Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1853-08-06
The Fugillv, Slave Cas-, in Philadelphia,

victim Of a nations tyranny. Separated from
his little home-thc fruit Of his toll, from wife
and children, he has boon hurried off to slavery.
We had just set down to condensc the history
oil the case, when we found it already done to
our hand, in the Anti-Slavory Standard,
ANOTHER Fugitive Slave Case has occurred,
within the last week, in Philadelphia, which,
from the manner in which it has been conduct
ed, has excited more than usual attention. The
moro act Of sending men into Slavery, whether
legally or illegally, has become so common,
that that nlono would hardly excite more sym
pathy, in the public heart, than the roturn of
fugitive apprentices; but it is a noteworthy
fact that in Plmost every case that arises under
the act Of 1850, some new issue is involved, or
such circumstances surround it, that the char
acter not only Of that law is made patent to
the most careless observation, but the sense Of
the constitutional obligation for the rendition
of slaves is presented with force which could
never be reached by moro argument. And un-
less the people given over to total blindness,
they must be made to see, eventually, how
much the integrity of government. and the
rights Of all, are necessarily involved in con-
sent to the oppression of part. The invention
Of the SHAREHOLDERS and their friends Of 1850
may yet become dire plague to the inventors;
indeed it must be so in the new light which
these cases shed upon slaveholding law and
flaveholding Constitution, unless the spirit of
liberty be altogether dead among us. In this
last case the question of the power of the writ
of Habeas Corpus comes up for decision. His
tory carefully notes tho few times that the
British Parliament has suspended this writ,
whom threatened with foreign invasion, or
compelled to resort to extreme measures 10
suppress internal convulsion. A Pennsylvania
Court has, at this moment, to decide whether,
in effect the capture and re- enslavemcnt Of the
fugitive is not civil war to which We are
always liable, and from which We can never
escape, and whether our obligation to the Con-
stitution is not practically submission to q
foreign enemy.
On Thursday of last week, a young colorcd
man who calls himself George Smith, who re-
sides near Philadelphia, upon farm of his
own, with wife and children, and who de-
clarcs that he was born a freeman, but who is
claimed by one J. c. Howard, of Elkton, Mary
land, as a fugitive slave, by tho name of Bill
Fisher, was brought before Commissioner In
graham, on warrant issued by him, and exc
cuted by the United States Marshal's officers.
Tho manner of his arrest was worthy of its
object Howard, in May last, received notice
that his slave Fisher, who escaped from him
several years ago, was in Philadelphia, the in
formation coming from that notorious scouudrel,
Albert, who, when not engaged in his avoca.
ton as common hangman, employs himself in
prowling about among the coloured people to
find fit subjects for capture as runaways or for
kidnapping On the 22d of May, about the
time that Howard received this intelligence
from Albcrti, Smith, or Fisher, was arrested on
a charge of melting to riot, on apparently
very slight grounds. Between the 22d and
25th, Albert appeared before Alderman Enue,
before whom Smith was arraigned, and offered
himself as bali, but the Alderman refused to
take him. lie came subsequently with another
person as bail for the prisoner, but he, in the |
meantime, had been discharged, one Lyttleton
Hubert having offered to give bonds for him |
and beer accepted. Alberti's object here, of !
course, was merely to get possession Of Smith,
that he might hold him as fugitive, and, no
doubt, the arrest was made al his instgation.
But on Thursday of last week, Smith was
again arrested, and this time without any war
rant whatever, by officer Hill, policeman, and
was taken to a station house and detained
through the night In the morning Alberti
appeared, and after a consultation between him
and Hill, the prisoner was taken-Eot to the
police-magi Of the District, as was the
duty of the officer, if he had any charge to
make against him but to the offce Of Alder
man Dallas, half-mile distant. Hills asser-
ton here was that he had arrested him for a
breach of the peace and forfeiture OF bail at
the station house, the night before, he said the
arrest was for highway robbery. But the OBJ
ject was gained. The nights imprisonment
secured the man, the delay of going to the
Office of Alderman Dallas, and some detention
there enabled Alberti to perfect his arrange
ments, and he soon appeared with the officers
of the United States Marshal, who took pos
session of Smith as fugitive slave. The party
then went before the third accomplice, for he
seems nothing else, Commissioner Ingraham,
but the case was necessarily postponed for
few hours, the claimant, How ard, and his wit
nesses not having arrived from EIkton.
This delay, however, was not allowed to pass
unimproved by the friends of Smith, Littleton
Hubert, Smiths bail, on the charge made
against him in May, and which is still pending
in the State Courts petitioned Judge Allison
for writ of HdJeas Corpus to issue to Wyn-
koop, the U, S. Marshal, and Freed, the jailer,
commanding thcm to bring Smith before the
Judges of the Quarter Sessions on Saturday
morning, and the petition was granted. The
case nevertheless came up before the Commits
sioner in the afternoon, the Marshal having
taken Smith out of the custody of the jailer,
and the Commissioner refusing to recognize
the writ of Habeas Corpus, when informed of