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| SAMUEL GREEN. 249 Notwithstanding the mass of evidence given, to show the prisoner's guilt, in unlawfully having in his possession these documents, and the nine-tenths of the community in which he lived, believed that he had a hand in the running away of slaves, it was the opinion of the court, that the law under which he was indicted, was not applicable to the case, and that he must, accordingly, render a verdict of not guilty. He was immediately arraigned upon another indictment, for having in possession " Uncle Tom's Cabin," and tried ; in this case the court has not yet rendered a verdict, but holds it under curia till after the Somerset county court. It is to be hoped, the court will find the evidence in this case sufficient to bring it within the scope of the law under which the prisoner is indicted (that of 1842, chap. 272), and that the prisoner may meet his due reward—be that what it may. That there is something required to be done by our Legislators, for the protection of slave property, is evident from the variety of constructions put upon the statute in this case, and we trust, that at the next meeting of the Legislature there will be such amendments, as to make the law on this subject, perfectly clear and comprehensible to the understanding of everyone. In the language of the assistant counsel for the State, " Slavery must be protected or it must be abolished." From the same sheet, of May 20th, the terrible doom of Samuel Green, is announced in the following words: In the case of the State against Sam Green, (free negro) who was tried at the April term of the Circuit Court of this county, for having iu his possession abolition pamphlets, among which was " Uncle Tom's Cabin," has been found guilty by the court, and sentenced to the penitentiary for the term of ten years—until the 14th of May, 1867. The son, a refugee in Canada, hearing the distressing news of his father's sad fate in the hands of the relentless " gentlemen," often wrote to know if there was any prospect of his deliverance. The subjoined letter is a fair sample of his correspondence : SALFOKD, 22,1857. Dear Sir I take my pen in hand to Request a faver of you if you can by any means without duin InJestus to your self or your Bisness to grant it as I Bleve you to be a man that would Sympathize in such a ones Condition as my self I Reseved a letter that Stats to me that my Fater has ben Betraed in the act of helping sum frend to Canada and the law has Convicted and Sentanced him to the Stats prison for 10 y«ares his White Frauds ofered 2 thousen Dollers to Redem him but they would not short three thousen. I am in Canada and it is a Dificult thing to get a letter to any of my Frands in Maryland so as to get prop per infermation abot it—if you can by any means get any in telligence from Baltimore City a bot this Event Plese do so and Rit word and all so all the inform tnation that you think prop per as Regards the Evant and the best mathod to Rederae him and so Pleae Rite soon as you can You will oblige your sir Frand and Drect your letter to Sal-ford P. office C. W. SAMUEL GREEN. |