Year: 1868

Onc VI tlle ilOot ehcCtiNc 'doSdSco III
Mr.. Bingham's argument, was con-
tanned in these words:


The gentleman from New York
(Mr. Evarts) took occasion to refer to
the fugitive slave bill of 1850, a bill
that was disgraceful to the Congress
which enacted it; bill that was in
direct violation Of the letter and spirit
of the constitution; a bill of which /
can say at least, although | doubt
much whether the gentleman from
New York can, that it never
found an advocate in me; a bill of
which Mr.. Webster said that in his
Judgment it was unwarranted by the
Constitution, a bill which offered
bribe out of the common treasury of
the nation to every magistrate who sat
in judgment on the right of a fleeing
bondman to that liberty which belong
ed to man when God "breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life and lie
became living SOUL" Il bill which
offered reward to the ministers of
| Justice to sharpen the judgment of the
poor; a bill which suiting the con-
science of the American people and
the conscience of the civilized world,
made it a crime to give shelter to the
houseless or a cup of water to him who
was ready to perish; a bill enacted for
the purpose sustaining that crime of
crimes, that sum Of all villanies, which
made merchandise of immortality,
which transformed man into chat
tel, thing of trade ; into what, for
want ola better name, we call a slave,
with no acknowledged right in the
present, with no hope of inheritage in
the great hereafter, and to whose dark
cned soul the universe was voiceless
and God himself seemed silent; bill
under the direct violation of which
that horrible tragedy was enacted with
in our own Commonwealth, within the
sight, Mr.. Chief Justice, Of your own
beautiful city, when Margaret Gard
ner, with her babe lashed upon her
breast, pursued by the officers of the
law, in her wild frenzy forgot her
mothers affection in the joy she felt at
sending before the appointed time by
her own hand the spotless soul Of her
child back to her God who gave it,
rather than allow it to be tossed back
into the hell of human bondage under
American law; u bill, nevertheless, by
the American people even on that day
when Anthony Burns walked in chains
under the shadow of Bunker Hill,
where "cvcry turf beneath your feet is
IA soldiers sepulcher," and where
sleep the first just martyrs in the
cause of American independence, to
be tried before a magistrate in tenn
pie surrounded itself with chains and
guarded with bayoncts, and yet the
people stood by and said: Let the law
be executed until it be repealed. Talk
to me about the American people rec
ognizing the right of any President to
set aside the law. Who does not
know that two years after this enact
ment of 1852, the terrible blasphemy


was uttered in the platform of the
party whose representatives to-day in
sist on the executive prerogative to set
aside your laws, and annihilate your
government; that all discussion in
Congress and cut of Congress, touch
ing this very fugitive slave bill, should
besuppresscd. The body that adopted
that resolution should remember that
there is something stronger after all
than the resolution by mere partisans
in convention assembled. They ought
to have remcdied that. God is not in
the earthquake or in the fire, but in
the still, small voice, speaking to the
enlightened conscience of men, and
that voice is omnipotent. God knows
that for the honor of our common
country | would take the step back
ward, and cover the nakedncss and
the shame of the American people in
that day of American disgrace. They
nominated their candidate for Prcsi-
dent, and he accepted their terms, and
was carried into the Presidential chair
by the votes of all the States in this
Union. With such record as that;
with such law, offensive to the .judg-
ment and conscience of the people of
the United States, and of the civilized
world, executed, how dare gentlemen
come up here before the American
Senate and tell us that it is the tradi-
tional policy of the American people
to allow their laws to be defiled by
any Executive? | deny it. There
is not line in our history that does
not give fat denial to the assump-
ton. 1t has never been done, never.