Horrible Massacre

By extracts from Philadelphia papers in another column, it will be seen that the assassination doctrines of the Independent have been carried into effect, at a place called Christiana, in Lancaster county, Pa., upon Edward Gorsuch, of Baltimore county, the owner of a fugitive slave, and upon his son, Dickinson Gorsuch, both of whom are dead; and upon several other persons, two of whom are missing, (supposed to have been killed.)

The particulars of this horrid business are but imperfectly given in the accounts which have reached us; but of the killing of several persons, including the claimant and his son, there can be no doubt. One despatch [dispatch] says, that the fugitive first shot the owner, that then the owner’s son shot the fugitive, that then another negro shot the son, &c. That is just what might have been expected from an armed resistance to the laws of the land. And it is a legitimate result of the teaching on the Independent, and some other preachers of the Gospel of Peace! Are they not morally responsible for these murders? The ignorant negroes do as they are told by those whom they regard as their fiends and counsellors [counselors], and may be less guilty, morally, than those who instigate them.

A despatch [dispatch] from Baltimore states that the excitement there, in consequence of the above occurrences, is most intense; and so it will be throughout the Union. A more unfortunate event for the colored people could scarcely have happened. The victims of the massacre are stated to be among the most respectable inhabitants of Baltimore county. The resistance was preconcerted on the part of the blacks, large numbers of whom were in ambush, armed with deadly weapons, and sprang out after Gorsuch, Jr., returned the fire of the slave who had killed his father.

Next comes the law as an avenger, to punish the murders. Some will be arrested, doubtless, who are not murderers; why should they, too, shoot down the officers, or whoever attempts to arrest them, as well as the fugitives? The principle is the same; and it is a principle, we do not hesitate to say, direct from the bottomless pit, whoever may be its mouth-piece.