The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1860-04-26
Communicated I

a
public teacher; end as such, his language is
a proper subject of public scrutiny. When
he throws defiant challenge for any man
to dsprove certain ofhis positions, itappears
to me quite proper for any man to accept
that challenge.
Promising thus much, viii state that in
recent speech delivered at BlakeShurg bv
Mr. Street of Ottumwa, after depicting the
beauties of Slavery, he challenged anv man
70 prove that masters eoer offered price for
the head ofa slave.
7 propose to show that the slave owner can
kill as many of his slaves, as he pleases; and
also that rewards may be offered, and are
offered for the heods of slaves
These facts at the outset, naturally present
themselves to our minds:
1St Shareholders do in bursts Of paSsion
and also in a premeditated manner. Eli each
other 2nd. We cannot violate common
sense hv supposing that Stakeholder is less
passionate in temper, or less violent in act.
when a refractory Stare is before him-and
Sd. While all the Slave States inhict, or pro.
feSs to innict. capital punishment for murder,
we have no record of any slaveholdcr having
been hung for the murder of his slave just
place these three propositions side by side,
to the effect. that shareholders do kill their
slaves with impunity, whenever they choose.
In most. if not all the Slave States. Stat
utes exist, which define the wilrul killing of
a slave as murder ~ and this is proudly
paraded to the world, as "protective Stat
ute" But If we look into other provisions.
and into the general spirit pervading the
slave Codes, we shall see that for all practi-
cal purposes, the above protective Statute"
might as well be repealed. If, while one
portion of Statute defines crime and an
nexeS penalty, another portion of the same
Statute, contains provisions which practically
annul the former, what is gained to the cause
of Justice Nothing at all!-yet this is
precisely the position of things in slavehold-
ing communities. To illustrate this, it is
necessary to enquire what legally constitutes
a slave? quote from Princes Digest of
the Statutes Of South Carolina Page 446-
"Saves shall be deemed. sold, taken, reputed,
and adiudged in law, to be chattels, personal
in the hands oftheir owners, their executors.
administrators, and assigns, to all intents
and purposes achatsoerer.' The law of
power over life was Intended to be given,
what stronger language could be used to
convey that power? | know Of none.
In "Deveraux'S North Carolina Law Re-
ports Page 263, we find Judge Rnffin de
clares from the Bench, that obedience on
the part of the slave. is obtained on7y bv
nnrontrol'sd authority orer the 5ody,-the
power of the master must be absolute. to
render the submission of the slave perfect {:
the slave, to remain slave must be made
sensible that there is no appeh from his
master" Judge Ruffin then draws picture
of the state of things which would exist
if the power Of the master was not absolute
he says: "No man can anticipate the provo
cations which the slave would constantly be
stimulated to give, nor the consequent wrath
ofhis master, promr ting him to 5loo3y cen
geace-a vengnnce generally practiced acith
imBnnity by reason Of its privacy"
Here we have the whole story told Judge
Ruffin must be held as a competent witness
against slavery, for he was Shareholder
himself; and having been a Judge of the
Supreme Court ofthe State for twenty three
years, presume Mr.. Street will raise no oh
lection t. his character as man. By this
competant witness, we find that masters do
sometimes kill their slaves, and that thev
'generaUn do it with impunitg, by reason of
its prigacv"-and yet we are told that these
happy slaves are shielded by "Protective
Statutes" which Statutes with all their pro-
tective power, have never yet hung a slave
holder for taking "boody vengence."
The reason of all this is plain. Inno slave
State, can slave testify he cannot appear
in any Court either as witness, or as pros
eoutor in any case whatsoever The practi-
cal effect Of this is wholly to nullify the
protective Statutes" and open the door to
a boundess career of murder to those who
pant for such pastime.
1t is useless to offer in detail any of the
countless causes of collision which may, and
do arise between master and slave but we
may safely accept the declaration of Thomas
Jefferson, who, when describing the miider
form of Slavery as practiced in his day, says,
1.-The whole commerce between master and
slave, is a perpetual exercise of the most
boisteroas passions" accept Mr.. jefferson
as a truthful expounder of the elements OF
| slavery. Under what circumstances is
murder more likely to be perpetuated than
when "boisterous passions" are let loose I.
From whatever cause, if the mlSter deter
mine on the death of slave. he has only to
guard the scene of his crime from the ap-
proach of nhite man, and then although II
thousand slaves beheld the white butcher
apply the torch, the knife, the bullet, yet in
the eye of Southern law, it is done in secret,
| there is NO proof Of the fact In the Ian
J guage of Jui re Rufiia, "it is done with i'm.
! paaitB, by reason of its pricncy" Thus We
see that, by the exercise of the smallest share