The Christiana Patriot

    Source citation
    "The Christiana Patriots," Rochester (NY) Frederick Douglass Paper, November 13, 1851.
    Original source
    Montpelier (VT) Green Mountain Freeman
    Newspaper: Publication
    Rochester (NY) Frederick Douglass' Paper
    Newspaper: Headline
    The Christiana Patriots
    Type
    Newspaper
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Transcriber
    Michael Blake
    Transcription date
    The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print. Spelling and typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.

    THE CHRISTIANA PATRIOTS. - The Grand Jury of the U.S. Court have found bills against thirty-four persons charged with "levying war against United States" by participating in the Christiana affair, and they are to be tried for treason; and, if convicted, executed upon the gallows!

    Between resisting a mere act of Congress and doing that which by any reasonable construction can be called a treason we had supposed to be a wide difference. But even were it otherwise, two-thirds of the indicted probably committed no overt act, which in the Burr case was held necessary to constitute treason; nor can they be called abettors, - their crime consisting in refusing to assist in the capture, - as in the case of the two Quaker citizens, or in sending information of the approach of the slave hunters, or in mere expressions of opinion about the law, or of sympathy towards those on whom it was to be executed.

    Now, if our national tribunals are going to make treason out of these cases, and especially the classes above named, then indeed is the reign of terror commenced. Half the people of the Free States have already made themselves amenable to the law and the gallows!

    We shall await the result of these trials with extreme interest; for, if a general conviction ensues, and there is no other help for us, we shall then be prepared for one of two things, - either to remove to a freer country, or shoulder our musket for revolutionizing our own. - Green Mountain Freeman.

    How to Cite This Page: "The Christiana Patriot," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/1763.