Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-03-31

your own liberty While you could WELD o weapon.
A.. Can't answer positively, either in the affirm
ative or negative. as l cannot now recall all my
conversations with fugitivcs. think it very likely
| never did, as it never occurred to me rs impor-
tant in such conrexion, till your question suggest
cd it. l will, however, give it the consideration it
merits, when | next have opportunity to converse
with q fugitive.
l stated that you repudiated the higher law, and
put pro-slavery portions of the Constitution in its
place. You ask, 'when ?" where 2" and "in
what language ?"-"will you be more 81 ecifc ?"
will though | thought l was sufficiently SO
: before. 1t is not my wont to make SO grave a
} charge, without what l think good authority.
The higher law, which you are charged with set
ting aside-what is it? In regard to the fugitive
slave, it is this:
"Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the SER
, want which is escaped from his master unto thee :
no shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that
place which he shall choose in one of thy gates,
where it likoth him best"
Such is the law of Moses-such the higher law
the law of God.
Tho pro-slavcry article of the Constitution which
is at war with, and which you, sir, substitute for
this higher law, says of escaping servants:
"They shall not be discharged from service or
labor, but shall be delicered up."
Certainly these two laws are conflicting, and the
latter is in such language that it might seem in
tended to repeal the former. AS l understand
your language on various occasions, you propose
that, in some form, the people shall discharge this
constitutional obligation. Hence the charge. |
will be specific, and give what is reported to be
your own language.
In your answer to Mr.. Letcher, you say:
1--WE will live up to all our constitutional obi
cations"
On tho 4th of July, in the city of Providence,
r. l., you said:
Let no man say that we intend to violate the
Constitution an any particular"
That these declarations arc to be specifically ap-
piled to the fugitive clause, is manifest from what
follows in the same speech. You say:
I'm my view of this matter, l agree with Henry
Clay. n x y lie said, the Federal Government
gave to Congress no POWER but that of direct taxa
ton, and the return of runaway slaves. Aside
from this said he, it has no power over the insti-
tuition of slavery To-day, my friends, l repeat
that doctrine"
Again, in the Same speech:
"Let me lie understood. Whenever we have leg
ISidltu III MS SUBJECT, iSldNCTy. 1--WE nave Violated
the Constitution. | mean with no exceptions, sape
tie return Of .tagtjre sidres."
Again, at the same time and place:
"Now, my friends, the reform we propose is, to
restore the Constitution to its pristine purity, to
repeal the present fugitive slave law, and reinstate
the law of 1898, which leaves the master the lib
erty to come and catch his stare, if lie can get
him."*
On other occasions, also, you say you have pro-
posed to reinstate the fugitive law of 1893. Wheth-
er that law is in harmony with the higher law. our
readers can Judge for themselves, after reading
it. | copy it below in a note. Let them, if
they please, take your own synopsis of the provis-
4 ions of that law-your anti-slavery Interpretation
$ of it-and still l am sustained in the charge | have
c made.
D In Il letter over your own signature, published
D in the Buglo OF Sept. 0, 1854, speaking of the fu
" gitive law of '93, you say:
at prohibited the people of the free States from
secreting the slave. ID. From defending the slave.
Sd. From rescuing the slave from his master
And you should have added, left the whole terri
tory of the free States open as a hunting-grounc
for his pursuer. The higher law says the fugitive
shall dwell with you. You, sir, say. let the hun
ter come and get HIM, if he can. Let him tax,
him if he can, while we Northern people will re
l gard our constitutional obligations, refusing to Sc
crete him from the hunter-to defend him from hi
moro than murderous assault-or to rescue hin
when once in the clutches of the villain. Yes, ant
will impose a fine upon all men or women who's,
divine impulses of humanity compel them thus tt
aid the oppressed and hunted against the oppres
of sor.
to Again, on the same 4th of July, you make Judg
" M'Lean's language your own, and gay:
In the emphatic language of Judge MLean, o
The Supreme Court, No man has a right to inter
is fere between a slave and his master neither to SC
:" crete Il slave from his master, nor defend q slav,
=, from his master, nor to rescue q slave from tn
y possession of his MASTER And there our dut
le ends, and the duties of the Federal Government
to end there also"
And l should suppose that the the slave maste
is had reasonable cause to be satisfied that it shoul
IN end there. The masters absolute right is con
y ceded-'no man has a right to interfere between
&c the slave and his MASTER" What could the slave
holder ask m0re2
In the next sentence of this speech, as reported
you proceed to say:
lie 1.-THE whole object of the clause in respect t
lr- fugitives is, to prevent Northern men from actin
*SEc. 8. And be it also enacted, That when
:, person held to labor in any of the United State:
NJ or in either of the territories on the northwest O
ct, south of the river Ohio, under the laws thereof
to shall escape into any other of the said states O
he territory, the person to whom such service or labo
may be due, his agent or attorney is hereby EN-
u powered to seize or arrest such fugitive from labor
ed and to take him or her before airy Judge of til
Circuit or District Courts of the United States, +,
in siding or being within the state, or before an
;; magistrate of a county, city or town corporal,
II" wherein such seizure or arrest shall be made, an
es- upon proof to the satisfaction of such Judge q
list magistrate, either by oral testimony or afhdav
taken before, and certified by, a magistrate of an
such state or territory, that the person so seized {
w arrested. doth, under tho laws of the state or te
ritory from which he or she fled, owe service or ID
ms Dor to the person claiming him or her, and it sha
be the duty of such Judge or magistrate to give
certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent c
'ou attorney which shall be sufficient warrant for r.