New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1862-04-01

of tho penalty. made The slave it was pre-
sumed be was or ought to be. He Is sold for
hi, Jail fees. That this 10 no fiction Of the law,
Gen. Wilson shows by facts. At one time,
when il was thought worth while to make an
investigation, il was shown that within brief
petiod six persons 30 arrested. against whom
there was no evidence of their being slaves,
were sold into bondage, and their price put as
perqnsite into the pockets of the United
States Marshal. No wonder that that Office
has been much sought after by INSCRIPTIONS men,
and that the power il coufers has been de-
Tended 80 tenaciousy as it has this last Winter.
But. hidden as these things have been to the
nation at large, they have been clear enough
TO the inhabitants Of the District. and more
than once they have protested against the acts
perpetrated in their sight. SO rigid has been
the execution of this law Of Slavery thct even
colored men who have gone to Washington
within the past year. with Northern regiments,
have been seized and imprisoned; and others,
contrabands who have been sent there with I'M
portant information to our Generals from OIL
GERS in the field, haze been arrested as slaves.
Against these unfortunate people the legal pen
atty of ear-croppiDg still exists.
Nor has tho treatment of those known to be
free been much more Ienient. They nre for
hidden to meet together for any purpose, un'
der penalty, after 10 O'Clock in the evening,
ard the police are compelled BY the infection
G. 70 hrap
For triaiug irregularities, such as an infringe
ment Of market regulations, making bonfres'
and exploding fre-crachers, they are liable
whether ren or women, TO be whipped upon
the bare back. Nevertheless the increase of
free blacks 10 Washington, under oil these hard
ships. has been large, and their real condition ia
u sufficient answer to the threats OF Senator
Davi, in speaking upon the bill for emanciPa-
.ion in the District. The Shareholders OF the
United States are not more than 300, 900, and
the larger proportion Of them are OF this mo-
ment in rebellion against tho Government.
Yet Mr.. Davis had the insolence to threaten
the representatives of 10000, 600 of free people
with the displensurc of this handful OF Rebel
men-owners, should this great nation presume
TO alter it's own laws and correct an abuse
which should make us q by-word the world
over. The slave population Of the District Is
only 3OO0 tue free negroes number l2,OOO.
Though laboring under the disadvantages and
expressions to which they are subjected, they
arc o thrifty, industrious, and moral people,
living reiutation of the ca!umnies Of their enc
mies who charge them with all manner OF
crime and yagabondism. They have in the ten
miles square twelve churches of their OVID,
which have coat them $4,000, and eight
schools though they are also taxed for the
schools of the whites, TO which their own
children are not admitted. The bill introduced
by Senator Wilson proposes Only to raise to
the condition Of these 1000 free eolored PEG.
pie 1900 persons held as slaves BY the Laws OF
the United States, while of tho same time it
gives ample compensation to those who claim
TO be their owners.