The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-02-12
FIR kAs Southern Press
To John j. CrtttendeD,

The country. II seems To be growing in this
country, to the President, what the ministry is IN
England TO the king.
/ "The king can do no wrong" says The Eng
! lsh law, but the ministry must be held RESPONSE
bic. In this country, Mr.. Fillmore seems disposed
TO establish, for the present at least, the doctrine
| that the President do wrong, but thst 1t
shall all be laid To the Attorney General, and truly
sir, you seem to be very willing very blind
agent ia the matter
| Has MIR. Fillmore so far committed himself upon
the subject of abolition, that he cannot with a
1 good grace, give his assent to the Fugitive slave
bill without destroying himself with those old
friends OF his, and Is yet pressed on all sides to
sanction IT, in order to save the Union He calls
upon the Attorney General for his opinion to
the constitutionality OF the law. The Attorney
General has no doubt Of the constitutional power
of Congress to pass it, and Mr. Fillmore is at once
relieved. He says to his friends, ''you know !
cannot veto any thing, except unconstitutional
or hasty legislation; my Attorney General says it
is perfectly constitutional, and we all know that
we have been too long about il to pretend TO call
it hasty. So you my friends, we shall have
to let 1t 60 along; its dead letter anyhow"
Well, this difficulty over, presently another one
arses--an attempt is made in Boston to execute
the law. The President all the time, by way Of
sustaining, and ''giving aid and comfort" at home,
to those who had betrayed the South, has been
swearing most vehemently, that the law should
be executed at all hazards, that he would forth
with turn out of Office any marshal who should
fail to discharge his duty, and would concentrate
the whole army and navy of the United States,
! upon any mob which should resist the execution
OF the law. Here is man bold, energetic, fear
ess and intelligent, in Boston for weeks, doing
his best to have the law executed in the arrest Of
| two fugitive slaves, who were there in the open
light of dsy-known by every body to be so--and
yet such man as Hughes, with all the power
of the United States at his back, cannot have them
arrested under that law.
Now here ~ a fx--the fre-eaters at the South
have been predicting that the law would not be
enforced. Here is failure in a case that
made to prove that it could and would be. What
Is to be done IN the premises 1t is denied that
there has been any resistance--not only denied /,
but made matter of boasting-just let them resist
and the President will crush them at once. II is
admitted that the negroes were in the city and
that every body knew where, they were-but yet,
Hughes cannot get them arrested. Complaint is
made to the President against the ofhcer-and
what is the consequence Why the President re-
fers to his Attorney General, to know whether
there is sufficient cause for his dismissal from
office I! /! If the President should turn this marshal
out OF office, the people Of the North would see
8 and feel at once, that the law not, according
, to the understanding, to be dend letter /; they
would see and feel that they must either submit to
It and carry 1t out in good faith, resist it open
ly. This would at once array the whole North
against Mr. Fillmore-it would in moment hush
into the silence of death, ninetenths Of those pa
etrIotic voices, which clamor for obedience to the
laws. But still something must be done to APP
pease if not to satisfy the South What is it 7
t Why we have an Attorney General who is a
Sou hern mamie is the legal adviser the Pres-
dent--lf we can get from him an opinion that the
marshal ought not to be dismissed, perhaps it
. will do Recent events have shown that the South
S is much more submissive than we had supposed
at all events this is the best we do, and We
must try 1t. The North must not be aroused,
whether the South is satisfied not.
The Southern Attorney General gives the opin-
ion, and what is it That he sees no good reason
why the marshal should be dismissed from
E office . How, Mr.. Crittenden, could you come to
this con cluson, with the facts stsring you in the
face, that the negroes there, and that it
a known TO every man in Boston, where they could
r be found that the marshal had in his hands the
WARRANT for their arrest and that the agent for the
: owners was constantly urging him to execute it
r and the further fact too that nobody was esisng
: the arrest. 1t is true, you kindly and by infer.
ence, censure the marshal by ayng that he might
have exercised II little more diligence and energy
What do you understand, Mr.. C j., by diligence and
energy Why, if the statements which your
: friends here have made have any truth in them,
r there was neither diligence energy required
r II II was true that there neither would
have been resistance to the law in Boston, it re-
CURED nothing more than that the officer should
I have gone along and arrested the slaves. One
thing is certain-there no resistance, and your
officer did not exercise diligence and energy
enough to render resistance necessary to the es-
capes Of the fugitives.
Mr.. Crittenden suppose that the mail had been
e robbed, that it clearly and distinctly known
r by whom the robbery had been committed, that
one of your marshals had in his hands warran,
for the arrest of the ofender-that he was to the
knowledge ofthe officer and every body else with
e IN ten minutes walk of him, that the post Office
o Al
rest. ard that for ten days he was to refuse to
make the arrest, and tina, the robber should al
o last conclude that the officer might some day con-
e clude to srresthm and should take himself off in
to some foreign country ,9lo you think that Mr..
Fillmore, upon having these facts represented TO
hun, would ever inquire Of you whether the officer
= ought to be dismissed and if he should do you
think 1t would ever enter into your head to say,
that you could in all this see emo good reason
y why he should be dismissed Do you think you
8 would let him of by saying that Che might have
r exercised little more diligence and energy ~
WOULD you not rather say that his conduct had
manifested grossness Of negligence, which
amounted to corruption, for which he ought to be
' forthwith dsgraced and discharged Yet sir the
q marshal was as much bound to arrest William
and Ellen Crafts, as he would be under those cir
cumstances to arrest the robber and SIR whaa
the country comes to look calmly and d.spasslon-
ately Mt the circumstances and the result Of that
= case thaFe will be great difficulty in finding any
solution Of the course pursued by the President
and yourself which will not ia upon both Of you
the wIful and improper disregard of your duty
: For myself, sir, believe that the marshal act
ed under instructions from Washington. |, is
! difficult to believe that woul1 in the face
of the strong deca rntons Of the President, so ut
terly refuse to discharge his duty, without an ma
surance that he should be held harmless ! be-
Y lleve as much as believe any thing do know
that there were regular communications between
Washington and Boston, and that the course Of
the marshal was reguat by the character of the
communications from Washington. Mr. Fillmore
{ would no doubt have been very glad, jus, then +,
that they should be pfeoeahiy and quietly deliver
ed up, but he knew that would not be done--he
dared not use the force Of the government to have
1t done that would set all the North against him
IL would not do ut that time, to have forcible
and successful resistance Of the law--that would
operate too fatally at the Soutbthe elections were
Just coming on in Georgia, and it wouid kill
$ Toombs and Sipphens shere. The only thing then
to escape all the difficulties, to let the officer
daily along ns best he could, until the negroes