BUFFALO, Feb. 23, 1848.

MESSRS. DOUGLASS & DELANY:—Gentlemen—I feel that a few moments cannot be better occupied than to give you a sketch of the doings of the present session of the Court of Common Pleas in this city. You probably recollect, on the 30th day of September last, of an unsuccessful attempt on the part of two bloodhounds from Covington, Kentucky, named Wolf and Perry, the former I think very appropriate in this connection, to take away a young man from our city by the name of Webb, who has long been a resident here, the defeat of which depended solely on the energetic action of some of our citizens. On the evening succeeding the arrest, a mass meeting was called, and a series of spirited resolutions passed, and a fund created to meet whatever emergency the nature of the case demanded. After a full investigation of the subject, and the known violation of the law by two officers who assisted in making the arrest of the alleged fugitive, a suit was instituted against one of the officers by Webb, and upon his own responsibility, which I think displayed a considerable degree of manly courage in bringing it to a final issue. The case came off at this term. After nearly two days of increasing interest, it was brought to a close at 7 o’clock last evening. A large number of witnesses were examined on both sides. On the part of the defendants, there was nothing wanting, so far as tact and cunning, united with pro-slavery trickery and false swearing, were concerned; but it failed to take root in the mind of the court or jury. The plaintiff’s counsel, Messrs. Cook & Abrams, managed the case with much ability, portraying in glaring colors the unwarrantable position of their opponents. In justice to Eli Cook, Esq., I would say, that his able defence I shall never forget. After commenting upon the law of 1840, the duties there enjoined, and the liability of officers to severe and rigid punishment for acting as in this case, aside from it, his appeal to the jury, of the dangerous precedent of suffering such violation of law to go unpunished, leaving the hunted fugitive alone to defend himself, and justifiable in such a case to strike the fatal blow, if necessary, to defend his personal liberty, and the scorn and derision, which this government would justly incur in the eyes of any of the inhabitants of monarchial kingdoms of the old world, was truly an unanswerable defence, and more than my pen can describe. The verdict of the jury was $90, damages, and all costs, of course, which swells the expense to nearly two hundred dollars, a well merited rebuke for a slaveholding fee of some ten or twenty dollars. The facts in the case, brought out by the trial of the guilty culprit, Jacob Emerick, has so implicated the other officer, J. T. Hathaway, that a suit has, or is about to be instituted against him, thus far terminating these acts of villainy, and, I think, will settle it forever, so far as our city is concerned, in this branch of legal investigation, and one more conclusive proof of the onward progress of the cause.

Yours for the oppressed,
A. H. F.Francis, Abner Hunt

Abner Hunt Francis (1812-72), born on a farm near Flemington, New Jersey, lived in a number of locations throughout his life and became a leader of the black community wherever he resided. In Trenton, New Jersey, he protested against the American Colonization Society, acted as a subscription agent for the Liberator, and attended national black conventions in 1833 and 1834. In 1836 Francis moved to Buffalo, New York, where he established a clothing business. Not only was Francis a leading member of the integrated Buffalo Anti-Slavery Society, but he also spoke at the First of August celebrations of West Indian Emancipation, sought integration of schools, coordinated a state suffrage campaign, and acted as an agent for the Palladium of Liberty, published in Columbus, Ohio, and the North Star. In 1850 Francis openly opposed the Fugitive Slave Law and encouraged others to do so. In mid-1851, he and his wife Lynda relocated to Portland, Oregon, despite an 1849 law that prohibited black settlement in the Oregon Territory. Oregon courts in 1851 ordered 0. B. Francis, Abner's brother, to leave the territory under the exclusionary law. Two hundred eleven leading residents of Oregon offered a petition to the legislature requesting that the Francis brothers be given an exemption. The brothers were not forced to leave, but intolerance of blacks in Oregon continued to grow. In 1860 Abner and Lynda Francis moved to Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada, where Francis became the first black elected to the city council in 1865 and remained a well-respected citizen until his death. Elizabeth McLagan, A Peculiar Paradise: A History of Blacks in Oregon, 1788-1940 (Portland, Ore., 1980), 88-89; Arthur 0. White, "The Black Movement against Jim Crow Education in Buffalo, New York, 1800-1900," Phylon, 30:380 (Winter 1969); Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:102, 105-07n.

We are very thankful to our ever-watchful and devoted correspondent for the foregoing letter. Its contents will cheer the hearts of the flying fugitives, and appal the blood
thirsty kidnappers who howl on his track.—Editor.