6 be worth one single straw while the sentiment remains. I know from practical observation that in nine cases out of ten you cannot t#. a fugitive slave ; and I know more than that; you forfeit your life whenever yo'tf make the attempt. One word more: when it is said that this fugitive slave law is obnoxious to the North, and runs counter to these old guarantees concerning personal liberty, I say that the recovery of fugitives from justice is, under the Constitution and under the law, just as summary without trial by jury, and must of necessity be so. Why is not the same complaint made about forgers, and murderers, and scoundrels that steal? Not a word of liberty bills in their behalf; but all for the negro. [Applause in the galleries.] Mr. WADE. Mr. President, the gentleman says, if I understood him, that these fugitives might be turned over to the authorities of the State from whence they came. That would be a very poor remedy for a free man in humble circumstances who was taken under the provisions of this bill in a summary way, to be carried — where ? Where he came from? There is no law, that requires that he should be carried there. Sir, if he is a free man he may be carried into the market place anywhere in a slave State; and what chance has he, a poor, ignorant individual, and a stranger, of asserting any rights there, even if there were no prejudices or partialities against him ? That would be the mere mockery of justice and nothing else, and the Senator well knows it. Sir, I know that from the stringent, summary provisions of this bill, free men have been kidnapped and carried into captivity and sold into everlasting slavery. Will any man who has a regard to the sovereign rights of the State rise here and complain that a State shall not make a law to protect her own people against kidnapping and violent seizures from abroad ? Of all men, I believe those who have made most of these complaints should be the last to rise and deny the power of a sovereign State to protect her own citizens against any Federal legislation whatever. These liberty bills, in my judgment, have been passed, not with a view of degrading the South, but with an. honest purpose of guarding the rights of their own citizens from unlawful seizures and abductions. I was exceedingly glad to hear that the Senators on the other side had arisen in their places and had said the repeal of those laws would not relieve the case from the difficulties under which they now labor. How is it with the execution of your fugitive bill ? Sir, I have heard it here, I have read it in the papers, I have met it everywhere, that the people of the free States, and especially the great Republican party, were unfaithful on this subject, and did not properly execute this law. It has been said, with such a tone and under such circumstances here, that, although I was sure that in the State from which I come these insinuations had no foundation in truth, I could not rise here and repel them in the face of those who say, We will not believe a single word you say. I never did, and I never would, until our enemies, those who have ever opposed us and who have censured us upon this subject, had arisen here in their places, and'at length, with a magnanimity that I commend, have eaid that this was not so. My colleague, with a magnanimity for which I give him my thanks, has stood forth here to testify that in the State which I in part represent, the Republican courts and the Republican juries have fulfilled this repulsive duty with perfect faithfulness. So said the Senator from Illinois, [Mr. Douglas;] and if I understood him, so also said the Senator from Indiana, [Mr. Fitch.] Therefore, sir, this calumny upon us is removed so far as the statement of our political enemies can make the averment good. I know that our courts, when a case is brought before them — I do not care what their politics may be — feel bound to administer the law just as they find it; and let me say to gentlemen from the South upon the other side, where you have lost one slave from the unfaithfulness of our legislative or judicial tribunals, we have had ten men murdered by your mobs, frequently under circumstances of the most savage character. Why, sir, I can hardly take up a paper—and I rely, too, upon southern papers— which does not give an account of the cruel treatment of some man who is traveling for pleasure or for business in your quarter ; and the lightest thing you do is to visit him with a vigilance committee, and compel him to return. “ We give you so long to make your way out of our coast.” **What is the accusation?” “Why, sir, you are from Ohio.” They do not even inquire what party he belongs to, or what standard he has followed. I say this is the case, if 1 may rely on the statements of your own papers; and many of these outrages occur under circumstances
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