Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1848-07-07
Visit from a Shareholder.

We had quite an excitement in Salem on
Thursday OF last week. A stakeholder from
Missouri stopped at Webb's Temperance
house on the evening previous, bringing with
him a slave who was " fat and sleek, content
ed and happy" His entrance into the town
excited the suspicious of the friends of liber-
ty, for it is not usual for a Northerner 10 ride
alone in a double seated buggy, and have a
colored servant following at a respectful dis
lance on horseback.
At an early hour on Thursday morning a
considerable number of abolitionlsts were on
the premises, or in the immediate neighbor-
hood, armed and equipped as the law of hu-
manity directs, and determined that the slave,
or the supposed slave should not accompany
his master further unless he wished so to do.
The master seemed confident that JEFF"
would not leave him, said that though for
merly a slave, he was now free, and could
seek other employment whenever he wished.
jeff told the same story, and mentioned the
amount Of his monthly wages; but said he
had a wife who was a slave, and that he in
tended bringing her to Ohio before long,
Upon being questioned as to whether he had
any legal evidence of his manumission, he
admitted he had not; and it was then repre-
scented to him that if he spoke the truth, aud
had in reality beer emancipated, neither Mis-
souri, nor any other slaveholding State was a
however, determined 10 90 back; his wife,
he said, was there, and return he would
His master appeared to be no way afraid to
trust him to do what he chose, and Jeff, to
show that this was the case, walked away
with several lugitives who had been convers-
ing with him, telling him in his masters pre-
SERGE, that when In slavery they had as good
a story as his, and until they had a chance to
run away, asserted they were satisfied with
their condition. While absent with them,
he admitted that he was a slave-thus con-
Tossing that he and his master had both lied.
He did not, however, feel the necessity of
leaving at present, though he said he intend
ed to be back In a few weeks. As they were
travelling North, perhaps he may yet improve
the opportunity 10 assert his freedom, for he
is free, even by the laws of this Union, his
master having brought him into a free State;
and should the latter, on their return, again
claim him as a slave, he would be guilty of
kidnapping as defined by law, though public
opinion in Missouri would of course, stand
between him and the penalty.
The demonstration of Thursday was a gra-
tifying one, and proved the impossibility OF
any STAKEHOLDER bringing a slave to Salem
and holding him as such, unless he had first
been frightened or cajoled into an apparent
consent to remain a chattel. Force would
have been resorted 10 by some who were then
present, rather than the man should have been
carried off against his will. And we are in
clined to think that not even a recaptured flu
gitive could be openly taken through Salem,
unless those who had him in charge were
prepared to fight their way and if we could
believe it was right to fight in any case, it
would be to secure freedom for ourselves or
freedom for others, and this, Constitution or
no Constitution.