Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-02-16


Those Senators who insisted up
on amending the bill reported by the House,
spoke with strong feeling of the prevailing
prejudice against the colored man, assigning
that as a reason why he should not sit on ju-
ries. We are not disposed TO deny that a
horse.thief or a murderer would feel his An
glo-Saxon pride wonderfully wounded in
being tried by a jury on which was a res
p~eotable and intelligent colored man; but
might not the liability to be thus tried do more
TO prevent the commission of crime than The
building Of penitentiaries and the erection of
the gallows! This matter is worthy Of consid-
Grafton. Who knows but that a trial in per-
s%pective by a "nigger" jury would as eflec-
tually keep men from doing naughty deeds,
as does the threat TO call the " Bugaboo ~ re-
strain naughty nursery children. But 10 be
serious. We do not expect speedily to see
this prejudice against the colorcd man de-
%slroyed, for it is a law written upon The hu-
man soul, "Tlat they whom we knowingly
%injure, we hate" and not until we cease 10
cypress the colcred man shall we wholly
cease to hate him. This hatred may, 10
some extent, be mutual, for they who are op-
pressed are not apt TO love their oppressors.
All must, however, admit that the hatred of
the colored people Of this State for the whites,
is far less intense than that which the whites
have for them. The colored people have
less objection than the whites to their chill
dr6n attending schools where white and COL
ored children are both admitted they have
less objection TO voting under a Constitution
which recognizes the right Of both whites
and blacks TO cast their ballots they have less
objection 10 serving on juries composed OF both
whites and blacks. Hence, the argument that
colored men should not be allowed ever 10 enter
the jury box, is not half so strong as one
which could be made against the white man
who so cordially hates the negro-sitting
as a juryman 10 try a colored criminal
Should a juryman in any Of the courts eX-
press his hatred for the prisoner about TO be
tried, and avow a strong prejudice against
him because he was an Irishman, he would
at once be rejected as unfit for a juror. But
here are a set Of men avowing their hatred of
the negro, their strong, invincible prejudice
against him, who claim because Of this, that
the negro-who does not. possess such feel
ings toward The whites, or not, at least, 10
the same extont-shall not sit in Judgment
upon white offenders, and that the whites
alone be authorized to try all colored men who
are brought 10 the bar. This, it strikes us,
is logic and justice with a vengeance and
from all such The colored Ohioans may well
pray, Good Lord, deliver u.s."
But the bill, defective as it is, has many
good features, and we hail its passage as ar
earnest Of i" the good time coming" Far be
it from US 10 let the remembrance of what thu
Legislature has not done, cause us to forge
what it has done. Colored persons may now
legally settle ir Ohio without a certificate o
freedom, and with the law which prohibited
this, goes the penalty for hiring those who
have no certificate; those who emigrate Il
Ohio are not now required by law to give
bonds for their good behavior, &C., and, o
course, harboring, concealing, or employing
such is no longer an offence again. the ma
iesty Of the government ; and colored rerson'
can now testify in courts as white person!
do-that is, provided the Governor signs thu
bill the Legislature has adopted, which Their,
is no doubt he will do. There may also bl
some other laws, than those we have referred
to, swept away by this bill, some that do no
recur TO us now.