USA > Kentucky > History of Kentucky, Volume II > Part 36
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40 Smith, Political History of Slavery, 21, 22.
41 See Ibid., 45.
42 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 43; Smith, Political History of Slavery, I, 44.
43 Acts of Kentucky, 1836, pp. 353, 354. Dated February 3, 1837.
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it also desired laws that would not obstruct the recovery of bona fide slaves. Ohio was declared to be one of the worst offenders in this re- spect.44
As the periodical resolutions of protest of the Kentucky Legislature seemed to have very little effect on Ohio, in 1839 it was decided to send a commission of two to the governor and Legislature of Ohio to demand protection for Kentucky slavery against evil-disposed citizens of that state.45 James T. Morehead and John Speed Smith were appointed to carry on the negotiations. At first it seemed that they were to be received with little civility and consideration, when they were refused permis- sion to address the Legislature. This caused a momentary flurry of resentment in Kentucky. The editor of the Kentucky Gasette said, "The want of courtesy on the part of Ohio may, we fear, lead to events calculated to sour the feelings of the citizens of the two States, mani- festly injurious to the interests and fraternal harmony which should subsist between neighboring States." 46 But first impressions were wrong; Ohio showed commendable zeal in bringing about the much needed understanding. A law was passed, 23 to II in the Senate and 53 to 15 in the House, punishing those who abducted slaves or aided in their abduction or escape by a fine not exceeding $500, or imprisonment not exceeding sixty days, and by levying on the offenders all damages to the aggrieved persons.47
The situation in Indiana was much less exasperating than in Ohio. Outside of a few unpleasant incidents that were more or less forgotten by this time, the relations of the two states on the slavery question had been marked by cordiality and good understanding.48 There were fewer underground railways through this state than through Ohio- the main stations on the Kentucky border being Lawrenceburg, Madi- son, New Albany, Leavenworth, and Evansville. At the same time Ken- tucky was attempting to settle her long-standing troubles with Ohio, she was complimenting Indiana for her recent declaration (passed in the House 87 to I and in the Senate 40 to I) that the interference by a state or by Congress with a state's domestic institutions "is highly reprehen- sible, unpatriotic, and injurious to the peace and stability of the Union of the States." 49 The continued good relations of the two states were shown in the promptness that generally marked the Indiana governor's compliance with the requisitions of the Kentucky governor for persons wanted in connection with slave-stealing.50 In 1854 Governor Wright of Indiana was invited by Governor Powell to visit Kentucky. He was met at Louisville by a committee of the Legislature and taken to Frank- fort, where he was given an enthusiastic welcome.51
Illinois did not enter seriously into Kentucky's fugitive slave troubles. There was only one important underground railway station on the state's Illinois border-that being Cairo.
But notwithstanding the laws of one state and the good intentions of another, the number of slaves carried away increased by leaps and
44 Acts of Kentucky, 1834, PP. 436-438. Dated February 16, 1835.
45 Ibid., 1839, pp. 389, 390. Dated January 4, 1839.
46 Jan. 31, 1839.
47 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 44.
48 In 1820 the Indiana governor demanded of Kentucky the delivery of the Breck- inridge County representative in the Legislature for "apprehending and bringing away a runaway slave from that state." The Kentucky House unanimously refused to surrender the member in question. Kentucky Gazette, Feb. 4, 1820.
49 Acts of Kentucky, 1838, pp. 390, 391. Kentucky resolution dated February 23, 1839.
50 For example the case in 1845 where a free mulatto was delivered over to the Kentucky authorities for his part in stealing slaves from Harrodsburg. Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 50.
51 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 70.
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bounds, beginning about 1841. Now began a well-knit, systematic under- ground railway organization with its agents and its stations. The losses to Kentucky in runaway slaves was said to be $200,000 annually.52 The reward offered for the capture of fugitive slaves was increased at dif- ferent times, until in 1860 it was $150. Some unprincipled abolitionists took advantage of this reward at the expense of their honor by abducting slaves, hiding them until the reward was offered, and then, double- crossing the slave, leading him back to his master.53 Abolitionists became bold in their work. Many were not content to simply aid the fugitives cross the Ohio and pilot them to places of safety, but they carried the war into the heart of the enemy's country. Some went through purely humanitarian feeling, while others added a feature of gain. In 1849 an abolitionist appeared in Fayette and Bourbon counties, offering to pilot slaves to safety for $10 each. He soon gathered up a party of more than forty slaves and set out for the Ohio River. Efforts were immediately made to stop them; and a battle took place in which the negroes were scattered and captured and the ringleader taken. The abolitionist was brought to Lexington, tried for enticing slaves away, convicted of the charge, and sentenced to the state penitentiary for twenty years.54 Soon after this a plot engineered by abolitionists to lead off about forty negroes in Woodford County was discovered and frustrated.55 But more often these plots were successful and groups of slaves made their way into free states. On one day in 1852 no less than fifty-five crossed the river.56 A case of persistent plotting and scheming to lead slaves out of the state was that of Miss Delia A. Webster, of Vermont, who was apprehended in abducting slaves and was sentenced to two years in the state penitentiary. On account of her sex, the jury recommended a pardon to the governor, who gave it. Calvin Fairbanks, who was an accomplice of Miss Webster, was sentenced to fifteen years in the peni- tentiary. Nine years later, in 1854, Miss Webster began her operations again. She first settled in Madison, across the river in Indiana, where she assisted escaping slaves; but soon becoming bolder she moved to the Kentucky side. Meetings of indignant citizens in the surrounding coun- ties were immediately held, and Miss Webster was forced to leave the state again.57
Attempts to recover slaves were generally impeded by private in- dividuals as well as the officers of justice in the states north of the Ohio. In 1845, a Kentuckian found certain escaped slaves in San- dusky, Ohio, and attempted to bring them back to their master; but through the machinations of the officers of the government and certain abolitionists, the rescued slaves were freed again.58 An incident that created great excitement in Kentucky took place in Marshall, Michigan, in 1847 where some Kentuckians were attempting to recover six runaway slaves found there. As they were about to lead the fugitives before a magistrate, a mob gathered, composed of free negroes, runaway slaves, and white men to the number of from 200 to 300, and armed with guns, clubs and other weapons, and informed the Kentuckians that no trial was necessary, as the fugitives would not be permitted to be taken away under any circumstances, by moral, physical, or legal force-that though the law might be on the side of the Kentuckians, popular sentiment was against the law. Having through mob force carried out its purpose, the
52 W. H. Siebert, The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom (New York, 1899), 352.
53 Marryat, Diary in America, I, 235.
54 Kentucky Yeoman, 1848; Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 57
55 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 57.
56 Ibid., 57, 66.
57 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 50, 71.
58 Ibid., 50.
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crowd now resolved itself into a mass meeting to ratify its actions. The question was put whether or not the negroes should be taken before a magistrate, and it was promptly decided in the negative. A resolution was then carried calling upon the Kentucky agents to leave town within two hours; but before this could be done, they were arrested, found guilty of trespass, and fined $100. One of them was bound over to the next court on the charge of drawing a pistol. According to an affidavit of one of the agents, "Many were the insults offered affiant by the lead- ing members of the mob, who informed him at the same time that it was just such treatment as a Kentuckian deserves when attempting to recapture a slave, and that they intended to make an example of him, that others might take warning." Regardless of the evils of slavery and of all of its results, this treatment of the Kentuckians was a travesty on justice and it could not do otherwise than arouse the bitter resentment of the State of Kentucky against Michigan. She called on that state "to give the subject that consideration which its importance demands, and to take such action thereon as in the judgment of said Legislature is deemed proper and right, with a view to maintain that peace, amity and good feeling which ought to exist between the citizens of the States of Michigan and Kentucky." Kentucky further declared that "such con- duct and such outrages committed upon the rights and citizens of the State of Kentucky, or any other State of the Union, must necessarily result in great mischief, and is well calculated, and must, if persisted in by the citizens of Michigan, or any other free States of the Union, terminate in breaking up and destroying the peace and harmony that is desirable by every good citizen of all the States of this Union, should exist between the several States and the constitutional rights of the citizens of the slave States," and called upon Congress to pass such legislation as would protect the slave states in their rights to recover their runaway slaves.59
Little satisfaction was ever had from free state courts and officials in attempts to recover fugitives. It was always easy for governors to cater to public sentiment and find reasons for not delivering up persons wanted in Kentucky. Ohio was the greatest sinner in this respect.60 But when the cases were brought in the Federal courts, Kentucky re- ceived the benefits of the laws. In 1843 John Van Zandt was tried in the Federal Court at Cincinnati on the charge of aiding fugitive slaves and was assessed $1,200 damages, and a few days later in another similar action another verdict of $500 was entered against him.61 A few years later in the Federal District Court at Columbus, Ohio, a Sandusky lawyer was fined $3,000 for assisting runaways from Kentucky.62 In Indian- apolis the Federal Circuit Court in 1850 entered a verdict against a group of abolitionists who had forcibly taken fugitives from their owner after he had recovered them.63
59 "Resolutions of the Legislature of Kentucky in Favor of the Passage of a Law by Congress to recover Slaves . . in Senate Misc. Docs., 30 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 19; Acts of Kentucky, 1846, pp. 385-388.
60 In 1845 Governor Bartley of Ohio refused the requisition of the Kentucky governor for a person charged with kidnapping slaves. There were many other instances of this kind. Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 50. The most celebrated in- stance of this kind of trouble was in the case which was appealed to the United States Supreme Court decided in Kentucky versus Dennison in 1861. The court was asked to issue a writ of mandamus to compel the Ohio governor to deliver a person wanted in Kentucky for aiding a slave to escape. Chief Justice Taney declared it was the duty of the Ohio governor to deliver over the person, but admitted the court had no means of compelling it. For the decision see Kentucky vs. Dennison, 24 Howard, 66.
61 Ibid., 48, 49. Salmon P. Chase was one of his attorneys.
62 Ibid., 73.
63 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 60. See also Ibid., 61. For successful actions in state courts, see Ibid., 46.
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Athough many fugitive slaves stopped in the free states and entered into the life of the community, still there was always the danger of detection and return to their masters, as was provided for in the Fugi- tive Slave Law. It was therefore the ultimate hope of most fugitives to reach Canada, where they could be forever safe from their master's searches. The slaves learned of the Canadian refuge, as early as the end of the War of 1812, and it was the hope of reaching it that set many of them in motion in the beginning of the fugitive slave movement. In 1823 Kentucky said that since "large numbers of slaves, the property of the citizens of this commonwealth, escape from the service of their masters, and get into the British provinces of Canada," where it was impossible to get them, and since "this evil of late has been growing to such magnitude, that unless it is checked, may ultimately mar the peace and harmony which at present fortunately exists between the government of the United States and that of Great Britain," the Fed- eral Government should make treaty arrangements with that nation in the interest of returning fugitive slaves.64 But England's advanced ideas on slavery made such a negotiation very difficult if not impossible. Such a treaty was never made, despite the state's frequent attempts to have one negotiated. On the very eve of the Civil war, Kentucky again was calling on the Federal Government to secure such a treaty.65
The determination of the state to protect the institution of slavery continued to increase as time went on despite the fact that slavery was becoming relatively less important in the commonwealth. The old idea inherited from Virginia that no slaves should be imported into the state for sale was greatly modified by laws passed in 1814 and 1815. The original intention of the person bringing in slaves was made the test, and no person or agency could establish that intention except the master himself. Original intentions could be easily changed, and imported slaves might then be sold as Kentucky slaves; or indeed might they not be hired out for ninety-nine years? This, in fact, was done. In 1833, a new law was passed which restored the original practice-thereby prohibiting the importation of slaves except by bona fide emigrants, or where they were inherited by residents.66 This law was not brought about by abolition sentiment, but rather by the desire of Kentuckians generally, to control the institution and prevent its growth into a more menacing problem.
As a majority of Kentuckians were not slaveholders, there existed a widespread sentiment that the laws of the state which provided for the payment to the master of the value of any slave that should be executed for crimes, should be repealed or amended to work in a more equitable manner. By the act of 1811, there were four crimes committed by slaves punishable with death. These were conspiracy and rebellion, poisoning with intent to kill, voluntary manslaughter, and rape.67 Slave executions were not infrequent. In 1831 four slaves were hanged in Lexington, witnessed by a vast crowd estimated to be from 10,000 to 20,000.68 The amount of money paid out of the state treasury for slaves hanged was said to be $68,000 by 1830.69 It was also asserted that only one-fifth of the tax-payers owned slaves. An attempt was made in 1830 to repeal the law allowing payment for executed slaves. Much exciting debate followed, resulting in the laying of the bill on the table to make way for a substitute which provided for a tax of one-
64 Acts of Kentucky, 1823.
65 Acts of Kentucky, 1859, I. This resolution was dated December 19, 1859. See also Ibid., 1826, 197, 198.
66 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 37. Also see Niles' Register, Vol. 37, p. 399. 67 McDougle, Slavery in Kentucky, 37, 38. Other crimes were added later. 66 Argus, Aug. 17, 1831.
69 Niles' Register, Vol. 37, p. 399.
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fourth of I per cent to be laid on slaves to afford a fund for those expenses connected with slavery. This substitute was also killed, leaving considerable resentment among the non-slave owning population.70
As has appeared heretofore, the great weight of public sentiment in the state was against the precipitate dealing with the question of slavery. Emancipation in the indefinite future was desired by the great majority of the people, but the utter impracticability of it was impressing itself on a larger and larger number. The constant assault from the Northern abolitionists by propaganda and by slave stealings and enticings was fast exhausting the patience of the people, and making them more suspicious of any dealing with the question at all. An abolition society could not exist in Kentucky, although organized and engineered by natives ; neither could an emancipation society, with no direct plan of action, thrive- a hostile sentiment prevented the former, and a lack of interest made the latter impossible. But there were certain persons, native Kentuckians, who had caught the contagion of abolition and could not repress them- selves. The foremost of these was Cassius M. Clay, who had received his education at Yale College and had there heard William Lloyd Gar- rison on slavery. He came back to Kentucky determined to fight slavery against every opposition and at all costs. He made anti-slavery speeches and wrote his views in the state press until his communications were no longer acceptable. He then determined to set up an abolition paper, and pour out his bitter arraignments of the "slaveocracy" without re- straint. According to his account, he proceeded in a heroic mood on an enterprise of great danger. Preparing for every form of opposition and attack he set up a printing office in Lexington in 1845. converting a brick building into a veritable arsenal. He covered the outside doors with sheet iron to prevent them being burned, and rolled two four- pounders inside, loaded them with shot and nails, and mounted them on a table breast high where the doors might be swung open for the play of the cannon on any attackers. He stocked the building with Mexican lances and guns, and held in readiness six or eight men pledged to defend him. "If defeated," he said, "they were to escape by a trap door in the roof ; and I had placed a keg of powder with a match, which I could set off, and blow up the office and all my invaders; and this I should most certainly have done, in case of the last extremity." 71
Thus prepared, he began to pour out bitter and vitriolic attacks against slavery in his newspaper, called The True American. He very quickly overshot his mark, and aroused the most solemn and fundamen- tal feelings of the people of Lexington and the surrounding country. The audacity of this apostate and renegade was impenetrable. In all the seriousness and with all the determination that they were capable of. the most respected and capable men of the times acted swiftly and surely, but no less orderly. On August 14, a considerable number of Lexington citizens met at the court house and appointed a committee to wait on Cassius M. Clay and request him to discontinue his paper, "as its further continuance, in our judgment, is dangerous to the peace of our community, and to the safety of our homes and families." 72 In their letter delivered to him, the committee said. "We do not approach you in the form of a threat. But we owe it to you to state, that in our judgment, your own safety, as well as the repose and peace of the community, are involved in your answer." 73 Clay from his sick bed
70 Ibid.
11 The Life of Cassius Marcellus Clay. Memoirs, Writings and Speeches (Cin- cinnati, 1886), I, 107, 108.
72 Collins, History of Kentucky, I, 51. The committee was composed of B. W. Dudley, T. H. Waters, and J. W. Hunt.
73 Extra handbill issued by the True American, Aug. 15, 1845. A copy may be found in Durrett Collection.
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sent a defiant answer. He declared that the statement made by the com- mittee that they represented a respectable portion of the community could not be true. He continued, "Traitors to the laws and Constitution cannot be deemed respectable by any but assassins, pirates, and highway rob- bers. * *
* I treat them with the burning contempt of a brave heart and a loyal citizen. I deny their power and defy their action. Your advice with reference to my personal safety is worthy of the source whence it emanated, and meets with the same contempt from me which the purposes of your mission excite. Go tell your secret conclave of cowardly assassins that Cassius M. Clay knows his rights and knows how to defend them."
On receiving this challenging reply, the original meeting, which had adjourned to a later time in the day, immediately issued a call to the city and surrounding country to gather on the 18th at the court house "to take into consideration the most effectual steps to secure their inter- ests from the efforts of abolition fanatics and incendiaries." Hundreds of people gathered at the appointed time, and Thomas F. Marshall, a nephew of Chief Justice John Marshall and noted for his powers of ora- tory, presented an address setting forth the incendiary character of Clay's True American and arraigning him for his course. "On the fron- tier of slavery," it was declared, "with three free States fronting and touching us along a border of seven hundred miles, we are peculiarly exposed to the assaults to abolition. The plunder of our property, the kidnapping, stealing and abduction of our slaves, is a light evil in com- parison with planting a seminary for their infernal doctrines in the very heart of our densest slave population." An abolition newspaper in a slave state, it was further set forth, "is a blazing brand in the hand of an incendiary or madman, which may scatter ruin, conflagration, revo- lution, crime unnameable, over everything dear in domestic life, sacred in religion or respectable in modesty." 74
This address together with six resolutions was unanimously adopted by the meeting. Among the resolutions were these: that no abolition newspaper be allowed in Lexington, that if the True American were sur- rendered peaceably no injury would be done and the press should be sent out of the state, and "That we hope C. M. Clay will be advised. For by our regard to our wives, our children, our homes, our property, our country, our honor, wear what name he may, be connected with whom he may, whatever arm or party here or elsewhere may sustain him, he shall not publish an abolition paper here, and this we affirm at the risk, be it of his blood, or our own, or both ; or of all he may bring, of bond or free, to aid his murderous hand." A committee of sixty, composed of some of the leading men of Lexington, as well as of the state such as James B. Clay, George W. Johnson, and William B. Kinkead, was ap- pointed to proceed in an orderly manner to take possession of the print- ing office, pack up the printing apparatus, and take it to the railway office for transportation to Cincinnati. The committee proceeded in the most circumspect manner to carry out its task. The mayor of the city met them at the door of the printing office and informed them that their actions were illegal but that the city authorities were not able to resist them. The roll of the committee was called and the building was en- tered and the door closed behind. Still acting in the most orderly and precise fashion, the committee resolved to hold itself responsible for any- thing that might be lost or destroyed while they were carrying out their duty. Everything was carefully taken down and packed in boxes and lists made of the whole amount. The work was carried on so circum- spectly that by two o'clock when the committee was requested to report back to the general meeting, the task had not yet been finished. Mes-
74 Niles' Register, Vol. 69, p. 15.
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sengers were therefore appointed to report progress to the meeting at the court house, and the work was continued. Clay's private papers were sent to him with a note of what had been done, with the further informa- tion that all transportation charges and expenses had been paid. In the meantime ex-Governor Metcalfe had addressed the general meeting.75
This was not the action of a mob; it was the bursting determination as irresistible as any human passion aroused by the exasperation of out- raged feelings, but withal orderly and measured. In the words of an observer, it was a non-partisan meeting, "a rare spectacle of an innumer- able body of citizens, meeting as a matter of course with highly excited feelings, yet so far subduing and modifying their spirit as to accomplish their purpose without the slightest damage to property or their effusion of a drop of blood." 76 It was further added: "Man may write books if they please to prove that this was a lawless procedure, and in utter violation of the principles of the Constitution and laws, by which our rights and property are protected. It will avail nothing. There may be a state of things in which Constitution and laws are totally inadequate to the public protection from dire calamity, and in that event popular action (though usually to be deprecated) must be excused." 77
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