Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1856-04-18
AlisrEIlanfnns.
Truth Stranger than Fiction.

Prom the Milwaukee Sentinel.
Pardon Davis, citizen Of Wis
consin, resident for some time at
Milton, Rock county, and afterwards
in Marquette, has just been pardon
ed out of the Louisiana State prls-
on, after confinement of year
and a half, under circumstances
which demand more than a passing
notice. Some two years since, Da-
Wis was keeping a woodward on the
Mississippi river in Tensas parish,
Louisiana. One night there came
TO his hut three negroes, fugitive
slaves, with bleeding backs and la
cerated limbs, hungry, naked and a.
thirst.
They stated that they had been
raised in Kentucky and recently
sold south that they had been put
on a cotton plantation and sci to pick
ing cotton that this was new work
for them, and they made rather a
poor fist at it; that the overseer by
way of quickening their faculties,
had them logged severely and re-
peatedIy and that at last, madden
ed by such uudeserved punishment,
they had fled and were striving to
make their way to the north.
Davis, forgetful of the respect
due to the peculiar institution but
remembering that injunction Of the
higher law which commands us to
feed the hungry and clothe the nak-
ed, ministered to the wants of these
poor fugitives, furnished them with
a little money, and bid them God
speed on their way towards the
North Star, that bright star Of hope
and freedom which had shone upon
their dark pathway. But the pur-
suer was on their track blood
hounds followed them as they fled,
and ran them down; and under
threats of torture they revealed the
name of the good Samaritan who
had bound their wounds, relieved
their hunger, and clothed their ma
kedness. Davis was Immediately
arrested, tried for the high crime a
gainst the laws Of Louisiana, con-
victed of the felony, and sentenced
TO twenty years in the State pris-
on ? The intelligence fell upon his
friends in Wisconsin like clap Of
thunder. They could not believe
that in this boosted land of freedom,
a man guilty of no other offence
than this christian charity, was to
be incarcerated in a dungeon for
twenty years. But the fact was in
disputabIe, and their only appeal
was to the Executive clemency.-
Accordingly brother of the pris-
oner went to Louisiana and labored
through all last winter to obtain his
pardon, but in vain. The interests
of the peculiar institution forbade
the release of the victim.
This winter the aged parents Of
the prisoner renewed their effort to
obtain their sons pardon. For this
purpose his father went TO New Or
leans in December, and has been ev-
er since using all the influence and
arguments he could command to ef-
feet the object so near his heart
At length he has prevailed. A tel
egraphic despatch received yes,er-
day apprises us of the fact that Par
don Davis is free, after an imprison-
ment of one year and half in the
Louisiana State prison, for the high
crime and misdemeanor of relieving
three poor, wandering, naked, blee-
ding a I'D starving fellow creatures
What /, story is this to tell of the
land of he free and the home of the
brave = What frightfu common
tary upon the fundamental truth
proclaimed in the Declaration OF In
dependence, that 'all men are crea-
ted equal, and endowed by their
Creator with the inalienabe rights
of life, liberty, and the pursuit OF
happiness = What foul blot upon
the boosted escutcheon of southern
chivalry What a stain and stigma
upon the whole American people
What can be urged in defence or ex
cuse of an Institution which con.
sIantly and inexorably demands, as
The Indispensable conditions of it,
existence, such an outrage upon hu.
mainly, such violation Of private
rights, such AN insult to human stat.
utes, and such defiance of the Di
vine law