64. These facts clearly exemplify the safety with which the free born inhabitants of the United States may be offered for sale and sold, even in the metropolis of Liberty,[25] as oxen; even to those who are notified of the fact, and are perhaps convinced of it, that they are free![26] 65. The discovery of these captives, on their road to the dismal _gulf_[27] of (perhaps) interminable slavery to themselves, and their multiplying progeny; in this very accidental, unless providential manner, filled me with a mixture of astonishment, compassion and joy. With a view to commence immediate legal measures, for restoring them to their liberty, I took my pencil and noted down their narratives circumstantially. 66. I had not quite finished, before the purchaser of the mulatto man came into the room. He seemed a little surprised to find me writing, but made no inquiries about it, and having obtained all the information that I wished, I continued noting it down, notwithstanding his being present, until my memorandums were completed; when I left him in the room, without having had any conversation with him, except answering some questions, which he asked me relative to the wounded slave. Without hesitation, I commenced a suit in the circuit court of the United States, for the District of Columbia, for the restitution of their liberty. The first attempt to secure the persons of the captives, by a writ of habeas corpus, was ineffectual. I accompanied the deputy marshal myself, to the house in which I found them. The landlord declared, that "if he had known I was writing so long in the room where the Negroes were, he should have been very angry with me; and that if I had no other evidence of their freedom, but their stories, we should not see them." He said he believed "Negroes were made to serve the Whites, and that they had no more sense than horses." He stated, that the person who saw me writing, suspected some difficulty, and had directed him to conceal the Negroes, and that he had done it. He told me, in a sneering manner, that if I wished to take the part of the negroes, he could find me plenty of such business. He informed me that he had been in the way of keeping Negroes for the Traders many years, and took better care of them than they received in the jail.[28]