While the institution of slavery itself was not at that time attacked except in isolated cases, as the membership in the abolition societies was confined mainly to the Quakers, yet public opinion was strongly against the traffic in slaves, especially as carried on by unscrupulous men who were charged with seizing free people of color and selling them as slaves. As a convenient point between the northern and southern sections of the country, this city became a central depot for this traffic. The extent of the trade at the time of the occurrence referred to had begun to attract attention, as may be learned from John Randolph's speech delivered in the House of Representatives March 1, 1816.

He was a slave owner and a persistent advocate of the system, but at this time, stirred no doubt by this tragic incident which had occurred only a few weeks before, he denounced the proceedings which he said were at that moment carried on under their very noses, proceedings that were a crying sin before God and man, a practice which he said was not surpassed for abomination in any part of the earth. For in no part of it, not even excepting the rivers of the coast of Africa, was there so great and so infamous a market as in the metropolis, in this very seat of government of this nation which prides itself on freedom.*

As a result of the matter being brought to the attention of the House, a resolution was adopted directing an investigation by a committee, but beyond making a report of the testimony collected no further action was taken.

When the grand jury of the district convened in January, 1816, a few weeks after the occurrence, its attention was called by Judge Morsell to the frequency with which the streets of the city had been crowded with * Annals of Congress, 14th Cong., 1st Session, 1815-16.

manacled captives, a sight in the opinion of the court shocking to the feelings of humane persons.

Even the keeper of the tavern began to feel the force of the growing indignation of the community and not very promptly, perhaps, but less than two years after the poor woman had in such desperate fashion sought to avert her fate, he refused to harbor colored people brought to his house by slave dealers. He explained in a card in a newspaper that his object in providing a place for the negroes was a humane one, as otherwise they would have been confined in the damp and unwholesome cells of the common jail. Finding, however, that his motives were misrepresented, he had refused to receive slaves into his house and none had been there for twelve months past.*

A source of supply to those engaged in the traffic, beyond that of the regular buying and selling of slaves, were free negroes who had been kidnapped or found without having in their possession any evidence of having gained their freedom. The number of free negroes was increasing and as a body under existing conditions they were a constant source of uneasiness as well as of danger to the community. In order to provide a place for these people where they would not tempt the cupidity of unscrupulous men and where they would not be a source of discontent to those still in slavery, the American Colonization Society was formed. This occurred in December, 1816, about a year after the episode in the Miller tavern. It is not improbable that the occurrence had some influence in crystallizing the movement which resulted in the foundation of this great society.

For while in one sense this frightful protest of the poor colored woman against the existing state of things City of Washington Gazette, May 11, 1819.

*

was merely a local happening, yet the consequences flowing from it had a broader scope, and made an impression on the national mind.

A few weeks after that December day in 1815, a young man came to this city, bringing to an end a journey which had begun in the spring of that year at Pittsburgh. The name of this visitor was Dr. Jesse Torrey, Jr., and while quite a number of books that came from his prolific pen have been preserved, nothing relating to his life has been separately printed, and the only source of information is such as may be found here and there in his books. From this source it is plainly inferable at least that he was a man the tendencies of whose mind and the impulses of whose heart made him what would be known in this day as a social reformer.

In early life, at a time when most boys are only thinking of having a good time, young Torrey, in his father's home in New Lebanon, Columbia Co., New York, was planning how to make people better and happier. He then found what he believed to be the universal panacea and that was public education, to be given through the agency of free public schools and free public libraries. How far in advance of his age he was in the year 1803 when he started to carry out his ideas may be judged, when it is stated that free public schools were then scarcely known in this country outside of New England, and that the first free circulating library opened in the United States was the Apprentice Library in Boston which was started in the year 1820.*

It may be said in passing that in respect to supplying means of education at public expense, this city was

'A History of the People of the United States," by John Bach McMaster, Vol. 5, chapter 4, New York, 1901.