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to seek relief abroad; and early in March following he took passage in the steamship “Fulton,” at New York, for Havre.
His last word before sailing was on behalf of that fair territory where the friends and the foes of the freedom of the colored race were in conflict.
In a letter to Mr. Redpath, dated on board “The Fulton,” March 7, 1857, he said, “Do any sigh for a Thermopylae?
They have it in Kansas; for there is to be fought the great battle between freedom and slavery, by the ballot-box I trust; but I do not forget that all who destroy the ballot-box madly invoke the cartridge-box. With a farewell to my country as I seek a foreign land for health long deferred, I give my best thoughts to suffering Kansas, with devout prayers that the usurpation which now treads her down may be proudly overthrown, and that she may be lifted into the enjoyment of freedom and repose.”
Soon after his arrival at Paris, a public dinner was tendered him (April 28) by the American merchants residing in that city; and in his letter deciding, on account of the state of his health, not to accept the honor, occurs this elegant paragraph:--
“Pardon the allusion, when I add that you are the daily industrious workmen in that mighty loom whose frame stands on the coasts of opposite continents, ”
B. B. Russell, 1874.
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