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Page 64
The indifference thus far attending this subject still continued. The
earliest Act of Congress, passed in 1793, drew little attention. It was
not suggested originally by any difficulty or anxiety touching fugitives
from service, nor is there any contemporary record, in debate or
otherwise, showing that any special importance was attached to its
provisions in this regard. The attention of Congress was directed to
fugitives from justice, and, with little deliberation, it undertook, in
the same bill, to provide for both cases. In this accidental manner was
legislation on this subject first attempted.
There is no evidence that fugitives were often seized under this Act.
From a competent inquirer we learn that twenty-six years elapsed before
it was successfully enforced in any Free State. It is certain, that, in
a case at Boston, towards the close of the last century, illustrated
by Josiah Quincy as counsel, the crowd about the magistrate, at the
examination, quietly and spontaneously opened a way for the fugitive,
and thus the Act failed to be executed. It is also certain, that, in
Vermont, at the beginning of the century, a Judge of the Supreme Court
of the State, on application for the surrender of an alleged slave,
accompanied by documentary evidence, gloriously refused compliance,
unless the master could show a Bill of Sale from the Almighty. Even
these cases passed without public comment.
In 1801 the subject was introduced in the House of Representatives by
an effort for another Act, which, on consideration, was rejected. At
a later day, in 1817-18, though still disregarded by the country, it
seemed to excite a short-lived interest in Congress. In the House of
Representatives, on motion of Mr. Pindall, of Virginia, a committee was
appointed to inquire into the expediency of "providing more effectually
by law for reclaiming servants and slaves escaping from one State into
an-other," and a bill reported by them to amend the Act of 1793, after
consideration for several days in Committee of the Whole, was passed.
In the Senate, after much attention and warm debate, it passed with
amendments. But on return to the House for adoption of the amendments,
it was dropped. This effort, which, in the discussions of this subject,
has been thus far unnoticed, is chiefly remarkable as the earliest
recorded evidence of the unwarrantable assertion, now so common, that
this provision was originally of vital importance to the peace and
harmony of the country.
At last, in 1850, we have another Act, passed by both Houses of
Congress, and approved by the President, familiarly known as the
Fugitive Slave Bill. As I read this statute, I am filled with painful
emotions. The masterly subtlety with which it is drawn might challenge
admiration, if exerted for a benevolent purpose; but in an age of
sensibility and refinement, a machine of torture, however skilful
and apt, cannot be regarded without horror. Sir, in the name of the
Constitution, which it violates, of my country, which it dishonors,
of Humanity, which it degrades, of Christianity, which it offends, I
arraign this enactment, and now hold it up to the judgment of the Senate
and the world. Again, I shrink from no responsibility. I may seem
to stand alone; but all the patriots and martyrs of history, all the
Fathers of the Republic, are with me. Sir, there is no attribute of God
which does not take part against this Act.
But I am to regard it now chiefly as an infringement of the
Constitution. Here its outrages, flagrant as manifold, assume the
deepest dye and broadest character only when we consider that by its
language it is not restricted to any special race or class, to the
African or to the person with African blood, but that any inhabitant
of the United States, of whatever complexion or condition, may be its
victim. Without discrimination of color even, and in violation of every
presumption of freedom, the Act surrenders all who may be claimed as
"owing service or labor" to the same tyrannical proceeding. If there be
any whose sympathies are not moved for the slave, who do not cherish the
rights of the humble African, struggling for divine Freedom, as warmly
as the rights of the white man, let him consider well that the rights of
all are equally assailed. "Nephew," said Algernon Sidney in prison, on
the night before his execution, "I value not my own life a chip; but
what concerns me is, that the law which takes away my life may hang
every one of you, whenever it is thought convenient."
Whilst thus comprehensive in its provisions, and applicable to all,
there is no safeguard of Human Freedom which the monster Act does not
set at nought.
It commits this great question--than which none is more sacred in the
law--not to a solemn trial, but to summary proceedings.
It commits this great question, not to one of the high tribunals of the
land, but to the unaided judgment of a single petty magistrate.
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