The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1850-11-09

Union to exercise their good offices for the restora-
ton Of a good understanding between the two
countries. The splendid ste amship, the Castillo,
sailed on the 18th instant from the of Tenago-
ma, having on board, the Queens regiment and a
detachment of artillery This vessel is bound for
Cadiz, to join the expedition for Cuba.
From the London MeIning Ghrosiols Oct. 22,]
The recent legislation OF the American Congress
on the subject of slavery is producing immediate
results. The measure designed to Strengthen the
constitutional provision for the exradition of 'per
ing the Presidents assent; and it has already been
enforced in one or two instances, of which we can
not read without pain, or without lively sense OF
the destructive agencies which, though mitigated
for the time, are still working TO disntegrate the
composite structure of the great federation.
There was period, as old Americans tell us,
when feeling, widely different from that which
manifests itself at present, prevailed In the South
ern States regarding the escape of slave.
In those days the planter gave his negroes law.
If one of them ran away and recovered,
he was fogged, or worse; but If he succeeded
in crossing the border he had regained his ma
tural rights, and the owner lett him alone.
The point of view seems, however, TO have
shifted, concurrently with that singular alte-
ration of sentiment on everything relating to
slavery which has been developed in the South
within the last half century AS susceptible
pride in its domestic institutions took the place of
regretful acquiescence in unavoidable evil, the
flight of negro assumed different aspect; and
of late years the activity OF the abolition societies
tenance which the free States accorded to these
proceedings, have excited the iercest resentment
among the Southern proprietary. AT the instance
of their sister governments, the Southern legis-
lstures the border adopted the severest pre-
cautonary enactments, and, with the aid of pri-
vate vigilance, they maintained systematic
watch for fugitives from the Delaware to the
Mississippi, particularly in the vicinity of the two
great routes which conduct northwards from the
South through Cincinnati and Baltimore. In spite,
however, of all the measures of the INSCRIPTIONS
oligarchy, The annual average of escaped negroes
was extraordinarily large. once across the from
tier, the runaway was virtually safe. The fede-
raj constitution declared, indeed, that his m as
ter's right TO his services should not be exin-
gushed by his fight-but then he was always en-
titled prmd fdc,e TO the local privilege OF the hd
beds corpus, and the question of identity, which
was instantly mooted on his being brought ap, mad
to be determined, like other questions of fact
by jury of Northern citizens. In hardly single
instance has such jury been known TO return
verdict in favor of the owner. The power OF re-
claiming a fugitive negro had, in truth, ceased to
exist, and multitudes Of colored persons were at
large in the great Northern cities, whose sole
title to freedom was the impossioility OF success
fully attacking it, But the measure just passed by
Congress deprives these unhappy men of their only
safeguard. II wthdraws from local jurisdiction
and from the cogniZance of jurors, any claim
which may be advanced 10 their parsons. citi-
zen of a Southern State, after making oath that
such or such an individual is his slave, may arrest
him at once on Northern ground. The case is
Then brought before the DiStTCl COuTl-t tIiDIndl
which, In subordination to the Saprems Court of
the United States, adjudges nterprovincial ques-
lions, and administers the imperial law of the
Unon-and it is decidedly summarily, on affida-
Wits, by the presiding functlonary, who may be
Southerner. and who, at all events, is little affect
ed by the public opinion of the locality.
Unfortunately for the tranquility of the Union,
the three or four colored persons who were first
selected for arrest and condemnation appear to
have been long in the enjoyment Of liberty, and
long settled in the places where they were seized
IL is possible that they may have owed the misera
BILE distinction OF priority 10 The facilities for dis,
coyery and capture which their mode OF life atforded
but, at the same time, il is not improb able that in
choosing for their earliest victims individuals en-
gagged openly in the avocations of the slave
proprietors may have been deliberately hurting the
deadest of insults at the hated North. The seiz-
ure first effected seems to have been determined
upon with the view of testing the sufficency Of
the prote elton given TO Southern property by the
new statute. One James Hamlet, small shop
keeper New York, was captured, condemned, and
removed TO Baltimore in less than thiry-six hours
Immediately on his arrival in the capital of Mary
land, his owner announced that his Northern friends
might edeem hIn for moderate sum. The money
was instantly raised by subscription, and the
somed Hamlet was brought back in triumph 10 New
York We observe in the American journals re-
ports of meeting held in honor of his return by
some thousands OF white and colored sympatbizers;
and, if we did not keep in mind that the language
Of an American, making Speech invariably flows
at level considerably above his thoughts, and
that where white speaker is hot a negro orator
is volcanic, we might be tempted to imagine that
The next mail would infallibly bring US intelli-
grnce of actual civil war. The chairman, Mr..
Powell, in abiding 10 the Fugitive Slave act,
proclaimed that this covenant with death, this
agreement with hell, must be trampled under foot
and violated at all hazards," adding other ameni-
ties of which the foregoing Is a favorable sample.
After the chairman's address, the clauses OF the
hilitself were read one by one, amid a tempest of
fierce excavations. The Rev. Charles Gardiner
TINT Neditnra the ITni.el had
concealed the real nature Of this bill from the pub
lie" and "were a set Of villains" lie advised the
blacks 10 =" take the life Of any man who attempted
to arrest them" The Hon. George Niles said
that the " only argument he would use against
this hell hsshed Law, WAS the b5wie knife and the
revolver" DR.. Smith recommended the negroes
TO " shoot down the Mayor and his officers like
dogs" Innumerable oTations of similar complex
ion succeeded, and the meeting, which was an
nounced the first Of long series, separated with
voeys of curses for The bill, and, according 10
some accounts, with vehement groans for the
Union. Scenes OF the same character are reported
To have been enacted in almost all The large towns
of New York and Ohio, and At Philadelphia
aud Pittsburgh in Pennsylvanii. With re-
gard however, to the intensity Of feeling ia Penn
y INania, we must say we have our DOUBTS There
is a paragraph in our Tile of American journals,
which would have formed fitting text for lay
sermon from Sydney Smith. A party Of negroes
having escaped into the hill country of Pennsyl-
wants, some Of citizens sslied cut with rifles
to capture them, and to earn the handsome re ward
which their masters had offered for their recovery
After shooting one or two of them, they got an old
woman TO entice the starving remnant into a hut
came upon them while eating their food-carred
them of, and secured the money.
We must not, perhsps, argue confidently from
any manifestations Of discomfort ri this enactment
which may appear ia the free States that touch
the frontier; but II is not TO be doubted that in
New England, which is the true entithesis OF the
South, there reigns deep, a serious, and a very
dangerous evaporation. Nothing but hostility
was to be expected from that sturdy and liberty
loving popul alton but peculiar impetus has been
administered to their natural bias by the opportune
ingenuity of an ahoitonist, who has circulated
some millions Ct flying sheets, upon which two
verses Of scripture are printed These papers con-
tam well known passage from Deuteronomy
(Sxiii., ~, 16), Thou shalt not deliver unto his
master the servant which has ESCAPED from his
master unto thee lie shall dwell with thee, even
among yo1, in that place which he shall choose. in
one of thy gates where IL lketh him best thou
shalt rot Cypress him" On the beiFs of the Pdri-
tans-wiih whom, taken in the mass, the literal M