February 23, 1855
Craft writes to Garrison, from London. “I was pleased to see that it required military force to return poor Burns into slavery. I think the law would soon become a dead letter, if every fugitive would resolve to remain free, or return to slavery only in his coffin.”
March 9, 1855
In this speech, Burns tells of his arrest. “When I was going home one night I heard someone running behind me; presently a hand was put on my shoulder, and somebody said: “Stop, stop; you are the fellow who broke into a silversmith’s shop the other night.”
I assured the man that it was a mistake, but almost before I could speak I was lifted off my feet by six or seven others, and it was no use to resist. In the Court House, I waited some time, and as the silversmith did not come, I told them I wanted to go home to supper. A man then came to the door; he didn’t open it like an honest man would, but he kind of slowly opened it, and looked in. He said: ‘How do you do, Mr. Burns?’ and, I called him, as we do in Virginia, ‘master’…”…Then follows a description of Burn’s rendition, and eventual sale to McDaniel, of North Carolina, for $950, and then the purchase effected by Mr. Grimes.
August 24. 1855
Higginson writes to Garrison, commenting on a report by Edmund Quincy, which indicates that the rescue was “ill-advised and injudicious”. His response includes:
“If it is ever known, I think it will be admitted that the attempt, however injudicious it may have seemed, came within an inch of success; that the almost-success was not an accident, either, but the result of deliberate calculation; that the final failure, moreover, was the result of circumstances which could not have been foreseen; that if that attempt failed, any other would have failed more surely; that, if that attempt had not been made, none would have been made; that, if no attempt had been made, we would have had the ineffable disgrace of seeing Burns marched down State Street under a corporal’s guard only, amidst a crowd of irresolute semi-abolitionists, hooting, groaning, and never striking a blow. …. What paralyzes us in a slave case (it may as well be told) is the timidity of the majority, the irresolution of the rest, and the want of organization of all.
We have not learned to trust each other and ourselves; to organize and unite on something. Each has a different plan; and each thinks the others plan ill-advised and injudicious. But men must risk something; not only risk danger, but even failure and disapprobation of critics. The great merit of the Court House attempt, is that it was an attempt….a few more defeats as that before the Court House, and we shall have a victory.”
October 30, 1857
Three lines tell that Burns is now a student in the Fairmount Theological Seminary, and that he has studied a year or so at Oberlin.
March 19, 1858
Here is an account of the votes in both the House and the Senate, acting in support of the Joint Special Committee, asking for the removal of the Judge, for the “unwarrantable part he took in the rendition of Anthony Burns, and for his contumacious violation of the law of Massachusetts, by which he is forbidden to hold the office of Judge while acting as a Slave Commissioner”. The votes are strongly in support of removal. The editor comments: “It only remains for the Governor and the Council to respond affirmatively, (and they will, undoubtedly,) and the sovereignty of the people will be vindicated.”
July 30, 1858
William Cooper Nell provides a false statement from the Virginia Herald, which says that Burns is now in the Penitentiary of Mass., convicted of robbery. Nell indicates that he has shown the article to Burns, who is in Boston on “free, honest business”, and Burns greets the article with a laugh. Nell condemns this “unmitigated falsehood in the case of Anthony Burns”, and goes on to say: “Is not Anthony Burns more of a man than he who claimed him as property?…Let those who have consciences not yet seared by pro-slavery preaching, North or South, answer.”
August 13, 1858
Here, in a speech, Garrison comments on the falsehoods which have been circulated about Burns, says that Burns has visited him in his office, that the assertions of Burns being in the Penitentiary are an “atrocious calumny”. Then he includes a letter from Burns, who tells of his intention to continue and complete his theological studies.