38 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



outspoken views on this subject were disliked, but it was 

 not his habit to suppress his convictions. 1 



In 1868, increasingly poor health induced Robinson 

 to resign from his position as agricultural editor of the 

 New-York THbune. Remembering pleasant days spent 

 in Florida, he chose Jacksonville as his place of retire- 

 ment. After fifteen years of association with the Tri- 

 bune, he was unwilling to cut himself off entirely from 

 the paper, and continued to send contributions until 

 shortly before his death. The assertion has been made, 

 and very possibly with truth, that much of the prestige, 

 circulation, and popularity acquired by the New-York 

 Tribune, particularly in the West and South, was due to 

 Solon Robinson's connection and contributions. 2 



The last years of Robinson's life were spent for the 

 most part in his home at Jacksonville, where he occupied 

 his time with writing, a little speaking, and occasional 

 visits to relatives. Frequently articles were contributed 



1 "The Political Situation South," New-York Tribune, October 

 30, 1880. Susan Bradford Eppes, in Through Some Eventful Years, 

 30-41 (Macon, Georgia, 1926), presents a scathing denunciation of 

 Solon Robinson for abolitionist activities, asserting that in the 

 year 1850 he visited the Bradford and neighboring plantations 

 near Tallahassee, Florida, and under the guise of a guest at- 

 tempted to incite slaves to run away. Mrs. Eppes' story, written 

 from memory by one advanced in years, is not to be taken seri- 

 ously; she has declined to answer letters asking for substantiation 

 of her remarks, and independent investigation has failed to reveal 

 corroborative evidence. Evidently she has confused Robinson with 

 someone else, for his character is alien to such an action, and his 

 writings on this subject are in direct contradiction to her state- 

 ments. In a letter of March 23, 1851, written at Lexington, 

 Georgia, to Mariah Robinson at Crown Point, Indiana, Robinson 

 says, "I am more and more satisfied with the institution of slavery 

 as one of the best for the negro race that could be devised, but I 

 am fully satisfied that the opposition to it will dissolve the Union. 

 No country was ever cursed with worse enemies than the aboli- 

 tionists." 



2 Robinson Genealogy, 1:182-83; Ingersoll, Lurton D., Life of 

 Horace Greeley, 130-31 (Chicago, 1873) ; New-York Tribune, No- 

 vember 5, 1880. 



