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Europe was in revolution in 1848;  and it was eventful,  too,  for the Hutchinson family,  especially for Jesse Jr.   He wrote

By the first of the year, members of the quartet had come together in a mutual desire to get back on the road.  Asa was restored to health.  And Judson had a larger family to support, with the birth of daughter Jennie Lind Hutchinson on Tuesday, January 4.  They began 1848 with a New Year's concert at Portsmouth.  Not much later, they toured Massachusetts, starting with a series of engagements in Fitchburg.  The group sang in and around Boston for about three weeks, beginning with a concert at the Melodeon on January 31; and then they started for New York.  Though Jesse was with them on this trip, for some reason it was Joshua who acted as the group's advance agent.

During the last week in February, the Hutchinsons were in western Massachusetts.  Concerts were planned for Springfield on the 28th, Hartford on the first of March, and New Haven on the 3rd, reaching New York in time for an opening engagement at the Broadway Tabernacle on March 6.

The New York Observer may have been among the first to run a story that would soon find its way into the other journals.  "We understand that they are now making their last visit in concert to our city, and those who would hear the sister's voice must hear it now, as she retires after this season."   Oh?

By this time the quartet was singing one of Jesse's more controversial compositions,  the Congressional song of "Eight Dollars a Day."

The  recent  war  with  Mexico  was  a  fitting  topic  for  Jesse's  pen.

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Jesse's view of the future was generally buoyantly optimistic; and in his topical lyrics there was no room for doubt that the forces of right would prevail.

According to available accounts, audiences generally took the  "Congressional Song of Eight Dollars a Day"  as a funny poke at politicians, though some notices report that an occasional listener or newspaper editor became indignant that the Hutchinsons should speak of high elected officials in this way.  Such controversy made  "Eight Dollars a Day"  one of the must-hear songs of 1848.  Brother Judson added his own special mischief by giving Jesse's pointed verses a very catchy tune.

On March 7, Henry Clay, on a spectacular tour of Eastern cities, arrived in New York.  Back in November, he had made a speech in Lexington, Kentucky, opposing annexation of Mexico.  This address was widely reported.  Partly in reaction to the Kentucky speech, Clay was met by huge crowds and was received like a conquering hero in the great cities of the Northeast.

As Jesse progressed toward New York, no doubt he read and heard news of Henry Clay's triumphant tour.  At a hotel in New Haven, Jesse  -  ever the enthusiast  -  began writing the lyrics to a new song,  "Harry of the West."  He showed them to John, who instantly thought of a musical setting.  They sang it several times, then started for the boat to New York.  "[W]e sought a retired spot, and commenced to rehearse it again, Jesse taking the bass and I the air.  Judson and Asa came sauntering along, attracted by the new tune, and uttering remarks in comment on our singing a song of which they knew nothing. . . .   They took their parts, and we sang the song, until a large number of passengers, attracted by the harmony, gathered about, complimenting us upon it."

In New York, Captain Knight of the ship, Henry Clay, invited the Hutchinsons to visit.   After they arrived, they struck up their appropriate new song.  "We had hardly finished,"  said John,  "when an alderman of the city . . . said to us enthusiastically, 'You must go and sing that song to Henry Clay this afternoon.'  We began to consider whether we ought to go or not.  Jesse immediately added another verse to the song to make our convictions clear, for we well knew Clay to be a pro-slavery man:

On March 7, at the request of the mayor and aldermen, the Hutchinson Family sang at a dinner given in honor of Henry Clay, arriving at the New York Hotel around 6 PM.   According to John,  Abby  "was rather reluctant about going, as she had heard so much against the 'great compromiser,' but finally yielded."

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When the Mayor announced that the Hutchinsons would sing,  Jesse, Judson, John, and Asa stood and gave  "Harry of the West."

Though Jesse's lyrics include words of broad praise for Henry Clay, mostly they describe his enthusiastic reception in New York.  Not only did Jesse add the  "glorious day is coming near"  verse, as a statement of the Hutchinsons' freedom principles, but he wrote another, calling on his listeners to put aside their differences for this occasion.

While her brothers sang,  Abby sat quietly with Ludlow.

Journalist Elias Smith wrote that  "A spontaneous burst of applause followed this simple yet beautiful tribute to the distinguished guest, which from the happy and spirited style in which it was performed, it was impossible to suppress.  At its conclusion, Mr. Clay shook each brother and Abby most cordially by the hand, and thanked them for their kindness. . . . "   Other songs performed at this gathering include "Cold Water," "The Old Granite State," and "There's a Good Time Coming."

After singing for New York's mayor and aldermen and for Henry Clay, the guest of the city, the quartet returned to giving concerts, with appearances at the new Library Hall in Newark on Wednesday, the Brooklyn Female Academy on Friday, the Broadway Tabernacle on Monday, and Newark again on Wednesday the 15th.

The Newark Daily Advertiser, speaking of the Library Hall concert on the 8th, said,  "No musical performers ever drew such houses here as the Hutchinson Family.  Library Hall was filled  -  inside and outside  -  last evening; that is to say, the seats, the aisles, the lobby and the entrance of the Hall presented one living mass in a jam, and as many as possible seemed to be clinging to the windows outside."

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That week, in The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison ran a piece called  "Servile Homage to Henry Clay."  He expressed disgust at the enthusiastic greeting Clay received in Philadelphia and New York; and he copied the lyrics of Jesse's  "Harry of the West."   "No wonder Mr. Clay was gratified at the offering of incense of this kind, from a reputedly anti-slavery quarter.  The 'bravery' of 'Harry of the West' is to fight duels, scourge men, pollute women, and sell children; and this the Hutchinsons well know.  They have degraded themselves in the eyes of all who prize moral consistency and real uprightness."

Evidently  Jesse  was  the  principal  target  of  Garrison's  wrath.

Frederick Douglass, too, reacted to the "Harry of the West" incident.   "[A]las! a love of popularity has triumphed over their love of principle."   "Yet we hope they will repent of this sin against the bleeding captive, and again rally under the banner of emancipation.  Our words are those of sorrow, not of anger."

Brother John called Garrison's article  "scathing"  and said,  "This attack occasioned a good deal of surprise. . . . "   But the singers had limited time to ponder, since they had a busy tour which was not without problems of its own.  Appearances were planned for Rutgers Institute on March 17, the Broadway Tabernacle on the 18th, and the Brooklyn Female Academy on the 20th.  Meanwhile, Joshua went ahead to Philadelphia to make engagements.  The group gave their last show at the Tabernacle on March 23 and sang at Morristown and Trenton on the way to Pennsylvania.  The Tribune said of the last Tabernacle concert that  "Abby exceeded anything we had previously heard of her, and was rapturously encored."

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Probably it disappointed the Hutchinsons, but surprised none of them, that Joshua was unable to arrange for use of the Musical Fund Hall.  The management still forbid racially-integrated audiences.  Thus, the quartet gave their Philadelphia concerts at the Assembly Rooms, beginning on March 28, with other entertainments to follow on Friday and the next Tuesday.  "Our pleasure at their success,"  said the Pennsylvania Freeman,  "is no way diminished by the rebuke which it gives to the cowardly and proslavery managers of the Museum and Musical Fund Hall, for their intolerant course toward them."

Meanwhile Garrison's blast about the Henry Clay incident stimulated a debate in certain journals of the Northeast.  As John put it,  "[S]ome papers took up the cudgels in defence of the Hutchinsons.  Mr. Garrison therefore felt constrained to blaze away again."  Garrison called Clay "the implacable opponent of the anti-slavery cause"  and wrote that he  "had done more than any other man living to eternize slavery on this continent."  Singing for Henry Clay, he said, was no honor for the Hutchinsons.  "We have no desire to sit too severely in judgment on this ill-advised step; but it was taken in so gross a manner, and under such circumstances, that we should have been false to 'the Hutchinson Family,' as well as untrue to our convictions of duty, if we had allowed it to pass without one word of condemnation."

About this same time, the Hutchinsons were being denounced in Philadelphia for the "servility" of stooping to take the money of non-whites and singing to them  -  an odd criticism by any standard.  Calling the Hutchinsons conduct an  "outrage,"  the Philadelphia Daily Sun said,  "We have a serious charge to make against the managers of the 'Hutchinson family,' for not having announced in their handbills and advertisements that no distinction of color would be made in admitting persons to their concerts."

"It is really time that some one should tell these people, in a spirit of friendly candor, that they are not apostles and martyrs, entrusted with a 'mission' to reform the world, but only a company of common song-singers, whose performances sound very pleasingly to the great mass of people ignorant of real music, and finding an innocent gratification in listening to melodious sounds which they are capable of understanding."

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In the meantime, the Hutchinsons were filling the Assembly Rooms to capacity  -  and perhaps beyond  -  each time they sang there.  In fact, in light of charges in the Philadelphia Daily Sun that the Hutchinsons were deceiving citizens or defying public opinion, it is noteworthy how very warmly the quartet was received by Philadelphians and how many sparkling press notices came out of this visit to Philadelphia.

A review of the March 28 entertainment said,  "The Hutchinsons' Concert on Tuesday evening, in the Assembly Buildings, went off with great spirit and enthusiasm.  The great audience which crowded the large hall, testified to their delight and depth of interest by most unequivocal expressions: at times by rapturous applause, and again, they seemed spell-bound by intense silence; motionless and breathless they listened, as to a song of angels slowly receding, and soon to be lost in the great deeps of heaven.  Sometimes the whole audience were moved with mirth, and again, tearful eyes and wet cheeks told how they felt those appealing tones of kindness and love; and still again, a shudder of horror which a deaf man might have felt, run like an electric thrill through all that compact mass."

Comparing the Hutchinsons at first to more ostentatious acts, another Philadelphian wrote,  "What a contrast these Signors, Signoras, and Signorinas form to the plain and unpretending Hutchinsons, with their hair brushed so smoothly and demurely, and their collars turned down with such graceful juvenility.  Their voices are as pure as their own mountain streams and as fresh as the wind that sweeps through their valleys.  Abby,  too!  One never tires listening to her low, clear, sweet voice.  Her rich brown hair is parted plainly in front, and falls in clustering ringlets over her shoulders, and as she stands before you with her beaming eyes  -  half-timid, half-smiling face  -  her hands somewhat stiffly held together  -  and her dress so plain and neat, pouring forth a flood of melody, without effort and without affectation, you feel perfectly convinced that dear, sweet Abby is all that she looks to be."

One Philadelphia journalist was quite amused at the Hutchinsons' outspoken behavior on stage.  "We enjoyed their plump 'impertinence' as much, as it seemed to annoy some poor fellows who sat suffering next us.  There is a dogged drollery in the way 'the tribe' insist upon proclaiming their kindred, climate, creed and character, and attacking rum and roguery, sin and slavery, tariffs and banks, as if it was a matter of conscience with them to turn themselves inside out for public inspection."

The quartet finished this series and then toured through Baltimore to Washington.  When they visited the Capitol with Senator John P. Hale, Congress was considering resolutions concerning the revolution in France.  Soon the group was singing a new quartet written by Jesse  -  "The Revolution in Europe."

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On April 10, the Hutchinsons gave their first concert in Washington at Carusi's, and Brother Joshua was in the audience.  When Abby sang  "The Slave's Appeal,"  a member of the audience turned to a friend and said,  "That is d----d bad taste!"  The friend answered,  "It is d----d bad taste to hiss a lady."

At the appointed place in the program, Brother Judson stepped forward on the platform and announced  "The Humbugged Husband."  Then he began the first verse.

Just then, the boards under his feet gave way.  Judson fell and was all too literally taken in!  He went down about three feet, so the crowd could only see part of him  -  the part that was still holding his fiddle in one hand and bow in the other.  The audience roared with laughter.  Judson, unhurt, climbed back onto the platform  -  or what was left of it  -  and stood like a statue,  "with fiddle and bow lifted high, ready to go on."  He was welcomed back by thunderous applause.

On Tuesday evening the Hutchinsons were at the White House to visit President Polk.   The following week, they started north, giving two concerts in Baltimore, and also singing in Trenton, on their way back to New York.

On Saturday, April 22, the Hutchinson brothers were at the Astor House in New York, writing letters to the friends of freedom.  On Monday the quartet appeared at the Broadway Tabernacle, on Wednesday they sang at Newark, and on Friday they gave their final concert at the Tabernacle.