Franklin County: "Reminiscences of the Underground Railroad," by Horace G. Kauffman, April 28, 1915
Summary: Kauffman recounts his understanding of his father's involvement in the Underground Railroad and his memories of having an abolitionist Republican father in the antebellum era.
Oregon, Illinois, April 28, 1915.
To the Editor:-I have read with interest the reminiscences of a late contributor to the NEWS, wherein our father, the late John Kauffman, is referred to as having been an agent on the Underground Railroad in the years immediately preceding and during the Civil War, and wherein in particular it is stated that on one occasion a fugitive slave came at two o'clock in the morning to the house of this agent, who upon being awakened received the runaway into his home and having sheltered and fed him in the secretive way necessary in those times of peril to fleeing bondmen, when every public officer was expected to enact the role of detective in aid of southern slaveholders, followed such material aid with full and explicit directions to the next station of the famous subway which extended from Mason and Dixon's Line to Canada. I am, induced to give an item from recollections of my own of that period of sectional bitterness, political upheaval and fratricidal war, when even as a lad of tender years I had experiences which are as well remembered after the lapse of half a century as if they had occurred only a few days ago.
Greencastle was the first station on the Underground Railroad in that neighborhood in a free state, being but four miles north of the historic boundary between the North and the South-"that crimson scar of honor across the brow of our country which divides the land of cold bread from that of hot buscuit." The town was for that reason a place of importance and inspiration to the fugitives. Hope rose within them as they found themselves in the coveted North, nor did Greencastle disappoint them. The sentiments of a Randolph, a Calhoun, or a Toombs, however they grew and flourished in the Halls of Congress, ninety miles away, fell upon stony ground for the most part in the district represented at Washington by the great commoner, Thaddeus Stevens. And why should not the Cumberland Valley have been known for its abolitionists-its people the descendants of colonists from two of the most liberty-loving countries of Europe, Scotland and Switzerland? Greencastle's roll of honor, inscribed here from memory, includes the names of Major John Rowe, George W. Zeigler, William Ward, John Wilhelm, Thomas Pauling, John Kauffman, William Ward, in 1859, acted as guide from Greencastle to Harpers Ferry for John Brown of Ossowatomine, when that brave, though mistaken, champion of the slaves rested in Greencastle on his way south with his pasty and their wagons.
To act as an agent of the Underground Railroad was to risk one's peace and safety, since giving aid to runaway slaves was in violation of the Fugitive Slave Law, of 1850. This enactment was never respected by the more radical of the Abolitionists, who chose conscience as their guide, and which they continued to follow even when in his first inaugural address the enforcement of the obnoxious law was recommended by Mr. Lincoln-the recommendation which drew upon Mr. Lincoln from Wendell Phillips the famous words of opprobrium, "the slave-hound of Illinois."
Certainly, government and righteousness were in a tangle when the burden bearer of a region's industry in order to get wages for his toil and the boon of liberty for himself and his children were compelled to flee from the Stars and Stripes, proud emblem of the new Republic, to the superior protection and guaranty of that ensign of Monarchy, the banner of St. George; to do which it became necessary to run the gauntlet of arrest by the ever watchful officers of the law and the friends of vested interests through several hundred miles of territory, and to depend chiefly upon the friendly, secret aid of the few ardent lovers of Freedom who were willing to risk the suspicion and enmity of their fellows, as well as criminal prosecution itself.
Political feeling was intense and bitter. In 1854, father left the Whigs and joined the newly-organized Republican party, opposed to the extension of slavery. He was also an Abolitionist. He became therefore, in the vernacular of the day, a "black-Republican", in favor of "nigger equality," and had put to him that clinching question believed to triumphantly dispose of any abolitionist's argument, to-wit, "Do you want your daughter to marry a nigger"?
My first recollection of politics is in that connection, and pertains to an incident which occurred in 1862, when I was seven years of age. Father had bought the goods for a suit of clothes for me, and took me with him to a tailor to have my measure taken preparatory to cutting out the pattern. The tailor in this instance was a pro-slavery Democrat, jocular, hardshell and complacent, to whom the agitation of the question of abolishing slavery was most objectionable in that it aimed to destroy an existing legal institution of long standing upheld by a majority of the party of his political faith. He had heard father denounce "the league with death and covenant with hell", while not sparing pro-slavery leaders, including President Buchanan. As he stood behind me and drew the measuring tape from my shoulder to my wrist, he took a lock of my hair between his thumb and finger and pulling it gently, said, "Do you know that your hair is getting kinky?" Instantly, I was aflame, of course. I answered, "My hair is a bit curly, but it is not kinky, and it will never be, either."
The pro-slavery joker laughed, enjoying my ire, but he was unintentionally assisting then and there in the making of another Republican and Abolitionist. He himself was joined to his idols, even the convulsion of war passing over him without clearing his mental atmosphere.
Horace G. Kauffman.
Bibliographic Information: Source copy consulted: Kauffman's Progressive News, 5/7/15
