Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-05-21


communities and legislatures, that IL mover could
be, never should be, and never was meant to be
enforced. | had always believed until the contra.
ry appeared ia the actual institution Of proceed
ings, that the provisions of this odious statute
would never be enforced within the bounds Of this
State.
But | have another reason to offer why | should
not he sentenced, and one that | think pertinent
to the case. | have net had n trial before a jury
of my reers. The common law Of England
and you will excuse nc for referring to that, since
| am but c private ci;izen-was that every man
should be tried before q jury Of men occupying
the same position in the social scale with himself.
That lords should be tried before a jury of lords /;
that peers Of the realm should he tried before
peers of the realm ; vassals before vassals, and
aliens before aliens, and they must not come from
The district where the crime was committed, lest
the prejudices Of either personal friends or foes
should affect the accused. The Constitution Of
the United States guarantees-not merely to its
citizens, but to all persons a trial before on impair
tiaI jury. ! have had no such trial.
Tho colored man is oppressed by certain uni
versal and deeply fixed prcjudiceS. Those jurors
are well known to have shared largely in these
prejudices, and l therefore consider that they
we're neither impartial, nor were they a jury Of
my peers. And the preiudices which white people
have against colored men grow out Ct the facts,
that we have as a people consented for two hun
dred years to he SldrcS of the whites. We have
been scourgcd, crushed and cruelty oppressed,
and have submitted to it all tamely, %meekly,
peacabiy l mean as q people, and with rare in
dividual exceptions,-and to-day you see US thus
meekiy submitting to the penalties of an Infamous
law. Now the Americans have this feeling, and
1t is an honorable one, that they will respect those
who will rebel at oppression, but despise those
who tamely submit, to outrage and wrong and
while our people as a people submit, they will as
a people be d%espised. Why, they will hardly
meet on terms of equality with US in q whiskey
shop, in a car, at a table, or even at the altar Of
God. SO thorough and hearty a contempt have
they for those who will meekly lie still under the
heel of the oppressor. The Jury camc into the
box with that feeling. They knew they had that
feeling, and so the Court knows now, and knew
then. The gentlemen who prosecuted me, the
Court itself, ard even the counsel who defended
have that feeling.
l was tried by a jury who were prejudiced BE-
a Court that was prejudiced prosecuted by
an officer who was prejudiced, and defended,
though ably, by counsel ,hat were preiudiced.
And therefore tbs, your Tonor, that | urge by all
is good and great in manhood, that | should
not be subjected to the pains and penalties of this
law, when l have not been tried, either
by a jury of my peers, or By a jury that were
impartial.
One more word, sir, and / have done. l went
20 Wellington, knowing that colored men have
no rights in the United States which white men
ire bound to respect that the Courts had SO de-
; that Congress had so enacted that the
had so decreed.
There is not q spot in this wide country, not
even by the affairs of God, nor in the shadow of
the shafts that tell the imperisba0le fame and
glories Of the Revolution no, nor in the old
Philadelphia Hall, where any colorej man may
dare ask a mercy Of a white man. Let me stand
in that Hall and tell a United States Marshal that
my father was a Revolutionary soldier that he
served under Lafayette, and fought through the
whole war, and that he fought for my freedom as
much as for his own and he would sheer at me,
and clutch MT with his bloody fingers, and say he
has q right to make me q slave And when l ap-
peal'to Congress, they say he has a right to make
me a slave when l appeal to the people, they
say he has a right to make me a slave; and when
I appeal to your Honor, yo'tr Honor says he has q
right to make mt a slave, and if any man, white
or black, seeks an investigation OF that claim,
they make themselves amenable to the gains and
penalties OF the Fugitive Slave Act, FOR BLACK
MEN HAVE NO RIGHTS WHICH WHITE MEN ARE
BOUND TO RESPECT. Great applause.) !, going
to Wellington with the full knowledge Of all this,
knew that if that man was taken to Columbus he
was hopelessly gone, no matter whether he had
ever been ia slavery before or not. knew that |
was in the same situation myself, and that by the
decision of your Honor if any man were to clam
me as his slave and seize me, and my brother,
being a lawyer, should seek to get out a writ Of
habeas corpus, to expose the falSity of the claim,
he would be thrust into prison under one pro-
vision of the Fugitive Slave Law, for interfering
with the man claiming to be in pursuit of a fugi.
tive. and l, by the perjury Of a solitary wretch
would by another Of its provisions be helplessly
doomed to life long bondage, without the possibil.
ity of escape.
Some may say that there is no danger of free
persons being seized and carried off as slaves.
No one need labor under such a delusion. Sir,
four of the eight persons who were first carried
back under the act of 1850, were afterwards
proved to be free men. Thoy were free persons,
but wholly at the mercy of the oath of one man.
And but last Sabbath afternoon a letter came to
me from a gentleman in St. Louis, informing me
that a young lady who was formerly under my
instructions at Columbus a free person, is now
lying in the Jail that place, claimed as the slave
Of some wretch who never saw her before, and
waiting for testimony from relatives at Columbus
to establish her freedom. l could stand here by
the hour and relate such instances. In the very
nature of the case they must be constantly occur
ring. A letter was not long since found upon the
person of a countefeiter when arrested, addressed
to him by some Southern gentleman in which the
writer says:
go among the niggers find out their marks
and scars ; make good descriptions ard send to
me, and I'll find masters for 'e,nU