Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-04-25
THE Fnaitlre slave Act.

Our Revolutionary Fathers revolted against the
laws Of the British Parliament, and defed the
whole power Of England, aud we hail them as
heroes and have Oanonized them in our hearts.
Had they failed, History would have called
them traitors, but success can never make a
cause good, in itself essentially bad.
When Kossulh resisted the laws emanatinR
from Austrian despOtism, and chose dungeon
rather than submission, this nation rose as one
man and approved the rebellion Austria styles
him traitor-America welcomes him as q
hero.
When the Papsl power snatches according
to law" a tender child from the custody of its
parents, all America denounces the act as vio.
lative Of the eternal principles of justice, and
the " MOrtara child is this day a ralIying cry
throughout Europe.
When the "sedit.on" law of the elder Adams
was resisted and dsspised, good men every
where approved the resistance, and not long
since Congress refunded to the heirs Of Mathew
Lyon the thousand dollars fine which he paid,
with interest, thus directly indOrsing his resist
ance of its tyrannical provisions.
Said Jefferson of that law, (Vol. 4, Com
plete Works, p. 556)
az discharged every person under punish
ment or prosecution under the sedilion law, be-
cause considered and now consider that law a
nulity as absolute and papable as if Cong ress
had ordered us to fall down and worship gold
en- image, and that it was as much my duty to
arrest its progress in every step as It would
have been to have rescued from the fiery fur
mace those who should have been cast into it
for refusing to worship the image"
But mark 1t, this very law had been sustained
by the repeated decisions Of this same Federal
Court, now seeking to fasten on us law far
more odiOus and detestable and violatve of the
primal principles Of this free Republic
Posterity has sustained Jefferson and repudi-
ated the decisions, and thus ever shall it be, as
often as the Judiciary seeks to fasten the
Shackes of Slavery upon the descendants of
the men who threw overheard the tea in Boston
Harbor
But say the pensioned hirelngs of the Slave
power, the Fugitive Law must and shall be
Obeyed, nosmattel what it's provisions, its pains
or its penalties no matter how it violates your
oonsciences or offendS against the laws of God;
no matter who are crushed beneath its wheels,
ii must dad shall be Obeyed, and you men Of
Northern Ohio shall bow down and worship the
idol.
Why should we do it roverencsl Is it hu-
name law
Let the hundreds of painting fugitives from
bopJoro roav, ,,d ,,yo,o,v, aon1s aonitinrr
for freedom, dragged back just as their feet
touched the promised land, and sold to the cot
ton and sugar plantations of the far south,reply.
Let Henry B. Payne, late Democratic candi-
date for Governor, by his vote in the Ohio Le-
gislature in 1851, in favor of the following reso
luton, reply.
"RsSolpd, That the law commonly called the
Fugitive Slave Law, being law that makes er
pGrte evidence conclusive of the masters right
TO recapture and return bis slave-that denies d
trial by Jury here or elselokeTe that provides for
the appointment of swarms Of petty ofi.ers to
execute it: that gives double compensation to
find every claim set up in favor Of the master
and pays the expense in any case from the pub
lie treasury, can neGsr Tseeipe the voluntary co.
operation Of our people and ought therefore TO be
Immediately repealed"
Let his Honor Judge H. V. Wilson reply in
the Resolutions of the Cleveland meeting and
which it is clearly proven by the Editor of the
Waeehtsr am Erie he endorsed then and, in 1852,
when a candidate for Congress.
We give the first and fourth as samples Of the
whole;
ResOloed, That the passage of the Fugitive
Law was an act unauthorized by the Oonstitu-
tion, hostile to every principle Of justice and hu-
manity, and if persevered in fatal to human
freedom.
ReSOlUsd, That regarding some portions of
the Fugitive Law as unconstitutional and the
whole of it as oppressive, unjust and unright-
eous, we deem il the duty of every good citizen
to denounce, oppose and resist by all proper
means the execution of said Law.
Why then should an act so odious and affirm.
ed by II. V Wilson to be unauthorized by the
Constitution and hostile to every principle of
justice and humanity" be obeyedl
Because II is the Law says the Judge;---bs-
cause it is the Law echoes his District Attorney
What reverence these dgnitariss have for law
when "nigger" is in the easel How carefully
they nurse it, and how their souls are horror
struck at its violations
Do these gentlemen remember the "small
Note" law passed by Democratic Legislature
few years since, and can they count up the
number Of times they violated it
Out upon the hyPOcriey that violates State
Law with impunity, but sees in an OdiOus, un-
constitutional Slave law, an ark too holy to be
touched with profane hands,
Wife Poisoning.
Male Borgias seem 10 be rspidly increasing