The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-12-22

A letter to the New York Herald from Elmira,
and dated the 18th, gives the following statement
! Our village to-day has been thrown into great
excitement on account of slave who is voluntarily
going back to slavery. 1t appears the negro ran
away from his master, in company with four others,
last August, and that they made their way to Can
ada settling down a few miles from the Suspension
/ Bridge. On Thursday last Mr.. John 5. Mills the
owner, came to Canada, at the request of one of
| the slaves who wrote to him, desiring he should
| come on and take him back to his old home, aeg-
ing tilat he was absolutely starving and wished vol
unfairly to go back into slavery. Accordingly, Mr..
Mills provided for his immediate wants and left with
ms slave en- route for his plantation in Calvert coun
ty, Nd. On arriving here, this noon, it noised
abroad that fugitive being carried back to
slavery, when large crowd collected at the hotel
! where they stopped and demanded the slave. The
demand came from the colored population, who
We're principally armed with knives and pistols
! They made a rush for the room where the negro
was, but were driven back by the sheriff and
number OF his deputies In the meantime the pres
| ldent and officers of the village were on hand,
! who gained admission to where the slave was
| and interrogated him to whether he wished to
| return to slavery. To which he replied that he
was anxious to get back that he was tired and
SICK OF the North; that he getting old, had the
rheumatism that nobody took care of him. and that
most OF the time he could not get anything to
eat The crowd outside ofthe hotel kept constantly
increasing, and the blacks were cIamorous that the
slave should be released, saying that rather than
he should be returned to slavery they would kill
hlm Our citizens then made an appeal to the
crowd, saying that the slave was unwilling to re-
main in the free States; but it had no effect.
lot Of the most prominent blacks of the town were
then admitted to the room, and offered him of
money also Offering to keep him provided he would
stay, to all Of which Sam shook his head and re-
malned firm in his determination to 90 back Find
ing all efforts or inducements useless, the Commit
tee left him, and reported to the multitude out
slde But the negroes not satisfied, and de-
manded that he should be brought out upon the bal
cony OF the hotel and tell his own story. Upon his
appearance, the colored population shouted out,
| "hil him, kill him. ''Shoot him." ''Throw him
over the railing" &C., &c. One of the 'colored
gentlemen" of the village then stated to the crowd
that the slave wished to go back; he was old, worn
out and not fit to live in Elmira. The crowd then
partly dispersed, but many stayed around, CONVEX
sing with the master and slave. At one time the
excitement ran so high that it was deemed neces-
sary to call upon the military, who held themselves
IN readiness in case their services were wanted. In
the evening the slave was taken about mile from
the village, there to wait for the train going to
Baltimore. A large crowd of negroes and whites
went to the depot to see him off, and ALSO if posi-
Die, force him to stay, but they were much cha
grined at not finding him. The abolitionists were
very loud in talking about rescuing him. but he be-
ing so determined upon slavery, they concluded he
was not worth keeping An attempt was made upon
the life of Mr.. Mills by the negroes but their plans
were frustrated