Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1862-10-22


sed. The names of Parker, Beecher, Chez
yer, Bellows, Thompson and Tying are held in
utter detestation By slaveholdcrs and if cur
ses loud and deep would destroy the lives of
these bold and strong men they, would all
have ceased to exist long ago. Yet when
| Southern ministers come North. they are
treated with all due courtesy and respect.
A Shareholder clergyman few years ago made
the tour of the Free States. boasting that he
owned thirty slaves, and would wade knee
deep in blood to defend his right to them.
He was received, as he said himself, by the
Northern churches, with the utmost, cordial
| ty, and invited on every hand to pulpis with
welcome from the large and powerful denom-
ination to which he belonged. He returned,
| he says, leaving that hot-bed of abolitionism
| (Boston) without being once rebnked.
In some of the Slave St,tes, it is penal
offence to teach slaves the element of COM
mon learning. By the more recent codes of
| Virginia and Kentucky, any one who under
takes to teach reading and writing to slaves,
or even free colored persons in Virginia, may
be fined from $40 to 500. The same is the
code of Georgia. In Alabama the fine is in
creased to $500; in Mississippi to imprison-
nnent in the common jail for one year. Lou
isiana forbids teachings slaves, and prohibits
any one from using language in public, calcu-
lated to produce discomfort among the free
colored population, under penalty of impris-
onment or death, at the discretion OF the
court. We have seen, within the past few
months, by the action of Governor Stanley
what the law is in North Caro- lima. In fine,
both law and custom prohibit the education
of slaves in the most common ruGments OF
the language, as necessity of the institution
of slavery.
| will now touch npon the effects of slavery
| upon law and politics.
In the settlement of America, only thu peo-
| pie came over. Neither royalty nor nobility
| became element of this populat ion. The
people, the third estate of England's insti.u-
tions, brought to this country the institutions
of religion and law. They also brought senii-
ments and ideas hostile to the national Eng
land habits, which, unable to find resting
place in that country, were brought here,
planted, and bore fruit and three of those
ideas, in short time, became incarnate in the
of these ideas is, that, by virtue of his man
hood. each man has inalienable rights not de-
rived from men, nor to be take away by men
but derived only from his Maker This idea
is the natural and first fruits of religion. Sec
one, that in respect of these rights, all men
are created equal; third. that the sole design
of political government is to place every man
in fha of 10 ipat hla
rights.
Those ideas, 1 say, grew here. Nor priest,
nor king, nor nobility of England, or conti-
mental Europe share these IDEAS They were
'mphatically Of the people; and they became
the frame work of that democracy, that gov
eminent of ALL for all, and by all, that the
mass of manki ind believe to be, as they desire
to enjoy it, the true government OF the earth.
In the Constitution of nearly all the free
States of America, these ideas are thus en-
bodied while the Constitutions of the slave
States, these ideas are ignored-but one slave
State, viz, Virginia. in her Constitution, ex-
pressing her belief in the natural l.equality of
man. Now, as this idea is, consistently with
their possession of the institution of slavery,
rejected by the politicians of the Southern
States, and consistently admitted by the poll
ticians of the Northern States, it follows that
a constant and rrepressibe conflict must take
place in the administration of the common
law which they both inherit.
The most prominent and important institu-
tiops inherited from England are trial by jury
This involves the impannelment OF twelve
peers of the accused, and the presumption in
favor of innocence, life and liberty. Second
only to this is the right of every man under
restraint or accusation, in times of peace. to
have legal reason publicly shown for his con-
finement, by a written parchment, styled in
law hdbeas corpus; /; in other words, a written
reason why the body of an accused should be
seized and held subject to law. These insti-
tutions have long been regarded as the great
safeguards of justice, and in the Legislation of
the free States have been undsturbed, and
the benefits of Them are extended to every
person therein, Irrespective of color or nation
aiity; while, in the slave States, the whole,
class OF bondmen, constituting one-third OF
the people of these States, taken as a whole,
are deprived Of them. Contrary to the com
mon law of England, the American slave is in
law regarded merely thing. In some OF
the slave States, trial by jury is allowed him
in capital cases.. But in South Carolina. Vir-
ginia and Louisiana, the slave is not allowed
jury trialin any case. In every slave State,
he may be punished to the extent of ssthirty-
nine lashes, we'll laid on" by the decision of
two or five justices of the peace while in no
case is he tried by men who regard him as
man-nevar hv n iury of his recrs nor even