The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-03-08
THE NATIONAL ERA: WASHINGTON, D. c.

| Sir the honorable Senator only borrows the Ian
guage of the North which, at each of these usurp-
atoms, exclaims, {" Let us alone" And let me
say frankly, that peace can never prevail until
1 you do let us alone-until this subject of Slave
| ry is banished from Congress by the triumph of
| Freedom-until Slavery is driven from its usurp-
ed foothold, and Freedom is made national instead
| of sectional-and until the National Government
is brought back to the precise position it occupied
| on the day that Washington took his first oath as
President of the United States, when there was
no Fugitive Act and the national flag; it float
ed over the national territory, within the juris-
dction of Congress- nowhere covered single
slave
And now, sir, as an effort in the true direction
of the Constitution in the hope Of beginning the
| divorce of the National Government from Sla-
very and to remove all occasion for the proposed
measure under consideration, / shall close what
have to say with a motion to repeal the Fugl-
| tive Act Twice already, since l have had the
honor of a seat on this floor, have pressed that
| question to a vote, and mean to press 1t again
tonight After the protracted discussion, In
volving the character of this enactment, such a
motion seems logically to belong to this occasion,
and may fifty close its proceedings
At a former session, on introducing this prop
osition, discussed it at length in an argument,
| which fearlessly assert has never been answer
I ed and now in this debate have already touch
| ed upon various objections. There are yet othor
| things which might be urged. might exhibit
| the abuses which have occurred under the Fugi-
tive Act; the number of free persons it has DOOM
| ed to Slavery the riots it has provoked; the
brutal conduct of its officers the distress 1t has
scattered the arrangement Of business it has
caused, interfering even with the administration
| of Justice, changing court-houses into barracks
and barracoons, and filling streets with armed
| men, amidst which law is silent. All these things
| | might expose. But in these hurried moments,
| forbear Suffice it to say, that the proposition
to repeal the existing Fugitive Act stands on ad-
amantine grounds, which no debate in opposition
can shake.
There are considerations belonging to the
present period which give new strength to this
proposition Public Opinion, which, under a
popular Government makes and unmakes laws,
and which, for time, was passive and acqules-
cent, now lifts itself everywhere in the States
where the act is sought to be enforced, and
demands a change. Already three States, Rhode
Island Connecticut, and Michigan, by formal
resolutions presented to the Senate, have con-
CURED in this demand. The tribunals OF law are
Joining at last with the people. The superior
court of Cincinnati has denied the power of Con-
Qress over this subject. And now, almost while
speak, comes the solemn judgment of the Su-
preme Court of Wisconsin-n sovereign State Of
this Union-made after elaborate argument on
successive occasions, before single judge, and
then before the whole bench, declaring this act
to be violation of the Constitution In response
to Public Opinion, broad and general, if not
universal at the North, swelling alike from village
and city, from the seaboard and lakes-judicially
attested, egislatively declared, and represented,
also, by numerous petitions from good men with
out distinction of party-in response to this Pub
lie Opinion, as well as in obedience to my own
fixed convictions, deem it my duty not to lose
this opportunity of pressing the repeal of the
Fugitive Slave Act once more upon the Senate.
| move, sir, to strike out all aftor the enacting
clause in the pOnding bill, and insert instead
thereof these words:
That the act of Congress- approved Septem-
Der IS, 1850, usually known as the Fugitive
Slave Act be, and the same hereby is, repealed"
And on this motion ask the yeas and nays.