The Christiana Riot And The Treason Trials Of 1851 - free ebook by W. U. (William Uhler) Hensel

THE CHRISTIANA RIOT AND THE TREASON TRIALS OF 1851

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH BY W. U. HENSEL Prepared and Published for the Commemoration of these Events, September 9, 1911 Press of The New Era Printing Company Lancaster, Pa. 1911...

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PREFACE.

The preparation of this sketch and contribution to our local history had been long contemplated by the Editor and Compiler. Born near the locality where the events occurred which are its subject, he has been for more than half a century intimately related with their associations. He has regard for the integrity of motive which alike animated both parties to the conflict. It was a miniature of the great struggle of opposing ideas that culminated in the shock of Civil War, and was only settled by

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CHAPTER I. Introductory.

I propose to write the history of the so-called “Christiana Riot” and “Treason Trials” of 1851, as they occurred—without partiality, prejudice or apology, for or against any of those who participated in them. As is inevitable in all such collisions, there were, on either side of the border troubles of that period, men of high principle and right motive and also rowdies and adventurers, disposed to resort to ruthless violence for purposes of sordid gain. There were slave-masters who sincerely bel

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CHAPTER II. The Law of the Land.

The Early Compromises of the Constitution—Pennsylvania’s Move Toward Abolition—The Act of 1826—The Prigg Case—Border Troubles—The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850—Wrongs of Escaped Slaves and Rights of Their Owners. It is entirely unnecessary for the purposes of this particular story to enlarge upon, or to review at length, the long debate, the innumerable compromises, the many makeshifts and the unending controversies which attended the discussion of the slavery question from the agitation and adopti

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CHAPTER III. Conditions Along the Border.

On the Different Sides of Mason and Dixon Line—Conflicts of Ideas and of Citizenship—Lower Lancaster County a Gateway—Terror of the “Gap Gang”—The Underground Railway—Outrages by the Slave Catchers and Kidnappers. Formal legislation and statutory enactments could not repress the instincts of humanity. Involuntary bondage of men, women and children was not consistent with either the spirit of free institutions or the instincts of a progressive citizenship. As it was impossible to prevent reckless

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CHAPTER IV. The Escape and Pursuit of the Slaves.

The Gorsuch Homestead and Its Proprietor—An Old and Prominent Maryland Family—The Runaways Absent for Nearly Two Years Before They were Pursued—The Warrants and Attempted Execution. In Baltimore County, Maryland, on the west side of the York and Baltimore turnpike, south of Monkton, and north of Glencoe, stations of the North Central Railroad, stand today the farm buildings of the Gorsuch homestead, where and as they stood in 1849 and for a long time before. Their earlier owner, John Gorsuch, de

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CHAPTER V. The Defense and Defenders.

William Parker and His Home—A Leader of His Race and Class—The Hero of the Fugitive Slaves and the Champion of Their Resistance to Recapture—The Night Before the Fight. To those who sympathized with resistance to the execution of the warrants, and rejoiced in the results of the battle to the death made by the refugees, the hero of the event was William Parker. His home was “where the battle was fought,” and he was then and had been long before a leader of his race and the most resolute defender

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CHAPTER VI. The Fight.

The Challenge to Surrender and the Defiance—A Long Parley—The Prompt Response to a Call for Aid—The Firing Begins—Flight of Kline and his Deputies—Gorsuch is Killed and his Son Terribly Wounded. Padgett, guide and informer, led the Southern and Federal forces to within about a quarter mile of the Parker house, where they stopped at a little stream crossing the long lane, ate some crackers and cheese and “fixed their ammunition.” It was then just about daybreak; it was a heavy, foggy morning; and

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CHAPTER VII. The “Pursuit” and Arrests.

Federal and State Authorities in Conflict—“Rough Riding” the Valley—Numerous and Indiscriminate Arrests—Hearings in Lancaster and Committals to Philadelphia. Whatever anybody was doing in the way of vindicating whatever law or laws had been violated, the perpetrators of the killing were being allowed to escape. There were no daily newspapers in Lancaster then and the Philadelphia journals of Friday, September 12th, had very meagre accounts of the affair. But meantime the Federal officials in Phi

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CHAPTER VIII. The Political Aftermath.

Partisans Quick to Make Capital out of the Occurrence—The Democrats Aggressive—The “Silver Grays” Apologetic, and the “Woolly Heads” on the Defensive—Effect of the Christiana Incident on the October Elections. Thaddeus Stevens in September, 1851, was serving his second term as Representative of the Lancaster County district. As an antagonist of Southern ideas relating to slavery, he “strode down the aisles” of the House with a good deal more erectness of bearing than Ingersoll in his famous nomi

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CHAPTER IX. Before the Trial.

Popular Discussion Precedes the Arraignment—Legal Questions Raised by Eminent Lawyers—Judge Kane takes High Ground Against Treason—The Selection of the Jury—A Representative Panel. Pending the arraignment of the prisoners in the United States Court for treason, the affair was made the subject of extended popular discussion. Fiery Southern journals and orators reflected the views that had been early expressed by Governor Lowe to President Fillmore, for his own State of Maryland, that if slave own

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CHAPTER X. “The Treason Trials.”

Differences of Opinion Among Counsel for the Government—A Brilliant Array of Lawyers—Selecting Twelve Men, “Good and True,” from a Large Venire—The Prisoners Arraigned and Pleas Entered. In the so-called official report of the Castner Hanway trial, which involved the final disposition of all the treason cases, it is fitly stated by the author and editor that “the ability which marked the trial throughout, the patient attention of the judges, the eloquence and learning of the Counsel, and the ful

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CHAPTER XI. The Later Trials.

Legal Proceedings in Lancaster County—Prisoners Remanded to Local Jurisdiction—President Fillmore’s Message—Attorney General Brent’s Report—Final Disposition of the Cases in the Lancaster County Court—“Sam” Williams Tried in Philadelphia and Acquitted. There was, however, a very considerable political and legal aftermath to the proceedings at Philadelphia. The intimation of so eminent an authority as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to the effect that some official duty devolv

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William Parker’s Story.

The Atlantic Monthly article, Part II, March, 1866, to which attention has been given, presupposes a previous account of Parker’s early life, the escape of the Gorsuch slaves, the warrants for their recapture, the departure of Deputy Marshal Kline to execute them and “Sam Williams’s” mission to Lancaster County to warn them and their friends of the impending raid upon them, substantially as they have been told already. Parker then proceeds: The information brought by Mr. Williams spread through

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CHAPTER XIII. After the War.

Peter Woods the Sole Survivor—Castner Hanway’s Later Days—The Descendants and Relatives of the Principal Actors in the Drama—Concluding Reflections on the Affair. The sole survivor of those who were directly involved in the events that have been narrated is Peter Woods, a very respectable colored man, who does not know his own age, but who likely is an octogenarian and was twenty years old when the riot occurred. He lives on his little farm of fifty-eight acres, in Colerain Township, just south

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Note A.

On page 14 it is stated that there was little fellowship between the negro and the Pennsylvania-German elements of our local citizenship. I believe this is a continuing condition. It is not inconsistent with the historical fact that the Mennonites of Germantown were the first American Abolitionists; and that their deliverance of February 18, 1868, antedated like action by the Friends. Professor Wilkinson in his so-called “Vindication of Daniel Webster,” recently published, is authority for the s

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Note B.

On page 27 it is stated upon information that William Parker was a soldier in the war for the Union. I have not been able to absolutely verify this statement. It is therefore qualified....

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Note C.

On page 59 it is noticed that the venire issued to the marshal commanding him to return 108 jurors for the term of the treason trial included a provision that twelve were to be summoned and returned from Lancaster County. This was in conformity with the Act of September 24, 1789, known as the Federal Judicial Procedure Act, to the effect that “in cases punishable with death, the trial shall be had in the county where the offense was committed, or where that cannot be done without great inconveni

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Note D.

I have adopted the spelling of Sims’s and Scarlet’s name with a single terminal letter instead of the local and family usage—Simms and Scarlett—because they were thus formally indicted....

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Note E.

The best information I have as to the date of William Parker’s revisit to Christiana is that it was during the presidential campaign of 1872. Peter Woods says he took back with him to Canada the widow of Henry Sims—one of the defendants in the treason case; presumably he was then a widower and Mrs. Sims became his second wife....

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Note F.

On pages 6 and 12 I have recalled the indisputable fact that Abraham Lincoln and his party distinctly recognized the legal obligation of the Fugitive Slave Law even after the war had begun. Striking confirmation of what heedless readers may be disposed to doubt is found in General William T. Sherman’s “Causes of the War,” cited in the Atlantic Monthly , for September, 1911, where Sherman says: “Mr. Lincoln after election and installation, asserted repeatedly that slavery was safe in his hands, t

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Note G.

A second and revised edition of this History, substantially bound and more copiously illustrated, will be put to press shortly. The author will appreciate the correction of any errors observed in this edition—hurriedly put to press—as well as any additions to its statements of facts. Communications to this effect or orders for copies of the revised edition may be sent to Box 34, Lancaster, Pa....

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IN PRISON FOR TREASON.

[One of the finest stanzas in American poetry was inspired by the imprisonment of Hanway and others for treason. While they were in Moyamensing, John G. Whittier wrote and published his “Lines” to them. Horace E. Scudder, in his excellent and complete “Cambridge edition” of Whittier, classes the following with three other poems, “called out by the popular movement of Free State men to occupy the territory of Kansas.” In this he is mistaken. This poem, now entitled “For Righteousness’ Sake,” was

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