aw of the United States' Government, no colored man can
drive a mail stage; neither can any colored man ride on one,
unless he is known to be free, or is a slave travelling with his
master. Stage owners incur heavy penalties if they infringe
these rules. A verdict of one thousand six hundred dollars was
lately recovered by a slave-master against the company.

"At Washington the stage was stopped to know if a colored boy
could be put on. 'Yes; where is he?' 'Up at the jail yonder.'
The querist took a seat inside; and soon after I spied a colored
man on the outside, with keepers. He was a re-captured runaway,
who had taken a horse with him, and imitated the Israelites, in
borrowing various other articles, when he escaped from bondage.
He assumed false whiskers and a pair of spectacles; and on
reaching the Ohio river, produced free papers duly stamped with
the county seal. But, unfortunately, when questioned where he
had staid the preceding night, he foolishly attempted to
describe the place, and was thus detected; two hundred dollars
had been offered for him if taken out of the State, and one
hundred dollars if taken in the State. To ride in a stage, with
a man behind, whose legs and arms were fastened together with
rivetted chains and padlocks, was enough to make one feel the
force of Patrick Henry's exclamation, 'Give me liberty, or give
me death!' It was a poor consolation to administer to the
gnawings of his hunger, while beholding his manly frame thus
manacled: but I thought he seemed to eat my gingerbread with a
better relish, when I told him it was made where colored men
were free. At Payne's tavern, in Fairview, the poor fellow had
to undergo an examination from the landlord, and listen to a
homily about truth-telling; so little do slave-holders seem
aware that stealing and lying are constituent parts of their own
system. In the stage office at Lexington, we encountered the man
who claimed this poor fugitive. The driver, who had come with us
the two last stages, was a native of Duchess Co., N.Y.; and he
began to plead with the slave-holder in behalf of the slave. I
heard of another case where the angry master threatened to flog
and sell a recovered runaway, whom he had with him; but the
stage driver remonstrated with him so effectually, that he wept
like a child, and