Brief Extracts from Letters to the Author by Prominent Men.

FROM HON.  HENRY WILSON, LATE VICE PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES.

I have glanced over a few pages of your History of the Underground Railroad, and I most earnestly commend it.  You have done a good work.  This story of the heroic conduct of fugitives from oppression, and of the devotion of their friends, will be read with deep interest, especially by the old friends of the slave in the stern struggle through which we have passed.  I hope your labors will be rewarded by a grateful public.

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FROM HORACE GREELEY.

Dear Sir:—­For most of the years I have lived, the escape of fugitives from slavery, and their efforts to baffle the human and other bloodhounds who tracked them, formed the romance of American History.  That romance is now ended, and our grandchildren will hardly believe its leading incidents except on irresistible testimony.  I rejoice that you are collecting and presenting that testimony, and heartily wish you a great success.

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FROM HON.  CHARLES SUMMER, LATE U.S.  SENATOR FROM MASS.

The Underground Railroad has performed its part, but must always be remembered gratefully, as one of the peculiar institutions of our country.  I cannot think of it without a throbbing heart.

You do well to commemorate those associated with it by service or by benefit—­the saviors and the saved.  The army of the late war has had its “Roll of Honor.”  You will give us two other, rolls, worthy of equal honor—­the roll of fugitives from slavery, helped on their way to freedom, and also the roll of their self-sacrificing benefactors.  I always hesitated which to honor most, the fugitive slave or the citizen who helped him, in defiance of unjust laws.  Your book will teach us to honor both.

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FROM JOHN G. WHITTIER.

The story of the escaped fugitives—­the perils, the terrors of pursuit and re-capture—­the shrewdness which baffled the human blood-hounds—­the untiring zeal and devotion of the friends of the slave in the free States, are well described.

The book is more interesting than any romance.  It will be of permanent value to the historian of the country, during the anti-slavery struggle.

I cheerfully commend it to the public favor.

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FROM J. WHEATON SMITH, D.D.

I am happy to find that material for this interesting work exists.  I had feared that much which will be here recorded, would perish with the brave and worthy men who were personally interested.  These verities of history contain the interest of romance, and our children’s children will read them with wonder and admiration.

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