Report of the Proceedings at the Examination of Charles G. Davis, Esq., on the Charge of Aiding and Abetting in the Rescue of a Fugitive Slave: Held in Boston, in February, 1851.

by Charles G. Davis; United States. Circuit Court

The Commissioner referring to his notes—says, he believes Mr. Dana is right.

Mr. Lunt. Now with whom is he associated? I hold in my hand an account of a meeting held in Faneuil Hall, on the 14th of October last.

Mr Dana.—For what purpose this narrative to be read here? It is an account from a hostile paper, of a political meeting, not made under oath; and it does not appear who wrote it, nor whether the person who wrote it was present at the meeting.

The Commissioner.—I shall not object to the gentleman's reading whatever he thinks proper. You have introduced in your argument a great many irrelevant matters, Mr. Dana, and Mr. Lunt may do the same.

Mr. Lunt.—This is the account,—Reads from the Boston Post of October 15, 1850.

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW MEETING.

"The call for a meeting of the opponents of the fugitive slave law, at Faneuil Hall, last night, collected a large audience, comprising a considerable number of colored people. There were about three hundred colored females in the galleries. The meeting was called to order by Francis Jackson, and organized as follows:—Charles Francis Adams, President; Samuel E. Sewall, Gershom B. Weston, Francis Jackson, and Timothy Gilbert, Vice Presidents; J. W. Stone, and J. W. Thornton, Secretaries.

"Upon taking the chair, Mr. Adams delivered a carefully prepared address, in which he maintained that the law was repugnant to the spirit of our institutions and the constitution, and fraught with as much danger to free colored people as to fugitives.

"He was followed by Frederick Douglass, who described the consternation the law had created among the colored people, free and fugitive, and said that he knew of hundreds of both classes who were fleeing to Canada. The free colored people were in fear of seizure by conspiring complainants, aided by perjured affidavits.

"Richard H. Dana, Jr., after expressing regret that the meeting was not made up of somewhat different material, of the leading men in all branches of business, and of men of property and reputed respectability, read a long letter from Josiah Quincy, senior, declaring against the law, but at the same time expressing his belief that there was no real ground for alarm, for, in his opinion, the enforcement of the law in Massachusetts would prove to be impracticable.