The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-02-11
Ing TO modest the family, someone saw the

1.-The Niger" In moment otner horee'
we're mounted by the slave catchers ano
their friends and we're In swift pursuit OF
the solitary horseman, whom they caught
after an exciting chase across the prairie
near Dover, and to their surprise proved te
lbe q Mr.. Waldo, who with black vel
lover his face had decoyed them of on
fools Grand. On returning and announc
Ing their failure, they demanded entrance
to Mr.. Lovejoy's house to search for the
negro, but that famous emancipstionis'
stood at his door and forbade their doing
80 without "due process Of law" While
getting the search warrant the black man
had been cunningly conveyed to the barn
and thence into wagon and covered with
bags and "sent TO mill, and thus made his
escape!
ANOTHER NEGRO RESCUED
While the court house was building al
Hennepin II slave who had been tracked
from Kentuky, and caught by an unusually
keen detective, was put in the basement
over night for ssfe keeping There seemed
TO be no weak point In the evidence furn-
ishedsby the detective, and under the law,
there was no option but TO remand the
colored fellow to his master. About forty
of the citizens we're organized that night
by that mysterious mutual understanding
which prevailed among abolitionists In
those days Mr.. Flagg, who built that
court house, who was also the contractor
who built the court houses at Ottawa and
Bloomington, was the captain Of that SO.
cretly organized company. They were
not very secret in their operations, however,
for in the presence of the slave catcher,
they broke down the door with a battering
ram, improvised out of long and stout
young tree, chopped down In the woods
close by, and denuded of Its limbs, liber-
ated the slave and promised his pursuer "a
full suit of tar and feathers II he failed to
skipp out of there instanter and for
keeps" lie " skipped for the South, and
his chattel for Canada.
THE ROAD FULL OF BUSINESS.
In later days public sentiment had be-
come so wrought up against slave catchers
that their lives were not safe, II caught
pursuing run.aways, and the escaping fug
itives came along through this region
without fear of molestation or being fol
lowed but, as they were without money
the railroad was still as useful as ever, and
as needful. Instead of creeping noiselessly
along, past the houses of his enemies or
those who did not relish his work, Mr.
Lewis, and other conductors, now ran their
trains in daylight, and he even stopped
occasionally on the way TO exhibit an unus-
ually well filled wagon of his blackbirds,"
as he called them!
OTHER INCIDENTS OF THE U. @. Il. II.
Rev. Aaron Payne, brother of Adam
Payne, the Dunkard preacher who met a
horrible tate on the prairie north of Mar
settles, during the Black Hawk war, was
Southerner by birth, and believed in slav-
lC'J 40 bb ihONlAut i'h ny al
authority. Once during an enthusiastic
anti slavery meeting at a log school house,
near Clear Creek, he was so shocked by
the fierce utterances of the abolitiOnsts
who were present, that he took the floor
and denounced their revolutionary doc
trines In round terms. He was especially
severe upon the writings and sermons of
Owen Lovejoy, Benjamin Lundy and
lchabod Codding. He said the meeting
and It's objects were an aifront to the
Almighty, who had created the negro and
condemned to be the servants and slaves of
white men, and the institution of slavery,
Icing of Divine orignin, countenanced and
approved by the Creator, in both old and
new testaments, could not be assailed by
human hands without sacrilege and sin.
The old preacher was not allowed to finish
his remarks, having been sliced and hus.
tied out of the presence of the offended
congregation, and nothing but his personal
popularity and appreciated goodness OF
heart saved him from being roughly
handled. He departed, highly indignant,
and often related the incident as a grevious
and objectionable insult tt himself rs well
as wicked assault upon free speech!
A valuable chattel once went through
Mr.. MOrse's lands. He had been steward
on a New Orleans and St. Louis packet.
In those days no negro could leave home
without pass from some competent
authority, for, 10 do so was to insure his
arrest on sight anywhere In the slave
States. Jim" was a very intelligent
piece of colored property and was owned
by ID. A. January, one of the then most
prominent citizens of ST. Louis. Jim had
concluded to leave his masters service,
and one day he allowed his own boat to
leave New Orleans without him. He then
applied to the packet office for pass on
faster packet, 80 as TO overtake his own
He did overtake 1t, and passed it, and took
passage on the dark railroad for freedom,
where he safely arrived.
On another occasion Mr.. Morse saw the
we'll known horse and CON of tho station,