i86o.] 



OPPRESSED BY SLAVERY. 



237 



good case for quitting Warrington, therefore resign.' If it means 

 no more than this, I understand it from the Unitarian point of 

 view, but it runs off me like water off oiled paper. Cheverus's 

 rule, 6 The man who wants me is the man I want/ is my stand- 

 ing text. . . . Here is a school ready prepared for all my 

 work, and the people who used to be the stiffest of Unitarians 

 want me to return. Am I at liberty to refuse this call, because 

 I think I should like to try and create preaching openings in 

 Canada ? " 



He was most anxious to gain any light as to his duty, and 

 his letters reveal a painful state of indecision. This was in- 

 creased by the depressing nature of his life. In the previous 

 summer he had looked forward to his stay in Washington with 

 much pleasure. The work assigned him at the Smithsonian 

 Institution was one which he regarded as very important, and 

 for which he was peculiarly qualified. He anticipated great 

 benefit from intercourse with men eminent in science and 

 politics : but he could not enjoy himself in the presence of that 

 iniquity which was so soon to convulse the nation ; while he 

 felt pledged to raise no voice against it. He was " lonely 

 and broken-hearted" — " oppressed by the slavery in which he 

 dwells." He plodded on at his work : it took him five months 

 instead of three; but he would have condemned himself if 

 he had left it for any refreshing change. His journal-letters 

 became very unfrequent : the last of them, after an interval of 

 nearly six weeks, was dated "Senate Hall, Washington, D.C., 

 Feb. 29, i860" :— 



" I have come here in the expectation of hearing Seward : 

 so have several hundred others. Here you have the best side 

 of Republicanism — no getting orders from members or bribing 

 officials ; but the place is more open than a church, plenty of 

 room for all who wish, broad open daylight, and the people 

 conducting themselves with great propriety (all except the 

 spitting), a great contrast to the disgusting ways of the Albany 

 House. The doorkeepers, etc., are very civil and obliging : 

 and I can actually take out my manifold and write, without 

 exciting universal curiosity and ' want to know what's to sell,' 



