Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-04-21
THE LOUISVILLE VERSION OF THE
ROSETTA CASE.

The Louisville Times, by dint of unblushing
falsehood, labors to get up an excitemont IN Nell
lucky, in view of what it calls an outrage upon
kentucky rights. But it is no great wonder that
Louisville newspapers will CalsifS, when a pastor of
one of her churches can glibly commit perjury to
,consummate an act of kidnapping. The Rev. Mr..
Dennison has neither been fined, prosecuted, nor
imprisoned, though he Is certainly a more fit occu-
pant of q penitentiary cell than u Christian pulpit.
The story is probably based upon the supposition
that the Louisville pastor deserves all that the
Times afirms that he has received. The following
is the article from the Times:
"TmE CINcINNArI SLAVE CAsE.-An outrage has
been committed against tho rights of a Kentuckian,
which should call for action on the part of the State,
and the whole South. A citizen of Kentucky has
had his property wrested from him, under circum-
stances in which the Federal Constitution grants
him immunity from molestation. lie has been
robbed of n slave in. transit through the; State of
Ohio, when comfy, not to say the supreme law of
the land, should have secured him in the undis-
turbcd possession of his property. Not only has
this outrage been committed, but he has, in addi,
ton to being robbed, been subjected to the gravest
indignities and insults. Committed as these out
ioSco huNc bccH, NY te HlSH JuulCldl duluOrNy VI
n sovereign State, it should rouse the South to a
sense of the danger to which.her citizens are sub.
-jccted, who shall cross the frontier separating the
free from the slave States.
"The Rev. Mr.. Dennison, in the pursuit of hi:
slave, in the prosecution of a just claim, and in pur
suance of an object provided for by the laws of the
United States, has been fined 81 900, arrested, and
is now under bail to answer in a suit for $4,000
damages, because he claimed his slave and failed
to get her from judicial corruption. Fallow-citi
zens of Kentucky, and of the. South, can you read
this coldly? Can you pass this by as merely one
of the news-items of the day? Or, rather, do you
not see in it the working of a pcrnicious principle,
which, if not thwarted early, will assail US at our
very doors, and bury the knife OF the assassin in
the hearts of our innocent families? Can you not
see that, if we tamely submit to aggression after
aggression, these usurpers of justice, these ~piraticaI
advocates of Lynch law, will remove their mock
courts to our very soil, and perpetrate in our midst
similar outrages? A river only separates us from
them, and they need but to be convinced of oui
apathy, to pronounce the laws of freedom to our
slaves, and fines and Imprisonment for us, theil
masters.
"The iudisposition which as a State and a people
we have shown to create hostility, and the forbear
ance with which we have permitted several aggra
waited cases to pass without protest or formal de-
mand of reparation, has emboldened them in their
advances. We are now to decide whether we are,
by continually submitting to such insults, to be
come an enslaved race ourselves, with Northern
masters, or to live in the enjoyment of rights guar
anteed by the Constitution of the United States
In writing thus, we would not be regarded as in
citing to civil war rashly. If it must come, let il
come. But we would appeal rather to the moral
reasons within reach, than to the use of those
physical resources with which we are fortunately
blessed. The light in which we would have this
matter viewed is that of n State question, to be
decided, if possible, by peaceable negotiations be-
tween the States of Ohio and Kentucky for we
would have it viewed as an aggression of the State
of Ohio upon the State of Kentucky. 1t is true
that it was the property Of an individual and not Of
the State, which was involved, but the claimant
went forth shielded by the rights Of a Kentuckian,
and it is due to the honor Of the State that she
should see justice done him. In direct violation Of
n special provision of the Constitution, and in the
face of unimpeachable evidence as to the title and
Identification, the State,of Ohio has subjected one of
our citizens to fine, Imprisonment and prosecution.
If, under these circumstances, n State does not give
relief to one of its citizens, its citizenship does not
confer honor or protection"