RECOLLECTIONS AND OPINIONS OF AN OLD PIONEER"~~CONTINUED.
By PETER H. BURNETT.
CHAPTER V.
The Act in Regard to Slavery and Free Negroes and Mulattoes—Misrepresentations of W. H. Gray.
Mr. Gray, in speaking of the legislative committee of 1844. says:
"There was one inhuman act passed by this legislative committee, which should stamp the names of its supporters with disgrace and infamy." (Page 378.)
"The principal provisions of this bill were, that in case a colored man was brought to the country by any master of a vessel, he must give bonds to take him away again or be fined; and in case the negro was found, or came here from any quarter, the sheriff was to catch him and flog him forty lashes at a time, till he left the country." (Page 278.)
"The principles of Burnett's bill made it a crime for a white man to bring a negro to the country, and a crime for a negro to come voluntarily; so that in any case, if he were found in the country he was guilty of a crime, and punishment or slavery was his doom." (Page 379.)
"At the adjourned session in December we find the executive urging the legislative committee ... to amend their act relative to the corporal punishment of the blacks, etc." (Page 379.)
"To the honor of the country, Peter H. Burnett's negro-whipping law was never enforced in a single instance against a white or black man, as no officer of the provisional government felt it incumbent upon himself to attempt to enforce it." (Page 383.)
