Slaveholding Outrages

The account we published last week from our Niles correspondent, of the outrages of a body of armed Kentuckians, upon peaceable citizens of this State, in their own homes, in the hours of darkness, may serve as an answer to the question so often asked, ?What has the North to do with slavery?" From the accounts which have reached us, it seems that the Kentuckians, unless they can prove their ?property," rendered themselves clearly liable for an attempt at kidnapping, and if so, should not have been let off without suffering the penalty. A Centreville paper notices the affair as follows:

?A few nights ago 12 or 13 citizens of Kentucky made an incursion into a negro settlement, near Cassopolis, and knocked down and commenced dragging of 12 or 14 negroes. An out cry was soon raised, and a number of whites went to the rescue of their sable fellow citizens, and soon brought the chivalry of Kentucky to a halt, liberated their ill gotten booty, and finally marched them off to the seat of justices to give an account of their misdoings. We have not learned the result of their proceedings, but we presume they will be permitted to depart with the sore mortification of a fruitless journey. A messenger arrived in this village on Sabbath evening last, to procure the legal services of C. Gurney Esq., the abolition candidate for Governor, but owing to sickness in his family, and busy preparations for an electioneering tour, he was unable to attend the trial. The messenger states that the Kentuckians were still brandishing their bowie-knives and making terrible threats. It may be the south have the right to adopt such a course without the aid of law, but it will only tend to engender a deeper hate for the ?peculiar institution." We have no sympathy with the political action of the abolitionists, but we cannot but look upon [their] midnight incursions without the aid of law, as usurping the good order of society and fomenting a spirit of resistance which must inevitably lead to disastrous consequences. If the slaveholder has the right to seize a fugitive from slavery in a free State, let him appeal to the proper tribunals to maintain that right, instead of midnight seizure, backed by a display of bowie-knives and seven shooters."

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Updated 06/12/2007

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