No sir; in a Court of the United States, where the Constitution
provides for trial by jury, I ought not to be sentenced for raising my
hand to rescue a fellow-man from a mob that would strip him of his
liberty and life-long toil without due process of law, without trial
by jury. Sir, this, law tramples so flagrantly upon the spirit and
letter of the Constitution, that I ought not to be sentenced.
Before passing from the Constitutional objections to this law, I
would call the attention of your Honor to the partiality of the law,
which is so at variance with the designs of the Fathers in organizing
this Government. No man can read the Constitution--in which the word
slave cannot be found; from which the idea that a man could be reduced
to a thing, and held as property, was carefully excluded--no man, I
say, can read that Constitution, and come to the conclusion that
slavery was to be _fostered, guaranteed_ and _protected_ far beyond
every thing else in the country. Admit that Jim Gray was Phillips's
property, how comes it that that particular property is more sacred
than any other property? Phillips's horse escapes from him, and is
found in a distant State; but the President of the United States, and
every department of Government, are not put on the track to find the
horse, and return him to Phillips's stable, and then pay the whole
bill from the National Treasury.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25