J. C. B. to Frederick Douglass, January 19, 1857

For Frederick Douglass' Paper.

THE LATE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASE IN PHILADELPHIA.

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 19th, 1857.

F. DOUGLASS: DEAR SIR:—I have appropriated a few moments to drop you a line or two in regard to some of the events that have transpired in this vicinity lately.

For some time past the political parties in this city and Harrisburgh have been actively engaged in marshalling their forces and concocting their plans for the election of United States Senator. The Democracy, or rather the Shamocracy, had a majority on joint ballot in the Legislature, and were confident of electing their candidate, J. W. Forney, the great tactican of the Democratic party in the late canvass in this State, who (had he been elected) would have been found at all times, and upon all occasions, on the side of slavery and its abettors; but, fortunately for the cause of freedom, he was cast out being "weighed in the balance and found wanting."

Simon Cameron, a man pledged to support the platform of the Republicans, was elected, to the great indignation of the opposition—thus giving evidence of the extension of principles of liberty at the North, and a determination that slavery shall be sectional, and freedom national. We have encouragement sufficient to believe, that ere many years shall have passed away, the aspect of the United States Senate will be changed, and the majority, instead of being on the side of the oppressor, will be found battling for the freedom of every man, woman and child in the United States.

After a protracted interval, we have had another fugitive slave case, (there not having been one since the death of Commissioner Ingraham.) The person arrested was a very fine young man, by the name of Brown—some called him Tiffany—said to be from Baltimore, Md. I had hoped the times for arresting fugitives had passed away; but it seems not. The North still bends the suppliant knee at the command of the South. This young man was arrested on Thursday last, and had a hearing on Friday and Saturday at the United States District Court Room before the Commissioner—this being his first case, and may it be his last! The U. S. Marshal, with the consent of the Commissioner, excluded all colored persons, except witnesses, from the hearing, fearful of a rescue—one of the officers having made affidavit that he heard the colored people threaten, as he passed through them on the outside of the building.

There was much feeling evinced, not only by the colored people, but also many of the whites,

when they beheld a fellow-being, in the bloom of manhood, chained and manacled by a band of kidnappers, who, had they their deserts, would occupy a felon's cell for life, or be placed under the lash of an unfeeling overseer upon the cotton or sugar plantations of South Carolina, Georgia, or Louisiana.

What crime has he committed! Was he a burglar? No! Was he a murderer? No! Had he applied the torch of the incendiary to any person's dwelling? No! Would to God he had the power to apply it to the dwelling of every slaveholder at the South! His crime is simply because he felt that he owned himself—because he believed in the Declaration of Independence, that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were inalienable. He took up his abode at the North; and now, under the workings of the fugitive slave law, he has been ruthlessly seized, and carried back to the South in chains, to be tortured, and, doubtless, sold to the far South, torn from relatives and friends, and the associates with whom he had mingled for so many years, and spent so many happy and pleasant moments.

We have been, ever since the death of the late Commissioner Ingraham, surmising what man could be so loose, mean and contemptible as to accept the office, knowing, as we did, that it would devolve upon him to consign to interminable slavery his fellow man, who he should adjudge guilty. I assure you, sir, we were all thunderstruck when we discovered it was David Paul Brown, Jr., the son of that friend of the flying fugitive, whose eloquence has so often electrified thousands and tens of thousands of our citizens, while advocating the cause of their freedom, and who boasted that he felt it his duty to do so, without money and without price—a man who had the affection of every colored man, woman and child in the community—a man whom we all delighted to honor—a man who publicly exclaimed that he desired no grander epitaph upon his tomb, when called away from the busy scenes of life, than "Here lies the Friend of the Friendless."

We had hoped that his son would have followed in the footsteps of his illustrious father; but alas! he has gone astray; the Syren song of the slave power has beguiled him, and he is willing to do its bidding, no matter how dirty the work to be accomplished.

We supposed that his aspirations soared far above such a despisable business; but we were greatly mistaken.

Let him alone; in a few short years he will be gone. "The places that know him now will know him no more forever; he will die as the fool dieth; he will go down to his obscure grave, "unwept, unhonored and unsung," and his name a hissing and a byword for generations to come.

They may send the fugitives back to bondage, but they will return with the watch-fires of liberty, burning brightly in their bosoms, which, of course, they will impart to the bondsmen around about them; and the day will come which Thos. Jefferson foretold, when he exclaimed, "I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice will not sleep forever;" when the slave will be fired up with a determination to be free; when they will all see the injustice of being held in chains; when they will feel their power, take up arms, and exclaim to their oppressors, "Give us liberty, or give us death," and succeed in achieving a glorious and triumphant victory over them; when the black flag of slavery will trail in the dust, and victory will be perched on the banner of freedom. May we live to see that glorious day, and with Simon of old, we can exclaim, "Now, Lord, we have seen thy salvation, let thy servant depart in peace."

Yours, respectfully,

J. C. B.