Butman implored him
not to leave him at the way-station, fearing that the crowd
would come down in an accommodation train, which went also
about that time, and waylay him there. So Baker drove him
the whole distance to Boston, forty miles. When Butman got
to the city, he was afraid that the news of the Worcester
riot might have reached Boston, and have excited the people
there; and, by his earnest solicitation, Baker took Butman
by unfrequented streets across the city to a place where he
thought he could be concealed until the excitement abated.
Baker, who died a short time ago in Worcester, aged over ninety,
told me the whole story immediately on his return.
The proceeding undoubtedly was not to be justified; but it
was a satisfaction to know that no slave-hunter came to Worcester
after that occurrence. Five or six people--including, if
I am not mistaken, Mr. Higginson himself, certainly including
Joseph A. Howland, a well-known Abolitionist and non-resistant,
and also including Martin Stowell, who was afterward indicted
for killing Batchelder, a Marshal who took part in the rendition
of Burns--were complained of before the police court, and
bound over to await the action of the grand jury.
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