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delphia, (but especially New York), who have mortgages on Slave Plantations in the South. The Northern churches have not sufficient courage, and still less Christianity, to open their mouths, and "plead the cause of the widow" and orphan children. Though Fugitives are dragged out of their own churches and congregations; hurried before the Commissioners, and before the service of the church is concluded, their trial is over, and the poor Slave is on his way to the South, yet these Ministers, as a mouth-piece for God, are as dumb as Baalam's ass, and, therefore, their congregation cannot be expected to be better. Notwithstanding this dark picture, there is a bright side to it, and on this side are the Beechers, the Cheevers, and many others. In some Communities, the Fugitive can pass unmolested, (yet he is still liable to be betrayed even by the meanest person), but these places are few and far between, therefore we are necessitated to manage our affairs with great care, as the following circumstance will illustrate:
At one time, while in the State of Ohio, I lived near Kentucky Slave State. I was rather notorious as a Negro-stealer, and it was absolutely reported that I would refuse to deliver up a Slave. One day a young man came to my house, (I did not ask him whether he was a Slave or not), he merely said he was travelling on his way to
