Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1855-10-05
~, Pric, Of Iibsrig, is EtsrqaI yigiIapcs.
PASSMORE WILLIAMSON.

judicial proceedings He has been robbed
of his personal liberty, and incarcerated in
Pennsylvania prison, for no other reason
than that he informed a poor yet liberty
loving woman, that she and her children,
by the laws of Pennsylvania, were FREE,
and afterwards refused to make return
false in fact, to writ unlawfully issued
by U. S. District Judge,
In this, every Pennsylvania has deep
interest at stake What Passmore Will
hanson suffers, every man, entitled though
he be, BY birth-right, and by the laws Of
our noble old Commonwealth, to personal
liberty, may be called to suffer, unless this
exercise of unjust and arbitrary power be
at once rebuked and stayed by the peoples
voice or the peoples arm.
In the case of Williamson, there is not
only a robbery of personal liberty, but a
striking down of the great writ of personal
liberty, the writ Of HeJeas Corpus itself,
in obedience to the dictum of the Slave
power in this country. Pennsylvanians !.
inheritors of the honors and liberties trans
mitted to you by your Penns, Franklins,
and Rushes =! does your blood run cold and
slow in view of this exhibition of judicial
despotism? No! We can not believe that
you are SO lost to sense of the blessings
of liberty, as to be cold or Indifferent.
join II. Wheeler, Carolina Slavehol-
der, came to Philad., voluntarily bringing
Jane and her two children, whom he claimed
as bis slaves. by virtue of Pennsylvania
laws, most righteously too, those slaves, on
touching Pennsylvania soil, became free.
Jane, notwithstanding the close espionage
of her professed master, succeeded in giving
information that she was held as slave
but desired to be free
This information was carried toPassmore
Williamson, Secretary Of an Anti-Slavery
Society organized in the days Of and presi.
ded over by Benin Franklin. He hastened,
under the influence Of his generous and
philanthropic heart, to inform Jane as to
the rights of herself and children under the
laws of Penn'a. He found her on board a
steamboat near the Walnut ST. wharf, city
of Philad., and in the presence of Wheeler,
informed her of those rights, telling her
that che was free, and If she chose to do so,
she could then enter upon the exercise of
her liberty and the pursuit Of happiness
Without violence, and Of her own choice,
as she afterwards testified, she did go.
Soon after 1sth July last) so the record
as given, proves, John II. Wheeler presented
his petition to John X Kane, Judge of the
US. Court for the Eastern District Of Pa,
stating that he was the "owncr of .hree
persons held to service or labor under the
laws of the State of Virginia, such persons
being respectively named Jane, aged about
25 years, Daniel, aged about II years, and
Isaiah, aged about ! years, persons Of color;
and that they were detained from his pos
session by Passmore Williamson, but not
for any criminal or supposed crimina! mat
ter" In accordance with the prayer of
that petition, writ Of habeas corpus was !
awarded, requiring Passmore Williamson ;
to bring the bodies of the said Jane, Daniel
and Isaiah before the Judge of the Distric,
Court, forthwith.
To this writ, Passmore Williamson made /
a return, verified by his affirmation, "that
the said Jane, Daniel, ,and Isaiah, nor either
of them, were at the time Of the issuing of
the writ, nor at the time of the return, nor
at any other time, in the custody power, or
possession of, nor confined nor restrained
Of their liberty by him, and therefore he
could not produce the bodies as he was
This return was made on
The Goth of July, "whereupon, afterwards,
to wit, on the eth July, 1855, the counsel
for the parties having been heard, and the
said return having been duly considerable
is ordered and adjudged by the Court that
The said PassmoreWilliamson be committed
to the custody Of the Marshall ,rithom bail
pr n,aiaprii=e, as for contempt in refusing
10 make return to the writ of hebeas cor
pus, heretofore issued against him, at the
instance of John H.Wheeler." Such, says
Judge Knox, is the record.
Here let us notice two things-1st, the
want of jurisdiction in the case and, I'd,
The truthfulness of the return.
l. Judge Kane had no jurisdiction Of
The matter, because the persons claimed as
slaves were voluntarily brought into this
State. Neither the Constitution, nor any
Law of the Congress of the United States,
authorized Judge Kane to issue writ in
my such case. Having no authority to
issue the writ, the writ itself was unlaw-
full, and consequently Passmore William
son was under no legal or moral obliga-
ton to obey it. Nothing is more clear, or
better established in law, than that man
is not bound to obey an unlawful writ.
2. Although it would have been right
for Passmore Williamson to refuse alto