Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1859-12-27

interpcse to suppress servile outbreaks
and to preserve the guarantees Of the Con-
stitution and the Union in regard to Sla-
very, by all the powers of the Federal
Government.
Enslnvement Of Free Negroes - Judge
CatrOn's Letter.
To the Editor Of the Union and american:
DEAR SIR:-I have for several weeks
past been anxiously waiting to hear what
the views of your leading Journal were on
the bill pending before our Legislature,
proposing to enslaye, or drive from the
State, the free colored population now
among US. 1t provides that these persons
shall be seized and sold, if found here af-
ter the first day of May next, if they are
adults-and that the children shall be
found out, &c.; the adults are allowed to
emigrate to Africa, in which case some
slight aid is to be furnished by the State,
10 assist in their transportation; or, sec
ondly, they may seek master and go into
slavery. .aa. ~
Now, who are these people? There is
not one in one hundred OF them. TO say
the least, that ever has been slave. Usu-
ally, their mothers, grandmothers, or
great grandmothers, were slaves, who
were emancipated by masters for merito-
rious services, or from benevolent motives,
by the Courts of Justice, and according to
law. They all have vested right to free
dom by the judgments and DEGREES of
Courts. Under our Constitution of 1896,
the free colored men voted at the po!ls.--
That the old Constitution extended to
them and protected their rights to GER
tain extent, is free from doubt. But l
pass by this question. ..i. .-.l
My objection to the bill is that it pro-
poses to commit an outrage, to perpelrate
an oppression and cruelty. This is the
plain truth, and it is idle to mnce words
to soften the fact. Let us look the propo-
sition boldly in the face. This depressed
and helpless portion of our population is
designed to. be driven out, or to be en-
shaved for lie, and their property forfeited,
as no slave can hold property. The
mothers are to be sold, or driven away
from their children, many of them infants.
The children are to be bound out until
they are twenty-one years of age, and then
to leave the State or be sold; which means
that they are to be made slaves for life, in
fact. Now, of these women and children.
there is hardly one in ten that is of un-
mixed negro blood. Some are half white;
many have half-white mothers, and white
fathers, making cast Of 874-l00ths Of
VIII blood; many have a third cross, in
whom the negro blood is almost extinct.
Such is the unfortunate truth. This de-
sc,ption of people, who were born free,
and lived as free persons, are 10 be in
troduced as slaves into our families,
or into our negro, quarters, there to
be under an overseer, or they are to
be sold to the trader and sent
South, there to be whipped by overseers
--and to preach rebellion in the negro quar-
ters-as they will preocA rebellion every
where that they may be driven TO by this
unjust law, whelher it be among us hare
in Tennessee, or South of us on the cotton
and sugar plantations, or in the Abolition
meetings in the free States, Nor will The
women be the least effective in preaching
a crusade, when begging mouey in the
North to relieve their children, left behind
in this State, in bondage. .... ..-
We are told that this "Free Negro Bill"
is polite, popular measure. Where's it
In what nook or corner of the
State are the principles of humanity SO de-
plorably deficient, that majority of the
white inhabitants would commit an out
rage, moi committed in Christian coun-
Try of which history gives any account.
In what country is it, this side of Africa,
that the majority have enslaved the mi
norily-so!d the weak to the strong, and
applied the proceeds of the sale to educate
the children of the stronger side, as this
bill proposes? 1t is an open assertion that
might makes right" 1t is re-openlng
the African slave trade, in fact, In that
trade, the strong capture the weak, and
sell them, and SO it will be here, if this
policy is carried out. ...rr ,. ...
All over the State, those who are re-
sponsible for passing the bill will have to
contend with fearful public opinion, made
up of all the women who have moral char
acters and religious feelings; backed by the
clergy, and assuredly by very large ma
jorily of the members of all the churches;
for we mus, carry along with us the i'm
portant fact that numbers Of the people
sought to be enslaved, or driven out, be-
long to, and are members Of our various
churches and in full communion. That
these great bodies of christian men and
will quietly stand by and see their
humble co-workers sold on the block to
The negro trader, is not to be expected; nor
will any set of men be supported. morally
or politically, who are the authors of such
aW. .......
Nor is this half the truth. Take all the
Free States, and how will the matter stand 2
There, those staunch and upright men
who are struggling to uphold the consti-
ution and laws. and to protect the rights
If the South in the enjoyment of their slave
property, will be met by our law: will be
aunted before the million: will have it put
o them squarely whether they sanction
his cruel measure as a part of the South
,rn creed, to wit: that all negroes, and
hose of negro origin, can be rightlully
old into slavery, or driven from their
hildrep and the place of their birth, at the
will of the Sothern white man?