Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1852-10-15

| robbed him him of the first right of free
man, by depriving him of freeman's tribuna
and trial. For him, and for his case, you abo
ished the trial by jury. And if, by virtue o.
such complaint and warrant, you can deprive
any person, in any free state, of trial by Jury
you can by the same rule deprive all the free
states OF this trial, that is YOU cal abolish that
trial for all this class of cases; and then by
equivalent legislation, you can abolish it in all
cases whatever. Where then, is the right to
trial by jury which the Constitution declares
"shal be preserved"
The law, then, is palpably unconstitutional, be-
cause takes from man presumptivey free
the right TO be tried as freeman; and it is be-
because the Baltimore Conventions cannot an
swer this argument, that they forbid its promulga-
ton.
And besides this, the proof which the law pro-
vldes for and declares conclusive are abhorrent TO
reason, to common sense, land TO the common law
1t provides that evidence taken in a Southern
State, at any time or place which a claimant
may select, without any notice, or any possibility
OF knowledge on the part OF the person to be
robbed and enslaved by it, may be clandestinely
carried or sent to any place where it is to be u.s.
ed, and there sprung upon It's victim, as wild
beast springs from its jungle upon the passer BY
and it provides that this evidence, thus surrepti
Of the facts of slavery and of escape from sla-
very. 1t does not submit the sufiiciency of the
evidence to the judgment of the tribunal; but it
arbitrarily makes it Conclusive whether sufficient
or not. 1t abolishes the common law distinction
between competency and credibty. Indeed it
abolishes the elementary idea of a court of JUS
tce itself, considered tribunal whose functions
are, first and chietest to hear both sides and then
to discern between truth and falsehood. The
heather emblem of justice was that of rod
dess, holding balances in her hand, and weigh
ing with holy eXactness all conflicting probabi-
ties and testimonies. The true emblem of this
law would be that Of some glossn lawyer clut-
ching at ten dollars as bride and trampling the
sacred balances under foot
What would the southern gentlemen who hear
me say if, while attending to your duties in this
Hall, miscreant in any northern city or state,
without knowledge or possibility of knowledge
on your part, should now be suborning witness
es to obtain evidence that your house, your plan
tatlon, or cotton crop was his, and by and by
should make his appearance on your promises
demanding instant possession, and, in case of re-
fusal or demur, should drag you before ten
dollar magistrate, read his CONCLUSIVE proof while
you are forced to be dumb, and then thrust you
out of estate, house AMI home? And yet this
fugitive slave law is as much more attrocious
than that would be, as liberty is more precious
than pef
The cruel fruits of this law, have been such
as might have been expected TO grow on so
wicked stock. The first man sent into slave
ry under it. Adam Gibson, was a free man.-
When the claimants agent brought Gibson to
him he refused to receive him; for he knew, and
he knew that all his household and neighbors
would know, that Gibson had never been slave.
And 50, after this freeman had been seized as a
slave, and sentenced as a slave, and dragged
torcibly away from his home in MARYLAND as a
slave, by the authority and at the expense of the
United States, he was set adrilt and left to find
his way back as he could
OF the first eight persons doomed 10 slavery
under this law, four were freeinen.
When this dreadful law was first preached. il
was said that we might rely upon the intelligence
and integrity of the southern courts to send into
the land of freedom no certificate that would
doom men to bondage, unless founded upon un-
doubted and competent testimony. But in the
case of Daniel, who was tried before Mr.. COM
missioner Smith, at Buffalo, the slave claimant
never carried single witness before the court
that made the record OF slavery aud escape
The southern court made the record on atiisa-
Wits only, and then gave the claimant certified
copy OF 1t, without ever seeing or hearing wit
ness in the case These affidayits were given bv
nobody knows whom, and sworn to by nobody
knows whom-perhaps not sworn to at ALL but
forged tor the occasion; yet on sight of them
the commissioner pronounced Daniel to be a
slave. 1t afterwards turned out, on a hearing
before Judge ConkIing, of the Unitee States
Court, that there had never been one particle or
scintIlIa of evidence before the commissioner on
winch his ten-dollor note certificate of slavery
was founded.
In another case, in Philadelphia, commissioner
lngraham decided some point directly against law
and authority; and when decision OF the Judge
of the United States Court was produced against
him, he coolly said, he differed from the Judge.
made OUT the certificate, pocketed the ten dollars
and sent a human being to bondage There
could be no appeal from this iniquity, for the
law allows none.
In another case, before Mr.. Commissioner Hal
let, of Boston, where white persons were exam
ined, on the charge OF rescuing an alleged slave.
he admitted this foreign evidence Of a state
court, taken in secret against the native-born
citizens of free state.
And yet, with all these denominations on the
face of the law and after this long train of out.
RACES in It's administration, the Baltimore Wing
resolutions, which, perhaps, are the less iniquit-
Gus OF the two, declare that the law shall not be
'''NiiNHi NhlC9S tIillc ana experience snail de-
monstrate some abuse of its powers How low
down must these men live, that they do not call
what has already happened an abuse.
y story is current respecting the origin of this
law for whose authenticity, cannot personally
youch; bnt it certainly carries versimilitude on
its face. The bill is said to have been concoc-
ted by southern dIsunlOnst, anxious for some
preteXt to break up the Republic and who there
fore prepared bill so unconstitutional, so abom-
Unable and fiendish, that, as he believed. even the
recklessness of northern servty must spurn it.
lie would then make It's rejection his war-crv
for disunion. But, alas he had not fathomed
the baSeness of northern politicians. What a
southern "fre-eater" thought too unrighteous
for any human being to touch, the northern as
Prants for the Presidency adopted with alacri-
ty, and rolled it as a sweet morsel under their
tongue. Now both Wing and Democratic Con-
ventins reafiirm the law and attribute to it a sa-
crcdncsS unknown to the Constitution itself
Sir, wien | survey, one after another the hor-
rid features of this law-its papable violation
both Of the letter and the spirit of the Constitu-
ton; its contempt and defiance Of that great or.
game law, the Declaration of independence. and
of the whole spirit and acts and lives of our re-
Volutionary fathers; its repugnance 10 all the
maXims and principles Of the British Constitu
ion, cousecrated and hallowed as these have