The Liberator

Boston, May 20, 1859

From the New York Evening Post.

The Oberlin Rescue.

      �Simeon Bushnell was convicted at Cleveland, Ohio, of the crime of aiding John, an alleged slave, to escape through Ohio to Canada, and to regain his freedom.�

Where is the charter freedom gave

To lands where speeds Ohio�s flood,

Which guarded from the foot of slave

The soil once wet with patriot blood?

Was it for this our fathers bled,

And left their graves as patriot mounds –

From trans-atlantic masters fled,

Here trembling crouch like whining hounds?

Is it a crime on freedom�s soil

To aid the man who would be free?

Shall we denounce far distant spoil,

Ourselves hunt men to slavery?

Ye pilgrims to Old England�s Tower,

Who freeze before the axe and wheel –

Rude relics now of brutal power –

The dungeon, screw, judicial steel:

Go to your own proud prairie home,

Your home of boasted liberty!

And, standing �neath the heaven�s broad dome,

See bloodier tools of tyranny.

The soulless judge, indictments, law,

Inventions framed with cunning skill –

Far deadlier than the links which gnaw

And chafe the freeman�s tameless will.

The plains that �neath free armies shook

Are now the hunting-grounds for men;

Unchained the flowers, the wind, the brook -

There men are forced to slaves again.

Oh, men! Roll back this cursed tide;

Assert the manhood God once gave;

Stand on free ground, its crown and pride;

Be something more than Slavery�s slave!

All honor to that hero band!

Your thorny crown is rosy bright;

With Hampden, Sydney, now ye stand,

Judicial martyrs to the right.

New Your, April 28, 1859.                                         J.D.S.