The Liberator

SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

We remarked the other day, that Slavery, as it exists in the District of Columbia, presented many revolting features, some of which were then referred to. We had another of the features in view, and one to which we now ask attention.

There is a slave Prison at the City of Washington, into which people of color are thrown on suspicion of being slaves. In February last, the Marshal of that District presented a petition to the House of Representatives, claiming $5,361 60 for the board, jail fees, &c. &c., of certain persons alleged to be fugitives from 'service and labor.'—Among the items of the amount—are the following:

That one Moses Thornton was kept in said jail for the space of twelve hundred and forty days, for which such Marshal has charged the United States $421 60

That 4 persons designated as 'Meade's negroes,' were kept in said jail five hundred and eighty-five days each, for which said Marshal has charged the United States 795 60

And had been before kept in said jail over fifty days each, for which said Marshal has charged the United States 70 28

That 8 persons, designated as 'Buckner's negroes,' were kept in said jail four hundred and sixty days each, for which said Marshal has charged the United States 1,336 64

That William Burrows and Joseph Armstrong were kept in said jail four hundred and forty-three days each, for which said Marshal has charged the United States 301 24

That Sarah A. Robinson was kept in said jail four hundred and twenty-one days, for which said Marshal has charged the United States 143 14

That Peyton Harris was kept in said jail three hundred and twenty-one days, for which said Marshal has charged the United States 109 14

And that 5 several persons, the cause of whose commitment is stated in said account to be a petition for freedom, were kept in said jail for one hundred and eleven, one hundred and seventy-two, two hundred and thirty-two, three hundred and seventy-one days, respectively, for which said Marshal has charged the United States 437 38

Hon. Mr. Hall, of Buffalo, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee to which that Petition was referred, reported a preamble reciting the facts, and concluding with the following Resolution:

Resolved, That the Committee of Judiciary be, and they are hereby directed to report to this House, with all convenient speed, a bill repealing all laws of Congress, and abrogating, so far as they are operative or in force in the District of Columbia, all laws of the State of Maryland, which authorize or require the courts, officers, or magistrates of the United States, or of the said district within the District of Columbia, to issue process for arrest, or commit to the jail of the said District, any runaway or other slave or fugitive from service, or colored person claimed as such, except on one complaint and proof of, or on a conviction of some crime or misdemeanor, the commission of which by any free white person would authorize, in the same manner, the arrest, commitment, and detention of such white person in like manner charged with or convicted thereof.

Slavery costs the country too much, in various ways, without taxing the United States Treasury directly. Mr. Hall's Resolution was not adopted, but we hope, ere long, to see a House of Representatives not only prepared to discuss the question of Slavery in that District, but ready to wipe it out.—Albany Evening Journal.