Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-03-31


villains, or sold them to Irish lords for slaves
Well, come home then to our own "model repub-
lic,@aye, to the old Commonwealth of Massachu-
setts According to every principle of natural
law, every man upon her soil is freeman, yet
five times in the history of this State have our
judges remanded to slavery the bondman that
soughta refuge upon our soil, and to-day the err
mine Of one of them is spotted with the blood Of
the fugitive slave, while at the the leader of
its bar prostitutes his learning and eloquence to
the service of slavery, willingly, aye, and as
readily as he becomes the legal hireling of any
sonnanbulic murderer, who bas gold enough to
fee him. Now look at the nation at large, in the
Congress Of which the Missouri Compromise is
destroyed, by the cunning of Judge Douglas in
the Senate, under the leadership of Judge Rich
ardson in the House. A Judge Kane does the
bidding of slavery upon the free soil Of sister
State, and to crown ALL the highest Court of JUS
tlce IN the Union declares, by solemn judicial de-
cssion, that the five hundred thousand free coIored
citizens in this Republic aliens and outlaws,
like the basest slaves. And yet these are the men
who, if we repeal the law of 1856, may, or will
1 have the power, to dictate lalU to jurors. |
| ask you the representatives Of the people, shall
we by our votes give them chance to do it. or
shall we like freemen worthy of the heritage left
US by our fathers, declare that jurors shall be udg
/ es of the law as we'll as of the fact
Remember, Mr.. Speaker, that in the darkest
| periods Of Englands battles for constitutional
right, the jurles for the liberties of the peo
ple and fearlessly stood between the King and the
men whom he by his judges would have oppressed
and defrauded So also an English jury freed Lill-
bourn from the tyrant Cromwell, Penn and Mead
from Charles H., the seven Bishops from james
IL, each jury declaring that they judges of
the law as we'll as the fact, boldly telling those
petty tyTants ''Iheres oar uerdot aUe abide bg IT."
But, sir, the hand on the clock tells that my
time has nearly expired, and that must speak my
last words npon subject that awakeus within
me feelings that | cannot express Never in the
worlds history did freedom demand more of a
people than to-day she does of us. Our national
constitution is trampled under the foot of servile
political judges, our citizens are murdered upon
the plains Of Kanzas, and the foot fall of the
painting fugitive slave is heard beneath our win
dOws, while old and tried citizens are made aliens
and outlaws by the dcta of Judge And yet old
Massachusetts, upon whose heights and plains were
the first battle grounds Of liberty, every foot of
whose soil is made rich by the blood of revolution
airy heroes, sits to-day as did Zenobia in her pal
aces of Palmyra when Rome's cohorts and lcgions
were forging beneath its very walls, the golden
manaces aud chains she wore when she graeed
the triumphal march of an Aurelian. Aye, worse
than that, our citizens are sappng our strongest
citdel of freedom, and would destroy that great
palladium Of Liberty, the richest of our fathers
egacies, an effective jury trial. Isl
Sir, for one. long to hear in every valley and
upon every hill side in the old Bay State, the old
battle-shout Of the Revolution, :" the war has be-
gnn-yes, the war has begun, that war which
will secure, not only to tohite citizens, but to
black, Also the rights and immunities guaranteed
to them by our own Constitution doubt not
the issue We love our liberties too well to sur
render them, and we prize them too highly to tr
file them away. / know that you, the replesen-
tatiyes Of the people will guard this palladium of
theirs, the jury trial. and that you will never take
from the statute of this Commonwealth the Jury
law OF 1865. Perhaps, sometime, some wrong
may come to us by its provisions, but if so,
let us remember that Freedom demands the sac
rihce, Liberty and Justice plead for the guaran
tee, and when injured, our enemies taunt us, let
our answer to them be, in the language Of one of
Cromwell's iron menTt'it is better to die the laws
martyr than TO live the States slaves