St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-03-23

as they were then esteemed. How ne
was hated and feared by the slave
holding politicians, and how he found
it necessary to flee to England after
John Browns failure at Harper's Ferry,
most of our readers know.
The anti-slavery people early agitat-
ed the proposition that slavery should
be abolished in the District of Columbia.
1t was held to be monstrOus thing
that, in the capitol of republic nomi-
nally free, there should be an auction
block from which human beings should
be bought and sold. Slave pens and
barracoOns stood in sight of the portico
of the capital of the United States.
Signing captives linked in couples, crept
through the streets of Washington, Civ
ing the lie daily to the proud boast that
this was the land of the free. The anti
slavery societies, founded in 1881 and
1882, while they affirmed that Congress
had no right to interfere with slavery
in the states, did declare that the body
should abolish human bondage in the
| District of Columbia, and wherever the
national government had exclusive ju-
risdictiOn. 1t was in vain. The slave
power was supreme in the national
capital. When DR.. Bailey, in l847,
proclaimed in the National Era, bold
attempt at newspaper publishing in the
District of Columbia, that slave-holding
and slave-trading should therein cease,
his Office was besieged by mob, and
his own life put in Jeopardy. In 1850,
among the concessions which were made
in the famous compromise bill of that
year, abolition of the slave trade in the
District of Columbia offset the infamous
fugitive slave law. The national re-
publican convention of 1860 embodied
in its platform the proposition that Con
gress had no right to give legal existence
to slavery i'll any territory of the United
States. Slavery was abolished in the
District of Columbia by act of Congress
April I6, 1862.
For a long series of years the slave
holding Oligarchy of Virginia and Mary
land gave laws and manners to that
part of the national domain which con-
tains the capital of the United States
No part of the South was so furiOusly
secessionist as the old population OF
Washington, Georgetown and Alexan-
dria. No antiquated society in the ex-
IRENE South so long and so resentfully
refused to accept the results of the civil
war as these people. No old fogies any
where so bitterly despised street cars
coOking-stOves and the common appli-
ances of a newer civilization as these
And the fact that their streets were
darkened with crowds of ragged, mis-
cradle and ignorant 'contrabands" while
the war ragged, nauseated them utterly
against emancipation. They closed the
shutters of their houses and in sullen-
ness cursed the day. When the slave
power was at its height, the marshal o
the District of Columbia was a terrible
man. He executed the will of the slave
owner. He punished the uneasy or re-
luctant slave. When the courts wer,
too slow, he never failed to be alert ant
relentless. After many years, into sucl
an office, man who was hunted
fugitive from slavery when it was :
crime to denOunce human bondage
comes to administer the laws of thu
United States. To this simple state
ment it is not necessary to add any
thing. But it is sign of the times tina
a cOlOred man-appOinted to office OF
account of his acknowledged fitness
and not from sentimental consideration
takes his official position near tn,
place of his birth in slavery without
word of resentful comment being utter
ed. The times have changed.