Page:A Historic Judicial Controversy and Some Reflections (Gregory, 1913).djvu/4

182, directed to the Federal Marshal who had the custody of Glover, and the sheriff of the county. These officers very properly, as we now know, refused to produce the prisoner in obedience to the writ, as he was held under Federal process and hence the jurisdiction of the tribunals of the nation was exclusive.

When the fact of this refusal became public there was great excitement throughout the city; a great meeting was held in the court-house square in the afternoon, at which highly inflammatory speeches were made, with the result that finally, about six o'clock in the evening of the same day, that is, Saturday, the day after the arrest, the crowd broke into the jail and rescued Glover.

I am glad to say that he was never recaptured. What became of him I do not know; and he entirely disappears from our history, though the subsequent litigation which arose out of the incidents narrated was, for many years, often referred to as the Glover rescue case.

A graphic account of the rescue appeared in the Racine Advocate of March 20th in that year. From that article the following extract may not be uninteresting:—

"A committee of twenty-five of the citizens of Milwaukee was appointed a committee of vigilance and protection. A committee of two was also appointed to wait upon the sheriff to see if he still persisted in refusing to serve the writ. This refusal being persisted in, measures were immediately taken to see what steps were necessary to see that the 'Republic received no detriment' and that the laws of the land were enforced. The citizens of Milwaukee, on this notice being given, assembled to the number of five thousand in the court house square, where they were addressed by the most eloquent and influential members of the Milwaukee bar. The excitement continued, and spread to all parts of the city. At five o'clock the delegation from this city arrived at Milwaukee and were escorted to the court house square, where the citizens of Milwaukee were listening to addresses upon the subject matter. The military had been ordered out, but did not appear on the streets. At six o'clock the friends of law and order came to the conclusion that it would be unsafe as well as eminently wicked for a human being to be locked up in a jail over the Sabbath against whom no crime had been alleged; accordingly a courier was dispatched for a team, and as the court house bell rang the tocsin of liberty the writ of 'open sesame' was enforced, while the glorious sun sank