In this choice, I found myself in the company of Clarkson and
Wilberforce in my native land, and of Washington and Franklin, and
many such, in this boasted land of the free; and more than all these,
the Redeemer in whom I humbly trust for acceptance with my God, who
came to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, to set at liberty those who were bruised; yea, this very
religion binds me to those in bonds as bound with them. Tell me, Sir,
with these views, can I be any thing but an Abolitionist? Surely, for
this I ought not to be sentenced.
Again, Sir, I ought not to be sentenced, because the Fugitive Slave
Law, under which I am torn from my family and business by the supple
tools of the Slave Power, the slave-breeder and the slave-hunter, is
at variance with both the spirit and letter of the Constitution. Sir,
I place myself upon the Constitution, in the presence of a nation who
have the Declaration of Independence read to them every Fourth of
July, and profess to believe it. Yea, in the presence of civilized
man, I hold up the Constitution of my adopted country as clear from
the blood of men, and from a tyranny that would make crowned heads
blush.
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