The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1843-08-17
mr.. Van Zant and his Prosecutors.

The legal persecution 10 which Mr..
Van Zant as been subjected, on account
of an act of simple ~benevolence, is be-
ginning to excite the sympathy of the
public. Were not the mind of the nation
debauched by slavery, it would brand
with inlamy his cold blooded prosecutors
Let US bring the picture Of this whole
transaction before US.
We know sNIr. Van Zant. He is an
hon est, Woodworking, benevolent farm
err, of ~unimpeached religious character,
devoted above most men to the cause of
the slave, for he vas born and raised
in Kentucky, where what he saw Of
slavery taught him to abhor the system,
and pity its victims.
Who are his persecutors3 Notorious
as tavern-loafers, in and about a coun-
try village, without definite means Of
living, destitute of principle or its pre-
tence, hating good, loving evil
What was the offence of Mr.. Van
Zant? Hegave conveyance in his wag-
on to nine human beings, who, without
his instig alton or aid, had escaped from
slavery, and were striving without vio-
laling The peace, or trespassing on the
rights of citizens, to secure to themselves
the enjoyment Of those rights, which our
fathers, calling God 70 witness, pro-
"nounced innlienabIe. No man had a
right TO them or their services, or the
Declaration which these fathers put forth
with an oath to the world, and on which
rests our national existence, was a LIE.
No man had any other right to them
than the robber has to the rurse of him,
on whose mock he has planted his foot
or the pirate to the treasures oftbe ship,
he has doomed to destruction. One
half of a mighty nation was in open arms
against all that they held dear; and from
the sympathies and laws ofthe other half
they were outcasts. What could Van
Zant do? He saw there an aged wo-
man, who had grown grey in serving
those who regarded her as a brute, and
did not suffer her to call her children her
own. He saw the mother with her
children, under the guidance ola father,
who, after years of unrequitedto toll, with
the certain prospect of having his off
spring at no distant period, torn from his
embraces, and sent to the human flesh
market of the South, had resolved to
seek a country, where, under his own
vine and zig tree, he might perform the
duties Of a husband and a father, and
receive the services and sympathies of
his wife and children, none daring to
make him afraid.
Van Zant was appealed TO for aid
What could he do? We ask every man
of ordinary humanity, what would you
have wished him to do, had you and
your children been in the place oil those
iugitlves? You would have cursed him
for a heartless demon, if he had refused
you that favor, he showed to them. lie
secuted the idea that they could be prop
crty. He remembered only hat they
were men, children Of the same Almlgh-
" Father who had made him. HIS
heart rose up against the inhumanlty OF
his nation. and he gave them the help
thew demanded. He had nothing to
gain, much to lose, but his benevolence
looked for no reward, as it shrunk from
no penalty. The man that can blame
him, deserves richly to wear the chains
from which these trembling fugit'ves
were escaping. 49,.
This was his sole offence. For this
the man who claimed the right OF rob
biog these nine human beings, brought
his action for damages, and an Amerl-
can Jury render a verdict against the de-
PENDANT, of 81 200 damages! Twelve
hundred dollars as a punishment for
showing mercy for refusing to act ike
a devil "incarnate!
But this was not all. The voracious
monster of slavery is not yet appeased.
lis not enough that the STAKEHOLDER and