d upon him the
necessity of withdrawing his men for their own safety. This
he finally did, as far as he personally was concerned, when
satisfied that there was actual danger of bloody resistance.
Gorsuch, however, and his party persisted in their attempt,
and he and two of his party fired on the colored men, who
returned the fire with deadly effect. Gorsuch was killed on
the spot, his son severely, though not mortally, wounded,
and the rest of the party put to flight. The dead and
wounded were cared for by the neighbors, mostly Friends and
Abolitionists. The Slave, for the capture of whom this
enterprise was undertaken, made his escape and reached a
land of safety.

"Judge Grier denounced the act from the Bench as one of
Treason. A party of marines were ordered to the ground to
keep the peace after the battle had been fought and won.
United States Marshal Roberts, Commissioner Ingraham, United
States District Attorney Ashmead, with a strong body of
police, accompanied them, and kept the seat of war under a
kind of martial law for several days. The country was
scoured, houses ransacked, and about thirty arrests made.
Among those arrested were Castner Hanway and Elijah Lewis,
whose only crime had been endeavoring to prevent the
effusion of blood. The prisoners were brought to
Philadelphia, examined before a Commissioner, and committed
on a charge of High Treason. At the next term of the
District Court, under a charge from Judge Kane, the
Grand-Jury found indictments against all of them for this
crime."[177]

[Footnote 177: 20 Anti-Slavery Report, pp. 30, 31.]

Mr. Hanway was brought to trial--for his life, charged with "treason."
It appears that this was his overt act.--He was a Quaker, an
anti-slavery Quaker, and a "non-resistant;" when he heard of the
attack on the colored people, he rode on a sorrel horse to the spot,
in his shirt-sleeves, with a broad felt hat on; he advised the colored
men not to fire, "For God's sake don't fire;" but when Deputy Marshal
Kline ordered him to assist in the kidnapping, he refused and would
have nothing to do with it. Some of the colored people fired, and with
such effect on the Kidnappers as I have just now shown. It appeared
also that Mr. Hanway had said the fugitive slave bill was
unconstitutional, and that he would never aid in kidnapping