Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1848-06-16


for the occasion, or easier still 10 act without
any law at all. This last alternative was
adopted. The two unfortunate women,
against whose character there was no re.
proach, were seized and put in prison; a few
books found tn their trunks were burnt by the
hangmen; and after suffering various indlg-
mites, they were turned out of the country.
Persecution requires only a very little spark
TO kindIe it to a great flame. 1t would almost
seem as if the misusage of the two women
caused a flocking of Quakers from all points
of the compass TO Boston, only for the sake
OF getting ili.treated. In a short time eight
made their appearance, and they in like man
ner were imprisoned and banished. Think
Ing ii now time TO get a little law TO regulate
proceedings, a local court passed an enact
ment declaring that any Quakers who should
hereafter arrive in the colony, should be Sc
verely whipped and confined at hard labor in
the house Of correction. Immediately after
wards several came, We're whipped, confined
and dismissed and others took their place.
1t was evident that the law was too l%enient,
so a fresh enactment was passed. Fines
were imposed on every person who gave
house-room to Quakers, or who attended their
meetings or otherwise sanctioned their per-
nicious opinions. Every Quaker, after the
first conviction, it a man, was to lose one ear,
and the second time The other; if a woman,
she was each time to be severely whipped /;
and for the third offence, both men and wo-
men were to have their tongues bored through
with a red-hot iron.
Quakers now arrived in the colony in great
numbers. Glorying in their sufferings, the
more they were prosecuted, the more they
came to testify their sincerity in their belief.
Whippings, confinement, hard labor, cutting
off ears, and boring the tongue, being thus
found Intellectual, a new law was passed in
1858, declaring that in future all Quakers
who inrrude themselves into Massachusetts
should be banished on pain of death. Three
Quakers forthwith Offered themselves as the
first victims they had returned from Danish
ment. Their names were Mary Dyer, Mar
maduke Stephenson, and William Robenson.
From their defence at their trial, nothing is
more plain than that they were persons in a
state OF frenzy; their general argument was,
that by means Of visions they had been in
duced TO come to Massachusetts and brave
the worst that could be done to :hem. On
the l9lh of October, 1869, they were con-
demned to die as malefactors; and three
days later they were led out to execution
Mary Dyer saw her two brethren die before
her eyes; and she was on the point of meet
ing the same dreadful doom, a rope being
already about her neck, when a faint shout
was heard in the distance, which grew strong
er and stronger, and was caught and repeated
by a hundred willing hearts. "A r~eprieve,
a reprieve :" was the cry, and the execution
was stopped but she, whose mind was in
tently fastened on another world, cried out,
that she desired to suffer with her brethren,
unless the magistrates would repeal their
wicked law.
"She was saved by the in,ercession of her
son, but on the express condition that she
should be carried to the place of execution,
and stand upon the gallows with a rope about
her neck, and then be carried out of the colo
She was accordingly taken home to
Rhode Island; but her resolution was still
mistaken, and she was again moved to retu IN
to the bloody town of Boston, where she
arrived in the spring Of 1860. This deter
mination of a feeble and aged woman, to
brave all the terrors of their laws, might well
fill the magistrates with establishment; but
the pride of consistency had already involved
them in acts OF extreme cruelty, and they
thought 1t Impossible now TO recede. The
other executions were considered acts Of
stern necessity, and caused much discomfort;
a hope was entertained till the last moment
that the condemned would consent to depart
from the jurisdiction and when Mary Dyer
was sent for by the court after her second
return, Governor Endicott said, Are you the
same Mary Dyer that was here before ! ;
giving her an opportunity to escape by a de-
NAL Of the fact, there having been another of
the name returned from England. But she
would make no evasion. Il am the same
Mary Dyer that was here the last general
court 'Iou will own yourself a Quaker,
will you not?' Il own myself TO be re-
proachtully called so; and she was s~enienc-
ed to be hanged on the morning OF the next
day. This is no more than thou saidst
before was her intrepid reply, when the SEN
tence OF death was pronounced. But now,
said the governor, 1T is to be executed -
therefore prepare yourself, for Tomorrow al
nine o'clock you die!' Il came was the
reply. in obedience to the will of God, tc
the last general court, desiring you 10 repeal
your unrlghteous law of banishment on pair
of death and the same is my work now, and
earnest request, although | told you if you
refused to repeal them, the Lord would send
others Of his servants TO witness agains
them
AT the appointed time on the next day
she was brought forth, and with a band o
soldiers led through the Town about a mile t
the place of execution, the drums beating be
fore and behind her the whole way. Wher
she was upon the %gallows, It was told he
that if she would return home, she nigh
come down and save her life; to which she re
piled, Nay | cannot, for in obedience to rhc
will Of the Lord ! came, and in this will
abide faithful unto the DEATH Another salt
that she had been there before; she had tn,
sentence of Punishment upon pain of death
and had broken the law in coming agail
now, and therefore she was guilty of he
own blood. Nay she answered, Il cam