Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-11-15
ANOTHER ALARMING pRncEDENT

AHoTHER ALARMING PREcEDENTa
Whisske judicial tyranny Of Judge Ks.
wash progress, alarming every friend of Free
dom and the constitntional right of the North,
the Governor of Indiana seems to have been try
ing to establish Kindred precedent which in
wolves principles scarcely less dangerous than
the decision Of that infamous Judge, and which
if sustained, will, itappears to US, even more
directly subject the citizens of the Free States
to the will of the Slave Power.
1t appears from the details of the case in ques-
tion, which are but re-iteration Of the thou
sand stories we have heard of the prosecutions
by Shareholders Of all who cnnnot believe, and
will not declare. Slavery to be q divine institu.
ton, that the Rev. 7. B. Mccormick, native
of Kentucky, and, for six years, a Presbyterian
clergyman in that State, removed thence to In
diana, about fourteen years ago, being DESTROYS
to get out Of Slave State. where his known
aversion to Slavery had greatly impaired his in
Huence, andsubjected him to suspicion and OBJ
loquy. After his settlement in Indiana, he be-
gan to preach openly against Slavery, which he
continued to do, on proper occasions, and with
out opposition till the rise of the Nebraska ex-
citement in 1854, when even many of the people
of Indiana began to take sides against his anti
Slavery preaching. During that year one
Thomas Browh, from the same part Of Kentucky,
was arrested and imprisoned on suspicion of aid
ing slaves in escaping to Canada, and his wife
and children we're driven by mob law from the
State, and finally found refuge in the family of
Mccormick. This fact, which became known
to the prosecutors Of Brown, togsther with an
intercepted letter written by another man, situa-
ted much like Brown, to his wife, advising her
to consult Mccormick, was enough to rouse the
suspicious of the Saveholding blood-hounds Of
Kentucky that he was an accomplish of one or
both of these men in helping off Slaves. And,
as with tho Inq4isitors of Spain, suspicion being
with them tantadount to conviction, they offered
a thousand dollau reward privately to any one
who weuld decoya him over the river into Ken
lucky, and, at the same time, got him indicted
before the Grand Jury, procured warrant for
his arrest, and on failing to get him within the
State, made reputation on Governor Wright Of
Indiana for his delivery to the authorities Of
Kentucky.
Such, briefly, were the circumstances under
which requisiion was made for the delivery as
a feon Of this most innocent man, on not only
a false charge, but on the charge of an offence
admitted to have been committed in Indiana !!
And what did Governor Wright! Did he, like
an honest upright magistrate and the minister
of justice, and we'll established law and precc-
dent, give an indigant denial to the presumpt-
GUS demands of the Shareholders! No. in def
ance of justice and all law and precedent, he
decided to comply with the requisition and the
victim, Mccormick was only saved from the
Kentucky Penisentiary, by sudden flight to
New York, where he published, few days ago,
a full statement of the infamous transaction,
which, with the completely Of the donghface
Governor Of free State, had driven him from
his family and home in the west
Now, where is this to end If the precedent
which Gov. Wright has set is to DO sustained,
what anti-slavery man in the whole North is
safe from Southern dungeonl If he has fed
or harbored a starving fugitive slave, what pre-
vents him from being delivered up and dragged
off to the South for trial under the worse thar
Draconian code there established by the SLAVE
Power And even if he has uttered Or pub
Iished anything against Slavery, what is to save
him from the operation of many of the enact
ments of the Southern States in relation to wha
they call incendiary publications; and especial
ly what is 70 save him from the operation Of tn
black slave code OF the Atchison and String
fellow Legislature in Kansas. which the entir
South swear shall be sustained Again we ask
where is this to end. Where, If this pilinl
of precedent on precedent, to subject US t
the dominion of the Slave Power, is to con
tinue, and we are overpowered in our attemp
to obtain peaceful remedy through the ballot
box-where but in revolution and bloodshed'
: 1t seems to US there never was seen suel
apathy among free people as has boon exhibit
ed by the masses Of the North uuder the devel
opments of the past year. They are on vol
cane, and yet they are comparatively slumber
ing as quietly as if reposng on beds of down.