Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-01-13

battlefield to meet the Slave Ohgarchy- Mr..
L. closed with the following sentiment;
The Rescuers of John Price-the Rescuers of
Benz. Rice-and the Rescuers of the Bells
Their conduct should immOrtalize their names
5th. The sovereign authority of their State,
and the voice OF the people-the refuge OF
American citizens from the tyrannies of federal
enactments not sanctioned by justice and the
Constitution.
R G. Horr, Esq, ably discussed the sOve-
reignty of the State, and their voice OF the Peo-
pie They will be felt They have been felt
in Wisconsin, and thirty seven is a good num-
Der for the Supreme Court of Ohio to COM
mence on. Mr. II. made many happy hits and
several hard ones He said the Fugitive Slave
law sometimes sunk men below the depths of
manhood, and they became Dayton! Much
laughter and applause.l He had no sentiment
to ofer-he read the right sentiment in the
face of every man and woman in the assembly
9th The Alien and ScditiOn Lao of 1898 and
the FugitiUe Stare Act Of l950.-Alike arbitra-
~, undemocratic, and unconstitutional. As did
the one so may the other rouse the country to
political and moral revolution which shall re-
store the doctrines of Personal Liberty and
State Rights which centrllizing power has wan
tOnly violated.
R. Plumb, Esq, rose and said:
Mr. PREsIDENT-The sentiment you have
Just read carries US back in our national histo-
ry to the early days of the republic, to the very
infancy of our Constitution.
The year 1898 was memorable for producing
the Alien and Sedition laws of federalism
The alien laws, as you well know, conferred
upon the President the power to remove in a
summary manner any alien or foreigner who
might be deemed by him unsafe to the govern
ment-while the sedition laws made criminal
and punished with fine and Imprisonment any
one who might dare to oppose any measure OF
the Government of the United States, or any
of It's laws, or to intimidate or prevent any Off
Ger under that government from undertaking or
performing his duty. 1t was also enacted that
if any persons should write, print, utter or
publish any false, scandalous, or malicious
writing against the Government, Congress or
President of the United States, or aid in doing
SO with intent to defame them or bring them
into disrepute OF to excite any unlawful COM
binations for opposing any law of the United
States, &C., he should be liable to fine and i'm
prisonment. Under this famous sedition law,
Matthew Lyon, q member of Congress from
Vermont, was indicted for using the following
words in letter to a Vermont newspaper =
"W Whenever l shall. on the part of the Execu-
tive, see every consideration of the public well
fare swallowed up in continual grasp for pow
er, in an unbOunded thirst for ridiculous pomp,
foolish adulation and selfish avariee; when l
shall behold men of merit daily turned out of
office for no other cause but Independence of
sentiment; when l shall see men of frmness,
years and ability discarded in their application
for cffice for fear they possess that indepen-
dence, and men of meanness preferred for the
ease with which they take up and advocate
opinions the consequences of which they know
but little of; when shall see the sacred name
of religion employed as a State engine to make
men hate and Persecute each other-I shall not
be their humble ADVOCATE"
Yes, fellow-citizens, this true man-this loyal
citizen was dragged before District Court of
the United States, upon this Indictment tried
found guilty, fined $1,000 and imprisoned four
months.
But what was the effect of these laws and of
this and kindred indictments and trials under
them!
The pen that drafted the immortal Declara-
ton of independence, was again welded by
Thomas Jefferson in defence of the Declaration,
the Constitution, the sovereignty of the States
and the rights of the people.
In 1898 the Legislature of Kentucky passed
the resolutions drafted by Jefferson, while the
next year TIE Legislature of Virginia passed
similar sentiments from the pen of James Madi-
son. Mr.. President, l hold in my hand copy
of the Kentucky resolutions as Jefferson penned
them, the second of which reads as follows:
Q ResoIued, That the Constitution of the
United States, having delegated to Congress
the power to punish htreasOn-counterfeitin the
securities and current coin of the United States
-piraeies and felonies committed on the high
seas, and offences against the laws of nations,
and no other crimes lohGtegcT, and it being true
as general principle, and one of the amend
ments of the Constitution, having also declared
that "the powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it
to the States, are reserved to the States respec-
lively, or to the people"-therefore the Act of
Congress passed July l4th, 1898, entitled "An
Act in addition to an Act for the punishment of
other of the Acts lChieh assume to create, define
or PUNISH crimes other than those enumerated in
the Constitution, are altogether VOID and of NO
FORCE, and that the power to create and define
such other crimes is reserved, and of right ap-
pertains solely and exclusively to the respective
States, each within its own territory.
These resolutions, the whole of them, ladies
and gentlemen, will repay a faithful perusaI by
Us all, women as well as men, because of the
Importance of the doctrines which they contain,
aud the appropriateness to the times in which
We live.
This brings US to the fugitive slave act of
1850.
That act was conceived in sin and brought
orth in iniquity.
The slave power not only demanded the pas
age of the act, but they also required the great
st statesmen of our land then living, should |
1--WE their voice and their vote for the infamous |
caring that the voice and vote de-
handed should eonsign to infamy those who |
)ut for this and similar debasements would |
lave been embalmed in the grateful memories
If the latest generations.
But the act was passed, and row mark the
imilanty between the act and that OF its illus
rious predecessors.
The sedition law of 1898 defined crimes un-
NOUN to the Constitution, and authorized the
Iourts of the United States to punish those
retended crimes by imprisonment and fines.
The fugitive act of 1850 defines crimes nn-
raolcn to the Constitution, makes it crime to
eed the hungry, clothe the naked, and help the
weary traveller on his journey, and authorizes the
J. S. Courts to punish those pretended crimes
" imprisonment and fine.
jefferson and Madison, those illustrious
Dunders OF genuine Republicanism, whose la
ors were blessed to the complete route of the
of their day-hed that such enact
nents were VOID and of NO BINDING FORCE, and
o do we, the 81 criminals of Lorain.
Ladies and Gentlemen-Since had the hon
r TO annear before the august tribunal that is