Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1852-05-22


the tone of public sentiment is lowered,
soon cases pass as matters of course and the
community, burnt over with previous excite
ment, is doubly steeled against all active
sympathy with the sufferers. What wua
nsurpation yesterday is precedent tomorrow.
When we asked the Supreme Court of
Mass. TO interfere in Sims behalf on the
ground that the law of 1850 was unconsti-
tutonal, they declined, because the law was
much the same as that of l793, and that
was constitutional, because so HELD and
SUBMITTED TO. Surely, tyranny should
lave no such second acquiesneuce to plcnd.
Yet that feeling. so alert, so indignant at the
outset, already droops aud grows cold
Government stands ever united, powerful
and organized body, always in session, its
temptations creeping over the dulel senses,
tile wenried zeal, or the hour of want The
hympa'hies of people for the down-trod-
hen and the weak are scattered, evanescent,
now excited, now asleep. The assembly
which IS red-hot to-day, has vanished TO.
morrow. The indignation that lowers
around Court-llousc in chains is scattered
an month. The guerrilla troops of reform
are now here, aud now crumbled away
On the other hand, permanently planted,
WIN boundless patronage, which swnys
every thing, stands Government, with hands
ever open, and eyes that never close, biding
cunDingly its time; always concentrated |;
aud, OF course, too often able to work its
wsii, for time, against any amount of pop.
nlnr indignation aud sympathy.
do not misunderstood me. know the
Antl'Slavery Cnuse will triumph. The
migh'iest intellects-the Websters and the
Caihouns Of the Wing and Democratic pnr-
ties-they have no more effect upon the
great mass Of the public mind in the long
rWn, than the ily's weight had on the chariot
wheel where he lighted. But that is long
battle. Inn speaking now of death or life,
to be dealt out in moment. am dealing
with family about to be separated, standing,
MS many Of you have been called again und
again TO do, by the hearth, or at the table,
where that family circO were never 10 as
semble again; broken aud scattered 10 the
four winds; the wife in agony, her husband
torn from her side, her children gathering
around, vainly asking, 'Wherc arc we to go, |
moihcrP Open those doors? How many |
of them might you open in these Northern |
States within the last two years How mu-
ny of these utterly udcscrihablo scenes /
might you hive Witnessed within that brief
period! This law has eXecuied ilscE-
Tweny-six have boeu sent back from Penn |
SylVania; only one from Boston; only n
dozen. perhaps, from New York. Yes: but
IN the mean time, the dread that they might
he seized has broken up hundreds of happy
families. II has been executed; and when
remember thar Northern traitor who mn,le
its enactment possible sometimes think
ihut tho vainest mau who ever lived never
dreamed in the hour Of llis iOndest self-con.
ceit, that he bad done the human race ns
much good as Daniel Webster hus wrought
1t sorrow and despair (great applausol do
not think you fully appreciate the state of
dread in which the cUlorcd population have
lived for months.
Mark, too, the Infamous characteristics of
these cases Ii is not their frequency, after
all, that should cause tie most apprehension,
hut the oheclonnl incidents and very dan
gcrous preccdenis they establish. Il is not
that the Slave Law is law. That is not half
the enornity of The fact II is, that not only
is the Slave statute held to hs law, but that |
there is really 10 law beside it in the free |
Stuies-to execute il, all other laws are set
aside and disregardcd. The comnones: |
nnd best settled principles have been trod- |
den under foot. Almost all these persons |
lave been arrested 10y lie. Sims wus-
Long was-Preston was. In the case at
Buffalo, the man was arrested 10y blood
thirsty nttack-knocked down in the streets.
Judge Kane, in the case of Hannah Kcllam.
Language fnils in describing, Indignation
stands dumb before the cold aud brutal wick
edness. Many Of these cases have heen n
perversOn, not only of all Justice, hut of all
law. Take single and slight instance
The merciiuI and safe rule has always been,
that un officer, arresting any one wrongliilly,
shall not be permitted 10 avail himself of his
illegal net, for the service Of true warrant
while lie has the man in custody. This
would be not only sanction, but an encOur-
agement of i!legnl detention. But, in scvc-
raj of these cases, the man has been seized
on some false pretcnce, and then the author
tiles allowed those having him ia custody to
wniye tho prosecution of the pretended
claim, and serve upon him the real warrant.
Tho same disgraceiu proceeding WINS allow
ed in the LlIimor case IN this city, his mas
Ter arresting him as thief und afterwards
dismlsslng that process, and claiming him as
a slave. This dangerous precedent has been
followed in many Of these late cases. The
spirit of the rule, and in some cases its let
ter, would hive set the prisoner free, and
held void oll the proceedings.
Amid this entire overthrow of legal safe
guards-this utter recklessness OF all the
checks which the experience of nges has
invented for the control Of the powerful and
she protection Of the weak, il is idle to dream
of any colored PERSONS being safe. They
stnnd alone, exposed to the whole peltng of
this pitless storm. ! wish there existed here
amy feeiing on this subject adequate to the
crisis. Is there such? DO you point the to
the past triumpls of The Anli-Slavery senli-
Inent of Massachusetts? The list is 20
short we know il by heart. Yes, there has
been enough of l0eling and effort to send
Charles Simmer to the Senate. Let us still
believe that the event viii justify us in trust
ing him, spite of his silenre there for four
long months, silence when so Unny ears
have been willing for tho promised words.
There is an An,i-Savery sentiment here of
u certain kind. TEST il, and let MS see what