Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-03-12
NO SLAVE CATCHING.

NO SLAVE CATCHING.
The following extracts are from q speech o
Wendell Phillips, before committee Of the Mas
sachuse,ts Legislature, asking for tho prohibition
OF slave bunting, and slave catching upon the sol
of that State
Now, all we ask, substantially, in this petition
is th's-that you shall organise the public senti
ment OF Massachusetts, iuto a statute. There will
bo, in this Senate and House, not one.tenth par
ready to hold up their hands and say. we our
selves are free to execute the Fugitive Slave Bill.
do not believe that one tenth part Of your join
bodies will !e found ready to do it. Then why
should you, as Legislature, hesitate to say, Tha
which each one of US shrink from doing, shall mo-
be done Ought not the law to represent public
opinion We have, some Of u.s. al awful idea o.
law, as if it we're some granite pillar, around
which the floating particles of human life aggre
gate themselves as iron filings round the magnet
we imagine that it is an oak, rooted that no one
can touch it; that we are all mere incidents oft
whereas law is as fluid as any thing else. As Em
erson says, Law is mere memorandum, stating
that yesterday certain body of men thought SO
and, in effect, the voice of that statute book sim
ply is, Living men what do you think of me to.
day ? Your fathers thought thus yesterday what
do you think to day? We ask you to answer
that question. The people of this Com mon W ealth
are disgusted with, consciencously opposed to,
and hate, the hunting of the fugitive on our soil
and we ask you to put GU the statute.boCk that
which every man says by his own hearth. stone,
and would he ashamed to deny.
We come to the Common wealth OF Massachu.
sets. Mr.. Higginson alluded to the request we
make to-day, as running singuiary parallel to the
long line Of her history Are you aware that this
State which you represent, the first sovereign
State SO far as know, either in Europe or Ame-
rca, that abolished negro slavery, and that when
she did it, she abolished it Immediately and un.
conditionallys In Ill., the people of Vermont
met in an Informal convention. not recognized as
a government. aud adopted constitution tn. abol
isled slavery. They were not recognized as a bo
dy polite until 179l But in 1880, the frs,
date, SO far as know. in all history, where dis
tinct political sovereignty acted upon the question:
Massachusetts, by the first line of her constitu,
ton. placed there by Judge Lowell, 70, that pur
pose, distinctly, Immediately, and Internationally
abolished slavery and have manuscript report
of case By Chief Justice Cushing. acted upon
Immediately subsequent, in which he quotes these
words as Immediately abolished slavery within
the State. | am aware of course, of the gradual
extinction Of white vilenaige by various forms OF
State action. And remember the ground taken
even Oh negro slavery by the Courts, first of France
and then OF England. But Massachusetts,, | be.
lieve was the first recognized sovereignty to abol.
ish negro slavery by solemn act. 1t is therefore
with good reason that We now ask you, Massa.
chusetts Legislature, to occupy that samo van to.
day. think we have a right to claim il Of such a
government.
Why do we ask it, gentlemen? We ask it for
this reason, that within the last few years, we
have sent nearly four hundred fugitives from Mas
sachuse,ts. We did not dare to advise them to
stay. We could not take i, upon our conscience to
ask them TO undergo the risk OF remaining under
your laws. Whatever we might have done ndi.
vdually, could not ask another man to risk his
liberty. Within a few years, nearly four hundred
probably many more unknown to US, have quit
ted this Commonwealth Now, who are these fu
gtives They are men and women. who have
shown better title to liberty than we have for
we were only born free they were Torn as free,
essentially, though under slave laws, and, taking
life and danger in their right hands, have vndcat.
ed their right to freedom by enduring peris that
make the blood curdle even to hear. Brave men
and tender women, feeling the breath of hounds
upon their naked limbs, bearing musket shot in
their still bleeding flesh, risking death by angry
hoods, on frozen rivers, by starvation, in boxes,
On railroad cars deep in the hold of heavy laden
'hips-mothers bringing the little child's body
who has sunk to death in their arms-daughters
dying from fate worse than death, show
ing forth manhood which only the highest heroes
of history can equal.-at last set foot upon this
Commonwealth. Is there any nobler exile that the
State can welcome Is it not enough to shame a
man, that such men and women,
the noblest blood Of the earth, are not safe under
her lawsS Can a man be blamed for wishing that
The statute book should welcome and protect them,
instead of obliging them to avoid the Common
wealth. In l64l, our fathers, just landed. pro-
claimed that Massachusetts haG open arms for all
sxiles, all fugitives from tyranny and oppression
to SUCH says Bancroft, she offered free pslcOme
and aid at the public cost. The nation, by spe'
,isl statute, made the fugitive and the prosecuted
The guests of the Commonwealth
If any STRANGER or people Of other nations.
pr Iofessing the true Christon religion shall FLY to
ls from the TYRANNY or OPPRESSION of their perse-
,utors. or from famine wars or the like necessary
and compulsory cause, they shall be entertained
md succoured amongst US according to that power
and prudence God shall give US.
Ecery person within this jurisdiction, whether
inhabitants or STRANGERS, shall ENJOY THE SANE LAW
AND JUSTICE, that is general Cor this jurisdiction,
which we constitute and execute ONE TOWARDS AM
'rHER in all cases proper to our cognisance, WITH
'Ur pARrrALrrr or delay Mass. Statutes l64l,