This case, from beginning to end, is a curious episode of Antislavery history. The people of Washington were surprised, on the morning of April 16, 1848, at hearing that the "Pearl," a schooner from the North, had sailed down the Potomac with seventy-six slaves, who had hurried aboard in the vain hope of obtaining their freedom. The schooner was pursued and brought back to Washington with her human cargo, and the liberators, Drayton, master, and Sayres, mate. As the latter were taken from the river-side to the jail, they were followed by a proslavery mob, estimated at from four to six thousand people, many armed with deadly weapons, amid wrathful cries of, "Hang him!" "Lynch him!" with all profanities and abominations of speech, and exposed to violence of all kinds,--the thrust of a dirk-knife coming within an inch of Drayton. The same mob besieged the jail, and, hearing that Hon. Joshua E. Giddings, the brave Representative of Ohio, was there in consultation with the prisoners, demanded his immediate expulsion, and the jailer, to save bloodshed, insisted upon his departure. Nor was the prevailing rage confined to the jail. It extended to the office of the "National Era," the Antislavery paper, which was saved from destruction only through the courage and calmness of its admirable editor. The spirit of the mob entered both Houses of Congress, and the slave-masters raged, as was their wont. Meanwhile Drayton and Sayres were indicted before the Criminal Court of the District of Columbia for "transporting" slaves. There were no less than one hundred and fifteen indictments against each of the prisoners, and the bail demanded of each was seventy-six thousand dollars. Hon. Horace Mann, a Representative of Massachusetts, appeared for the defence. His speech on this occasion will be read with constant interest.[93] The spirit of the mob without entered the court-room, betraying itself even in the conduct of the judge, while standing near the devoted counsel for the defence were men who cocked pistols and drew dirks in the mob that followed the prisoners to the jail. Of course the verdict was "Guilty," and the sentence was according to the extreme requirement of a barbarous law. [93] Slavery: Letters and Speeches by Horace Mann, pp. 84-118.