Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1857-06-05
THE RICHMOND ENQUIRER,
BY RITCIIIE. & DUNNAyANT.
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW IN onlo.

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW IN OHIO.
The laws of any country, in order to bs operative,
must be in consonance with wholesome public .en
tinent The representatives Of The people who enact
them, must conform their legislation to the standard
of justice, which an honest aud patriotic popular
mind acknowledges to be its measure of practical
excellence, or the laws of the land whether emap,
ting from parliament, cories or a republican con.
gress cannot command the obedience Of those
disloya citizens or States to which they are OBJ.
no1ous, whether justly or unius,y. And when
circumstances ars such, that separate States, in
their own sovereign capacity, rebel against, and
attempt to rise above the constitutional laws Of the
nation with which they claim membership, the time
has come, when the State either be made to suc.
cumb, allowed to secede or the Federal aulhori-
ty is at end and the spirit and genius of the gov
ern,nent los, in submission to the seditivus edcts of
traitors. These reflections have been induced by the
late lawiess ouiragcs upon United States Deputy
Marshal and his ASSISTANTS, while engaged in effort
to enforce the federal law in Ohio. 1t will be re-
r.--~~I-J - -~.i S'h"'iinntI 40
Champaign county for the purpose of arresting four
persons who wero charged with having harhored
fugitive slaves They secured The offenders and left
for Cincinnati, when they were pursued from one
county to another, until they were overtaken and
overpcwered, under the pretext Of writ of habeas
corp"s after melee, in which shos were exchanged
The deputy marshal and his aids we're then carried
TO Springfield, in tho State. as prisoners to be
tried for resisting the county sheriff.
This ID an in:racton of the fugitive slave law a
resistance to the enactments Of Congress, and
the provisions Of the Constitution, under the i'm.
mediate patronage and by virtue OF the au.
thority of the State officers of Ohio. The mob
moved aud acted under the protection and a
the iustigatiou Of men clothed with the powers both
of Judiciary and Of executive officials of sovereign
State. 1t is an instance of open, unqualified an;ago.
nism between the authorities Of Ohu aud the United
States. No such preex, the irresistible license of
an unbrdled rabbie can be offered in pal.ia
ton. The sovereignty of the State is compro
missed by the act. And II remains 10 be seen.
whether the Governor of Ohio will endorse
the outrage or deuounce tho conduct of those
officers, through whose agency the Federal laws
resisted and the deputy marsha Of the United States,
aud those accompanying him were arrested in the
performance OF their duty. If there ia not enough of
conservation, loyalty and patriotism in the slave.
holding States te stay the popuace in their outbreaks
it is truly to be hoped that sovereign States not
30 lost to all self respect and Of right
to justify the formal arrest of officers because they
are engaged in the civil service of the Federal Gov.
ernment. These things cannot continue, with safety
to the Union. They indicate a deep and dangerous
enmity to the Institutions OF the South. And there
must be moral strength enough in the North TO cry
down such acts Of overt treason, or The confrderacy
must coon be sundered. Ohio, however, is not the
whole North And confidently trust TO the truth
and strength of the Democratic cause.
/ The administration, we are confident, will act I'D.
visedly and promptly in th. matter.