Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-04-05
ffOm INC NtM } OTA J"uIuAI VI N"II'''
The Boston Star Chamber.

The Boston Star Chamber
An honest upright man need hardly wish
for greater triumph than was afforded 10
Judge Loring on Thursday last, by the reports
to the Massachusetts, Legislature from the
Committee on Federal Relations, to whom
had been referred the petitions for his renov-
al from the Office of Judge of Probate for the
County of Suffolk We learn from the BOs-
ton papers that there were three reports the
first, majority report signed by O. w. Albee,
James W. Stone, f. f. Knowles, and Oliver
Warner the second, statement of reasons
for dissenting from the majority report, signed
by b. X. Pierce and Erasmus Gould ; and the
third, concise, manly, conclusive minority
report, signed by George ii. Deyereux.
The majority report is wild, rabid docu-
lnent based upon the assumed infallible iden-
tity of Abolitionism with the law of nature
and the law of God, and therefore including
the right to ostracise and taboo everything in
antagonism with it. 1t chooses the broadest,
most sophistical, and speciOus basis for the
case it had prejudged, and yet reasons illogi-
cally and with an entirely untrue application,
from the premises it had assumed. II is, in
fact, the miserable special pleading of tyranny,
i'm behalf of an atrociOus act of revengeful
cruelty, and dishOnors every one connected
with it, except its victim. The Committee
concede that Judge LOring has not been gull
ty, and is not chargeable with ahy official
misbehavior rendering him-liable to impeach-
ment, but argue that for having disre2anlezl
the expressed --ssiAls-sf str' people, Through
>tfIef representatives, and thus o forfeited
! public confidence and made himself person.
ally Objectionable, he has come under the
clause contemplated by the Constitution, in
which the power of removal by address Is
provided fors According to this principle,
wo be 20 the Magistrate that shall condemn a
thief if the Socialist maxim, property is
robbery" should ever be accepted by large
number of the people. The direst brutalites
of the Inquisition, and the most monstrous
assumptions of power over the consciences OF
Others, have been defended, in all ages, on the
very same ground Of individual or popular
higher lawism, which is the essence of the
majority report against Judge LOring. In
conclusion the Report says:
at is sufficient for the Committee to know
that Judge Loring has sinned against the NOR
al sentiment of Massachusetts, that under a
law which the conscience of Massachusetts,
abhors; which her Christianity repudiates /;
which her reason pronounces unconstitutional,
and "against law and evidence" he has made
man a slave. The people therefore demand
his removal from the cffice of Judge of Pro-
bate.
"The two branches of the Legislature, in
General Court assembled, respectfully request
that your Excellency would be pleased, by and
with the advice and consent of the Council,
to remove Edward Greeley Loring from the
/ office of Judge Of Probate for the county of
Suffolk
The second report signed by Messrs. Pierce
and Gould, shows with what dismay men OF
foresight, holding (as these two gentlemen
appear to do) nearly similT abstract views re-
garding slavery as the majority of the Com
mittee, nevertheless witness the attempt to re-
move man from Office in mere obedience to
mob outcry. 1t is the protest of abolitionst
Girondins against the guillotine policy OF
the Mountain. They say:
/. If the decision by Judge Loring, acting
as Commissioner in the case ofAnthony Burns
had been in favor of his liberty, no objection
would have been urged or thought of against
his presiding at the trial ; and no evidence has
been offered to show that the decision was
corrupt. or that as a Commissioner he did
not act in accordance with his own convictions
of right.
.. In that, although Massachusetts had ta-
ken decided ground in the laws of 1843 and
in the resolves of 1850, prior to the passage
of the Fugitive Slave bill, still every attempt
of the friends of personal liberty to extend
the authority Of the law of lS43 to the Fugi-
tive Slave law of 1850 failed in the Massachu.
sets Legislature; and in that portion of the
State where Mr.. Loring presided as a Probate
Judge. there was not evidence TO assure hin
that, in sitting upon the case he would sac
rifice the confidence of those that appeared il
: his court.
g. Areluctance to make one man, ,howeverob
iectionable his course may now be esteemed,
sacrifice for the sins of Others, or even for the
benefit of good cause and no ordinary sol
icitude in reference to the effect upon the in
dependence of the judiciary of this summary
5 punishment of Judge, who however mista
ken, is believed to have been Conscientious
and who is now adjudged, not by the senti
ment that existed at the time of the act, bu
by the opinion that has grown up into vigor
4 ous life under the excitement of nationa
= events which have urged and exasperate'
public feeling since the decision was made.
Mr. Devereux' report is clear, convincing
and in perfect accordance with the facts of tn
case. 1t does credit to him as II man and a
{ citizen, and will conduce to his renowT
wherever the moral courage is appreciate
which resists popular tumult and is unaifec
u ted by those epidemics of passion and delu
t sion to which communities are sometime
e subject He totally objects to the emova
: of Judge Loring on the following grounds:-
1st There does not appear any moral c
political Obliquity, or any voluntary or pre-
n meditated wrong nthe position in which tn
d enactment of the Fugitive Slave law foun
d Judge Loring, in his capacity of u. 5. Con
missioner. Nor can the Massachusetts, statut
>, of 1S43 he made, either in terms or spri
IL fairly applicable to his case.
L ID He was, in no wise, individually r.
IS sponsible for the character of the law or ii
p details of its execution.
Sd 1t was not competent for him, as q swol
~ judicial and ministerial officer of the gencr
W government, to pretend to Judge of the la
re or its provisions, or to refuse to act und
or them, in his capacity of Commissioner of Il
United States nor could any useful purpo
'e have been answered by the adoption of su'
ie a course.
E. 4th No wilful perversion of right or der
10 liction from duty can be made out again
=, Judge Loring On the contrary, the cle'
:, definite, and unquestionable testimony of
- Dana establishes the reverse of such assum
al tions.
"a, 5th. Judge Loring did not assume or 81
tain position differing at all, in moral poi
of view, from that occupied by the May
nc and civic authorities of Boston; by We
he large portion, ut least, of the community
'e- large.
n 9th. Although the legislature may, pc
n haps, have the absolute right to exercise
preroeative of the highest and most txtra'
'i dinary character, to satify a vague and unt
'o- fined public expectation, it does not seem
le- be either the intent or the true AMI safe 4
m. of power, so arbitrary and so summary,
apply it to any case other than of clear, L
oh questionable, sef-evdent deficiency or
m compatibility, either physical, moral or int
n lectual
in 9Th. All reasonable and desirable ends m
i be Observation-Disclosures we look to the mo-