Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1851-08-28
The Buffalo slaughter.House

Us LHey OCCuETGu Ill lu6 HUN uiUi ~" ." -
case of the fugitive recently kidnapped at But
faIo, don't make the blood of Northern treemen
run cold, we are lost people, with too little
spirit even to defend our own homes and families
from foreign invasion, and with too little
sense of liberty and right LETT IN us either 10
maintain or deserve Republican form OF Gov
eminent And yet, freemen OF Vermont ny
voting the Wing ticket, next Tuesday, your SUI
frages, whatever your shutting leaders may tell
you, will 20 to sustain the accursed law, under
which this hgh-handed outrage is sanctioned
" We wish again to call especial attention to
the recent case at Buffalo. There, Commission
err Smith has associated himself with the notorl-
GUS infamy which will ever attach to the name
of Commissioner Curtis of Boston, the only
magistrate who has ever sent a slave from Mas
sachusetts since 1t was a Colony,-and to the
name of Ingraham of Philadelphia, who alac-
rity has been equally brutal, seTvlle, and con-
spicuous Like Curtis and lngraham, this Smith
of Buffalo will now always be selected as the
magistrate before whom the slave-hunter may
bring his victim even as Moore did, bleeding
and stunned, and with his head nearly cleft open
in the violence Of the chase. BY the Fugitive
Slave bill the slave hunter may choose his Court,
and now Curtis and Ingraham and Smith have
ehavn their qualify. They have virtually secur-
ed monopoly ofsihis special business each in
his respective district What slave-hunter in
Boston but would have recourse to Curtis? Who
to do this dirty and cruel business in Phiadel,
phia, but would apply to IDgraham? And now
as if 10 complete this college Of slavery, comes
Smith of Buffalo, and emulates to be more swift,
more cruel than either ready and willing as this
true "Star Chamber" official shews HIMSELF to
hold trial over the senseless body Of bleeding,
fainting negro, and to condemn him unheard,
and even incapable of hearing, to hopeless
slavery.
Let us briefly recapitulato the facts in this
case. They cannot be too often or too strongly
set forth. II will be remembered that the agent
of the STAKEHOLDER, one Benjamin Rust, came
behind Daniel, the man claimed as a slave, and
with heavy billet of wood, struck him on the
head with all his force. He fell down senseless
against hot stove, by which he was severely
burned. In this condition, faint and bleeding,
he was seized, manacled, and dragged before
Mr.. Commissioner Smith of Buffalo. This per-
sonage, without waiting to give the alledged
fugitive time to recover, proceeded at once to
Judge the case lie called upon the negro to
" stand up" The man could not answer to his
name, and was with difficulty sufficiently reused
from his stupor to stand up.
His counsel offered to bring medical testlmo
ny to prove that the injuries inflicted on his eli
ent were of 50 serious nature as to partially
deprive him Of his Senses and to prevent hin
from giving such information as was necessary
for his protection and just defence. Upon this
ground, and to afford the defendant an opPortu
nifty to procure the attendance of witnesses, he
moved an adjournment of the examination. A
this moment the condition of the aledged fugl
tive, and the conduct of the commissioner, is thu
described by Buffalo paper:-
"The poor fellow was all this time in a stat
of half stupor, unable to talk with his counsel
and sat doing, tcith The blood solOly OOzing GU
Of his mouth and most Is.
"Mr. Hawley thought it was necessary for tn
protection of the rights Of the defendant that tn
examination should be adjourned. The ma
was even now in half sleeping state, and par
italy insensible from the blow on his head.
Mr. Raloott thought that the parties VIII
so brutally assaulted the aDledged Fugiti1 re, ha
better, for their own sakes, not only agree to ad
iourn, but put the man under medical treatmen
riousy than they anticipated.
"The Commissioner would not adjourn. Thu
only question submitted to him was a question
of fact He had waited long enough Tor thu
witnesses for the defence"
[Of course he had not matted at all with thu
blood of the slave still flowing from the wount
of the recent arrest, and he, poor fellow, in ;
comatose condition and unable even to consul
with ar inefriot his councol
The Commissioner proceeded:
4" 1t had been fully proven that the slave OWED
service to the man described in the record. The
son of the owner identified the slave as the prop
erty of his father, from whom he is alleged t.
have escaped. Nothing remained therefore, bu
to ind as he did find, that the man was fug
tive slave from service, and as such must be re-
turned to his master in Kentucky"
At the conclusion of this mock trial, the mar.
shal, addressing the public, remarked
81 wish to say few words to the colored
people here present The agent tells me he
has at present no authority to sell the man, but
he has promised me that he shall not leave the
city until telegraph has been sent to the own
er and an answer received as to whether he will
sell. would therefore exort you all to go home
peaceably"
The Commissioner, Mr.. II. X. Smith, immedi
atey sprung from his seat, and in loud ant
excited tone, exclaimed
Sand have few words to say to the color
ed people here. If there is no telegraph sent a
all, that slave shall 90 back 10 Kentucky to his
master according to my decision, and if any o
you dare opposet hat decision by force, you vii
be SHOT DOWN.
To the above account and remarks, which arr
copied from the Commonwealth, we add the fol
lowing whitening comments on the same cas-
from the Tribune, whose gifted but often sadl.
inconsistent editor has just returned from Eu
rope:-
" The Fugitive Slave Law, we hear, canno
be repealed Perhaps not. But it may be por
trayed, and it shall be. 1t is the most inferna
libel on the name of law which any Legislature
has enacted within life time. 1t is an act from
which Chrstendom recolls with abhorrerce.--th
shame and grief of Republicans, the exultatiol
and glory of Arstocrats, throughout the civilized
world. The champions of Freedom and Prog
ress throughout Europe hide their faces when
is named; happy those who are able to disbe
lievc its existence! 1t is an act which woult
seem to have been framed expressly to defy tn,
axiom that law is the dvney appointed shielt
of the weak from the violence of the strong, o
the frugal laborcr, from the rapacity OF the lux
urous ideT, OF the simple and timorous agans
the swoop of the cunning and daring. To pre-
tend that any just man would take pleasure il
its enforcement, we must believe that an audi
ence feels disappointed and wronged by tn,
spectacle of Antonio escaping the whetted knit
of Shyock. If this law cannot presently be re
peaed, there is so much the greater reed of rem
dering it detested and infamous, SO that no on,
can be found base enough to enforce it VIII
would not be the hangman Of his brother for
doar-so that freemen shall oathe it and slave
holders be ashamed of it. Such as we read i
the moral of the late Buffalo utrocity"