Year: 1860

III ucuauCc Oi tue WITH Oh naUeaS cor
pus. Thus the law, in time of profound
peace, strikes down this great writ oil
freedom and in this ! also agree with
them. The law not only denies the
writ Of habeas corpus, but it also de-
nics the trial by juY-an essential
right. 1t is these portions of the law
that render it so odious and unpopu-
lar. The people know that its execu-
tion is attended with dangers to hu-
man freedom. and they are jealous of
summary proceedings so extraordinary
and unusual.


Sir, we havs never denied the rights
of the States to deliver iugitivcs who
are such within the purview of the
Constitution Of the United States
never, never. But the law is an ex-
ceedingly offensive and obnoxious law.
You know that without my telling
you. The people of the Free States
are deeply imbued with the sentiment
that, under the Constitution and laws
of the United States as under the law
of nature. every innocent man has Il
right to liberty. They do, however.
well know, and so understand, that
the Constitution of the United States
permits a man in one State, who is
held by the laws thereof to owe service
or labor TO another man, to be re-
claimed when he fees from such obi
CATION, to be delivered up to such
claimant. This provision of the Con-
stitution our people neither deny nor
resist. Rut the Senator knows how
difficult it is to execute a law which
goes against the hearts and con-
sciences Of the great mass of the peo-
pie. We may complain Of it; we
might even deplore it; but no law
making authority could mend the case.
Nothing short OF the interposition of
men, can make them prompt and ca
ger to execute your obnoxious law.


do not stand here to deceive you,
my friends. Itell you the truth just
as it is. Out of every thousand men
who shall see a race between claim
ant and slave, nine hundred and
ninety mine will, from the bottom Of
their hearts. wish him to escape
Neither you nor can help the matter
by legislation. Acting as magistrates
sworn to execute the law, it may be
executed when a case is completely
made out, beyond all chance for casu-
ality or cavil; but very little practic
al benefit can result from it. Who is
to he blamed for it? Look .at your
own section, and you find there human
nature exactly the same. when the
slave trader brings the slaves stolen
from Africa into your ports in viola
ton of the laws making the act piracy,
and denouncing against it the punish
ment Of death. Your Jurors acquit
him against all evidence and the adj
monitions of the courts. The inno-
cent men thus stolen from Africa, AMI
thus brought into your States are ir
reclaimably sold in your markets; os1
tentatiously advertised, and sold at
your agricultural fairs. assert. then,
that the slave pirate goes abroad with
impunity in your States. because your
magistrates can not execute the law
With what face, then. can you stand
here and accuse us of not being swift
footed enough in executing a law which
is greater abomination to us than the
laws abolishing the African slave trade
can be to you?


Mr.. President, there should be lit
tie reason and common sense exercised
in these cases. | do not care If every
Judge and every marshall may be ever
so eager to execute your law; if the
hearts of the people, | say again, are
opposed to it, who is to blame for
that? If there is any blame, it is on
Him who moulded the hearts of men.
Your law can give you no remedy.


You may multiply its penalties;
you may make it bristle all over like
a porcupine with penalties; it would


be of no service to You; because, al
though when you get case you may
execute it under the oaths of your
magistrates, ninety-nine times in one
hundred. the people being against you,
the fugitive will find way to escape
in precisely the same way that your
pirates, who bring men from Africa
and sell them in the market, constant
ly escape with You. Now, sir, /
would have just as much ground to
stand here and accuse the whole South
of being guilty of perjury, and guilty
of the most manifest violation of all
law, because the victims of the Wan
derer were not released, and the Off
GERS of that vessel condemned and ex-
ecuted, as they deserved to be, as you
have to stand forth and say that we
on our part do not execute laws equal
ly and far more odious to us.


The next accusation, and the stron-
gest one, of the Senator from Georgia.
is. that we pass what he calls person
al liberty bills which were. as he
claimed, in violation of the Constitu-
tion of the United States; and he said
that the State of Ohio occupied the
same position with the other Free
States in that particular. Well, sir,
as he placed Ohio upon the same
ground with the others, / have not
taken pains to examine the action of
the others, trusting that if there was
no foundation under heaven for the
charge he made against Ohio, it was
equally groundless against the other


States. l say, then, to that Senator
and Senate. that the State of Ohio


has never passed a law in violation OF
the Constitution of the United States;
that it never has been direlict in its
duty in this respect. Does any SEN
ator here suppose that a sovereign


State in this Union is going to relin-