“_For the Southern Confederacy,_ _Jackson, Mississippi._” And the same day, or the day before, returned a fugitive slave through the commissioner, and all went well with the city, reaping the fruits of the war, until General Wallace placed it under martial law, and, suspending business, demanded the citizens to enroll themselves for defense. “Some were at once taken very sick, others were hunted up by detailed soldiers, who turned them out of barns, kitchens, garrets, cellars, closets, from under beds, and in the disguise of women’s clothing.” For the seed sown was now ripe and mid air was resounding--“_The harvest is here._” At a time, in 1858, when public sentiment was beginning to be felt, and official prosecutions for the return of fugitive slaves became more or less unsatisfactory to the owners, James Buchanan, President of the United States, gave a surprise to every one by appointing Judge Stanley Matthews--an eminent lawyer, ex-editor of an abolition paper, and leader in the anti-slavery movements in Ohio, as United States District Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. To politicians, this seemed not only a deviation from all known precedents, but, politically, an unfathomable mystery. But, no more remarkable was the appointment than that, a lawyer at the summit of professional ability and large income--a noted abolitionist--opposed to the fugitive slave acts, should have accepted the position. But those who knew Judge Matthews and his patriotism best, could discern in it logical conclusions--the interests of freedom could be subserved and the public mind attained by a shorter method than by arguing, speaking, or publishing--“_the enforcement of the iniquitous fugitive slave law_.” And for three years he prosecuted “offenders” _without_ just fault or favor--giving such lessons in its application, that made loyalty to freedom, and magnified the blessings of the free. Judge Matthews resigned the office in 1861, and took the commission of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Twenty-third--afterward Colonel of the Fifty-first Ohio, and awaited the “proclamation.”