Kidnapping In Boston
About three weeks ago, the schooner Wellington, J. S. Higgins master, snilcd irorn NewberrwN. C. for Boston. Four daya after the vessel 'e%gtÃifiice of a man, faint wuh hungerj hailed ihe crew fit -i the ho'd, and svppiicatod i6r food and proiection. It prpvcd tobe John Torrcuce, ! a poor slave, whose rnaslcr hnd pcrmitled I hirn to hite his own time for thh-ty dollars a niünth, allowing hitn all he could make over this. By great exertions he had bought his ivife, and sent her on to Phüadelphia vvith her babe. Iiefnad afterwards mado an agreement to buy hirnseif, and had paid all bm $400. But his heart grew "sick with hope deferred," and he hid himself on board 'the Wellington. As suon as ihe captain disoovered he was on board, he resolved to put back to Norfolk, in Virginia, and leave the poor fellow in jai! there ; but the sailors, true to the characteristic kindness oftheir nature, threatened a tnutiny.The vessel arrived in Boston, and, by the pretended or real advice of those intercaied in the vessel or cargo, John Torrence was confined on board, uuder deck, while the cargo was dischaJging, and (he new freight talcen in. . The poor man Vfi's to!d ihat if ihay et him go, the captain and male woúÃd suffer dèatfa f'ur it, ifthey .ever went to North Caroünn again, and by sueh slories, after he was put in irons, the victim was mudo to express a willingness togo back! Ono day, the weók bcfore last, tho trembling fugilive determined to mako one efifort to escape; anJ jumped into the doek to swim ashore. He had nearly succeedod, when his attempt was seen ly the mate and captain of the Wellington. At the same moment a boat carne along wilh several men in herà "Catch him," cried some one on board the Wellington. 'Til give you two dollars to bring him on board." 'Pil give ten, tweaty, any sum, ifyou'U put me ashore," cried the victim. But he was unheeded. Probably the boat's crew thought it was a sailor trjing to shirk his duties. He was seized, carried on board, and, by order of the captain, the mate put irons upon both hands, and confined him in the cabiri. Afterwards, on his promise not to attempt to escape, one hand was unfetlerred, and he vasallov;ed, now and then, to take breath on deck, when no one was near. But the moment any one approached,he was thrust down ngain to his place of confinement, and there guarded, day and night, by aruied men.Fearinginquiry into tliis wicked transaction, the vessel sailed away in the night lime, without entering herdeparture at the cuslom house, nnd carried ihe poor sufferer back to his tyrant3. The rcason givcn was, that if they went back wiihout him, they would be liuble to imprisonment and fine; atmït would "break up their (rade with Newbern. The mate. Benjamin Iliggins, remained behind, trying to raise, among the citizens of Boston $500 or $700 to bny Torrence's freedom; though in fact $400 was all that was required. - This natuially gave rise to the suspicion that he meant to appropriate the rcsïdue to his own use. Ho was arrested by Rev. C. T. Torrey and others-, on charge of kidnapping; bound over in $500 to appear at the Municipal Court, and found bail. - R. II. Dana, jr-, appeared for the conrgj plainanis, and Franklia Dextcr fi-r the defendant. Strenge to say he was discharged: a iTiajority of the jury bofng of opinión, that the provisiuns of the stotute, by virtue of which he was arrested, did not apply to his case. Yet the law against kidnapping is the only law which secures any freö colored person in Mussachusctts frorn being seized and carried off as a sla ve. The affair produced great exciterr.cnt in Boston, as it must needs have done in any community not dead to humane feelings. How long must the North endure ihcse outrage3 upon her moral sense? -