Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1851-04-03

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 happens to
me to sustain an important relation to this bill.
Early in professional life, | was designated by
the late Mr.. Justice Story one of the Commits
sioners of the Court Of the United States, and,
though | have not very often exercised the
functions of this post, yet my name is still upon
the 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 a freeman or a
slave. But while it becomes me to speak with
caution, | shall not hesitate to speak with plain
ness. | cannot forget that | am a man, although
| am a Commissioner. Three cheers given.
Did the same spirit which inspired the fathers
inspire our community now, the marshals, and
every magistrate who regarded this law as hav-
ing any constitutional obligation-would resign
rather than presume to execute it. This, how
ever, is too much to expect from all present.
But | will not Judge them. To their w con-
sciences | leave them. Surely, no person of
humane feelings, and with any true sense of
DISTRIBUTING in a land ''where bells have
knolled to church"-whatever may be the apol.
ogy of public station, 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 forego, rather than
become in any way an agent in enslaving my
brother man. Sensation. Where for ne
would be comfort and s%olace, after such a work!
Ia voice." No where."] In dreams and in
walking hours, in solitude and in the street, in
the meditations of the closet, and in the affairs
of men, wherever | turned, there my victim
would stare me in the face from the distant
rice-fields and sugar plantations of the South,
his cries beneath the vindictive lash, his means
at the thought of Liberty once his, now alas
ravished from him, would pursue me, telling the
tale Of his fearful doom, and sounding forever
sounding-in my ears, "Thou art the man -
Rapturous applause.
The magistrate who pronounces the decree of
slavery, and the marshall who ~enforces it, act
in obedience to law, This is their apology and
it is also the apology of the masters of the In.
QUESTION, as they ply the torture amidst the
shrieks of their victim. But can this weaken
our accountability for an act Of wrong? Dis
guise it, excuse it as you will, the fact must
glare before the world and penetrate the con-
science, too, that the letters and chains. bv
which the unhappy fugitive is bound, are riv-
ct by that tribunal,-that his second life of
wretchedness dates from their agency-that his
second birth as a slave proceeds from them. The
magistrate and marshal of the United States do
for him here, in a country which vaunts a Chris
tan civilization, what the naked, barbarous Pa.
gan chief, beyond the seas did for his grand.
father in Congo they transfer him 10 the slave
huntel, and for this service receive the very price
paid for his grandfather in Congo--ten dollars.
[Shame! Shame T!
Gracious Heaven Can such things be on our
free soil? ["No!1 Shall the e%quasion of Pom.
hus Plate be enacted anew, and Judge vainly
attempt, by worshing his hands, to excuse him.
self for condemning one in whom he could find
no fault. Should any Court, sitting here in
Massachusetts, for the first time in her history.
become the agent of slave hunters, the yerv i'm.
ages Of our fathers would frown from the walls :
their voices would cry from the ground their
spirits would hover in the air, pleading, remon-
strating, protesting against the cruel Judgment.
Cheers, There is a legend of Venice, conse-
Grated by the pencil of one of her greatest ar.
fists, that the Apostle st. Mark suddenly de.
scended into the public square, and broke the
manacles of a slave, even before the Judge who
had decreed his doom. Should Massachusetts
ever be desecrated by such a judgment, NAV the
good apostle with the vallent arm once more de-
scend to break the manacles of the slave len.
thusiasm.
Sir, | will not dishonor this home of the Pill
grims, and of the Revolution, by admitting
nay, | cannot belieye-that this bill will be ex-
ecuted here. ["Neverl' 1 individuals among
us, as elsewhere, may forget humanity in a fan.
cied loyalty to law but the public conscience
will not allow a man, who has trodden our
streets as a freeman, to be dragged away as a
slave. Applause. By his escape from bon.
dage, he has shown that true manhood, which
must grapple to him every honest heart. He
may be Ignorant, and rude, as he is poor, but his
Is of a true nobility. The fugitive slaves ofthe
United States are among the heroes of our age.
In sacrificing them to this foul enactment of
Congress we should violate every sentiment OF
hospitality, every whispering of the heart, ev-
cry dictate of religion.
There are many who will never shrink at any
cost, and, notwithstanding the a~trocious penal
ties of This bill, from efforts to save a wandering
fellow man from bondage; they will offer him the
shelter of their houses, and, if need be, will pro-
tect his liberty by force. But let me be under
stood; ! counsel no violence. There is another
power--stronger than any individual arm
which i invoke | mean that invincible Public
OPINION, inspired by the love of God and man,
which, without violence or noise, gently as the
operations OF nature, makes and unmakes laws.
Let this opinion be felt in its Christian might.
and the Fugitive Slave Bill will become every
where upon our soil a dead letter. No LAWYER
will aid it by counsel, no citizen will become its
agent it will die of inanition-like a spider be-
meath an exhausted receiver. Laughter Oh
it were well the tldings should spread through
out the land, that here in Massachusetts this
accused bill had found no servants. TCheers. I
"Sire, | have found in Bayonne honest citizens
and brave soldiers only but not one execution
er," was the reply of the Governor of that place
to the royal mandate of Charles TX of France.
ordering the Massacre Of st. Bartholomew.
But it rests with you, my fellow-citizens, by
your words and your example, by your calm de-
alterations, and your devoted lives, to do this
work. From a humane, just, and religious peo-
pie, shall spring Public Opinion, to keep per-
petual guard over the liberties of all within our
borders. Nay, more, like the flaming sword of
the cherubim at the gates of Paradise, turning
on every side, it shall prevent any SLAVE
HUNTER from ever setting foot on this Com
monwoalth. [Cheers re-doubled. Elsewhere,
he may pursue his human prey; he may m
ploy his congenial bloodhounds, and exuli in his
successful game. But into Massachusetts he
must not come. Immense enthusiasm.l And
yet again | say, | counsel no violence. | would
not touch his person. Not with whips and
thongs would I scourge him from the land. The
contempt, the indignation, the adherence of the
community shall be our weapons of offence
Wherever he moves, he shall find no house to
receive him-no table spread to nourish him
no welcome to cheer him. The dismal lot of
the Roman exile shall be his. He shall be a
wandererer Viho1& rogG, fire or iUater. laugh
teri Men shall point at him in the streets,
ynd on the highways:
nsleep shan neither night nor day,
Hang upon his pent house lid;
He shall live a life most hid,
Weary, seven nights, nine time, nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine" (Applause)
The villages, towns and cities shall refuse to re-
ceive the monster; they shall yomit him forth,
never again TO disturb the repose of our COM
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