A voice from Harper's Ferry/Chapter 17

by Osborne Perry Anderson

 

CHAPTER XVII.

A WORD OR TWO MORE ABOUT ALBERT HAZLETT.

I left Lieut. Hazlett prostrate with fatigue and hunger, the night on which I went to Chambersburg. The next day, he went into the town boldly, carrying his blanket, rifle and revolver, and proceeded to the house where Kagi had boarded. The reward was then out for John E. Cook's arrest, and suspecting him to be Cook, Hazlett was pursued. He was chased from the house where he was by the officers, dropping his rifle in his flight. When he got to Carlisle, so far from receiving kindness from the citizens of his native State,—he was from Northern Pennsylvania,—he was arrested and lodged in jail, given up to the authorities of Virginia, and shamefully executed by them,—his identity, however, never having been proven before the Court. A report of his arrest at the time reads as follows:—

"The man arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the insurrection was brought before Judge Graham on a writ of habeas corpus to-day. Judge Watts presented a warrant from Governor Packer, of Pennsylvania, upon a requisition from the Governor of Virginia for the delivery of the fugitive named Albert Hazlett. There was no positive evidence to identify the prisoner."

Hazlett was remanded to the custody of the Sheriff. The Judge appointed a further hearing, and issued subpœnas for witnesses from Virginia, &c. No positive evidence in that last hearing was adduced, and yet Governor Packer ordered him to be delivered up; and the pro-slavery authorities made haste to carry out the mandate.