The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1860-08-10
A Letter from Hon. John w. Nortl

DEAR SIR The recent escape OF q re.
puted slave from his mistress in st. Paul,
and its attendant circumstances have been
the cause of much discussion and OF sever
al newspaper articles, in which yourself and
other editors have expressed your views ac>
cording to the prevailing sentiments OF your
respective parties and associations. Differ
ing from you, as l do, politically, l would
not allude to this subject in its partisan as.
poets. Its polical bearings are Insignificant
in comparison with the right and wrong in
volved in it. trust, therefore, you will not
misapprehend my motives in addressing you
personally, when assure you it is not for the
purpose ofapplying harsh epithets to one who
differs from me in opinion. 1t is simply to
call attention to the subject, and to present
to yourself and other citizens of our State,
some of my views of the duties we owe to
ourselves, as we'll as to those who come
from the South to reside temporarily among
us.
1t is said by Emerson that when persons
who differ in opinion converse together, they
should first discuss their points of agree.
ment. Let US see then, how far we can
agree. believe we shall both concur in
the following propositions
l. The people Of the South are our equals
in their rights as citizens, and as members
of society nothing more, and nothing less
2. The abuse which Northern citizens
who entertain Northern sentiments, receive
in all the slaveholding States, does not at
all change our obligation to treat with kind
ness and courtesy Southern citizens who
come with Southern sentiments to reside
among us. Neither does itlay us under any
obligation to become obsequious to them.
3. When Northern citizens spend their
winters at the South, for their health or
pleasure, Southern society is laid under no
special obligation to them neither is North
ern society laid under obligation when
Southern citizens spend their summers at
the North.
4. Freedom is, at least, as good as Slavery,
and, 10 the free State of Minnesota, should
be guarded as vigilantly.
5. The rights of those whom the law
makes free, are as sacred in Minnesota as
the illegal claims of shareholders.
6. If northern citizens endure quietly the
exhibition in their midst of a system that
is repugnant to all their ideas of right and
decency, it is all that should be required of
them. They should not be asked to share
in its guilt, or to aid in the illegal capture
and enslavement of human being.
Z. The rights of weak and oppressed
class should be watched and protected as
diligently as the rights of the opulent and
powerful.
8. There is nothing manly or honorable
in taking advantage of the ig norant, or in
trampling on the weak.
In the light of these axioms, let us look
at the case in hand.
By the laws of our State and nation, as
we'll as by the ruling of our highest courts
since the commencement of the government,
slave brought by his master or mistress,
or coming with his masters or mistress
consent into free State, by that simple
act, becomes free. This understand to be
the condition of the young man in question.
In the eye of the law, that man, when
brought, by his mistress, within the limits
of our State, became as free as his
mistress, and entitled to the same pro-
lection from our laws. Did the fact that
he was poor colored man make him less
deserving of our sympathy and protection !?
By what rule of ethics, by what code of
morals, shall this man be required to lay
down the priceless boon of his freedom at
the feet of mistress who, by her own act,
has relinquished all legal claim to it; and
who never did have any moral claim to re-
linquish.
The man, being free, had the good sense
to avail himself of his freedom, and quietly
walked off. An effort is made to re- enslave
him; but it is now the kidnapping and en-
Shaving of free man. 1t is degrading the
soil of Minnesota to level with the jungles
of Africa, where human beings are hunted
and captured, to be sold in the market
When this thing is done on the coast of.
Africa, it is declared, by the voice of all
Christendom, to be piracy. Is it less than
piracy because it is done in Minnesota
And are those, who commit the crime here,
any less piratical than if it were done on
the coast of Africa?
You claim to be a law-abiding citizen.
So high indeed is your professed reverence
for law, that you would have it enforced with
exactness and rigor, even when it deprives
fellow creature of a II he holds dear on
earth. Yes, even when it takes from persons
as white as you or l, their earnings--their
liberty--their husbands, wives and children.
Will you not hold law as equally sacred and
binding, when it restores all these? Will
you not labor as hard to protect the legal
rights of men, as for their illegal enslave-
ment? Is not liberty worth as much as
slavery? and is it not as deserving bold
advocacy in the free state of Minnesota p?
But you suspect that some one enticed
this man to leave his mistress, and to claim
the freedom to which the law entities him.
Whether this be true or false l have no
means OF knowing; but, if true, what does
it prove? Simply this: that there are
some persons in st. Paul, either black or
white, who have so much humanity that
they are unwilling to see fellow-being de-
prived of all his rights. because be happens
to be ignorant of them. If untrue, it SIM
ply proves that there are no such humane
persons in st. Paul, or that the facts did
not come to their knowledge. But neither
the one nor the other affects at all the ques.
tion of this mans rights. The question for
us to consider is whether constitutional lib
erty, and the rights of man, as man, shall
be maintained in Minnesota, or whether, in
our extreme solicitude for the rights of
shareholders, we shall forget that free men