Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-01-14
"BENIGNITY AND BENIFICENCE.~

Our rsdors have not, perhaps forgotten Mr..
CHARLES O0cncr's eulogy, pronounced ut the late
Union meeting on that Just, benign and enih.
cent institution" slavery. A remarkable exam
PIE OF the kindly and humanising effect Of this
benign and b%onifcent institution has Just been
given, the history Of which we copy in another
part OF this sheet, under the title Of IAN Irish
mans Suferings in South Carolina" Mr.. O'Con-
or will see that the person to whom the adven-
ture happened was one Of his own kindred, and
will not fail, we hope, when he next repeats his
grafton, to I'D luce IL as n convincing example Of
the effect Of slavery in softening The manners
and heightening the cisilization Of those regions
which are blessed with its influences.
An Iiish mechanic named james Power, who
had always been q good democrat and voted with
the pro-slavery party. went to South Carolina,
and was employed as a stone-cutter on tho State
House. a magnificent building, the pride of the
State. now going up in Columbia, where there is n
college and professors, and a population not more
bsrberized, we suppose, than is to be found 10
other towns Of its size at the South. This man
made :he discovery that a white latorer at the
oonta, in consequence Of slavery, which makes
labor disgraceful, is looked upon MS belonging to
a degraded class. lie said SO. For this offence
MIS- apprehension was ordered by 4 Vigilance Com
mittee; he attempted to make his escape, was pur-
sued and seized two miles from town, was impris-
oned Tor three days, without liberty to communi-
cate with any of his friends, was then broush,
before the Mayor, where the remark he had
made was proved, on which he was remanded to
jaii, KEPT there six days longer AMI halfstarved.
at the end of this period two marshals took the
freshman out of his cell, and made two negroes
drag tho poor man through all the muddy puddles
on the way to the State House yard, where n
crowd of several persons were assembled, headed
by a troop of horse. They marched him in a pro-
cession to a place three miles out Of the city, where
amidst brutal cries of vengeance from the crowd,
he received thirty-nine lashes from a cowhide,
drawing blood at every stroke; his laeerated body
was then daubed with tar from the head to the
waist. and next covered with feathers. In this
half naked state he was taken to the railway, and
put M board the negroes car. Here the crowd de-
tanned the train, made a fresh application of tar,
and stuck it over with cotton. The train took him
to Charlestown, but at every stopping place on the
way q mob gathered to ir1ict fresh insults. AT
Charlestown he was KEEP. in Jail for a week, and
visited BY a physician, who conferred him BY in
forming him that his case wa. a mild one, since
there was another man then lying IN the City Hos
pital, who had received f7e hundred lashcs in
stead of thirty-ninc, and was nearly killed by tbs
infection.
Last Saturday the poor Irishma m was taken out
OF Jail. being supposed now able to travel, and
put on b, ard a steamer for New York, where he
arrived on Monday, and is here trying to get well
md loukin no cnr work .. Tho ror,;,I,,, ro Lorol
given, it will be seen, are parts of Powers own
story, but the Charleston Wercmy had already in.
formed the public that this man had been publicly
whipped ard then tarred and feathered. and that
his crime was that he entertained 'anti-slayery
opinions" as q white mechanic at the South natur-
ally would. The principal facts are admitted aud
the minor circumstances are probably true. The
remarkable feature of the case is the revolving
brutality OF the southern population which 1T dis
closes. 1t seems to be one of the effects of the
"bebign and b~enifcent institution" that it nour-
ishes q wol6sh f%erocity in the mass, and makes
men Indifferent to human suffering. Tue MARIA
tive of James Power is made probable by the ex-
amplss which VIC havo of the atrocities committed
sa other persons-such as the tarring and feather.
ing s2d riding on a rail two poor Italian organ
grinders in Alabama, on suspicion of teing abcli-
tionists-the tarring and feathering of q man in
Clayton, in the same state, for the same reason
the tarring and gathering AMI duckiDg of SANDY
Tate, a Scotchman, at Salisbury, in North Carroll
ma; and we might add to these the indignity to
which two gentlemen who had arrived in the steam
er Huntsville from Savannah on the Josh instant
had been subjected; a mob having seiza ID them
shaved their heads on one side, and sent them out
Of South Carolina.
The institution which has these blessed effects
Ia the one which MIR. Buchanan tells US ia estab-
lisbed and legalized by the bred Scott decision in
oil the territories of the United States, until they
become states and are allowed to legislate for
themselves. We are sure That the single case Of
James Power is enough to make every right-mind-
ed man pray that an institution which encourages
such horrible brutslities may never be extended a
single rod beyond tho space it now occupies, and
exert himself to exclude it at any sacrifice from
the territories. Wherever it goes, neither the
personal liberty nor the personal safety of the
whites can co-exist with il; not only the black but
the white population are the slaves of the oligar-
cby.-N. J. Erening Post.
~1 A MINISTER IN PRISON.