proof.[706] [704] James H. Fairchild, _The Underground Railroad, Tract No. 87_, in Vol. IV, Western Reserve Historical Society, p. 106. [705] G. M. Stroud, _A Sketch of the Laws Relating to Slavery_, 2d ed., 1856, pp. 281, 282. [706] _Statutes of the State of Ohio_, 1841, collated by J. B. Swan, pp. 595-600. Among those that paid homage to such laws as these, and thus made the North an unsafe refuge for slaves, were to be found representatives of all classes of society. Samuel J. May opens to view the convictions of some of the most cultured people of his day by the following incidents related concerning two well-known New England clergymen. "The excellent Dr. E. S. Gannett, of Boston, was heard to say, more than once, very emphatically, and to justify it, 'that he should feel it to be his duty to turn away from his door a fugitive slave,--unfed, unaided in any way, rather than set at naught the law of the land.' "And Rev. Dr. Dewey, whom we accounted one of the ablest expounders and most eloquent defenders of our Unitarian faith,--Dr. Dewey was reported to have said at two different times, in public lectures or speeches during the fall of 1850 and the winter of 1851, that 'he would send his _mother_ into slavery, rather than endanger the Union, by resisting this law enacted by the constituted government of the nation.' He has often denied that he spoke thus of his 'maternal relative,' and therefore I allow that he was misunderstood. But he has repeatedly acknowledged that he did say, 'I would consent that my own brother, my own son, should go, _ten times rather_ would I go myself into slavery, than that this Union should be sacrificed.'"[707] After the occurrence of the famous Jerry rescue at Syracuse, October 1, 1851, many newspapers representing both political parties emphatically condemned the successful resistance made to the law by the abolitionists as "a disgraceful, demoralizing and alarming act."[708] [707] _Some Recollections of our Anti-Slavery Conflict_, p. 367. [708] _Some Recollections of Our Anti-Slavery Conflict_, p. 380. The newspapers named by Mr. May are, _The Advertiser_ and _The American_ of Rochester, _The Gazette_ and _Observer_ of Utica, _The Oneida Whig_, _The Register_, _The Argus_ and _The Express_ of Albany, _The Courier_ and _Inquirer_ and _The Express_ of New York.