Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1857-05-07
Taking the Benefit Of Taney,s
DecisiOn.

0SSAoAOne
We learn from the Chicago Tribune, of
the 18th inst, that flour descendants of
Africa" who were indicted in the Record
eS Court of that city for stealing poultry,
filed the following plea in abatement:
Alexander Pierce, John Williams, John
Taylor, Alfred Nicholson against The Peo-
pie of the State of Illinois.-lNpIcTMENT
o LARcENY.-And now cometh into
court the above named chaltels, erroneous
ly indicted as persons in their own proper
bodies, and having heard the said indict-
ment read, say hat the above-named Re
corder's Court ought not to take cogni-
zance of the alleged crime in the said in
dictment above specified, because protest
ing (if as such bodies, they have the right
to protest. that they are not guilty of the
same, not being in any manner recognized
or known by the Constitution of the Uni
ted States of America, or of the Constitu-
ton or laws of the State of Illinois as per-
sons, protected by or responsible to the laws
of the land; nevertheless, for plea in this
behalf, the said bodies SO rs aforesaid erro-
neously indicted and compelled to answer,
say that no cause of complaint ever &C
craed to the people of this State against
them, for this, to wit: that the said bodies,
so as aforesaid indicted, are not persons
capable of committing crime and of being
tried therefor in this court, but are articles
of merchandise and mere property, by the
supreme-law, of the land because they say
that they "are negroes of African descent,
their ancestors were of pure African blood,
and were brought into this country and
sold as negro Slaves"
Therefore they pray judgment, if the
court now here will or ought to take cog
n~izance of the indictment, and that by the
court here they may de dismissed and dis
charged.
To this plea, Carlos Howe, the States
Attorney, demurred, and the defendants
joined in the demurrer.
In support of the dmurrer, the States
Attorney urged that, although the defend
ants were really and bona tide slaves, and
subject to rendition to their masters. thew
were liable 10 be tried and punished under
local or State laws for felonies committed
by them within the State.
Mr.. ]. P. Thompson for the prisoners,
then made ali elaborate argument in sup
port of the plea, which he supported by
copious extracts from Judge Tarey's opin-
ion in the bred Scott case, and contended
that, under the decision of the Supreme
Court in that case, which was now the es-
tablished law of the land, there was no dis
tinction between negroes of African descent
and other property. He then applied this
proposition to the matter in hand.
Our laws, he observed, authorize the
conviction of persons, not chattels. The
warden of the States prison cannot, and
obey his mittimus, receive an African
slave or descendant, if he is nothing but a
chattel or property, into custody. If a
chattel commits a wrong act, he should
be punished as a chattel and not as a a
The fox that steals property cannot be in
dicted and punished as a man, but must
be punished as a fox.
Judge Wilson, however sustained the
demurrer, saying that, aft Chief Justice
fancy ever intended by that decision to
make africans or descendants of Africans,
so far chattels that they may appropriate
other peoples chattels, by larceny, without
being answerable to the laws of this State,
or the local police regulations, this Court
does not recognize the validity of such de-
Exception was taken to the ruling of the
court, and the "merchantable ohattels"
were placed upon trial. The jury render
ed a verdict of not guilty. The prosecu-
ting witness, a descendant of an African,
failed upon the trial to swear to any facts
which would go to establish the guilt of
the accused, albeit his testimony before
the grand jury was explicit and positive.
The witness had prsbably heard the pro-
ceedings relative to the jurisdiction of the
court in the case, and very naturally came
to the conclusion that being himself a
mere chattel, a piece of merchandise, he
could not be held amenable to the laws
for committing perjury, and might as well,
under the circumstances, clear his friends
convict them.