Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian., 1859-05-28

| auu iouhu oil equally elpnauc eApreSSlon III
Congress. v.'' -."'
The Colored Emmett--speech Of Mr.
| ".a LangstOn. ....s s. ..l.
Mr.. LANGsToN, of Ohio, colored man, was
one of the Oberln rescuers tried and sem
fenced at Cleveland, and the following is the
1 speech he delivered to the Court on the occa-
sion. We do not ask to have it read !; we know
it will be. And we ask all our readers if that
policy and that party authorizing the kidnap-
ping of such men will be countenanced. We
have an abiding faith that Minnesota, next
fall, will answer.
CLEVELAND, May 12, 1857.
Court convened at 10 O'clock The usual
opening being passed and the crowded house
stilled, the Court asked:
Mr.. Marshal, is the defendant Bushnell in
| the house ...... sd.
Mr.. Riddle-Mr Bushnell has been sem
fenced, your Honor; perhaps your Honor re-
fers to Mr.. Langston. '..
The Court-An exchange of names only;
yes, Sir, Mr.. Langston was meant. MIR. Lang
ston, you will stand up, sir. .r,s.,. $780,
Mr.. Langston rose.
The Court-You also have been tried, Mr..
Langston, by a jury, and convicted of a vio-
lation of the criminal laws of the United
States. Have you or your counsel anything
to say why the sentence of the law should not
now be pronounced upon you?
Mr.. Langston-I am for the first time in
life before Court of Justice, charged with
the violation of law, and am now about to be
sentenced. But before receiving that SEN
tence-ao unjust-I propose to say one or
TWO words in regard to the mitigation of that
sentence, if it may be so construed. l can
not, of course, and do not expect that which
l may say will in any way change your pre-
determined line of action. l ask no such fa-
vor at your hands.
know that the courts of this country, that
the laws of this country, that the government
tai machinery of this country, are so constitu-
ted as to oppress and outrage colorcd men,
men of my complexion. l cannot then, of
course, expect, Judging from history Of the
country, any mercy from the laws, from the
constitution, or from the courts of this country.
! Some days prior the 18th of September,
| 1S4S, happening to be in Oberlin on visit, |
| found the country round about there, and the
village itself, filled with alarming rumors as to
the fact that slave-catchers, kidnappers, ne
gro-stealers, were lying and skulking about,
waiting some opportunity to get their bloody
hands on some helpless creature to drag him
back-Or for the first time into helpless and
lifelong bondage. These reports becoming
current all over the neighborhood, old men
and women and innocent children became ex-
| ceeulIISIy alarIIivu ~. ---r-.y
not uncommon to hear mothers say that they
dare not send their children to school, for fear
they would be caught up and carried off by
the way. Some of these people had become
free by long and patient toll at night, after
working the long, long day for cruel masters,
and thus at length getting money enough to
by means of the good will of their masters
to their everlasting honor say it-by the
intensest exercise of their own God-gven
powers by escaping from the plantations of
their masters, eluding the blood thirsty pa
trolls and sentinels so thickly scattered all
along their path, outrunning blood hounds
and horses, swimming rivers and fording
swamps, and reaching at last, through in
credible difficulties, what they, in their delu-
sion, supposed to be free SOIL These three
classes were in Oberln, trembling alike for
| their safety, because they well knew their
fate should those men-hunters get their hands
on them. 1921
In the midst of such excitement, the 18th
| day of September was ushered ina day ev.
er to be remembered in the history of that
place, and presume no less in the history of
this Court-on which those men by lying de-
| vices, decoyed into place where they could
get their hands on him-I will not say a slave,
for do not know that-but man, a brother,
who had right to his liberty under the laws
of God, under the laws of Nature, and under
the Declaration of American Independence.
| In the midst of all this excitement, the news
came to us like a fash of lightning that an ac-
tual seizure under and by means of fraudu-
lent pretences had been made!
| Being identified with that man by color, by
race, by manhood, by sympathies, such as
God has implanted in us all, felt it my duty
to 60 and do what could toward liberating
him. had been taught by my revolutions
ry father-and say this with all due respect
to him-and by his honored associates, that
the fundamental doctrine Of this government
was that aU men have right, to life and lib
erty, and coming from the Old Dominion
brought into Ohio these sentiments, deeply
impressed upon my heart. l went to Wei
lington, and hearing from the parties them
selves by what authority the boy was held in
custody, conceived from what little knowl-
l
hold him. And as your Honor has repeated
ly laid aown the law in this Court, man is
free until he is proven to be legally restrained
of his liberty, and believed that upon that
principle of law those men were bound to take
their prisoner before the very first magistrate
they found, and there establish the fact set
forth in their warrant, and that until they did
this every man should presume that their
claim was unfounded, and to institute such
proceedings for the purpose of securing an in
vestigation as they might find warranted by
the laws of this state. Now, sir, if that is not
the plain, common sense and correct view of
the law, then have been misled both by your
Honor and by the prevalent received opin-
ion.
1t is said that they had warrant WHY
then should they not establish its validity be-
fore the proper officers? And I stand here
to-day, sir, to say that with an exception of
which shall soon speak, to procure such a.
lawful inuestigation Of th6authority under
aohich they claimed to act, aoas the part I took
IN that days proceedings, and the only part.
l supposed it to be my duty as citizen of
Ohio-excuse me for saying that, sir,-a an
outlaao Of the United States, (much sensation)
to do what could to secure atleast this form
of Justice to my brother whose liberty was
in peril. When more than that has been
sworn to on this trial, as act Of mine, Is false,
ridiculously false. When found these men
refusing to go, according to the law, as l ap-
pretended it, and subject their claim to an
official inspection, and that nothing short of
habeas corpus would oblige such an inspection
| was willing to go even thus far, supposing
in that county Sheriff, might, perhaps, be
found with nerve enough to serve it. In this
again failed. Nothing then was left to me,
nothing to the boy in custody, but the con-
firmation of my first belief that the pretended
authority was worthless, and the employment
of those means of liberation which belong to
us. With regard to the part took in the
forcible rescue which followed, I have nothing
- . -.r Eas,a vi. r. {. ~! q.