The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-06-22
For The Portage County DEMOCRAT.


however. SO Indifferent to the epiRions of my
fellow citizens in Portage county, of whatever
party. You have in the main set the matter
right; bat you have also furnished occasion
for me to make an explanation, and to preach
TO the editor of the Statesman some sound
doctrine. a md were disposed to do as he
has done to me, should select as text,
Psalm 5s:3. The wicked are estranged from
the womb; they go astray as soon as they be
born speaking lies For unless he is one of
the class described in the text, and unless he
has kept in the practice ever since, / can hard
" see how he could have uttered such state-
ments without choking. or could have held his
hand still enough to write them. And 10 re-
spect to his proposition that I should preach
from the history of Ananias and Saphira,
promise to do it, if he will attend my church
in Ravenua at any time. after giving me q
weeks notice, Or at any time after the second
Sabbath in July in any pulpit in the city of
Columbus I will do it for his especial bene-
fit and will pledge myself to avoid all offensive
personalities. One condition of preaching in
Columbus shall he the payment of expenses.
But these things aside, wish to state
the facts in the case Last year while return
ing from the State Conference in Columbus ]
spent a very pleasant week in the family of
Prof Peck at Oberlin. and on that occasion
formed pleasant acquaintance with Messrs.
Fitch and Bushnell. This year l spent half
day, on my way to Detroit, in the Cleveland
Jail, where these men were imprisoned. 1t
was sad affair." and awakened feelings of deep
indignation. Believing that friends in Michi
gan would take deep interest in the subject.
and that 7, as coming from Ohio, should be ex.
pected and desired to say something upon it,
requested one of the men to furnish written
statement of the facts, which he did, and |
made that statement the foundation of my
remarks at Detroit I endeavored also to show
the state of miud in Oherlin, and that they
supposed Jennings and company were kidnsp
pers, and gave from beginning TO end, a state
ment derived from published documents, as
nearly in the language of those documents as
could from memory. OF this the Statesman
thus speaks:
In the proceedings of religious association
in Detroit, Michigan, we find speech made
BY Mr.. Hart, preacher of Ravenna, Por
tage county, Ohio, which is disgraceful to him
as man, and doubly disgraccful as a minis
ter of the Gospel. 1t was upon the subject
of the Oberln rescuers. and professed to be a
plain statement of the facts in the case In.
stead of beng so. it contains gross falsehoods
assertions which this Reverend person must
have known, when he made them, to be with
ont the least foundation. He says. The peo
pie who came for these alleged fugitives con
Quoted themselves in manner to lead to the
impression that they were kilnappers The
inhabitants, therefore, resisted them, and pro
teeted their fellow men, Now. this is grossly
untrue. The rescuers themselves avow, and
this Mr. Hart knows it. that thev resisted the
officers because they hold that the fugitive tatc
ought to be resisted. The inhabitants, there
fore,' resisted That is what they say them
selves; and either Mr.. Hart has told convo
cation of the fathers of one of the Christian
churches deliberate faisehood, or the Ober.
lin rescuers are great liars.
In respect to this | have to say, That ac-
cording to the hest of my knowledge and be-
lief | said not one word about resistance to
the law. / was careful, on the one hand, to
make no statement that would, if admitted
expression of disrespect to the court. As to
the fact of their being supposed to be kidnap'
pers, and the feelings of Oberlin people, and oi
my falsehood in the case, had read the fol-
lowing resolution. passed by the Cleveland
Conference, and introduced to that body by a
committee upon which were Rev. MI. Thorne
of Cleveland and Rev. Henry Cowles of Ober-
lin:
l. That in onr Judgment so far as the testi.
mony has vet transpired it does not convict
these brethren and fellow citizens of know
ingly' violating the Fugitive Slave Law, mas
much as the colored man seized siealthiv.
after the manner of kidnappers, and the papers
shown as authority were supposed to be legally
defective
On manifesto. from the professors and res
ident trustees of Oberlin College to their pat
rons, | read thus:
These being our feelings and views, you can
Judge with what concern our people watched
the movements of Deputy Marshal placed in
this village, with no apparent business but
slave hunting; and of certain characters from
the South, quartered among the most pro-
slavery men in this community, and prowline
around among our colored people at midnight
We do rot believe there was, in this
case, design on the part of the rescners te
violate even the fugitive slave act, because il
was generally believed that the man was kid
mapped and that the paper by which his cap
tors held him, was illegal.
In the speech of Charles Langston, in tht
court, before sentence read thus:
Some days prior to the 18th of September
1858. happening to be in Oherlin on VISIT
found the country round about there, and the
village itself filed with alarming rumors as t.
the fact that slave catchers kindappers, negro
steaers, were lying hidden and skulking about
waiting some opportunity to get their blood.
hands on some helpless creature TO drag hin
back-or for the first time, into helpless ant
lifelong bondage.
These reports becoming current all owe
that neighborhood, old men and women, ant
innocent children became exceedingly alarmet
for their safety. 1t was not uncommon to hea
mothers say that they dare not send their chill
dren to school for fear they would be caugh
no and carried off by the way. Some of thes
people had become free by long and patien
toll by night after working the long, long da,
for cruel masters, and thus at length gettinI
money enongh to buy their liberty Others ha
become free by means of the good will of thei
masters. And there were others who ha
become free-to their everlasting honor
say i;-by the intensest exercise of their ow
God given powers.
The statement made on this head was a
almost verbal repetition of these statements
Can the editor of the Statesman read, or doe