Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-05-29
III. Commissioners Court POstponen,ent of
the Case of Burns.

and vicinity, to consider what steps should be
taken to save Massachusetts, from the disgrace
of having man who claimed the protection
of her laws, taken by violence from her me-
tropoHs and consigned to perpetual slavery.
So intense was the feeling of the community,
that at seven o'clock it was impossible to gain
admittance, and thousands who wished to get
in were disappointed.
The meeting was called to order at 7 clock,
by S. E. Scwell, Esq, and the following per-
sons were chosen officers Of the meeting:
For President, -GEoReE R. RUSSELL, Esq,
of Roxbury.
Vice Presidents, --Samuel G. Howe, VIII
liam B. Spooner, Francis Jackson, Timothy
Gilbert Rev. Mr. Grimes, of Boston; Francis
w. Bird, of Walpole; Albert G.. Browne, Sal
EN-; Gershom B. Weston, Duxbury; T. w.
Higginson, Worcester; Charles Ellis, Rox-
bury; Samuel Wales, Jr., Samuel Downer, Jr.
Secretaries, William I. Bowditch, and Rob-
ert Morris, of Boston.
Judge Russell, made an eloquent address
upon taking the chair.
He said, among the contingencies to which
a man is liable, he should have said yesterday
the last was, that he should be asked to pre-
side over a meeting to consider the arrest of
fugitive slave in Bosten. Only the day before
he had said that fugitive slave would never
be arrested in and taken from Boston. He
was mistaken in part; God grant that he might
not be in the whole. The boast SAID to have
been made by a Shareholder, that he would
count his slaves on Bunker Hill, will not be
mere words if this thing is consummated. Sla-
very, he said, has thrown off the mask and
1f1s &c roof clopn
country here. We have yielded and yielded
until compromise has become concession,
and concession has become disgrace.
The question arises whether the men of Bos-
ton, of New England. of Faneuil Hall, are
slave catchers; whether they are willing to do
what it debases man at the South to dos
The meeting he said had been called with
out distinction of party protest against agreat
wrong, not to council violence. For himself
he had hoped to live and die in free land,
but the de;potism of the slave power had be-
come more and more intolerable, until it had
come to this, that Massachusetts, law and the
Massachusetts Constitution. were powerless
to protect citizens of our Commonwealth with
were received with tremendous applause.
Francis W. Bird, of Walpole, next address
sed the meeting. He denounced in terms of
just severity the servile tools of the slave
power, who were the hired agents and en-
ployees of the kidnapper; and held up to the
scorn of the audience, the pusilanimity and
hypocrisy of the Boston papers in regard to
the kidnapping of Burns. Those papers he
said, published this morning as fact that the
slave wanted to go back with his master. The
slave had declared that he had no wish or de-
sire to go back, and yet the newspapers had re-
fused to contradict the statements they had
made unless they did it in their advertising
columns and received pay for so doing. They
were willing to lie for nothing, but could only
be prevailed upon to tell the truth by being
paid for it.
He said There are many mean men in
Boston, and l had the pleasure Of telling one
of them to-day, to his face. that he was a
mean, sneaking dog. [Cheers.) 1t was one
of the editors Of the Traveller. You know
poor Burns was arrested under the lying pre-
tence of having broken into jeweller's shop,
and the watchmen or police of Boston assisted
in it.
The papers all said that he said he wanted
to 60 back, his owner was SO kind. To-day
he told friends who called on him. that this
statement was a lie (good); that he not only
did not want to go back, but that he never said
90 to any living man, and asked .'if 1 want to
60 back what am here fors" He appointed
Coffin Pitts, and Wendell Phillips, his attor-
neys, and asked them to do all in their power
to prevent his being carried back. Idrew up,
in the form Ct a certificate, his statement, and
carried it to the TraUeiler Office, and asked il
the was time to get it in, saying they would
of course be glad to publish it as a matter Of
news. There was time to get it in, but II
must be paid for; dollar and a half, and !
paid it. After the clerk had taken the money,
man came in, who, he said, was one of the
editors, and was referred to him. I told the
clerk to give him my compliments, and tel
him this was mean, sneaking concern.
John L. Swift, Esq, Of Cambridge. then
took the stand, and delivered an eloquent adj
dress, which stirred the hearts of that vast
audience to the highest pitch of indignanten-
thusiasm.
Mr.. Swift vas followed by Or. S. G. Howe,
Of Boston, who offered for the consideration
Of the meeting, the following series of Re-
solves:--
Resoued That the people Of Massachusetts having de.
cared n the first article their Consultation that a men
born free and equal and have certain natural essen
ta and inalenaoe rghts,n solenny bound to stand
BY their declarations by refusing 10 recognize the exist
ence Of any slave the soil Of the vld Bay State
RESOLVED, That the perfdious seizure Of Anthony
Burns, In this city, Wednesday evening last the ~
ing pretence Of having committed crime against the laws
81 this state--his imprisonment alleged fugitive
slave In the Court House, under guard Of certain slave
catching rulanaand his complicated trial piece Of
properly Tomorrow mornng-are outrages never TO be
saaci0aed or tamely submitted to.
o. kesotUed That the time has 10 declare and TO
oem9nrate the fact that STAKEHOLDER carry his
prey Mlm the Commonwealth Of Massachusetts
= heseteed That lin the language Of Algernon Sid
nat which ID not Just is not law, and that which Is
not laE ought not TO be obeyedn
nssOaved That leaving every to determine for
,he mode Of resistance, united in the glori-
Gus sentiment Of Revolutionary fathers-t Resistance
% tyrsns Is obedience TO Gsd.n
nssoipea That Of all yrapts who have ever cursed
@ eAIn they are the cruel and beastIy who DENY
~ ha-1ta right o. mah his ewn bodvof father ID
rs u"n chilu-of2 husband his own wife whose traf
nc y In human flesh and broken hearts, who defend
shst1s slavery as divine institution. and who declare II
Dc InsI una.esae purpose indefinitely 70 extend and
Forever y psrpetrate their Internal oppression
Il kesot0ed That a. the South has deereed IN tho 1a,.
passage Of the Nebraska BILL that no faith - ~ ~ 10.
with freedorni So in the Of the living clod "a ~
fhe part Of the North, declare that 80 -
ever, compromises should be made with sayarr -
8. Res0iued That nothing SO well becomes 'raxa,,s
Hall the most determined resistance IN II a
osershadowIng despetasm. '' ANY
O. Resolved, That It Is the viii Of God that sve- a
should be born fees will God wills, Gods win -
donet "
10 Rssolyed That mans freedom is safe unless a,