Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1838-05-09

a
rage relation has no legal .existence.-lt
There are no parties capable'of contract
ing. The law recognizes no such rela-
tion--gives 1t TO sanction, connects with
1t no rights, and throws around il no pro-
lection. Rape and adultery, when ap-
piled 10 this subject, are words without
meaning; and there is no sense in which
the husband has right to his wife-the
wife to her husband, or either Of them to
their children. ln short, the whole do
nestle relation is cut up root and branch
destroyed, annihila:edl .4
In reference to the wrongs to which
the slave-laws Of the United States gen.
orally leave the slave exposed, there are |
two or three points which require a mo-
ments distinct attention.
The slave has no remedy in his own
| right for any injury. He can be party
to no suit. He can have no action against
any body, for injuries either 10 himself,
his wife or his children. He is, in this
respect, complete outLata without RENE
! dy 10 his own right, for wrong of any
4 kind or degree whatever.
! The crying injustice of leaving the
slave thus unprotected, made so deep an
impression on the mind of Mr.. jeff ,rson,
that, soon after he entered the Virginia
legislature, (as he says in his letter to
governor Coles, which have read, he
drew to it The attention of colonel Bland,
an old and reputable member of that
body, who undertook to move certain
moderate extensions of the protection Of
the LaW to these people" But, instead of
succeeding in this noble purpose of mercy
and justice, colonel Bland, as Mr.. Jeffer-
son says, was actually denounced as an
enemy to his country, and treated with
the greatest indecorum." And so the slave
: is an outlaw still l. - &c.,.
The next general consideration con-
nected with this subject which deserves
special notice, is, that no black man,
tchether bond or free, can testify in any
case IN Which a s0hitc man is a portv.-
This is rule of law of universal appli-
cation wherever slavery exists. Now
who cannot see how completely this rule
, deprives the slave of the little protection
! which the laws profess to give him. Take
the cases in which they make such pro-
fession-namely, the subsection of the
master TO public prosecution for muir
|. der, mining and cruelty to animals at
! common law. Who, in the first place.
= Is to become the informer? The injured
!, !, slave dare not; so completely is he with
! IN the power of the master. And if he
dare disclose the truth, and set on foot a
prosecution, he cannot be witness. To
as little purpose would any other black
man move in such matter, since no
> prosecution against white man can be
sustained by his testimony.
II is in vain that the laws forbid the
. murder or manning of slave, or that
!. the master is subjected to a prosecution a,
4 common law as for cruelty TO an animal
! If the laws cannot be executed; and how
!. can they be, without witnesses2 They
are but a mere. mockery, accompanied a.
:. they are. by sweeping disqualification
of nearly all the witnesses who, in slar
s community, would be likely 10 know tn,
: facts necessary to a conviction. Add t
all this, the consideration that from tn,
b very nature of his relation to the slave
= the master has the power of so disposin.
- of him preparatory to the preparation O
violence, as to render 1t impossible 10 de
i. tect and bring him to justice, by any test
- mony whatever. -:-a, =
- In what a helpless, unprotected, deplor
! able condition is the slave thus left. VIVA
an uncomfortable amount of suffering NAV
- either through defect of the laws, or fail
! ure Of their execution, be inflicted on hir
by excessive labor, want of food an
II clothing, and cruel punishments by whir
ping, claiming, and imprisoning at pleas
ure--to say nothing of the suffering
i, incident to his sale, transfer, and sever
=. ence from his friends. How completed
- is he left al the mercy of IRRESPONSIBLE
80 power-exposed TO the grinding exaction
,;s Of averice, the relentless scourgings,
may be, of passionate, unfeling maste
-, and the kicks and cuffs of everybody
Il. To add to all this, he may be, and ofte
&c is, placed under the superintendent, an
subjected TO the proVerbial crueIties.
On one of those subordinate despots Gale
-. orerseers, of whom Mr. Writ, in his ii
of Patrick Henry, says" They are n
,ed most abject, degraded, unprincipled raj
always cap in hand to the dons WI
nv employ them, and furnishing materials (,
~ the exercise of their pride, insolence. ar
= spirit of domination" - ! i
confess il would not have occurred TO n
his to reckon the common law prosecution to al
- mails AS among the legal projections to the slay
De but for remark which find in "a practi,
nee treatise on the laws of slavery by Jacob
49, Wheeler, Esq, recently published. In referen
bv to remark of Judge Stroud, in his sketch
the slave-iaws, that. the master may, at
pleasure. innict any species Of punishment on
ira person of his slave" Mr. Wheeler saws in
ests note, p. 200: sin those States where there
. no enactmenis upon the subject, the comm
lazy would be snlficienf to I,rntect slare..- q