With the sad case of
Margaret Garner we close, for the present,
the record of the Fugitive Slave Law, as its
history has been daily writing itself in our
country's annals. Enactment of hell! which
has marked every step of its progress over
the land by suffering and by crimes,—crimes
of the bloodiest dye, groanings which cannot
fully be uttered; which is tracked by the
dripping blood of its victims, by their
terrors and by their despair; against which,
and against that Wicked Nation which enacted
it, and which suffers it still to stand as
their Law, the cries of the down-trodden
poor go up continually into the ears of
God,—cries of bitterest anguish, mingled
with fiercest execrations—thousands of
Rachels weeping for their children, and will
not be comforted, because they are not.
Reader, is your patriotism of the kind which
believes, with the supporters of old
monarchies, that the Sovereign Power can do
no wrong? Consider the long record which has
been laid before you, and say if your
country has not enacted a most wicked,
cruel, and shameful law, which merits only
the condemnation and abhorrence of every
heart. Consider that this law was aimed at
the life, liberty, and happiness of the poor
and least-privileged portion of our people—a
class whom the laws should befriend,
protect, and raise up. What is the true
character of a law, whose working, whose
fruits are such as this meagre outline of
its history shows? Is it fit that such deeds
and such a law should have your sanction and
support? Will you remain in a moment's doubt
whether to be a friend or a foe to such a
law? Will you countenance or support the
man, in the church or in the state, who is
not its open and out-spoken opponent? Will
you not, rather, yourself trample it under
foot, as alike the disgrace of your country,
the enemy of humanity, and the enemy of God?
And nobly join, with heart and hand, every
honest man who seeks to load with the
opprobrium they deserve, the law itself and
everything that justifies and upholds it?
In this tract no mention is made of that
great company of slaves who, flying from
their intolerable wrongs and burdens, are
overtaken before reaching the Free
States—(alas, that we should mock ourselves
with this empty name of free!)—and carried
back into a more remote and hopeless
slavery; nor of the thousands who, having
fled in former years, and established
themselves in industry and comfort in the
Northern States, were compelled again to
become fugitives, leaving their little all
behind them, into a still more Northern land
where, under British law, they find at last
a resting-place and protection; nor to any
great extent of the numerous cases of white
citizens, prosecuted, fined, harassed in
every way, for the crime of giving shelter
and succor to the hunted wanderers. To have
included these—all emphatically victims of
the Fugitive Slave Law—would swell our tract
into a volume. What a testimony against our
land and our people is given by their
accumulated weight! Every Living Man And
Woman Is Guilty Of This Great Sin, Who
Either By Apology, Or By Silence, Lends It
The Least Support.
In a record like the foregoing, dealing so
largely with facts and dates, perfect
accuracy is not to be expected, although
much pains have been taken to make it
strictly correct. Any information, on good
authority, which will help to make the
record more exact, or more complete, will be
very gratefully received. It should be
addressed to Samuel May, Jr., No. 21
Cornhill, Boston, Mass.
The Fugitive Slave Law, and its Victims, 1856