The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-10-24
REPUBLICAN, RESISTANCE TO THE FU
,GITIVE SLAVE LAW. aie ~

When the Republican majority in the Ohio
Legislature in Sc adopted Joint Resolution,
setting forth in the preamble that, in the
judgement of that General Assembly, the fu-
gitive slave act of of so was "inconsistent
with and unwarranted by the Constitution of
the United States" and was erepugnant to
the plainest dictates of humanity and justice"
and requesting our Representatives in Congress
and instructing our Senators 'tto use their best
exertions to procure the repeal of said act at
their earliest possible convenience" it was
stoutly denied by conservative Republicans
that this was true expression of the senti-
ments of tie pnrty inz0 Ohio. orr Z asi7
lm The same denial was made when, at the ad-
journed session of the same General Assembly
in 81, series of acts were passed, the special
design and object of which was to obstruct
and prevent the execution of the fugitive slave
act within the Limits of Ohio, and to bring,
as it did, the Federal into. collision with tie
State authorities.
The same denial was persisted in when,
in $50, Judge Brinkerhof and Sutlif, in the
Wellington Rescue case, held, in opposition
to the opinion of Judge Swan and the majority
of the Supreme Court, that the fugitive slave
act was Unconstitutional and avoid; and when,
in a few weeks afterwards, the Republican
State Convention repudiated Judge Swan as a
candidate for reelection, because of his de-
cision in favor of the ccnstitutionality of the
act in question, and nominated Judge Gholson
in his stead, at the same time demanding by
resolution the repeal of the act "as subversive
of the rights of the States and the liberties OF
the people, and as contrary to the plainest die
tates of humanity aud Justice, and as abhor-
rent to the moral sense Of the civilized world" !"
When, in june last, the Republican State
Convention re adopted the foregoing resolution
and re-nominated Judge Brinkerhotf as the
candidate of the party for reelection to the Su-
preme Bench, Republican conservatives still
insisted, in spite of all these facts staring them
| in the face, that their party in Ohio was not
as a whole committed to the Giddings and
Chase irrepressible opposition to the fugitive
slave law. tal sa-.s - k -
y A State election has just been held, in
which the issue was directly made upon Judge
Brinkerhoff, that he had decided the Fuglsive
slave Act unconstitutional, and yet that opin-
ion of the Judge has been endorsed by the
the Republicans of Ohio, by re-electing him te
Supreme Bench There can be no doubt thai
nearly every Republican vote in the State was
given ON the 9th inst, for Brinkerhoh IL
cannot, therefore, any longer be denied, pJ
Eanv reasonable man, that the Republican party
| in Ohio. with every man who adheres to 1t, Is a
fnllv committed as Joshua r. Giddings or Sal
! mon p Chase to a strenuous opposltien 70 TN
Fugitive Slave Act, and must be held respon
| sible for every act of violence in this Stat.
that has occurred within the last four years
or anJ that may hereafter occur, of forclble re
sistance to the execution, by the Federal au
thorities, of that act
Can conservative men, who hold with Cor
win and Ewing, that the Fugitive Act is con
stitutional, and that its unobstructed execution
in all the free States is one of the constitu
tional rights of the South, any longer act wit
the Republican party? This is questi0,
which honest and candid men can answer onl
in the negative, and at the ballot box, on tn
/ 9Th dav Of November next Statesman.