THE MARTYR KAUFFMAN.
SALEM, (Col. Co.,) Ohio, Dec. 15, 1853.
MY DEAR FRIEND – I have been thinking a great deal of the case of DANIEL KAUFFMAN. I cannot get it out of my mind. It seems to me that something should be done to save him from being reduced to want. I was not present when the subject was named in the meeting, or I should have proposed a subscription on the spot. Will you please put down my name for ten dollars? If a hundred people will subscribe ten dollars each, I will subscribe a second ten dollars. I know that many of the Anti-Slavery friends are poor, and I also know that many calls are made on them; still, we can meet the case before us, and I hope we shall do so. I would not let the pro-slavery monsters have the pleasure of thinking that they have either ruined a man for harboring a fugitive, or frightened others from imitating his example. If I were rich, I feel as if it would be a pleasure to bear the whole expense entailed on friend KAUFFMAN and his associates; but I am not. Besides, I want to give as much help to the cause of freedom here in the West as I can. I hope, therefore, the friends of freedom and righteousness will help friend KAUFFMAN over his difficulties, and let the persecutors of the good and noble see that their power to crush and kill is not so great as they are prone to think it.
My love to all the friends of freedom. I think of our Philadelphia meeting with great delight. The cause of truth and freedom is advancing, and if we Abolitionists are wise enough to respect the claims of truth and freedom in each other, it will continue to advance. But we must have no gagging. We most tolerate no attempt to stifle the godlike spirit in any one. The fears lest freedom of utterance in any meetings should injure the cause, are groundless. The danger is more on the other side. True policy, as well as fervent charity, will be nobly daring. It is bad policy, as well as selfishness, to move or stand still in dread opponents or temporisers.
But let me not provoke a controversy. It is friend KAUFFMAN that I want helped. Raise him one or two thousand pounds, and I can be comfortable.
Yours, affectionately, JOSEPH BARKER.
Will the Pennsylvania Freeman and other Anti-Slavery papers please copy?
