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Show [qe $ngitibe .Slulre ~ill: a dffmgmcnt. BUT ours is the saddest pm of this sad business. It would be hard enough to live surrounded by bondmen, even though we had never knowrr any other way of life. Still, for one who had grown up with young slaves for playmates and for nurses, there might be much in the relation to quiet the con· science and soothe the sensibilities. Strong attach· ments, we all know, arc often realized, even in n. condition of things so anomalous. Perhaps, too, a large number of those about us would be as feeble iu capacity as bumble in their circumstances. One EO born might tolerate such a position. But how differ· ent,-hmv, iu comparison, and in cycry way intolerable, to be set as watchmen and interceptors of these, the brighter and the better, who, beyond all controversy, have outgrown the estate of bondage, and who arc so THE FUGITIVE SLA'I'E BILL. 191 loudly called of God to be freemen, that they will brave any peril in obedience to the calli Ilow can we do tbis and still be men and Christians? Would our brethren at the south do it for us? If we have, in our baste, so covenantc~, must :ve not rather pay the penalty than fulfil the bond? I recognize obedi· ence to civil government as the solemn duty of all save those who without cau.se are made outlaws by the State. Government protects our hearths and shelters those who arc dearest to us. But we can honor the law by submitting to its penalties as well as by com· plying with its demands, and the penalty would be my election when a man who had seized llls manhood at the peril of his life should claim of me shelter and the means of escape. Before I refuse that, "may my right band forget its cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my month." |
