The Feliciana Democrat., 1859-01-08
A FUGITIVE SLAVE EXCITEMENT

There was very great excitement ut Elmira.
\. y. on the 18th ult. at the supposed capture
Of n fugitive slave 1t appears that last An.
gust four slaves ran off from Calvert county,
Md, and making their way to Canada settled
there. One of them getting enough of free.
dom, wrote 10 John S Mills. his master, to 30
on and take him bnck to his old home A let
ter to the New York Herald says:
Accordingly, Mr. Mills provided for his
immediate wants and left with his slave, On
route for his plantation III Calvert county, Nd
On arriving here this noon, it was nosrd abroad
that fugitive slave was being carried back
to slavery, when large crowd collected mt the
hotel where they stopped and demanded the
slave The demand came from the colored
population. who were 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 dcpu
ties In the meantime, the president and Off.
GERS Of the village were on hand, who gained
admission to where the slave was and interroga.
ted him ms to whether he wished to return to
slavery To which he replied that he wa,
anxious TO get back; that he was tired and sick
of the North; that he was getting old, had the
rheumatism; that nobody took care of him,
and that most of the time he co uld not gel
anything to eat.
The crowd outside Of the hotel kept con
SANITY increasing, and the blacks were clamor.
Gus that the slave should be released saying
that rather than he should be returned to
slavery they would kill him Our citizens
then made an appeal to the crowd saying that
the slave was unwilling to remain III the free
States, bnt had no effect. A lot of the most
prominent blacks Of the town were then admit.
ted to the room and offered him sums of money
also Offering to keep him, provided he would
stay, to all of which Sam shook his head and
remained firm in his determination to go back
Finding all efforts or inducements useless, the
COMMITTEE" left him, and reported to the
multitude outside But the negroes were not
satisfied. and demanded that he should be
brought ont upon the balcony Of the hotel aud
tell his story. Upon his appearance, the col.
orcdpopulation shouted ont "lill him, kill him. y
"shoot him." "throw him over the railing"
ETC., etc. One of the "coored 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 Emra. The crowd then
partly dispersed, but many stayed round con-
versng with the master and the slave. At
one time the excitement ran so high that it was
deemed necessary to call upon the military,
who held themselves in readiness in ease thc.
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 whites and negroes went to the
depot to see him off, also, if possible force him
to stay, but they were too much chagrined at
not finding him. The Abolitionists were very
loud in talking about rescuing him. but he
being so determined on 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
Hurrah! for our Northern brethren Where
are the Union-at-any-pr gentlemen of the
South, that they do not cause the Southern
welkn to ring with shouts Of joy over the
above Northern fraternal exhibition.