Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-05-28
S. BROOKE, Gen. .3gent.
Editorial Correspondence.
PHILADELPHIA, May 8, 1917.

L hibAbELFllA, MAY Q, 1910
DEAR FRIEND -
An event occurred the present week which
occasioned considerable excitement among
the colored people and their friends, az well
as among those whose highest delight is to
be found in trampling upon an already crush
ed class.
You remember that at the last session Of
her Legislature, Pennsylvania passed a law
which, beside abolishing the six month sla-
very that existed there, forbids, under severe
penalties, the action Of State officers, as such,
in the arrest of fugitive slaves. This law is
doubtless so far in advance Of public opinion
that there is danger it will be disregarded in
spirit, if not in its very letter. Its enactment
was a cause Of surprise 10 many of those who
were laboring to bring the people up to at
least as high a standard as it presents, and
is to be regarded more as the result of poli,i-
cal management than an Indication of popu-
lar feeling written out upon the statute book.
So far as it throws obstacles in the way of
the slave-catcher, SO far it is an aid in the
N""SS - HNh'uhig' CVftidI hlSuCCtSSiuI y
tempts have already been made to evade its
provisions, and a case is now before the
Court of Common Pleas of this county, the
decision of which involves a principle of
great interest to the community at large, and
of vast importance to the colored man. The
facts are as follows:
Isaac Brown, who is believed 10 be a rl-
gitive slave, was arrested on a warrant from
Governor Skunk of Pennsylvania, issued on
a requisition from the Executive Of MARYLAND,
charging him with assault and battery with
intent to kill, and demanding him as a furi-
tive from justice. The Executive Of this
State has, within a few months, several times
refused TO comply with similar demands.
where it appeared to him evident that the de.
sign was to reclaim fugitives from slavery.
and not to arrest escaping criminals. This
appeared so clearly and palpabIy to the friends
Of Isaac Brown to be true of his case, that
they in,erposed 10 delay, and ultimately pre-
vent, if possible, the execution of the Co
v%ernor's warrant. He was brought before
Judge Parsons on a writ of ha5cas corpus, and
the following points presented for discussion:
% Has The Judge a right to inquire into
the regularity of the Governors proceedings,
as they appear upon the face of the warrant.
(2) Has the Judge a right to go behind the
warrant and investigate the evidence upon
which it was issued.
A great deal was said pro and con upon
these questions, and, after several adjourn
ments of the case, and holding communica-
ton with Governor Skunk, he gave direction
TO suspend all proceedings under his warrant
until he had further investigated the case
This is the condition in which it stands at
present. What will be the final result. it
would be difficult to prophesy. 1t is sur
prising how much the colored people endure,
and how long and patiently they suffer. The
u. s. Constitution gives them no protection
against the slave-catcher, but, on the contra
ry, pledges every one Of its supporters to sus-
tain him in his inhuinan work; the law of
1913 declares a severe penalty against all who
harbor or conceal a fugitive escaping from
injustice, and public opinion, although i'm
proving, throws no shield of safety over them.
The fathers of 70 would not have thus pa
riently suffered, and although the oppressed
colored man, with more forbearance, endures
far greater wrongs, yet the time mnst and
will come, when if the spirit of love does not
win for him his rights, the final page of the
history of his oppression will be written in
the blood of the despots who deny his very
humanity.
Were it not for the accursed prejudice
against color which lives and rules in the
hearts of the people of the North, such a state
of things would not be tolerated for a single
moment; but they have been so educated in
hatred to the colored man, that it has become
to them a second nature, and is as invincible
as long-continued habit can make it. 1t is
no wonder that men have come to regard it
as natural, for it is linked with the earliest
recollectlons OF their existence, and remeln-
bered as one of the first lessons learned from
the p%aternal lips. 1t is no wonder, when the
State pronounces the colored man a degraded
and inferior being, and excludes him from
the rights and privileges of citizenship, when
the Church practically teaches that an i'm
passable barrier exists between the descend
ents Of the African and the Anglo-Saxon, an
odious distinction which originated in the
providence of God, that those who receive
their ideas Of morality and religion from these
institutions should hate the colored man in