Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-06-07

Gy The following article, from the Ne,o
York Tribune, shows the view which is taken
by prominent WHIGs, of our duties and OBJ
legations, under the existing state of things.
Comm IssiOner LOring and the Fugitive
Law.
We have received an elaborate review of
Commissioner Loring's decision, which we
would be glad to publish If we could see any
utility i'll doing so. But it seems to us too
much like firing into a tree after the flock has
flown. We do'not see how Mr.. Commission
er Loring, after consenting to do the dirty
work on which he was engaged, and deciding
the Fugitive law to be constitutional, could
have done otherwise than he did. We make
no quarrel on this head.
1t seems to us that the great omission of
duty in the Burns case, was on the part Of
the Governor of the Commonwealth He
stood by and saw the State authority deied
and trampled under foot when the United
States authorities resisted the service of
the writ of personal replevin, which
would have taken Burns out Of the hands of
the Federal authorities, and, as we understand
the Massachusetts laws, would have brought
the case before a jury. Here was the point
where something could have been done in be-
half Of substantial justice The writ of per-
sonal replevin should have been served if it
had taken fifty thousand men to serve it
They would have been forthcoming if they
had been wanted. But it would have taken
no armed men, but only little resolution on
the part Of the Governor to have vindcated
the majesty Of State law. But Governor
Washburn disregarded the palpable duties of
his exalted station, suffered himself to be in
Inundated and the State to be Inundated by
paltry band Of armed mercenaries of the fed
eral power, and pusillanimously submitted to
see the dignity and honor of the Common
wealth trod into the dirt. That abdication of
| his proper functions teaches this lesson: Mass
achusetts must put her Executive Government
into the hands of men who will teach the
shareholders lesson of State rights. This is
| her immediate and imperative duty. 1t is not
the Federal Government that is the supreme
authority in this Confederacy; the real SOW
ereignty lies in the States. Upon all ques-
tons OF personal liberty especially, the State
] authority is paramount. If we are not mis-
informed in regard to the character of Massa-
chusetts law, there is nothing needed now but
an inaexible discharge of plain duty on the
| part of the Executive, to forever put stop to
such proceedings as have indelibly disgraced
| that Commonwealth during the last week,
| The time is fully come when such an Execu-
| tive should be placed in the Governors chair
But, it it be otherwise, if Massachusetts laws
are yet insufficient for the adequate protection
! OF the citizen upon her soil, let legislature
be chosen who will make such laws; and, if
need be, let the people take measures to create
| ajudiciary that shall give rightful interpreta-
tons to all law, federal and local. We are in
the beginning of radical movement, an d
must stop at nothing short of results. There
! IS great question in issue, between the peo-
| pie of the free States and the slave power,
| and one or the other must completely triumph.
1t is struggle involving the very existence
OF the free States, as sovereign and indepen-
dent States. 1t is struggle worthy of the
loftiest effort, and demanding the sternest and
most uncompromising discharge Of duty. If
the Northern States do not deserve the chains
OF slavery, they will rise in their might of
civil and legislative authority. and overwhelm
those who give timid counsels at this crisis,
and will plant themselves upon ground wor-
thy OF free men and free States
The existing Fugitive Slave law is an enact
ment that cannot stand and be executed in
the non-slayeholding States. We plant our
selves upon this position asa fixed fact AS a
aw, passed under peculiar circumstances, and
coming in the character of an equivalent
yielded to the slave States, for certain imagiu-
airy grants made by them to the free States !;
sustained by our great men Of the North and
west wearing the aspect of compromise
between rival sections, essential to the preser-
Walton OF national harmony; the law had at
least some show OF claim to observance. AS
such, 1T was passed, and as such it has, after
fashion, been executed for the last three or
four years. But the circumstances by which
we are now surrounded have totally changed
the face which things wore in 1850.
The slave States have hoisted the banner of
aggression upon freedom, and everything in
the shape of claim upon the free States, must
now be reduced to its minimum quantity
The free States are under no obligation to
yield to such an inhuman and summary law
as the existing statute. 1t must be amended
and remodelled, and if the federal authorities
do not grant the necessary changes in its Of
fensiye features, the individual States, acting
in their sovereign capacity, must do So The
law has passed out of date, and must fall, let
the consequences be what they may. Any
state OF things is better than submission to
degrading vassalage to the slave power, such
as submission to this law under the changed
circumstances of our time, would involve. 1t
is of no use to try to wink out of sight the fact
that we are upon the eve of that contest which
is to determine the question of the essential
independence Of the free States. And when
it comes to the question Of whether it shall
be Liberty or Slavery that shall yield, God
forbid that even one man shall be found want
ing in the Free States.
rs We are ready for that contest now and al
ways; and our positionis deliberately chosen.
Let us be excused if we withhold our blows
from the backs of mean Commissioners. We
aesire to know them only as race to be sup