Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1850-11-26
From Mr. Summers Speech, at Fanuel Hall
Nov 6. 1850.


Surely the love of Freedom cannot have so
far cooled among US, the descendants of those
who opposed The Stamp Act, that we are in
sensible to the Fugitive Slave Bill The I'm
comparable rage Of the people, in those other
days, compelled the stamp distributors and
inspectors to renounce their offices, and held
up to detestation all who dared to speak in
favor of the stamps. And shall we be more
tolerant Of those who volunteer in favor of
this Bill-more tolerant than the Slave. Hunt
er, who, under lis safeguard, pursues his prey
upon our soil The Stamp Act could not be
executed here. Can the Fugitive Slave Bill !?
And here, Sir, let me say, that it becomes
me to speak with peculiar caution. 1t hap
pens TO me 10 sustain an important relation to
this bill. Early in professional life, | was
designated by the late Mr.. Justice Story one
Of the Commissioner of the Courts of the II
5, and, though have not very often exercis-
ed the functions Of this post, yet my name
is still upon tie lists AS such | am one of
those before whom, under the recent Act
OF Congress, the painting fugitive may be
brought for the decision of the question,
whether, he is freeman or a slave. But
While 1t becomes me to speak with plainneSs.
cannot forget that | am man, although
am Commissioner
Dad the same spirit which inspired The IA
theirs, inspire orr community now, the mar
shals - and every magistrate who regarded
this law as having any constitutional obliga-
tom" ouId resign rather than presume to
execute it. This, however, is too much to
expect from all at present. But | will not
Judge them. To their own consciences leave
them. Surely, no person of humane feelings,
and with any true sense Of jusIice-liying in
land "where bells have knolled to church !"
whatever may be the apology of public sta
lion, could fail TO recoil from such service
For myself let me say, that can imagine no
office, no salary, no consideration, which !
would not gladly Iorego, rather than become
in any way an agent in enslaving my brother
man. Where for me would be comfort and
soIace, after such work In dreams and in
waking hours, in solitude and in the street,
in the mediations of the closet and in the
affairs OF men, wherever | turned. there nv
victim would stare me in the face; from the
distant rce-felds and sugar plantations of the
South, his cries beneath the yindictive lash,
his means at the thought of Liberty once his,
now alas ravished from him, would pursue
me, telling the tale of the fearful doom, and
sounding in my ears, " Thou art the mani"
The magistrate who pronounces the decree
OF slavery, aud the marshal who enforces it,
act in obedience 10 law. This is their apol
ogy; and il is also the apology of the masters
OF the lnqusitiou, as they ply the torture
amidst the shrieks of their victim. But can
tins weaken our accountability for an act of
wrong? Disguise it., excuse il as Won will
the lac must glare before the world and pen
etra'e the conscience, too, that the letters and
chalns by which the unhappy fugitive is
bound, are riveted bv that lrbunal-that his
second life OF Indebtedness dates from their
agency that his second birth as a slave pro.
ceeds from them. The magistrate and mar
shals of the United States do for him here. in
n country which vaunts Christian ciyiiza
ton, what the naked, barbarous Pagan chiefs,
beyond the sea, did for his grandfather in
Congo; they transfer him TO he SLAVE hunter,
and for this service received the very price
paid for his grandfather in Congo-tcn dal;
dollars.