TRUMBULL COUNTY OHIO - History: Oberlin-Wellington Rescue Trial part 3,(pub. 1925) *************************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. *************************************************************************** File contributed for use on the Trumbull County Pages by Margaret Strickland margstri@bmi.net August 28, 2001 *************************************************************************** Subj: [OHTRUMBU] Bacon, Continuation of Oberlin-Wellington Rescue Trial, Part 3, History of Ohio, 1925 Date: 9/1/2001 11:28:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time From: margstri@bmi.net (Margaret Strickland) To: OHTRUMBU-L@rootsweb.com For Carole V. : The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue - Volume II, pages 224-232 Pages 228-232: The accused from Wellington, who participated in the rescue, were encouraged to accept a light sentence and, on April 5, with a single exception, entered a plea of nolle contendere (a plea by a defendant, "which, while not admitting guilt, subjects him to all the consequences of a plea of guilty") and were fined twenty dollars and costs and sent to jail twenty-four hours. This limited further prosecution to the Oberlin rescuers. The attorneys for the indicted men had complained that the jury selected to pass judgment on the acts of their clients all belonged to the political party of the Buchanan administration. This claim was not denied. The obvious defense of the district attorney was that only through a jury thus selected could the government hope to secure a conviction. On this question of slavery and the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law it was next to impossible to get a verdict from a jury politically divided. Partisanship frequently ruled the court and rendered judgment with small regard for the law or justice. While the United States District Court was using strong-arm methods to keep faith with the South and punish infractions of the Fugitive Slave Law, the courts of Lorain County, which were administered by men of opposite political faith, had not been idle. The grand jury of that county on February 15, 1859, returned bills of indictment against Rufus P. Mitchell, Anderson Jennings, Jacob K. Lowe, and Samuel Davis "for kidnapping and attempting to carry out of the state, in an unlawful manner, a negro boy name John Price." These men were the agents of the alleged owner of the slave, John Price. They had thrown themselves technically liable to the state law against kidnapping and the officials of Lorain County, who were evidently in sympathy with the Oberlin rescuers, promptly indicted these men who were chiefly instrumental in getting the prominent participants of the Oberlin-Wellington affair into jail. In a short time the slave hunters were out of jail on bail awaiting trial before the county courts, with prospects of a sentence to the penitentiary. An interesting collateral development of the trial of the rescuers was the habeas corpus proceedings that brought two of the condemned men, Bushnell and Langston, before the Supreme Court of Ohio. The question involved was the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law. Arguments were made in behalf of the contention that the law was unconstitutional by Attorney Riddle and the attorney-general of the state, C. P. Wolcott. The address of the latter was an extended and illuminating arraignment of the Fugitive Slave Law and a searching analysis of the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States affirming its constituionality. This consumed the entire afternoon of May 25th and the forenoon of the following day. The case was then submitted to the court. Stripped of all verbiage and extraneous matter, the real question at issue was the power of the Supreme Court of a state to declare a national law unconstitutional. In this instance the party contending for states rights was the one that in the near future was to take up arms in support of national supremacy, while the party pleading for the enforcement of a national law and insisiting upon the subordination of the state was to reverse its attitude and open fire upon the Government of the United States to enforce by civil war the right of the state to annul all national laws and to sever the ties that bound them to the Union. In fact, the question of slavery had so divided the people into bitterly hostile camps that they no longer hesitated at nullification, and at times it seemed uncertain which party would first reach that goal. The decision of the Supreme Court was understood to depend upon the chief justice, Joseph R. Swan. He was a republican and the radical leaders of that party, who were in the ascendancy, were expecting him to decide in favor of the condemned men and against the constitutionality of the United States statute. While Judge Swan was known to be opposed to the Fugitive Slave Law, he did not believe that the Supreme Court of the state could nullify a national law that had been sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States. In the concluding sentence of his decision Judge Swan says: "If, after more than sixty years of acquiescence by all departments of the national and state government, in the power of Congress to provide for the punishment of rescuers of escaped slaves, that power is to be disregarded and all laws which may be passed by Congress on this subject henceforth to be persistently resisted and nullified, the work of revolution should not be begun by the conservators of the public peace." Judge Scott and Peck concurred with Chief Justice Swan, while Judges Brinkerhoff and Sutliff dissented. For this act Judge Swan was denied renomination by his party and soon afterward resigned. His decision, however, saved Ohio from classification with the "nullifiers" and serious complications that must have immediately resulted from a clash of authority between the two Supreme Courts. In speaking of this decision in after years, James H. Fairchild, president of Oberlin College, said: "A writ of habeas corpus was granted by one of the judges of the Supreme Court, commanding the sheriff to bring Bushnell and Langston before that court, that the reason of their imprisonment might be considered. The case was ably argued before the full bench, at Columbus, for a week; but the court, three to two, declined to grant a release. This was a severe blow to the men in jail. They had counted with much confidence upon relief from that quarter. It is idle to speculate upon the possible results if a single judge had held a different opinion. Salmon P. Chase was governor at that time, and it was well understood that he would sustain a decision releasing the prisoners by the power at his command; and the United States Government was as fully committed to the execution of the Fugitive Slave Law. This would have placed Ohio in conflict with the general government in defense of state rights, and if the party of freedom throughout the North had rallied, as seems probable, the war might have come in 1859 instead of 1861, with a secession of the Northern instead of the Southern states. A single vote apparently turned the scale, and after a little delay the part of freedom took possession of the government and the party of slavery became the seceders." Failing in the habeas corpus proceedings, Bushnell and Langston were returned to jail. Almost coincident with the effort to release the prisoners through the Supreme Court of the state was the great mass convention of the Republicans of the Western Reserve in Cleveland, May 24, 1859. Large delegations came from outside of the city and the people of Cleveland were numerously present. Over 10,000 listened to the speeches, delivered from a stand on the public square. Joshua R. Giddings aroused great enthusiasm by his denunciation of the Fugitive Slave Law and his expressed determination to find a way to release the imprisoned Oberlin rescuers. Governor Salmon P. Chase, in a firm but guarded and dignified address, counseled agaist revolutionary methods and urged the use of the ballot box for the redress of wrongs and the repeal of iniquitous laws. There were also addresses by Joseph M. Root, Reyben Hitchcock, Columbus Delano, D. K. Cartier, John P. Converse, O. P. Brown, Asa Mahan, John Langston (colored), D. R. Tilden, Rufus P. Spalding and others. Ringing resolutions were adopted, savoring in some of the clauses strongly of state rights, and denouncing the Fugitive Slave Law and the Dred Scott decision. Among the declarations were the following: "That the Dred Scott decision, reversing all the well-established rules which for ages have been the bulwark of personal liberty, yields its legitimate fruits in the recent atrocities commited in the heart of the Western Reserve, and calls upon us for new efforts and new sacrifices for constitutional liberty. "That the several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government, but that by compact, under the style and title of a constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constitute a general government for special purposes and delegate to that government certain definite powers, reserving each state for itself the residuary mass of rights to their own self-goverment. * * * "That Joshua R. Giddings of Ashtabula County, Herman Canfield of Medina County and Robert F. Pain of Cuyahoga County be constituted a committee to sue the writ of habeas corpus in behalf of said prisoners (the Oberlin rescuers) without unnecessary delay, and that they address the application at their discretion to any judicial officer of the State of Ohio having power to grant the writ." There was a great procession, the delegations from Lorain County alone numbering about 2,000. There was enthusiasm and excitement when they came opposite the jail where the Oberlin men were imprisioned. Sheriff Wightman permitted the prisoners the freedom of the jail yard and the opportunity to shake hands across the fence with their admiring friends. After the procession had broken up the Operlin and Wellington bands were admitted to the jail yard. In answer to repeated calls some of the prisoners responded with brief remarks. "We believe," said Professor H. E. Peck, "and your presence here today testifies to us, that the issue of our present griefs will be the making of man hunting upon the reserve a difficult and dangerous pursuit." "Gentlemen,: said Ralph Plumb, "you are here today because you have an intelligent appreciation of the important truth that the right of the meanest inhabitant of our great state can not be ruthlessly trampled under foot, without endangering your own." "It is a great comfort to us," declared J. M. Fitch, "while enduring this imprisonment, to know that when we who are now incarcerated, have been sufficiently ground between the upper and nether mill-stones of Federal power there are hundreds of thousands more of just such in our noble state, who are ready to enter the hopper as future grists." It was not entirely due to the fact that he was a colored man that the four minute speech of Mr. Langston aroused enthusiasm. Following is the concluding parpagraph: "The foul spirit of slavery has crushed the rights of the states beneath its iron heel and led the Federal judiciary captive at its despotic will. Shall it, too, crush out the spirit of the free citizens of Ohio? Will you tamely submit to this tyranny and depotism? Will you not defend your own rights, sustain your own liberty and rollback this tide of judicial usurpation which is sapping the very foundation of your country's liberty, so that being free and untrammeled yourselves, you may assist us who are groining beneath the cruel weight of gigantic wrongs and brutal oppression?" The days of June passed slowly. The failure of the prisoners to secure release through intervention of the Supreme Court of Ohio, coming immediately after the great mass meeting in Cleveland, was somehwat discouraging to them and their friends. The jail now began gradually to take on the aspect of a workshop. Tools were brought in and one man resumed his work as a harness maker; another commenced to make boots and shoes; the students resumed their studies in order not to lose their standing in college; and finally to pass away the time and keep the world advised in regard to their experiences and meditations, the publication of a prison paper commenced. On the whole time passed rather pleasantly within the prison walls, while in the state outside the "irrepressible conflict" proceeded with increasing bitterness and more ominous portent. Every day brought visitors with words of cheer and encouragement to the prisoners. They were regarded, not as felons, but as moral heroes. Without their knowledge, however, the days of their detention were rapidly approaching the end. Whether Joshua R. Giddings and his committee accomplished in a measure the work for which they were appointed is not known. It is more than probable, however, that the indictments hanging over the men from the South for kidnapping and the near approach of the day set for trial was the potential persuader. The conclusion of the whole affair, so far as court proceeding and penalties were concerned, may be inferred from the following editorial in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, staunch support of the Buchanan administration, in its issue of July 6, 1859: OBERLIN CASES NOLLED -- HIGHER LAW TRIUMPHANT We learn with astonishment that the United States district attorney has nolled the indictment against the Oberlin rescuers now in jail on condition that the Oberlinites will nolle the indictment against the Kentucky witnesses who were under arrest on a trumped up charge of kdnapping. This arrangement, we understand, has been made at the solicitation of the four Kentucky gentlemen, who, while under recognizance of the United States Court to appear here and testify in the rescue cases, were indicted by an Oberlin Lorain jury and arrested while in the discharge of their duty, on a false charge of kidnapping. They were thrust into the Lorain County jail, but were subsequently released on bail. A special term of the Lorain County Court was to be held on the sixth inst. to try them, and Lorain County jury was all in readiness to send them to purgatory or the penitentiary, without regard to constitutions, courts, or laws of the land. An effort was made to get them out of the hands of the Oberlinites by a writ of habeas corpus, issued by Judge McLean, but the sheriff of Lorain hid himself for several days and the probate judge ran away to prevent the fail from surrendering the prisoners up, so that the writ could take effect, and in this way nullified the law and set at defiance that "Great Writ of Right" which these same Oberlinites have resorted to and have had the full benefit of on two occasions since these arrests have been made. Finding no law in Lorain but the higher law, and seeing the determination of the sheriff, judge and jury to send them to the penitentiary any way, for no crime under any human law, but on a charge trumped up on purpose to drive them out of the country, and having been kept away from their families most of the summer and away from their business at great pecuniary expense to themselves, for the government fees for witnesses do not pay board bills, they proposed to exchange nolles, and the district attorney consented to it. So the Government has been beaten at last with law, justice and fact all on its side, and Oberlin with its rebellous higher law creed is triumpant. The precedent is a bad one. All these factionists have to do in future, whenever any of their number is arrested for the violation of our statute law, is to pay no regard to the writs of the lower law courts; but threaten the witnesses with the terror of their own inquistions and enforce the penalties of the higher law. This is Mormonism, with Professor Peck acting the part of Brigham Young, and it will have to be put down, as Mormonism has been, by the strong arm of military power. There will be some unearthly shoutings by these triumphant myrmidons of Mormonism. Oberlin wil blaze in her new won glory, and Te Deums will be sung in all her churches. There will be a great accession to her calendar of saints. Those immortal men, who, armed with muskets, mobbed the United States officials while in the discharge of their sworn duties, will now be canonized instead of cannonaded, and Saint Peck will be listed with Saint Peter as worthy to hold the keys of Paradise. The arrangements to nole charges against all parties was made as stated at the instance of the men from Kentucky. While they had been bailed out of jail, their experiences had been expensive and nerve raking. They determined to end them and through their attorney arranged the terms. The sudden turn of fortune took the prisoners by complete surprise. The news spread rapidly through Cleveland on the morning of July 6, and friends were soon flocking to the jail to congratulate the released rescuers. A big demonstration was improvised and amid the thundering of cannon, they were conducted to the afternoon train which was to bear them back to Oberlin. In response to a call, Judge Brayton delivered a brief but eloquent speech congratulating them and bidding them God-speed. Many from outside of the college town, who had been identified with the case, including Sheriff Wightman and Jailer Smith, accompanied the rescuers on their triumphant homeward journey. At Oberlin they received perhaps the most remarkable welcome ever tendered in the state. There was an address by Professor James Monroe, afterwards to serve many years as a representative of the Oberlin district in the Congress of the United States. There were prominent citizens and almost all of the rescuers. Mr. Bushnell, the rescuer first tried and convicted, returned to Oberlin later and was accorded an enthusiastic reception. Thus at last, after a series of exciting incidents that attracted the attention of the state and the Nation, ended happily and triumphantly for the participants, and passed into history, the Oberlin-Wellington rescue.4 4 For detailed account see Shipherd, Jacob R., "History of Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, " Vol. VIII, p. 280 Margaret Strickland Walla Walla, WA ==============================