650
THE GREEN BAG
slave holder failed to find his lost property, he could enlist the services of those known as kidnappers to replace the fugitive with a free negro. These social and political con ditions were well calculated to promote angry collisions between those who took upon themselves the official responsibility of enforcing an odious law, and earnest abolitionists who stoutly believed in the higher law of freedom for men of all race and color. There had been a gathering of negroes at Parker's house the night before the arrival of the slave catchers, and the blowing of a horn soon collected a motley crowd of blacks, with a sprinkling of whites, armed with axes, hoes, pitch-forks, and corn-cutters. In the onset upon the house Gorsuch was killed by a shot from a gun, presumably in the hand of his own slave, and his son was seriously wounded and the posse put to flight. Conspicuous among those who as sembled at the scene — and who, if they did not give active aid to the infuriated negroes, at least refused to assist the officers in executing their writs — were Castner Hanway and Elijah Lewis, prominent citi zens of the neighborhood, of pronounced and well known abolition sentiments and sympathies. The death of Gorsuch and the armed resistance to the enforcement of the law produced a flame of excitement through out the country, only equaled in its intensity by the events of the John Brown raid nearly ten years later. This is not the occasion to exploit the far-reaching consequences of the event, nor can we at this time calmly mea sure the confidence with which it was popu larly asserted the offense committed on the peaceful soil of Lancaster County rose to the dignity of treason, by making war against the United States in resisting by force and arms the execution of the Fugi tive Slave Law, and for obstructing the United States marshal in the execution of due process. Wholesale arrests followed, including Hanway and Lewis, and more than a score of
negroes. At the preliminary hearing, in the city of Lancaster, Stevens outlined the testimony which the defense would produce, and, while he admitted the crime of murder had been committed, and was deplored by all the citizens of the county, and promised that the perpetrators, when ascertained and secured, would receive due punishment, he denounced, with characteristic savagery and invective, the testimony of the deputy mar shal, and pictured, with vivid power, the provocation which the people of the neigh borhood had to resentment and excitement by frequent outrages perpetrated upon innocent freemen by slave catchers from outside the state, and from desperate kid nappers who plied their nefarious trade at home. On the trial in the United States Circuit Court in November, upon the charge of treason, Judges Grier and Kane sitting, it required a week to select a jury, and, by another strange coincidence, its foreman was a Lancaster Countian, a conservative Whig, who lived to be a candidate for Con gress against Stevens and one of the most formidable opponents he ever encountered. A mere outline of the exciting features of that trial would far outrun the limits of this paper and of your patience. For prudential motives, the leading part of the defense was assigned to John M. Read, then a Demo crat with free soil inclinations, and Mr. Stevens even refrained from addressing the jury. But he was the central figure and dominating spirit of the scene, which was rendered especially picturesque by the two dozen accused colored men sitting in a row, all similarly attired, wearing around their necks red, white, and blue scarfs, with Lucretia Mott sitting at their head, calmly knitting, the frightened negroes half hope fully regarding her sidewise as their guar dian angel, and the tall, stern figure of Stevens as their mighty Moses. It will be remembered that James R. Ludlow, after wards the distinguished judge, assisted United States Attorney Ashmead in the pros
