Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-12-29
THE PERSONAL LIBERTY LAWS.


There is a concerted and busy purpose, born
of what is called conservatism" to accom-
plish the repeal of our laws for the protection
of personal liberty. What multitude of po'
ltical vices that word Conservatism is used To
cover! In England it means ultra toryism !;
in France, blear-eyed Bourbonism; in Germa
ny, Austrianism in Italy, Bombaism, sprltn.
al despotism, and everything else that woui"
murder patriots and annihilate the influence
of Sardinia. in the United States it means
everything that would allow the despohc
usurpatiops of slavery to crush out free prin'
ciples And yet the lessons of history show
nothing so clearly as that they and they only
are the'tTue conservatives who steadfastly disre-
gard its c5unsels, and oppose all its endeavors
to transform earnest men into shivering inbe-
Giles. This crusade against our personal lib
erty laws proceeds partly from the unreason-
ing timidity of men who deem it wise and
prudent; and partly from the malignant We
hemence of other men, who never tire Of seek
ing to destroy the republican party,-men
who can not name the republican party with
out violent fermentation Of all the bad pas
sions, in which they mutter like Thersites-
" 'Sfoot, I'll learn to conjure aud raise devils,
but I'll see some issue OF my spiteful execra'
tons"
We inter from what We hear that every
member of the legislature about to assemble
has been very bountfiully dosed with letters,
circulars, and other documents, all intended TO
oJa md mil
vate a disposition to slaughter our personal
liberty laws as soon as possible after the ses
sion begins In all these documents there is a
constant assumption that the laws in question
nullify the fugitive slave act and that they are
for this reason wholly unconstitutional. That
very well written address Oh the subject sign
ed by forty or fifty very respectable elderly
gentlemen whom the Springfield Republican
irreverently describes as "the old Bourbons of
Massachusetts" declares that by enacting
these laws the state "has violated our great ma
tional compact" The current argument
against them is stated in the following para
graph which we find afioat in the "conserva-
tive" newspapers :
off Massachusetts nulfes the law requir-
ing the return OF fugitive from service, with
what face or conscience can she turn around
and upbrad South Carolina for multiplying the
law prescribing the duty to be paid on basket
of champagne or bale of French silks 2"
If the representation that our personal lib
erty laws nullify the fugitive slave act were
true, the argument based on it would have
some force. There has never been time
when Massachusetts failed to discharge all her
duties under the federal constitution or when
she lacked disposition to discharge them faith
fully. With her the Union is not mere ro-
NANCE but reality which she aims to pre-
serve, and to which the great mass of her
people have always been loyal That vindic
tive fugitive slave act which senator Mason
prepared with SO much vengetul exulta-
ton, and from which majority of the house
of representatives recoiled with dread or
indignation when the vote on it was taken,
has tried the patience of honest men in all the
free states. But the courts uphold it, ugly
and unrighteous as it is; therefore Massachu
sets has treated it as an act of congress which
she is not at liberty to nullify. Her laws for
the protection OF personal liberty were meant
as precautions against kidnapping, and the
most rigid enforcement of them would not
prevent the return OF any fugitive from ser.
vice, who should by due process of law be con-
victed of being fugitive, as claimed. There
have been petitions for stronger laws,--laws
that would amount to actual notification but
the legislature, instead of granting such petit
tions, has modified the original personal liberty
act, and repealed those sections of it concern
ing which there was question.
There are those who can not exist comfort
ably without flooding their neighborhood with
outpourings of bad temper, Justification and
hatred against everybody and every thing that
does not serve the slave interest But their
malignant misrepresentation should not be
accepted as facts, nor made the basis of argu-
ment. In this case they have so much iniu-
ence III some minds as to hide the real charac-
ter and intent of the personal liberty laws, as
well as to neutralze all those considerations
of propriety which should prevent any move
ment against these laws, at the present time.
Ii there were no slavery in the country it would
would still be the duty of Massachusetts to
ty within her limits; and such laws do
not become invalid because they may at
some time be used to battle slave-trading kid.
nappers, or to secure due process OF law to
determine whether a cOlored man presumed
to be free is righttully claimed as slave 1t
is libel born of an evil mind to say that
these enactments mean notification. The
courts are open to those who accuse them.
South Carolina will be received with all due
hospitality if she will come here and test their
validity in the proper way and declaration
to this effect, by our legislature would be far
more becoming, and far more suitable to the
occasion, than the hysterical attempt at patri
otism that is proposed.
THE DEFENCEs AT CHARLESTON.
The events of the last few days have given