Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-11-24
Vbc Antt- GIoprrp BnQIr.
TRIAL OF THEODORE PARKER.

Theodore Parker, The folio sing extract is copied
from it;
English is the only tongue in which freedom car
speak her political or religious word. Shall thai
tongue be sencodi tied in Faneuil Hall torn ou
by slavohunter? The Stamp Act only taxed
commercial and legal documents the Fugitive
Slave ll,makos our words misdemeanors. The
Revenue Act did but lay tax ON tea three.pencC
only on q pound: the slave hunters act taxes our
thoughts n crime. The Boston Port Bill but
closed our harbor, we could get in at Salem but
the Judges charge shats up the mouth of all New
England MT word against manhuntng but is .
crime, the New Testament IS full Of 'misde-
meanors' Andres onl ly took away the charter o
Massachusetts JgdSe Curts's law is GuC
1carranto against Humanity itself. Perfdous
General Gage took away the arms of Boston
Judge Curtis charges upon our soul; he would
wiring all religion out Of you,-no Standard o
Morality above the Fugitive Slave Bill you must
not, even to God in your prayers, evince AN ex
press liking for the deliverance of an innocent
man who his family seek to transform to u breast
Of burthen. and then sacrifice to the American Me
loch.
Decide according to your own conscience gen
tlemen, not after mine.
Gentlemen Of the jury, | must bring this defence
to q close. Already it is too long for your patience
though far too short for the mighty interest at
stake, for it is the freedom Of Nation which you
are to decide upon. have shown YOU the aim and
purposes of the Slave Power-to make this vast
Continent one huge despOtism, house of bond
age for African Amerrcans house Of bondage
also for Saxon Americans. have pointed ont the
course of despotsm in Moharchc England you
have seen how there the tyrants directly made
wicked laws, when that resource fned, how
they reached indirectly after their end and ap.
pointed officers to peryert the law to ruin the peo.
pie. You remember how tEo king appointed base
men rs Attorneys and Judges, and how wickedly
they used their position and their power, scorning
iya fl,a ln I,pA nd tha If,
The Judges in their itinerant circuits" says an
old historian, the more to cnsuve the people to
obedience, being to speak Of the king, would give
him sacred titles, as il their advancement to high
places must necessar ybe laid upon the foundation
Of the peoples debasomcnt.' You have not for
gotten Saunders, KelynS and Je6rcys and Saroggs;
Sibthorpc AMI MdiGwarnng you will remember
Notwithstanding eternal damnation, such
as refused the illegal tax of Charles l. or cvincod
un express disapprobation of his tyranny.
Gentlemen, you recolect how the rights OF the
jury were broken down,-how jurors werQ threat
ened with trial for perjury, insulted, fined ard i'm
prsoned, because they would be faithful to the
law of thc- conscience. You remember how the
tyrannical King clutched at the peoples purse.
and their persJn too. and smotc at all Freedom of
speech, while the purchased Judges were always
ready the tools of despotsn But you know
what it all ca &c to- ustice could not enter upon
the law through the doors Of Westminster Hall :
she tried it at Naseby and Worcester, and with
her lnVnclOie lronsllcS toJk possession by means
of pike and gun. Charles |. laid his guilty head
the block James III. only escaped the same fate
by timely flight. If Courts will not decree justice
then civil war will, for it must lie done, and bat
tie becomes Growing mercy.
Gentlemen, have shown you what the slave
power Of America aims at-a despotsm which is
worse for the age th.n the Stuarts' tyrGnny for
that time. You see its successive steps of en-
croachmcnt. Behold what it has done within ten
years 1t has made slavery perpetual in Florlda
has annexed Texas, a slave State rs big as the
kingdom Of France has fought the Mexican war,
with Northern money, and spread bondage over
Utah, New Mexico, and California; it has given
Texas ten millions of Northern dollars to help sa-
very witAa!; it has passed the Fugitive Slave Bill,
and kidnapped men in the West, in the Middle
States and even in our New England; it has
gveif' ten millions of dollars Cor little strip Of
worthless land the Mesa valley, whereon to make
II slave Railroad, and carry bondage from the At.
lantic to the Pacific it has repealed the Prohibi-
ton of slavery, and spread the mildew of the South
all over Kansas and Nebraska. Ask your capital
lists, who have bought Missouri lands and railroads
how their stock looks ust now: not only your lib
crty but even their money is in peril. You know
the boast of Mr.. Toombs. Gentlemen, you know
what the United States Court have done--w,th
poisoned weapons they have struck deadly blows
at freedom. You know Sharkey and Grier and
Kane. You recoilect the conduct of kdnappers
Courts at Milwaukee, Sandusky, Cincinnati, Phila-
delphia--n the Hall of Independence But why
need wander SO far? Alas you know too well
jNiat has been done in Boston, our own Boston.
tho grave Of Puritan piety. You remember the
Union Meeting Ellen Craft Sims chains around
the Court House. tae Judges crawling under, sol
diers in the stree. 9rpnk smiling at the citizens
you do not torSes anthony Burns. the Marshals
guard, the loaded cannon in place Of Justice, sol
diess again in the streets, smiting at and wound
ing the citizens You recolleet all this--the 39th
of April. 1851, Boston delivering an innocent man
Savn m bo sln orl hat 11v
scourged in his Jail, while the hirengs who en-
thralled him were feasted at their Inn Anniyer-
sary week last year-a Boston Judge Of Probate,
the appointed guardian Of orphans, Kidnapping
poor and frieudess man! You cannot forget these
things, no, never!
You know who did all this n single family
:he Honorable Judge Curtis, with his kinsfok and
friends, himself most subtly active with all his
force throughout this work. When Mr.. Webster
prostituted himself to the slave power, this family
went out and pimped for him in the streets they
paraded in the newspapers, at the Revere House,
and in public letters they beckoned and made
signs at Faneuil Hall. That crime of Sodom
brought Daniel Webster to his grave at Marshfeld
IA mighty warning not to despise the law OF the
snfnite God but that sin Of Gomorrah it put
the Hon. Benz. Il. Curtis this Bench gave him
his judicial power to construct his claw" construct
his Jury" to indict and try me. Try me? No,
Gentlemen it is you, your wives and your children
who are up for swift condemnation this day. Will
you wait. will you add sin to sin, till God shall
rain fire and brmstone your heads, and dead
sea shall cover the place once so green and bios
somng with American liberty? Decide your own
fate. When the Judges false let the Juries
be faithful, and We have "crowning mercy"
without cannon, and the cause Of Justice is se-
cure For "when wicked men seem nearest 10
their hopes. the goaly man is furthest from his
fears"
You know my Offence" Gentlemen. I have
confessed mo1e than the government could prove.
You are the country !" the nation by twelve
delegates is present here to-day In the name of
America, of mankind, you are to judge of the law
and the fact and the application Of the law to the
fact. You are to decide whether you will spread
Slavery. and the consequences of Slavery all over
ths North whether Boston New England, ali the
ynrth shall kidnan other Ellen Crafts other Ihom