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‘ [171] to discharge this man. Under present circumstances, he ought not to be detained a single moment.’ The alderman needed no urging on that point. He very promptly discharged the prisoner. As soon as he left the office, the slave-hunter siezed hold of him, and swore he would keep him till witnesses were brought. But Friend Hopper walked up to him, and said in his resolute way, ‘Let go thy hold! or I will take such measures as will make thee repent of thy rashness. How darest thou lay a finger upon the man after the magistrate has discharged him?’

Thus admonished, he reluctlantly relinquished his grasp, and went off swearing vengeance against ‘the meddlesome Quaker.’

Friend Hopper hastened home with the colored man, and wrote a brief letter to his friend William Reeve, in New-Jersey, concluding with these words: ‘Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.’ This letter was given to the fugitive with directions how to proceed. His friend accompanied him to the ferry, saw him safely across the river, and then returned home.

In an hour or two the slave-hunter came to the house, accompanied by a constable and two witnesses from Virginia. ‘The slave I arrested was ’

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