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

'iCttoil VI lHelE pOWeTluI, ulOuBu SuUll6 anu III
direct influence, and also to my desire 10 find
something of good in a Congress which has fur
nished occasion for so much of disappointment.
There are other measures, which must be re-
garded not only with regret, but with indigna-
ton and disgust. Sensation.
Two broad territories, New Mexico and Utah,
under the exclusive jurisdiction Of Congress,
have been organized without any prohibition Of
Slavery. In laying the foundation of their gov
ernments, destined hereafter to control the
happiness of innumerable multitudes, Congress
has omitted the Great Ordinance of Freedom,
first suggested by Jefferson, and consecrated by
the experience Of the North Western Territory ;
it has neglected to recognize those principles of
Human Liberty, which are enumerated in our
Declaration of Independence-which are essen
tial TO every Bill of Rights-and without which
a Republic is a name and nothing more.
Still farther, a vast territory, supposed to be
upwards of seventy thousand square miles in
extent, larger than all New England, has been
taken from New Mexico, and with ten million
dollars besides, given 10 slaveholding Texas
thus under the plea Of settling the Western
boundary of Texas, securing to this State a large
sum of money, and consigning to certain slavery
an important territory.
AN sum ullhNl 40 IL " ~ u hOSh1 NV
should "make heaven weep, all earth amazed"
this same Congress, in disregard of all the cher
ished safeguards of freedom, has passed a most
cruel, unchristian, devilish law, to secure the
return into slavery of those fortunate bondmen,
who have found shelter by our fresides. This
is the Fugitive Slave Bill-the bill which de-.
spoils the party claimed as a slave-whether he
be in reality a slave or a freeman-of the sacred
ripht Of frlal hU iurtr md nopopnit1 tho ot,oction
o fHuman Freedom the highest question known
by the law-to the unaided judgment of a sim
gle magistrate, on er parte evidence it may be,
by a%iiidavits, without the sanction of cross-ex-
animation. Under this detcstable heaven-d defy
ing bill, not the slave only, but the coloIed free
man of the North, may be swept into ruthless
captivity and there is no white citizen, born
among us, bred in our schools, partaking in our
affairs, voting in our elections, whose liberty is
not assailed also. Without any discrimination
of color, the bill surrenders all, who may be
claimed as sowing service or labor" to the same
tyrannical judgment. And mark once more its
heathenisln. By unrelenting provisions it Wis,
its, with bitter penalties of fine and imprison.
ment, the faithful men and women, who may
render the fugitive that countenance, succor and
shelter which christianity expressly requires =
Shame shame Thus, from beginning to end,
1t sets at naught the very best principles of The
Constitution, and the very laws of God! [En-
thusiastic applause.
might occupy your time by exposing the
unconstitutionallty of this act. In denying the
lrlal by Jury, it is three times unconstitution-
al first, as the Constitution declares "Theright
OF the people to be secure in their persons against
unreasonably seizures y secondly, as it further
declares that No person shall be deprived of
life, liberty or property, without due process of
law = and thirdly, because it expressly declares
that " In suits at common law, where the value
in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the
right Of trial by jury shall be preserved" By
this triple cord did the trainers of the Constitu.
ton secure the Trial by Jury in every question
Of Human freedom. That man can be little
imbued with the true spirit of American instl-
tutions--he can have little sympathy with Bills
Of Rights-he must be lukewarm for Freedom,
who can hesitate TO construe the Constitution
so as to secure this safeguard. fGreat scnsa-
ton.
The act is again unconstitutional in the ex-
traordlnary and tyrannical powers which it con-
ters upon Commissioners These officers are
appointed, not by the President with the advice
OF the Senate, but by the Courts of Law they
hold their places, not during good behavior, but
at the will OF the court; and they receive tor
Their services, not a regular salary, but fees in
each individual case. And yet in these officers
thus appointed and compensated, and holding
their places by the most uncertain tenure-is
vested a portion of that judicial power" which,
according to the express words of the Constitu-
ton, can be IN Judges only, who hold their
Offices 'during good behaviour" who, Eat stat
cd times, receive for their services a compensa-
ton. which shall not be diminished during
their continuance in Office, and it would seem
also, who are appointed by the President, and
confirmed by the Senate. And, adding mean
ness to the violation of the Constitution, the
Commissioner is bribed by a double fee, to pro-
nounce against Freedom. If he dooms a man
to slavery, he receives ten dollars, but if he
saves him, his fee is five dollars. [Shame |!
Shame
But | will not pursue these details. The soul
slckens in the contemplation of this legal
lied outrage. In the dreary annals of the past,
there are many acts of shame-there are ordi.
nances of monarchs, and laws, which have be-.
come a by~word and a Kissing to the nations.-
But, when we consider the country and the
age, | ask fearlessly, What act of shame, what
ordinance OF monarch, what law can compare 10
a~trocIty, with this enactment of an American
Congress? None do not forget Appius
Claudius, the tyrant decamvir Of ancient Rome,
condemning Virginia as a slave nor Louis XIV,
of France, letting slip the dogs OF religious per-
s%ecution by the revocation OF the edict of Nantes;
nor Charles |. of England, arousing the patriot
rage of Hampden, by the eXtortion of Ship-mon-
ey nor the British parliament, provoking, in
our own country, spirits kindred to Hampden,
by The tyranny of the Stamp Act and Tea Tax,
| would not e%Xaggcrate; | wish to keep within
bounds; but ] think no person can doubt that
the condemnation now affixed to all these trans
actions, and to their authors, must be the lot
hereafter Of the Fugitive Slave Bill, and of ev-
cry one according to the measure of his influ.
ence, WHO gavel 1t his support. Three cheers were
here given. Into the immortal catalogue Of ma
tiGnal crimes this has now passed, drawing with
1t, by an memorable necessity its authors also,
and chiefly him, who, as President of the United
States, set his name to the Bill, and breathed
into it that final breath without which it would
have no life. [Sensation, Other Presidents
may be forgotten but the name signed to the
Fugitive Slave Bill can never be forgotten.-
i" Never y There are depths Of infamy as there
are heights OF fame. Applause. iregret to
say what | must but truth eompels me. Bet
ter far for him had he never been born. Ire
neWed apPlause.I Better lar Tor his memory,
and for the good name of his children, had he
never been President! Repeated cheers.
| have already liiened this bill to the Stamp
Act, and trust that the parallel may be contin-
ucd yet further by a burst of popular feeling
against all action under it, similar to that which
glowed in the breasts of our fathers. Listen to
the words of John Adams, as written in his Di-
airy for the time -
"Tho year J775 has been the most rcmarka-
BILE year of my life, That enormous engine, fab
ricated by the British Parliament, for battering
down all the rights and liberties of America,-
| mean the Stamp Act,-has raised and spread
throughout the whole continent a spirit that will
be recorded to our honor with all future gene.
%rations, In every colony, from Georgia to New
Hampshire inclusiyely, the stamp distributors
and inspectors have been compelled by the I'M
conquorablo rage Of the people, to renounce
their Offices. Such and so universal has been
tho rn2pnfnnnt pr tho Daorlo tbo4 o,,orv ,,np