It may be in the power of the Court to discharge the petitioner without passing upon all the grave questions which I have now presented. But I confidently submit, that, if these proceedings are unconstitutional and illegal, as I have urged, if the regiment is a nullity, as I believe, the truth should be declared. The regiment is soon to embark for foreign war, when its members will be beyond the kindly protection of this Court. It will be for the Court to determine whether it may not, by a just judgment, vindicate the injured laws of Massachusetts, and discharge many fellow-citizens from obligations imposed in violation of the Constitution and laws of the land.
[WITHDRAWAL OF AMERICAN TROOPS FROM MEXICO.]
Speech at a Public Meeting in Faneuil Hall, Boston, February 4, 1847.
Hon. Samuel Greele presided at this meeting. The other speakers, besides Mr. Sumner, were Rev. James Freeman Clarke, Hon. John M. Williams, Rev. Theodore Parker, Elizur Wright, and Dr. Walter Channing. There was interruption at times from lawless persons trying to drown the voice of the speaker. One of the papers remarks, that "a number of the volunteers were among the most active."
Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens,—
In the winter of 1775, five years after what was called the "massacre" in King Street, now State Street, a few months only before the Battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill, Boston was occupied by a British army under General Gage,—as Mexican Monterey, a town not far from the size of Boston in those days, is now occupied by American troops under General Taylor. The people of Boston felt keenly all the grievance of this garrison, holding the control of Massachusetts Bay with iron hand. With earnest voice they called for its withdrawal, as the beginning of reconciliation and peace. Their remonstrances found unexpected echo in the House of Lords, when Lord Chatham, on the 20th of January, brought forward his memorable motion for the withdrawal of the troops from Boston. Josiah Quincy, Jr., dear to Bostonians for his own services, and for the services of his descendants in two generations, was present on this occasion, and has preserved an interesting and authentic sketch of Lord Chatham's speech. From his report I take the following important words.
"There ought to be no delay in entering upon this matter. We ought to proceed to it immediately. We ought to seize the first moment to open the door of reconciliation. The Americans will never be in a temper or state to be reconciled,—they ought not to be,—till the troops are withdrawn. The troops are a perpetual irritation to these people; they are a bar to all confidence and all cordial reconcilement. I, therefore, my Lords, move, 'That an humble address be presented to His Majesty, most humbly to advise and beseech His Majesty, that, in order to open the way towards an happy settlement of the dangerous troubles in America, by beginning to allay ferments and soften animosities there, and above all for preventing in the mean time any sudden and fatal catastrophe at Boston, now suffering under the daily irritation of an army before their eyes, posted in their town, it may graciously please His Majesty that immediate orders may be despatched to General Gage for removing His Majesty's forces from the town of Boston, as soon as the rigor of the season, and other circumstances indispensable to the safety and accommodation of the said troops, may render the same practicable.'"[210]