The Oberlin Evangelist

May 11, 1859

Progress of the Oberlin Rescue Case.

      Friday, April 15, closed with the verdict of guilty, founded by the jury against Simeon Bushnell; the order of the Court that the same jury should try the remaining cases; the protest of counsel for defence against this mockery of justice, and their decided refusal, if this policy is persisted in, to make any attempt to defend before such a jury; the indicted remanded into close custody of the Marshall and imprisoned in the county jail. These twenty men, among the best citizens of Oberlin and Wellington, yet (April 22) remain – their condition being made as comfortable as legal confinement within precincts so narrow can well be made by the genuine and noble-hearted kindness of Sheriff Wightman and his family, by the earnest sympathy of hosts of friends and above all, by te consciousness of being in the path of duty to God and man. Their hearts are moreover sustained, as we have reason to know, by the hope that incidentally, these pains and penalties inflicted for doing right, may help to open the eyes of the nation to the enormous iniquity inherent in slavery itself, since it must demand for its support perpetual outrages upon the most sacred rights of man.

      On Sabbath, Prof. Peck, one of the imprisoned, preached from the main entrance door, to the prisoners within and to a congregation assembled in the year, estimated at from three to four thousand – subject - Following Christ in sympathy and aid of the oppressed, and in endurance of whatever ill such a life may impose. It was the theme for the occasion, and could not fail to make good impressions.

      From Friday, the Court adjourned to Monday, when the Judge permitted a new jury to be impaneled. Charles Langston was next put on trial. The testimony for the prosecution is not yet closed.                                                                                               H. C.