Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-07-16


on %hich-we presume they anticipated convic-
ton, 1t matters not that the alleged crime wasa
ChtistiaA act, nor tha, the law under which they
WERE to be tried was regarded by many as uncon-
siitutional-the fact we have stated remains the
same. Jennings, Mitchell & Co. were also bound
over for tiial as criminals, Blu. before another
court; and whether or no they were guilty of kid
mapping legally considered, they were morally guilty
beyond doubt. They were accused of violating n
State lava law which was made not for the
special benefit Of the people of Oberlin, or
any portion Of them, but for the especial
protection Of the colored citizens Of Ohio;
and the efficiency of the Inv depends upon the
promptness and certainty with which punishment
is melted out to it's violaters. Here was a case in
which tho people Of Ohio were the accusers-not
Lorain County, but the State at large and if the
accused were guilty, Ohio had pledged her State
Sovereignty that the offenders should be punished.
Tho Prosecuting Attorney o! Lorain County GER
tainly had no moral right, and we don't believe
he bad any legal authority, to set loose upon COM
munity four kidnappers, on condition that certain
other persons should not be punished y the U. S.
officials. Have law and justice become merchant
able commodities in Ohio? Can kidnappers buy
immunity from punishment Can violaters OF
State law escape the penalty by promising to drop
individual prosecutionsf 1t would seem so, if this
swapping Of offenders is to be taken as q specimen
Of the administration Of justice in our State
Courts, If the precedent thus set is to be followed
where is the practice of legal dickering to end?-
What assurance have tho people in any case that
criminals will be punished ? The evidence against
the accused may be of the strongest and most
,na,ttvo IL; ouu:a.,o. - s...l.I
be deemed essential to the protection of %communi-
ty. but when he is brought to the bar a nolle is
entered, not upon pretense of any extenuating cir
cumstances existing in his case, not because Of the
slightest doubt Of the weight of evidence against
him, but because, forsooth he has agreed mol to
prosecute somebody else, provided his case is not
brought to trial. What a miserable mockery Of
Justice! What q perversion Of law!
Plumb, Peck, and their companions in prison
deserved the sympathy of the people of the State,
but what would have been said to a proposition To-
have the u. S. Attorney enter q nolle in their case,
provided some notorious counterfeiter or murderer
were freed from his penitentiary cell? The whole
State would have been indignant at the insult, and
the Rescuers would have utterly refused 10 accept
an enlargement so purchased. But the same thing
in principle has been done, and the Rescuers have
gone free on condition that four kidnappers should
be turned loose upon society, and their friends
hold a jubilee over their enlargement, and call il q
.rium ph of Higher Law.
Triumph of Higher Law 1t isn't even o tri-
umph of Ohio law. The transaction inAicts indel-
ible disgrace upon the State, by proclaiming in
unmistakabie terms, that in Ohio, kidnappers can
purchase immunity from punishment. Swans ha-
| hoao oornuo dao;s;on 4, so,Lon oc m ;orol,;.~ =.
surrender of State Sovereignty, but Ohio was ney-
er brought SO low as when she bought the Oberlin
Rescuers out Of prison, by conserving to suspend
the operation of her State Laws against kidnap-
pingesaWe agfsste yess prap9sitiOp dear Mess
ers. SlaSeaetshsFsssS said L4asaip iGonptso ,sIfxou
won't punish DOR Oberlin ~citissps any more for
man. freeing, We WOO Rpaish 1spp; at ALI Tor mar
s~tealing". WALL" said the kidnnppers," seeing
that some of your fellows have been tried, and.
found guilty, and sentenced, and some Of 'em plead
guilty. and been sentenced, and the rest of 'em
been imprisoned longer than they would have been
if they had been tried, and thus has the Fugitive
Slave Law been abundantly vindicated and Sec
ing it is very inconvenient and expensive fer us to
be here, we agree to cry quits"
There is nothing honorable to Ohio in the trans
action, nor to the Rescuers and their friends, nor
to the United States either, although toe latter &C.
cuples decidedly the best position. We affirm LIST,
that neither the District Attorney of the Unitei
States, nor the Prosecuting Attorney for Lorain
County had any right to entere a nolle against
men whom they believed guilty of crime, ia con-
sideration of the release of others who were charg-
ed with crime. We affirm, I'd, that to turn al
legged kidnappers loose upon community in order
to secure the enlargement of the Rescuers, was a
Observation-Disclosures of justice. q suspension of the
criminal laws of Ohio, and a precedent which
promises to be fraught with the most dangerous
results. We affirm Sd, that in accepting their en-.
largement upon such conditions, the Rescuers
made q lamentable mistake. and closed, by a dts
graceful compromise, n controversy they had up to
that time boldly, and honorably, and with a spirit
of heroic self-devotion, maintained with the myr-
midons of the slave power operating through the
United States Officials.
] '"LET THE RECORD RE CORRECTLY