CHAPTER FIRST.

THE modest village of WELLINGTON, which of late seems to have had greatness - or, better, perhaps, notoriety - thrust upon it, is by no means a locality of pretentious claims. It is a plain, thriving village, in a flourishing and populous township of the same name, and lies upon the Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati Rail Road, thirty-six miles south-west of the city first named. It is, therefore, within the bounds of that part of Northern Ohio widely known as the "Connecticut Western Reserve," which was first settled some forty-five or fifty years ago by the representatives of Puritan New England, and has ever since been noted for the characteristics of the men who founded and shaped its social, political, and religious institutions.

THE RESCUE has been variously called, in different prints, " The Oberlin Rescue," "The Wellington Rescue," and "The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue." It is sufficient to remark, that the alleged fugitive was a resident of Oberlin, was arrested near home, and taken to Wellington, whence, with the aid of friends, he is said to have made his escape. These friends were from Oberlin as well as from Wellington, and very naturally, perhaps, the Oberlin friends were the more active in his behalf. But since the locality of THE RESCUE was Wellington, it seems natural, without entering into any comparative analysis of the assistance contributed by the citizens of either place to the release of our hero, to denominate it, as for the purposes of this volume we shall," THE Oberlin-WelLINGTON Rescue."

Before ushering the reader into the labyrinthical mazes of this necessarily multitudinous volume, benevolence would seem to dictate an outline sketch of the ground which is so dis

OBERLIN is a village of some 3,000 permanent inhabitants, to which, for nine months in the year, may be added 800 students, who seek the advantages afforded in the various departments, academic, collegiate, and theological, of OBERLIN COLLEGE. It lies upon the South-connectedly and repetitiously beaten by the ern Division of the Cleveland and Toledo Rail Road, nine miles due north of Wellington, and thirty-three miles nearly west of Cleveland. Both these communities are within the county of Lorain, of which the village of Elyria, sixteen miles distant from Wellington and eight from Oberlin, is the county seat.

thousand feet of witnesses, counsel, court, and compiler, in the progress of these pages.

Know, then, gentle reader, that some time in the month of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, we are told that a negro slave, called John, about eighteen years of age, was missing from the

plantation of Mr. John G. Bacon, a citizen of stay at the Russia House, and the colored peo

the northern part of Mason county, Kentucky. Late in August, 1858, Mr. Anderson Jennings, a neighbor and personal friend of this bereaved planter, taking a northerly tour in pursuit of some escaped chattels belonging to his uncle's estate, to which he sustained the relation of an administrator, stopped a few days in Oberlin, and while there became possessed of information which induced him to write at once to his friend Bacon that the long lost John was undoubtedly in Oberlin, and that with the assistance of a witness and the authority of a power of attorney, the writer would quite likely be able to capture and return him to the domestic hearth. Omitting intervening details, let it suffice to say that on Wednesday the eighth of September following, Mr. Jennings found the wish of his neighborly heart gratified, by pressing the hand of Richard P. Mitchell, a gentleman whom he had known as an employee of Mr. Bacon, and receiving at his hand a document purporting to be a duly drawn and certified power of attorney, authorizing Anderson Jennings to capture and return to the State of Kentucky, one negro slave called John, who, owing service to John G. Bacon in said State, had unlawfully, knowingly, and willingly escaped therefrom-together with the assurance that he, Mr. Mitchell, could identify the truant beyond the possibility of mistake. To make assurance doubly sure, Mr. Jennings next day took the cars for Columbus, possibly not being aware that he was travelling from one judicial district into another, and obtained a warrant from one Sterne Chittenden of that place, who certifies himself to be a U. S. Commissioner, and authorized by an act of Congress approved Sept. 18, 1850, to issue such warrants, commanding the U. S. Marshal, or any deputy U. S. Marshal of the Southern District of Ohio, to apprehend, etc., the boy John; which warrant was intrusted for execution to Jacob K. Lowe, who is said to be a deputy of the U. S. Marshal for the said Southern District. Mr. Lowe engaged the assistance of Samuel Davis, Esq., an acting Deputy-Sheriff of Franklin county, and the trio set out for Oberlin, where they arrived on the evening of Friday.

The suspicions of the good people of Oberlin having been aroused by the strange conduct of Mr. Jennings during his previous protracted

ple having become alarmed for their personal safety, by an attempt only a few days before to kidnap at midnight an entire family, Mr. Jennings and his party, as he tells us, were advised by their landlord and other sympathizing friends, that an attempt at arrest within the bounds of the village might not impossibly be attended with difficulties, and perhaps fail of complete success. Inquiry for "a man whom a fellow could put confidence in," to quote the gentleman's own affecting words, introduced him to the acquaintance of Mr. Lewis D. Boynton, a gentleman-farmer, whose residence is some three miles north of the College. As the result of a visit extending from Saturday evening to Sabbath evening, a son of this Mr. Boynton, aged thirteen years, and bearing no less a name than that of the Bard of Avon, was engaged for a stipulated price to decoy John into a ride out of town the next day, and at a specified place to deliver him into the bosom of his old friends, who had so long sought him sorrowing.

This plan, after a slight amendment, proved successful, and John was arrested on Monday, the 13th of September, at about 11 o'clock, A. M., some one and three fourths miles north-east of Oberlin, by Jacob K. Lowe, Richard P. Mitchell, and Samuel Davis; Mr. Jennings prudently declining to expose the head of the expedition to unnecessary peril.

The successful posse, with their prisoner, took a road which passed at a safe distance to the east of Oberlin toward Wellington, where in due time they arrived, and took quarters at the hospitable house of one Wadsworth, at that time the proprietor of the Wadsworth House. Young Shakespeare, returning from the place of capture to the Russia House, hastened to relieve Mr. Jennings's painful anxieties, and was rewarded with twice the promised fee. Making a hasty and slender meal, as we may well suppose, Mr. Jennings was soon being rapidly expressed toward Wellington, his affectionate heart overflowing with a tumult of the tenderest emotions at the prospect of once more embracing his long-lost sable friend, and speedily restoring him to home and happiness.

But the ways of Providence are inscrutable. As Marshal Lowe and his party were entering Pittsfield on their way Wellington-ward, two

young men met them. These young men has-cer from executing his writ. To warrant the tened to Oberlin with a description of the party, charge, however, of unlawfully obstructing the and a few moments sufficing to ascertain that arrest of a fugitive from labor, some act of interference on the part of the person accused John was missing—that he had been last seen must be proved, tending to impair the right of driving toward New Oberlin with Shakespeare recaption secured by the statute. Mere obBoynton that Shakespeare had returned with- struction, hinderance, or interruption is no ofout him and that the Southerners had all fence unless made to prevent a seizure in the first instance, or a recaption in case of escape. left town-an intense excitement seems to Yet it is not necessary, to constitute an obstruchave become manifest, and to have taken the tion in the sense of the term used in the statute, shape of pursuing parties. A large crowd that force or violence should be actually resortlingered about the hotel until late in the after-ed to, to defeat an arrest. The refusal to pernoon, and then suddenly dispersed. What happened and what did not happen inside this crowd and between it and the parties having John in custody, the reader must glean as best he can from the testimony. He will find much that is contradictory, some things impossible, some improbable, and some, we think, worthy of credit, there stated; all of which has with

much care and labor been written out from the witnesses' mouths for his eye, and is submitted to him as a member of that Great Jury, before which all prisoners are tried, and to which they look for condemnation or acquittal with far greater anxiety than to the twelve men who render the special verdict in Court.

- id est

The Grand JURY. So flagrant a protection of the rights of a citizen of a Free State may well be supposed to have appealed in no uncertain tones to the powers that be of course, the Federal Administration. U. S. District and Circuit Court for the Northern District of Ohio straightway assembles a Grand Jury, and the Judge thereof breaks to them his woes in the following painful strains:

mit an arrest on the premises of another, after notice that the person sought to be taken is a fugitive from labor, and a demand of permission to arrest such person is, under the law, an obstruction. And so is the removal of the alleged fugitive by the direction of another, when done to prevent an arrest. And this is for the reason that the officer, in executing the writ, is under no obligation to commit a trespass or a breach of the peace in carrying out his pur

pose.

"There are some who oppose the execution of this law from a declared sense of conscientious duty. There is, in fact, a sentiment prevalent in the community which arrogates to human conduct a standard of right above, and independent of, human laws; and it makes the CONSCIENCE of each individual in society the TEST of his own ACCOUNTABILITY to the laws of the land.

"While those who cherish this dogma claim and enjoy the protection of the law for their own lives and property, they are unwilling that the law should be operative for the protection of the constitutional rights of others. It is a The sentiment semi-religious in its development, and is almost invariably characterized by intolerance and bigotry. The LEADERS of those who acknowledge its obligations and advocate its sanctity are like the subtle prelates of the dark ages. They are versed in all they consider useful and sanctified learning-trained in certain schools in New England to manage words, they are equally successful in the social circle to manage hearts; seldom superstitious themselves, yet skilled in practising upon the superstition and credulity of others—FALSE, as it is natural a man should be whose dogmas impose upon all who are not saints according to HIS CREED the necessity of being hypocritesSELFISH, as it is natural a man should be who claims for himself the benefits of the law and the right to violate it, thereby denying its protection to others more attached to his own peculiar theories of government than to his country, and constantly striving to guide the politics of the nation with a view of overthrowing the Constitution and establishing instead a Utopian government, or rather no government at all, if based on the Federal Union.

"He remarked, that in consequence of occurrences which had recently transpired in an adjoining county, he had been requested by the District-Attorney to call the attention of the Jury to this act of Congress. He said this section prohibits the obstruction of every species of process, legal or judicial, whether issued by a Court in session, or a Judge, or a United States Circuit Court Commissioner, acting in the due administration of this law of the United States. It matters not whether the warrant is being served by the United States Marshal himself, his deputies, or any one else lawfully empowered to serve such writ.

"The offence of obstructing process does not necessarily consist of acts of rude violence. It may consist in refusing to give up possession, or opposing, or obstructing the execution of the writ by threats of violence, which it is in his power to enforce, and thus preventing the offi

"Gentlemen, this sentiment should find no place or favor in the Grand-Jury room.

Its

tendency leads to the subversion of all law, of Oberlin. To this, polite assent was given, and a consequent insecurity of all the constitu- and the two set out for the purpose. Fifteen tional rights of the citizen. The Fugitive Slave

Law may, and unquestionably does, contain of the twenty-one sought were found, and arprovisions repugnant to the moral sense of many rested. The Marshal protesting that he felt as good and conscientious people. Nevertheless, safe with the word as with the bond of any it is the law of the United States, and as such one of them, and that he wished to go on to should be recognized and executed by our Courts and Juries until abrogated or otherwise changed by the legislative department of the Government. Ours is a government of laws, and it is by virtue of the law that you and I, and every other citizen, whether residing north or south of the Ohio River, enjoys protection for his life and security for his property."

Wellington without delay, they would oblige him by remaining at their places of business as usual until the morning train next day, when they might set out alone for Cleveland, where he would await them in the depôt, — it was

unanimously decided, after consultation, to do so, and Mr. Johnson departed in peace. At Wellington, having no Prof. Peck to assist him, he succeeded in finding only a few individuals, and obtained from such as he found but qualified promises of voluntary appearance. Content with such success as he met, however, he took the evening train homeward, as empty handed as he came. The occurrences of the day following are accurately detailed by the correspondent of the New York Tribune : -

STARTING FOR COURT. At 10:42 this forenoon, fifteen of the twenty-one residents of Oberlin for whom warrants were issued left the Oberlin station, amid the shouts and huzzas of a large crowd of ladies and gentlemen who had A considerable assembled to see them off. number of the most prominent men of the village, including Mayor Beecher, volunteered to accompany the prisoners and see them comfortably quartered or safely returned. Marshal Johnson was in waiting as they left the cars, and pointing the prisoners to omnibuses bound for the Bennett House, directed them to take good care of themselves and be ready for a call at 2 o'clock. After dinner, the Hon. R. P. Spalding, the Hon. A. G. Riddle, and S. O. Griswold, Esq., who had volunteered their services for the defence, free of charge, were called in for consultation. Soon after 2 o'clock, the parties proceeded to the court-room.

THE TRIAL BEGUN.- The MARSHAL read the names of the persons upon whom he had served processes at Oberlin, with the number of the bills in which their names severally stood. Judge SPALDING, acting for the defence, entered a plea of Not Guilty, in behalf

of all.

The COURT announced that individual recognizances in the sum of $1,000 would be sufficient.

These recognizances were accordingly made, and the trial thus adjourned until the second Tuesday in March, 1859.

At various dates within the few days follow

John Mandeville,
Abner Loveland,

Pleas of abatement were entered for misno-ing severally appeared others of the arrested, mer in the cases of the persons arrested as and entered into their personal recognizances James R. Shepard, Oliver S. B. Wall, and as above. Such were:William E. Scrimmager. James Bartlett was in town, but not present in the court-room when his name was called. Ralph Plumb was allowed a few days to complete business engagements, pledging his parole to appear with as little delay as possible. The representatives from Wellington are expected to-morrow.

Judge SPALDING gave notice that the accused were ready for, and requested trial immediately. The DISTRICT-ATTORNEY begged continuance for time to send to Kentucky for witnesses. Should need at least two weeks.

Judge SPALDING thought that citizens of Ohio might think two weeks some time to lie in jail for the convenience of citizens of Kentucky.

The COURT remarked that it was not necessary for them to lie in jail. They could be

liberated on bail.

Walter Soules,
William Sciples,
Matthew De Wolfe,
Lewis Hines,
Chauncey Goodyear,
Daniel Williams,
Ralph Plumb,

Matthew Gillett,
Lorin Wadsworth,
Henry D. Niles,
Eli Boies,
Charles Langston,

"FELONS' FEAST" AT OBERLIN. A ened and Christian age, and in our boasted free strange and significant scene for this enlightRepublic, transpired at the peaceful and Godfearing and God-serving village of Oberlin, on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 11th of January, 1859. It was literally the "Feast of Felons,' for the thirty-seven good citizens of Lorain county, indicted by the Grand Jury of the United States District Court of Northern Ohio under the Fugitive Slave Act, for the crime of a conscientious and faithful observance of the higher law of the Golden Rule, sat down with their wives and a number of invited guests to a sumptuous repast at the Palmer House. It was by a real "feast of reason and flow of soul." in the best sense a good social dinner, followed The entertainment was given by the indicted citizens of Oberlin to their brethren in bonds, as will be seen by the following

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citizens of Oberlin, who had been indicted by Card of Invitation. At a meeting of the the Grand Jury of the U. S. District Court at Cleveland, charged with rescuing the negro boy John Price, held on the evening of Janua ry 4, 1859, it was

number of the citizens of Lorain county who Resolved, That it is expedient for the whole have been thus indicted to meet for the purpose of consultation and agreement as to the course