Samuel Guthrie

Samuel Guthrie

OFFICE LOCATION: New Castle, DE

TENURE:  –

HEARINGS: 1

RENDITIONS: 1

CASES: 

Edward “Ned” Davis (1854) – 1 returned

• On April 16, 1854, Commissioner Guthrie remanded alleged fugitive Edward Davis to slavery in Georgia, from where he had escaped by ship. [1854-04-20 “Another Slave Catching Outrage!!” New York Tribune]

NOTES: 

• On the Senate floor, Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner drew attention to the Edward Davis case. Sumner presented a memorial from Delaware abolitionist Thomas Garrett, who claimed to have discussed the case at length with Commissioner Guthrie. Garrett wrote: “Guthrie, who got ten dollars for returning poor Davis, declared to me that he would have given fifty dollars cheerfully to be released from making the decision.” Delaware senator James A. Bayard, Jr. responded, defending Guthrie as “a gentleman of high standing at the bar, a modest, retiring, firm man.” [Cong. Globe, 33rd Congress, 1st Sess. (1854): 1789, WEB]