Washington sentinel., 1853-10-18

person who had right to complain as the in
lured party fany one had) has confessed the
justice OF his arrest by fleeing the country, we
would not permit mere volunteers to interfere
for the purpose of embroiling the State of
Pennsylvania, against her will, with the United
States, or that any society of persons, however
respectable, should assume to be the guardians
of her peace and dignity.
Evidence was then received TO show that the
prisoners were deputies Of the marshal-that a
lawful warrant was put into their hands COM
manding them to arrest one William Thomas,
fugitive from labor; that in pursuance of
this warrant they arrested said fugitive; that
he resisted with great violence, and made at
tempts to wound and kill the officers that he
succeeded in escaping from their arrest-ran
into the everywhere, armed with a knife, he
declared he would not be taken alive; and that
the officers seeing this to be his determination
gave up the attempt to re-capture him, and
came away; and that for these acts, done in
obedience to their writ, they had been falsely
charged with riot and assault and battery. The
counsel for the prisoners having thus shown,
as they contended, a case sufficient to authorize
their discharge, closed their case. But the
court being informed that a number of respect
able persons were present, who had witnessed
whether the officers had acted irf'an unjustifa-
BILE manner, such as to call for censure or
punishment, ordered the depositions of those
persons to be taken by a commissioner. In
order also to ascertain upon what grounds the
sworn information was made, and who were the
persons prosecutingit, the deposition of VIM. c.
Guildersleeve, on whose oath the warrant was
founded, was also taken; it being due to that
person that he should be allowed to Justify
himself for the course he has pursued. In
order to obtain this warrant for the prisoners,
he had signed deposition, stating positively
that the prisoners had committed an assault
and battery on Bill or William Thomas, with
pistols, &c, with intent to kill him. He nop
says on oath, that he was not present and
knows nothing Of the transaction whatever; that
he did not see William Thomas that day at all;
that certain Joseph Easterline had told him
s'that a man was shot at the river bank and was
dying" and Hthat it was colored man that
was shot J" that he Immediately consulted Mr..
Collins, and, after finding out the name of one
of the prisoners, that he then went to justice
of the peace, and told him that there had been
a man shot at the river bank, and he wanted
warrant; that the justice wrote out an informa-
ton and read it to him, and he swore to ito
the best Of has kn0,oledge and belief; that he
never swore out o warrant against anybody be-
fore, and it was a new business to him, but he
did it by the counsel of Collins that he did
not know the persons who attempted to arrest
Bill were officers at that time. That he cannot
tell what he swore to before Esquire Golf in
order to obtain the warrant. That he did not
see the prisoners fire pistols-got all his infor-
nation from Easterline and Seaman; that his
interview with them was very brief-done in
minute" That he had no belief Of what
>.,,l ,I,,,II,,
intent on the single subject of obtaining war
rant at that time" That he thought man had
been killed by shots, and made no further in
quiry. That we got the warrant and delivered
it to the sheriff, and told him he wanted him to
execute it. Nothing was done on this warrant.
Some two weeks after this, after the witness had
learned that the fugitive was not shot, and that
the prisoners were officers, and had made an ur-
successful attempt to arrest the fugitive, an aif
davt was brought to him, ready written out by
Squire Burroughs, Ton which this warrant was
issued.) Burroughs had made out the affidavit
at request Of Messrs. Brown and jackson. That
it was intended when the information was drawn
out, that one Kutz should swear to it, but as it
was inconvenient to find kutz, the Squire told
him it did not make a particle of difference
whether he or Kutz swore to it, and he signed
and swore to it; after hearing it read. That he
cannot tell who employed Messrs. Jackson and
Brown, but supposed it was some person in
Philadelphia. That he knew nothing of them
until they introduced themselves to him in his
store That it never came into his mind to
state to the magistrate that the persons claimed
to be marshals officers making an arrest; and
finally, that he knew nothing about any pistol
or firearms or any knives and forks, or any.
thing under heaven"
Comment on such conduct is supernuous. 1t
is enough to say that it shows to the court, that
while the sane and intelligent portion Of the
population of Wilkesbarre, who witnessed this
transaction, and the public prosecutor, whose
duty it was to prosecute offences against the
public peace, have not seen proper to institute
any proceedings, some phianthropic individuals
or association, in Philadelphia, have ventured
to take the people Of Luzerne county under
their protection, and have been so fortunate as
to find witness willing to swear to an inform
alton, of the truth or falsehood of which, by
his own account, he was utterly ignorant. I'M
putting no bad motive to the witness for such
rash and ill-advised conduct, we think he has
suffered his zeal to outrun his discretion, and
and are pleased to see that he is now better in
formed, and in his last deposition has refused
to "testify to that which he has heard by re-
port from Others" and that he noao believes
"that rumor is no testimony"
In order to correct any false impressions
which may have been received with regard to
this transaction, we think it proper to give a
brief history of the facts as elected from the
testimony Of numerous and respectable eve
witnesses who have been examined, and testify
not to rumor, but to what they saw and heard.
The three deputies of the marshal accom-
panied by two gentlemen from Virginia, who
were well acquainted with the fugitive to be
arrested, entered the dining room Of the Phoenix
hotel, in the morning about o'clock, and
found the negro Bill, or William Thomas, in the
room. The agent Of the owner took hold of
the fugitive and handed him over to the officers,
saying, this is the boy require you to take
under the warrant''-as the officers proceeded
to arrest him, telling him they were United
States officers, a violent struggle ensued the
landlord Of the hotel, who was sitting at his
breakfast got up and went around the table,
and said, Bill, give up, there is no use to re-
sist." Bill called for his pistols. The landlord
affemn ntad to ret hold nf him Rill rnado q