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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13989 ***
+
+ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. No. 9. New Series.
+
+THE
+
+DUTY OF DISOBEDIENCE
+
+TO THE
+
+FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT:
+
+AN APPEAL TO THE
+
+LEGISLATORS OF MASSACHUSETTS,
+
+BY L. MARIA CHILD.
+
+
+  "Thou shalt _not_ deliver unto his master the servant which is
+   escaped from his master unto thee."--DEUT. 23:15.
+
+
+BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 1860.
+
+
+
+
+APPEAL
+
+TO THE
+
+LEGISLATORS OF MASSACHUSETTS.
+
+
+I feel there is no need of apologizing to the Legislature of
+Massachusetts because a woman addresses them. Sir Walter Scott says:
+"The truth of Heaven was never committed to a tongue, however
+feeble, but it gave a right to that tongue to announce mercy, while
+it declared judgment." And in view of all that women have done, and
+are doing, intellectually and morally, for the advancement of the
+world, I presume no enlightened legislator will be disposed to deny
+that the "truth of Heaven" _is_ often committed to them, and that
+they sometimes utter it with a degree of power that greatly
+influences the age in which they live.
+
+I therefore offer no excuses on that score. But I do feel as if it
+required some apology to attempt to convince men of ordinary
+humanity and common sense that the Fugitive Slave Bill is utterly
+wicked, and consequently ought never to be obeyed. Yet Massachusetts
+consents to that law! Some shadow of justice she grants, inasmuch as
+her Legislature have passed what is called a Personal Liberty Bill,
+securing trial by jury to those claimed as slaves. Certainly it is
+_something_ gained, especially for those who may get brown by
+working in the sunshine, to prevent our Southern masters from taking
+any of us, at a moment's notice, and dragging us off into perpetual
+bondage. It is _something_ gained to require legal proof that a man
+is a slave, before he is given up to arbitrary torture and
+unrecompensed toil. But is _that_ the measure of justice becoming
+the character of a free Commonwealth? "_Prove_ that the man is
+property, according _your_ laws, and I will drive him into your
+cattle-pen with sword and bayonet," is what Massachusetts
+practically says to Southern tyrants. "Show me a Bill of Sale from
+the Almighty!" is what she _ought_ to say. No other proof should be
+considered valid in a Christian country.
+
+One thousand five hundred years ago, Gregory, a Bishop in Asia
+Minor, preached a sermon in which he rebuked the sin of
+slaveholding. Indignantly he asked, "Who can be the possessor of
+human beings save God? Those men that you say belong to you, did not
+God create them free? Command the brute creation; that is well. Bend
+the beasts of the field beneath your yoke. But are your fellow-men
+to be bought and sold, like herds of cattle? Who can pay the value
+of a being created in the image of God? The whole world itself bears
+no proportion to the value of a soul, on which the Most High has set
+the seal his likeness. This world will perish, but the soul of man
+is immortal. Show me, then, your titles of possession. Tell me
+whence you derive this strange claim. Is not your own nature the
+same with that of those you call your slaves? Have they not the same
+origin with yourselves? Are they not born to the same immortal
+destinies?"
+
+Thus spake a good old Bishop, in the early years of Christianity.
+Since then, thousands and thousands of noble souls have given their
+bodies to the gibbet and the stake, to help onward the slow progress
+of truth and freedom; a great unknown continent has been opened as a
+new, free starting point for the human race; printing has been
+invented, and the command, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do
+unto you, do ye even so unto them," has been sent abroad in all the
+languages of the earth. And here, in the noon-day light the
+nineteenth century, in a nation claiming to be the freest and most
+enlightened on the face of the globe, a portion the population of
+fifteen States have thus agreed among themselves: "Other men shall
+work for us, without wages while we smoke, and drink, and gamble,
+and race horses, and fight. We will have their wives and daughters
+for concubines, and sell their children in the market with horses
+and pigs. If they make any objection to this arrangement, we will
+break them into subjection with the cow-hide and the bucking-paddle.
+They shall not be permitted to read or write, because that would be
+likely to 'produce dissatisfaction in their minds.' If they attempt
+to run away from us, our blood-hounds shall tear the flesh from
+their bones, and any man who sees them may shoot them down like mad
+dogs. If they succeed in getting beyond our frontier, into States
+where it is the custom to pay men for their work, and to protect
+their wives and children from outrage, we will compel the people of
+those States to drive them back into the jaws of our blood-hounds."
+
+And what do the people of the other eighteen States of that
+enlightened country answer to this monstrous demand? What says
+Massachusetts, with the free blood of the Puritans coursing in her
+veins, and with the sword uplifted in her right hand, to procure
+"peaceful repose under liberty"? Massachusetts answers: "O yes. We
+will be your blood-hounds, and pay our own expenses. Only prove to
+our satisfaction that the stranger who has taken refuge among us is
+one of the men you have agreed among yourselves to whip into working
+without wages, and we will hunt him back for you. Only prove to us
+that this woman, who has run away from your harem, was bought for a
+concubine, that you might get more drinking-money by the sale of the
+children she bears you, and our soldiers will hunt her back with
+alacrity."
+
+Shame on my native State! Everlasting shame! Blot out the escutcheon
+of the brave old Commonwealth! Instead of the sword uplifted to
+protect liberty, let the slave-driver's whip be suspended over a
+blood-hound, and take for your motto, Obedience to tyrants is the
+highest law.
+
+Legislators of Massachusetts, can it be that you really understand
+what Slavery _is_, and yet consent that a fugitive slave, who seeks
+protection here, shall be driven back to that dismal house of
+bondage? For sweet charity's sake, I must suppose that you have been
+too busy with your farms and your merchandise ever to have imagined
+yourself in the situation of a slave. Let me suppose a case for you;
+one of a class of cases occurring by hundreds every year. Suppose
+your father was Governor of Carolina and your mother was a slave.
+The Governor's wife hates your mother, and is ingenious in inventing
+occasions to have you whipped. _You_ don't know the reason why,
+poor child! but your mother knows full well. If they would only
+allow her to go away and work for wages, she would gladly toil and
+earn money to buy you. But that your father will not allow. His laws
+have settled it that she is his property, "for all purposes
+whatsoever," and he will keep her as long as suits his convenience.
+The mistress continually insists upon her being sold far away South;
+and after a while, she has her will. Your poor mother clings to you
+convulsively; but the slave-driver gives you both a cut of his whip,
+and tells you to stop your squalling. They drive her off with the
+gang, and you never hear of her again; but, for a long time
+afterward, it makes you very sad to remember the farewell look of
+those large, loving eyes. Your poor mother had handsome eyes; and
+that was one reason her mistress hated her.
+
+You also are your father's property; and when he dies, you will be
+the property of your whiter brother. You black his shoes, tend upon
+him at table, and sleep on the floor in his room, to give him water
+if he is thirsty in the night. You see him learning to read, and you
+hear your father read wonderful things from the newspapers. Very
+naturally, you want to read, too. You ask your brother to teach you
+the letters. He gives you a kick, calls you a "damned nig," and
+informs his father, who orders you to be flogged for insolence.
+Alone on the hard floor at night, still smarting from your blows,
+you ponder over the great mystery of knowledge and wonder why it
+would do _you_ any more harm than it does your brother. Henceforth,
+all scraps of newspapers you can find are carefully laid by.
+Helplessly you pore over them, at stolen moments, as if you expected
+some miracle would reveal the meaning of those printed signs.
+Cunning comes to your aid. It is the only weapon of the weak against
+the strong. When you see white boys playing in the street, you trace
+a letter in the sand, and say, "My young master calls that B." "That
+ain't B, you dammed nigger. That's A"! they shout. Now you know what
+shape is A; and diligently you hunt it out wherever it is to be
+found on your scraps of newspaper. By slow degrees you toil on, in
+similar ways, through all the alphabet. No student of Greek or
+Hebrew ever deserved so much praise for ingenuity and diligence. But
+the years pass on, and still you cannot read. Your master-brother
+now and then gives you a copper. You hoard them, and buy a primer;
+screening yourself from suspicion, by telling the bookseller that
+your master wants it for his sister's little boy. You find the
+picture of a cat, with three letters by its side; and now you know
+how cat is spelt. Elated with your wonderful discovery, you are
+eager to catch a minute to study your primer. Too eager, alas! for
+your mistress catches you absorbed in it, and your little book is
+promptly burned. You are sent to be flogged, and your lacerated back
+is washed with brine to make it heal quickly. But in spite of all
+their efforts, your intelligent mind is too cunning for them. Before
+twenty years have passed, you have stumbled along into the Bible;
+alone in the dark, over a rugged road of vowels and consonants. You
+keep the precious volume concealed under a board in the floor, and
+read it at snatches, by the light of a pine knot. You read that God
+has created of one blood all the nations of the earth; and that his
+commandment is, to do unto others as we would that they should do
+unto us. You think of your weeping mother, torn from your tender
+arms by the cruel slave-trader; of the interdicted light of
+knowledge; of the Bible kept as a sealed book from all whose skins
+have a tinge of black, or brown, or yellow; of how those brown and
+yellow complexions came to be so common; of yourself, the son of the
+Governor, yet obliged to read the Bible by stealth, under the
+penalty of a bleeding back washed with brine. These and many other
+things revolve in your active mind, and your unwritten inferences
+are worth whole folios of theological commentaries.
+
+As youth ripens into manhood, life bears for you, as it does for
+others, its brightest, sweetest flower. You love young Amy, with
+rippling black hair, and large dark eyes, with long, silky fringes.
+You inherit from your father, the Governor, a taste for beauty
+warmly-tinted, like Cleopatra's. You and Amy are of rank to make a
+suitable match; for you are the son of a Southern Governor, and she
+is the daughter of a United States Senator, from the North, who
+often shared her master's hospitality; her handsome mother being a
+portion of that hospitality, and he being large-minded enough to
+"conquer prejudices." You have good sympathy in other respects also,
+for your mothers were both slaves; and as it is conveniently and
+profitably arranged for the masters that "the child shall follow the
+condition of the _mother_," you are consequently both of you slaves.
+But there are some compensations for your hard lot. Amy's simple
+admiration flatters your vanity. She considers you a prodigy of
+learning because you can read the Bible, and she has not the
+faintest idea how such skill can be acquired. She gives you her
+whole heart, full of the blind confidence of a first love. The
+divine spark, which kindles aspirations for freedom in the human
+soul, has been glowing more and more brightly since you have emerged
+from boyhood, and now her glances kindle it into a flame. For her
+dear sake, you long to be a free man, with power to protect her from
+the degrading incidents of a slave-girl's life. Wages acquire new
+value in your eyes, from a wish to supply her with comforts, and
+enhance her beauty by becoming dress. For her sake, you are
+ambitious to acquire skill in the carpenter's trade, to which your,
+master-brother has applied you as the best investment of his human
+capital. It is true, he takes all your wages; but then, by acquiring
+uncommon facility, you hope to accomplish your daily tasks in
+shorter time, and thus obtain some extra hours to do jobs for
+yourself. These you can eke out by working late into the night, and
+rising when the day dawns. Thus you calculate to be able in time to
+buy the use of your own limbs. Poor fellow! Your intelligence and
+industry prove a misfortune. They charge twice as much for the
+machine of your body on account of the soul-power which moves it.
+Your master-brother tells you that you would bring eighteen hundred
+dollars in the market. It is a large sum. Almost hopeless seems the
+prospect of earning it, at such odd hours as you can catch when the
+hard day's task is done. But you look at Amy, and are inspired with
+faith to remove mountains. Your master-brother graciously consents
+to receive payment by instalments. These prove a convenient addition
+to the whole of your wages. They will enable him to buy a new race
+horse, and increase his stock of choice wines. While he sleeps off
+drunkenness, you are toiling for him, with the blessed prospect of
+freedom far ahead, but burning brightly in the distance, like a
+Drummond Light, guiding the watchful mariner over a midnight sea.
+
+When you have paid five hundred dollars of the required sum, your
+lonely heart so longs for the comforts of a home, that you can wait
+no longer. You marry Amy, with the resolution of buying her also,
+and removing to those Free States, about which you have often talked
+together, as invalids discourse of heaven. Amy is a member of the
+church, and it is a great point with her to be married by a
+minister. Her master and mistress make no objection, knowing that
+after the ceremony, she will remain an article of property, the same
+as ever. Now come happy months, during which you almost forget that
+you are a slave, and that it must be a weary long while before you
+can earn enough to buy yourself and your dear one, in addition to
+supporting your dissipated master. But you toil bravely on, and soon
+pay another hundred dollars toward your ransom. The Drummond Light
+of Freedom burns brighter in the diminished distance.
+
+Alas! in an unlucky hour, your tipsy master-brother sees your gentle
+Amy, and becomes enamored of her large dark eyes, and the rich
+golden tint of her complexion. Your earnings and your ransom-money
+make him flush of cash. In spite of all your efforts to prevent it,
+she becomes his property. He threatens to cowhide you, if you ever
+speak to her again. You remind him that she is your wife; that you
+were married by a minister. "Married, you damned nigger!" he
+exclaims; "what does a slave's marriage amount to? If you give me
+any more of your insolence, you'll get a taste of the cowhide."
+
+Anxious days and desolate nights pass. There is such a heavy pain at
+your heart, it is a mystery to yourself that you do not die. At
+last, Amy contrives to meet you, pale and wretched as yourself. She
+has a mournful story to tell of degrading propositions, and terrible
+threats. She promises to love you always, and be faithful to you
+till death, come what may. Poor Amy! When she said that, she did not
+realize how powerless is the slave, in the hands of an unprincipled
+master. Your interview was watched, and while you were sobbing in
+each other's arms, you were seized and ordered to receive a hundred
+lashes. While you are lying in jail, stiff with your wounds, your
+master-brother comes to tell you he has sold you to a trader from
+Arkansas. You remind him of the receipt he has given you for six
+hundred dollars, and ask him to return the money. He laughs in your
+face, and tells you his receipt is worth no more than so much brown
+paper; that no contracts with a slave are binding. He coolly adds,
+"Besides, it has taken all my spare money to buy Amy." Perhaps you
+would have killed him in that moment of desperation, even with the
+certainty of being burnt to cinders for the deed, but you are too
+horribly wounded by the lash to be able to spring upon him. In that
+helpless condition, you are manacled and carried off by the
+slave-trader. Never again will Amy's gentle eyes look into yours.
+What she suffers you will never know. She is suddenly wrenched from
+your youth, as your mother was from your childhood. The pall of
+silence falls over all her future. She cannot read or write; and the
+post-office was not instituted for slaves.
+
+Looking back on that dark period of desolation and despair, you
+marvel how you lived through it. But the nature of youth is elastic.
+You have learned that law offers colored men nothing but its
+_penalties_; that white men engross all its _protection_; still you
+are tempted to make another bargain for your freedom. Your new
+master seems easy and good-natured, and you trust he will prove more
+honorable than your brother has been. Perhaps he would; but
+unfortunately, he is fond of cards; and when you have paid him two
+hundred dollars, he stakes them, and you also, at the gaming-table,
+and loses. The winner is a hard man, noted for severity to his
+slaves. Now you resolve to take the risk of running away, with all
+its horrible chances. You hide in a neighboring swamp, where you are
+bitten by a venomous snake, and your swollen limb becomes almost
+incapable of motion. In great anguish, you drag it along, through
+the midnight darkness, to the hut of a poor plantation-slave, who
+binds on a poultice of ashes, but dares not, for fear of his life,
+shelter you after day has dawned. He helps you to a deep gully, and
+there you remain till evening, half-famished for food. A man in the
+neighborhood keeps blood-hounds, well trained to hunt runaways. They
+get on your track, and tear flesh from the leg which the snake had
+spared. To escape them, you leap into the river. The sharp ring of
+rifles meets your ear. You plunge under water. When you come up to
+take breath, a rifle ball lodges in your shoulder and you plunge
+again. Suddenly, thick clouds throw their friendly veil over the
+moon. You swim for your life, with balls whizzing round you. Thanks
+to the darkness and the water, you baffle the hounds, both animal
+and human. Weary and wounded, you travel through the forests, your
+eye fixed hopefully on the North Star, which seems ever beckoning
+you onward to freedom, with its bright glances through the foliage.
+In the day-time, you lie in the deep holes of swamps, concealed by
+rank weeds and tangled vines, taking such rest as can be obtained
+among swarms of mosquitoes and snakes. Through incredible perils and
+fatigues, footsore and emaciated, you arrive at last in the States
+called Free. You allow yourself little time to rest, so eager are
+you to press on further North. You have heard the masters swear with
+peculiar violence about Massachusetts, and you draw the inference
+that it is a refuge for the oppressed. Within the borders of that
+old Commonwealth, you breathe more freely than you have ever done.
+You resolve to rest awhile, at least, before you go to Canada. You
+find friends, and begin to hope that you may be allowed to remain
+and work, if you prove yourself industrious and well behaved.
+Suddenly, you find yourself arrested and chained. Soldiers escort
+you through the streets of Boston, and put you on board a Southern
+ship, to be sent back to your master. When you arrive, he orders you
+to be flogged so unmercifully, that the doctor says you will die if
+they strike another blow. The philanthropic city of Boston hears the
+bloody tidings, and one of her men in authority says to the public:
+"Fugitive slaves are a class of foreigners, with whose rights
+Massachusetts has nothing to do. It is enough for _us_, that they
+have no right to be _here_."[1] And the merchants of Boston cry,
+Amen.
+
+[Footnote 1: Said by the U.S. Commissioner, George Ticknor Curtis,
+at a Union Meeting, in the Old Cradle of Liberty.]
+
+Legislators of Massachusetts! if _you_ had been thus continually
+robbed of your rights by the hand of violence, what would _you_
+think of the compact between North and South to perpetuate your
+wrongs, and transmit them to your posterity? Would you not regard it
+as a league between highwaymen, who had "no rights that you were
+bound to respect"? I put the question plainly and directly to your
+consciences and your common sense, and they will not allow you to
+answer, No. Are you, then, doing right to sustain the validity of a
+law for _others_, which you would vehemently reject for _yourselves_
+in the name of outraged justice and humanity?
+
+The incidents I have supposed might happen to yourselves if you were
+slaves, are not an imaginary accumulation of horrors. The things I
+have described are happening in this country every day. I have
+talked with many "fugitives from injustice," and I could not, within
+the limits of these pages, even hint at a tithe of the sufferings
+and wrongs they have described. I have also talked with several
+slaveholders, who had emancipated themselves from the hateful
+system. Being at a safe distance from lynching neighbors, they could
+venture to tell the truth; and their statements fully confirm all
+that I have heard from the lips of slaves. If you read Southern
+Laws, you will need very small knowledge of human nature to be
+convinced that the practical results must inevitably be utter
+barbarism. In view of those _laws_, I have always wondered how
+sensible people could be so slow in believing the actual state of
+things in slaveholding communities.
+
+There are no incidents in history, or romance, more thrilling than
+the sufferings, perils, and hair-breadth escapes of American slaves.
+No Puritan pilgrim, or hero of '76, has manifested more courage and
+perseverance in the cause of freedom, than has been evinced, in
+thousands of instances, by this persecuted race. In future ages,
+popular ballads will be sung to commemorate their heroic
+achievements, and children more enlightened than ours will marvel at
+the tyranny of their white ancestors.
+
+All of you have doubtless read some accounts of what these unhappy
+men and women have dared and endured. Did you never put yourselves
+in their stead, and imagine how _you_ would feel, under similar
+circumstances? Not long ago, a young man escaped from slavery by
+clinging night and day to the under part of a steamboat, drenched by
+water, and suffering for food. He was discovered and sent back. If
+the Constitution of the United States sanctioned such an outrage
+upon _you_, what would _you_ think of those who answered your
+entreaties and remonstrances by saying, "Our fathers made an
+agreement with the man who robs you of your wages and your freedom.
+It is law; and it is your duty to submit to [Transcriber's note:
+word cut off] patiently"? I think you would _then_ perceive the
+necessity of having the Constitution forthwith amended; and if it
+were not done very promptly, I apprehend you would appeal
+vociferously to a higher law.
+
+A respectable lady, who removed with her family from Virginia to New
+York, some years ago, had occasion to visit the cook's cabin, to
+prepare suitable nourishment for a sick child, during the voyage.
+This is the story she tells: "The steward kindly assisted me in
+making the toast, and added a cracker and a cup of tea. With these
+on a small waiter, I was returning to the cabin, when, in passing
+the freight, which consisted of boxes, bags, &c., a little tawny,
+famished-looking hand was thrust out between the packages. The
+skeleton fingers, agitated by a convulsive movement, were evidently
+reached forth to obtain the food. Shocked, but not alarmed by the
+apparition, I laid the cracker on the hand, which was immediately
+withdrawn. No one observed the transaction, and I went swiftly to
+the cabin. In the afternoon, I went to the steward again, in behalf
+of the little invalid. Finding he was a father, I gave him presents
+for his children, and so ingratiated myself into his favor, that I
+had free access to the larder. Whatever I could procure, I divided
+with the famished hand, which had become to me a precious charge. As
+all was tranquil on board, it was evident that I alone was aware of
+the presence of the fugitive. I humbly returned thanks to God for
+the privilege of ministering to the wants of this his outcast,
+despised and persecuted image. That the unfortunate being was a
+slave, I doubted not. I knew the laws and usages in such cases. I
+knew the poor creature had nothing to expect from the captain or
+crew; and again and again I asked myself the agonizing question
+whether there would be any way of escape. I hoped we should arrive
+in the night, that the fugitive might go on shore unseen, under
+favor of the darkness. I determined to watch and assist the creature
+thus providentially committed to my charge. We had a long passage.
+On the sixth day, I found that the goods were being moved to come at
+something which was wanted. My heart seemed to die within me; for
+the safety of the sufferer had become dear to me. When we sat down
+to dinner, the dishes swam before my eyes. The tumbling of the
+freight had not ceased. I felt that a discovery must take place. At
+length, I heard sudden, Hallo! Presently, the steward came and
+whispered the captain, who laid down his knife and fork, and went on
+deck. One of the passengers followed him, but soon returned In a
+laughing manner, he told us that a small mulatto boy; who said he
+belonged to Mr. ----, of Norfolk, had been found among the freight.
+He had been concealed among the lumber on wharves for two weeks, and
+had secreted himself in the schooner the night before we sailed. He
+was going to New York, to find his father, who had escaped two years
+before. 'He is starved to a skeleton,' said he, 'and is hardly worth
+taking back.' Many jokes were passed as to the manner of his being
+renovated, when he should fall into the hands of his master.
+
+"The unfortunate child was brought on deck, and we all left the
+cabin to look at him. I stood some time in the companion-way before
+I could gain strength to move forward. As soon as he discovered me,
+a bright gleam passed over his countenance, and he instantly held
+out to me that famished hand. My feelings could no longer be
+controlled. There stood before me a child, not more than eleven or
+twelve years of age, of yellow complexion, and a sad countenance. He
+was nearly naked; his back was _seared with scars_, and his flesh
+was wasted to the bone. I burst into tears, and the jeers of others
+were for a moment changed into sympathies. It began, however, to be
+suspected that I had brought the boy away; and in that case, the
+vessel must put back, in order to give me up also. But I related the
+circumstances, and all seemed satisfied with the truth of my
+statement.
+
+"I asked to be allowed to feed the boy, and the request was granted.
+He ate voraciously, and, as I stood beside him, he looked into my
+face at every mouthful. There was something confiding in his look.
+When he had finished his meal, as I took the plate, he rubbed his
+fingers softly on my hand, and leaned his head toward me, like a
+weary child. O that I could have offered him a place of rest! that I
+could have comforted and protected him! a helpless _child_! a
+feeble, emaciated, suffering, innocent _child_, reserved for bondage
+and torture!
+
+"The captain informed us that the vessel had been forbidden to enter
+the port with a fugitive slave on board. He must discharge her
+cargo where she lay, and return, with all possible dispatch, to
+Norfolk. Accordingly, we came to anchor below the city, and the
+passengers were sent up in a boat, I said to the captain, 'There is
+a great ado about a poor helpless child.' He replied, 'The laws must
+be obeyed.' I could not help exclaiming, 'Is this the land of
+boasted freedom?' Here was an innocent child treated like a felon;
+manacled, and sent back to slavery and the lash; deprived of the
+fostering care which even the brute is allowed to exercise toward
+its young. The slender boy was seeking the protection of a father.
+Did humanity aid him? No. Humanity was prevented by the law, which
+consigns one portion of the people to the control and brutality of
+the other. Humanity can only look on and weep. 'The laws must be
+obeyed.'"
+
+Legislators of Massachusetts! suppose for one moment that poor
+abused boy was your own little Johnny or Charley, what would you say
+of the law _then_? Truly, if we have no feeling for the children of
+_others_, we deserve to have our own children reserved for such a
+fate; and I sometimes think it is the only lesson that will teach
+the North to respect justice and humanity.
+
+It is not long ago, since a free colored man in Baltimore was
+betrothed to a young slave of eighteen, nearly white, and very
+beautiful. If they married, their children would be slaves, and he
+would have no power to protect his handsome wife from any outrages
+an unprincipled master, or his sons, might choose to perpetrate.
+Therefore, he wisely resolved to marry in a land of freedom. He
+placed her in a box, with a few holes in it, small enough not to
+attract attention. With tender care, he packed hay around her, that
+she might not be bruised when thrown from the cars with other
+luggage. The anxiety of the lover was dreadful. Still more terrible
+was it, when waiting for her in Philadelphia, he found that the
+precious box had not arrived. They had happened to have an unusual
+quantity of freight, and the baggage-master, after turning the box
+over, in rough, railroad fashion had concluded to leave it till the
+next train. The poor girl was thrown into a most uneasy position,
+without the power of changing it. She was nearly suffocated for want
+of air; the hay-seed fell into her eyes and nostrils, and it
+required almost superhuman efforts to refrain from sneezing or
+choking. Added to this was terror lest her absence be discovered,
+and the heavy box examined. In that state of mind and body, she
+remained more than two hours, in the hot sun on the railroad
+platform. At last, the box arrived in Philadelphia, and the lover
+and his friends conveyed it to a place of safety as speedily as
+possible. Those who were present at the opening, say it was the most
+impressive scene they ever witnessed. Silently, almost breathlessly,
+they drew out the nails, expecting to find a corpse. When the cover
+was lifted, she smiled faintly in the anxious face of her lover. "O
+God, she is alive!" he exclaimed, and broke down in a paroxysm of
+sobs. She had a terrible brain fever, and when she recovered from
+it, her glossy hair was sprinkled with gray, and the weight of ten
+years was added to her youthful face. Thanks to the vigilance and
+secrecy of friends, the hounds of the United States, who use the
+Constitution for their kennel, did not get a chance to lap the blood
+of this poor trembling hare.
+
+Legislators of Massachusetts! suppose this innocent girl had been
+your own Mary or Emma, would you not straightway demand amendment of
+the Constitution, in no very measured terms? And if it could not be
+obtained right speedily, would you not ride over the Constitution
+roughshod? If you would not, you do not deserve to have such
+blessings as lovely and innocent daughters.
+
+You have all heard of Margaret Garner, who escaped from Kentucky to
+Ohio, with her father and mother, her husband and four children. The
+Cincinnati papers described her as "a dark mulatto, twenty-three
+years of age, of an interesting appearance, considerable
+intelligence, and a good address." Her husband was described as
+"about twenty-two years old, of a very lithe, active form, and
+rather a mild, pleasant countenance." These fugitives were sheltered
+by a colored friend in Ohio. There the hounds in pay of the United
+States, to which "price of blood" you and I and all of us
+contribute, ferreted them out, and commanded them to surrender. When
+they refused to do so, they burst open the door, and assailed the
+inmates of the house with cudgels and pistols. They defended
+themselves bravely, but were overpowered by numbers and disarmed.
+When Margaret perceived that there was no help for her and her
+little ones, she seized a knife and cut the throat of her most
+beautiful child. She was about to do the same by the others, when
+her arm was arrested. The child killed was nearly white, and
+exceedingly pretty. The others were mulattoes, and pretty also. What
+history lay behind this difference of complexion, the world will
+probably never know. But I have talked confidentially with too many
+fugitive women not to know that very sad histories do lie behind
+such facts. Margaret Garner knew very well what fate awaited her
+handsome little daughter, and that nerved her arm to strike the
+death-blow. It was an act that deserves to take its place in history
+by the side of the Roman Virginius.
+
+The man who claimed this unfortunate family as chattels acknowledged
+that they had always been faithful servants. On their part, they
+complained of cruel treatment from their master, as the cause of
+their attempt to escape. They were carried to the United States
+Court, under a strong guard, and there was not manhood enough in
+Cincinnati to rescue them. What was called law decided that they
+were property, and they were sent back to the dark dungeon of
+interminable bondage. The mother could not be induced to express any
+regret for the death of her child,--her "pretty bird," as she called
+her. With tears streaming from her eyes, she told of her own toils
+and sufferings, and said, "It was better they should be killed at
+once, and end their misery, than to be taken back to slavery, to be
+murdered by inches." To a preacher, who asked her, "Why did you not
+trust in God? Why didn't you wait and hope?" she answered, "We did
+wait; and when there seemed to be no hope for us, we run away. God
+did not appear to help us, and I did the best I could."
+
+These poor wretches were escorted through the streets by a National
+Guard, the chivalry of the United States. There was not manhood
+enough in the Queen City of the West to attempt a rescue; though
+they are very fond of quoting for _themselves_, "Give me Liberty, or
+give me Death!" Men satisfied themselves by saying it was all done
+according to _law_. A powerful plea, truly, for a people who boast
+so much of making their own laws!
+
+These slaves were soon after sent down the Mississippi to be sold in
+Arkansas. The boat came in collision with another boat, and many
+were drowned. The shock threw Margaret overboard, with a baby in her
+arms. She was too valuable a piece of property to lose, and they
+drew her out of the water; but the baby was gone. She evinced no
+emotion but joy, still saying it was better for her children to die
+than to be slaves.
+
+The man who could not afford to let this heroic woman own her little
+ones, was very liberal in supporting the Gospel, and his wife was a
+member of the church. Do you think that mother had a murderer's
+heart? Nay, verily. Exceeding love for her children impelled her to
+the dreadful deed. The murder was committed by those human hounds,
+who drove her to that fearful extremity, where she was compelled to
+choose between Slavery or Death for her innocent offspring.
+
+Again I ask, what would be your judgment of this law, if your _own_
+daughter and infant grand-daughter had been its victims? You know
+very well, that had it been your _own_ case, such despotism, calling
+itself law, would be swept away in a whirlwind of indignation, and
+men who strove to enforce it would be obliged to flee the country.
+
+                              ----"They are slaves most base,
+  Whose love of right is for _themselves_, and not for all the race."
+
+I was lately talking with Friend Whittier, whose poetry so stirs the
+hearts of the people in favor of freedom and humanity. He told me he
+thought the greatest pain he ever suffered was in witnessing the
+arrest of a fugitive slave in Philadelphia. The man had lived there
+many years; he bore a good character, and was thriving by his
+industry. He had married a Pennsylvania woman, and they had a fine
+family of children. In the midst of his prosperity and happiness,
+the blood-hounds of the United States tracked him out. He was seized
+and hurried into court. Friend Whittier was present, and heard the
+agonized entreaties of his wife and children. He saw them clinging
+to the half frantic husband and father, when the minions of a wicked
+law tore him away from them for ever. That intelligent, worthy,
+industrious man was ruthlessly plunged into the deep, dark grave of
+slavery, where tens of thousands perish yearly, and leave no record
+of their wrongs. "A German emigrant, who witnessed the scene, poured
+out such a tornado of curses as I never before heard," said
+Whittier; "and I could not blame the man. He came here supposing
+America to be a free country, and he was bitterly disappointed. Pity
+for that poor slave and his bereaved family agonized my heart; and
+my cheeks burned with shame that my country deserved the red-hot
+curses of that honest German; but stronger than either of those
+feelings was overpowering indignation that people of the Free States
+were compelled by law to witness such barbarities."
+
+Many of you have heard of William and Ellen Crafts, a pious and
+intelligent couple, who escaped from bondage some years ago. She
+disguised herself in male attire, and passed for a white gentleman,
+taking her darker colored husband with her as a servant. When the
+Fugitive Slave Act went into operation, they received warning that
+the hounds were on their track. They sought temporary refuge in the
+house of my noble-hearted friend, Ellis Gray Loring, who then
+resided in the vicinity of Boston. He and his family were absent for
+some days; but a lady in the house invited Mr. Crafts to come in and
+stay till they returned. "No, I thank you," he replied. "There is a
+heavy fine for sheltering fugitives; and it would not be right to
+subject Mr. Loring to it without his consent." "But you know he is a
+true friend to the slaves," urged the lady. "If he were at home, I
+am sure he would not hesitate to incur the penalty." "Because he is
+such a good friend to my oppressed race, there is all the more
+reason why I should not implicate him in my affairs, without his
+knowledge," replied this nobleman of nature. His wife had slept but
+little the previous night, having been frightened by dreams of
+Daniel Webster chasing her husband, pistol in hand. The evening was
+stormy, and she asked him if they could not remain there till
+morning. "It would not be right, Ellen," he replied; and with tears
+in her eyes, they went forth into the darkness and rain. Was _that_
+a man to be treated like a chattel? How many white gentlemen are
+there, who, in circumstances as perilous, would have manifested such
+nicety of moral perception, such genuine delicacy of feeling?
+England has kindly received that worthy and persecuted couple. All
+who set foot on _her_ soil are free. Would to God it were so in
+Massachusetts!
+
+It is well known that Southerners have repeatedly declared they do
+not demand fugitives merely to recover articles of property, or for
+the sake of making an example of them, to inspire terror in other
+runaways; that they have a still stronger motive, which is, to
+humiliate the North; to make them feel that no latitude limits their
+mastership. Have we no honest pride, that we so tamely submit to
+this? What lethargic disease has fallen on Northern souls, that they
+dare not be as bold for Freedom as tyrants are for Slavery? It was
+not thus with our fathers, whose sepulchres we whiten. If old Ben
+Franklin had stood as near Boston Court House as his statue does, do
+you believe _he_ would have remained passive, while Sims, the
+intelligent mechanic, was manacled and driven through the streets,
+guiltless of any crime, save that of wishing to be free? _My_ belief
+is that the brave old printer of '76 would have drawn down the
+lightning out of heaven upon that procession, with a vengeance.
+
+What satisfactory reasons can be alleged for submitting to this
+degradation? What good excuse can be offered? Shall we resort to the
+Old Testament argument, that anodyne for the consciences of
+"South-Side" divines? Suppose the descendants of Ham were ordained
+to be slaves to the end of time, for an offence committed thousands
+of years ago, by a progenitor they never heard of. Still, the
+greatest amount of theological research leaves it very uncertain who
+the descendants of Ham are, and where they are. I presume you would
+not consider the title even to one acre of land satisfactorily
+settled by evidence of such extremely dubious character; how much
+less, then, a man's ownership of himself! Then, again, if we admit
+that Africans are descendants of Ham, what is to be said of
+thousands of slaves, advertised in Southern newspapers as "passing
+themselves for white men, or white women"? Runaways with "blue eyes,
+light hair, and rosy complexions"? Are these sons and daughters of
+our Presidents, our Governors, our Senators, our Generals, and our
+Commodores, descendants of Ham? Are _they_ Africans?
+
+If you turn to the favorite New Testament argument, you will find
+that Paul requested Philemon to receive Onesimus, "no longer as a
+servant, but as a brother beloved." Is _that_ the way Southern
+masters receive the "fugitives from injustice" whom we drive back to
+them? Is it the way we _expect_ they will be received? In 1851, the
+intelligent young mechanic, named Thomas Sims, escaped from a hard
+master, who gave him many blows and no wages. By his own courage and
+energy, he succeeded in reaching our Commonwealth, where mechanics
+are not compelled by law to work without wages. But the authorities
+of Boston decreed that this man was "bound to such service or
+labor." So they ordered out their troops and sent him back to his
+master, who caused him to be tied up and flogged, till the doctor
+said, "If you strike another blow, you will kill him." "Let him
+die," replied the master. He did nearly die in prison, but recovered
+to be sold farther South. Was _this_ being received as "a brother
+beloved"? Before we send back any more Onesimuses, it is necessary
+to have a different set of Philemons to deal with. The Scripture is
+clearly not obeyed, under present circumstances.
+
+If you resort to the alleged legal obligation to return fugitives,
+it has more plausibility, but has it in reality any firm foundation?
+Americans boast of making their own laws, and of amending them
+whenever circumstances render it necessary. How, then, can they
+excuse themselves, or expect the civilized world to excuse them, for
+making, or sustaining, unjust and cruel laws? The Fugitive Slave Act
+has none of the attributes of law. If two highwaymen agreed between
+themselves to stand by each other in robbing helpless men, women
+and children, should we not find it hard work to "conquer our
+prejudices" so far as to dignify their bargain with the name of
+_law_? That is the light in which the compact between North and
+South presents itself to the minds of intelligent slaves, and we
+should view it in the same way, if we were in their position. Law
+was established to maintain justice between man and man; and this
+Act clearly maintains injustice. Law was instituted to protect the
+weak from the strong; this Act delivers the weak completely into the
+arbitrary power of the strong, "Law is a rule of conduct, prescribed
+by the supreme power, commanding what is right, and forbidding what
+is wrong." This is the commonly received definition of law, and
+obviously, none more correct could be substituted for it. The
+application of it would at once annul the Fugitive Slave Act, and
+abolish slavery. That Act reverses the maxim. It commands what is
+wrong, and forbids what is right. It commands us to trample on the
+weak and defenceless, to persecute the oppressed, to be accomplices
+in defrauding honest laborers of their wages. It forbids us to
+shelter the homeless, to protect abused innocence, to feed the
+hungry, to "hide the outcast." Let theological casuists argue as
+they will, Christian hearts _will_ shrink from thinking of Jesus as
+surrendering a fugitive slave; or of any of his apostles, unless it
+be Judas. Political casuists may exercise their skill in making the
+worse appear the better reason, still all honest minds have an
+intuitive perception that no human enactment which violates God's
+laws is worthy of respect. By what law of God can we justify the
+treatment of Margaret Garner? the surrender of Sims and Burns? the
+pitiless persecution of that poor little "famished hand"?
+
+There is another consideration, which ought alone to have sufficient
+weight with us to deter us from attempting to carry out this
+tyrannical enactment. All history, and all experience, show it to be
+an immutable law of God, that whosoever injures another, injures
+himself in the process. These frequent scuffles between despotism
+and freedom, with despotism shielded by law, cannot otherwise than
+demoralize our people. They unsettle the popular mind concerning
+eternal principles of justice. They harden the heart by familiarity
+with violence. They accustom people to the idea that it is right for
+Capital to own Labor; and thus the reverence for Liberty, which we
+inherited from our fathers, will gradually die out in the souls of
+our children. We are compelled to disobey our own consciences, and
+repress all our humane feelings, or else to disobey the law. It is
+a grievous wrong done to the people to place them between these
+alternatives. The inevitable result is to destroy the sanctity of
+law. The doctrine that "might makes right," which our rulers consent
+to teach the people, in order to pacify slaveholders, will come out
+in unexpected forms to disturb our own peace and safety. There is
+"even-handed justice" in the fact that men cannot aid in enslaving
+others, and themselves remain free; that they cannot assist in
+robbing others, without endangering their own security.
+
+Moreover, there is wrong done, even to the humblest individual, when
+he is compelled to be ashamed of his country. When the judge passed
+under chains into Boston Court House, and when Anthony Burns was
+sent back into slavery, I wept for my native State, as a daughter
+weeps for the crimes of a beloved mother. It seemed to me that I
+would gladly have died to have saved Massachusetts from that sin and
+that shame. The tears of a secluded woman, who has no vote to give,
+may appear to you of little consequence. But assuredly it is not
+well with any Commonwealth, when her daughters weep over her
+degeneracy and disgrace.
+
+In the name of oppressed humanity, of violated religion, of
+desecrated law, of tarnished honor, of our own freedom endangered,
+of the moral sense of our people degraded by these evil influences,
+I respectfully, but most urgently, entreat you to annul this
+infamous enactment, so far as the jurisdiction of Massachusetts
+extends. Our old Commonwealth has been first and foremost in many
+good works; let her lead in this also. And deem it not presumptuous,
+if I ask it likewise for my own sake. I am a humble member of the
+community; but I am deeply interested in the welfare and reputation
+of my native State, and that gives me some claim to be heard. I am
+growing old; and on this great question of equal rights I have
+toiled for years, sometimes with a heart sickened by "hope
+deferred." I beseech you to let me die on Free Soil! Grant me the
+satisfaction of saying, ere I go hence--
+
+    "Slaves cannot breathe among us. If their lungs
+     Receive _our_ air, that moment they are free!
+     They touch _our_ country, and their shackles fall!"
+
+If you cannot be induced to reform this great wickedness, for the
+sake of outraged justice and humanity, then do it for the honor of
+the State, for the political welfare of our own people, for the
+moral character of our posterity. For, as sure as there is a
+Righteous Ruler in the heavens, if you continue to be accomplices
+in violence and fraud, God will _not_ "save the Commonwealth of
+Massachusetts."
+
+L. MARIA CHILD.
+
+
+
+
+APPEAL TO THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT.
+
+
+The Hon. Robert Rantoul, Hon. Horace Mann, Hon. Charles Sumner, and
+other able men, have argued against the Constitutionality of the
+Fugitive Slave Bill, proving it to be not only contrary to the
+_spirit_ and _meaning_ of the Constitution, but also to be
+unauthorized by the _letter_ of that document. That this nefarious
+Bill is contrary to the _spirit_ and _intention_ of the Constitution
+is shown by the published opinions of those who framed it; by the
+debates at the time of its adoption; and by its Preamble, which sets
+forth that it was ordained to "establish _justice_, ensure domestic
+_tranquillity_, promote the _general welfare_, and secure the
+blessings of _liberty_." The arguments adduced to prove that this
+bill is unauthorized by the _letter_ of the Constitution, I will
+endeavor to compress into a few words.
+
+Article 10 of the Amendments to the Constitution expressly provides
+that
+
+     "_Powers not delegated to the United States by the
+     Constitution_, nor prohibited by it to the States, _are
+     reserved to the States respectively, or to the people_."
+
+Article 4 of the Constitution contains four compacts. The first is:
+
+     "Full faith and credit shall be given in each of the States
+     to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of
+     every other State. And the _Congress may, by general laws,
+     prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and
+     proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof_."
+
+Here, _power is expressly delegated by the Constitution to the
+United States_.
+
+The second compact is:
+
+     "The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all
+     privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States."
+
+Under this provision, an attempt was made to obtain some action of
+Congress for the protection of colored seamen in slaveholding ports;
+but it was decided that Congress had no power to act on the subject,
+because _the Constitution had not delegated any power to the United
+States_ in the clause referred to. Slaveholders are very strict in
+adherence to the Constitution, whenever any question of _protection_
+to colored people is involved in their decisions; but for purposes
+of _oppression_, they have no scruples. They reverse the principle
+of Common Law, that "in any question under the Constitution, _every
+word is to be construed in favor of liberty_."
+
+The third compact is:
+
+     "A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other
+     crime, who shall flee from justice, or be found in another
+     State, shall, on demand of the Executive authority of the
+     State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to
+     the State having jurisdiction of the crime."
+
+It has never been pretended that Congress has any power to act in
+such cases. There is no clause _delegating any power to the United
+States_; consequently, all proceedings on the subject have been left
+to the several States.
+
+The fourth compact is:
+
+     "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 claim of the
+     party to whom such service or labor may be due."
+
+If the framers of the Constitution had meant that Congress should
+have power to pass a law for delivering up fugitives "held to
+service or labor," they would have inserted a clause _delegating
+such power_, as they did in the compact concerning "public acts and
+records." The Constitution does _not_ delegate any such power to the
+United States. Consequently, Congress had no constitutional right to
+pass the Fugitive Slave Bill, and the States are under no
+constitutional obligation to obey it.
+
+The Hon. Horace Mann, one of Massachusetts' most honored sons, in
+his able speech on this subject in Congress, 1851, said:--"In view
+of the great principles of civil liberty, out of which the
+Constitution grew, and which it was designed to secure, my own
+opinion is that this law cannot be fairly and legitimately supported
+on constitutional grounds. Having formed this opinion with careful
+deliberation, I am bound to speak from it and to act from it. I have
+read every argument and every article in defence of the law, from
+whatever source emanating. Nay, I have been more anxious to read the
+arguments made in its favor, than the arguments against it; and I
+think I have seen a sound legal answer to all the former." * * *
+"It is a law that might be held constitutional by a bench of
+slaveholders, whose _pecuniary interests_ connect them directly with
+slavery; or by those who have surrendered themselves to a
+pro-slavery policy from _political hopes_. But if we gather the
+opinions of unbiassed and disinterested men, of those who have no
+_money_ to make, and no _office_ to hope for, through the triumph of
+this law, then I think the preponderance of opinion is decidedly
+against its constitutionality. It is a fact universally known, that
+gentlemen who have occupied and adorned the highest judicial
+stations in their respective States, together with many of the
+ablest lawyers in the whole country, have expressed opinions against
+the constitutionality of this law." * * * "When I am called upon to
+support such a law as this, while it lasts, or to desist from
+opposing it in all constitutional ways, my response is, Repeal the
+law! that I may no longer be called upon to support it. I demand it,
+because it is a law which conflicts with the Constitution of the
+country, and with all the judicial interpretations of that
+Constitution, wherever they have been applied to the white race.
+Because it is a law abhorrent to the moral and religious sentiments
+of a vast majority of the community called upon to enforce it.
+Because it is a law which, if executed in the Free States, divests
+them of the character of Free States, and makes them voluntary
+participators in the guilt of slaveholding. Because it is a law
+Which disgraces our country in the eyes of the whole civilized
+world, and gives plausible occasion to the votaries of despotic
+power to decry republican institutions. Because it is a law which
+forbids us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, and
+which makes it a crime to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and
+to visit and succor the sick and imprisoned. Because it is a law
+which renders the precepts of the Gospel and the teachings of Jesus
+Christ seditious; and were the Savior and his band of disciples now
+on earth, there is but one of them who would escape its penalties by
+pretending to 'conquer his prejudices.'" * * * "Suppose the whole
+body of the white population should be as much endangered by this
+law, as the colored people now are, would the existence of the law
+be tolerated for an hour? Would there not be a simultaneous and
+universal uprising of the people against it, and such a yell of
+execration as never before burst from mortal lips?"
+
+The Hon. Charles Sumner, always true to the right, as the needle
+to the pole, in his learned and able speech in Congress, 1852,
+said:--"The true principles of our political system, the history
+of the National Convention, the natural interpretation of the
+Constitution, all teach that this Act is a usurpation by Congress of
+powers that do not belong to it, and an infraction of rights secured
+to the States. It is a sword, whose handle is at the National
+Capital, and whose point is every where in the States. A weapon so
+terrible to personal liberty the nation has no power to grasp."
+* * * "In the name of the Constitution, which it violates; of my
+country, which it dishonors; of humanity, which it degrades; of
+Christianity, which it offends, I arraign this enactment, and now
+hold it up to the judgment of the Senate and the world." * * * *
+
+"The Slave Act violates the Constitution, and shocks the public
+conscience. With modesty, and yet with firmness, let me add, it
+offends against the Divine Law. No such enactment can be entitled to
+support. As the throne of God is above every earthly throne, so are
+his laws and statutes above all the laws and statutes of man. To
+question these, is to question God himself. But to assume that human
+laws are above question, is to claim for their fallible authors
+infallibility. To assume that they are always in conformity with
+those of God, is presumptuously and impiously to exalt man to an
+equality with God. Clearly, human laws are _not_ always in such
+conformity; nor can they ever be beyond question from each
+individual. Where the conflict is open, as if Congress should demand
+the perpetration of murder, the office of conscience, as final
+arbiter, is undisputed. But in every conflict, the same queenly
+office is hers. By no earthly power can she be dethroned. Each
+person, after anxious examination, without haste, without passion,
+solemnly for himself must decide this great controversy. Any other
+rule attributes infallibility to human laws, places them beyond
+question, and degrades all men to an unthinking, passive obedience.
+The mandates of an earthly power are to be discussed; those of
+Heaven must at once be performed; nor can any agreement constrain us
+against God. Such is the rule of morals. And now the rule is
+commended to us. The good citizen, as he thinks of the shivering
+fugitive, guilty of no crime, pursued, hunted down like a beast,
+while praying for Christian help and deliverance, and as he reads
+the requirements of this Act, is filled with horror. Here is a
+despotic mandate, 'to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient
+execution of this law.' Let me speak frankly. Not rashly would I set
+myself against any provision of law. This grave responsibility I
+would not lightly assume. But here the path of duty is clear. By the
+Supreme Law, which commands me to do no injustice; by the
+comprehensive Christian Law of Brotherhood; by the Constitution,
+which I have sworn to support, I am bound to disobey this Act.
+Never, in any capacity, can I render voluntary aid in its execution.
+Pains and penalties I will endure; but this great wrong I will not
+do." * * * "For the sake of peace and tranquillity, cease to shock
+the public conscience! For the sake of the Constitution, cease to
+exercise a power which is nowhere granted, and which violates
+inviolable rights expressly secured. Repeal this enactment! Let its
+terrors no longer rage through the land. Mindful of the lowly, whom
+it pursues; mindful of the good men perplexed by its requirements;
+in the name of charity, in the name of the Constitution, repeal this
+enactment, totally, and without delay! Be admonished by these words
+of Oriental piety: 'Beware of the groans of the wounded souls.
+Oppress not to the utmost a single heart; for a solitary sigh has
+power to overset a whole world.'"
+
+Robert Rantoul, Jr., whose large heart was so true to Democratic
+_principles_, that the _party_ wanted to expel him from their ranks,
+(as parties are prone to do with honest men,) opposed the Fugitive
+Slave Bill with all the power of his strong intellect. In a speech
+delivered in 1851, he said: "I am as devotedly attached as any other
+man to the Union of these States, and the Constitution of our
+government; but I admire and love them for that which they secure to
+us. The Constitution is good, and great, and valuable, and to be
+held for ever sacred, because it secures to us what was the _object_
+of the Constitution. I love the Union and the Constitution, not for
+_themselves_, but for the great _end_ for which they were
+created--to secure and perpetuate _liberty_; not the liberty of a
+_class_, superimposed upon the thraldom of groaning multitudes: not
+the liberty of a _ruling race_, cemented by the tears and blood of
+subject races, but _human_ liberty, _perfect_ liberty, common to the
+whole people of the United States and to their posterity. It is
+because I believe all this, that I love the Union and the
+Constitution. If it were not for that, the Union would be valueless,
+and the Constitution not worth the parchment on which it is written.
+God-given Liberty is above the Union, and above the Constitution,
+and above all the works of man."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+TESTIMONIES AGAINST THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT.
+
+
+The Hon. Josiah Quincy, senior, whose integrity, noble intellect,
+and long experience in public life, give great weight to his
+opinions, made a speech at a Whig Convention in Boston, 1854, from
+which I extract the following:--"The circumstances in which the
+people of Massachusetts are placed are undeniably insupportable.
+What has been seen, what has been felt, by every man, woman and
+child in this metropolis, and in this community? and virtually by
+every man, woman and child in Massachusetts? We have seen our Court
+House in chains, two battalions of dragoons, eight regiments of
+artillery, twelve companies of infantry, the whole constabulary
+force of the city police, the entire disposable marine of the United
+States, with its artillery loaded for action, all marching in
+support of a Praetorian Band, consisting of one hundred and twenty
+friends and associates of the U.S. Marshal, with loaded pistols and
+drawn swords, and in military costume and array; and for what
+purpose? _To escort and conduct a poor trembling slave from a Boston
+Court House to the fetters and lash of his master!_
+
+"This scene, thus awful, thus detestable, every inhabitant of this
+metropolis, nay, every inhabitant of this Commonwealth, may be
+compelled again to witness, at any time, and every day in the year,
+at the will or the whim of the meanest and basest slaveholder of the
+South. Is there a man in Massachusetts with a spirit so low, so
+debased, so corrupted by his fears, or his fortune, that he is
+prepared to say this is a condition of things to be endured in
+perpetuity by us? and that this is an inheritance to be transmitted
+by us to our children, for all generations? For so long as the
+fugitive-slave clause remains in the Constitution, unobliterated, it
+is an obligation perpetual upon them, as well as upon us.
+
+"The obligation incumbent upon the Free States _must be obliterated
+from the Constitution, at every hazard_. I believe that, in the
+nature of things, by the law of God, and the laws of man, _that
+clause is at this moment abrogated, so far as respects common
+obligation_. In 1789, the Free States agreed to be field-drivers and
+pound-keepers for the Slaveholding States, within the limits, and
+according to the fences, of the old United States. But between that
+year and this A.D. 1854, the slaveholders have broken down the old
+boundaries, and opened new fields, of an unknown and indefinite
+extent.[1] They have multiplied their slaves by millions, and are
+every day increasing their numbers, and extending their field into
+the wilderness. Under these circumstances, are we bound to be their
+field-drivers and pound-keepers any longer? Answer me, people of
+Massachusetts! Are you the sons of the men of 1776? Or do you 'lack
+gall, to make oppression bitter?'
+
+[Footnote 1: The Hon. Josiah Quincy, while in Congress, always
+opposed the annexation of foreign territory to the United States, on
+the ground of its unconstitutionality.]
+
+"I have pointed out your burden. I have shown you that it is
+insupportable. I shall be asked how we are to get rid of it. It is
+not for a private individual to point the path which a State is to
+pursue, to cast off an insupportable burden; it belongs to the
+constituted authorities of that State. But this I will say, that if
+the people of Massachusetts solemnly adopt, as one man, in the
+spirit of their fathers, the resolve that they will no longer submit
+to this burden, and will call upon the Free States to concur in this
+resolution, and carry it into effect, the burden will be cast off;
+the fugitive-slave clause will be obliterated, not only without the
+dissolution of the Union, but with a newly-acquired strength to the
+Union.".
+
+In the spring of 1860, there was a debate on this subject in the
+Legislature of New York. In the course of it, Mr. Smith, of
+Chatauqua, said:--"How _came_ slavery in this country? It came here
+without law; in violation of all law. It came here by force and
+violence; by the force of might over right; and it remains here
+to-day by no better title. And now we are called upon, by the ruling
+power at Washington, not merely to tolerate it, but to legalize it
+all over the United States! By the Fugitive Slave Bill, we are
+forbidden to shelter or assist the forlornest stranger who ever
+appealed for sympathy or aid. We are required by absolute law to
+shut out every feeling of compassion for suffering humanity. Fines
+and imprisonment impend over us, for exercising one of the holiest
+charities of our religion. Virtue and humanity are legislated into
+crime. Let us meet the issue like men! Let us assert our utter
+abhorrence of all human laws, that compel us to violate the common
+law of humanity and justice; and by so acting assert the broad
+principles of the Declaration of American Independence, and the
+letter and spirit of the Constitution. If the North was as devoted
+to the cause of Freedom as the South is to Slavery, our national
+troubles would vanish like darkness before the sun. Our country
+would then become what it _should_ be,--free, happy, prosperous, and
+respected by all the world. Then we could say, truthfully, that she
+is the home of the free, the land of the brave, the asylum of the
+oppressed."
+
+In the same debate, Mr. Maxson, of Allegheny, said:--"All laws,
+whether Constitutions or statutes, that invade human rights, are
+null. A community has no more power to strike down the rights of man
+by Constitutions, than by any other means. Do those who give us
+awfully solemn lessons about the inviolability of compacts, mean
+that one man is bound to rob another because he has _agreed_ to? In
+this age of schools, of churches and of Bibles, do they mean to
+teach us that an agreement to rob men of their rights, in whatever
+solemn form that agreement may be written out, is binding? Has the
+morality of the nineteenth century culminated in _this_, that a mere
+compact can convert vice into virtue? These advocates of the
+rightfulness of robbery, because it has been _agreed_, to, and that
+agreement has been _written down_, have come too late upon the
+stage, by more than two hundred years. Where does the proud Empire
+State wish to be recorded in that great history, which is being so
+rapidly filled out with the records of this "irrepressible
+conflict"? For myself, a humble citizen of the State, I ask no
+prouder record for her than that, in the year 1860, she enacted that
+_the moment a man sets foot on her soil, he is free, against the
+world_!"
+
+Wendell Phillips, one of earth's bravest and best, made a speech at
+Worcester, 1851, from which I make the following extract:--"Mr.
+Mann, Mr. Giddings, and other leaders of the Free Soil party, are
+ready to go to the death against the Fugitive Slave Law. It never
+should be enforced, they say. It robs men of the jury trial, it robs
+them of _habeas corpus_, and forty other things. This is a very good
+position. But how much comfort would it have been to Ellen Crafts,
+if she had been sent back to Macon, to know that it had been done
+with a scrupulous observance of all the forms of _habeas corpus_ and
+jury trial? When she got back, some excellent friend might have said
+to her, 'My dear Ellen, you had the blessed privilege of _habeas
+corpus_ and jury trial. What are you grieving about? You were sent
+back according to law and the Constitution. What could you want
+more?' From the statements of our Free Soil friends, you would
+suppose that the _habeas corpus_ was the great safeguard of a
+slave's freedom; that it covered him as with an angel's wing. But
+suppose _habeas corpus_ and jury trial granted, what then? Is any
+man to be even _so_ surrendered, with our consent? No slave shall be
+sent back--except by _habeas corpus_. Stop half short of that! No
+slave shall be sent back!"
+
+Rev. A.D. Mayo, of Albany, is one of those clergymen who believe
+that a religious teacher has something to do with questions
+affecting public morality; and his preaching is eloquent, because he
+is fearlessly obedient to his own convictions. In a Sermon on the
+Fugitive Slave Bill, he said:--"Remember that despotism has no
+natural rights on earth that any man is bound to respect. I know
+there is no political party, no Christian sect, no Northern State,
+as a whole, yet fully up to this. But the Christian sentiment of the
+country will finally bring us all to the same conclusion."
+
+
+NO SLAVE HUNT IN OUR BORDERS!
+
+  What asks the Old Dominion? If now her sons have proved
+  False to their fathers' memory, false to the faith they loved;
+  If _she_ can scoff at Freedom, and its Great Charter spurn,
+  Must _we_ of Massachusetts from truth and duty turn?
+
+  _We_ hunt your bondmen, flying from Slavery's hateful hell?
+  _Our_ voices, at your bidding, take up the blood-hound's yell?
+  _We_ gather, at your summons, above our fathers' graves,
+  From Freedom's holy altar-horns to tear your wretched slaves?
+
+  Thank God! not yet so vilely can Massachusetts bow,
+  The spirit of her early time is with her even now.
+  Dream not, because her Pilgrim blood moves slow, and calm, and cool,
+  She thus can stoop her chainless neck, a sister's slave and tool!
+
+  For ourselves and for our children, the vow which we have given
+  For Freedom and Humanity, is registered in Heaven.
+  No slave-hunt in _our_ borders! No pirate on _our_ strand!
+  No fetters in the Bay State! No slave upon _our_ land!
+
+  J.G. WHITTIER.
+
+
+THE HIGHER LAW.
+
+  Man was not made for forms, but forms for man;
+  And there are times when Law itself must bend
+  To that clear spirit, that hath still outran
+  The speed of human justice. In the end,
+  Potentates, not Humanity, must fall.
+  Water will find its level; fire will burn;
+  The winds must blow around this earthly ball;
+  This earthly ball by day and night must turn.
+  Freedom is typed in every element.
+  Man _must_ be free! If not _through_ law, why then
+  _Above_ the law! until its force be spent,
+  And justice brings a better. When, O, when,
+  Father of Light! shall the great reckoning come,
+  To lift the weak, and strike the oppressor dumb?
+
+  C.P. CRANCH.
+
+
+ON THE SURRENDER OF A FUGITIVE SLAVE.
+
+  Look on who will in apathy, and stifle, they who _can_,
+  The sympathies, the hopes, the words, that make man truly man;
+  Let those whose hearts are dungeoned up, with interest or with ease,
+  Consent to hear, with quiet pulse, of loathsome deeds like these.
+  I first drew in New England's air, and from her hardy breast
+  Sucked in the tyrant-hating milk, that will not let me rest;
+  And if my words seem treason to the dullard and the tame,
+  'Tis but my Bay State dialect--our fathers spake the same.
+
+  Shame on the costly mockery of piling stone on stone
+  To those who won _our_ liberty! the heroes dead and gone!
+  While we look coldly on and see law-shielded ruffians slay
+  The men who fain would win their _own_! the heroes of _to-day_!
+  Are we pledged to craven silence? O, fling it to the wind,
+  The parchment wall that bars us from the least of human kind!
+  That makes us cringe, and temporize, and dumbly stand at rest,
+  While Pity's burning flood of words is red-hot in the breast!
+
+  We owe allegiance to the State; but deeper, truer, more,
+  To the sympathies that God hath set within our spirit's core.
+  Our country claims our fealty; we grant it so; but then
+  Before Man made us _citizens_, great Nature made us _men_!
+
+  Though we break our fathers' promise, we have nobler duties first,
+  The traitor to _Humanity_ is the traitor most accurst.
+  _Man_ is more than _Constitutions_. Better rot beneath the sod,
+  Than be true to _Church_ and _State_, while we are doubly false to God!
+
+  JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
+
+
+STANZAS FOR THE TIMES.
+
+  Shall tongues be mute, when deeds are wrought
+    Which well might shame extremest hell?
+  Shall freemen lock the indignant thought?
+    Shall Pity's bosom cease to swell?
+  Shall Honor bleed? Shall Truth succumb?
+  Shall pen, and press, and soul be dumb?
+
+  What! shall we guard our neighbor still.
+    While woman shrieks beneath his rod,
+  And while he tramples down, at will,
+    The image of a common God?
+  Shall watch and ward be round him set
+  Of Northern nerve and bayonet?
+
+  And shall we know, and share with him,
+    The danger and the growing shame?
+  And see our Freedom's light grow dim,
+    Which should have filled the world with flame?
+  And, writhing, feel, where'er we turn,
+  A world's reproach around us burn?
+
+  No! By each spot of haunted ground,
+    Where Freedom weeps her children's fall;
+  By Plymouth's rock, and Bunker's mound;
+    By Griswold's stained and shattered wall;
+  By Warren's ghost; by Langdon's shade;
+  By all the memories of our dead;
+
+  By their enlarging souls, which burst
+    The bands and fetters round them set;
+  By the free Pilgrim spirit, nursed
+    Within our bosoms yet;
+  By all above, around, below,
+  Be ours the indignant answer--NO!
+
+  J.G. WHITTIER.
+
+
+
+
+VERMONT PERSONAL LIBERTY LAW.
+
+AN ACT TO SECURE FREEDOM TO ALL PERSONS WITHIN THIS STATE.
+
+
+_It is hereby enacted, &c.:_
+
+Sec. 1. No person within this State shall be considered as property,
+or subject, as such, to sale, purchase, or delivery; nor shall any
+person, within the limits of this State, at this time, be deprived
+of liberty or property without due process of law.
+
+Sec. 2. Due process of law, mentioned in the preceding section of
+this Act shall, in all cases, be defined to mean the usual process
+and forms in force by the laws of this State, and issued by the
+courts thereof; and under such process, such person shall be
+entitled to a trial by jury.
+
+Sec. 3. Whenever any person in this State shall be deprived of
+liberty, arrested, or detained, on the ground that such person owes
+service or labor to another person, not an inhabitant of this State,
+either party may claim a trial by jury; and, in such case,
+challenges shall be allowed to the defendant agreeably to sections
+four and five of chapter one hundred and eleven of the compiled
+statutes.
+
+Sec. 4. Every person who shall deprive or attempt to deprive any
+other person of his or her liberty, contrary to the preceding
+sections of this Act, shall, on conviction thereof, forfeit and pay
+a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars nor less than five hundred
+dollars, or be punished by imprisonment in the State Prison for a
+term not exceeding ten years: _Provided_, that nothing in said
+preceding sections shall apply to, or affect the right to arrest or
+imprison under existing laws for contempt of court.
+
+Sec. 5. Neither descent near or remote from an African, whether such
+African is or may have been a slave or not, nor color of skin or
+complexion, shall disqualify any person from being, or prevent any
+person from becoming, a citizen of this State, nor deprive such
+person of the rights and privileges thereof.
+
+Sec. 6. Every person who may have been held as a slave, who shall
+come, or be brought, or be in this State, with or without the
+consent of his or her master or mistress, or who shall come, or be
+brought, or be, involuntarily or in any way in this State, shall be
+free.
+
+Sec. 7. Every person who shall hold, or attempt to hold, in this
+State, in slavery, or as a slave, any person mentioned as a slave in
+the sixth section of this act, or any free person, in any form, or
+for any time, however short, under pretence that such person is or
+has been a slave, shall, on conviction thereof, be imprisoned in the
+State Prison for a term not less than one year, nor more than
+fifteen years, and be fined not exceeding two thousand dollars.
+
+Sec. 8. All Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent with the provisions
+of this Act are hereby repealed.
+
+Sec. 9. This Act shall take effect from its passage.
+
+Approved November 25, 1858.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Duty of Disobedience to the
+Fugitive Slave Act, by Lydia Maria Child
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13989 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13989 ***</div>
+
+<h3><i>ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. No. 9. New Series.</i></h3>
+
+<h1>THE<br />
+
+DUTY OF DISOBEDIENCE<br />
+
+TO THE<br />
+
+FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT:</h1>
+
+<h3>AN APPEAL TO THE<br />
+
+LEGISLATORS OF MASSACHUSETTS,</h3>
+
+<h2>BY L. MARIA CHILD</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>&quot;Thou shalt <i>not</i> deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped
+from his master unto thee.&quot;&mdash;DEUT. 23:15.</p>
+<br />
+
+<h4>BOSTON:<br />
+PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.<br />
+1860.</h4>
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<center>
+ <p><a href='#APPEAL'><b>APPEAL TO THE LEGISLATORS OF MASSACHUSSETTS.</b></a></p>
+ <p><a href='#APPEAL_TO_THE'><b>APPEAL TO THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT.</b></a></p>
+ <p><a href='#TESTIMONIES_AGAINST'><b>TESTIMONIES AGAINST THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT.</b></a></p>
+ <p><a href='#VERMONT_PERSONAL_LIBERTY_LAW'><b>VERMONT PERSONAL LIBERTY LAW.</b></a></p>
+</center>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+
+<a name='APPEAL'></a><h2>APPEAL<br />
+
+TO THE<br />
+
+LEGISLATORS OF MASSACHUSETTS.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>I feel there is no need of apologizing to the Legislature
+of Massachusetts because a woman addresses them. Sir
+Walter Scott says: &quot;The truth of Heaven was never committed
+to a tongue, however feeble, but it gave a right to that
+tongue to announce mercy, while it declared judgment.&quot; And
+in view of all that women have done, and are doing, intellectually
+and morally, for the advancement of the world, I presume
+no enlightened legislator will be disposed to deny that
+the &quot;truth of Heaven&quot; <i>is</i> often committed to them, and that
+they sometimes utter it with a degree of power that greatly
+influences the age in which they live.</p>
+
+<p>I therefore offer no excuses on that score. But I do feel
+as if it required some apology to attempt to convince men of
+ordinary humanity and common sense that the Fugitive Slave
+Bill is utterly wicked, and consequently ought never to be
+obeyed. Yet Massachusetts consents to that law! Some
+shadow of justice she grants, inasmuch as her Legislature
+have passed what is called a Personal Liberty Bill, securing
+trial by jury to those claimed as slaves. Certainly it is
+<i>something</i> gained, especially for those who may get brown by
+working in the sunshine, to prevent our Southern masters
+from taking any of us, at a moment's notice, and dragging us
+off into perpetual bondage. It is <i>something</i> gained to require
+legal proof that a man is a slave, before he is given up
+to arbitrary torture and unrecompensed toil. But is <i>that</i>
+the measure of justice becoming the character of a free Commonwealth?
+&quot;<i>Prove</i> that the man is property, according
+<i>your</i> laws, and I will drive him into your cattle-pen with
+sword and bayonet,&quot; is what Massachusetts practically says
+to Southern tyrants. &quot;Show me a Bill of Sale from the
+Almighty!&quot; is what she <i>ought</i> to say. No other proof
+should be considered valid in a Christian country.</p>
+
+<p>One thousand five hundred years ago, Gregory, a Bishop
+in Asia Minor, preached a sermon in which he rebuked
+the sin of slaveholding. Indignantly he asked, &quot;Who
+can be the possessor of human beings save God? Those
+men that you say belong to you, did not God create
+them free? Command the brute creation; that is well.
+Bend the beasts of the field beneath your yoke. But are
+your fellow-men to be bought and sold, like herds of cattle?
+Who can pay the value of a being created in the image of
+God? The whole world itself bears no proportion to the
+value of a soul, on which the Most High has set the seal
+his likeness. This world will perish, but the soul of man is
+immortal. Show me, then, your titles of possession. Tell
+me whence you derive this strange claim. Is not your own
+nature the same with that of those you call your slaves?
+Have they not the same origin with yourselves? Are they
+not born to the same immortal destinies?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus spake a good old Bishop, in the early years of Christianity.
+Since then, thousands and thousands of noble souls
+have given their bodies to the gibbet and the stake, to help
+onward the slow progress of truth and freedom; a great unknown
+continent has been opened as a new, free starting point
+for the human race; printing has been invented, and the
+command, &quot;Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto
+you, do ye even so unto them,&quot; has been sent abroad in all the
+languages of the earth. And here, in the noon-day light
+the nineteenth century, in a nation claiming to be the freest
+and most enlightened on the face of the globe, a portion
+the population of fifteen States have thus agreed among
+themselves: &quot;Other men shall work for us, without wages
+while we smoke, and drink, and gamble, and race horses, and
+fight. We will have their wives and daughters for concubines,
+and sell their children in the market with horses and
+pigs. If they make any objection to this arrangement, we
+will break them into subjection with the cow-hide and the
+bucking-paddle. They shall not be permitted to read or
+write, because that would be likely to 'produce dissatisfaction
+in their minds.' If they attempt to run away from us, our
+blood-hounds shall tear the flesh from their bones, and any
+man who sees them may shoot them down like mad dogs. If
+they succeed in getting beyond our frontier, into States
+where it is the custom to pay men for their work, and to protect
+their wives and children from outrage, we will compel
+the people of those States to drive them back into the jaws
+of our blood-hounds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And what do the people of the other eighteen States of
+that enlightened country answer to this monstrous demand?
+What says Massachusetts, with the free blood of the Puritans
+coursing in her veins, and with the sword uplifted in her
+right hand, to procure &quot;peaceful repose under liberty&quot;?
+Massachusetts answers: &quot;O yes. We will be your blood-hounds,
+and pay our own expenses. Only prove to our satisfaction
+that the stranger who has taken refuge among us is
+one of the men you have agreed among yourselves to whip
+into working without wages, and we will hunt him back for
+you. Only prove to us that this woman, who has run away
+from your harem, was bought for a concubine, that you might
+get more drinking-money by the sale of the children she
+bears you, and our soldiers will hunt her back with alacrity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shame on my native State! Everlasting shame! Blot
+out the escutcheon of the brave old Commonwealth! Instead
+of the sword uplifted to protect liberty, let the slave-driver's
+whip be suspended over a blood-hound, and take for your
+motto, Obedience to tyrants is the highest law.</p>
+
+<p>Legislators of Massachusetts, can it be that you really understand
+what Slavery <i>is</i>, and yet consent that a fugitive
+slave, who seeks protection here, shall be driven back to that
+dismal house of bondage? For sweet charity's sake, I must
+suppose that you have been too busy with your farms and
+your merchandise ever to have imagined yourself in the situation
+of a slave. Let me suppose a case for you; one of a
+class of cases occurring by hundreds every year. Suppose
+your father was Governor of Carolina and your mother was
+a slave. The Governor's wife hates your mother, and is ingenious
+in inventing occasions to have you whipped. <i>You</i>
+don't know the reason why, poor child! but your mother
+knows full well. If they would only allow her to go away
+and work for wages, she would gladly toil and earn money to
+buy you. But that your father will not allow. His laws
+have settled it that she is his property, &quot;for all purposes
+whatsoever,&quot; and he will keep her as long as suits his convenience.
+The mistress continually insists upon her being sold
+far away South; and after a while, she has her will. Your
+poor mother clings to you convulsively; but the slave-driver
+gives you both a cut of his whip, and tells you to stop your
+squalling. They drive her off with the gang, and you never
+hear of her again; but, for a long time afterward, it makes
+you very sad to remember the farewell look of those large,
+loving eyes. Your poor mother had handsome eyes; and
+that was one reason her mistress hated her.</p>
+
+<p>You also are your father's property; and when he dies,
+you will be the property of your whiter brother. You
+black his shoes, tend upon him at table, and sleep on the floor
+in his room, to give him water if he is thirsty in the night.
+You see him learning to read, and you hear your father read
+wonderful things from the newspapers. Very naturally, you
+want to read, too. You ask your brother to teach you the
+letters. He gives you a kick, calls you a &quot;damned nig,&quot; and
+informs his father, who orders you to be flogged for insolence.
+Alone on the hard floor at night, still smarting from
+your blows, you ponder over the great mystery of knowledge
+and wonder why it would do <i>you</i> any more harm than it does
+your brother. Henceforth, all scraps of newspapers you can
+find are carefully laid by. Helplessly you pore over them, at
+stolen moments, as if you expected some miracle would reveal
+the meaning of those printed signs. Cunning comes to your
+aid. It is the only weapon of the weak against the strong.
+When you see white boys playing in the street, you trace a
+letter in the sand, and say, &quot;My young master calls that B.&quot;
+&quot;That ain't B, you dammed nigger. That's A&quot;! they
+shout. Now you know what shape is A; and diligently you
+hunt it out wherever it is to be found on your scraps of newspaper.
+By slow degrees you toil on, in similar ways, through
+all the alphabet. No student of Greek or Hebrew ever deserved
+so much praise for ingenuity and diligence. But the
+years pass on, and still you cannot read. Your master-brother
+now and then gives you a copper. You hoard them,
+and buy a primer; screening yourself from suspicion, by
+telling the bookseller that your master wants it for his sister's
+little boy. You find the picture of a cat, with three letters
+by its side; and now you know how cat is spelt. Elated
+with your wonderful discovery, you are eager to catch a minute
+to study your primer. Too eager, alas! for your mistress
+catches you absorbed in it, and your little book is
+promptly burned. You are sent to be flogged, and your
+lacerated back is washed with brine to make it heal quickly.
+But in spite of all their efforts, your intelligent mind is too
+cunning for them. Before twenty years have passed, you
+have stumbled along into the Bible; alone in the dark, over
+a rugged road of vowels and consonants. You keep the precious
+volume concealed under a board in the floor, and read
+it at snatches, by the light of a pine knot. You read that
+God has created of one blood all the nations of the earth;
+and that his commandment is, to do unto others as we would
+that they should do unto us. You think of your weeping
+mother, torn from your tender arms by the cruel slave-trader;
+of the interdicted light of knowledge; of the Bible
+kept as a sealed book from all whose skins have a tinge of
+black, or brown, or yellow; of how those brown and yellow
+complexions came to be so common; of yourself, the son of
+the Governor, yet obliged to read the Bible by stealth, under
+the penalty of a bleeding back washed with brine. These
+and many other things revolve in your active mind, and your
+unwritten inferences are worth whole folios of theological
+commentaries.</p>
+
+<p>As youth ripens into manhood, life bears for you, as it
+does for others, its brightest, sweetest flower. You love
+young Amy, with rippling black hair, and large dark eyes,
+with long, silky fringes. You inherit from your father, the
+Governor, a taste for beauty warmly-tinted, like Cleopatra's.
+You and Amy are of rank to make a suitable match; for you
+are the son of a Southern Governor, and she is the daughter
+of a United States Senator, from the North, who often
+shared her master's hospitality; her handsome mother being
+a portion of that hospitality, and he being large-minded
+enough to &quot;conquer prejudices.&quot; You have good sympathy
+in other respects also, for your mothers were both slaves;
+and as it is conveniently and profitably arranged for the masters
+that &quot;the child shall follow the condition of the <i>mother</i>,&quot;
+you are consequently both of you slaves. But there are
+some compensations for your hard lot. Amy's simple admiration
+flatters your vanity. She considers you a prodigy of
+learning because you can read the Bible, and she has not the
+faintest idea how such skill can be acquired. She gives you
+her whole heart, full of the blind confidence of a first love.
+The divine spark, which kindles aspirations for freedom in the
+human soul, has been glowing more and more brightly since
+you have emerged from boyhood, and now her glances kindle
+it into a flame. For her dear sake, you long to be a free man,
+with power to protect her from the degrading incidents of a
+slave-girl's life. Wages acquire new value in your eyes,
+from a wish to supply her with comforts, and enhance her
+beauty by becoming dress. For her sake, you are ambitious
+to acquire skill in the carpenter's trade, to which your, master-brother
+has applied you as the best investment of his human
+capital. It is true, he takes all your wages; but then,
+by acquiring uncommon facility, you hope to accomplish
+your daily tasks in shorter time, and thus obtain some extra
+hours to do jobs for yourself. These you can eke out by
+working late into the night, and rising when the day dawns.
+Thus you calculate to be able in time to buy the use of your
+own limbs. Poor fellow! Your intelligence and industry
+prove a misfortune. They charge twice as much for the machine
+of your body on account of the soul-power which moves
+it. Your master-brother tells you that you would bring
+eighteen hundred dollars in the market. It is a large sum.
+Almost hopeless seems the prospect of earning it, at such odd
+hours as you can catch when the hard day's task is done.
+But you look at Amy, and are inspired with faith to remove
+mountains. Your master-brother graciously consents to receive
+payment by instalments. These prove a convenient addition
+to the whole of your wages. They will enable him to
+buy a new race horse, and increase his stock of choice wines.
+While he sleeps off drunkenness, you are toiling for him,
+with the blessed prospect of freedom far ahead, but burning
+brightly in the distance, like a Drummond Light, guiding the
+watchful mariner over a midnight sea.</p>
+
+<p>When you have paid five hundred dollars of the required
+sum, your lonely heart so longs for the comforts of a home,
+that you can wait no longer. You marry Amy, with the resolution
+of buying her also, and removing to those Free
+States, about which you have often talked together, as invalids
+discourse of heaven. Amy is a member of the church,
+and it is a great point with her to be married by a minister.
+Her master and mistress make no objection, knowing that
+after the ceremony, she will remain an article of property,
+the same as ever. Now come happy months, during which
+you almost forget that you are a slave, and that it must be a
+weary long while before you can earn enough to buy yourself
+and your dear one, in addition to supporting your dissipated
+master. But you toil bravely on, and soon pay another
+hundred dollars toward your ransom. The Drummond Light
+of Freedom burns brighter in the diminished distance.</p>
+
+<p>Alas! in an unlucky hour, your tipsy master-brother sees
+your gentle Amy, and becomes enamored of her large dark
+eyes, and the rich golden tint of her complexion. Your
+earnings and your ransom-money make him flush of cash.
+In spite of all your efforts to prevent it, she becomes his
+property. He threatens to cowhide you, if you ever speak to
+her again. You remind him that she is your wife; that you
+were married by a minister. &quot;Married, you damned nigger!&quot;
+he exclaims; &quot;what does a slave's marriage amount
+to? If you give me any more of your insolence, you'll get
+a taste of the cowhide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Anxious days and desolate nights pass. There is such a
+heavy pain at your heart, it is a mystery to yourself that you
+do not die. At last, Amy contrives to meet you, pale and
+wretched as yourself. She has a mournful story to tell of degrading
+propositions, and terrible threats. She promises to
+love you always, and be faithful to you till death, come what
+may. Poor Amy! When she said that, she did not realize
+how powerless is the slave, in the hands of an unprincipled
+master. Your interview was watched, and while you were
+sobbing in each other's arms, you were seized and ordered to
+receive a hundred lashes. While you are lying in jail, stiff
+with your wounds, your master-brother comes to tell you he
+has sold you to a trader from Arkansas. You remind him
+of the receipt he has given you for six hundred dollars, and
+ask him to return the money. He laughs in your face, and
+tells you his receipt is worth no more than so much brown
+paper; that no contracts with a slave are binding. He
+coolly adds, &quot;Besides, it has taken all my spare money to buy
+Amy.&quot; Perhaps you would have killed him in that moment
+of desperation, even with the certainty of being burnt to cinders
+for the deed, but you are too horribly wounded by the
+lash to be able to spring upon him. In that helpless condition,
+you are manacled and carried off by the slave-trader.
+Never again will Amy's gentle eyes look into yours. What
+she suffers you will never know. She is suddenly wrenched
+from your youth, as your mother was from your childhood.
+The pall of silence falls over all her future. She cannot
+read or write; and the post-office was not instituted for
+slaves.</p>
+
+<p>Looking back on that dark period of desolation and despair,
+you marvel how you lived through it. But the nature
+of youth is elastic. You have learned that law offers colored
+men nothing but its <i>penalties</i>; that white men engross all
+its <i>protection</i>; still you are tempted to make another bargain
+for your freedom. Your new master seems easy and good-natured,
+and you trust he will prove more honorable than
+your brother has been. Perhaps he would; but unfortunately,
+he is fond of cards; and when you have paid him two
+hundred dollars, he stakes them, and you also, at the gaming-table,
+and loses. The winner is a hard man, noted for severity
+to his slaves. Now you resolve to take the risk of running
+away, with all its horrible chances. You hide in a
+neighboring swamp, where you are bitten by a venomous
+snake, and your swollen limb becomes almost incapable of
+motion. In great anguish, you drag it along, through the
+midnight darkness, to the hut of a poor plantation-slave, who
+binds on a poultice of ashes, but dares not, for fear of his
+life, shelter you after day has dawned. He helps you to a
+deep gully, and there you remain till evening, half-famished
+for food. A man in the neighborhood keeps blood-hounds,
+well trained to hunt runaways. They get on your track, and
+tear flesh from the leg which the snake had spared. To
+escape them, you leap into the river. The sharp ring of
+rifles meets your ear. You plunge under water. When
+you come up to take breath, a rifle ball lodges in your shoulder
+and you plunge again. Suddenly, thick clouds throw
+their friendly veil over the moon. You swim for your life,
+with balls whizzing round you. Thanks to the darkness and
+the water, you baffle the hounds, both animal and human.
+Weary and wounded, you travel through the forests, your eye
+fixed hopefully on the North Star, which seems ever beckoning
+you onward to freedom, with its bright glances through
+the foliage. In the day-time, you lie in the deep holes of
+swamps, concealed by rank weeds and tangled vines, taking
+such rest as can be obtained among swarms of mosquitoes
+and snakes. Through incredible perils and fatigues, footsore
+and emaciated, you arrive at last in the States called
+Free. You allow yourself little time to rest, so eager are
+you to press on further North. You have heard the masters
+swear with peculiar violence about Massachusetts, and you
+draw the inference that it is a refuge for the oppressed.
+Within the borders of that old Commonwealth, you breathe
+more freely than you have ever done. You resolve to rest
+awhile, at least, before you go to Canada. You find friends,
+and begin to hope that you may be allowed to remain and
+work, if you prove yourself industrious and well behaved.
+Suddenly, you find yourself arrested and chained. Soldiers
+escort you through the streets of Boston, and put you on
+board a Southern ship, to be sent back to your master.
+When you arrive, he orders you to be flogged so unmercifully,
+that the doctor says you will die if they strike another
+blow. The philanthropic city of Boston hears the bloody
+tidings, and one of her men in authority says to the public:
+&quot;Fugitive slaves are a class of foreigners, with whose rights
+Massachusetts has nothing to do. It is enough for <i>us</i>, that
+they have no right to be <i>here</i>.&quot;<a name='FNanchor_1_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_1'>[1]</a> And the merchants of
+Boston cry, Amen.</p>
+
+<a name='Footnote_1_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_1'>[1]</a><div class='note'>Said by the U.S. Commissioner, George Ticknor Curtis, at a Union
+Meeting, in the Old Cradle of Liberty.</div>
+
+<p>Legislators of Massachusetts! if <i>you</i> had been thus continually
+robbed of your rights by the hand of violence, what
+would <i>you</i> think of the compact between North and South to
+perpetuate your wrongs, and transmit them to your posterity?
+Would you not regard it as a league between highwaymen,
+who had &quot;no rights that you were bound to respect&quot;? I put
+the question plainly and directly to your consciences and your
+common sense, and they will not allow you to answer, No.
+Are you, then, doing right to sustain the validity of a law
+for <i>others</i>, which you would vehemently reject for <i>yourselves</i>
+in the name of outraged justice and humanity?</p>
+
+<p>The incidents I have supposed might happen to yourselves
+if you were slaves, are not an imaginary accumulation of
+horrors. The things I have described are happening in this
+country every day. I have talked with many &quot;fugitives
+from injustice,&quot; and I could not, within the limits of these
+pages, even hint at a tithe of the sufferings and wrongs they
+have described. I have also talked with several slaveholders,
+who had emancipated themselves from the hateful system.
+Being at a safe distance from lynching neighbors, they
+could venture to tell the truth; and their statements fully
+confirm all that I have heard from the lips of slaves. If you
+read Southern Laws, you will need very small knowledge of
+human nature to be convinced that the practical results must
+inevitably be utter barbarism. In view of those <i>laws</i>, I have
+always wondered how sensible people could be so slow in
+believing the actual state of things in slaveholding communities.</p>
+
+<p>There are no incidents in history, or romance, more thrilling
+than the sufferings, perils, and hair-breadth escapes of
+American slaves. No Puritan pilgrim, or hero of '76, has
+manifested more courage and perseverance in the cause of
+freedom, than has been evinced, in thousands of instances, by
+this persecuted race. In future ages, popular ballads will be
+sung to commemorate their heroic achievements, and children
+more enlightened than ours will marvel at the tyranny of
+their white ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>All of you have doubtless read some accounts of what
+these unhappy men and women have dared and endured. Did
+you never put yourselves in their stead, and imagine how <i>you</i>
+would feel, under similar circumstances? Not long ago, a
+young man escaped from slavery by clinging night and day to
+the under part of a steamboat, drenched by water, and suffering
+for food. He was discovered and sent back. If the
+Constitution of the United States sanctioned such an outrage
+upon <i>you</i>, what would <i>you</i> think of those who answered your
+entreaties and remonstrances by saying, &quot;Our fathers made
+an agreement with the man who robs you of your wages and
+your freedom. It is law; and it is your duty to submit to [Transcriber's note:
+word cut off]
+patiently&quot;? I think you would <i>then</i> perceive the necessity
+of having the Constitution forthwith amended; and if it were
+not done very promptly, I apprehend you would appeal vociferously
+to a higher law.</p>
+
+<p>A respectable lady, who removed with her family from
+Virginia to New York, some years ago, had occasion to visit
+the cook's cabin, to prepare suitable nourishment for a sick
+child, during the voyage. This is the story she tells: &quot;The
+steward kindly assisted me in making the toast, and added a
+cracker and a cup of tea. With these on a small waiter, I
+was returning to the cabin, when, in passing the freight,
+which consisted of boxes, bags, &amp;c., a little tawny, famished-looking
+hand was thrust out between the packages. The
+skeleton fingers, agitated by a convulsive movement, were evidently
+reached forth to obtain the food. Shocked, but not
+alarmed by the apparition, I laid the cracker on the hand,
+which was immediately withdrawn. No one observed the
+transaction, and I went swiftly to the cabin. In the afternoon,
+I went to the steward again, in behalf of the little invalid.
+Finding he was a father, I gave him presents for his
+children, and so ingratiated myself into his favor, that I had
+free access to the larder. Whatever I could procure, I divided
+with the famished hand, which had become to me a precious
+charge. As all was tranquil on board, it was evident
+that I alone was aware of the presence of the fugitive. I
+humbly returned thanks to God for the privilege of ministering
+to the wants of this his outcast, despised and persecuted
+image. That the unfortunate being was a slave, I doubted
+not. I knew the laws and usages in such cases. I knew the
+poor creature had nothing to expect from the captain or crew;
+and again and again I asked myself the agonizing question
+whether there would be any way of escape. I hoped we
+should arrive in the night, that the fugitive might go on
+shore unseen, under favor of the darkness. I determined to
+watch and assist the creature thus providentially committed
+to my charge. We had a long passage. On the sixth day,
+I found that the goods were being moved to come at something
+which was wanted. My heart seemed to die within
+me; for the safety of the sufferer had become dear to me.
+When we sat down to dinner, the dishes swam before my
+eyes. The tumbling of the freight had not ceased. I felt
+that a discovery must take place. At length, I heard
+sudden, Hallo! Presently, the steward came and whispered
+the captain, who laid down his knife and fork, and went on
+deck. One of the passengers followed him, but soon returned
+In a laughing manner, he told us that a small mulatto boy;
+who said he belonged to Mr. &mdash;&mdash;, of Norfolk, had been
+found among the freight. He had been concealed among the
+lumber on wharves for two weeks, and had secreted himself
+in the schooner the night before we sailed. He was going to
+New York, to find his father, who had escaped two years before.
+'He is starved to a skeleton,' said he, 'and is hardly
+worth taking back.' Many jokes were passed as to the
+manner of his being renovated, when he should fall into the
+hands of his master.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The unfortunate child was brought on deck, and we all
+left the cabin to look at him. I stood some time in the companion-way
+before I could gain strength to move forward.
+As soon as he discovered me, a bright gleam passed over his
+countenance, and he instantly held out to me that famished
+hand. My feelings could no longer be controlled. There
+stood before me a child, not more than eleven or twelve years
+of age, of yellow complexion, and a sad countenance. He
+was nearly naked; his back was <i>seared with scars</i>, and his
+flesh was wasted to the bone. I burst into tears, and the
+jeers of others were for a moment changed into sympathies.
+It began, however, to be suspected that I had brought the boy
+away; and in that case, the vessel must put back, in order to
+give me up also. But I related the circumstances, and all
+seemed satisfied with the truth of my statement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I asked to be allowed to feed the boy, and the request
+was granted. He ate voraciously, and, as I stood beside
+him, he looked into my face at every mouthful. There was
+something confiding in his look. When he had finished his
+meal, as I took the plate, he rubbed his fingers softly on my
+hand, and leaned his head toward me, like a weary child.
+O that I could have offered him a place of rest! that I could
+have comforted and protected him! a helpless <i>child</i>! a feeble,
+emaciated, suffering, innocent <i>child</i>, reserved for bondage
+and torture!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The captain informed us that the vessel had been forbidden
+to enter the port with a fugitive slave on board. He
+must discharge her cargo where she lay, and return, with all
+possible dispatch, to Norfolk. Accordingly, we came to anchor
+below the city, and the passengers were sent up in a
+boat, I said to the captain, 'There is a great ado about a
+poor helpless child.' He replied, 'The laws must be obeyed.'
+I could not help exclaiming, 'Is this the land of boasted
+freedom?' Here was an innocent child treated like a felon;
+manacled, and sent back to slavery and the lash; deprived of
+the fostering care which even the brute is allowed to exercise
+toward its young. The slender boy was seeking the protection
+of a father. Did humanity aid him? No. Humanity
+was prevented by the law, which consigns one portion of the
+people to the control and brutality of the other. Humanity
+can only look on and weep. 'The laws must be obeyed.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Legislators of Massachusetts! suppose for one moment
+that poor abused boy was your own little Johnny or Charley,
+what would you say of the law <i>then</i>? Truly, if we have no
+feeling for the children of <i>others</i>, we deserve to have our own
+children reserved for such a fate; and I sometimes think it is
+the only lesson that will teach the North to respect justice
+and humanity.</p>
+
+<p>It is not long ago, since a free colored man in Baltimore
+was betrothed to a young slave of eighteen, nearly white,
+and very beautiful. If they married, their children would
+be slaves, and he would have no power to protect his handsome
+wife from any outrages an unprincipled master, or his
+sons, might choose to perpetrate. Therefore, he wisely resolved
+to marry in a land of freedom. He placed her in a
+box, with a few holes in it, small enough not to attract attention.
+With tender care, he packed hay around her, that she
+might not be bruised when thrown from the cars with other
+luggage. The anxiety of the lover was dreadful. Still more
+terrible was it, when waiting for her in Philadelphia, he
+found that the precious box had not arrived. They had happened
+to have an unusual quantity of freight, and the baggage-master,
+after turning the box over, in rough, railroad
+fashion had concluded to leave it till the next train. The
+poor girl was thrown into a most uneasy position, without the
+power of changing it. She was nearly suffocated for want of
+air; the hay-seed fell into her eyes and nostrils, and it required
+almost superhuman efforts to refrain from sneezing or
+choking. Added to this was terror lest her absence
+be discovered, and the heavy box examined. In that state of
+mind and body, she remained more than two hours, in the hot
+sun on the railroad platform. At last, the box arrived in
+Philadelphia, and the lover and his friends conveyed it to a
+place of safety as speedily as possible. Those who were
+present at the opening, say it was the most impressive scene
+they ever witnessed. Silently, almost breathlessly, they drew
+out the nails, expecting to find a corpse. When the cover
+was lifted, she smiled faintly in the anxious face of her lover.
+&quot;O God, she is alive!&quot; he exclaimed, and broke down in a
+paroxysm of sobs. She had a terrible brain fever, and when
+she recovered from it, her glossy hair was sprinkled with gray,
+and the weight of ten years was added to her youthful face.
+Thanks to the vigilance and secrecy of friends, the hounds of
+the United States, who use the Constitution for their kennel,
+did not get a chance to lap the blood of this poor trembling
+hare.</p>
+
+<p>Legislators of Massachusetts! suppose this innocent girl
+had been your own Mary or Emma, would you not straightway
+demand amendment of the Constitution, in no very measured
+terms? And if it could not be obtained right speedily,
+would you not ride over the Constitution roughshod? If you
+would not, you do not deserve to have such blessings as lovely
+and innocent daughters.</p>
+
+<p>You have all heard of Margaret Garner, who escaped
+from Kentucky to Ohio, with her father and mother, her husband
+and four children. The Cincinnati papers described
+her as &quot;a dark mulatto, twenty-three years of age, of an interesting
+appearance, considerable intelligence, and a good
+address.&quot; Her husband was described as &quot;about twenty-two
+years old, of a very lithe, active form, and rather a mild,
+pleasant countenance.&quot; These fugitives were sheltered by a
+colored friend in Ohio. There the hounds in pay of the
+United States, to which &quot;price of blood&quot; you and I and all
+of us contribute, ferreted them out, and commanded them to
+surrender. When they refused to do so, they burst open the
+door, and assailed the inmates of the house with cudgels and
+pistols. They defended themselves bravely, but were overpowered
+by numbers and disarmed. When Margaret perceived
+that there was no help for her and her little ones, she
+seized a knife and cut the throat of her most beautiful child.
+She was about to do the same by the others, when her arm
+was arrested. The child killed was nearly white, and exceedingly
+pretty. The others were mulattoes, and pretty
+also. What history lay behind this difference of complexion,
+the world will probably never know. But I have talked confidentially
+with too many fugitive women not to know that
+very sad histories do lie behind such facts. Margaret Garner
+knew very well what fate awaited her handsome little daughter,
+and that nerved her arm to strike the death-blow. It
+was an act that deserves to take its place in history by the
+side of the Roman Virginius.</p>
+
+<p>The man who claimed this unfortunate family as chattels
+acknowledged that they had always been faithful servants.
+On their part, they complained of cruel treatment from their
+master, as the cause of their attempt to escape. They were
+carried to the United States Court, under a strong guard,
+and there was not manhood enough in Cincinnati to rescue
+them. What was called law decided that they were property,
+and they were sent back to the dark dungeon of interminable
+bondage. The mother could not be induced to express
+any regret for the death of her child,&mdash;her &quot;pretty bird,&quot; as
+she called her. With tears streaming from her eyes, she
+told of her own toils and sufferings, and said, &quot;It was better
+they should be killed at once, and end their misery, than to
+be taken back to slavery, to be murdered by inches.&quot; To a
+preacher, who asked her, &quot;Why did you not trust in God?
+Why didn't you wait and hope?&quot; she answered, &quot;We did
+wait; and when there seemed to be no hope for us, we run
+away. God did not appear to help us, and I did the best I
+could.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These poor wretches were escorted through the streets by
+a National Guard, the chivalry of the United States. There
+was not manhood enough in the Queen City of the West to
+attempt a rescue; though they are very fond of quoting for
+<i>themselves</i>, &quot;Give me Liberty, or give me Death!&quot; Men
+satisfied themselves by saying it was all done according to
+<i>law</i>. A powerful plea, truly, for a people who boast so much
+of making their own laws! </p>
+
+<p>These slaves were soon after sent down the Mississippi to
+be sold in Arkansas. The boat came in collision with another
+boat, and many were drowned. The shock threw Margaret
+overboard, with a baby in her arms. She was too valuable a
+piece of property to lose, and they drew her out of the
+water; but the baby was gone. She evinced no emotion but
+joy, still saying it was better for her children to die than
+to be slaves.</p>
+
+<p>The man who could not afford to let this heroic woman own
+her little ones, was very liberal in supporting the Gospel, and
+his wife was a member of the church. Do you think that
+mother had a murderer's heart? Nay, verily. Exceeding
+love for her children impelled her to the dreadful deed. The
+murder was committed by those human hounds, who drove
+her to that fearful extremity, where she was compelled to
+choose between Slavery or Death for her innocent offspring.</p>
+
+<p>Again I ask, what would be your judgment of this law,
+if your <i>own</i> daughter and infant grand-daughter had been its
+victims? You know very well, that had it been your <i>own</i>
+case, such despotism, calling itself law, would be swept away
+in a whirlwind of indignation, and men who strove to enforce
+it would be obliged to flee the country.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span class='i10'>&mdash;&mdash;&quot;They are slaves most base,<br /></span>
+<span>Whose love of right is for <i>themselves</i>, and not for all the race.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I was lately talking with Friend Whittier, whose poetry
+so stirs the hearts of the people in favor of freedom and humanity.
+He told me he thought the greatest pain he ever
+suffered was in witnessing the arrest of a fugitive slave in
+Philadelphia. The man had lived there many years; he bore
+a good character, and was thriving by his industry. He had
+married a Pennsylvania woman, and they had a fine family
+of children. In the midst of his prosperity and happiness,
+the blood-hounds of the United States tracked him out. He
+was seized and hurried into court. Friend Whittier was
+present, and heard the agonized entreaties of his wife and
+children. He saw them clinging to the half frantic husband
+and father, when the minions of a wicked law tore him away
+from them for ever. That intelligent, worthy, industrious
+man was ruthlessly plunged into the deep, dark grave of slavery,
+where tens of thousands perish yearly, and leave no
+record of their wrongs. &quot;A German emigrant, who witnessed
+the scene, poured out such a tornado of curses as I
+never before heard,&quot; said Whittier; &quot;and I could not blame
+the man. He came here supposing America to be a free
+country, and he was bitterly disappointed. Pity for that
+poor slave and his bereaved family agonized my heart; and
+my cheeks burned with shame that my country deserved the
+red-hot curses of that honest German; but stronger than
+either of those feelings was overpowering indignation that
+people of the Free States were compelled by law to witness
+such barbarities.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Many of you have heard of William and Ellen Crafts, a
+pious and intelligent couple, who escaped from bondage some
+years ago. She disguised herself in male attire, and passed
+for a white gentleman, taking her darker colored husband
+with her as a servant. When the Fugitive Slave Act went
+into operation, they received warning that the hounds were
+on their track. They sought temporary refuge in the house
+of my noble-hearted friend, Ellis Gray Loring, who then resided
+in the vicinity of Boston. He and his family were
+absent for some days; but a lady in the house invited Mr.
+Crafts to come in and stay till they returned. &quot;No, I thank
+you,&quot; he replied. &quot;There is a heavy fine for sheltering
+fugitives; and it would not be right to subject Mr. Loring to
+it without his consent.&quot; &quot;But you know he is a true friend
+to the slaves,&quot; urged the lady. &quot;If he were at home, I am
+sure he would not hesitate to incur the penalty.&quot; &quot;Because
+he is such a good friend to my oppressed race, there is all
+the more reason why I should not implicate him in my
+affairs, without his knowledge,&quot; replied this nobleman of nature.
+His wife had slept but little the previous night, having
+been frightened by dreams of Daniel Webster chasing her
+husband, pistol in hand. The evening was stormy, and she
+asked him if they could not remain there till morning. &quot;It
+would not be right, Ellen,&quot; he replied; and with tears in her
+eyes, they went forth into the darkness and rain. Was <i>that</i>
+a man to be treated like a chattel? How many white gentlemen
+are there, who, in circumstances as perilous, would
+have manifested such nicety of moral perception, such genuine
+delicacy of feeling? England has kindly received that
+worthy and persecuted couple. All who set foot on <i>her</i> soil
+are free. Would to God it were so in Massachusetts!</p>
+
+<p>It is well known that Southerners have repeatedly declared
+they do not demand fugitives merely to recover articles of
+property, or for the sake of making an example of them, to
+inspire terror in other runaways; that they have a still
+stronger motive, which is, to humiliate the North; to make
+them feel that no latitude limits their mastership. Have we
+no honest pride, that we so tamely submit to this? What
+lethargic disease has fallen on Northern souls, that they dare
+not be as bold for Freedom as tyrants are for Slavery? It
+was not thus with our fathers, whose sepulchres we whiten.
+If old Ben Franklin had stood as near Boston Court House
+as his statue does, do you believe <i>he</i> would have remained
+passive, while Sims, the intelligent mechanic, was manacled
+and driven through the streets, guiltless of any crime, save
+that of wishing to be free? <i>My</i> belief is that the brave old
+printer of '76 would have drawn down the lightning out of
+heaven upon that procession, with a vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>What satisfactory reasons can be alleged for submitting to
+this degradation? What good excuse can be offered? Shall
+we resort to the Old Testament argument, that anodyne for
+the consciences of &quot;South-Side&quot; divines? Suppose the descendants
+of Ham were ordained to be slaves to the end of
+time, for an offence committed thousands of years ago, by a
+progenitor they never heard of. Still, the greatest amount
+of theological research leaves it very uncertain who the descendants
+of Ham are, and where they are. I presume you
+would not consider the title even to one acre of land satisfactorily
+settled by evidence of such extremely dubious character;
+how much less, then, a man's ownership of himself!
+Then, again, if we admit that Africans are descendants of
+Ham, what is to be said of thousands of slaves, advertised in
+Southern newspapers as &quot;passing themselves for white men,
+or white women&quot;? Runaways with &quot;blue eyes, light hair,
+and rosy complexions&quot;? Are these sons and daughters of
+our Presidents, our Governors, our Senators, our Generals,
+and our Commodores, descendants of Ham? Are <i>they</i> Africans?</p>
+
+<p>If you turn to the favorite New Testament argument, you
+will find that Paul requested Philemon to receive Onesimus,
+&quot;no longer as a servant, but as a brother beloved.&quot; Is <i>that</i>
+the way Southern masters receive the &quot;fugitives from injustice&quot;
+whom we drive back to them? Is it the way we <i>expect</i>
+they will be received? In 1851, the intelligent young mechanic,
+named Thomas Sims, escaped from a hard master, who
+gave him many blows and no wages. By his own courage and
+energy, he succeeded in reaching our Commonwealth, where
+mechanics are not compelled by law to work without wages.
+But the authorities of Boston decreed that this man was
+&quot;bound to such service or labor.&quot; So they ordered out their
+troops and sent him back to his master, who caused him to be
+tied up and flogged, till the doctor said, &quot;If you strike
+another blow, you will kill him.&quot; &quot;Let him die,&quot; replied the
+master. He did nearly die in prison, but recovered to be sold
+farther South. Was <i>this</i> being received as &quot;a brother beloved&quot;?
+Before we send back any more Onesimuses, it is
+necessary to have a different set of Philemons to deal with.
+The Scripture is clearly not obeyed, under present circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>If you resort to the alleged legal obligation to return fugitives,
+it has more plausibility, but has it in reality any firm
+foundation? Americans boast of making their own laws,
+and of amending them whenever circumstances render it necessary.
+How, then, can they excuse themselves, or expect
+the civilized world to excuse them, for making, or sustaining,
+unjust and cruel laws? The Fugitive Slave Act has none of
+the attributes of law. If two highwaymen agreed between
+themselves to stand by each other in robbing helpless men,
+women and children, should we not find it hard work to &quot;conquer
+our prejudices&quot; so far as to dignify their bargain with
+the name of <i>law</i>? That is the light in which the compact
+between North and South presents itself to the minds of intelligent
+slaves, and we should view it in the same way, if we
+were in their position. Law was established to maintain justice
+between man and man; and this Act clearly maintains
+injustice. Law was instituted to protect the weak from the
+strong; this Act delivers the weak completely into the arbitrary
+power of the strong, &quot;Law is a rule of conduct, prescribed
+by the supreme power, commanding what is right,
+and forbidding what is wrong.&quot; This is the commonly received
+definition of law, and obviously, none more correct
+could be substituted for it. The application of it would at
+once annul the Fugitive Slave Act, and abolish slavery.
+That Act reverses the maxim. It commands what is wrong,
+and forbids what is right. It commands us to trample on
+the weak and defenceless, to persecute the oppressed, to be
+accomplices in defrauding honest laborers of their wages.
+It forbids us to shelter the homeless, to protect abused innocence,
+to feed the hungry, to &quot;hide the outcast.&quot; Let theological
+casuists argue as they will, Christian hearts <i>will</i>
+shrink from thinking of Jesus as surrendering a fugitive
+slave; or of any of his apostles, unless it be Judas. Political
+casuists may exercise their skill in making the worse appear
+the better reason, still all honest minds have an intuitive
+perception that no human enactment which violates God's
+laws is worthy of respect. By what law of God can we justify
+the treatment of Margaret Garner? the surrender of Sims
+and Burns? the pitiless persecution of that poor little &quot;famished
+hand&quot;?</p>
+
+<p>There is another consideration, which ought alone to have
+sufficient weight with us to deter us from attempting to carry
+out this tyrannical enactment. All history, and all experience,
+show it to be an immutable law of God, that whosoever
+injures another, injures himself in the process. These frequent
+scuffles between despotism and freedom, with despotism
+shielded by law, cannot otherwise than demoralize our
+people. They unsettle the popular mind concerning eternal
+principles of justice. They harden the heart by familiarity
+with violence. They accustom people to the idea that it is
+right for Capital to own Labor; and thus the reverence for
+Liberty, which we inherited from our fathers, will gradually
+die out in the souls of our children. We are compelled to disobey
+our own consciences, and repress all our humane feelings,
+or else to disobey the law. It is a grievous wrong done to
+the people to place them between these alternatives. The inevitable
+result is to destroy the sanctity of law. The doctrine
+that &quot;might makes right,&quot; which our rulers consent to
+teach the people, in order to pacify slaveholders, will come
+out in unexpected forms to disturb our own peace and safety.
+There is &quot;even-handed justice&quot; in the fact that men cannot
+aid in enslaving others, and themselves remain free; that
+they cannot assist in robbing others, without endangering
+their own security.   </p>
+
+<p>Moreover, there is wrong done, even to the humblest individual,
+when he is compelled to be ashamed of his country.
+When the judge passed under chains into Boston Court
+House, and when Anthony Burns was sent back into slavery,
+I wept for my native State, as a daughter weeps for the
+crimes of a beloved mother. It seemed to me that I would
+gladly have died to have saved Massachusetts from that sin
+and that shame. The tears of a secluded woman, who has no
+vote to give, may appear to you of little consequence. But
+assuredly it is not well with any Commonwealth, when her
+daughters weep over her degeneracy and disgrace.</p>
+
+<p>In the name of oppressed humanity, of violated religion,
+of desecrated law, of tarnished honor, of our own freedom
+endangered, of the moral sense of our people degraded by
+these evil influences, I respectfully, but most urgently, entreat
+you to annul this infamous enactment, so far as the jurisdiction
+of Massachusetts extends. Our old Commonwealth
+has been first and foremost in many good works; let her lead
+in this also. And deem it not presumptuous, if I ask it likewise
+for my own sake. I am a humble member of the community;
+but I am deeply interested in the welfare and reputation
+of my native State, and that gives me some claim to be
+heard. I am growing old; and on this great question of
+equal rights I have toiled for years, sometimes with a heart
+sickened by &quot;hope deferred.&quot; I beseech you to let me die
+on Free Soil! Grant me the satisfaction of saying, ere I go
+hence&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span>&quot;Slaves cannot breathe among us. If their lungs<br /></span>
+<span>Receive <i>our</i> air, that moment they are free!<br /></span>
+<span>They touch <i>our</i> country, and their shackles fall!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>If you cannot be induced to reform this great wickedness,
+for the sake of outraged justice and humanity, then do it for
+the honor of the State, for the political welfare of our own
+people, for the moral character of our posterity. For, as
+sure as there is a Righteous Ruler in the heavens, if you
+continue to be accomplices in violence and fraud, God will
+<i>not</i> &quot;save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><b>L. MARIA CHILD.</b></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<a name='APPEAL_TO_THE'></a><h2>APPEAL TO THE<br />
+CONSTITUTIONALITY<br /> OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The Hon. Robert Rantoul, Hon. Horace Mann, Hon.
+Charles Sumner, and other able men, have argued against the
+Constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Bill, proving it to be
+not only contrary to the <i>spirit</i> and <i>meaning</i> of the Constitution,
+but also to be unauthorized by the <i>letter</i> of that document.
+That this nefarious Bill is contrary to the <i>spirit</i> and
+<i>intention</i> of the Constitution is shown by the published opinions
+of those who framed it; by the debates at the time of its
+adoption; and by its Preamble, which sets forth that it was
+ordained to &quot;establish <i>justice</i>, ensure domestic <i>tranquillity</i>,
+promote the <i>general welfare</i>, and secure the blessings of <i>liberty</i>.&quot;
+The arguments adduced to prove that this bill is unauthorized
+by the <i>letter</i> of the Constitution, I will endeavor to
+compress into a few words.</p>
+
+<p>Article 10 of the Amendments to the Constitution expressly
+provides that</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>&quot;<i>Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution</i>, nor prohibited
+by it to the States, <i>are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people</i>.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>Article 4 of the Constitution contains four compacts.
+The first is:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>&quot;Full faith and credit shall be given in each of the States to the public
+acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the
+<i>Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records
+and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof</i>.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>Here, <i>power is expressly delegated by the Constitution to
+the United States</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The second compact is:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>&quot;The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities
+of citizens in the several States.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>Under this provision, an attempt was made to obtain some
+action of Congress for the protection of colored seamen in
+slaveholding ports; but it was decided that Congress had no
+power to act on the subject, because <i>the Constitution had not
+delegated any power to the United States</i> in the clause
+referred to. Slaveholders are very strict in adherence to the
+Constitution, whenever any question of <i>protection</i> to colored
+people is involved in their decisions; but for purposes of
+<i>oppression</i>, they have no scruples. They reverse the principle
+of Common Law, that &quot;in any question under the Constitution,
+<i>every word is to be construed in favor of liberty</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The third compact is:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>&quot;A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime,
+who shall flee from justice, or be found in another State, shall, on demand
+of the Executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered
+up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>It has never been pretended that Congress has any power
+to act in such cases. There is no clause <i>delegating any
+power to the United States</i>; consequently, all proceedings on
+the subject have been left to the several States.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth compact is:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>&quot;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 claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>If the framers of the Constitution had meant that Congress
+should have power to pass a law for delivering up fugitives
+&quot;held to service or labor,&quot; they would have inserted
+a clause <i>delegating such power</i>, as they did in the compact
+concerning &quot;public acts and records.&quot; The Constitution does
+<i>not</i> delegate any such power to the United States. Consequently,
+Congress had no constitutional right to pass the Fugitive
+Slave Bill, and the States are under no constitutional
+obligation to obey it.</p>
+
+<p>The Hon. Horace Mann, one of Massachusetts' most honored
+sons, in his able speech on this subject in Congress,
+1851, said:&mdash;&quot;In view of the great principles of civil liberty,
+out of which the Constitution grew, and which it was designed
+to secure, my own opinion is that this law cannot be
+fairly and legitimately supported on constitutional grounds.
+Having formed this opinion with careful deliberation, I am
+bound to speak from it and to act from it. I have read every
+argument and every article in defence of the law, from whatever
+source emanating. Nay, I have been more anxious to
+read the arguments made in its favor, than the arguments
+against it; and I think I have seen a sound legal answer to
+all the former.&quot; * * * &quot;It is a law that might be held
+constitutional by a bench of slaveholders, whose <i>pecuniary
+interests</i> connect them directly with slavery; or by those who
+have surrendered themselves to a pro-slavery policy from <i>political
+hopes</i>. But if we gather the opinions of unbiassed
+and disinterested men, of those who have no <i>money</i> to make,
+and no <i>office</i> to hope for, through the triumph of this law,
+then I think the preponderance of opinion is decidedly against
+its constitutionality. It is a fact universally known, that gentlemen
+who have occupied and adorned the highest judicial
+stations in their respective States, together with many of the
+ablest lawyers in the whole country, have expressed opinions
+against the constitutionality of this law.&quot; * * * &quot;When
+I am called upon to support such a law as this, while it lasts,
+or to desist from opposing it in all constitutional ways, my
+response is, Repeal the law! that I may no longer be called
+upon to support it. I demand it, because it is a law which
+conflicts with the Constitution of the country, and with all
+the judicial interpretations of that Constitution, wherever
+they have been applied to the white race. Because it is a
+law abhorrent to the moral and religious sentiments of a vast
+majority of the community called upon to enforce it. Because
+it is a law which, if executed in the Free States, divests
+them of the character of Free States, and makes them voluntary
+participators in the guilt of slaveholding. Because it is
+a law Which disgraces our country in the eyes of the whole
+civilized world, and gives plausible occasion to the votaries of
+despotic power to decry republican institutions. Because it
+is a law which forbids us to do unto others as we would have
+them do unto us, and which makes it a crime to feed the hungry,
+to clothe the naked, and to visit and succor the sick and
+imprisoned. Because it is a law which renders the precepts
+of the Gospel and the teachings of Jesus Christ seditious;
+and were the Savior and his band of disciples now on earth,
+there is but one of them who would escape its penalties by
+pretending to 'conquer his prejudices.'&quot; * * * &quot;Suppose
+the whole body of the white population should be as
+much endangered by this law, as the colored people now are,
+would the existence of the law be tolerated for an hour?
+Would there not be a simultaneous and universal uprising of
+the people against it, and such a yell of execration as never
+before burst from mortal lips?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hon. Charles Sumner, always true to the right, as the
+needle to the pole, in his learned and able speech in Congress,
+1852, said:&mdash;&quot;The true principles of our political system,
+the history of the National Convention, the natural interpretation
+of the Constitution, all teach that this Act is a usurpation
+by Congress of powers that do not belong to it, and an
+infraction of rights secured to the States. It is a sword,
+whose handle is at the National Capital, and whose point is
+every where in the States. A weapon so terrible to personal
+liberty the nation has no power to grasp.&quot; * * * &quot;In
+the name of the Constitution, which it violates; of my country,
+which it dishonors; of humanity, which it degrades; of
+Christianity, which it offends, I arraign this enactment, and
+now hold it up to the judgment of the Senate and the
+world.&quot; * * * *</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Slave Act violates the Constitution, and shocks the
+public conscience. With modesty, and yet with firmness, let
+me add, it offends against the Divine Law. No such enactment
+can be entitled to support. As the throne of God is
+above every earthly throne, so are his laws and statutes above
+all the laws and statutes of man. To question these, is to
+question God himself. But to assume that human laws are
+above question, is to claim for their fallible authors infallibility.
+To assume that they are always in conformity with
+those of God, is presumptuously and impiously to exalt man
+to an equality with God. Clearly, human laws are <i>not</i>
+always in such conformity; nor can they ever be beyond
+question from each individual. Where the conflict is open,
+as if Congress should demand the perpetration of murder,
+the office of conscience, as final arbiter, is undisputed. But
+in every conflict, the same queenly office is hers. By no
+earthly power can she be dethroned. Each person, after
+anxious examination, without haste, without passion, solemnly
+for himself must decide this great controversy. Any other
+rule attributes infallibility to human laws, places them beyond
+question, and degrades all men to an unthinking, passive obedience.
+The mandates of an earthly power are to be discussed;
+those of Heaven must at once be performed; nor
+can any agreement constrain us against God. Such is the
+rule of morals. And now the rule is commended to us.
+The good citizen, as he thinks of the shivering fugitive,
+guilty of no crime, pursued, hunted down like a beast, while
+praying for Christian help and deliverance, and as he reads
+the requirements of this Act, is filled with horror. Here is
+a despotic mandate, 'to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient
+execution of this law.' Let me speak frankly. Not
+rashly would I set myself against any provision of law.
+This grave responsibility I would not lightly assume. But
+here the path of duty is clear. By the Supreme Law, which
+commands me to do no injustice; by the comprehensive
+Christian Law of Brotherhood; by the Constitution, which I
+have sworn to support, I am bound to disobey this Act.
+Never, in any capacity, can I render voluntary aid in its execution.
+Pains and penalties I will endure; but this great
+wrong I will not do.&quot; * * * &quot;For the sake of peace
+and tranquillity, cease to shock the public conscience! For
+the sake of the Constitution, cease to exercise a power which
+is nowhere granted, and which violates inviolable rights expressly
+secured. Repeal this enactment! Let its terrors no
+longer rage through the land. Mindful of the lowly, whom
+it pursues; mindful of the good men perplexed by its requirements;
+in the name of charity, in the name of the Constitution,
+repeal this enactment, totally, and without delay!
+Be admonished by these words of Oriental piety: 'Beware
+of the groans of the wounded souls. Oppress not to the
+utmost a single heart; for a solitary sigh has power to overset
+a whole world.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Robert Rantoul, Jr., whose large heart was so true to
+Democratic <i>principles</i>, that the <i>party</i> wanted to expel him
+from their ranks, (as parties are prone to do with honest
+men,) opposed the Fugitive Slave Bill with all the power of
+his strong intellect. In a speech delivered in 1851, he said:
+&quot;I am as devotedly attached as any other man to the Union
+of these States, and the Constitution of our government;
+but I admire and love them for that which they secure to us.
+The Constitution is good, and great, and valuable, and to be
+held for ever sacred, because it secures to us what was the
+<i>object</i> of the Constitution. I love the Union and the Constitution,
+not for <i>themselves</i>, but for the great <i>end</i> for which
+they were created&mdash;to secure and perpetuate <i>liberty</i>; not
+the liberty of a <i>class</i>, superimposed upon the thraldom of
+groaning multitudes: not the liberty of a <i>ruling race</i>, cemented
+by the tears and blood of subject races, but <i>human</i>
+liberty, <i>perfect</i> liberty, common to the whole people of the
+United States and to their posterity. It is because I believe
+all this, that I love the Union and the Constitution. If it
+were not for that, the Union would be valueless, and the
+Constitution not worth the parchment on which it is written.
+God-given Liberty is above the Union, and above the Constitution,
+and above all the works of man.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<br />
+
+<a name='TESTIMONIES_AGAINST'></a><h2>TESTIMONIES AGAINST<br />
+THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The Hon. Josiah Quincy, senior, whose integrity, noble intellect,
+and long experience in public life, give great weight
+to his opinions, made a speech at a Whig Convention in Boston,
+1854, from which I extract the following:&mdash;&quot;The circumstances
+in which the people of Massachusetts are placed
+are undeniably insupportable. What has been seen, what has
+been felt, by every man, woman and child in this metropolis,
+and in this community? and virtually by every man, woman
+and child in Massachusetts? We have seen our Court House
+in chains, two battalions of dragoons, eight regiments of artillery,
+twelve companies of infantry, the whole constabulary
+force of the city police, the entire disposable marine of the
+United States, with its artillery loaded for action, all marching
+in support of a Praetorian Band, consisting of one hundred
+and twenty friends and associates of the U.S. Marshal,
+with loaded pistols and drawn swords, and in military costume
+and array; and for what purpose? <i>To escort and conduct a
+poor trembling slave from a Boston Court House to the fetters
+and lash of his master!</i></p>
+
+<p>&quot;This scene, thus awful, thus detestable, every inhabitant
+of this metropolis, nay, every inhabitant of this Commonwealth,
+may be compelled again to witness, at any time, and
+every day in the year, at the will or the whim of the meanest
+and basest slaveholder of the South. Is there a man in
+Massachusetts with a spirit so low, so debased, so corrupted
+by his fears, or his fortune, that he is prepared to say this is
+a condition of things to be endured in perpetuity by us? and
+that this is an inheritance to be transmitted by us to our
+children, for all generations? For so long as the fugitive-slave
+clause remains in the Constitution, unobliterated, it is
+an obligation perpetual upon them, as well as upon us.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The obligation incumbent upon the Free States <i>must be
+obliterated from the Constitution, at every hazard</i>. I believe
+that, in the nature of things, by the law of God, and the
+laws of man, <i>that clause is at this moment abrogated, so far
+as respects common obligation</i>. In 1789, the Free States
+agreed to be field-drivers and pound-keepers for the Slaveholding
+States, within the limits, and according to the fences,
+of the old United States. But between that year and this
+A.D. 1854, the slaveholders have broken down the old
+boundaries, and opened new fields, of an unknown and indefinite
+extent.<a name='FNanchor_1_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_2'>[1]</a> They have multiplied their slaves by millions,
+and are every day increasing their numbers, and extending
+their field into the wilderness. Under these circumstances,
+are we bound to be their field-drivers and pound-keepers any
+longer? Answer me, people of Massachusetts! Are you
+the sons of the men of 1776? Or do you 'lack gall, to
+make oppression bitter?'</p>
+
+<a name='Footnote_1_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_2'>[1]</a><div class='note'> The Hon. Josiah Quincy, while in Congress,
+always opposed the annexation
+of foreign territory to the United States, on the ground of its
+unconstitutionality.</div>
+
+<p>&quot;I have pointed out your burden. I have shown you that
+it is insupportable. I shall be asked how we are to get rid
+of it. It is not for a private individual to point the path
+which a State is to pursue, to cast off an insupportable burden;
+it belongs to the constituted authorities of that State.
+But this I will say, that if the people of Massachusetts solemnly
+adopt, as one man, in the spirit of their fathers, the
+resolve that they will no longer submit to this burden, and
+will call upon the Free States to concur in this resolution,
+and carry it into effect, the burden will be cast off; the fugitive-slave
+clause will be obliterated, not only without the
+dissolution of the Union, but with a newly-acquired strength
+to the Union.&quot;.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1860, there was a debate on this subject
+in the Legislature of New York. In the course of it, Mr.
+Smith, of Chatauqua, said:&mdash;&quot;How <i>came</i> slavery in this
+country? It came here without law; in violation of all law.
+It came here by force and violence; by the force of might
+over right; and it remains here to-day by no better title.
+And now we are called upon, by the ruling power at Washington,
+not merely to tolerate it, but to legalize it all over the
+United States! By the Fugitive Slave Bill, we are forbidden
+to shelter or assist the forlornest stranger who ever appealed
+for sympathy or aid. We are required by absolute law to
+shut out every feeling of compassion for suffering humanity.
+Fines and imprisonment impend over us, for exercising one
+of the holiest charities of our religion. Virtue and humanity
+are legislated into crime. Let us meet the issue like
+men! Let us assert our utter abhorrence of all human laws,
+that compel us to violate the common law of humanity and
+justice; and by so acting assert the broad principles of the
+Declaration of American Independence, and the letter and
+spirit of the Constitution. If the North was as devoted to
+the cause of Freedom as the South is to Slavery, our national
+troubles would vanish like darkness before the sun. Our
+country would then become what it <i>should</i> be,&mdash;free, happy,
+prosperous, and respected by all the world. Then we could
+say, truthfully, that she is the home of the free, the land of
+the brave, the asylum of the oppressed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In the same debate, Mr. Maxson, of Allegheny, said:&mdash;&quot;All
+laws, whether Constitutions or statutes, that invade human
+rights, are null. A community has no more power to
+strike down the rights of man by Constitutions, than by any
+other means. Do those who give us awfully solemn lessons
+about the inviolability of compacts, mean that one man is
+bound to rob another because he has <i>agreed</i> to? In this age
+of schools, of churches and of Bibles, do they mean to teach
+us that an agreement to rob men of their rights, in whatever
+solemn form that agreement may be written out, is binding?
+Has the morality of the nineteenth century culminated in
+<i>this</i>, that a mere compact can convert vice into virtue?
+These advocates of the rightfulness of robbery, because it
+has been <i>agreed</i>, to, and that agreement has been <i>written
+down</i>, have come too late upon the stage, by more than two
+hundred years. Where does the proud Empire State wish
+to be recorded in that great history, which is being so rapidly
+filled out with the records of this &quot;irrepressible conflict&quot;?
+For myself, a humble citizen of the State, I ask no prouder
+record for her than that, in the year 1860, she enacted that
+<i>the moment a man sets foot on her soil, he is free, against the
+world</i>!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Wendell Phillips, one of earth's bravest and best, made a
+speech at Worcester, 1851, from which I make the following
+extract:&mdash;&quot;Mr. Mann, Mr. Giddings, and other leaders of
+the Free Soil party, are ready to go to the death against the
+Fugitive Slave Law. It never should be enforced, they say.
+It robs men of the jury trial, it robs them of <i>habeas corpus</i>,
+and forty other things. This is a very good position. But
+how much comfort would it have been to Ellen Crafts, if she
+had been sent back to Macon, to know that it had been done
+with a scrupulous observance of all the forms of <i>habeas corpus</i>
+and jury trial? When she got back, some excellent
+friend might have said to her, 'My dear Ellen, you had the
+blessed privilege of <i>habeas corpus</i> and jury trial. What are
+you grieving about? You were sent back according to law
+and the Constitution. What could you want more?' From
+the statements of our Free Soil friends, you would suppose
+that the <i>habeas corpus</i> was the great safeguard of a slave's
+freedom; that it covered him as with an angel's wing. But
+suppose <i>habeas corpus</i> and jury trial granted, what then?
+Is any man to be even <i>so</i> surrendered, with our consent? No
+slave shall be sent back&mdash;except by <i>habeas corpus</i>. Stop
+half short of that! No slave shall be sent back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Rev. A.D. Mayo, of Albany, is one of those clergymen
+who believe that a religious teacher has something to do with
+questions affecting public morality; and his preaching is eloquent,
+because he is fearlessly obedient to his own convictions.
+In a Sermon on the Fugitive Slave Bill, he said:&mdash;&quot;Remember
+that despotism has no natural rights on earth
+that any man is bound to respect. I know there is no
+political party, no Christian sect, no Northern State, as a
+whole, yet fully up to this. But the Christian sentiment of
+the country will finally bring us all to the same conclusion.&quot;</p>
+<br />
+<hr />
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span><b>NO SLAVE HUNT IN OUR BORDERS!</b><br /></span>
+<br />&nbsp;<br />
+<span>What asks the Old Dominion? If now her sons have proved<br /></span>
+<span>False to their fathers' memory, false to the faith they loved;<br /></span>
+<span>If <i>she</i> can scoff at Freedom, and its Great Charter spurn,<br /></span>
+<span>Must <i>we</i> of Massachusetts from truth and duty turn?<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span><i>We</i> hunt your bondmen, flying from Slavery's hateful hell?<br /></span>
+<span><i>Our</i> voices, at your bidding, take up the blood-hound's yell?<br /></span>
+<span><i>We</i> gather, at your summons, above our fathers' graves,<br /></span>
+<span>From Freedom's holy altar-horns to tear your wretched slaves?<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>Thank God! not yet so vilely can Massachusetts bow,<br /></span>
+<span>The spirit of her early time is with her even now.<br /></span>
+<span>Dream not, because her Pilgrim blood moves slow, and calm, and cool,<br /></span>
+<span>She thus can stoop her chainless neck, a sister's slave and tool!<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>For ourselves and for our children, the vow which we have given<br /></span>
+<span>For Freedom and Humanity, is registered in Heaven.<br /></span>
+<span>No slave-hunt in <i>our</i> borders! No pirate on <i>our</i> strand!<br /></span>
+<span>No fetters in the Bay State! No slave upon <i>our</i> land!<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>J.G. WHITTIER.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<br />
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span><b>THE HIGHER LAW.</b></br></span>
+<br />&nbsp;<br />
+<span>Man was not made for forms, but forms for man;<br /></span>
+<span>And there are times when Law itself must bend<br /></span>
+<span>To that clear spirit, that hath still outran<br /></span>
+<span>The speed of human justice. In the end,<br /></span>
+<span>Potentates, not Humanity, must fall.<br /></span>
+<span>Water will find its level; fire will burn;<br /></span>
+<span>The winds must blow around this earthly ball;<br /></span>
+<span>This earthly ball by day and night must turn.<br /></span>
+<span>Freedom is typed in every element.<br /></span>
+<span>Man <i>must</i> be free! If not <i>through</i> law, why then<br /></span>
+<span><i>Above</i> the law! until its force be spent,<br /></span>
+<span>And justice brings a better. When, O, when,<br /></span>
+<span>Father of Light! shall the great reckoning come,<br /></span>
+<span>To lift the weak, and strike the oppressor dumb?<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>C.P. CRANCH.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<br />
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span><b>ON THE SURRENDER OF A FUGITIVE SLAVE.</b><br /></span>
+<br />&nbsp;<br />
+<span>Look on who will in apathy, and stifle, they who <i>can</i>,<br /></span>
+<span>The sympathies, the hopes, the words, that make man truly man;<br /></span>
+<span>Let those whose hearts are dungeoned up, with interest or with ease,<br /></span>
+<span>Consent to hear, with quiet pulse, of loathsome deeds like these.<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>I first drew in New England's air, and from her hardy breast<br /></span>
+<span>Sucked in the tyrant-hating milk, that will not let me rest;<br /></span>
+<span>And if my words seem treason to the dullard and the tame,<br /></span>
+<span>'Tis but my Bay State dialect&mdash;our fathers spake the same.<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>Shame on the costly mockery of piling stone on stone<br /></span>
+<span>To those who won <i>our</i> liberty! the heroes dead and gone!<br /></span>
+<span>While we look coldly on and see law-shielded ruffians slay<br /></span>
+<span>The men who fain would win their <i>own</i>! the heroes of <i>to-day</i>!<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>Are we pledged to craven silence? O, fling it to the wind,<br /></span>
+<span>The parchment wall that bars us from the least of human kind!<br /></span>
+<span>That makes us cringe, and temporize, and dumbly stand at rest,<br /></span>
+<span>While Pity's burning flood of words is red-hot in the breast!<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>We owe allegiance to the State; but deeper, truer, more,<br /></span>
+<span>To the sympathies that God hath set within our spirit's core.<br /></span>
+<span>Our country claims our fealty; we grant it so; but then<br /></span>
+<span>Before Man made us <i>citizens</i>, great Nature made us <i>men</i>!<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>Though we break our fathers' promise, we have nobler duties first,<br /></span>
+<span>The traitor to <i>Humanity</i> is the traitor most accurst.<br /></span>
+<span><i>Man</i> is more than <i>Constitutions</i>. Better rot beneath the sod,<br /></span>
+<span>Than be true to <i>Church</i> and <i>State</i>, while we are doubly false to God!<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<br />
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span><b>STANZAS FOR THE TIMES.</b><br /></span>
+<br />&nbsp;<br />
+<span>Shall tongues be mute, when deeds are wrought<br /></span>
+<span>Which well might shame extremest hell?<br /></span>
+<span>Shall freemen lock the indignant thought?<br /></span>
+<span>Shall Pity's bosom cease to swell?<br /></span>
+<span>Shall Honor bleed? Shall Truth succumb?<br /></span>
+<span>Shall pen, and press, and soul be dumb?<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>What! shall we guard our neighbor still.<br /></span>
+<span>While woman shrieks beneath his rod,<br /></span>
+<span>And while he tramples down, at will,<br /></span>
+<span>The image of a common God?<br /></span>
+<span>Shall watch and ward be round him set<br /></span>
+<span>Of Northern nerve and bayonet?<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>And shall we know, and share with him,<br /></span>
+<span>The danger and the growing shame?<br /></span>
+<span>And see our Freedom's light grow dim,<br /></span>
+<span>Which should have filled the world with flame?<br /></span>
+<span>And, writhing, feel, where'er we turn,<br /></span>
+<span>A world's reproach around us burn?<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>No! By each spot of haunted ground,<br /></span>
+<span>Where Freedom weeps her children's fall;<br /></span>
+<span>By Plymouth's rock, and Bunker's mound;<br /></span>
+<span>By Griswold's stained and shattered wall;<br /></span>
+<span>By Warren's ghost; by Langdon's shade;<br /></span>
+<span>By all the memories of our dead;<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>By their enlarging souls, which burst<br /></span>
+<span>The bands and fetters round them set;<br /></span>
+<span>By the free Pilgrim spirit, nursed<br /></span>
+<span>Within our bosoms yet;<br /></span>
+<span>By all above, around, below,<br /></span>
+<span>Be ours the indignant answer&mdash;NO!<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>J.G. WHITTIER.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<a name='VERMONT_PERSONAL_LIBERTY_LAW'></a><h2>VERMONT PERSONAL LIBERTY LAW.</h2>
+
+<p><b>AN ACT TO SECURE FREEDOM TO ALL PERSONS WITHIN THIS STATE.</b></p>
+<br />
+
+<p><i>It is hereby enacted, &amp;c.:</i></p>
+
+<p>Sec. 1. No person within this State shall be considered as property, or
+subject, as such, to sale, purchase, or delivery; nor shall any person,
+within the limits of this State, at this time, be deprived of liberty or
+property without due process of law.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 2. Due process of law, mentioned in the preceding section of this
+Act shall, in all cases, be defined to mean the usual process and forms in
+force by the laws of this State, and issued by the courts thereof; and
+under such process, such person shall be entitled to a trial by jury.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 3. Whenever any person in this State shall be deprived of liberty,
+arrested, or detained, on the ground that such person owes service or labor
+to another person, not an inhabitant of this State, either party may claim
+a trial by jury; and, in such case, challenges shall be allowed to the defendant
+agreeably to sections four and five of chapter one hundred and
+eleven of the compiled statutes.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 4. Every person who shall deprive or attempt to deprive any other
+person of his or her liberty, contrary to the preceding sections of this Act,
+shall, on conviction thereof, forfeit and pay a fine not exceeding two
+thousand dollars nor less than five hundred dollars, or be punished by imprisonment
+in the State Prison for a term not exceeding ten years: <i>Provided</i>,
+that nothing in said preceding sections shall apply to, or affect the
+right to arrest or imprison under existing laws for contempt of court.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 5. Neither descent near or remote from an African, whether such
+African is or may have been a slave or not, nor color of skin or complexion,
+shall disqualify any person from being, or prevent any person from
+becoming, a citizen of this State, nor deprive such person of the rights and
+privileges thereof.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 6. Every person who may have been held as a slave, who shall
+come, or be brought, or be in this State, with or without the consent of his
+or her master or mistress, or who shall come, or be brought, or be, involuntarily
+or in any way in this State, shall be free.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 7. Every person who shall hold, or attempt to hold, in this State,
+in slavery, or as a slave, any person mentioned as a slave in the sixth section
+of this act, or any free person, in any form, or for any time, however
+short, under pretence that such person is or has been a slave, shall, on conviction
+thereof, be imprisoned in the State Prison for a term not less than
+one year, nor more than fifteen years, and be fined not exceeding two
+thousand dollars.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 8. All Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent with the provisions of
+this Act are hereby repealed.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 9. This Act shall take effect from its passage.</p>
+
+<p>Approved November 25, 1858.</p>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13989 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act,
+      by L. Maria Child.
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive
+Slave Act, by Lydia Maria Child
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  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: The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act
+       Anti-Slavery Tracts No. 9, An Appeal To The Legislators Of Massachusetts
+
+Author: Lydia Maria Child
+
+Release Date: November 9, 2004 [EBook #13989]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DUTY OF DISOBEDIENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Curtis Weyant, Andrea Ball and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<h3><i>ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. No. 9. New Series.</i></h3>
+
+<h1>THE<br />
+
+DUTY OF DISOBEDIENCE<br />
+
+TO THE<br />
+
+FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT:</h1>
+
+<h3>AN APPEAL TO THE<br />
+
+LEGISLATORS OF MASSACHUSETTS,</h3>
+
+<h2>BY L. MARIA CHILD</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>&quot;Thou shalt <i>not</i> deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped
+from his master unto thee.&quot;&mdash;DEUT. 23:15.</p>
+<br />
+
+<h4>BOSTON:<br />
+PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.<br />
+1860.</h4>
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<center>
+ <p><a href='#APPEAL'><b>APPEAL TO THE LEGISLATORS OF MASSACHUSSETTS.</b></a></p>
+ <p><a href='#APPEAL_TO_THE'><b>APPEAL TO THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT.</b></a></p>
+ <p><a href='#TESTIMONIES_AGAINST'><b>TESTIMONIES AGAINST THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT.</b></a></p>
+ <p><a href='#VERMONT_PERSONAL_LIBERTY_LAW'><b>VERMONT PERSONAL LIBERTY LAW.</b></a></p>
+</center>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+
+<a name='APPEAL'></a><h2>APPEAL<br />
+
+TO THE<br />
+
+LEGISLATORS OF MASSACHUSETTS.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>I feel there is no need of apologizing to the Legislature
+of Massachusetts because a woman addresses them. Sir
+Walter Scott says: &quot;The truth of Heaven was never committed
+to a tongue, however feeble, but it gave a right to that
+tongue to announce mercy, while it declared judgment.&quot; And
+in view of all that women have done, and are doing, intellectually
+and morally, for the advancement of the world, I presume
+no enlightened legislator will be disposed to deny that
+the &quot;truth of Heaven&quot; <i>is</i> often committed to them, and that
+they sometimes utter it with a degree of power that greatly
+influences the age in which they live.</p>
+
+<p>I therefore offer no excuses on that score. But I do feel
+as if it required some apology to attempt to convince men of
+ordinary humanity and common sense that the Fugitive Slave
+Bill is utterly wicked, and consequently ought never to be
+obeyed. Yet Massachusetts consents to that law! Some
+shadow of justice she grants, inasmuch as her Legislature
+have passed what is called a Personal Liberty Bill, securing
+trial by jury to those claimed as slaves. Certainly it is
+<i>something</i> gained, especially for those who may get brown by
+working in the sunshine, to prevent our Southern masters
+from taking any of us, at a moment's notice, and dragging us
+off into perpetual bondage. It is <i>something</i> gained to require
+legal proof that a man is a slave, before he is given up
+to arbitrary torture and unrecompensed toil. But is <i>that</i>
+the measure of justice becoming the character of a free Commonwealth?
+&quot;<i>Prove</i> that the man is property, according
+<i>your</i> laws, and I will drive him into your cattle-pen with
+sword and bayonet,&quot; is what Massachusetts practically says
+to Southern tyrants. &quot;Show me a Bill of Sale from the
+Almighty!&quot; is what she <i>ought</i> to say. No other proof
+should be considered valid in a Christian country.</p>
+
+<p>One thousand five hundred years ago, Gregory, a Bishop
+in Asia Minor, preached a sermon in which he rebuked
+the sin of slaveholding. Indignantly he asked, &quot;Who
+can be the possessor of human beings save God? Those
+men that you say belong to you, did not God create
+them free? Command the brute creation; that is well.
+Bend the beasts of the field beneath your yoke. But are
+your fellow-men to be bought and sold, like herds of cattle?
+Who can pay the value of a being created in the image of
+God? The whole world itself bears no proportion to the
+value of a soul, on which the Most High has set the seal
+his likeness. This world will perish, but the soul of man is
+immortal. Show me, then, your titles of possession. Tell
+me whence you derive this strange claim. Is not your own
+nature the same with that of those you call your slaves?
+Have they not the same origin with yourselves? Are they
+not born to the same immortal destinies?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus spake a good old Bishop, in the early years of Christianity.
+Since then, thousands and thousands of noble souls
+have given their bodies to the gibbet and the stake, to help
+onward the slow progress of truth and freedom; a great unknown
+continent has been opened as a new, free starting point
+for the human race; printing has been invented, and the
+command, &quot;Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto
+you, do ye even so unto them,&quot; has been sent abroad in all the
+languages of the earth. And here, in the noon-day light
+the nineteenth century, in a nation claiming to be the freest
+and most enlightened on the face of the globe, a portion
+the population of fifteen States have thus agreed among
+themselves: &quot;Other men shall work for us, without wages
+while we smoke, and drink, and gamble, and race horses, and
+fight. We will have their wives and daughters for concubines,
+and sell their children in the market with horses and
+pigs. If they make any objection to this arrangement, we
+will break them into subjection with the cow-hide and the
+bucking-paddle. They shall not be permitted to read or
+write, because that would be likely to 'produce dissatisfaction
+in their minds.' If they attempt to run away from us, our
+blood-hounds shall tear the flesh from their bones, and any
+man who sees them may shoot them down like mad dogs. If
+they succeed in getting beyond our frontier, into States
+where it is the custom to pay men for their work, and to protect
+their wives and children from outrage, we will compel
+the people of those States to drive them back into the jaws
+of our blood-hounds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And what do the people of the other eighteen States of
+that enlightened country answer to this monstrous demand?
+What says Massachusetts, with the free blood of the Puritans
+coursing in her veins, and with the sword uplifted in her
+right hand, to procure &quot;peaceful repose under liberty&quot;?
+Massachusetts answers: &quot;O yes. We will be your blood-hounds,
+and pay our own expenses. Only prove to our satisfaction
+that the stranger who has taken refuge among us is
+one of the men you have agreed among yourselves to whip
+into working without wages, and we will hunt him back for
+you. Only prove to us that this woman, who has run away
+from your harem, was bought for a concubine, that you might
+get more drinking-money by the sale of the children she
+bears you, and our soldiers will hunt her back with alacrity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shame on my native State! Everlasting shame! Blot
+out the escutcheon of the brave old Commonwealth! Instead
+of the sword uplifted to protect liberty, let the slave-driver's
+whip be suspended over a blood-hound, and take for your
+motto, Obedience to tyrants is the highest law.</p>
+
+<p>Legislators of Massachusetts, can it be that you really understand
+what Slavery <i>is</i>, and yet consent that a fugitive
+slave, who seeks protection here, shall be driven back to that
+dismal house of bondage? For sweet charity's sake, I must
+suppose that you have been too busy with your farms and
+your merchandise ever to have imagined yourself in the situation
+of a slave. Let me suppose a case for you; one of a
+class of cases occurring by hundreds every year. Suppose
+your father was Governor of Carolina and your mother was
+a slave. The Governor's wife hates your mother, and is ingenious
+in inventing occasions to have you whipped. <i>You</i>
+don't know the reason why, poor child! but your mother
+knows full well. If they would only allow her to go away
+and work for wages, she would gladly toil and earn money to
+buy you. But that your father will not allow. His laws
+have settled it that she is his property, &quot;for all purposes
+whatsoever,&quot; and he will keep her as long as suits his convenience.
+The mistress continually insists upon her being sold
+far away South; and after a while, she has her will. Your
+poor mother clings to you convulsively; but the slave-driver
+gives you both a cut of his whip, and tells you to stop your
+squalling. They drive her off with the gang, and you never
+hear of her again; but, for a long time afterward, it makes
+you very sad to remember the farewell look of those large,
+loving eyes. Your poor mother had handsome eyes; and
+that was one reason her mistress hated her.</p>
+
+<p>You also are your father's property; and when he dies,
+you will be the property of your whiter brother. You
+black his shoes, tend upon him at table, and sleep on the floor
+in his room, to give him water if he is thirsty in the night.
+You see him learning to read, and you hear your father read
+wonderful things from the newspapers. Very naturally, you
+want to read, too. You ask your brother to teach you the
+letters. He gives you a kick, calls you a &quot;damned nig,&quot; and
+informs his father, who orders you to be flogged for insolence.
+Alone on the hard floor at night, still smarting from
+your blows, you ponder over the great mystery of knowledge
+and wonder why it would do <i>you</i> any more harm than it does
+your brother. Henceforth, all scraps of newspapers you can
+find are carefully laid by. Helplessly you pore over them, at
+stolen moments, as if you expected some miracle would reveal
+the meaning of those printed signs. Cunning comes to your
+aid. It is the only weapon of the weak against the strong.
+When you see white boys playing in the street, you trace a
+letter in the sand, and say, &quot;My young master calls that B.&quot;
+&quot;That ain't B, you dammed nigger. That's A&quot;! they
+shout. Now you know what shape is A; and diligently you
+hunt it out wherever it is to be found on your scraps of newspaper.
+By slow degrees you toil on, in similar ways, through
+all the alphabet. No student of Greek or Hebrew ever deserved
+so much praise for ingenuity and diligence. But the
+years pass on, and still you cannot read. Your master-brother
+now and then gives you a copper. You hoard them,
+and buy a primer; screening yourself from suspicion, by
+telling the bookseller that your master wants it for his sister's
+little boy. You find the picture of a cat, with three letters
+by its side; and now you know how cat is spelt. Elated
+with your wonderful discovery, you are eager to catch a minute
+to study your primer. Too eager, alas! for your mistress
+catches you absorbed in it, and your little book is
+promptly burned. You are sent to be flogged, and your
+lacerated back is washed with brine to make it heal quickly.
+But in spite of all their efforts, your intelligent mind is too
+cunning for them. Before twenty years have passed, you
+have stumbled along into the Bible; alone in the dark, over
+a rugged road of vowels and consonants. You keep the precious
+volume concealed under a board in the floor, and read
+it at snatches, by the light of a pine knot. You read that
+God has created of one blood all the nations of the earth;
+and that his commandment is, to do unto others as we would
+that they should do unto us. You think of your weeping
+mother, torn from your tender arms by the cruel slave-trader;
+of the interdicted light of knowledge; of the Bible
+kept as a sealed book from all whose skins have a tinge of
+black, or brown, or yellow; of how those brown and yellow
+complexions came to be so common; of yourself, the son of
+the Governor, yet obliged to read the Bible by stealth, under
+the penalty of a bleeding back washed with brine. These
+and many other things revolve in your active mind, and your
+unwritten inferences are worth whole folios of theological
+commentaries.</p>
+
+<p>As youth ripens into manhood, life bears for you, as it
+does for others, its brightest, sweetest flower. You love
+young Amy, with rippling black hair, and large dark eyes,
+with long, silky fringes. You inherit from your father, the
+Governor, a taste for beauty warmly-tinted, like Cleopatra's.
+You and Amy are of rank to make a suitable match; for you
+are the son of a Southern Governor, and she is the daughter
+of a United States Senator, from the North, who often
+shared her master's hospitality; her handsome mother being
+a portion of that hospitality, and he being large-minded
+enough to &quot;conquer prejudices.&quot; You have good sympathy
+in other respects also, for your mothers were both slaves;
+and as it is conveniently and profitably arranged for the masters
+that &quot;the child shall follow the condition of the <i>mother</i>,&quot;
+you are consequently both of you slaves. But there are
+some compensations for your hard lot. Amy's simple admiration
+flatters your vanity. She considers you a prodigy of
+learning because you can read the Bible, and she has not the
+faintest idea how such skill can be acquired. She gives you
+her whole heart, full of the blind confidence of a first love.
+The divine spark, which kindles aspirations for freedom in the
+human soul, has been glowing more and more brightly since
+you have emerged from boyhood, and now her glances kindle
+it into a flame. For her dear sake, you long to be a free man,
+with power to protect her from the degrading incidents of a
+slave-girl's life. Wages acquire new value in your eyes,
+from a wish to supply her with comforts, and enhance her
+beauty by becoming dress. For her sake, you are ambitious
+to acquire skill in the carpenter's trade, to which your, master-brother
+has applied you as the best investment of his human
+capital. It is true, he takes all your wages; but then,
+by acquiring uncommon facility, you hope to accomplish
+your daily tasks in shorter time, and thus obtain some extra
+hours to do jobs for yourself. These you can eke out by
+working late into the night, and rising when the day dawns.
+Thus you calculate to be able in time to buy the use of your
+own limbs. Poor fellow! Your intelligence and industry
+prove a misfortune. They charge twice as much for the machine
+of your body on account of the soul-power which moves
+it. Your master-brother tells you that you would bring
+eighteen hundred dollars in the market. It is a large sum.
+Almost hopeless seems the prospect of earning it, at such odd
+hours as you can catch when the hard day's task is done.
+But you look at Amy, and are inspired with faith to remove
+mountains. Your master-brother graciously consents to receive
+payment by instalments. These prove a convenient addition
+to the whole of your wages. They will enable him to
+buy a new race horse, and increase his stock of choice wines.
+While he sleeps off drunkenness, you are toiling for him,
+with the blessed prospect of freedom far ahead, but burning
+brightly in the distance, like a Drummond Light, guiding the
+watchful mariner over a midnight sea.</p>
+
+<p>When you have paid five hundred dollars of the required
+sum, your lonely heart so longs for the comforts of a home,
+that you can wait no longer. You marry Amy, with the resolution
+of buying her also, and removing to those Free
+States, about which you have often talked together, as invalids
+discourse of heaven. Amy is a member of the church,
+and it is a great point with her to be married by a minister.
+Her master and mistress make no objection, knowing that
+after the ceremony, she will remain an article of property,
+the same as ever. Now come happy months, during which
+you almost forget that you are a slave, and that it must be a
+weary long while before you can earn enough to buy yourself
+and your dear one, in addition to supporting your dissipated
+master. But you toil bravely on, and soon pay another
+hundred dollars toward your ransom. The Drummond Light
+of Freedom burns brighter in the diminished distance.</p>
+
+<p>Alas! in an unlucky hour, your tipsy master-brother sees
+your gentle Amy, and becomes enamored of her large dark
+eyes, and the rich golden tint of her complexion. Your
+earnings and your ransom-money make him flush of cash.
+In spite of all your efforts to prevent it, she becomes his
+property. He threatens to cowhide you, if you ever speak to
+her again. You remind him that she is your wife; that you
+were married by a minister. &quot;Married, you damned nigger!&quot;
+he exclaims; &quot;what does a slave's marriage amount
+to? If you give me any more of your insolence, you'll get
+a taste of the cowhide.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Anxious days and desolate nights pass. There is such a
+heavy pain at your heart, it is a mystery to yourself that you
+do not die. At last, Amy contrives to meet you, pale and
+wretched as yourself. She has a mournful story to tell of degrading
+propositions, and terrible threats. She promises to
+love you always, and be faithful to you till death, come what
+may. Poor Amy! When she said that, she did not realize
+how powerless is the slave, in the hands of an unprincipled
+master. Your interview was watched, and while you were
+sobbing in each other's arms, you were seized and ordered to
+receive a hundred lashes. While you are lying in jail, stiff
+with your wounds, your master-brother comes to tell you he
+has sold you to a trader from Arkansas. You remind him
+of the receipt he has given you for six hundred dollars, and
+ask him to return the money. He laughs in your face, and
+tells you his receipt is worth no more than so much brown
+paper; that no contracts with a slave are binding. He
+coolly adds, &quot;Besides, it has taken all my spare money to buy
+Amy.&quot; Perhaps you would have killed him in that moment
+of desperation, even with the certainty of being burnt to cinders
+for the deed, but you are too horribly wounded by the
+lash to be able to spring upon him. In that helpless condition,
+you are manacled and carried off by the slave-trader.
+Never again will Amy's gentle eyes look into yours. What
+she suffers you will never know. She is suddenly wrenched
+from your youth, as your mother was from your childhood.
+The pall of silence falls over all her future. She cannot
+read or write; and the post-office was not instituted for
+slaves.</p>
+
+<p>Looking back on that dark period of desolation and despair,
+you marvel how you lived through it. But the nature
+of youth is elastic. You have learned that law offers colored
+men nothing but its <i>penalties</i>; that white men engross all
+its <i>protection</i>; still you are tempted to make another bargain
+for your freedom. Your new master seems easy and good-natured,
+and you trust he will prove more honorable than
+your brother has been. Perhaps he would; but unfortunately,
+he is fond of cards; and when you have paid him two
+hundred dollars, he stakes them, and you also, at the gaming-table,
+and loses. The winner is a hard man, noted for severity
+to his slaves. Now you resolve to take the risk of running
+away, with all its horrible chances. You hide in a
+neighboring swamp, where you are bitten by a venomous
+snake, and your swollen limb becomes almost incapable of
+motion. In great anguish, you drag it along, through the
+midnight darkness, to the hut of a poor plantation-slave, who
+binds on a poultice of ashes, but dares not, for fear of his
+life, shelter you after day has dawned. He helps you to a
+deep gully, and there you remain till evening, half-famished
+for food. A man in the neighborhood keeps blood-hounds,
+well trained to hunt runaways. They get on your track, and
+tear flesh from the leg which the snake had spared. To
+escape them, you leap into the river. The sharp ring of
+rifles meets your ear. You plunge under water. When
+you come up to take breath, a rifle ball lodges in your shoulder
+and you plunge again. Suddenly, thick clouds throw
+their friendly veil over the moon. You swim for your life,
+with balls whizzing round you. Thanks to the darkness and
+the water, you baffle the hounds, both animal and human.
+Weary and wounded, you travel through the forests, your eye
+fixed hopefully on the North Star, which seems ever beckoning
+you onward to freedom, with its bright glances through
+the foliage. In the day-time, you lie in the deep holes of
+swamps, concealed by rank weeds and tangled vines, taking
+such rest as can be obtained among swarms of mosquitoes
+and snakes. Through incredible perils and fatigues, footsore
+and emaciated, you arrive at last in the States called
+Free. You allow yourself little time to rest, so eager are
+you to press on further North. You have heard the masters
+swear with peculiar violence about Massachusetts, and you
+draw the inference that it is a refuge for the oppressed.
+Within the borders of that old Commonwealth, you breathe
+more freely than you have ever done. You resolve to rest
+awhile, at least, before you go to Canada. You find friends,
+and begin to hope that you may be allowed to remain and
+work, if you prove yourself industrious and well behaved.
+Suddenly, you find yourself arrested and chained. Soldiers
+escort you through the streets of Boston, and put you on
+board a Southern ship, to be sent back to your master.
+When you arrive, he orders you to be flogged so unmercifully,
+that the doctor says you will die if they strike another
+blow. The philanthropic city of Boston hears the bloody
+tidings, and one of her men in authority says to the public:
+&quot;Fugitive slaves are a class of foreigners, with whose rights
+Massachusetts has nothing to do. It is enough for <i>us</i>, that
+they have no right to be <i>here</i>.&quot;<a name='FNanchor_1_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_1'>[1]</a> And the merchants of
+Boston cry, Amen.</p>
+
+<a name='Footnote_1_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_1'>[1]</a><div class='note'>Said by the U.S. Commissioner, George Ticknor Curtis, at a Union
+Meeting, in the Old Cradle of Liberty.</div>
+
+<p>Legislators of Massachusetts! if <i>you</i> had been thus continually
+robbed of your rights by the hand of violence, what
+would <i>you</i> think of the compact between North and South to
+perpetuate your wrongs, and transmit them to your posterity?
+Would you not regard it as a league between highwaymen,
+who had &quot;no rights that you were bound to respect&quot;? I put
+the question plainly and directly to your consciences and your
+common sense, and they will not allow you to answer, No.
+Are you, then, doing right to sustain the validity of a law
+for <i>others</i>, which you would vehemently reject for <i>yourselves</i>
+in the name of outraged justice and humanity?</p>
+
+<p>The incidents I have supposed might happen to yourselves
+if you were slaves, are not an imaginary accumulation of
+horrors. The things I have described are happening in this
+country every day. I have talked with many &quot;fugitives
+from injustice,&quot; and I could not, within the limits of these
+pages, even hint at a tithe of the sufferings and wrongs they
+have described. I have also talked with several slaveholders,
+who had emancipated themselves from the hateful system.
+Being at a safe distance from lynching neighbors, they
+could venture to tell the truth; and their statements fully
+confirm all that I have heard from the lips of slaves. If you
+read Southern Laws, you will need very small knowledge of
+human nature to be convinced that the practical results must
+inevitably be utter barbarism. In view of those <i>laws</i>, I have
+always wondered how sensible people could be so slow in
+believing the actual state of things in slaveholding communities.</p>
+
+<p>There are no incidents in history, or romance, more thrilling
+than the sufferings, perils, and hair-breadth escapes of
+American slaves. No Puritan pilgrim, or hero of '76, has
+manifested more courage and perseverance in the cause of
+freedom, than has been evinced, in thousands of instances, by
+this persecuted race. In future ages, popular ballads will be
+sung to commemorate their heroic achievements, and children
+more enlightened than ours will marvel at the tyranny of
+their white ancestors.</p>
+
+<p>All of you have doubtless read some accounts of what
+these unhappy men and women have dared and endured. Did
+you never put yourselves in their stead, and imagine how <i>you</i>
+would feel, under similar circumstances? Not long ago, a
+young man escaped from slavery by clinging night and day to
+the under part of a steamboat, drenched by water, and suffering
+for food. He was discovered and sent back. If the
+Constitution of the United States sanctioned such an outrage
+upon <i>you</i>, what would <i>you</i> think of those who answered your
+entreaties and remonstrances by saying, &quot;Our fathers made
+an agreement with the man who robs you of your wages and
+your freedom. It is law; and it is your duty to submit to [Transcriber's note:
+word cut off]
+patiently&quot;? I think you would <i>then</i> perceive the necessity
+of having the Constitution forthwith amended; and if it were
+not done very promptly, I apprehend you would appeal vociferously
+to a higher law.</p>
+
+<p>A respectable lady, who removed with her family from
+Virginia to New York, some years ago, had occasion to visit
+the cook's cabin, to prepare suitable nourishment for a sick
+child, during the voyage. This is the story she tells: &quot;The
+steward kindly assisted me in making the toast, and added a
+cracker and a cup of tea. With these on a small waiter, I
+was returning to the cabin, when, in passing the freight,
+which consisted of boxes, bags, &amp;c., a little tawny, famished-looking
+hand was thrust out between the packages. The
+skeleton fingers, agitated by a convulsive movement, were evidently
+reached forth to obtain the food. Shocked, but not
+alarmed by the apparition, I laid the cracker on the hand,
+which was immediately withdrawn. No one observed the
+transaction, and I went swiftly to the cabin. In the afternoon,
+I went to the steward again, in behalf of the little invalid.
+Finding he was a father, I gave him presents for his
+children, and so ingratiated myself into his favor, that I had
+free access to the larder. Whatever I could procure, I divided
+with the famished hand, which had become to me a precious
+charge. As all was tranquil on board, it was evident
+that I alone was aware of the presence of the fugitive. I
+humbly returned thanks to God for the privilege of ministering
+to the wants of this his outcast, despised and persecuted
+image. That the unfortunate being was a slave, I doubted
+not. I knew the laws and usages in such cases. I knew the
+poor creature had nothing to expect from the captain or crew;
+and again and again I asked myself the agonizing question
+whether there would be any way of escape. I hoped we
+should arrive in the night, that the fugitive might go on
+shore unseen, under favor of the darkness. I determined to
+watch and assist the creature thus providentially committed
+to my charge. We had a long passage. On the sixth day,
+I found that the goods were being moved to come at something
+which was wanted. My heart seemed to die within
+me; for the safety of the sufferer had become dear to me.
+When we sat down to dinner, the dishes swam before my
+eyes. The tumbling of the freight had not ceased. I felt
+that a discovery must take place. At length, I heard
+sudden, Hallo! Presently, the steward came and whispered
+the captain, who laid down his knife and fork, and went on
+deck. One of the passengers followed him, but soon returned
+In a laughing manner, he told us that a small mulatto boy;
+who said he belonged to Mr. &mdash;&mdash;, of Norfolk, had been
+found among the freight. He had been concealed among the
+lumber on wharves for two weeks, and had secreted himself
+in the schooner the night before we sailed. He was going to
+New York, to find his father, who had escaped two years before.
+'He is starved to a skeleton,' said he, 'and is hardly
+worth taking back.' Many jokes were passed as to the
+manner of his being renovated, when he should fall into the
+hands of his master.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The unfortunate child was brought on deck, and we all
+left the cabin to look at him. I stood some time in the companion-way
+before I could gain strength to move forward.
+As soon as he discovered me, a bright gleam passed over his
+countenance, and he instantly held out to me that famished
+hand. My feelings could no longer be controlled. There
+stood before me a child, not more than eleven or twelve years
+of age, of yellow complexion, and a sad countenance. He
+was nearly naked; his back was <i>seared with scars</i>, and his
+flesh was wasted to the bone. I burst into tears, and the
+jeers of others were for a moment changed into sympathies.
+It began, however, to be suspected that I had brought the boy
+away; and in that case, the vessel must put back, in order to
+give me up also. But I related the circumstances, and all
+seemed satisfied with the truth of my statement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I asked to be allowed to feed the boy, and the request
+was granted. He ate voraciously, and, as I stood beside
+him, he looked into my face at every mouthful. There was
+something confiding in his look. When he had finished his
+meal, as I took the plate, he rubbed his fingers softly on my
+hand, and leaned his head toward me, like a weary child.
+O that I could have offered him a place of rest! that I could
+have comforted and protected him! a helpless <i>child</i>! a feeble,
+emaciated, suffering, innocent <i>child</i>, reserved for bondage
+and torture!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The captain informed us that the vessel had been forbidden
+to enter the port with a fugitive slave on board. He
+must discharge her cargo where she lay, and return, with all
+possible dispatch, to Norfolk. Accordingly, we came to anchor
+below the city, and the passengers were sent up in a
+boat, I said to the captain, 'There is a great ado about a
+poor helpless child.' He replied, 'The laws must be obeyed.'
+I could not help exclaiming, 'Is this the land of boasted
+freedom?' Here was an innocent child treated like a felon;
+manacled, and sent back to slavery and the lash; deprived of
+the fostering care which even the brute is allowed to exercise
+toward its young. The slender boy was seeking the protection
+of a father. Did humanity aid him? No. Humanity
+was prevented by the law, which consigns one portion of the
+people to the control and brutality of the other. Humanity
+can only look on and weep. 'The laws must be obeyed.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Legislators of Massachusetts! suppose for one moment
+that poor abused boy was your own little Johnny or Charley,
+what would you say of the law <i>then</i>? Truly, if we have no
+feeling for the children of <i>others</i>, we deserve to have our own
+children reserved for such a fate; and I sometimes think it is
+the only lesson that will teach the North to respect justice
+and humanity.</p>
+
+<p>It is not long ago, since a free colored man in Baltimore
+was betrothed to a young slave of eighteen, nearly white,
+and very beautiful. If they married, their children would
+be slaves, and he would have no power to protect his handsome
+wife from any outrages an unprincipled master, or his
+sons, might choose to perpetrate. Therefore, he wisely resolved
+to marry in a land of freedom. He placed her in a
+box, with a few holes in it, small enough not to attract attention.
+With tender care, he packed hay around her, that she
+might not be bruised when thrown from the cars with other
+luggage. The anxiety of the lover was dreadful. Still more
+terrible was it, when waiting for her in Philadelphia, he
+found that the precious box had not arrived. They had happened
+to have an unusual quantity of freight, and the baggage-master,
+after turning the box over, in rough, railroad
+fashion had concluded to leave it till the next train. The
+poor girl was thrown into a most uneasy position, without the
+power of changing it. She was nearly suffocated for want of
+air; the hay-seed fell into her eyes and nostrils, and it required
+almost superhuman efforts to refrain from sneezing or
+choking. Added to this was terror lest her absence
+be discovered, and the heavy box examined. In that state of
+mind and body, she remained more than two hours, in the hot
+sun on the railroad platform. At last, the box arrived in
+Philadelphia, and the lover and his friends conveyed it to a
+place of safety as speedily as possible. Those who were
+present at the opening, say it was the most impressive scene
+they ever witnessed. Silently, almost breathlessly, they drew
+out the nails, expecting to find a corpse. When the cover
+was lifted, she smiled faintly in the anxious face of her lover.
+&quot;O God, she is alive!&quot; he exclaimed, and broke down in a
+paroxysm of sobs. She had a terrible brain fever, and when
+she recovered from it, her glossy hair was sprinkled with gray,
+and the weight of ten years was added to her youthful face.
+Thanks to the vigilance and secrecy of friends, the hounds of
+the United States, who use the Constitution for their kennel,
+did not get a chance to lap the blood of this poor trembling
+hare.</p>
+
+<p>Legislators of Massachusetts! suppose this innocent girl
+had been your own Mary or Emma, would you not straightway
+demand amendment of the Constitution, in no very measured
+terms? And if it could not be obtained right speedily,
+would you not ride over the Constitution roughshod? If you
+would not, you do not deserve to have such blessings as lovely
+and innocent daughters.</p>
+
+<p>You have all heard of Margaret Garner, who escaped
+from Kentucky to Ohio, with her father and mother, her husband
+and four children. The Cincinnati papers described
+her as &quot;a dark mulatto, twenty-three years of age, of an interesting
+appearance, considerable intelligence, and a good
+address.&quot; Her husband was described as &quot;about twenty-two
+years old, of a very lithe, active form, and rather a mild,
+pleasant countenance.&quot; These fugitives were sheltered by a
+colored friend in Ohio. There the hounds in pay of the
+United States, to which &quot;price of blood&quot; you and I and all
+of us contribute, ferreted them out, and commanded them to
+surrender. When they refused to do so, they burst open the
+door, and assailed the inmates of the house with cudgels and
+pistols. They defended themselves bravely, but were overpowered
+by numbers and disarmed. When Margaret perceived
+that there was no help for her and her little ones, she
+seized a knife and cut the throat of her most beautiful child.
+She was about to do the same by the others, when her arm
+was arrested. The child killed was nearly white, and exceedingly
+pretty. The others were mulattoes, and pretty
+also. What history lay behind this difference of complexion,
+the world will probably never know. But I have talked confidentially
+with too many fugitive women not to know that
+very sad histories do lie behind such facts. Margaret Garner
+knew very well what fate awaited her handsome little daughter,
+and that nerved her arm to strike the death-blow. It
+was an act that deserves to take its place in history by the
+side of the Roman Virginius.</p>
+
+<p>The man who claimed this unfortunate family as chattels
+acknowledged that they had always been faithful servants.
+On their part, they complained of cruel treatment from their
+master, as the cause of their attempt to escape. They were
+carried to the United States Court, under a strong guard,
+and there was not manhood enough in Cincinnati to rescue
+them. What was called law decided that they were property,
+and they were sent back to the dark dungeon of interminable
+bondage. The mother could not be induced to express
+any regret for the death of her child,&mdash;her &quot;pretty bird,&quot; as
+she called her. With tears streaming from her eyes, she
+told of her own toils and sufferings, and said, &quot;It was better
+they should be killed at once, and end their misery, than to
+be taken back to slavery, to be murdered by inches.&quot; To a
+preacher, who asked her, &quot;Why did you not trust in God?
+Why didn't you wait and hope?&quot; she answered, &quot;We did
+wait; and when there seemed to be no hope for us, we run
+away. God did not appear to help us, and I did the best I
+could.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These poor wretches were escorted through the streets by
+a National Guard, the chivalry of the United States. There
+was not manhood enough in the Queen City of the West to
+attempt a rescue; though they are very fond of quoting for
+<i>themselves</i>, &quot;Give me Liberty, or give me Death!&quot; Men
+satisfied themselves by saying it was all done according to
+<i>law</i>. A powerful plea, truly, for a people who boast so much
+of making their own laws! </p>
+
+<p>These slaves were soon after sent down the Mississippi to
+be sold in Arkansas. The boat came in collision with another
+boat, and many were drowned. The shock threw Margaret
+overboard, with a baby in her arms. She was too valuable a
+piece of property to lose, and they drew her out of the
+water; but the baby was gone. She evinced no emotion but
+joy, still saying it was better for her children to die than
+to be slaves.</p>
+
+<p>The man who could not afford to let this heroic woman own
+her little ones, was very liberal in supporting the Gospel, and
+his wife was a member of the church. Do you think that
+mother had a murderer's heart? Nay, verily. Exceeding
+love for her children impelled her to the dreadful deed. The
+murder was committed by those human hounds, who drove
+her to that fearful extremity, where she was compelled to
+choose between Slavery or Death for her innocent offspring.</p>
+
+<p>Again I ask, what would be your judgment of this law,
+if your <i>own</i> daughter and infant grand-daughter had been its
+victims? You know very well, that had it been your <i>own</i>
+case, such despotism, calling itself law, would be swept away
+in a whirlwind of indignation, and men who strove to enforce
+it would be obliged to flee the country.</p>
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span class='i10'>&mdash;&mdash;&quot;They are slaves most base,<br /></span>
+<span>Whose love of right is for <i>themselves</i>, and not for all the race.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I was lately talking with Friend Whittier, whose poetry
+so stirs the hearts of the people in favor of freedom and humanity.
+He told me he thought the greatest pain he ever
+suffered was in witnessing the arrest of a fugitive slave in
+Philadelphia. The man had lived there many years; he bore
+a good character, and was thriving by his industry. He had
+married a Pennsylvania woman, and they had a fine family
+of children. In the midst of his prosperity and happiness,
+the blood-hounds of the United States tracked him out. He
+was seized and hurried into court. Friend Whittier was
+present, and heard the agonized entreaties of his wife and
+children. He saw them clinging to the half frantic husband
+and father, when the minions of a wicked law tore him away
+from them for ever. That intelligent, worthy, industrious
+man was ruthlessly plunged into the deep, dark grave of slavery,
+where tens of thousands perish yearly, and leave no
+record of their wrongs. &quot;A German emigrant, who witnessed
+the scene, poured out such a tornado of curses as I
+never before heard,&quot; said Whittier; &quot;and I could not blame
+the man. He came here supposing America to be a free
+country, and he was bitterly disappointed. Pity for that
+poor slave and his bereaved family agonized my heart; and
+my cheeks burned with shame that my country deserved the
+red-hot curses of that honest German; but stronger than
+either of those feelings was overpowering indignation that
+people of the Free States were compelled by law to witness
+such barbarities.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Many of you have heard of William and Ellen Crafts, a
+pious and intelligent couple, who escaped from bondage some
+years ago. She disguised herself in male attire, and passed
+for a white gentleman, taking her darker colored husband
+with her as a servant. When the Fugitive Slave Act went
+into operation, they received warning that the hounds were
+on their track. They sought temporary refuge in the house
+of my noble-hearted friend, Ellis Gray Loring, who then resided
+in the vicinity of Boston. He and his family were
+absent for some days; but a lady in the house invited Mr.
+Crafts to come in and stay till they returned. &quot;No, I thank
+you,&quot; he replied. &quot;There is a heavy fine for sheltering
+fugitives; and it would not be right to subject Mr. Loring to
+it without his consent.&quot; &quot;But you know he is a true friend
+to the slaves,&quot; urged the lady. &quot;If he were at home, I am
+sure he would not hesitate to incur the penalty.&quot; &quot;Because
+he is such a good friend to my oppressed race, there is all
+the more reason why I should not implicate him in my
+affairs, without his knowledge,&quot; replied this nobleman of nature.
+His wife had slept but little the previous night, having
+been frightened by dreams of Daniel Webster chasing her
+husband, pistol in hand. The evening was stormy, and she
+asked him if they could not remain there till morning. &quot;It
+would not be right, Ellen,&quot; he replied; and with tears in her
+eyes, they went forth into the darkness and rain. Was <i>that</i>
+a man to be treated like a chattel? How many white gentlemen
+are there, who, in circumstances as perilous, would
+have manifested such nicety of moral perception, such genuine
+delicacy of feeling? England has kindly received that
+worthy and persecuted couple. All who set foot on <i>her</i> soil
+are free. Would to God it were so in Massachusetts!</p>
+
+<p>It is well known that Southerners have repeatedly declared
+they do not demand fugitives merely to recover articles of
+property, or for the sake of making an example of them, to
+inspire terror in other runaways; that they have a still
+stronger motive, which is, to humiliate the North; to make
+them feel that no latitude limits their mastership. Have we
+no honest pride, that we so tamely submit to this? What
+lethargic disease has fallen on Northern souls, that they dare
+not be as bold for Freedom as tyrants are for Slavery? It
+was not thus with our fathers, whose sepulchres we whiten.
+If old Ben Franklin had stood as near Boston Court House
+as his statue does, do you believe <i>he</i> would have remained
+passive, while Sims, the intelligent mechanic, was manacled
+and driven through the streets, guiltless of any crime, save
+that of wishing to be free? <i>My</i> belief is that the brave old
+printer of '76 would have drawn down the lightning out of
+heaven upon that procession, with a vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>What satisfactory reasons can be alleged for submitting to
+this degradation? What good excuse can be offered? Shall
+we resort to the Old Testament argument, that anodyne for
+the consciences of &quot;South-Side&quot; divines? Suppose the descendants
+of Ham were ordained to be slaves to the end of
+time, for an offence committed thousands of years ago, by a
+progenitor they never heard of. Still, the greatest amount
+of theological research leaves it very uncertain who the descendants
+of Ham are, and where they are. I presume you
+would not consider the title even to one acre of land satisfactorily
+settled by evidence of such extremely dubious character;
+how much less, then, a man's ownership of himself!
+Then, again, if we admit that Africans are descendants of
+Ham, what is to be said of thousands of slaves, advertised in
+Southern newspapers as &quot;passing themselves for white men,
+or white women&quot;? Runaways with &quot;blue eyes, light hair,
+and rosy complexions&quot;? Are these sons and daughters of
+our Presidents, our Governors, our Senators, our Generals,
+and our Commodores, descendants of Ham? Are <i>they</i> Africans?</p>
+
+<p>If you turn to the favorite New Testament argument, you
+will find that Paul requested Philemon to receive Onesimus,
+&quot;no longer as a servant, but as a brother beloved.&quot; Is <i>that</i>
+the way Southern masters receive the &quot;fugitives from injustice&quot;
+whom we drive back to them? Is it the way we <i>expect</i>
+they will be received? In 1851, the intelligent young mechanic,
+named Thomas Sims, escaped from a hard master, who
+gave him many blows and no wages. By his own courage and
+energy, he succeeded in reaching our Commonwealth, where
+mechanics are not compelled by law to work without wages.
+But the authorities of Boston decreed that this man was
+&quot;bound to such service or labor.&quot; So they ordered out their
+troops and sent him back to his master, who caused him to be
+tied up and flogged, till the doctor said, &quot;If you strike
+another blow, you will kill him.&quot; &quot;Let him die,&quot; replied the
+master. He did nearly die in prison, but recovered to be sold
+farther South. Was <i>this</i> being received as &quot;a brother beloved&quot;?
+Before we send back any more Onesimuses, it is
+necessary to have a different set of Philemons to deal with.
+The Scripture is clearly not obeyed, under present circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>If you resort to the alleged legal obligation to return fugitives,
+it has more plausibility, but has it in reality any firm
+foundation? Americans boast of making their own laws,
+and of amending them whenever circumstances render it necessary.
+How, then, can they excuse themselves, or expect
+the civilized world to excuse them, for making, or sustaining,
+unjust and cruel laws? The Fugitive Slave Act has none of
+the attributes of law. If two highwaymen agreed between
+themselves to stand by each other in robbing helpless men,
+women and children, should we not find it hard work to &quot;conquer
+our prejudices&quot; so far as to dignify their bargain with
+the name of <i>law</i>? That is the light in which the compact
+between North and South presents itself to the minds of intelligent
+slaves, and we should view it in the same way, if we
+were in their position. Law was established to maintain justice
+between man and man; and this Act clearly maintains
+injustice. Law was instituted to protect the weak from the
+strong; this Act delivers the weak completely into the arbitrary
+power of the strong, &quot;Law is a rule of conduct, prescribed
+by the supreme power, commanding what is right,
+and forbidding what is wrong.&quot; This is the commonly received
+definition of law, and obviously, none more correct
+could be substituted for it. The application of it would at
+once annul the Fugitive Slave Act, and abolish slavery.
+That Act reverses the maxim. It commands what is wrong,
+and forbids what is right. It commands us to trample on
+the weak and defenceless, to persecute the oppressed, to be
+accomplices in defrauding honest laborers of their wages.
+It forbids us to shelter the homeless, to protect abused innocence,
+to feed the hungry, to &quot;hide the outcast.&quot; Let theological
+casuists argue as they will, Christian hearts <i>will</i>
+shrink from thinking of Jesus as surrendering a fugitive
+slave; or of any of his apostles, unless it be Judas. Political
+casuists may exercise their skill in making the worse appear
+the better reason, still all honest minds have an intuitive
+perception that no human enactment which violates God's
+laws is worthy of respect. By what law of God can we justify
+the treatment of Margaret Garner? the surrender of Sims
+and Burns? the pitiless persecution of that poor little &quot;famished
+hand&quot;?</p>
+
+<p>There is another consideration, which ought alone to have
+sufficient weight with us to deter us from attempting to carry
+out this tyrannical enactment. All history, and all experience,
+show it to be an immutable law of God, that whosoever
+injures another, injures himself in the process. These frequent
+scuffles between despotism and freedom, with despotism
+shielded by law, cannot otherwise than demoralize our
+people. They unsettle the popular mind concerning eternal
+principles of justice. They harden the heart by familiarity
+with violence. They accustom people to the idea that it is
+right for Capital to own Labor; and thus the reverence for
+Liberty, which we inherited from our fathers, will gradually
+die out in the souls of our children. We are compelled to disobey
+our own consciences, and repress all our humane feelings,
+or else to disobey the law. It is a grievous wrong done to
+the people to place them between these alternatives. The inevitable
+result is to destroy the sanctity of law. The doctrine
+that &quot;might makes right,&quot; which our rulers consent to
+teach the people, in order to pacify slaveholders, will come
+out in unexpected forms to disturb our own peace and safety.
+There is &quot;even-handed justice&quot; in the fact that men cannot
+aid in enslaving others, and themselves remain free; that
+they cannot assist in robbing others, without endangering
+their own security.   </p>
+
+<p>Moreover, there is wrong done, even to the humblest individual,
+when he is compelled to be ashamed of his country.
+When the judge passed under chains into Boston Court
+House, and when Anthony Burns was sent back into slavery,
+I wept for my native State, as a daughter weeps for the
+crimes of a beloved mother. It seemed to me that I would
+gladly have died to have saved Massachusetts from that sin
+and that shame. The tears of a secluded woman, who has no
+vote to give, may appear to you of little consequence. But
+assuredly it is not well with any Commonwealth, when her
+daughters weep over her degeneracy and disgrace.</p>
+
+<p>In the name of oppressed humanity, of violated religion,
+of desecrated law, of tarnished honor, of our own freedom
+endangered, of the moral sense of our people degraded by
+these evil influences, I respectfully, but most urgently, entreat
+you to annul this infamous enactment, so far as the jurisdiction
+of Massachusetts extends. Our old Commonwealth
+has been first and foremost in many good works; let her lead
+in this also. And deem it not presumptuous, if I ask it likewise
+for my own sake. I am a humble member of the community;
+but I am deeply interested in the welfare and reputation
+of my native State, and that gives me some claim to be
+heard. I am growing old; and on this great question of
+equal rights I have toiled for years, sometimes with a heart
+sickened by &quot;hope deferred.&quot; I beseech you to let me die
+on Free Soil! Grant me the satisfaction of saying, ere I go
+hence&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span>&quot;Slaves cannot breathe among us. If their lungs<br /></span>
+<span>Receive <i>our</i> air, that moment they are free!<br /></span>
+<span>They touch <i>our</i> country, and their shackles fall!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>If you cannot be induced to reform this great wickedness,
+for the sake of outraged justice and humanity, then do it for
+the honor of the State, for the political welfare of our own
+people, for the moral character of our posterity. For, as
+sure as there is a Righteous Ruler in the heavens, if you
+continue to be accomplices in violence and fraud, God will
+<i>not</i> &quot;save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><b>L. MARIA CHILD.</b></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<a name='APPEAL_TO_THE'></a><h2>APPEAL TO THE<br />
+CONSTITUTIONALITY<br /> OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The Hon. Robert Rantoul, Hon. Horace Mann, Hon.
+Charles Sumner, and other able men, have argued against the
+Constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Bill, proving it to be
+not only contrary to the <i>spirit</i> and <i>meaning</i> of the Constitution,
+but also to be unauthorized by the <i>letter</i> of that document.
+That this nefarious Bill is contrary to the <i>spirit</i> and
+<i>intention</i> of the Constitution is shown by the published opinions
+of those who framed it; by the debates at the time of its
+adoption; and by its Preamble, which sets forth that it was
+ordained to &quot;establish <i>justice</i>, ensure domestic <i>tranquillity</i>,
+promote the <i>general welfare</i>, and secure the blessings of <i>liberty</i>.&quot;
+The arguments adduced to prove that this bill is unauthorized
+by the <i>letter</i> of the Constitution, I will endeavor to
+compress into a few words.</p>
+
+<p>Article 10 of the Amendments to the Constitution expressly
+provides that</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>&quot;<i>Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution</i>, nor prohibited
+by it to the States, <i>are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people</i>.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>Article 4 of the Constitution contains four compacts.
+The first is:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>&quot;Full faith and credit shall be given in each of the States to the public
+acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the
+<i>Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records
+and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof</i>.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>Here, <i>power is expressly delegated by the Constitution to
+the United States</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The second compact is:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>&quot;The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities
+of citizens in the several States.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>Under this provision, an attempt was made to obtain some
+action of Congress for the protection of colored seamen in
+slaveholding ports; but it was decided that Congress had no
+power to act on the subject, because <i>the Constitution had not
+delegated any power to the United States</i> in the clause
+referred to. Slaveholders are very strict in adherence to the
+Constitution, whenever any question of <i>protection</i> to colored
+people is involved in their decisions; but for purposes of
+<i>oppression</i>, they have no scruples. They reverse the principle
+of Common Law, that &quot;in any question under the Constitution,
+<i>every word is to be construed in favor of liberty</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The third compact is:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>&quot;A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime,
+who shall flee from justice, or be found in another State, shall, on demand
+of the Executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered
+up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>It has never been pretended that Congress has any power
+to act in such cases. There is no clause <i>delegating any
+power to the United States</i>; consequently, all proceedings on
+the subject have been left to the several States.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth compact is:</p>
+
+<div class='blkquot'><p>&quot;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 claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>If the framers of the Constitution had meant that Congress
+should have power to pass a law for delivering up fugitives
+&quot;held to service or labor,&quot; they would have inserted
+a clause <i>delegating such power</i>, as they did in the compact
+concerning &quot;public acts and records.&quot; The Constitution does
+<i>not</i> delegate any such power to the United States. Consequently,
+Congress had no constitutional right to pass the Fugitive
+Slave Bill, and the States are under no constitutional
+obligation to obey it.</p>
+
+<p>The Hon. Horace Mann, one of Massachusetts' most honored
+sons, in his able speech on this subject in Congress,
+1851, said:&mdash;&quot;In view of the great principles of civil liberty,
+out of which the Constitution grew, and which it was designed
+to secure, my own opinion is that this law cannot be
+fairly and legitimately supported on constitutional grounds.
+Having formed this opinion with careful deliberation, I am
+bound to speak from it and to act from it. I have read every
+argument and every article in defence of the law, from whatever
+source emanating. Nay, I have been more anxious to
+read the arguments made in its favor, than the arguments
+against it; and I think I have seen a sound legal answer to
+all the former.&quot; * * * &quot;It is a law that might be held
+constitutional by a bench of slaveholders, whose <i>pecuniary
+interests</i> connect them directly with slavery; or by those who
+have surrendered themselves to a pro-slavery policy from <i>political
+hopes</i>. But if we gather the opinions of unbiassed
+and disinterested men, of those who have no <i>money</i> to make,
+and no <i>office</i> to hope for, through the triumph of this law,
+then I think the preponderance of opinion is decidedly against
+its constitutionality. It is a fact universally known, that gentlemen
+who have occupied and adorned the highest judicial
+stations in their respective States, together with many of the
+ablest lawyers in the whole country, have expressed opinions
+against the constitutionality of this law.&quot; * * * &quot;When
+I am called upon to support such a law as this, while it lasts,
+or to desist from opposing it in all constitutional ways, my
+response is, Repeal the law! that I may no longer be called
+upon to support it. I demand it, because it is a law which
+conflicts with the Constitution of the country, and with all
+the judicial interpretations of that Constitution, wherever
+they have been applied to the white race. Because it is a
+law abhorrent to the moral and religious sentiments of a vast
+majority of the community called upon to enforce it. Because
+it is a law which, if executed in the Free States, divests
+them of the character of Free States, and makes them voluntary
+participators in the guilt of slaveholding. Because it is
+a law Which disgraces our country in the eyes of the whole
+civilized world, and gives plausible occasion to the votaries of
+despotic power to decry republican institutions. Because it
+is a law which forbids us to do unto others as we would have
+them do unto us, and which makes it a crime to feed the hungry,
+to clothe the naked, and to visit and succor the sick and
+imprisoned. Because it is a law which renders the precepts
+of the Gospel and the teachings of Jesus Christ seditious;
+and were the Savior and his band of disciples now on earth,
+there is but one of them who would escape its penalties by
+pretending to 'conquer his prejudices.'&quot; * * * &quot;Suppose
+the whole body of the white population should be as
+much endangered by this law, as the colored people now are,
+would the existence of the law be tolerated for an hour?
+Would there not be a simultaneous and universal uprising of
+the people against it, and such a yell of execration as never
+before burst from mortal lips?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Hon. Charles Sumner, always true to the right, as the
+needle to the pole, in his learned and able speech in Congress,
+1852, said:&mdash;&quot;The true principles of our political system,
+the history of the National Convention, the natural interpretation
+of the Constitution, all teach that this Act is a usurpation
+by Congress of powers that do not belong to it, and an
+infraction of rights secured to the States. It is a sword,
+whose handle is at the National Capital, and whose point is
+every where in the States. A weapon so terrible to personal
+liberty the nation has no power to grasp.&quot; * * * &quot;In
+the name of the Constitution, which it violates; of my country,
+which it dishonors; of humanity, which it degrades; of
+Christianity, which it offends, I arraign this enactment, and
+now hold it up to the judgment of the Senate and the
+world.&quot; * * * *</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Slave Act violates the Constitution, and shocks the
+public conscience. With modesty, and yet with firmness, let
+me add, it offends against the Divine Law. No such enactment
+can be entitled to support. As the throne of God is
+above every earthly throne, so are his laws and statutes above
+all the laws and statutes of man. To question these, is to
+question God himself. But to assume that human laws are
+above question, is to claim for their fallible authors infallibility.
+To assume that they are always in conformity with
+those of God, is presumptuously and impiously to exalt man
+to an equality with God. Clearly, human laws are <i>not</i>
+always in such conformity; nor can they ever be beyond
+question from each individual. Where the conflict is open,
+as if Congress should demand the perpetration of murder,
+the office of conscience, as final arbiter, is undisputed. But
+in every conflict, the same queenly office is hers. By no
+earthly power can she be dethroned. Each person, after
+anxious examination, without haste, without passion, solemnly
+for himself must decide this great controversy. Any other
+rule attributes infallibility to human laws, places them beyond
+question, and degrades all men to an unthinking, passive obedience.
+The mandates of an earthly power are to be discussed;
+those of Heaven must at once be performed; nor
+can any agreement constrain us against God. Such is the
+rule of morals. And now the rule is commended to us.
+The good citizen, as he thinks of the shivering fugitive,
+guilty of no crime, pursued, hunted down like a beast, while
+praying for Christian help and deliverance, and as he reads
+the requirements of this Act, is filled with horror. Here is
+a despotic mandate, 'to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient
+execution of this law.' Let me speak frankly. Not
+rashly would I set myself against any provision of law.
+This grave responsibility I would not lightly assume. But
+here the path of duty is clear. By the Supreme Law, which
+commands me to do no injustice; by the comprehensive
+Christian Law of Brotherhood; by the Constitution, which I
+have sworn to support, I am bound to disobey this Act.
+Never, in any capacity, can I render voluntary aid in its execution.
+Pains and penalties I will endure; but this great
+wrong I will not do.&quot; * * * &quot;For the sake of peace
+and tranquillity, cease to shock the public conscience! For
+the sake of the Constitution, cease to exercise a power which
+is nowhere granted, and which violates inviolable rights expressly
+secured. Repeal this enactment! Let its terrors no
+longer rage through the land. Mindful of the lowly, whom
+it pursues; mindful of the good men perplexed by its requirements;
+in the name of charity, in the name of the Constitution,
+repeal this enactment, totally, and without delay!
+Be admonished by these words of Oriental piety: 'Beware
+of the groans of the wounded souls. Oppress not to the
+utmost a single heart; for a solitary sigh has power to overset
+a whole world.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Robert Rantoul, Jr., whose large heart was so true to
+Democratic <i>principles</i>, that the <i>party</i> wanted to expel him
+from their ranks, (as parties are prone to do with honest
+men,) opposed the Fugitive Slave Bill with all the power of
+his strong intellect. In a speech delivered in 1851, he said:
+&quot;I am as devotedly attached as any other man to the Union
+of these States, and the Constitution of our government;
+but I admire and love them for that which they secure to us.
+The Constitution is good, and great, and valuable, and to be
+held for ever sacred, because it secures to us what was the
+<i>object</i> of the Constitution. I love the Union and the Constitution,
+not for <i>themselves</i>, but for the great <i>end</i> for which
+they were created&mdash;to secure and perpetuate <i>liberty</i>; not
+the liberty of a <i>class</i>, superimposed upon the thraldom of
+groaning multitudes: not the liberty of a <i>ruling race</i>, cemented
+by the tears and blood of subject races, but <i>human</i>
+liberty, <i>perfect</i> liberty, common to the whole people of the
+United States and to their posterity. It is because I believe
+all this, that I love the Union and the Constitution. If it
+were not for that, the Union would be valueless, and the
+Constitution not worth the parchment on which it is written.
+God-given Liberty is above the Union, and above the Constitution,
+and above all the works of man.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+<br />
+
+<a name='TESTIMONIES_AGAINST'></a><h2>TESTIMONIES AGAINST<br />
+THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The Hon. Josiah Quincy, senior, whose integrity, noble intellect,
+and long experience in public life, give great weight
+to his opinions, made a speech at a Whig Convention in Boston,
+1854, from which I extract the following:&mdash;&quot;The circumstances
+in which the people of Massachusetts are placed
+are undeniably insupportable. What has been seen, what has
+been felt, by every man, woman and child in this metropolis,
+and in this community? and virtually by every man, woman
+and child in Massachusetts? We have seen our Court House
+in chains, two battalions of dragoons, eight regiments of artillery,
+twelve companies of infantry, the whole constabulary
+force of the city police, the entire disposable marine of the
+United States, with its artillery loaded for action, all marching
+in support of a Praetorian Band, consisting of one hundred
+and twenty friends and associates of the U.S. Marshal,
+with loaded pistols and drawn swords, and in military costume
+and array; and for what purpose? <i>To escort and conduct a
+poor trembling slave from a Boston Court House to the fetters
+and lash of his master!</i></p>
+
+<p>&quot;This scene, thus awful, thus detestable, every inhabitant
+of this metropolis, nay, every inhabitant of this Commonwealth,
+may be compelled again to witness, at any time, and
+every day in the year, at the will or the whim of the meanest
+and basest slaveholder of the South. Is there a man in
+Massachusetts with a spirit so low, so debased, so corrupted
+by his fears, or his fortune, that he is prepared to say this is
+a condition of things to be endured in perpetuity by us? and
+that this is an inheritance to be transmitted by us to our
+children, for all generations? For so long as the fugitive-slave
+clause remains in the Constitution, unobliterated, it is
+an obligation perpetual upon them, as well as upon us.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The obligation incumbent upon the Free States <i>must be
+obliterated from the Constitution, at every hazard</i>. I believe
+that, in the nature of things, by the law of God, and the
+laws of man, <i>that clause is at this moment abrogated, so far
+as respects common obligation</i>. In 1789, the Free States
+agreed to be field-drivers and pound-keepers for the Slaveholding
+States, within the limits, and according to the fences,
+of the old United States. But between that year and this
+A.D. 1854, the slaveholders have broken down the old
+boundaries, and opened new fields, of an unknown and indefinite
+extent.<a name='FNanchor_1_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_2'>[1]</a> They have multiplied their slaves by millions,
+and are every day increasing their numbers, and extending
+their field into the wilderness. Under these circumstances,
+are we bound to be their field-drivers and pound-keepers any
+longer? Answer me, people of Massachusetts! Are you
+the sons of the men of 1776? Or do you 'lack gall, to
+make oppression bitter?'</p>
+
+<a name='Footnote_1_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_2'>[1]</a><div class='note'> The Hon. Josiah Quincy, while in Congress,
+always opposed the annexation
+of foreign territory to the United States, on the ground of its
+unconstitutionality.</div>
+
+<p>&quot;I have pointed out your burden. I have shown you that
+it is insupportable. I shall be asked how we are to get rid
+of it. It is not for a private individual to point the path
+which a State is to pursue, to cast off an insupportable burden;
+it belongs to the constituted authorities of that State.
+But this I will say, that if the people of Massachusetts solemnly
+adopt, as one man, in the spirit of their fathers, the
+resolve that they will no longer submit to this burden, and
+will call upon the Free States to concur in this resolution,
+and carry it into effect, the burden will be cast off; the fugitive-slave
+clause will be obliterated, not only without the
+dissolution of the Union, but with a newly-acquired strength
+to the Union.&quot;.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1860, there was a debate on this subject
+in the Legislature of New York. In the course of it, Mr.
+Smith, of Chatauqua, said:&mdash;&quot;How <i>came</i> slavery in this
+country? It came here without law; in violation of all law.
+It came here by force and violence; by the force of might
+over right; and it remains here to-day by no better title.
+And now we are called upon, by the ruling power at Washington,
+not merely to tolerate it, but to legalize it all over the
+United States! By the Fugitive Slave Bill, we are forbidden
+to shelter or assist the forlornest stranger who ever appealed
+for sympathy or aid. We are required by absolute law to
+shut out every feeling of compassion for suffering humanity.
+Fines and imprisonment impend over us, for exercising one
+of the holiest charities of our religion. Virtue and humanity
+are legislated into crime. Let us meet the issue like
+men! Let us assert our utter abhorrence of all human laws,
+that compel us to violate the common law of humanity and
+justice; and by so acting assert the broad principles of the
+Declaration of American Independence, and the letter and
+spirit of the Constitution. If the North was as devoted to
+the cause of Freedom as the South is to Slavery, our national
+troubles would vanish like darkness before the sun. Our
+country would then become what it <i>should</i> be,&mdash;free, happy,
+prosperous, and respected by all the world. Then we could
+say, truthfully, that she is the home of the free, the land of
+the brave, the asylum of the oppressed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In the same debate, Mr. Maxson, of Allegheny, said:&mdash;&quot;All
+laws, whether Constitutions or statutes, that invade human
+rights, are null. A community has no more power to
+strike down the rights of man by Constitutions, than by any
+other means. Do those who give us awfully solemn lessons
+about the inviolability of compacts, mean that one man is
+bound to rob another because he has <i>agreed</i> to? In this age
+of schools, of churches and of Bibles, do they mean to teach
+us that an agreement to rob men of their rights, in whatever
+solemn form that agreement may be written out, is binding?
+Has the morality of the nineteenth century culminated in
+<i>this</i>, that a mere compact can convert vice into virtue?
+These advocates of the rightfulness of robbery, because it
+has been <i>agreed</i>, to, and that agreement has been <i>written
+down</i>, have come too late upon the stage, by more than two
+hundred years. Where does the proud Empire State wish
+to be recorded in that great history, which is being so rapidly
+filled out with the records of this &quot;irrepressible conflict&quot;?
+For myself, a humble citizen of the State, I ask no prouder
+record for her than that, in the year 1860, she enacted that
+<i>the moment a man sets foot on her soil, he is free, against the
+world</i>!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Wendell Phillips, one of earth's bravest and best, made a
+speech at Worcester, 1851, from which I make the following
+extract:&mdash;&quot;Mr. Mann, Mr. Giddings, and other leaders of
+the Free Soil party, are ready to go to the death against the
+Fugitive Slave Law. It never should be enforced, they say.
+It robs men of the jury trial, it robs them of <i>habeas corpus</i>,
+and forty other things. This is a very good position. But
+how much comfort would it have been to Ellen Crafts, if she
+had been sent back to Macon, to know that it had been done
+with a scrupulous observance of all the forms of <i>habeas corpus</i>
+and jury trial? When she got back, some excellent
+friend might have said to her, 'My dear Ellen, you had the
+blessed privilege of <i>habeas corpus</i> and jury trial. What are
+you grieving about? You were sent back according to law
+and the Constitution. What could you want more?' From
+the statements of our Free Soil friends, you would suppose
+that the <i>habeas corpus</i> was the great safeguard of a slave's
+freedom; that it covered him as with an angel's wing. But
+suppose <i>habeas corpus</i> and jury trial granted, what then?
+Is any man to be even <i>so</i> surrendered, with our consent? No
+slave shall be sent back&mdash;except by <i>habeas corpus</i>. Stop
+half short of that! No slave shall be sent back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Rev. A.D. Mayo, of Albany, is one of those clergymen
+who believe that a religious teacher has something to do with
+questions affecting public morality; and his preaching is eloquent,
+because he is fearlessly obedient to his own convictions.
+In a Sermon on the Fugitive Slave Bill, he said:&mdash;&quot;Remember
+that despotism has no natural rights on earth
+that any man is bound to respect. I know there is no
+political party, no Christian sect, no Northern State, as a
+whole, yet fully up to this. But the Christian sentiment of
+the country will finally bring us all to the same conclusion.&quot;</p>
+<br />
+<hr />
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span><b>NO SLAVE HUNT IN OUR BORDERS!</b><br /></span>
+<br />&nbsp;<br />
+<span>What asks the Old Dominion? If now her sons have proved<br /></span>
+<span>False to their fathers' memory, false to the faith they loved;<br /></span>
+<span>If <i>she</i> can scoff at Freedom, and its Great Charter spurn,<br /></span>
+<span>Must <i>we</i> of Massachusetts from truth and duty turn?<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span><i>We</i> hunt your bondmen, flying from Slavery's hateful hell?<br /></span>
+<span><i>Our</i> voices, at your bidding, take up the blood-hound's yell?<br /></span>
+<span><i>We</i> gather, at your summons, above our fathers' graves,<br /></span>
+<span>From Freedom's holy altar-horns to tear your wretched slaves?<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>Thank God! not yet so vilely can Massachusetts bow,<br /></span>
+<span>The spirit of her early time is with her even now.<br /></span>
+<span>Dream not, because her Pilgrim blood moves slow, and calm, and cool,<br /></span>
+<span>She thus can stoop her chainless neck, a sister's slave and tool!<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>For ourselves and for our children, the vow which we have given<br /></span>
+<span>For Freedom and Humanity, is registered in Heaven.<br /></span>
+<span>No slave-hunt in <i>our</i> borders! No pirate on <i>our</i> strand!<br /></span>
+<span>No fetters in the Bay State! No slave upon <i>our</i> land!<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>J.G. WHITTIER.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<br />
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span><b>THE HIGHER LAW.</b></br></span>
+<br />&nbsp;<br />
+<span>Man was not made for forms, but forms for man;<br /></span>
+<span>And there are times when Law itself must bend<br /></span>
+<span>To that clear spirit, that hath still outran<br /></span>
+<span>The speed of human justice. In the end,<br /></span>
+<span>Potentates, not Humanity, must fall.<br /></span>
+<span>Water will find its level; fire will burn;<br /></span>
+<span>The winds must blow around this earthly ball;<br /></span>
+<span>This earthly ball by day and night must turn.<br /></span>
+<span>Freedom is typed in every element.<br /></span>
+<span>Man <i>must</i> be free! If not <i>through</i> law, why then<br /></span>
+<span><i>Above</i> the law! until its force be spent,<br /></span>
+<span>And justice brings a better. When, O, when,<br /></span>
+<span>Father of Light! shall the great reckoning come,<br /></span>
+<span>To lift the weak, and strike the oppressor dumb?<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>C.P. CRANCH.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<br />
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span><b>ON THE SURRENDER OF A FUGITIVE SLAVE.</b><br /></span>
+<br />&nbsp;<br />
+<span>Look on who will in apathy, and stifle, they who <i>can</i>,<br /></span>
+<span>The sympathies, the hopes, the words, that make man truly man;<br /></span>
+<span>Let those whose hearts are dungeoned up, with interest or with ease,<br /></span>
+<span>Consent to hear, with quiet pulse, of loathsome deeds like these.<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>I first drew in New England's air, and from her hardy breast<br /></span>
+<span>Sucked in the tyrant-hating milk, that will not let me rest;<br /></span>
+<span>And if my words seem treason to the dullard and the tame,<br /></span>
+<span>'Tis but my Bay State dialect&mdash;our fathers spake the same.<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>Shame on the costly mockery of piling stone on stone<br /></span>
+<span>To those who won <i>our</i> liberty! the heroes dead and gone!<br /></span>
+<span>While we look coldly on and see law-shielded ruffians slay<br /></span>
+<span>The men who fain would win their <i>own</i>! the heroes of <i>to-day</i>!<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>Are we pledged to craven silence? O, fling it to the wind,<br /></span>
+<span>The parchment wall that bars us from the least of human kind!<br /></span>
+<span>That makes us cringe, and temporize, and dumbly stand at rest,<br /></span>
+<span>While Pity's burning flood of words is red-hot in the breast!<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>We owe allegiance to the State; but deeper, truer, more,<br /></span>
+<span>To the sympathies that God hath set within our spirit's core.<br /></span>
+<span>Our country claims our fealty; we grant it so; but then<br /></span>
+<span>Before Man made us <i>citizens</i>, great Nature made us <i>men</i>!<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>Though we break our fathers' promise, we have nobler duties first,<br /></span>
+<span>The traitor to <i>Humanity</i> is the traitor most accurst.<br /></span>
+<span><i>Man</i> is more than <i>Constitutions</i>. Better rot beneath the sod,<br /></span>
+<span>Than be true to <i>Church</i> and <i>State</i>, while we are doubly false to God!<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<br />
+
+<div class='poem'><div class='stanza'>
+<span><b>STANZAS FOR THE TIMES.</b><br /></span>
+<br />&nbsp;<br />
+<span>Shall tongues be mute, when deeds are wrought<br /></span>
+<span>Which well might shame extremest hell?<br /></span>
+<span>Shall freemen lock the indignant thought?<br /></span>
+<span>Shall Pity's bosom cease to swell?<br /></span>
+<span>Shall Honor bleed? Shall Truth succumb?<br /></span>
+<span>Shall pen, and press, and soul be dumb?<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>What! shall we guard our neighbor still.<br /></span>
+<span>While woman shrieks beneath his rod,<br /></span>
+<span>And while he tramples down, at will,<br /></span>
+<span>The image of a common God?<br /></span>
+<span>Shall watch and ward be round him set<br /></span>
+<span>Of Northern nerve and bayonet?<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>And shall we know, and share with him,<br /></span>
+<span>The danger and the growing shame?<br /></span>
+<span>And see our Freedom's light grow dim,<br /></span>
+<span>Which should have filled the world with flame?<br /></span>
+<span>And, writhing, feel, where'er we turn,<br /></span>
+<span>A world's reproach around us burn?<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>No! By each spot of haunted ground,<br /></span>
+<span>Where Freedom weeps her children's fall;<br /></span>
+<span>By Plymouth's rock, and Bunker's mound;<br /></span>
+<span>By Griswold's stained and shattered wall;<br /></span>
+<span>By Warren's ghost; by Langdon's shade;<br /></span>
+<span>By all the memories of our dead;<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>By their enlarging souls, which burst<br /></span>
+<span>The bands and fetters round them set;<br /></span>
+<span>By the free Pilgrim spirit, nursed<br /></span>
+<span>Within our bosoms yet;<br /></span>
+<span>By all above, around, below,<br /></span>
+<span>Be ours the indignant answer&mdash;NO!<br /></span>
+</div><div class='stanza'>
+<span>J.G. WHITTIER.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<a name='VERMONT_PERSONAL_LIBERTY_LAW'></a><h2>VERMONT PERSONAL LIBERTY LAW.</h2>
+
+<p><b>AN ACT TO SECURE FREEDOM TO ALL PERSONS WITHIN THIS STATE.</b></p>
+<br />
+
+<p><i>It is hereby enacted, &amp;c.:</i></p>
+
+<p>Sec. 1. No person within this State shall be considered as property, or
+subject, as such, to sale, purchase, or delivery; nor shall any person,
+within the limits of this State, at this time, be deprived of liberty or
+property without due process of law.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 2. Due process of law, mentioned in the preceding section of this
+Act shall, in all cases, be defined to mean the usual process and forms in
+force by the laws of this State, and issued by the courts thereof; and
+under such process, such person shall be entitled to a trial by jury.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 3. Whenever any person in this State shall be deprived of liberty,
+arrested, or detained, on the ground that such person owes service or labor
+to another person, not an inhabitant of this State, either party may claim
+a trial by jury; and, in such case, challenges shall be allowed to the defendant
+agreeably to sections four and five of chapter one hundred and
+eleven of the compiled statutes.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 4. Every person who shall deprive or attempt to deprive any other
+person of his or her liberty, contrary to the preceding sections of this Act,
+shall, on conviction thereof, forfeit and pay a fine not exceeding two
+thousand dollars nor less than five hundred dollars, or be punished by imprisonment
+in the State Prison for a term not exceeding ten years: <i>Provided</i>,
+that nothing in said preceding sections shall apply to, or affect the
+right to arrest or imprison under existing laws for contempt of court.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 5. Neither descent near or remote from an African, whether such
+African is or may have been a slave or not, nor color of skin or complexion,
+shall disqualify any person from being, or prevent any person from
+becoming, a citizen of this State, nor deprive such person of the rights and
+privileges thereof.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 6. Every person who may have been held as a slave, who shall
+come, or be brought, or be in this State, with or without the consent of his
+or her master or mistress, or who shall come, or be brought, or be, involuntarily
+or in any way in this State, shall be free.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 7. Every person who shall hold, or attempt to hold, in this State,
+in slavery, or as a slave, any person mentioned as a slave in the sixth section
+of this act, or any free person, in any form, or for any time, however
+short, under pretence that such person is or has been a slave, shall, on conviction
+thereof, be imprisoned in the State Prison for a term not less than
+one year, nor more than fifteen years, and be fined not exceeding two
+thousand dollars.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 8. All Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent with the provisions of
+this Act are hereby repealed.</p>
+
+<p>Sec. 9. This Act shall take effect from its passage.</p>
+
+<p>Approved November 25, 1858.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive
+Slave Act, by Lydia Maria Child
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  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: The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act
+       Anti-Slavery Tracts No. 9, An Appeal To The Legislators Of Massachusetts
+
+Author: Lydia Maria Child
+
+Release Date: November 9, 2004 [EBook #13989]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DUTY OF DISOBEDIENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Curtis Weyant, Andrea Ball and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. No. 9. New Series.
+
+THE
+
+DUTY OF DISOBEDIENCE
+
+TO THE
+
+FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT:
+
+AN APPEAL TO THE
+
+LEGISLATORS OF MASSACHUSETTS,
+
+BY L. MARIA CHILD.
+
+
+  "Thou shalt _not_ deliver unto his master the servant which is
+   escaped from his master unto thee."--DEUT. 23:15.
+
+
+BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 1860.
+
+
+
+
+APPEAL
+
+TO THE
+
+LEGISLATORS OF MASSACHUSETTS.
+
+
+I feel there is no need of apologizing to the Legislature of
+Massachusetts because a woman addresses them. Sir Walter Scott says:
+"The truth of Heaven was never committed to a tongue, however
+feeble, but it gave a right to that tongue to announce mercy, while
+it declared judgment." And in view of all that women have done, and
+are doing, intellectually and morally, for the advancement of the
+world, I presume no enlightened legislator will be disposed to deny
+that the "truth of Heaven" _is_ often committed to them, and that
+they sometimes utter it with a degree of power that greatly
+influences the age in which they live.
+
+I therefore offer no excuses on that score. But I do feel as if it
+required some apology to attempt to convince men of ordinary
+humanity and common sense that the Fugitive Slave Bill is utterly
+wicked, and consequently ought never to be obeyed. Yet Massachusetts
+consents to that law! Some shadow of justice she grants, inasmuch as
+her Legislature have passed what is called a Personal Liberty Bill,
+securing trial by jury to those claimed as slaves. Certainly it is
+_something_ gained, especially for those who may get brown by
+working in the sunshine, to prevent our Southern masters from taking
+any of us, at a moment's notice, and dragging us off into perpetual
+bondage. It is _something_ gained to require legal proof that a man
+is a slave, before he is given up to arbitrary torture and
+unrecompensed toil. But is _that_ the measure of justice becoming
+the character of a free Commonwealth? "_Prove_ that the man is
+property, according _your_ laws, and I will drive him into your
+cattle-pen with sword and bayonet," is what Massachusetts
+practically says to Southern tyrants. "Show me a Bill of Sale from
+the Almighty!" is what she _ought_ to say. No other proof should be
+considered valid in a Christian country.
+
+One thousand five hundred years ago, Gregory, a Bishop in Asia
+Minor, preached a sermon in which he rebuked the sin of
+slaveholding. Indignantly he asked, "Who can be the possessor of
+human beings save God? Those men that you say belong to you, did not
+God create them free? Command the brute creation; that is well. Bend
+the beasts of the field beneath your yoke. But are your fellow-men
+to be bought and sold, like herds of cattle? Who can pay the value
+of a being created in the image of God? The whole world itself bears
+no proportion to the value of a soul, on which the Most High has set
+the seal his likeness. This world will perish, but the soul of man
+is immortal. Show me, then, your titles of possession. Tell me
+whence you derive this strange claim. Is not your own nature the
+same with that of those you call your slaves? Have they not the same
+origin with yourselves? Are they not born to the same immortal
+destinies?"
+
+Thus spake a good old Bishop, in the early years of Christianity.
+Since then, thousands and thousands of noble souls have given their
+bodies to the gibbet and the stake, to help onward the slow progress
+of truth and freedom; a great unknown continent has been opened as a
+new, free starting point for the human race; printing has been
+invented, and the command, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do
+unto you, do ye even so unto them," has been sent abroad in all the
+languages of the earth. And here, in the noon-day light the
+nineteenth century, in a nation claiming to be the freest and most
+enlightened on the face of the globe, a portion the population of
+fifteen States have thus agreed among themselves: "Other men shall
+work for us, without wages while we smoke, and drink, and gamble,
+and race horses, and fight. We will have their wives and daughters
+for concubines, and sell their children in the market with horses
+and pigs. If they make any objection to this arrangement, we will
+break them into subjection with the cow-hide and the bucking-paddle.
+They shall not be permitted to read or write, because that would be
+likely to 'produce dissatisfaction in their minds.' If they attempt
+to run away from us, our blood-hounds shall tear the flesh from
+their bones, and any man who sees them may shoot them down like mad
+dogs. If they succeed in getting beyond our frontier, into States
+where it is the custom to pay men for their work, and to protect
+their wives and children from outrage, we will compel the people of
+those States to drive them back into the jaws of our blood-hounds."
+
+And what do the people of the other eighteen States of that
+enlightened country answer to this monstrous demand? What says
+Massachusetts, with the free blood of the Puritans coursing in her
+veins, and with the sword uplifted in her right hand, to procure
+"peaceful repose under liberty"? Massachusetts answers: "O yes. We
+will be your blood-hounds, and pay our own expenses. Only prove to
+our satisfaction that the stranger who has taken refuge among us is
+one of the men you have agreed among yourselves to whip into working
+without wages, and we will hunt him back for you. Only prove to us
+that this woman, who has run away from your harem, was bought for a
+concubine, that you might get more drinking-money by the sale of the
+children she bears you, and our soldiers will hunt her back with
+alacrity."
+
+Shame on my native State! Everlasting shame! Blot out the escutcheon
+of the brave old Commonwealth! Instead of the sword uplifted to
+protect liberty, let the slave-driver's whip be suspended over a
+blood-hound, and take for your motto, Obedience to tyrants is the
+highest law.
+
+Legislators of Massachusetts, can it be that you really understand
+what Slavery _is_, and yet consent that a fugitive slave, who seeks
+protection here, shall be driven back to that dismal house of
+bondage? For sweet charity's sake, I must suppose that you have been
+too busy with your farms and your merchandise ever to have imagined
+yourself in the situation of a slave. Let me suppose a case for you;
+one of a class of cases occurring by hundreds every year. Suppose
+your father was Governor of Carolina and your mother was a slave.
+The Governor's wife hates your mother, and is ingenious in inventing
+occasions to have you whipped. _You_ don't know the reason why,
+poor child! but your mother knows full well. If they would only
+allow her to go away and work for wages, she would gladly toil and
+earn money to buy you. But that your father will not allow. His laws
+have settled it that she is his property, "for all purposes
+whatsoever," and he will keep her as long as suits his convenience.
+The mistress continually insists upon her being sold far away South;
+and after a while, she has her will. Your poor mother clings to you
+convulsively; but the slave-driver gives you both a cut of his whip,
+and tells you to stop your squalling. They drive her off with the
+gang, and you never hear of her again; but, for a long time
+afterward, it makes you very sad to remember the farewell look of
+those large, loving eyes. Your poor mother had handsome eyes; and
+that was one reason her mistress hated her.
+
+You also are your father's property; and when he dies, you will be
+the property of your whiter brother. You black his shoes, tend upon
+him at table, and sleep on the floor in his room, to give him water
+if he is thirsty in the night. You see him learning to read, and you
+hear your father read wonderful things from the newspapers. Very
+naturally, you want to read, too. You ask your brother to teach you
+the letters. He gives you a kick, calls you a "damned nig," and
+informs his father, who orders you to be flogged for insolence.
+Alone on the hard floor at night, still smarting from your blows,
+you ponder over the great mystery of knowledge and wonder why it
+would do _you_ any more harm than it does your brother. Henceforth,
+all scraps of newspapers you can find are carefully laid by.
+Helplessly you pore over them, at stolen moments, as if you expected
+some miracle would reveal the meaning of those printed signs.
+Cunning comes to your aid. It is the only weapon of the weak against
+the strong. When you see white boys playing in the street, you trace
+a letter in the sand, and say, "My young master calls that B." "That
+ain't B, you dammed nigger. That's A"! they shout. Now you know what
+shape is A; and diligently you hunt it out wherever it is to be
+found on your scraps of newspaper. By slow degrees you toil on, in
+similar ways, through all the alphabet. No student of Greek or
+Hebrew ever deserved so much praise for ingenuity and diligence. But
+the years pass on, and still you cannot read. Your master-brother
+now and then gives you a copper. You hoard them, and buy a primer;
+screening yourself from suspicion, by telling the bookseller that
+your master wants it for his sister's little boy. You find the
+picture of a cat, with three letters by its side; and now you know
+how cat is spelt. Elated with your wonderful discovery, you are
+eager to catch a minute to study your primer. Too eager, alas! for
+your mistress catches you absorbed in it, and your little book is
+promptly burned. You are sent to be flogged, and your lacerated back
+is washed with brine to make it heal quickly. But in spite of all
+their efforts, your intelligent mind is too cunning for them. Before
+twenty years have passed, you have stumbled along into the Bible;
+alone in the dark, over a rugged road of vowels and consonants. You
+keep the precious volume concealed under a board in the floor, and
+read it at snatches, by the light of a pine knot. You read that God
+has created of one blood all the nations of the earth; and that his
+commandment is, to do unto others as we would that they should do
+unto us. You think of your weeping mother, torn from your tender
+arms by the cruel slave-trader; of the interdicted light of
+knowledge; of the Bible kept as a sealed book from all whose skins
+have a tinge of black, or brown, or yellow; of how those brown and
+yellow complexions came to be so common; of yourself, the son of the
+Governor, yet obliged to read the Bible by stealth, under the
+penalty of a bleeding back washed with brine. These and many other
+things revolve in your active mind, and your unwritten inferences
+are worth whole folios of theological commentaries.
+
+As youth ripens into manhood, life bears for you, as it does for
+others, its brightest, sweetest flower. You love young Amy, with
+rippling black hair, and large dark eyes, with long, silky fringes.
+You inherit from your father, the Governor, a taste for beauty
+warmly-tinted, like Cleopatra's. You and Amy are of rank to make a
+suitable match; for you are the son of a Southern Governor, and she
+is the daughter of a United States Senator, from the North, who
+often shared her master's hospitality; her handsome mother being a
+portion of that hospitality, and he being large-minded enough to
+"conquer prejudices." You have good sympathy in other respects also,
+for your mothers were both slaves; and as it is conveniently and
+profitably arranged for the masters that "the child shall follow the
+condition of the _mother_," you are consequently both of you slaves.
+But there are some compensations for your hard lot. Amy's simple
+admiration flatters your vanity. She considers you a prodigy of
+learning because you can read the Bible, and she has not the
+faintest idea how such skill can be acquired. She gives you her
+whole heart, full of the blind confidence of a first love. The
+divine spark, which kindles aspirations for freedom in the human
+soul, has been glowing more and more brightly since you have emerged
+from boyhood, and now her glances kindle it into a flame. For her
+dear sake, you long to be a free man, with power to protect her from
+the degrading incidents of a slave-girl's life. Wages acquire new
+value in your eyes, from a wish to supply her with comforts, and
+enhance her beauty by becoming dress. For her sake, you are
+ambitious to acquire skill in the carpenter's trade, to which your,
+master-brother has applied you as the best investment of his human
+capital. It is true, he takes all your wages; but then, by acquiring
+uncommon facility, you hope to accomplish your daily tasks in
+shorter time, and thus obtain some extra hours to do jobs for
+yourself. These you can eke out by working late into the night, and
+rising when the day dawns. Thus you calculate to be able in time to
+buy the use of your own limbs. Poor fellow! Your intelligence and
+industry prove a misfortune. They charge twice as much for the
+machine of your body on account of the soul-power which moves it.
+Your master-brother tells you that you would bring eighteen hundred
+dollars in the market. It is a large sum. Almost hopeless seems the
+prospect of earning it, at such odd hours as you can catch when the
+hard day's task is done. But you look at Amy, and are inspired with
+faith to remove mountains. Your master-brother graciously consents
+to receive payment by instalments. These prove a convenient addition
+to the whole of your wages. They will enable him to buy a new race
+horse, and increase his stock of choice wines. While he sleeps off
+drunkenness, you are toiling for him, with the blessed prospect of
+freedom far ahead, but burning brightly in the distance, like a
+Drummond Light, guiding the watchful mariner over a midnight sea.
+
+When you have paid five hundred dollars of the required sum, your
+lonely heart so longs for the comforts of a home, that you can wait
+no longer. You marry Amy, with the resolution of buying her also,
+and removing to those Free States, about which you have often talked
+together, as invalids discourse of heaven. Amy is a member of the
+church, and it is a great point with her to be married by a
+minister. Her master and mistress make no objection, knowing that
+after the ceremony, she will remain an article of property, the same
+as ever. Now come happy months, during which you almost forget that
+you are a slave, and that it must be a weary long while before you
+can earn enough to buy yourself and your dear one, in addition to
+supporting your dissipated master. But you toil bravely on, and soon
+pay another hundred dollars toward your ransom. The Drummond Light
+of Freedom burns brighter in the diminished distance.
+
+Alas! in an unlucky hour, your tipsy master-brother sees your gentle
+Amy, and becomes enamored of her large dark eyes, and the rich
+golden tint of her complexion. Your earnings and your ransom-money
+make him flush of cash. In spite of all your efforts to prevent it,
+she becomes his property. He threatens to cowhide you, if you ever
+speak to her again. You remind him that she is your wife; that you
+were married by a minister. "Married, you damned nigger!" he
+exclaims; "what does a slave's marriage amount to? If you give me
+any more of your insolence, you'll get a taste of the cowhide."
+
+Anxious days and desolate nights pass. There is such a heavy pain at
+your heart, it is a mystery to yourself that you do not die. At
+last, Amy contrives to meet you, pale and wretched as yourself. She
+has a mournful story to tell of degrading propositions, and terrible
+threats. She promises to love you always, and be faithful to you
+till death, come what may. Poor Amy! When she said that, she did not
+realize how powerless is the slave, in the hands of an unprincipled
+master. Your interview was watched, and while you were sobbing in
+each other's arms, you were seized and ordered to receive a hundred
+lashes. While you are lying in jail, stiff with your wounds, your
+master-brother comes to tell you he has sold you to a trader from
+Arkansas. You remind him of the receipt he has given you for six
+hundred dollars, and ask him to return the money. He laughs in your
+face, and tells you his receipt is worth no more than so much brown
+paper; that no contracts with a slave are binding. He coolly adds,
+"Besides, it has taken all my spare money to buy Amy." Perhaps you
+would have killed him in that moment of desperation, even with the
+certainty of being burnt to cinders for the deed, but you are too
+horribly wounded by the lash to be able to spring upon him. In that
+helpless condition, you are manacled and carried off by the
+slave-trader. Never again will Amy's gentle eyes look into yours.
+What she suffers you will never know. She is suddenly wrenched from
+your youth, as your mother was from your childhood. The pall of
+silence falls over all her future. She cannot read or write; and the
+post-office was not instituted for slaves.
+
+Looking back on that dark period of desolation and despair, you
+marvel how you lived through it. But the nature of youth is elastic.
+You have learned that law offers colored men nothing but its
+_penalties_; that white men engross all its _protection_; still you
+are tempted to make another bargain for your freedom. Your new
+master seems easy and good-natured, and you trust he will prove more
+honorable than your brother has been. Perhaps he would; but
+unfortunately, he is fond of cards; and when you have paid him two
+hundred dollars, he stakes them, and you also, at the gaming-table,
+and loses. The winner is a hard man, noted for severity to his
+slaves. Now you resolve to take the risk of running away, with all
+its horrible chances. You hide in a neighboring swamp, where you are
+bitten by a venomous snake, and your swollen limb becomes almost
+incapable of motion. In great anguish, you drag it along, through
+the midnight darkness, to the hut of a poor plantation-slave, who
+binds on a poultice of ashes, but dares not, for fear of his life,
+shelter you after day has dawned. He helps you to a deep gully, and
+there you remain till evening, half-famished for food. A man in the
+neighborhood keeps blood-hounds, well trained to hunt runaways. They
+get on your track, and tear flesh from the leg which the snake had
+spared. To escape them, you leap into the river. The sharp ring of
+rifles meets your ear. You plunge under water. When you come up to
+take breath, a rifle ball lodges in your shoulder and you plunge
+again. Suddenly, thick clouds throw their friendly veil over the
+moon. You swim for your life, with balls whizzing round you. Thanks
+to the darkness and the water, you baffle the hounds, both animal
+and human. Weary and wounded, you travel through the forests, your
+eye fixed hopefully on the North Star, which seems ever beckoning
+you onward to freedom, with its bright glances through the foliage.
+In the day-time, you lie in the deep holes of swamps, concealed by
+rank weeds and tangled vines, taking such rest as can be obtained
+among swarms of mosquitoes and snakes. Through incredible perils and
+fatigues, footsore and emaciated, you arrive at last in the States
+called Free. You allow yourself little time to rest, so eager are
+you to press on further North. You have heard the masters swear with
+peculiar violence about Massachusetts, and you draw the inference
+that it is a refuge for the oppressed. Within the borders of that
+old Commonwealth, you breathe more freely than you have ever done.
+You resolve to rest awhile, at least, before you go to Canada. You
+find friends, and begin to hope that you may be allowed to remain
+and work, if you prove yourself industrious and well behaved.
+Suddenly, you find yourself arrested and chained. Soldiers escort
+you through the streets of Boston, and put you on board a Southern
+ship, to be sent back to your master. When you arrive, he orders you
+to be flogged so unmercifully, that the doctor says you will die if
+they strike another blow. The philanthropic city of Boston hears the
+bloody tidings, and one of her men in authority says to the public:
+"Fugitive slaves are a class of foreigners, with whose rights
+Massachusetts has nothing to do. It is enough for _us_, that they
+have no right to be _here_."[1] And the merchants of Boston cry,
+Amen.
+
+[Footnote 1: Said by the U.S. Commissioner, George Ticknor Curtis,
+at a Union Meeting, in the Old Cradle of Liberty.]
+
+Legislators of Massachusetts! if _you_ had been thus continually
+robbed of your rights by the hand of violence, what would _you_
+think of the compact between North and South to perpetuate your
+wrongs, and transmit them to your posterity? Would you not regard it
+as a league between highwaymen, who had "no rights that you were
+bound to respect"? I put the question plainly and directly to your
+consciences and your common sense, and they will not allow you to
+answer, No. Are you, then, doing right to sustain the validity of a
+law for _others_, which you would vehemently reject for _yourselves_
+in the name of outraged justice and humanity?
+
+The incidents I have supposed might happen to yourselves if you were
+slaves, are not an imaginary accumulation of horrors. The things I
+have described are happening in this country every day. I have
+talked with many "fugitives from injustice," and I could not, within
+the limits of these pages, even hint at a tithe of the sufferings
+and wrongs they have described. I have also talked with several
+slaveholders, who had emancipated themselves from the hateful
+system. Being at a safe distance from lynching neighbors, they could
+venture to tell the truth; and their statements fully confirm all
+that I have heard from the lips of slaves. If you read Southern
+Laws, you will need very small knowledge of human nature to be
+convinced that the practical results must inevitably be utter
+barbarism. In view of those _laws_, I have always wondered how
+sensible people could be so slow in believing the actual state of
+things in slaveholding communities.
+
+There are no incidents in history, or romance, more thrilling than
+the sufferings, perils, and hair-breadth escapes of American slaves.
+No Puritan pilgrim, or hero of '76, has manifested more courage and
+perseverance in the cause of freedom, than has been evinced, in
+thousands of instances, by this persecuted race. In future ages,
+popular ballads will be sung to commemorate their heroic
+achievements, and children more enlightened than ours will marvel at
+the tyranny of their white ancestors.
+
+All of you have doubtless read some accounts of what these unhappy
+men and women have dared and endured. Did you never put yourselves
+in their stead, and imagine how _you_ would feel, under similar
+circumstances? Not long ago, a young man escaped from slavery by
+clinging night and day to the under part of a steamboat, drenched by
+water, and suffering for food. He was discovered and sent back. If
+the Constitution of the United States sanctioned such an outrage
+upon _you_, what would _you_ think of those who answered your
+entreaties and remonstrances by saying, "Our fathers made an
+agreement with the man who robs you of your wages and your freedom.
+It is law; and it is your duty to submit to [Transcriber's note:
+word cut off] patiently"? I think you would _then_ perceive the
+necessity of having the Constitution forthwith amended; and if it
+were not done very promptly, I apprehend you would appeal
+vociferously to a higher law.
+
+A respectable lady, who removed with her family from Virginia to New
+York, some years ago, had occasion to visit the cook's cabin, to
+prepare suitable nourishment for a sick child, during the voyage.
+This is the story she tells: "The steward kindly assisted me in
+making the toast, and added a cracker and a cup of tea. With these
+on a small waiter, I was returning to the cabin, when, in passing
+the freight, which consisted of boxes, bags, &c., a little tawny,
+famished-looking hand was thrust out between the packages. The
+skeleton fingers, agitated by a convulsive movement, were evidently
+reached forth to obtain the food. Shocked, but not alarmed by the
+apparition, I laid the cracker on the hand, which was immediately
+withdrawn. No one observed the transaction, and I went swiftly to
+the cabin. In the afternoon, I went to the steward again, in behalf
+of the little invalid. Finding he was a father, I gave him presents
+for his children, and so ingratiated myself into his favor, that I
+had free access to the larder. Whatever I could procure, I divided
+with the famished hand, which had become to me a precious charge. As
+all was tranquil on board, it was evident that I alone was aware of
+the presence of the fugitive. I humbly returned thanks to God for
+the privilege of ministering to the wants of this his outcast,
+despised and persecuted image. That the unfortunate being was a
+slave, I doubted not. I knew the laws and usages in such cases. I
+knew the poor creature had nothing to expect from the captain or
+crew; and again and again I asked myself the agonizing question
+whether there would be any way of escape. I hoped we should arrive
+in the night, that the fugitive might go on shore unseen, under
+favor of the darkness. I determined to watch and assist the creature
+thus providentially committed to my charge. We had a long passage.
+On the sixth day, I found that the goods were being moved to come at
+something which was wanted. My heart seemed to die within me; for
+the safety of the sufferer had become dear to me. When we sat down
+to dinner, the dishes swam before my eyes. The tumbling of the
+freight had not ceased. I felt that a discovery must take place. At
+length, I heard sudden, Hallo! Presently, the steward came and
+whispered the captain, who laid down his knife and fork, and went on
+deck. One of the passengers followed him, but soon returned In a
+laughing manner, he told us that a small mulatto boy; who said he
+belonged to Mr. ----, of Norfolk, had been found among the freight.
+He had been concealed among the lumber on wharves for two weeks, and
+had secreted himself in the schooner the night before we sailed. He
+was going to New York, to find his father, who had escaped two years
+before. 'He is starved to a skeleton,' said he, 'and is hardly worth
+taking back.' Many jokes were passed as to the manner of his being
+renovated, when he should fall into the hands of his master.
+
+"The unfortunate child was brought on deck, and we all left the
+cabin to look at him. I stood some time in the companion-way before
+I could gain strength to move forward. As soon as he discovered me,
+a bright gleam passed over his countenance, and he instantly held
+out to me that famished hand. My feelings could no longer be
+controlled. There stood before me a child, not more than eleven or
+twelve years of age, of yellow complexion, and a sad countenance. He
+was nearly naked; his back was _seared with scars_, and his flesh
+was wasted to the bone. I burst into tears, and the jeers of others
+were for a moment changed into sympathies. It began, however, to be
+suspected that I had brought the boy away; and in that case, the
+vessel must put back, in order to give me up also. But I related the
+circumstances, and all seemed satisfied with the truth of my
+statement.
+
+"I asked to be allowed to feed the boy, and the request was granted.
+He ate voraciously, and, as I stood beside him, he looked into my
+face at every mouthful. There was something confiding in his look.
+When he had finished his meal, as I took the plate, he rubbed his
+fingers softly on my hand, and leaned his head toward me, like a
+weary child. O that I could have offered him a place of rest! that I
+could have comforted and protected him! a helpless _child_! a
+feeble, emaciated, suffering, innocent _child_, reserved for bondage
+and torture!
+
+"The captain informed us that the vessel had been forbidden to enter
+the port with a fugitive slave on board. He must discharge her
+cargo where she lay, and return, with all possible dispatch, to
+Norfolk. Accordingly, we came to anchor below the city, and the
+passengers were sent up in a boat, I said to the captain, 'There is
+a great ado about a poor helpless child.' He replied, 'The laws must
+be obeyed.' I could not help exclaiming, 'Is this the land of
+boasted freedom?' Here was an innocent child treated like a felon;
+manacled, and sent back to slavery and the lash; deprived of the
+fostering care which even the brute is allowed to exercise toward
+its young. The slender boy was seeking the protection of a father.
+Did humanity aid him? No. Humanity was prevented by the law, which
+consigns one portion of the people to the control and brutality of
+the other. Humanity can only look on and weep. 'The laws must be
+obeyed.'"
+
+Legislators of Massachusetts! suppose for one moment that poor
+abused boy was your own little Johnny or Charley, what would you say
+of the law _then_? Truly, if we have no feeling for the children of
+_others_, we deserve to have our own children reserved for such a
+fate; and I sometimes think it is the only lesson that will teach
+the North to respect justice and humanity.
+
+It is not long ago, since a free colored man in Baltimore was
+betrothed to a young slave of eighteen, nearly white, and very
+beautiful. If they married, their children would be slaves, and he
+would have no power to protect his handsome wife from any outrages
+an unprincipled master, or his sons, might choose to perpetrate.
+Therefore, he wisely resolved to marry in a land of freedom. He
+placed her in a box, with a few holes in it, small enough not to
+attract attention. With tender care, he packed hay around her, that
+she might not be bruised when thrown from the cars with other
+luggage. The anxiety of the lover was dreadful. Still more terrible
+was it, when waiting for her in Philadelphia, he found that the
+precious box had not arrived. They had happened to have an unusual
+quantity of freight, and the baggage-master, after turning the box
+over, in rough, railroad fashion had concluded to leave it till the
+next train. The poor girl was thrown into a most uneasy position,
+without the power of changing it. She was nearly suffocated for want
+of air; the hay-seed fell into her eyes and nostrils, and it
+required almost superhuman efforts to refrain from sneezing or
+choking. Added to this was terror lest her absence be discovered,
+and the heavy box examined. In that state of mind and body, she
+remained more than two hours, in the hot sun on the railroad
+platform. At last, the box arrived in Philadelphia, and the lover
+and his friends conveyed it to a place of safety as speedily as
+possible. Those who were present at the opening, say it was the most
+impressive scene they ever witnessed. Silently, almost breathlessly,
+they drew out the nails, expecting to find a corpse. When the cover
+was lifted, she smiled faintly in the anxious face of her lover. "O
+God, she is alive!" he exclaimed, and broke down in a paroxysm of
+sobs. She had a terrible brain fever, and when she recovered from
+it, her glossy hair was sprinkled with gray, and the weight of ten
+years was added to her youthful face. Thanks to the vigilance and
+secrecy of friends, the hounds of the United States, who use the
+Constitution for their kennel, did not get a chance to lap the blood
+of this poor trembling hare.
+
+Legislators of Massachusetts! suppose this innocent girl had been
+your own Mary or Emma, would you not straightway demand amendment of
+the Constitution, in no very measured terms? And if it could not be
+obtained right speedily, would you not ride over the Constitution
+roughshod? If you would not, you do not deserve to have such
+blessings as lovely and innocent daughters.
+
+You have all heard of Margaret Garner, who escaped from Kentucky to
+Ohio, with her father and mother, her husband and four children. The
+Cincinnati papers described her as "a dark mulatto, twenty-three
+years of age, of an interesting appearance, considerable
+intelligence, and a good address." Her husband was described as
+"about twenty-two years old, of a very lithe, active form, and
+rather a mild, pleasant countenance." These fugitives were sheltered
+by a colored friend in Ohio. There the hounds in pay of the United
+States, to which "price of blood" you and I and all of us
+contribute, ferreted them out, and commanded them to surrender. When
+they refused to do so, they burst open the door, and assailed the
+inmates of the house with cudgels and pistols. They defended
+themselves bravely, but were overpowered by numbers and disarmed.
+When Margaret perceived that there was no help for her and her
+little ones, she seized a knife and cut the throat of her most
+beautiful child. She was about to do the same by the others, when
+her arm was arrested. The child killed was nearly white, and
+exceedingly pretty. The others were mulattoes, and pretty also. What
+history lay behind this difference of complexion, the world will
+probably never know. But I have talked confidentially with too many
+fugitive women not to know that very sad histories do lie behind
+such facts. Margaret Garner knew very well what fate awaited her
+handsome little daughter, and that nerved her arm to strike the
+death-blow. It was an act that deserves to take its place in history
+by the side of the Roman Virginius.
+
+The man who claimed this unfortunate family as chattels acknowledged
+that they had always been faithful servants. On their part, they
+complained of cruel treatment from their master, as the cause of
+their attempt to escape. They were carried to the United States
+Court, under a strong guard, and there was not manhood enough in
+Cincinnati to rescue them. What was called law decided that they
+were property, and they were sent back to the dark dungeon of
+interminable bondage. The mother could not be induced to express any
+regret for the death of her child,--her "pretty bird," as she called
+her. With tears streaming from her eyes, she told of her own toils
+and sufferings, and said, "It was better they should be killed at
+once, and end their misery, than to be taken back to slavery, to be
+murdered by inches." To a preacher, who asked her, "Why did you not
+trust in God? Why didn't you wait and hope?" she answered, "We did
+wait; and when there seemed to be no hope for us, we run away. God
+did not appear to help us, and I did the best I could."
+
+These poor wretches were escorted through the streets by a National
+Guard, the chivalry of the United States. There was not manhood
+enough in the Queen City of the West to attempt a rescue; though
+they are very fond of quoting for _themselves_, "Give me Liberty, or
+give me Death!" Men satisfied themselves by saying it was all done
+according to _law_. A powerful plea, truly, for a people who boast
+so much of making their own laws!
+
+These slaves were soon after sent down the Mississippi to be sold in
+Arkansas. The boat came in collision with another boat, and many
+were drowned. The shock threw Margaret overboard, with a baby in her
+arms. She was too valuable a piece of property to lose, and they
+drew her out of the water; but the baby was gone. She evinced no
+emotion but joy, still saying it was better for her children to die
+than to be slaves.
+
+The man who could not afford to let this heroic woman own her little
+ones, was very liberal in supporting the Gospel, and his wife was a
+member of the church. Do you think that mother had a murderer's
+heart? Nay, verily. Exceeding love for her children impelled her to
+the dreadful deed. The murder was committed by those human hounds,
+who drove her to that fearful extremity, where she was compelled to
+choose between Slavery or Death for her innocent offspring.
+
+Again I ask, what would be your judgment of this law, if your _own_
+daughter and infant grand-daughter had been its victims? You know
+very well, that had it been your _own_ case, such despotism, calling
+itself law, would be swept away in a whirlwind of indignation, and
+men who strove to enforce it would be obliged to flee the country.
+
+                              ----"They are slaves most base,
+  Whose love of right is for _themselves_, and not for all the race."
+
+I was lately talking with Friend Whittier, whose poetry so stirs the
+hearts of the people in favor of freedom and humanity. He told me he
+thought the greatest pain he ever suffered was in witnessing the
+arrest of a fugitive slave in Philadelphia. The man had lived there
+many years; he bore a good character, and was thriving by his
+industry. He had married a Pennsylvania woman, and they had a fine
+family of children. In the midst of his prosperity and happiness,
+the blood-hounds of the United States tracked him out. He was seized
+and hurried into court. Friend Whittier was present, and heard the
+agonized entreaties of his wife and children. He saw them clinging
+to the half frantic husband and father, when the minions of a wicked
+law tore him away from them for ever. That intelligent, worthy,
+industrious man was ruthlessly plunged into the deep, dark grave of
+slavery, where tens of thousands perish yearly, and leave no record
+of their wrongs. "A German emigrant, who witnessed the scene, poured
+out such a tornado of curses as I never before heard," said
+Whittier; "and I could not blame the man. He came here supposing
+America to be a free country, and he was bitterly disappointed. Pity
+for that poor slave and his bereaved family agonized my heart; and
+my cheeks burned with shame that my country deserved the red-hot
+curses of that honest German; but stronger than either of those
+feelings was overpowering indignation that people of the Free States
+were compelled by law to witness such barbarities."
+
+Many of you have heard of William and Ellen Crafts, a pious and
+intelligent couple, who escaped from bondage some years ago. She
+disguised herself in male attire, and passed for a white gentleman,
+taking her darker colored husband with her as a servant. When the
+Fugitive Slave Act went into operation, they received warning that
+the hounds were on their track. They sought temporary refuge in the
+house of my noble-hearted friend, Ellis Gray Loring, who then
+resided in the vicinity of Boston. He and his family were absent for
+some days; but a lady in the house invited Mr. Crafts to come in and
+stay till they returned. "No, I thank you," he replied. "There is a
+heavy fine for sheltering fugitives; and it would not be right to
+subject Mr. Loring to it without his consent." "But you know he is a
+true friend to the slaves," urged the lady. "If he were at home, I
+am sure he would not hesitate to incur the penalty." "Because he is
+such a good friend to my oppressed race, there is all the more
+reason why I should not implicate him in my affairs, without his
+knowledge," replied this nobleman of nature. His wife had slept but
+little the previous night, having been frightened by dreams of
+Daniel Webster chasing her husband, pistol in hand. The evening was
+stormy, and she asked him if they could not remain there till
+morning. "It would not be right, Ellen," he replied; and with tears
+in her eyes, they went forth into the darkness and rain. Was _that_
+a man to be treated like a chattel? How many white gentlemen are
+there, who, in circumstances as perilous, would have manifested such
+nicety of moral perception, such genuine delicacy of feeling?
+England has kindly received that worthy and persecuted couple. All
+who set foot on _her_ soil are free. Would to God it were so in
+Massachusetts!
+
+It is well known that Southerners have repeatedly declared they do
+not demand fugitives merely to recover articles of property, or for
+the sake of making an example of them, to inspire terror in other
+runaways; that they have a still stronger motive, which is, to
+humiliate the North; to make them feel that no latitude limits their
+mastership. Have we no honest pride, that we so tamely submit to
+this? What lethargic disease has fallen on Northern souls, that they
+dare not be as bold for Freedom as tyrants are for Slavery? It was
+not thus with our fathers, whose sepulchres we whiten. If old Ben
+Franklin had stood as near Boston Court House as his statue does, do
+you believe _he_ would have remained passive, while Sims, the
+intelligent mechanic, was manacled and driven through the streets,
+guiltless of any crime, save that of wishing to be free? _My_ belief
+is that the brave old printer of '76 would have drawn down the
+lightning out of heaven upon that procession, with a vengeance.
+
+What satisfactory reasons can be alleged for submitting to this
+degradation? What good excuse can be offered? Shall we resort to the
+Old Testament argument, that anodyne for the consciences of
+"South-Side" divines? Suppose the descendants of Ham were ordained
+to be slaves to the end of time, for an offence committed thousands
+of years ago, by a progenitor they never heard of. Still, the
+greatest amount of theological research leaves it very uncertain who
+the descendants of Ham are, and where they are. I presume you would
+not consider the title even to one acre of land satisfactorily
+settled by evidence of such extremely dubious character; how much
+less, then, a man's ownership of himself! Then, again, if we admit
+that Africans are descendants of Ham, what is to be said of
+thousands of slaves, advertised in Southern newspapers as "passing
+themselves for white men, or white women"? Runaways with "blue eyes,
+light hair, and rosy complexions"? Are these sons and daughters of
+our Presidents, our Governors, our Senators, our Generals, and our
+Commodores, descendants of Ham? Are _they_ Africans?
+
+If you turn to the favorite New Testament argument, you will find
+that Paul requested Philemon to receive Onesimus, "no longer as a
+servant, but as a brother beloved." Is _that_ the way Southern
+masters receive the "fugitives from injustice" whom we drive back to
+them? Is it the way we _expect_ they will be received? In 1851, the
+intelligent young mechanic, named Thomas Sims, escaped from a hard
+master, who gave him many blows and no wages. By his own courage and
+energy, he succeeded in reaching our Commonwealth, where mechanics
+are not compelled by law to work without wages. But the authorities
+of Boston decreed that this man was "bound to such service or
+labor." So they ordered out their troops and sent him back to his
+master, who caused him to be tied up and flogged, till the doctor
+said, "If you strike another blow, you will kill him." "Let him
+die," replied the master. He did nearly die in prison, but recovered
+to be sold farther South. Was _this_ being received as "a brother
+beloved"? Before we send back any more Onesimuses, it is necessary
+to have a different set of Philemons to deal with. The Scripture is
+clearly not obeyed, under present circumstances.
+
+If you resort to the alleged legal obligation to return fugitives,
+it has more plausibility, but has it in reality any firm foundation?
+Americans boast of making their own laws, and of amending them
+whenever circumstances render it necessary. How, then, can they
+excuse themselves, or expect the civilized world to excuse them, for
+making, or sustaining, unjust and cruel laws? The Fugitive Slave Act
+has none of the attributes of law. If two highwaymen agreed between
+themselves to stand by each other in robbing helpless men, women
+and children, should we not find it hard work to "conquer our
+prejudices" so far as to dignify their bargain with the name of
+_law_? That is the light in which the compact between North and
+South presents itself to the minds of intelligent slaves, and we
+should view it in the same way, if we were in their position. Law
+was established to maintain justice between man and man; and this
+Act clearly maintains injustice. Law was instituted to protect the
+weak from the strong; this Act delivers the weak completely into the
+arbitrary power of the strong, "Law is a rule of conduct, prescribed
+by the supreme power, commanding what is right, and forbidding what
+is wrong." This is the commonly received definition of law, and
+obviously, none more correct could be substituted for it. The
+application of it would at once annul the Fugitive Slave Act, and
+abolish slavery. That Act reverses the maxim. It commands what is
+wrong, and forbids what is right. It commands us to trample on the
+weak and defenceless, to persecute the oppressed, to be accomplices
+in defrauding honest laborers of their wages. It forbids us to
+shelter the homeless, to protect abused innocence, to feed the
+hungry, to "hide the outcast." Let theological casuists argue as
+they will, Christian hearts _will_ shrink from thinking of Jesus as
+surrendering a fugitive slave; or of any of his apostles, unless it
+be Judas. Political casuists may exercise their skill in making the
+worse appear the better reason, still all honest minds have an
+intuitive perception that no human enactment which violates God's
+laws is worthy of respect. By what law of God can we justify the
+treatment of Margaret Garner? the surrender of Sims and Burns? the
+pitiless persecution of that poor little "famished hand"?
+
+There is another consideration, which ought alone to have sufficient
+weight with us to deter us from attempting to carry out this
+tyrannical enactment. All history, and all experience, show it to be
+an immutable law of God, that whosoever injures another, injures
+himself in the process. These frequent scuffles between despotism
+and freedom, with despotism shielded by law, cannot otherwise than
+demoralize our people. They unsettle the popular mind concerning
+eternal principles of justice. They harden the heart by familiarity
+with violence. They accustom people to the idea that it is right for
+Capital to own Labor; and thus the reverence for Liberty, which we
+inherited from our fathers, will gradually die out in the souls of
+our children. We are compelled to disobey our own consciences, and
+repress all our humane feelings, or else to disobey the law. It is
+a grievous wrong done to the people to place them between these
+alternatives. The inevitable result is to destroy the sanctity of
+law. The doctrine that "might makes right," which our rulers consent
+to teach the people, in order to pacify slaveholders, will come out
+in unexpected forms to disturb our own peace and safety. There is
+"even-handed justice" in the fact that men cannot aid in enslaving
+others, and themselves remain free; that they cannot assist in
+robbing others, without endangering their own security.
+
+Moreover, there is wrong done, even to the humblest individual, when
+he is compelled to be ashamed of his country. When the judge passed
+under chains into Boston Court House, and when Anthony Burns was
+sent back into slavery, I wept for my native State, as a daughter
+weeps for the crimes of a beloved mother. It seemed to me that I
+would gladly have died to have saved Massachusetts from that sin and
+that shame. The tears of a secluded woman, who has no vote to give,
+may appear to you of little consequence. But assuredly it is not
+well with any Commonwealth, when her daughters weep over her
+degeneracy and disgrace.
+
+In the name of oppressed humanity, of violated religion, of
+desecrated law, of tarnished honor, of our own freedom endangered,
+of the moral sense of our people degraded by these evil influences,
+I respectfully, but most urgently, entreat you to annul this
+infamous enactment, so far as the jurisdiction of Massachusetts
+extends. Our old Commonwealth has been first and foremost in many
+good works; let her lead in this also. And deem it not presumptuous,
+if I ask it likewise for my own sake. I am a humble member of the
+community; but I am deeply interested in the welfare and reputation
+of my native State, and that gives me some claim to be heard. I am
+growing old; and on this great question of equal rights I have
+toiled for years, sometimes with a heart sickened by "hope
+deferred." I beseech you to let me die on Free Soil! Grant me the
+satisfaction of saying, ere I go hence--
+
+    "Slaves cannot breathe among us. If their lungs
+     Receive _our_ air, that moment they are free!
+     They touch _our_ country, and their shackles fall!"
+
+If you cannot be induced to reform this great wickedness, for the
+sake of outraged justice and humanity, then do it for the honor of
+the State, for the political welfare of our own people, for the
+moral character of our posterity. For, as sure as there is a
+Righteous Ruler in the heavens, if you continue to be accomplices
+in violence and fraud, God will _not_ "save the Commonwealth of
+Massachusetts."
+
+L. MARIA CHILD.
+
+
+
+
+APPEAL TO THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT.
+
+
+The Hon. Robert Rantoul, Hon. Horace Mann, Hon. Charles Sumner, and
+other able men, have argued against the Constitutionality of the
+Fugitive Slave Bill, proving it to be not only contrary to the
+_spirit_ and _meaning_ of the Constitution, but also to be
+unauthorized by the _letter_ of that document. That this nefarious
+Bill is contrary to the _spirit_ and _intention_ of the Constitution
+is shown by the published opinions of those who framed it; by the
+debates at the time of its adoption; and by its Preamble, which sets
+forth that it was ordained to "establish _justice_, ensure domestic
+_tranquillity_, promote the _general welfare_, and secure the
+blessings of _liberty_." The arguments adduced to prove that this
+bill is unauthorized by the _letter_ of the Constitution, I will
+endeavor to compress into a few words.
+
+Article 10 of the Amendments to the Constitution expressly provides
+that
+
+     "_Powers not delegated to the United States by the
+     Constitution_, nor prohibited by it to the States, _are
+     reserved to the States respectively, or to the people_."
+
+Article 4 of the Constitution contains four compacts. The first is:
+
+     "Full faith and credit shall be given in each of the States
+     to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of
+     every other State. And the _Congress may, by general laws,
+     prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and
+     proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof_."
+
+Here, _power is expressly delegated by the Constitution to the
+United States_.
+
+The second compact is:
+
+     "The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all
+     privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States."
+
+Under this provision, an attempt was made to obtain some action of
+Congress for the protection of colored seamen in slaveholding ports;
+but it was decided that Congress had no power to act on the subject,
+because _the Constitution had not delegated any power to the United
+States_ in the clause referred to. Slaveholders are very strict in
+adherence to the Constitution, whenever any question of _protection_
+to colored people is involved in their decisions; but for purposes
+of _oppression_, they have no scruples. They reverse the principle
+of Common Law, that "in any question under the Constitution, _every
+word is to be construed in favor of liberty_."
+
+The third compact is:
+
+     "A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other
+     crime, who shall flee from justice, or be found in another
+     State, shall, on demand of the Executive authority of the
+     State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to
+     the State having jurisdiction of the crime."
+
+It has never been pretended that Congress has any power to act in
+such cases. There is no clause _delegating any power to the United
+States_; consequently, all proceedings on the subject have been left
+to the several States.
+
+The fourth compact is:
+
+     "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 claim of the
+     party to whom such service or labor may be due."
+
+If the framers of the Constitution had meant that Congress should
+have power to pass a law for delivering up fugitives "held to
+service or labor," they would have inserted a clause _delegating
+such power_, as they did in the compact concerning "public acts and
+records." The Constitution does _not_ delegate any such power to the
+United States. Consequently, Congress had no constitutional right to
+pass the Fugitive Slave Bill, and the States are under no
+constitutional obligation to obey it.
+
+The Hon. Horace Mann, one of Massachusetts' most honored sons, in
+his able speech on this subject in Congress, 1851, said:--"In view
+of the great principles of civil liberty, out of which the
+Constitution grew, and which it was designed to secure, my own
+opinion is that this law cannot be fairly and legitimately supported
+on constitutional grounds. Having formed this opinion with careful
+deliberation, I am bound to speak from it and to act from it. I have
+read every argument and every article in defence of the law, from
+whatever source emanating. Nay, I have been more anxious to read the
+arguments made in its favor, than the arguments against it; and I
+think I have seen a sound legal answer to all the former." * * *
+"It is a law that might be held constitutional by a bench of
+slaveholders, whose _pecuniary interests_ connect them directly with
+slavery; or by those who have surrendered themselves to a
+pro-slavery policy from _political hopes_. But if we gather the
+opinions of unbiassed and disinterested men, of those who have no
+_money_ to make, and no _office_ to hope for, through the triumph of
+this law, then I think the preponderance of opinion is decidedly
+against its constitutionality. It is a fact universally known, that
+gentlemen who have occupied and adorned the highest judicial
+stations in their respective States, together with many of the
+ablest lawyers in the whole country, have expressed opinions against
+the constitutionality of this law." * * * "When I am called upon to
+support such a law as this, while it lasts, or to desist from
+opposing it in all constitutional ways, my response is, Repeal the
+law! that I may no longer be called upon to support it. I demand it,
+because it is a law which conflicts with the Constitution of the
+country, and with all the judicial interpretations of that
+Constitution, wherever they have been applied to the white race.
+Because it is a law abhorrent to the moral and religious sentiments
+of a vast majority of the community called upon to enforce it.
+Because it is a law which, if executed in the Free States, divests
+them of the character of Free States, and makes them voluntary
+participators in the guilt of slaveholding. Because it is a law
+Which disgraces our country in the eyes of the whole civilized
+world, and gives plausible occasion to the votaries of despotic
+power to decry republican institutions. Because it is a law which
+forbids us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, and
+which makes it a crime to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and
+to visit and succor the sick and imprisoned. Because it is a law
+which renders the precepts of the Gospel and the teachings of Jesus
+Christ seditious; and were the Savior and his band of disciples now
+on earth, there is but one of them who would escape its penalties by
+pretending to 'conquer his prejudices.'" * * * "Suppose the whole
+body of the white population should be as much endangered by this
+law, as the colored people now are, would the existence of the law
+be tolerated for an hour? Would there not be a simultaneous and
+universal uprising of the people against it, and such a yell of
+execration as never before burst from mortal lips?"
+
+The Hon. Charles Sumner, always true to the right, as the needle
+to the pole, in his learned and able speech in Congress, 1852,
+said:--"The true principles of our political system, the history
+of the National Convention, the natural interpretation of the
+Constitution, all teach that this Act is a usurpation by Congress of
+powers that do not belong to it, and an infraction of rights secured
+to the States. It is a sword, whose handle is at the National
+Capital, and whose point is every where in the States. A weapon so
+terrible to personal liberty the nation has no power to grasp."
+* * * "In the name of the Constitution, which it violates; of my
+country, which it dishonors; of humanity, which it degrades; of
+Christianity, which it offends, I arraign this enactment, and now
+hold it up to the judgment of the Senate and the world." * * * *
+
+"The Slave Act violates the Constitution, and shocks the public
+conscience. With modesty, and yet with firmness, let me add, it
+offends against the Divine Law. No such enactment can be entitled to
+support. As the throne of God is above every earthly throne, so are
+his laws and statutes above all the laws and statutes of man. To
+question these, is to question God himself. But to assume that human
+laws are above question, is to claim for their fallible authors
+infallibility. To assume that they are always in conformity with
+those of God, is presumptuously and impiously to exalt man to an
+equality with God. Clearly, human laws are _not_ always in such
+conformity; nor can they ever be beyond question from each
+individual. Where the conflict is open, as if Congress should demand
+the perpetration of murder, the office of conscience, as final
+arbiter, is undisputed. But in every conflict, the same queenly
+office is hers. By no earthly power can she be dethroned. Each
+person, after anxious examination, without haste, without passion,
+solemnly for himself must decide this great controversy. Any other
+rule attributes infallibility to human laws, places them beyond
+question, and degrades all men to an unthinking, passive obedience.
+The mandates of an earthly power are to be discussed; those of
+Heaven must at once be performed; nor can any agreement constrain us
+against God. Such is the rule of morals. And now the rule is
+commended to us. The good citizen, as he thinks of the shivering
+fugitive, guilty of no crime, pursued, hunted down like a beast,
+while praying for Christian help and deliverance, and as he reads
+the requirements of this Act, is filled with horror. Here is a
+despotic mandate, 'to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient
+execution of this law.' Let me speak frankly. Not rashly would I set
+myself against any provision of law. This grave responsibility I
+would not lightly assume. But here the path of duty is clear. By the
+Supreme Law, which commands me to do no injustice; by the
+comprehensive Christian Law of Brotherhood; by the Constitution,
+which I have sworn to support, I am bound to disobey this Act.
+Never, in any capacity, can I render voluntary aid in its execution.
+Pains and penalties I will endure; but this great wrong I will not
+do." * * * "For the sake of peace and tranquillity, cease to shock
+the public conscience! For the sake of the Constitution, cease to
+exercise a power which is nowhere granted, and which violates
+inviolable rights expressly secured. Repeal this enactment! Let its
+terrors no longer rage through the land. Mindful of the lowly, whom
+it pursues; mindful of the good men perplexed by its requirements;
+in the name of charity, in the name of the Constitution, repeal this
+enactment, totally, and without delay! Be admonished by these words
+of Oriental piety: 'Beware of the groans of the wounded souls.
+Oppress not to the utmost a single heart; for a solitary sigh has
+power to overset a whole world.'"
+
+Robert Rantoul, Jr., whose large heart was so true to Democratic
+_principles_, that the _party_ wanted to expel him from their ranks,
+(as parties are prone to do with honest men,) opposed the Fugitive
+Slave Bill with all the power of his strong intellect. In a speech
+delivered in 1851, he said: "I am as devotedly attached as any other
+man to the Union of these States, and the Constitution of our
+government; but I admire and love them for that which they secure to
+us. The Constitution is good, and great, and valuable, and to be
+held for ever sacred, because it secures to us what was the _object_
+of the Constitution. I love the Union and the Constitution, not for
+_themselves_, but for the great _end_ for which they were
+created--to secure and perpetuate _liberty_; not the liberty of a
+_class_, superimposed upon the thraldom of groaning multitudes: not
+the liberty of a _ruling race_, cemented by the tears and blood of
+subject races, but _human_ liberty, _perfect_ liberty, common to the
+whole people of the United States and to their posterity. It is
+because I believe all this, that I love the Union and the
+Constitution. If it were not for that, the Union would be valueless,
+and the Constitution not worth the parchment on which it is written.
+God-given Liberty is above the Union, and above the Constitution,
+and above all the works of man."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+TESTIMONIES AGAINST THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT.
+
+
+The Hon. Josiah Quincy, senior, whose integrity, noble intellect,
+and long experience in public life, give great weight to his
+opinions, made a speech at a Whig Convention in Boston, 1854, from
+which I extract the following:--"The circumstances in which the
+people of Massachusetts are placed are undeniably insupportable.
+What has been seen, what has been felt, by every man, woman and
+child in this metropolis, and in this community? and virtually by
+every man, woman and child in Massachusetts? We have seen our Court
+House in chains, two battalions of dragoons, eight regiments of
+artillery, twelve companies of infantry, the whole constabulary
+force of the city police, the entire disposable marine of the United
+States, with its artillery loaded for action, all marching in
+support of a Praetorian Band, consisting of one hundred and twenty
+friends and associates of the U.S. Marshal, with loaded pistols and
+drawn swords, and in military costume and array; and for what
+purpose? _To escort and conduct a poor trembling slave from a Boston
+Court House to the fetters and lash of his master!_
+
+"This scene, thus awful, thus detestable, every inhabitant of this
+metropolis, nay, every inhabitant of this Commonwealth, may be
+compelled again to witness, at any time, and every day in the year,
+at the will or the whim of the meanest and basest slaveholder of the
+South. Is there a man in Massachusetts with a spirit so low, so
+debased, so corrupted by his fears, or his fortune, that he is
+prepared to say this is a condition of things to be endured in
+perpetuity by us? and that this is an inheritance to be transmitted
+by us to our children, for all generations? For so long as the
+fugitive-slave clause remains in the Constitution, unobliterated, it
+is an obligation perpetual upon them, as well as upon us.
+
+"The obligation incumbent upon the Free States _must be obliterated
+from the Constitution, at every hazard_. I believe that, in the
+nature of things, by the law of God, and the laws of man, _that
+clause is at this moment abrogated, so far as respects common
+obligation_. In 1789, the Free States agreed to be field-drivers and
+pound-keepers for the Slaveholding States, within the limits, and
+according to the fences, of the old United States. But between that
+year and this A.D. 1854, the slaveholders have broken down the old
+boundaries, and opened new fields, of an unknown and indefinite
+extent.[1] They have multiplied their slaves by millions, and are
+every day increasing their numbers, and extending their field into
+the wilderness. Under these circumstances, are we bound to be their
+field-drivers and pound-keepers any longer? Answer me, people of
+Massachusetts! Are you the sons of the men of 1776? Or do you 'lack
+gall, to make oppression bitter?'
+
+[Footnote 1: The Hon. Josiah Quincy, while in Congress, always
+opposed the annexation of foreign territory to the United States, on
+the ground of its unconstitutionality.]
+
+"I have pointed out your burden. I have shown you that it is
+insupportable. I shall be asked how we are to get rid of it. It is
+not for a private individual to point the path which a State is to
+pursue, to cast off an insupportable burden; it belongs to the
+constituted authorities of that State. But this I will say, that if
+the people of Massachusetts solemnly adopt, as one man, in the
+spirit of their fathers, the resolve that they will no longer submit
+to this burden, and will call upon the Free States to concur in this
+resolution, and carry it into effect, the burden will be cast off;
+the fugitive-slave clause will be obliterated, not only without the
+dissolution of the Union, but with a newly-acquired strength to the
+Union.".
+
+In the spring of 1860, there was a debate on this subject in the
+Legislature of New York. In the course of it, Mr. Smith, of
+Chatauqua, said:--"How _came_ slavery in this country? It came here
+without law; in violation of all law. It came here by force and
+violence; by the force of might over right; and it remains here
+to-day by no better title. And now we are called upon, by the ruling
+power at Washington, not merely to tolerate it, but to legalize it
+all over the United States! By the Fugitive Slave Bill, we are
+forbidden to shelter or assist the forlornest stranger who ever
+appealed for sympathy or aid. We are required by absolute law to
+shut out every feeling of compassion for suffering humanity. Fines
+and imprisonment impend over us, for exercising one of the holiest
+charities of our religion. Virtue and humanity are legislated into
+crime. Let us meet the issue like men! Let us assert our utter
+abhorrence of all human laws, that compel us to violate the common
+law of humanity and justice; and by so acting assert the broad
+principles of the Declaration of American Independence, and the
+letter and spirit of the Constitution. If the North was as devoted
+to the cause of Freedom as the South is to Slavery, our national
+troubles would vanish like darkness before the sun. Our country
+would then become what it _should_ be,--free, happy, prosperous, and
+respected by all the world. Then we could say, truthfully, that she
+is the home of the free, the land of the brave, the asylum of the
+oppressed."
+
+In the same debate, Mr. Maxson, of Allegheny, said:--"All laws,
+whether Constitutions or statutes, that invade human rights, are
+null. A community has no more power to strike down the rights of man
+by Constitutions, than by any other means. Do those who give us
+awfully solemn lessons about the inviolability of compacts, mean
+that one man is bound to rob another because he has _agreed_ to? In
+this age of schools, of churches and of Bibles, do they mean to
+teach us that an agreement to rob men of their rights, in whatever
+solemn form that agreement may be written out, is binding? Has the
+morality of the nineteenth century culminated in _this_, that a mere
+compact can convert vice into virtue? These advocates of the
+rightfulness of robbery, because it has been _agreed_, to, and that
+agreement has been _written down_, have come too late upon the
+stage, by more than two hundred years. Where does the proud Empire
+State wish to be recorded in that great history, which is being so
+rapidly filled out with the records of this "irrepressible
+conflict"? For myself, a humble citizen of the State, I ask no
+prouder record for her than that, in the year 1860, she enacted that
+_the moment a man sets foot on her soil, he is free, against the
+world_!"
+
+Wendell Phillips, one of earth's bravest and best, made a speech at
+Worcester, 1851, from which I make the following extract:--"Mr.
+Mann, Mr. Giddings, and other leaders of the Free Soil party, are
+ready to go to the death against the Fugitive Slave Law. It never
+should be enforced, they say. It robs men of the jury trial, it robs
+them of _habeas corpus_, and forty other things. This is a very good
+position. But how much comfort would it have been to Ellen Crafts,
+if she had been sent back to Macon, to know that it had been done
+with a scrupulous observance of all the forms of _habeas corpus_ and
+jury trial? When she got back, some excellent friend might have said
+to her, 'My dear Ellen, you had the blessed privilege of _habeas
+corpus_ and jury trial. What are you grieving about? You were sent
+back according to law and the Constitution. What could you want
+more?' From the statements of our Free Soil friends, you would
+suppose that the _habeas corpus_ was the great safeguard of a
+slave's freedom; that it covered him as with an angel's wing. But
+suppose _habeas corpus_ and jury trial granted, what then? Is any
+man to be even _so_ surrendered, with our consent? No slave shall be
+sent back--except by _habeas corpus_. Stop half short of that! No
+slave shall be sent back!"
+
+Rev. A.D. Mayo, of Albany, is one of those clergymen who believe
+that a religious teacher has something to do with questions
+affecting public morality; and his preaching is eloquent, because he
+is fearlessly obedient to his own convictions. In a Sermon on the
+Fugitive Slave Bill, he said:--"Remember that despotism has no
+natural rights on earth that any man is bound to respect. I know
+there is no political party, no Christian sect, no Northern State,
+as a whole, yet fully up to this. But the Christian sentiment of the
+country will finally bring us all to the same conclusion."
+
+
+NO SLAVE HUNT IN OUR BORDERS!
+
+  What asks the Old Dominion? If now her sons have proved
+  False to their fathers' memory, false to the faith they loved;
+  If _she_ can scoff at Freedom, and its Great Charter spurn,
+  Must _we_ of Massachusetts from truth and duty turn?
+
+  _We_ hunt your bondmen, flying from Slavery's hateful hell?
+  _Our_ voices, at your bidding, take up the blood-hound's yell?
+  _We_ gather, at your summons, above our fathers' graves,
+  From Freedom's holy altar-horns to tear your wretched slaves?
+
+  Thank God! not yet so vilely can Massachusetts bow,
+  The spirit of her early time is with her even now.
+  Dream not, because her Pilgrim blood moves slow, and calm, and cool,
+  She thus can stoop her chainless neck, a sister's slave and tool!
+
+  For ourselves and for our children, the vow which we have given
+  For Freedom and Humanity, is registered in Heaven.
+  No slave-hunt in _our_ borders! No pirate on _our_ strand!
+  No fetters in the Bay State! No slave upon _our_ land!
+
+  J.G. WHITTIER.
+
+
+THE HIGHER LAW.
+
+  Man was not made for forms, but forms for man;
+  And there are times when Law itself must bend
+  To that clear spirit, that hath still outran
+  The speed of human justice. In the end,
+  Potentates, not Humanity, must fall.
+  Water will find its level; fire will burn;
+  The winds must blow around this earthly ball;
+  This earthly ball by day and night must turn.
+  Freedom is typed in every element.
+  Man _must_ be free! If not _through_ law, why then
+  _Above_ the law! until its force be spent,
+  And justice brings a better. When, O, when,
+  Father of Light! shall the great reckoning come,
+  To lift the weak, and strike the oppressor dumb?
+
+  C.P. CRANCH.
+
+
+ON THE SURRENDER OF A FUGITIVE SLAVE.
+
+  Look on who will in apathy, and stifle, they who _can_,
+  The sympathies, the hopes, the words, that make man truly man;
+  Let those whose hearts are dungeoned up, with interest or with ease,
+  Consent to hear, with quiet pulse, of loathsome deeds like these.
+  I first drew in New England's air, and from her hardy breast
+  Sucked in the tyrant-hating milk, that will not let me rest;
+  And if my words seem treason to the dullard and the tame,
+  'Tis but my Bay State dialect--our fathers spake the same.
+
+  Shame on the costly mockery of piling stone on stone
+  To those who won _our_ liberty! the heroes dead and gone!
+  While we look coldly on and see law-shielded ruffians slay
+  The men who fain would win their _own_! the heroes of _to-day_!
+  Are we pledged to craven silence? O, fling it to the wind,
+  The parchment wall that bars us from the least of human kind!
+  That makes us cringe, and temporize, and dumbly stand at rest,
+  While Pity's burning flood of words is red-hot in the breast!
+
+  We owe allegiance to the State; but deeper, truer, more,
+  To the sympathies that God hath set within our spirit's core.
+  Our country claims our fealty; we grant it so; but then
+  Before Man made us _citizens_, great Nature made us _men_!
+
+  Though we break our fathers' promise, we have nobler duties first,
+  The traitor to _Humanity_ is the traitor most accurst.
+  _Man_ is more than _Constitutions_. Better rot beneath the sod,
+  Than be true to _Church_ and _State_, while we are doubly false to God!
+
+  JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
+
+
+STANZAS FOR THE TIMES.
+
+  Shall tongues be mute, when deeds are wrought
+    Which well might shame extremest hell?
+  Shall freemen lock the indignant thought?
+    Shall Pity's bosom cease to swell?
+  Shall Honor bleed? Shall Truth succumb?
+  Shall pen, and press, and soul be dumb?
+
+  What! shall we guard our neighbor still.
+    While woman shrieks beneath his rod,
+  And while he tramples down, at will,
+    The image of a common God?
+  Shall watch and ward be round him set
+  Of Northern nerve and bayonet?
+
+  And shall we know, and share with him,
+    The danger and the growing shame?
+  And see our Freedom's light grow dim,
+    Which should have filled the world with flame?
+  And, writhing, feel, where'er we turn,
+  A world's reproach around us burn?
+
+  No! By each spot of haunted ground,
+    Where Freedom weeps her children's fall;
+  By Plymouth's rock, and Bunker's mound;
+    By Griswold's stained and shattered wall;
+  By Warren's ghost; by Langdon's shade;
+  By all the memories of our dead;
+
+  By their enlarging souls, which burst
+    The bands and fetters round them set;
+  By the free Pilgrim spirit, nursed
+    Within our bosoms yet;
+  By all above, around, below,
+  Be ours the indignant answer--NO!
+
+  J.G. WHITTIER.
+
+
+
+
+VERMONT PERSONAL LIBERTY LAW.
+
+AN ACT TO SECURE FREEDOM TO ALL PERSONS WITHIN THIS STATE.
+
+
+_It is hereby enacted, &c.:_
+
+Sec. 1. No person within this State shall be considered as property,
+or subject, as such, to sale, purchase, or delivery; nor shall any
+person, within the limits of this State, at this time, be deprived
+of liberty or property without due process of law.
+
+Sec. 2. Due process of law, mentioned in the preceding section of
+this Act shall, in all cases, be defined to mean the usual process
+and forms in force by the laws of this State, and issued by the
+courts thereof; and under such process, such person shall be
+entitled to a trial by jury.
+
+Sec. 3. Whenever any person in this State shall be deprived of
+liberty, arrested, or detained, on the ground that such person owes
+service or labor to another person, not an inhabitant of this State,
+either party may claim a trial by jury; and, in such case,
+challenges shall be allowed to the defendant agreeably to sections
+four and five of chapter one hundred and eleven of the compiled
+statutes.
+
+Sec. 4. Every person who shall deprive or attempt to deprive any
+other person of his or her liberty, contrary to the preceding
+sections of this Act, shall, on conviction thereof, forfeit and pay
+a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars nor less than five hundred
+dollars, or be punished by imprisonment in the State Prison for a
+term not exceeding ten years: _Provided_, that nothing in said
+preceding sections shall apply to, or affect the right to arrest or
+imprison under existing laws for contempt of court.
+
+Sec. 5. Neither descent near or remote from an African, whether such
+African is or may have been a slave or not, nor color of skin or
+complexion, shall disqualify any person from being, or prevent any
+person from becoming, a citizen of this State, nor deprive such
+person of the rights and privileges thereof.
+
+Sec. 6. Every person who may have been held as a slave, who shall
+come, or be brought, or be in this State, with or without the
+consent of his or her master or mistress, or who shall come, or be
+brought, or be, involuntarily or in any way in this State, shall be
+free.
+
+Sec. 7. Every person who shall hold, or attempt to hold, in this
+State, in slavery, or as a slave, any person mentioned as a slave in
+the sixth section of this act, or any free person, in any form, or
+for any time, however short, under pretence that such person is or
+has been a slave, shall, on conviction thereof, be imprisoned in the
+State Prison for a term not less than one year, nor more than
+fifteen years, and be fined not exceeding two thousand dollars.
+
+Sec. 8. All Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent with the provisions
+of this Act are hereby repealed.
+
+Sec. 9. This Act shall take effect from its passage.
+
+Approved November 25, 1858.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Duty of Disobedience to the
+Fugitive Slave Act, by Lydia Maria Child
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