Year: 1859

1hts NEVER sad. did saw to Mr. Lowe
;. what honestly believe to be the truth, tha


the crowd were very much exc ted, many o
. them averse to longer delay and bent upon
: rescue at all hazards; and that he, being al


old acquaintance and friend of mine, l wa


anxious to extricate him from the dangerou


position he occupied, and therefore advised
: that he urge Jennings to give the boy up
: Further than this did not say, either t.
him or any one else.


The law under which am arraigned is an
unjust one, one made to crush the color ed
man, and one that outrages every feeling OF
; humanity, as we'll as every rule of right


have nothing TO do with its constitution ality;
4 about that l care but little. l have often
! heard it said by learned and good men
that it was unconstitutional. l remember the
excitement that prevailed throughout all the


free States when it was passed; and l re-


member it has been said by individuals,


conventions, communities, legislatures, that
it never could be. never should be, and was
never meant to be enforced. l had always
believed, until the contrary appeared in the
actual institution OF proceedings, that the


provisions of this odious statue would never
be enforced within the bounds of this State


But l have another reason to offer why
should not be sentenced, and one that think
q
before a jury of my peers. The common
law of England you will excuse me for
referring to that since l am but a private
citizen-was that every man should be tried
before jury Of men occupying the same
position in the social scale with himself
That lords should be tried before a jury of
lords; that peers Of the realm should be tried
before peers of the realm; vasSals before vas
sails, and aliens before aliens, and they must
not come from the district where the crime
was committed, lest the preudices OF either
personal friends or foes should affect the ac-
cused. The Constitution of the United States
guarantees--not merely to its citizens, but
TO all Iersoas-a trial before an impartial
jury. l have had no such trial.


The colored man is oppressed by certain
universal and deeply fixed prejudices Those
jurors are well known to have shared largely
in these prejadlces. and therefore consider
that they were neither impartial nor were
they jury of my peers. And the prejudi-
ces which white people have against colored
men grow out of the facts. tina. we have as a
people consented for two hundred years to
be slrpes of the whites. We have been
scurged. crushed and cruelty oppressed. and
have submitted to it all tamely, meekly,
peaceabiy; l mean as people. and with rare
individual exceptions--and to day you see
thus tamely submitting to the penal
ties of an Infamous law. Now the Am
ercans have this feeling. and it is an
honorable one. that they respect those who
will reb.l at oppression, but despise those
who tamely submit to outrage and wrong;
and while people as a people submit
they will people be despised. Why,
they Will hardly meet on terms of equality
with us in whiskey shop, in a car. at ta-
BILE, or even at the altar of God $50 thorough
and hearty a contempt have they for those
who will meekly lie still under the heel of op-
preston. The jury came into the box with
that feeling. They knew they had that feel
ing. and SO the Court knows now. and knew
then. The gentleman who prosecuted me.
the court itself, and even the council who de-
Tended me, have that feeling.


l was tried by ajury who were preiudiced;
before Court that was prejudiced; prose
cuted by an officer who was prejudiced, and
defended, though ably, by counsel that
Honor that l urge by all that is good and
great in manhood, that should not be sub
jected to the pains and penalties of this op-
pressive law, when have not been tried, Ell
ther by jury OF my peers, or by jury that
were impartial.


One more word, sir, and l have done. I
went to Wellington, knowing that colored
men have no rights in the United States which
white men are bound to respect; that the
Courts had SO decided; that Congress had so
decreed


There is not spot in this wide country,
not even by the altars of God. nor in the
shadow Of the shafts that tell the impersh-
able fame and glory OF the heroes of the Re-
voluton, no, nor in the old Philadelphia Hall,
where any colored man may dare to ask a
mercy of white man. Let me stand in that
Hall and tell United States Marshal that
my father was Revolutionary soldier; that
he served under Lafayette. and fought thro'
the whole war. and fought for M free
dom much as for his own; and he would
sneer at me, and clutch me with his bloody
fingers, and say he has isht to make me a
slave And when appeal TO Congress, they
say he has right to make me slave; when
l appeal tie the people, they say he has a
right TO make me slave. and when l appeal
10 your Honor, your Honor saws he has a
right to make me a slave; and If anv man,
white or black. seeks an investigation Of that
claim. they make themselves amenable TO the
pains and penalties of the Fugitive Slave
Act, for BLAcK MEN HAVE NO RIGHTS WHITE
MEN ARE BOUND To RESPECT. (Great ap-
plause.) /, going to Wellington with the
full knowledge Of all this, Inv that
if that man was taken to Columbus he was
hopelessly gone, no matter whether he had
ever been in slavery before or not knew
l was in the same situation myself and
that, BY the decision of your Honor, if any
man whatever were to claim me as his slave
and seize me: and my brother, being a law
yer, should seek to get out writ of habeas
corpus to expose the falsity of the claim, he
would be thrust into prison under one pro.
vision of the Fugitive Slave Law. for inter
fering with tie man claiming to be in pur-
suit Of fugitive, and l by the perjury of a
solitary wretch, would BY another Of its pro.
visions be helplessly doomed to life long bon
dage. without the possibility of escape.


Some may say that there is no danger of
free persons being seized and carried away off
as slaves No one need labor under such a
delusion. Sir .tonr of the eight persons who