Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1859-07-21
Democraeic3 ThunSler on Our
Side tf~


We invite the attention of all of oul
democratic readers to few extracts from
the Cleveland PLAIN Dealer. Our repub.
lican friends will also be edited with these
excerpts. The columns Of that paper fol
1850 were rich-were spicy with republi
can doctrine. The following are fair spec.
linens. They are particularly refreshing jus!
now when lhe Plain Dealer-iss earnestly
exercised over The liberation of the Ober-
lin Rsscuers. The editor of that very IN
teresting journal has severe experience OF
the fact that 1.-THE way of the transgressor
is harj.n -e-s-.r-,,
From the Plain Dealer. October %. 1850
By the Constitution of the United States,
tart. S of amendments,) no person can be
adeprived of life, liberty orproperty, with
out due process of law Every person in
this State is entitled to the protection of
this provision, aud there is a similar provis-
ion in our State Constitution. !" Due pro-
cess of law isdlos a summary proceeding
bsfore a Commissioner appointed under an
act of Congress. The Judicial power un-
der the United States Constitution, is vest
ed in one Supreme Court, and 10 such in
ferior Courts as Congress may establish.
Commissioners cannot exercise judicial
function over lsfsand liberty. That is not
"due process of law.n IF any person is ar
rested under this act, upon the warrant of
any commissioners, he should be immedi-
ately taken before State Judge upon ha-
6eas corpus, by whom some of the provis-
ions Of the act can be adjudicated to be
unconstitutional Congress cannot sus-
pend the privilege of the writ of ha5eas
corpus, except in cases of rebellion or inva-
sion. It is the right of every man to have
this; and no Judge can refuse TO allow it,
without the most severe penalty.
A few days after that firm expression,
appeared the following: s.a
From the Weekly Plain Dealer, Oct. 3Oth, 1850.
"Outi id Spoti' = :
This quotation from Macbeth will apply
with as much appropriateness to the late
fugitive law, as it did in its original utter
ance to that black spot of guilt which the
wicked murderer in the play could not
wash ont. = 81 49, 80 f.--.s-.,.|
The article which opened tbas vigorous
ly, corcleded as follows: 9 se 'isF
The instituiioa OF ssarery is an aaon,a-
b in civilized governments, an exception
to liberty everywhere, and most outrage
Gus contradiction to our pretensions as a
Model Republic. 1t was barely sufferable
in this country sixty years ago, and anfor-
tunately recognized in one of the ccm-
PROMISES of the Constitution. Even then
it was del ouneed and would have been for
ever discarded, had not the colonies been
weak and threatened with the overwhelm-
ing and .annihilating power of England,
had they not collected their scattered
strength into one federal compact. Bat
no .framer of that Constitution, no indors-
er Of its compromises ever dreamed that
slavery would exist in this country at this
day. Every act of Congress that has tend
ed to support or perpetuate in the least
this institution, has been in violation of
the intent of the original trainers of that
instrument. This Fugitive Slave Law is
one of that character, and were its opera
lions, like most other slave laws, confined
to the slave States, it might escape repeal.
But this is not the case;gits operations are
wholly in the free States, and to be exc
cuted, if executed at all, by free men,
The service il requires is not the kind we
owe to either God, man, or the devil
We read in the good book that ''Satan
goes about hike a roaring lion, seeking
whom be may deyour." It appears that
be hunts iu person, and asks no intermedi-
ate party or oragent between himself and bis
victims. The south must do their own
slave catching under this law, constitution
al or Unconstitutional, and BY the time
they have taken back few thousand who
have participated in the spirit OF rebellious
freedom, which'this law everywhere awakes
and scattered them throughout The south
ern States, they will find a leayen al work
in th'ir midst worse than abolition news
papers, and as uncomfortable as the waves
of the sea.
We wonder if the, Wellington rescue
case has not given new force to theseriews
of the Plain Dealer in $50, and we would |
respectfully ask the editor the, eof, wherein
the fugitive slave law has changed since