Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1861-03-09

as mncu Iorce as u does to-day, when James
buchanan was elected President.
know, Mr.. Speaker, that certain kind
OF property held in the southern States is
liable to appropriate to itself the limbs
which God Almighty gave it, aud some.
times to run away. 1t has been the case
ever since slavery was introduced into the
country it ever will be the case so long as
the love of liberty has a lodgment in the
human breast. Slaves run uway--or, to
nse the more constitutional phraseology
which we find in modern southern lexicons,
they "secede," they "resume their sovereign.
ty;" and all Of them that | have ever seen
are opposed to coercion" Well, it some
times happens that this kind Of property,
in order to get away, appropriates horse,
or some other item Of property, belonging
to the master, with view to enable it more
readily to "reSume its sovereignty; and
among slaves this idea is not very strange,
but is to be accounted for by the fact of
of their southern education. All OF them
seem willing to account for this property on
q far settlement with their masters just
as the southern States say they are ready
to account for what they have seized and
stolen on fair settlement with the United
States.
trust, Mr.. Speaker, that these personal
| liberty bills are no cause for dissolution
Of the Union. They are not relied upon as
such. They are mere make-weights to
operate on the southern mind, to prejudice
the South against the people Of the free
States.
1t is suid, Mr. Speaker, that the anti
slavery sentiment of the country is such
| that southern institutions, meaning, of
course, the right to hold slaves, are insecure
| The anti slavery sentiment of the free States
is not stronger now than it was in 1856,
when james Buchanan was elected PreSi-
dent. Well, it is said that the election Of
! Lincoln and IIamlin is cause for dSso.
luton of the Union. The people OF the
free States, aud few of the people Of the
slave States, saw fit, under the platform
adopted at Chicago, to vote for the election
Of Lincoln and Hamlin, as they had right
to do under the Constitution Of the United
States. 1t is not alleged that any law has
been violated in that respect. The fact OF
the election of Lincoln and Humlin to the
highest offices in the gift of the American
people, by the freemen of the North, can
not be regarded as just cause for DIS
solution of the Union. If it were, then if
Breckenridge and Lane had been elected
on their platform, which was as obnoxious
to the North as the Chicago platform was
to the South, tLen the North would have
been justified in seeding from this Union.
Every one must see the absurdity of that.
Mr.. Speaker, there are complaints on
both sides and | am sorry to be obliged,
as matter of defense, TO assert that, in my
Judgment, the North has to-day more cause
to complain of the slave States than the
slave States have to complain of the free
States.
We all know that our citizens, who are
secured, or ought to be secured, under the
broad provisions of the Constitution OF the
United States, against unreasonable search
es and seizures when travelling in the south
ern States have been mobbed, robbed, tar
ed and fearhered whipped and burned, and
have had all sorts of indignitieS heaped up
on them. | do not bring this charge against
southern States as States. Not at all. l
bring it only against citizens of those States.
The governments are not responsible for 1t.
But it is no cause for dissolution OF the
Uuion. 1t can be corrected in the Union.
But | do not believe that the citizens of
southern States have been so badly treated
in the free States as the citizens of free
States have been in southern States.
The fugitive slave law was passed in 1880,
it was obnoxious to the people OF the free
states it was opposed to all their anglo
Saxon notions of jurisprudence and some
free states thought it necessary, to guard
their free citizens against the summary pro-
cess of that law, to pass personal liberty
bills. The fugitive slave law is justly OBJ
noxious to the sentiment of the people OF
the free states but that is no cause for a
dissolution of the Union. A large, or at
least, respectable minority of the people
of the free states, do not believe there is
any constitutional authority to pass such
law. while they acknowledge the right OF
the STAKEHOLDER to recover his property un-
der the provision of the Constitution OF the
United States. But they believe that the
dutv devoIves on State Legislatures, to
provide a remedy by which the right o.
The STAKEHOLDER could be asserted in accord
auce with the forms of law in the free
states. But so long as the Supreme Cour
of the United States continue to declare
that law constitutional, so long, | have M
doubt, it will be enforced faithfully in th'
north, however hard and oppressive tn
people of the free states may regard it
The people of the free states are law
abiding people.
"For there, before almighty law,
High BIRTH high place, with pious awe,
In reverend homage bend
There mans free spirit unconstrained,
FXuts in mans best right maintained.
Rights which by ancient Yalor gained,
From age to age descend"
have here statement OF some OF thu
outrages recently perpetrated 10 southern
states against northern citizens and az
not introduce it for the purpose OF stirring
up bad blood or any bad feeling. adml
that excuses are committed on both side
of the line. With the permission OF tn
House, will read an extract from the Mer
Ger county (Peunsylvania) Dispatch
eve have been ma de acquainted with the facts Of reee1
oatrages committed at the South on citizens OF he Nol
despotlsm Of slavery the wrongs psrpetted at i bad
ing In NOysmbsT last Michael Donohue and Jamta 6rit
OF Fairyisw township went 70 Pttsburg intending 70 Wo
their way down tho river coal boat ana Mork curing 20
ntar Al the southern states THESE boas nav
Jog ali gone they passage steamboat and IN sho
time reached Memphis Tenneshee and 10 company WIN 90
or two others started back Into the country 70 seek employ
neut They had gone but short distance, snen Sy Ss