St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1859-06-16

taiuely ouDMlC W OutIdSS,c unu "IVnS3 "uu
while our people as people submit they
will as people be despised. Why, they
will hardly meet with US on terms Of, e.
quality in .whiskey shop, in a
car, at table, or even at the altar Of God.
ESQ thoro,..ssih ana ihearty a contempt have
they for those who will meekly lie still
under the heel of the oppressor. 9 The ju-
ry came into the box with that feeling
They knew they had that feeling, and so
the Court knows now and knew then
The. gentleman who prosecuted me, the
Court itself; and even the counsel who de-
Tended me, have that feeling. ,;.1s.2 1.4ao
I was tried by a jury " ho were preju-
diced; before Court that was prejudiced;
prosecuted by an officer who was preju.
diced, and defended, though ably, 10y coun
sci that were prejudiced. And therefore
it is, your Honor, that urge by ll,that is
good and great IN manhood, that should
not be subjected to the pains and penalties
Of this oppressive law, when have not
been tried, either by a jury Of my peers; or
by jury that were, impartial. .... .,:. -,.s.. i
One more word, sir, and have done-
I went to Wellington, knowing that color
ed men have no rights in the United
States which white men are bound to re-
spect; that the Courts had so decided; that
Congress had SO enacted; that the people
had so decrecd
There is no spot in this wide country,
not even by the affairs of God, nor in the
shadow of the shafts that tell the imper-
ishable fame and glory of che heroes Of the
Revolution, no, nor in the old Philadelphia
Hall, where any colored man may dare to
ask mercy of white man. Let me stand
in that Hall and tell a United States Mar
shall that my father was a Revolutionary
soldier; that he served under Lafayette;
and fought through the whole war, and
that he fought for any freedom as much as
for his own, and he would sneer at me, and
clutch INC in his bloody fingers, and say
he has right to make me a slave!. And
when I appeal to Congress, they say he has
a right to make me@a>slave; when I appeal
to the people, they say he has right to
make me slave, and when I appeal to
your Honor, your .H.nor says he Las a
right to make me slave, and if any man,
white or black, seeks an investigation Of
that claim, they make themselves amena-
bic to the pains and penalties Of the -Fuyi-
tive Slave Act, for BLACK MEN HAVE NO:
RIGHTS WHICH WHITES ARE BOUND TO,
RESPECT: (Great Applause I, going to
Wellington with the tull knowledge Of al
this, knew that it that man was taken to
Columbus he was hopelessy gone, no mat
ter whether he had ever been in slavery
before or not. I knew that { Was in the
same situation myself, and that by the de-
cision of your Honor if any man whatever
were to claim me as his slave and seize me
and my brother, being lawyer, should
seek to get out writ. of Aapeos corpus to
expose the falsity Of the claim, be would
be thrust into prison under one provision
Of the Fugitive Slave Law, for interfering
with the man claiming to be in pursuit Of
3 fugitive, and i, by the perjury Of soli-
tary wretch, would by another Of its pro-.
visions be help!es<lJ doomedto lifelong bon
dase, without the possibility of escape: -
Some may say that there is no danger Of
free persons being seized and carried off as
slaves. No one need labor under such: a
delusion.: Sir, four OF the eight persons
who We're first carried back under; the act
Of 1850, were afterwards proved to be. free
men: They were free persons, but wholly
at the mercy of the oath of one man. And
but last Sabbath afternoon letter came to-
me from a gentleman in St. Louis, inform
ing nc that Il young lady under my in
'structions at Columbus, free person, is
now lying in the Jail at that place, claimed
assthe slave ofsomc wretch who never saw
her before, and, waiting for testimony from
relatives at Columbus to establish her free
dom. I could stand here by the hour and
relate such instances In the very nature
Of the case they must be constantly occurr.
ing. A letter was. not long since found
upon the person of a counterfeiter when ar
rested addressed to him by some Southern
gentleman, in which the 'w,iteelr says
Go<anong the niggers;i Ind out their
marks and scars; make good descriptions,
and send TO me and I'll find masters for
EN-"
That is the way men are carried ."back'
to slavery. ;&;'s 9 .s''s's "ts'ss: ! - '5,.[
But in 1viie5w viie5w Of all these facts, say, chat
if ever again a man is seized near me, and
is about to be carried southwark, as slave,
before any legal investigation has been had
/ shall hold it my duty as held it that
day, to secure tor him if possible a legal
inquiry into the character Of the claim by
which lhe is heidi i2And lagofurther; lsay
thatif it is adjndgsed illegal ITO procure