y came
down to this place, and learned that they had been put on a boat
at 3 P.M. I did not arrive until 6. Now all hopes of their
recovery are gone. No case ever so enlisted my sympathies. I had
seen Mr. Concklin in Cincinnati. I had given him aid and
counsel. I happened to see them after they landed in Indiana. I
heard Peter and Levin tell their tale of suffering, shed tears
of sorrow for them all; but now, since they have fallen a prey
to the unmerciful blood-hounds of this state, and have again
been dragged back to unrelenting bondage, I am entirely
unmanned. And poor Concklin! I fear for him. When he is dragged
back to Alabama, I fear they will go far beyond the utmost rigor
of the law, and vent their savage cruelty upon him. It is with
pain I have to communicate these things. But you may not hear
them from him. I could not get to see him or them, as Vincennes
is about thirty miles from Princeton, where I was when I heard
of the capture.
I take pleasure in stating that, according to the letter he
(Concklin) wrote to Mr. D. Stewart, Mr. Concklin did not abandon
them, but risked his own liberty to save them. He was not with
them when they were taken; but went afterwards to take them out
of jail upon a writ of Habeas Corpus, when they seized him too
and lodged him in prison.
I write in much haste. If I can learn any more facts of
importance, I may write you. If you desire to hear from me
again, or if you should learn any thing specific from Mr.
Concklin, be pleased to write me at Cincinnati, where I expect
to be in a short time. If curious to know your correspondent, I
may say I was formerly Editor of the "New Concord Free Press,"
Ohio. I only add that every case of this kind only tends to make
me abhor my (no!) _this_ country more and more. It is the
Devil's Government, and God will destroy it.
Yours for the slave, N.R. JOHNSTON.
P.S. I broke open this letter to write you some more. The
foregoing pages were written at night. I expected to mail it
next morning before leaving Evansville; but the boat for which I
was waiting came down about three in the morning; so I had to
hurry on board, bringing the letter along. As it now is I am not
sorry, for coming down, on my way to St. Louis, as far as
Paducah, there I learned from a colored man at the wharf that,
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