The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-02-14

timony, either oral or by affidavit OF the interest
ed claimant excluded and from this judgnen,
there is no appeal Slavery is no longer con.
fined to one color. The Southern papers abound
with advertisements offering rewards for fugi.
tive slaves, containing the caution that the fugi.
tive will probably attempt TO pass for tchnt
person.
A few years since a Maryland STAKEHOLDER
caught in Philadelphia white girl MARY Gil
more,) whom he claimed as his sldue The case
was brought before a Pennsylvania Judge, and
occupied two days, and it was proved by the
most abundant, overwhelming evidence, that the
alleged slave was the orphan daughter of POOR
IRISH PARENTS. The mother had died in the
Philadelphia hospital, and the daughter had
never been in Maryland, By pending amend
ment to this bill, every man and woman who,
prompted by the hottest impulses of our nature,
shall "harbor or conceal" the prey from the hun
ter, is to be visited with fine and Imprisonment.
A few days after Mr.. Clay introduced his resolu-
tons, Bruin and Hill, savetraders in Alexandria,
wrote letter, since published in the newspapers,
stating for the information of free MOTHER in
New York who wished to redeem her DAUGHTER
from bondage, that they cannot afford TO sell
the girl Emily for less than EIGHTEEN HUNDRED
DOLLARS" Why this prodigious price? They
add, awe have two or three offers for Emily
from gentlemen from the South She is said to
be the finest looking woman in this country"
Should this devoted victim escape from her
keepers, and be afterwards found concealed in
her mothers house, not only is she to be carried
back and subjected to the fate intended for her,
but the MOTHER is liable by the present bill
to be sentenced to pay fine of five hundred
dollars TO the United States to pay Messrs. Bruin
and Hill one thousand dollars for damages and
be imprisoned six months We hope for Mr..
Gays reputation, no "farthest senator from the
South" will ask for heavier penalties, for If he
does, Mr.. Clayjs pledged TO vote for "the heay-
lest sanctions" that may be proposed. But sup
pose this poor girl should find her way to Peeks-
kill, instead of New York, and in your absence,
with bursting heart, ask TO be sheltered in your
house from her pursuers. Can you for single
moment admit the possibility, that your wife, the
mother of your children, could, through fear OF
the law, so unsex herself as TO turn the trem-
bling fugitive into the street. to be caught by the
hunters A thousand times rather would you
see the partner of your bosom enduring Mr..
Clay's "heaviest sanctions than bringing igno-
miny upon herself, and covering her husband and
children with shame and confusion OF face, by
committing crime so foul and damnabe Mr.
Mason, in his speech, insists upon the right OF
the hunter, "to enter peaceably any enclosure
or DWELLING where such slave may be found
for the purpose of taking him" Should this as
serted right be incorporated into the compromise
bill, then may Southern ruffians and Northern
doughfaces ere long be roaming through our bed
rooms and ransacking our closets in search of
prey. Should an attempt be made to enforce
"tbe heaviest sanctions" for which Mr. Clay is
ready to vote, he may be assured the prisons in
New York and New England are too few TO hold
the vast multitudes of men and women who
would willingly tenant them, rather than peri
their souls by betraying the fugitive or assisting
in his capture. MIR. Clay very kindly declines
requiring "a private individual TO make the touI
Of his trhole Sfaten in search of slave, but h,
insists that oil who are present when the game il
started, ought to follow the hounds. Could 1t
but enforce this obligation, we should have some
grand turn.outs in New York and New England
some like one fancied by the poet:
"Gay luck to our hunters! how nobly they ride
In the glow of their zeal, and the strength of their
pride
The priest with his cassock flung back on the wind
Just screening the polite statesman behind
The saint and the sinner, with cursing and prayer
The drunk and the sober ride merrily there.
Oh goodly and grand is our hunting to see,
In this land of the brave and this home of the free
Right merrily hunting the black man, whose sin
Is the curl of his hair and the hue Of his skin:
So speed TO their hunting DER mountain and glen,
Through cane break and forest-the hunting OF
men y
But the Constitution This instrument declares,
in substance, that the fugitive slave shall be de-
livered up; but Mr. Clay, | believe, is the first
lawyer who has commended that the obligation Of
delivery rests upon "prvate individuals Even
Mr.. Mason, in his speech, insists that the man
date to deliver up is addressed TO the jurisdie-
tion of the State into which the fugitive may es-
cape" OF course, individual citizens, as such,
are under no constitutional obligation 10 volun-
teer to catch slaves. But suppose positive law
should enoin such individual to betray or aid in
capturing the fugitive the question put by the
Apostles, when legally forbidden to teach in the
name OF Jesus would then recur: whether it
be right in the sight OF God, 10 hearken unto you,
more than unto God, Judge ye." Iii not merely
the right, but The duty of Christian to refuse an
dctive obedience TO any and every law OF man,
which he believes contravenes the commands OF
his Maker; and then, like the Apostles, to offer
no forcibe resistance TO the penalties attached to
his disobedience.
Mr. Clay may be assured, that the bill of pains
and penalties promised in his seventh resolution,
will not have the composing influence he antici-
pates. Filling our prisons with pious, benevo-
lent, kind-hearted men and women, will have
little effect in suppressing agitation. In his CON-
promising anodyne, Mr.. Clay has omitted an
important ingredient Ample provision is TO be
made for the recovery of Southern slaves, but
none for the recovery Of NORTHERN CITIZENS. If
the Constitution gives the Southern planter
right to seize his slave in New-York or Massa-
chusetts, equally explicit is the grant TO citizens
of those States to enjoy all the rights OF citizen
ship in South Carolina. Yet II certain OF our
citizens, freeholders and electors at home, think
proper 10 visit that State, prison is the only
dwelling they are permitted to occupy and
should The State to which they belong send an
agent TO inquire why they are immured in a jail,
and to bring their case before the Supreme Court
of the United States he is compelled to flee at the
hazard of his life!
g. The last item Of this grand compromise is