I merely wish to correct one error into which the Senator has fallen. He states that Mr. Sanborn was taken from the custody of those pretended officers by a mob. Now nothing is within my knowledge except what is authenticated by that memorial under oath, and there the statement is express that he was not taken from the custody of these pretended officers except by the intervention of the writ of Habeas Corpus, sustained by the posse comitatus of the neighborhood.
Mr. Mason having stated that he expected a return of the officer, at his suggestion the memorial was laid on the table to await that return. To this Mr. Sumner consented, as he declared, with great reluctance, and with the understanding that then it should be referred.
April 13, 1860, Mr. Sumner presented additional papers in the case. After reading these, he said:—
There, Sir, is the official response to the assertion of the Senator from Virginia. The Senator says that Mr. Sanborn was rescued by a mob. It is true there was a mob in Concord. It was a mob of kidnappers, who went there in the name of the Senate of the United States to seize a citizen of Massachusetts. I have here a letter which I have received from a prominent citizen of Concord, present at the time. This is his statement:—
“No rescue by the crowd was made or attempted, till the writ of Habeas Corpus was served; and this, even, Carleton and his fellows resisted, till the deputy sheriff was obliged to use force to take Mr. Sanborn from him.… The arrest was as brutal, cowardly, and outrageous a proceeding as I ever knew in seven years’ experience as sheriff of that county.”
Sir, it is not unnatural that an arrest made under such circumstances should have attracted attention in that town and throughout Massachusetts. It did so. It has excited a feeling of indignation against this attempt, increased, perhaps, when people put the question, “Why all this effort to seize Mr. Sanborn? Why this overthrow of law to accomplish such a purpose?”
It is notorious that there is a citizen of Virginia, formerly chief magistrate of that State, who has openly avowed that he knew much in regard to the very matters in inquiry before that committee, and that rubies could not bribe him to disclose it. He has thrown the challenge down to that committee and this Senate, before the whole country, refusing openly to testify; and yet that committee make no motion to bring Ex-Governor Wise before the Senate, and compel him to testify. Instead, the committee seeks a Northern man, Mr. Hyatt, now in jail, and another Northern man, Mr. Sanborn, who it is well understood know nothing of the matter; and it follows up Mr. Sanborn by an attempt which I characterize here as simply an act of kidnapping.
Mr. Mason, in reply, insisted, at some length, that Mr. Sumner could have no information on the action of the committee, which had not yet reported. To this Mr. Sumner rejoined:—
Mr. President, I profess to have no information except what is open to all the world; and there are two things open to all the world, through the public press: first, that the Ex-Governor of Virginia has more than once declared that he had important information in reference to the matter before the committee, and that rubies would not tempt him to disclose it; and, secondly, it is known that the Ex-Governor of Virginia has not been brought to Washington, as Mr. Hyatt has been, and as an attempt has been made to bring Mr. Sanborn. No kidnappers have been sent into Virginia, nor handcuffs put upon Ex-Governor Wise.