Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1851-02-05
Duty towards the Slave Law.

Duty towards the Slave Law.
The friend who asks us so state, without
alignment and in a single paragraph, if pos
sible, our whole doctrine concerning the duty
OF men at the North toward the Fugitive Slave
Law, that he may consider that doctrine for
himself, and may compare it with the repre-,
sentalons elsewhere made Of it"-shall be
gratlfied. We have no reason for conceal
ment in regard to this matter; and do not feel
pressed to sustain our positions by argument
and illustration. They will certainly COM
mend themselves at last to the good sense and
the conscience of all men at the North. Prac-
tIcally, if not theoretically and consciously,
they form already the received doctrine of the
immense majority of our active and influential
men, in the ministry and among the churches.
Before the public sentiment which embodies
and enforces them no Ubiquitous law, which
ingenuity can frame or force execute for a
time, can permanently stand. Our doctrine
on the subject is simply this:-
The law contempates and intends the re.
ducuon OF man whom God has made to a
bondage which he abhors; bondage which
was founded in piracy, which has no Just
claim on the man whatever, and from which
at the peril of stripes and of death he has
once escaped. The law is therefore essen
TALLY iniquitous 1t directly and radically
eontradicts Gods law and commands its sub
Jects to do 10 another fellow being precisely
what they would not for worlds that another
should do TO them. The officer to whom II
comes should therefore resign his office, rath.
er than execute it. If he values his soul more
than his salary he will do this. The citizen
who is called TO assist in its execution should
peremptorly refuse 10 stir hand or foot for the
commission of such a crime and should give
to the hunted and flying fugitive whatever aid
and shelter he can, without by violence resist.
ing the officer For all this he must be pre-
pared, of course 10 take the penalty which the
law provides. He should not go further than
this however, and resist the officer with phys.
ical force. For such resistance by the citizen
we know of no warrant The fugitive him.
self should fly, ifpossible, to the protection of
a government-to our shame be it spoken
which does not tolerate the bondage that pur-
sues him; upon whose soil at last he may be
tree. lie should never, on any pretext, enter
into combinations with others for organized
resistance to the officers of government. IL he
does this 1t is rebellion, which the State must
: 4 E
being captured, of being reduced the second
time 10 the unjust bondage which he has once
escaped, then-never for the purposes of re-
taliatlon, but always in order to his own de-
iYerance-he has the right to defend him.
self; the same right precisely that at any 9TH
er man would have in the same circumstances.
when an attempt is made no destroy foisssSsss
that personal liberty which, as Blackstone
says, No HUMAN LEGISLATURE has power
TO abridge or destroy, unless The man himself
shall commit some act that amounts to a
forfeiture.' We have no tlonbt that Mr.. Web
ster or Mr.. Clay would do the same thing in
the same case. And when we remember
what slavery is, how it annihilates the person.
al rights of the man whom it brushes, how il
makes his every hope dependent upon the
master, how it takes from him the Gospel and
allows him to be sold whilhersoever another
VIII, and how appalling il must look to per-
son dragged back TO it after having escaped il.
we certainly could not find it in our heart to
condemn them fthey did h- sea *
r The nhOve is tbo 1octs;.r r..A
this subject, succinclly and plainly stated. as
our friend has requested. We have no ohiec-
ton republishing it every week for a month.
II anybody wishes it. Our friend is mistaken.
however, in supposing that the various sheets
TO which ne refers will ever laylit before their
readers. They may garbe and nisd,iole il.
and strive TO excite against it and us an ,lnin
telllgent clamor But they would have 10 be
thoroughly revolulionized in head and in heart
nelore they. would pint it. For his own sails
faction, and that ofthose who think with him,
we are happy TO give it.-.N Y Independent.