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From the Liberator.
Extracts from a Speech of Wendell Phillips, Esq.
At the Melodeon, on the first Anniversary of the rendition of Thomas Sims, April 12, 1852.
When the Pulpit preached slave-hunting, and the Law bound the victim, and Society said 'Amen! this will make money'—we were 'fanatics'—'enthusiasts'—'seditious'—'disorganizers'—'scorners of the pulpit'—'traitors.' Genius of the Past! drop not from thy tablets one of these honorable names.—We claim them all, as our surest title deeds to the memory and gratitude of mankind.—We indeed thought Man more than Constitutions: Humanity and Justice of more worth than law. Seal up the record! If Boston is proud of her part, let her rest assured we are not ashamed of ours!
All this has been said so often, that it is useless to dwell on it now. The best use that we can now make of this occasion, it seems to me, is to look about us, take our bearings, and tell the fugitives over whom yet hangs this terrible statute, what course, in our opinion, they should pursue.
And, in the first place, it is neither frank nor honest to keep up the delusive idea that a fugitive slave can be protected in Massachusetts. I hope I am mistaken; I shall be glad to be proved incorrect; but I do not believe there is any such Anti-Slavery sentiment there as is able to protect a fugitive on whom the Government has once laid its hand. We were told this afternoon, from this platform, that there were one hundred and fifty men in one town, ready to come with their muskets to Boston—all they waited for was an invitation. I heard, three weeks before the Sims case, that there were a hundred in one town in Plymouth county, pledged to shoulder their muskets in such a cause. We saw nothing of them. I heard, three weeks after the Sims rendition, that there were two hundred more in the city of Worcester ready to have come, had they been invited. We saw nothing of them.—On such an occasion, from the nature of the case, there cannot be much previous concert; the people must take their own cause into their own hands. Intense earnestness of purpose, pervading large classes, must instinctively perceive the crisis, and gather all spontaneously for the first act which is to organize revolution. When the Court was in pursuit of John Hampden, we are not told that the two thousand men who rode up to London the next morning, to stand between their representative and a king's frown, waited for an invitation. They assembled of their own voluntary and individual purpose, and found themselves in London.—Whenever there is a like determination throughout Massachusetts, it will need no invitation. When, in 1775, the British turned their eyes toward Lexington, the same invitation went out from the Vigilance Committee of Mechanics in Boston, as in our case of April, 1851. Two lanterns on the North Church steeple telegraphed the fact to the country: Revere and Prescott, as they rode from house to house in the gray light of that April morning, could tell little what others would do—they flung into each house the startling announcement, 'The red-coats are coming!' and rode on. None that day issued orders—none obeyed aught but his own soul. Though Massachusetts rocked from Barnstable to Berkshire, when the wires flashed over the land the announcement that a slave lay chained in the Boston Court-House, there was no answer from the Anti-Slavery feeling of the State. It is sad, therefore, but it seems to me honest, to say to the fugitive in Boston, or on his way, that if the Government once seize him, he cannot be protected here. I think we are bound, in common kindness and honesty, to tell them there are but two ways that promise any refuge from the horrors of a return to bondage; one is to fly—to place themselves under the protection of that Government which with all her faults, has won the proud distinction that slaves cannot breathe her air—the fast-anchored isle of empire, where tyrants and slaves may alike find refuge from vengeance and oppression. And this is THE COURSE I WOULD ADVISE EVERY MAN TO ADOPT. THIS, UNLESS THERE ARE, IN HIS PARTICULAR CASE, IMPERATIVE REASONS TO THE CONTRARY, IS HIS DUTY. If this course be impossible, then the other way is to arm himself, and by resistance secure in the free State a trial for homicide—trusting that no jury will be able so far to crush the instincts of humanity as not to hold him justified.
But some one may ask, why countenance, even by a mention of it, this public resistance—you whose whole enterprise repudiates force? Because this is a very different question from the great issue, the Abolition of Slavery. On that point, I am willing to wait. I can be patient, no matter how often that is defeated by treacherous statesmen.—The cause of three millions of slaves, the destruction of a great national institution, must proceed slowly; and like every other change in public sentiment, we must wait patiently for it, and the best policy there, is, beyond all question, the policy of submission, for that gains, in time, on public sympathy. But this is a different case. Who can ask the trembling, anxious fugitive to stop and submit patiently to the overwhelming chances of going back, that his fate may, in some different manner, and far off hour, influence for good the destiny of his fellow-millions? Such virtue must be self-moved. Who could stand and ask it of another?—True, Thomas Sims returned is a great public event, calculated to make Abolitionists; but the game sickens me, when the counters are living men. We have no right to use up fugitives for the manufacture of Anti-Slavery sentiment. There are those who hang one man to benefit another, and create a wholesome dread of crime. I shrink from using human life as raw material for the production of any state of public opinion, however valuable. I do not think we have a right to use up fugitive slaves in this pitiless way, in order to extend or deepen an Anti-Slavery sentiment. At least, I have no right to use them so, without their full consent. It seems to me, therefore, we are bound to tell those who have taken refuge under the laws of Massachusetts, what they must expect here. The time was when we honestly believed they might expect protection. That time, in my opinion, has passed by. I do not certainly know when they may choose again to take another man from Boston. But I do know, that just so soon as any other miscreant Webster (hisses and cheers) shall think it necessary to lay another fugitive slave on the altar of his Presidential chances, just so soon will another be taken from the streets of Boston. I note the hisses. Do not understand me, that Mr. Webster himself will ever find it worth while to ask again this act of vassal service from his retainers. Oh, no! wait a few months, and his fate will be that of Buckingham: 'wicked but in will, of means bereft, He left not faction, but of that was left.' But even though he die or be shelved, the race of traitors will not be extinct; and it is a sickening dread for these two or three hundred men and women to live with this law, worse than the sword of Damocles, hanging over their heads.
I believe the Abolitionists of the country owe it to their brethren to tell them what policy should rule their conduct in the present crisis. To be sure, we may ask them to stay, and when they are taken, to submit, and let the fact appeal to the sympathies of the country, which will result in kindling public indignation; and if they choose, from deep religious convictions, to make themselves thus the food of Anti-Slavery growth, God bless them for the heroic self-sacrifice, which dictates such a course. But I cannot ask of a poor, friendless, broken-hearted fellow creature such a momentous sacrifice. I do say, in private, to every one that comes to me, 'But one course is left for you. There is no safety for you here; there is no law for you here. The hearts of the judges are stone; the hearts of the people are stone. It is in vain that you appeal to the Abolitionists.—They may be ready, may be able, ten years hence. But the brace of Adamses,' to which our friend (Theodore Parker) alluded this morning, if they had mistaken 1765 for 1775, would have ended at the scaffold instead of the Declaration of Independence and the treaty of 1783. We must bide our time, and we must read, with anointed eyes, the signs of our time. If public opinion is wrong, we want to know it; know it, that we may remodel it. We will ourselves trample this accursed Fugitive Slave Law under foot (great cheering). We are a minority, at present; we cannot do this to any great practical effect; and we are bound to suggest to these unfortunates who look to us for advice, some feasible plan. This, in my view, should be our counsel: 'Depart, if you can—if you have time and means.—As no one has a right to ask that you stay, and, if arrested, submit, in order that your case may convert men to Anti-Slavery principles; so you have no right, capriciously, to stay and resist, merely that your resistance may rouse attention, and awaken Anti-Slavery sympathy. It is a grave thing to break into the bloody house of life. The mere expectation of good consequences will not justify you in taking a man's life. You have a perfect right to live where you choose. No one can rightfully force you away. There may be important and sufficient reasons, in many cases, why you should stay and vindicate your right, at all hazards. But in common cases, where no such reasons exist, it is better that you surrender your extreme right to live where you choose, than assert it in blood, and thus risk injuring the movement which seeks to aid your fellows. Put yourselves under the protection of the British flag; appeal to the humanity of the world. Do not linger here.'
Does any friend of the cause exclaim, 'You take away the great means of Anti-Slavery agitation. The sight of a slave carried back to bondage is the most eloquent appeal the Anti-Slavery cause can make to the sympathies of the public.' I know it is bought by the sacrifice of one man, thrust back to the house of American bondage. Still, circumstances may prevent flight—imperative reasons may exist why he should remain here; he may be seized before he succeeds in escaping. I say to him, then, There is a course left, if you have the courage to face it. There is one appeal left, that has not yet been tried; it may avail you; I cannot insure you even that. It has now reached that pass when even the chance of a Boston gibbet may be no protection from a Georgia plantation; but if I were in your place, I would try (tremendous cheering)! The sympathies of the people will gather round you, if put on trial for such an act. The mortal hatred which would set the hounds of the law, thirsty for our blood, on keener scent, if we stood charged with legal offences, would not reach you. I do not know that the State Prison would be any refuge from the jail at Savannah or Charleston; but there may be something in an appeal to a Massachusetts jury empanelled to try a man's inalienable right to liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and to protect himself: and I hope—I dare not hope much, but I do hope—that there is still humanity enough to bring you in 'guilty.' There is another point. I really believe if a jury of Boston merchants should steel themselves to a verdict of guilty, that a governor sitting in the seat of Samuel Adams or Henry Vane would never dare to sign the warrant, until he had secured a passage on board a Cunard steamer. I think, therefore, that it is possible an appeal to the criminal jurisdiction of the State might save a man. Perhaps it might be just that final blow which would stun this drunken nation into sobriety, and make it heed, at last, the claims of the slave.
Mark me! I do not advise any one to take the life of his fellow—to brave the vengeance of the law, and run the somewhat, after all, unequal risk of the hard technical heart of a Massachusetts jury. Such an act must be, after all, one's own impulse. To burst away from all civil relations, to throw one's self back on this primal right of self protection, at all hazards, must be the growth of one's own thought and purpose. I can only tell the sufferer the possibilities that lie before him—tell him what I would do in his case—tell him that what I would do for myself, I would countenance another in doing, and aid him to the extent of my power. No, I confess I am not a non-resistant.—The reason why I advise the slave to be guided by a policy of peace is because he has no chance. If he had one—if he had as good a chance as those who went up to Lexington seventy-seven years ago, I should call him the basest recreant that ever deserted wife and child, if he did not vindicate his liberty by his own right hand (cheers).—And I am not by any means certain that Northern men would not be startled—would not be wholesomely startled—by one or two such cases as a scoundrel Busteed shot over his perjured affidavit. If a Morton or a Curtis could be shot on a Commissioner's bench, by the hand of him they sought to sacrifice, I have no doubt that it would have a wholesome effect (great applause).—Is there a man here who would either himself go to Georgia, or let any one, near and dear to him, go there, if he could have arms in his hands, without sending somebody before him to a lighter and cooler place than a Georgia plantation?
I am not dealing with the cause of three millions of slaves. I am not dealing with the question of a great sin and wrong existing among us. I believe I understand the philosophy of reform. I understand the policy of waiting. I know that, in reforming great national abuses, we cannot expect to be in haste; that the most efficient protection for the three millions of slaves is to eradicate the prejudice of the twenty millions of whites who stand above them. I have learnt all that. But Mr. Chairman, the question to which I speak is a very different one. It is this. I, William Crafts, an independent, isolated individual in myself, am no more called to secure the safety of three million of slaves than you are. I, William Crafts, have succeeded in getting to Boston. I have reached what is called free territory. It happens that there are strong and sufficient reasons why I cannot leave those shores, or cannot yet leave them. I have got possession of arms. I have inquired of the most intelligent men, and they tell me that the laws afford me no protection. I have asked of the highest authorities on government, my duty in this emergency, and they tell me one and all, from Grotius down to Lord Brougham, that when government ceases to protect the citizen ceases to owe allegiance. Very well. My case stands by itself. It is for me to decide to-night whether I will go back to Georgia to-morrow. It is no special comfort to assure me that half a century hence, somebody will go down to Faneuil Hall, some Robert C. Winthrop, perhaps, converted for the occasion—and pronounce an oration on the jubilee of American freedom. It is no answer to tell me, that, in order to this, it is considered by some people to be a great thing that the fugitive should go willingly and quietly back to Slavery.—There comes up to me a man who says he is an officer, and has a parchment warrant in his pocket. Somebody has given him authority to seize me. I am not to be bullied by institutions; I am not to be frightened by parchments. Forms and theories are nothing to me. Majorities are nothing. You have outlawed me from your law. You have exiled me from your protection. I am a descendant of Esau—every man's hand against me, my hand against every man. I have no time or means of escape, no defence, except I make it. If I make it, I secure the hour of liberty and escape. I decide to make it. I shoot the miscreant, and thus gain time to pass from the spot where I was to have been arrested, to freedom under the flag of England or on the deck of a vessel.' Let him who fully knows his own heart and strength, and feels, as he looks down into his child's cradle, that he could stand by and see that little nestling one borne away, and submit—let him cast the first stone. But all you, whose blood is wont to stir over Naseby and Bunker Hill, will hold your peace, unless you are ready to cry—Sic semper Tyrannis! So may it ever be with slavehunters!
Mr. Chairman, it seems to me that the man who is not conscientiously a non-resistant, is not only entitled, he is bound, to use every means that he has or can get, to resist arrest in the last resort. What is the slave, when he is once surrendered? He goes back to degradation worse than death. If he has children they are to perpetuate that degradation. He has no right to sacrifice himself or them to that extent. These are considerations which it is just as well to state, and to bring before the community. I know my friend Mr. Garrison differs from me on this question. You will listen to him. I shall not quarrel if you agree with his judgment, and leave me alone. I am talking to-night to the men who say they were ready to take up their muskets in defence of Thomas Sims, or Shadrach, or somebody else. It is very well for fiction—for a Harriet Beecher Stowe to paint a submissive slave, and draw a picture that thrills your hearts. You are very sensitive over Uncle Tom's Cabin.' Your nerves are very sensitive; see that your consciences are as sensitive as your nerves. If your hearts answered instead of your nerves, you would rise up every one of you Abolitionists, ready to sacrifice every thing, rather than a man should go back to Slavery. Let me see that effect, and then I will reckon the value of the tears that have answered to the wand of this magician; but till then, they are but the tears of a nervous reader under high excitement. Would those tears could crystallize into sentiment, crystallize into principle—into Christian principle, out of which the staple of Anti-Slavery patience and perseverance and self sacrifice is to be wrought!
Guard yourselves, friends, against the delusive idea, that the tears and sad eyes you see about you are harbingers of a better hour for Massachusetts than this day twelve months saw darken over her fame. It may be so; but there is no certainty that it will. We are to speak to practical Massachusetts. I do not shrink from going before the farmers, the mechanics, and the working-men—the thinking men of Massachusetts, and urging upon them the consideration that the State, by solemn act, has proclaimed to every one that her soil is not holy enough to protect the fugitive, and that, so far as she is concerned, the only thing left, the only possibility, the only chance remaining for the fugitive, lies in his own courage and good right arm.
The city of John Hancock has proved that her soil is not holy enough to protect the fugitive; Faneuil Hall where 'still the eloquent air breathes—burns with Otis and Adams, is not holy enough to shelter the fugitive; Bunker Hill, red with the blood of the noblest man that ever fell in the cause of civil liberty, is not too sacred for fettered feet; the Churches, planted, as we have been told to-day, in tears, in prayers, and in blood, have no altar horns for the fugitive; the Courts, even that which first naturalized Lord Mansfield's decision, drawing a nice distinction between slaves brought and slaves escaping—judges loving humanity so well, even in the humblest suitor, that, like their noble predecessors in the great case of De Vere, they 'caught hold of a twig or a twine thread to uphold it'; that, too, has shut its doors on the fugitive—yes, against that very child Mep, should she again be seized, in whose behalf they settled this proud rule.
I would say all this to the men about me, and add—There is one gleam of hope. It is just possible that the floor of the State's Prison may have a magic charm in it. That may save the fugitive, if he can once entitle himself to a place there. When, then, the occasion shall demand, let us try it (great cheering)! It is a sad thought, that the possibility of a gibbet, the chance of imprisonment for life, is the only chance that can make it safe for a fugitive to remain in Massachusetts.
You will say this is bloody doctrine—anarchical doctrine; it will prejudice people against the cause. I know it will! Heaven pardon those who make it necessary for hunted men to turn, when they are at bay, and fly at the necks of their pursuers! It is not our fault! I shrink from no question, however desperate, that has in the kernel the possibility of safety for a human being hunted by twenty millions of slave-catchers in this Christian Republic of ours (cheers). I am willing to confess my faith. It is this: that the Christianity of this country is worth nothing, except it is or can be made capable of dealing with the question of Slavery. I am willing to confess another article of my faith: that the Constitution and Government of this country is worth nothing, except it is or can be made capable of grappling with the great question of Slavery. I agree with Burke—'I HAVE NO IDEA OF A LIBERTY UNCONNECTED WITH HONESTY AND JUSTICE. NOR DO I BELIEVE THAT ANY GOOD CONSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT OR OF FREEDOM CAN FIND IT NECESSARY FOR THEIR SECURITY TO DOOM ANY PART OF THE PEOPLE TO A PERMANENT SLAVERY. SUCH A CONSTITUTION OF FREEDOM, IF SUCH CAN BE, IS IN EFFECT, NO MORE THAN ANOTHER NAME FOR THE TYRANNY OF THE STRONGEST FACTION: and factions in Republics have been and are full as capable as monarchs of the most cruel oppression and injustice.' That is the language of Edmund Burke to the electors of Bristol; I agree with it (applause)! The greatest praise Government can win is, that its citizens know their rights, and dare to maintain them. I know no use for good laws, except to teach men to trample bad laws under their feet.
On these principles, I am willing to stand before the community in which I was born and brought up—where I expect to live and die—where, if I shall ever win any reputation, I expect to earn and keep it. As a sane man, a Christian man, and a lover of my country, I am willing to be judged by posterity, if it shall ever remember either this meeting or the counsels which were given in its course. I am willing to stand upon this advice to the fugitive slave—baffled in every effort to escape, or bound here by sufficient ties, exiled from the protection of the law, shut out from the churches—to protect himself, and make one last appeal to the humane instincts of his fellow-men.
Friends, it is time something should be said on these points. Twenty-six cases—twenty-six slave cases, under this last statute, have taken place in the single State of Pennsylvania. I do not believe one man in a hundred who hears me, supposed there were half a dozen cases there. So silently, so much a matter of course, so much without any public excitement, have those slaves been surrendered! Should the record be made up for the other States, it would probably be in proportion. Recollect, beside, the cases of kidnapping, not by any means unfrequent, which are so much facilitated by the existence of laws like this. For slayen
to stay among us and be surrendered may excite commiseration; but remember, and this is a very important consideration, familiarity with such scenes begets indifference; the tone of public sentiment is lowered; soon cases pass as matters of course, and the community, burnt over with previous excitement, is doubly steeled against all active sympathy with the sufferers. What was usurpation yesterday is precedent to-morrow.
When we asked the Supreme Court of Mass. to interfere in Sims' behalf, on the ground that the law of 1850 was unconstitutional, they declined, because the law was much the same as that of 1793, and that was constitutional, because so well and truly tried. Surely, tyranny should have no such second acquiescence to plead. Yet that feeling, so alert, so indignant at the outset, already droops and grows cold. Government stands ever a united, powerful and organized body, always in session, its temptations creeping over the dulled senses, the wearied zeal, or the hour of want. The sympathies of a people for the down-trodden and the weak are scattered, evanescent, now excited, now asleep. The assembly which is red-hot to-day, has vanished to-morrow. The indignation that lowers around a Court-House in chains is scattered in a month. The guerrilla troops of reform are now here, and now crumbled away. On the other hand, permanently planted, with a boundless patronage, which sways every thing, stands Government, with hands ever open, and eyes that never close, biding cunningly its time; always concentrated; and, of course, too often able to work its will, for a time, against any amount of popular indignation and sympathy.
Do not misunderstand me. I know the Anti-Slavery Cause will triumph. The mightiest intellects—the Websters and the Calhouns of the Whig and Democratic parties—they have no more effect upon the great mass of the public mind, in the long run, than the fly's weight had on the chariot wheel where he lighted. But that is a long battle. I am speaking now of death or life, to be dealt out in a moment. I am dealing with a family about to be separated, standing, as many of you have been called again and again to do, by the hearth, or at the table, where that family circle were never to assemble again; broken and scattered to the four winds; the wife in agony, her husband torn from her side, her children gathering around, vainly asking, 'Where are we to go, mother? Open those doors? How many of them might you open in these Northern States within the last two years! How many of these utterly indescribable scenes might you have witnessed within that brief period! This law has executed itself. Twenty-six have been sent back from Pennsylvania; only one from Boston; only a dozen, perhaps, from New York. Yes: but in the mean time, the dread that they might be seized has broken up hundreds of happy families. It has been executed; and when I remember that Northern traitor who made its enactment possible, I sometimes think that the vainest man who ever lived never dreamed in the hour of his fondest self-conceit, that he had done the human race as much good as Daniel Webster has wrought it sorrow and despair (great applause). I do not think you fully appreciate the state of dread in which the colored population have lived for months.
Mark, too, the infamous characteristics of these cases! It is not their frequency, after all, that should cause the most apprehension, but the objectionable incidents and very dangerous precedents they establish. It is not that the Slave Law is law. That is not half the enormity of the fact. It is, that not only is the Slave statute held to be law, but that there is really no law beside it in the free States—to execute it, all other laws are set aside and disregarded. The commonest and best settled principles have been trodden under foot. Almost all these persons have been arrested by a lie. Sims was—Long was—Preston was. In the case at Buffalo, the man was arrested by a bloodthirsty attack—knocked down in the streets. The atrocious haste—the brutal haste of Judge Kane, in the case of Hannah Kellam. Language fails in describing, indignation stands dumb before the cold and brutal wickedness. Many of these cases have been a perversion, not only of all justice, but of all law. Take a single and slight instance. The merciful and safe rule has always been, that an officer, arresting any one wrongfully, shall not be permitted to avail himself of his illegal act, for the service of a true warrant while he has the man in custody. This would be not only a sanction, but an encouragement of illegal detention. But, in several of these cases, the man has been seized on some false pretence, and then the authorities allowed those having him in custody to waive the prosecution of the pretended claim, and serve upon him the real warrant. The same disgraceful proceeding was allowed in the Latimer case in this city, his master arresting him as a thief and afterwards dismissing that process, and claiming him as a slave. This dangerous precedent has been followed in many of these late cases. The spirit of the rule, and in some cases its letter, would have set the prisoner free, and held void all the proceedings.
Amid this entire overthrow of legal safeguards—this utter recklessness of all the checks which the experience of ages has invented for the control of the powerful and the protection of the weak, it is idle to dream of any colored persons being safe. They stand alone, exposed to the whole pelting of this pitiless storm. I wish there existed here any feeling on this subject adequate to the crisis. Is there such? Do you point me to the past triumphs of the Anti-Slavery sentiment of Massachusetts? The list is so short we know it by heart. Yes, there has been enough of feeling and effort to send Charles Sumner to the Senate. Let us still believe that the event will justify us in trusting him, spite of his silence there for four long months, silence when so many ears have been waiting for the promised words. There is an Anti-Slavery sentiment here of a certain kind. Test it, and let us see what it is worth. There is Anti-Slavery sentiment enough to crowd our Legislature with Free Soilers. True. Let us wait for some fruit, correspondent to their pledges, before we rejoice too loudly. Heaven grants us the sight of some before we be forced to borrow from our fathers a name for these Legislative committees of Free Soilers. In 1765, there were certain Parliamentary Committees, to whom were referred the petitions of the Colonists, and many good plans of relief, and that was the last heard of either petition or plan. Our fathers called them 'Committees of Oblivion,' I hope we may never need that title again; and wherever we find the untarnished name of Seward, we need have no apprehension.
Yes, there is Anti-Slavery sentiment sufficient to put many persons on their good behavior—sufficient to bring Orville Dewey to his knees, and make him attempt to lie himself out of a late delicate embarrassment (great applause). That, to be sure, is the only way for a true-hearted American to apologize! Some men blame us for the personality of our attacks—for the bad taste of actually naming a sinner on such a platform as this. Never doubt its benefits again.— Did not the Rev. Dr. 'go to and fro in the earth, and walk up and down in it,' offering to return his own mother into Slavery for our dear Union; and was he not rewarded by our National Government by a Chaplaincy in the Navy—as most men thought to secure him a trip to the Mediterranean to repose his weary virtue? Where could public rumor more appropriately send him than to that very spot on the Naples coast, where his great and only exemplar, Nero, devoted his mother to a kinder fate than this Christian imitator designed for 'a venerable relative'! Could he have passed his life at Bauli, the genius of the place would have protected her so deserving son, and all had been well. But here a certain 'rub-a-dub agitation' had done so much mischief, that even the Unitarian denomination could not uphold its eminent leader till he had explained that he did not mean his 'venerable relative,' he only meant his son! How clear the lesson to that son not to treat others as they treat him—since then he might be led to do what even his father deems inhuman, namely, return his 'venerable relative' into Slavery to save a Union! Does Dr. Dewey indeed think it 'extravagant and ridiculous to consent' to return one's mother to Slavery?— On what principle, then, it has been well asked, does he demand that every colored son submit patiently to have it done? Does his Bible read that God did not make of one blood all nations?
Yes, we have Anti-Slavery feeling and character enough to humble a Dewey; we want more—we want enough to save a Sims—to give a safe shelter to Ellen Crafts.—'Hide the outcast; bewray not him who wandereth,' is the simplest lesson of common humanity. The Commonwealth, which, planted by exiles, proclaimed by statute in 1841, her welcome to 'any stranger who might fly to her from the tyranny or oppression of her persecutors'—the State which now seeks 'Peace in Liberty,' should not content herself with this; her rebuke of the tyrant, her voice of welcome to the oppressed, should be uttered so loud as to be heard throughout the South. It should not be necessary to hide the outcast. It ought not to be counted merit now that one does not lift hand against him. Oh, no! fidelity to ancient fame, to present honour, to duty, to God, demands that the fugitive from the oppressions of other lands should be able to go up and down our highway, in peace—tell his true name—meet his old oppressor face to face, and feel that a whole Commonwealth stands between him and all chance of harm. 'God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts!' How coldly, often, does the old prayer fall from careless lips! How sure to reach the ear of Him who heareth the sighing of the prisoner, when it shall rise, in ecstasy of gratitude, from the slave hut of the Carolinas, or from the bursting heart of the fugitive, who, after deadly peril, rests at last beneath the shadow of her protection!American Stories
From the Libcrator. Extracts from a Speech Of Wendell Phil
lips, BSq.
N he .Nelodeon, on The first .1nnirersary Of hs
rendition Of Thomas Sims, .fpr,l ~, 1852.
N He .Nelodeon, on The first .Annirrsa,y Of HE
rendition Of Thomas Sims, .fpril ~, 1852.
When the Pulpit preached slavo-hunting,
aud the Law bound the victim, aud Society
said amen! this will make money'--we were 'ianaics'-'enihusn
rguuizers'-'scorncrs of the pulpit
traitors Genius of the Past drop not from | thy tablets one of these honorable names
We claim them all, ns our surest title deeds
to the memory aud gratitude Of mnnkind.-
We indeed thought Man more than Consti-
tulions; Humanity aud Justice of more
worth than law. Seal up the record II
Boston is proud of her part, let her rest as
surcd we are not ashamed of ours
All this has been said so often, that il is
useless TO dwell on il now. The hest IIse
that we can now make of this OCCASION, il
seems to me, is to look about us, take our
boarngs,and tell the fngitives over whom yet
hangs this terrible statute, what course, in
Our opinion, they should pursue.
Aud, III the first place, it is neither frank
nor honest TO keep up the delusive idea that
fugitive slave can he projected in Massa-
chuseiis. | hope ! am mistaken; shall be
glad TO be proved incorrect; hut | do not
believe there is any such Anli-SlHvcry srnii-
nent here ms is able TO protect Il fugitive on
whom the Government hus once laid its
hand. We were told this afternoon, from
this PLATFORM, that there were one hun
drcd and filty men in one Town, ready TO
come with their nllskcts to Boston-aIl they
waited for was nn invitation. | heard. three
weeks before the Sims case, that there were n hundred in one town in Plymouth county, pledged to shoulder their mnskets in such cause We saw nothing of them. heard, three weeks after the Sims rendition, that there were two hundred more in the city | ol Worcester ready to have come, had they | been invited. We saw nothing OF lhem.- On such an occuson, from the nature of The case, there cannot he much previous con- cert; the people must take their own cause into their own hands. Intense carnestneSs of purpose, prevailing large classes, must perceive the crisis, aud gather all spontaneously for tue first net which is to organize revolution. When the Court was in pursuit of John IInmpIen, we are not told thnt the two thousand men who rode up TO London the next morning, to stand between their representative aud n kings irOwn, waited for an invitation. They assembled of their own voluntary and individual pur- pose, and found themselves in London.- Whenever there is like determination throughout Massachusetts, it will need no invitation. When, in l775, the British turn ed tl,cir eyes toward Lexington, the same went ont from the Vigilance Com mittec of Mechanics in Boston, MS in Our rase of April, 1851. Two anters on the North Church steeple telegraphed the fact to the country: Revere and Prescott, as they rode from house TO house in the gray light of that April morning, could tell little what others would do-they flung into each house the startling announcement, The red.coats are comingn aud rode on. None that day issued orders-none obeyed aught but his own soul. Though Massachusetts, { rocked from Barustabe to Berkshire, when the wires flashed over the land the announce | ment that slave lay chained in the Boston { Courthouse, there was no answer from the Ami Slavery feeling Of tie state. II is sad, but il seems to me honest, 10 say to the fugitive in }ostoI,or on his way that il the Government once seize him, he cannot he protected here. .hink we are bound, s in common kindness aud honesty TO tell them there are but two ways that promise any refuge from the horrors of a return TO { bondage; one is TO fly-to place themselves 1 under The protection of that Government s which with all her faults has won the proud I IlsuuClloH tnut slaves cannon DTedtile HtT hH I the fnst-ancIlored isle of empire, where yrants and slaves may alike find refuge from ! vengeance aud oppression. AND THIS IS rHE COURSE | WOULD ADVISE EVERY MAN TO I ADOPT. TINS, UNLESS THERE ARE, IN HIS S 'ARTiCULAR CASE, IMPERATIVE REASONS TO I rHE CONTRARY, rs HIS DUTY. II this course % impossible, then the other way is to arm G llnself aud by resistance secure in the free I state trial for Notwithstanding that no ury will be able SO far to crush the instincts Z II humanity as not to hold him justified.
But some ono may ask, why countenance, { wen 10y n Inention of il, this public resist i nce--yon whose whole enterprise repudi- c les force? Because this is a very different ' question from the grea: issue, the Abolition q u Slavery. On that point, am willing to I vait. can be patient, no matter how often { hat IL defeated by treaeherous statesman.- The cause of three millions of slaves, the I destruction of great national institution, I must proceed slowly; aud like every other I hange in public sentiment, we must wnit 'atiently for it, and the best policy there, is,
stop aud submit patiently to the oyerwhelm
ing chances of going back, that his fate mny
III some different manner, aud far off hour
Influence for good the destiny of his fellow.
millions? Such virtue must he self.moved
Who could stand and usk il of another P
True, Tholnns Sims returned is n great pub
lie event, calculated to make AboIitionists
but the game sickens me, when the counters are living men. We have no right to use iiI | idgliivcs for tie manufacture of Auti-Slnve. ! ry sentiment. There nre those who hang
one man to benefit another, and create Il wholesome dread of crime. ! shrink irou
using human life MS raw material for the | production of any state of public opinion,
however valuable. do not think we have ! n right to Use up fugitive slaves in this pitt
less way, in order to extend or deepen an
Anli-Slnvery sentiment. AT least, have no | right TO Use them so, without their full con sent. IL seems TO me, therefore, we are bound 10 tell those who have taken refuge
under the laws of Massachusetts, what they
must expect here. The time was when we honestly believe they might expect protec- non. That time, ia my opinion, has passed hy, | do not certainly know when they inny choose again to take another man from
Boston. But do know, that just so sOon
as any other miscrcant Webster misses aud
cheers shall thing it necessary TO lay another
fugitive slave Oh the altar of his Presidential
chances, just so soon will another lie taken
from the streets of Boston. ! note the misses.
DO rot understand me, that Mr.. Webster
himself will ever find il worth while to ask
again this act of vassal service from his
rctainers. Oh, no wait a few months,
aud his fate will be that Of Buckingham:
wicked but in will, OF means bcrcft,
lie left not faction, but Of that was Left
But even though he die or be shcyed, the
race of traitors will not he extinct; aud it is n sickcning dread for these two or three
hundred men and women to live with this
law, worse than the sword of Damocles, hanging over their heads. believe tho Aboliiionsts of the country owe it to their brethren to tell them what policy should rule their conduct in the present crisis. To be sure, we may ask them To stay, and when they are taken, TO submit, and let the fact appeal to the sympathies of the county, which will result ia kindling public indig ua- ton and il they choose, from deep religious convictions, to make themselves thus the iood of Anii.Slavery growth, God bless them torsthe heroic seli-sacriiice, which diciFtes such course. But conuot ask of n poor, friendless, broken-hearted fellow creature such nInncntOus sacrifice. ! do say, in private TO every one that comes to me, But one course is left for you. There is no safety for you here there is no law for you here. The hearts OF the Judges are stone the hearts of the people arc stone. Ii is in vain that you appeal to the AbolltioniS;s.- They may be ready, may be able, ten years hence But the brace of AdanIses,' TO which our friend (Theodorc Parker alluded This morning, IT they had mistaken l1GJ for lI15, would have ended at the scatiUid in stead of the Declaration of Independence md the treaty Of 1888. We must bide our lme, and we MUST read, with annointed yes, the signs of our time. II public opin- uu Is wrong, we want To know il; know il, hat we may remodel it. We will ourselves rampo this accurscd Fugitive Slave Law lnder foot (greut cheering) We are mi loriiy, NJ present; we cannot do this 10 any | great practical effect; nd we Hre bound to | suggest to these unlOrtunntcs who look To us | or advice, some feasible plan. This, in my | Jew, should he our counsel: Depart, | { you cau-if you have time aud meana.- Is no one has right to ask that you stay, / md, il arrested, submit, in order Tint your / asc may convert men to Aini-Sluvcry prin- | iples; so you have no right, capriciously, ! o stay aud resist, merely that your resistance | nay rouse attenlion,aud awaken Anti-Sluvery / 1t is q grave thing to break into | he bloody house of life. The mere eXpcc- ! alton of good consequences will not justify | ou in taking n mans life. You have n | crlect right TO live where you choose. No | ne can right fully force you away. There 7, nay be important aud sufficient rensOns, in | lany cases, why you should stay aud vindi- | ate your right, at all hazards. But in com Iou cases, where no such reasons exist, il is eller that you surrender your extreme right D live where you choose, than assert il in lood, and thus RISK injuring the movement 'lch seeks TO aid your fellows. Put your elves under the protection of the British ag; appeal to The humanity of the world. 10 not liuger here.'=f0 Does any friend { the cause eXclaim, You take away the reat means of Anti-Slavery agitation. The Ight of a slave carried back TO bondage is ne most eloquent appeal the Anti-Slavery ause can make TO the sympathies of the pub c.'I know il is bought by the sacrifice OF one nan, thrust back TO the house of American ondnge. Still, circumstances may prevent reasons niuy exist why he hould remain here; lac may be seized be- IRE he succeeds in escaping. say TO him, Ien, There is Il course left, if you have The ourage to face il. There is one appeal left, nat has not yet been tried; it may avail you; cannot insure you even that 1t has now cached that pass when even the chance OF a 'oslon gibhet may be no protection from a ieorgia plantation but il were } your pluce, | would try tremendous The symDathips of the ueople iii gather round you, ii put on trial for such n act Tho mortal hatred which would set le hounds Of the law, thirsty for our blood, u keener scent, il we sCnd charged with gal offences, would not reach you. | do OF know lllat the State Prison would be any singe from the Jail at Savannah OF Charles- IN; hut there may be something in an ap- cal TO a Massachusetts
jury en,panelled TO y mans INALIENABLE right to liberty, the
| blHS lou w Eulltl. lUcie is atlOtnef
point. ! really believe if jury of Boston
merchants should steel themselves to vor-
diet of guilty. that governor sitting in the
seat of Samuel Adams or Henry Vnne would
never dare to sign the warrant until he had
secured passage OH board Cunnrd steam
er. think k,hereloro,il that il is possible an up ! peal to the criminal jurisdiction OF the Stnte
might save man. Perhaps it might be just
that final blow which would stun this drunk
en- nation into sohrieiy, aud make il heed, at
last, the claims of the slave.
Mark me! do not diyise any one TO take / the lie OF his ltlow-to brave the ven ! geauce of the law, aud run the somewhat,
after all, unequal risk OF the hard technical ! heart of a Massachusetts, jury. Such an act
must he, after all, ones owu impulse. To
burst away from all civil relations, 10 throw
ones self back on this primal right of self. ! protection, al all hazlrds must be tie growth
OF ones own thought and purpose. eau only tell the sufferer the possibilities that lie
before hln-tell him what | would do in his
case-lell him that what would do for my sell, would countenauce another in do. ing, and aid him TO the extent OF my power. No. confess um not n uon-resistunt.- The reason why advise the slave to he guided 10y II policy Of peace is because he b"o wv NhhhN's ~ It uuu OHt-ll iutl
ms good II chance as those who went up To
Lexington seventy-scven years ago, should call him the bnsest rccreant that ever desert
ed wife and child il he did not viudirute
his liberty 10y his own right hand (chcers).-
And am not by any means certain that
Northern men would not he stnrlcd-wouId
not he whoesomely startled-hy one or two
such eases as n scouudrcl Bustcrd shot over
liis pCilurcd affidavit. Ii n Morton or
Curtis could he shot on n Commissioners
bench, 10y the hand of him they sought to
sacrifice, | have no doubt that il would
have u wholesome effect (greHt appnuse).-
L. there a man here who would either him
self go to Georgia, or let any one, near aud
dear to him, 20 there, il hc could have arms
in his hands, without sending somebody he
tore him To lighter aud cooler place than
Georgia plantation?
| am not dealing with the cause of tlree
millions Of slaves. | anI not dealing with
the question OF great sin and wrong exist
ing among us. believe | understand the philosophy of reform. | understand the
policy of waiting. know that, in reorm- ! ing great national abuses, we cannot expect ! TO hc in haste; that the most efficient pro-
lection for the three millions of slaves is to
erradcato the prejudice of the twenty mill
lulS VI WHITES NilO sIduu UUuNt Ucltl. 1
have learnt all that. But Mr.. Chairman, the question to which speak is very different one. II is this. /, William Crafts, an indie pendent. isolated individual in myself am no more called to secure the safety of three million of slaves than you are. ], William Gratis, have succeeded in getting TO Boston. have reached what is called free territory. | II happens tIIatth arc strong aud sufficient | reasons why | cannot leave those shores, or | cannot YET leave them. lnve got posses sion of arms. ! have inquired of llc most
Intelligent men, aud they tell me that the laws afford me no protection. ] hive asked of the highest authorities ON government, my duty IN this emergency, and they tell me one aud all, from Groiius down TO Lord BrOughnm, that when government ceases To protect the citizen ceases TO owe nllcgiaece. Very well. My case stands by itself IL is for me to decide tonight whether will 90 back to Georgia Tomorrow. IL is no special comfort 10 assure mo that half century hence, somebody will go down to Funcuil Hall, sOmc Robert &. Winthrop, perhaps, for the occasiou-und pronounce an Grafton on the jubilee of American free dom. Ii is no answer to tell me, thul, in or der 10 this, il is considered by some people to he a great thing that the fugitive should go willingly aud quietly hack TO Slavery There comes up to the II man who says lie is an officer aud has parchment warran, in his pocket. Somebody has given him au- thOrlly TO seize me. ! aln MOTTO he hullied by institutions am not to bG frightened 10y parchments. Forms aud theories are noIII- lug to me. Majorities are nothing. You have outawed me from your law. You have eXiled me from your protection. | um 1nsgaItflnl ff Loo against ne, my hand against every nan.
have no time or means OF escape, no defence, except make il. Ii make it, secure the Innr of liberty and escape. | decide TO make II. | shoot the miscreant, and thus gain time 10 pass from the spot where / wns o have been arrested, TO freedom under tue tag of England or on the deck OF vessel. Let him who fully knows his own heart aud strength, and feels, as lac looks down into his ,hilds cradle, that he could sund 10y and see that little nesting one borne away, aud him cast the first stone. But all , 'Ou, whose blood is wont 20 stir over Naseby , md Bunker Hill, will hold your peace, un- ess you are ready TO cry-Sic sempu Iyrdp- / as So may il ever be with slavehunIers I
Mr.. Chairman, it seems to me that the { nan who is not cOnscieniiously a non-re- : istnnt, is not only entitled he is bound, 10 { lse every means that he has or can get, To ! esist arrest in the last resort What is the { lave, when he is once surrendered? lie loes back to degradation worse than death. @ { he has children they are To perpeluate l. hat degradation. lie has no right to sacri- i ice himself or them TO that extent. These 5 ne considerations which it is just as well TO i tate, aud to bring before the community 1 know my friend Mr. Garrison differs from ! ne on this question. You will listen TO q ,im. shall not quarrel if you agree with | lis judgment, and leave me alone. | am alking tonight TO the men who say they we're ready TO take up their muskels in de- ence of Thomas Sims, or Shadrach, or else 1t is very well for fiction
| 'Uhcle TOMS Cabin. -FOUR nerves are
very sensitive; see that your consciences
are as sensitive ns your nerves. If your
hearts answered instead of your nerves, YOU
would rise mp every one Of you Abolitionists,
ready to sacrifice every thing, rather than
men should go back TO Slavery. Let me
see that effect, aud then | will reckon the
value of the tenrs that have answered 60 the
waud of this magician; but till then, they
are but the tears of nervous reader under | high excitement. Would those tears could | chrystalizc into sentiment, chrystalize into | principe-into Christian principle, out OF
which the staple of Anti-Slavery patience
and perseverance mud self sacrifice is to be
wrought! Guard yourselves, friends, against
the delusivo idea, thnt the tears and sad eyes you see about YOU are liorbngers of bet
ter hour Tor Massachusetts than this day
twelve months saw darken over her fame.
1t nny he so; but there is no certainty that
it will. We are to speak TO practical Mnssn- | chusrtts. do not shrink from going before
the farmers, the mechanics, and the work. iug-men-the thinking men of Mussachu- sets and urging upon them the considera- | ton that the State, by solemn net, has pro-
claimed to every one that her soil is not holy
enough TO protect the fugitive, and that, so
far as she is concerned, the only thing left,
the only possibility, the only chance remain- ing for the fugitive, lies ia his own courage
and good right arm. The city Of John
Hancock llns proved that her soil is not holy enough Ia protect the fugitive; Faneui Hall
where stiil the eloquent mir brenthes--burns'
with Oils aud Adams, is not holy enough to
shelter the fugitive; Bunker Hill, red with
the blood of the noblesl man that ever fell
in the cause of civil liberty, is not too sacred
for trtirred feet; the Churches. planted, as
we have been told to-day, in tears IN prayers,
and in blood, have no altar horns for the fii-
gitIve; the Courts, even that which first
nuturlized Lord Mnusfieds decision, draw
ing a nice distinction between slaves brought and slaves escaping loving huinani- ~ so well, even in the hunblest suitOr, that, like their noble predecessors in the great case of De We're, they 'caughI hold OF twig ora twine thread To uphold it.; that, too, has shut It's doors on the iugiive-ycs, against that very Child MED, should she again be seized,
ia whose hcmlf they settled this proud rule.
would say all iliis TO the men about me,
and ndd--l'hcre is one gleam of hope. Ii
is just possible that the floor of the States
Prison mny hnve unpic chnrm in IL. That
nnay save the fugitive, ii he can once entitle
himself 10 place there. When, then, the
occasion shall demand, let ms try il (grcut
cheeriug)! II is sad thought, TINT the pos
sibiliy Of gibhei, the chance of imprisou-
meht for lite, is the only chance that can
mnko it safe for fugitive to remain in Mas saclusclts.
You will say this is bloody doctrine-an- arcllical doctrine; il will prejudice people against the cause. know il will Heaven pardon those who make il necessary for hunt ed men TO turn, when they are at bay, und fly at the nccks Of their pursucrs II is not orr fault ] shrink from no question, how lpspprufn hat L,e in tha Gne tl,a possibility of safety for human being hunt ed by twenty millions of slave-cntchcrs in this Christian Republic OF ours (cheersl am willing Ia confess my faith. Ii is this that The Christianity of this country is worth nothing, except il is or can he male capable Df dealing with the question OF Slavery. I nm willing to confess another article of my nh that the Constitution aud Government nf this country is worth noihing, except it is 'r can be made capable of graphing with lc great question Of Slavery. ngree with HAVE NO IDEA OF A LIBER- lY UNCONNECrED WITH HONESTY AND JUSTICE. NOR DO | BELIEVE THAT ANY GOOD CONSTITUTIONS CAN FIND IT NECESSAl FOR THEIR SECURITY TO DOOM ANY PART OF TIE PEOPLE TO A PERMANENT SLAVERY. SUCH A CONSTITUTION OF FREEDOM, IT. SUCH CAN BE. Is IN EFFECT, NO MORE THAN ANOTHER NAME FOR THE TYRANNY OF THE ; STRONGEST FACTION aud factions in Republics have been and ure full as capable hs mOuarcls Of the most cruel oppression and Injustice That is the language of Ed mund Brke 10 the electors OF Bristol; agree witt il (applause) The greatest praise Government can win is, that its citizens know their rights, and dare 10 ranan them. know no use for good laws, except TO teach men 10 irample bud laws IudcT their feet.
On these principles, am willing to stand before the community in which ! was horn nd brought uf--where expect to live aud W lie-wlere, ii | shall ever win any reputa- ion, expect TO earn aud keep il. As q sane 1 nan, II Christian man, und lover Of my 'ouniry, am willing 10 be Judged by pos Gritty, ii IL shall ever remember either this meeting or the cOunsels which were given u its course. am willing 10 stand upon his advice TO the fugitive slave-batlled in very effort To escape, or bound here by uflicient ties, eXed from the protection of he law, shut OUT from the churches--to RoTEcT HIMSELF, aud make one last appeal D the humane instincts of his fellow men. friends, II is time something should he said u these points TwenIy-six cases--iwen- i.siK slave cases, under this last statute, ave taken place in the single Statsof Penn ylvanla. do not believe one fnan in nndred who hears me, supposed there were ulf II dozen eases there. So silently, SO much matter of course, so much without ny public excitement, have those slaves 'een surrendered. Shonld the record be made up for the other States, il would prob Ihly DO in proportion. Reeollec,. beside, he cases of kidnapping, not by any i,heans which are SO much facilitated by he existence Of laws like this. For slayea
the tone of public sentiment is lowered, soon cases pass as matters of course and the community, burnt over with previous excite ment, is doubly steeled against all active sympathy with the sufferers. What wua nsurpation yesterday is precedent tomorrow. When we asked the Supreme Court of Mass. TO interfere in Sims behalf on the ground that the law of 1850 was unconsti- tutonal, they declined, because the law was much the same as that of l793, and that was constitutional, because so HELD and SUBMITTED TO. Surely, tyranny should lave no such second acquiesneuce to plcnd. Yet that feeling. so alert, so indignant at the outset, already droops aud grows cold Government stands ever united, powerful and organized body, always in session, its temptations creeping over the dulel senses, tile wenried zeal, or the hour of want The hympa'hies of people for the down-trod- hen and the weak are scattered, evanescent, now excited, now asleep. The assembly which IS red-hot to-day, has vanished TO. morrow. The indignation that lowers around Court-llousc in chains is scattered an month. The guerrilla troops of reform are now here, aud now crumbled away On the other hand, permanently planted, WIN boundless patronage, which swnys every thing, stands Government, with hands ever open, and eyes that never close, biding cunDingly its time; always concentrated |; aud, OF course, too often able to work its wsii, for time, against any amount of pop. nlnr indignation aud sympathy.
do not misunderstood me. know the Antl'Slavery Cnuse will triumph. The migh'iest intellects-the Websters and the Caihouns Of the Wing and Democratic pnr- ties-they have no more effect upon the great mass Of the public mind in the long rWn, than the ily's weight had on the chariot wheel where he lighted. But that is long battle. Inn speaking now of death or life, to be dealt out in moment. am dealing with family about to be separated, standing, MS many Of you have been called again und again TO do, by the hearth, or at the table, where that family circO were never 10 as semble again; broken aud scattered 10 the four winds; the wife in agony, her husband torn from her side, her children gathering around, vainly asking, 'Wherc arc we to go, | moihcrP Open those doors? How many | of them might you open in these Northern | States within the last two years How mu- ny of these utterly udcscrihablo scenes / might you hive Witnessed within that brief period! This law has eXecuied ilscE- Tweny-six have boeu sent back from Penn | SylVania; only one from Boston; only n dozen. perhaps, from New York. Yes: but IN the mean time, the dread that they might he seized has broken up hundreds of happy families. II has been executed; and when remember thar Northern traitor who mn,le its enactment possible sometimes think ihut tho vainest mau who ever lived never dreamed in the hour Of llis iOndest self-con. ceit, that he bad done the human race ns much good as Daniel Webster hus wrought 1t sorrow and despair (great applausol do not think you fully appreciate the state of dread in which the cUlorcd population have lived for months.
Mark, too, the Infamous characteristics of these cases Ii is not their frequency, after all, that should cause tie most apprehension, hut the oheclonnl incidents and very dan gcrous preccdenis they establish. Il is not that the Slave Law is law. That is not half the enornity of The fact II is, that not only is the Slave statute held to hs law, but that | there is really 10 law beside it in the free | Stuies-to execute il, all other laws are set aside and disregardcd. The comnones: | nnd best settled principles have been trod- | den under foot. Almost all these persons | lave been arrested 10y lie. Sims wus- Long was-Preston was. In the case at Buffalo, the man was arrested 10y blood thirsty nttack-knocked down in the streets.
Judge Kane, in the case of Hannah Kcllam. Language fnils in describing, Indignation stands dumb before the cold aud brutal wick edness. Many Of these cases have heen n perversOn, not only of all Justice, hut of all law. Take single and slight instance The merciiuI and safe rule has always been, that un officer, arresting any one wrongliilly, shall not be permitted 10 avail himself of his illegal net, for the service Of true warrant while lie has the man in custody. This would be not only sanction, but an encOur- agement of i!legnl detention. But, in scvc- raj of these cases, the man has been seized on some false pretcnce, and then the author tiles allowed those having him ia custody to wniye tho prosecution of the pretended claim, and serve upon him the real warrant. Tho same disgraceiu proceeding WINS allow ed in the LlIimor case IN this city, his mas Ter arresting him as thief und afterwards dismlsslng that process, and claiming him as a slave. This dangerous precedent has been followed in many Of these late cases. The spirit of the rule, and in some cases its let ter, would hive set the prisoner free, and held void oll the proceedings.
Amid this entire overthrow of legal safe guards-this utter recklessness OF all the checks which the experience of nges has invented for the control Of the powerful and she protection Of the weak, il is idle to dream of any colored PERSONS being safe. They stnnd alone, exposed to the whole peltng of this pitless storm. ! wish there existed here amy feeiing on this subject adequate to the crisis. Is there such? DO you point the to the past triumpls of The Anli-Slavery senli- Inent of Massachusetts? The list is 20 short we know il by heart. Yes, there has been enough of l0eling and effort to send Charles Simmer to the Senate. Let us still believe that the event viii justify us in trust ing him, spite of his silenre there for four long months, silence when so Unny ears have been willing for tho promised words. There is an An,i-Savery sentiment here of u certain kind. TEST il, and let MS see what
wo may never need that title agaiu; and wherever we find the untoruished name of SEwALL, VIC need have no apprehension.
NeS, there is Anti-Savery sentiment sufIi- cient to put many persons on their good be- havlor-suificient to bring Orville Dewey to ms Knees, aud make him attempt to lie him self out of a late delicate embarrassment tgrcat opplausel That, to bo sure, is the only way for a true-bearted American 10 apologize! Some men blame us for the per- sonaliiy of Our attncks-ior the bad tnste OF actually naming sinner on such platform as this. Never doubt It's benefits again.- Did not the Rev. Dr. go to and go IN the earth, aud walk up and down in it, Offering to return his own mother into Slavery for our dear Unionj aud was he not rewarded Dy our National Government 10y Chaplain cy III tho Navy-as most men thought TO Sc. cure him trip 10 the Mediterranean TO re.
pose his weary virtue? Where could pub
lie rumor more appropriately send him than
to TINT very spot on the Naples coast, where
his great and only exempar, Nero, devoted
his mother TO kinder fate than this Chris
tan imitaior designed for "a venerable rela.
tive! Could he have passed his life at Bauli
the genius of the place would have protected
her 50 deserving sou, and all had been well
But here a certain 'rub.a.dub agitation had done so much mischief that even the Uni
tnrian denomination could not uphold its eminent leader till nc had explained that hC did not mean his venerable relative,' he only meant his son How clear the lesson tO
that son not to treat others as they treat him since then he might be led to do what
even his father deems inhiman, namely, re.
turn his venerable relative into Slavery to
save Union! Does DIR. Dewey indeed
think il 'eXtrnvngnnt and ridiculous to con.
sent to return ones mother to Slavery p
On what principle, then, 1t has been well
asked, does he demand that every colored son submit patiently TO have it done? Docs
his Bible read thnt God did not make of one
blood all nations?
Yes, we have Anli-Slavery feeling and character enough to humble Dewey; we want more--we waat enough to save a Sims 10 give n sHio shelter TO Ellen Crafts.- Hide the oulcast; bcwray not him who wan dcreih,' is the simplest lesson of common humanity. The Commonwealth, which, planted by exiles, proclaimed by statute in IS4l, her welcome to 'any stranger who might fly TO her from the tyranny or oppres- sion of her persccutors'--the State which now seeks PEACE IN LIBERTY should not content herself with this; her rcbuke OF the tyrant, her voice of welcome to the Oppress- cd, should be uttered so loud az TO be heard tho South. Il should not be ne cessary to hide the ou,cast. Ii ought not to be counted merit now that one does not liit hnnd against him. Oh, no. fidelity 10 ancient fnnc, To present honour, to duly, to God, demands ,hat tho fugitive from tile op- pressions OF other lnuds should be able to go mp and down our highway, in peace-tel his true nhine--ncet his old oppressor face to face, aud ic.l that whole Commonwealth stands between him ard all chance of harm.
God savo tho Commonwealth of Mnssa- How coldly, often, does the old prayer fall from careless lips How sure to reach the ear of Him who heareih the sigh ing Of the prisoner, when it shall rise, in ecstacy Of gratitude, from the slave hut of the CurOiiDas, or from the bursting heart of iho fugitive, who, after deadly peril, rests at last beneath the shudow Of her protection