Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-09-09

and especially the supreme Court OF the
country, in much respect but l am too fam
liar with the history Of judicial proceedings,
to regard them with any supersutous rever-
ence. (Sensation.) Supreme judges are but
men; and in all ages have shown a full share
of human frailty. The worst crimes Of his
tory have been perpetrated under their sane
ton 1t was judicial tribune which con-
demned Socrates to drink the fatal hemlock,
and which nailed the Saviour to the cross.
1t was judicial tribunal surrounded by all
the forms of law which doomed the fair
Virginia in ancient Rome, as a slave; which
in modern times, enforced the toItures of the
inquisition, amidst the shrieks and agonies of
its victims, and which compelled Calico to
declare in solemn denial of the great truth he
had declared, that the earth did not move
round the sun. Aye, Sir, it was a judicial
tribunal, in England, surrounded by all the
forms of law, which sanctioned every despotic
caprice of Henry the 18th, from the unjust di-
vorce of his Queen to the beheading Of Sir
Thomas More; which lighted the fires of per-
secuton, that glowed at Smithfeld over the
cinders of Latimer, Ridley, and John Rogers
which, after elaborate argument, upheld the
fatal tyranny of ship money against the OPP
position of Hampden; which in defiance of
Justice and humanity, sent Sidney and Rus
sell to the block; and which persistently en-
forced the laws of Conformity that our puri-
tan Fathers persistently refused to obey. And
it was judicial tribunal in our country, sur
rounded by all the forms of law, which hung
witches at Salem, affirmed the constitutional
ity of the Stamp Act, and admonished
"'iudges and Jurors to obey-and which, now
in our day, has sanctioned the atrocity of the
Fugitive Slave Bill. Long continued APP
| plause, and three cheers for Sumner)
! The judgments of Courts are of binGing
! authority upon inferior tribunals and execu-
tive functonaries, whose virtue does not
prompt them to resign office rather than aid
| in the execution of an uni ust law. Over all
citizens, whether in public or private station,
they will naturally exert, as presidents, "a com
manding influence; this l admit; but no
man, who is not lost to self respect, and ready
/ to abandon their manhood, which is shown i'll
the Heaven directed countenance, will yolun-
tarily aid in enforcing judgment, which, in
his conscience, he solemnly believes to be
| against the fundamental law, whether Of the
| Constitution or of God. (Applause.) Not
| lightly, not rashly will he take the grave re-
| sponsbility, of open dissent; but, if the &C.
cason requires, he viii not hesitate. Pains
and penalties may be endured; but wrong
must not be done. (Cheers.) 81 cannot obey,
| but | can suffer, was the exclamation of the
author of Pilgrims Progress, when imprison-
ed for disobedience to an earthly statute. Bet
ter suffer injustice than do it. Better be even
the poor slave, returned to bondage, than the
unhappy Commissioner. applause and SEN
sation)
Fellow Citizens of Massachusetts-Ou Dur own
local history is not without encouragement
early colonial days, the law against witch
craft, now SO abhorrent to reason and con-
science, was regarded as constitutional and
binding precisely as the Fugitive Slave Bill,
not less abhorrent to reason and conscience,
has been regarded as constitutional and bind
ing. The Supreme Court Of the Province,
with able Judges, whose names are entwined
with our history, enforced this law at Salem,
by the execution of fourteen persons as
witches precisely as petty magistrates acting
under the sanction of the Supreme Court of
the United States and also OF the Supreme
! Court of Massachusetts,, have enforced the
Fugitive Act, by the reduction of two human
| beings to slavery. The clergy of Massachu-
sets, particularly near Boston. We're Tor the
law. "Witchcraft,' shouted Cotton Mather
! from the pulpit, sis the most nefandous high
! treason'-''a capital crime even as opposi-
| ton to the Fugitive Act has been denounced
as "treason." (Laughter.)
But the law against witchcraft was not tri-
umphant long. The General Court of the
Province first became penitent, and asked par
don of God for &" all the errors of his servants
and people in the late tragedy" Jurymen
united in condemning and lamenting the de-
fusion to which they had yielded, underl the
decision of the judges, and acknowledged that
they had brought the reproach of wrongful
bloodshed on their native land. Sewell, one
of the Judges whose name is honored by all
lovers of liberty and whose virtues still find
fitting illustration III the fidelity Of his descend
ant, Hon. T. Z. Sewell,) and who had pre-
sided at the trials, stood up i'll his place be-
fore the congregation, and implored the
prayers of the people &C that the errors he had
committed might not be visited by the judg-
ments of an ayenging God on his counIy,his
family or himself And now, in manu-
script diary of this departed judge, may be
read OH the margin against the description Of
these trials, in his own handwriting, these
words of Latin intersection and sorrow We,
ua, rm. (Sensaton).
The parallel between the enforcement Of the
laws against witchcralt, and the Fugitive Act
is not yet complete. IL remains for our Leg
islature, the successor Of that original Gener-
al Court to lead the penitential march. (Laugh-
teri. In the slave cases there have been no
| lurymen to recant, and it is too much per-
haps, to expect any Magistrate, who has sane
toned the cruelty, to initiate the magnanim
ity of other days by public repentance. But
IL Is not Impossible tnat future generations
may be permitted to read in some newly ex-
huned diary or letter, by one of these unhap
ply functionaries, words of woe not unlike
these which were wrung from the soul of Sew
all. (Sensation).
And now, fellow citizens, one word in con-
clusion: Be of good cheer. (tThats it.'l L
know well the difficulties and responsibilities
Of the contest; but not on this account do |
bate a jot of heart or hope. (Applause). AT
this time in our country there is little else to
tempt into public life an honest man, who
wishes, by something that he has done, to
leave the world better than he found it.
There is little else which can afford any of
that satisfaction which an honest man can COW
ct; nor is there any cause which so surely
promises final success. There is nothing good
= not a breathing of the common mind =
which is not on our side. Ours, too, are
those great allies described by the poet
| -exaltatiOns, agonies,
And love and mans unconquerable mind"
And there are fayoring circumstances pecu-
liar to the present moment. By the passage
of the Nebraska Bill and the Boston kidnap-
ping case, the tyranny of the slave-power has
become Enthusiastically manifest, while, at the
same time, all compromises with Slavery are
happily dissolved, SO that Freedom now stands
face to face with it. The pulpit, too, released
from its ill-omened silence, now thunders for