Chapter 20
Stirring Up the Black Man
Energized by his chance lunch with the Chief Justice, Senator Lynch returned to his office a few blocks away from the Spottswood Cafe. His secretary handed Lynch the daily mail. Lynch began to review the correspondence in his office. As a United States Senator, Lynch received all sorts of letters from constituents, businesses and fellow politicians. Most writers wanted some personal favor, perhaps an appropriation for a new road or canal in Berkshire, a postal office in Great Barrington, or a federal courthouse in Springfield. Others wrote Lynch to urge support for or opposition to a pressing bill before the Senate. There are two types of Senators in the U.S. Senate -- one type of Senator attends to the great public issues of the day and attempts to do what is right regardless of the political whims of the moment. Another type of Senator is a glorified town councilman driven by the constituent wishes of the moment. Senator Lynch exemplified the latter type of Senator with the exception of race. He always took the hardline position on abolition and elevation of the black race without fail, even in the face of constituent pressures from back home in Massachusetts. Many abolitionists prayed for his death or removal from office.
A constituent sent the Senator an overwrought screed from irritant William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison had said in The Liberator education must be the all-consuming passion of the black man. Lynch read the rant with disgust:
An ignorant people can never occupy any other than a degraded place in society; they can never be free until they are intelligent. It is an old maxim that knowledge is power and not only is it power but rank, wealth, dignity, and protection. That capital brings highest return to a city, state, or nation (as the case may be) which is invested in schools, academies, and colleges. If I had children, rather than they should grow up in ignorance, I would rather feed upon bread and water. I would rather sell my teeth, or extract the blood from my veins.
William Lloyd Garrison
March 31, 1838
The Liberator
Lynch tore up the statement with clenched fists. He set the debris in a spittoon and set the debris on fire. While the debris burned, the Senator cursed Garrison in a most profane way. "How can we keep the n------ down with this n---- lover stirring up the black man?" the Senator said to himself. The secretary ignored the Senator as one might ignore a congressman smoking a cigar in his office.
The last letter to the Senator came from Salisbury, Vermont. As a rule, the Senator ignored letters from outside Massachusetts. Sometimes, depending upon the Senator's mood, he might have his secretary respond to an out of state letter. Garrison's exhortation had inflamed the Senator and caused him to open the Vermont letter from Professor Mordecai Robinson without aforethought. What the Senator read caused his heart to drop to the floor.
Senator Lynch ran out of his office into the April afternoon.