Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1859-12-23
FREE NEGRO LHGISLATIO,EN TEN-
Nt.SSkrs.

RENoNsTRANCE FROM JUSTICE CATEoN.
From the Nashville CTena.) Union aad American.
Edt9rof rb- Jai3n and dH5rrla.
DEAR SIR have iJr several weeks past
been anxiousIy waiting tp hear what the
views OF your leading jIuradls were on the
bill pending before our legislature proposing
to enslave, or to drive from the State, the
free colOred population now among US. 1t
provides that these persons shall be seized
and sold il found here after tle first day Of
May next, If they are adIlts-and that the
children shall be bound out, &c; the adults
are allowed to emigrate to Africa, in which
case some slight aid is to be furnished by the
State to assist in their transportation or
secondly, they may seek master and 20 in
to slavery.
Now, who are these people? There is not
one in one hundred of them, to say the least,
that ever has been a slave. Usually, their
mothers, grandmothers, or great grandmoth-
ers were slaves, who were emancipated by
masters for neritorious services, or from
benevolent motives, by the Courts of Justice,
and according to law. They all have a vest
ed right to freedom by the Judgment and de-
crees of Courts Under our Constitution of
1896, the free colored men voted at the polls
IIldI lilG OilI W 'slllullOu CAlcuucu W tuCLu,
and protected their rights to a certain ex-
tent, is free from doubt But pass by this
question. -
My objection to the bill is that 1t proposes
10 commit an outrage, 10 perpetrdte an Oppres-
sion ana cruelty. This is the PLAIN truth,
and it is idle to mince words to soften the
fact Let us look the proposition boldly in
the face This depressed and helpless por-
ton of our population is designed to be dri-
ven out, or to be enslaved for lie; and their
property forfeited, as no slave can hold pro-
perty. The mothers are to be sold, or driv-
en- away from their children, many of them
| infants. The children are to be bound out
until they are twenty-one years of age, and
| then leave the State or be sold, which means
they are to be made slaves for life in fact
| Now, Of these women and children, there is
hardly one IN ten that is of unmixed negro
| blood. Some are half-whlte many have
half-white mothers and white fathers. max
ing a cast of S71 l00ths of white blood :;
many have third cross, in whom the negro
| blood is almost extinct. Such is the unfor-
tunate truth. This description Of people
who were born free, and lived as free persons,
are to be introduced as slaves into our faml-
lies, or in our negro quarters, there to De
!
the negro trader and sent South, there 70 %
whipped bv overseers. and 10 preach re0sI'ioH
in the negro quarters-as they w -
rebellion Everywhere that they may De GrlVen
| ~ by this nni1st law, whether 1t be amongst
| ne bora in Tennessee, or south of us In the
! cotton and sugar plantations. or IN the Abo-
I;tion meetings in the Free States. Nor will
the women be the least efectivein preaching
a crusade, when begging money IN the North
to relieve their children, left behind in this
State, in bondage.
| We are told that this "Free Negro Bill"
is polite, popular measure. Where is it
popular? In what nook or corner Of the
State are the principles Of humanity so de-
ploringly deficient, that a majority of the
i white inhabitants would commit an outrage,
not committed in Christian country of
which history gives any account? In what
country is it, this side of Africa, that the
majority have enslaved the minority-sold
the weak to the strong, and applied the pro
ceeds of the sale to educate the children OF
the stronger side, as this bill proposes? 1t
is an openassertion that might makes right.
II is reopening the African Slave trade in
fact. In that trade, the strong capture the
weak and sell them, and so it will be here if
this policy is carried out
All over the State, those who are respon-
sible for passing the bill will have to contend
with fearful public opinion, made up of all
the icou1en who have moral characters and
religious feelings, backed by the clergy. and
assuredly by very large majority of the
members of all the churches for we must
carry along with us the important fact that
numbers of people sought to be enslaved or