BOSTON: WHITE & POTTER, PRINTERS, 4 SPRING LANE.
1851.
The following Report is published at the request of numerous persons who are of opinionthat all which is known of the operation of the Fugitive Slave Bill, should be spread beforethe public. To the legal profession it will be of interest, as developing new points in theconstruction and application of a Statute, destined to be of great political importance now,and in future history. They will be able to judge of the constructions upon the Statute,and of the law of evidence, as laid down and applied by the Commissioner, and contendedfor by the representative of the Government. Not the profession alone, but the public, canjudge of the temper, and manner, as to parties and witnesses, in which the prosecution waspressed, and the judicial duties performed.
It will be well for every reader to bear in mind that this is the tribunal to which the lateAct of Congress gives final jurisdiction in deciding whether a man found a free inhabitantof a free state, shall be exiled, and sent into endless slavery.
The Commissioner tries an issue, on the result of which, all the hopes of a fellow man forthe life that is, and that which is to come, are suspended; and his judgment is "conclusiveon all other tribunals."[A]
It will be well for us, as citizens, to remember, that the attempt is making to establishthis act, passed by the vote of less than half of the Representatives of the people, as theunalterable law of the country; to treat as treason and disaffection to government, allattempts to rouse the public to efforts for its repeal; and, by unprecedented coalitions, thatmight almost be called conspiracies, of public men, to destroy the character and means ofinfluence of all who lend their aid in these efforts. Even a public discussion of the subject,is cause for suspicion and inquiry.
We would ask every reader, on rising from the examination of this trial, taken in connexionwith the President's Proclamation and Message, the late debate in the Senate, andthe recent letters and speeches of leading men of both parties, to say, for himself, whetherthese are not times, not only of danger to the liberty of colored men, but of serious apprehensionfor our independence and dignity as men, and our rights as citizens.
[A] See the Opinion of Attorney General Crittenden.
On the 13th of February, A.D. 1851, one John Caphart, of Norfolk, Va.,came to Boston, in pursuit of one Shadrach, alleged to be a fugitive slave and theproperty of John Debree, a purser in the navy, and attended by Seth J. Thomas,Esq., as counsel, made his complaint, as agent and attorney of the said owner,before George T. Curtis, Esq., U. S. Commissioner. On the evening of the 14th,the following warrant was placed in the hands of special marshal Sawin, andserved, Shadrach offering no resistance, about half-past 11 on Saturday forenoon,the 15th, at the Cornhill Coffee House, where Shadrach had been employed forsome months as a waiter:—