The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1859-09-15
oTTUMWA, IOWA. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER l5 1859.

to the part took in the forcible rescue,
which followed, have nothing to say, fur
ther than have already said, We will have
him anyhow This r NEVER said. did
say to Mr.. Lowe, what honestly believed to
be the truth, that the crowd were very much
excited, many of them averse to long delay,
and bent upon rescue at all hazards /; and
that he being an old acquaintance and friend
Of mine, was anxious to extricate him from
the dangerous position he occupied, and
therefore advised that he urge Jennings to
give the boy up. Further than this did
not say, either to him or any one else.
The law under whichI am araigned is
an unjust one, one made to crush the colored
man, and one that outrages every feeling of
humanity, as well as every rule of right. l
have nothing to do with its constitutionality:
about that care but little. have often
heard it said by learned and good men, that
it was unconstitutional l remember theex-
citement that prevailed throughout all the
free States when it was passed and / re-
member how often it has been said by indi-
viduals, conventions, legislators, and even
Judges, that it never couldbe never should
be, and never was meant to be enforced. l
had always believed, until the contrary ap-
peared in the actual institution of proceed
ings, that the provisions Of this odious statute
would never be enforced within the bounds
of this State. s.,.. .....-......
But have another reason to offer why
should not be sentenced, and one that think
pertinent to the case. have not had trial
before a jury ofmy peers. The common law
Of England-and you viii excuse me for re-
fering to that, since am but a private citi-
zen-was that every man should be tried
before jury ofmen occupying the same po
sition in the social scale with himself That
the lords should be tried before ajury oflords;
that peers of the realm should be tried before
peers Of the realm; vassals before vassals,
and aliens before aliens, and they must
not come from the district where the crime
was committed, lest the prejudices of either
personal friends or foes should effect the re-
cused. The Constitution ofthe United States
guarantees--not merely to its citizens, but
to all persons a trial before an impartial jury.
have had no such trial.
The colored man is oppressed by certain
universal and deeply fixed prejudices. Those
jurors are well known to have shared largely
in these prejudices, and therefore consider
that they are neither impartial, nor were
they jury of my peers. And the preiudi-
ces WEIGH white people have against colored
men grow out of the facts, that they have as
a people coasentda for two hundred years to
be sgapes Of the whites. We have been
scourged, crushed and cruelty oppressed, and
have submitted to it tamely, meekly, peace
ably I; mean as a people, and with rare
individual exceptions, and to day you see
them, meekly submitting to the penalties of
an Infamous law. Now the Americans have
this feeling, and it is an honorable one, that
they respect those who will rebel at oppres-
sion, but despise those who tamely submit
to outrage and wrong; and while our peo-
pie, as a people, submit, they will, as peo-
pie, be desplscd. Why, they will hardly
meet on terms ofequalty with us in whis-
ky shop, in a car, at table, or even at the
altar of God. So thorough and hearty con-
tempt have they for those who will meekly
lie still under tho heel of the oppressor The
jury came into the box with that feeling, and
SD the Court knows now, and knew them
The gentlemen who prosecuted me, the
Court itself, and even the counsel who de-
Tended me, have that feeling. #
Twas tried by jury who were preudicod;
before Court that was prejudiced; prosccu-
ted by an officer who was prejudiced, and
defended, though ably, by counsel that were
prejudiced. And, therefore, it is, your Hon
or, that | urge by all that is good and great
in manhood, that should not be subjected
to the pains and penalties of this oppressive
law, when I have not been tried, either by a
jury of my peers, or BY ajury that were i'm
partial
One more word, sir, and have done.
went to Wellington, knowing that colored
men have no rights in the United States
which white men are bound to respect that
the Courts had so decided; that Congress
had SO enacted that the people had so de-
creed. asH- as
There is not q spot in this wide country,
not even by the alatrs of God, nor in the
shafts that tell Of the imperishable fame and
glory of the heroes of the Revolution; no,
nor in the Old Philadelphia Hall, where any
colored man may dare to ask mercy of a
white man. Let me stand in that Hall and
tell United States Marshal that my father
was Revolutionary soldier that he served
under Lafayette, and fought throughout the
whole war, and that he fought for my free
dom as much as for his own; and he would
sneer at me, and clutch me with his bloody
fingers, and say he has right to make me
slave! And when ! appeal to Congress,
they say he has right to make me slave;
when | appeal to the people, they say ne has
a right to make me slave; and when APP
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