Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1851-05-31
ssNotIling Else"

IDENTIFY much disturbed by the speech of Mr.. Mann,
at Lancaster, fnot at alb his conscience for
RECKONING to hopeless bondage, fellow man, for
having skin some shades darker than his own.
The hard Commissioner of Slavery-an Office
hateful to the people ofMassachusets-ha one ten
der spot, which Mr.. Mann has so touched, that he
both winces and cries out under the pressure. What
seems most to afiict the sensbility Mr.. George
7. Curtis, is the following grievance, published
der his own name, in the sympathetic columns of
the Daily Advertiser of the 29th, viz
''Mr Mann says to his audience at Lancaster,
and then prints it in Boston, that while the cause
(the slave-catchers) was pending before me, of
the points introduced in 1t, was brought before the
Supreme Court and the Circuit Court; that ad-
lOurned the case over, after all the arguments of
council were in, and thereby gave myself an oppor-
tunity for preparation and consultation"
The Commissioner, who could complacently see
the Court House hung in chains, and without finch
ing from the horrid barbarty ofre-nfictng the curse
ofperpetual slavery fellow who had all the
rights to liberty which he had to his is so severely
wounded by the 'insinuation'' of Mr. Mann, as to
any warplng from righteousness that he circumstan-
TALLY narrates his whereabout and his whatabout,
and gives the lie direct to any suggestion of his hav-
ing had any intercourse whatever with the Judges
Of the Supreme Court with the Judge of the Dis
trict Court, and Illicit intercourse with Mr. JUS
tce Woodbury., except to receive the very insignf-
cant but vastly courteous assurance that he was not
at all disposed to interfere with his disposition of
Sims. But let the Commissioner himselftell his own
story, in his chosen way, which is as follows
'tOn my way to the Court House on Friday morn
ing, was told (providentiay, no doubt) by gem
teman who present the night before, that Judge
Woodbury. had granted writ. | met that learned
Judge (another gracious interpoaton, in the lobby
as was going into the Court Room to deliver my
opinion, and told by him that the writ which. he
had granted was applicable only to criminal pro-
cess, in which Sims was held, and was not intended
to interrupt the proceedings before me.''
The Commissioner adds: Nothing else was pass
ed between u.s.
".Nothing eIse!'' Indeed! How wary the Judge!
How Supplemented the Commissioner! s..4pplica-
Die only toG criminal process intended to
interrupt the proceedings before me.' That is all,
-''mothtng else." How very naturally those only
words must have suggested to the Commissioner the
vast erudition of sthat learned JUDGE What
store of learning filled that ''notting elss!''
Franklin somewhere tells us of ancient sages,
"whose hints showed meaning, whose illusions,
care" Now we do not presume to say how much
or how little Mr.. Justice Woodbury. meant by his ca
yeats to Mr. Commissioner Curtis, in their very prov
ldentlal lobby meeting He may have intended
nothing more nor less than courteous apology to the
Commissioner, for seeming to have trodden on the
corns of his dignity-an that his Honor Of
the Supreme Court of the United States, would by
no means hinder the progress of so honorable and
magnanimous functionary as a Commissioner of
slavery, under the new and more glorious dispense
ton Of slave-catchng which Mr. Webster has lust
extolIed in his bison speech at Buffalo. 1t is, how
ever, quite possible to imagine that whatever the
o6ater dictu of 'that learned Judge meant per Sc,
whatever his meaning might be to the ear, the Com
missioner may have paaphrased it to his own inner
man thus: "Good Mr.. Commissioner, don't be at
all alarmed at my writ. Nothing, assure you, can
be more harmless You will see, by and by, that it
has but little or no meaning, except to save appear
ances. Nothing can be further from my purpose
than interfering with the dignity of your Office The
writ have granted, is only ON criminal process,
and Is by no means intended to Illustrate the benign
provisions Of the Fugitive law. You understand,
MIR. Commissioner, my attachment to the Union, on
which all our hopes are centered. l need not tell
you, what everybody knows, how little have ever
cared for black mans liberty; and my present con-
Germ for it, is. be assured, as little now as ever
The very last thing should be guilty of would be
to hinder the operation of the Fugitive law, which it
is your noble prerogatve to enforce for the preserya
ton OF Union which has elevated you to so exalted
dignity as that of casting the manhood of negro
to the bood-hounds of slavery. Go on, Mr.. Com
missioner, go on fulfill your noble Office and with it
the measure Of your glory. Our departments of du-
~ are separate, but my heart is with you.''
1t hardly requires the help of imagination to be-
lieve, that Massachusetts Commissioner of slavery
would naturally expand the ".Notting else" Of
" that learned judge" into such paraphrase Mr.
Curtis himself may have been unconscious, wholly
or in part, of the influence that was upon him in
the execution of such an gnomnious function. We
are happy to perceive any symptoms that he is be.
coming sick of a vocation which every New Eng
lander should loathe and abhor 1t will take the
shrewd, unsophisticated people of Massachusetts
much longer than the whole life time of Messrs.
Hallet and Curtis, to believe that the love of right
eousness, or even Of the Union has swayed their
action IN the outrage Of sending back into slavery
their fellow man, prosecuted by the atrocious Fug-
tive law. Hateful as is that law, the Commissioner
who sells himself to its barbarous enforcement for