
lutions expressive of the sense of the meet-
ing.
The Chairman appointed Byrd Parker, J.
D. Bonner, Wm. Johnson, Henry Bradford,
and R. H. Rollins said committee.
The committee retired into another room,
and during their absence the meeting was
addressed by the writer. The committee
returned, and J. D. Bonner made the follow-
ing report:
Whereas, James Haughton, a merchant of
Dublin, a christian and philanthropist, re-
cently addressed a letter to Thomas Francis
Meagher, John O'Brien, and others, calling
upon their friends and fellow-countrymen to
advocate and sustain universal freedom in
the United States—freedom for the black
man as well as freedom for the white man—and expressing a hope in the same letter,
that when John Mitchel should arrive in
America, that he would pursue the same
noble and manly couse in the United States,
which had characterized his movements in
Ireland; and whereas, John Mitchel, in re-
plying to the letter of Mr. Haughton, says,
in the second number of his paper, the Citi-
zen, "We deny that it is a crime, or a wrong,
or even a pecadillo, to hold slaves, to buy
slaves, to sell slaves, to keep slaves at their
work by flogging, or other needful coercion;
and we, for our part, wish we had a planta-
tion well stocked with healthy negroes in
Alabama;" wherefore,
Resolved, That John Mitchel, the Irish
refugee, and mock apostle of liberty, in utter-
ing his contemptible pro-slavery sentiments
through the columns of his polluted sheet,
the Citizen, has unveiled his true character
to the world; and a more revolting, loath-
some and base creature has never before set
his foot upon the American shores.
Resolved, That notwithstanding John
Mitchel, the so-called Irish patriot, has shown
himself an enemy to the sacred cause of the
American slave, for which we brand him
with our unanimous scorn and contempt—still, it has not, and never shall, lessen our
sympathies for oppressed Irishmen, nor for
the oppressed people of every color, coun-
try and clime.
Resolved, That we regard the course of
John Mitchel as not of sufficent force to
injure the cuase of the American slave; but
we believe it actually tends to abate the sym-
pathy for, and therefore injures the cause
of his own oppressed fellow-countrymen, by
producing in the minds of many a mistrust
of the sincerity and patriotism of all the
prominent leaders and exponents of the Irish
grievances with whom Jno. Mitchel has acted.
Resolved, That his recent declaration, that
"Slavery is no crime;" that "it is not wrong,
nor even a peccadillo to hold slaves, and to
keep them to work by flogging or other need-
ful coercion," should bring down upon him
the frowns and execration of all true friends
of freedom throughout the world; and that
his aspirations to the ownership of a "good
plantation in Alabama, well stocked with
healthy negroes," evinces, on his part, a total
i[n]capacity to appreciate the boon of freedom
which he now enjoys.
Resolved, That we deeply regret the mis-
pent sympathy which we felt for the vile mis-
creant John Mitchel, and his escape from ex-
ile, and shall not cease to ask forgiveness
for our misguided folly.
The resolutions were taken up by sections,
and after able, pertinent, lucid and well-
timed remarks, by Bonner, Parker, Johnson,
Bradford and Rollins, they were unanimous-
ly adopted.
Yours for the universal
Brotherhood of Man,
H. O. WAGONER.