Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-02-23


the laws of the Commonwealth. Remodel youi
, Supreme Court put John A. Andrew in the place
OF Judge Shaw, and you will see the Personal Lib
erty Bill executed in Massachusetts. When we
shall see lockwood Hoar or John A. Andrew in
that place, that will be the best Personal Liberty
Bill. We do not need new laws, we need new
/, Judges.
You will never see, this side the Mississippi, the
bayonets of free and slave States marshaled oppo
site each other. 1t is not the function of the Yan
kee nation. But you may see two great courts
like those Of New York and the Union nrrayed
/, against each other, and checkmating the Govern
nent; and when it comes, il is the drst toscin oi
Dsunion; the first blow Of the god Thor's hammer
|, which is to break the Union asunder.
think it probable this question is to be fought
at last by the Judiciary. After all this political
!, discussion, ! want something that will maintain
your courts that will keep the right side the
young men of the legal profession, (most Of them
right n0w,) that are to come into prominent life
soon Get me such feeling here IN State street,
and in Massachusetts, as will undertake to carry
out that Personal Liberty Bill, in defiance of the
United States Court and the Government willdread
1t more than the rebellion at Syracuse. Maintain
that bill if you can; but far more important
thing is to put judges the bench, who will car
ry IL in their hearts, whether it is in the statute
book or not. That is the best anti.slavery !
know.
do not believe much in common politics; that
Legislature, or to Washington. who will, some of
them, not be bought. When | hear the boast of
that arrant traitor, Caleb Cushing, with thirty or
forty millions of dollars to spend, THAT he can al
ways find or buy ten men to support an Admins
tration measure,) do not believe there is any po-
tical virtue capable of withstanding it. Put three
hundred men into house, and let forty millions Of
dollars flow in at the window, ,-iniquty will come
out at the door. daughter and applause.) Charles
Sumner is good man, and he cannot be bought,
and Wilson also hut they are not the majority.
There are always little clever average men, whose
claim to votes has been, they never offended any
body by having opinions and they can always be
bought and they count just much as Sumner.
In politics. there is always trade. Trade lies at
the bottom of it. The party has got to trade. Our
only hope is not in party, the very first net Of
which would be to accept platform built by
Stephen Foster, and sweep it off Immediately for
one an inch lower and by the time the party had
been In existence q twelvemontn, the platform
would be 50 chenged he would not know it,. My
friend Foster would start with a platform that
every good man would kiss; but before u twelve
month is over, suppose the Commonwealth con-
vulsed with the discovery Of Gardner's plot to
| throw Sumner overheard and make himself Sena-
tor, how many of our friends new party would
cling to him, for the magnanimous purpose o.
being counted merely, when such an issue trem-
bled ir.she balance, and they thought their votes
would help the honest side 1nmy opinion, our
Irlenu L OSter s WnOle party WOuiu 20 over NO.
do not believe in such machinery but do believe
in ,his,-in public sentiment like that which met
Judge Kane when he put Passmore Williamson in
to Jail public sentiment that is easily aroused
to deferd the highest legal principles; a public
sentiment which has already converted half, if not
twothirds of the young talent Of the bar In the
Northern States and has on its side the ablest men
who will stand before juries ten years hence.
Only give me judges that will array Massachusetts
against the Union, and she will pluck herself out.
Checkmate this government in the matter of fu Il
tive slaves and it would be the first stunning blow
that would call the Southern States the necessity
of discussing dissolution of the Union, or set
tng the whole question in some way. That ID
question more easily managed than politics.
| have not talked half much on this question
as my heart Dictates for incline to the opinion, that
when the fight shall finally come, on the question
of Slavery or Liberty, it will be settled by the
Judges, not by Congress. We never shall conquer
there. We shall be defeated there the Kansas
question--on the Cuban question-on the Mexican
question--in the Presidential election, beyond
doubt. When it is done, then | ink the way to
fight is to come homo to Massachusetts. Charles
Sumner would be four times the use to this Com
monweath as its Chief Justice that he is as its
Senator. Take all those Free Sellers home from
Washington and cabin them up in the Common
wealth of Massachusetts, and they will be Of great
service
Voice--llow are you going to get Charles
Sumner to the bench p
Mr.. Phillips--Just as you got him into the Sen.
ate,--by voting. BY the same public opinion that
hoaed up Gen. Wilson to a seat in the Senate of
the United States. 1t is not votes, however, that
will determine this question--that will bring Mas
sachusetts out of the Union.
am looking at this question as practical one.
When my friend Foster has got fifty thousand
voters in Massachusetts, and Francis jackson and
Edmund Quincy as candidates, and has elected
them, what are they to do They are to march to
the State House and say-'Mr. Clerk or President,
am chosen from the county of Middlesex SEN
ator : and he will hold up the Constitution and
say, will you take that oath?' No, SIR the
answer will be. Then you may 60 home
Mr.. Foster--They would not be obliged to take
that oath.
Mr.. Phillips--No executive or judicial officer
can assume Office, State Office, without an
oath to support the Constitution Of the United
States. Now, if thought even one man could be
put inside that State House, by my vote as a Dis
unicnist, to argue Disunion there, would go
forward aud vote for him, if / conscientiously
could. Then should ask him, the first thing he
did, to propose Convention of the old Common
wealth, whose object should be to get us out of the
Union. But cannot get him in. l cannot pro-
duce that Dsunion action through the Legislature.
Last year, we had to convince ihem that the Per-
sonal Liberty Bill was constitutional before they
would pass it, Mark you | can put a Judge on
the BENCH and in the exercise of his judicial func-
ton, he can checkmate the United States Court
by the very machinery which the present Govern
ment has set up. If could get the Free Soil party
to swear that the first act they would do when they
got into the Legislature would be to call Conven-
ton to take into consideration Disunion, l would
say amen to their election though could not vote
for them. But that door is sealed againsr US.
Mr. Foster cannot open it, even with the whole
county of Worcester on his side. That is the
reason why, as a Dsunion Abolitionist, l look
more TO judges to produce the first blow that is to
chrystalze this anti-savery sentiment into practi'
cal life. 1t seems to me the department from
which it will most naturally come. Wisconsin is
practically out of the Union at this moment. Why
did not Pierce or Cushing send somebody to put
Booth back into Jail He has no right to bc out,
according to the United States legislation. The
United States put him in, the State judges took
him out, and told the United States judges to help
themselves if they could. And there that Court
stands, de6ed by the young State Of Wisconsin, and
the President Of the United States dare not at
tempt to execute his own statutes. That is great