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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13987-0.txt b/13987-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..85aea67 --- /dev/null +++ b/13987-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,393 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13987 *** + +SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK, + +CONVICTED OF A + +VIOLATION OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW, + +BEFORE JUDGE DRUMMOND, + +OF THE + +UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, CHICAGO, ILL. + + +NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 1860. + + + + +SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK. + + + [At the February term of the U.S. District Court for the + Northern District of Illinois, JOHN HOSSACK and JOSEPH STOUT, + of Ottawa, were convicted of having aided in rescuing a + fugitive slave from the custody of the U.S. Deputy Marshal at + Ottawa, Oct. 20, 1859, and sentenced by Judge Drummond to pay + a fine of one hundred dollars, and be imprisoned ten days. + Mr. HOSSACK is a Scotchman by birth, but spent many years of + his life in Quebec, following the occupation of a baker. + About twenty years since, he removed to Ottawa, Illinois, and + assisted in the construction of the Illinois and Michigan + Canal. He has been for some years past a prominent dealer in + grain, has acquired a competency by enterprise and industry, + and is considered one of the most upright and intelligent + citizens in the community. The following Plea, made by him + before the Court, evinces true nobility of soul, the highest + moral integrity, the most generous humanity, and genuine + manly eloquence. Let it be read in every household, so that + the execution of the infamous Fugitive Slave Act, in every + part of the North, shall be rendered impracticable by a + regenerated public sentiment.] + +MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT: + +I have a few words to say why sentence should not be pronounced +against me. I am found guilty of a violation of the Fugitive Slave +Law, and it may appear strange to your Honor that I have no sense of +guilt. I came, Sir, from the tyranny of the Old World, when but a lad, +and landed upon the American shores, having left my kindred and native +land in pursuit of some place where men of toil would not be crushed +by the property-holding class. Commencing the struggle of life at the +tender age of twelve years, a stranger in a strange land, having to +earn my bread by the sweat of my brow, your Honor will bear with me. +Unaccustomed as I am to appear in Courts, much less to address them, +I have feared that I might fail in bearing myself on this occasion +worthy of the place and the position I occupy, and the great +principles involved in the case before you. I say to your Honor, +therefore, if I fail in observing the usual forms of the place, it +will be from a want of judgment and error of the head, and not of the +heart. Therefore I do not think I shall fare worse at the hands of +your Honor, if I state plainly my views and feelings on the great +question of the age--the rights of man. I feel that it is a case that +will be referred to long after you and I have gone to meet the great +Judge of all the earth. + +It has been argued by the prosecution that I, a foreigner, protected +by the laws of my adopted country, should be the last to disobey those +laws; but in this I find nothing that should destroy my sympathy for +the crushed, struggling children of toil in all lands. + +Surely, I have been protected. The fish in the rivers, the quail in +the stubble, the deer in the forest, have been protected. Shall I join +hands with those who make wicked laws, in crushing out the poor black +man, for whom there is no protection but in the grave, where the +wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest? + +It is true, Sir--I am a foreigner. I first saw the light among the +rugged but free hills of Scotland; a land, Sir, that never was +conquered, and where a slave never breathed. Let a slave set foot on +that shore, and his chains fall off for ever, and he becomes what +God made him--a man. In this far-off land, I heard of your free +institutions, your prairie lands, your projected canals, and your +growing towns. Twenty-two years ago, I landed in this city. I +immediately engaged on the public works, on the canal then building +that connects this city with the great river of the West. In the +process of time, the State failed to procure money to carry on the +public works. I then opened a prairie farm to get bread for my family, +and I am one of the men who have made Chicago what it is to-day, +having shipped some of the first grain that was exported from this +city. I am, Sir, one of the pioneers of Illinois, who have gone +through the many hardships of the settlement of a new country. I have +spent upon it my best days, the strength of my manhood. I have eleven +children, who are natives of this my adopted country. No living man, +Sir, has greater interest in its welfare; and it is because I am +opposed to carrying out wicked and ungodly laws, and love the freedom +of my country, that I stand before you to-day. + +Again, Sir, I ought not to be sentenced because, as has been argued by +the prosecution, I am an Abolitionist. I have no apologies to make for +being an Abolitionist. When I came to this country, like the mass from +beyond the sea, I was a Democrat; there was a charm in the name. But, +Sir, I soon found that I had to go beyond the name of a party in this +country, in order to know any thing of its principles or practice. I +soon found that however much the great parties of my adopted country +differed upon banks, tariffs and land questions, in one thing they +agreed, in trying which could stoop the lowest to gain the favor of +the most cursed system of slavery that ever swayed an iron rod over +any nation, the Moloch which they had set up, to which they offered as +human sacrifice millions of the children of toil. As a man who had +fled from the crushing aristocracy of my native land, how could I +support a worse aristocracy in this land? I was compelled to give my +humble name and influence to a party who proposed, at least, to +embrace in its sympathies all classes of men, from all quarters of the +globe. In this choice, I found myself in the company of Clarkson and +Wilberforce in my native land, and of Washington and Franklin, and +many such, in this boasted land of the free; and more than all these, +the Redeemer in whom I humbly trust for acceptance with my God, who +came to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the +captives, to set at liberty those who were bruised; yea, this very +religion binds me to those in bonds as bound with them. Tell me, Sir, +with these views, can I be any thing but an Abolitionist? Surely, for +this I ought not to be sentenced. + +Again, Sir, I ought not to be sentenced, because the Fugitive Slave +Law, under which I am torn from my family and business by the supple +tools of the Slave Power, the slave-breeder and the slave-hunter, is +at variance with both the spirit and letter of the Constitution. Sir, +I place myself upon the Constitution, in the presence of a nation who +have the Declaration of Independence read to them every Fourth of +July, and profess to believe it. Yea, in the presence of civilized +man, I hold up the Constitution of my adopted country as clear from +the blood of men, and from a tyranny that would make crowned heads +blush. The parties who prostitute the Constitution to the support of +slavery are traitors--traitors not only to the liberties of millions +of enslaved countrymen, but traitors to the Constitution itself which +they have sworn to support. A foreigner upon your soil, I go not to +the platforms of contending parties to find truth. I go, Sir, to the +Constitution of my country: the word slave is not to be found. I read, +"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect +Union, establish justice,"--yes, Sir, _establish justice_--"to promote +the general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty to +ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution +for the United States of America." These were the men who had +proclaimed to the world that _all_ men were created equal; that they +were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights---life, +liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and contended even unto death +for seven long years. Can it be, Sir, that these great men, under +cover of those hallowed words, intended to make a government that +should outrage justice and trample upon liberty as no other government +under the whole heavens has ever done? This dreadful power, that has +compelled the great political parties of the country to creep in +the dust for its favor; that has debauched to a large extent the +Christianity of the nation; that bids a craven priesthood stand with +Golden Rule in hand, and defend the robbing of mothers of their babes, +and husbands of their wives; that bids courts decree injustice; Sir, +I plant myself upon the Constitution, and demand justice and liberty, +and say to this bloody Moloch, Away! Sir, the world has never +furnished so great a congregation of hypocrites as those that formed +the Constitution, if they designed to make it the greatest +slaveholder, slave-breeder and slave-catcher on earth. He is a great +slaveholder that has a thousand slaves; but if this law is a true +exponent of the Constitution, this Government, ordained for justice +and liberty, holds four millions of slaves. + +No, Sir! no! for the honor of the fathers of my country, I appeal +from the bloody slaveholding statute to the liberty-loving +Constitution. While these fathers lived, State after State, in +carrying out the spirit of the Constitution, put an end to the +dreadful system. The great Washington, in his last will and testament, +carried out the spirit of the Constitution. + +But, sir, the law under which you may sentence me violates both the +letter and the spirit of the Constitution. I have a word to say upon +the articles of the Constitution which it is claimed the Fugitive +Slave Law is designed to carry out. + + "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the + laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of + any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such + service or labor, but shall be delivered up on the claim of + the party to whom such service or labor is due." + +That is the provision that is claimed transforms the Government into a +monster of iniquity. I have read, over and over, that article, +interpreted by all laws of language known to a plain man. How these +three or four lines can transform this Government, ordained to secure +justice, into a mean tool to aid the plunderers of cradles, the +destroyers of home, the ravishers of women, and the oppressors of men, +to carry on their hellish work--how it can do this thing, I cannot +see. That article binds the several States separately not to pass a +certain law, but where in it do we find a Fugitive Slave Law? Where do +you find a Commissioner? Where do you find that the Government is to +hunt up and return, at its own expense, a slave that flees from his +cruel and bloody master? Where in those lines is the authority to +compel me to be a partaker in the crimes of the man-stealer? The +General Government is not once mentioned; but the States in their +separate sovereignties are named. But, Sir, this article expressly +provides that the party making the claim shall have owed him service, +or labor due from the party claimed. If Jim Gray owed service, or +labor, or money, to Phillips, I am the last man in the world to raise +my voice or hand to prevent Phillips, or any man, from obtaining his +dues. What I would grant to the devil himself, I would not withhold +even from the slaveholder--his due. Jim Gray claims that he does not +owe Phillips a day's work or a dollar of money. Phillips claims that +he owes him every day's work that has been deposited in his bones and +sinews; yea, the toil of his body and mind both, till death shall end +the period of stipulated toil. Here is a question for legal +examination and judicial discussion. Does the man Gray owe this man +Phillips any thing? The Constitution is very clear and very plain in +pointing out the way this question is to be settled. + +Article V. provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty +or property without due process of law. That Jim Gray is a person, is +admitted on all hands. Phillips admits it; the blood-hounds, marshals +and attorneys that hunt him, say he is a person--a person held to +service. The amount in dispute is the liberty and life-long toil of a +man just entering into the full maturity of manhood. A great question +lies between these men. But Gray, standing on soil covered by this +Constitution, can be robbed of liberty, or the wages of his toil, only +by due process of law. + +Article VII. says, expressly, in suits at common law, when the value +in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury +shall be preserved. Here, sir, is a case involving the question of +liberty, and hundreds of dollars of money. The law, Sir, under which I +appear before you, overrides these plain provisions, and commits this +whole question to one man, and offers him a bribe to trample right and +liberty under foot. I know, Sir, it may be said that Jim Gray was a +slave, and not entitled to these humane provisions. Had he never worn +the chain of the oppressor, nor felt the lash of the bloody +task-master--had he been born in Canada, or any where else on the +globe--had he been a citizen of one of the States of this Union, and +never been enslaved, it would have been all the same. His liberty +would have been stricken down, and he been given to the party claiming +his life-long toil, and your Commissioner would have pocketed the +bribe offered by this law for doing such a crime against humanity and +the plainest provisions of the Constitution. + +No sir; in a Court of the United States, where the Constitution +provides for trial by jury, I ought not to be sentenced for raising my +hand to rescue a fellow-man from a mob that would strip him of his +liberty and life-long toil without due process of law, without trial +by jury. Sir, this, law tramples so flagrantly upon the spirit and +letter of the Constitution, that I ought not to be sentenced. + +Before passing from the Constitutional objections to this law, I +would call the attention of your Honor to the partiality of the law, +which is so at variance with the designs of the Fathers in organizing +this Government. No man can read the Constitution--in which the word +slave cannot be found; from which the idea that a man could be reduced +to a thing, and held as property, was carefully excluded--no man, I +say, can read that Constitution, and come to the conclusion that +slavery was to be _fostered, guaranteed_ and _protected_ far beyond +every thing else in the country. Admit that Jim Gray was Phillips's +property, how comes it that that particular property is more sacred +than any other property? Phillips's horse escapes from him, and is +found in a distant State; but the President of the United States, and +every department of Government, are not put on the track to find the +horse, and return him to Phillips's stable, and then pay the whole +bill from the National Treasury. No, Sir. But his slave escapes--he +runs away, and, for some reason, his property in man is so much more +holy and sacred, that the whole Government is bound to take the track +and hunt, the poor panting fugitive down, and carry him back to his +chains and bondage at the Government's expense. + +Sir, under a Constitution unstained by the word slave, we have a law +magnifying slave property above all other property in the nation--a +law giving it guarantees that no other property could possibly obtain. +Sir, the partiality of this law is so great, that it stands opposed to +a Constitution that guarantees equal justice and protection to all. + +John G. Fee is driven out of his Kentucky home, and robbed of the +fruits of his life-long toil. There is no power to secure him his +home, or protect him in his rights of property or opinion. But had +John G. Fee only owned a slave, and his slave escaped, the Government, +under this law, would have followed his slave to the utmost limit of +the United States, and returned his slave to him at its own expense. +Your Honor will pardon me, (if I need pardon,) but I cannot, for the +life of me, see what there is in robbing a man of his inalienable +rights and enslaving him for life, that should entitle it to the +special and peculiar protection of national law. + +I am aware, Sir, that I shall be reminded that judges, marshals, +attorneys, and many citizens, regard this law as Constitutional, and +stand ready to execute it, though it trample every principle of the +Declaration of Independence in the dust. Sir, no law can be enacted so +bad but that it will find men deluded or base enough to execute it. +The law of Egypt that consigned the new-born babe to the slaughter +found tools for its execution. The bloody decree of Herod found men +ready to obey the law of the country, though it commanded the +slaughter of the innocents of a province, Sir, tell me not of men +ready and willing to execute the law! My Redeemer, whose name I am +hardly worthy to speak, and yet whose name is all my trust, although +he knew no sin, yet he was crucified by law. + +Again, Sir, it will be said that some whom the world calls Doctors of +Divinity and Doctors of Law have undertaken to prove that slavery was +guaranteed by the Constitution. If that be so, in the name of the Most +High God, tear out the red strip of blood; it was not written by the +Angel Gabriel, nor nailed to the throne of the Almighty. If slavery is +in it, it is "a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell." + +But, Sir, I have one consideration more that I will urge why sentence +ought not to be pronounced against me. This law, which I think I have +proved outrageous to the rights of man, is so obviously at variance +with the law of that God who commands me to love Him with all my soul, +mind, might and strength, and my neighbor as myself, and the Redeemer +who took upon him my nature and the nature of poor Jim Gray has been +so particular in telling me who my neighbor is, that the path of duty +is plain to me. This law so plainly tramples upon the divine law, that +it cannot be binding upon any human being under any circumstances to +obey it. The law that bids me do to other men as I would have other +men do to me, is too plain, too simple to be misunderstood. But, Sir, +I am not now left to the general law of love in searching for my duty +in this particular case. Permit me to refer your Honor to the oldest +law-book in existence. Though it may not be in use in this Court, yet +I think it better authority than Blackstone or any law-book that ever +was written. It is the book of books. In that book, I find some +special enactments given to the Hebrew commonwealth, that leave me in +no doubt as to my duty in reference to this law. "He that stealeth a +man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hands, he shall surely +be put to death." Again: "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the +servant that has escaped from his master unto thee; he shall dwell +with thee, even among you, in that place he shall choose in one of thy +gates where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him." These +plain statutes, with many more that I might give, leave me in no doubt +as to the mind of the unchanging Jehovah, in reference to man-stealing +and slave-hunting. Sir, the whole system of slavery originated in +man-stealing, and is perpetuated by fraud and violence and plunder. +Others may have their doubts as to their duty under this law; I, Sir, +have none. This law is just as binding on me as was the law of Egypt +to slaughter Hebrew children; just as binding as the law that said, +Worship the golden image, worship not God; just as binding as the law +forbidding Christ and his Apostles to preach the Gospel. Send me a law +bidding me rob or murder my neighbor, I must decline to obey it. I can +suffer, but I must not do wrong. Send me a law bidding me join hands +in robbing my fellow-men of their freedom, I cannot do so great a +wrong. Yea, send me a law bidding me stop my ears to the cry of the +poor, I can suffer the loss of all these hands have earned, I can +suffer bonds and imprisonment--yes, God helping me, I can give up my +life--but I cannot knowingly trample upon the law of my God, nor upon +the bleeding, prostrate form of my fellow-man. I go not to Missouri to +relieve oppressed humanity, for my duty has called me nearer home; but +when He that directs the steps of man conducts a poor, oppressed, +panting fugitive to my door, and there I hear his bitter cry, I dare +not close my ear against it, lest in my extremity I cry for mercy, and +shall not be heard. Sir, this law so flagrantly outrages the divine +law, that I ought not to be sentenced under it. + +A single remark, and I have done. From the testimony, (part of which +is false,) and from your rendering and interpretation of the law, the +jury have found me guilty; yes, guilty of carrying out the great +principles of the Declaration of Independence; yes, guilty of carrying +out the still greater principles of the Son of God. Great God! can +these things be? Can it be possible? What country is this? Can it be +that I live in a land boasting of freedom, of morality, of +Christianity? How long, O, how long shall the people bow down and +worship this great image set up in this nation? Yes, the jury say +guilty, but recommend me to the mercy of the Court. Mercy, Sir, is +kindness to the guilty. I am guilty of no crime, I therefore ask for +no mercy. No, Sir, I ask for no mercy; I ask for justice. Mercy is +what I ask of my God. Justice in the Courts of my adopted country is +all I ask. It is the inhuman and infamous law that is wrong, not me. + +My feelings are at my home. My wife and my children are dear to my +heart. But, Sir, I have counted the cost. I am ready to die, if need +be, for the oppressed of my race. But slavery must die; and when my +country shall have passed through the terrible conflict which the +destruction of slavery must cost, and when the history of the great +struggle shall be candidly written, the rescuers of Jim Gray will be +considered as having done honor to God, to humanity, and to +themselves. + +I am told there is no appeal from this Court; yet I do appeal to the +Court of High Heaven, when Judge Drummond and Judge Caton, the rescuer +and the rescued, shall all have to stand at the judgment-seat of the +Most High. + +I have, Sir, endeavored to obey the Divine law and all the laws of my +country that do not conflict with the laws of my God. My humble wish +is, that it may then appear that I have done my duty. All I wish to be +written on my tomb-stone is, "He feared God and loved his fellow-men." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Speech of John Hossack, Convicted of a +Violation of the Fugitive Slave Law, by John Hossack + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13987 *** diff --git a/13987-h/13987-h.htm b/13987-h/13987-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9bceb94 --- /dev/null +++ b/13987-h/13987-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,409 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Speech Of John Hossack, + Convicted of a Violation of the Fugitive Slave Law, by John Hossack. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4{ text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13987 ***</div> + +<h1>SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK,</h1> + +<h3>CONVICTED OF A<br /> + +VIOLATION OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW,<br /> +<br /> +BEFORE JUDGE DRUMMOND,<br /> + +OF THE<br /> + +UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, CHICAGO, ILL.</h3> +<br /> + +<h4>NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 1860.</h4> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2>SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK.</h2> + + +<div class='blkquot'><p>[At the February term of the U.S. District Court for the + Northern District of Illinois, JOHN HOSSACK and JOSEPH STOUT, + of Ottawa, were convicted of having aided in rescuing a + fugitive slave from the custody of the U.S. Deputy Marshal at + Ottawa, Oct. 20, 1859, and sentenced by Judge Drummond to pay + a fine of one hundred dollars, and be imprisoned ten days. + Mr. HOSSACK is a Scotchman by birth, but spent many years of + his life in Quebec, following the occupation of a baker. + About twenty years since, he removed to Ottawa, Illinois, and + assisted in the construction of the Illinois and Michigan + Canal. He has been for some years past a prominent dealer in + grain, has acquired a competency by enterprise and industry, + and is considered one of the most upright and intelligent + citizens in the community. The following Plea, made by him + before the Court, evinces true nobility of soul, the highest + moral integrity, the most generous humanity, and genuine + manly eloquence. Let it be read in every household, so that + the execution of the infamous Fugitive Slave Act, in every + part of the North, shall be rendered impracticable by a + regenerated public sentiment.] </p></div> +<br /><br /> +<p>MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT:</p> + +<p>I have a few words to say why sentence should not be pronounced +against me. I am found guilty of a violation of the Fugitive Slave +Law, and it may appear strange to your Honor that I have no sense of +guilt. I came, Sir, from the tyranny of the Old World, when but a lad, +and landed upon the American shores, having left my kindred and native +land in pursuit of some place where men of toil would not be crushed +by the property-holding class. Commencing the struggle of life at the +tender age of twelve years, a stranger in a strange land, having to +earn my bread by the sweat of my brow, your Honor will bear with me. +Unaccustomed as I am to appear in Courts, much less to address them, I +have feared that I might fail in bearing myself on this occasion +worthy of the place and the position I occupy, and the great +principles involved in the case before you. I say to your Honor, +therefore, if I fail in observing the usual forms of the place, it +will be from a want of judgment and error of the head, and not of the +heart. Therefore I do not think I shall fare worse at the hands of +your Honor, if I state plainly my views and feelings on the great +question of the age—the rights of man. I feel that it is a case that +will be referred to long after you and I have gone to meet the great +Judge of all the earth.</p> + +<p>It has been argued by the prosecution that I, a foreigner, protected +by the laws of my adopted country, should be the last to disobey those +laws; but in this I find nothing that should destroy my sympathy for +the crushed, struggling children of toil in all lands.</p> + +<p>Surely, I have been protected. The fish in the rivers, the quail in +the stubble, the deer in the forest, have been protected. Shall I join +hands with those who make wicked laws, in crushing out the poor black +man, for whom there is no protection but in the grave, where the +wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest?</p> + +<p>It is true, Sir—I am a foreigner. I first saw the light among the +rugged but free hills of Scotland; a land, Sir, that never was +conquered, and where a slave never breathed. Let a slave set foot on +that shore, and his chains fall off for ever, and he becomes what God +made him—a man. In this far-off land, I heard of your free +institutions, your prairie lands, your projected canals, and your +growing towns. Twenty-two years ago, I landed in this city. I +immediately engaged on the public works, on the canal then building +that connects this city with the great river of the West. In the +process of time, the State failed to procure money to carry on the +public works. I then opened a prairie farm to get bread for my family, +and I am one of the men who have made Chicago what it is to-day, +having shipped some of the first grain that was exported from this +city. I am, Sir, one of the pioneers of Illinois, who have gone +through the many hardships of the settlement of a new country. I have +spent upon it my best days, the strength of my manhood. I have eleven +children, who are natives of this my adopted country. No living man, +Sir, has greater interest in its welfare; and it is because I am +opposed to carrying out wicked and ungodly laws, and love the freedom +of my country, that I stand before you to-day.</p> + +<p>Again, Sir, I ought not to be sentenced because, as has been argued by +the prosecution, I am an Abolitionist. I have no apologies to make for +being an Abolitionist. When I came to this country, like the mass from +beyond the sea, I was a Democrat; there was a charm in the name. But, +Sir, I soon found that I had to go beyond the name of a party in this +country, in order to know any thing of its principles or practice. I +soon found that however much the great parties of my adopted country +differed upon banks, tariffs and land questions, in one thing they +agreed, in trying which could stoop the lowest to gain the favor of +the most cursed system of slavery that ever swayed an iron rod over +any nation, the Moloch which they had set up, to which they offered as +human sacrifice millions of the children of toil. As a man who had +fled from the crushing aristocracy of my native land, how could I +support a worse aristocracy in this land? I was compelled to give my +humble name and influence to a party who proposed, at least, to +embrace in its sympathies all classes of men, from all quarters of the +globe. In this choice, I found myself in the company of Clarkson and +Wilberforce in my native land, and of Washington and Franklin, and +many such, in this boasted land of the free; and more than all these, +the Redeemer in whom I humbly trust for acceptance with my God, who +came to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the +captives, to set at liberty those who were bruised; yea, this very +religion binds me to those in bonds as bound with them. Tell me, Sir, +with these views, can I be any thing but an Abolitionist? Surely, for +this I ought not to be sentenced.</p> + +<p>Again, Sir, I ought not to be sentenced, because the Fugitive Slave +Law, under which I am torn from my family and business by the supple +tools of the Slave Power, the slave-breeder and the slave-hunter, is +at variance with both the spirit and letter of the Constitution. Sir, +I place myself upon the Constitution, in the presence of a nation who +have the Declaration of Independence read to them every Fourth of +July, and profess to believe it. Yea, in the presence of civilized +man, I hold up the Constitution of my adopted country as clear from +the blood of men, and from a tyranny that would make crowned heads +blush. The parties who prostitute the Constitution to the support of +slavery are traitors—traitors not only to the liberties of millions +of enslaved countrymen, but traitors to the Constitution itself which +they have sworn to support. A foreigner upon your soil, I go not to +the platforms of contending parties to find truth. I go, Sir, to the +Constitution of my country: the word slave is not to be found. I read, +"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect +Union, establish justice,"—yes, Sir, <i>establish justice</i>—"to promote +the general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty to +ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution +for the United States of America." These were the men who had +proclaimed to the world that <i>all</i> men were created equal; that they +were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights—-life, +liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and contended even unto death +for seven long years. Can it be, Sir, that these great men, under +cover of those hallowed words, intended to make a government that +should outrage justice and trample upon liberty as no other government +under the whole heavens has ever done? This dreadful power, that has +compelled the great political parties of the country to creep in the +dust for its favor; that has debauched to a large extent the +Christianity of the nation; that bids a craven priesthood stand with +Golden Rule in hand, and defend the robbing of mothers of their babes, +and husbands of their wives; that bids courts decree injustice; Sir, I +plant myself upon the Constitution, and demand justice and liberty, +and say to this bloody Moloch, Away! Sir, the world has never +furnished so great a congregation of hypocrites as those that formed +the Constitution, if they designed to make it the greatest +slaveholder, slave-breeder and slave-catcher on earth. He is a great +slaveholder that has a thousand slaves; but if this law is a true +exponent of the Constitution, this Government, ordained for justice +and liberty, holds four millions of slaves.</p> + +<p>No, Sir! no! for the honor of the fathers of my country, I appeal +from the bloody slaveholding statute to the liberty-loving +Constitution. While these fathers lived, State after State, in +carrying out the spirit of the Constitution, put an end to the +dreadful system. The great Washington, in his last will and testament, +carried out the spirit of the Constitution.</p> + +<p>But, sir, the law under which you may sentence me violates both the +letter and the spirit of the Constitution. I have a word to say upon +the articles of the Constitution which it is claimed the Fugitive +Slave Law is designed to carry out.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"No person held to service or labor in one State, under the + laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of + any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such + service or labor, but shall be delivered up on the claim of + the party to whom such service or labor is due." </p></div> + +<p>That is the provision that is claimed transforms the Government into a +monster of iniquity. I have read, over and over, that article, +interpreted by all laws of language known to a plain man. How these +three or four lines can transform this Government, ordained to secure +justice, into a mean tool to aid the plunderers of cradles, the +destroyers of home, the ravishers of women, and the oppressors of men, +to carry on their hellish work—how it can do this thing, I cannot +see. That article binds the several States separately not to pass a +certain law, but where in it do we find a Fugitive Slave Law? Where do +you find a Commissioner? Where do you find that the Government is to +hunt up and return, at its own expense, a slave that flees from his +cruel and bloody master? Where in those lines is the authority to +compel me to be a partaker in the crimes of the man-stealer? The +General Government is not once mentioned; but the States in their +separate sovereignties are named. But, Sir, this article expressly +provides that the party making the claim shall have owed him service, +or labor due from the party claimed. If Jim Gray owed service, or +labor, or money, to Phillips, I am the last man in the world to raise +my voice or hand to prevent Phillips, or any man, from obtaining his +dues. What I would grant to the devil himself, I would not withhold +even from the slaveholder—his due. Jim Gray claims that he does not +owe Phillips a day's work or a dollar of money. Phillips claims that +he owes him every day's work that has been deposited in his bones and +sinews; yea, the toil of his body and mind both, till death shall end +the period of stipulated toil. Here is a question for legal +examination and judicial discussion. Does the man Gray owe this man +Phillips any thing? The Constitution is very clear and very plain in +pointing out the way this question is to be settled.</p> + +<p>Article V. provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty +or property without due process of law. That Jim Gray is a person, is +admitted on all hands. Phillips admits it; the blood-hounds, marshals +and attorneys that hunt him, say he is a person—a person held to +service. The amount in dispute is the liberty and life-long toil of a +man just entering into the full maturity of manhood. A great question +lies between these men. But Gray, standing on soil covered by this +Constitution, can be robbed of liberty, or the wages of his toil, only +by due process of law.</p> + +<p>Article VII. says, expressly, in suits at common law, when the value +in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury +shall be preserved. Here, sir, is a case involving the question of +liberty, and hundreds of dollars of money. The law, Sir, under which I +appear before you, overrides these plain provisions, and commits this +whole question to one man, and offers him a bribe to trample right and +liberty under foot. I know, Sir, it may be said that Jim Gray was a +slave, and not entitled to these humane provisions. Had he never worn +the chain of the oppressor, nor felt the lash of the bloody +task-master—had he been born in Canada, or any where else on the +globe—had he been a citizen of one of the States of this Union, and +never been enslaved, it would have been all the same. His liberty +would have been stricken down, and he been given to the party claiming +his life-long toil, and your Commissioner would have pocketed the +bribe offered by this law for doing such a crime against humanity and +the plainest provisions of the Constitution.</p> + +<p>No sir; in a Court of the United States, where the Constitution +provides for trial by jury, I ought not to be sentenced for raising my +hand to rescue a fellow-man from a mob that would strip him of his +liberty and life-long toil without due process of law, without trial +by jury. Sir, this, law tramples so flagrantly upon the spirit and +letter of the Constitution, that I ought not to be sentenced.</p> + +<p>Before passing from the Constitutional objections to this law, I +would call the attention of your Honor to the partiality of the law, +which is so at variance with the designs of the Fathers in organizing +this Government. No man can read the Constitution—in which the word +slave cannot be found; from which the idea that a man could be reduced +to a thing, and held as property, was carefully excluded—no man, I +say, can read that Constitution, and come to the conclusion that +slavery was to be <i>fostered, guaranteed</i> and <i>protected</i> far beyond +every thing else in the country. Admit that Jim Gray was Phillips's +property, how comes it that that particular property is more sacred +than any other property? Phillips's horse escapes from him, and is +found in a distant State; but the President of the United States, and +every department of Government, are not put on the track to find the +horse, and return him to Phillips's stable, and then pay the whole +bill from the National Treasury. No, Sir. But his slave escapes—he +runs away, and, for some reason, his property in man is so much more +holy and sacred, that the whole Government is bound to take the track +and hunt, the poor panting fugitive down, and carry him back to his +chains and bondage at the Government's expense.</p> + +<p>Sir, under a Constitution unstained by the word slave, we have a law +magnifying slave property above all other property in the nation—a +law giving it guarantees that no other property could possibly obtain. +Sir, the partiality of this law is so great, that it stands opposed to +a Constitution that guarantees equal justice and protection to all.</p> + +<p>John G. Fee is driven out of his Kentucky home, and robbed of the +fruits of his life-long toil. There is no power to secure him his +home, or protect him in his rights of property or opinion. But had +John G. Fee only owned a slave, and his slave escaped, the Government, +under this law, would have followed his slave to the utmost limit of +the United States, and returned his slave to him at its own expense. +Your Honor will pardon me, (if I need pardon,) but I cannot, for the +life of me, see what there is in robbing a man of his inalienable +rights and enslaving him for life, that should entitle it to the +special and peculiar protection of national law.</p> + +<p>I am aware, Sir, that I shall be reminded that judges, marshals, +attorneys, and many citizens, regard this law as Constitutional, and +stand ready to execute it, though it trample every principle of the +Declaration of Independence in the dust. Sir, no law can be enacted so +bad but that it will find men deluded or base enough to execute it. +The law of Egypt that consigned the new-born babe to the slaughter +found tools for its execution. The bloody decree of Herod found men +ready to obey the law of the country, though it commanded the +slaughter of the innocents of a province, Sir, tell me not of men +ready and willing to execute the law! My Redeemer, whose name I am +hardly worthy to speak, and yet whose name is all my trust, although +he knew no sin, yet he was crucified by law.</p> + +<p>Again, Sir, it will be said that some whom the world calls Doctors of +Divinity and Doctors of Law have undertaken to prove that slavery was +guaranteed by the Constitution. If that be so, in the name of the Most +High God, tear out the red strip of blood; it was not written by the +Angel Gabriel, nor nailed to the throne of the Almighty. If slavery is +in it, it is "a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell."</p> + +<p>But, Sir, I have one consideration more that I will urge why sentence +ought not to be pronounced against me. This law, which I think I have +proved outrageous to the rights of man, is so obviously at variance +with the law of that God who commands me to love Him with all my soul, +mind, might and strength, and my neighbor as myself, and the Redeemer +who took upon him my nature and the nature of poor Jim Gray has been +so particular in telling me who my neighbor is, that the path of duty +is plain to me. This law so plainly tramples upon the divine law, that +it cannot be binding upon any human being under any circumstances to +obey it. The law that bids me do to other men as I would have other +men do to me, is too plain, too simple to be misunderstood. But, Sir, +I am not now left to the general law of love in searching for my duty +in this particular case. Permit me to refer your Honor to the oldest +law-book in existence. Though it may not be in use in this Court, yet +I think it better authority than Blackstone or any law-book that ever +was written. It is the book of books. In that book, I find some +special enactments given to the Hebrew commonwealth, that leave me in +no doubt as to my duty in reference to this law. "He that stealeth a +man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hands, he shall surely +be put to death." Again: "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the +servant that has escaped from his master unto thee; he shall dwell +with thee, even among you, in that place he shall choose in one of thy +gates where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him." These +plain statutes, with many more that I might give, leave me in no doubt +as to the mind of the unchanging Jehovah, in reference to man-stealing +and slave-hunting. Sir, the whole system of slavery originated in +man-stealing, and is perpetuated by fraud and violence and plunder. +Others may have their doubts as to their duty under this law; I, Sir, +have none. This law is just as binding on me as was the law of Egypt +to slaughter Hebrew children; just as binding as the law that said, +Worship the golden image, worship not God; just as binding as the law +forbidding Christ and his Apostles to preach the Gospel. Send me a law +bidding me rob or murder my neighbor, I must decline to obey it. I can +suffer, but I must not do wrong. Send me a law bidding me join hands +in robbing my fellow-men of their freedom, I cannot do so great a +wrong. Yea, send me a law bidding me stop my ears to the cry of the +poor, I can suffer the loss of all these hands have earned, I can +suffer bonds and imprisonment—yes, God helping me, I can give up my +life—but I cannot knowingly trample upon the law of my God, nor upon +the bleeding, prostrate form of my fellow-man. I go not to Missouri to +relieve oppressed humanity, for my duty has called me nearer home; but +when He that directs the steps of man conducts a poor, oppressed, +panting fugitive to my door, and there I hear his bitter cry, I dare +not close my ear against it, lest in my extremity I cry for mercy, and +shall not be heard. Sir, this law so flagrantly outrages the divine +law, that I ought not to be sentenced under it.</p> + +<p>A single remark, and I have done. From the testimony, (part of which +is false,) and from your rendering and interpretation of the law, the +jury have found me guilty; yes, guilty of carrying out the great +principles of the Declaration of Independence; yes, guilty of carrying +out the still greater principles of the Son of God. Great God! can +these things be? Can it be possible? What country is this? Can it be +that I live in a land boasting of freedom, of morality, of +Christianity? How long, O, how long shall the people bow down and +worship this great image set up in this nation? Yes, the jury say +guilty, but recommend me to the mercy of the Court. Mercy, Sir, is +kindness to the guilty. I am guilty of no crime, I therefore ask for +no mercy. No, Sir, I ask for no mercy; I ask for justice. Mercy is +what I ask of my God. Justice in the Courts of my adopted country is +all I ask. It is the inhuman and infamous law that is wrong, not me.</p> + +<p>My feelings are at my home. My wife and my children are dear to my +heart. But, Sir, I have counted the cost. I am ready to die, if need +be, for the oppressed of my race. But slavery must die; and when my +country shall have passed through the terrible conflict which the +destruction of slavery must cost, and when the history of the great +struggle shall be candidly written, the rescuers of Jim Gray will be +considered as having done honor to God, to humanity, and to +themselves.</p> + +<p>I am told there is no appeal from this Court; yet I do appeal to the +Court of High Heaven, when Judge Drummond and Judge Caton, the rescuer +and the rescued, shall all have to stand at the judgment-seat of the +Most High.</p> + +<p>I have, Sir, endeavored to obey the Divine law and all the laws of my +country that do not conflict with the laws of my God. My humble wish +is, that it may then appear that I have done my duty. All I wish to be +written on my tomb-stone is, "He feared God and loved his fellow-men."</p> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13987 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Speech of John Hossack, Convicted of a Violation of the Fugitive Slave Law + Before Judge Drummond, Of The United States District Court, Chicago, Ill. + +Author: John Hossack + +Release Date: November 9, 2004 [EBook #13987] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK, *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Andrea Ball and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK,</h1> + +<h3>CONVICTED OF A<br /> + +VIOLATION OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW,<br /> +<br /> +BEFORE JUDGE DRUMMOND,<br /> + +OF THE<br /> + +UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, CHICAGO, ILL.</h3> +<br /> + +<h4>NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 1860.</h4> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2>SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK.</h2> + + +<div class='blkquot'><p>[At the February term of the U.S. District Court for the + Northern District of Illinois, JOHN HOSSACK and JOSEPH STOUT, + of Ottawa, were convicted of having aided in rescuing a + fugitive slave from the custody of the U.S. Deputy Marshal at + Ottawa, Oct. 20, 1859, and sentenced by Judge Drummond to pay + a fine of one hundred dollars, and be imprisoned ten days. + Mr. HOSSACK is a Scotchman by birth, but spent many years of + his life in Quebec, following the occupation of a baker. + About twenty years since, he removed to Ottawa, Illinois, and + assisted in the construction of the Illinois and Michigan + Canal. He has been for some years past a prominent dealer in + grain, has acquired a competency by enterprise and industry, + and is considered one of the most upright and intelligent + citizens in the community. The following Plea, made by him + before the Court, evinces true nobility of soul, the highest + moral integrity, the most generous humanity, and genuine + manly eloquence. Let it be read in every household, so that + the execution of the infamous Fugitive Slave Act, in every + part of the North, shall be rendered impracticable by a + regenerated public sentiment.] </p></div> +<br /><br /> +<p>MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT:</p> + +<p>I have a few words to say why sentence should not be pronounced +against me. I am found guilty of a violation of the Fugitive Slave +Law, and it may appear strange to your Honor that I have no sense of +guilt. I came, Sir, from the tyranny of the Old World, when but a lad, +and landed upon the American shores, having left my kindred and native +land in pursuit of some place where men of toil would not be crushed +by the property-holding class. Commencing the struggle of life at the +tender age of twelve years, a stranger in a strange land, having to +earn my bread by the sweat of my brow, your Honor will bear with me. +Unaccustomed as I am to appear in Courts, much less to address them, I +have feared that I might fail in bearing myself on this occasion +worthy of the place and the position I occupy, and the great +principles involved in the case before you. I say to your Honor, +therefore, if I fail in observing the usual forms of the place, it +will be from a want of judgment and error of the head, and not of the +heart. Therefore I do not think I shall fare worse at the hands of +your Honor, if I state plainly my views and feelings on the great +question of the age—the rights of man. I feel that it is a case that +will be referred to long after you and I have gone to meet the great +Judge of all the earth.</p> + +<p>It has been argued by the prosecution that I, a foreigner, protected +by the laws of my adopted country, should be the last to disobey those +laws; but in this I find nothing that should destroy my sympathy for +the crushed, struggling children of toil in all lands.</p> + +<p>Surely, I have been protected. The fish in the rivers, the quail in +the stubble, the deer in the forest, have been protected. Shall I join +hands with those who make wicked laws, in crushing out the poor black +man, for whom there is no protection but in the grave, where the +wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest?</p> + +<p>It is true, Sir—I am a foreigner. I first saw the light among the +rugged but free hills of Scotland; a land, Sir, that never was +conquered, and where a slave never breathed. Let a slave set foot on +that shore, and his chains fall off for ever, and he becomes what God +made him—a man. In this far-off land, I heard of your free +institutions, your prairie lands, your projected canals, and your +growing towns. Twenty-two years ago, I landed in this city. I +immediately engaged on the public works, on the canal then building +that connects this city with the great river of the West. In the +process of time, the State failed to procure money to carry on the +public works. I then opened a prairie farm to get bread for my family, +and I am one of the men who have made Chicago what it is to-day, +having shipped some of the first grain that was exported from this +city. I am, Sir, one of the pioneers of Illinois, who have gone +through the many hardships of the settlement of a new country. I have +spent upon it my best days, the strength of my manhood. I have eleven +children, who are natives of this my adopted country. No living man, +Sir, has greater interest in its welfare; and it is because I am +opposed to carrying out wicked and ungodly laws, and love the freedom +of my country, that I stand before you to-day.</p> + +<p>Again, Sir, I ought not to be sentenced because, as has been argued by +the prosecution, I am an Abolitionist. I have no apologies to make for +being an Abolitionist. When I came to this country, like the mass from +beyond the sea, I was a Democrat; there was a charm in the name. But, +Sir, I soon found that I had to go beyond the name of a party in this +country, in order to know any thing of its principles or practice. I +soon found that however much the great parties of my adopted country +differed upon banks, tariffs and land questions, in one thing they +agreed, in trying which could stoop the lowest to gain the favor of +the most cursed system of slavery that ever swayed an iron rod over +any nation, the Moloch which they had set up, to which they offered as +human sacrifice millions of the children of toil. As a man who had +fled from the crushing aristocracy of my native land, how could I +support a worse aristocracy in this land? I was compelled to give my +humble name and influence to a party who proposed, at least, to +embrace in its sympathies all classes of men, from all quarters of the +globe. In this choice, I found myself in the company of Clarkson and +Wilberforce in my native land, and of Washington and Franklin, and +many such, in this boasted land of the free; and more than all these, +the Redeemer in whom I humbly trust for acceptance with my God, who +came to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the +captives, to set at liberty those who were bruised; yea, this very +religion binds me to those in bonds as bound with them. Tell me, Sir, +with these views, can I be any thing but an Abolitionist? Surely, for +this I ought not to be sentenced.</p> + +<p>Again, Sir, I ought not to be sentenced, because the Fugitive Slave +Law, under which I am torn from my family and business by the supple +tools of the Slave Power, the slave-breeder and the slave-hunter, is +at variance with both the spirit and letter of the Constitution. Sir, +I place myself upon the Constitution, in the presence of a nation who +have the Declaration of Independence read to them every Fourth of +July, and profess to believe it. Yea, in the presence of civilized +man, I hold up the Constitution of my adopted country as clear from +the blood of men, and from a tyranny that would make crowned heads +blush. The parties who prostitute the Constitution to the support of +slavery are traitors—traitors not only to the liberties of millions +of enslaved countrymen, but traitors to the Constitution itself which +they have sworn to support. A foreigner upon your soil, I go not to +the platforms of contending parties to find truth. I go, Sir, to the +Constitution of my country: the word slave is not to be found. I read, +"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect +Union, establish justice,"—yes, Sir, <i>establish justice</i>—"to promote +the general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty to +ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution +for the United States of America." These were the men who had +proclaimed to the world that <i>all</i> men were created equal; that they +were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights—-life, +liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and contended even unto death +for seven long years. Can it be, Sir, that these great men, under +cover of those hallowed words, intended to make a government that +should outrage justice and trample upon liberty as no other government +under the whole heavens has ever done? This dreadful power, that has +compelled the great political parties of the country to creep in the +dust for its favor; that has debauched to a large extent the +Christianity of the nation; that bids a craven priesthood stand with +Golden Rule in hand, and defend the robbing of mothers of their babes, +and husbands of their wives; that bids courts decree injustice; Sir, I +plant myself upon the Constitution, and demand justice and liberty, +and say to this bloody Moloch, Away! Sir, the world has never +furnished so great a congregation of hypocrites as those that formed +the Constitution, if they designed to make it the greatest +slaveholder, slave-breeder and slave-catcher on earth. He is a great +slaveholder that has a thousand slaves; but if this law is a true +exponent of the Constitution, this Government, ordained for justice +and liberty, holds four millions of slaves.</p> + +<p>No, Sir! no! for the honor of the fathers of my country, I appeal +from the bloody slaveholding statute to the liberty-loving +Constitution. While these fathers lived, State after State, in +carrying out the spirit of the Constitution, put an end to the +dreadful system. The great Washington, in his last will and testament, +carried out the spirit of the Constitution.</p> + +<p>But, sir, the law under which you may sentence me violates both the +letter and the spirit of the Constitution. I have a word to say upon +the articles of the Constitution which it is claimed the Fugitive +Slave Law is designed to carry out.</p> + +<div class='blkquot'><p>"No person held to service or labor in one State, under the + laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of + any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such + service or labor, but shall be delivered up on the claim of + the party to whom such service or labor is due." </p></div> + +<p>That is the provision that is claimed transforms the Government into a +monster of iniquity. I have read, over and over, that article, +interpreted by all laws of language known to a plain man. How these +three or four lines can transform this Government, ordained to secure +justice, into a mean tool to aid the plunderers of cradles, the +destroyers of home, the ravishers of women, and the oppressors of men, +to carry on their hellish work—how it can do this thing, I cannot +see. That article binds the several States separately not to pass a +certain law, but where in it do we find a Fugitive Slave Law? Where do +you find a Commissioner? Where do you find that the Government is to +hunt up and return, at its own expense, a slave that flees from his +cruel and bloody master? Where in those lines is the authority to +compel me to be a partaker in the crimes of the man-stealer? The +General Government is not once mentioned; but the States in their +separate sovereignties are named. But, Sir, this article expressly +provides that the party making the claim shall have owed him service, +or labor due from the party claimed. If Jim Gray owed service, or +labor, or money, to Phillips, I am the last man in the world to raise +my voice or hand to prevent Phillips, or any man, from obtaining his +dues. What I would grant to the devil himself, I would not withhold +even from the slaveholder—his due. Jim Gray claims that he does not +owe Phillips a day's work or a dollar of money. Phillips claims that +he owes him every day's work that has been deposited in his bones and +sinews; yea, the toil of his body and mind both, till death shall end +the period of stipulated toil. Here is a question for legal +examination and judicial discussion. Does the man Gray owe this man +Phillips any thing? The Constitution is very clear and very plain in +pointing out the way this question is to be settled.</p> + +<p>Article V. provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty +or property without due process of law. That Jim Gray is a person, is +admitted on all hands. Phillips admits it; the blood-hounds, marshals +and attorneys that hunt him, say he is a person—a person held to +service. The amount in dispute is the liberty and life-long toil of a +man just entering into the full maturity of manhood. A great question +lies between these men. But Gray, standing on soil covered by this +Constitution, can be robbed of liberty, or the wages of his toil, only +by due process of law.</p> + +<p>Article VII. says, expressly, in suits at common law, when the value +in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury +shall be preserved. Here, sir, is a case involving the question of +liberty, and hundreds of dollars of money. The law, Sir, under which I +appear before you, overrides these plain provisions, and commits this +whole question to one man, and offers him a bribe to trample right and +liberty under foot. I know, Sir, it may be said that Jim Gray was a +slave, and not entitled to these humane provisions. Had he never worn +the chain of the oppressor, nor felt the lash of the bloody +task-master—had he been born in Canada, or any where else on the +globe—had he been a citizen of one of the States of this Union, and +never been enslaved, it would have been all the same. His liberty +would have been stricken down, and he been given to the party claiming +his life-long toil, and your Commissioner would have pocketed the +bribe offered by this law for doing such a crime against humanity and +the plainest provisions of the Constitution.</p> + +<p>No sir; in a Court of the United States, where the Constitution +provides for trial by jury, I ought not to be sentenced for raising my +hand to rescue a fellow-man from a mob that would strip him of his +liberty and life-long toil without due process of law, without trial +by jury. Sir, this, law tramples so flagrantly upon the spirit and +letter of the Constitution, that I ought not to be sentenced.</p> + +<p>Before passing from the Constitutional objections to this law, I +would call the attention of your Honor to the partiality of the law, +which is so at variance with the designs of the Fathers in organizing +this Government. No man can read the Constitution—in which the word +slave cannot be found; from which the idea that a man could be reduced +to a thing, and held as property, was carefully excluded—no man, I +say, can read that Constitution, and come to the conclusion that +slavery was to be <i>fostered, guaranteed</i> and <i>protected</i> far beyond +every thing else in the country. Admit that Jim Gray was Phillips's +property, how comes it that that particular property is more sacred +than any other property? Phillips's horse escapes from him, and is +found in a distant State; but the President of the United States, and +every department of Government, are not put on the track to find the +horse, and return him to Phillips's stable, and then pay the whole +bill from the National Treasury. No, Sir. But his slave escapes—he +runs away, and, for some reason, his property in man is so much more +holy and sacred, that the whole Government is bound to take the track +and hunt, the poor panting fugitive down, and carry him back to his +chains and bondage at the Government's expense.</p> + +<p>Sir, under a Constitution unstained by the word slave, we have a law +magnifying slave property above all other property in the nation—a +law giving it guarantees that no other property could possibly obtain. +Sir, the partiality of this law is so great, that it stands opposed to +a Constitution that guarantees equal justice and protection to all.</p> + +<p>John G. Fee is driven out of his Kentucky home, and robbed of the +fruits of his life-long toil. There is no power to secure him his +home, or protect him in his rights of property or opinion. But had +John G. Fee only owned a slave, and his slave escaped, the Government, +under this law, would have followed his slave to the utmost limit of +the United States, and returned his slave to him at its own expense. +Your Honor will pardon me, (if I need pardon,) but I cannot, for the +life of me, see what there is in robbing a man of his inalienable +rights and enslaving him for life, that should entitle it to the +special and peculiar protection of national law.</p> + +<p>I am aware, Sir, that I shall be reminded that judges, marshals, +attorneys, and many citizens, regard this law as Constitutional, and +stand ready to execute it, though it trample every principle of the +Declaration of Independence in the dust. Sir, no law can be enacted so +bad but that it will find men deluded or base enough to execute it. +The law of Egypt that consigned the new-born babe to the slaughter +found tools for its execution. The bloody decree of Herod found men +ready to obey the law of the country, though it commanded the +slaughter of the innocents of a province, Sir, tell me not of men +ready and willing to execute the law! My Redeemer, whose name I am +hardly worthy to speak, and yet whose name is all my trust, although +he knew no sin, yet he was crucified by law.</p> + +<p>Again, Sir, it will be said that some whom the world calls Doctors of +Divinity and Doctors of Law have undertaken to prove that slavery was +guaranteed by the Constitution. If that be so, in the name of the Most +High God, tear out the red strip of blood; it was not written by the +Angel Gabriel, nor nailed to the throne of the Almighty. If slavery is +in it, it is "a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell."</p> + +<p>But, Sir, I have one consideration more that I will urge why sentence +ought not to be pronounced against me. This law, which I think I have +proved outrageous to the rights of man, is so obviously at variance +with the law of that God who commands me to love Him with all my soul, +mind, might and strength, and my neighbor as myself, and the Redeemer +who took upon him my nature and the nature of poor Jim Gray has been +so particular in telling me who my neighbor is, that the path of duty +is plain to me. This law so plainly tramples upon the divine law, that +it cannot be binding upon any human being under any circumstances to +obey it. The law that bids me do to other men as I would have other +men do to me, is too plain, too simple to be misunderstood. But, Sir, +I am not now left to the general law of love in searching for my duty +in this particular case. Permit me to refer your Honor to the oldest +law-book in existence. Though it may not be in use in this Court, yet +I think it better authority than Blackstone or any law-book that ever +was written. It is the book of books. In that book, I find some +special enactments given to the Hebrew commonwealth, that leave me in +no doubt as to my duty in reference to this law. "He that stealeth a +man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hands, he shall surely +be put to death." Again: "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the +servant that has escaped from his master unto thee; he shall dwell +with thee, even among you, in that place he shall choose in one of thy +gates where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him." These +plain statutes, with many more that I might give, leave me in no doubt +as to the mind of the unchanging Jehovah, in reference to man-stealing +and slave-hunting. Sir, the whole system of slavery originated in +man-stealing, and is perpetuated by fraud and violence and plunder. +Others may have their doubts as to their duty under this law; I, Sir, +have none. This law is just as binding on me as was the law of Egypt +to slaughter Hebrew children; just as binding as the law that said, +Worship the golden image, worship not God; just as binding as the law +forbidding Christ and his Apostles to preach the Gospel. Send me a law +bidding me rob or murder my neighbor, I must decline to obey it. I can +suffer, but I must not do wrong. Send me a law bidding me join hands +in robbing my fellow-men of their freedom, I cannot do so great a +wrong. Yea, send me a law bidding me stop my ears to the cry of the +poor, I can suffer the loss of all these hands have earned, I can +suffer bonds and imprisonment—yes, God helping me, I can give up my +life—but I cannot knowingly trample upon the law of my God, nor upon +the bleeding, prostrate form of my fellow-man. I go not to Missouri to +relieve oppressed humanity, for my duty has called me nearer home; but +when He that directs the steps of man conducts a poor, oppressed, +panting fugitive to my door, and there I hear his bitter cry, I dare +not close my ear against it, lest in my extremity I cry for mercy, and +shall not be heard. Sir, this law so flagrantly outrages the divine +law, that I ought not to be sentenced under it.</p> + +<p>A single remark, and I have done. From the testimony, (part of which +is false,) and from your rendering and interpretation of the law, the +jury have found me guilty; yes, guilty of carrying out the great +principles of the Declaration of Independence; yes, guilty of carrying +out the still greater principles of the Son of God. Great God! can +these things be? Can it be possible? What country is this? Can it be +that I live in a land boasting of freedom, of morality, of +Christianity? How long, O, how long shall the people bow down and +worship this great image set up in this nation? Yes, the jury say +guilty, but recommend me to the mercy of the Court. Mercy, Sir, is +kindness to the guilty. I am guilty of no crime, I therefore ask for +no mercy. No, Sir, I ask for no mercy; I ask for justice. Mercy is +what I ask of my God. Justice in the Courts of my adopted country is +all I ask. It is the inhuman and infamous law that is wrong, not me.</p> + +<p>My feelings are at my home. My wife and my children are dear to my +heart. But, Sir, I have counted the cost. I am ready to die, if need +be, for the oppressed of my race. But slavery must die; and when my +country shall have passed through the terrible conflict which the +destruction of slavery must cost, and when the history of the great +struggle shall be candidly written, the rescuers of Jim Gray will be +considered as having done honor to God, to humanity, and to +themselves.</p> + +<p>I am told there is no appeal from this Court; yet I do appeal to the +Court of High Heaven, when Judge Drummond and Judge Caton, the rescuer +and the rescued, shall all have to stand at the judgment-seat of the +Most High.</p> + +<p>I have, Sir, endeavored to obey the Divine law and all the laws of my +country that do not conflict with the laws of my God. My humble wish +is, that it may then appear that I have done my duty. All I wish to be +written on my tomb-stone is, "He feared God and loved his fellow-men."</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Speech of John Hossack, Convicted of a +Violation of the Fugitive Slave Law, by John Hossack + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK, *** + +***** This file should be named 13987-h.htm or 13987-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/9/8/13987/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Andrea Ball and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Speech of John Hossack, Convicted of a Violation of the Fugitive Slave Law + Before Judge Drummond, Of The United States District Court, Chicago, Ill. + +Author: John Hossack + +Release Date: November 9, 2004 [EBook #13987] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK, *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Andrea Ball and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + +SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK, + +CONVICTED OF A + +VIOLATION OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW, + +BEFORE JUDGE DRUMMOND, + +OF THE + +UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, CHICAGO, ILL. + + +NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 1860. + + + + +SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK. + + + [At the February term of the U.S. District Court for the + Northern District of Illinois, JOHN HOSSACK and JOSEPH STOUT, + of Ottawa, were convicted of having aided in rescuing a + fugitive slave from the custody of the U.S. Deputy Marshal at + Ottawa, Oct. 20, 1859, and sentenced by Judge Drummond to pay + a fine of one hundred dollars, and be imprisoned ten days. + Mr. HOSSACK is a Scotchman by birth, but spent many years of + his life in Quebec, following the occupation of a baker. + About twenty years since, he removed to Ottawa, Illinois, and + assisted in the construction of the Illinois and Michigan + Canal. He has been for some years past a prominent dealer in + grain, has acquired a competency by enterprise and industry, + and is considered one of the most upright and intelligent + citizens in the community. The following Plea, made by him + before the Court, evinces true nobility of soul, the highest + moral integrity, the most generous humanity, and genuine + manly eloquence. Let it be read in every household, so that + the execution of the infamous Fugitive Slave Act, in every + part of the North, shall be rendered impracticable by a + regenerated public sentiment.] + +MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT: + +I have a few words to say why sentence should not be pronounced +against me. I am found guilty of a violation of the Fugitive Slave +Law, and it may appear strange to your Honor that I have no sense of +guilt. I came, Sir, from the tyranny of the Old World, when but a lad, +and landed upon the American shores, having left my kindred and native +land in pursuit of some place where men of toil would not be crushed +by the property-holding class. Commencing the struggle of life at the +tender age of twelve years, a stranger in a strange land, having to +earn my bread by the sweat of my brow, your Honor will bear with me. +Unaccustomed as I am to appear in Courts, much less to address them, +I have feared that I might fail in bearing myself on this occasion +worthy of the place and the position I occupy, and the great +principles involved in the case before you. I say to your Honor, +therefore, if I fail in observing the usual forms of the place, it +will be from a want of judgment and error of the head, and not of the +heart. Therefore I do not think I shall fare worse at the hands of +your Honor, if I state plainly my views and feelings on the great +question of the age--the rights of man. I feel that it is a case that +will be referred to long after you and I have gone to meet the great +Judge of all the earth. + +It has been argued by the prosecution that I, a foreigner, protected +by the laws of my adopted country, should be the last to disobey those +laws; but in this I find nothing that should destroy my sympathy for +the crushed, struggling children of toil in all lands. + +Surely, I have been protected. The fish in the rivers, the quail in +the stubble, the deer in the forest, have been protected. Shall I join +hands with those who make wicked laws, in crushing out the poor black +man, for whom there is no protection but in the grave, where the +wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest? + +It is true, Sir--I am a foreigner. I first saw the light among the +rugged but free hills of Scotland; a land, Sir, that never was +conquered, and where a slave never breathed. Let a slave set foot on +that shore, and his chains fall off for ever, and he becomes what +God made him--a man. In this far-off land, I heard of your free +institutions, your prairie lands, your projected canals, and your +growing towns. Twenty-two years ago, I landed in this city. I +immediately engaged on the public works, on the canal then building +that connects this city with the great river of the West. In the +process of time, the State failed to procure money to carry on the +public works. I then opened a prairie farm to get bread for my family, +and I am one of the men who have made Chicago what it is to-day, +having shipped some of the first grain that was exported from this +city. I am, Sir, one of the pioneers of Illinois, who have gone +through the many hardships of the settlement of a new country. I have +spent upon it my best days, the strength of my manhood. I have eleven +children, who are natives of this my adopted country. No living man, +Sir, has greater interest in its welfare; and it is because I am +opposed to carrying out wicked and ungodly laws, and love the freedom +of my country, that I stand before you to-day. + +Again, Sir, I ought not to be sentenced because, as has been argued by +the prosecution, I am an Abolitionist. I have no apologies to make for +being an Abolitionist. When I came to this country, like the mass from +beyond the sea, I was a Democrat; there was a charm in the name. But, +Sir, I soon found that I had to go beyond the name of a party in this +country, in order to know any thing of its principles or practice. I +soon found that however much the great parties of my adopted country +differed upon banks, tariffs and land questions, in one thing they +agreed, in trying which could stoop the lowest to gain the favor of +the most cursed system of slavery that ever swayed an iron rod over +any nation, the Moloch which they had set up, to which they offered as +human sacrifice millions of the children of toil. As a man who had +fled from the crushing aristocracy of my native land, how could I +support a worse aristocracy in this land? I was compelled to give my +humble name and influence to a party who proposed, at least, to +embrace in its sympathies all classes of men, from all quarters of the +globe. In this choice, I found myself in the company of Clarkson and +Wilberforce in my native land, and of Washington and Franklin, and +many such, in this boasted land of the free; and more than all these, +the Redeemer in whom I humbly trust for acceptance with my God, who +came to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the +captives, to set at liberty those who were bruised; yea, this very +religion binds me to those in bonds as bound with them. Tell me, Sir, +with these views, can I be any thing but an Abolitionist? Surely, for +this I ought not to be sentenced. + +Again, Sir, I ought not to be sentenced, because the Fugitive Slave +Law, under which I am torn from my family and business by the supple +tools of the Slave Power, the slave-breeder and the slave-hunter, is +at variance with both the spirit and letter of the Constitution. Sir, +I place myself upon the Constitution, in the presence of a nation who +have the Declaration of Independence read to them every Fourth of +July, and profess to believe it. Yea, in the presence of civilized +man, I hold up the Constitution of my adopted country as clear from +the blood of men, and from a tyranny that would make crowned heads +blush. The parties who prostitute the Constitution to the support of +slavery are traitors--traitors not only to the liberties of millions +of enslaved countrymen, but traitors to the Constitution itself which +they have sworn to support. A foreigner upon your soil, I go not to +the platforms of contending parties to find truth. I go, Sir, to the +Constitution of my country: the word slave is not to be found. I read, +"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect +Union, establish justice,"--yes, Sir, _establish justice_--"to promote +the general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty to +ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution +for the United States of America." These were the men who had +proclaimed to the world that _all_ men were created equal; that they +were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights---life, +liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and contended even unto death +for seven long years. Can it be, Sir, that these great men, under +cover of those hallowed words, intended to make a government that +should outrage justice and trample upon liberty as no other government +under the whole heavens has ever done? This dreadful power, that has +compelled the great political parties of the country to creep in +the dust for its favor; that has debauched to a large extent the +Christianity of the nation; that bids a craven priesthood stand with +Golden Rule in hand, and defend the robbing of mothers of their babes, +and husbands of their wives; that bids courts decree injustice; Sir, +I plant myself upon the Constitution, and demand justice and liberty, +and say to this bloody Moloch, Away! Sir, the world has never +furnished so great a congregation of hypocrites as those that formed +the Constitution, if they designed to make it the greatest +slaveholder, slave-breeder and slave-catcher on earth. He is a great +slaveholder that has a thousand slaves; but if this law is a true +exponent of the Constitution, this Government, ordained for justice +and liberty, holds four millions of slaves. + +No, Sir! no! for the honor of the fathers of my country, I appeal +from the bloody slaveholding statute to the liberty-loving +Constitution. While these fathers lived, State after State, in +carrying out the spirit of the Constitution, put an end to the +dreadful system. The great Washington, in his last will and testament, +carried out the spirit of the Constitution. + +But, sir, the law under which you may sentence me violates both the +letter and the spirit of the Constitution. I have a word to say upon +the articles of the Constitution which it is claimed the Fugitive +Slave Law is designed to carry out. + + "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the + laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of + any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such + service or labor, but shall be delivered up on the claim of + the party to whom such service or labor is due." + +That is the provision that is claimed transforms the Government into a +monster of iniquity. I have read, over and over, that article, +interpreted by all laws of language known to a plain man. How these +three or four lines can transform this Government, ordained to secure +justice, into a mean tool to aid the plunderers of cradles, the +destroyers of home, the ravishers of women, and the oppressors of men, +to carry on their hellish work--how it can do this thing, I cannot +see. That article binds the several States separately not to pass a +certain law, but where in it do we find a Fugitive Slave Law? Where do +you find a Commissioner? Where do you find that the Government is to +hunt up and return, at its own expense, a slave that flees from his +cruel and bloody master? Where in those lines is the authority to +compel me to be a partaker in the crimes of the man-stealer? The +General Government is not once mentioned; but the States in their +separate sovereignties are named. But, Sir, this article expressly +provides that the party making the claim shall have owed him service, +or labor due from the party claimed. If Jim Gray owed service, or +labor, or money, to Phillips, I am the last man in the world to raise +my voice or hand to prevent Phillips, or any man, from obtaining his +dues. What I would grant to the devil himself, I would not withhold +even from the slaveholder--his due. Jim Gray claims that he does not +owe Phillips a day's work or a dollar of money. Phillips claims that +he owes him every day's work that has been deposited in his bones and +sinews; yea, the toil of his body and mind both, till death shall end +the period of stipulated toil. Here is a question for legal +examination and judicial discussion. Does the man Gray owe this man +Phillips any thing? The Constitution is very clear and very plain in +pointing out the way this question is to be settled. + +Article V. provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty +or property without due process of law. That Jim Gray is a person, is +admitted on all hands. Phillips admits it; the blood-hounds, marshals +and attorneys that hunt him, say he is a person--a person held to +service. The amount in dispute is the liberty and life-long toil of a +man just entering into the full maturity of manhood. A great question +lies between these men. But Gray, standing on soil covered by this +Constitution, can be robbed of liberty, or the wages of his toil, only +by due process of law. + +Article VII. says, expressly, in suits at common law, when the value +in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury +shall be preserved. Here, sir, is a case involving the question of +liberty, and hundreds of dollars of money. The law, Sir, under which I +appear before you, overrides these plain provisions, and commits this +whole question to one man, and offers him a bribe to trample right and +liberty under foot. I know, Sir, it may be said that Jim Gray was a +slave, and not entitled to these humane provisions. Had he never worn +the chain of the oppressor, nor felt the lash of the bloody +task-master--had he been born in Canada, or any where else on the +globe--had he been a citizen of one of the States of this Union, and +never been enslaved, it would have been all the same. His liberty +would have been stricken down, and he been given to the party claiming +his life-long toil, and your Commissioner would have pocketed the +bribe offered by this law for doing such a crime against humanity and +the plainest provisions of the Constitution. + +No sir; in a Court of the United States, where the Constitution +provides for trial by jury, I ought not to be sentenced for raising my +hand to rescue a fellow-man from a mob that would strip him of his +liberty and life-long toil without due process of law, without trial +by jury. Sir, this, law tramples so flagrantly upon the spirit and +letter of the Constitution, that I ought not to be sentenced. + +Before passing from the Constitutional objections to this law, I +would call the attention of your Honor to the partiality of the law, +which is so at variance with the designs of the Fathers in organizing +this Government. No man can read the Constitution--in which the word +slave cannot be found; from which the idea that a man could be reduced +to a thing, and held as property, was carefully excluded--no man, I +say, can read that Constitution, and come to the conclusion that +slavery was to be _fostered, guaranteed_ and _protected_ far beyond +every thing else in the country. Admit that Jim Gray was Phillips's +property, how comes it that that particular property is more sacred +than any other property? Phillips's horse escapes from him, and is +found in a distant State; but the President of the United States, and +every department of Government, are not put on the track to find the +horse, and return him to Phillips's stable, and then pay the whole +bill from the National Treasury. No, Sir. But his slave escapes--he +runs away, and, for some reason, his property in man is so much more +holy and sacred, that the whole Government is bound to take the track +and hunt, the poor panting fugitive down, and carry him back to his +chains and bondage at the Government's expense. + +Sir, under a Constitution unstained by the word slave, we have a law +magnifying slave property above all other property in the nation--a +law giving it guarantees that no other property could possibly obtain. +Sir, the partiality of this law is so great, that it stands opposed to +a Constitution that guarantees equal justice and protection to all. + +John G. Fee is driven out of his Kentucky home, and robbed of the +fruits of his life-long toil. There is no power to secure him his +home, or protect him in his rights of property or opinion. But had +John G. Fee only owned a slave, and his slave escaped, the Government, +under this law, would have followed his slave to the utmost limit of +the United States, and returned his slave to him at its own expense. +Your Honor will pardon me, (if I need pardon,) but I cannot, for the +life of me, see what there is in robbing a man of his inalienable +rights and enslaving him for life, that should entitle it to the +special and peculiar protection of national law. + +I am aware, Sir, that I shall be reminded that judges, marshals, +attorneys, and many citizens, regard this law as Constitutional, and +stand ready to execute it, though it trample every principle of the +Declaration of Independence in the dust. Sir, no law can be enacted so +bad but that it will find men deluded or base enough to execute it. +The law of Egypt that consigned the new-born babe to the slaughter +found tools for its execution. The bloody decree of Herod found men +ready to obey the law of the country, though it commanded the +slaughter of the innocents of a province, Sir, tell me not of men +ready and willing to execute the law! My Redeemer, whose name I am +hardly worthy to speak, and yet whose name is all my trust, although +he knew no sin, yet he was crucified by law. + +Again, Sir, it will be said that some whom the world calls Doctors of +Divinity and Doctors of Law have undertaken to prove that slavery was +guaranteed by the Constitution. If that be so, in the name of the Most +High God, tear out the red strip of blood; it was not written by the +Angel Gabriel, nor nailed to the throne of the Almighty. If slavery is +in it, it is "a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell." + +But, Sir, I have one consideration more that I will urge why sentence +ought not to be pronounced against me. This law, which I think I have +proved outrageous to the rights of man, is so obviously at variance +with the law of that God who commands me to love Him with all my soul, +mind, might and strength, and my neighbor as myself, and the Redeemer +who took upon him my nature and the nature of poor Jim Gray has been +so particular in telling me who my neighbor is, that the path of duty +is plain to me. This law so plainly tramples upon the divine law, that +it cannot be binding upon any human being under any circumstances to +obey it. The law that bids me do to other men as I would have other +men do to me, is too plain, too simple to be misunderstood. But, Sir, +I am not now left to the general law of love in searching for my duty +in this particular case. Permit me to refer your Honor to the oldest +law-book in existence. Though it may not be in use in this Court, yet +I think it better authority than Blackstone or any law-book that ever +was written. It is the book of books. In that book, I find some +special enactments given to the Hebrew commonwealth, that leave me in +no doubt as to my duty in reference to this law. "He that stealeth a +man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hands, he shall surely +be put to death." Again: "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the +servant that has escaped from his master unto thee; he shall dwell +with thee, even among you, in that place he shall choose in one of thy +gates where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him." These +plain statutes, with many more that I might give, leave me in no doubt +as to the mind of the unchanging Jehovah, in reference to man-stealing +and slave-hunting. Sir, the whole system of slavery originated in +man-stealing, and is perpetuated by fraud and violence and plunder. +Others may have their doubts as to their duty under this law; I, Sir, +have none. This law is just as binding on me as was the law of Egypt +to slaughter Hebrew children; just as binding as the law that said, +Worship the golden image, worship not God; just as binding as the law +forbidding Christ and his Apostles to preach the Gospel. Send me a law +bidding me rob or murder my neighbor, I must decline to obey it. I can +suffer, but I must not do wrong. Send me a law bidding me join hands +in robbing my fellow-men of their freedom, I cannot do so great a +wrong. Yea, send me a law bidding me stop my ears to the cry of the +poor, I can suffer the loss of all these hands have earned, I can +suffer bonds and imprisonment--yes, God helping me, I can give up my +life--but I cannot knowingly trample upon the law of my God, nor upon +the bleeding, prostrate form of my fellow-man. I go not to Missouri to +relieve oppressed humanity, for my duty has called me nearer home; but +when He that directs the steps of man conducts a poor, oppressed, +panting fugitive to my door, and there I hear his bitter cry, I dare +not close my ear against it, lest in my extremity I cry for mercy, and +shall not be heard. Sir, this law so flagrantly outrages the divine +law, that I ought not to be sentenced under it. + +A single remark, and I have done. From the testimony, (part of which +is false,) and from your rendering and interpretation of the law, the +jury have found me guilty; yes, guilty of carrying out the great +principles of the Declaration of Independence; yes, guilty of carrying +out the still greater principles of the Son of God. Great God! can +these things be? Can it be possible? What country is this? Can it be +that I live in a land boasting of freedom, of morality, of +Christianity? How long, O, how long shall the people bow down and +worship this great image set up in this nation? Yes, the jury say +guilty, but recommend me to the mercy of the Court. Mercy, Sir, is +kindness to the guilty. I am guilty of no crime, I therefore ask for +no mercy. No, Sir, I ask for no mercy; I ask for justice. Mercy is +what I ask of my God. Justice in the Courts of my adopted country is +all I ask. It is the inhuman and infamous law that is wrong, not me. + +My feelings are at my home. My wife and my children are dear to my +heart. But, Sir, I have counted the cost. I am ready to die, if need +be, for the oppressed of my race. But slavery must die; and when my +country shall have passed through the terrible conflict which the +destruction of slavery must cost, and when the history of the great +struggle shall be candidly written, the rescuers of Jim Gray will be +considered as having done honor to God, to humanity, and to +themselves. + +I am told there is no appeal from this Court; yet I do appeal to the +Court of High Heaven, when Judge Drummond and Judge Caton, the rescuer +and the rescued, shall all have to stand at the judgment-seat of the +Most High. + +I have, Sir, endeavored to obey the Divine law and all the laws of my +country that do not conflict with the laws of my God. My humble wish +is, that it may then appear that I have done my duty. All I wish to be +written on my tomb-stone is, "He feared God and loved his fellow-men." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Speech of John Hossack, Convicted of a +Violation of the Fugitive Slave Law, by John Hossack + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK, *** + +***** This file should be named 13987.txt or 13987.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/9/8/13987/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Andrea Ball and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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