The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1926-08-27
CRIMINALS BECOME HEROES

The State Historical Society has just erected
tablet to mark a station the underground rail-
way in this State, the junction point rather "here
two Of those very real but very secret lines met
The present generation will interpret under
ground railroads" in terms Of the subways OF tne
larger cities those swift means of moving vast
throngs of people from the great skyscraper districts
to the distant apartment sections
1t had a different meaning seyenty-fve years
ago when the men of the north chose to violate a
Federal law in order to help black men escape human
slavery.
Then the underground railroad was the route oy
which slaves who made their escape from Soutnern
plantations and crossed the Ohio River in safety,
could be aided to Canada or Ravens in communities
in which it was impossible to enforce the fugitive
slave law because of public opinion
The men who operated these railroad lines did
not stop for the letter of the law.
That law violated their consciences or their
sense of humanity and they set 1t aside quite as
ruthessly men today set aside laws which 90
not conform to their opinion to what are proper
subjects of legislation.
Today these technical criminals are venerated as
benefactors and contributors to the cause OF liberty
and freedom. They longer branded as out
law and criminal
Through those lines which fourished in this
food and aid in his desperate dash for liberty.
It was the duty, under the law, to return these
men to their owners in the South.
It was a duty under the laws Of the Nation to
keep them for those who could fog them into obedf
ence could sell their children as a litter OF prize
pups are sold today in fancy kennels, could If they
desired take their wives from their homes and sub
ject them to any indignity.
Not often, of course, we're men logged. Not
often were children sold or wives outraged. The
men of the South we're gentlemen. Slavery to them
was an inherited institution to which they had been
accustomed to look with favor and more than
legitimate To their credit they were far often
socitous of the welfare of their chattels than are
today the employers Of labor. They felt sense of
responsibility that was more binding than written
laws.
But they were troubled about the escape Of
slaves. They had sufficient votes in Congress to
make it crime to harbor an escaped slave just as
our modern laws make it obligatory on farmers to
return estray cattle or horses.
1t was against that law that the men who formed
the underground railroads rebelled by open violation
Every man who participated in it became a
criminal under the eyes Of the law. True, they
stood no more chance of conviction than does man
who sells liquor today in Baltimore.
They bbeyed something higher than written law
when they stood for freedom of conscience in these
matters
And because of their rebellion against the law,
they are today after seyenyfve years, venerated
heroic figures and the place they hid the runaway
slaves marked a shrine of liberty
The incident may suggest that there some
subjects on which laws futile and that never in
history will men recognize any law which violates
their ideas of personal liberty and freedom Of action
The only real law is that which has behind it
science and public opinion.