Union County star and Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1859-1864, 1859-05-13
Two Gases C0ntrasted.


The tendency of the government Of thi:
Republic, was never more faithfully illus
trated than in two recent trials-one a
Charleston, the other at Cleveland-one
the trial of gang of desperadoes and cut
throats, who were engaged in reducing .
cargo of innocent men to slavery and
the other, the trial of one of twenty OF
more Christians for assisting one enslaved
man to regain the freedom Of which he
had been robbed. In the first, there is nc
doubt that the charge unwillipgly urged
by the Government against the crew and
officers of the schooner Echo, was fully
sustained. The Captain of the U. S.
Brig Dolphin, by whom the Echo was
captured, was on the stand as witness.
lie testified pointedly as to the arrest of
the prisoners on the high seas to the
fact that they had cargo Of half starved
Africans on board that the marked chart
on the vessel showed their track from the
coast where their slaves were shipped, to
the spot where the capture was made /;
that the blacks we're in irons and in the
hold and that the outfit Of the vessel,
the nature of her cargo, the admissions of
her crew, and the story of the slaves, left
no doubt that the Echo was slave trader,
and that the prisoners were willingly,
knowingly and criminally engaged in the
forbidden traffic. His testimony was sup
ported BY other witnesses of unimpeached
veracity. The identity of the men, and
the facts charged in the indictment, were
clearly proved-so clearly, that the de-
fence offered no rebutting evidence what
ever. The attorneys for the accused knew
what they were doing, and that they
might depend upon the indisposition of
the Government to convict. The case
went to the Jury, and that body, sworn to
act according to the law and the testimony,
hesited only to mako show of delibera-
tion before they returned with the verdict
of Not Guilty! There is not boy in
the streets of Charleston who does not
know that the finding in the case was a
Hc; and that an outrage has been inflicted
upon law and justice.
The other case, is that of the Oberlin
rescuers. The "man john" an escaped
Kentucky chattel, was arrested in Ohio
by slave catcher, who does his dirty bu-
siness on shares. The arrest was on a
warrant issued by an officer who had no
Jurisdiction an the district, and of course,
acas uithom legality; but the Marshal re-
fused to give the prisoner up. An ex-
citement arose among the free men Of the
neighborhood, that so shameless a thing
should be and, without violence or in
timidation, they terrified the cowardly Of
ficials so much that they suffered John to
escape. The rescuers were lately indict-
ed. One of them has just been tried by
a Democratic court, and an exclusively
Democratic jury; though the testimony
was lame and inconclusive, the Govern
ment had made such extraordinary exer-
tions that a speedy conviction was had,
and he is sentenced to fine of thou
sand dollars, or a year in the Penitentia-
ry! Twenty others-not pirates, cut
throats, slave-traders, but men of charac-
ter for integrity and virtue-are in prison
awaiting a similar trial and similar sen.
tence!
And yet, we hear from no Democratic
journal o word of condemnation for the
proceedings in either case. Editors and
orators are sending up jubilant shouts in
consequence of the "vindication of law"
in Ohio, but we have yet to know that
they have uttered murmur at the def
ance of law in South Carolina. The same
power that empanuelled the Jury by which
crew of pirates were turned loose and
invited to repeat their crimes, held tie
key to the jury box in which sat the men
who have punished the lovers of freedom,
in Oberlin, with the EXTREMIST penalty of
the law! That power is the Federal Gov
ernment, welded by James Buchanan.
lie and the party of which be is the head
must be held responsible for verdicts like
these. Let the people know that in this
era Of the Republic, the slave-trade is no
crime but those who laugh and shout in
appreciation of the act, when an escaped
slave is recovered into the clutches Of the
hound by whom he is pursued for price,
shall feel that slavery reaches with long
arm aud sharp talons into the heart of ev-
cry Free State. The trials of which We
speak, will have widely different results.
South Carolina will become more bindly
and criminally devoted to the Sham Democ.
racy which yields to all her demands.
But We shall be mistaken if Ohio and
her freemen do not speak in trumpet
,..n,. ranrot.t;nn nf tbat nsunerarc