The daily gazette., 1882-10-20
CURREY AND SLAVERY.
THE CANDIDATES LOVE FOR
HIS OLD CHATTELS.
FIsHER'sLATTER- DAY SYMPATHY

L g
A story With Two Siies--t How Judge
Fisher Took His Fees for Prosecuting
slavery Cases and Bottled His sympathy
For Tive nty- -four Years.
The colored vote which has already
proved troublesome quantity for Delaware
Republicans bids fair to be more trouble.
some. The course Of Mayor Wales toward
the colored men will be initiated to the letter
by the State leaders. Mayor Wales thought
the time was not ripe for colored men to
hold office because the white man had
borne the heat and burden of the day." and
Mr.. Currey has stated on more than one oc-
casion that he would not appoint colored
men to Office. Dick Harrington has said
the same thing S-s'+ = tt
1t is not surprising that Mr.. Currey should
entertain such an opinion in view of the
attitude which he has heretofore maintained
toward colored people. Mr.. Currey was
never an abolitionist, and like so many
people In Sussex he was slave holder up to
the emancipation of the black people. Just
how many negroes Mr.. Currey owned It is
impossible 30 state, but it is certain that the
present Republican candidate for Governor
was in full accord and sympathy with slavery
and the black people he held IN bondage did
not get their freedom until slavery was made
unlawful.
Past actions of men are sometimes
awkward things, and Mr.. Currey will find
his position ON this subject particularly
awkward. Some Of the Republican cam
paign speakers have gone so far In heated
partisan utterances as TO almost charge be-
fore ignorant audiences that If the Demo
Gratis got into power again Che negroes
would again go into slavery. Something of
this kind was done at Townsend the other
night. George V. Massey, ESQ.,, was ad-
dressing the Republican meeting there and
in speaking of Democratic opposition to pro-
gress said that by a mans past acts and
positions you must judge his future course;
by these you may judge what he will do
again If he gets chance. He then said
colored men were getting better educat ed
and know this, when a man In the audiauce
called out that the colored people were
educated enough to know If the Democrats
got into power they would put the negroes
into slavery again. "Does my friend me an,
that If they get into power we will have the
same kind of slavery we were once cursed
with 2" asked Mr.. Massey. "Just as sure
as God made Moses" said an old Republi-
can on the platform. "And God made
Moses" said Mr.. Massey, very positively.
In view of Mr.. Currey's position the sub
ject of slavery 1t is very dangerous ground for
the Republican orators to walk upon. A
good many interesting things can be told
about him, and among them how many
colored voters in Sussex will have nothing
to do with him because he was cordially in
concord with holding, and because, 1t is
stated, he treated them badly. OF course,
there is nothing very horrible in a man
having held slaves before the war, but the
g. - = III.
it Is that he Is opposed to colored men hold
ing offices and as Mr.. Massey says, mans
past actions will show what he will do again
II he gets a chance.
AN OLD CASE.
The subject of old slavery days is a fruit
full one for interesting "reminiscences. Ex-
District-Attorney George p. Fisher has been
ont in an interview in the copying machine
at Third and King streets for some time in
which he alludes to a case In which a negro
woman was tried for aiding slave girl to
escape to Mt. Holly, N. j., where she was to
marry a white man. Mr. Fisher was then
Attorney General. He says the woman was
arrested aud thrown into Jail. He saw, he
says, that she was the victim of "deep
machination" to throw her into slavery. He
goes on to say that though he did not press
the case, and did not think she ought to Be
convicted, she was found guilty, sentenced
to the pillory and lashand also ordered
to be sold to the highest bidder and
taken beyond the State. The ex-District
Attorney then goes on to tell how John l..
Bacon, now candidate for the Legislature
on the Republican ticket in Sussex, came to
him to devise some way Of getting the
woman bought of. She had sold for S700,
he says, and to this point allusion will be
made further on. Mr.. Fisher directed him
~ ,In ,,al
interview runs, aud that HUM raised $400,
that he (Bacon) picked up 500 here and
there, and put $500 to it himself. The
woman's freedom was bought and she was
sent out of the State. Afterwards she sent
back to the kind-hearted Mr.. Bacon the $500
he is alleged to have paid out of his own
pocket. In order to make political capital
the following is appended TO the end OF the
interview
sWe have only to add that the Sheriff
who sold this poor woman was Charles G..
Stockley, the present Democratic candidate
for Governor of Delaware"
In the course OF the article reflections are
cast upon the owner of the slave, who was
assisted to escape by the woman tried, and 1t
is made to appear that the owner was the
leader In the "deep machination" to sell the
free colored woman into slavery. The gen.
tleman In question, now dead, is Nathaniel
Hearn OF Laurel, one of the finest and most
upright men who ever lived In Sussex
county.
Above Is given one side of the story which
ex-District Attorney Fisher has flung to the
winds apparently to damage one man-Mr.
Stockley, the Democratic candidate for
Governor-who as Sheriff sold the woman,
and thus carried out the orders of the court
which were given after the then prosecuting
attorney, 'pure of heart and clean of soul, .
had convicted her against her will, being
convinced that she was the victim of a
"deep machination" to make a slave of her.
The GAZETTE has gone to some trouble to as
certain the true facts of the case, and they
show that ex-District Attorney Fisher has
wilfully distorted them. The case took
place in 1858, and the woman who was tried
was Elizabeth Marsh. She was convicted
and the following certified transcript of her
trial, conviction and sentence, shows that
she was Mot sentenced to the pillory and
lash:
The STATE )Indlctm't--Aiding
VS.. slave to runaway.
ELIZABETH MARSH, negro. True Bill.
April IS, A d., 1885, the said defendant, Eliza
beth Marsh, appears at the bar of the court
and pleads ''not guilty" whereupon a jury was
drawn and sworn and after learing evidence
returned into court with verdict of guilty in
manner and form she stands indicted.
| WhereupOn 1t is ordered by the Court that said
| defendant, Elizabeth Marsh negro, pay to
| Nathaniel Hearn, the owner of Mary Ann
| Hearn, negro, the sum of $500, and that she be