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Show 46 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. create a "public opinion," which no Southern master dare encounter. Nay, he rejoices to believe that such public opinion is, in some localities, a!J·eady created and prepared for open resist. ance to the Constitution of the United States. "There are many," says he, "who will never shrink at any cost, and, notwithstanding all the atrocious penalties of this bill, fi·om eftorts to save a wandering fellow-man from bondage. They will offer him the shelter of their houses, and, IF NEED DE, WILL PROTECT HIS LIBERTY BY FORCE."* Ilorrible words! Words tending directly to a conflict in which the brightest hopes of humanity must perish, and the glory of the Republic be extinguished in oceans of blood. In the face of such things, we are imperiously constrained to doubt Mr. Sumner's regard for the obligation of the oath which binds him to support the Constitution of his country. It is certain that he can rejoice in the breach of this obligation by others. .A. certain judge in Vermont, who, like every othet· State officer, had taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, just set Constitution, laws, evi- * Speech in Boston, October 3d, 1850. THE FUGIT IVE SLAVE LAW. 347 ilence, all at defiance, and boldly declared that the fugitive should not be delivered up," unless the masteo· could show a bill of sale from the Almighty." This deed, which, in the language of Chancellor Walworth, is stamped with "the moral guilt of perjury," appears heroic to Mr. Sumner, by whom it is related with evident deligllt. It would seem, indeed, as if the moral sensibility of an abolitionist of his stamp is all drawn to a single point of his conscience, so that it can feel absolutely nothing except slavery. It seems dead to the obligation of an oath, to the moral guilt of perjut-y. Nay, it seems to rejoice in the very bravery of its perpetration, provided it only enables a fugitive slave to effect his escape. Perhaps Mr. Sumner would seck to justify himself by declaring that the language f ugitives from service does not include fugitive slaves. If so, we reply that the Vermont judge, whose infamous decision he approves, had no such fine pretext. It is Mi". Sumner, as we have seen, who first suggested this most excellent method of reconciling conscience with treachery to the Constitution. Though he professes the most profound respect for that instrnment, he deliberately sets to work to undermine one of its |