Pittsburgh, Oct. 14, 1853.

Mr. Editor: —The events of the year 1850 will be long remembered as deeply interesting in our history. The anti-slavery sentiment had been gradually developing itself until it had nullified the law of 1793, for the capture and return of fugitive slaves; in consequence of which, such large numbers of them had settled in the free States, that their former masters could not make a journey to the North, for either business or pleasure, without encountering them. On the rivers and lakes, and at the springs, falls and capes, they were to be met with, and that under circumstances of peculiar aggravation to the chivalrous and aristocratic mind of the Southerner.

Some of them looked "fat and sleek"—evidences of good living—and contrary to the Southern dogma that they could not take care of themselves. Others looked saucy and defiant, as thought they ahd lost all sense of the superiority of their maters, and their duty of unqualified submission to their authority. All of this was bad enough, and hardly to be endured; but as it was at home, and did not expose the horrors of slavery to the civilized world, it might have been passed over. But some of them had been taking lessons, and had learned to write, and, guided by their own experience, were exposing slavery to its profoundest depths.—They were exposing their own wrongs, and asserting and claiming their own rights, with an eloquence which caused every string in the great heart of humanity to vibrate—They were rising to the common platform, and proving their claim to intellectual equality. This could not be endured. Something must be done to put them down, and prevent the future increase of such an intolerable evil; and hence the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of the 18th of September, 1850.

While the passage of this law was pending in Congress, the excitment throughout the country was intense; and it was thought by many, that at the May anniversaries of the national anti-slavery societies, horrible things would occur. Partaking of the common excitement, and desiring to see and know what would be done, I resolved to visit New York, and be present at the anniversary meetings. Accordingly, allowing myself sufficient time, I left home on the 24th of April, and, after spending two days in Philadelphia, arrived at New York on the 29th.

The two days in Philadelphia were employed in gaining information. Saturday forenoon I spent in the Market House, in Market St., among the countrymen, butchers, and fishermen, trying to ascertain if they had imbibed any of the mob spirit. In the afternoon I called on some prominent anti-slavery men; and in the evening visited some notorious corners, and halls of firemen.—From all that I could learn, the anti-slavery spirit was not depressed, nor was the mob spirit very rife. In fact the mobocracy had received no definite orders.

Sunday I spent in different churches, and with such unemployed business men as I happened to meet with. Among them I found considerable excitement over the question of how much devotion to slavery it would be necessary for them to show, in order to wrest New York the larger portion of Southern trade. This may not be just the form of the question, but it was the substance of it. The politicians, too, were much excited about the fat offices in the gift of the general government. All were loud in their devotion to the Union, and in their denunciation of those opposed to slavery, which, with them, was the gread bond and cement of the Union. The abolitionists must be put down, and agitation silenced; but how was not yet decided.

In Philadelphia, and in the cars from thence to New York, I heard your name, Mr. Editor, often mentioned in connexion with something which you had said at a public meeting somewhere North, perhaps at Syracuse, about slavery and the Union. The friends of slavery seemed much excited about it, and more troubled to find some effectual means of silencing you, than any one else whose name I heard mentioned. This, to me, was deeply interesting; for it was conclusive evidence, to my mind, that colored men were beginning to exert an acknowledged influence in the public affairs of the nation, and could, therefore, "do something" in promoting their own national welfare.—With my mind occupied with this idea and the cause of the prevailing excitement, I, as aforesaid, arrived in New York.

From the 30th of April, to the 7th of May, I was engaged in attending lectures, and gaining all the information I could, of the state of public sentiment on the slavery question then pending in Congress.

On going out one morning as usual, during this period, I met a friend at the corner of Broadway and Leonard Streets, and stopped a few minutes to converse; and on parting with him, was met by a news-boy, with the address of, "buy the Tribune, Sir?" Expecting that MR. GREELEY would have something to say on the great question then pending in Congress, I bought a copy, and soon afterwards returned to my lodgings and sat down to read it over.

On opening it, the first thing which fixed my attention was an article on the Free People of Color.
I accidentally lost the paper containing the article, and must, therefore, speak of it from memory. After charging the colored people with being too deficient in the essential qualities of energy, enterprise and perseverence, to enable them to remain in connexion with the whites on terms of equality, and especially ridiculing the government and people of Hayti, MR. GREELEY closed the article with saying, "let the free blacks do something to merit the claims which they make, before they or their friends demand them."

This, I believe, was the origin of the phrase, at the head of this article, as it is now used: and as the length of the present article is already equal to its merit, I will defer any further remarks on the practical use which I intend to make of it until my next communication.
Yours, &c.,

LEWIS WOODSON