| ReRelations with Other States |
| Petitions of the General Assembly Starting in 1817 and increasing with frequency thereafter, the Maryland Assembly recognized a growing threat to the institution of slavery from the outside. In particular, its neighbor to the north (Pennsylvania) became a hotbed of abolitionist sentiment as the Freinds (Quakers) became more anti-slavery and willing to set up a network of liberation commonly called the "Underground Railroad." The draft of the 1817 Resolution read: "Whereas the encouragement given to negroes running away from their owners in this state, and the harboring the same by sundry persons in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the State of Delaware, has long been a serious inconvenience to the owners of slaves, and is a growing evil, injurious in its consequences even to slaves themselves; Therefore, Be it resolved by the General Assembly of Maryland, That the governor be authorized and required to open a correspondence immediately with the executives of Pennsylvania and Delaware, stating at large the grievances under with the citizens of these state labor, in consequence of the protection given in those states to runaway negro slaves, and the difficulty which the owners experience in recovering them even after they are discovered, and requesting the said executives to use their influence with their respective legislatures, by recommending such laws as shall have a tendency to remedy the grievances complained of, and to report the result of the said correspondence to the next general assembly of Maryland." 13 By 1831 the Assembly was asking the National government to assist in the removal of free persons of color. If Congress did not feel that it had the authority for this amendment, Maryland empowered its representatives to propose an amendment to the Constitution. Prigg v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania The 1837 Assembly thought that the Federal courts should be consulted immediately in all cases regarding runaway slaves in which there was an issue between two states. This arose from a case in which four Maryland citizens: Nathan S. Bemis, Jacob Forwood, Edward Prigg, and Stephen Lewis were being held in Pennsylvania for attempting to catch runaway slaves. Mary Morgan, a fugitive slave from Maryland, had been seized by these men in Pennsylvania. (Unfortunately Mary Morgan and her children were taken back into slavery and sold - one child had been born in Pennsylvania.) Abolitionists had them arrested under Pennsylvania law for kidnapping because the slave catchers hadn't gotten a warrant for her arrest. This case was finally brought to the Supreme Court in 1841. The Court rulled against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania citing their state law as unconstitutional and the Marylanders were not guilty of any crime. However, while the Court ruled that an owner need not be concerned with state laws, states do not need to help recover slaves. The Court ruled to the effect that it was the duty of the Federal government to recover slaves and that the Constitution could not require states to do the work of the national government. This ruling affected the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 not because it reversed it, but because the Federal government at the time of the ruling did not have the ability to enforce the law using its own personnel. Justice Story gave the opinion of the court. (Justice Joseph Story would also later give the Court's opinion in the Amistad Case in 1841.) Chief Justice Taney concured but pointed out that the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act would be compromised because there were not enough Federal judges to inforce it which was later corrected in the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.) The Assembly was further enraged by a New York-Virginia case in which the State of New York refused to recognize Virginia's right to recapture runaways because New York had no law for slavery on the books (See 1840 Assembly). The Assembly resolved that a slave is property to be demanded by the owner from any state and that it is the duty of any state to surrender that person. New York and Pennsylvania On January 11, 1850 the Governor sent to the legislature information on two cases one from New York and one from Pennsylvania. Joseph Pelt was a fugitive slave that was arrested in New York. Pelt was released because the document containing the laws of Maryland in regard to slavery did not bear the state seal and was not under the governor's certificate. The second case involved Jacob Tenley an escaped slave who was captured by his owner. The owner was then put into jail for kidnapping. Gorsuch Treason Trials (see The Christiana Riot and the Treason Trials of 1851 an Historical Sketch by W. U. Hensel) "I will have my property or go to hell." Edward Gorsuch In 1851, an incident between Maryland and Pennsylvania created extreme tension. A group of blacks and whites stopped a Maryland slave owner from returning to Maryland with a futitive slave by killing the Marylander. A large force of police and military were sent into the neighborhood to arrest everyone black and white, who may have participated in the murder. William Parker (another runaway slave who lived in the area), the organizer of the defense, and some of the others who participated in the defense of the runaway slaves, escaped to Canada. (William Parker was personally assisted by Frederick Douglass as Parker went through Rochester, NY.) This case became part of a weekly display in the Upper Marboro's Planters Advocate. Starting on September 17, 1851 the paper furnished a drumbeat for the story of how abolitionists caused this problem: "Report of the death of two Baltimore citizens who attempted to retrieve their runaway slaves from Chester County, Pa. Mr. Edward Gorsuch shot dead by former slave and also shot his son Mr. Dickinson Gorsuch. 80 negroes attacked because abolitionsts had told them to hold their ground. Over 37 people were arrested mostly colored. Joseph Searlet, a white man, and William Brown colored committed on charge of high treason. 5 others charged all colored except Searlet." The paper also reported on abolitionists encouraging four men from Virginia who attacked their pursuer. The paper recommended that the abolitionist be arrested and hung without trial. By October 8 the paper reported that Elijah Lewis, Caspar Hanway, Joseph Scarlet, and James Jackson, white men were indited for treason with 27 negroes. The case was set to trial with the Attorney General of Maryland Robert J. Brent being appointed by Maryland Governor E Louis Lowe as one of the prosecuting attorneys. One of the defense attorneys was Thaddeus Stevens. Attorney General Brent had his complaints about the trial: "I brought to the attention of the court, the fact stated in the `Pennsylvania Freeman,' that the Marshal (Mr. Roberts) had actually dined with the prisoners, or some of them, during the trial, on Thanksgiving day, and when I was about to read the article from the paper I was stopped by his Honor, Judge Grier, who in behalf of the Marshal, denied the truth of the statement that he had so dined; but unfortunately for the Judge's interposition, the Marshal immediately afterwards made his own explanation, and admitted that he had not only assisted at the dinner, `but had set down and partaken sparingly' of the Thanksgiving dinner, with the white prisoners. I cannot but consider such conduct as highly unbecoming that officer from whom, next to the Judge, we had a right to expect impartiality and a due regard for decorum." (from "The Christina Riots and Treason Trials" see above) The Philadelphia Freeman of December 4, 1851 said: "It affords us great pleasure to state, that the Christiana prisoners were not wholly forgotten on Thursday last in the distribution of the good things pertaining to Thanksgiving. Thomas L. Kane, Esq. (son of the Judge), sent to the prison for their use six superior turkeys, two of them extra size, together with a pound cake, weighing 16 pounds. The turkeys were cooked with appropriate fixings, by order of Mr. Freed, the Superintendent, in the prison kitchen, by a female prisoner detached for the purpose. The dinner for the white prisoners, Messrs. Hanway, Lewis and Scarlet, was served in appropriate style in the room of Mr. Morrison, one of the keepers. The U. S. Marshal, A. E. Roberts, Esq., several of the keepers and Mr. Hawes, one of the prison officers, dined with the prisoners as their guests. Mayor Gilpin coming in, accepted an invitation to test the quality of the pound cake, Mrs. Martha Hanway who has the honor to be the wife of the `traitor' of that name, and who has spent most of her time with her husband since his incarceration, served each of the 27 colored `traitors' with a plate of turkey, potatoes, pound cake, &c., and the supply not being exhausted, all the prisoners on the same corridor were similarly supplied. "Who will stand best with posterity--the father who prostit utes his powers as a judge to procure the conviction of peaceable citizens as traitors for refusing to aid in the capture of fugitive slaves, or the son who ministered to the wants of those citizens while incarcerated in a loathsome prison? Need we answer the question?" Marshall Anthony Roberts was a known abolitionists. Two of the prisoners escaped before the trial. They had been identified as fugitive slaves by their owners. The Marshall was blamed but denied he had helped. However twenty-one years later William Still, head of the Philadelphia Underground Railroad said that it was Roberts who helped in the escape. Attorney General Brent also blamed Roberts for the selection of the jury pool stating: "a large majority of the potential jurors" called by Roberts were "unfavorable to a conviction." The trial was held on the second floor of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It took a pool of 116 jurors to find an acceptable jury. Treason was not proved and the defendants were set free. Back to Maryland Laws |
| Christiana Riot Monument - Christiana, PA Photo by Geoff Marsh, Laurel MD |
| Caspar Hanway, Elijah Lewis, and Joseph Scarlett Gorsuch Treason Trial frontpiece of 1911 commemoration book |
| Chief Justice Roger B. Taney Library of Congress |
| Thaddeus Stevens Chicago Historical Society |
| Marshall Anthony Roberts Lancaster Historical Society |