62 POLITICAL LIFE-II 



sense; for he declared not only that the Fugitive Slave 

 Law must be enforced, but that it would be enforced, and 

 he added, in substance: "it will be enforced throughout 

 the North in spite of all opposition even in this city- 

 even in the midst of youT abolition conventions." This 

 piece of prophecy was accompanied by a gesture which 

 seemed to mean much; for the great man's hand was 

 waved toward the City Hall just across the square the 

 classic seat and center of abolition conventions. 



How true is the warning, "Don't prophesy unless you 

 know ! ' ' The arrest of Jerry took place within six months 

 after Mr. Webster's speech, and indeed while an aboli- 

 tion convention was in session at that same City Hall; 

 but when the news came the convention immediately dis- 

 solved, the fire-bells began to ring, a crowd moved upon 

 the commissioner's office, surged into it, and swept Jerry 

 out of the hands of the officers. The authorities having 

 rallied, re-arrested the fugitive, and put him in confine- 

 ment and in irons. But in the evening the assailants re- 

 turned to the assault, carried the jail by storm, rescued 

 Jerry for good, and spirited him off safe and sound to 

 Canada, thus bringing to nought the fugitive slave law, 

 as well as the exhortations of Mr. Clay and the predic- 

 tions of Mr. Webster. 



This rescue produced great excitement throughout the 

 nation. Various persons were arrested for taking part 

 in it, and their trials were adjourned from place to place, 

 to the great hardship of all concerned. During a college 

 vacation I was present at one of these trials at Canan- 

 daigua, the United States judge, before whom it was held, 

 being the Hon. N. K. Hall, who had been Mr. Fillmore's 

 law partner in Buffalo. The evening before the trial an 

 anti-slavery meeting was held, which I attended. It was 

 opened with prayer by a bishop of the African Metho- 

 dist Episcopal Church, Loguen, and of all prayers I have 

 ever heard, this dwells in my mind as perhaps the most 

 impressive. The colored minister's petitions for his race, 

 bond and free, for Jerry and for those who had sought 



