BOSTON, February 15th, 1851.
In obedience to the warrant to me directed, I have this day
arrested the within named Shadrach, and now have him before the
commissioner within named.
P. RILEY, U. S. Deputy Marshal.
A hearing was had in the U. S. court room, and several papers, being
affidavits and certificates of a record, were exhibited by the
complainant's counsel, as the evidence under the 10th section of the
Fugitive Slave Law so called, that Shadrach was a slave in Virginia,
that he was owned by said De Bree, and that he escaped on the 3d of May,
1850. At the request of counsel these papers were read and admitted as
evidence in the case, subject to such objections as might be made to
their admissibility as legal evidence thereafter.
There were present as counsel for Shadrach, S. E. Sewall, Ellis G.
Loring, Charles G. Davis, and Charles List, and as they had not had an
opportunity to examine the documents produced by the complainant, and
were therefore not satisfied of their sufficiency, they asked for a
postponement, to February 18th, and the commissioner adjourned the
further hearing of the matter until 10 o'clock, on Tuesday, February
18th, and passed the following order:--
United States of America, District of Massachusetts, February 15th,
1851.--And now the hearing of this case being adjourned to Tuesday
the eighteenth day of February instant, at ten o'clock in the
forenoon, the said deputy marshal, who has made return of this
warrant, is hereby ordered to retain the said Shadrach in his
custody, and have him before me at the time last mentioned, at the
court house in Boston, for the further hearing of the complaint on
which this warrant is issued.
GEO. T. CURTIS, Commissioner.
* * * * *
On the following Tuesday, P. Riley, Esq., Deputy U. S. Marshal,
appeared before the Commissioner, George T. Curtis, Esq., and offered
the following return which was annexed to the above order.
BOSTON, Tuesday, February 18th, 1851.