Many other letters I received; from Mr. Sanborn, Secretary of the
Massachusetts Board of Charities, from Fred. Douglass, from Rev.
Henry Fowler, and from Union officers at the South during the war,
all speaking in the highest praise and admiration of the character
and labors of my black heroine.

Many of her passes also were sent me; in which she is spoken of as
"Moses," for by that name she was universally known. For the story
of her heroic deeds had gone before her, and the testimony of all
who knew her accorded with the words of Mr. Seward:

"The cause of freedom owes her much; the country owes her much."
And yet the country was not willing to pay her anything. Mr.
Seward's efforts, seconded by other distinguished men, to get a
pension for her, were sneered at in Congress as absurd and
quixotic, and the effort failed.

Secretary Seward, from whom Harriet purchased her little place
near Auburn, died. The place had been mortgaged when this noble
woman left her home, and threw herself into the work needed for
the Union cause; the mortgage was to be foreclosed. The old
parents, then nearly approaching their centennial year, were to be
turned out to die in a poor-house, when the sudden determination
was taken to send out a little sketch of her life to the
benevolent public, in the hope of redeeming the little home. This
object, through the kindness of friends, was accomplished. The old
people died in Harriet's own home, breathing blessings upon her
for her devotion to them.

Now another necessity has arisen, and our sable friend, who never