-I sincerely regret the absence of
statistics that would enable me to furnish you with many events,
that would assist you in describing the operations of the
Underground Rail Road. I never kept any record of those persons
passing through my hands, nor did I ever anticipate that the
history of that perilous period would ever be written. I can
only refer to the part I took in it from memory, and if I could
delineate the actual facts as they occurred they would savor so
much of egotism that I should feel ashamed to make them public.
I willingly refer to a few incidents which you may select and
use as you may think proper.

You are perfectly cognizant of the fact, that after the decision
in York, Pa., of the celebrated Prigg case, Pennsylvania was
regarded as free territory, which Canada afterwards proved to
be, and that the Susquehanna river was the recognized northern
boundary of the slave-holding empire. The borough of Columbia,
situated on its eastern bank, in the county of Lancaster, was
the great depot where the fugitives from Virginia and Maryland
first landed. The long bridge connecting Wrightsville with
Columbia, was the only safe outlet by which they could
successfully escape their pursuers. When they had crossed this
bridge they could look back over its broad silvery stream on its
western shore, and say to the slave power: "Thus far shalt thou
come, and no farther." Previous to that period, the line of
fugitive travel was from Baltimore, by the way of Havre de Grace
to Philadelphia; but the difficulty of a safe passage across the
river, at that place caused the route to be changed to York,
Pa., a distance of fifty-eight miles, the fare being forty
dollars, and thence to Columbia, in the dead hour of the night.
My house was at the end of the bridge, and as I kept the
station, I was frequently called up in the night to take charge
of the passengers.

On their arrival they were generally hungry and penniless. I
have received hundreds in this condition; fed and sheltered from
one to seventeen at a time in a single night. At this point the
road forked; some I sent west by boats, to Pittsburgh, and
others to you in our cars to Philadelphia, and the incidents of
their trials form a portion of the history you have compiled. In
a period of three years from 1847 to 1850,