ANNALS OF CLEVELAND

CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER DIGEST JAN. 1 TO DEC. 31. 1838
Abstracts 2426 - 2427
SLAVERY (Cont'd)
Cleveland, Sept. 8, 1838.
To Wm. B. Lloyd, Esq.
Dear Sir: - Are you in favor of repealing the Laws of the State of Ohio,
Regulating Black and Mulatto Persons?
Respectfully yours ,
H. F. Brayton, Rec. Sec'y.
Cleveland, Sept. 8, 1838
Dear Sir: 1 have this afternoon received your communication and I comply
to your request by referring you to the statutes of Ohio, Vol. 29
pages 439, 440, 441 and 442, where you will find some fifteen sections
of 'various acts and amendments of acts relative to blacks and mulattoes.
Some of those provisions certainly do not accord with my ideas of Justice
or humanity. The acts prohibiting and punishing the crime of kidnapping,
as also that which requires proof of property before slaves can
be reclaimed. of which I heartily approve. Others remain a dead letter
in the Statute Book.
As to the section prohibiting the testimony of blacks and mulattoes
in courts of record or elsewhere, I am of decided opinion that it should
be repealed.
I think it due myself and to the Society whose organ you are, to
say, that I am not, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, an abolitionist.
Very respectfully yours,
Wm. B. Lloyd. (30)
2426 • H&:G OCt. 30; ed:2/2.3 • Towards the close of last August the
Governor of Kentucky issued a requisition on Governor Vance of Ohio for
the person of John B. Mahan of Georgetown. Ohio. accompanied by the
requisite indictments from the Grand Jury of Mason County, Kentucky,
setting forth that he was guilty of assisting slaves to escape from their
masters, was a resident of Mason County, and was a fugitive from Justice.
Mahan was arrested and taken to Kentucky. The subject slumbered until
the eve of election when Thomas L. Hamer, Senator Morris, the COLUMBUS
STATESMAN, The Cincinnati PHILANTHROPIST, and the Journals of the
party throughout the State seized upon and distorted the facts of the
case and held up the conduct of Governor Vance as that of a monster
who had delivered up a citizen to the tender mercies of slavery and
the Lynch law, in defiance of law, duty, and the Constitution.
"The effect was seen in the decreased vote for Governor Vance in the
Southern counties, according to our exchanges." (31)
2427 • H&G Nov. 14; ed:2/3 • The "Locofoco" presses have lost all sympathy
for Mahan since the election. Not a word about the atrocious outrage,
no appeals, no indignation, no more crocodile tears. "The 'Morgan'
has been used - we have no further use for him." is their language.
The trial of Mahan will take place in the Mason county court the
present week.
"We shall look with much interest for the result, and a report of the
trial." (3)
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