the evening of the day
following. Having procured forged certificates of freedom, for which
they paid twenty-five dollars, each, they came forward with expedition
by railway and steam boat. They had heard of emancipation in the British
West Indies, and the efforts of the abolitionists in the States, but
they were unacquainted with the existence of vigilance committees, to
facilitate the escape of runaway slaves. We assisted them to proceed to
the house of a relative of one of our party, out of the track of the
pursuer, should they be followed. There is little doubt that they have
safely reached Canada, for I was told at Albany, public opinion had
become so strong in favor of self-emancipation, that if a runaway were
seized in the city, it is probable he would be rescued by the people.

I would also point attention to the fact, which is brought to light by
this relation, that the slave-holders have not only to contend with the
honest and open-handed means which the abolitionists most righteously
employ,[A] to facilitate the escape of slaves, but with the mercenary
acts of members of their own community, who live by the manufacture and
sale of forged free papers.

[Footnote A: See Deut. xxiii, 15, 16.]

During my stay in Albany, I waited upon William H. Seward, the Governor,
and on Luther Bradish, the Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York.
It will, I trust, be considered no breach of confidence, if I state that
I found their sentiments on the true principles of liberty, worthy of
the enlightened legislators and first magistrates of a free republic.
They concur in the general sentiment that public opinion in this
metropolitan State is making rapid progress in favor of full and
impartial justice to the people of color, a movement to which their own
example in the high stations which they adorn has given a powerful
impulse.

I attended part of the sittings of the Senate and Assembly, and
conversed with a number of members of both houses. The public business
was transacted with at least as much order and decorum as in the Lords
and Commons of Great Britain. I left Albany the same evening, and had
the satisfaction of hearing, a few days afterwards, that the repeal of
"the nine months law" had passed both houses, and was ratified by the
Governor; and that in the Assembly upwards of fifty members had voted
for it, although it was thought not ten would have done so two years
since. By this change of the law any slave b