STOP THIEF!

About the year 1826, a Marylander, by the name of Solomon Low, arrested a fugitive slave in Philadelphia, and took him to the office of an alderman to obtain the necessary authority for carrying him back into bondage.  Finding the magistrate gone to dinner, they placed the colored man in the entry, while Mr. Low and his companions guarded the door.  Some of the colored people soon informed Isaac T. Hopper of these circumstances, and he hastened to the office.  Observing the state of things there, he concluded it would be no difficult matter to give the colored man a chance to escape.  He stepped up to the men at the door, and demanded in a peremptory manner by what authority they were holding that man in duress.  Mr. Low replied, “He is my slave.”

“This is strange conduct,” rejoined Friend Hopper.  “Who can tell whether he is thy slave or not?  What proof is there that you are not a band of kidnappers?  Dost thou suppose the laws of Pennsylvania tolerate such proceedings?”

These charges arrested the attention of Mr. Low and his companions, who turned round to answer the speaker.  The slave, seeing their backs toward him for an instant, seized that opportunity to rush out; and he had run two or three rods before they missed him.  They immediately raised the cry of “Stop Thief!  Stop Thief!” An Irishman, who joined in the pursuit, arrested the fugitive and brought him back to his master.

Friend Hopper remonstrated with him; saying, “The man is not a thief.  They claim him for a slave, and he was running for liberty.  How wouldst thou like to be made a slave?”

The kind-hearted Hibernian replied, “Then they lied; for they said he was a thief.  If he is a slave, I’m sorry I stopped him.  However, I will put him in as good a condition as I found him.”  So saying, he went near the man who had the fugitive in custody, and seized him by the collar with a sudden jerk, that threw him on the pavement.  The slave instantly started, and ran at his utmost speed, again followed by the cry of “Stop Thief!” Having run some distance, and being nearly out of breath, he darted into the shop of a watch-maker, named Samuel Mason, who immediately closed and fastened his door, so that the crowd could not follow him.  The fugitive passed out of the back door, and was never afterward recaptured.

The disappointed master brought an action against Samuel Mason for rescuing his slave.  Charles J. Ingersoll and his brother Joseph, two accomplished lawyers of Philadelphia, conducted the trial for him, with zeal and ingenuity worthy of a better cause.  Isaac T. Hopper was summoned as a witness, and in the course of examination he was asked what course members of the Society of Friends adopted when a fugitive slave came to them.  He replied, “I am not willing to answer for any one but myself.”

“Well,” said Mr. Ingersoll, “what would you do in such a case?  Would you deliver him to his master?