The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1859-07-27
The Position of Thomas COrwin,

In addressing his constituents at Xenia
Mr.. CoRwIN, speaking of the Fugitive Act
said-"HE REGARDED 1T THE SA
CRED DUTY OF EVERY CITIZEN TO
OBEY THE LAW WHEN 1T SHOULD
HAVE BEEN DECIDED AS SUCH BY
THE LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIAL
DEPARTMENTS OF THE COUNTRY
HE WHO WOULD NOT COULD NOT
BE A GOOD CITIZEN. y
HE WOULD HAVE MEN OBEY THE
LAW AND IF THEY DISOBEYED
HE WOULD BRING THEIR HEADS
TO THE BLOCK, If THE LAW RE.
QUIRED IT." Now, if as MIR. Corwin
asserts, nineteen.twentieths of the Republi
can party in Ohio ugree with him about the
Fugi gitive Act, and hold it to be consttu.
tional law, how could he pursue the course
he did in the Republican Convention and
permit that body to strike down Judge Swan
for holding the law to be a constitutional
enactment! How can he now stand up be-.
fore an audience in Greene county and thus
declaim, after his condoct in the State Con.
venton. He was q man of position in that
body. He had the ability TO speak out and
rebuke the attempt to strike down Swan
and il he had done SO his voice and his
counsel would have had influence, and q
check might thus have been given to the de-
mands and designs of the fanatics. But Mr..
Corwin took care while in the position of O
Delegate, where he had power, to be very
silent. Indeed he ocquiesced in and approx.
ed OF all that was done. We announced
the fact the morning Of the Convention, and
\ had laI Al i
surrendered TO Giddings, and Ior which state
ment we were taken to task by the Cincin-
natl Times. The announcement we mrde
was true, and what afterwards transpifed in
the Convention proved true. And we now
state that the brief but bold ard Just Ian
guo2e used by Mr.. Corwin, in relation to it
being the absolute duty Of men to obey the
law, and which we quote above, is used by
him deceitully and with the intention to in
gratiate himself into the good opinion OF Old
Line Wings, Americans and Conservative
Republicans, who hold and believe honest "
in what he said, with the hope on his par, OF
finally inducing them to unite with the Re
publican party. That is the part signed
him in the Republican programme OF this
campaign, and he will endeavor to play it
with oil the dextertv OF which he is capable
Dennison by his letter to the Cleveland
meeting has disaffected many, and Gholson
by accepting the nomination for Judge, after
the dshoDorabe and indefensibIe means
used to defeat Swan, is not satisfactory to
thousands upon thousands.
To reconcile oil such if possible, and
bring them into the Republican ranks, is the
mission assigned to Corwn, and after his
mean and cowardy surrender in the Con-
Vention, and his treachery to the conserva-
tive element in the Republican party, he
now goes about and proclaims that he would
have the law obeyed, and those who did not
obey it he would bring TO the block. Val.
liant language, Mr.. Corwin, but not to be
used in the presence OF Mr.. GiddiDgs, not to
be proclaimed at Oberlin, or announced in
the regions of Ashtabula. No, up there it
is Republcunism to assert that those who
do obey the law are "pirates" and ought TO
be murdered BY the negroes, and it is to put
power into the hands OF such base men tha t
Mr.. Corwin will labor with all his energies.
How wonderfully strange that man of Mr.
Corwin's ability and position can be so very
unfair, dishonest and uncandid, in his inter.
course with his fellow men. But he has
surrendered to Giddings, and is to give help
for help again. Next winter will develope
the reason why.-Statssman