Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1854-08-03
From the \. Y. Independe
uDRUORS OF SLAVERY.

A most revolving instance of the cruelties
Of slavery has just transpired in Tennessee.
A negro, held by MIR. Moore, Of Cambridge
county, in that State, became enamored of the
sister OF his masters wife, and being repulscd
in his advances, and threatened with IL fog
ging, murdered his master and mistress with
an axe, rayishel the sister, and then killed
her also. Tac details OF the crime arc too
horrible to be repeated; but the lessons of
the crime arc too momentous to be omitted
from any motives of deIicacy'
This poor wretch was accustmcd to see the
virtue Of woman subdned by force. Perhaps
his own mtthcr, or wife. or sister, had been
the victim to the white mans lust. On the
plantation what redress has any woman
against the brutal passions OF master. or mas
ters son, or oyerscer? No eacrcdness of
marriage or of home can there shield from
violence a virtue which the law dslains to pro-
tcct. No cry of deIenseless woman can bring
su:cor against the force that would dishonor
her person. Such was the training of this
poor creature, ignorant, degraded, kept like
brute, but with the fiercer passions of a
man, accustomed to see forfc assert its right
over virtue. He learned his lessen well. He
brought forS the fruits OF the system.
In any civilized community where law
reigns, his first advances would have subject
cd him to'suoh legal penalties as would have
cffectually guarded against their repetition.
But no he was tAirg, not amenabe to law,
but to his master; and as he was "too valu-
able" to be dismissed, he was threatened with
fycgjng. Here was another appeal to
brute passion. On the one hand he was urg'
ed by lust, and the white mans example that
force is law against virtue; on the other, he
was fired by revenge under the threat Of the
bloody lash. He did not long hesitate as to
his course. What had he to fear or hope for
in the future!
Thus far the criminal Now for his pun
ishmcnt. The murderer fed, but was over
taken. At first he denied the crime; but he
was put to the torture "by screwing his fin
gers, and then his hands, in vice, until all
the bones were mashed, (and other treatment
which cannot be mentioned in print,) and he
acknowledged that he had committed the
murders. Finally he was tied to tree in
front of his late masters house, a large pile
of pitch pine built around him, and then set
| fire to and burned to ashes, in the presence OF
1900 or 1900 persons, who did not leave the
spot until he was completely reduced to
ashes"
No cruelty of D.udism or Fetchsm could
exceed this horrible barbarity. Inc papers
Of the district tell us that had failed to pre-.
vent such crimes. No, and neither will burn.
ing prevent them. New murderers will
spring up from the ashes of the wretched man
Hatred and revenge will flash out from The
fires of his stake, Rape and murder arc borr
Of the system of slavery; and while that
continues, no punishment can prevent crimes
to which men Of brutal passions are trained
by the example Of their superiors The on y
effect Of this negro burning like the gladiato
rial shows of Rome, will be to brutalize still
more the white population, if it be possible tc
degrade any lower IA people who could commi
such barhsr;ty
And yet the Richmond Enquirer boast
that there is Il growing conviction among thu
people of the South, "that Mrre is nothing
ia their system Of staUery for which hey can
nat fna abundant worrant in the Scripture
I in reason, in The philosophy Of human sorie
", md IN tie spirit IF g'nninc phitanthro
py' This is the system which is already
INTRODUCED into Kansas by Northern votes
this is the system to whose horrors Anthem,
Berns, minister of the Gospel of Christ
was dragged back by the arm of the fedora
executive; this is the system that threaten,
to establish itself at the base Of Bunker Hill
Christian men; fathers, brothers, sons mer
who honor virtue and who know the sacred
ness Of home, has not God mission for you
against this worse than pagan barbarism P
And will not the WOMEN of the United States
at the North and at the South, with one voice
protest against a system that thus mocks a
virtue, and brings. upon their own sex thu
most brutal horrors!
INDIANA DEMooRAcY.---At the recent Dem
coratic State Convention, in this Hoose
State, two Resolutions were passed, one in
favor of the Nebraska Bill, and one deDounc
ing the Maine Law Hon. j.. d Bright, o
the U. ). Senate, came all the way from
Washington to preside over the convention
Below will De found the conclusion of U. s
Marshall Rebnson's great speech as reported
in the Journal.