Not content with the degradation of the chain-gang, a system of white slavery is to be introduced by "private hiring," and the "convicts," sentenced for the exercise of the freedom of speech and of the press, are to be hired out during their servitude, if their "keeper" sees fit, to the heartless men who this day are hunting them from their homes, and burning their dwellings over their heads. But "the laws are to be executed;" and though they are the offspring of the most gigantic fraud ever perpetrated upon a free people, if there is no change in the policy of the government, and if the party which controls its actions is not hurled from power, we shall, doubtless, next year see Governor Robinson (if not previously executed for treason) with the iron chain and ball to his ancle, hired from the convict-keeper by Governor Shannon to do his menial service, or to be punished, if he disobeys his master's orders, like a southern slave. And Judge Lecompte would have the privilege too, and would, doubtless, exercise it, of having Judge Wakefield as his hired serf, dragging, for two or five years to come, his chain and ball after him as he entered his master's presence, or obeyed his master's command. And Marshal Donaldson, with "Sheriff Jones" and Stringfellow, would not certainly be behind their superiors in the retinue of free-State slaves whom they could satisfy their revenge upon by hiring as their menials from the keeper of the Kansas convicts.
There are many things in this code of which I desire to speak, but which I will not have time to allude to, as my hour is rapidly passing away, and I must hasten on. It is worthy of notice in passing, that in no place in this code is slavery expressly established in the territory. Instead of leaving the people of the territory "perfectly free to form their own institutions," slavery is taken to be an institution already existing, as if it were already established by the Congress of the United States, In this initial legislation of the territory, it is treated as a heretofore recognized and permanent "institution." Thus, by page 60, slaves are to be appraised like other property of a decedent by page 298, slaves are to be taken in execution for debt; by page 432, mortgages of slaves are to be recorded; by page 556, slaves are to be taxed by the assessors; by page 630, slave-owners are to be accountable for trespasses by their slaves; but nowhere in the code is to be found a single line or section, declaring that "Slavery," is hereby established. I have no idea that even if the legislature of Kansas was to be conceded a legal body, slavery this day has a legal existence in the territory. But to expect such a decision from its courts, would be to look for mercy from a Nero.
As I was examining this Sahara of legislation to find, if possible, one oasis, my eye fell upon chapter 74, page 323, headed with the attractive title of "freedom;" and I rejoiced at the certainty of finding something worthy of approval in its provisions. But, alas! it is a fit associate for the rest. By it it appears that "a person held in slavery" cannot sue for his freedom till he first petitions the court for leave to establish his right to freedom. If that leave is denied, whether he is legally or illegally held in slavery, no matter how clearly he could prove his freedom, yet, if the court withholds its permission, he has no alternative but to continue in slavery till death frees him from his unjust servitude. But if the court consent, he can only go on by giving security for the costs, when it is a conceded fact that, as a slave, he has not a dollar or a copper of his own in the world, and cannot even mortgage his own labor for indemnification of his security. On page 325, section 12, of this same law, there is a singular provision:
If the plaintiff be a negro or mulatto, he is required to prove his right to freedom."
There can be only one fair, legitimate inference from this, and that is, that it is considered quite possible that persons not negroes or mulattoes—in other words, white persons—may happen to be held in slavery in Kansas; but the requirement of the consent of the court and security for costs applies to them also; and, of course, section 14 adds: "in actions prosecuted under this act, the plaintiff shall not recover any damages" from the person who has been thus proven to have held him illegally, and perhaps for years, in slavery.
The code also, to be complete, provides for slave fogging by law. By the one hundred and twenty-second chapter, on page 454, patrols are to be appointed by the county boards, who are to visit negro quarters, and to watch unlawful assemblages of slaves. If slaves are found at the latter, or strolling from one plantation to another without a pass, they are to suffer ten or twenty lashes. There is one exception, and as I desire to do impartial justice to this code, I wish to say, to be placed to the credit of the men who enacted it, that that whipping clause is not to be construed to prevent slaves going directly to or returning from divine worship on the Sabbath. They believe, it seems, in the "stated preaching of the Gospel," and therefore that is excepted. But, sir, when visiting, on an adjoining plantation, a woman whom her master allows him to call his wife, till he chooses to sell her and her children to some distant slaveholder, the lash is the penalty, unless he is provided with a pass.
The Constitution speaks of the value and the necessity of "a well regulated militia." And
