Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-03-12
WHOLE NO. 700.

man can viudicao that statuie.Sook on any other
Il principle Of morals. | put it fearlessiy to any
man who sits in this House, under free institutions
/ whether | claim any more than the nature OF tho
contract justifes. You say to the fugitive saVe
temporarily within this Commonwealth, Pot down
u that pistol Chain those arms to your side =
We do not permit violence in our streets. u ~
man binders you, there is the court il nan
sails you, there are the police; if you have need Of
protection, refer to us. lie says to you, Il claim
as man, pursued by On armed enemy, and my
elfforgotten by the law, to set at nougbt your civil
society. You say, we will hang you if you do.
grant the right to hang flows from the doctrine
that vests civil society with it's sovereignty but it
follows from this, that the power which claims to
hang is bound to protect The man whose hands
you tie shsuid be covered with the egis of the
mmonwealth, and you are bound to see that he
suffers no in justicc from any other man, within
without your jurisdiction. so far as ,ou have the
physical force &c prevent it, This noble rightsnd
function Geneva asserted and exercised receiving
the hunted reformers within her walls, and for
centuries, with only hands breadth Of territory,
protected them from the rage of three kingdoms
Massachusetts, in her feeblest hour, protected
the judges of Charles the st from the fury of his
sons.
! If you say to me, in reply in roply, Our fathers
s~ore, in 1887, that we had tied that man hand
and foot, would surrender him. | say
there issues from the throne Of Infinite Truth the
veto which says to you, legislators to civil society,
! II you erist execute Justice bet,eeen and man.
I Applause I appeal ts you therefore, as tho
civil society which fathers planted, which has
never yet ceased to exist which the abors and tr.
ais of half dozen generations perfected in this
Commonwealth claim of you as legislators, by
virtue of that civilization, that you set your foot
upon the unholy compact which is not binding up.
on the conscience and cannot righifully fetter
the action of anything that undertakes to exist as
sovereign State under Gods government
will not insist upon that point any further, for
suppose have made it as evident as is necessary
to this committee. 1t disposes at once Of all con,
stitutional objections. Whatever you may tell me
Of your sovereignty, criticse in that guise. You
cannot get away from your responsibility. Massa.
chusetts existed she was set up SIZE is in full
being she undertakes, as sovereign State, to
retain SO much of that sovereignty binds the
citizen and every nhabitan. of her soil to subus.
sion; and therefore there rests upon hor the bur.
the citizen. 1t does not lay in any one Of your
mouths,-you who undertake to execute the high
functions of a sovereign State, to write laws on
that statute book, to erect your State Prison and
your galows,-it does not lie in any of your
mouths to say, we have fettered our hands BY
compact You have no right to do i.; it is not
binding upon you to-day. The gallows which you
erect to-day, if you obey the Fugitive Slave Act
r1a tha 10 of ooJ
your individual conscences, for Gods law does
not recognize that a State which abjures its
high functions, and pleads its own base contracts
and gainful treaties, as reason fornot executing
justice between and man. Logically stated,
our claim is this
Any organization which undertakes to levy com.
pulsory taxes, to define and punish Crimes to for.
bid or limit the natural right Of selfdefence, and
to take life, is a Government in the strictest and
fullest sense-and may justly be held to all the
responsibility that attaches to sovereignty under
Gods law
No Government has a right to violate the lave of
justice of God.
Every innocent individual who will obey all just
and necessary laws may choose his place of resi-.
dence.
No Government can rghtfully drive such one
from its territory, refuse to exert its whole pow
er to protect him from such injustice and oppres.
sion.
No body Of men have any such exclusive title
to specific territory as authorizes them to drive
from it others willing to live in peace under just
laws No plea of danger to their interest gives
them right to drive the hunted fugitive from their
borders. The smallest and weakest States have
nobly met this obligation n the most trying times
The fugitive slave is such an indvidual-and
our State cannot rightfully plead any compact or
agreement to surrender him, allow him to be
seized since she has herself by solemn act, recog,
nized the eternal truth that all are born free'
showing that she sees the truth, and is therefore
bound to obey it.
If any such parchment contract exists, il is void
for immortality, and from incapacity. of the corr
tracing parties to make such a compact.
Submit this project of law, if you please, to
the people. II you do not wish to enact the law
distinctly yourselves, enact it conditionaly; put
it to the people Of Massachusetts, and soy, il you
please, that unless it secure twohrds vote il
shall not become statute. You know tha. the
people of the Commonwealth will rush to the bal
lotbox nine cut of ten, il you will give them the
chance, to place that act upon the sasute-book Of
the State Applause.
Then, again. We ask you 10 make your law more
decisive, even, than that Of Vermont to specify
the danger, and instruct the Supreme bench to
issue its habeas corpus. and arrest any process un'
der the so'called Fugitive Slave Ac|. We ask yon
to do it now In Albany today, gentlemen the
petitioners who sent that very petition to the EN-
p.e State, offered to send before them two emi.
nent lawyers of New York to do what am doing
here; but The Committee said to them. We ask
no appearance we are ready to report the BILL
(Applause.) They asked for DO argument that