| OCR Text |
Show 262 DESPOTISM pitch without being defiled by it,-said not a word on behalf of the particular provisions of the bill, which, neverthcle~s, he so fu!Jy endorsed; a bill yielding up not merely the pound of flesh alleged to be stipulated in the bond, but, along with it, the very heart's blood of freedom; yet he was soon driven, by the storm of indignation on the part of many of the soberest and soundest minds of the North which that endorsement raised against him, to attempt an apology for the misshapen monster into standing godfather to which he had been so unfortunately whee· dled and seduced by such busy gossips as Han~man Foote. This he did in his letter to the citize~s of Newburyport of May 15th following the delivery of his 7th of March speech, and containing a double apology for the bill in question-first, a disquisition on the nature of the process provided by it, and, secondly, an attempt to justify it by precedent. It would appear reasonable to judge of the nature of any proceeding by its eftCcts, which eflCcts in the case under consideration are sufficiently obvious. A man lately possessed of freedom is converted into a chattel, and as such is delivered up to a claimant who has the whole power of the United States to back him in carrying ofl" this chattelized man or woman to a slave state, where the mere fact of possession gives to the pos~essor the legal character and the almost unbounded legal prerogatives and powers of master and owner, including imprisonment at pleasure, and the unrestricted usc of the lash and of starvation, with no liability to question for it, if death do not immediately ensue. Yet we are gravely told by lVIr. Webster-who, in defect of other arguments, and destitute, as usual, of all originality, has eagerly caught at a suggestion dropped probably without much consideration thirty years before by Chiel Jus· ticc 'l'ilahrnau, of Pennsylvania, in a case which we shall p~sently have occasion to consider~that a claim, an adjudication upon it., and the dehverr up of the adjudged chattel into the thus unrestncted IN Al\I~RICA. 26:-1 pow~r of the claimant, is no . d' . nothmg .b.ut a mere executive JU ICJ::ll act, ~o trial, and _auxtlmry to a trial, a mere J~roc~dnrc prell~inary scndtn&' back the fugitive to th:sc of cxtradttlon, a came, In order that his ri ! t f state whence he be tested. g 1 to reedom may there Conscious sophistry and . some\~ hat excusable-in a la~~udted falsehood if not :vhat mtclligible when there i;c~~arc. at least somcswered by them Tl . . . obJect to be anad~~ tcd by W~bster,11 ~0~~J1f~stJOn. of 'rilghman's, ruhug to the contrary by th ~ta~ldmg an express Court of the United Stat c ~naJ~nty of the Supreme Penns!Jlvania, (see lG Pe~~rsln. t c ca~e of Prigg v. more fully elaborated and tf6fl6,) bemg afterwards opinion by au adroit law ~r u y set forth in a legal that lawyer's elevation ty r, was soon followed by that same Supreme Court ob a teat on the bench of the_ adjoining circuit, whos/ t le stde of the JUdge of a stmilar antecedent H t p;evwus promot ton had dication of the J1'u :r ~ 50 ar as concerns the vin- . lie is perfectly grat~'it':~s ~~of 1850, this elaborated truth, it would not hel ti ecausc ~ven If It were the framers of the Fed ~ Je matter m the least. The foolish nor so cruetra tcor;st;~ut.Jon were neither so kidnappers by givinO" ~~ eov lO out a. temptation to claimant from a .t~ I cry mere pnvatc volnnteer from some slave n~t ~a~~ st~t~ or pretendin_g to be mere claim Sll a e, Je ng t to carry ofl, on hi:; other ex pa;te /~orted wholly by his own oath and who thus far Vl en~~ any resident in any free state be put t~ pr~~~~~: r/~~ all .friends and help, might very complexion ala e: om m a ~ountry where hiS case ao-ainst him 1~ \\auld ~st.<l:bltsh a prima facie vis~on ?or deliveri~O" u ~cf c~~~trtutwn contains uo proclaimant to b 0 I Ut~Jttves from labor to parties the validity or"t~~·~re1ed elsewhere, to the end that determined It a_lm to tbCir serviCe may there be party to wl;om . p~ov•des only for a delivery to the to anyconve a sucl scrv!ccorlabormaybc"duc." As y nee elsewhere, not a word i:; ~aid about |
