Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-07-20
The Indiana Slave Cuse---Judge MLean.

Rev. Samuel J. May, in letter to the Ma
tional A. S. Standard, reports as follows an ac-
count given by E. b. Crocker, Esq, of South
Bend, Ind, of the recent Slave Case at Indinn-
apolis. Mr.. Croker made the statement at the
Liberty Party State Convention at Syracuse.
Judge MLcan's course was certainly very re-
markable. Hc was the man, be it remembered,
whom the Freesoilcrs of Ohio wanted as a
candidate for the Presidency in lsiS =
A number Of colorcd persons wcrc violently
seized in Cass County, Michigan, and, without
any warrant or certificate, were hurried off to-
wards Kentucky. Al South Bend Indiana,
their course was arrested by writ of Habeas
Corpus, and the colored persons were discharg
cd by the Court, on tho ground that they ought
not to have been taken from Michigan without
q certificate from some United States officer
The kidnappcrs and their lawyer foresecing this
result. were already provided with warrant
from the proper authority in Indiana, and inn
mediately on hearing the decision of the court
arrested their fugitives again, and throw them
into Jail. AS soon as it could be done, they
were again taken by writ Of IIabcas Corpus, and
brought before the Court, that it might be thcro
shown that they were free.
The kidnappers and their counsel now refus-
cd to appear. IL was shown to the Court that
the persons claimed had como into Indiana with
the knowledge and consent of their master, and
xere therefore free. This plea, and the evil
dcncc in support of it, not being opposed, pre-
vailed with the Court. Tho colorcd persons
were pronounced free, and allowed to return to
their home in Michigan. -
Immediately the kentucky kdnappcr COM
menccd, in the District Court of the United
States, a suit against the lawyer, Mr.. Crockcr,
the Sheriff, and six other persons of South
Bend, for having prevented him from removing
his property from Michigan. Judge Nj Lean
presided. The counsel for the defendants offer
cd to show that the persons claimed as slaves
had come into the State Of Indiana with the
knowledge and consent of the person who as
sumcd to be their owner, and therefore were
free to go where they pleased. But the Hon.
Judge waived all such minor considerations,
and charged the Jury that tho writ Of Habeas
Corpus was not obtained from the proper autho-
rity, (the Judge Of the State Court having no
jurisdiction over such cases) that the whole
procedure under that writ was consequently IL
legal, and the Lawyer who obtained it, the
Sheriff who served it, and the persons who aid
ed and abetted them, were liable to pay for the
property which had been so taken from them.
This was the charge, Mr.. Crocker told us, al
though he and his counsel offered TO prove that
the persons in question were not the property
of the plaintiff.
Moreover, the impartial, humane, and Christ
ian Judge was not forgetful of his obligations
to our blessed Union, but improved the occa-
sion to plead the necessity of re-assuring our
slayeholding brethren of our readiness to secure
to them the enjoyment of their peculiar pro-
,perty, by visiting with condign punishment all
snnlawhil interference with it.
"a '9hc Jury had been we'll selected to do what
I,1 tuA,o tal to abn,,l1 ha Iona