District of Columbia.
§ 97. Denial of the use of the jails in the District of Columbia.—Several efforts were made to remedy this state of things, at least in the territory over which Congress had exclusive control. December 4, 1861, Mr. Wilson, who had been investigating the condition of the District of Columbia jail in Washington, offered a joint resolution for the release of all fugitives from service or labor therein held.[350] It appeared that some sixty persons were imprisoned solely because they were suspected of being runaways, and had been allowed no opportunity to prove the contrary. A free boy from Pennsylvania came to Washington with the 5th Pennsylvania Regiment. He was found in the streets and sent to jail. Another boy, who was working for the soldiers on the railroad, was also taken up and placed there.[351]
Mr. Wilson struck at the root of the matter by a resolution, which was agreed to, looking to the revision of all the laws in the District of Columbia providing for the arrest of persons as fugitives from service or labor, and to consider the expediency of abolishing slavery in the District.[352]
On December 9, 1861, Mr. Bingham introduced a resolution for the repeal of all acts in force in the District of Columbia which authorized the commitment of runaways and suspected runaways to the jail; it was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.[353] Mr. Fessenden asked that the Committee on the District of Columbia investigate and report upon the condition of the jail; this was agreed to.[354]
A few weeks later, December 30, 1861, Mr. Grimes presented a bill in the Senate in regard to the administration of criminal justice in the District. This was read and referred to the committee, which reported it, January 6, 1862.[355] Efforts were immediately made to prevent fugitive slaves from being included in the general jail delivery contemplated by the bill. Mr. Powell, in the debate upon his amendment to that purpose, urged that so long as the institution of slavery existed in the South, no such measure ought to prevail.[356] Mr. Grimes supported his measure by giving some examples of exceedingly unjust cases which had occurred. "A young colored fellow, who came as a servant of an officer from the vicinity of Pittsburg, was thrown into this jail in August last. The regiment to which he was attached went forward toward the face of the enemy. There was nobody here to look after him. There is no doubt as to his being a free boy, yet he was there on the first day of this month." To such cases he desired to have the law apply. "They have here in this District and in Maryland what they call an apprehension fee. They have a law which declares that if any slave wanders a certain distance from the residence of his master, he may be taken up as a fugitive. There are persons in this vicinity, I am credibly informed, who are lying in wait all around your city and the surrounding country, in hope that they can find some poor colored man or woman who is out picking berries and visiting a friend, and who will wander a little further than the distance established by law from the residence of the master."[357] The opinion that such injustice ought to be corrected prevailed, and the amendment was rejected. After much discussion the bill passed the Senate, January 14, 1862,[358] and it was approved by the President on the same day. Thenceforward the Fugitive Slave Law was practically a dead letter at the seat of government, since the necessary machinery was lacking, and the spirit of the administration was opposed to it. The new act was in effect a national personal liberty bill.
§ 98. Abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.—The work contemplated by all the propositions was finally accomplished in one act. On December 16, 1861, Mr. Wilson had offered a bill in the Senate for the total abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. It was reported with amendments a few weeks after the passage of the act denying the use of jails, and on February 24, 1862, Mr. Wilson presented a supplementary bill.[359]
The debates upon this proposition were long and interesting. The South regarded it as "an entering wedge of something more comprehensive and radical,"[360] as preparatory to the abolition of slavery in the whole country by Congress. The antislavery party rejoiced that at last an opportunity had come for freeing the national capital from the disgrace of slavery. The bill passed both houses, and was approved April 16, 1862.[361] By the final section of the act the black code of Maryland was wiped out, and the severe local provisions against fugitives, which had not been repealed by the previous act, were at last taken away. It remained only to attack the last stronghold of the system,—the two acts of 1793 and 1850.
§ 99. Regulations against kidnapping. In the act of April 16, 1862, were included regulations against kidnapping,—a practice made easy by the unsettled state of the country. It seems to have been largely carried on not only by Southerners, but also by unprincipled soldiers connected with the Union army. The Liberator of March 27, 1863, notices such a case. Some men from the 99th Regiment of New York Volunteers kidnapped a free colored man at Norfolk, Virginia. They took his horse, cart, and the provisions which he had just bought, and offered him for sale to be sent South. During the absence of his captors for a few moments, the man was able to work off his bonds and to escape in the darkness. He immediately went before a provost marshal, told his story, and recognized one of his captors who was just entering the door. What the consequences of this meeting were the "Liberator" does not tell us; but the impression is given that the negro was saved from his pursuers.[362]