The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-05-25
HIS ELOQUENT sPEEcH.

r SIANGsToN. SENTENCED.
HIS ELOQUENT sPEEcH.
s. CLsvEn.AsD. May IL, 1859.
Court couveted al 10 o'clock. The usual
opening being passed andthe crowded house
stiIled, the Court asked:
Mr. Marshal, is the defendant Bushnell in
the house
Mr.. Riddle-Mr Bushnell has been sen.
fenced, your Honor; perhaps your Honor re-
fers to Mr.. Langston 54aq
The sCourt-An exchange of names only;
yes sir, Mr. Langston was meant. Mr.. Lang
ston, will you stand up, sir. lst,.s-
Mr.. Langston rose. $3.50
The Court-You also have been tried, Mr..
Langton, by jury, and convicted of viola
ton 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 8ss 50
Mr. .Langston-f am for. the first time in my
life before court of Justice, charged with
the violation of law, and am now about to be
sentenced. But before receiving that SEN
teuceFl propose to-say one or two words in
regard to the mitigation Of that sentence, if
| it may be so construed. ] cannot, Of course,
and do not expect that which I may say
will in any way change your predetermined
line of action. l ask no such favor at your
hands,
/ know that the courts of this country,
that the laws of this country, that the govern
mental machinery of this country, are So con-
stituted as to ,oppress and outrage colored
men, men of my complexion. cannot then,
of course. expect, judging from the past his
tory of the country. any mercy from the laws,
from the constitution or from the courts of the
country. -a,H.
! Some days prior to the 18th of September,
1858. happening TO be in Oberlin on a visit, I
found the country round about there, and the
village ITSELF filled with alarming rumors as to
!, the fact that slave catchers, kidnappers negro
stealers. we're lying hidden 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 hopeless and
life long bondage. These reports becoming
current all over that neighborhood, old men
aud women and innocent children became ex
j ceedingly alarmed for their safety 1t was
not uncommon to hear mothers say that they
dare not send their children to school, for feal
that they would be caught upjand carried tf
Q by the way. Some of these people had be
come free by long and patient toll at night
D tafter WORKING the long. long day for crue
q masters, and thus at length getting none.
70 lenough to buy their liberty. Others had be
come free by means of the good will of thei
|. Imasters.s And there were, Others who ha'
become free-to their everlasting honor ] sa
y Iit-by the intensest exercise of their own God
a. given powers;-by escaping from the plants
y tiens of their masters eluding the bloc
70 thirsty patrols and sentinels so thickly sea-
'e tered all along their path, outrunning bloc
u hounds and horses, swimming rivers and fore
70 ing swamps. and reaching at last, through ii
Vi credible difficulties, what they, in their delr
u sion, supposed TO be free soil. These thre
:" classes were in Oberlin, trembling alike f
Us their safety, because they well knew the
l'S fate should those men hunters get their hant
~ on them.
= In the midst Of such excitement, the 13i
day of September Was ushered ina day ev
=, to be remembered 10 the history of that plac
s and presume no less in the history of tt
. Court-on which those men by lying devic
ia decoyed into q place, where they could g
IA their hands on him--I will not say, q slave,
/ do not know that-but man, broth.
( who had right toThis liberty under the la,
=: of God, under the laws of Nature, and und
-. the Declaration Of American Independence.
ut In the midst of all this excitement, the ne
came to us like a fash of lightning that an ,
tuaI seizure under and by means of fraudule
Ipretences had been made
Being identified with that man byrcolor.
race, by manhood, by sympathies, such as g
3p has implanted in US ALL I felt it my duty to
'se "" and do what could toward liberating hi
IN had been taught by NY Revolutionary fatl
ars. a land Isay this with aI due respect 20 him
q and by his hodored associates that the fun
try mental doctrine of this government was II
all men have right to life and liberty 9
u.a coming from the Old Dominion, brou,
into Ohio these sentiments, deeply impress
;, upon, my. heart; / went, to, Wellington, ,
on'1 hearing from the parties themselves BY W
authority the boy was held in custody, ! Q
!. all ceived from what little knowledge ] had
nres u law, that they had no right to hold him. 4
as your Honor has repeatedly laid down
the law in this Court man is free until h
InrnNer tn ho larallr <.f &c