nt persons,
these two fellows were several times arrested, carried before one of
our county courts, and held to bail on charges of 'conspiracy to
kidnap,' and of 'defamation,' in calling William and Ellen 'SLAVES.' At
length, they became so alarmed, that they left the city by an indirect
route, evading the vigilance of many persons who were on the look-out
for them. Hughes, at one time, was near losing his life at the hands
of an infuriated coloured man. While these men remained in the city, a
prominent whig gentleman sent word to William Craft, that if he would
submit peaceably to an arrest, he and his wife should be bought from
their owners, cost what it might. Craft replied, in effect, that he
was in a measure the representative of all the other fugitives in
Boston, some 200 or 300 in number; that, if he gave up, they would all
be at the mercy of the slave-catchers, and must fly from the city at
any sacrifice; and that, if his freedom could be bought for two cents,
he would not consent to compromise the matter in such a way. This
event has stirred up the slave spirit of the country, south and north;
the United States government is determined to try its hand in enforcing
the Fugitive Slave law; and William and Ellen Craft would be prominent
objects of the slaveholders' vengeance. Under these circumstances, it
is the almost unanimous opinion of their best friends, that they should
quit America as speedily as possible, and seek an asylum in England!
Oh! shame, shame upon us, that Americans, whose fathers fought against
Great Britain, in order to be FREE, should have to acknowledge this
disgraceful fact! God gave us a fair and goodly heritage in this land,
but man has cursed it with his devices and crimes against human souls
and human rights. Is America the 'land of the free, and the home of
the brave?' God knows it is not; and we know it too. A brave young
man and a virtuous young woman must fly the American shores, and seek,
under the shadow of the British throne, the enjoyment of 'life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'

"But I must pursue my plain, sad story. All day long, I have been busy
planning a safe way for William and Ellen to leave Boston. We dare not
allow them to go on board a vessel, even in the port of Boston; for the
writ is yet in the Marshal's hands, and he MAY be waiting an
opportunity to serve it; so I am expecting to accompany them to-morrow
to Portland, Maine, which is beyond the r