Year: 1859

There is tie Gospel of Jesus with the glorious ex
ample of the Good Samaritan bending over tn


sufferer by the wayside, at the risk of no matte
what peril to his own person or damage to his owl


interest,-witb its high lesson of selfdenia sell
scacrifce; and generous deeds of benevolence, =
with its solemn injunction to feed the hungry, t.
clothe the naked, and take in the houseless wan


derer, and recognize in every poor and suferin,
3 child of humanity, only the disguised form, bu


none the less real form, of Him who was th
brightness of the Fathers Glory, and the express
image of his person.; of him who, speaking nov
through the poverty.wasted lips and now with th
tongue of the sable bondman, says-"1nasmuch a
ye have done deeds OF kindness unto one of thes,


my brethren, We have done them unto me-" w,


know it is there we read it ever, morning.; W,


hear it every Sunday from pulpits we are
aware that the injunction stands there, that 9


glorious spirit is diffused all through tha, blessed
gospel, and we, in the presence of God, angel,


and men, have entered into a solemn covenant that


we will bo true to that Gospel, that we will take il


as the man of our counsel, as the rule of our life


as the law of our spiritual existence and action


Yet. because our fathers made bargain to secure


certain political advantages, that would repudiate


this Gospel when its application demanded human


ty to the 6ondnan, justice to the oppressed, there


fore will we be inhuman to the bondman, unjust to


the oppressed therefore will we trampe our sol
emn covenant with God, made in tho presence OF
God, angels and men, under our feet and that We
may be true to a man-made Constitution, all black


with iniquity and bloody with crime, we will be


false to the most sacred obligations of humanity
and Christianity.


l do not say that men answer me in these words.
| am translating their aut of the dialect Of
willy politicians and cunning sophists, into plain


language, which the common people can under,
stand. You and know that my translation is a
faithful one lacking, it may be, the force which it
would bo desirable to impart to it, because the
speech of man has no symbols to match tho ideas
and the facts with which we have to deal on this
occasion.


Well, then, | meet the question as it is pro.
pounded. Has the Commonwealth of Mas.achu.
setts right to refuse protection to the bondman,
to refuse a recognition of his manhood, to refuse
to repel the aggressions of the Slave Power, and
the intrusion of the kdnapper within her borders ,
Has Massachusetts a right to sell conscience, and
humanity, and God, for so poor mess of pottage
aS ID DTUuSnt " uer III tue leaky VeSSel OF the
American Union, serving only, as it buSles from
the cauldron, ellheated, to scald her own tongue
with the dripping stream, and failing to satisfy
her tLirsting lip with the disappointing draught.
Loud applause.


say that Massachusetts has no such right and
say it conceding, for tho present moment, that
the compac. is, in letter and spirit what it is as
suued to be, because, assuming it to he such, it is
so grossly and monstrously immoral, so fagranty
at variance with the principles acknowledged by
the Commonwealth as elfevidently true, such an
outrage upon humanity and decency, that it can.
not be binding compact. No man can bind him.
self, no community of men can bind Itself, by no
matter what bargains, to do what God forbids, to
do what conscience clearly and emphatically con-
demns. You tell NE it is legal this claim of the
stakeholder you tell me it is constitutional this
right which he arrogates to himself to turn men


into brutes by the help of the government. tell
you | do not care for your terms "egal". and
constitutional. | might stand here and argue
whether it is, in any just sense of the term "le.
ga"; and il you quote Kent aud Story, Marshall
and Taney, l might, on the other hand, quote
Blackstone Coke and Vattel and l might ask
you, if legal authority which exists afar from the
overshadowing influence of the slave system is
less likely to be affected by those evil influences.
or that authority which stand in the midst Of this
shadow, is dmmed and bew ildered by it. But
without stopping to inquire to the fitness of the
application of the term illegal" to this claim of
the stakeholder it is enough for me to be able to
apply to it the epithets immoral, infamous atroc-
ious. II say to a citizen of Massachusetts, Do you
not believe that the slave is man and your broth.
er ?--and few ar ethe citizens of Massachusetts, 50
hardy as to answer No! They tell us that even
the Boston Courier is beginning to claim for itself
a due Difference to tho manhood Of the black man
and il the Boston Courier has found out that it is
expedent to say this, you may depend upon it,
that the Boston Courier knows that Massachusetts,
believes it is right and if the Boston Courier be,
leves it is right who will face the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts with the imputation upon its
character that it doubts the recttude of what even
the Boston Courier feels to be rght2 You admit,
then, that the slave is q man, and your brother
you admit that he as the same essential and in.
alienable rights that you have. You would skulk
away in Roger b. Taney's poor hiding place, and
pretend that when the Constit uton was made, the
public sentiment of the civilized world regarded
the black man as "having no rights which the
white man is bound to respect" But even if that
lie were truth, it would not help the case at all
for your obligation dates back to a period older
than your Constitution and part of the ndct
ment which is read against you, and to which you
must plead in Heavens court. if not on earth is
that you consent to Constitution which accepted
as it's basis, and incorporated into its structure,
that horrible blasphemy against God, and that in
suit to man, that any child of the Eternal Father
is destitute of rights worthy of the recognition OF
avery other child of that Father. ask you, as
suming that your Constitution was based upon
this principle of essential wickedness. What right
had your fathers to accept that Constitution as the
supreme law Of the land? What right have you,
now that your fathers have 30 accepted 1t, and
to you the tradition Of allegiance to