The Carlisle Riot
The Public Ledger of the 8th inst. contained an extract from the Hagerstown News in regard to the recent slave case at Carlisle, which is calculated seriously to injure the reputation of a most worthy and exemplary citizen of this Commonwealth; and which, as we learn from authentic sources, is false in almost every particular. The truth is, the laws of the State in regard to the recapture of fugitives were broken through entirely by the slave-takers and their legal advisers; the latter, it appears, having no knowledge of the act passed at the last session of the Legislature. All interest of Professor McClintock in the matter was simply this: He was accidentally passing the Court House, and entirely ignorant of what was going on within, when he was informed of the case and invited to go into the court room by a gentleman of the first respectability in Carlisle. After the hearing was adjourned, he inquired privately of the Judge as to the law by which slaves were held, and whether the act of 1847 had been adhered to, when he found that neither the Judge nor the lawyers had seen the law. He also protected a negro, who was, so far as he knew, and as the man said, doing nothing, and who was seriously threatened by a white man, (not an officer)− some time before the riot commenced− with the assurance, that if he did nothing and was injured, he should be redressed by the law. All the proceedings of Professor McClintock were perfectly legal, and were intended to prevent a riot, not to excite one. That he obeyed the dictates of humanity, and desired to see the laws of Pennsylvania vindicated on the soil of Pennsylvania, is not denied by his friends; but this, instead of being a disgrace, is an honor to him.
