New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-07-30

There is 10 man so mean that we cannot at
some time render service to some other. Judge
Kane's course Tow ard Mr.. Passmore Williamson
illustrates the Truth of this maxim. Occasion
ally. too. such service Can only be accomplished
by sacrifice on the part of him who renders It,
This, however, is not illustrated by Judge Kane.
He bas endowed Mr.. Williamson with the dis
tinctioD Of martyr in good cause. Ia doing
this, it is true, be has pui himself in an infa.
nous position before the country; but IT would
hardly be possible to say he had sacrificed any
thing in the act. He delighted himself, no doubt,
while be thus hoDored his victim.
Mr.. Williamson is in prison for cOntempt of
count and that contempt altogether of an infer
entail and constructive nature. In making out
the oftnse he was resolved to punish, Judge
Ksne bad 70 employ all tbatingenious inesse for
which Philadelphia lawyers are renowned. The
advocate of burglar taken in the act might
take lessons of this Judge in the art OF special
pleadirg There we're TWO propositions before
him: one to commit the accused for perjury, and
the ether to commit him for contempt. The frs,
was passed over as unadvissble, and for very
simple reason: ii would involve the Intervention
of "a Jury and the certain acquittal of Mr.. WI
hanson. But to commit for contempt had no
such Inconvenience. The Judge could put
him in prison on that charge on his own
absolute authority. There was also another adj
vantage in such disposition of the matter.
Williamson could be Imprisoned indefinitely, IN
til he should pu:ge himself of The contempt,
which can only be done, according TO Kane, by
the production of the alleged slaves. BY putting
him IN Jail there was a chance that the negroes,
grateful and kind-hearted az they always ara,
might come forward and surrender themselves in
order TO release their benefactor. 1t was there
fore not merely as o vindictve act against man
who bad opened TO former bOn1men the way Of
liberty, but as On extraordinary device for slave
catching, that Judge Kane committed this high
handed and qubbing outrage upon a citizen of
PeDnsylv6ns.
II remains to be seen what action the State
Courts will take in the premises. Here is
man whom it is their special province to pro-
tect, shat up in prison by surprising stretch of
power on the part ola Federal magistrate. Will
they submit to this audacious encrOachnent on
the rights of their citizens Do they consent that
the authority intrusted to them, and the dignity
and independence of the State they represent
shall be oyerri6den and crushed by the ever
ready invasion OfpegT O-drving Federal officials
Or will they assert the rights of Pennsylvania,
bring cut their citizen from this unjust and
tyrsnnical imprisonment and say to all slave
catching Judges that they shall not deprive
Pennsy lvansns of their liberty on pretexts 50
frail and frivolous, merely because negro hap
pens to be connected with the easel 1t is for
them to show whether Pennsylvania is an indie
pendent State, or whether her laws are to be
made for her in North Carolina, and whether
her people have any rights or not except what
their slave breeding masters are willing to allow