"--_Cincinnati Commercial_.
[--> The following may, not improperly, find a place here.]
The House of Delegates of Virginia, early in 1856, adopted
the following:--"_Be it resolved by the General Assembly_,
That our Representatives in Congress are requested, and our
Senators be and are hereby instructed, to secure the passage
of a law making full compensation to all owners whose slaves
have or may hereafter escape into any of the non-slaveholding
States of this Union, and there be withheld from those to
whom such service or labor may be due."
_Fourteen persons of color_, held at Los Angelos, California,
early in 1856, as the servants of one Robert Smith, were
brought before Judge Benjamin Hays, on a writ of _habeas
corpus_. Smith alleged that he formerly resided in
Mississippi, where he owned these persons; was now about to
remove to Texas, and designed to take these persons with him
as his slaves. Judge Hays decided that they were all free,
and those under twenty-one years of age were placed in the
charge of the sheriff, as their special guardian.
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