Part 5

On the day of the affray it seems that no action was taken at Christiana for the arrest of any parties. All was confusion. The next morning (the 12th of Sept.) Kline went before Joseph D. Pownall, Justice of the Peace of Lancaster County, for the township of Sadsbury, and on oath charged Elijah Lewis, Castner Hanway, John Morgan, Henry Simms, Charles Valentine, Lewis Clarkson, Charles Hunter, Lewis Gales, George Williams, Alson Parnsley, Light Stewart, Hezekiah Clemens, George Wells, Walter Harris, Abraham Clinch, Nelson Carter and Jacob Phillips, with “aiding and abetting in the murder of Edward Gorsuch on the morning of the 11th September, 1851,” and warrants were issued for their arrest. As soon as Lewis and Hanway heard of this, they went over to Christiana and surrendered themselves to the authorities. They and the colored men were carried to Lancaster that night, to await a further hearing before Alderman J. Franklin Reigart, of the city of Lancaster.

The next day (the 13th Sept.) the train from Philadelphia brought up the U. S. District Attorney, J. W. Ashmead; the U. S. Commissioner, E. D. Ingraham; an Attorney who had acted as counsel for Mr. Gorsuch, before he applied to Mr. Ingraham in Philadelphia; a company of Marines from the Navy Yard at Philadelphia; and a number of the Marshal’s police.

These, it seems, when reinforced by such volunteers as could be procured from the neighborhood, composed the force by which “the country was to be scoured.” They went from house to house with fire-arms in their hands, demanding of the people they met whatever best suited their fancies.

On the same day at Christiana, the Commissioner heard the charges against Joseph Scarlett, Wm. Brown, Ezekiel Thompson, Daniel Clarksbury and Benjamin Pendergrast, and they, with Isaiah Clarkson and Elijah Clark,[A] were the next day (Sunday) brought to the Moyamensing prison in Philadelphia, “to await their trial at the next term of the Circuit Court upon the charge of having committed treason against the United States.”

On the 15th (Monday) the Commissioner resumed his duties, and heard the charges against Henry Green, Wm. Williams, John Halliday, Wm. Brown, (second), George Read, Benjamin Johnson, John Jackson, Thomas Butler, John Clark, Moses Johnson, Jacob Johnson, Emory Elias, Nero Johnson, William Henry Morgan, Aaron Wesley, Daniel Jones, William Jackson, Peter D. Watson and William Chandler. The first eight, in company with Samuel Williams, were on the same day sent to Moyamensing. What became of John Clark does not appear. The records of the prison do not show that he was ever there, and the transcript of the Commissioner’s dockett does not say he was discharged.

On the 18th September, Collister Wilson was lodged in Moyamensing prison. It does not appear by whom he was committed.

On Sunday morning (the 14th Sept.) the prisoners who had been taken to Lancaster, were again brought before Alderman Reigart, but were remanded until Tuesday the 16th.

Before the 16th, it was thought advisable by those in authority, to change the nature of the charge against the prisoners. They had been arrested as offenders against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Now they were to be considered as culprits, to be punished by the laws of the General Government, and were to be accused as traitors. It was probably with a view to prepare for this, that, when they were brought to the appointed place on the 16th, they were again remanded for one week, until Tuesday the 23d of September.

It is generally considered that a man is safe from prison walls until it has appeared to a magistrate that there is probable cause for believing he has committed some offence that should be inquired into by a jury of his country. Such was the common law of England, and many believe it to be the common law of this country. The magistrate has the right, in the exercise of a sound discretion, to detain suspected parties a _reasonable_ time, while he hears the charges and decides whether there is necessity for his making a formal commitment. In these extraordinary cases, however, the operation of the law seemed to be inconvenient to those who had its initiatory administration, and the rule was not observed.

Before the appointed time, the company in the prison had been increased. On the 18th September, Jacob Moore was arrested on process issued by Squire Pownall.

The prisoners were brought up to Lancaster County Court House about 10 A. M., and the examination began before Alderman Reigart.

Thomas E. Franklin, Esq., John L. Thompson, Esq., District Attorney for the County of Lancaster, John W. Ashmead, Esq., District Attorney of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and R. J. Brent, Esq., Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Maryland, appeared as counsel to sustain the charges against the prisoners. On their behalf appeared the Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, George M. Kline, George Ford and O. J. Dickey, Esqrs.

Twelve witnesses were examined on the part of the United States, and about the same number on the part of the defence. After two days deliberation, the Alderman felt it his “duty to commit Castner Hanway, Elijah Lewis, John Morgan, Henry Simms, Jacob Moore, Lewis Clarkson, Charles Hunter, Lewis Gales, George Williams, Alson Parnsley, George Wells, Nelson Carter and Jacob Woods, into the custody of the Marshal of the U. S. for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to answer at the next session of the U. S. Circuit Court, the charge of having committed Treason against the United States and aiding and abetting in the murder of Edward Gorsuch, a worthy citizen of the State of Maryland.” They were accordingly brought down to the Moyamensing Prison on the 25th of September.

H. Clemens, A. Clinch, W. Harris, J. Phillips, L. Stewart and C. Valentine were discharged, having been detained in prison from the 12th to the 25th of September to await their examination. Jacob Woods, the man last mentioned, does not appear to have been arrested. He was, towards the close of the examination, upon the witness stand, virtually, though not formally, as state’s evidence. It appearing that his testimony implicated himself more than any one else, was probably the cause of his detention as prisoner instead of witness.

On Monday the 29th of September, “in consequence of the determination of the District Attorney to send bills to the Grand Jury indicting for Treason those accused of participation in the Christiana riot,” Judge Kane charged that body at length upon the law which should govern them in their inquiries. This course was required of the Judge by his duties as a public officer; yet many were surprised that he should have taken as the basis of his charge statements which many persons knew to be purely imaginative.

He stated briefly the occurrences at Parker’s house on the morning of the 11th September as he had heard them, and that “it was said that the time and manner of these outrages evinced a combined purpose forcibly to resist and make nugatory a constitutional provision; and in confirmation of this, it is added, that for some months past gatherings of people, strangers as well as citizens, have been held from time to time in the vicinity of the place of the recent outbreak, at which exhortations were made and pledges were interchanged to hold the law for the recovery of fugitive slaves as of no validity, and to defy its execution.” Personally, however, the learned Judge said he knew nothing of the facts, and had attempted to preserve his mind free and unprejudiced, being one of the members of the tribunal before which the accused might be tried.

If the circumstances mentioned had taken place, the Judge was correct in saying the highest crime known to the laws of the United States had been committed at Christiana. He cited many authorities, and concluded by stating with what misdemeanors the prisoners could be charged, under the acts of Congress, if the Grand Jury were of opinion that treason had not been committed.

On Friday of the same week (Oct. 13) the Grand Jury returned true bills charging the following men with Treason.

(White). C. Hanway, E. Lewis, J. Scarlett, and James Jackson.

(Colored). J. Moore, G. Reed, B. Johnson, D. Caulsberry, A. Parnsley, W. Brown, (2nd), H. Green, E. Clark, J. Holladay, W. Williams, B. Pendergrast, J. Morgan, E. Thompson, T. Butler, C. Wilson, J. Jackson, W. Brown, J. Clarkson, H. Sims, C. Hunter, L. Gales, P. Woods, L. Clarkson, N. Carter, W. Parker, J. Berry, W. Berry and G. Williams.

One charging George Wells (colored) with the same offence, was ignored.

On the next day, like bills were returned against S. Williams, J. Hammond, H. Curtis, W. Williams, W. Thomas and N. Ferd.

The bill against Noah Buley was ignored.

On the following Monday, the 6th of October, the U. S. Circuit Court, in which the prisoners were to be tried, held its session. The District Attorney moved for a special venire to issue to the Marshal to summon 108 Jurors, 12 of whom were to be from Lancaster County, “to try the charges against Elijah Lewis and 37 others who had been committed for treason against the United States growing out of the murderous outrage at Christiana.” He announced that he would move for the arraignment of the prisoners on the following Thursday, and that the fourth Monday of November had been fixed for the trials. Judge Grier said that such a motion was strictly proper, and he directed the Marshal “to summon men of the highest respectability of character, for intelligence, integrity and conscientiousness, in the community, and to inform them that their attendance will be enforced by the Court, and that no excuse but sickness would be received for non-attendance.”

The arraignment did not take place the next Thursday, for reasons best known to the District Attorney. No further public proceedings were had until the trial. In the mean time the Traitors were made as comfortable by the attentions of their friends as the rules of the prison permitted. Though the building was erected at an enormous expense, it is badly ventilated and miserably heated. Yet the rules did not permit any of the prisoners to have fire in their cells, which at that season of the year was absolutely essential to their comfort. Some of them, predisposed to pulmonary complaints, suffered severely on account of this privation. Before the termination of the trial the Court ordered the Marshal to provide more suitable quarters for two of them, representations having been made by their counsel that this precaution was necessary to preserve their health and probably their lives.

On Sunday morning, Nov. 9, about 4 o’clock, two of the witnesses for the prosecution, who had been detained in the Debtors apartment of the Moyamensing Prison, made their escape, by means of the shutters of their cells and their blankets. A white man who was under confinement on another charge went with them.

On Tuesday morning, in the District Court, the District Attorney, after stating the facts, asked for a writ of Habeas Corpus directed to the keeper of the Debtor’s apartment, returnable on the following Friday, directing him to bring forth the runaways. On Friday, the keeper asked for more time to make answer, and the following Monday was appointed. On Monday, it appeared by the statements of some of the counsel for the defence that the truant witnesses were more important for the cause of the prisoners than for the prosecution, and they came into court to complain of the escape as prejudicing their clients. The District Attorney undertook to controvert this position, and argued that because these witnesses were receiving $1.25 per day from the United States while in confinement, more than they could have earned if at liberty, their escape was not their own act and deed. A strange and novel doctrine! Most men, whatever their complexion, would prefer the light and air of heaven at 50 cents per day, to a cell 8 by 12, in a prison notorious for its poor ventilation, at $1.25. This was, however, the only evidence of “assistance from without,” which the U. S. Counsel so frequently insinuated, and upon which Mr. Brent, in his official report, rings such doleful changes, charging treachery on the part of some officer _within_ the walls of the prison. The public was therefore informed by one official dignitary, that these witnesses were assisted _from without_; another tells us assistance came _from within_.

Leaving out of the question the universal preference for the _outside_ of prison walls, there are two circumstances to be considered in relation to this escape, which, when told, the public will be as well able to surmise the truth as any attornies, whether in or out of office. These fugitives were confined as witnesses, not as defendants upon _any_ charge. Their friends, or the friends of emancipation, had not the same access to them the law gave to the prisoners. Being detained to testify on behalf of the United States, they were under the strict and especial charge of the government officers.

Besides, the Moyamensing prison is notoriously insecure. Scarcely a month passes by that there are not escapes. The iron bars in the windows of each cell are merely let into the mortar, which a prisoner has only to remove with his knife. The bar can then easily be displaced; and if a little management is used to escape the observation of the keepers, a defendant need not wait for the verdict of a jury to restore him to liberty.

On the investigation of the law relating to the matter, it was found that the keeper of the debtor’s apartment was not amenable to the United States District Court. The inquiry was accordingly dropped, informally.

On the same morning, at the instance of the District Attorney, it was ordered that the bills against the prisoners be certified to the U. S. Circuit Court, and he announced that Castner Hanway would be tried on the following Monday. John Jackson, it was also said, would be tried immediately after Hanway.

During the week, the preparations made on both sides were conducted in private; but one or two matters that excited some attention were permitted to make their way into the public prints. The entire private history of the difficulty which required the umpirage of the authorities at Washington, would be peculiarly _piquant_. But we have undertaken only an epitome of such matters as were made public, and would be digressing from the course marked out, were we to go “behind the scenes.”

It appears that as soon as the preliminary examinations were concluded, and it was determined to try the offenders upon the charge of treason against the United States, intimation was received from Washington by the authorities in Philadelphia, that the Administration desired no pains should be spared in conducting the trials with energy, and in a style worthy the occasion. The learned District Attorney for the United States obeyed these instructions to the very letter. Counsel were retained to assist him. The country was searched to procure the necessary evidence. Arguments were prepared beforehand, and briefs drawn by skilful hands to be used at the proper time. Before these preliminaries were quite concluded, letters were received from the Attorney-General of a neighboring State, which, by their tone, plainly showed that the writer considered himself entitled to the management of the whole matter, and offers, it is said, were made to the authorities here and their colleagues, to take the control of such portions of the trials as this professional usurper chose to assign them? No proposition like this could be entertained. The _dramatis personæ_ had all been assigned their parts, and had studied their speeches. The machinery had been adjusted for a certain number of wheels, and more than these would clog the movement. Answer was made that there were no vacancies to be supplied; but if the Attorney-General chose to be present, some alteration might, perhaps, be made in the programme.

The chief Executive of the State he represented, would not permit his officer to be thus rebuffed. Complaint was formally lodged at Washington, the result of which was, that the whole management of the case was altered. The then Secretary of State wished to _compromise_; and when the District Attorney of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania arrived from Philadelphia, he was told that the affair was unfortunate indeed, but an alteration was unavoidable. The Attorney-General must be allowed to have his own way; and those who had expended their time and talents in making the proper preparations of the case, were to acknowledge him as their leader.

The effect of this misunderstanding was manifest upon the trial, and to it is solely attributable the fact that, professionally speaking, the management of the prosecution in Hanway’s case was, in many respects, a complete blunder. Had the original intentions been pursued to completion, the Bar of Philadelphia would not have been surprised by the imbecile efforts that were made from time to time to bolster up the mistakes and omissions constantly resulting from a misapprehension of both the law and the facts of the case, on the part of those who had assumed its management.

The papers of Saturday, the 22d of November, announced that the trials would begin on Monday, and added, that “Such conveniences as the limited room in which the trials are to take place (would allow) have been prepared; but they are totally inadequate to the occasion, and we shall not be surprised to hear of _hundreds_ being disappointed who would like to hear the evidence and the arguments of counsel.”

This alone would be a sufficient answer to the absurdity of the statements made by Mr. Brent in his official report, in regard to the favors shown by the Marshal to the male and female members of the Anti-Slavery Society, and to free negroes. The extract is made from “Cummings’ Evening Bulletin,”--the authority Mr. Brent cites in support of his allegations. It was penned before the commencement of the trial, and may be considered as the testimony of an unbiassed witness.

If, however, the Governor of Maryland, to whom Mr. Brent’s report is made, had taken the trouble to examine the files of the paper in question, he would have found that on the first day of the trial, the reporter says: “Long before the hour arrived for the Court to meet, the seats were occupied by _white_ men, and _not a female_ made her appearance. We did not see a colored man in the room.” In the account of the second day, he says: “A very few members of the Society of Friends were present; and these few were probably the personal friends of Hanway.” In the report of the third day, no remark is made about persons present. The reporter, however, says: “The seating of every person who desires to be present cannot, of course, be accomplished.” On the fourth day, it is said: “The same absence of colored persons is visible.” Throughout the whole trial, no mention is made of colored persons _in the Court room_, except those brought up from prison to be identified by the witness Kline.

The exclusion of “a respectable gentleman from Maryland,” one of the witnesses,--mentioned by Mr. B., is not a case of extremity. During the examination of the witnesses who were called to testify to Kline’s good character, a gentleman of Philadelphia, a member of the Bar, and consequently an _officer of the Court_, who had been subpoenaed, when called to the stand, before he answered the questions asked him, complained to the Judges that he had been denied admission to the Court room. Towards the close of the trial another member of the Bar complained to the Court of the same thing. In both cases the Marshal was called to account, and justified the conduct of his deputies by saying the room was too small to admit all who desired to be present. The Judge told him to do the best he could, and that all members of the Bar _must_ be admitted.

The writer of this went away more than a dozen times because it was impossible to get near the door, and saw hundreds do the same thing. He was personally known to every officer of the Court, and could have gained admission had there been standing room.

Those who wished to hear and see, secured their places betimes. If Mr. Brent had read his favorite authority more closely, he would have seen that the reporter remarks jocosely upon the perseverance and patience of those who “secured their seats by seven o’clock A. M., and waited till ten for the opening of the Court.” Had the “respectable gentleman from Maryland” been out of bed in time, he might have secured a front seat.

On Monday, the twenty-fourth of November, the Trial was commenced at eleven o’clock A. M., in the United States Court room, at Philadelphia. The entire second floor of the building, known as Independence Hall, is leased by the General Government for the sittings of the Circuit and District Courts. The eastern portion, immediately over the room in which Congress held its sessions when Independence was declared, is divided into the offices of the Clerk and Marshal, Jury and Witness rooms, &c. The western portion is the Court room, and is probably one of the most elegantly furnished, for court purposes, in the country. The learned Judge of the District Court takes great pride in having everything about him conducted in the most polished style, and few Courts can boast of more urbane and polite attendants than the Circuit and District Courts of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

For all ordinary purposes, for admiralty causes, the hearing of patent cases, and other business usually transacted in these Courts, the room is sufficiently large. But on occasions attracting much of public attention, great inconvenience is felt by all whose duties compel them to be in attendance; and during the trial of Castner Hanway, as has just been seen, complaints were loud and frequent.

For this occasion the room had been refitted. Gas fixtures of the chastest designs had been erected, in anticipation of evening sessions. Ventilators of the most appropriate patterns had been placed in the ceiling, controlled by cords terminating at the bench of the Judges, so that a uniform temperature could be preserved. Nothing was wanting but space to promote the ease and comfort of those who were to figure in the solemn investigation about to take place.

Long before the appointed hour, the Court room was filled with persons anxious to witness the opening ceremonies. Officers were in attendance to see that the spectators were seated, and no more were admitted than the room would contain comfortably. In the lobbies and on the stair-way, policemen were stationed to prevent the crowd from rushing up, to allow those to pass who had been called thither by duty, and to preserve order below. For the first ten days they were retained on duty, their number being diminished by degrees until public curiosity had subsided.

At eleven o’clock, Judges Grier and Kane took their seats, and the Court was opened by the usual proclamation. The clerk called the names of one hundred and sixteen persons who had been summoned by the Marshal to attend as Jurors. Among them were some of the oldest and best known citizens of the eastern part of the State of Pennsylvania,--men whose lives were a guaranty that they were above all petty influences and vulgar prejudices,--who could safely take the oath prescribed by law for a juror.