From one of the leading daily journals of Philadelphia, we copy as follows: 

“There can be no difference of opinion concerning the shocking affair which occurred at Christiana, on Thursday, the resisting of a law of Congress by a band of armed negroes, whereby the majesty of the Government was defied and life taken in one and the same act.  There is something more than a mere ordinary, something more than even a murderous, riot in all this.  It is an act of insurrection, we might, considering the peculiar class and condition of the guilty parties, almost call it a servile insurrection—­if not also one of treason.  Fifty, eighty, or a hundred persons, whether white or black, who are deliberately in arms for the purpose of resisting the law, even the law for the recovery of fugitive slaves, are in the attitude of levying war against the United States; and doubly heavy becomes the crime of murder in such a case, and doubly serious the accountability of all who have any connection with the act as advisers, suggesters, countenancers, or accessories in any way whatever.”

In those days, the paper from which this extract is taken, represented the Whig party and the more moderate and respectable class of citizens.

The following is an extract from a leading democratic organ of Philadelphia: 

“We will not, however, insult the reader by arguing that which has not been heretofore doubted, and which is not doubted now, by ten honest men in the State, and that is that the abolitionists are implicated in the Christiana murder.  All the ascertained facts go to show that they were the real, if not the chief instigators.  White men are known to harbor fugitives, in the neighborhood of Christiana, and these white men are known to be abolitionists, known to be opposed to the Fugitive Slave Law, and known to be the warm friends of William F. Johnston, (Governor of the State of Pennsylvania).  And, as if to clinch the argument, no less than three white men are now in the Lancaster prison, and were arrested as accomplices in the dreadful affair on the morning of the eleventh.  And one of these white men was committed on a charge of high treason, on Saturday last, by United States Commissioner Ingraham.”

Another daily paper of opposite politics thus spake: 

“The unwarrantable outrage committed last week, at Christiana, Lancaster county, is a foul stain upon the fair name and fame of our State.  We are pleased to see that the officers of the Federal and State Governments are upon the tracks of those who were engaged in the riot, and that several arrests have been made.

We do not wish to see the poor misled blacks who participated in the affair, suffer to any great extent, for they were but tools.  The men who are really chargeable with treason against the United States Government, and with the death of Mr. Gorsuch, an estimable citizen