Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-11-20
Mrs. Child'S Views of the Recent Slave
Case.

Mrs. CHILD has a letter in the Boston
Courier on the subject of the recent Slave
Case, from which we copy as follows:
On the side of freedom
there was hearty eloquence, and great clear
ness and dlrectness of argument. On the
side of despotism, there was legal acutene ss
and hair splitting. 1t is all the ablest man
ran do, under such circumstances. 1t is i'm
possible to be eloquent in such a cause. IL
a man has any heart, it rises up, and looks
sd sadly and upbraidingly into the eyes of
his Intellect, that ii takes away mis- strength.
And even If he has no heart, he is still troub-
led with an awkward consciousness that it
does not SOund well to sustain the system of
human slavery, in the nineteenth century,
and with the ears Of a free State for listeners.
Therefore. the best a lawyer can do in such
a dilemma is to disguise and cover up the
hateful idea, and wind and twist adroitly, to
keep the devil hidden behind a stump.
Judge Edmonds, after a patient hearing,
discharged the colored lad, on the ground
that, if he were a slave, there was neither
the owner nor the agent or attorney here to
claim nm, and therefore no one had a right
to distrain him of his liberty.
His release was "a signal for furious excite
ment among the upholders of that benign
and patriarchal system, which true-blue De
mocrats so often embellish with the soft an,
courteous name of ''involuntary apprentice
ships" but which those who handle thing
without gloves call the accursed system o
human slavery. The captain, probably no
from ill feeling TO the poor lad, but looking
only TO his own safety, offered $50 to who
ever would catch him. Nine hundred police
men,, verbally authorized by the Mayor
NVpra Instantly m tho o-. -. $500 a.
prey. Had d menagerie of tigers and hyena.
been let loose on a poor little painting hare
there could not have been a hotter pursuit.
Every vessel and steamboat was watched
every avenue TO the city was watched. They
even carried their vigilance so far as to fol-
low and inspect certain wooden boxes, con-
yeyed from one of the missionary Offices
In one of these suspected boxes, the living
Gospel of Freedom, bound in black, was
found.
Then great was the exultation. The man
hunters disputed among themselves who had
the principal share in this noble transaction (;
and paragraphs were put in the paper to set
tie what particular individuals undoubtedly
deserved the honor. Perhaps the city au-
thoritles may pass a vote to erect them a
monument of brass on the battery, where it
will be cons icuous 10 all strangers arriving
in the metropolis of what they suppose to be
a free State. Their sons would probably be
glad to let verdigris fill up the names but
The Mayor, who seems so peculiarly desir-
GUS to oblige our Southern masters, might,
during his administration, cause the brazen
record to be kept bright, though it would
pass any mans power to make it CLEAN
And if the Empire State really aspires to the
magnanimous, the truly democratic mission
of being Slave-catcher to the South, | would
propose that a banner float from the State.
House in Albany, and the City Hall here,
bearing the proud motto, EXCELSIOR and
underneath, the State of New York, with a
Liberty Pole in one hand, and in the other a
trembling Slave led back in chains to his
master.
l could not but think what would have
been the emotions of old franklin and jay
and Putnam and Warren and a host of otheI
revolutionary heroes, had they suddenly
dropped down into the midst of that excited
crowd, who, for fifty pieces of silver, wer'
hunting a poor young soul into slavery.
''They had the hearts of freemen to the last
And the free blood that bounded in theiI
veins,
Was shed for freedom with a liberal Joy.
But had they guessed, or could they bu
have dreamed,
The great examples which they died to show
Would fall so fat, would shine so fruitIes,
here,
That men should say, For Liberty these
died,
Therefore let us be Slaves!'-h had they thought
this,
On, then with what an agony of shame,
Their blushing faces buried in the dust,
Had their great spirits parted hence to Heav-
en!"
Well, they caught the fugitive, and may
they live to be ashamed of it, in calmer and
wiser moments. A second writ of hGbeas
corpus was served to deliver him from their