ATTEMPT TO KIDNAP A CITIZEN UNDER ORDER OF THE SENATE.
The Case of Frank B. Sanborn, of Concord, Massachusetts, with Speeches in the Senate, April 10, 13, and 16, 1860.
The case of Mr. Sanborn illustrates the reach of the Slave Power, and the extent to which the Senate did its bidding, at the instance of the author of the Fugitive Slave Bill. It is one of the skirmishes in the warfare with Slavery.
April 10, 1860, Mr. Sumner presented the memorial of Mr. Sanborn, which he explained as follows.
I have a memorial, Mr. President, from Frank B. Sanborn, of Concord, Massachusetts, setting forth a gross attempt to kidnap, by men pretending to act in the name of the Senate of the United States. The memorial is authenticated by his affidavit before a notary public. It sets forth, that, on the evening of the 3d of April, certain persons, who had been prowling about his neighborhood, under shelter of night, with fraudulent pretence drew him to his door, seized him, handcuffed him, and then by force undertook to convey him to a carriage. By the courageous interposition of a refined lady, his sister, neighbors were aroused; the village was next summoned by the ringing of bells, and at length that great friend of the oppressed in our country, the writ of Habeas Corpus, arrived on the ground. By intervention of that writ he was taken from the custody of the kidnappers. The next day a hearing was had before the Supreme Court of Massachusetts; and Chief Justice Shaw, for thirty years the honored Chief Justice of Massachusetts, whose opinions are respected in every part of the country, representing the full bench, without undertaking to pass upon the question of jurisdiction in the Senate, went on to declare that the power delegated to its Sergeant-at-Arms could not be delegated to another, and that therefore all these proceedings were void, and the prisoner was discharged.
Now, Mr. President, this act, it seems to me, is conspicuous, both from the person against whom it was directed and the place where it was attempted. It was directed against Mr. Sanborn, a quiet citizen engaged in the instruction of youth, a scholar of excellent attainments, of perfect purity, and much beloved by friends and neighbors. It was attempted at Concord, where another seizure was once attempted, which began that revolutionary contest that ended in Independence. I affirm, Mr. President, that a person like Mr. Sanborn, having suffered this outrage at the hands of persons claiming to act in the name of the Senate, has a right to redress in this body: and I assert, still further, that this body owes something to its own character; it ought to wash its hands of such an outrage. I offer his memorial, and ask its reference to the Committee on the Judiciary, and, that the Senate may better understand it, I think it ought to be printed. I move also its printing.
Mr. Mason, of Virginia, Chairman of the Harper’s Ferry Committee, made an explanation of the attempt to arrest Mr. Sanborn, in the course of which he said: “This man Sanborn was in correspondence either with the man who was not long since hung in Virginia for his conduct as a traitor and murderer at Harper’s Ferry, or with some of his associates, I do not recollect which.” At the call of Mr. Fessenden the memorial was read, when Mr. Sumner said, in reply to Mr. Mason:—