Said George, "I have received answers from each letter, and from Amhurstburg and Sandwich they write they have known or heard nothing of a man by that name; but the man to whom I wrote in Chatham has known all about him, being well acquainted with him, and he writes that William Anderson had been talking of going to Sault St. Marys, and that he left two weeks ago, rather mysteriously, without telling him or any one else where he was going; but the greater probability was he went there."
He gave the letters to him, to read for himself. Consequently he hired Mr. Warren and another man, and took the trip to Sault St. Marys, where he spent a week inquiring for William Anderson; but he failed to get the least clew to his whereabouts, and returned to Detroit. He left a power of attorney with his friend Warren to arrest him in case he could be decoyed over the Detroit river; if that plan did not succeed, he was to telegraph him if he found his whereabouts in Canada. If these plans failed, he left directions to arrest me with a United States warrant. But about the time I was to have been arrested Mr. Warren, the man who was empowered to arrest me, died with cholera—a singular coincidence. Mr. Warren's brother expressed deep sorrow and regret to find the papers granting legal authority to transact such business in his brother's possession at the time of his death. He allowed George De Baptist to see them before they were destroyed. This was the second time cholera defeated my arrest.
Pursuit was still continued for William Anderson. Three years after I fell in company with D. L. Ward, attorney of New Orleans, in a stage between Ypsilanti and Clinton, Michigan. He was making some complaints about the North, which drew forth a few remarks from me. "Oh, I am glad I've got hold of an abolitionist. It is just what I have wished for ever since I left my home in New Orleans. Now I want to give you a little advice, and, as it will cost you nothing, you may accept it freely, and I hope you will profit by it; and that is, when you abolitionists have another Sims case, call on Southern legal gentlemen, and we will help you through. We would have cleared Sims, for that Fugitive slave Law is defective, and we know it, and we know just how to handle it."
"Why did you introduce a defective bill?"
"Because we made up our minds to bring you Northerners to our terms, whether it was constitutional or not, and we have done it, because we knew we could do it; not because we cared for a few niggers; for I say, if a nigger cares enough for freedom to run for it, he ought to have it. Now we knew that was an unconstitutional thing before we put it before Congress; but we put it there to let you know we could drive it down Northern throats, and we did it, too."
"I acknowledge," I replied, "that there is too much servility in our North; there is too much crouching and cringing, but I am prepared to say there are more than seven thousand that have never bowed the knee to your Baal of slavery, and never will. We never shall do homage to your Southern goddess, though you may cry loud and long in demanding its worship. You say if we have another slave case, if we come to you to help us through, you will do it, and that if a slave wants his freedom bad enough to run for it, you think he ought to have it?"
"Yes, madam, we will aid you, for we know just how to handle that thing."
"Supposing a man is about to be sold from his family, and he falls at his master's feet, and pleads in tears to remain with his family, and promises to serve him faithfully all the days of his life, if he will only permit them to remain together; but the master persists in the sale; the slave makes his escape; is overtaken by his master, yet, severely wounding him, he succeeds in gaining his liberty. Now what do you say in regard to this supposed case?"
Looking me full in the face, he asked my name, which was given. Said he, "I think I am acquainted with that case. Is it not William Anderson, a runaway from Missouri?"
"William Anderson's case is very similar to the one I have described."