New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-06-05
rr,E uosTCN SLAVE CASE.

Tie Massachusetts, papers of Saturday come to US
loaded down with details of the Burns case aud com
,p,pts thereon. We publish few of the comments
of the more moderate Of the Boston prcss.
II is difficult to conceive of a more general and IN
tense excitement tlar this has produced through
out Massachusetts,. Tie whole State seems to be on
FIRE with IT, We learn from private sources that the
d,ptb and earnestness OF feeling beggars description
and that the burning language of the newspapers
even fails to give any adequate idea Of the real state
Of things in that Commonwealth. There can be no
doubt that the condition Of the public mind IN the
North demands the serious attention OF Congress ana
the Government. The public peace Is as yet unsroAen
But that il is so is but the result of happy accident
If the order TO fire on that Boston multitude, when
was given by cowardy and excited ofhcer' had NOT
opportuney been arrested in the very act OF eAecu-
ton il is difficult to tell wbatlamentable results might
not have ensu,d. The most papable, would nave
been the deuging the streets OF Boston win Uoou'
e torcble rescue Of the slave. and the rout and de-
,ructon OF the United States force there arrayed ii
the neptup fires that burned in the breasts OF that
immense concourse of excited people had once found
vent in an outbreak, every vestige of authority
engaged in escortng the victim to MS
UCt m Houlu nave ttcu eN'Fb S""' 49,
instant. The people would have swarmed over the
bloody spot and executed vengeance swift and terr-
Bile upop all concerned That slayecacbing is not to-
dsv at an end in Massachusetts,, and extinguished by
dreadful tragedy, we say then is but the result OF
the merest accident The circumstance we have al
luded to is one How many others may have contri-
buted to THAT end we know not But this we know,
that it was also but an accident that no renconter
took place between the United States authorities and
the PEOPLE during the line of march through Safest
and down Long Wharf The whole march was but a
long combustbe train that single spark might have
limited That no collisions resulted that might have
brought On an accidental conflict (Or no serious at
tack was meditated) is only "a happy escape. 1t can
be reckoned nothing else. Good fortune in this re-
spect waited upon the rendition OF Anthony Burns.
But we wish to ask whether it could he predicated
Just such another case suppong the designs of the
multitude to be not a whit more serious than they
were in this Is it a safe experiment to try over
again going even on the suppOsltion that the public
feeling is not going to become yet more intensified If
possible and its determinations more violent and dan
geTous
We submit the question TO Congress and to the Ex-
ecutiye Government at Washington. And desire
to know if they can be so nsensbe TO existing PeriS
as to refuse action in an emergency so Threatening 10
the public tranquility We have suggested already an
alternative to avert the catastrophe threatened in the
Burns case and which must be more imminent in
every succeeding case. This is to grant trial tyjHy
TO the fugitive. VIII Congress do it Or Will it per-
sst in adherrng to an inluman statute till il lnds the
peope in open nsurrcction against the authority Of
tbe Federal Government Let the question be tested
in Congress, and let us seewbo favor andwho oppose
step SO necessary to avert the most caamltous re-
suits in the future We think the North should unite
as one man to demand much as this, and demandit
of the Congress now in session.