Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1862-05-07
WHOLE NO. 2379.
Speech of Hon. John Hutchins

On the bill for the release of eerin persons held TO
service or labor in the District Of Columbia
Mr. Hutchins said:
Mr.. Chairman-The measure under con-
sideration has an importance beyond the
one thousand or fifteen hundred persons
whom it proposes to ransom from slavery.
If this bill become a law, il will be an Of
ticial and national recognition that slavery
IS moral and political evil, which ought
to be abolished everywhere as soon as prac-
tlcable. For sixty-oneyears we have been
a slayebolding nation. at least in FORM
On the 9th day Of February, 1901, Con-
gress enacted that the laws of the State
of Maryland then in foree should be and
continue in force in that part of the Dis
trict of Columbia which was eeded by that
State to the United States, and by them
accepted for a permanent seat of Govern
ment. Among the laws then in force in
Mary land were the following: t
All negroes and other slaves, already
imported or hearafter imported into this
province, and all children now born or
hereafter to be born OF such negroes and
slaves, shall be slaves during their natu-
raj lives. ."-Lacs of Marylaad, I7l5, chap.
a, sec. %.
w ncSfO, Oy IcCclflllS tic StACE11AiCuf
of baptism, is hereby manunsitted or set
free, nor hath any right or title to free
dom or manumission more than he or she
had before. ."-Lsucs Of Maryland, 1Il5,
chap. A; see. %.
'.If any negro or other slave shallstrike
any white person, it shall be lawful, up
on proof being made thereof, either by
oath of the party so struck or otherwise,
before any justice Of the peace, for such
Justice to cause one of thenegro or slaves
ears so offending to be cropped. %s--La,es
Of Maryland, l723, chap. -, sec. f.
1t appears that certain good people in
Maryland failed to have their slaves re-
ceive the rite of baptism, upon the hy-
pothesis that thereby they would be en-
titled to their freedom; hence the pream-
bic to the law on that subject which l
have quoted reads rs follows;
"And forasmuch as many people have
neglected to baptize their negroes, or suf-
fer them to be baptized, on a rein appre-
hension that negroes, by receiving the sa-
crament of baptism, are thereby manu-
mitted and set free, be it hereby enaet-
ed, &c.
It was thus early settled, so far as hu-
man law can settleit, in Maryland, that
one Christian may hold another Christian
in slavery. There were many other laws
in force in Maryland on the 9th day of
February, 1901, concerning slaves and
their treatment, which Congress, by its
act of that date, extended over the Dis
triet. For the purpose of the present dis
cussiOn it is not necessary to quote them.
These laws have been denominated the
Il, - -
ination of them will show them to be
black, brutal, barbarous and bloody. l
presume, nevertheless, they are necessary
for the maintenance of slavery. I take
issue with the distinguished gentleman
from Kentucky, Mr.. Crittenden,l who
has just addressed the committee. He
says slavery Is legally here in the District,
and has been for two hundred years, and
that the STAKEHOLDER has the same legal
right to hold his. slaves in this District
that he has any property. mother words,
that the tenure by which persons are held
as property is as sacred as the tenure by
which any item of personal or real estate
is held in this District. I deny this and,
on the contrary, maintain that there has
been no legal slavery here since the Gen.
eral Government accepted from Maryland
that partof the District of Columbia which
now constitutes the national capitSl; that
since that time slavery has been in this
District usurpation without justice or
law to sustain It. -
This position Is not new. It has been
ably argued in Congress and out of it, and
the argument has never been answered; !;
and it never viii be successfully answer
ed. shall only state il now without de-
tail The only law in Maryland in force
when the United States Government &C
cepted the cession Of this District which
undertook to legalize slavery, is the one l
first quoted above, and reference to it will
show that slavery is limited to the natural
lives of the following persons: first, all ne
groes and other slaves already lin l7I5)
imported; second, all negroes and all 9TH
er slaves thereafter to be imported; and
third, all children now (17l5l born, or
slaUes. If it is admitted that Congress
could eonstitutionally adopt or enact this
Maryl land law for the District of Columbia,
after that State had ceded it to the Unit
ed States, to make valid the masters
claim to slave under this law, it must
be shown that the slave was imported pri-
or or subsequent to the date Of the Mary
land statute, (I7l5, OF that he or she is
a child of s,ck Stare. ! presume there are
now TO such description of persons in this
District. Congress has not ATTEMPTED to
legalize slavery by the enactment Of any
other law for the District. 1t is an ac-
knowledged rule ofconstruction, as old as
civilized jurisprudence, that penal stat
utes, or statutes restraining natural rights,
should be strictly construed. By thisrule
slavery cannot be extended to the grand
children of the persons mentioned IN the
statute. The attainder is, by the express
terms of the statute, exhausted on the
children of the persons therein described.
The public sentiment of Maryland in Ills
was not for perpetual slavery. As late, in
Maryland as the adoption of the United
States Constitution, the leading men of
Maryland supposed that the institution
"would be evanescent and pass away. -
Luther Martin. Attorney General of Mary
land, and delegate from that State in
the convention which framed the Consti-
tuition, because, among other reasons, it
did not put an end to slavery and the
slave trade; and in a speech to the Mary
land Legislature in 1888. giving reasons
why tile OO0StllutlOnS SnOuiQ not De duOpi-
ed, used the following language:
"You will perceive, sir, not only that
the general Government is prohibited
from Interfering in the slave trade before
the year 1908. but there is no provision in
the Constitution that it shall afterwards
be prohibited, nor any security that such
proposition will ever take place; and l
think there is great reason to believe that
if the importation of slaves is permitted
until the year 1908, it will not be prohib-
tied afterward. At this time We do not
generally hold this commerce in so great
an abhorance as we have done. When
our liberties were at stake, we warmly felt
for the common rights of men; the dan
ger being thought to be past which threat
ened ourselves, we are daily growing more
insensible to those rights. In those States
which have restrained or prohibited tho
importation of slaves, it is only done by
legislative acts which may be repealed
When these States find that they must, in
fbatr nofsOnol ol,ouao ofo.. n,,I oos,,,ooftor,