Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-03-18

less at the feet of man whose whole judi
cial life is in the breath of the nostrils of
another, -commissioned by nobody, only a
temporary officer Of a Court having no GER
tain tenure of office; carrying & commission
in his pocket, with no salary with no guar
anty, either in the nature of the cffiee
which he fill or the character of the func-
tons which he performs.
Now, Mr.. Speaker, both as a man and as
lawyer, l affirm, with the most absolute Ger
tainty OF conviction, that the day will neces-
sarly come when it viii be the unanimous
judgment OF the courts and of the profession,
that all such claims Of power on the part of
the United States, and of these inferior Of
Ulcers. are absolutely false, nugatory, and void.
1t will be done; the courts will yet decide il.
The time will come Yes, Sir, the time will
come, when the Supreme Judicial Court of
Massachusetts will hold, that, in spite of all
the processes that can possibly issue from any
tribunal, high or low, of federal jurisdiction,
adapted to the single purpose of catching, re-
claiming. and carrying of fugitive slave,
they can have no application whatever to
Massachusetts fireman. and that the man on
the Massachusetts soil, in the aspect Of man,
wearing the guise OF humanity, possessing the
attributes of humanity-in the actual possess
sion OF his own body, claiming a title to him
self, adversely to all other claimants pyeSunaD-
t'0e}y, primG facie, FREE and that no fugi-
tive slave process can touch him. l deny,
Mr.. Speaker, that any processes adapted to
carrying off fugitive slave can apply to me.
admit that they may apply in South Caro-
lima, in North Carolina, in Kentucky in AL
ALBANIA, and Mississippi, in those States where
olnek skin is Pri@o facie evidence of servi-
tude, where black man or woman found
astray in the streets, is as much the presump-
tive property of somebody as horse or an OK
found astray in the streets. But | deny that
1t applies to any white man, under the law of
any State. deny that it applies even to any
black man in any State, found in the imme-
date possession of--a master, claiming title,
where the law permits slavery.
affirm that this Fugitive Slave Law, ad-
mlttlng-for the moment-all that has been
claimed for its constitutionality, can never
apply to any person excepting black man in
the slave States, and only black man who
is found out of the immediate possession of
any master. The courts will decide so; thew
VIII have to decide so. Who could carry out
the Fugitive Slave Bill in any slave State on
this continent as it has been administered and
carried out in Massachusetts? There is not
force enough In the Federal Government, to
apply and carry out the Fugitive Slave Bill of
1900 IN Virginia as it has been carried out in
Massachusetts! Let man from Tennessee
go into Virginia, with his affidavits and re-
cords taken before some magistrate of Ten
nessee, and let him march upon tire tobacco
field of planter of Virginia, and undertake
to seize, by process of a United States Com
missioner, one of that planters slaves out
from under the drivers lash-of which, by
possession, he has title, as good by slave
law, as yours is to the horse under your sad
dle-and, if he succeeds in carrying off the
slaye-caimed to be fugitive from Tenness-
ee-ln defiance of a writ of repievin, on the
part ct the master in possession, l wish you
would be kind enough to come and and let
me know OF it. 1t will be a curiosity to be
remembered. The power strikes at the rights
OF the States and of the people all over the
country, wherever a sentiment of liberty and
just appreciation of the rights of humanity,
or even an intelligent notion of the right of
property prevails.
Now, Mr.. Speaker, here are divers uues-
tons, which the courts WILL sometime or
other, find it necessary to meet, and which
will sometimes arise, under circumstances
favorable to their just decision. l hope the
day tor meeting these questions will not soon
come Hope it will be delayed until the pub
lie feeling shall have become more quiet but
a Judicial decision apon it will come. II will
comet toi1 come! Yes, sir, IT WILL COME
And whenever fugitive slave-law process is
attempted to be served upon a man presump-
lively tree-as all men are in Massachusetts,
IN the actual possession Of his liberty, upon
our soil, claiming title to himself as against
all other persons, the courts of Massachusetts,
VIII have to meet thrust meet 1t. And l
cl1lm, that it is part of the justest and most
absolute conservatism, to forbid the judicial
officers and magistrates of the State govern
ment to occupy such relations towards the
federal government as to complicate their DO
sltlon, and entangle their jurisdiction. Each
man should stand or fall to his own master.
Every citizen of the United States and of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts,, every per-
son entitled to apply for Judicial process, is
entitled to stand before tribunal free to pass
an untrammelled judgment; free to assert and
insist upon his own true jurisdiction, and
VINO can tell under what government is iuns-
diction derived.
Your United States Government. Mr.. Sneak
er, would not permit its officers TO compi-
cate their position. The Government of
Massachusetts cannot, consistently with its
own honor, allow the judicial officers of
Massachusetts to complieate their position.
II you permit it, you render it absolutely
impossible that the institutions of America,
that this combined complex government,
state and Federal, should be able to work it.
self out OF its own natural results. When
ever the time comes, this controversy will be
settled peacefully; there will be no conflict
excepting Judicial one: there will be no
controversy of arms. 1t will he settled by the
judgment of the courts and 1 believe they
nlfImDt1iW R,tf /
two distinct classes of officers, and YOU can
not secure the proper working of our institu-
tions, unless you keep these two independent
Judicial systems, and these two descriptions
OF officers entirely separate and apart. You
cannot have Judge OF the Supreme Court of
Massachusetts, acting as Judge of our United
States Court. | refer not now to any prohi-
bltlon or inhibition contained in the language
OF either constitution. l say that you cannot
do 1t consistently with the essential principles
and character of this complicated frame of
government. Neither, sir, can you permit
auy inferior magistrate of either government
to complicate and mix up his jurisdiction.
say, therefore, that by a necessity of the
case, in my judgment, the rights, interests,
safety, and honor of Massachusetts require
that she should keep her own judiciary en-
tirely unentangled with, entirely disconnected
from, the performance, or possible perform
ance, of any function under the laws of the
United States, in the exercise of which the
laws and judicial process of the two iurisdc-
tons may possibly come into conflict with
each other l oppose, therefore, the motion
to recommit offered by the gentleman from
Newouryport. 1 think to adopt it would be
to m'sconeeive our case, to misapprehend the
transcendant questions of State policy and
Yublia 1aW hal ;V,,