Lower Sandusky freeman. (Lower Sandusky [i.e. Fremont, Ohio]) 1849-1849, 1849-02-24
NUMBER i


that their slaves escaping into the free States could
not be reclaimed. and that there were organized
bodies to prevent the master recovering his slave
and to help him on his transit to. Canada So far
as that part of Ohio which be had the hoaor TO
represent was concerned, the declaration was per
lfectly unfounded. No master ever came within
his district without having all the benefits which
the Constitution of the United States and the law
gave to him. There were various instances in
which these laws had been carried out to the letter
and the master had taken home his slave.
Another thing; he had resided in the State Of
Ohio for twenty years, and he had never known Or
heard there of any such secret organization as
were alleged by some of their southern friends to
exist to aid the fugitive slaves from the savehod-
ing States in their transit to Canada.
They did not want the free negroes Of the slave
holding States in the State of Ohio; and he feared
the time was rapidly arriving %hen they would be
compelled to adopt the policy of Illinois, and close
the door to the admission Of any free negroes from
the slave States or they might be overrun BY such
population as these States should choose, to send
them. The Governor of Virginia had recently re-
ported the Legislature of that State that there
were about fifty thousand free negroes in Virginia,
and recommended that they should be expelled
from that State. Ohio wanted none Of that popu-
lation; the greater portion Of it was pauper pop
ulation They did not want any more of it
He was opposed also TO placing this black race,
free slave, upon platform of equality with the
whites, because he thought they were unworthy to
stand upon that platform, and that they were inca
pable of exercising the rights Of citizenship. He
should give his consent to no such proposition as to
allow the free negroes and the slaves to vote upon
any political questions The Constitution of the
United States contemplated that the white citizens
of the country should do the legislation Of the
country, and not the negroes He dissented from
the views of his colleague, (Nr. Giddingsl who.
some weeks since, desired that a vote of the free
negroes and the slaves of this District should be
taken upon the question altering the relation of
master and slave here Such views and opinions
found no countenance among the great body of
the people of Ohio; and he wished his friends
from the north and south to understand it
He had said great deal more than be had in
tended when he arose. and wished to say. inconclu-
sion that he looked upon every effort, from every
quarter of the Unionsthat looked to dissolution
Of the union of these States, as proceeding from
an l-ludged quickness Of action, from disorgani-
zing spirit, and from feeling utterly at variance
with the peace and tranquility Of the country he
stood by the Union. He stood by it as Washing
ton recommended we should stand by it; and be
8 looked Indignantly" upon any man, north or south
who would deliberately do any act in this Hall or
in the country calculated to violate the integrity of
the Union, or break down the constitution under
which we all lived and had prospered. and under
which, he trusted, the country might prosper and
be united forever.