themselves.' 'He did not care for that Act of Congress or any other Act of Congress.""

And so with his unsaddled sorrel nag this non-resistant miller levies war upon the United States by crying "Don't fire," and commits treason by the force and arms of a broad-brimmed Quaker hat. "The smallest amount of force is sufficient," "military weapons are not necessary to levy war!"

Mr. Brent thought if Mr. Hanway was not hanged it would appear that a "small and miserable and traitorous faction can resist and annul the laws of the United States." "Put down these factions [the Free-Soil Party, the Liberty Party, the Anti-Slavery Societies], overwhelm them with shame, disgrace, and ruin, or you are not good citizens fulfilling the bonds that bind you to us of the South."

The government Attorney declared that Mr. Hanway and others

"Had no right to refuse to assist because it was repugnant to their consciences. Conscience! Conscience . . . is the pretended justification for an American citizen to refuse to execute a law of his country." "Damnable, treasonable doctrine." "He has become a conspirator, he has connected himself with them, and all their acts are his acts, and all their intentions are his intentions."

"When

"The whole neighborhood was not only disloyal, but wanting in common humanity:' "the whole region is infected," "in that horde of traitors;" "a whole county, a whole township, a whole neighborhood are involved in plotting treason." "When you see these things can you not infer . . . that he went there by pre-arrangement!” you see a man . . . not saying one word to save his dear colored friends from the guilt of murder, I say it is passing human credulity to say that you cannot infer in all that a feeling of hostility to the law, and an intention to resist it.”

"The consequences [of the verdict] are not with the jury:" the responsibility will not be with you - - you are not responsible for those just consequences."

"When you allege that a' master has come into Pennsylvania and illegally seized and possessed himself of his slave without process, you are to inquire, ' Has he done that which he had authority to do in his own State?' You are to look to the laws of his own State; for the Supreme Court says, 'He has the same right to repossess his slave here as in his own State."" 66 He who employs a man said to have come from Maryland without being satisfied of his freedom, is himself guilty of the first wrong."

Senator Cooper closed for the government. Law was not enough for him; he would have the sanction of "Religion" also. So he read extract from a Sermon. Gentlemen of the Jury, you have not had the benefit of Rev. Dr. Adams's prayers in this court; it is a pity you should not be blessed with the theology of despotism; listen therefore to the "Thanksgiving Sermon" of Rev. Dr. Wadsworth, which Hon. Mr. Cooper read to the Jury in Independence Hall.

"For passing by all other causes of irritation as just now secondary and subordinate, look for a moment, at the influence which the Gospel of Christ would have in this great sectional controversy about slavery.

1 16 Peters, Prigg v. Penn.

"First, It would say to the Northern fanatic, who vapors about man-stealing as if there were no other evil under the sun but this one evil of Slavery — it would say to him, Emulate the spirit of your blessed Master and his apostles, who, against this very evil [man-stealing] in their own times, brought no railing accusation; but in one instance at least, sent back a fugitive from the household of Philemon.

"In treating Southern Christian slaveholders with Christian courtesy, and sending back their fugitives when apprehended among you, you neither indorse the system nor partake of its evil; you are only performing in good faith the agreement, and redeeming the pledges of your forefathers, and leaving to each man for himself to answer for his own acts at the judgment-seat of Jesus. It would tear away from the man, as the foulest cloak of hypocrisy, that pretence of a religious principle in this whole matter of political abolitionism.

"Religious principle! Oh my God! That religious principle, that for the sake of an abstract right whose very exercise were disastrous to the unprepared bondmen who inherit it, would tear this blest confederacy in pieces, and deluge these smiling plains in fraternal blood, and barter the loftiest freedom that the world ever saw, for the armed despotism of a great civil warfare! That religious principle which, in disaster to man's last great experiment, would fling the whole race back into the gloom of an older barbarism-rearing out of the ruin of these free homes, the thrones of a more adamantine despotism freedom's beacons all extinguished, and the whole race slaves. That religious principle through which, losing sight of God's great purpose of evangelizing the nations, [by American Slavery,] would shatter the mightiest wheel in the mechanism of salvation, and palsy the wing of God's preaching angel in its flight through the skies.

"Alas-alas! ye that count as little this bond of blessed brotherhood, wrought by our fathers' mighty hands and bleeding hearts - we tell you, sorrowing and in tears, that your pretence is foul hypocrisy. Ye have reversed the first precept of the gospel, for your wisdom is a dove's, and your harmlessness a serpent's. Ye have not the first principle within you either of religion or philanthropy, or common human benevolence. Your principle is the principle of Judas Iscariot, and with the doom of the traitor ye shall go to your own place."

"No, Sir-no, Sir," concludes the Senator thirsting for his constituent's blood, "There is no gospel in all this treasonable fanaticism for treason to my country is rebellion to my God."

Judge Grier charged the Jury;- but as he struck out from the phonographer's report of which the proof-sheets were sent to him— the most offensive portion, Gentlemen of the Jury, I shall not be able to enlighten you with all the legal words of this "consummate judge." So be content with the following Elegant Extracts.

"With the exception of a few individuals of perverted intellect in some small districts or neighborhoods whose moral atmosphere has been tainted and poisoned by male and female vagrant lecturers and conventions, no party in politics, no sect of religion, or any respectable numbers or character can be found within our borders, who have viewed with approbation or have looked with any other than feelings of abhorrence upon this disgraceful tragedy.”

"It is not in this Hall of Independence that meetings of infuriated fanatics and unprincipled demagogues have been held to counsel a bloody resistance to the laws of the land. It is not in this city that conventions are held denouncing the Constitution, the

Laws, and the Bible. It is not here that the pulpit has been desecrated by seditious exhortations, teaching that theft [a man stealing his own limbs and person from his 'lawful owner'] is meritorious, murder [in self-defence killing a man-stealer] excusable, and treason [opposition to the fugitive slave bill] a virtue!"

"The guilt of this foul murder [the shooting of a kidnapper by the men whom he intended for his victims, and whose premises he invaded without due process of law, and with armed force], rests not alone on the deluded individuals who were its immediate perpetrators, but the blood taints with even deeper dye the skirts of those who promulgated doctrines subversive of all morality and all government, [that is, of Slavery and the fugitive slave bill]."

"This murderous tragedy is but the necessary development of principles and the natural fruit from seed sown by others whom the arm of the law cannot reach," [such as the Authors of the Declaration of Independence, and still more the Author of the "Sermon on the Mount]."

"This [the slave clause of the Constitution] is the Supreme law of the land, binding .. on the conscience and conduct of every individual citizen of the United States." "The shout of disapprobation with which this [the fugitive slave bill] has been received by some, has been caused... because it is an act which can be executed.... the real objection . . . is to the Constitution itself, which is supposed to be void in this particular, from the effect of some 'higher law.' It is true that the number of persons whose consciences affect to be governed by such a law [that is the law of Natural Morality and Religion], is very small. But there is a much larger number who take up opinions on trust, - and have concluded this must be a very pernicious and unjust enactment, for no other reason than because the others shout their disapprobation with such violence and vituperation."

"This law is Constitutional." "The question of its Constitutionality is to be settled by the Courts, [fugitive slave bill courts,] and not by conventions either of laymen or ecclesiastics." “We are as much bound to support this law as any other.” "The jury should regard the construction of the Constitution as given them by the court as to what is the true meaning of the words levying war." "In treason all are principals, and a man may be guilty of aiding and abetting, though not present."

He spoke of those "associations, or conventions, which occasionally or annually infest the neighboring village of West-Chester, for the purpose of railing at and resisting the Constitution and laws of the land [that is the fugitive slave bill and other laws which annihilate a man's unalienable right to his liberty], and denouncing those who execute them as no better than a Scroggs or a Jeffries;- who stimulate and exhort poor negroes to the perpetration of offences which they know must bring them to the penitentiary or the gallows."

But he thought refusing to aid the deputy marshal in kidnapping was not an act of levying war, or treason against the United States. "In so doing he is not acting the part of an honest, loyal citizen [who ought to do any wickedness which a bum-bailiff commands]; he may be liable to be punished for a misdemeanor for his refusal to interfere."

But he thought the government was right "in procuring an indictment for Treason." For "meetings had been held in many places in the North, denouncing the law, and

advising a traitorous resistance to its execution: conventions of infuriated fanatics had invited to acts of rebellion; and even the pulpit had been defiled with furious denunciations of the law, and exhortations to a rebellious resistance to it.

"The government was perfectly justified in supposing that this transaction was but the first overt act of a treasonable conspiracy, extending over many of the Northern States, to resist by force of arms the execution of this article of the Constitution and the laws framed in pursuance of it. In making these arrests, and having this investigation, the officers of government have done no more than their strict duty.

The activity, zeal, and ability, which have been exhibited by the learned Attorney of the United States, in endeavoring to bring to condign punishment the perpetrators of this gross offence, are deserving of all praise. It has given greal satisfaction to the Court also, that the learned Attorney-General of Maryland, and the very able counsel associated with him [Senator Cooper of Pennsylvania] have taken part in this prosecution."

In about fifteen minutes the Jury returned a verdict of NOT GUILTY." 1

(4.) On the 29th of April, 1852, a man named William Smith was arrested by Commissioner McAllister of Columbia, Pennsylvania, on complaint of one Ridgeley of Baltimore. While in the custody of the officers, Smith endeavored to escape, and Ridgeley drew a pistol and shot him dead. The murderer escaped. No serious efforts were made by the State authorities to bring that offender to justice. "He has the same right to repossess his slave here as in his own State;" the same right to kill him if he attempts to escape! Mr. Toombs is modest-but we shall soon see the slaveholder not only sit down with his slaves at the foot of Bunker Hill Monument, but shoot them if they attempt to run away! Nay, Gentlemen, we shall see this Court defending the slave-hunter's "privilege."

(5.) Here is another case, Gentlemen of the Jury, in which this same Judge Grier appears, and with his usual humanity. This is a brief account of the case of Daniel Kauffman. In 1852 he allowed a party of fugitive slaves to pass the night in his barn, and gave them food in the morning. For this he was brought before Judge Grier's court and fined $2,800! It was more than his entire property. Gentlemen, there are persons in this room who gave money to Mr. Kauffman, to indemnify him for his losses; were not they also guilty of treason, at least of a "misdemeanor?" They "evinced an express liking" for Freedom and Humanity, not Slavery and bloodshed. (6.) But here is yet one more, which shall have in the lan

you

guage of another:

1 See Report of Trial of Castner Hanway, Phil. 1852.

"In a case of attempted Slave-catching at Wilkesbarre, in Pennsylvania, the Deputy Marshal, Wyncoop and his assistants, had behaved with such atrocious and abominable cruelty, that the citizens felt that justice demanded their punishment for the outrage. They were, accordingly, arrested on a warrant issued by a most respectable magistrate, on the oath of one of the principal inhabitants of the place. A writ of habeas corpus was forthwith sued out, returnable before Judge Grier. When the District Attorney, Ashmead, moved the discharge of the relators, (which, it is needless to say, was ordered,) Judge Grier delivered himself to the following effect. “If habeas corpuses are to be taken out after that manner, I will have an indictment sent to the United States Grand-Jury against the person who applies for the writ, or assists in getting it, the lawyer who defends it, and the sheriff who serves the writ, to see whether the United States officers are to be arrested and harassed whenever they attempt to serve a process of the United States."

2. Gentlemen of the Jury, you might suppose that love of liberty had altogether vanished from the "Free" States, else how could such men ride over the local law as well as natural justice? But I am happy to find one case where the wickedness of the fugitive slave bill courts was resisted by the people and the local judges - it is a solitary case, and occurred in Wisconsin :

"About the middle of March, 1854, a man named Joshua Glover, was seized near Racine, in Wisconsin, as a Fugitive Slave. His arrest was marked by the circumstances of cruelty and cowardice which seem to be essential to the execution of this Law above all others. He was brought, chained and bleeding, to Milwaukee, where he was lodged in jail. As soon as the news spread, an indignation, as general as it was righteous, prevailed throughout the city. A public meeting was forthwith called, and held in the open air, at which several of the principal citizens assisted. Stirring speeches were made, and strong resolutions passed, to the effect that the rights of the man should be asserted and defended to the utmost. Counsel learned in the law volunteered, and all necessary process was issued, as well against the claimant for the assault and battery, as in behalf of the man restrained of his liberty. A vigilance committee was appointed to see that Glover was not secretly hurried off, and the bells were ordered to be rung in case any such attempt should be made. But the people were not disposed to trust to the operation of the Slave Law, administered by United States Judges or Commissioners, and they stepped in and settled the question for themselves in a summary manner. A hundred men arrived, in the afternoon, from Racine, the town from which the man had been kidnapped, who marched in order to the jail. They were soon reinforced by multitudes more, and a formal demand was made for the slave. This being denied, an attack was made upon the door, which was soon broken in, the man released, and carried back in triumph to Racine, whence he was afterwards conveyed beyond the jurisdiction of the star-spangled banner. A mass convention of the citizens of Wisconsin was afterwards held to provide for similar cases, should they occur, and a most sound and healthy tone of feeling appears to have pervaded that youthful commonwealth.

"After the rescue had been effected, the United States Marshal arrested several persons for the offence of resisting an officer in the discharge of his duties. Among these was Mr. Sherman M. Booth, the editor of the Free Democrat. When brought before a Commissioner, in the custody of the Marshal, a writ of habeas corpus was sued out on his behalf, and he was brought before Judge A. D. Smith, of the Supreme Court. After a full hearing, Judge Smith granted him his discharge, on the ground