Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1859-09-23
TTr. DcnnIsOn on The Fugitive ACT.

In the haste of writing out on Thursday
night the Photographic report of the
speech Of Mr.. Dennison for the press, un-
fortunately that portion on the Fugitive
Act was so marred aud changed by verbal
and compositorial errors that we insert are
vision. Mr.. Dennison said:
The gentleman wants to know whether !
am in favor Of sustaining the Fugitive
Slave Act. l have repeatedly said, and
still say that while regard it as an odious
and unjust law, while l denounced it in the
Senate from my seat rs Senator Of Ohio,
while then believed and still believe that
it was conceived by Mason of Virginia, as
an insult to the free States of the Union;
still, if l shall be clothed with the execu-
tive power of this State, l shall consider it
my duty to accept the act as constitutional
while il remains unrepealed by Congress,
and not declared unconstitutional by the
proper judiciary. l am happy in being able
thus to repeat here, on the Western Re-
serve, precisely what said in tho extreme
Southern portion of the State. And /
shall be equally happy to have any gentle
man interrogate me in regard to any posi-
ton which l may have taken in the course
of my remarks iu that section, and prom
iso him as frank and unequivocal an answer
to any such question, as it is in my powerto
give.
The gentleman says want the trial by
Jury. As by the repeal of the Act of
/ I q - &c hn
insist it shall be SO amended as to secure
tho alleged fugitive the trial by jury in the
State where he may be seized for say if
cannot recover an escaping horse Of mine
in Kentucky without proving my right Of
property by trial by jury, less certainty
should not be required from the claiming
master of fugitive to prove in the State
where he may arrest his alleged slave. l
insist that the right of freedom is certainly
as valuable as the right Of property in a
horse, and if Kentucky jury could de-
eide mpartally, and according to the evi.
dence as l certainly believe they could, a
question of the ownership Of horse, l be-
lieve that the people of Ohio could decide
as impartially in accordance with the evil
deuce, the question of a mans title to his
freedom.
l say therefore, that when the gentle
man says to me that the people of Ohio
are not loyal to the Constitution and the
laws, say that he bellies the people o
Ohio. say that he ISLANDERS the people o
Ohio. | say that the people of Ohio hay'
ever been loyal TO the Constitution and thu
laws, and they intend to be SO; but they
intend to insist upon their rights, their ful
rights under the Constitution of the Uni
ted States. If the Congress, if the gener
al Government feels it to be its duty topro
tect slavery in Virginia, We demand tha
) that Government shall protect freedom il
Ohio If it be right, if it be just that tn
relation Of master and slave shall be guard
ed in slave State, then | say the relation
to freedom which every man sustains in thi
State should be sustained and vindicateC
to the fullest extent under the Constitution
The Governor elect of Virginia says he will
defend the rights of Virginia. l say, elec
: me Governor of Ohio, and l will defenC
the rights of Ohio.