* * * * *
With every attempt to administer the Slave Act, it constantly becomes
more revolting, particularly in its influence on the agents it enlists.
Pitch cannot be touched without defilement, and all who lend themselves
to this work seem at once and unconsciously to lose the better part of
man. The spirit of the law passes into them, as the devils entered the
swine. Upstart commissioners, mere mushrooms of courts, vie and revie
with each other. Now by indecent speed, now by harshness of manner, now
by denial of evidence, now by crippling the defense, and now by open,
glaring wrong they make the odious Act yet more odious. Clemency, grace,
and justice die in its presence. All this is observed by the world. Not
a case occurs which does not harrow the souls of good men, and bring
tears of sympathy to the eyes, and those nobler tears which "patriots
shed o'er dying laws."
Sir, I shall speak frankly. If there be an exception to this feeling,
it will be found chiefly with a peculiar class.
Pages:
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361