From Hon. Charles Summer, late U.S. Senator from Mass.
The Underground Railroad has performed its part, but must always be remembered gratefully, as one of the peculiar institutions of our country. I cannot think of it without a throbbing heart.
You do well to commemorate those associated with it by service or by benefit—the saviors and the saved. The army of the late war has had its "Roll of Honor." You will give us two other, rolls, worthy of equal honor—the roll of fugitives from slavery, helped on their way to freedom, and also the roll of their self-sacrificing benefactors. I always hesitated which to honor most, the fugitive slave or the citizen who helped him, in defiance of unjust laws. Your book will teach us to honor both.
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From John G. Whittier.
The story of the escaped fugitives—the perils, the terrors of pursuit and re-capture—the shrewdness which baffled the human blood-hounds—the untiring zeal and devotion of the friends of the slave in the free States, are well described.
The book is more interesting than any romance. It will be of permanent value to the historian of the country, during the anti-slavery struggle.
I cheerfully commend it to the public favor.
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From J. Wheaton Smith, D.D.