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Show 166 George B. Cheever. and lying as that of ''service due," the bare imagination of ChriMian and civilized men so div' ting them elves of all rrnmant of truth and justice, as to take God's gif't of honest . pcech and work out of it such n. contri,·ance of Yillany, ~nc h an infinite fraud, of a nature so terribl e, so a~ nssinating, ~0 comprehen,ive,- a cruelty, to attach to millions yrl unbom so clrcndful a penalty as that of being horn s1arps and c·onsigned to Slm.:ery, by an indictment of malignity lhat 111cnt ions only sen·ice dlle,- thi ' is so horrible an outrage against Gotl and man, an in. ult to lhe Almighty so defiant, and to a whole race an injn5tice at once . o ex qui ' ite and atrociou,, tl1at it i, a wonder that the bolt of heaven docs not come down sltattcring and con uming the iniquity anu its supporter in one common vengeance. Out of such a fountain, with such hir1drn iniquity plnyincr into it, if the people . anclion and sustain the fraud, th ere ca~ flow nothing but in cr ·asing guilt, and by the difT'u.-ion of sueh poison, as if ar:->rnic were thrown into the Croton res 'rvoil', and the dcndly imprrgnation ran to every dwelling, tl1e !wart and con cience of the people are constantly more hardcnetl and corrupted, more aceustomed to the wi e k <•<ln e~s, nntl inst'nsiblc beneath it. At. length the old 'n~ lasin g <·naetrncnt: :ll'C charged. with elem•nts of double atro('ity, and :tl'ln<·<l with a. pungent, pcnctrati11g, and udtlcnly difT'usivc ~t imulant of cruelty and wrong, that . cern to put those who br<'athc it, or taste it, or cnllure it, entirely beside themselves in a rn a<ln<'s!:l of' nbcrity for th e cli1tic t work of the slave power. It i~ like chloroform put to the no · tril~, till the pn.ti<·nt l>rconws so in. ·n -ible that l1i~ own limb may be s:nveLl o{f, and he will f(' •l no pain, nor be aware of the injury. Thus is the con 'Ci('nc·e of the country being <lrup:ged, and th.c dire experiment. of Slavery are l>eing cxccut e<l to the 1'1111, Wtlhout re~istnn ce, without noi c. The Fugitive , '!are Dill, ball as it i ', is made wor. c in its execution, l>eing applit<l not ~uly as a. con trivance for kidnapping men with impunity, but 1ts prongs thrust into babes, born since the slave mother'::! George B. Cheever. escape, and, und r cover of seTv?'ce due, dc1iverecl over by brutal judges jnto a Slavery of which they n 'ver were the subj ect:;, and from which, in the nature of the case, they could not have b en fugitives, and over whom n 'ither the letl<:r nor spirit of the law, diabolical a that i., could give the ma~t ' l' the lea t claim. Alrocitic. arc being committ ed. in the name of law, and then settled. as precedents, and tlH'Y rush upon us with SUCll Cl'O\VU Ul1U Swif'lness, that the public :en::~e ha:; l1:11'diy time or attentiveness to be arre.:itcd by them : aLroeit ies that formerly would have convul ed the country with horror. The r ecords of judicial wickedness, from JefTi·ies uownwarcl, can l1nrllly show ,·o vil an act of tlli::s nature, deliberately committed, a. that perpetrated by a judcre of l\larylnnd upon a .lave mother, who had been manumittet1, and her e!Jil<1, born two y ar after that manurnis:-;ion, jn 'Vashi ngton 'ity, lJO tll of them f.enl ·nccd into Slavery by the judge, on being el<tirnc<l by the on of the rna ' ler who lmd gi vcn the lave htr freedom, and a scrled to be hi ' property as fugitive . The judge not only excluded all evidence oflercd on l>ekdf or the negroes, but even r efused penni sion to haYe it ·hown in court t1mt there could be no . hadow of a claim upon the child for that the child was not a. runaway, hnd ncv 'r b •en in po 'sc~ sio n of any rna ter, coul<l not owe crvicc to any on', and wa, positively free. The evidence waR ofT'crcd, and <1elibcratcly refused, and both the mother :mel her daughter w rc, hy order of the judge, deli vercd o\·er to the kidnapper. De-cril> ing judges of thi stamp in the Kingdom of Israel, God say. of the execrable wretches: liER .JuDGES ARE EYENJNC'r WOLVES. A hyena., with a child upon his tusk, , ~houlu be . ct in the Capitol in bronze, as the image of :uch American ju:licc; and the statue of an evening wolf wouh1 be a filling monument for a judge cnpable of a deci ·ion t:iO ~upcrfluouHly cruel and l>a rh:.Hou . Now we demand protection for our clve:; from , uch atrocious perversions even of cruel law, and f'rom , ueh <1i='llurt i•HI'\ of the ConstiLution into a child-stealing iu!)t rumcnt. "rc |
