John Kintzing Kane, the U.S. District Judge who ruled against Passmore Williamson in the Jane Johnson case, dies in Philadelphia

Judge John K. Kane dies in Philadelphia at the age of sixty-two. Two years earlier, he had been the U.S. District Court Judge who had imprisoned Passmore Williamson for contempt of court under the Fugitive Slave Law in the case of Jane Johnson, a fugitive slave. When his abolitionist son, Thomas Kane, had resigned his position as his clerk of the court in protest at this decision, Judge Kane found him in contempt, as well. At the time of his death, Judge Kane was the president of the American Philosophical Society. (By John Osborne)