Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-02-26

eAnlOls IN any other shape. Among the accumu,
lated horrors Of this diabolical system are the fire..
quent scenes Of Kidnapping The free colored
men of the north are decoyed into the slave states,
by the artful agents Of Kidnapping associations
and as soon as they set foot over the line Of free
dom, they are chained, silenced, and sent in
gangs to the southern plantations. This is nc
morbid imagining of cur own. 1t is sober fact,
The history Of Solomon Noiihup, and Of Peter
Still, abundantly confirm and illustrate all we
have said. And the circumstances of these we.
authenticated cases Of abduction, ought 10 be
moro prolific Of instruction than they have yet
been. Whore crime is so easy, we have good rea,
son to assume its existence on a larger scale than
is commonly supposed. Kidnapping in this coun'
try is a hidden crime. We have reason to sup.
pose that it is carried on extensively by a%ssocia.
tons formed expressly for the purpose, and max
ing 1t a steady business. There was a man in
our city a lew days since-formerly a resident oil
the place, and well known to many of the older
citizens who was kidnapped and driven to Geor
ga, where be worked for years as a slave, urtil
he was finally reclaimed by the interpositisr OIL
some OF our citizens. This man was travelling in
Maryland on business, and put up at q hotel az
other travellers do but when he was about to de
part, the landlord demanded his pass. To this he
replied that he was a free man and needed no pass
the landlord, however, assured him that he could
not leave without a pass, and while the poor fellow
was revolving this difficulty in his mind, q compa
ny OF villains broke into his room, bound him
silenced him by revolvers, and started him with
other slaves for the south. During his long jour
new sOnthWar1 and HE ras;I,... H.. ILL
touching the fact that he was free, was enforced
bJ the threat of instant death. Masters have q
right to kill their slaves for disobedience, and fol
30 Ligh a crime as that of asserting that they were
free men, no doubt, most slave owners would
deem it an indispensable duty to take life. Ever;
Tree colored man in the United States is exposed
20 just this kind of treatment. There is evidence,
however, that the business is soon to pass from
clandestine associations to the respective state gov
ernments of the south. Virginia and Maryland
are profoundly considering how to clutch the liber
ties of their free coloref inhabitants. When they
have succeeded in this not difficult affair, kidnap
ping will thenceforward be a state business trans
ierred from private to public hands, it will unques
tionably thrive in a manner becoming the virtue
of southern society. We shall then dwell side by
side with kidnapping states. But it will not dis
grace us, for the slave laws in their mildest form
AID in their very exhibition. are nothing better
than the most unmitigated kidnapping. AS it is
row, all the slave states, and all slave owners
steal c~hildren-yes, steal the babe in its
mothers arms, and enslave it. Neighborhood
to such q state of society is no slight misfortune
We are contaminated by proximity to the pu.
pany of kidnappers, and our Churches have lost
caste in morals, till they are ready to acquiesce in
the shameless conclusion that slavery is not bad,
unless it is badly used.-They make the use Of
the thing the test of character. As well might
the rObber, or the debauchee claim justification
on the ground Of a unitarian purpose.