Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-12-27

republic, VIC believe 1t impossible that there ever
will be, as there never has been, any sustained and
persistent opposition while u union with it exists.
An agricultural and commercial people, absorbed
in industrial pursuits, and with whom politics are
only an occasional duty, cannot maintain n contest
with Shareholders in their constant, uniform, un-
compromising and INSCRIPTIONS efforta to strength
en- the system to which they owe all that they are,
and all that they have, to extend its dominion, to
vitiate every principle that threatens its safety and
to undermine every institution which presents any
obstacle to its continuance and extension. The spi-
rit OF resistance and the love of independence in the
North may, in some special case of Southern out
rage and aggression, be SO far aroused that there
may be n successful assertion Of Northern rights.
Some achievement of this sort may yet be related
Of the Republican party. But We cannot, and we
ought not to forgrt that it is orl now defending a
single outpost against q foe possessing a wide domi.
MON, fortified in numberless strongholds, learned
in tho art of war, cunning in strategy. wealthy in
resources, lavish Of rewards, terrible in punish
ments, not only Of treacherous friends, but Of I'M
enemies, and which, if ever conquered,
must first be defeated in a thousand battles"
As the humiliation of Ohio, before the Slave
power, in tho case of the Garner Family cannot be
too strongly pressed upon the attention Of our citi-
zeus, we copy the statement Of the case from the
Report;
"If the Fugitive Slave Act Of 1850 has been a
successful assertion Of arbitrary power in almost
every instance in which it has been exerted, so has
it also served to bring the system of slavery, in its
undisguised defOrmity, with all lite sorrows and
cruelties, home to the people of she North, as it had
never been brought before. Many of those who
under this tyrannical law. have been returned to
bondage, and who, but for it, might have escaped
unnoticed and unknown, out Of the hands of the
spoilers, have been persons who commanded, no,
merely sympathy, but respect and admiration. The
circumstances, in some cases, under which they
made their escape, the bravery with which, in 9th
ers, they have defended themselves, their GOODNESS
and self-possession in the hour Of trial, and thcii
fortitude under the heaviest affection which can be
fal q human being, are so many evidences to the
character of the people from whom they sprung
and of the system that makes them slaves. The
most remarkable case that has yet arisen under
that Act, the most touching and the most terrible
IN some of its attending circumstances, occurred
during the past winter at Cincinnati.
On the 9th of January last, "A party of eight per
SONS, known nS DlmUn OiTUeT, anu MS WIZ NldTy
Garner, and Robert Garner their son, slaves of one
John Marshall, and Margaret Garner, the wife q
Robert, with their four children, slaves of one AR
chibald X. Gaines, all of Kentucky, escaped in +;
sleigh, and with a pair of horses belonging to Mar
shall, and drove to the Ohio River. Here leaving
their vehicle, they crossed upon the ice, and soon
found refuge at the house of one Kite, q free colored
man, near a place called Mill Creek Bridge, in Gin
cinnati. Their escape was soon discovered by
Gaines. who Immediately started in pursuit and
traced them to their place of retreat. Procuring
from John l.. Penderry, a United States Commits
sioner, the necessary warrant. and securing the
services of a United States Deputy Marshal witt
assistants, Gaines went to the house of Kite to ar
rest the ~fug;tives. Admission was demanded ant
refused. An attempt was made to force an en-
trance through a window, but one Of the assailant
was shot at and badly wounded by Robert, ono o
the ~fugitives, and the party retired. Gathering
more force, they made, after n short delay, a sccont
attack. Robert ard Margaret fought bravely ant
desperately to protect themselves, their parents an:
their children in their right tn liberty, but wer,
soon overyowered. But all were not to be takeI
alive. One Of the children was already dead or dy
ing, two others were bleeding ~profusely from sever
wounds on the throat, and the fourth, an infant
was shockingly bruised in the face and head. Thu
mother had attempted to save tlem all from Slave
~ by death. She had succeeded. however, in tax
ing the life Of only one Of them.a little girl of abnu
three years of aye, whose head was nearly severed
from its body. Such a deed excited universal hor
ror and much symp tthy. Some trembled as the,
reflected upon what must have been the suffer ing
f .1.. L -.-1l l. A. H.. e L.
children with her own hands than that they shoult
live to 60 back to that condition in which she hat
passed all her days. Some blamed her rashness
assuming that even if death for her children wa
preferable to slavery, she should have awaited til,
decision of the law before invading the blood
house Of life.' But others feared that the instinc
of the frantic mother was truer than reason, ant
r that she had nothing to hope for when the officers
of the government had once laid their hands upor
her and her family. The result proved that sh,
was right.
The first effort in behalf of the fugitives was t.
procure a writ of haJeas corpus from Judge Bur
. goyne of Cincinnati. which wac put into the hand
of Deputy Sheriff Buckingham. This officer faith
fully discharged his duty, in keeping close to tn,
prisoners, and in endeavoring to get possession q
them in the name and authority of the State u
Ohio. The United States Marshal, however, reru
sed to obey the writ. and he was lett the next day
in quiet possession, By order of the Sheriff, Brash
oars. In the meantime, a Coroner's Jury ha,
f brought in a verdict Of murder against Murgare
Garner, for the death Of the child, and against he
D husband and his father as accessories.
: The State of Ohio and the United States wer
Q thus brought face to face on n question Of jurisdi,
$ ton. The prisoners we're guilty, under o law {
the Federal Government, Of having run away fror
e certain men in Kentucky, to whom they owed Sc
e vice or labor three out of the four adults of til
= party were amenaple to the State on an acousatio
Of the highest crime known to the laws.
No stronger case could have been created i
which to test the character and the constitutional
n ty Of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and to decid