So far as the arraignment touches me personally, I hardly care to speak. It is true that I have not hesitated, here and elsewhere, to express my open, sincere, and unequivocal condemnation of the Fugitive Slave Act. I have denounced it as at once a violation of the law of God, and of the Constitution of the United States; and I now repeat this denunciation.
Its violation of the Constitution is manifold; and here I repeat but what I have often said. Too often it cannot be set forth, so long as the infamous statute blackens the land.
It commits the great question of human freedom,—than which none is more sacred in the law,—not to a solemn trial, but to summary proceedings.
It commits this great question, not to one of the high tribunals of the land, but to the unaided judgment of a single petty magistrate.
It commits this great question to a magistrate appointed, not by the President with the consent of the Senate, but by the Court,—holding his office, not during good behavior, but merely during the will of the Court,—and receiving, not a regular salary, but fees according to each individual case.
It authorizes judgment on ex parte evidence, by affidavit, without the sanction of cross-examination.
It denies the writ of habeas corpus, ever known as the palladium of the citizen.
Contrary to the declared purposes of the framers of the Constitution, it sends the fugitive back "at the public expense."[64]
Adding meanness to the violation of the Constitution, it bribes the Commissioner by a double fee to pronounce against Freedom. If he dooms a man to Slavery, the reward is ten dollars; but saving him to Freedom, his dole is five dollars.