SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES OF THE "BENJAMIN FERRIS EVENING." CONTRIBUTED BY PENNOCK PUSEY. The meeting of the Historical Society of Delaware, on Monday night, in commemoration of the character and services of the late Benjamin Ferris, the historian, was in so many ways a profitable and delightful occasion that the absence of a stenographic report of the bright sayings improvised thereat is much to be regretted. Beside the written papers read, brief observations were offered by several of the audience, including Edward Betts, Henry F. Pickels and Elwood Garrett, while longer remarks were made by William Ferris, son of the historian, and by Ezra Fell and William M. Canby. The two last-named gentlemen bore truthful and touching testimonies to the moral worth, kindly attributes and great services of the deceased. Mr. Canby, in particular, in a graceful address, paid a most feeling and felicitous tribute to the virtues of Benjamin Ferris as a scholar, Christian and citizen, whose beneficent influence will long continue to be felt in Wilmington. But perhaps the audience, if not the best entertained, were most amused with the anecdotes told by William Ferris about his father, among which was one touching upon the well known and very intimate friendship once existing between the Hon. John M. Clayton and Benjamin Ferris, the latter having been a long and ardent admirer of the Delaware statesman. It seems that a benevolent and wealthy gentleman of Pennsylvania, who had once lived in Wilmington, where he had observed the great number and needs of the colored people, left by will a considerable part of a large fortune to establish some kind of an institution for their benefit, of which bequest Benjamin Ferris was left in charge as executor or trustee. Upon the death of the philanthropist his heirs, craving the whole estate, sought to break the will; but from its perfect regularity they could find no possible grounds for it, and employed John M. Clayton, as the ablest lawyer in the state, to aid them in their difficult and nefarious purpose. After a long and vain search for any real basis for the unjust end sought, Mr. Clayton, by some means, found a couple of old letters which seemed to imply that there had been some kind of correspondence between Benjamin Ferris and William Lloyd Garrison, the noted Boston abolitionist. The letters had no possible connection with the matter at issue, nor bearing upon it. But it was the counsel's last opportunity and, plying the arts of an unscrupulous lawyer, he took advantage of a strong pro-slavery sentiment then prevalent and drew a harrowing picture of a secret conspiracy forming between Southern slaves and Northern abolitionists for a bloody negro insurrection, in aid of which a secret department of the proposed establishment to be built by the bequest, as he declared, was to be devoted to drilling our colored people and teaching them how to manufacture and use fire arms; and that we would all be in momentary danger of butchery if the will should stand and the institution be established. The effect of the graphic and lurid consequences predicted by an eloquent tongue to an ignorant and prejudiced jury, in the old slavery days, may readily be imagined, especially by our older citizens. The will was broken and the charitable purpose of the bequest defeated. Benjamin Ferris felt unspeakably aggrieved and outraged, and he reproached Mr. Clayton with much feeling for his inexcusable falsehoods and base behavior. The lawyer sought to appease his old friend by declaring that he had not impugned his motives, nor made any personal charges against him. Mr. Ferris replied that the personal effect upon him was of little consequence, but that he had frustrated a noble and generous charity, causing a great loss as well to the whole community as to the people of the unfortunate race who were its special beneficiaries. "And this, too, not by legitimate and sanctioned legal practice,” added Mr. Ferris, “which are bad enough, 'but by what thou well knowest to be wicked and atrocious falsehoods. We have been good friends, but I can have no further intercouse with one capable of such baseness." And so their long friend ship was severed. It is due to both of these distinguished men to add what the speaker omitted from his remarks, the other eveningi. e. that John M. Clayton afterward sorrowfully declared that he would rather have forfeited double the $3,000 fee he received in this case than lose the good-will of such a man as Benjamin Ferris. And now, as further pertinent to the character of the man, it seems fitting to close this supplementary account of the meeting by appending extracts from letters there read, written by two estimable women of our city, the first a relative of Mr. Ferris and the other a venerable acquaintance, whose steady hand and well-expressed thoughts are remarkable in a woman ninety-three years of age. Speaking of her uncle, the late Benjamin Ferris, the woman first referred to writes, as follows: "His courtesy and kindness, combined with a sweet graciousness which never left him, made him to me the embodiment of an old-time gentleman. I am sure that must be the general impression of those who were privileged to know him. I can only regret not being able to oblige thee by any contribution better worth the giving. My best wishes for an evening which cannot fail in interest because of a man whom his friends delight to honor. Cordially his friend and thine, S. S. SMITH." The second letter is as follows: "Dear Friend. I would be glad, if I could, to comply with thy request to contribute some reminiscences of Benjamin Ferris to the meeting of the Historical Society on the 19th instant, but I was not familiarly acquainted with him, and can recall, I believe, no incident connected with his life, though of course so prominent a figure in Wilmington as he was for so many years could not be entirely unknown to me. "Personally, he always impressed me as one born into an atmosphere of great refinement and culture, his gentlemanly bearing and fine courtesy of manners never leaving him under any circumstances, and continuing markedly into his old age; and that he was also intellectually cultured, was evidenced by his well-known researches into history, and by other contributions to the press of the day. Truly thy friend, M. C. WORRELL." |