Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-12-03

~ u easy 70 see what a ~favorite he will be with
history. which plays such pranks witb TEN porary
regulations. Nothing can resist the sympathy
which all elevated minds must feel with Brown,
and through them the whole civilized world 4, and
IT he must suffer, no must drag official gentlemen
into an Immortality most undesirable, and Of which
they have already some disagrceablc forebodings.
(Applause.) Indeed, it is the reduciio ad absurdum
Of slavery, when the governor of Virginia is fore.
cd to hang a man whom he declares 10 be q mao Of
the most integrity, truthfulness and courage he
has ever met. Is that tho kind of q man the
gallows is built for ? 1t were bold to affirm that
there is within that broad Commonwealth, at this
moment, another citizen as worthy to live, anG as
deserving Of all public and private honor, as this
poor prisoner.
But we are here to think of relief for the fami-
ly of John Brown. To my eyes that family looks
very large and very needy Of relief. 1t comprises
his brave fellow sufferers in the Charleston Jail ;
the f~ugitives still hunted in the mountains of vir-
ginia and Pennsylvania the sympathizers with
him in all the States ; and. may say, almost eve
ry man who loves the Golden Rule and the Decla-
ration Of Independence, like him, and who sees
what a tigers tbirs, threaten him in the malisni.
ty of public sentiment 10 the slave States. /,
seems to me that q common feeling joins the peo-
pie of Massachusetts, with him. l. said john
Brown was an ideslist. lie believed in his ideas
to that extent, that he existed to put them all in.
to action. lie did not believe in moral suasiop ;
he believed in putting the thing through. tAb'
plause.) lie saw how deceptive the forms are. We
fancy, in Massachusetts,, that we are free vet it
seems the Government is quite unreliable. Great
w~ealth.-great population, mel of talent in the
Executive, on the Bench, all the forms right
and yet life and freedom are not safe. Why ? Be-
cause the judges rely on the forms, and do not,
like John Brown, use their eyes to see the fact be-
hind the forms.
They assume that the United States can protect
its witness or its prisoner. And, in Massachusetts
that is true but the moment be is carried out of
the bounds of Massachusetts,, the United States,
1t is notorious, afford no protection at all the
Government, the judges, are an envenomed party,
and give such protection as they give in Utah to
honest citizens, or in Kansas such protection as
they give to their own Commodore Paulding, when
he WAS simple enough to mistake the formal in
structions of his Government for the real mean
ing. (Applause. The Judges fear collision between
their two allegiances but there are worse evils
than collision ; namely, the doing substantial in
justice. A god man will sec that the use of q
Judge is to secure good government, end where
the citizens veal is imperilled by abuse OF the
Federal power, to use that arm which can secure
it, viz: the local government. Had that been
done, on certain calamitous occasions, we should
not have seen the honor of Massachusetts trailed
in the dust, stained to all ages, once and again,
by the ill-timed Journalism of a venerable Bench.
Ii Judges cannot find law enough to MAINTAIN the
sovereignty of the State, and to protect the life
and freedom of every inhabitant not a criminal, it
is idle to compliment them as learned anG venera-
BILE. What avails their learning or generation !?
q pinch, they are no more use than idiots. AZ
ter the mischance, they wiring their hands, bat
they had better never have been born. A Yer
mont Judge, Hutchir son, who has, the Deolasn,ion
Of Independence in bis heart, q. Wisconsin Judge
who knows that laws are for the protection Of cit
liens against kidnappers. is worth : COURTHOUSE
full of lawyers so idolatrous of forms as to let 90
the substance. Is any man in Massachusetts so
simple as to believe that when o United States
Court in Virginia, now, in its present reign Of ter
ror, sends to Connecticut, or New York or Massa-
for q witness, it wants him for a witness?
No it wants him for a party it wants him for
meat to slaughter and eat. And your habeas cor
pus is, in any way in which it has been, or, 1 fear,
is likely to be used, a nuisance, and not a protec-
ton for it takes away his right reliance on him
self, and the natural assistance of his friends and
fellow citizens. by Offering him a form which is a
piece of paper. But I am OBTAINING the meet
ing on matters which others understand bet
ter. / hope. then. the. in administering relief to
John Browns family, we shall remember all those
whom his fate concerns, all who are in sympathy
with him, and pot forget to aid him in the best
way. by securing freedom and independence in
Massachusetts,.