o have the facts collected and arranged. He procured
the aid of an intelligent and humane friend of the cause, who resided
near Trenton, to attend, personally to the case, and secured the legal
services of Theodore Frelinghuysen, well known as one of the most gifted
and virtuous statesmen of the age, and as a warm and zealous friend of
the oppressed. Under these happy auspices, the case came before the
Supreme Court, and gave rise to a highly interesting and important
argument; in which the distinguished Frelinghuysen appeared as the
disinterested advocate of the prisoner, and urged upon the court his
claim to liberty, under the laws of New Jersey, in a speech which was
one of his most brilliant and eloquent efforts, and added another to the
many laurels which his genius and philanthropy have achieved.

The opinion of Chief Justice Hornblower was given at length, and is said
to have displayed a soundness and extent of legal knowledge, with a
spirit of mildness and humanity, well worthy of the highest judicial
tribunal of New Jersey.

By this decision, Alexander Helmsley was declared to be a freeman, and
returned with rejoicing into the bosom of his family, and to the
enjoyment of the rights and privileges of a free citizen.

Thus terminated this interesting case, which for several months agitated
the public mind of Burlington county, to an extent almost unequalled.

Such disinterested devotion to the defence of the rights of the
oppressed, had it been displayed only in the instance recited, would be
sufficient to enroll the name of Thomas Shipley on the list of the
benefactors of his race; but when we consider that, for a period of
twenty years, his history abounds in similar incidents, and that he
uniformly stood forth as the unflinching advocate of the oppressed,
regardless of the sacrifices which he was obliged to make on their
behalf, we are disposed to view him as one of that noble band whose
lives have been consecrated to deeds of charity and benevolence, and
whose names will illumine the moral firmament, so long as virtue and
truth shall command the homage of mankind.

Thomas Shipley was one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery
Society, and was an active agent in those stirring movements which soon
aroused the nation to a full consideration of the enormities of Slavery.
He was a prominent member of the Anti-slavery Convention, which
assembled in this city in 1833, and a signer of their declaration of