Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-09-09
0br Anti Glapcrp Buole
THE SALEM RESCUE.

The rescue of the little colored girl last week
from the hands of tho slave claimant, has excited
much attention and remark from the press. 1t
has developed the proslavery %nfinities of some who
make anti professions, and has shown that
however opposed they may be to the introduction
of slavery into Kansas and Nebraska, they have
not only 40 objection, but strong desires for its eA-
istence in Ohio. Very many ofthc people seem not
to understand the cause, and look upon the rcscuers,
as mobocrats and yiolators of law. This is alto
cother a mistake. The rescuers of the child were
acting MS strictly in conformity with the c%onstitu-
ton and law of Ohio, as with the law of Justice and
humanity. The shareholders wero in the commits
sion Of an act, criminal alike in the eye Of right
and Of Ohio law. The people Of Ohio had said
"thcrc shall be no slavery in the state" In def
ancc of this law these persons were enslaving a
helpless child, which they had already made an
orphan by tearing it from its parents, and which
for their own lusts sake, they were separating hun
dreds Of miles from all its relatives and friends
They were committing the most hcnious of all
crimes, theft, burglary, arson, murder not excepted,
The people were aware of this fact and were called
upon alike by every principle of benevolerce, Of
common sense and common law, to arrest the per,
~petrators of the crime. To do this, they were jus
tiiable in the use of such force as was needful tc
secure the end.
Who would think of charging a company who
should arrest q burglar in the commission of his
crime with being a "mob," or charging them as
" fools, fanatics, and traitors who ought to be
hung" On the same train a man was seized for
taking eighty dollars from a widow Of Pennsylva
MIA. This seizure was considered q commendablt
act, while those who reGrcssed TIE wrongs of thu
North Carolina widow, are mobocrats. The trutl
is, the rescuers did but half their duty. The Penn
sylvania thief, was not only deprived of his stoler
money, but was detained in custody that he nigh
be punished for his crime. The human prey, it i
true, was happily rescued from tie child stealcrs
but the criminals were permitted to pGss on un
whipt of justice, to repeat the crime in Tennessee
They were kiduappcrs, carrying a free child int
slavery.
The supreme court Of Ohio has decided that tn
course pursued by the Salem rescuers was entirel,
legal. Some years since a similar rescue was hap
PLY effected by our friends, Abram and Edwart
Brooke and others. Then as now, a hue and or,
was raised against those engaged in the heroic un
dertaking, for it required more heroism to do
, then than now. They were hunted by the mob an,
prosecuted by appeals to law at the instance O
pro-slavery Ohioans. The court of common plea
decided against the rescuers as guilty of ofenc
against law. The case was appealed to tho Suprem'
Court, and Judge Lane decided tile act 10 be karfl
and constitutional and that tie rescuers had tie RICH
10 use so much force as cas needfal to effect tile delir
erance Of the slares.
Citizens of Ohio should remember this. TIL,
legal right, as well as the moral duty is theirs t.
rescue all slaves who are held as was this child il
Salem. And the Cleveland Herald, Pittsburgh
Post, Cincinnati Enquirer, Massillon News, an,
other slaveite papers, are the ones who are labor
ing to PROSTATE law, and tread the Constitution
of Ohio in the dust. And worst of all, they do it t.
make Ohio more emphatically than now, q slav'
state.