any cases
the persons stolen are legally liable to capture, it is
impossible to state. The law, you know, authorizes arrests to be
made, with or without process, and nothing is easier under such
circumstances than to kidnap persons who are free born.

The very same day that I received the above mentioned letter,
and while our hearts were 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