Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1860-12-07
BOo-HOos!-WhO Responsible

The ''panic" of to-day is mainly attribute
ble to the misunderstanding of sundry political
who have their abiding place
north of Mason and Dixon's line, but who
really belong at the extreme south thereof.
Not knowing, or forgetting, that they are
despised by the independence and msnl'ness
OF the South, for their base subserviency and
low cringing to the potent voice Of command,
as it echoes from the snap Of the drivers
whip" they ''catch up the song" Of secession
and Northern aggression, and "roll it along
over hilltop and valley, as though it were
truth.
Last Winter, sundry Of the above class
gathered together in our city, and boo-hooed
and slobbered over Helpers Crisis" To
day, they are boo-hooing about "Northsr"
aggression - Personal Liberty Bills and
when they have proceeded thus far adown
tho catalogue, they pause for breath to hatch
up other agsressions. They talk loud, boo
hoo, and wipe their eyes, and, when they
have done, Northern aggressions are summed
up and stated in those Liberty Bills of your
Abolitionists" Now, gentlemen Boo Hoos,
you have boldly stated-a. the street-corner,
in the beer, shop, and in the counting-room-
that Massachusetts,, Connecticut and Iowa
have upon their statute books law which
prevents a slave-owner from enforcing the
provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law in the
rendition of his property. You know this to
be untrue, or else you know nothing about it.
The Revised Statutes of Iowa, chapter l65,
section 1912, contains the sum and substance
of the Massachusetts, Personal Liberty Bill
and reads thus:
''If any person, wilfully and without Lawful
authority, forcibly or secretly confne or im
prison any other person, against his will; Oh
forcioly carry or send such person out of the
State; or forcibly seize and contine, or inveigl'
or kiinap, any other person, acith the intes'
either to cause such person to be secretly
confined or imprisoned in this State, agains
his will, or to cause such person to be sen
out of the State against his will, he shall b.
punished imprisonment in the Penitentiary
not more than five years, or by fine no
exceeding one thousand dollars, or by bott
fine and imprisonment, at the discretion o
the court"
Now, stand up, any of you who dare, ant
say that the above law is aggressive upon tn
South-,hat it nullifes the Fugitive Slav
Law. Has it come to this: that we of tn
North shall not be allowed to protect our owl
citizens in the enjoyment of their liberty, lest
peradventure, South Carolina shall involv
the nation in civil war? Down with the pre-
sumptuous ideal These laws were passed t
cover such cases as the following: Tn
Fugitive Slave Law provides that slav
escaping from Missouri to Iowa shall be give
up, on claim and satisfactory proof that sue
slave owes service or labor to said claimant
Missouri The affidavit of the claimant an
testimony of one or two confederates Is sufi
lent proof, to most of our Commissioner
Suppose, now, that three desperate character
in Missouri, finding their purses empty, an
no immediate prospect of filling them, col
Guide to find a good "nigger" or two in low
which, at the auction block in st. Louis, vi
repl =nish those lean purses. They land
Muscatine, and, going before our friend, Gel
Humphreys, make oath that, in 1916, {
thereabouts, Ben Matthews and Geo. Mamie
were their slaves, ran away, &C., and denan
their rendition. The General, acting upo
the evidence and law, orders their return
Who is there that doubts the binding validit
of that order? Suppose, instead Of goin
before the Commissioner, they hurriedly fore
Matthews and Manly on board steame
asserting their right to their property, withor
hearing that right established by judlci
tribunal. Who says that such were laacfuA
carried away? Such would be clear cas-
of kidnapping, and ought to be severel
punished.
On the Statute Book of no State is there
sentence which prevents the lawful return {
a slave to bondage. There are laws, however
as we have seen, for the s0iIful and unlawfiI
imprisonment and carrying away OF any PEI
son. Such protect the rights of a negro n
more than Of white man. Boo Hoos, if yo
are so seryile, so cowardly, go timid. as t
surrender the rights secured you by the boo
of the Revolution, and place yourselves in tn
hands of the freebooter and kidnapper
whether from the North or South, own up a
once, and take your position at the side o
Southern nulifiers; but, above all, do not b
found adding fuel to the angry fires Of disccrt
and disunion, by misrepresenting and false!.
interpreting your own statutes.
Who is responsible? is a question ever,
Northern Democrat should ponder well.
Personal LIBERTY LAws.-The Provi
dence Journal calls attention to the fact tina