Virginia Free Press

PENNSYLVANIA AND THE DELIVERY OF FUGITIVE SLAVES.

The special message of the Governor of Pennsylvania, sent in to the Legislature of that State on Friday last, on the subject of slavery, raised quite a storm among the Democratic portion of the House, who regarded it as untimely, and an unwarrantable interference at this time, when a bill was pending to repeal so much of the obnoxious portions of the act to prevent kidnapping in that Commonwealth.

A Harrisburg letter to the Philadelphia Sun, says:

"The House by manoeuvre, adjourned, without coming to any decision on the motion to print the document, or to refer the resolutions of the Legislatures of Georgia and Virginia, protesting against the conduct of the Northern States, to a select committee.

"The bill to repeal in part, the act to prevent kidnapping, preserve the public peace, prohibit the exercise of certain powers to judges, magistrates, &c., to repeal certain slave laws passed in 1847, was taken up in committee of the whole—the object of the bill being to repeal those sections of that act which prohibit the courts, judges, &c., from having any jurisdiction aiding masters to recover their slaves.

"At one o'clock, the time fixed to adjourn, no member having risen to move the committee rise, the Speaker resumed the chair and adjourned the House. The result is a virtual defeat of the bill, it being well understood that the Democrats, as a body, desired no action to be taken. This is legislative legerdemain.

"The joint resolutions in relation to slavery in territories was got rid of in a like summary manner, by postponing their further consideration till the next Monday in April—yeas 45, nays 43."