The raiders went next to
the neighborhood of Zachariah Shugart’s house, which stood where
Vandalia now is. One of the families of fugitives who lived here had
leased a piece of land of Mr. Shugart, built a snug cabin upon it
and were prospering finely. The cabin was approached stealthily and
suddenly entered. A negro man was seized but his wife made her
escape unobserved through a window. She ran to Zachariah Shugart’s,
aroused the family, gave the alarm and then secreted herself and
managed to escape capture.
Immediately upon being
informed of the raid by the slave woman, Shugart mounted his horse
and rode as fast as he could to the house of Stephen Bogue, who
lived about two miles west. Bogue had a very fleet horse, which he
saddled and rode at its utmost speed to Cassopolis, to give the
alarm and to have the proceedings of the kidnappers arrested.
Passing on to Stephen
Bogue’s, the party secured a man who lived in a cabin upon his farm.
Here they met with determined and vigorous resistance. The door of
the cabin was securely fastened. The negro’s master demanded
admittance, but his voice was recognized and the occupant of the
cabin refused to throw open the door. It was soon battered down,
however, and the black man overpowered, though he fought stoutly
against his enemy. The blow which finally prostrated him was dealt
with the butt-end of a heavy riding whip and it cut a terrible gash
through his ear and across the side of his head.
The company of raiders
now turned southward to effect a retreat into Indiana. A crowd of
excited men gathered about and followed them. The night was now
nearly gone. The alarm had been spread with amazing swiftness, and
the throng rapidly increased in numbers. At Odell's Mill, a short
distance south of the site of Vandalia, the company from the prairie
with its undesired escort of Abolitionists, met the party who had
kidnaped the negroes from Osborn's and the East settlement. About
the same time and just as daylight came on, a large number of people
from Cassopolis, to whom Stephen Bogue had carried the news, arrived
upon the scene. Their leader was Moses Brown, a powerfully built
blacksmith, and as staunch an Abolitionist as any in the land.
"Nigger Bill" Jones was also present and several other resolute
characters.
The Kentuckians were now
given to understand that they could not proceed further southward,
unless they went without the negroes. Thev were all armed with
pistols and bowie knives. Nearly every man among their opponents had
a stout club in his hand, and there were doubtless some other
weapons carried less conspicuously. Angry words were exchanged,
violent threats made, and it was evident that a feeling existed
which might become uncontrollable. A battle was imminent, and might
at any moment have been precipitated by a single act of violence.
But there were many Quakers present - men like the Osborns, Bogues,
Shugarts and Easts, and their wise counsel that only peaceable and
lawful measures should be employed to attain the desired end,
finally triumphed over the sanguinary spirit exhibited by the larger
part of the mob.
It was agreed, after
much discussion, that the Kentuckians should go to the county seat,
submit their case to a Justice of the Peace, and prove their
property, as the law required.
"Nigger Bill" Jones
particularly distinguished himself during the excited conference at
Odell's Mill, and upon the march to Cassopolis. It is said that he
dextrously disarmed a man who drew a pistol and threatened to shoot
him, and several other similar acts are reported of which he was the
hero. Soon after the motley crowd started from Odell's Mill, Jones
compelled Hubbard Buckner, one of the Kentuckians, to dismount from
his horse in order that one of the negroes taken at Osborn's, who
was sick, might ride. Having thus unhorsed one of the enemy, Jones
playfully slipped the shackle which had bound the negro's wrist upon
his own. It closed with a snap, and could not again be opened, the
key being lost. Consequently the wearer trudged along the road
manacled to the remaining one of the original pair of chained
chattels. The Rev. A. Stevens was compelled to carry the babe which
he had captured.
About 9 o'clock in the
morning, the strange procession entered Cassopolis. It was composed
of thirteen Kentuckians, their nine shackled captives and a crowd of
at least three hundred citizens. During the time that had elapsed
between the bringing of the news and the arrival of the concourse in
town, it bad been constantly increasing in size, by reason of the
addition of various small parties met upon the road and merged in
its mass.
In Cassopolis, the
utmost excitement prevailed. The public square was thronged with
people, the majority of whom, though not Abolitionists, sympathized
with the negroes and plainly indicated their intense disapprobation
of the Kentuckians.
The slaves were soon
conducted to Joshua Barnum's tavern and a guard stationed at the
door of the room they occupied. The Kentuckians had not been long in
Cassopolis before they secured the services of George B. Turner, at
that time a young man and only the year before admitted to the bar.
He told them very frankly that although the law was up on their
side, it would be almost an absolute impossibility even if an order
was secured from any court in Cass County, remanding their slaves,
to take them from the county. Mr. Turner offered nevertheless to
take every legal step which was possible, and he did so.
Preparations were made
to prove the ownership of the slaves and to recover possession of
them, a writ of restitution being applied for before D. M. Howell,
Justice of the Peace, under provisions of the law of 1793. Ezekiel
S. Smith, Esq., and James Sullivan, Esq., appeared on behalf of the
fugitives and obtained an adjournment of the case for three days.
Sheriff Barak Mead
immediately after the adjournment was secured served a writ upon all
of the Kentuckians (except one Graves, whom the defense had in
hiding) for kidnaping, arrested four of them on the charge of
trespassing upon the premises of Josiah Osborn, and one upon the
charge of assault and battery. Their bail was fixed by Justice
Howell at $2,600, and Asa Kingsbury, Amos Dow and Daniel McIntosh
were accepted as sureties for the amount. The names of the raiders
which have been preserved, in the memory of old residents, are nine
in number, as follows: Rev. A. Stevens, Hubbard Buckner, C. B. Rust,
John L. Graves (Sheriff of Bourbon County), James Scott, G. W.
Brazier, Thornton Timberlake, ---- Bristow and ---- Lemon.
A. H. Redfield, Esq.,
who was at that time Circuit Court Commissioner of Cass County being
absent, the friends of the fugitives sent to Niles to secure a writ
of habeas corpus, under which they might take them to Berrien
County. James Brown, Esq., of Niles, volunteered his services as
assistant counsel for the fugitives, with Messrs. Sullivan and
Smith, and advised Mr. McIlvain that he might legally go to Cass
County to try the case. He accordingly did so, and a writ of habeas
corpus was sworn out, which required the Kentuckians to show cause
why the alleged slave should not be discharged from custody. The
Commissioner heard the case on Monday, and decided adversely to the
Kentuckians. Mr. Turner, their lawyer, offered, first, the statutes
of the State of Kentucky which included the State and National
Constitutions, as evidence that the institution of slavery existed
in that State, and argued that the Commissioner, as well as all the
courts, State and National, were bound to notice judicially the
existence of slavery in the States where it was recognized by the
Constitution or laws of the United States. Upon this latter point,
he made his strongest argument, but upon both was overruled by the
Commissioner. In this connection, it may not be amiss to state that
Mr. Turner offered oral testimony, as well as documentary evidence
from courts of record in Kentucky, to show that slavery had a legal
existence in that State, but he was, on all points, overruled. Mr.
Turner then boldly charged the Commissioner with illegal and corrupt
rulings; amongst other things, that he had no jurisdiction of the
case and came to the county as the willing tool of men bent on
violating the laws of the State and the United States. It was
generally acknowledged that Mr. McIlvain did not have jurisdiction
in Cass County, and it was afterward so held by the United States
District Court at Detroit, and further held that even if the
Commissioner had jurisdiction, he was bound to recognize,
officially, the existence of slavery as a legal institution in
States where recognized by the laws of the United States. But the
Commissioner's decision nevertheless liberated the nine fugitives.
They were immediately taken to the house of Ishmael Lee, a mile
south of Cassopolis, and a few days later, with more than forty
others,left for Canada on a train of the Underground Railroad, of
which Zachariah Shugart was conductor.
Three days had elapsed
between the time the raiders arrived in Cassopolis and the day when
Commissioner McIlvain rendered decision against them. During those
three days, they had been angered almost beyond endurance by
colloquys with various citizens, and several times personal
encounters seemed imminent; but disgraceful scenes of that kind
were, happily, averted. When the Circuit Court Commissioner's
decision was rendered, and the fugitives removed, there was no
longer any object in prosecuting the raiders, and the suits against
them were dropped. They were crestfallen at the turn affairs had
taken, and their only recourse was to bring suit for recovery of the
value of the slaves against citizens who were financially
responsible, and this they made preparations to do. In the meantime,
a single and small grain of comfort was left them. A runaway slave,
whom one of them claimed as his property, had been convicted of some
petty crime a short time before the raid was made, and, being unable
to pay the fine imposed upon him, was serving out a sentence in the
county jail. This man, at least, the Kentuckians thought they had
secure. He certainly could not be spirited away to Canada. But lo!
when they looked for him at the jail, he was gone. Some ardent
Abolitionist had paid his fine and set him free.
An incident of some
interest, the particulars of which have never yet been related in
print, occurred just after the Kentuckians started from Cassopolis
upon their return South. They were preceded upon the road by Josiah
Osborn, who was going to his home in Calvin; and that was a very
fortunate circumstance indeed for the Kentuckians. Osborn had gone
but a little way along the road in Calvin, when he espied four
negroes in a cornfield. They were armed with rifles, and a little
questioning revealed the fact that they were Iying in ambush for the
purpose of firing upon the slaveholders, whom they knew must soon
pass by. They expressed a very firm determination to carry out their
design, and were laboring under considerable excitement. It required
all of the good Quaker's power of argument and his most earnest
protestation, to prevail upon them to desist from their murderous
purposes, but they finally promised to do so and dispersed. A half
hour later the raiders passed safely by the spot where, but for
Osborn's lucky discovery, some of them must inevitably have met with
death. The negroes afterward denied that they had intended to take
life, but said their plan was for each of them to take such aim as
to break a man's leg and kill the horse he rode. Then they intended
to make their escape to Canada. They said they "wanted to give the
slaveholders something to remember Michigan by," and it is
altogether probably that their bitter hatred would have led them to
shoot in such manner as to kill instead of wound their victims.
In February, 1848, the
Kentuckians brought suit to recover the value of their slaves, in
the United States Circuit Court, at Detroit. The defendants were D.
T. Nicholson, Stephen Bogue, Josiah Osborn, Ishmael Lee, Zachariah
Shugart, Jefferson Osborn, William Jones and Ebenezer McIlvain.
Abner Pratt, of Marshall, and Francis Trautman (the Kentuckian who
acted as leader in the Calhoun County raid) appeared in behalf of
the plaintiffs, and Jacob M. Howard, of Detroit (afterward United
States Senator) James L. Jerneygan, of South Bend, Ind., and Ezekiel
S. Smith, were the attorneys for defendants, the last named being
the attorney of record.
The case was continued
several times, and finally came to trial in the latter part of 1850.
In January, 1851, it was concluded, the jury disagreeing. The
principal witness for the prosecution, Jonathan Cruise of South
Bend, was arrested on the charge of perjury as soon as he left the
stand, and the jury before which he was tried, stood nine to three
for his conviction.
At the disagreement of
the jury, D. T. Nicholson paid the sum of $1,000 to clear himself
and Ishmael Lee. This virtually settled the cause of the Kentucky
slave-owners against the Michigan Abolitionists. The total costs of
the case, which amounted to about $3,000, were borne by the several
defendants, Nicholson included. The number of witnesses subpoenaed
by both sides was somewhere from forty to fifty, and many
depositions were taken, especially by the plaintiffs. The witnesses
for the defense charged, as a rule, only the amount of their actual
expenses. Had they received the legal fees, the costs of the suit
would have been much larger.
The sum of $1,000 paid
by Mr. Nicholson, was according to rumor, appropriated by Abner
Pratt, Esq., as his fee in the case, and the slaveowners never
received any portion of it. And so ended, as far as the Cass County
people were immediately interested, this "celebrated case." The
Kentucky raid, however, had other effects than those locally
observable. With the Van Zant case in Ohio, it had a strong bearing
upon the passage of the fugitive slave law of 1850, which, in turn,
brought slavery into a more pronounced position as a political
issue, and powerfully influenced in one way or another all
subsequent legislation upon the "peculiar institution."
