[69]
there was a sort of dramatic perfection about this; the entire disappearance of Butman's own friends leaving him to be literally and absolutely saved by abolitionists; the fortunate presence of just the right persons-Messrs. Hoar, Foster, Stowell, and myself — I mean the right persons dramatically speaking; this joined with the really narrow escape of the man and the thorough frightening of one who had frightened so many;--all these gave a tinge of romance to the whole thing, such as was perhaps never surpassed.
It can be worked up better than was ever the Porteous 1 mob by some future Scott.
You cannot conceive how frightened the poor wretch was.
. .. If Worcester frightens ex-kidnappers thus, you may imagine how it would be with those who shall pursue the profession.
A Worcester newspaper of the day said: “The immediate provoker of this
Worcester riot, and the man to whom
Butman ought to look for the reparation of his damages, is, we take it,
Mr. Benjamin F. Hallet,
Mr. [President]
Pierce's slave-catching attorney for the district of
Massachusetts.”
From an undated letter:
I have been busy about the Butman affair, and my Italian lecture.
Arrests have been made. . . . They [the accused] are to be examined next Wednesday; meantime S. F. [Stephen Foster] stays in jail, on nonresistant
