Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-05-25

Hard Case o. VI fatN i
Nerrosphilanthropy now-aldsys in the
North, begins and ends with such Of our
colored brethren as are proper subjects for
underground railway operations The mo-
ment the colored brother is beyond pursuit,
it has nothing further TO do with him. u
there is no one who holds 70 him the relation
of master, II never begins. The thing to be
done is to deprive the owner of his propertyi
outside Of that pain, privation, oppression
and injustice, go for nothing. Philanthropy
has no mission to mitigate or relieve these
minor Affections. A
There was time when things were differ
ent it was before philanthropy became
virtue profitable TO politicians. In old Wing
pro-slavery times-that beRighted era now
only remembered TO be the subject of we'll
bred confusion--to kidnap free negro for
sale into slavery was accounted one of the
most detestable Of crimes and the fact
that a free negro had been kidnapped
was enough not only to arouse intense
feelings of indignation, but to awaken
the people and the State authorities to The
most violent and persistent exertions to vim
dicate the rights of freemen, in the person of
the party wrongfully deprived al, his liberty.
The case of Jerry Phinney, in ls46s in which
Hon. VIM. Johnston of this city was ap-
pointed by Gov. BARLEY to proceed to Ken
lucky, and gain possession of his kidnappers,
and the excitement which attended the same,
have not yet been forgotten, and stand out in
curious contrast with the facts of more re-
cent affair, the leading circumstances of which
are as follows r. ur.t
Some time last fall colored resident of
this city, by name Charles Waggoner, was
either carried or decoyed across the river, by
two white men named Stewart and Weaver,
and when there, placed in the Newport
jail under pretense that he was the slave
of some person in Virginia, which they
had been employed to pursue and re-
cover. As some stir arose about the
matter, Stewart and Weaver made no farther
claim upon the negro, and it was thought
he would be released. Not so, however the
law of the State had acquired a hold upon
his person. Being within slave State, with
no record proof of his title to freedom, he be-
came subject to a technical suspicion of chat
telhood, and, by order of the Mayor of New
port, was committed for six months, and adj
vertised as a fugitive. At the end Of this
period, no claimant having appeared, is he
set at liberty7 By no means. Costs and ex-
penses have accrued, he has been boarded
and lodged in public institution; and to
make these good he is to be put up and sold
to the highest bidder; and an order for this
purpose has passed the County Court--the
sale to take place some time in June; thus
Transforming, by processes said to be strictly
in conformity with the laws Of the locality, a
free inhabitant Of Ohio into slave in Ken
lucky in little over half a year. IS >.
Having been born and raised a free man
and reached adult age as such, the case O
this individual is hard-much harder thar
that of those who were born and raised in I
state of servitude; and yet we hear of ne
feelings of sympathy for his case, nor effprt
set on foot for his release. A sum sufficen
to pay the passage upon the underground
railway from Kentucky to Canada of on'
piece of human property, would, three o
four months ago, have been enough to hav,
secured the poor fellows emancipation; but
so far as we are aware no attempts have beei
made, no sympathy expressed, no purse
drawn out, no appeals from the pulpit o
through the press been uttered in his behalf
The time is approaching when be will be pu
up for sale, and probably be purchased fo
the Southern market-a country where ques
tions of title will meet with little indulgence
and all this in sight of free land of whicl
he is a citizen, and almost within stones
throw of a body Of philanthropic men an
women who, had he been born in slavery
would have exhausted the language in ex
pressions of sorrow at the severity of hi
fate, and undergone some expense to depriv
his owner of the benefit of his services. {,
But the peculiar features of negro philan
thropy are by no means confined to the Mort
nor to Abolitionists. Most of our Souther
brethren are quite as much shocked at IL
African slave trade as any Abolitionist, an
any proposition to remove all restriction
from it, and leave it free as other commerc
would shock the moral sense of the NOR
and religious portion of the Southern peopl
Such a monstrous proposition would find I
countenance among our moral Newpo
neighbors. The purchase of negro in A
rica, and his transportation to this countr
is piracy, and the whole power of the Go
ernment is ready to seize and hang the trade
release the negroes, supply their wants, r
gardless of expense, send them back
Africa, and support them there yea
This is our national negro philanthrop
and the South sustains it, and
proud of it as vindicating our nation
character. But if it is piracy to buy
negro slave in Africa and transport hi
to America, what is it to seize a free negro
America, or to hold him or sell him in sla
cry, after he has been seized2 Really, if o
local practice is in such striking contrastwi
our national philanthropy, had we not bet
abandon our pretensions, and publicly hOlt
negro a lawful prize, wherever found?
pay four or five hundred dollars for releasir
supporting and sending back an African sla'
and TO sell a native free American into sla
cry for Jail fees which accrued from his bel
wrongfully deprived of his liberty is a lit
too glaring a contrast; and to allow it to
carried out win not be creditable either
the character of the State Of Kentucky q