Marcellus Duval

Duval dedicated himself to stirring up political outrage about the Black Seminoles in Washington. A prolific writer, he fired off angry letters to anyone who would listen -- newspaper editors, southern politicians, government bureaucrats. In one of his letters to President Polk, he ominously warned against any attempt to classify the blacks as free:

"The consequences of the subject going into Congress anyone can foresee, and I desire to avert the calamitous excitement which it would cause, shaking the Union to its center -- a perfect 'firebrand' to be thrown among the discordant and combustible materials on the floor of Congress."