Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-10-12
I II E B U G L.
The Fugitive Slave Law.
Meeting in Pittsburgh and Allegheny.


On Saturday evening, Sept. %, meeting
of citizens of Allegheny County, Pa, OPP
posed to the Fugitive Slave Law, was held
in Pittsburgh. II was attended by trenen-
dous concourse of people. Rev. Charles
Avery wus appointed Chairman and Messrs.
George w. Jackson aud George r. Riddle,
Vice Presidents. Joseph Snow,len aud Il.
c. Fleeson, acted ns Secretaries.
The chairman, according to the report oil
the Gazette, said:
They had convened for the purpose of
taking into consideration some of the pro-
visions of bill, recently passed by Con-
gress, called tire Fugitive Slave Bill" which
he believed TO be unconstitutional, and
ought never TO he enforced in Pcnnsy lvaria.
Some of those provisions were SO odious
thnt an expression OF tie public opinion on
the subject should he nude in Allegheny
county, aud all over the State. Ii was one
OF the most sinful laws ever pissed, aud
calculated 10 suspend both the right of ba-
beas corpus, aud trial by jury. Nay, il was
even made the duty OF ministers OF the gos-
pei to become slave catchers, aud rivet the
galling chaiDs OF slavery on the limbs OF
their fellow men. Those very ministers
whose duty il was to proclaim peace TO the
world, aud let the captive 60 free, were call
ed OH 10 aid and assist the blood hounds OF
slavery, and, trainplng under foot all Di-
vine Authority, TO Join in this work OF in
-tnfny -uid crime. but he would s1y tbat ~
they did not take a stand against this law,
and refuse to comply with its provisions, they
should bc expelled from their pulpiis (cheers.)
They should aid the oppressed, not the OPP
pressor. All good citizens were command
cd, by this law, to aid and assist in deeds of
infamy, and il they did not, they were pun
ishable by fine and Imprisonment. And who
had passed this law? Our servants in Con-
gress. 1t wus time they should leurn their
proper position, and be made to feel that
they were not our masters. (Applause.) Let
us say to them that the law must be repealed.
Let us command them 10 do this, aud never
suffer such law to 20 into operation in
Pennsylvania. Every man who accepts
commission under il, should be branded
with the mark of infhmy, and stunned as
though he were a leper, loud cheers.) For
his part, he never would obey this law.-
(Applause.) He would obey the Divine Law,
and never tranple the precepts OF the Cos
pei under foot.
Hon. T. NJ. Howe, Wing candidate for
Congress, was then called out. He said:
/ look on the "iugtive slave bill" as
more full of iuiquity than any other that has
been passed by our national Legislature for
the last twenty years Great appause.) j
cannot express my detestation of lis infa-
in the middle of the nineteenth century, in
the United States of America, bill should
be passed which would almost have dis
graced the "dark agesw Our National
Legislature has struck down the bulwarks
erected around Freedom by Our English an
cestors. Sword in hand, the Barons OF En-
gland wrested from the reluctant grasp OF
King John, the "Magna Charta" which be-
slowed on all the inestimable privilege of
trial by jury. This privilege is the inalena-
BILE right of every person in the United
States. Why was it, then, that our colored
fellow citizens were deprived of il Could
il be that we denied them their rights be-
cause their complexion was of duskier hue
than ours, or because they were tralnnlelled
by local laws? Unfortunately Ue are, 10 a
certain erieni, bound 10 The Southern iStates.-
Our Constitution, oiher,oiSe so perfect, contains
one blot, but it is surely enough that we
should remain passive spectators of wrong,
and not allow ourselves to be transformed
from men into siaue catchers. loud ap-
pluuse.) lffellow citizens, you should think
fit TO delegate to ne portion of your power,
pledge myself that that power shall neuer
be exerted to crush the interests OF freedom.
Tremendous applause, and cries of we'll
send you to Congress.
Mr.. Howe, with oil his indignant elo-
quence, cannot hide the fact that the blot
Of which he complains is in the Constitution,
aud yet he proposes to go to Congress with
that milestone about his neck. Whnt is the
meaning Of all this fuss about magma char
ia, habcas corpus, trial by jury, &c.2 What
is the use Of trial by jury, when the jury
themselves are under solemn oath to re-
gard the Constitution and the statutes franz
ed in accordance with il as the paramount
law of the land? Aud what is the question
which you propose to submit to the jury p
Why, this--Whether one man is the prop
erty of another? Is that free Constitution,
or free country, which treats that as
doubtful question? If the slave is to be