Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1859-05-06
Frnm the Vermont. wntchman.
Extraordinary Trial Under the Fugitive Slave
law

has ever occurred in this country,remind-
ing one Of the political trials in England
under yillainous judges like Jefries, or in
ireland, in the days of the informers,
made memorable by the eloquence of Cur
ran.
The facts in the case are substantially
the following. In January, 1856, two
slaves, John and Dinah, belonging to John
G. Bacon, of Mason Co., KY, accompan-
led by a boy named Frank, who was the
slave of one Of Mr.. Bacon's neighbors,
took two of Bacon's horses, and there
with escaped aeress the river on the ice
into the State of Ohio. The horses were
soon found by Bacon, but John and Di-
nah were not forthcoming. In the sum-
mer Of 1858, a neighbor Of BaCon's, NAM
ed Anderson Jennings, while hunting for
some of his estray slaves, found color
ed man at Oberlin, Ohio, who appeared
to answer the description of Bacon's mis-
sing John. Thereupon, Jennings arrang-
ed with Bacon to capture this colored
man and deliver him upon condition that
Bacon should pay to Jennings half the
the amount the colored man would bring
on sale as a slave. Bacon thereupon
gave Jennings a power Of attorney to
seize his slave John; and Jennings pro-
cures a Kentuckian, named Mitchell, as
as an assistant, and both proceed to Col
umbus, Ohio. Here they procure a war
rant, which was put into the hands of {
| Deputy Z. S. Marshal, one J. K. Lowe
and armed with these papers, the party
90 into the neighborhood Of Oberlin, {
place where anti-slavery sentiments are
in the ascendant. They dare not 60 in
to Oberlin, and therefore hire boy, fol
$50, to decoy the colored man out Of tht
village, on pretence Of employing him t.
, dig potatoes for the boys father. Th
ruse succeeded, and the man was seize,
and carried to Wellington. In the mean
, time, the people ofOberlin had been ex
r cited by rumor that kidnappers wer
about, and had attempted to carry off
= colored family a few nights previously
+ and when news came that the man claim
0 ed as John had been captured, a crow
at once proceeded to Wellington, an
surrounded theinn where Jennings, Mitch
5 ell, Lowe and the negro were waiting fc
p the cars. The Oberlinians were in stron
n force-perhaps hundred or two, thong
Jennings swore that there WIRE MOI
than thousand men, half or more
/ them armed with guns, pistols, rifles an
d knives However this may be, IL
l. Oberlinians demanded the colored ma
N and the man-hunters dare not refuse
'e they suffered the man to 60, and hay
lie not seen him since.
"a Now for the prosecution by the U.
II Government. Thi!ty-nine citizens
IN Oberlin and vicinity were first identifC
H. as rescuers in this case but two of Il
persons implicated happened to be De1
10 ocratS, and therefore the Federal Distri
- Attorney entered a aoUe PrOsequj as
, them! So the two Democrats were d
charged, and the thirty-seven men, W
could not plead democracy in abatemel
90 were duly indicted and held for trial, u
4 der the provisions, pains and penalties
do the Fugitive Slave Law. We tell t
wv story as we find it, and warn the read
h. to keep cool at this intimation ofpoltiC
TO- favoritism on the one side, and politi,
n persecution on the other. This is bu
en- single item on that score, and is to
backed by more of the same sort. 7
YEP thirty-seven who were not Democrs
,ld were held for trial, as we have said, a
he they appeared at Cleveland in due ii
ans to undergo the ordeal.
tie Now for the trial and first as to
not jury: every man summoned Oh Tie
ers loas a Democrat!! For the Court:
aus Honor, II. V. Wilson,in 1850 was me
DOT Der of a committee which reported a
for ries of resolutions to a convention,
pay nouncing the Fugitive Slave law but
eep has made his peace with the powers t
nth be, and is now a Democratic Judge
me. For the counsel for the Government: b
were free-soiIers formerly, but both S
out to the democracy. Thus, court
lawyers are new converts to slavocr
~ democracy: this perhaps accounts for
~ extraordinary zeal manifested by then
s,Io this trial: and the jury is democr'
60 too. There never was a case more strc
,da. ly and strangely political. 1t was n
With so by the instruments of governmt
ucts and we scarcely need add that the pa
,nts cal leaders, lawyers and people of CT,
t;on land on the Republican side, have pror
man Iy responded in the same spirit.