Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-03-30

claim whatever The compact is thus sab
verted by the procurement ofthe slave States.
With what reason, then, can they expect the
States CT grdiia to rcassumo the obligations
from which they caused those States 10 be
discharged? ? ] say, then, TO the slave States,
you are entitled TO no more stringent laws
aud that such laws would be useless. The
cause of the inefficiency of the present stat
ute is not at all the lenieucy of its provisions.
Ii is n law that dcpriycs the alleged refugee,
from a legal obligation not assumed by him,
hut imposed upon him by laws enacted be-
fore hc was born, of the writ of habeds corpus,
and Of amy certain Judicial process Of cxami-
nation of the claim set up by his pursuer,
and finally degrados him into n chattcl which
may be seized and carried away pcuccally
wherever found, even although exercising
the rights and responsibilities OF free cit-
zen of the Commonwealth in which lac re-
| sides, and of the United States-a law which
denies TO the citizen all the safeguards OF
personal liberty, TO render less frequent the
| escape Of the bOndman. And since COM
paiuts are so freely made against the one
side, shall not hesitate TO declare that there
have been even greater ihults on the other
side. Relying OF the peryersiOn of the Con-
stitution which makes slaves mere cliottcls
the slave Suites have applied 10 them the
principles of the criminal law, and have held
tbat he who aided tae escape OF his fellow
man from bondage was guilty of a larceny in
stealing him. speak OF what | know. Two
instances came within my knowledge, in
which Governors of slave States, under the
provision of the Constitution relating 10 fiigi-
tives from justice, demanded from the Gov
crnor of u free State the surrender of per-
aG fltipXau xtfl,,g, ,ll,rr,1 nll,tnpoe
sisted in constructive larceny of the rags that
covered the persons of female slaves, whose
attempt at escape they permitted or assisted.
We deem the principle of the law for the
recapture of fugitives, therefore, unjust, un-
constitutional, and immoral; and thus while
patriotism withholds its appreciation, the con-
sciences of our people condemn il.
You will say that these convictions of ours
are disloyal. Grant il for the sake of argu-
nient. They are, nevertheless, honest; and
the law is to be executed among us, not
among you; not by us, but by the Federal
authority. Has any Government ever sue
ceeded in changing the moral convictions of
It's subjects by force? But these convictions
imply no disloyally. We reverence the Con-
stitution, although we perceive this defect,
just as we acknowledge the splendor and the
power OF the sun, although its surface is tar
nished with here aud there an Opaque spot.
Ionr Constitution and laws convert hospi-
tality to the refugee fon the mort dcgfnding
oppression OH earth into a crime but all man
kind except you esteem that hospitality yir-
tue. The right of extraditon of fugitive
from justice is not admitted by the law Of ma
ture and of nations, but rests in voluntary
compacts | know Of only two compacts
found in diplomatic history that admitted Ex-
TRADITION OF SLAVES. Here is one of them.
Ii is found in treaty OF peace made between
Alexander Comnenus and Leontine, Emper-
ors at Constantinople, and Oleg, King of
Russia, in the year 902, and is in these words {:
"If Russian slave take fight, or oven if he |
is carried away by any one under pretcnce of
having been bought, his master shall have the |
right and power to pursue him, and hunt for and |
capture him wherever he shall be found end |
any person who shall oppose the master in the |
execution of this right shall be deemed guilty OF
violating this treaty, and be punished accord |
ingly."
This was in the year Of Grace 902, in the |
period called the Dark Ages" and the con-
tracing Powers were despotislns. And here |
is the other:
"No person held to service or labor in one |
State, under the laws thereof, escaping into an
lation therein, be discharged from such service |
Or labor, but shall be delivered mp, on claim OF
the party to whom such service or labor is due"
This is from the Constitution of the Uni |
ted States in 1857, and the parties We're the
republican States OF this Union. The law of
nations disavows such compacts; the law of
nature, written OH the hearts and conscien-
ces of freemen, repudiates them. Armed
power could not enforce them, because there
is no public conscience TO sustain them. j
know that there are laws of various sorts
which regulate the conduct of men. There
are constitutions and stututcs codes mercon-
tile and codes civil but when we are legis-
lating for States, especially when we are
founding States, all these States must be
brought to the standard of the laws of God,
and must be tried by that standard, and must
stand or fall by il. This principle was hap
PLY explained by one of the most distinguish
ed political philosophers Of England in these
emphatic words:
"Thorc Is but one law for all, namely, that
law which governs all law, the law of our Croa-
tor, the law of humanity justice, equity, the law
of nature and of nations So far as any laws for
tfy this primoyal law, and give it more precision,
more energy, more effect, by their declarations,
such laws enter into the sanctuary and partoi-
pate in the sncrcdness of its character but the
man who quotes as preeedents the abuses OF ty-
rants and robbers, pollutes the very fountains OF
justice, destroys the foundations OF all law and
therefore removes the only safeguard against
evil men, whether governors or goyerned the
guard which prevents governors from becoming
tyrants, and the governed from becoming rebels"
There was deep philosophy in the confess
sion of an eminent English Judge. When he
had condemned young woman 10 death, |
under the late sanguinary code of his couil- |
try, for her first petty theft, she fell down |
dead at his feet: Z" seem to myself" said he, |
"to have been pronouncing sentence, not |
against the prisoner, but against the law it.
self"