Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-12-23
6aurtester 0ailg spy,
JUSTICE CATR0N ON THE QUESTION OF
ENSLAVING FREE NEGROES.


A bill is pending before the Tennessee Leg
fslature, aimed against free negroes, designing
to either drive them from the state, or enslaye
them. Justice Catron, of the Supreme Court
OF the United States, has written to the Nash
vile Union and American the following letter.
protesting against the passage of this infamous
bill -
TO the Editor Of the Union and american =
DEAR SIR Il have for several weeks past
been anxiousy waiting to hear what the views
OF your leading journal were on the bill pend
ing before our Legislature, proposing to enslave
or drive from the state, the free coIored popu.
lation now amongst us. 1t provides that these
persons shall be seized and sold, if found here
after the first day of May next if they are
adults-and that the children shall be bound
out &C.; the adults are allowed to emigrate to
Africa, In which case some slight aid is to be
furnished by the state, to assist in their trans
portation; or, secondly, they may seek mas
ter and go into slavery.
Now, who are these people? There is not
one III one hundred of them, to say the least,
that ever has been slave. Usually, their
mothers, grandmothers, or great-grandmothers
were slaves who were emancipated by masters
from meritorlous services, or from benevolent
motives, by the courts of justice, and accord
ing to law. They all hare a Uested right to free
dom By the judgments and DEGREES of courts I'm.
der our constitution of 1876, tile free colored
men voted at the polls That the old constitu
ton extended to them and protected their
rights to certain extent, is free from doubt.
But pass by this question.
My objection to the bill is that it proposes to
commit an outrage, to pefpeuote an oppression and
cruelty. This is the plain truth, and it is idle
to mince words to soften the fact. Let us look
the proposition boldly in the face This de-
pressed and helpless portion of our population
Is designed to be driven out, or to be enslaved
Tor life, 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
unmixed negro blood. Some are half white,
many have halt-white mothers and white ia
theirs, making cast of 879- 100ths of white
blood; many have third cross in whom the
negro blood is almost extinct Such is the
unfortunate truth. Chs description of people
who were born free, and lived as free persons,
are to be introduced as slaves into our families
or into our negro quarters, there to be under
an overseer, or they are 10 be sold to the negro
trader and sent south, there to be whipped by
quarters-as they will preach rebellion every
where that they may be driven to by this un-
just law, whether it be amongst us here 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 crusade, when
begging money in the north to relieve their
children, left behind in this state, in bondage.
We are told that this Gree Negro Bilr' is a
polite, popular measure. Where is it popu
lar? In WtGt nook or corner of the state are the
principles Of humanity so deplorably deficient. that
majority Of the ,choe inhabitants would commit an
outrage not committed in Christian country of
'ch'ch history gUeS any account In what coun-
try is it, this side of Africa, that the majority
have enslaved the minority, sold tile 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 as
sertion that Knight makes right" 1t is re.
opening 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.
All over the state, those who are RESPONSE
BILE for passing the bill will have to contend
with fearful public opinion, made up of all the
women who have moral characters and rel-
gous feelings backed by the clergy, and as
suredly by very large majority of the men,
bers of all the churches for we must carry
along with us the important fact that numbers
of the people sought to be ensaved or driven
out, belong to, and are members OF our yari-
Gus churches and in full communion. That
these great bodies of Christian men and wo-
men will quietly stand by and see their humble
co-workers sold on the block to the negro ira
der, is not to be expected; nor will any set of
men be supported morally or politically, who
are the authors of such law.
Nor is this half the truth. Take all the
free states, and how will the matter stand
There, those staunch and upright men who
are struggling to uphold the constitution and
laws, and to protect the rights of the south in
the enjoyment of their slave property, will be
met by our law; will be tainted before
the million; will have it put to them squarely
whether they sanction this cruel measure as a
part of the southern creed to wit: that all
negroes, and those of negro origin, can be
rightfully sold into slavery or driven from
their children and the place of their BIRTH at
the unrestrained will of the southern white
man? What northern man that has manhood
in him, will not exclaim, 81 abhor such law p
1t cannot be otherwise than odious to the
north.
If such measure of persecution was the
work of some new weak state, and this thing
done in corner, it would not be so bad but
Tennessee is a proud, successful community,
and has for thirty years exercised a control
ling influence in the affairs of the nation she
has made two Presidents ; has long stood in
the front rank of the great party that has gov
erned the country SO successfully for nearly
sixty years, and therefore HER legislation may
well be cited before northern crowds, as decar-
ing the sentiments of the SOUTH | put it to
any fair-minded man to say whether this law,
if it is passed, will not go far to crush out our
in tha nd uly
mark the black sectional line between the free
and the slave states
Most respectfully, your obedient servant,
j. CATRoN.
A PRESBYTERIAN LADY EMBRACING JUDA.