still aching over its contents, another was brought us from Thomas Garrett, of Wilmington, Delaware, announcing the abduction, a night or two before, of a free colored man of that city.  The outrage was committed by an ex-policeman, who, pretending to be acting under the commission which he had been known to hold, entered, near the hour of midnight, the house of the victim, and alleging against him some petty act of disorder, seized him, handcuffed him in the presence of his dismayed family, and carried him off to Maryland.  The cheat that had been practised was not discovered by the family until next evening; but it was too late, the man was gone.

At the time Mr. Garrett’s letter was handed to me, narrating the foregoing case of man stealing, I was listening to the sad tales of two colored women, who had come to the office for advice and assistance.  One of them was an elderly person, whose son had been pursued by the marshal’s deputies, and who had just escaped with ‘the skin of his teeth.’  She did not come on her own account, however; her heart was too full of joy for that.  She came to accompany the young woman who was with her.  This young woman was a remarkably intelligent, lady-like person, and her story made a strong appeal to my feelings.  She is a resident of Washington, and her errand here was, to procure the liberation of a sister-in-law, who is confined in that city, under very peculiar circumstances.  The sister-in-law had absconded from her mistress about nine months since, and was secreted in the room of an acquaintance, who was cook in a distinguished slave-holding family in Washington; her intention being, there to wait until all search should be over, and an opportunity offer of escape to the North.  But, as yet, no such opportunity had presented itself; at least none that was available, and for nine long months had that poor girl been confined in the narrow limits of the cook’s chamber, watched over day and night by that faithful friend with a vigilance as sleepless as it was disinterested.  The time had now come, however, when something must be done.  The family in whose house she is hid is about to be broken up, and the house to be vacated, and the girl must either be rescued from her peril, or she, and all her accomplices must be exposed.  What to do under these circumstances was the question which brought this woman to Philadelphia.  I advised her to the best of my ability, and sent her away hopeful, if not rejoicing.

But in many of these cases we can render no aid whatever.  All we can do is to commend them to the God of the oppressed, and labor on for the day of general deliverance.  But, oh! the horrors of this hell-born system, and the havoc made by this; its last foul offspring, the Fugitive Slave law.  The anguish, the terror, the agony inflicted by this infamous statute, must be witnessed to be fully appreciated.  You must hear the tale of the broken-hearted mother, who has just