USA > Michigan > Calhoun County > History of Calhoun county, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 11
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84 Laws of 1847, p. 194.
83 Laws of 1849, p. 362.
86 John McLean was the first United States circuit court judge for Michigan. He held that office from 1836-1862 and was succeeded by. Judge N. H. Swayne. Farmer's History of Detroit and Michigan,
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nity were wrought up to the most intense degree of silent interest dur- ing the long trial. While this influenee, which was felt, not seen, was exercised to win votes for Gen. Cass in the south, it alienated from him votes at home. The charge of the court was long and laid down the law as it then existed. Gerrit Smith eame from New York, and volunteered to argue the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 before the court, but counsel for the defendants, fearing the effect upon the jury deemed it inexpedient to have so rabid an Abolitionist take part in the trial, and such service was declined. The following syllabus of the charge indicates the rules of law laid down to guide the jury.
(1) "It is under the constitution and acts of Congress only, that the owner of a slave has the right to reelaim him in a state where slavery does not exist."
(2) "There is no principle in a common law, in the law of nations or of nature which authorize such a reeaption."
(3) "A parol authority by the master to his agent, is sufficient to authorize a seizure of a fugitive from labor."
(4) "To make a person liable for a rescue in such a case, he must aet 'knowingly and willingly.' "
(5) "But this knowledge that the eolored person is a fugitive from labor is inferable from circumstances."
(6) "To everyone who mningles with the crowd, it is not neces- sary that the agent should state on what authority he proceeds. It is enough that he states it generally."
(7) "And one of a erowd, who interposes by manual foree or by en- couraging others, by words, to reseue a fugitive is responsible."
(8) "But he does not make himself responsible where he endeavors to allay the excitement and prevent a breach of the peace."
(9) "The agent, in seizing a fugitive from labor, acts under the sanction of law, no warrant being necessary."
* * *
#
(11) "Where a rescue is made by the continuous action of a crowd, anyone who took a part in the course of action is responsible, and may be sued with others who participated at a different time in the same action."
(12) "A female fugitive from labor, having had a child during her residence in a free state, on an action for her value and for the value of her husband, etc., on a charge of reseue against the defendants, the court held, as the child was not claimed in the declaration, the question whether the claimant had a right to it and a control over it, was not necessarily involved in the case."
* *
* # *
(14) "An expression by the agent of the plaintiff that he should * * * not pursue the slaves, is no abandonment of his right of aetion." 87
. This is one of the first cases under the statute that was tried, and it became a leading case. The charge was as fair an interpretation of the law as it then existed, and was as favorable to the defendants as the rules of law would permit. The defendant's only hope of suc- 87 4 McLean, 402. Giltner vs. Gorham, et al.
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cess was based upon the anti-slavery sentiments of the jury. The law as interpreted by the court was a revelation to the parties, and to the people at large. It was quoted and discussed at the fireside, in the pulpit, on the platform, on the stump and in the press throughout the land. For the first time, freemen realized that they were made the un- willing tools of the slave-holder and were compelled by law, under penalties of ruinous fine and imprisonment to restore the fleeing slave to his pursuing master. A bitter hatred of slavery was aroused and a de- termination to limit and cripple the institution was created. On the 12th of June, 1847, the jury disagreed and was discharged. The trial had been followed with intense interest both north and south.
The defendant, Charles T. Gorham was well-known, and a man of wide influence. He had always been a Democrat and a political ad- herent of Gen. Cass. After witnessing the cruelties of slavery in his own town and after facing the influence of the slave-power in court, like Gen. Cass upon the Wilmot Proviso, "a great change came over his mind," and repudiating the pro-slavery platform of his party, announced his hostility to that institution. Rejecting the extreme radicalism of the Garrison Abolitionists, and the nullifying measures of the Liberty Party of the day and seeking practical methods he advocated the exclusion of slavery from the territories, as the best means of attack. From that time until slavery was destroyed, Charles T. Gorham waged a relent- less warfare with head and heart, with tongue and pen, with hand and purse, in municipal, legislative, county, congressional, state and na- tional conventions, at the hustings and at the polls, in private and in official life, in every practical manner against the accursed institution. He was ably and eloquently supported by Hovey K. Clarke, the local at- torney in the case, who had similar political antecedents. Under their leadership, Marshall and Calhoun County became an important center of influence in the anti-slavery movement. A call for the celebrated Buffalo convention had been made to meet on the 9th day of August, 1848. While these Marshall men did not attend this convention in per- son, they were ably represented. Erastus Hussey of Battle Creek, a staunch Quaker Abolitionist, and an active superintendent of an im- portant division of the Under-ground Railroad, and Austin Blair of Jackson, also counsel in the suit, and a radical anti-slavery man, had watched the proceedings of the case from the fugitives' door to the disagreement of the jury, with a personal interest, and had been in constant touch, and in frequent consultation with Gen. Gorham and his associates during that time, and had been aroused by the Cross- white affair. It was at the request of Charles T. Gorham, Hovey K. Clarke and other citizens of Marshall that they should attend the con- vention, represent the anti-slavery men of this vicinity, and help organ- ize a national party on an anti-slavery platform. These men attended that convention and took an active part in organizing the Free-Soil Party, which was the first national party organized to restrict the ex- tension of slavery in a constitutional way and eventually to destroy it. which prepared the way for the organization of the party of Lincoln years after. The 8th and 16th planks of the platform adopted are as follows: "Resolved, That we accept the issues which the slave-power
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has foreed upon us, and to their demand for more slave states, and more slave territory, our calm but final answer is, no more slave states, and no more slave territory. Let the soil of our extensive domain be kept free for the hardy pioneers of our own land, and the oppressed and banished of other lands, seeking homes of comfort and fields of enter- prise in the new world."
(16) "Resolved, That we inscribe on our banner: 'Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men,' and under it we will fight on, and fight forever until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions."
The declaration of independence of Marshall men, made by words and deeds at the fugitive's door and now enrolled in a party platform, and proclaimed to the waiting world. Under the leadership of these men, the anti-slavery factions in Calhoun County were organized and were induced to support the anti-slavery candidate for Congress. As a re- sult the democratic candidate was defeated in 1848 and William Sprague, a Free-Soil Whig was elected. Ile was one of the Free-Soilers, who under the lead of Joshua R. Giddings, held the balance of power between the Whigs and the Democrats in the 31st Congress. As in 1844 the Liberty Party drew off enough anti-slavery whig votes to de- feat Henry Clay, the favorite son of Kentucky for president, so in 1848 the Free-Soil Party drew off enough Wilmot Proviso Democratie votes to defeat Lewis Cass, the favorite son of Michigan for president. Hlad it not been for the agitation, the awakening and the influence of the ('rosswhite affair the results would have been different.
The case of Giltner vs. Gorham et al. came on for the second trial in the United States court at Detroit before Hon. Ross Wilkins,s& judge, and a jury drawn and empaneled by a Democratic United States mar- shal, was sworn on the 10th day of November, 1848. The case was again closely contested, and on the 5th day of December, 1848, a verdiet was rendered in favor of Francis Giltner, for the value of Adam Crosswhite, his wife and four children assessed at the sum of $1,926 damages with costs of suit to be taxed against Charles T. Gorham, Oliver C. Com- stock, Jr., Jarvis Hurd, George Ingersoll, Herman Camp, Platner Moss, Charles Berger and James Smith, the suit having been previously dis- continued as to defendants Cook, Easterly, Hobart, and Parker. The taxable cost of the suit was heavy, numerous depositions had been made in Marshall; the depositions of slave-dealers in Kentucky had been taken to prove the value of this man and woman and their four children and scores of witnesses had been subpoenaed and kept in attendance at Detroit during the two long trials. At that time, Roger B. Taney, after- wards of Dred Scott decision fame, was Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and a majority of the associate justiees were slave-holders, or pro-slavery men. An appeal offered little or no promise of relief and the learned attorneys for the defendant could point out no errors in the ruling or the charges of the court, as the law then existed which would justify an appeal. The only recourse was to pay this
88 Ross Wilkins was the first distriet judge of the United States at Detroit, hold- ing that office from 1836-1870. He was succeeded by John W. Longyear. Farmer's History of Detroit and Michigan.
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judgment and heavy bill of costs. Some of the defendants had no prop- erty, and the financial burden to satisfy this judgment fell principally upon the defendants, Gorham, Comstock, and Hurd. These men have been compelled to defray the greater part of the expense of defending the suit, and ruin seemed certain.
Zachariah Chandler, then a stirring merchant of Detroit, had attended the trials and watched the Crosswhite affair from its inception at Mar- shall until the final verdict. His sturdy anti-slavery sentiments were aroused. His keen political instincts enabled him to discover and trace the pro-slavery influences brought to bear upon the trial, and being satisfied that Mr. Gorham and his associates were victims of unjust laws, , enforced by the slave-powers he called on Mr. Gorham at his hotel and made his acquaintance. He voluntarily made himself a party to the suit and assumed a share of the burdens. He promised and afterwards paid, and raised a handsome sum of money toward the judgment and thereby relieved some of the defendants from financial ruin. Thus commenced the warm personal friendship between the sagacious, radical and rash Zachariah Chandler and the sagacious, conservative and cau- tions Charles T. Gorham, which continned until death, and which contri- buted largely to the elevation and influence of both men in political life.
These Marshall men united the enemies of slavery, and under their leadership in 1849, Charles Dickie was elected to the Senate, Erastus Hussey, Hovey K. Clark and Nathan Pierce to the House, all radical Abolitionists or pronounced anti-slavey men, and Calhoun County had a solid anti-slavery delegation in the legislature of 1850. The county took a leading position in opposition to the institution of slavery and maintained it until slavery was no more.
As Lexington and Concord preceded the Declaration of Independence and Yorktown, so Marshall preceded the Buffalo convention, the organ- ization under the oaks at Jackson and the Emancipation Proclamation, Appomatox and the Thirteenth Amendment. The sons of the brave men of Lexington and Concord at Marshall in 1847, were more altruistic than were their sires in 1775. The sires risked their liberty and prop- erty for themselves, their kindred, their posterity. The sons risked their liberty and their property, not for themselves, their kindred, and their posterity, but for another, an alieu race, a race of slaves. The sous were braver than their sires. . The sires were unknown, disguised as Indians and went at night when they defied the tyrant's law and threw the tea into Boston Harbor. The sons were known, undisguised, and went in the light of day when they defied the tyrant's law and loosened the bondsman's chains. When the voice of tyranny asked for their names, quick and distinct came the response from one "Charles T. Gor- ham. Put it down in capital letters and take it back to Kentucky to the land of slavery as a warning to others and a lesson to you," from another, "Oliver Cromwell Comstock, Jr. Don't forget to put down the 'Junior' as I don't want my father to answer for my sins," from au- other. "James M. Easterly" from another, "Jarvis Hurd," and from an- other, "Asa B. Cooke." (Brave men were they.) (In the slave-holder's declaration filed in court, while the names of the other defendants were
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printed in italies, the name of Charles T. Gorham was printed in capital letters.)
While the enemies of African slavery were organizing and concentrat- ing their force upon measures to cripple the institution in Michigan, the friends of that institution were equally active in Kentucky. The con- stitutional convention of 1849 inserted a clause in the state constitu- tion declaring the right of property in slaves to "be before and higher than any constitutional sanctions." The BIne-grass State seems to have antedated Seward in announcing the "higher law" doctrine. As before stated, Francis Troutman's version of the Marshall affair had been laid before the legislature of Kentucky and the legislature had instructed their Senators and members of Congress to secure further guarantees for the reclaiming of fugitive slaves. Ilenry Clay was a personal friend of Franeis Giltner, and being familiar with the whole Crosswhite affair he took a personal interest in the ease. On the 29th of January, 1850, Mr. Clay introduced into the United States Senate his celebrated com- promise resolution, demanding a more "effective fugitive slave law."
In the heated discussion of the so-called compromise measures, in their various forms and phases in Congress from January 29th until Septem- ber 18th, 1850, when the fugitive slave law was signed by the president Marshall and Marshall men were ever upon the lips of the champion of slavery. Gen. Gorham, Dr. Comstock, Rev. Randal Hobart, and other old line Democrats were denounced as Abolitionists and negro thieves. Men of high standing and culture were branded as vagabonds, villians and robbers. The abusive tirades were repeated and enlarged upon by the pro-slavery press, and on the pro-slavery stump north and south, and Marshall became the cynosure of the whole land. This intemperate discussion of the Troutman version of the " Abolition mob" as he termed it, was gratifying to the south, but it was consolidation of the free-soil sentiments of the north. The Crosswhite case, as it has been shown, was the proximate cause of the obnoxious Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. That case demonstrated the fact that the less stringent law then in force, could not be enforced in the liberty-loving communities of the north, and the arrogant south undertook to intimidate the north with heavy penalties.
The fugitive slave law was prepared by the most radical pro-slavery champion. It provided for numerous United States Commissioners to be appointed, gave them the power of judge to remand men to slavery, deprived the alleged slave of his own testimony, right of jury trial and habeas corpus. It gave the commissioner a ten dollar fee if he decided for the master, and a five dollar fee if he decided for the slave. United States Marshals were required to make arrests, and if they refused, they should be fined $1,000 and be made to pay for the slave. The Marshals and Commissioners could call upon by-standers to assist in making captures and if a citizen refused he could be imprisoned six months, fined $1,000 and made liable for $1,000 damages. This despotic law violated every human impulse and made the usual Christian courtesies a crime, and in fact made every man, woman and child a slave catcher at the request of the master. This infamous law designed to protect the institution of slavery was overruled and produced an irresistible
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wave of anti-slavery sentiment and opposition, which deluged the whole land and undermined the institution itself. Public sentiment was so strong in Marshall in 1847 that the old law could not be enforced, and now that same sentiment, more earnest than ever, would not enforce the new. It was boldly announced in private and in public, in the press, in the pulpit, on the platform, and on the floor of Congress that freemen would not enforce the law. The sentiment of the people was expressed by the resolution of a Massachusetts mass meeting in these words, "Law or no law, constitution or no constitution, union or no union, the hospitality of Massachusetts will never be violated by the delivery of a fugitive from oppression, to tyrant's again." This law had shocked the moral sensibility of the whole north, it had added new fuel to the anti-slavery flame, and tended to unite all factions against it. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 developed an unexpected force which fired the hearts of freemen everywhere, and hastened the doom of slavery. That law caused the graphie delineation of the evils of slavery in Uncle Tom's Cabin. The author of that narrative had abstained for years from all consideration of the subject of slavery, but when she learned of the cruel, un-Christian and inhuman provision of the statute and heard men contend that it was the citizen's duty to enforce it, she tells us in her concluding chapter that she could "only think that these men and these Christians cannot know what slavery is; if they did, such a question could never be opened for discussion," and from this arose a desire to exhibit it in a living dramatic reality. Thus this cruel law has awakened and inspired its own Nemesis. The gifted author com- menced gathering material and perfecting her plan, and in June, 1851, the publication of that mighty political narrative was commenced as a serial, in the National Era, an anti-slavery paper published at Wash- ington and was continued until April, 1852. Some of the personal ex- perience of Adam Crosswhite and wife in fleeing from bondage are woven into that story. The narrative in the National Era was read and re-read. Nearly half a million copies were published in book form in rapid succession, and scattered all over the north and the English-speak- ing world. It was quickly translated into twenty different languages, and it has done more for universal freedom than any other, if not all other causes combined. It was dramatized and put on the stage and acted all over the north. It revealed the horrors of slavery, touched the great heart of humanity, and united the people in one common pur- pose to limit and destroy the curse. Had it not been for the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Uncle Tom's Cabin would never have been written, and the evils of slavery would not have been thus revealed.
In 1852 the Whig and Democratic parties, both blind and oblivious to the swelling tide of anti-slavery sentiment, accepted the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 as a finality, and promised to enforce it. There had been for a long time a strong anti-slavery sentiment in the Whig Party. The writer, when a boy, heard Gen. Cass prophesy that the Whig Party would eventually be abolitionized. This surrender to the slave-power drove hundreds of Whigs out of the party, and its doom as a national party was sealed. After the old parties had made their nominations and announced their pro-slavery platforms, the Free-Soil Party held
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a convention and nominated John P. HIale of New Hampshire, for presi- dent and George W. Julian of Indiana for vice-president. The platform contained these planks.
(6) "That slavery is a sin against God, and a crime against man, which no human enactment or usage can make right, and that Chris- tianity, humanity and patriotism alike demand its abolition.
(7) "That the fugitive act of 1850 is repugnant to the constitution, to the principles of the common law, to the spirit of Christianity, and to the sentiments of the civilized world; we therefore deny its force on the American people and demand its immediate and total repeal.
(21) "That we inseribe on our banner 'Free-Soil, Free-Speech, Free- Labor, and Freedom.' and under it will fight on and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions."
The sentiments of Marshall men, as expressed by words and deeds at the fugitive door in 1847, were here again proclaimed in a national platform. The agitation continued, but the pro-slavery party triumphed at the election. The foes of slavery were as yet unwilling to repudiate old party affiliations, and unite in a national crusade for liberty. The chastening of another pro-slavery scourge was required.
Slavery had been prohibited from all the territories lying north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude in 1820 by the so- called Missouri Compromise. This act was copied from the ordinance of 1787, excluding slavery from the Northwest Territory. The Wilmot Pro- viso followed the same principle, and the principle had been repeatedly applied. The slave-power determined to break down this barrier and to repudiate this Jeffersonian policy. A bill was pending in the Senate to organize the Territory of Nebraska. Senator Archibald Dixon of Ken- tueky, on the 16th of January, 1854. introduced an amendment to repeal the law passed in 1820 as a solemn compact between the slave and the free states. Then commenced the discussion of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Lewis Cass, 1847, as we have seen, in his Nicholson letter, repudi- ated the principle of exeluding slavery from the territories by act of Congress, and endorsed the policy of allowing the people of the Terre- tory to determine whether slavery should or should not exist. Thus the doctrine of popular sovereignty was proclaimed. Under the leader- ship of Stephen A. Douglas, this doctrine was endorsed by the pro- slavery party, and in the discussion continued on this issue. The most earnest debate of modern times ensued in Congress, in the press, in the pulpit, on the stump, and by the fireside. The bill repealing the re- striction of slavery passed the Senate March 3d, the House May 24, and was signed by the President May 30th, 1854. The Democratic party had thus repudiated the principles of its founder. Then eom- menced the struggle between the friends of slavery and the friends of freedom in Kansas. The application of the principles of popular sover- eignty in the territories on the slavery issue, meant force against force --- war between the contending parties actually existed. John Brown was a product of that struggle, and his subsequent raid on Harper's Ferry, but a subsequent guerilla skirmish resulting from the war in Kansas. The bad faith of the slave power, the hot diseussion, the bloody struggle
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and the bitterness resulting therefrom caused men to seek a practical remedy-an end of the conflict.
The anti-slavery sentiment in Michigan was intense, and anti-slavery men were now ready to act. Marshall men took the final lead in start- ing the crusade against slavery. Hovey K. Clarke, chairman of the State Central Committee and Erastus Hussey then of Marshall with others called a mass meeting of the Free-Soil party to meet at Jackson, February 22, 1854. All who favored the national free-soil platform of 1852 were invited to this convention. Hovey K. Clarke was chairman of the committee on resolutions and drafted the platform adopted by the convention. Erastus Hussey was also a member of the committee on resolutions and a member of the committee on nominations. The resolutions denounced the proposed repeal of the Missouri compromise and endorsed the free-soil platform of 1852. Kinsley S. Bingham was nominated for governor, Nathan Pierce for lieutenant-governor and Hovey K. Clarke for attorney-general. Numerous addresses were made before the convention. Halmer H. Emmons of Detroit, afterwards United States circuit judge, an anti-slavery Whig, was called out for a speech. He endorsed the platform, commended the nominees of the convention, expressed the earnest desire that before election day, all friends of freedom might stand upon one platform, and pledged to resist the extension of slavery. Mr. Emmons made a powerful speech in favor of union, which, like the speech of Patrick Henry in the Virginia con- vention of 1775, carried everything before it and inspired men on to action. As Patrick Henry inspired "the first general recommendation for a general congress by any public assembly" in 1774, so Halmar H. Emmons made the first appeal in a state convention for united actions in 1854. Messrs. Clarke and Emmons as counsel for the Marshall men in the slave suit, had been aroused and inspired by that drama. This speech and Mr. Emmons' influence was a power in bringing about har- mony and united action all over the State. Seth Lewis, the editor of the Marshall Statesman, reflecting the local sentiment, all through the Kansas and Nebraska discussion, contended that it was the duty of citizens to vote for none but anti-slavery men. Charles M. Bordwell was elected supervisor of Eckford and Charles D. Holmes of Albion, in April, 1854, on the anti-Nebraska ticket, and the Statesman advocated the union of all anti-slavery men in a new party. A mass meeting of Calhoun citizens met at Marshall, May 30th, 1854, and under the leader- ship of Erastus Hussey, Hovey K. Clarke, Charles T. Gorham, Nathan Pierce, George Ingersoll, resolved: "That waiving all previous party's preferences we are willing to unite and co-operate with all the friends of freedom, in an eternal war against the extension of slavery in the United States." It endorsed the nominee of the Jackson convention, approved the mass meeting of the freemen called to meet at Kalamazoo on the 21st of June and appointed a committee of three from each town- ship for the purpose of organizing anti-slavery men. Joseph Warren, editor of the Detroit Tribune during the Kansas-Nebraska debates in Congress, like his illustrous namesake, Dr. Joseph Warren, in the Boston Gazette in years preceding the war for independence published editorials of masterly boldness and earnestness to arouse the friends
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