Randolph County journal. [volume] (Winchester, Randolph County, Ind.) 1855-1862, 1859-05-05

/ NAA'ii oiuo.
Hear the word of the Lord, We rulers
of Sodom; give ear unto the law of
our God, We people of Gomorrah!
This tremendous apostrophe to the
Jewish people and their rulers was
never justified by half the facts OF
crime. to the letter. that would authen-
ticate the same application to us. A
more glaring and public emblazon-
ment of our guilt and shame as a
nation of adulterers could hardly be
conceived than is thrown up to view
in the procedures of the trial of adul-
terry and murder now going on at
Washington. In that trial it has
been announced that slaves have no
marital rights. and there being no
marital rights recognized as between
slaves, there could be no adultery.
The case of white man, whose mari
tai rights are recognized by law and
by society, and those of a black man
who has no marital rights, are very
different. 1t must be so, the Judge
averred, because slaves can not con
tract marriage. The consequence fol-
lows, among others, that no white
man can be punished for the crime Of
adultery with the wife of black man.
but on the contrary, if the black should
catch the white man in the very crime.
and smite him down. although if the
injured husband had been himself
white man, and had murdered the
adulterer, it would have been merely
manslaughtcr in the eye of the law,
vet being black man it BONES muir
der. The crime of adultery was no
crime, committed by the white man
on the black, because slaves have no
marital rights, and therefore such
crime as that of adultery is impossible.
And the injured husband, being
black man, and having no right to
his own wife. exclusive, had no right
to be thrown into passion, or state
of Indignation or excitement, by such
an injury as that of the violation Of
his wife by his white owner. And
this shame in the open eye Of day
This page of diabolic law pleaded in
Washington! This jurisprudence,
recking with such abomination, foul
with such impicty and liccntiousness.
appealed to. and commented upon, in
solemn trial for the protection OF
common morality.
Slaves no marital rights! No right
as husband and wife, no possible con-
tract of matrimony, no right to each
others persons or affections, conse
quently no such crime as that of adul-
terry possible to be committed. No
rights of parents or children. no fam
lily ties or rights, no possibility of the
family institution as appointed Of God
for mankind, and consequently no sin
in the violation and breaking up Of
that institution, in the sundering and
selling of its members, or in turning
it into a factory for the breeding of
stock!
1t must be so, if, as the Judge AYERS,
adultery is not possible, because the
slaves can not contract marriage.
And the Judge merely laid down the
law. Let US see how the case stands
in Stroud's Slave Laws, page 99:-
"A slave can not even contract matri-
mony; the association which takes
place among slaves, and is called mar
riage, being properly designated by
the word contuJernium, a relation
which has no sanctity, and to which
no civil rights are attached. a slave
has never maintained an action against
the violator of his bed a slave is
not admonishcd for incontinence, or
punished for fornication or adultery;
never prosecuted for bigamy, or petty
treason, nor for killing a husband
being a slave" And page 90, "a
slave can not be a party before judi
cial tribunal in any species Of action
against his master, no matter how
atrocious may have been the injury
which he has received from him."
We will not now prosecute the
quotations or demonstrations of these
infamous laws and principles. Our
national Jurisprudence. adopting the
atrocious slave-codes, is source OF
perpetual moral debauchery and cor
ruption. And suppose a stranger,
who never had heard of such enormi-
ties, present at the trial in Washing
ton for a mans killing another for the
crime of adultery with his wife, tc
have pausel in astonishment at that
legal and judicial announcement that
slaves can not contract marriage. and
have no marital rights. and, therefore
: adultery or incontinence is no more sir
among them. nor white men ever tC
be punished for its commission upor
them Suppose such stranger &c