The Liberator

Boston, May 27, 1859

The Oberlin Cases.

      Sentence has been passed upon Bushnell and Langston, the tow Oberlin men against whom the Judge and District Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio have succeeded in obtaining verdicts. Bushnell was sentenced to 60 days’ imprisonment, a fine of $600, and the costs of the trial, which must probably amount to more than double that sum. Langston was sentenced to a fine of $100, and the costs of the trial. The Court also directed the Marshal in case he might, for any reason, consider the Cleveland Jail an insecure place for the confinement of the prisoners, to commit them to such other jail of the district as he might see fit.

      It is the intention of the counsel, now that final judgment has been rendered in these cases, to make a new application to the Supreme Court of Ohio for a writ of habeas corpus, the objection upon which the former application was refused having now been removed. The District Attorney, in arguing a motion which he made for the postponement of the other cases till July, stated that he had received notice to that effect, and gave as one reason for the postponement which he requested, the necessity he would be under of appearing before the Supreme Court to resist that application.

      He also pleaded another duty, to which the United State Government had directed him to attend. Five of the witnesses on whom he relied – the parties, namely – from whom the rescue had been made, had been arrested under a indictment found against them for kidnapping. They must appear at Elyria on the 17^th instant to answer to that charge, and he had received orders from Washington to appear and defend them. Two other of his Kentucky witnesses, the owner of the slave rescued, and the Clerk of the Court, by whose signature the power of attorney had been authenticated, had suddenly started off for Kentucky without giving him any notice of their departure. The counsel for the prisoners strenuously resisted any continuance, and insisted on their right to an immediate trial, especially such of them as were in custody; but the Judge granted the motion, and directed a continuance of the cases to the 12^th of July. – N.Y. Tribune.

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      The Classification. – One of the Wellington, Oberlin prisoners writes from jail to the Ashtabula Sentinel thus:

      Sheriff Wightman has in his custody some fifty-five prisoners, classified as follows: horse thief, 1; counterfeiting, 1; murder, 1; drunkenness, 1; assault and battery, 1; grand larceny,7; petit larceny, 8; burglary, 3; and believing in the higher law, 20.

      We have among our number 1 physician, 1 professor, 2 lawyers, 4 students, 3 farmers, 2 shoemakers, 1 bookseller, 1 ordained minister, 1 printer, and 1 Kansas lieutenant.