30 THE ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER. [WEDNESDAY,
THE CASE OF NELSON HACKET.
TO JOHN SCOBLE, ESQ., SECRETARY OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.
Washington City, Dec. 27, 1842.
DEAR SIR, — I hasten to communicate to you an interesting piece of information I have just obtained from the Hon. Mr. Cross, Representative to Congress from Arkansas. It is, that Nelson Hacket, the coloured man who was surrendered by the Governor of Canada on a requisition from the Governor of Arkansas, to answer to a charge of stealing, was taken to Arkansas, and without trial restored to the possession of his former master a a slave; that he escaped again, and was retaken; but finally escaped the third time, and has not been heard of since; and whether he has gone clear, or is destroyed, is not known.
As it is reported that systematic measures have been adopted here for the recovery of the vast number of slaves that are escaping, by claiming them as felons, the exasperation and dismay that exist here are indescribable; and if they should recover even one man, they would hope, by making him an example, to deter those that remain.
The Canadian authorities ought to be expressly instructed to give up no coloured man to the slave states, on any pretext whatever. There is no other security.
From a perusal of Mr. Benton’s speech in the Senate, against the ratification of the Ashburton treaty, I have no doubt the idea was seriously entertained that the 10th Article would secure the surrender of slaves from Canada. He exposes its insufficiency for that purpose, and makes it a main ground of objection to the treaty itself, that it abandons the South. He says, “The South, left alone by the separate treaty, now made for the Northern States, and with the sympathies of half the Union and all the rest of the world against her, must now expect greater outrages than ever in all that relates to slave property.” None of the slaves that have escaped from this neighbourhood have been recovered. Probably the loss in value is at least a hundred thousand dollars in the last six months.
We are expecting some exiting debates on the subject whenever the treaty shall come before Congress. I have no doubt the London Committee will exercise due vigilance in regard to the legislation of Parliament to carry the treaty into effect. Mr. Benton, in his speech, recites the proviso of Article 10, and proceeds to say –
“This reduces the engagement to the merest hoax. The offence is to be one for which the fugitive could be arrested and tried, if committed at the place of apprehension. And who supposes that in the abolition of dominions of Great Britain, the murder or robbery of a master by his slave, will be admitted to be a crime for which the perpetrator should be delivered up to justice? Even admitting that, under the common aw of England, there may be a killing of a master by his slave, under circumstances which would amount to murder, yet who would expect, in the present state of British feeling, that the law would be executed by a British judge? Who would expect even such a murderer to be given up, much less when the killing takes the form of defence against violence, or escape from oppression!” We are beginning to flatter ourselves that the plot for annexing Texas to the United States has been defeated, by exposure, for this year.
(Signed,) JOSHUA LEAVITT.