and tell her of her rights;’ Mr. Wheeler rose and said, ’If you have anything to say, say it to me—­she knows her rights;’ the white gentleman asked me if I wanted to be free; I said ’I do, but I belong to this gentleman and I can’t have it;’ he replied, ’Yes, you can, come with us, you are as free as your master, if you want your freedom come now; if you go back to Washington you may never get it;’ I rose to go, Mr. Wheeler spoke, and said, ’I will give you your freedom,’ but he had never promised it before, and I knew he would never give it to me; the white gentleman held out his hand and I went toward him; I was ready for the word before it was given me; I took the children by the hands, who both cried, for they were frightened, but both stopped when they got on shore; a colored man carried the little one, I led the other by the hand.  We walked down the street till we got to a hack; nobody forced me away; nobody pulled me, and nobody led me; I went away of my own free will; I always wished to be free and meant to be free when I came North; I hardly expected it in Philadelphia, but I thought I should get free in New York; I have been comfortable and happy since I left Mr. Wheeler, and so are the children; I don’t want to go back; I could have gone in Philadelphia if I had wanted to; I could go now; but I had rather die than go back.  I wish to make this statement before a magistrate, because I understand that Mr. Williamson is in prison on my account, and I hope the truth may be of benefit to him.”

    [Illustration:  JANE JOHNSON]

    [Illustration:  PASSMORE WILLIAMSON.]

    JANE [her X mark.] JOHNSON.

It might have been supposed that her honest and straightforward testimony would have been sufficient to cause even the most relentless slaveholder to abandon at once a pursuit so monstrous and utterly hopeless as Wheeler’s was.  But although he was sadly confused and put to shame, he hung on to the “lost cause” tenaciously.  And his counsel, David Webster, Esq., and the United States District Attorney, Vandyke, completely imbued with the pro-slavery spirit, were equally as unyielding.  And thus, with a zeal befitting the most worthy object imaginable, they labored with untiring effort to convict the colored men.

By this policy, however, the counsel for the defense was doubly aroused.  Mr. Gibbons, in the most eloquent and indignant strains, perfectly annihilated the “distinguished Colonel John H. Wheeler, United States Minister Plenipotentiary near the Island of Nicaragua,” taking special pains to ring the changes repeatedly on his long appellations.  Mr. Gibbons appeared to be precisely in the right mood to make himself surpassingly forcible and eloquent, on whatever point of law he chose to touch bearing on the case; or in whatever direction he chose to glance at the injustice and cruelty of the South.  Most vividly did he draw the contrast between the States of “Georgia” and “Pennsylvania,”