Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1851-10-04

posed by federal compacts.
The Groyson Afair.:The Fugitive Lac.
The proceedings of the people of Grayson
oounty, (Which the reader will find on the first
page0 deserve the attention of all rejecting
Northern men. They show what must be the
sentiments of the Southern people, whenever the
doctrines of the higher-law party are brought
home to them. The man Bacon, for whose cap
ture the reward of one thousand dollars is offered,
came amongst a Virginia community as an
emissary of the Abolitioniss. He may be, for
aught we can tell, an honest fanatic, whose mind
has been mised by the Infamous teachings of
others higher in place and distinction than he,
who are really the most guilty parties in this
wretched business. They have proclaimed, in
the Senate chamber and the pulpit, that slavery is
a sinful institution, of which higher law than
the federal constitution has decreed the extinc-
ton. The same argument which VIM. IL. Sew
ard contrved to justify l-nformed men in open
setting at naught the fugitive law, will equally
Justify Bacon in entering Virginia for the purpose Of
entcing away our slaves. VIM. Fl. Seward,
then, must be considered the chief criminal, and
upon his head if the Union shall ever fall by rea
son of the progress of Abolitionsm, will rest the
greatest load of infamy.
These occurrences in Grayson suggest re-
mark also upon the folly of the violent men of the
South. It's common thing to hear from the Sc
cessonists the sentiment that, the resolution OF
Virginia and Georgia. to make the fugitive law
the issue which shall test the permanence of the
Union, is absurd and idle. The "Southern Press"
at Washington has sneernglv pronounced
ridiculous to rest the safety of the Union upon
the recovery off few runaways. Such declara
tons only exhibit the recklessness of the utterer
The fugitive law does furnish just issue upon
which to stake tho Unon because it directly in
wolves the whole question whether the guaran-
ties, which the constitution contains for the protec-
ton of slavery in the States where it exists,
shall be respected. If it were conceded by the
South that citizens of the North might lawfully
harbour fugitive slaves and prevent their recovery
the efforts the Abolition Societies would, in
few years, render slave property worthless in
every Southern State. TIE border States would.
by no means, be the only sufferers. Means in
abundance would be produced to effect the escape
of negroes from all the States wher re they are
held in slavery. Emissares like Bacon, whose
attempt was made in a county remote from
the North, in respect to facilities of egress. any
county in Georgia, would be at work throughout
the South The slave population would become
universally disaffected, and events too horrible to
be contemplated would transpire.
Butt is insisted that the fugitive law is inopera-
tive. Senator Mason predicted, when he pressed
its passage, that it would be futile, and, the very
next session, proclaimed, with premature triumph,
that it had already failed. We have now no means
of estimating the number of fagitives that have
been reclaimed under the law, but it can scarcely
be less tbanfifty or sixty. No law upon the statue
book has, within the same period, received so
many and such uniform judicial interpretations,
and none, we believe, has been more successfully
enforced. And it must be remembered that almost
every case which has arisen under this law, has
been that of slave who has escaped to the North
before its passage. Such has been its potency
that hundreds of fugitives have transferred them
selves to the Cuuadas, knowing that they have no
safe tenure upon liberty in the United States.-
Formerly the escape of slaves from Maryland,
Virginia and Kentucky was common occur
renee; but now it is verv rare, and is promptly
followed by capture and recovery.
Such is the true character of this great enact
ment, and no man who is both sane and candid
can deny that it is worthy of being maintained by
the South at every peril.