Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-12-02
No Slavery in Vermont.

With great satisfaction we chronicle the COM
pletc success of the anti-slavery demonstration
in the Legislature. The bill which We gave last
week, amended in some small particulars at the
instance of Senator Nicholson, and by these
amendments made more stringent, passed both
Houses on Thursday. and has become law;
not however, without the bitter denuncation
of the Burlington Times, and also without
word of commentator from any paper in the
Stntc, except the Freeman We here suggest
to the Republican papers in this State that it
will soon be required of them to give up the
ghost Or walk up to the support OF true Repub-
lican principles, as promulgated by the last
State Convention, the Governors Message, and
the action of the Legislature, not by passive ac-
quiescence, but by plain-spoken terms. The
people of this State will tolarate no Indifference.
Tile act as amended is as follows
4 IL is hereby enacted, DC.
! See. |. No person within this State shall be
considered as property, or subject, AS such, to
sale, purchase or delivery nor shall any person
within the limits of this State, at any time, be
deprived of liberty or property without due
process of law.
Sec. 2. Due process of law, mentioned in
the preceding section of this act, shall in all
cases be defined to mean the usual process and
forms III force by the laws Of this State, and is-
sued byrAhe Courts thereof; and under such
process shch person shpll identified to trial by
jury.
I Sec. 8. Whenever any person in this State
shall be deprived of liberty, arrested Or detained
on the ground that such person owes service ~
labor to another person, not an inhabltant OF
this State, either party may claim trial by
jury and, in such case, challenges shall be al
lowed to the defendant, agrecably to sections
four and FIVE of chapter one hundred and eleven
of the Compiled Statutes.
Sec. 4. Every person who shall deprive, or at
tompt to deprive, any other person Of his Or bel
liberty contrary to the provisions of the pre-
cedins sections Of this act, SHALL on conviction
thereof, forfeit and pay IL fine, not exceeding
two thousand dollars, nor less than five hundred
dollars, or be punished by imprisonment in thu
State prison for term not exceeding ten years
provided that nothingjn said preceding ction
Shall apply to, or affect the right to arrest o.
imprson, under existing laws, for contempt 0
Court.
Sec. 5. Neither descent, near or remote, iron
an African, whether such African is or ma,
have been slave or not, nor color Of skin
or complexion, shall disqualify any person from
being, or prevent any person from becoming
citizen of this State, nor deprive such person o
the rights and privileges thereof.
Sec. 6. Every person who may have been he'll
as a slave who shall come, Or be brought, or b
in this State, with or without the consent q
his or her master Or mistress, or who shall come
Or he brought, or be involuntarily, or IN any wa
in this State, shall be free,
Sec 7. Every person who shall hold, or at
tempt to hold, in this State, in Slavery, or as
slave, any person mentioned as slave in tn
sixth section Of this act, or any free person i
any form, or for any time however short, unde
pretence that such person is Or has been slave
shall, on conviction thereof be imprisoned i
the State prison, for a term not les than on
year nor more than fifteen years, and be fine
not exceeding two thousand dollars.
Sec 8. All acts and parts of acts inconsister
with the provisions OF this act are hereby IT
peaied
Sec. 9. This act shall take effect from it's pal
sage.
Approved, November %, 1858