Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-09-20

Stale OIL new Ofk was mauc ny law
a bloodhound and gould be set, could
be Missed, upon negro who was
attempting TO attain his birth |
right of freedom. the same as you
would hiss dog upon a wild beast.
That was the Fugitive law of 1850.
II made every man, every Northern
man, a dog it put round his neck |
collar, and they did not have the de-
ccncy to PIT the mans namc ON the
collar, but they put the name of his
master. ! have said II in the State of
Maine several times, and | expect to
say il several times again, although !
heard outraged the religious senti-
memt of the democratic party and
shocked the picty of that organization
by saying it. | did say there, and
now ] say here, that the Fugitive law
of 1850 would have disgraced hell in
her palmiest days. At the same time
in nearly all of the Western States
there was law by virtue of which
hospitality became an indictable Of
Tense. There woe a law by virtue of
which charity became crime, and
man, simply for an act of kindness
exercised, could be indicted, impris-
oned, and fined. 1t was the law Of
Illinois, of my State, that if gave a
drop of cold water, or crust of bread
to poor fugitive from slavery, l
could be indicted, fined and imprison-
ed. Under the infamous slave law,
of 1850, under the infamous Black
laws of the Western States when the
republican party was born, if wo-
man, 99-1OOth white, had escaped from
slavery, carrying her child in her
arms, had gone through wilderness
and tangle and swamp and river, and
finally got within one foot of free
soil, with the light Of the North star
bckconlng her to freedom, it would
have been an indictablc offcnse to
have given her drop of water and a
crust of bread. And under the Fugi-
tive Slave law it would have been the
duty of a Northern citizen claiming
to be freeman, to clutch that woman
and hand her back to the dominion
of the hound, the democrat and the
lash. What more? The institution
of slavery has polluted and corrupted
the church, not only in the South, but
a large proportion of the church i'm
the North, so that ministers stood up
in their pulpits here and in New
England and defended the very laws
that have mentioned. Not only so,
but the Presbyterian Church South
in 1868 met in General Synod and
passed three resolutions, two of which
were: "Resolved, That slavery is a
divine institution; Resolved, That
God raised up the Presbyterian
Church South to protect and perpetu-
ate that institution" All l have to
say is, that if God did il, He never
chose a more infamous instrument to
carry out a more diabOlical object.
What more had slavery done? 1t had
corrupted our courts so that, in near
ly every Stale of the Union, if a dem
ocrat had gone to the hut of poor
negro and shot down his wife and
children before his very eyes, and
strangled the babe in the cradle, his
testimony was valueless, and he was
not allowed to appear before the
Grand jury and prosecute the wretch.
Justice to him was not only blind, but
was deaf, and that was the idea of
Justice in the United States when the
republican party was born.
When that party was born the bay
of the bloodhound was the music of
the nation. The dome of the Capitol
at Washington cast its shadow upon
slave pens in which crouched moth
ers from whose breasts babes had
been torn by wrctches who are now
for honesty and reform. Then if a
poor negro had titled farm and
| watcrcd il with the sweat of honest
labor, and if 4 democrat came along
and seized upon the result of his la
Dor, the courts of the United States
did not know to whom that corn be-
longed. And when that question
came to be tried, the learned jud ges
read all the books and all the plat
forms of the democratic party, and
pushed their spectacles back on their
noble and expansive forehcads, and
came TO the conclusion that the dem
Ocrats owned that corn. At the time
the republican party came into exist
ence, slavery was not satisfied with
being local. but endcavored to use its
infamous leprosy, as il were, for push
ing it into every Territory Of the
United States. Rccollect the condi-
ton OF the country at that time.
Boats went down the Missouri river
loaded with wives torn from their
husbands, with children torn from
the breasts of their mothers, while
the same men who did this are now
shouting for Tildcn and reform. At
that time we were n nation of hypO-
critics. We pretended to be free
government Ii was a lie. We pre-
tended to have II free constitution. Ii
was Il lie. We pretended TO have Just
ice in our courts. 1t was n lie. Above
all our pretenses, and above all our
hypocrisics, rose the crime of slavery
like Chimborazo above the clouds.
The republican party came into ex-
istcncc in 1860, when it elected Abra-
ham Lincoln, the greatest man that
was ever President of the United
States. AS soon as he was elected the
South said "YOu have no right to
elect man opposed to the extension
of human slavery" and James Blu
chanan said they had a right TO 60
out of the Union, and there was an
other little man who said, 81 say so
too" and his name was Samuel j.
Tilden. lie read the constitution of
the United States and several demo-
cratic platforms, and decided that the
government had no right to do any
thing except to defend slavery. Rec
ollcct that James Buchanan was an
old bachelor not only, but n demo-
crat. Rccollcct that and say to your
selves, "Why should we ever trust a |
man and elect him President of the
United States, who prefers the en-
braces of the democratic Marty In thn |