The violent sectional feeling, however, to which this discussion had given birth, had sunk too deeply into the hearts of the people to be eradicated by any Compromise. Its baneful effects have been since witnessed in the manner in which every great national question has been debated. We cannot, of course, fill our pages with references to these really irrelevant matters, nor have we space to follow in all its developments, the illiberal policy pursued by Congress with regard to petitions from the North upon this subject. The treatment to which they have been subjected is generally known, and the reasons for and against it too well understood to require rehearsing.
During the fifteen or twenty years following, the feeling against slavery grew constantly stronger in the Northern States, and gradually assumed a more thoroughly organized character. Anti-Slavery Societies were formed in the latter part of this period; the all-powerful machinery of the press was called in to sustain the movement; public discussions on the subject attracted general attention; and all possible means were employed, which the leaders of the party could devise, to propagate their views. The provisions of the Fugitive Law of 1793 began to be, for the first time, severely commented upon. The various laws which different States had passed, with a view to its impartial administration, were strictly scrutinized, and the Act itself denounced as arbitrary and unconstitutional. The State of Pennsylvania, unwilling that the freedom of negroes within her borders should be allowed to depend upon the unassisted judgment of Magistrates of the lowest jurisdiction, passed an Act in 1826 requiring all such cases to be heard before the Judges of the County Courts. In 1842, this law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, in the celebrated case of Prigg v. the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In consequence of this decision, the Legislature passed an Act which had already been adopted in several of the Free States, by which all State Magistrates and Judges were forbidden to take cognizance of cases of fugitive slaves, the jails of the State were closed against the masters, and the whole subject was left to the jurisdiction of Congress, where it properly belonged.
Such was the state of public feeling, when the annexation of Texas and the conquests won from Mexico called upon Congress to legislate for a new and enormous territory. A large portion of the northern members adhered to the platform laid down by them in the struggle of 1819, resolving that nothing should induce them to swerve from the great principle established by the ordinance of 1787. The extraordinary rapidity with which the gold fever peopled California, and her consequent application for admission into the Union, doubled the difficulty; while the toleration of the domestic slave trade in the District of Columbia, the unsettled boundaries of Texas, and the complaints which both parties insisted upon, with regard to the old Act for the recapture of fugitives, were each in itself sufficient to embarrass the famous Congress of 1850. The men who prepared to meet this swarm of dangers were, probably, superior to any that had ever coped with the question before—veterans in the Cabinet and on the floor—men who had grown grey in watching the Constitution—who had received it in their childhood from its framers, and who had guarded its safety for nearly half a century with almost superstitious love. To review the famous debate which led to that Compromise, which swallowed up all other Compromises, on the broad platform of which all parties have learned to stand, though, perhaps, not very harmoniously, and in the universality of which all minor distinctions are forgotten, would be a lengthy, and is, happily, an unnecessary task. No one, who will read this paper, needs to be reminded of events so recent, and so widely interesting, that every school-boy in the land has thoroughly mastered them and is prepared with a long train of reasoning in their support or condemnation. Our only object has been to show their historical connection with the many measures that have indirectly aided in producing them, and that object, it is hoped, has been partially accomplished.
The success of this measure, time alone can determine. It has lived thus long amid great extremes, both of popular favor and odium. So far as the Fugitive Slave Law is concerned, the severest ordeal through which it has passed, and one in which its practical working has been most fully displayed, is undoubtedly the Trial of Hanway, to a brief history of which the attention of the reader is now invited.
THE TREASON TRIALS.
On the 9th of September, A. D. 1851, Mr. Edward Gorsuch, a citizen of Maryland, residing near Baltimore, appeared before Edward D. Ingraham, Esq., U. S. Commissioner for Philadelphia, and asked for warrants under the Act of Congress of the 18th Sept. 1850, for the arrest of four of his slaves whom he had heard were secreted somewhere in Lancaster County. Warrants were issued forthwith, directed to H. H. Kline, a deputy U. S. Marshal, authorizing him to arrest George Hammond, Joshua Hammond, Nelson Ford, and Noah Buley, persons held to service or labor in the State of Maryland, and bring them before the said Commissioner.
Mr. Gorsuch then made arrangements with John Agin and Thompson Tully, residents of Philadelphia, and police officers, to assist Kline in making the arrests. They were to meet Mr. Gorsuch and some companions at Penningtonville, a small place on the State railroad, about 50 miles from Philadelphia. Kline, with the warrants, left Philadelphia, on the same day about 2 P. M. for West Chester. Here he hired a conveyance and rode on to Gallagherville. Here he hired another conveyance to take him to Penningtonville. Before he had driven very far, the carriage breaking down, he returned to Gallagherville, procured another and started again. Owing to this detention, he was prevented from meeting Mr. Gorsuch and his friends at the appointed time. When he reached Penningtonville, about 2 A. M., on the 10th September, they had gone.
On entering the tavern, the place of rendezvous, he saw a colored man whom he recognized as Samuel Williams, a resident of Philadelphia. To put him off his guard, Kline asked the landlord some questions about horse thieves. Williams replied that he had seen them, and told Kline he had come too late.