Staunton Spectator

The ECHO Slave Trial.—The Charleston Mercury thinks the jury acquitted the crew of the slaver Echo because it would have been "inconsistent, cruel and hypocritical in them to condemn men to death for bringing slaves into a community where they are bought and sold every day." A parity of reasoning ought to make the Mercury willing to excuse the unwillingness of the northern people to execute the fugitive slave law, because it would be "inconsistent, cruel and hypocritical in them to consent to the return of a fugitive slave when they believe slavery everywhere wrong and immoral." If the Mercury excuses the non-enforcement of one law in the South because public sentiment is opposed to it, how can it justly ask the North to enforce another law which is there opposed by public sentiment. The true ground is that both laws should be maintained simply because they are the law.