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Show 372 LIBEUTY AND SLAVERY. potent argument. The same position might as well be taken in the case of a fugiti vc from justicc. It might be assumed that he was au innocent man, and entitled to be tried by a jury of the State whore he was arrested, to ascertain whether he had violated the laws of the State from which he fled; whereas the fact is, the executive of this State would feel bound to deliver up the most exalted individual in this State, (however well satisfied he might be of his innocence,) if a requisition was 1nade upon him by the executive of another State." In the same case, when before the Supreme Court of New York, the court said: "In the case under review, the proceedings are before a Ulagistrate of our own State, presumccl to possess a sympathy with his fellow-citizens, and where, upon the supposition that a freeman is arrested, he may readily procur~ the evidence of his freedom. If the magistrate should finally err in granting the certificate, the party can still resort to the protection of the national judiciary. The proceedings by which his rights have been inraded being under a law of Congress, the remedy for error or injustice belongs peculiarly to that high tribunal. UNDER THEIR AMPLE SIIIELD, TilE AP-TilE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 373 PREHENSION OF CAPTIVITY AND 011 Pl~ESSION CANNOT BE ALARMING.'' It is evident that when this opinion was pronounced by the Supreme Court of N cw York, it had not fathomed the depths of some men's capacity of being alarmed by apprehensions of captivity and oppression. The abolitionists will, whether or no, be most dreadfully alarmed. But the danger consists, not in the want of laws nnd courts to punish the kidnapper, but iu the want of somebody to catch him. If he does all the mischief ascribed to him by the abolitionists, is it not wonderful that he is not caught by them? Rumor, 'vith her thousand tongues, is clamorous about his evil deeds ; and fanatical credulity, with her ten thousand cars, gives heed to the reports of rumor. But yet, somehow or other, the abolitionists, with all their fiery, restless zeal, never succeed in laying their hands on the offender himself. IIc must, indeed, be a most adroit, a most cunning, a most wonderful rogue. IIc boldly goes into a community in which so many are all eye, all car, and all tongue, in regard to the black man's rights; he there steals a free negro, who himself has the power to tell when, where, and how, he became free; and yet, in open day, and amid ten thou- 32 |
