ye HENRY BIBB, EDITOR. SAN « = WICH, CG. W., APRIL 28, 1851, VOL. I. NO. 9. -- ' 5 s rs wis . PS a -- ' VOILE Or THE FUGITIVE, | #02: Wm. 11. Seward:stetter tothe Mass | and feeblest members of the Confederacy A Good Report From Fugitives. NEW POSTAGE LAW. IS PUBLISILED EVERY OTHER WEDNESDAY, AT SAN pwic CAN ADA WEST. i ¢ hay + TED Es Ee en Swe ONE DOLLAR per ann um, always in advance No subscription will be received for a less term 'than six mnths. tisements, not excecding fen linés, inserted four times" for one dollar. Every subsequent insertion twenty tive cents. ---- | SEND EN 'THE MONEY. wy - This paper is sent to some who have never subscribed for it, ur been asked to doso by jts agents. Butas we have good reason to believe them interested in the elevation of our people in Norvh America, and especially those who have fled to Canada for their liberty; we forward itto them. If they do not wish to patronize us, we shall expect this number re turned to Detroit. 'We have repeatedly requested our friends inthe States to direct all exchange papers destined for the Voice of the Fugitive, to Detroit, Michigan. We hope that they will doso. We would also most respectfully so- licit our correspondents from the States to pay their postage and direct to the same place. For the Voice of the Fugitive, LINES SUGGESTED BY THE FUGI- TIVE SLAVE LAW. BY R. CHIPPINDALL. Weep friends of Freedom! weep hot tears of ~ shame! " No more the deeds of kingly tyrants blame, Whilst millions at your feet lie bound in ains, heir red blood your country's alta stains. Hide inthe dust abashed! Columbia hide! i more be freedom's Washington thy pride;} ~' Raise not his monument all gory--stainec With blood of fugitives from freedom gained. No longer boast thy love of sacred right, By hate of governing and right of might: A fouler stain is on thy proud, young brow, An Than has been stamped om Mam's~pole front} eer now. Call home thy vain, erratic, restless band, Who, in their zeal encompass sea and Jand-- Write bitter things on foreign griefs and W Whilst millions .writhe at home in morta] throes. '. That men are slaves in freedom's blessed name, Tis not for this alone the world cries shame ; But pity's sacred shrine is basely forced, And chains are forged where liberty was' nursed, He who has burst the foreign tyaant s chain, And crossed dark seas, a freemen's home to gain, Lands, but to join a legal slave-hunt here, And bind on others what he broke from there. Great God! I'd be the meanest, vilest worm That slimy caawls,with most disgusting form, Rather than one of those foul gnomes called men, tt Who freely toil to make men slaves again. I'd rather be the creeping thing most vile, Than sit as chief of millions and defile My manhood by official signature, Stamped with a blasphemous investiture. Thy Stateccctit orators, and death-crowned chief, : America, are guilty, past reprief. Of violating freedom's cherished Eome, And damning weak ones to the slave's cursed doom. Lodi, N. J., April 9, 1851. * Tie Fuditive Suave Act mw THe Wesr Inpres.--By Bermuda papers to March 4th, received in this city, we learn that inthe Barbadoes House of Assemb adespatch from the Secretary of Stat was read, in which he recommended that inducements should pe held out for the settlement in t € West India colonies of fugitive slaves from America. 'The editor sugvests that this must mean free colored persons, or perhaps fugitive slaves now in Canada. A meeting bad been held by the people of Barbadoes for the purpose of sympathising with their brethren in America on the passage of the fugitive slave bill. Resolutions were pussed de- houncing the act, and "that their utmost endeavors would be used to collect a fund to aid fugitives in escaping from such in- Justice, tyranny and oppression "' hundred and filty-two re-captured Afri- ans had arrived at Demerara from Sier- ra Leone. Eight persons were baptized by Rev. Mr. Haskell in the first Baptist Chnrch last Sabqath. a "Twenty-one have been received into the colored Baptist Church in Detroit -- - Fou® Me Convention. Avavurn, April 5th, 1851. Dear sir,--Your letter inviting me to attend a Convention of the people of Mas- sachusetts opposed to the Fugitive Slave Law, and to communicate in writing my Opinions on that statute if I should be unable to attend the Convention, has been received. While offering the pressure of duties here, too long 'deferred, as an apology for nou-attendance, 1 pray you to assure the Committee in whose behalf you act of my, profound sense of their courtesy and kindness, It would be an honor to be invited to address the people of Massa- chusetts on any subject ; but it might well satisfy a generous ambition to be called upon to speak to that great and enlichtened commonwealth on a question of Human Rights and Civil Liberty. I confess, sir, that I have earnestly de- sired not to mingle in the popular dis- cussions of the measures of the last Con, gress. 'he issue necessarily involves the claims of their advocates and adversaries in the public councils to the confidence of the country. Some of these advocates have entered the popular arena, crimi- nating those from whom they had differed, while others have endeavored by extraor- dinary means either to control discussion, or to suppress it altogether, and thus they have shown themselves disqualified by prejudice or interest, for practicing that impartiality and candor which the occa- sion demanded. I am unwilling even to seem to imply 'by reiterating arguments already before the public, either any dis- trust of the position of those with whom 'I stood in Congress, or impatience for that favorable popular~ verdict which 1 believe to be near, and know to be ulti- mately certain. Nevertheless there can be no impro- priety in my declarig, when thus ques- tioned, the opinions which will govern my vote upon any occaston when the Fugitive Slave Law shall come up for re- View inthe Nariomal aepisiature. i tink the act singularly unwise, because it is an attempt by a purely federative govern- ment to extend the economy of slave States throughout States which repudiate slavery as amoral, sucial, and political evil, Any despotic government would awake sedition from its profoundest slum- bers by such an attempt. 'I'he attempt by this government has aroused consti- tutional resistance which will not cease until the effort shall: be relinquished. He who teaches other faith than this, whether self-deceived or not, misleads. I think also that the attempt was unnecessary ; that political ends, merely political ends, and not real evils resulting from the es- eape of slaves constituted the prevailing motives to the enactment. I think also that the details of the measure are inde- fensible; that the denial to the alleged fugitive of a trial of his alleged obligation to labor, and of his escape from it by a court, and nothing less than a court of justice constitutionally organized and proceeding according to the course of the common law, within the State where he is claimed, is palpably in derogation of the Constitution; that the rules of evidence which the law prescribes are oppressive of the weak and defenceless ; and that christendom might be searched in vain for a parallel! to the provisions which make escape from bondage a crime by a law retroactive in its eifect, and without limitations of time to favor the presumption of freedom, which under rigorous penalties compel freemen to aid in the capture of slaves, and which offer unmistakable inducements to false claims and false judgments, Finally, what- ever, changes of upinion others may have ndergone, | retain my earliest convic- ons that the constitutional provision on which the law purports to be founded, is merely a compact between the States, and that the Congress of the United States have no jurisdiction on the subject. Nor is the law which is so obnoxious in itself, commended to my favor by its connection with what are called the other measures of compromise. Compromise implies a mingling of truth and_ error, right and wrong. One of those affiliated measures denied the admission of New Mexico, because she had determined to come asa free State, and remanded her with perinission to come back in the ha- biliments of slavery. Another distinctly intimated to the Mormons the consent of Congress that they should, if they could, plant a Slave State im the very recesses of the Continent. public slave mart in the city Washington, without abating either the extent or the duration of slavery in the District of Co- lumbia. A fourth obtained peace on hu- miliating terms from one' of the youngest * tO. A third abolished a} in an attitude of sedition; while a fifth only reluctantly admitted California as a free State when she had refused to con- taminate herself with slavery. Which one of these measures has superfluous merit to be received in extenuation of the Fugitive Slave Law! But we are told that bad as these measures were, they were the best that could be obtained. On| the contrary there were alwavs votes enough for the admission off" Qilernia, The Thirty-First Congress might have admitted her, and left the other questions to another Congress, which instructed by the people, might huve done better, and certainly could not have done worse. Nor do I find the Fugitive Slave Law growing in my favor on the ground of the already falsified promise of an end of the agitation of slavery in the Republic--an agitation which, whether beneficial or otherwise, is as inseparable from our 'po- litical organization, as the winds and the clouds are from the atmospliere that en- circles the earth. I have weighed moreover the argument that some portion of the people in some of the Stites have made the perpetuity of the Fugitive Slave Law a condition of new declarations of Loyalty to the Union. That Loyalty is a duty resulting from the Constitution, and is equally due whether the measures of administration are satis- factory or unsatisfactory. 1 regret that any thing should have happened to en- courage a belief that loyalty could be accepted on condition, and especially on the condition of forbearing to repeal a repealable Statute. But since it is so, I can only say that we, on whom the re- cent action of the government bears, as_ it seems to us, so unjustly, are in the Union for richer, for poorer--for better, for worse--whether in a majority or in a minority, whether in power or powerless --without condition, reservation, quali- fication or limitation, forever and aye; that we are in the Union, not because we are satisfied with the administratis n, but whether satisfied ---r Ree pot tl by means of compromises df understandings, but by virtue of the Constitution, and that all other parties arein the Union.on the same terms, for the same terms, and by virtue of the same obligation ; and'so they will find their case to be, when they offer to plead viojations of extra constitutional conditions jo justify seces- sion. Whatever is irreptalable in any of the acts of the late Congress, no one will be mad enough to attempt to repeal. Whatever is repealable is those acts, and whatever shall be repealible in future acts of Congress, whether it favor Free- dom or Slavery, no matter under what circumstances, nor with what auspices, nor with what solemnities it may, have been adopted, must abide tae trial of ex- perience, of reason, and oftruth. It is only in this way that the Constitution can be maintained, and the Union can be saved. Its security consists in its adap- tion to the physical and moral necessities of the broad and ever extending empire which it protects and defends, and in the facility with which, without violence or sudden change, errors of administration can be corrected, and new exigencies can be met. So that the State, free or slave-holding, which may at ny time be least favored, will be at all times safer ministered, than it would be under any other, however wisely constituted, or fa- vorably conducted. ez I think, my dear sir, that all thisis vir- tually confessed now by those who, while they sec that their complicated schemes for that suppression of free del-ate whicli they thought essential to the safety of the Union, have failed, nevertheless admit that the Union is no longer in danger. And therefore I think we may at least congratulate ourselyes on the discovery, that only are our extra constitutional compromises unnecessary, but that the Union has strength and stability enoagh do endure, notwithstanding that such compromises under the influence of an unwise legislative distrust are sometiries unnecessarily and unavailingly made. | am sir, with great respect, Your humble servant, WM. H. SEWARD. Jonun A. Anprew, Esq., Secretary of the Committee to call a Convention of the People of Massachusetts on the sub ject of the Fugitive Slave Law. Boston. Letters from Europe received by list steamer, state that over 100,000 persors are preparing to embark for this country during the months of May and June. Twenty five fugitives left this plas in one day last-week, and more than in e1- ry other day. God speed them to liberty and safety under this government when worst ad-} We make the following extract from the Portland Inquirer : The St. John Morning News has the following, which ought to make an Ame- rican blush. We can testify to the in- telligence and manly appearance of many of those meanly persecuted men. Rerveces rrom THE Srates,--There are now in St. John upwards of twen coloured persons who have recently come here from Boston and New York, to avoid the Southern slave catcher. We never saw a finer looking set of men any where, than most of these persons are--straight, well formed, genteelly dressed, and gen- tlemanly in their actions, and we think in their behaviour. Some of them are almost white--known in the South as quadroons, Perscns in St. John unac- quainted with the iniquities of slavery, can hardly credit it, that men so fair and comely in appearance, could ever have been slaves, and subject to the lash and sneer of persons, their masters, or over- seers, who perhaps were far inferior to them in every thing that constitutes MAN, in his essence, Yet such is the fact.-- These persons had been residing in and about Boston and New York, for a num- ber of years past--and been engaged in profitable business; but since the surren- der law passed Congress last year, they considered it dangerous to remain, and of course their visit to the the land of Srecdom is thus accounted for. We hope they willall, remain with us, and succeed in getting profitable employment--for we know they will make good citizens. Contributions for the London Brother- hood Bazaar. There will be a Brotherhood Bazzar held in London next summer, for the sale of articles contributed from all parts of world for the purpose of sustaining the Peace Movements, and Mr. Burritt's For- eign Mission of the Olive Leaf. 'The Western friends of Mr. Burritt, and, the cause Mm wnicn ne is engaged, are ivi- ted to contribute Western products, or something characteristic of the country, to this object. Those who are disposed to contribute anything, will please send the articles to the Office of the Western Citizen, in Chicago, and we will take measures to forward them. The name of the donor should accompany each ar- ticle. Among the articles which would be appropriate, we will mention. White and Yellow Flint Corn, shelled or in the ear. Pop Corn, in the ear, the finest and best filled ears. Maple Sagar. Black Walnuts, & Hickory Nuts. * Deer's Horns. Brooms and Broom Corn Clothes Brush- es, made small, of the finest brush, and ae finished. . ian Curiosities. Wild Rice. Dried Vension. Kiln-dried Indtan Meal. Specimens of Lead and Copper Ore, from our North-Western mines. Many of these our western people have, and can part with, without much sacri- fice; and they will be very rare, curious articles in England, which will sell at high prices. ADMISSION TO THE WORLD'S FAIR. The Exhibition will be open every day, Sundays excepted. The charges for admission will be as follows : Season tickets for a gentleman, three ulneas. Season tickets for a lady, two guineas. These tickets are not transferable. On the second and third days, the price of admission on entrance will be--each day--one pound. On the fourth day of exhiition five shillings, to be reduced on twenty second day to ones. From the twenty second day the prices of admission will be as follows: On Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays in each week, one shilling. On Fridays halfa crown, On Saturdays, five shillings. No change will be given at the doors This regulation is necessary to preven the inconvenience and confusion which would arise from interruption at the en- trances. Should experience, in the pro- gress of the exhibition, render any alter- ation in these arrangements necessary, the commissioners reserve to themselves the power of making such modifications as may appear desirable, of which due uid timely notice, however, will be given to the public. 34 2,0 There are about 83,000 white adults in Virginia who cannot read or write. at Letters, &c., between» Canada and the United States, including Canada and Oregon. od Post Orrice Dera TMENT, Toronto, April 3, 1851. Commencing on and from the 6th in- stant, Letters Newspapers, évc., will pass through the mails between Canada and the United states, including California and Oregon, at the Rates of Postage and un- der the Regulations herein mentioned. 1. Letters posted a any office in Canada addressed to any place in the United States except California and Oregon, are to be rated with a uniform rate of six-pence cur- rency per half ounce, f 2. Letters posted at any part of the Uni- ted states except California and Oregan, addressed to Canada, will be rated with a uniform charge ol ten cents,equal to six- pence Currency per half ounce. 3. Tbe postage rate on Letters passing between Canada and California and Ore- gon, will be a uniform charge of mine- pence Currency, equal to fifteen cents, per half ounce. bicty eae 4. It is to be understood that the above rates include the whole charge for the transmission of a letter between any place in Canada and any place within the Uni- ted States including California and Or- egon. ' 5. The scale for computing the charge upon Letters weighing more than half oz. will be the same as that for Letters pass- ing within the province. ,_* 6. Pre-payment of Letters passing be- tween Canada and any lie within the United States, including alifornia and Oregon, will in all cases be optional, ~ in Canada,addressed to the United states; including California and Oregon, are, ex- cepting such as are hereafter. differently provided for, to be forwarded through the Post at the same rates of charge as if ad- dressed to a place within the Province; the said rates must, however, be pre-paid as, if the ordinary Canada rate is not pait at the i ppc pe Pamphlet, Sc. it cannot be forwarded to: the United States. aE 8. United States Newspapers,Pamphlets, &c., addressed to places in Canada, will be received in the Province with the Am- erican postage thereon prepaid--tleaving the ordinary Canada rate of charge from the frontier Line to the place of destina- tion to be in all cases, with the exceptions hereinafter provided for, collected by the Postmaster who may deliver the same in Canada. tae ag ye 9. Newspapers posted by publishers in this Province, addressed to publishers or Subscribers in the United States, inclu- _ ding California and Oregon, are to be forwarded through the eg in Canada fré of charge to the Province Line 11. Printed Documents coming from the United States addressed to the Pub lisher or Editor of a Newspaper in ihis Province, are to be-deliverd to the said Publisher or ediigg free of any Cenada charge--such documents must be with- out covers or in covers at the ends or sides. ' " 12. The Canada Postage Stamps when used will be taken in the United states as evidence of prepaymentof Postage on Letters going from Canada to the United- States, and inlike manner the UnitedS, Postage Stamps on Letters coming into Canada are to be taken by Postmasters in this province as evidence of pre-payment haying been made inthe United States, _ 13. The following are appointed to be the Offices in Canada through which the Post communication with the United- States will be maintained, and to which Postmasters are to--forward their mail matter for the United States, according to the relative position of their several Offices: -- PORT SARNIA, WINDSOR, FORT ERIE, | QUEENSTON, NIAGARA. TORONTO. as A Comufiéation du- COBURG. \ ring Summer only, by Steamer,to Ruchester KINGSTON. BROCKVILLE. PRSCOTT. MONTREAL, ST.JOINS. DUNDEE. , STANSTEAD. By Command, W. H. GRIFFIN. Another important regulations has been made. Mails between offices of new- York, Albany, Buffalo and Boston on one side, and Toronto, l<ingston and Montre- al_ou the other, are to pass each way as. through mails, not be opend at any inter- mediate Frontier offices, * i 7. Newspapers, Pamphlets, &c., postéd " *