Record Data
Transcription
Those men, who, in some of the nonslaveholding States, are endeavoring to induce the free colored people to resist the execution of the fugitive slave law, are guilty of a crime which may possibly lead to very serious results. If they succeed in persuading the ignorant negroes to raise a mob to rescue a fugitive slave from his legal owner after the decision in his case has been made, they will be far more responsible than the poor ignorant creatures on whom they impose. The laws of the various States protect the people of color in all their rights, and the return which they owe for this oprtection is submission to the operation of the laws. Th men who would persuade thme to violate the laws are not only not good citizens, but ought to be held to a strict accountability at the bar of public opinion for all the mischief which may result from their rash and iniquitous counsels.We feel certain that, however deep the opposition to the provisions of the fugitive slave bill may be in the minds of a great many Northern people, but few of them are so deeply criminal as to endeavor to persuade the free negroes to resist the execution of the law. We think it probable that much of the hostility to the bil is owing to ignorance of its provisions, while the clamor is principally confined to the Free soil demagogues, who regard the bill as their only chance of keeping up the excitement by which they flourish. We do not think the fuss will last long.