[Illustration: WILLIAM STILL, CHAIRMAN OF THE ACTING VIGILANCE COMMITTEE IN PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, 1852-1860.] We have already learned that Philadelphia had a Vigilance Committee before 1840. In a speech made before the meeting that organized the new committee, December 2, 1852, Mr. J. Miller McKim, the secretary of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, gave the reasons for establishing a new committee. He said that the old committee "had become disorganized and scattered, and that for the last two or three years the duties of this department had been performed by individuals on their own responsibility, and sometimes in a very irregular manner." It was accordingly decided to form a new committee, called the General Vigilance Committee, with a chairman and treasurer; and within this body an Acting Committee of four persons, "who should have the responsibility of attending to every case that might require their aid, as well as the exclusive authority to raise the funds necessary for their purpose." The General Committee comprised nineteen members, and had as its head Mr. Robert Purvis, one of the signers of the Declaration of Sentiments of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and the first president of the old committee. The Acting Committee had as its chairman William Still, a colored clerk in the office of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and a most energetic underground helper. The Philadelphia Vigilance Committee, thus constituted, continued intact until Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.[191] Some insight into the work accomplished by the Acting Committee can be obtained by an examination of the book compiled by William Still under the title _Underground Railroad Records_. The Acting Committee was required to keep a record of all its doings. Mr. Still's volume was evidently amassed by the transcription of many of the incidents that found their way under this order into the archives of the committee. The work was limited to the assistance of such needy fugitives as came to Philadelphia; and was not extended, except in rare cases, to inciting slaves to run away from their masters, or to aiding them in so doing.[192] [191] Article, "Meeting to Form a Vigilance Committee," in the _Pennsylvania Freeman_, Dec. 9, 1852; quoted in _Underground Railroad Records_, by William Still, pp. 610-612. [192] Still's _Underground Railroad Records_, p. 177. References to the action of the committee of which Mr. Still was chairman will be found scattered through the Records. See, for example, pp. 70, 98, 102, 131, 150, 162, 173, 176, 204, 224, 274, 275, 303, 325, 335, 388, 412, 449, 493, 500.