Viewing page 15 of 16
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
NOVEMBER, 1860. DOUGLASS' MONTHLY. 367 [[line]] [[begin column 1]] capture and execution of John Brown. One Dick Ryan, a free negro, had, it is alleged, written to the North and engaged the services of parties who were just about this time to arrive at Norfolk or Old Point in a vessel, with arms and men, to assist in liberating the slaves. The story is said to rest on the confession of another free negro, arrested on suspicion. Fortunately, however, for Governor Wise and the Norfolk slaveholders, the plot has been discovered in time. Four as respectable gentlemen as can be found in Norfolk County, upon the strength of this alarming information, addressed a letter to Mayor Lamb of the City of Norfolk- so the [[italics]] Norfolk Day Book [[/italics]] assures us- and that most efficient magistrate, being thus forewarned, will 'take the necessary steps to develop the scheme,' and to arrest the vessel, should it arrive. Thanks to the four respectable gentlemen of Norfolk, the vigilance and promptitude of Mayor Lamb, the valor and energy of Gov.Wise, who is a resident in the neighborhood, and, more than all, to the seasonable confession of Dick Ryan, the free negro, Norfolk, it is hoped, may escape the visitation of the vessel from the North, with arms and men, and the consequent freeing of the negroes and murder of the whites. Meanwhile, however, the neighboring rural districts are in a high state of alarm and excitement. Confessions are being extorted from the negroes by the free application of the lash, and the slaves on several plantations have taken fright at the excitement prevailing about them, and have fled to the woods. Of course, a paroxysm of this sort could not pass without a few murders. The patrol of Norfolk County have shot dead a white man, an Irishman, apparently, one of a party engaged in ditching, because he fled when they approached the tent in which he and his fellow laborers were camping out. A free negro had also been shot while running away from some gentlemen who were endeavoring to arrest him for some 'incendious expression' he had used. A number of negroes are in jail at Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Princess Anne, and hot pursuit is being made after the redoubtable Dick Ryan himself, His capture might unravel the whole mystery, but it is apprehended that, according to the Southern method of investigating these insurrection plots, he will be shot down before anything can be got out of him. Even the most ardent admirers of the Slave labor system must admit that these Slave insurrection panics are somewhat of a drawback on its felicities. Who would like to live in a community which any knave or any fool may throw at any time into a paroxysm of bloody terror, and where the public peace is at the mercy of every free negro or white vagabond who drops an ambiguous expression, or any negro who, under the application of the lash, repeats a confession dictated to him? - [[italics]] N.Y. Tribune [[/italics]] [[line]] [[bold]] JERRY RESCUE CELEBRATION [[/bold]] [[line]] The following are the Resolutions which were adopted at the Jerry Rescue Celebration, held at Syracuse, Oct. 1st: [[italics]] Resolved, [[/italics]] That the Act which on this, its anniversary day, we celebrate, the Rescue of Jerry, was an emphatic, signal affirmation of the truths of justice and the rights of man, rights so primal, that they derive not their birth from any social arrangement or political compact among men, but inhere and reside originally, by divine ordination, in the human constitution, so substantial, real, and inextinguishable, that they cannot be altered or annulled by any enactment, but remain sovereign and sacred, to be honored everywhere, and in case of attempted violation, to be unaintained, as above and before all covenants, statues and formal constitutions whatsoever. [[italics]] Resolved, [[/italics]] That in spirit and principle, this Act was a pointed condemnation of slavery in its every assumption, as a thing essentially absurd, wicked and monstrous- a falsehood too glaring and malignant to receive a single moment's assent- a crime, too gross and out- [[end column 1]] [[begin column 2]] rageous to be in any case endured- an atrocity, incapable, through whatever device, of any transformation in character or baptism into respectability, and meriting, at all time and under all circumstances, to be sternly denied, resisted, broken down, and trampled under foot. [[italics]] Resolved, [[/italics]] That in spirit and principle, this Act was also a condemnation of all complicity with slavery, all participation, directly or indirectly, in the guilt , and it stands a perpetual admonition and rebuke to all who, however active in executing or loud in applauding the Rescue of Jerry, do yet give their suffrage and support to parties and platforms and candidates that ignore the slave, and stand pledged to the slaveholder for the maintenance to him inviolate of his 'domestic institution,' and avowedly committed to the shameful work of hunting down and remanding back to the horrors of slavery the flying bondman. [[italics]] Resolved, [[/italics]] That we deeply rejoice in those other Slave Rescues which have in different parts of our country successively followed this of Jerry- the rescue at Milwaukee, at Wellington, and at Troy- and we hold in all honor the brave men and women who have been guilty of these acts of humanity, and hereby tender them our warmest sympathies in all those persecutions and sufferings to which for this sake they may be subjected. [[italics]] Resolved, [[/italics]] That we hear with unalloyed satisfaction of the rescue of that faithful rescuer, Sherman M. Booth, fro the hands of the United States authorities here at Milwaukee, and of the spirit evinced by his fellow citizens to protect him from official re-seizure ;- and we hereby exhort the people of Wisconsin, that they suffer neither him nor his rescuers to be victimized by this conspiratous, slave-hunting government, but that they stand by and for them, in every extremity and at all hazards, holding themselves ready, should occasion arise, promptly to rescue them also in turn. [[italics]] Resolved, [[/italics]] That we utterly repudiate and renounce and put under our feet all Fugitive Slave laws, so called, whether of '93 or of '50, as inherently unjust, inhuman and atrociously wicked, whose mandates it were treason to obey, and loyalty to resist ; and we hereby pledge ourselves henceforth steadily to oppose and decisively to thwart all attempted executions of them on this our soil- nay, to exert ourselves unceasingly until they become objects of universal reprobation and abhorrence, to be everywhere indignantly disowned, and in repentance and shame to be instantly wiped from the statue book of the nation. [[italics]] Resolved, [[/italics]] That the morbid sensitiveness, the apprehension and dread habitually exhibited throughout the South, the paroxysm of fright and terror that seized at the moment of the appearance of John Brown with his little band of intrepid rescuers at Harper's Ferry, the acts of ruthless violence, outrage and atrocity that followed each other in quick succession over all those States, and are not yet terminated, attest the felt guilt, the fearful exposures and perils of slavery ; and that all the signs in the sky, the real or imagined insurrections, the wild panics and reckless, unbridled excesses of late constantly occurring, portend the swift downfall that awaits, and proclaim in omens not to be mistaken, that slavery must be abolished, or the enslaver must perish. [[italics]] Resolved, [[/italics]] That from all considerations therefore, whether of justice or of expediency, if indeed there were an expediency apart from justice, out of regard to the sacred rights of the slave, and regard to the imperilled condition of the slaveholder, we feel impelled to urge anew and with fresh emphasis, immediate and unconditional emancipation, always a duty, and now become a stern, instant necessity ; and we hereby covenant with each other steadfastly to work to this end, seeking its accomplishment by all just methods, without cessation, and without compromise. [[line]] -An account of the Seventh Annual Clam Bake will appear in our next number. [[end column 2]] [[begin column 3]] [[bold]] THE 'FREE NEGRO' IN MARYLAND. [[/bold]] [[line]] On the 6th of November next, the day of the Presidential election, the voters of Baltimore, St.Mary's, Calvert, Howard, Kent, Worcester, Somerset, Talbot, Queen Anne's, Prince George's and Charles Counties will be called upon to express their sentiments on the enactment of the Legislature, known as the 'Free Negro Law,' which provides for the control and management of the the free colored population inhabiting the same. We give below a synopsis of the law: SEC. 1st provides that the commissioners of the counties named shall appoint three commissioners in each election district, to control and manage the free colored population. 2. The commissioners meet on the 1st of December, and adjourn from day to day, or to any named day. 3. The constables of the districts to bring all the free negroes of the district before the commissioners. 3. The constables of the districts to bring all the free negroes of the district before the commissioners. 4.That the negroes shall then be notified that unless they shall hire themselves to some industrious and respectable citizen [[italics]] by the year, they shall be sold at public sale to the highest bidder for the term of one year. [[/italics]] 5. That if the negroes do not produce before the 1st of January a note or bond, as evidence that they have hired for the year, on that day [[italics]] they are exposed to public sale to the highest bidder. [[/italics]] 6. All children of free negroes, between the age of 4 and 12, shall be indentured to some citizen ; males until they are 21 ' and females until they are 30. 7. The issues of said hired or bound females to be bound on in like manner. 8. A negro hired or bound under the provisions of this act, that shall 'refuse to serve faithfully,' or run away, [[italics]] shall be sold for life. [[/italics]] the proceeds to go into the [[italics]] public school fund, [[/italics]] 9. A fund shall be provided for the support of old and disabled negroes, and for females and their children who may be unable to hire, the said fund to be raised from the wages of those who shall hire themselves, as well as from the wages of those the commissioners hire. 10. The commissioners shall collect all the money due to negroes for their labor, and deduct therefrom 'all the expenditures attending the operation of this act, including attorney's and clerk's fees, constables', auctioneer's and commissioner's charges,' and the amount necessary to support those incapable of being hired or bound under the provisions of this act, and the balance shall be distributed among the free negroes, 'in the judgment and discretion' of the county commissioners. 11. The name, age and sex of the free negroes to be recorded. 12, 13, and 14 provide for the fees to be paid to constables, auctioneers, state's attorneys and clerks. 15. The District Commissioners to be allowed each two dollars per day for each day employed, not to exceed thirty days each year. 16. Negroes possess in their own right of $150 of assessed property to be exempt from the provisions of the law, and $[[?]]0 additional assessed property for each child will exempt such children from the provisions thereof. 17. The law to be accepted or rejected at the Presidential election. 18. Sheriffs of the counties shall give notice of the same. 19. Judges and clerks of election to make returns, &c. 20 names the counties included. [[line]] -A well-dressed young man chancing to come upon a wharf in Philadelphia last week, where a crowd were lamenting the fall of a boy in to the water, but doing nothing to rescue him, threw off his coat and plunged in and brought him to shore Discovering that the boy was a negro, he exlaimed, "Is that all I have saved? I would'nt have gone over for the d-d nigger." The admiration which the crowd felt for his heroism was completely extinguished. [[line]] -Yancey has been invited to address the working men of Boston upon the influence of slave labor upon white labor, where the two systems are brought into competition with each other. [[end column 3]]
