The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919

"'It is to the legal considerations connected with the case that we have confined ourselves; and in this view of it we beg respectfully to state that these prisoners having been once already apprehended and in custody in this Province upon this same charge and liberated by the decision of the Governor and Council after a consideration of the case upon an application made by the Government of Michigan, we should not think fit that the Governor and Council should authorize a second apprehension of the parties and exercise a second time the power and discretion given by the Act—This course we think could not be approved of unless, in the case of some atrocious offender, new and strong evidence should be discovered which it was not in the power of the foreign Government to produce upon a previous application and for the want of which the prisoners were upon such first application discharged, or perhaps in a case where some official or legal formality had by mere accident been overlooked on the first occasion.

"'Independently of the consideration that this case has been already acted upon by the Government, the documents before us place it in this light: the prisoners with the exception of Blackburn and his wife are charged with assaulting and beating the sheriff of Wayne and rescuing a prisoner from his custody, Blackburn being the prisoner alluded to is charged with joining in the riot and battery of the Sheriff and with unlawfully rescuing himself—The wife of Blackburn we cannot find to be sufficiently charged with any offence known to our laws which do not acknowledge a state of slavery; for the imputation of conspiring with the rioters and contriving the rescue is supported by no evidence and seems to rest on conjecture—The prisoner Blackburn it appears from the Documents before us was not committed for felony nor for any crime nor imprisoned for any cause which by our laws could be recognized as a justification of imprisonment. We mention this not from any doubt that the prisoner was in legal custody according to the laws of Michigan but because the rescue of a prisoner constitutes by our law a greater or less offence according to the degree of the crime for which he was committed and this prisoner being committed for no crime and certainly not for any felony his rescue would according to our law be a misdemeanor only and a misdemeanor of that kind that the persons convicted of it would be punished by fine and imprisonment or either of them and not by any other description of punishment—The Statute referred to provides in explicit terms that the persons subject to be delivered up under it to the justice of a foreign country are those only who shall be charged "with murder, forgery, larceny or other crime committed without the jurisdiction of this Province which crimes if committed within this Province would by the laws thereof be punishable by death corporal punishment by pillory or whipping or by confinement at hard labour." We are not aware whether the laws of the Territory of Michigan do or do not authorize the giving up of offenders charged with crimes not embraced in the above very comprehensive description; but however that may be, it is evident that the conduct of this and of other Governments in respect to the delivery up of offenders can be no further reciprocal towards each other than the laws of each will allow. We express no opinion except in reference to the statute recently passed here for regulating this particular matter—We consider the Legislature to have declared in that Statute their will in what cases fugitives from foreign countries should be surrendered; and we have therefore considered whether the persons in question as they are not charged with murder forgery or larceny could upon the facts before us be convicted of any other offence punishable at hard labour—We apprehend they could not be but that the offence of which they might be convicted would be punishable by fine and imprisonment merely without adding "hard labour" to the sentence. Riot, a Battery of the Sheriff in the execution of his duty, and the rescue of a person legally in his custody but not charged with felony or other crime are the offences with which upon the statements before us they are liable to be charged:—and all these are offences which in the known and ordinary administration of the law in this Province would be punished in no other manner than by fine and mere imprisonment. Instances we doubt not may be brought from distant times, in which one or other of the above offences has been punished in England by Pillory or whipping or by other unusual or disgraceful punishments and we do not say that these cases altho' they may be old are so decidedly void of all authority that a judgment which should now be passed in conformity to them would certainly be held to be erroneous and bad. But we conceive that in England such punishments have long ceased to be assigned to the offences in question; that in this Province they have never been assigned to them and that recent Statutes which have been passed in England tend strongly to show that Parliament did not regard them as punishments which in later times could be properly attached to such offences without express Legislative sanction. We observe that there is evidence of one of the persons charged having pointed a loaded pistol at the Sheriff. If it had been further stated that he had pulled the trigger or otherwise attempted to discharge the pistol the act would have been one which in England is felony, having been first made so by Lord Ellenborough's Act passed in 1803; but that Act does not extend to this Province and was never adopted or in force here and if it were otherwise, still this case upon the facts stated is not within it. Looking upon the act of pointing or presenting the pistol as one for which all the rioters were equally responsible it forms an aggravation of their riot and assault but it does not change the legal character of their crime it would probably lead to a higher fine or a longer imprisonment but not to a punishment of another kind. The riot as it is described was an outrageous one and the battery of the sheriff appears to have been violent and cruel—the direct object and intent however seems to have been the rescue of the Prisoner rather than to take the life of the sheriff; and even supposing the facts would well support a conviction for an assault on the Sheriff with an intent to murder him still by our law such intent would be merely an aggravation of the riot and assault; it would not alter the technical character of the crime or the description of punishment however much it might enhance the fine or lead to increasing the term of Imprisonment.

"'The conclusion therefore which we have come to is that these parties are not charged with any of the offences enumerated in the statute annexed and consequently that the Lieutenant Governor and council are not authorized by its provisions to send them out of the Province. It has not escaped our attention as a peculiar feature in this case that two of the persons whom the Government of this Province is requested to deliver up are persons recognized by the Government of Michigan as slaves and that it appears upon these documents that if they should be delivered up they would by the laws of the United States be exposed to be forced into a state of Slavery from which they had escaped two years ago when they fled from Kentucky to Detroit; that if they should be sent to Michigan and upon trial be convicted of the Riot and punished they would after undergoing their punishment be subject to be taken by their masters and continued in a state of Slavery for life, and that on the other hand if they should never be prosecuted or if they should be tried and acquitted this consequence would equally follow. Among the Documents before us we perceive there are papers which have been delivered to the Government in behalf of the alleged rioters in which this inevitable consequence is urged as a reason against their being sent back to Michigan and in which it is intimated that to place the slaves again within the power of their masters is the principal object and that the Government of Michigan in making application for them is rather influenced by the interest and wishes of the slave owners than by any desire to bring the parties to trial for the alleged riot. No consideration of this kind has had any weight with us, for in the first place as regards the insinuation against the motives of the Government of Michigan if we had any thing to do with them we should consider (as no doubt this Government would consider in any similar case) that courtesy towards the Government of a foreign country requires always to assume that it has no motive or design on these occasions which is not just and fair and in short none but such as is openly avowed. And in the next place as to the consequence spoken of—If it would follow in course from the laws of the United States it is not probable that the Executive Government there would prevent the slave masters from asserting their rights under those laws and it is therefore reasonable to suppose that the consequence may really follow which the parties concerned have represented. Still if in this case the black people whose arrest is applied for had been shown to have fled from a charge for any such offence as would clearly come within our Statute, we do not conceive that we could on that account have advised a course to be pursued in regard to them different from that which should be pursued with respect to free white persons under the same circumstances. When we say this we should desire it to be understood that we are so clearly of opinion on the other hand, that the withdrawing from a state of Slavery in a foreign Country could not here be treated as an offence with reference to our statute already alluded to so that any person could be surrendered up under that statute upon such a ground merely. We beg leave to express to Your Excellency our regret for the delay that has occurred in answering the reference which Your Excellency and the Honorable the Executive Council have thought fit to make to us. Among other causes which have led to it was a doubt at first entertained among us whether we could properly give an opinion upon a matter which under possible circumstances might give rise to a judicial proceeding in which the same question would come before us or some one of us for decision. An examination of this subject has removed this doubt and we now submit our opinion to Your Excellency with such explanations as seemed to us to be material.

"'We have the Honor to be"'Your Excellency's Most obedient"and humble Servants"'(Signed) "'John B. Robinson, C. J."'L. P. Sherwood—J."'J. B. Macauley—J.'"

"Upon which the council were pleased to make the following Report.

"'To His Excellency, Sir John Colborne, K.C.B., Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Upper Canada and Major General Commanding His Majesty's Forces therein—&c–&c.  &c

"'May it please Your Excellency

"'The Council have had under consideration the papers relating to the requisition of the acting Governor of Michigan, together with evidence furnished by His Excellency the Governor of that Territory accompanied by a further requisition for the delivery of the fugitives—they have also had before them the opinions of the three Judges and of the Attorney General with which they concur and have been led to the conclusion that the fugitive Slaves named in the requisitions are not charged with an offence which would have rendered them liable to any of the punishments enumerated in the Provincial Statute and consequently that the Lieutenant Governor and Council are not authorized by its provisions to send them out of the Province.'" (Can. Arch., State J, p. 155.)

8. At an Executive Council for Upper Canada held at Toronto, Saturday, September 9, 1837, under the presidency of the Honourable William Allen, the following proceedings were had:

"Read the Attorney General's Report of the 8th instant on Documents for the surrender of Jesse Happy, a fugitive from Justice in the United States charged with horse stealing—upon which the Council made the following Report

"'The Council have taken into serious consideration the Documents with the Reports of the Attorney General

"'A similar application referred for the Report of the Council on the 7th Instant—In that case as in the present it was suggested that the fugitive was a slave, and that the real object of the application was not so much to bring him to trial for the alleged Felony as to reduce him again to a state of Slavery—In that case however it appeared that the Offence had been recently committed viz: in May last—That an early occasion, probably the first, was taken to have him indicted—that process for his apprehension immediately issued and that shortly after the return of the Sheriff to that process the requisition from His Excellency the Governor of the State of Kentucky was obtained and promptly brought to this Province. Under these circumstances the Council were of opinion that in the exercise of a sound discretion they were called upon to recommend to Your Excellency to comply with the requisition—The facts appearing upon the Official Documents in this case are widely different—The Alleged Offence purports to have been committed more than four years ago. When the Indictment was preferred is not shown (as it was in the former case) but the earliest date which shows its existence is 1st June 1835 when the certificate of the Clerk of the Court is given. No process seems to have been issued in the State of Kentucky nor is any other step shown to have been taken until the middle of last month. There also it is suggested that the fugitive is a slave that the real object of his apprehension is to give him up to his former owners and so to deprive him of that personal liberty which the laws of this country secure him. If this be conceded in the present instance after a lapse of four years, no argument could be consistently urged against the delivery up (on the usual application) of persons who have been still longer resident in this Province.

"'The delivery of a Slave under these circumstances to the authorities claiming him would it is clear subject him to a double penalty, the one of punishment for a crime, the other of a return to a state of Slavery, even if he should be acquitted. The former in strict accordance with our Statute, the other in direct opposition to the genius of our institutions and the spirit of our Laws. For this cause the Council feel great difficulty in the course which they would advise Your Excellency to adopt, were there any law by which, after taking his trial and if convicted undergoing his sentence he would be restored to a state of freedom, the Council would not hesitate to advise his being given up but there is no such provision in the Statute.

"'On the other hand the Council feel that it cannot be permitted that because a man may happen to be a fugitive slave he should escape those consequences of crime committed in a foreign country to which a free man would be amenable. This would be equally contrary to the Law and to the spirit of mutual justice which gave origin to it, in this Province as well as in the United States. Considering however the circumstances of this case and also the difficulty that might arise from it as a precedent the Council respectfully recommend that time should be given to the accused to furnish affidavits of the facts set forth in the Petition presented on his behalf in order to a full understanding of the whole matter.

"'The Council would further respectfully submit to Your Excellency the propriety of drawing the attention of Her Majesty's Government to this question with a view of ascertaining their views upon it as a matter of general policy.'" (Can. Arch., State J, p. 597.)

ADDITIONAL LETTERS OF NEGRO MIGRANTS OF 1916-1918 623

Letters Stating that Wages Received are not SatisfactoryBrookhaven, Miss., April 24, 1917.

Gents: The cane growers of Louisiana have stopped the exodus from New Orleans, claiming shortage of labor which will result in a sugar famine.

Now these laborers thus employed receive only 85 cents a day and the high cost of living makes it a serious question to live.

There is a great many race people around here who desires to come north but have waited rather late to avoid car fare, which they have not got. isnt there some way to get the concerns who wants labor, to send passes here or elsewhere so they can come even if they have to pay out of the first months wages? Please dont publish this letter but do what you can towards helping them to get away. If the R. R. Co. would run a low rate excursion they could leave that way. Please ans.

Jacksonville, Fla., April 4, 1917.

Dear Sir: I have been taking defender for sevel months and I have seen that there is lots good work in that section and I want to say as you are the editor of that paper I wish that you would let me know if there is any wheare up there that I can get in with an intucion that I may get my wife and my silf from down hear and can bring just as miney more as he want we are suffing hear all the work is giveing to poor white peples and we can not get anything to doe at all I will go to pennsylvania or n y state or N J or Ill. or any wheare that I can surport my wife I am past master of son of light in Mass. large Royal arch and is in good standing all so the good Sancer large no. 18. I need helpe my wife cant get any thing to due eather can I so please if you can see any body up there that want hands let me no at once I can get all they need and it will alow me to get my wife away from down hear so please remember and ans. I will apreshate it.

Looking for ans at once. Please let me no some thing thease crackers is birds in south

Nashville, Tenn., April 22, 1917.

Sir: I am in Nashville and I have a job but is not satisfied with the money that I am getting for my work and I ask of you to please give me a good job working any place I am a expirence fire man and all so some expirence in engineer and please answer soon and let me know what you can find for me to do.

Alexandria, La., June 6, 1917.

Dear Sirs: I am writeing to you all asking a favor of you all. I am a girl of seventeen. School has just closed I have been going to school for nine months and I now feel like I aught to go to work. And I would like very very well for you all to please forward me to a good job. but there isnt a thing here for me to do, the wages here is from a dollar and a half a week. What could I earn Nothing. I have a mother and father my father do all he can for me but it is so hard. A child with any respect about her self or his self wouldnt like to see there mother and father work so hard and earn nothing I feel it my duty to help. I would like for you all to get me a good job and as I havent any money to come on please send me a pass and I would work and pay every cent of it back and get me a good quite place to stay. My father have been getting the defender for three or four months but for the last two weeks we have failed to get it. I dont know why. I am tired of down hear in this – / I am afraid to say. Father seem to care and then again dont seem to but Mother and I am tired tired of all of this I wrote to you all because I believe you will help I need your help hopeing to here from you all very soon.

Atlanta, Ga., April 29, 1917.

Sir: I am a young man 25 years of age. I desire to get in some place where I can earn more for my labor than I do now, which is $1.25 per day. I do not master no trade but I have finished a correspondence course with the practical auto school of New York City and with a little experience I would make a competent automobile man, but I do not ask for your assistance on this line of business only. I am willing to do anything for better wages.

P.S. I would like if you knows if there is an auto school any where where colored men can go to and learn the automobile industry to give me their address.

Jacksonville, Fla., April 30, 1917.

Kind sir: In reading the Chicago Defender I saw where laborers are wanted and of course not knowing whether you would send transportation this far or not I would like a good job in the north where I can earn more for my labor and would like for you to help me out if you would. I am now working at the Clyde Line and they are cutting off help every day of course I dont know about this moulding work but am very quick to learn any thing most any kind of work for a laboring man, dont play on the job. all I ask of you is a trial, willing and ready to go to work any time I hear from you. Please ans soon. willing to Detroit Michigan or any part of the north.

Sirs: I am writing to find out if there is any way that you could find me a job. I would be very glad for you to do so and I will see that you wont loose nothing if I can get the job. work no good here for a black man. And I want to leave this place. But I cannot make the money to leave on and I hope you will do all you can in the way of helping me to secure a job and I hope you will let me here from you in short.

Wilmington, N. C., May 4, 1917.

Dear Sir: Wright a fiew words for work i ask to hand this editor to read we are work mens wont to work but wages is so little we cant get out we wont to leave the south and work. Pleas wright let me know 10 mens able body men will stick to work we well come.

Dallas, Tex., April 30, 1917.

Dear Sir: I read your advertisement in the Chicago Defender and having been unable to find work here I want a chance of this kind also a friend of mine, we are both willing to work. Tell me how soon you can send and how many you are willing to send for.

Augusta, Ga., 5-28-17.

Gentlemens: In reading the defender the paper of our race the numerous wanted of labor in your state I would like make some of the good pay for God knows we need it in Augusta. Gentlemens I made very effort to come out in Illinois or some other place where I can live deason. I have payed as much as too dollars & that I cant get away from here, we can scarcely live in Augusta not say anything about debt. I wish you gentlemens would asist me in getting away from here not only my self but some friends or send an agent threw here I mean agent not some so call agent—or if you gentlemens see I get a transportation I am real in what I am saying any kind that a living in. I am twenty years exspierince in yellow pine lumber willing to do any thing else that pays gentlemens answer at once. I like to come now to get settled by winter.

Pensacola, Fla., April 23, 1917.

Dear Sir: I saw your advice in the Chicago Defender I thought to wright for farther in fennashion I would be glad to now how I can get ther I am a laborn man want to get where work is plentiful & good wedges i want to get in a Christian nise place i have a good family and car for them I want to come up there to see the place & then latter on send for family can u send for me or describe me to some one who will send for me.

St. Louis, April 28, 1917.

Dear Gentlemens: I have been advise through the columns of the Chicago Defender to get in connection with you as they claim that you are in position to look after colored labor and help I am anxious to get a study position in some small villiage or town near Chicago. I am from Alabama and dont believe in loafing I am now employed at a firm as porter, packer, asst. shipping clerk but I cant live on the pay. I am to go to Detroit next Saturday but if I can hear from you I would rother take your advise. Please let me hear from you. I was intending to go by Chicago and call on you but I thought it wise to write because here in St. Louis they dont like to see a man idle.

Dear sir: I am a reader of the Chicago Defender and enjoy it very much. I saw in todays defender where labor was wanter transportation advanced from Chicago. Now I have a good steady position where I have been working for three years with the American Sugar refinery but I would like to make a change I know that I can better my condition where I work it 12 hours. Therefore I would welcome the 8 hours with pleasure. Please send me full information. I would like to get a transportation for my self and son 16 years of age. I will enclose self address envelope for a reply at once.

New Orleans, La., 4/30/17.

Sir: In reading the Chicago paper we find advertisement asking for labor men. I am a man of family and would like very much to come to this kind of job but having a wife and five children to support couldnt very well leave on a railroad pass as I hate to leave my family behind without support for at one dollar and seventy five cents per day I couldnt do very much in a short while. Now will you please inform me of this transportation that is advertised. I am a colored man weighs about 160 pounds and forty nine years old. Please write me full particulars at this address.