In the first place these fellows would not give up a valuable slave without a struggle; and, in the next place, they have committed a very serious crime.

Therefore it is absolutely necessary that you should go armed with legal powers and backed by the force of the law.

In the first place, I will draw up an affidavit and sign it myself, to the effect that a female slave, the property of Vincent Wingfield, has, with her male child, been kidnaped and stolen by Jonas Pearson and others, acting in association with him, and that we have reason to know that she has been conveyed into South Carolina.

This I will get witnessed by a justice of the peace, and will then take it up to the State House.

There I will get the usual official request to the Governor of South Carolina to issue orders that the aid of the law shall be given to you in recovering the said Dinah Moore and her child, and arresting her abductors.