Description
"THE COLORED PEOPLE'S FRIEND - Republican Committeeman Price of Andrew County Talks of Colonel John Doniphan" - - (excerpted from article) - - Letter from James A. Price to Editor of Mirror, St. Joseph, Missouri - - While I (James A. Price) was Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas in Platte County, Missouri, there was a family of slaves, consisting of father, mother and 6 children, that had been freed by the will of George W. Yocum (Yocum) their owner, who died in 1854. But the will contained a construction that the executors should have the discretion and option of holding them as slaves for life, if they believed it was proper. In other words, the freedom of the family depended upon the will or wish of the executors. The estate was settled about 1856. At that time the pro-slavery question was a leading factor in politics in Missouri, and the executors refused to free the family. Whereupon Col. (John) Doniphan volunteered, without fee or reward, advanced the cost, instituted suit and at the end of the trial had a decree in their favor and they were liberated and made free at that time. When Col. Doniphan was censured and questioned about the interest he had taken in the matter, he declared that “he knew it was against public sentiment, but it was right and the white race owed it to the black man to be honest and just.” At another time a colored man by the name of Perry Chadwick was put up at public auction to be sold and taken south. When Col. Doniphan came forward and purchased the man at $1,400 the same day he gave the man a written document setting him at liberty and said to the man: “Now go and work for yourself and pay me back when, if, ever you are able.” This I know of my personal knowledge from the fact that Col. Doniphan borrowed $600 of the money from my brother-in-law George T. Hulse to make the payment. I could state many instances wherein Col. Doniphan has shown his friendship to the colored people but think the two cases cited sufficient to satisfy any reasonable person that he has been a true friend to the colored people and at times when most unpopular to show such friendship and favors. At his old home, Weston, Missouri, he is held in the highest esteem by all the colored people.Date(s) of Creation
4/3/1898
