CHAPTER XX.
The great central depot of the institution in this State was in Onondaga County, where a great many fugitives were protected, fed and clothed, and sent on their way rejoicing by that noble man, Rev. J. W. Loguen. Mr. Loguen was himself a fugitive. I am not able to relate the particular incidents of his escape, though I have heard him lecture several times, as he said little about himself or his personal adventures. He is respected and beloved by all classes in Syracuse, where he has lived many years, and no other man could have done so much for the U. G. R. R. as he did, yet his friends did not deem it safe for him to remain there after the enactment of the fugitive slave law, but he could not be induced to leave. He was arrested for setting that law at defiance, and aiding in the rescue of the slave Jerry, and was tried for the offense in Albany. The jury disagreed, and he was tried again in Canandaigua, with the same result. The man who claimed him as a slave knew where he was, and Mr. Loguen’s friends feared that he would be seized by government officials when beyond the protection of the friends who surrounded him at his home, but he always said that “he apprehended no danger; if the old man wanted him he hoped he would come himself, but if he thought it best to send somebody else, it was all
