Kentucky’s Rebuke

An Ohio judge demands that the police guarantee the safety of those they are arresting.

Kentucky’s Rebuke
Judge Buchwalter of Cincinnati, O., before whom application was made for the extradition of the colored man, Rev. A. H. Hampton has endeared himself to the lovers of humanity everywhere by his patriotic stand, and his demand that Kentucky shall vouchsafe protection to a citizen before she essays to arrest him.
Hampton has been discharged from custody, the Kentucky officials having failed to furnished the assurances that he would be protected from mob-violence and guaranteed a fair and impartial trial.
This brings to mind the case of Rev. Flemon, who was arrested in Pennsylvania several years ago upon the charge of having killed a white man in South Carolina.
When the officers from that state came for him, a fight was made by his friends, and the Governor importuned not to extradite him. After much correspondence the Governor declared he would only give up the prisoner upon assurance from the Governor of South Carolina that he would be protected and guaranteed a fair and impartial trial.
Lawyers from Pennsylvania conducted the defense and troops when furnished to escort the prisoner to the place of trial. He was acquitted and returned at once to a northern clime.
This brings to mind a question, What right has a sheriff to arrest a person, whom he knows he is powerless to protect from injury?
Again, should a person submit to arrest when he knows that such a submission will result in death?
We answer both questions in the negative. A man had just as well die with the ague as the fever. He might as well meet death fighting the sheriff who is in most cases the ally of the lynchers, as to yield up to him his weapons and be afterward unceremoniously strung up or shot down.
When the time comes that it will be a generally accepted fact that it is dangerous to lynch a Negro, then lynch-law will go.

“Kentucky’s Rebuke,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 18, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/85.