OCR Text |
Show THE BRANDED HAND. THE 8 TORY OF CAPTAIN JONATHAN WALK EH, TO WHOM A MONUMENT HAS BEZN JUST ERKCTED, On tbe let ineUrjt, at Muskegon, Mich., a morjument to Captain Jonathan Walker whb unveiled with somewhat elaborate ceremoniea, in the presence o( a vagt concourse of people. The reason for this honor is sufficiently given in the following extract from tbe oration pronounced on the occasion by .Parker Pillsbury: Captain Walker's crime waa an attempt at-tempt to aid some slaves in escaping t one of the Bahama Islands ofl tbe coast of Florida, where, as in Canada, under Briliab monarchy, instead ol a boasting but bastard republic, they would be free. Thousands by this time, now 18i-t, and tourteen years after Garrison had uniurled the Liberator to tbe free breezaaof heaven, had found their way to Canada, land of queene and kings, and were safe. Bale beneath the paw of the British lion from the bloody beak and terrible talons of tbe American eagl. As aid-de-camp to General Washington, Wash-ington, Lafayette did gallant service in rescuing Washington and bis oppressed countrymen from tbe yoke ol British thraldom and tyranny; and Bunker Hill Monument commemorates commemor-ates hia deeds, and in solemn silence sounds bis praiie in all ears through all time. Captain Walker discovered a people whose suOerings, Jefferson himself being witness, were, in each single hour, more dreadlul than a whole age of Washington's; and what should he do when a handful of them appealed to bim for aid, and he had, as be pre sumed, the means for their deliverance deliver-ance at hand ? We know what he did, but not what he endured. Many indeed died under their terrible ter-rible infliction.'.; and propj-bly few e3cnped death who unfit;. ed su terribly as did he. But in his suHorinp? he triumpht d. That bmudtnl hand became be-came immortal. And though now, beneath this beautiful monument, it lies, like John Brown's body, "mouldering in tbe ground, " 0113 soul, too, goes marching on forevtr more. Let me give ycu A FALT OF UIS FIIiST LETTER. To his wile after his capture by the slaveholders, then more fierce than tbe wildcat savages of tho woods. It id dated Pcndacoiit, July 29, 1S44 "Dear Wife and Childi.en: I hid privileged, by the mercy ot God the Father, of writing to you once nioro. but not in tbe situation I wr.u.'tl choose. About tho time ol my lu-i letter I had arranged to take some passengers to Nassau, in Ntw Frovi dence, a British island eastwmd from Cipe Florida. On the od of June I started with seven colored penp!i though quite unwell, as I had bteu for two dava. But I did not eiDcc' to live twenty-four hours. My disc-use. intermittent fever and interna! canker. And 6uch hot weather I never in my live Bftw before. We proceeded doreu tbe coast till, July 8th, we were overhauled over-hauled by a wrecker, the sloop Catharine, from Key West, and by force taken to thai port. There I was carried before a justice of the peaco, and to jail, where I waa kept lour days. Then I was put down into the hold of a Bteambct, among rubbish and filth, the beat being extreme, placed in heavy irons-, bold hands and feet, and kept six djy, in which time the vessel steamed to I'emacola. There I was taken to court , and from thence toja;l, where I now am, secured to a large ringbolt ring-bolt by a cjaiu made'of half inch iron, with a shackle round my ankle which weigbB five pounds. And Captain Walker repeatedly told bis friends after his release that, huge as waa that shackle, it became nearly imbedded out of sight by the swelling ol hia limbs, but be did not write that to his wife and children. "Jane, what will become of you and tbe children? I have lost all ol the little I had here, and am confident confi-dent that at this time- you and th-; children are iu want. Send to F.tll Kiver and got the little money du; there, and do aa well aa you can. j 'The Lord Jesus lias been abund- i antly good to mo in ray alllictioun, and I am sure he will accompany me through, for I cannot let him go Dear wile and children, trust iu him to aid you." His aged father and mother wet. remembered in the same short letter To them he wrote: ''O, my dear r.:ti father and mother, do not wony about me. I am in good kj:i Iu, and shall weather tho flora.." Yes, he did weather the torm. But little dreamed ho then wh .taalorm it was to be. W,hen caplurod he was too ill to walk, only na supper. ml by two strong! men. Ami ou'y Ur t he persistent determination of the eiienfl, he would have been muidertd by the exasperated exas-perated crowd on his way to prison. HIS CELL was without chair, bed or tab!e, and hia only resting place was the floor, foul, damp aud bard, and twenty pounds of irju chain aud shaokle were actually riveted, as be told me, on his fevered and unfeebled limba. But had they been cobwebs he could I not have eeeJDtd. Tbe food furnished him, even a healthy stomach could not and should not have borne. I Only two days belorc he was cora-'g mi rul, ft poor slave hud cut hfl' turuat through 10 the hone to t'i!Cp a worse dcalti. And yr-t srar"-!" w"-ho w"-ho buried his blood Im-l u-t . -u wa-h(:d hom the flu.r am- :, it w-.o fjutid that be was a mine. tut a an uie! of the crime fur which he hm! bct-ii doomed to die. Ciptun Walker iicd to fcit down on that t.!n,ly floor. '11 1 e sentence after trial was: "Ou'j hour in the pillory, pelted with uu merchantable egc.s; one year iu priiim fur each slave acveu in all; fGUO fur -each bh'-ve and al the costs, and be ; branded on tho right baud with & , lari;e S by a red hot braudiug iron " All the bills lor tines and c.a'.s Wt're made to exceed $100,000. A hoy who saw tho b..d egn$ thrown cri'.d sbamn, when a rulliauly w;eicii tore cfT a bandage which had been put on to protect tbe face ot the victim. That boy was arrested, taken into another county, and lined lor his heinous offense. The brandiug iron had to be made for the occasion. Ono blacksmith r.; fused to make it. He aaid he made fiueh to be used on Ikjub, hurdt-d aud catile, but not on meu. Another waa 'ound to make if; hut ri'lus.id I.U lore to heat u, ivtieu it e.uiie Lj he used. Hi; nwOrn there wh out oue tire io tin nuivi.-r,;! tout dhnuld heat an iron fjr 8.10b a mc Bjt, at length, all thiot; with pro pared. Tbe instrument il .inpuitpri..1 torture aud torment ,t. nt hru:i:ng and hissing deep into the fl-sh of a hand that was ever open tu succor the poor and the outcast; but novcr, no, nover, waa once lifted in any unrighteous un-righteous cause. Captain Walker called the letter "the seal," "the coat ot arms" of tbe United States. Uis friends raised $700 and sent down to an attorney to defend his suit. The lawyer, whose name was Blount, bluntly pocketed the money, but kept aay lrora the tnal and out of the court-house. Ttie trial was in a United States court, and the name of tbe marihal at ibat time for the Florida district was Ebentzer Dorr, and a native 0! the Btate of Maine, and willing to pimp and pander to tbe Blave holders Hid bills aud accounts were curiosities, curiosi-ties, but need not here be reproduced. |