CHAPTER VII.
The fugitive slave, named Jerry, had been discovered by a detective employed by his master, a month or two previous to the Anti-Slavery Convention, which had been announced for the first of August, I think, though I am not certain as to the exact time, and the agent of the claimant had been several weeks making arrangements to carry out the programme that was announced in Congress, and published and repeated by the press all over the South. “That hot-bed of Abolitionism had got to be humbled; Syracuse was to be taught that there was a State known as ‘Old Virginia,’ ‘The Old Dominion,’ ‘Mother of Presidents,’” though even Virginia rejoiced in being able to shirk the responsibility of having brought into the world the accidental tenant of the White House, whom the chivalry were employing to do their dirty work.
I met Jo early in the morning on the day of the convention. He said that many of the fugitives had left for Canada, having heard rumors that one or more of them were to be arrested on that day, but, said Jo, “I have a pleasant home here, my children are going to school, and I have all the work I can do. Besides all that,” said
