The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-03-30

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he first volley fired by the negroes an6
his son wounded. The others preci
pitately fled and joined Constable
Kline, who had taken a safe position
before the firing began. A number
of the negros were wounded, but
none dangerously. The dead body
of Gorsuch, who had come to cap
ture his slaves, was sent to his home.
and his son, who had been protected
from the fury of the negros by Park
er himself, was we'll provided for un-
til he recovered.
The Christiana battle was the. first
bloody struggle under the fugitive
slave law, and it made a profound
impression upon the people of both
Pennsylvania and of the nation at
large.
The facts in the case were trans
mitted to President Fillmore through
the Governor of Maryland, Enoch L.
Lowe. President Fillmore issued a
proclamation for the arrest of the
colored men. The Governor of Penn
sylvania, William F. Johnson, did
not issue his proclamation until the
fifth day after the conflict, when the
colored men had escaped. They
made their way to the home Of Fred
erick Douglas, at Buffalo, N. Y, who
was later United States minister to
Haiti. Douglas provided them with
means to reach Canada, as he de-
scribes in his own book. One of them
presented Douglas with the pistol
which fell from Mr.. Gorsuch's hand
when he died.
All of those who took part in the
affair did not escape. Castner Han
way and Elijah Lewis, both promi-
nent Quaker citizens, with some 40
or so others, mostly colored men, were
arrested on the charge of high levying
war against the government Of the
United States. They were denied
the right of bail and were incarcera-
ted in prison,from the nth of Septem-
Der until they were brought into the
United States Court at Philadelphia
before Judges Green and Kane, on
the 24th of November, for trial on
the grave charges of which they were
accused. The trial was one of the most
exciting ever had in the state. An
entire week was employed in obtain
ing a jury, after the United States
District Attorney had set aside 20 ju-
rors exclusive of his right to chal-
lenge. Thaddeus Stevens, who by
the way, was admitted to the bar at
Belair, Md; John M. Read, Theo-
dore c. Cuyler and Joseph ]. Lewis,
four of the most prominent lawyers of
the state, and two of them leading
Democrats, conducted the defense,
while District Attorney John w. Ash
mead was assisted by the Attorney
General of Maryland and by James
Cooper, then Whig United States
senator from Pennsylvania, who had
supported the compromise measure.
It was certainly one of the most
notable legal battles in the history of
Pennsylvania judicial trials. Lucre-
tia Mott, the most prominent and be-
loved of the Quaker women Of the
state, attended the trial personally
every day, and after the elaborate ar
gument of counsel, Judge Green de-
livered his charge that occupied a
closely printed pamphlet of 20 pages.
The jury retired, and in 10 minutes
returned into the court with the ver-
dict Of mot guilty" In this case
only Castner Hanway was on trial,
and after his acquittal by the jury, he
was discharged, as were all his asso-
ciates, who had been in prison for
more than three months. Mr.. Han
way appeared to the court to be re-
lieved of the costs incurred by him in
furnishing witnesses, but it was de-
MED. and broken in health by his i'm
prisonment, and suffering expenses
which he could i'll afford, he never
fully recovered from the harsh exac-
tons of Imprisonment and trial. He
lived at the old home until 1873,
when he went West and settled at
Wilbur, Neb., where he died on the
Goth of May, 1898, and, in accordance
with his desire, his remains were
brought back to Longwood Cemetery,
near Kennett Square, to rest with
the dust of MS Quaker kindred.
The Christiana battle, the killing
of the claimant of his slaves and the
wounding of the others, impressed
the South with the fact that the re-
covery of fugitive slaves had ceased
to be practically possible, and it pro-
foundly deepened the apprehension
of leaders in the slavery cause as to
the safety of the institution. On the
other hand, the arrest and imprison-
ment of Hanway and his associates,
and his trial, involving our ablest
Judges and lawyers, profoundly i'm
pressed the people of the North with
the fact that there was an "impressi-
BILE conflict" between the North and
the South of the slavery issue that
must, in the fullness of time and at
no disant day, either disrupt the
Union or involve the country in fra
ternal war.
The fatal conflict in Lancaster
county in 1851, was sequel to the
long existing escapes of slaves into
the North and into Canada by what
was called the underground routes.
1t was by these devious ways that
slaves made their way into the North.
ern States. Several such routes laid
through Maryland, the most gener-
ally used being that via Hancock,
where the Pennsylvania line is not
far distant.
These underground routes were es-
tablished soon after the Federal con-
stitution recognized slavery as legal