SELE C T I ON S
FROM THE
SPEECHES AND WRITINGS
OF PROMINENT MVIEN IN THE UNITED STATES,
ON THE SUBJECT OF
ABOLITION AND AGITATION,
AND IN PAVOR OF THE
COMPROMISE MEASURES
OF THE LAST SESSION OF CONGRESS,
ADDRESSED TO THE
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK,
BY THE
UNION SAFETY  COMMITTEEo
NEW-YORK:
PRINTED BY J. P. WRIGHT, 74 FULTON STREET..,o








Fellow- Citizens of the State of New- York:
BY a resolution of the UNION SAFETY COMMITTEE, the unr
dersigned were appointed a Special Committee to disseminate
Union sentiments through this State, by means of the public
press and the circulation of public documents.
We accordingly ask leave, respectfully, but earnestly, to invite
your attention to the sentiments and views, the arguments and
advice contained in the following extracts from the speeches
and writings of some of the leading public men and prominent
citizens of our country, without distinction of party, on the allimportant subject that has so long occupied the public mind.
You will find, in this summary, allusions to important facts
which may have escaped attention.'You will read the legal
opinions of eminent professional men; and you will perceive the
apprehension and anxiety entertained by statesmen long trained
in the councils of the nation; nor has it been thought inappropriate to add a voice from the pulpit.
The dangerous excitement upon the subject of Slavery, which
fanaticism originated, and which a species of infatuation has
extended far and wide, still threatens the peace and safety of
our Union.
To such an alarming extent have misrepresentation and delusion spread throughout our land, that the fraternal ties which
link together our happy confederacy appear no longer to possess
their magic charm to maintain the constitution in its integrity,
and uphold the union of these States. We know that the great
body of the people in every State are devotedly attached to the
Union; yet we cannot close our eyes to the fact, that the people
of our State have permitted their honest judgment to be misled
and their generous sympathies to become enlisted, by specious
appeals to their feelings against the system of' Slavery that has
existed in the Southern States since the formation of our gov-'ernment.
Slavery, as you know, was introduced among us by accident,
and existed in this State, and in almost every other State, at the




formation of our original compact. When our constitution was
framed, the system of Slavery was recognized, and the rights
appertaining thereto defined and established; and the conventions of each State promised and agreed to abide by these terms
with hardly a dissenting voice. Without this recognition our
Union could not have been formed;-unless it be acknowledged
and continued, that Union cannot be preserved.
You will not therefore consider it right or just to interfere with
vested interests and chartered rights. You surely cannot desire,
by so doing, to incur the awful risk of severing this confederacy,
which the patriots who achieved our independence established,
after so much labor, anxiety, and toil: on which Providence has
so long vouchsafed its choicest blessings: and which, if once
destroyed-and no power but ourselves can accomplish its destruction-can never again be reinstated or restored. Yet you
are aware that the spirit of Abolition requires that Slavery shall
be abolished, and its votaries endeavor to seduce the slaves from
their allegiance, while they call on you to give them aid and
protection, although our constitution provides that fugitives from
service shall be returned to their owners.  Those whom you
have been accustomed to consider as teachers and leaders have
designated this article of the constitution in language that we
do not desire to repeat.  You have also been told-so, at least,
it is reported-that it is in violation of divine law that a fugitive slave should be surrendered, and that Slavery has no constitutional guarantee that may not be released, and which ought
not to be released, for that conscience interposes a higher law
than the constitution.  Are you disposed to think thus lightly
of our bond of union? Do the citizens of this State really believe that they have a right to judge for themselves what part
of the national compact they will observe and abide by;: and
whlat portion they may evade or reject? Is this doctrine reconcileable with the dictates of good faith?  Is it in accordance
with the principles of public law?  You must bear in mind
that no man has yet appeared, capable of suggesting any practical plan or remedy for the evil of Slavery; the efforts of fanaticism therefore can have no object in view but the forcible
abduction of the property of others, and the creation of strife
and discord between citizens of the different portions of our
Union. Are you willing then to break the bonds of our confe



deracy by such means, in the vain attempt to remove this one
evil, from which we at the North are exempt, which we all feel
and know is without practical remedy, and which is felt only
by our brethren of the South, who are compelled to bear the infliction without being answerable for its origin. But supposing
it were possible to abolish Slavery in the United States, have you
thought of the inevitable consequences that would follow?  A
system of service that has existed fornt ages, and which involves
a thousand millions of dollars in valine, could not be subverted
without inflicting lasting injury upon every interest in our country, by disturbing all the relations and interfering with all the
products of labor.  Do you think, by abolishing Slavery, you
would promote the happiness of the slaves themselves? or that
emancipation could be accomplished consistently.with the interests or security of the "' Free States."  You will admit that in
many States, if the slaves were emancipated, they could not
remain where they are, for when they ceased to be slaves they
must necessarily, from their superior numbers, become masters,
or try to become so, and Abolition would hardly venture to
avow a design of reserving such a fate for those of our brethren who happened to become owners of slaves from having
their lot cast in a portion of the Union where slave labor was
productive.
Perhaps, however, it is supposed that the three millions of
emancipated blacks could take up their abode in the free States.
Ohio has already refused to the slaves whom one owner had
liberated, " a resting place for the soles of their feet," and Ohio
sends abolitionists among her representatives in Congress; but
all the free States, New York among the rest, would be compelled, in order to protect the labor of their own citizens, to
reject as denizens these objects of misguided humanity.  But
what is the real condition of the slave himself whomn Northern
Abolition desires to emancipate?  In all the slave States the
law requires that their owners shall take care of their slaves during life —in sickness and health, in childhood and aged  The
slave is thus free from all care for the day or the morrow;  in
health he is cared for, in sickness and in age provided for. All
the evils, therefore, whatever they may be, that arise from Slavery, and all the burdens which it imposes, are and -must be
borne exclusively by the South., leaving the North witl onut a




pretext or a shadow of reason or of right to interfere in their
domestic relations. Suppose the South, in aid of our efforts, and
in the same spirit of disinterested philanthrophy, should send
to our State, at their own expense, all their diseased, infirm and
aged slaves, for whom they had no further use, would our philanthropists welcome them,-would they ask you to receive
them? or would they not rather counsel you to reject them, in
self-defence, unless their regard for your interests should prove
to be on a par with the respect which, according to their doctrines5
they have manifested for your understanding.
But you are told that the fugitive slave law is odious to free-;men, and cannot-must not be enforced.
Yout are aware that when Colonies, New York and the Eastern States entered into an agreement of a similar character to
the article in the Constitution for the delivery of fugitives from
service. In 1783 the ordinance establishing the North-Western
Territory, which excluded Slavery, contained the same provision for the surrender of slaves from the other States.  The
act of Congress of 1793 was but a recognition and enforcement
of the same principle; and the act of 1850, rendered indispensable in consequence of the impunity with which slaves were
abducted or assisted to escape from their owners, was merely
designed by a few additional guards to accomplish the same
ends; and if a separation of these States should take place tomorrow, a similar agreement would have to be made, as a matter of absolute necessity, unless philanthropy should determine
that war must be waged in order that property in slaves should
exist no longer. Are we then, of the present day, better and
wiser and purer than our revolutionary fathers?
But you are unwilling to become slave-catchers.  How, and
in what way, are you required to become so? Officers, empowered by law, are the parties to perform that duty. It is only
when a law is resisted that the citizen may be called on to lend
his aid in support of magisterial authority.  Resistance to any
law of the land is a wrong against society and good order —and
any citizen may be required to assist, if his assistance should
become necessary, in upholding the supremacy of the law.
What protection does the Union afford to the owners of slaves
if the Constitution is to be disregarded by evading that article
which was inserted for their benefit, at a time when the co-ope



ration of the Slave States made us a nation?  Can you then
suppose it possible that Abolition and Agitation can pursue
their course, and our confederacy continue united by the ties that
originally bound us together?
But the vain boast is often uttered, that at the North we possess wealth and numbers, and all the essential ingredients of
strength and power. It is so-and these now form integral. parts of our national edifice of might and glory. " Then in the
consciousness of our strength let us be just," not only to others
but to ourselves: for if we break aup the confederacy, our tower
of national strength will be restored to its original elements, as
they existed before our Constitution was adopted.  We shall
stand exposed as separate, weak, discordant communities, ready,
and, in time, sure to become belligerent States-a burthen to
ourselves, and exciting the scorn and pity of mankind.
But it is said the troubled waters of Agitation are tending to
repose, and that all will soon be quiet. Look, we beseech you,
as an evidence of the spirit that still prevails, to the late proceedings in our Senate Chamber, in the language used by a
Senator from the West against the late adjustment in Congress:
and in the ominous silence that followed his invective, until the
Senator from this city delivered his indignant reply.  Look at
the proceedings in the Assembly, and see that body repeatedly
and perseveringly refusing to pass resolutions approving the adjustment of the exciting and dangerous subjects that so long agitated the nation, and expressing the sense of your representatives in favor of upholding the law of the land. Even those
resolutions, that were first deprived of all their force and appropriate meaning, and which left open the door for future agitation, were also rejected by the majority of that body, in proof of
their opposition to the compromise of peace.
In the words of Henry Clay, the more dangerous class of disunionists are those who, disavowing a desire for the dissolution
of the Union, adopt a course, and contend for measures and
principles which must inevitably lead to that calamitous result
You must not forget, that after the late compromise measures
had passed-those healing measures which, it was fondly hoped,
would remove all farther cause of excitement-the perturbed
spirit of Abolition refused to be pacified, although a nation sought
repose; for, as if to prove that Agitation was to be renewed at a




more convenient season, motions were made in the Senate to introduce the Wilmot proviso, and to abolish Slavery in the District
of Columbia. The present calm, therefore, is but the result of
necessity, produced by that wholesome powerful corrective which
is beginning to be felt in a conservative public opinion: but that
corrective must continue to be applied, for Agitation, by its own
confession, only awaits a more auspicious period to pursue its
headlong course.  " The judgment of the people is sound, but
the danger is, that if the people permit themselves to slumber in
fancied security, politicians and philanthropists of the legislative hall, the stump, and the press, will talk and write us out of
the eIUnion.  There are influences that never sleep, which are
creating and diffusing a public opinion, in whose hot and poisoned breath, before we perceive our danger, the Union may
melt likefrost-work in the sun."
Fellow-Citizens, we must prove to our sister States that
New York will abide by the compromises of the Constitutionthat her patriotism is not selfish but national-that her philanthropy is not fanatical but practical-and that she will frown
indignantly on all attempts to oppose the laws, or endanger the
peace of the Union; and be assured, once for all, that Agitation
must cease, and the late compromise measures, founded as they
are on the compromises of the Constitution, be faithfully observed, or this Union will be dissolved.
We, of the North, will have broken the compact of our fathers, and these United States may then bid farewell forever to
all their greatness.
It is for you then to say, whether this great State will lend
its name and influence to further and promote the objects of disunion; whether you are willing to sacrifice the glory we have
acquired-the happiness we enjoy-and the prospects the future
has in store: that Abolition and Agitation may run their
course-that demagogues may flourish for a season-and that
Fanaticism may triumph, in the end, over the ruins of our Republic.
JAS. D. P. OGDEN.
MORRIS KETCHUMo
E. K. COLLINS.
CHAS. M. LEUPP.
ISRAEL CORSE.




EXTRACT S ifrom the Proceedings of the Union Meeting at
Castle Garden, October 30, 1850.
[From the Speech of JAMES W. GERARD.]
The object of this meeting is to ask your ratification and endoisement, after they have been discussed, of the peace measures
passed at the last session of Congress, in regard to the delicate
and dangerous question of slavery, the great subject of the day.
You all know, that Northern abolitionists, banded with Southern
disunionists, for ten long mnonths paralyzed legislation; the
wheels of governmlent were motionless, and the friends of the
Union stood in awe at the audacity of those who struck at its
sacred ties. Abolition members and Southern disunionists, (goaded by continual attacks upon their slavery institution,) who are,
in their destructive principles, as wide asunder as the poles, united together in the common cause of breaking asunder this glorious Union.  Then was it that the real patriots in Congress
threw off their party shackles and sectional prejudices, and WTVhig
and Democrat, as well from the South as from the North, disregarding the shackles of their party relations, sectional prejudices
and personal considerations, threw themselves into the breach,
and, by their united energies, devised and carried those measures of compromise at which the whole nation rejoiced-which
gave peace to Congress and confidence to the people, and set
g-again inotion the wheels of government.  Nobly did they do
t,.eir work; but scarcely were the troubled waters liulled, when
thyb malcontents from the North and South, uneasy spirits, who
would rather " rule in hell than serve in heaven;" who only rise
into notice on the scum which they create by their own agitation, immediately revived the discussion of the slavery question
in most offensive shapes. and sought to throw fresh firebrands
into Congress. This proceeding, you will find, gives rise to three
resolutions, which will be offered for your approval. First, to
honor those patriotic members of Congress who, at great personal sacrifices, shoulder to shoulder, fought for those bills which
settled these dangerous issues; and among the names of the men
thus honored, you will find that the North and the South, the
W>hig and the Democrat, are alike honored in the resolution.
The next will be one to condemnn the patricidal conduct of
those members as a class, both from the North and fiom thle
South, whether Whig or Democrat, who wished to rekindle the
fires of discord, which had just been extinguished.
The third Resolution will be to support with all the power
and energy of this great city, those measures of Peace and Comb
pronmise which were so happily passed. This land must have
fPeace. We must lay these unruly spirits. The Southern State,
2




10
believe that their very existence, and the security of their lives
and their property require it. W~e guarantied the compromise
to them, and let us in good faith fulfil that obligation.
The crowned heads of Europe and their counsellors, look with
deep interest upon this conflict among ourselves.  Oh! how they
will rejoice if our Republic should fall from a plethora of its own
greatness, and the fabric of the model Republic should crumble
into ruins. But no, the crowned heads and the enemies of Republics in the Old World shall be disappointed, for we will send
forth from this, the great commercial capital, the great heart of
our country, a voice for the Union in which the whole land will
join in general chorus, and ring the death-knell of the abolitionists and trading politicians, who have brought our Union to a
-fearful peril.
One of those peace-measures was the Fugitive  Slave Bill,
which has been so shamefully misrepresented by lying agitators,
to those who are not informed as to its provisions.'Phis bill of
the last session, is nothing more than an amendmzezt to the Act
of 1793, which Act was based upon a clearly expressed clause
in the Constitution.  This bill of the last session gives no new
right to the claimants of runaway slaves. I give you the assurance of my private and professional word, that it has not superseded the law of 1793, which is still in force, nor extended its
principle, but is merely an amenezdment to it, by allowing a hearing before United States Commissioners, and for greater convenience, imposing heavier penalties than the former law, on those
who should obstruct its execution. As I stand here before you,
I declare that according to my best judgment, after a carefill pe-'
rusal of the law, of its scope and object, no argument can be held
against its constitutionality.  The Southern States did not voluntarily assume the relation of slavery: it was entailed upon
them by their British ancestors; it was their ~misfortune to bear
it, not their crime. Sixty years ago their rights of slavery were
guarantied to them, as also this power to reclaim their runaway
slaves, by the constitution7. It is now too late to say that slavery should not have been conceded to the Southern States; the
perfect answer is, it ewas conceded, with the po'wer of reclaiming
their runaway slaves.  Thiis law has not only existed, but has
been acted upon forfifty years.  Why is is it then, that opposition
has now for the first timle been raised to the enforcement of it?
Because abolitionists set up their destriuctive principles for sale;
and denmagcfogzes who wvant votes, and politicians who want place
and power, have bargained for, and purchased their votes and influence.  Both the Whig and the Democratic parties have bid
upon each other in this vile traffic of desruzctive principles and
fialse issues.  Thus both parties have been poisoned and corrupted, and their conservative principles abandoned by the leaders of sections of each. But let us make war upon them both,




11
and cut off the poisoned limbs, that we may if possible save the
body from the corrupting influence.  I have been a member of
the Whig party from its commencement, I like my party much,'but I love my country more, and before I will fight under the
banners and for the abolition principles of some of its leaders in
this State, I will see the Whig party broken into ten thousand
fragments.  I will rebel against their dictation, I will snatch
from the hands of the unworthy standard-bearers, the banner
which they abuse, and if I am alone, will wave it over my head,
and stand or fall by itc  I do not desert them, nor its conservative principles, but the Whig party deserts me, for the leaders,
like the Israelites of old, in their mad idolatry, have gone lusting after strange gods. I will have no compromise with abolition principles or abolition leaders-we must root them up as
poisonous weeds; we must put upon then the ban of public opinion, and drive them from our midst, as did the Levites the lepers fromn their cities, and we must prostrate them to the earth,
and as they throw dust upon their heads, compel them to raise
the cry of warning, " unclean."-" unclean."
As to Free soil, we are all for free soil.  There is not a man
north of Mason and Dixon's line, who ever wishes to see slavery
extended beyond the area now prescribed by law; but the God
of nature, by the rugged mountains, rocky deserts, and by the
climate and soil and rich vallies of our free territories, has created a proviso against the further extension of slavery, stronger
than ten thousand Wilmnots can draw.
As to slavery in the abstract, I do not believe there is a man
north of Mason and Dixon's line, who would not rejoice if tomorrow's sun could rise upon the black population of the South
CONSTITUTIONALLY free: for our African brother, be he bond or
free, springs with us from the same mother earth, is bound with
us into one common grave, and heir with us to one immortality.
I believe I am a much better abolitionist than those who would
mislead the colored race to their ruin. The laws to reclaim runaway slaves, must and will be strictly guarded and watched in
their execution.  I will with all my heart, without fee or reward,
give to any alleged slave who may be arrested under the act,
my services as his counsel, if he will trust me with his cause; I
will defend him with all the legal skill and power I may be
master of, but, if after a full hearing, the Commissioner on the
proof pronounces against him, he and I must submit to the Law.
But even then a deserving, imeritorious slave shall not be without hope. I will set about buying his freedom, (but I'will not
go among the abolitionists for their subscription,) and I will contribute towards it my first fee, to make him. a free and regenerated man. In that sense I am an abolitionist.
There are two other resolutions, which I am sure will meet
the approval of all who hear me. They are, that we hold the




12
ties of the Union stronger than the shackles of party, and that
at no future election will we vote for any candidate who is
known or believed to be favorable to a further agitation in Congress of the slavery question, or who would countenance the
abolitionists in their destructive course. I here to-night forone,
renounce all party allegiance, where it comes in conflict with;
my allegiance to the Union. MAfy motto is, my country first, my
party last. 1 will render no personal subserviency to any candidate -who is not sound on that subject; I care not for the phalanx of party, as I have no political ambition to gratify. I have
never bowed the knee to popular favor, I have never asked thepeople for their votes, I have never touched a dollar of the people's money. My post of honor is a private station.
Hereafter I will see wcho are the conservative candidates, not
where they are; and if my party gives itself up to leaders who
will betray its principles, I will no longer fight under its banner, but if need be I will go over to the conservative branch of
the old Democratic party, and with a buck-tail in my hat, and
the tattered banner of old Saint Tarmmany waving over me, I
will there aid in fighting the battle of:' the Constitution, the
Compromise, and the Uniona.
[Froi the Speech of EDWARD,ANDFoRD].
In complying with the wishes of the Committee of Management, and appearing before you, [ cannot withhold the expression
of my profound regret, that in this age of the republtc, an occasion should have arisen for convening this vast assemblage, to
do what may be in your power to avert the dangers impending
over the Union of these States. When I was entering upon my
manhood, the dark cloud of Nullification lowered upon the Southern States of this confederacy, and open resistance to the Federal
Government was threatened, because Congress, as it was alleged, had passed laws which were not within the scope of the
authority granted to it by the Constitution. The executive authority of that government was then wielded by a hero and
statesman from the south, around whom  every affection of my
youthful heart became strongly entwined, and in that great
crisis the immortal JACKSON declared those emphatic words
"The Union, it must and shall be preserved." At the same period a great statesman from the north, when nobly doing battle
in the councils of his country and earning for himself the proud
appellation of " the defender of the constitution," uttered that
imperishable sentiment, "Liberty and Union now and for ever,
one and inseparable."  At that time the principle of devotion to
the Union as it was formed by our forefathers, was universal in




13
the Northern States, and he who dared to suggest its dismenr
berment, was regarded as guilty of moral treason.
But from whence comes the cry of nullification now?  In
what quarter of' this confederacy is the present peril which has
called you from your homes to take counsel together, and concert action for the preservation of the existence of this nation?
From  the north! from our neighbors around us, but not from
among us. And against what does rebellion now revolt?  Not
against an act of Congress of questionable constitutional force
of operation; but against the great basis of this Union, the federal constitution itself?  By the fourth article and third subdivision of the second section of that instrument, it was agreed
betwreen the several States and ordained by the people of the
UJnited States, that 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. It is against
this clause of that solemn compact that a portion of our fellowcitizens of the Northern States are now directing their open and
concerted resistance, and they are practically nullifying this sacred promise of protection to the rights of their brethren at the
south.  But for this provision it is well known that this Union
could not have been formed, and the domestic tranquillity and
the blessings of liberty which we have enjoyed under it could
inot have been secured. And unless it be faithfully and inviolably observed, it is apparent that injustice will be done, and that
sooner or later this Union will be dissolved.  At the ttnme of the
formation of the constitution, involuntary servitude or slavery
existed in the greater portion of the States, and it was indispensable to the security and enjoyment of' this species of' property
in those States, that persons so held to service could not change
their legal condition by passing into a state where such property did not exist, and which did not recognize any right to
such property. The object of the constitution was by force of
its own terms, by the paramount power of the great fundamental law, to continue the condition of servitude upon all whose
lot it is to bear it, and to extend the rights of masters, so as to
secure a prompt and effectual fulfilment of that condition in
every State and territory of the Union, -without regard to the
public law or public policy of any State, or to the private feelings or opinions of any citizens of any State in respect to that relation.  Its design was to prevent either the love of liberty or the
hatred of' slavery, the wildness of fanaticism or the reckless or
mischievous love of notoriety and agitation in any and in all parts
of the wide spread territory of the federal Union, from obstructing
the rights of owners of slaves to secure their services in every portion of the land. The great charter of our Union creates this abso



14
lute and unqualified right on the part of the owners of persons held
to service who shall escape into another state, and by the terms of
the compact it is equally the duty of every citizen who enjoys
the protection and benefit of the federal government to see that
this portion of the supreme law of' the land is fairly, firmly, and
fully carried into effect.  Under this clause of the constitution
there can be no such thing as escape from the condition of servitude, or from the obligations arising from  that condition, by
fleeing into the territory of a fiee state.  When there, the constitution declares that the fugitive "shall be delivered up on
claim of the party to whom his service or labor may be due."
It is a popular error that supposes a fugitive slave may become
free by escaping from the state in which he is held, into a free
state, or by any length of residence in a free state. Nothing
but manumission can free him from the obligation of servitude.
In whatever portion of the Union he may be found, his master
has the right, under the constitution, to take him back to his
service, which a parent possesses to reclaim a runaway child.
The nullifiers of this section in the constitution cannot cover
their unjust and unlawful designs against the existence of this
glorious Union as it is by declaiming against and denouncing
the recent act passed by Congress, making additional provision
for the restoration of fugitive slaves.  So far as that act operates upon the lights of masters, it is restrictive of' the broad
and unfettered rights declared in the constitution itself.  By
force of the constitution alone, and without the aid of any act
of Congress, or any of the machinery of' the courts of justice, the
Supreme Court of the United States have solemnly decided, that
the owner of a slave is clothed with the authority in every State
of the'Union to seize and recapture his slave wherever he cart
do it without any breach of the peace.
The act of Congress of 1850), as well as the act of 1793, add
nothing to the powers nor to the rights of owners of slaves, and.
merely prescribe evidences of claim  and forms of proceedings,
and provide the aid of the ministers of the law, that unfounded
claims mray be properly guarded against, and illegal violence be
prevented.  Those of our fellow-citizens who say that fugitives
from  service shall not be restored, array themselves directly
against the federal constitution, and deliberately trample upon
that which secures the blessings of liberty to us and our posterity.  They claim  the protection of the constitution and laws
for their property, and refuse to execute provisions in behalf of
their southern brethren, because they possess property of a different description.  Is not this factious?  Is not this dishonest?
How can we ask our fellow-citizens of the Southern States, to
remain in this compact of union with us, when we refuse to
execute the provisions inserted in the constitution for the pro
tection of their rights?  How can we ask them to feel assured




15
that our disregard of the letter of the compact shall be confined
to the fugitives fiorn their service who shall escape or be inveigled from the.n, and that the agitation shall not be carried to
their homes and their firesides?
But it is said by the agitators that the South will not, that
the South cannot, that the South dare not withdraw from this
Union. I have always apprehended that a practical destruction
of this Union, or confederation of sovereign  or independent
States, was a matter much more likely to be readily achieved,
than to be of difficult attainment.  This Union is a matter of
compact, where the continued obligation of the one party to fulfilhis engagements, rests upon the continuedl performance by
the others of those stipulations which protect his rights. Suppose five States shall say to the other States, you refuse to perform your constitutional obligations to us, and we will no longer
remain in confederacy with you.  We will send no representatives to your National Legislature, and no laws passed by that
body shall be enforced within our limits. What is to be done?
Do you say send an army and navy, blockade their ports, burn
their cities, and slaughter their inhabitants?  What kind of a,
Union will this be?  Is the State which has been driven from
the Union by the refusal of other States to respect its guarantied
rights, to be conquered by the federal arms, and held as a vanquished country?  Are youT to wage war upon your brethren because they will no longer submit to your wanton invasions of
their chartered rights?  No! I trust never. If force is not *to
be resorted to in such. a contingency, what is then to be the condition of these States?  The tie which unites them is broken,
and each stands alone in its sovereignty. You have instructive examples of the calamities which may then befal us in the
past history of the South American States. If it shall be said
that new confederations may be formed, scarcely less powerful
than our glorious Union, let me ask who will enter into a new
constitutional compact with you, when you have refused to respect and to execute the rights created by our present charter?
No, fellow-citizens, let us not look at the probable consequences
of a disunion, nor the possibilities of a re-union, but rally in
support of the solemn covenants of the constitution, determined
to stand by THE UNION AS IT IS.
In this patriotic cause we can hold no fellowship with those
of'our fellow-citizens, who, believing in a "higher law," or in
" no law," are friends of the Union, but of that Union in which
every other citizen shall submit to their doctrines and sentiments.
There is no higher law nor higher duty of man upon this
earth, under his duty to his God, than the performance of contracts, and our present happiness is put in jeopardy, and our future prospects are clouded by the apparent determination of con



16
siderable numbers of our fellow-citizens to disregard the express
injunctions of the constitution. I am not of' the number who
seem to think that this may be done with imnpunity.
How  can these dangers be averted?  First and mainly,
through the ballot-box. Let no man whiT<o is not known to be
firmly and resolutely opposed to all further agitation, who is not
known to be anl ardent supporter of the constitution and of the
whole constitution AS IT IS, be entrusted with political power.
When fire-brands shall no longer be thrown friom our legislative
halls and executive chambers, minor agitators will soon hide
their diminished heads. In politics let us know no cause but
that of our country, no party but that of the Union. Let us
support no nomination, come from whence it may, which does
not present to us a candidate who is animated by a love for his
whole country, and who is not ready to execute all its laws and
maintain its institutions in their full vigor and purity. Secondly,
let us reason with the deluded, let us arouse their patriotism,
awaken their sense of justice, bring them out from among the
unjust covenant breakers. and turn their efforts to the promotion
of their country's peace and safety; and lastly, let us put the
mark of disapprobation in enduring characters upon all reprobate disturbers of the public tranquillity and moral traitors to
the union of these States.
[From the Speech of OGDEN HOFFMAN.]
I came not here as Whig or Democrat; I have not mingled much the past few years in strictly political meetings, and
(do not design to enter anew the exciting arena of political discussions. But when I found the Union in dangelr,-xwhen I
found the Constitution set at naught,-when I found the laws
openly resisted-and saw our glorious Union reeling under blows
from agitators at the North and factionists at the South, I felt it
my duty to come forward, and stand by all lovers of our comrmon country in this crisis of our danger. I come because I
love my country more than party. Do not misunderstand me
-I believe the honest men of' both the great parties are attached to the Union, and intend to be faithful to the Constitution
and the laws of the land: and speaking for that party with
which I acted-Nwith whose success my warmest hopes are
identified and for whose triumph my best exertions shall be
given, I believe that the great mass of the Whig party are, as
they always have been, faithfalf to the Constitution, the Union,
and the Laws. I come not here as the advocate of slavery: I
deplore its existence, and so does every patriotic and Christian
citizen in the Southern States. It is, however, no fault of theirs
that it has been entailed upon them. I remember that the Con



17
stitution found it there; that it recognized its exisitece; and
but for such recognition —but for the spirit of compromise, which
marked that recognition-the Constitution could never have
been framed. By the same spirit of compromise alone can it
be preserved. I hurry on from any of the expressions of the
feelings natural to a speaker on an occasion like the present, to the more important considerations which press upon our
notice. Look at what this Constitution, and the Union thereby
effected, have done for our country. See our commerce whitening every sea, and the hand of industry rewarded with plenty~
Standing on our own soil, we may see the bright sun rising over
the billows of the Atlantic, and quenching its setting beams in
the waters of the Pacific. Our land has been the home of the
oppressed of all nations. It is advancing with gigantic strides
to greatness, an illustrious beacon to light the way of truth and
justice over all the earth. Who, that witnesses our upward
career, apply typified by the flight of the noble bird we have
chosen and adopted as our national emblem, would see the eagle, while soaring in his pride of place, checked in mid career
and fall lifeless to the ground? Who does not remember when,
at the last session of Congress, disunion was muttered in our
national halls, how the throngs in our busy city, where prosperity had smiled upon every face, were filled with anxiety and
alarm? At that crisis, high above the voice of faction and the
clamors of party, was heard the glorious voice of Henry Clay
-[at this word the enthusiasm of the audience could not be
restrained, and the cheering broke out again and again]-that
voice, I say, eloquent with the cheering words of patriotism, of
counsel, and of hope. It seemed as if the occasion had given
new vigor to his wasted frame; and casting aside alike the
chains of sectional feeling and the weight of years, he advocated the claims of our common brotherhood with all the fervor
and talent of his younger days. And there was another, —he of
the mighty mind, who came forth from tribulation and trial at
home, and threw the weight of his mighty character in favor
of the Union. I refer to Daniel Webster. [Here the applause
was again renewed and continued.] He had before been known
as the 1"Defender of the Constitution," but he has now added
to this the title of "' Champion of the Union." From every part
of the Union there were found true patriots, who casting aside
party trammels, and party dictation, stood up manfully with
these, and fought and conquered with them. I need not name
those to whom I refer. The honest of all parties will long bear
them in their hearts. But there is one, a stranger to you and
to me, against whom, I candidly confess, I at one time entertained some prejudices, and to whom I am therefore the more
desirous to render justice. He, too, like Daniel Webster, came
forth from trial and tribulation at home, (for the ultraism. in the




18
valley of the Mississippi is as dangerous as the abolitionism of
the north,) and like him, perilled everything as a public nman,
even to his place as Senator, in defence of measures essential
to the support of the Union; he is, therefore, particularly entitled to the homage and gratitude of his countrymen. I refer to
Gen. Foote, of Mississippi. [His name was greeted with prolonged cheers, and the speaker then suggested that the audience should reserve their applause until the conclusion of his
speech, in order to save time.] But I need not particularize
each of this noble band; from the North and the South, from
the East and the West, they stood up together, shoulder to
shoulder, and fought manfully for the common safety; they
fought and conquered, and peace once more spread her white
wings over the land. But scarcely had civil dissension-that
viprous worm which gnaws out the bowels of the State-been
"scotched," when the voice of disunion again broke forth, to
condemn the peace measures thus designed to restore concord
and harmony. At the South, the bill for the admission of California was attaclked, and its authors villified, while at the North,
the abolitionists, forgetting the gallant sister thus added to our
confederacy, complained that every thing had been conceded,
and selected the fugitive slave law as the especial object of
their attack, branding all who voted for it, with the most violent epithets fanaticism could suggest. What is the purport of
that law? It is the same in principle as the law of'93, passed
by the fathers of the Revolution, and signed by the illustrious
Washington.  Do they say that this law does away with the
trial by jury in the State to which the slave has fled? So did
the law of'93. Is a slave liable under this law upon ex parte
statement to be taken back -to bondage? So he was. under the
enactment signed by Washington, and in both enactments is
the habeas corpus preserved. But the law which provides for
the return of fugitives from justice is no less stringent. Suppose
a citizen of Georgia should come here, and, after committing a
crime, flee to his Southern home. He is liable by this law to
be tort from his wife and children, on ex parte testimony, and
to be dragged here for trial. But where are now the tears of
the tender-hearted over the stringency of this law? But there
are extradition treaties with foreign nations, by which we bind
ourselves to return fugitives from justice who shall flee to us
from their shores.
A fugitive fiom abroad who has made this country a refuge
and a home is liable to be seized by process based upon ex parte statement, is denied the right of' trial by jury, and is taken
back to be tried, perhaps by a code of laws more bloody and
oppressive than' any to which our countrymen would submit.
Are there any tears shed over his fate? Any vigilant committees appointed to protect him from the pursuer?  No  all the




19
sympathy of these agitators is reserved for the poor slave. This
professed sympathy for the poor black man's wrongs, does not
extend to any practical efforts to buy the poor fugitive's freedom; it will give nothing to the Colonization Society to purchase him ecual rights in Africa; it is merely a weapon in the
hands of agitators, nor can they care, if in using it they sunder the cords which should unite all classes of our people in a
common destiny.
[From the Speech of JAMEs T. BRADY.]
These two classes-the fanatic and the demagogue —are nowd
rivals in the bad effort to defeat a law of Congress. I mean the
Fugitive Slave Law. And what is that? You have heard it
well explained by my able friend,'Mr. Evarts. It is a constitutional method which the general government has prescribed, by
which an American citizen, in any State of the Union, may recover his property. This law is obstructed in its execution by
numbers of men at the North and East. It is so obstructed by
the same men who scout at the idea that anything can disturb
our Union. Let us pause, reflect, and compare. We all remember the time when South Carolina was unwilling that an
offensive law should be executed within her territory. I do not
stop to consider any of the political questions growing out of
that occurrence. At that time she had a son and a representative whose name this country can never forget-John C. C(alhoun. My own political friends know well how much I honored that great and pure statesman while he lived. You are prepared to hear me declare, that I love and revere his memory.
When that State thus assumed a position deemed so unwarrantable, the whole power of the general government was at once
directed against her; the'lead in this movement being taken by
one whose course was promptly to decide and efficiently to act.'That was called Nullification. What, I would ask, is the course
nowv pursued by too many in reference to the Fugitive Slave
Laxv'2  A nullification infinitely worse, because, as Mr. Sandford has told you to-night, it aims, not at a mere act of Congress, but at our great national charter. Some of you may suggest, that the opposition to this law is only individual action.
I fully admit that the general government is not responsible for
the acts of citizens; but this I do say, that our constitution and
Union are a mockery, and our professions here a silly delusion,
if we do not feel ourselves required to demand, that, in the efficient and thorough execution of the Fugitive Slave Law, the
entire power of the federal government be so exercised, that no
effort of an individual or a mob shall possibly prevail against




20
it. Unless this'be done, our pretended Union is not worthy a
moment's regard. It is not an affair merely of parliament. It
has taken root, and it must grow and strengthen in the affections of our entire people. If any member of the confederacy
be sustained in the slightest violation of our national compact,
then I have no hesitation in declaring, that the sovereign State
whose rights are permitted to be disregarded has a perfect right
to secede. There is nothing in our covenant which can morally bind any State to remain in the Union if its constitutional
rights be not preserved in their full and unqualified vigor, by
the utmost power and resources of the general government.
I know that there are in this State miserable politicians of
both parties, who are afraid to consider, and unwilling to acknowledge, the plain. truths which I have uttered.; but I for one,
as a member of the Democratic party, utterly and forever disclaim connection with any man or set of men, who, from any
motive or for any purpose, seek or wish to have abated, in the
slightest degree, the most rigorous and exact observance of our
national compact, in each and all of its provisions.
I hate the abolition party. This is not because I have any
hatred of the colored race. I would be amongst the first to protect, and elevate them, if my disposition to do so were not restrained by duties mnch superior to the gratification of any vain
or capricious fancy. I am for preserving our Union, not as a
bargain merely, but as a great brotherhood of men who seek to
promote the happiness and glory of mankind. We know that
we scarcely possess a national character. The diversity of climnate, soil, and institutions in our vast territory has separated
many of our States, as if an ocean rolled between them. The
founders of the constitution, aware of this fact, completed that
stupendous work on the basis of compromise. They saw, as
we do now, that between the South Carolina planter, and the
Massachusetts farmer, there was a difference of individuality,
almost as great as that which distinguishes the Irishman from
the Scot.  This difference has naturally created sectional antipathies which the true patriot has from the formation of our
governnent been trying to eradicate, so that the American feeling, like the American name, should be diffused over our widespread territory. The fanatic and the demagogue are endeavoring to widen the breach, to increase the repulsiveness
amongst those, who, exulting in a common baptism  derived
from a co mmon country, should permit no geographical boundaries to make them feel or act otherwise than as brothers.
The enemies of our Union base all their wicked efforts on an
affected love for the blacks. They are doing what is well calculated to excite a war of races, by which one of them would
surely be exterminated.
If that struggle should ever occur, I knovr that I speak your




21
settlements, in declaring, that whatever may befal, we will.
stand by our own race, and aid it in the fulfilment of the glorious mission for which it was unquestionably designed.
I will detain you no longer. I have strong hopes that our
Union will survive the assaults and injuries it now encounters.
I found those hopes on occasions like this, when men, without
distinction of party, assemble to raise their voices in favor of
maintaining the Union at any hazard and at every sacrifice.
To do this, it is only requisite that the North and the South,
the East and the West, should do justice to each other. We
have but to keep our promises and observe our national contract. This meeting well indicates that our city has resolved
upon discharging all its duties to the whole country. I am delighted, indeed, that such a meeting has been called-delighted
that it has been so numerons and enthusiastic. To all traitors,
it is the handwriting on the wall. To:all patriots, the glorious
bow of political promise.
[From the Resolutions adopted at the Meeting.]
3. Resolved, That we cordially approve of the recent measures of Congress for the adjustment of the dangerous questions
arising out of the acquisition of territory under the treaty with
Mexico, and that, in consideration of tile various and discordant interests to be affected thereby, we hold that the comnpromise a fair one, and ought to be sustained by every patriot in
every part of the land.
4. Resolved, That the heartfelt thanks of this community,
and of the whole nation, are due, and on our part, are hereby
tendered, to those eminent statesmen and patriots, Clay, Cass,
Webster, Fillmore, Dickinson, Foote, Houston, and others, who,
when they saw the Union in danger, threw themselves into the
breach, disregarding all personal consequences, forgetting all
party predilections, and willing to be sacrificed, if need be, for
the good of the country. Resolved, by this patriotic devotion to
their country's good in a crisis so momentous, they have achieved
for themselves immortal honor, and for the Union, we trust, an
imperishable existence.
9. Resolved, That we regard our obligation to the constitution and the Union as superior to the ties of any of the political
parties to which we may hitherto have belonged, and that on
all future occasions we will range ourselves under the banner
of that party whose principles and practice are most calculated
to uphold the constitution and to perpetuate our glorious Union.




22
Jcct~'ra  of a Letter fron  DANIEL WEBSTER, Of OCt. 28, 1850.
I am led. to the adoption of your 9th or last resolution in an
especial and emphatic manner, by every dictate of my understandin.g, and I embrace it with a full purpose of heart and
mind. Its sentirments are my sentiments.  With you I declare,
that I range myself " under the banner of that party whose prin" ciples and practice are most calculated to uphold the Constitu"tion, and to perpetuate our glorious Union."
E'vtract firom  a Speech delivered by HENRY CLAY,  ir the
fHouse of Representatives of iKetucky, Nov. 19, 1850.
But if it (the Whig party) is to be merged into a contemptible.
Abolition party, and if Abolitionism is to be engrafted upon -the
Whig creed, from that moment I renounce the party and cease
to be a Whig. I go yet a step further:  If I am  alive, I will
give my humble support to that man for the Presidency, who,
to whatever party he may belong, is not contaminated by fanaticism, rather than to one who, crying out all the time that he
is a Whig, maintains doctrines utterly subversive of the Constitution and the Union..Extract frorz the Proceeding's of the Union Meetizng held at
Philadelphia, November 21, 1850.
[F romz the Speech of JosEePiE RANDALL.]
The im~portant subject which now agitates the people of this
country, is that of fugitive slaves and the Act passed by Congress
at their last session, giving the owner facilities to claimn his ftgitive slave.  This act is, in its spirit and principles, wise,
judicious, and constitutional. It was passed at the close of the
session; it masy bear, upon the face of it, the impress of some
haste in legislation  and in some of its minor provisions it may
require amendrnmen.ri, but its cardinal features are just and salutary. It oug'ht not to be expected that a whole system can be
struck out at a single heat; amendments, developed by practice,
-will suggest themselves.
The 3d paragraph of the 2d section of the 4th article of the
ConDstitution of the tUnied States, provides that "':No person




23
held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereinr
escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or reg'ulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but
shall be delivered up on the claim of the party to whom such
service or labor may be due."
It has been generally supposed that the introduction of this
clause into the Constitution was a matter of compromise.  If the
term  compromise implies any equivalent for, or reluctance in,
its adoption, it is incorrectly used.  A reference to the minutes
of the convention, (page 306) will shew that on the 29th of
August, 1787, this section was moved and seconded and passed
unanimously in the affirmative, without amendment.
The wisest and best men this country ever produced, in the
days of its primitive purity, gave it their cordial and solemn
sanction.  It is the product of' the intellect anid patriotism  of
Mfadison, Hamilton, Ja'y, and their illustrious compeers; and it
is stamped with the approbation of Franklin and Washington.
Cotemnporaneously with the adoption of the Constitution, the
different Legislatures accompanied their assent with a flood of
amendments. ]M2an1 y of them were most minute, and some of
them were even subject to the charge of frivolity.  The free
States were at that time among the foremost in their variety of
suggestions: but not a single exception was taken by any State
to this provision.
But its principle may be defended -without a recurrence to the
authority of the patriots to whonl I have referred.  It enacts no
new principle.  Previous to the Declaration of Independence, a
slave who fled from  one colony to another, still remained the
property of his master, and the master had a right to reclaim
him. Between the 4th of July, 1.7'76, and the 9th of' July, 1778,
when the articles of confederation were adopted, the Tight of the
mnaster remained the same.  After the adoption of the Articles
of the Confederation, and before the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the right still continued inviolate, not in consequence
of any provision in the Articles of Confederation,  but by virtue
of the well-known and estabhlished laws of' nations 2as then understood and acknowledged throughoutL the civilized world.
Thus it will be seen that this right is coeval with the existence
of slavery in this countrl-that'i- l1n1s -leens sanctiJlned by all
the Colonial, State, Confederate and'eder at Governnments which
have ever existed in the United States.
But I will go farther and state in the most broad and comprehensive sense, that it is an acknowledged principle of the laws
of nations, that slaves are property, and that whenever a slave
flees from one country and seeks refuge in another, the State frol
which the slave has fled has the right to demand the delivery
up of the fugitive; and if such delivery be refused, has also the
right to pursue and obtain it by force of arms.  This doctrine has




24
the authority of the highest Courts of Judicature in Great Britain,
and of the Supreme Court of the United States; and is sanctioned by the authority of the most eminent judges and civilians
who ever lived in this or the mother country, including Sir William Scott and Chief Justice Marshall. It is recognised by the
State Legislatures, (including Pennsylvania) who before the existence of the Federal Constitution abolished slavery; by the
act of Parliament of 4 & 5 William,  1833, abolishing slavery in
the West Indies; by the writers on the Civil Law; by Vattel
in his Treatises on the Laws of Nations, (B. 2, chap. v. page
160); and by Mr. 5Wheaton in his Treatise on International
Law, (part 4th, chap. I. page 339 —40, id. 177 to 187.)
This doctrine has also the sanction of the authority of the two
most powerful nations of the present day. The treaty of Ghent,
signed Dec. 24th, 1814, provided that all territory, places and
possessions, taken by either party from the other during the war,
should be restored without delay. These terms did not include
a claim  upon Great Britain for American slaves taken by
British arms during the war; but the United States affirmed
that they were entitled to the restoration of those slaves or full
compensation for them. It was subsequently left to the arbitrament of the Emperor of Russia, who, on the 22nd of April, 1822,
decided that the United States were entitled to full compensation
for the slaves so taken. The government of Great Britain ratifled the award, and paid to the United States the sum of.1,200,000. And it should not be forgotten that these treaties
were concluded under the diplomacy of John Quincy Adams,
first as Comnmissioner at Ghent, and subsequently as Secretary
of State under Mir.. Monroe.
What is now asked fiomn us by the Southern States? Nothing
more but that we should not aid and assist their slaves in running away, and harboring them as -fulgitives. It is not necessary at this time to enter into a history of the manner in which
the emancipation of slaves was effected in Great Britain. Mr.'Wilberforce had for thirty years brought the subject before Parliament, without mnaking the slightest impression upon either
the government or the public mind. He contented himself with
submitting the measure and having it decisively rejected from
itme to time, as often as it was presented. His conduct at the
York election in 1807, towards Lord Milton, had led many to
doubt the extent of interest which that great champion of emancipation himself took in the measure. Upon the accession of
William  the Fourth to the throne in 1830, the Tories and
Whigs ran a race on this subject, in order to secure public sympathy and support. If it had been to emancipate the same
number of slaves living at home amongst themselves, it cannot
admit of a doubt that it would never have been consummated.
But under all the excitement in Great Britain, it never wa.s




25
proposed to emancipate the slaves without a full and ample
compensation to the master for the property which he held in
them. British statesmen, writers, and impudent emissaries have
done much to produce the present state of public opinion among
the Abolitionists in this country; they have interfered most unjustifiably in our domestic affairs, but let us do them justice,
they never encouraged the fugitive slave to run away, nor proposed any system of emancipation by which the master should
be deprived of his property without just satisfaction. The paternity of such a measure is an honor that belongs exclusively
to the American Abolitionist.
The wilful harboring of a fugitive slave is a grave offence in
morals as well as law, and those who commit this offence, can
exculpate themselves upon no other ground than the recognition
of a higher authority than the Constitution and laws of the
Union, the benefits of which they are continually enjoying, and
which in all other matters they seek for their own protection.
I freely admit that among the few Abolitionists in our community, are to be found the most exemplary men in private life,
but their purity of character is of no value when they jeopard
all that is dear to us.
The present Fugitive Bill should be honestly carried out by
the Judicial authority of the country, and the exercise of that
power should be strengthened by public opinion. This is the
issue; if we do not cheerfully concede this ground, we violate
the original Federal compact, and give the South just ground of
complaint. I have no respect for the intelligence or motives
of the man who will attempt to evade this question and say
there is no danger, and that the free States can continue to do
so as they have done and preserve the Union.
[From the Letter of JAMES BUCHANAN, NOV. 19, 1850o]
Let me then call upon your powerful and influential meeting,
as they value the union of these States, the greatest political
blessing ever conferred by a bountiful Providence upon man-as
they value the well-being of the slave and free negro-as they
value even the cause of regular and constitutional emancipation, —to exert all their energies to put down the long continued
agitation in the North against slavery in the South. Is it unreasonable that the South should make this demand?  The
agitation has reached such a height that the Southern people
feel their personal security to be involved. It has filled the
minds of the slaves with vague notions of emancipation, and,
in the language of General Jackson, threatens "to stimulate
them to insurrection and produce all the horrors of a servile
war."  Although any such attempt on their part would be easily
3




26
and speedily suppressed, yet what horrors might not in the
Pmean time be perpetrated! Many a mother now retires to rest
at night under dreadful apprehensions of what may befal hers
self and her family before the morning.  Self-preservation is
the first instinct of nature; and, therefore, any state of society,
in which the sword of Damocles is all the time suspended over
the heads of the people, must, at last, become intolerable'To
judge correctly of our relative duties towards the people of the
South, we ought to place ourselves in their position, and do unto
them as we would they should do unto us under similar circumstances.  This is the golden rule.  It was under its benign influence that our Constitution of mutual compromise and concession was framed, and by the same spirit alone can it be
maintained.  Do the people of the North act in this Christian
spirit, whilst stigmatizing their brethren of the South with the
harshest epithets, and imputing to them a high degree of moral
guilt, because slavery has been entailed upon them  by their
forefathers; and this, too, with a knowledge that the consequences of these assaults must be to place in peril their personal safety, and that of all they hold most dear on earth? I repeat,
that this constant agitation must be arrested by the firm determnination and resolute action of the vast majority of the people
of the North, who are known to disapprove it, or the sacrifice
of our glorious Union may and probably will be at last the consequence.
2. I shall proceed to present to you some views upon the subject of the much misrepresented fugitive slave law. It is now
evident, from all the signs of the times, that this is destined to
become the principal subject of agitation at the next session of
Congress, and to take the place of the Wilmot Proviso. Its total repeal or its material modification will henceforward be the
Lattle-cry of the agitators of the North.
And what is the character of this law?  It was passed to
carry into execution a plain, clear, and. mandatory provision of
the Constitution, requiring that fugitive slaves, vwho fly from
service in one State to another, shall be delivered up to their
masters.  This provision is so explicit that he who runs may
read. No commentary can present it in a stronger light than
the plain words of the Constitution.  It is a well known historical fact, that without this provision, the Constitution itself
could never have existed.  How could this have been oi;herwise?  Is it possible for a moment to believe that the slave
States would have formed a union with the free States, if under
it, their slaves by simply escaping across the boundary which
separates them would acquire all the rights of freemen?  This
would have been to offer an irresistible temptation to all the
slaves of the South to precipitate themselves upon the North.'she Federal Constitution. therefore, recognises in the clearest




27
and most emphatic terms, the property in slaves, and protects
this property by prohibiting any State, into which a slave might
escape, from discharging him from slavery, and by requirtng
that he shall be delivered up to his master.
But, say the agitators, the fugitive slave law, framed for the
very purpose of carrying into effect an express provision of the
Constitution, is itself unconstitutional. I shall not stop to argue
such a point at length, deeming this to be wholly unnecessary.
The law, in every one of its essential provisions, is the very
same law which was passed in February, 1793, by a Congress,
many of whose members had come fresh from the convention
which framed the Federal Constitution, and was approved by
the Father of his Country. If this be so, it may be asked
whence the necessity of passing the present law? Why not
rest upon the act of 1793? This question is easily answeredl.
The Act of 1793 had entrusted its own execution not only to the
Judges of the Circuit and District Courts of the United States,
but to all State magistrates of any county, city, or town corporate. The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States,
in the case of Prigg v. the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
deprived these State magistrates of the power of acting under
the law. What was the consequence?  Let us take the Stafe
of Pennsylvania for an example. There were but three individuals left in the whole State who could judicially execute the
provisions of the Act of 1793-the Circuit Judge and the two
District Judges. Two of these Judges reside in Philadelphia,
and one of them at Pittsburg, a distance of more than three
hundred miles apart. It is manifest, therefore, that the law in
many, indeed in most cases, could not have been executed for
want of officers near at hand. It thus became absolutely necessary for Congress to provide United States officers to take the
place of the State magistrates who had been superseded. Without this, a constitutional right could have existed with no adequate means of enforcing it.  The fugitive slave bill was
passed chiefly to remedy this defect, and to substitute such officers instead of the State magistrates, whose powers had been
nullified under the decision of the Supreme Court.
It is worthy of remark, that several of our Northern Legislatures, availing themselves of the decision of the Supreme Court,
and under the deep excitement produced by the agitation of the
Wilmot proviso, passed laws imposing obstacles to the execution
of the provisions of the Constitution fobr the restoration of fugitive slaves. I am sorry, very sorry, to state that Pennsylvania
is among this number. By our act of 3d of March, 1847, even
the use of our public jails is denied for the safe custody of the
fugitive; and the jailer who shall offend against this provision
is deprived of his office, and is punishable with a heavy fine
and a disqualification ever again to hold a similar office!




28
The two principal objections urged against the Fugitive Slave
Law are, that it will promote kidnapping; and that it does not
provide a trial by jury for the fugitive in the State to which he
has escaped.
The very same reasons may be urged, with equal force,
against the Act of 1793; and yet it existed for more than half
a century without encountering any such objections.
In regard to kidnapping, the fears of the agitators are altogether groundless. The law requires that the fugitive shall
be taken before the judge or commissioner. The master must
there prove, to the satisfaction of the magistrate, the identity of
the fugitive, that he is the master's property, and has escaped
from his service. Now, I ask, would a kidnapper ever undertake such a task?  Would he suborn witnesses to commit perjury and expose himself to detection before the judge or commissioner, and in presence of the argus eyes of a non-slaveholding community, whose feelings will always be in favor of the
slave? No, never. The kidnapper seizes his victim in the
silence of the night, or in a remote and obscure place, and hurries him away. He does not expose himself to the public gaze.
He will never bring the unfortunate object of his rapacity before
a commissioner or a judge. Indeed, I have no recollection of
having heard or read of a case, in which a free man was kidnapped under the forms of law, during the whole period of more
than half a century, since the act of 1793 was passed.
But it is objected to the law that the fugitive is not allowed a
trial by jury in the State to which he has escaped. So it has
always been under the act of 1793, and so it is under the present
law. A fugitive from labor is placed upon the very same footing, under the Constitution, with a fugitive from justice. Does
a man charged with the commission of a crime in Maryland fly
into Pennsylvania, he is delivered up, upon proper evidence, to
the authorities of'the State from which he fled, there to stand
his trial. He has no right to demand a trial by jury in Pennsylvania. Nay more; under our extradition treaties with foreign
powers, does a man charged with a crime committed in England
or France fly to the United States, he is delivered up to the
authorities of the country from which he fled, without a trial by
jury in this country. Precisely the same is the case in regard
to a fugitive from labor. Upon satisfactory proof, he is delivered
up without a trial by jury. In the Constitution he is placed
upon the very same footing with fugitives from justice from
other States; and by treaty, he is placed upon the very same
footing with fugitives from  justice from  foreign countries.
Surely the fugitive slave is not entitled to superior privileges
over the free white man. When he returns to the State from
which he has escaped, he is there entitled to a trial by jury, for
the purpose of deciding whether he is a freeman. I believe




29
every slave State has made provision by law for such a trial
without expense, upon the petition of the slave; and we have
heard it announced from the highest authority in the Senate of
the United States, that such trials are always conducted in
mercy, and with a rigid regard to the rights of the slave.
Why should an act of Congress cast such a reflection upon
the judicial tribunals of a sister State, as to say they shall not
be trusted with the trial of the question whether an individual
is entitled to his freedom under the laws of the State from which
he has fled?
But to allow the fugitive slave a trial by jury in the State
where he is found, would, in many instances, completely nullify
the provisions of the Constitution. There are many, I fear very
many, in the Northern States who place their conscience above
the Constitution of their country; and who would, as jurors,
rescue a fugitive slave from servitude against the clearest testimony, thinking, at the same time, they were doing God's service.
The excited condition of public feeling in many portions of the
North would disqualify honest and respectable men from acting
as impartial jurors on such a question.  Besides, the delay, the
trouble, and the expense of a jury trial at such a distance from
home, would, in most cases, prevent the master from pursuing
his fugitive slave.  He would know that should he fail to obtain a verdict, this would be his ruin. He would then be persecuted with actions of slander, of false imprisonment, and every
kind of prosecution which ingenuity could devise.
The defeat of the Wilmot Proviso, and the passage of the
Fugitive Slave Law, are all that the South have obtained by
the Compromise.  They asked for the Missouri Compromise,
which it is known that for one I was always willing to concede,
believing this would be the most just, equitable and satisfactory
arrangement of the Territorial question between the North and
the South.  But that has passed away.  California has been
admitted as a State into the Union, with a positive prohibition
of Slavery in her Constitution; and whether the Mexican law
abolishing Slavery be in force or not, in the remainder of our
Territorial acquisitions, does any man believe that Slavery will
ever prevail among the Mormons in Utah, or among the inhabitants of the snow-clad hills and mountain valleys of New
Mexico?  Besides, the Slave trade has been abolished in the
District of Columbia. What then of the Compromise practically
remains for the South but this Fugitive Slave Law, passed to
carry out a clear constitutional provision!  It is the only coinmpensation which they have received for what they believe to be
the great injuries they have sustained. Will they then patiently submit to have this law repealed, essentially modified, or
nullified?  Before its passage, the Constitution had become, in
regard to fugitive slaves, almost a dead letter. It is a notorious




30:tact, that all along the border which separates the free from the
slave States, every facility was afforded for the escape of slaves
from their masters. If they could pass the line, their safety
was almost certain. They were scarcely ever, in the language
of the Constitution, " delivered up on the claim of the party to
whom such service or labor may be due." In many instances,
the master or his agent who pursued them was insulted, assaulted, beaten, and imprisoned; and few men could be found bold
enough to incur the hazard of such a dangerous undertaking.
In this manner the Southern people were annually deprived of
their property, guaranteed to them by the Constitution, to the
amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Constitution
was nullified, and this law was passed for the protection of their
constitutional rights! Will they tamely surrender it? Let the
voice which speaks in tones of thunder from the United South
answer this question. They will at last, I trust and believe,
submit to all the provisions of the Compromise, provided the
Fugitive Slave Law be faithfully executed in the North; but
they will go no further. All the resolutions even of the Union
meetings in the South speak this language. Future aggressions
must cease, or the Union will be in imminent danger.
Let us then resolve to put down agitation at the North on the
slave question, by the force of enlightened public opinion, and
faithfully execute the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law.
Should this be done, it will eventually extinguish those geographical parties-so dangerous to the Union, and so murch
dreaded by the Father of his Country-which have sprung into
existence; it will ameliorate the condition of the slaves, by enabling their masters to remove the restrictions imposed upon them
in self-defence, since the commencement of the present troubles,
and will restore the natural and constitutional progress of emancipation which has, in several States, been arrested by the violence of the Abolitionists.
The Union cannot long endure, if it be bound together only
by paper bonds. It can be firmly cemented alone by the affections of the people of the different States for each other. Would
to Heaven that the spirit of mutual forbearance and brotherly love
which presided at its birth, could once more be restored to bless
the land! Upon opening a volume, a few days since, my eyes
caught a Resolution of a Convention of the Counties of Maryland, assembled at Annapolis, in June, 1774, in consequence of
the passage, by the British Parliament, of the Boston Port Bill,
which provided for opening a subscription " in the several
Counties of the Province, for an immediate collection for the relief of the distressed inhabitants of Boston, now cruelly deprived
of the means of procuring subsistence for themselves and families
by the operation of the said act for blocking up their harbor."
Would that the spirit of fraternal affection which dictated this




31
noble resolution, and which actuated all the conduct of our
revolutionary fathers, might return to bless and re-animate the
bosoms of their descendants! This would render our Union
indissoluble. It would be the living soul infusing itself into the
Constitution, and inspiring it with irresistible energy.
V':ctracts froom the Proceedings of the Constitutional Meeting ai
Fanel.uil Hall, Boston, NTovember 26, 1850.
[DR. WARREN'S Address.]
It is not without reluctance that I appear before this great
assembly to take part in the political proceedings of my fellowcountry men   Having from  an early period of life devoted
myself to professional duties, I have not entered actively into
the politics of' the day; but I have never ceased to feel the
deepest interest in the security and prosperity of our common
country, and have ever considered, that, when these were in
danger, it was my duty, as well as that of every good citizen, to
devote mind and body to their protection and preservation.
Such a crisis seems now to have arrived. The Union and,
consequently, the existence of this nation, are menaced, and,
unless there is a great and general effort in their support, we
may soon behold the mighty fabric of our government trembling
over our heads, and threatening by its fall to crush the prosperity which we have so long and happily enjoyed.
It has been my lot to have lived during a period when there
was no Constitution and no Union; when there was no commerce, no manufactures, little of agriculture, or of any of the
arts calculated to make a powerful and happy people. It was
a period when there was no sound currency, no confidence between man and man, no harmony in the action of the different
states. It was a period when men's hands were turned against
their neighbors, when the courts were beset with armed men,
when law and justice were trampled under foot, when our best
towns and villages were threatened with pillage, fire, and the
sword; when the soil was polluted with the blood of its own
citizens. I remember the unorganized little band of fathers of
families, who, in that emergency, issued from this place, feebly
provided with arms or with the other means calculated to put
down a daring and desperate rebellion. What a dark moment
was this! What dreadful foreboding arose in the minds of those




32
who had been expending their labor, their treasure, and theis
blood for the safety of an unhappy country!
But in the midst of this gloom a ray of light showed itself.
A constitution was proposed, and, after a cautious investigation,
and careful adaptation to the various interests of the country, was
adopted as a bond of everlasting union. Under this Constitution
a new order of things has arisen. Commerce and agriculture
have revived. Manufactures have everywhere grown up. Edum
cation, literature, and science, have been diffused in all our cities
and towns. The highest prosperity has pervaded the nation,
and presented to the wondering eyes of Europe the spectacle of
a federal republic, free without licentiousness, and rich without
luxury.
Now, let me ask, is there any one desirous of returning to
the disunion of 1786? Is there any one who is willing to trifle
with, to spurn at, or to go behind this Constitution? If there
is, I cannot go with him. I go for the whole CONSTITUTION
and the whole UNION, as the best security for the liberties of
the people. FoR THESE I STAND HERE; and if I am not ready
to exert every faculty which I possess to uphold them and maintain them, I shall be false to the blood which runs in my veins,
false to the ancestors from whom I am descended, and false to
every sentiment of my own heart. I stand, then, at all hazards,
for the Constitution and the Union, one and indissoluble, now
and forever.
[-2d and 6th Resolutions, offered by W. AW. GaREENOUGH.]
2. Resolved, That it would be folly to deny that there has been,
and still is, danger to the existence of the Union, when there is
prevalent so much of a spirit of disunion, constantly vweakening
its strength and alienating the minds of one part of the people
of the United States from another; and if this feeling be not
checked and restrained, and do not give way to a spirit of conciliation and of patriotic devotion to the general good of the
whole country, we cannot expect a long continuance of the political tie which has hitherto made us one people; but must rather look to groups of rival neighboring republics, whose existence will be a state of perpetual conflict and open war.
6. Resolved, That men who, directly or indirectly, instigate or
encourage those who are or may be the subjects of legal process,
to offer violent resistance to the officers of the law, deserve the
reprehension of an indignant community, and the severest punishment which its laws have provided for their ofence; and
that we have entire confidence that any combination or attempt
to fix such a blot upon the fair fame of our State or City, will
be promptly rebuked and punished by an independent and impartial judiciary, and by firm and enlightened juries.




33
[From the Speech of B. R. CURTIS.]
i undertake to say, that men of forecast must then have fo:reseen, and subsequent events have demonstrated, and it is now
known, that without an obligation to restore fugitives from service, Constitution or no Constitution, Union or no Union, we
could not expect to live in peace with the Slaveholding Staths.
You may break up the Constitution and the Union to-morrow;
you may do it by a civil war, or by what I could never understand the method or the principles of-what is called a peaceable secession; you may do it in any conceivable or incornceivable way; you may draw the geographical line between
slaveholding and non-slaveholding anywhere; but when we shall
have settled down, they will have their institutions, and we shall
have ours. One is as much a fact as the other. One engages
the interests and feelings and passions of men as much as the
other. And how long can we live in peace, side by side, without
some provision by compact, to meet this case? Not one year.
Any reflecting man can satisfy himself of this, by turning his
mind upon the facts; and history proves it. As early as 1643,
when the country was a wilderness, and the movement of persons from one part to another unfrequent and exceedingly difficult,
the Colonies of Massachusetts and Plymouth, Connecticut and
New Haven, found it necessary, even in that primitive and imperfect union which they founded to stay themselves against
destruction, to insert an article substantially like this one: " That
if any servant run away from his master, into any of the confederate jurisdictions, that in such case, (upon certificate from
one 3Magistrate in the jurisdiction out of which the servant fled,
or upon other due proof,) the said servant shall be either delivered to his master, or any other that pursues, and brings sucli
certificate and proof."
But we need not pause upon this very early experience of our
New England ancestors. The Government of the United States
had not been in operation two years, when the necessity of some
such provision, in some form, to preserve the peace of bordering
independent States, was clearly proved. You know that in 1789
Florida belonged to Spain, and stretched along the southern border of Georgia. Well, Gen. Washington had not been two years
in office when the people of southern Georgia became so uneasy
on account of the escape of their slaves across the border into
Florida, as to make very urgent representations to the National
Government, demanding redress. And thereupon orders were
obtained from the Spanish Court to arrest the further reception
of the fugitives, and to make restitution; and President Washington sent a special messenger into Florida to see to the execution of these orders.
It is unnecessary to enlarge upon this. If any one in this age




34
expects to live in peace, side by side with the slaveholding
States, without some effectual stipulation as to the restoration of
fugitives, he must either be so wise as to foresee events in no
way connected with human experience, or so foolish as to reject
experience and probabilities as guides of action.
I know it may be said, "' Let the contest come. We are ready
for it. Let the blood of the slaughtered be upon the heads of
those who are in the wrong."  When I look abroad over a
hundred thousand happy homes in Massachusetts, and see a people, such as the blessed sun has rarely shone upon-so intelligent,
educated, moral, religious, progressive, and free to do everything
but wrong; when I call to mind its admirable Constitution of
government, and that it comes as near to perfection as the
lot of humanity permits; when I remember that these things
are the free gifts of that awful Being, who holds peoples and
nations in the hollow of his hand, I fear to say that I should
not be in the wrong to put all this at risk, because our passionate
will impels us to break a promise which our wise and good fathers
made, not to allow a class of foreigners to come here, or to send
them back if they come.
With the rights of those persons I firmly believe Massachusetts
has nothing to do. It is enough for us that they have no right
to be here. Our peace and safety they have no right to invade;
whether they come as fugitives, and being here, act as rebels
against our law, or whether they come as armed invaders.
Whatever natural rights they have, and I admit those natural
rights to their fullest extent, this is not the soil on which to
vindicate them. This is our soil-sacred to our peaee-on
which we intend to perfbrm our promises, and work out for the
beneqit of ourselves and our posterity and the world, the destiny
which our Creator has assigned to us. So far as He has supplied
us with the means to succor the distressed, we, as Christian men,
wrill do so, and bid them welcome, and thank God that we have
the means to do it. But we will not act beyond those means;
we will not violate a solemn compact to do it; we will not do it
by holding up our hands and swearing to render a verdict according to the law and the evidence, and then knowingly violate that
oath; we will not plunge into civil discord to do it; we will not
shed blood to do it; we will not so throw away the rich gifts
which He has conferred upon us, not for our benefit alone, but
in trust for the countless generations of His children.
In my judgment, these are not means which He has confided
to us to enable us to succor the needy and the oppressed of other
States, and, so far as depends upon me, these means shall never
be used.




35
[From the Speech of B. F. HAILLETT.
I mtrn aware, Sir, that I may be supposed to stand here sonme —
wh.- t in a representative character from the personal relations E
hol() to a party always national in its principles and measures
wh, lever the Union is concerned; and I may be pardoned for
say — Ag, that to be associated with and to deserve the approba.tiot:A,' its true men, is the dearest and highest ambition of my
hea:r,  It becomes me, therefore, if in my power, to say and do
noti.neg that shall be unworthy of them or of this great occasion;
anC I.m feel the strongest assurance that however imperfectly Imay
dis -::iPge this trust, I can commit them only to themselves and
to i:!-i ir  cause, -when I pledge that party, as far as I may, to the
Col.-:.it.iution, the Union, and the whole Country!
I: s good, then, for us to be here to-day.  There are occario' i  and assuredly this is one, when it is well to forget that we
bel.; to parties or sections, and to remember only that we are
citi-:,:rs of the United States.
[!:  purpose of this meeting and the spontaneous call of five
thou:, u-Aid names which combines so much of the moral, physical,:::  niary, and intellectual strength of this community, all
poit', o  the Union, its preservation and the supremacy of its
law
T'.:::,ugh no man severs himself from his party by coming here
to-d:- - nor pledges himself to any new one, yet every right-minded c:-;en must feel that there are occasions in which his country -i:. -: above all party, and when the true men of all parties
are;- rind to unite in an expression of public sentiment that shall
givw  11ovated strength to the bonds of our Union, and renew
the    m u-ral vows and engagements we have made, and which
our 5:, ~hers entered into for us. that whenever and wherever a
que: i l arises between Union and disunion, law  or no law, a
sect  of the country or the whole country, we will be found on
the:-] of the Union, the laws, and an united country.
8~.  occasions have presented themselves before to-day, to
test    st::  strength of the Union and the supremacy of an unpopular l-:. over a popular sentiment.  I mean unpopular in one seetion::d popular in another section of these States, and in all
these-'ises the laws and the Union have triumphed over all local t::ectional interest arrayed against them.
MW. Piresident, just about eighteen years ago, one of the most
numn,: -ous and weighty assemblages that ever gathered in this
hall Do Ance the revolution, came together to pledge themselves to
the support of the Constitution and of the laws for the collection
of tile Lariff revenue, then threatened with nullification by a single s:othern State. Then Massachusetts insisted on the enforcement Ai a law which she regarded as essential to her property
and industry, but which South Carolina detested.




36
Now, the threatened nullification comes from  Massachusetts
upon a law which she may dislike, but which not only South
Carolina, but the whole South, insist is vital to the protection, of
their property and industry.  And shall Massachusetts nullify
that law, is the question?
But it is said that there is no crisis and no call at present for
a demonstration of the friends of the Union, and that there are
no disunionists in New England!  If, indeed, there be none,
then are we all unanimous for the Union and for upholding its
laws, and it surely can do no harm to proclaim it to the world and
from Faneuil Hall, that we are the friends of the Union, ready to
abide by and sustain the laws of the Union, and anxious to remove all disturbing causes that may here or elsewhere tend to
its dissolution. In a word, that we go not only for the integrity
of the Union, but for the peace of the Union. But are we sure
that the Union is safe while extremes North and South continue
to agitate and indulge in mutual criminations, and especially
while we see in our midst a strong attempt making to direct public opinion in the course of what is termed by its advocates a
peaceful resistance to law, but which can be peaceful only just
so long as all'who do not oppose a certain law permit these
peaceful mobs and meetings to have their own way in prostrating that law, and substituting for all laws they happen to dislike an undefined "; higher law," of which every man is to be
his own expounder, and to act as judge, jury, and executioner!
Sentiments that have gone forth from this hall, or from any
place or meeting in Massachusetts, adverse to the Union or the
supremacy of law, should not be allowed, unrebuked, to form
one jot of the public opinion of this Commonwealth, and should
be met with an unequivocal expression of the friends of the Union
who mean by the Union, the whole Union, and by the laws we
are sworn to maintain, the whole laws. And we are here to-day
for the purpose of calmly and resolutely giving that expression
as citizens of the thirt-t-one United States, and as lovers of the
Union without distinction of party.
This alone is a sufficient reason for the call that has brought
together this large assemblage.
If it be said that the Whig party is the party of Union, and
that alone can preserve it-that the Democratic party is the par-ty of Union, and that only can uphold it,-so much the better
for the country. Then the Union will be safe whichever party
may predominate in the nation, and surely if both the great
parties have the same aim and end in view in preserving the
Union, they will have more strength when both unite together
in that sacred purpose, and they will present an impregnable
barrier in every section and in every State against the encroachments of those who may seek to undermine the Constitution or
divide the Union into sectional, conflicting, geographical parties.




37
Hut on the other hand, if a democratic sectional party, or a
whig sectional party, or an exclusively sectional Southern or sectional Northern party should predominate, or even hold the balance of power in the Union, who would guarantee its endurance for a single session of Congress.'We cannot shut our eyes to facts unless disposed to be wilfully blind. During the longest session in which the Congress of
the United States have been together in our history, this very
question of Union and disunion has engaged their whole attention. They have at last brought about a series of compromise
acts as peace measures, which, like the compromises that established the Constitution originally, are believed to be the only
means that can perpetuate the Union; and now the question for
us to-day is, whether we will in good faith abide by and carry
out these peace measures, or whether we shall rush into renewed
agitation, and sink the whole useful legislation of the country in
a sectional conflict, which all the signs of the times indicate
cannot continue much longer, and we remain, as we now are,
one people.
The single fact that these peace measures of compromise are
denounced by the extremes of both sections, is the highest evidence that they are such as the patriotism and good sense of
the calm and considerate should approve.  If we go to either
extreme, and that prevails, it must inevitably shatter the Union.
If we stand on the middle ground, we stand on a platform broad
enough to cover the whole country, and strong enough to uphold
and sustain it, without a single fragment being broken off.
And now what higher or holier purpose can call together the
citizens of the United States, in all its cities, towns, and borders,
than to renew our pledges to stand by the Union, and the laws,
at this time and in these days, when we find in one section of
the Union its value not only calculated, but pronounced worthless, and in another section resort is had to a new form of moral
treason, which assumes, by the mysterious power of an unknown
"higher law," to trample down all law?
If ever the legacy of Washington to his countrymen had
meaning and purpose, it now comes home to us in his solemn
warning to "indcignantly frown upon the first dawning of every
attempt to alienate one portion of our country from the rest, or
to enfeeble the sacred ties which bind tog,ether the various parts."
Who that loves his country can conceal from his judgment
the conviction that there has come upon us, not only the dawnin g of this attempt, but its progress almost to the meridian, and
if it is suffered to reach the point of its political culmination before its decline, that decline can only happen with the decline
and fall of the American republic.




38
[From the Speech of S. D. BRA)DFORD.]
And why, permit me to ask, must the Constitution, the charter,of our liberties, the work of Washington, Franklin, Adaims, Jef
ferson, and of the other illustrious statesmen.arnd sages who
formed it, be destroyed? The answer is, because according to
them it contains an article opposed to what is called in the cant
of the day "' the higher law,"' which forbids, they allege, the
restoration to his master and owner of a fugitive slave.  We
have been living under this article of the Constitution and under
the law of 1793, made to enforce it and signed by Washington,
fifty-seven years, and until very recently have heard of no cornmplaint against it; but now all at once the cry is raised by some
persons that it is unconstitutional, and must be resisted even unto
blood, and to the dissolution of the Union. Where, let me inquire, have these fanatics with such tender consciences been
living during all this long period?  Have they, like Rip Vafn'Winkle, been asleep in the Kaatskill mountains, not twenty, but
fifty-seven years, and they have just awoke on the eve of the
recent elections? I have remarked on former occasions that the
qualms of their consciences have been periodical, as Kean the
actor once said the taste for Shakspeare was in Boston; and they
were always most distressing a short time previous to the second Monday in November.
But have they read the Fugitive Slave Bill of the last ses'sion,
and compared it with that of 1793? If they will do so, they
will find it rather a recognition of an old law with the addition
of certain needful amendments, than a new one.  It was not
passed hastily, as some have asserted, but was discussed in the
Senate during four long summer days from the 19th to the 23d
August, section by section, and received the sanction of Some of
the greatest and best men in the nation.  The yeas and nays
were many times called for, and the latter seldom  exceeded
eleven, whilst the former were double or treble that number.
The opposition to it in the Senate, so far as one can judge by a
report of the speeches, (I do not say it invidiously, was feeble
and inefficient. The impression left upon the mind of the reader
is, that the gentlemen who spoke against it were acting under a
restraint, perhaps imposed by the Legislatures of the States to
vrwhich they belonged.
"But no individual in the Senate," to use the words of Mr. Clay,' was hardy enough to maintain that a Fugitive Slave oughl t not
to be returned to his owner and lawful master."
Should any one be of the opinion thatparts of the Fugitive Bill
of 1S50 are more stringent than that of 1793, he should lelnember its enactment would not have been called for, had the old. law
been enforced in accordance with its true spirit, and as Washington, who signed it, intended it should be. Do you, can you be



39
lieve for a moment that it would have been sustained by IMr
Clay, General Cass, Mr. Foote, and by the other distinguished
statesmen in the senate who advocated it, had they believed it
unconstitutional or unjust?  Who does not know that the law of
179:3 has been pronounced constitutional by Chief Justice Taney,
by Mr. Justice Story, and by many other profound jurists who
might be named; and as respects the Bill of 1850, Mr. WAebster,
who long since was proclaimed the "Defender of the Constitution," and has now acquired, and justly too, the honorable title of
"' Champion of the Union,"' has not only declared it to be constitutional, but has also said "1 that no one whose opinion was worth
regarding, has pronounced it otherwise."  The same opinion has
been given by the distinguished counsellor Mr. Curtis, to whom
we have all had the pleasure of listening to-day, and who, every
citizen of Boston knows, holds the very first place in his profession here. He must be a bold man, who would venture to
oppose his individual opinion to such authority as this. But then
the objection is iade that if the Fugitive Slave Bill be constitutional, it is after all opposed to what is called the " higher law.'
This phrase " higher law," perverted as it has been by fanatics,
is fast becomin.g a byword. Its real meaning is nullification, repudiation, or abolitionism; and we all know what these words
mean. But may not a law be too high?
I remember to have seen in a conspicuous place in Florence,
in Italy, an elevated column surmounted by a figure of Justice
with the scales; and I also remember that a citizen of Fielorence
passing by it, and seeing a foreigner gazing at it, is said to have
remarked td him that'" J.ustice was so high in PFlorence nao t no
one cozuld reach it."  The same charge, I strongly suspect, may
bE made against the higher law of the Nullifiers and Abolitionists. It is above justice, for it refuses to return the property of
our brethren. of the South when found w'ithiln our precincts.
Well! what then, fellow-citizens, is to be done in this crisis of
our public affairs 2  Does any one believe that -the South will
continue to remain, in the Union unless the Fugitive Bill be carried into effect according to its true spirit?  Can we expect it;
or should rwe respect our brethren in the South, were they to remain. indifferent spectators of the violation of the law,? It must,
then, be carried into eef'fect  -e"  eably if we canI forcibly if
we nunst"; or the Union will be dissolved, and the nation will be
plunged into all the horrors of anarchy, and probably of' civil
war.  Can it be that we have those amongst us, and American
citizens too, wh.o would raise their parricidal hands against the
blessed Union, the work of our -forefathers, and the foundation of
that noble structure erected upon it, the United States of Alaerica?
It is difficult to realize it: or at any rate that they can be found
in Maassachusetts, the State -which struck the first blow for liberty
and independence in 1775. But if it be otherwise, and the spirit




40
of disunion and fanaticism cannot be extinguished in any other
way, we all remember what was done in 1833 by that hero,
patriot, and statesman, President Jackson, during a crisis in some
respects resembling the present, and how nobly the country supported him, both Whigs and Democrats. The proclamation he
issued will never be forgotten by Americans, and will ever hold a
high, if not the highest, place in the archives of the nation. But
he was prepared, and determined too, to execute the laws by the
other means, had that appeal proved insufficient. Let the memorable words which he used then, "the Union, it mnust be preserved," be our watchword now; and let us frown indignantly
upon every one (whatever may be the party name under which
he nlay range himself,) who would lay his sacrilegious hands
upon the ark of our safety, the Union of the States. Let us no
longer inquire so much of candidates for office, are you Whigs
or Democrats-are you for protection or free trade-for a large
expenditure of the public money for internal improvements, or a
small one; but rather let us put these questions to them, are you
for obeying the laws of your country, or for breaking them-are
you in favor of jeopardizing the Union by a further agitation of
the slavery question —or will you do all you can to give peace
and quiet to the distracted country, of which it stands so much
in need. Let us support them or otherwise, according to the
answer they may give.
In this way only may we still preserve our glorious and once
happy Union, and hand it down with all its blessings to succeeding generations.
[From the Speech of RuFus CHOATE.]
I concur then, first, fellow-citizens, with one of the resolutions, in expressing my sincerest conviction that the Union is in
extreme peril this day. Some good and wise men, I know, do
not see this; and some not quite so good or wise, deny that
they see it. I know very well that to sound a false alarm is a
shallow and contemptible thing. But, I know, also, that too
much precaution is safer than too little, and I believe that less
than the utmost is too little now. Better, it is said, to be ridiculed for too much care, than to be ruined by too confident a
security. I have then a profound conviction, that the Union is
yet in danger. It is true that it has passed through one peril
within the last few months-such a peril, that the future historian of America will pause with astonishment and terror when
he comes to record it. The sobriety of the historic style wilrise to eloquence —to pious ejaculation-to thanksgivings to All
mighty God-as he sketches that scene and the virtues that tri



41
umphed in it. "'Honor and praise," will he exclaim, 6"to the
emitinent men of all parties" —to Clay, to Cass. to Foote, to Dickinson, to Webster —who rose that day to the measure of a true
greatness —who remembered that they had a country to preserve
as well as a local constituency to gratify —wlo laid all the'wealth, and all the hopes of illustrious lives on the altar of a
hazardous patriotism —who reckoned all the sweets of a present
popularity for nothing in comparison of that more exceeding
weight of glory which follows him  who seeks to compose an
agitated and save a sinking land.'Phat night is passed, and that peril; and yet it is still:'ight,
and there is peril still.  And what do I mean by this?  I believe, and rejoice to believe, that the general ju'dgment of the
people is yet sound on this transcendent subject.  But I will tell
you where I think the danger lies.  It is, that while the people
sleep, politicians and philantthl opists of the legislative hallthe stump, and the press —will. talk and write us out of our
TUnion.  -     
If you. concur with me that there is danger, you will concur
with me in the second place, that thoughtful men have something to do to avert it; and what is that?  It is not, in my
judgment, fellow-citizens, by stereotyped declamation on the
utilities of the UnTion to South or North that \ve can avert the
danger.  It is not by shutting our eyes and ears to it that we
can avert it. It is not by the foolish prattle of' 0! those people off there need the Union more than we, and -will not dare to
quit.'" It is not by putting: arms aLimbo here or there and
swearing that we will stand no more bullying; and if any body
has a. mind to dissolve the Union, let him go ahead.  Not thus,
iot thus, felt and acted that generation of our fathers, who, out
of distracted counsels, the keen jealousies of States, and a decayingc Nationality, by patience anld temper as admirable as their
wisdom, constructed the noble and proportioned fabric of our
Federal system.  "0! rise somne other such!;'
No, fellow citizens —there is solnething more and other for us
to do.  And what is that?'  Armong other things, chiefly this —to
accept that whole body of measures of compromise, as they are
called, by which the Governtment has sought to compose the
country, in the spirit of 1787 —and thent, that henceforward every
man, according to his measure, and in his place, in his party,
in his social, or his literary, or his religions circle, in. whatever
may be his. sphere of influence, set himiself to suppress the further political agitation of this whole subject.
Of these measures of compromise, I may say in general, that
they give the whole victory to neither of the great divisions of
the country, and are therefore the fitter to form  the basis of a
permanent adjustment.  I think that under their operation, and
by the concurrence of other agencies, it will assuredly come to
4




42
pass, that on all that vast accession of territory beyond and abov-'
Texas, no slave will ever breathe the air, and.I rejoice at that,
They abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and I
rejoice at that. rT'hey restore the fugitive to the master-and
while I mourn that there is a slave who needs to run, or a ruaster who desires to pursue, I should be unworthy of the privilege
of addressing this assembly, if I did rnot declare that I have not
a shadow of doubt that Congress has the Constitutional power
to pass this law just as it is, anid had 1o doubt before' listened
to the clear and powerful argument of Mr. Curtis to-night,  that
it was out of all questionl their duty to pass some effectual law
on the subject, and that it is incuambent one very man -who recognizes a single obligation of citizenship, to assist, in his sphere1
in its execution.
Accepting, then, these measures of Constitutional compro mise,
in the spirit of Union, let us set ourselves to suppress or mnin
tigate the political agitation of slavery.
And in the first place, I submit that the two great political
parties of the North are called upon by every consideration of'
patriotism and duty to strike this whole subject from  their respective issues.  I go for 110o amalgamation of parties, and for the
formilg of no new  party.  But I admnit the deepest solicitude
that those which now exist, preserving their actual organization
and general principles and aims-if so it must be-should to
this extent coalesce.  Neither can act in this behalf effectually
alone.  Honorable concert is indispensable, and they owe it toA
tlie country.  Have not the eminent men of both these great
organizations united on this adjustmeunt?  Are they not both
primarily national parties?  Is it not one of their most important
and beautiful uses, that they extend the whole'length and breadth
of our land, and that they help or ought to help to hold the ex —
treme North to the extreme South by a tie stronger almost than
that of mere patriotism, by that surest cement of friendship,
common opinions on the great concerns of the Republic?  You
are a Democrat; and hlave you not for thirty-two years in fifty,
united with the universal Democratic party in the choice of
Southern Presidents?  Has it not been your function for even
a larger part of the last half century to rally with tlle South for
the support of the General Administration?  Has it not ever
been your boast, your merit as a party, that you are in an intense,
and even characteristic degree, national and unionist in your
spirit and politics, although you had your origin in the assertion
of State rights; that you have contributed in a thousand rays
to the extension of our territory and the establishment of our
martial fame; and that you follow the flag on whatever field
or deck it waves?-alld will you, for the sake of a temporary
victory in a State, or for any other cause, insert an article in
your creed- and give a direction to your tactics which shall de



43
Mach you frorn such companionship and unfit you for such service in all time to comne?
You are a Whig —t  give you my hand on that —and is not
your party National too?  Do you not find your fastest allies.at the South?  Do you not need the vote of Louisiana, of North
Carolina, of Tennessee, of Kentucky, to defend you firom  the
redllndant canital, matured skill, and pauper labor of Europe?
Did you not just now, with a wise contempt of sectional issues
and sectional noises, unite to call that brave, firm and good OLD
MAN fromn his plantation, and seat him with all the honors in
the place of Washington?  Circunmstances have forced both of
these parties-the Northern and the Southern divisions of both
— to suspend for a space the legitimate objects of their institudion.. For a space, laying them aside, and resolving ourselves
into our individual capacities, lwe have thought and felt on nothing but slavery.  Those circutmstances exist no longer —and
shall we not instantly revive the old creeds —renew the old ties,
and by nmanly and honorable concert, resolve to spare America
that last calamity, the formation of parties according to geographical lines?
I maintain, iu the second place, that the CONSCIENCE of this,ecoimmunity has a duty to do, not yet adequately performed;
and that is, on grounds of moral obligation, inot merely to call
up men to the obedience of law-but on the same grounds to
discourage and modify the fiurther agitation of this topic of slavemy, itt the pirit in tchich1i thus far, that agitation has been conducted.  I rmean to say, that our moral duties, not at all less
thtan our political interests, demand that we accept this compromise, and that we promote the peace it is designed to
restore.
Fellow-citizens, was there ever a developmrent of sheer fana-;ticism more uninstructed, or mere dangerous, than that which
teaches that conscience prescribes the continued political, or,other exasperating agitation of this subject?  That it will help,
in the least degree, to ameliorate the condition of one slave, or
to hasten the day of his emancipation, I do not believe, and no
man can be certain that he knowso  But the philanthropist, so
he qualifies himself, will say that slavery is a relation of wrong,
and whatever becomes of the effort, conscience impels him  to
keep up the agitation till the wrong, somehow, is ended. Is he,
I answer, quite -sure that a conscience enlightened to a comprehension and comparison of all its duties impels him to do any'such thing?  Is he quite sure that that which an English or
French or German philanthropist might in conscience counsel,or do, touching this matter of Southern slavery, that that also
he, the American philanthropist. may, in conscience, counsel or
do? Does it go for nothing in his ethics, that he stands, that
the whole morality of the North stands, in a totally different




44
relation to the community of the South from that of the foreign
propagandist, and that this relation may possibly somewhataye, to a vast extent, modify all our duties?  Instead of hastily
inferring that, because those States are Sister  States, you are
bound to meddle and agitate, and drive pitch-pine knots into
their flesh and set them on fire, may not the fact that they are
Sister Slates be the very reason why, though others may do
so, you may not?2  In whomsoever else these enterprises of an
ofbensive and aggressive morality are graceful, or safe, or right,
are you quite sure that in you they are either graceful, or safe
or right'?    X.      i                                    *X'  X ~'  i
No, fellow-citizens-first of men are the builders of empires!
Here it is, my friends, here-right here-in doing something in
our day and generation towards "': forming a more perfect Union"
-in doing something by literaturte, by public speech, by sound
industrial policy, by the careful culture of fraternal love and regard, by the intercourse of business and friendship, by all the
means within our command —in doing something to leave the
Union, when we die, stronger than we found it, —here —here is
the field of our grandest duties and. highest rewards. Let the
grandeur of such duties-let the splendor of such rewards suffice
us. Let them  reconcile and constrain us to turn from  that
equivocal philanthropy, which violates contracts-which tramples on law —which confounds the whole subordination of virtues
— which counts it a light thing that a nation is rent asunder, and
the swords of brothers sheathed in the bosoms of brothers, if
thus the chains of one slave may be violently and prematurely
broken.
[From the Letter of DAVID HENSHAW, NOV. 23, 1850.]
It surely is time that all good and patriotic men, regardless of
former divisions, step forward to sustain the Union, now assailed by a spirit of fanaticism, fiction, and anarchy-a Union that
cost to establish it, the blood and treasure, the anxiety, toil and
suffering of the revolutionary war —a Union that has given to
our own people peace and security, wealth and prosperity, and
-has afforded a safe abode and a happy home to immigrants from
other lands.
The slave question is made the wedge to divide us, the great
bone of contention.  Groundless complaints are conjured up by
artful, vigorous, and ardent minds to alarm the timid, the uninformed, and misiniormed, and to impel them on by fears to destroy our national compact, and even our nationality, for the vain
purpose of redressing ideal wrongs, and of removing imaginary
evils, or evils, if real, that do not weigh on those who foment
the excitement, and in the correction of which they have no
right to meddle.




45
In examining this slave question, it will be seen that slavery
was planted in the American colonies by the policy and power
of the mother country, against the wishes and remonstrances of
the colonists; and this condition of the two races, the white and
the black, the condition of master and slave, existed on the
achievement of our independence, and continued on the establishment of our nationality.  In forming the present Constitution, the pre-existing right of the master to his slave ywas recognized; to secure that right more completely the provision was
inserted for the surrender of slaves fleeing to other States.  It
was never contemplated in the Constitution to invade the authority of the States to manage tl-eir local affairs, or the right
of defining the powers, duties, obligations, and political condition of the residents wvithin their borders.
The present generation in the slave States, both white and
black, were born to this inheritance.  The condition of master
and slave descended to them from the colonial state, and be the
system good or evil. they are not responsible for its existence,
and if responsible for its continuance, it is a responsibility to
themselves, not to Ius.
The Constitution guarantees to the master the right of reclaiming his fugitive slave, and imposes upon those to whom he
escapes, the duty of surrendering him. Here are plain Constitutional rights and duties, which the Act of Congress of 1793,
approved by Washington, was intended to enforce and make
effective, and which it did enforce until within a few  years.
When that law was rendered ineffective, it matters little feom
what cause, it became the duty of Congress to provide an eflicient substitute.   The present Fugitive Slave Bill, against
Mrhich so much clamor has been raised, and such rebellious
and bloody resistance has been threatened, was designed for
this purpose-for the purpose of surstaining undisputed Constitutional rights, of enforcinog well-defined Constitutional duties; and
this result will no doubt be reached if the law be fairlv and honestly executed, and reached, it is believed, without practlcally
invading the Constitultional rights of any one.  At any late,
until repealed, it ougilt to be obeyed and  n-forced.  Feaarf'ul,
indeed, would be the consequences to our Colored population, if
blood should be shed, as some have rashliy advised, in resistance to its execution.
If our Constitutional duties to give up the slave be thus imperative, is not a sound and wise policy equally urgent to keep
the colored population fiom u.s?  Do we want in any wvay to encourage the immigration of the colored people?  What wvotld
be the effect on the white population of this State of the influx
of half a million of negProes, possessing all the political rights of
the white man?  It could not be otherwise than disastrous, perhaps fatal, to one or the other race; for experience teaches that




4G
the two races cannort exist together on terms of equa'tiy —equaiity of numbers and of rights.  Strife, if not bloodshed, wouldI
inevitably follow such a condition of' our population, until thesuperior race obtained the mastery.  In St. Domingo and Liberia, where the neg ro 1be.ars rule, he yields to the white man no
political power.       *-y i','
A high and imperative duty, a wise and sound policy demand
of us the fillfilment of all our Constitatuional obligations;  Every
attemnpt to evade these obl1igations, to resist the laws for enlforcing th.em, should be frowned down- repressed by the irresistible
force of' public opinioln.  The fair fabric of our Government, our'
glorious Union, glorious for the g'ood it has done and the ihap.pilness it still promises, the hope of man the wotrd over, must be
sustained at all hazards;'and for one, I am  prepared to make
-this the paramount political object: superior to party ties, above
local and personal consideratio s.
~xtractsfroim the iSpeech of ALEX AN'. I'EL,'trn defence of the.
Constittlionz and the UnJio.n, at Detroit, Norv. 197 15O0o.
But, gentlemen, we hear it constantly said "there is no dan —
gcr."  Wihat do people expect?  Shall we look fbr signs in the
heavens to warn us of tihe future?  Must an earthquake come
to arouse us firom our slumber?  We go about inquiring:; what
new advices?"  Can anything be more new, than that Americans slhould be debating the dissolution of' the Union?  We
may meet the danger whlen it is actually upon us, but it may
then be beyond our control.   It rnav then be too late.  it is,
far wiser to prevenrt than to combat the dangers of' the fiuture.
Our greatest cause of danger is our blindness to our actual
condition and to the events that are passing around us.  We
have seen Congress unable to legislate for a period of nine
months.  The wheels of' government were almost stopped for
thie want of appropriations.  For a long period the government,
with all its officers, civil;,  ilitary, and executive, was without
money. The aimy was unpaid;  the navy was unpaid; our
foreign mitnisters were unpaid; anrd, in fact, every branch of the
govelrntment was threatened with dissolution, not by the sword,
but b-y sinmple stoppage. Colnventions have been held, one after
another, all over the country, some for Union and soime for Disunion.  The laws of the UnJion are threatened with resistance
in the South and with resistance in the North.
Wh-lilst such is the fearful progress of disorganization about
us, we may be able io measure the present; bat wvho can mea



47,sure tIhe/ fltre?  Who can tell, when and where it is to stop?
From what is passing around us we should draw some usefll
lessons.  Orll dange!r springs not so much from' the adoption of
aggressive merasures against either section of the Ulnion, as from
threatening, and agitating them.  Agitation has brought us to
outr piresoent condition, without the adoption of that measur'e,
whiclh our Southern brethren regarded wvith so much hostility.
Butl there is now a renewed agitation, started upon a more dangeroults basis than the former.  If persisted in, wvho can tell to
what point it it may drive  us, that shall be short of anai:chy and
civil war —civil j waI,; not only with our Southern brethren, but at
last with ourselves?
I am aware, fellox-citizens, that I have used strong language 
but supineness and timidity are unequal to the times.  I may
err in my apprehensions of the future.  I wish I could be assured o-f it.  But if I do, I err in common with the ablest and
wisest statesmen and patriots of the land.  They have thought
aln  declared that there -was and is dan.ger.  I have read the
~warnin:% langluage of McLean, that " there is enough in the
general aspect of our affairs, if not to alarm, at least to admonish ITS, that every cord which  binds us together should be
stren ltlened. "
Ic htvre seen Cass standing up, like the strong oak of the forest,
bnastin, the storm  of sectionalism  from  the North and the
eSotulh;  and there too, side by side, and shollder to shoulder
wit. hinm, stood. Clay anid Webster. To this list mighlt be added
the iatmfeas of Cobb and Boyd, of Dickinson, Douglas,  Houston,
F(,!o; o and many others, too nlun1erous to mention, of' both political petrties and both sections of the Union.  I hrave seen  all
these vith true patriotism  leaping over the boundaries of party,:forg.t'.,.,-g all personal or party feuds, and mingling their voices
in one common eiti rt to'tiun away the storm.  Ought we, my
frie dP-s, to hesitate in following their patriotic example?.Exhr7~t fromn the &Soeech, of REV. Da. TAYLOR,1 Profesrsor of
Di&daclic Theolo?/ ii  Yale  Coll(,oe, delivered at the Union:e.ineo, at cNegtvw Havne, Dec. 25, 1850.
MrI. President and Feltow -itizens:
[ should be exutrm-nely   happy to say something on this
int.:Esti.o'no sllijet, thnut shall subse,;rve in a trifing degree the
ini:-,s of' my cou ntry.  I am happy to be here.  I arn glad
to 1 -.x. a to Nwhat I hlavxe heard.  1. am glad to witness peculiarly




48
the indifference to party ties, when the great interests of the nation, as these depend upon the spirit of tile constitution and,
laws of the country, are in issue.  Long enough has this s1bject been trifled with.  Long enough have the enemies oS law
and order had this subject all on their own side, and reasoned it
all tile wrong way.  I am therefore most ready to expresse my
hearty approbation of the resolutions on the table, and as hsartily imy entire dissent and unqualified disapprobation of all
those attempts.o degrade that article in our constitution  yIPon
which so nmuch has been said, and to trample on the  v.aw,
which all Northern men are bound in good faith to stand by
and support to the very last.  I say in good faith; and I'as if
the compact made between the Northern and the Sout-Aern
States-independent sovereignties-was not a lawful comrpact?
Had not the North interests at stake to justify theim)?  I will
not go into the question whether slavery is a sin.  Be it so, if
you please.  Had they not reason, and good reason, for entering
into this compact?  I will make a supposition: suppose Russia
with her hordes, combined with Gernlany, Austria, PiEus:ia,
F'rance and England, were threatening to conquier and d(evastate your country; and there is slavery in Spain; suppose for our
own protection and safety, we deem it necessary to enter into an
alliance wvith  Spain.  Now  there are slaves in Spain and in
Cuba, arand if this combination is made for our protection, Sp~ain
says some of her slaves will get among our people, and onllr  eople will not deliver them up.  War is coming, desolation is corn-.
ing; it is a sin, if you please, for Spain to have slaves; may wev
not lawfully, and for our own safety, enter into suc1 a Coi:.onact,
and agree to deliver up these slaves?I W7e have not madie  the
slaverr; she is independent, and it is nmade by her own icoal
laws, in the enjoyrent of those rights which she as an- iidlependent sovereign has a right to exercise so far as we are concerned.  Whether she is right so far as herresponsibility to' ilhe
Judge of the earth is concerned, is another question.  Bu  so
far as we are concerned, she has a right to maker. these lhtw;What! may I not buy a piece of' meat of a butcher becatlse he
is profane?  Miay I not make contracts with men wxhose  ciha —
racters, in some respeot, are marred by evil?  }May I not O,:Ionsult my own safety by numerous acts of a defeisive anrd etfederate character, because the men rvho are engaged rit!  ne
are not as good as I wish they were't Is this the prilncmip.:- in
neighborhoods;  Will it do in the family?   Will it do beier
among nations?  What right have we to make laws fb.-r?ho
Soiuthern States?  I am  the friend of slaves; I am  soirry,oi
slaves; I wish them well with all my heart and soul: a.,~ as
I wish them well, I say —cease these agitatioins  Vh a-' the
friends of the slaves at the North?  The agitators of this Stiaject do more to injure the slaves and perpetuate their cdmai-  at




49
the South, than their true friends can do to terminate the evil
for half' a century.
As to the higher law principle:-You expect me to admit of
course that we are all the subjects of Him who reigns amid
the grandeur and glory of eternity; and when his will is known,
that we, as moral beings, are bound to submit.  There is no
question on that point; here is the point —is that article in our
constitution contrary to the will of God-contrary to the law of
nature, of nations, and the will of God'?  Is it so?  Is there a
shadow of reason for saying it is?  I have not been able to discover it.  Have I not shown you it is lawful to deliver up, in
compliance with their laws, fugitive slaves, for the high, the
great, the momentous interests of' these States?  And if it was
lawful to do it, is it not in accordance with the constitution to
make a law providing for that result?  Is there any law of God
against this?  Is there any law  of God against doing lawful
things, which every man must do in the course of his life?  I
do not so understand it.  When I learned in the newspapers the
novel doctrine that the constitution of my country was in conflict with the law of my Maker —when I first learned it, I said
to myselif is it possible that from the high places —from our political halls —-our halls of legislation, a man in a high and honorable situation ventured to propound such a doctrine as that?'
The thought struck me that perhaps lie was not counting without his host; perhaps I too was imperfectly informed; perhaps
at the North there is a degree of infatuation and fanaticism of
which I had not dreamed.  In these visions of my fears I al —
most seemed to see  carnage, blood and revolution over the
land.  I felt very much as it' I had heard a summons to rebellion; I felt very much as if I had heard the cry of revolt
sounding through the land, entering every dwelling, and seen
the standard of revolt waving on every hill.  And, sir, there is
no want of tendency in that doctrine, to give fiull reality to these
anticipations and these forebodings.  Let the doctrine be inculcated-let it be believed at the North-let the northern conscience, whether perverted or unperverted, receive such a doctrine, and wtlat mlay we expect?  We may expect rebellion and
intestine war. And when I think of the morality, the ethics of
this sulject in oui religious newspapers, and in pulpits which
have been given up to those who choose to advocate this doctrine; and when I think how  little truth and argument have
been employed on the other side, I see, or seem to see, the curse
of war over the Union, and directed against the power of law,
and against every principle upon which the fabric, of our nation's greatness and glory depends.  Thus far we have passed
through the stormn; I trust it is over; I am afraid it is not; I
am aft'aid there are evils yet to come-but I think the prospect
blightens; I do think that we have reason to believe, that




50
thouglt  surrounded with distracting causes and influences, tile
people are comning to right views, and that here we have indications that the God of our fathers cares for us.  He is, I trust,
restraining the madness of the people, and in his own good
time, amid the roaring of the tempest, he. will say to the winds
-cease, and to the waves-be still! Stand, then, ioyfellow-citizens, by law! stand by the constitution of our country! That
constitution,-why, sir, like the atmosphere around us, it blesses
us every breath we draw    we walk, we sleep, we exist every
moment under its influence.  What would become of us if the
constitution were trampled in the dust?  No, sir  as has been
said, so say 1, with all my heart and soul, if any of my fellowcitizens do not value the constitution enough to defend it, they
are not worthy of the blessings it gives thenm.
[Resolution.]
Resolved, That we knoxv of no higher law as a rule for
political action, than the constitution of the United States, and
we haver no sympathy or fllowship with men who instigate or
encourage a forcible resistance to the constituted authorities of
the country; we hold such men to be nmischievoulv members of
the community, and justly deserving the severest penalties
wvhich the laws have provided for their offences-and that those
who claim to be too conscientious to yield their obedience to the
laws of' the land, should remove themselves to some other
country, whose institutions tlhey prefer, and niot avail themselves of the benefits of the Union whilst they repudiate its obligations,
Extract fromn the Message of GOVERNOR WRIGHT; of Indiana,
December 31, 1850.
In pursuance of a Joint Resolution of the last session of' the
Legislature, a block of marble, native of the State, was procured
and forwarl ed to Washington, to be placed in the monument
now in progress of erection there, to the memory of the father of
his country.
The General Assembly did not authorize any sentiment to be
placed on the block. I took the liberty of having inscribed the
followin g:
6' Indiana knows no North, no South, nothing but the Union."
I did so, because I believed, as I still believe, that the sentimnent thus engraved on enduring marble, was written also on the




51
hearts of our people; that it was the sentiment of the great mass
of my-,T fellow-citizens of Indiana on the most agitating question
of the day.
Complete unanimity is rarely the incident of human councils~
In a confederacy like ours, differing( as its members do, in soil,
Climate, and productions; in habits, mauntnrs, and social relations;
in local and sectional interests, it could not be expected now, any
mrore than at the birth of our Federal Constitution, that. any
compromise, based upon mutual concessions, should be satisfactory to all.
It is not a practical question whether those measures of peacet
recently framed. by great and good men, in the same spirit which
actuated our fathers in days gone by, are, in every respect, such
as meet our unqualified approval.  It has been well said, that
the lives of the best of us are spent in choosing between evils;
and it is often a bounden duty to endure a temporary and incidental evil for a permanent and inherent good. A domestic institution, forced upon our forefathers in colonial days, rather than
voluntarilv adopted by them, is, for the present, the necessary
policy of our Southern brethren.  Any sudden abandonment of
that policy is impossible.  Even its gradual relinquishment is
beset with difficulty and embarrassment.  The patriots of the
Revoiution, convened to frame a governnent that has endured
for three quarters of a century, has spread over half a hemisphere, the blessings of peace, of political and religious freedomrn,
and of national prosperity, assented to the great principle that
each State of the Union is sovereign, as to tier internal government and her social relations. Without this recognition, absolute
and unconditional, the thirteen original States would never
have concurred in the federal compact.  That was the great
conservative element which bound hearts, though it could not
reconcile opinions. Without that element the Union would not
have been created then.  Without it, the Union cannot be preserved now.
Indiana, a central State, has always maintained a high. conservative position, especially on that exciting question of the
davy which has threatened, more seriously than any other, the
integrity of our confederacy of' States. She is, indeed, convinced,
that she has wisely selected her own domestic policy. She is
satisfied with the degree of' prosperity which, under that free
policy, she has attained. Our State was the nineteenth admitted
into the Union. In wealth, in agricultural and commercial importance, she is now the fifth, if indeed she be not the fourtho
Of the eighteen States which composed the Union when we
were admitted, four, at most, are now in our advance; and not'one of those since admitted has come within sight of' us. MSaintaining her position ahead of' all her younger sisters, Indiana
has wvalked quietly in advance of fourteen of' the older Stateso




In our onward progress we have uniformly acted toward each,
equal to equal.  Our compacts with the Great Confederacy to
which we belong, and every member of it, have been faithfully
kept in letter and in spirit. Neither by legislative act, nor
otherwise, have we withheld from any citizen of the Union the
rights which, under the federal compact, are assured to him.
To'this day no cause of complaint has been given: nor, so far
as I know, has complaint been made, against Indiana, by any
State in the Union.
Above all, Indiana recognizes the imperative duty, by every
good citizen, of obedience to the laws of the land.
Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the late compromise measures enacted. by Congress, however ultra men in
the North or in the South may oppose or denounrce themn there
is but one course of action for the true patriot to pursue; and
that is, unhesitatingly and in good faith to carry out their
enactments.
There is no safety for property, for liberty, nor for life, except
in the absolute supremacy of the law. There is no higher duty
of the citizen than to maintain, by word and deed, that supremacy.  As we value the heritage, rich beyond all price, purchased not with silver or gold, but with the life's blood of the
good and the brave-that heritage bequeathed to us by our
fathers, and which wve, in turn, must bequeath inviolate to our
descendants  let us bear in mind this great truth, that the first
public act of disobedience to law is the first fatal step on the
downward road to anarchy.
The Constitution of this great Confederacy, written on parchment, may be rent asunder, if it- be not written also on the hearts
and affections of' the people. It is written on ours.  We love,
we respect it, we give it our highest sanction, alilke for the sake
of the sacred principles, guardians of human liberty, embodied
in its provisions, for the unnumnlbered blessings we have enjoyed
under its rule; and in memory also of that band of great and good.
men who conceived and established it. This truth should be
understood by our people, that this Union cannot be preserved.
by force. Ifit could, it would not be worth preserving. The
bonds and ligaments that bind us together are moral, and not
physical. Ourm glorious Union is one of consent, and not of force.
It is a Union of confidence, of trust, of love, and of affection.
When these are gone, the Union loses all its attraction and
value.
At no hour of our history have we required, more than
at the present, an infusion into our colncils of' that spirit in
which the articles of our confederacy were first conceived.  As
Representatives, as citizens of Indiana, as citizens of the'United
States, we have diffiult, delicate, important duties to perform.
Foremost among these is the obligation to oppose, by every law



53
fiuel means, that spirit of factious fanaticism alike suicidal xwhereever it has birth, which insidiously assumes the garb, in one
section, of' philanthropy, in another, of State rights. By speech, by
action, by concession, by forbearance, bycompronmise, by the influence of moral suasion and the strong power of' kindness, by each
and all of these means, let us seek to allay the spirit of lawless imisrule  that spirit which instals each man's opinion the arbiter of
constitutional rights, or which coolly estimates the value of this
Union, and looks with steady eye on a separation of these
States, the certain herald of bloodshed and a thousand horrors
a separation to be surely and speedily followed by war, inl its
most odious form-servile, perhaps, as well as civil.,-war among
those of the same race, the same  amle, the same blood-war
that shall bring together in hostile array, neighbor against
neighbor, brother against brother, son against sire.
To avert calamities so direful, Indiana will cast, even to the
last, the entire weight of her influence.  She will be just to
each and every memnlber of' the confederacy-just to the Constitution —just to the laws. She will abide by that Constitutionabide by the laws; and above all, she will abide by the compromises made by our fathers —the compromises made by the
great and good men of' this day.  She will hope, she will pray,
that the same kind and overruling Providence which watched
over our fathers at the adoption of' the Constitution, and has
sustained in every crisis and cheered in every hour of darkness
since, will direct their sons also in the paths of' wisdomn  and of
peace, and enable us to transmit to posterity that sacred instr unent, a guide and a blessing in the Future, as it has ever been.
in the Past.
Indiana takes her stand in the ranks, not of.ouSth.tern destiny,
nor yet of NORTnIERIN DESTINY. She plants herself on the basis
of the Constitution; and takes her stand in the ranks of AsMEaXCAN D-E[ST I NYo.'xtrca'C  fi'lo n a ASerrmon by TnEv.. F. ET'ITELL, of the iliethodiet Episcopcal Society,g PoilghieCepsie, AT.Y, delivered on
Thanksgivin~g', Day.
The Congress of the United States, during' its last session,
passed a law providing for the arrest of Fugitive Slaves, anld
their restoration to their masters.
This law has caused unusual excitement at the North, and
has been assailed by very strong, and, in soi me instances, intern



54
perate opposition.  In sonme quarters, violent resistance has been
threatened, should occasion require its being executed,  The
threat of resistance I regard as wicled and abomainable, answering no end bllt to exhibit the ferocity and madness of those who
make it, and exposing them to the just indignation of all good
citizens. Opposition to the law in. any form, we regard as ltterly unjustifiable, except on one of the two groulnds which we have
before stated, viz., either that it is contrary to the law of God, or
that it is contrary to the constitution.  But we have endeavored
to show that individuals are not to presume either of these cases upon their own responsibility.  We have no right to presurme
a lawv lorally wrong which is required by the constitution, for
thereby we olfend against the general sense of the nation, lunless
we are prepared to show that the nation has repudiated the constitution.  If this Fugitive Slave Law be demanded by the constitution, we cannot judge it abstractly.  The question is not,
would it be right if taken by itself? but. is it right, as part of the
constitution?  If the constitution, as it stands, is upon the whole
the best that the circumnstances of the nation admit of, we are
morally bound to submit to every part of it. We cannot mlake
our conditions with the government, and say we will obey the
constitution if this part be excepted; other men may deem  it
wvicked to sell rum, and refulse subjection to a government whlich
legalizes the rum traffic  others may except to other portions, and
where would such a course end?  If it is, as a whole, the best
that can be, it is supreme law for the whole nation by the authority of God, and every man is morally bound to submit to
every law required to carry out its provisions.  The only proper
question then is, is this law constitutional? and we have already
shown that no man has a right to presume otherwise, until a
competent authoiity has so decided; certain it is that no such7
decision has as yet been had; on t7he contrary, the highest judicial officer of the land has given his opinion that it is in accordance with the constitution.  Here then we migeht rest ou-r arguxient.'-Phis law is the law of the land, and every man is moral
ly and religiously bound to render it respect and submission.
But though we may not presume to accept of a law, purely upon
our own judgmlents, it may nevertheless be gratifying to satisfy
our judgments that it is what it is declared to be, constitutional:
and inl the opinion of the nation, not contrary to the law of God.
I believe this law to be constitutional-not upon my own jjudg —
mnent alone, for I have reason to distrust my own judgment upon
a matter of this kind-but because it has been so declared by
-the ablest imen of this nation, some of''whom gave it their sane-.
tion in Congress, and others of whom have approved of it since.
The President of the United States has signed it; the Attorney
General has given an official opinion, approving of it; and it has
been denied by no one that I know, except men who understand




55
a great many other things better than they do lawv.  I have eandeavored to understand this law, and, in my humble judgmlent,
can see no reason to doubt what so many able men have aft
firl. ed.  I do not consider myself any high legal authority, but
will, nevertheless, venture to state my views.
That the'oject of this law is constitutional, no one can doubtL
The constitution does, beyond all question, recognize the right
of property in Slaves, and it guarantees to every iman the enjoyment of his lawiful ights.  But it would be a manifest violation
of such guarantee to allow mien to be dispossessed of their property, vhether in slaves or otherwise, contrary to the laws of the
State in which they live.  The very design of the constitution
is to secure equal rights to all, without respect to state iines.
Hence, if it recognize a slave as property, and that -without respect to the place lhe may be in, it lmust guarantee unto the, niaster the lawflul possession arnd service of his slave, wherever he
can find him.  The lawful claim of' the master is no - vitiated
by the removal of the slave a certainrnumber of niles, but in thle
eye of the constitution the slave is his, wherever he can estab-.ish a legal title to himn; and it follows that the constitution must
protect him in the enforcement of his claim, in whatever part of
the United States the slave may be. It accordingly makes provisions that " no person held to service or labor in one State, _nder the laws thereogf escaping into another State, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged fromi
such service or labor:, but shall be delivered up on claim  of the
party to whom such service or labor may be due."'  Thle constitution does not create slavery; it simply  guarantees that the
laws of one state shall not be annulled by the people of another
state, and that therefore a slave under the laws of one state
shall not cease to be a slave by the removal of his person into
another state;  It is to carry out this object of the constitution
that this obnoxious law has been passed.
But we apprehend that the chief objections to this law lie
against the lnanner in which it provides for the accomplishments
of its object. The law  provides that the owner of a fL't'itive
slave, or a pelson holding  power of attorney from himn, lay, under a proper warrant, brinc  such fugitive before any court or
judge of the United States, or any commissioner appointed by tlhe
courts of the United States, when it becomes the duty of such.
judge or commissioner to hear and determine the case in a summary manner; and upon satisfactory proof being made as to the
identity of the person, and also as to the fact of' his being really
and truly a slave, to authlorize the claimant to take tile slave
back to the place which he fled from.
It is objected to this mode of proceeding that it does not allow,
the slave to test the question of' his slavrery before a jury, but
ulpon the mnere proof of his identity, and that upon the affidavit




56
of the opposite party, he is delivered up. We observe upon this
objection, that the constitution is the highest law of' the landsupreme above the colmmon law, and above the statute laws of
the several states. If it shall appear that the constitution contemplated this mode of procedure, it is idle to say that it is contrary to the ordinary mode of' proceeding in a property question
under the common law. Whatever may be the ordinary mode
of' proceeding, if the constitution has provided for this particular
case, the question is settled. Judge Story, the highest law authority perhaps in this country, thus speaks upon the clause of
the constitution under which this act wvas passed.  Says he,!"It is obvious that these provisions for the arrest and removal
of fugitives contemplate summary ministerial proceedings, and
not the ordinary course of judicial investigations, to ascertain
whether the complaint is well founded or the claim of ownership
be established beyond controversy.  Ia the case of suspected
crimes, the guilt or innocence of the party is to be made out
upon his trial, and not upon the preliminary inquiries whether
he shall be delivered up. All that would seem to be necessary
in such cases, is, that there should be priima, facie evidence before the executive authority, to satisfy its judgment that there is
probable cause to believe the party guilty, such as upon an ordinary warrant would justify his commitment for trial.  And in
the cases of fugitive slaves, there would seem to be the same necessity, of requiring only prima, fiacie proofs of ownvership, without putting the party to the formal assertion of his rights by a
suit at the colmmon law.  Congress appears to have acted upon
this opinion; and, accordingly, in the statute upon this subject,
(law of' 1793,) has authorized summary proceedings before a
magistrate, upon which he may grant a warrant for a removal."
Suclh was the opinion of lJudge Story, twenty years before this
law was passed.
Again, it is said, that the constitution itself provides that: the
trial of all crimes shall be by jury," which, it is said, this law
violates. Those who quote these words siould riead the next
— " and such trial shall be held in the State where the said
crime shall have been committed."  If it is a crime for a slave
to run away, he certainly commits the crime in the state where
he runs away, and it is there that, by the constitution he imust
have his trial; and surely there is ilothing in this law to prevent it.
Again, it is said, thlat this law deprives the slave of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus.  This writ is a remedy
against unlawful imprisonment. Any man put in prison or held
in confinement, except under the sentence of a court, may apply
to the Judge having jurisdiction, who forthwith issues a writ of
habeas corpus, requiring sulch person to be brought before him.,
and cause to be shown why he was put in confinement.  But




57
after the sentence of a court, having ultimate jurisdiction, adjudgilng a man to imprisonment, there can be no such writ issued, for then the man is in custody according to law; and in
the language of the Attorney General, " it is not within the
province or privilege of this great writ to loose those whom the
law has bound."  It is not intended to nullify laws, but to prevent imprisonment contrary to law. Now those held as slaves
under the laws of the United States, clearly cannot take out a
writ of habeas corpus to try why they are held as slaves, any
more than a man in the State Prison can take out such a writ
to try why he is held in custody.  The laws have already decidedl it. In both cases the person is in custody by authority of
law, and it is surely absurd to talk of suing out a writ of habeas
corpus to make the law show cause why it has put a man in
custody. In the case of a fugitive slave, it is indeed necessary
to prove that he is a slave before his custody is lawful. Accordingly, should a person be arrested on this plea and held in confinement, without due steps being taken to test the question of
hiis slavery, a case might arise when a writ of habeas corpus
would be had, and in such a case there is nothing whatever in
this law to prevent the suing out such a writ.  But by the provisions of this law, the person is not held in confinement, but is
brought at once before a Judge or Commissioner, who is bound
to hear and determine the case' in a summary manner, and
give to the claimant, (if his claim  be established,) lawful authority to take his slave, after which a writ of habeas corpus
can of course have no force.  Mr. Crittenden, the Attorney Generoal, after discussing the law at some length, thus speaks:_
"I conclude by repeating my conviction, that there is nothing
in this bill 7which conflicts with the constitution, or suspends,
or was intended to suspend, the privilege of the writ of habeas
corpus."
But perhaps the strongest feeling of opposition has been expressed against that clause of the law which makes it the duty
of citizens to assist in its execution, and empowers the officer
having charge of its execution, to summon the by-standers to
his aid, should circumstances render it necessary. Upon this
clause of the law, a loud and pathetic wail has been raised, that
free citizens are exposed to the liability of being degraded into
slave catchers; and to hear some men talk, we might all expect
to be summoned fiom our beds to hamstring negroes, and to see
troops of screaming slaves flying through our streets, pursued
by ruthless savages, with pistols and bloodhounds, and to be
ourselves required to join in the ferocity of the hunt.  Now,
those who raise this terrific complaint should remember that
citizens are at all times liable, in case of any obstruction to the
laws, to be called on to aid in their execution. In case of riot,
or the arrest of an escaped convict, or suspected criminal, every
5




58
citizen is bound by the law to obey the sheriff or constable, who
may demand his assistanceo  But from rwhom is obstruction to
this law to be feared, if at all? lW5hy only from those who now
clamor against it. If they will not oppose the law, there will
be no need of' arly one to assist the officers in its execntion.
With the negroes alone they will be perfectly competent to deal.
It would indeed be very revolting to one's feelings to be called
on to assist in arresting a slave. But, practically, what does this
provision amount to! F-low lany of all the gentlemen who now
tremble in their shoes, for fear of being required to lay hands on
a slave, have ever been called on to assist in arresting a criminal. Probably not one in a thousand of all the people in -t'he
United States, ever saw a criminal arrested, and probably not one
in a thousand of all the people in the United States will ever see
a fugitive slave arrested.
But who are the men who matle the loudest opposition to this
law?  W-hy, the men, (I say it more in sorrow than in anger,)
who have themselves, in a great measure, created the necessity
for ito Men who, in violation of the Constitution. which they
have sworn to maintain, wantonly invaded the rights guaranteed
by the Constitution to their f'ellow-citizens-who, not content to
wash their hands of slavery with their countrymen of the North,
have gratuitously followed it to the South, and by indueing
the slave to rise against the laws and escape from his master,
have been instrumental in spreading the curse over the land.
And through their wicked and officious meddling, SLArVERY NOW
EXISTS AT THE NORTH, when, but for them, it might have existed only at the South. It is asserted th'at there are at this hour,
three hundred lawful slaves in the city of Boston, and thousands
more scattered throughout all the Northern States. Whose farult
is it that this curse now exists among us, but theirs who have
invited it here? And if Northern nien are now to be brought
into contact with it, and to be slave catchers, who amomg them
have so little reason to complain as these men themselves?
They have brought the curse among us; they should not shrink
fiom the work of removing it out of our sight. They have
wrought the mischief; they, if any, should be willing to work
the remedy, and thus make some little atonement for the vrong
which they have done the North.
Had they acted before God as good citizens and christian men,
in accordance with the principles of the Gospel and the example of Christ and his Apostles, and shown respect and subrission to the laws, we should not have now been put to the loathsome necessity of contaminating our fingers with slavery; and
we repeat it, no northern men have so little reason to complain
as those wvho could not keep their fingers away from it, when
placed by the law beyond their legitimate reach. A slave running away from his master, is none the less a slave under the




59
constitution. Wherever there are lawful slaves, there is slavery,
and if from the enticement of slaves to the North by northern
men, Congress has been constrained to reassert and confirm this
undoubted provision of the constitution, and thus practically to
revive slavery at the North, whose fault is it, I again ask, but
theirs who have brought it here?  This obnoxious law is baut
the result of a constitutional necessity growing out of the transportation of slaves to the North.
Before concluding these remarks, I wish to allude to an objection brought against this law, on the ground that it is contrary
to the Scriptures. In various quarters a passage has been quoted from Deut. 23, 15, "' Thou shalt not deliver unto his master
the servant that is escaped from his master unto thee, &c."
Those who quote this text should remem.ber, that most able
commentators regard this text as referring to the slaves of
another nation escaping into Judea; such were not to be delivered up. Dr. A. Clark has this comment on the passage —-"' that
is, a servant escaping from an idolatrous master, that he might
join himself to God and his people-otherwise it would have
harbored him."  A slave escaping into Juldea from one of the
surrounding nations was not to be delivered up; and such is to
this day the law of nations, and the law of the United States.'When a few years ago, a number of slaves escaped to this country from the West Indies, in the Spanish vessel Amistad, they
were, by a decision of the United States Court, set at liberty,
and were, I believe, only demanded by the Spanish authorities,
on the ground that the vessel was not within the waters of the
United States when she was taken possession of. So that this
passage of scripture so triumphantly quoted against this law, is
at this moment the law of the United States. That slaves escaping from one tribe to another among the Hebrews were not to
be delivered up, has not been shown. But whatever night
have been the regulation upon this point, it could not have affected very materially the condition of the slave, for slavery existed in all the tribes, and that with the express sanction of God,
as is evident from. Lev. 25, 44, &c. " Of the heathen shall ye
buy bondmen and bondmaids; moreover, of the children of the
stranger that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and
of their families which are among you, which they begat in
your land, and they shall be in your possession.  And ye shall
take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession."
In the New Testament, although the writers all lived under
slaveholding governments, we find nothing forbidding the restoration of fugitives, if the civil law required it. On the contrary,
St. Paul says, " Let as many servants (or slaves, as the word'roperly signifies,) as are under the yoke, count their own mas-:ers worthy of all honor."




60
One of the canonical books of the New Testament, the Epistie to Philemon, is a letter written by St. Paul to a slaveholder,
and sent by the hands of a fugitive slave, in which the Apostle
says, that he had sent the slave back, as without the masters
consent, he considered it wrong to keep him, and asks the master to forgive him for running away. I do not allude to these
texts and instances-as arguments. I do not think that anything
that can be found in scripture has any very conclusive bearing
upon the subject in hand. The circumstances of the age and
country are so different, that we can infer nothing from them
-with certainty. But if men will quote Scripture against this
law, we have a right to show what the Scriptures actually say.
We stand perhaps upon the eve of great events. What may
be in the future, no man can tell. Certain it is, that the wisest
a.nd best in the land discern dangers gathering upon the sky.
ft is a time for the Patriot to be thoughtful and for Christian
men to pray. Let us look with devout hearts to the God of our
Fathers, that as he guided them in the day of their peril, he
may now guide their sons through the difficulties which thicken
around their path. Let us not wantonly stir up the elements of
discord anew. We may kindle a fire that will indeed extinguish the Fugitive Slave Law, but which will at the same time
consume all that is beautiful and fair in this goodly land. Let
us, in the fear of God, reverence the laws. Let us stand by the
Union. The breath of fanaticism blowing from the North, and
blowing from the South, has swelled into a fearful gale, which
threatens to engulf the Constitution. The noble ship is reeling
before the blast. It becomes all on board to have cool heads
and true hearts. May God give her a good deliverance, and
may all the people say Amen.
/ixtract from a Servnon by JOHN C. LORD, D. D.D of the Central
Presbyterian Church, Buffalo.
"THE HIGHtER LAW" IN ITS APPLICATION TO THIE FUfITIVE SLAVI BILL.
As citizens of this State, and of the great Republic of which
it is the chief member, we are called to consider the preservation of public tranquillity, the adjustment of sectional difficulties, and the continuance of the bonds of our Union, amid exdtements which-threatened its integrity; amid a storm, the orin




61
ginal violence of which is manifest in the clouds which yet
obscure our political horizon; in the deep toned thunders that
are yet muttering in the distance.  It is not necessary to adopt
the opinions of the extreme alarmists in either section of, the
country, to conclude that great dangers have threatened, if they
do not still threaten, the Union of these States.  It does not re-.
quire very great discernment to see that the continued agitation
of the vexed question of Slavery, producing alienation and. distrust between the North and the South, must, in the end, either
sever the bonds between the free and the slave States, or render
them not worth preserving.  A unity maintained by force, if
this were possible, would not pay the cost of its keeping. If, in
the heat of the existing controversies, these two great sections
of the Union come at last to forget their common ancestry, and
the mutual perils shared by them in the revolutionary struggle;
if South Carolina and Massachusetts, who stood shoulder to
shoulder in the doubtful contest for American freedom, come to
disregard the voices of their illustrious dead, ewho lie side by
side in every battle-field of the Revolution; if Virginia and
New York refuse, in the heats engendered by this unhappy strife,
to listen longer to the voice of Washington, warning them  in
his farewell address of this very rock of sectional jealousy and.
alienation; if the words of the Father of his country are no
longer regarded with reverence in the ancient commonwealth
of his birth, or in the great State whose deliverance from a foreign enemy was the crowning achievement of his military
career; and if the compromises upon which the Union was
consummated, continue to be denied or disregarded; there is an
end of the confederacy.  If the stronger should crush the
weaker, and hold on to an apparent union with the grasp of military power, it would no longer be a confederacy, but a conquest. When there is no longer mutual respect; no more fiaternal forbearance; -no more regard for each other's local interests; no more obedience in one section to the laws which protect the guaranteed rights of the other; the basis of union is
wanting, and nothing but a military despotism, with a grasp
of iron, and a wall of fire, can hold the discordant elements
together.'          *                       "'
But there is higher authority for the determination of this
question than any thing we have yet suggested. The existence
of domestic Slavery was expressly allowed, sanctioned, and
regulated by the Supreme Lawgiver, in that divine economy
which He gave the Hebrew state. The fact is open and undisputed; the record and proof of it are in the hands of every man
who has in his possession a copy of the Bible.  All the ingenuity and art of all the Abolitionists in the United States can
never destroy the necessary conclusion of this admitted divine
sanction of,Slavery, that it is an institution which may lawfully




62
exist, and concerning which Governments mnay pass laws, and
execute penalties for their evasion or resistance.
To allege that there is a higher law, -which makes slavery,
per se, sinfill, and that all legislation that protects the rights of
masters, and enjoins the re-delivery of the slave, is necessarily
void and without authority, and may be conscientiously resisted
by arms and violence, is an infidel position, which is contradicted. by both Testaments; —which may be taught in the gospel of
Jean Jacques Rousseau, and in the revelation of the Skeptics
-and Jacobins, who promised France, half a century ago, universal equality and fraternity; a gospel whose baptism was blood,
a revelation whose sacrament was crime; but it cannot be found
in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or in the revelation of God's will
to men.'We do not mean to affirml that sincere and conscientious persons may not be found who have persuaded themselves
that forcible resistance to slavery is obedience to God; and that
in the increased light of the nineteenth century, the example of
the Jewish economy, and the teachings and practice of our
Lord and the Apostles, are antiquated and of no binding force
upon, the consciences of men.  Such honest but mistaken persons should remember, that if the institution of slavery is necessarily and from its nature sinful no.t, it must altcways have
been so  as -universal principles admnit of no change, aiid their
argument is, therefore, an impeachment of the benevolence of
God, and a denial of the supreme authority of' the Gospel, as a
system of ethics.'hey must, to sustain their position, assume
trhat we are wiser and better men than the Saviour antd the
Apostles, and that the government of God and the Gospel need
revision and emendation.  Such a conclusion is inevitable fiom
the premises, and I would affectionately warn all who have
naimed the name of Christ, and who have been betrayed by
passion or sympathy into such a position, to see to it before they
take the inevitable plunge, with the Garrison school, into the
gulf of infidelity.  I would respectfuilly entreat them to remnemr
ber that this is not the first proclamation, "' Lo, here is Christ, or
there," which has proved a device of' the adversary; that Jacobins, Fourierites, Communists, and Levellers of all sorts, reject the Gospel on the ground that it does not come up to their
slandard of liberty, equality and fraternity, and has no sufficiently comprehensive views of the rights of man.  Those who
preach the gospel ought specially to remember that our race are
apostate, and live under a remedial goverrnment; and tlat it is
our mission to deal with the world as it is, and rmaen as -we find
them, just as did the SaTiour and the Apostles-remembering
that here we have " no continuing city," and that the Gospel
does not propose to us an equalization of human conditions in
time; that " there remaineth a rest for the people of God," and
to this, the Master of life and his Apostles pointed the rich andti




63
the poor, the high and the low, the bond and the free.  They
made it no part of their work to array the prejudices of one class
against another; to discontent the slave with his position; or the
citizen with the government; but treated all these things as of
inferior consideration, compared with the hope of another and a
better life, through the blood of atonement.
The comparative mildness of Hebrew  slavery which is. alleged, if it were true, is of no moment in the decision of the
question before us; for it is not whether American legislation
on this subject be unwise and unjust, but whether the institution
of slavery is necessarily sinful, and all legislation on the subject void for want of jurisdiction, and because of a higher law
that prohibits its existence.
Domestic slavery, in this country, is older than the Constitution; it had existed for several generations before the Revolution.  The people of the North, in their union with the slave
States under a General Government, upon the adoption of a
common Constitution, bound themselves to respect the institution of slavery as it then existed, so far as to deliver up fugitives to their mnasters.  What has been said proves, we think,
that such an arrangement was not void as being against a
higher law, and consequently any legislation by Congress,
which fairly carries out this provision, and enforces this guarantee, is constitutional and lawful, and cannot be resisted upon
any moral grounds.  Whether the law is the best or the v.or st
that could have been devised, is not the question here, nor is it
really the question with.the country; for it is the recognition of'
Slavery by the Constitution, and the right of recapture which it
confers, which lies at the bottom of this agitation; all the rest
is merely for effect, vox et preterea nihil, and those who recommend the violation of this law, would undoubtedly advise resistance to any enactment of Congress which would carry out
the provision of the Constitution for the restoration of fugitive
slaves.
It is somewhat singular that those whose consciences have
been so much aroused in regard to a higher law than the Constitution, should have forgotten, in their contemplation of moral
and religious questions, that the observance of the compact between the North and the South falls within the moral rule which
enjoins good faith, honesty, and integrity among men.  Until
this compact is rescinded by the power that made it, and by the
parties who assented to it, its fulfilment is required by every
principle of common honesty.  With what pretence of right
can the North say to the South, we will hold you, to your part
of the bargain; you nmust remain in the Union, but we have
conscientious scruples in regard to performing our part of the
agreement. Is this the language of good faith and integrity?
Would it be thought honest in any private transaction or com



64
pact?  Is it for those who threaten the South with force in case
of their resistance of Constitutional enactments —who are themselves advocating the violation of the laws which protect the
rights secured to the slave States by the Constitution-to talk
about higher laws and sensitive consciences?  Does the assertion, so often made, that there is no danger of disunion if the
law of recapture is violated: that the S'outh are not strong
enough to set up for themselves; that they need the protection
of the North to prevent a servile insurrection, add any thing to
the moral beauty of this position?  What is this but the divine
right of lawless force, the higher law of the strongest?  What is
this but a disavowal of all regard for the claims of the weak?
In the words of a Highland song of the olden time,
" For why! because the good old rule
Sufficeth them; the simple plan,
That they must get who have the power,
And they must keep who can."
May Vermont be permitted to pass laws to evade and prevent
the execution of the legislation of Congress, and South Carolina
threatened with investment by sea and land, by the army and
navy of the United States, for doing the same thing?  Is this
good faith between sovereign States?  lNay, is it common honesty among men?  "I speak to wise men, judge ye!?'
If we are comparatively so much stronger than the South, as
is alleged, is it magnanimous, is it just, for us to take advantage
of their Aweakness, to violate their constitutional rights?  If
they look upon the greater prosperity of. the North with a degree
of jealousy, and are the more sensitive on that account upon any
appearance of a disregard on our part, of the guarantees of the
Constitution, there is the more reason for our forbearance; especially when it is considered that in the very formation of the
Union, there was an implied understanding that good will and
forbearance should characterize the intercourse of the parties;
" that Ephraim should not vex Judah; or Judah Ephraim." —
Why should the Saxon obstinacy of the North and the Norman
pride of the South be forever excited by these unhappy disputes
in regard to slavery; a question which time, and patience, and
God's providence can alone resolve?  The South are not so dependent upon us as we imagine; in the case of a servile insurrection they woul.d hardly look for aid, in the present state of
thinrgs, from the North, and our constant allegations of their
weakness constitute one grotund of their dissatisfaction; and one
temptation to a separation, that they may prove to the North and
the World that they can take care of themselves.  They have
the old Norman temper; the blood of the Chevalier predoninates over that of the Puritan in the southern States, and they
would rather see their territory desolated with fire and sword
than yield a single point of honor —thalt to feel, much less to




65
acknowledge, that they are dependent upon the North for protection against their own slaves.  It is evident that the great
body of the people at the South are attached to the Union, and
will not readily yield it; but it is equally manifest that they
have demagogues and traitors there, who desire to exercise dominion and lordship in a Southern Confederacy that shall extend from Virginia to Cuba; who, like some at the North, would
rather be Presidents and Secretaries by a division of the country, than to be out of office by its continued union.
If such men would boldly announce their design, if they
would form an anti-union party, and present this question of a
revolution in our government and an abandonment of our Constitution before the people, it would go far to dissipate the danger
which threatens the Republic, and to quiet the perpetual agitations that are wearing out the strong bands that hold us together. For whatever allegations may be made that there is no
danger of disunion; whatever cries of,"peace, peace," may be
reiterated by men who are doing what they can to nullify their
own predictions,'we may be assured there is treachery and
danger all around us. The separation of large communions of
Christians into Northern and Southern Churches was one of the
first signs of evil omen to the country. But two of the leading
Protestant denominations remain united.' I thank God that
one of them is the Presbyterian Church, who are still one in
form  and fact, in heart and spirit, frosm Niew York to New
Orleans, fron the Atlantic to the Pacific, having long since met
this question) and settled it, finally and peacefully, upon Gospel
principles. The constant agitation of the slavery question at
the North, the untenable positions assumed, the fierce denunciations, the bitter revilings, the contumelious epithets which have
been heaped upon our Southern brethren and all who would not
consent to unite in a crusade against them, are producing their
legitimate fruits of alienation, distrust and hatred. If no positive
proof exists of a conspiracy among certain hot-headed and ambitious demagogues at the South, to dismember the Union; that
a Southern Confederacy may be formed, which will make them
ali great men; yet, it is manifest that such a design has been
formed, either with or without concert, among a class of abstractionists there, who are co-operating with the abolitionists,
at the North, to agitate and inflame the public mind, until a
revolution is inevitable. The recent settlement of the vexed
sectional questions, which was hailed by the country with confidence and hope, is sought to be disturbed not only by denunciation, but by a violent resistance of the laws enacted, and this,
too, before sufficient time has elapsed to test them. Every kind
of phantom is conjured up; visions of free men forcibly hurried
* The Protestant Episcopal and the Presbyterian.




is; to slavery; appalling pictures of cruelty and injustice are continually exciting the public minc; though but six captures are
said to hlave been made under the Fuogiive Slave Law since its
passage, and with two exceptions, it is believed, the alleged
fugi tives have been discharged o' redeemed. If those who harrow up the sensibilities of innocent and ignorant persons by
these dreadful imaginations, ane sincere in the fears which
they-, e.xpress, that free persons of color are likely to be enslaved
by the existing  law  it shows how utterly fanaticism disregards
facts; i thiey are opposed to the re-delivery of' fugitive slaves
under rt'the provision of the Coanstitution, the only honest position
they can takle is to declare at once and openly for a dissolution
of t-h^e U1n ioun1 or the subjugation of the South, by force of arms,
to the Not'hrth.
Be'fonre we leave this subject, we ought to notice the probable
results of a dissolutionl of the Union. What its advantages have
been, are nmatters of history and experience.  Under God, the
Union hats made us a great and prosperous people.  We have
maintained peace at home, and comumanded respect abroad; our
country has been the asylum. of  the oppressed of every land, the
permane.ncy of our institutions has been hailed as the last hope
of freeldom for the world. Every State has preserved its local
SOVereig'nty,: while obedient to the general law. Every citizen
has enjoyed the largest liberty consistent with the preservation
of ordeirl and dwelt under his "owmn vine and fig tree, withi none
to molest him or nimake  him  afraid."  We Tm3ay say with the
Psalma:ist' the lines have fallen unto us in pleasant places, and
God htas given us a goodly heritage.;"
On the other hand, all the disastrous consequences which
must 4low from disunion, are known only to Him who sees the
end friom3 the beginning.  One thing is certain, no benefit can
flow fr-o n a separation of the States, to that unhappy race about
whomr tnhis whole controversy exists. No possible or conceivable
advantacre can arise to them, if the Union were sundered totmorrowTr. Their condition at the North would not be improved;
their stf;ate at the South would be rendered so far worse, as an
increasecl severity of legislation might be required to prevent
their escape to an enemy's frontier. If a small increase of the
number of those who escape to the North should be secured,
which is doubtfi-l, the question arises, and it is a grave and unsettled one, whether their residence with us is a substantial improvement of their condition. The forms of freedom  are of
little consequence to him  who is made fly color and caste, a
"herw er of wood and a drawer of water."  That the colored
race are cuapable of elevation I have always maintained —just
as capable as the white, if they can be made to possess the
same advantages; but I am  fully persuaded that colonization
can alone. secure those advantages, and give to the African that




whinch alone mnalkes persoral Ifleedon an  fryee institutions vraaiuable. In any view of the subject, the agitations and divisions
of the country on the question of slavery, and the revolution'
which may result from them  care of no conceivable conlsequene;
to those about whose interest the controversy exists., A more
lnprofitable and inconsequential abstraction was never before.
made to disturb the peace, and hazard the existence of a great
eLmpire.'With reference to the positive evils of a revolution, it is the,
opinion of the most profoundl statesmzen inr the coruntry, that a
division of the Union Ilust result in a perpetual war between.
the two sections.  This agrees with all the facts of history, and
the conclusions of the most profound observation upon humanL
Iarture. Peace would be impossible under the circumstances.
A line of fire would mark the boundary between the free and
slave States, from  the Atlantic to the Mississippi; from  the
M[ississippi to the Pacific.  The blackened roof-trees of all
human habitations, for miles on either side of this accursed
line, would demonstrate the bitterness of a conflict between men:
of the same race: and verify the declaration of Scripture, that
"6the contentions of brethren are like the bars of a castle."'
Across the entire continent, the boundaries of the two governments would be marked'by conflagration, rapine and violence.
Armed plunderers, viti wihor  war would be the excuse -for
murder and robbery, would make a desert of the country adjacent
on either side, wlich would soon be. known over the wholeworld by two namnes,. ACELLDAiRA, and GOLGOTPHA, a fielCt
of blood-a place of skulls.  There are no visionaries so wild
as those who dreamr that this vast empire can be disunited
peacefully, or that peace can ever'be maintained between the
North and the South, -tnder separate governments,  with all the
old memories, the bitter prejudices, the unavoidable rivalries,.
the unceasing disputes of jurisdiction, with the mouth of the
fMfississippi in one territory and its source in the other, and with
the ominous slave question embittered a thousand-fold by the
dismembermnent of the country.  If, in this unnatural contest,
the North should prevail over the South, it would be by Vmaking
a desert of the territory from the Potomac to the Gulf of Mexico,
and by the destruction of both the races who now occupy it; a
victory barren of glory-the jest of tyrants, and the scorn of the
world.
But the spirit of disunion, once evoked, may extend its malign
influences until, by the supposition, having accomplished the
Muin of the South, the States at the North slmould divide, and
each set up for itself, and, like th.e petty governments, or rather
anarchies, of South America, command neither respect abroad
nor obedience at home.
The beginnings of strife are like the letting out of waters, and




68
to'this miserable conclusion at last, these unhappy divisions
may bring us. It is an old adage, that those whom God would
destroy he first makes mad; and it would seem that nothing
short of judicial blindness can lead to'the further agitation of a
question fraught with ruin to our beloved country, and to the
hopes of political freedom over the entire globe. The dismernberment of this country will be the death-blow of its prosperityr
Our rights will. be no more regarded abroad or our laws at horne,
for our strength will be exhausted in our domestic wars; property, both at the North and South, will immediately and de.cidedly depreciate in value; all confidence in the stability of
our institutions will be destroyed; and Despots will hold a jubilee over the grave of the American Constitution.  Worst of all.
this disastrous event will have been brought about by no foreign
war, by no struggle with the civil or religious despotisms of the
world; by no honorable resistance to foreign interference; but
by the madness of men ready to sacrifice to one idea, and that
an impracticable one, to one principle, and that a false one, the
legacy of Freedom and Union which we hold from our fathers,
and which we are bound to transmit to our children by every
consideration of patriotism, by every obligation of religion; and
failing to do which, both Earth and Heaven will cry out against
us, as false to the trust committed to us by our noble ancestry;
false to our allegiance and our oaths; false to our children and
posterity; false to our religion and to God, who has committed
to our keeping the ark of civil and religious liberty, for the benefit of our race, to be held as a sacred deposit for the world. The
plea of' sympathy with the colored race, in view of their degraded
condition, however suitable such sympathy may be, and demanded by Him wvho hath made of' one blood all nations and
races, to dwell together on the face of the earth. will never avail
to justify an agitation which is useless to them and ruinous to
us. A man who should expose a whole community to destruetion, under the plea of delivering one of its members from servitude, or who should fire his neighbor's dwelling for the same
purpose, at the risk of a conflagration which must consume both
master and slave, and even expose his own house and his own
children to a miserable death, could hardly be counted a philanthropist, or find a justification of his conduct in any abstract
question of human rights. I would that I had a voice to penetrate every habitation in this great Empire, to reach every ear
from ocean to ocean, from Maine to Florida-to entreat my countrymen to pause from a controversy from which there will soon
be no retreat, and of which, if' protracted, there can be but one
issue-the dissolution of the Union and the ruin of the Republic.
By their duty to God and to the Government, I would implore
them to be obedient to the laws; by their regard for their children, by their respect for the interests of our common humanity,




69
I would beseech them. to take care of the Commonwealth, than.
which there is no higher law for the Christian citizen. I would
appeal to the North and the South, by their common ancestry,,
by the august memories of the revolutionary struggle, by the
bones of their fathers which lie mingled together at Yorktown
and Saratoga, at Trenton and Charlestown, by the farewell counsels of the immortal Washington, to lay aside their animosities
and to remember that they'are brethren. I would remind them
that the Union has given us the blessings which we enjoy-that
under its Flag our victories have been won;. our borders extended; our wealth and population increased; our ships respected in every port of every sea, until our national progress has
excited the admiration, or aroused the envy, of all the Nations,
and Potentates of the earth. I would warn them of that abyss
of ruin which fanaticism and treason are opening beneath them;
into which they would plunge our present fortunes and our future hopes. I would beseech them to stand by the Union, to
obey the laws, to frown upon agitation, in this, crisis of our beloved country. I would admonish them that failing to do this,
failing to sustain the firee institutions, and to regard the mutual
compacts which we received from our fathers, we may expect
as a consequence the curses of posterity, the contempt of the
world, and the judgments of God.  lMay the Ruler of nations
avert from us these impending calamitieso May the Holy Trinity, in whom our fathers trusted2 give us, as a people, the spirit
of wisdom and understanding and of a sound mind.  May we
hereafter on occasions like the present have a new motive of
thanksgiving and praise in the proofs of the peaceful settlement
of all sectional controversies-in the fact that the Ship of' State,
long tossed by tempests and threatened with destruction by confilting and angry elements, is at last sailing in a calm sea, with
a law-abiding crew, AND THE. FLAG OF THE. UTNlON
NAILED TO HEfR MASTS.