[From the Fredonia Censor of Nov. 18, 1868.]
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
We give this week the last of the series of sketches of incidents and narratives connected with the workings of this institution, written by a venerable conductor of the Underground Railroad train. We know that our . readers will regret the termination of these interesting serial sketches. They were written by our solicitation. We had known for several years that the writer had large experience in this method of transportation, and it was desirable that the incidents of its unwritten history should be preserved, so that future generations may be more devoutly thankful for the departure of this relic of barbarism. To the younger portion of our readers, the sketches may appear to be somewhat imaginative. It will hardly appear to them to be possible that our own county, and particularly the towns along the Lake shore, have formerly been hunting ground for slaves. Yet such is the humiliating fact. The Underground Railroad track lay through our village, and extended along the Lake shore to the Niagara River, and terminated in Canada. Such was the vigilance of the conductors, that, we are informed, no one was ever taken back to slavery from this county while under the care of the Underground Railroad Company. The conductors of this Road were some of the most noble and selfsacrificing men in the world. Instead of collecting fare of their passengers they always paid it themselves. Without the fear of the face of clay before their eyes, they boldly pursued their calling, regardless of the Fugitive Slave Law. The mandates of civil authority did not dismay them or make them violate their consciences by the betrayal of the fugitive. They boldly ly proclaimed, by deeds of heroism and self-sacrifice, their faith in the higher law, and bade defiance to statutes and ordinances when human liberty was at stake.
But this celebrated company is now broken up, and its business will never be resuscitated. President Lincoln, by proclamation, took away all the transportation, and rendered the stock worthless. Gen. Grant and the “Boys in Blue” tore up the track and destroyed the
