- Nathan Allen
- Dorcas Allen
Nathan and Dorcas
Allen were here this morning— He had not yet made up the
subscription for the balance between 330 and 475 dollars— General Walter Smith of Georgetown
having promised to endorse Allen’s note for the former sum, if he could
procure the remainder to pay Birch
for a Bill of Sale of the woman and the two
children.— But he said that General Smith had examined at
the Registry of Wills, Davis’s
Will, and that by the Will the woman and children were bequeathed to
Davis’s wife, and therefore
her second wife husband had an undoubted right to sell
them— I told him that whenever the Bill of sale should be ready, I would
give the check for 50 dollars which I had promised— He came again twice
in the course of the day—once while I was out, and again after I
returned— He then told me that Birch had again taken the two children,
and put them into the jail; and would carry them away, if the money was
not paid— That General Smith now said, if I would pay the fifty dollars,
he would undertake with the other subscriptions, to pay the whole sum
and take the bill of sale.— He repeated that General Smith was entirely
satisfied with the validity of Birch’s title, and that he had the right
to make the sale— I then gave him the check for 50 dollars in Bills
payable in Bills at the Bank of Washington to Walter Smith Esqr or his order; and told him when the affair
should be completed to bring me the Bill of sale that I may see it— I
could pursue the question of Birch’s title no further, without becoming
liable to the imputation of shrinking from my own promise, and
prevaricating upon the performance of my engagement— Yet I still doubt
the legality of the sale to Birch, and whether the complete emancipation
of the woman and children will be effected— I could not take the course
of the Law, for Mr Key told me that if upon a writ of Habeas
Corpus Birch’s title 386title should be disproved,
still as they were slaves they could not be discharged— Such is the
condition of things in these shambles of human flesh, that I could not
now expose this whole horrible transaction, but at the hazard of my
life— Any attempt to set aside this purchase for illegality would be
stigmatized as mean and dishonourable— Iniquity
must have its whole range— I therefore made the promise of 50 dollars,
for their emancipation, and have now paid it, without even being sure of
effecting it—rather than attempt, to bereave the man-robber of his
spoils— I went to the Office of the National Intelligencer, saw Mr
Seaton, and revised the proof slips of my speech on the 29th. of September, upon Pickens’s motion for reconsideration
of the vote passing to the third reading, the Bill to postpone the
fourth instalment of the deposite with the States, under the act of 23
June 1836. the question was upon the reconsideration of the vote— The
argument was upon my amendment to Pickens’s Amendment— It is to be
published to-morrow Morning, and will occupy not more than three Columns
and an half of the paper. Mr Seaton gave me
some of the last Boston Newspapers, full of the bustle of
electioneering— At the dusk of Evening I went and passed an hour with
Mr and Mrs.
W. S. Smith.— Answered Letters from Solomon Lincoln, and J. William Ellis—