For Frederick Douglass' Paper.

THE LATE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASE IN PHILADELPHIA.

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 19th, 1857.

F. DOUGLASS: DEAR SIR:—I have appropriated
a few moments to drop you a line or two in regard
to some of the events that have transpired in this
vicinity lately.

For some time past the political parties in this
city and Harrisburgh have been actively engaged
in marshalling their forces and concocting their
plans for the election of United States Sena
tor. The Democracy, or rather the Shamocracy,
had a majority on joint ballot in the Legislature,
and were confident of electing their candidate, J.
W. Forney, the great tactican of the Democratic
party in the late canvass in this State, who (had
he been elected) would have been found at all
times, and upon all occasions, on the side of slavery and its abettors; but, fortunately for the
cause of freedom, he was cast out being "weigh
ed in the balance and found wanting."

Simon Cameron, a man pledged to support the
platform of the Republicans, was elected, to the
great indignation of the opposition—thus giving evidence of the extension of principles of liberty
at the North, and a determination that slavery
shall be sectional, and freedom national. We have
encouragement sufficient to believe, that ere many
years shall have passed away, the aspect of the
United States Senate will be changed, and the
majority, instead of being on the side of the op
pressor, will be found battling for the freedom of
every man, woman and child in the United States.

After a protracted interval, we have had another fugitive slave case, (there not having been one
since the death of Commissioner Ingraham.) The
person arrested was a very fine young man, by the
name of Brown—some called him Tiffany—said
to be from Baltimore, Md. I had hoped the times
for arresting fugitives had passed away; but it
seems not. The North still bends the suppliant
knee at the command of the South. This young
man was arrested on Thursday last, and had a
hearing on Friday and Saturday at the United
States District Court Room before the Commissioner— The U. S. Marshal, with the consent of the Commissioner, excluded all colored persons, except witnesses, from the hearing, fearful of a rescue—one of the officers having made affidavit that he heard the colored people threaten, as he passed through them on the outside of the building.

There was much feeling evinced, not only by
the colored people, but also many of the whites,

when they beheld a fellow-being, in the bloom of
manhood, chained and manacled by a band of
kidnappers, who, had they their deserts, would
occupy a felon's cell for life, or be placed under
the lash of an unfeeling overseer upon the cotton
or sugar plantations of South Carolina, Georgia,
or Louisiana.

What crime has he committed! Was he a
burglar? No! Was he a murderer? No! Had he
applied the torch of the incendiary to any per
son's dwelling? No! Would to God he had the
power to apply it to the dwelling of every slave
holder at the South! His crime is simply be
cause he felt that he owned himself—because he
believed in the Declaration of Independence, that
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were in
alienable. He took up his abode at the North;
and now, under the workings of the fugitive slave
law, he has been ruthlessly seized, and carried
back to the South in chains, to be tortured, and,
doubtless, sold to the far South, torn from rela
tives and friends, and the associates with whom
he had mingled for so many years, and spent so
many happy and pleasant moments.

We have been, ever since the death of the late
Commissioner Ingraham, surmising what man
could be so , and as to ac
cept the office, knowing, as we did, that it would
devolve upon him to consign to interminable sla
very his fellow man, who he should adjudge guil
ty. I assure you, sir, we were all thunderstruck
when we discovered it was David Paul Brown,
Jr., the son of that friend of the flying fugitive,
whose eloquence has so often electrified thou
sands and tens of thousands of our citizens, while
advocating the cause of their freedom, and who
boasted that he felt it his duty to do so, without
money and without price—a man who had the af
fection of every colored man, woman and child
in the community—a man whom we all delighted
to honor—a man who publicly exclaimed that he
desired no grander epitaph upon his tomb, when
called away from the busy scenes of life, than
"Here lies the Friend of the Friendless."

We had hoped that his son would have follow
ed in the footsteps of his illustrious father; but
alas! he has gone astray; the Syren song of the
slave power has beguiled him, and he is willing
to do its bidding, no matter how dirty the work
to be accomplished.

We supposed that his aspirations soared far
above such a despisable business; but we were
greatly mistaken.

Let him alone; in a few short years he will be
gone. "The places that know him now will
know him no more forever; he will die as the
fool dieth; he will go down to his obscure grave,
"unwept, unhonored and unsung," and his name
a hissing and a byword for generations to come.

They may send the fugitives back to bondage,
but they will return with the watch-fires of liberty, burning brightly in their bosoms, which, of
course, they will impart to the bondsmen around
about them; and the day will come which Thos.
Jefferson foretold, when he exclaimed, "I tremble
for my country, when I reflect that God is just,
and that His justice will not sleep forever;" when
the slave will be fired up with a determination to
be free; when they will all see the injustice of
being held in chains; when they will feel their
power, take up arms, and exclaim to their oppressors, "Give us liberty, or give us death," and succeed in achieving a glorious and triumphant victory over them; when the black flag of slavery
will trail in the dust, and victory will be perched
on the banner of freedom. May we live to see
that glorious day, and with Simon of old, we can
exclaim, "Now, Lord, we have seen thy salvation,
let thy servant depart in peace."

Yours, respectfully,

J. C. B.