The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-09-27
rom the IhlladeiphIa American and Gaze
PAssM0RE WILLIAMSON.

PAssM0RE WILLIAMSON.
Our readers must have observed that we have
SAID nothing editorially about this unhappy case
In any OF It's various entauglements, but have
been content to wait, yielding our columns
readily to any temperate communication on the
subject, till something like an adjudication of
contested questions of right should be pronoun.
ced. That has now been done, the highest iudi
cial authority of the State having decided that
the prisoner, who was convicted in the Federal
Court of what is called contempt, was. so far
as they could know, properly convicted, and
must remain convict. He must remain q
hopeless prisoner, for no writ of right can res
cue nina hopeless prisoner, for no pardon il
likely to reach him. If he were a mail robber.
or pirate, or murderer on the high seas
his wife might go and beg fer mercy, and have
a chance of getting it. But being convict of no
crime but of inferential contempt on a question
OF Slavery-an evasion, an omission to tell all
he knew, or a suggestion of having said more
than he ought to have said-beimg guilty of
such crime as this, and the judgment being
made matter of record, there is no discernible
relief. If Mr.. Williamson recedes from his
position, he is degraded. If Judge Kane re-
treats from his, he is stultifed; and thus there
is as dead lock as the perplexites Of human
plicated group are to be seen and heard, not
only those who, either from personal or social
considerations, mediate solemnly on it, but
also, futtering and chirping, all manner of
hghtheaded gossips and mischiefmakers, such,
we are sorry TO say, as the Republican man.
ayers at Pittsburgh, with their wild threats of
pulling down prison walls, or the hangers-on
and officials of the Federal Government-Pro-
Slavery lawyers and politiciaus-those who
think it part of political loyalty to be against
Pennsylvania always. To no one of these last
classes do we or our habitual Philadelphia
readers belong. Neither fanatics nor busy
bodies, but claiming communion with those
who think sadly and earnestly on what is doing
in our midst, we desire to say few words in
all moderation and soberness on this painful
topic. Our wish is to speak becomngly of the
judicial tribunals of the land-of the Federal
Court which took the first step, and of the State
Court which took the last. The habit of Of
tensively criticising the judgments of the law
is very bad one, and we shall not be tempted
by even high judicial example to pronounce n
decision ridiculous" simply because we do
not agree to it. Our position is one of dissent,
but most respectful dissent, from that which, in
one way or another, has become adjudicated
law. Let us calmly review the facts as they
have occurred.
Some time in July last, Mr.. John II. Wheel
er, of North Carolina, accredited Minister from
the United States to that most unlucky region
of the earth called Nicaragua, set off from
Washington to embark at New York He
owned three slaves, a mother and two children.
whom, as slaves, he wished to take to Nicara-
qua. He selected New York as his place of
embarkation, preferring it, even at the risk of
losing his slaves, to either Baltimore or Nor
folk, or any other Southern port. On his way
he was told by friend and professional adviser
that he ran risk in bringing slaves voluntari-
ly into Pennsylvania; but, in spite Of warning,
he brought them here. He might have been
told that for very MAN. years no slave owner
had ever brought elaves voluntarily into the
State. Still, i'll he came. In some way the
fact became known, and Mr.. Passmore vii
hanson went to the wharf and converted with
the woman and the slaves, by his intervention
and that of others, accidentally or purposely
present, we're taken from or left Mr.. Wheeler.
In that Intervention a personal difficulty oc-
CURED, in which Mr.. Wheeler was assaulted
by two negroes but whether he was or was
not by Mr.. Williamson, is not yet udicially
ascertained. There was no riot or disturbance
of the public peace.
Now, we take occasion to say, that in our
judgment the manner Of Intervention By Mr..
Williamson was ill.adyised, especially as, meas
urably at least, it was attended by violence.
We are not lawyers enough to determine wheth-
er hd6eGS corpus could have been sued out
for the ad udication Of the rights of these slaves,
but we presume, if Mr.. Wheeler could get a
hd6edS corpus to recover them, Mr.. William
son could have got one to rescue them in the
first instance. If he could, then he was wrong
in what he did. BY pursuing another course,
great scandal and a great danger might have
been aVerted but we are constrained to admit
that the active partisans Of the Anti-Savery
cause are not much addicted to discreet or cir
cumspect words or acts. They have singular
knack of putting themselves, their friends, and
their cause in the wrong. Saving this, how.
ever, We are bound to add. that Mr.. Williamson
had perfect right to advise these servants of
their rights in Pennsylvania, and that in doing
so he violated no law, and did no injury which
penal law can reach
Here let us pause on q question, vital. it
seems to us-whether, on the 18th of July,
when Mr.. Wheeler brought his slaves from
Naamans creek to Walnut street wharf, it was
not received, familiar law, that the voluntary
introduction of slaves into Pennsylvania made
them free2 The act of 1917 said, in simple
words, that the slave, voluntarily brought here
for any period of time, became free. That act,
to which is appended the signature of Francis
III. onunk, pennsylvania Democratic Govern
or-that act, which, in this particular, series
of Democratic Legislatures have never ven
tured to touch, thus precisely speaks; and to
the common mind, at least, says, as it has an
unquestioned right to say, that for no period of
time shall Slavery be intruded here. The new
coinage of right of transit had not then been
struck, and, we venture to say, that not only
Passmore Williamson, the layman, but every
Judge and lawyer in the State, comprising the
Judges of the Supreme and the Federal Courts,
then thought the law of Pennsylvania to be as
we have stated it. We are very sure that
Judge Kane thought so on the Seventeenth of
July, 1855. If, instead of Passmore William
sons volunteering to tell this woman and her
children they were free, the woman herself, after
being for some seven or eight hours in Penn
syvania, had accidentally met Judge Kane, or
even Chief Justice Lewis, on the wharf or the
steamboat, and had quietly asked, Gam free
or not?" the answer would have been, without
even cautionary preliminary question, Yes
as free as | or any one" and the notion of
right of transit, or diplomatic privilege, would
never have crossed the mind of either of these
distinguished functionaries. Nay, we go a step
further, and believe, that had there been such a
question and such an answer, and the woman
had asked TO be saved from new and foreign
Slavery, from being taken to the Mosquito
coast or the swamps of Nicaragua, there to be
disposed of according TO Mr.. Wheeler's necessi-
ties or inclinations, aid and assistance without
violence would have been afforded, and Mr.
Wheeler, having been, as we have said, already
j i =