Such is a contemporary record of sensibilities in a Slave State; and let it be mentioned to the honor of Maryland. But it is reasonable to suppose that sensibilities in States further north were touched still more. Mr. Quincy, whose living memory embraces this early period, reports, that, when an enforcement of this Act was attempted in Boston, the crowd thronging the room of the magistrate quietly and spontaneously opened a lane for the fugitive, who was thus enabled to save himself from Slavery, and also save the country from the dishonor of such a sacrifice. Almost at the same time, in patriotic Vermont, a judge of the Supreme Court of the State, on application for the surrender of an alleged slave, accompanied by documentary evidence, refused to comply, unless the master could show a bill of sale from the Almighty. Such was the popular feeling which this earlier legislation encountered.
There is authentic evidence that this popular feeling was recognized by President Washington as a proper guide, where he was personally interested. A slave of Mrs. Washington had escaped to New Hampshire. The President, in an autograph letter, which has been produced in the Senate,[346] addressed to Mr. Whipple, the collector at Portsmouth, and dated at Philadelphia, November 28, 1796, after expressing the desire of “her mistress” for the return of the slave, lays down the following rule of conduct:—
“I do not mean, however, by this request, that such violent measures should be used as would excite a mob or riot, which might be the case, if she has adherents, or even uneasy sensations in the minds of well-disposed citizens. Rather than either of these should happen, I would forego her services altogether,—and the example, also, which is of infinite more importance.”
The fugitive never was returned, but survived to a good old age, down to a recent period,—a living witness to that public opinion which made even the mildest of Fugitive Slave Acts a dead letter.
At last, in 1850, after the subject of Slavery had been agitated in Congress without interruption for nearly twenty years, a series of propositions was adopted, and solemnly declared to be compromises, by which all the questions concerning Slavery were permanently settled, so as never again to vex the country,—as if any question could be permanently settled except on principles of justice. But the “gruel” was made, and among its ingredients “for a charm of powerful trouble” was a new Fugitive Slave Act, first reported from the Committee on the Judiciary by Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, but afterwards amended by a substitute from Mr. Mason, of Virginia, so as to become substantially his measure. It is needless to mention its details. Suffice it to say, that in these, as in general conception, it was harsh, cruel, and vindictive. Few statutes in history have been so utterly inhuman, not excepting even those British statutes for the oppression of the Irish Catholics, which are pictured by Edmund Burke in words strictly applicable to the monstrosity of our country:—
“That truly barbarous system, where almost all the parts were outrages on the rights of humanity and the laws of Nature,”—“a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man.”[347]
Such, unquestionably, was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which is still allowed to remain on the statute-book, a blot upon our country and age.
Where a measure is so plainly repugnant to reason and authority, and on its face has so little foundation in the Constitution, any elaborate argument seems superfluous, especially at this moment, when Slavery everywhere is yielding to Freedom. The general conscience condemns the inhuman statute, and this is enough.
But it is important to show how the country has been deceived. Therefore, briefly, the Committee call attention to the constitutional objections.