The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-11-22
JUDGE KANE AND HIS LATE PRISONER

JUDGE KANE AND HIS LATE PRISONER.
To the Editor of the National Era:
SIR; Passmorc Williamson, the prisoner Of
Judge Kane, is freel Let the good people of
pennsylvania rejoice that their principal city
no longer holds within pententiary plAcincts
noble and innocent fellow-citizen We would
join them in jubileeI e.
From the first to the last day of his imlrison.
ment, we have had no doubt that the was
available, at any moment, an easy, reafy, and
ethcient legal remedy for his release from the
confinement inflicted on him by the wicked
and unprecedented edict of the District judge
for the Eastern District of PENNSYLVANIA, who.
from the day he cast his victim into prison,
has been legally and Justly liable in an action
Tor false Imprisonment, at the suit of his prison
er, for high-handed and naughty trespass to
his person, to say nothing of the first deserving
OF the ermined usurper, in the direction of the
political punishment prescribed by the Consti;
tuton Now that the storm of Judge Kane s
wrath Is over, and an end come to his udg-
ments, we wish to pass in review the facts and
law of the case of the late subject of prison.
walls-the case of a man who has given to the
world an example of patience and non resist
ance worthy freeman of the renowned State
OF the great Quaker, and a citizen of the beau
tiful town whose very name is SO significant of
brotherly love.
Shades of William Penn and Ben. Franklin /!
Might ye not have enacted for the prisoner the
drama of the deliverance of the Apostle Peter,
from the bands of less cruel tyranny-bands
which the Paganism of old Rome possibly
might have been excused in imposing On the
Propaganda of a new faith, the religion of
humanity! Was it here, indeed, in this same
city of Philadelphia, where for so long tine has
been immured the prisoner of Judge Ka le that
so many deeds famous in REVOLUTIONARY story,
and contemporaneous with the infancy of the
Republic, have their origin?
1t was, indeed, the great gathering-place of
the good and great and just and wise men who
sent forth to mankind the Declaration Of indie
pendence-that instrument which bears the nef
faceabe seal and sentiments of free souls-to be
forgotten only when the eternal years come not
and immortal life shall not bel On ground
sacred to Freedom, albeit in a city thu, birth
place of Liberty, over which, in the n idnight
of despotism, came and stood the star If hope
to the nations, and, by its brightness. 5eckon-
ing thither the Mag of the East and the West
the North and the South, to behold IN its era
die the infant Republic, hath been zen, for
many a day, the shameful spectacle of an
American citizen barred within walls uAeriend.
ly to the light, and familiar chiefly wi h felon
footsteps, for no offence cognizable by The laws
of the land; and subject to the vindictiye hate
and penalties which judicial dynamics are able
to infct. In our examination of this case of
imprisonment, we wish to analyze the acts of
this learned Theban, in the very inception and
genesis of his judicial movement in the affair.
lit scarcely merits the name of judicial pro-
ceeding, being extra teges ct judtces,O which has
given him notoriety as lasting as any mouu-
ment of infamy reared since the institution of
the Roman inquistion, with its dangerous and
merciless appliances. We mean the affair
which consigned to the common Jail of the
city of Philadelphia the honest, upright, and
philanthropic WILLIAMSON, at whose release
all good men will rejoice evermore.
We place upon our record some Of the facts
of the remarkable adReas corpus of Judge
Kane, to bring before him certain slaves of
one j. II. Wheeler, who was passing with them
through the State of Pennsylvania; and the
still more remarkable commitment, by this
Judge, of a person whom he fancie to be fit
subject for his imprisonment-at least, so many
of the facts as give ground for tie following
postulates. We state, therefore, On informa-
ton. that said slaves departed from said Wheel.
er, at five o'clock p. NJ, on the 18th day of
July last that, at eleven P. NJ, sane day. SER
vice of the ha6eas corpus was attempted at the
house of Mr.. Williamson; that The District
Court is never in session at a later hour than
three o'clock P. NJ; that the writ not being
served on the 18th, as attempted, and before
the time therein named for the return to the
same, an alias writ was issued and service
thereof made upon Mr.. Williamson the next
day. These facts we take for foundation. There
fore
/. THE District Judge necer had jurisdiction
of anu sUBJECT-MATTER to sCdTrdnt hd6edS cor
pus.
1t would be extremely absurd to suppose,
that because Judge Kane had the right, by vir-
tue of his Office, to exercise certaifi powers, he
might do what he pleases touching the rights
and liberties of the citizen, Unfortunately.
Outside of the powers and duties Of his office,
as limited and defined by the law Iof the land,
he is as harmless legal entity as any other
person. with the exception that when tempted
to usurp power and inhict punishment, he has
greater facilities. We will examine the postu-
late enunciated above. We have said the Dis
trict Judge had no jurisdiction in the matter of
the Wheeler slaves, and hence no power to issue
the habeas corpus. These slaves were not fugi-
tires, having escaped from one State into another,
and thereby bringing themselves within the pro-
visions of the Acts of Congress of February IL,
1893, and September Is, 1850. No jurisdic-
ton came or was conferred, therefore, by these
acts, or matters within their purview.
We will continue our search for subjectmat-
ter for habeas corpus. These same acts, Just
above referred to, are penal upon those who
obstruct or hinder the claimant of slave or
who rescue or harbor or conceal slave. The
application to the District Judge discloses no
such charge or matters as these; and, besides,
if Mr.. Williamson had, by any possibility,
brought himself within that statute by any act,
the remedy for the injury to Wheeler was not
by habeas corpus, but by action, in the usual
method, in the Circuit Court of the United
States, by writ of capias-the punishment or
penalty for any violation of its provisions, touch
ing obstruction, rescue, harboring, and conceal
ment, is thus provided for, IS may be seen on
reference to the act. But it was impossible for
Mr.. Williamson to bring himself by any act,
within the statute; for it provides solely for es-
Gaping slaves, under art. d. sec. 3, of the Con-
stitution. Granting everything allow that
these slaves were .fmgitioes, and that William
son rescued them, &c.-Judge Kane could nei-
Their summarily, by habeas corpus, at chambers,
nor by action in his Court, give relief-it would
be an injury to be redressed ip another Court
than his, another forum. The language of the
statute is, "shall forfeit and pay the sum of
$500, which penalty may be recovered by and
for the benefit of such claimant, by action of