The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-03-13
THE PROCLAIM NATION.

chairs of Republics are not always comfortable
lounging places. No mail Of Official dignity is
proof against riducule no awfalness or solemnity
of state can disarm criticism; the divinity which
hedges Kings and Chief Magistrates affords nc
protection from newspaper caricature and the
popular laugh President Fillmore and his off
cisl advisers are no exceptions to this rule. The
extraordinary zeal of their patriotism in late
pressing emergency, so far from securing for them
an immunity from impertinent criticism, seems
only to have provoked it.
1t is said, for instance, that, judging from the
Presidents Proclamation, and the corresponding
orders of the Secretaries of the War and Naval
Departments, and the tone of the debate in the
United States Senate, a stranger to the facts in
the case might have been pardoned for suppOsing
that the good people of Boston had all turned reb
els, hoisted the colonial Pine Tree flag on the
towers Of Faneuil and the old State House, and
ysssS.s.. tsseSyn-house officers and all Manager ri
| Government hangers-on into the same dock where
| in their ancestors had flung the taxed tea That
the audacious old negro, who picked up with his
sacrilegious black hands the symbolic sword Of
Justice dropped from the trembling fingers OF
Law in Mysteries, had cast it, like another Bren-
NUS into the scale of Revolution; and in conse-
! queuce, Bcknap and Brattle streets had been
ridged with barbados like those of Vienna, eav-
ing to President Fillmore and his great constitu-
tional conscience-keeper no alternative but bonn
bardment after the fashion of Prince Windsch-
gratis, or storm and sack, after that of the Ban
Jellachich
Yet it is said by these cavillers, and unhappiy
without contradiction, Indeed it has been proved
by legal investigation) that the facts are simply
these professional negro-catcher comes to
Boston, and lays claim to an inhabitant Of the city,
as the slave Of somebody for whom he is agent
The man is arrested by deputy marshal and
few anxiliaries of questionable standing and
while in his custody some dozen or more of excited
colored men contrive, without violence or blood
shed or the show of weapons, to effect his rescue
The news reaches Washington, and, without
waiting for any official statement, and relying
only upon telegraphic rumor, a Cabinet Council
is held, a high sounding Proclamation is issued !;
and army and navy are ordered to hold themselves
in readiness for descent upon Boston and its
score of rebellisus negroes! ain the name of the
Prophet, fgsp
All well-disposed citizens and lovers of the
Union must see at glance that it will never do
to leave matters in this position. No Government
can stand against the measureless ridicule which
this view Of the case is provoking. The broadcast
of all possible grins is spreading from the Atlantic
to the Lakes. The sides of the body polite are
shaking. 1t is even doubtful whether law pro-
hibiting under severe pains and penalties all
mrth at the expense of Government would now
avail anything What then shall be done2
1t has occurred to US that Senator Badger in
dicated the true line Of defence the part of the
Administration - viz that the rescue of Sha-
drach is but one Of a series of provocations, the
added drop which has overrun Executive patience,
the climax of an habitua fanaticism, which can
only be reduced by the Sangrado practice Of ga
bre and bayonet. The mischief began long ago
and the negligence or cohplicity of former Ad-
ministrations only imposes q more imperative
duty upon the present. 1t is supposed that the
Southern Senator we have referred to had in his
mind an event which transpred in 1894, when q
person on trial as fugitive from slavery in the
city of Boston was rescued in open court and car.
ried off in triumph, leaving sheriifs and consta-
bles fiat upon their backs in the sanctuary of law.
Most unhappily for the welfare of the Union and
the sanctity. of constitutional compromises, one
George Washington was then at the head Of the
Governmental respectable Virginia gentleman,
unfortunately somewhat tainted with Free Soil
notions, and known to be in correspondence with
certain abolition incendiares on the other side of
the water of the George Thompson stamp. There
was no Union Committee at that time in the city
of New York to remind the Executive of his duty
and he lacked what our present Chief Magistrate
has 30 much reason to rejoice in, great constitu-
tional e1pounder to show the paramount import
ance of the Slave Interest and the absolute neces-
sity of maintaining it's ascendency at all hazards
We do not learn that his Secretary Of State, one
Edmund Randolph of old Virginia, threatened to
resign, unless Boston was menaced with siege and
sack Secretary Knox of the War Department
being a Massachusetts, man Of well-known revo
lutionary ideas, seems to have regarded the thing
as a matter OF course and there is no document
on the files Of the Navy Department going &c
show that Secretary Cabot, another Massachu
sets man, ordered out the marines for the recap
ture Of the fugitive. Nothing of course could b,
expected from such men as Alexander Hamilton
and Timothy Pickering. No Cabinet Counc
was called; there was no patriotic outpouring o.
Senatorial eloquence Boston went unrebuked
no pentent officials made painful pilgrimages tc
the seat OF Government; no newspapers begged
pardon no STIR Chamber trials of the rescuers
followed. On the contrary, we are told by Josiah
Quincy who was more than suspected Of render
ing the fugitive aid and comfort, that there was a
general feeling OF satisfaction among the Boston
people on the subject and instead of arrestinp
him on the charge Of treason and hanging or a,
least imprisoning him, the infatuated and rebel.
lious Bostonians sent this same Josiah q uincy as
their Representative to the National Congress!
The escape Of Shadrach is the legitimate fruit
Of this dereliction Of duty on the part Of George
Washington and his Cabinet And those who
complain that the present Executive and Daniel
Webster have overdone the matter, should con.
o'"o' '""' 'ney "io Oaiicu upon 10 MAKE amenus
for past negligence. What Washington and
Hamilton and Randolph could not or would no,
see in 1884, is quite clear to the keener percep
tions Of the senior member Of the Buffalo law.
firm in 1881. What George Washington and
Alexander Hamilton would not do then, Mllard
Fillmore and Daniel Webster are now doing
Doubtless II Is "a dissgreeable duty" but it il
therefore all the more credtabe to their pa.
triotism.
Here, then, We rest the case H. after this, any
body laughs at the Presidents Proclamation, he