Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1861-01-16

"i0hai questions. 1ell me frankly
what was the design, the intent, the ami
mus, with which the Personal Liberty
bills were passed? Were they not des.
lgned to impede the free execution of the
q Fugitive Slave Law.
; REP. l cannot deny that such wa. the
intent, but think they may be excused
as retaliatory laws. South Carolina pas,
sed her law imprisoning free blacks, long
before Personal Liberty bill was passed
at the North and under that she impris-
oned colored citizens of Massachusett,
coming there on ships, and does to this
day, Let her first repeal that act, be-
fore she asks us to repeal our Personal
Liberty bills.
DEM My friend, you and your party
have harped on that string long enough.
The Tribune, the Post and all your press,
have been stultifying themselves about it
till it is time it was stopped. Do you
know that Connecticut does the same
thing, and always did it, And believe
Massachusetts,. Vermont and Rhode Is,
land.-and in fact every New England
State does it every day.
REF. don't understand you. / am a
Connecticut man and know no such law
Ion her statute books.
Dem. Then know h er better than YOU. -.
Tell me, ifa free white citizen of New
York State, poor and sickly, but willing
to labor, goes on the Plymouth Rock to-
night to Stonington, and lands there to
morrow morning with nothing in his
pocket, and with the protection of the
American flag over him and the immun.
Ties from arrest and disturbance which
that Constitution guarantees around him
tell the, if he begins TO look around FOR
work, what are the chances that Stonng-
ton will let him do is? How soon will
the selectmen have him by the shoulder |?
Much good then may it do him to plead
The immwitieS of an American Citizen
His adversary will haul him up before the
judge, and the judge will ship him back
to New York that night. Why, sir, ],
with my own eyes, once saw an old black
man, very old-they called him eighty
then-with his old wife, feeble, worn out,
dying old folks, who had lived in Connec.
ticut for sixty years, in charge of a con-
stable from North Stoning on, shipped at
Grot)n Bank for Long lsland-weeping,
begging not to be exiled, but forced in
age and poverty into what was to
them literally a foreign land l knew
the old man well gentlemen with me
had known him in New London county
forty odd years asked old Jim where
he was going; his reply was the depth of
paihos. They we're shipping him and
the old woman to Southold, because he
was torn there "Have you any relations
or friends there, Jim9" my sister was
alive their forty years ago" Well, sir,
they shipped him; and they do that
same sort Of thing every month in the
New England States, whero a man is gull.
ty of the crime of being poor! It's no
! single occurrence. | have seen the thing
done myself dozen times and who evs
er thought of the Constitution of the
United States? Now | undertake
to say that when Connecticut stops
arresting and exiling white and black
citizens for the crime of poverty :
when Illinois stops the absolute exclusion
of " black citizens of Massachusetts," from
her soil; then South Carolina will give
up excluding the same blacks from her
territory. But let us have done with re-
ordinations. The present danger 10 the
country is, that men will waste precious
hours in disputing as TO the cause OF the
difficulty and WHO got us into it. Let us
be patriots and devise way to get out of
it that shall satisfy us all.
REP. Where is the point of danger, in
your opinion!
Dew. In this Southern disunonists are
determined to leav ve the Union. It's use.
less now 10 discuss whether they are JUS
tifiable, or not. They are absolutely de-
termined, and will break up the country
if they can. No concessions will reach
them. They are not bullying" but ac.
ting. They don't want you to compro-
mise; they don't ask any yielding. But
you Republicans have IT in your power TO
strengthen the conservative element at
the South. You may save the Union by
making conservative men enough in Sou.
thern States TO save them. If, as you say,
we Democrats have belied you, show the
South at once in what we have beled
yon.
REF. How?
Dem, Are you III favor of enforcing the
Fugitive Slave Law (!