the immortal soul. Impalpable yet real, the truths we proclaim overleap all geographical divisions, and lay their strong grasp upon the conscience. Moral light, diffused at the north, is like the Aurora Borealis it will travel onward to the South. The slaveholder may intrench himself behind bristling bayonets-but the truth, armed with the omnipotence of its Author, breaks through the serried legions. At Mason and Dixon's line, he may pile his prohibitory statutes to the clouds as his wall of defence-but truth, like light, is elastic and irrepressible-and, mounting upward, will overleap the summit, and penetrate his concealment. Yes, sir, if the Union were rent into ten thousand fragments-yet, if on every fragment there was a slaveholder, anti-slavery agitation would search him out, and scatter upon his naked heart the living coals of truth. God has written the verity of our principles on the inside of every oppressor in the land. He can destroy the record only with his nature. And, if the American slaveholder, returning wearied from the destruction of every anti-slavery pamphlet, and press, and society, and man in the nation, should seek repose in his chamber, these words, written with the finger of God, would flame out from its walls, in letters of blinding intensity :- Wo unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work!'

Of the unyielding purpose of the friends of emancipation, Mr. Stanton gave the committee the following impressive and truthful assurance:

Undeterred by official proscription or private denunciation, by prosecutions at common law or persecutions without law, by legislative enactments or ecclesiastical anathemas, the friends of the slave, guided by the wisdom, cheered by the favor, and protected by the power of God, will prosecute their work. And that man, or that party, which shall attempt to arrest this cause in its onward march, will be borne down by the advancing host.'

It is doubtless to the powerful advocacy of the prayer of the memorialists, by Mr. Stanton, on this occasion, that the people are indebted, under God, for the noble response that was subsequently made by both branches of the Legislature. The committee reported to the House a preamble and resolutions, declaring unequivocally that the act of Congress, in refusing to refer or consider the petitions of the people on the subject of slavery, was a virtual denial of the right of petition itself' at variance with the spirit and intent of the Constitution of the United States, and injurious to the cause of freedom and free institutions'; that our Senators and Representatives in Congress, in maintaining and advocating the full right of petition, had entitled themselves to the cordial approbation of the people of this Commonwealth';—and

6

'that Congress, having exclusive legislation in the District of Columbia, possess the right to abolish slavery in said District, and that its exercise should only be restrained by a regard to the public good.' These were adopted, in the House, after an animated discussion, by the triumphant vote of 378 to 16; and in the Senate, yeas 32, nays 1. The result astounded men of all parties, and carried dismay into the heart of the South. The Boston Centinel and Gazette (a paper unsurpassed for its malignity toward the anti-slavery cause, and its servility to southern dictation) styled it A proud day for the Abolitionists!' The Daily Advertiser (not less hostile in its character) argued that the agitation of this subject in the Legislature was without a shadow of justification or pretext'! It warned the Legislature against any such course they were not called upon, by any obligation whatever, to interfere in the matter,' i. e. to defend the strangled right of petition!

the only effect of the resolutions would be to increase the irritation already produced '!-'the passing of them could not fail to be mischievous'! It was moreover persuaded, that the Legislature, in thus countenancing the views of the abolitionists, had pursued a course entirely at variance with the prevailing sentiment of the people of this State'!!-The Morning Post stigmatized them as 'fire-brand resolutions,' and hoped that the democratic members at least, would be consistent, and unitedly oppose their passage-they owed it to their country, to themselves, and to their party '!! It was in this manner almost every daily paper in Boston attempted to intimidate and brow-beat the members of the Legislaturebut in vain. They were neither to be frightened nor misled by the tools of the Boston aristocracy. The resolutions which they adopted, instead of increasing irritation, served to diffuse satisfaction and tranquillity throughout the Commonwealth. To the South, of course, and its northern allies, they gave serious offence. Alluding to them, the Richmond Enquirer exclaimed, This is absolute infatuation-we had almost said, fanaticism. Thanks be to Mr. Van Buren, however, so long

as he remains President, no bill for the abolition of slavery in the District can become a law of the land!'

As Congress had risen before the adoption of these resolutions by the State Legislature, they failed to be laid before that body. Since, however, the passage of Mr. Patton's resolution of the 21st ultimo, by the House of Representatives at its present session, laying all petitions relating to slavery on the table, unreferred, unread, undebated, Mr. Cushing (having previously laid them upon the table) has attempted to call them up for consideration; but, by the decision of the House, though emanating from a sovereign State, they cannot be allowed even a hearing-and they accordingly lie upon the table, voiceless and contemned! As the Legislature of the State is now in session, it only remains to be seen in what manner the representatives of freemen will treat this new outrage upon the character and dignity of this Commonwealth. As they have appointed committees to report upon slavery in the District of Columbia and the Right of Petition, (as well as upon the annexation of Texas,) it is to be presumed they will speak out in language not to be misunderstood-in a tone not to be disregarded.

'Startling and stern, the northern winds shall bear it

Over Potomac's to St. Mary's wave;

And buried Freedom shall awake to hear it

Within her grave.'

Has it indeed come to this? Is Massachusetts to be treated as a bond-slave?

Are all her citizens in chains?

And what, but more than slaves, are they

Who're told they ne'er shall be denied

The right of prayer; yet, when they pray,

Their prayers, unheard, are thrown aside ?

Such mockery they will tamely bear,

Who're fit an iron chain to wear!

In the House of Representatives of this State, March 27, 1837, the Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred an order of January 20th, directing them to inquire into the expediency of restoring the writ de homine replegiando, or of providing some other process by which one under personal restraint may try his right to liberty before a jury,' made an elaborate report through their chairman, (James C. Alvord,) to which was appended an act, the first section of which provides that if any person is imprisoned, restrained of his liberty, or held in duress, unless it be in the custody of some public officer of the law, by force of a lawful warrant or other process, civil or criminal, issued by a court of competent jurisdiction, he shall be entitled, as of right, to the writ of personal replevin, and to be thereby delivered in the manner' specified in the remaining sections of the act. This report was adopted with entire unanimity. Thus it is settled, that every person who may be hereafter seized in this State, as a runaway slave, shall have the benefit of a trial by jury, instead of having his liberty put into the hands, and dependent merely on the certificate of any magistrate whom the unprincipled claimant might select, granted on a summary and ex-parte examination. This trial to him,' in the language of the Report, is of tremendous interest, involving consequences, in some respects, even greater than those which await the judgment on the most abhorred crime known in the land. For our constitution provides, that even this shall "not work corrup tion of the blood." But a judgment against one, condemning him as a fugitive slave, does work corruption of blood, and forfeiture to himself, his children, and his children's children, to the latest generation.' The act of Congress of the 12th of February, 1793, authorizing persons claimed as runaway slaves. to be given up on oral testimony or affidavit, taken before and certified by any magistrate of a county, city, or town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest shall be made, the committee deem to be unauthorized and void, inasmuch as it is a well settled principle that Congress cannot confer any part of the judicial power of the United States on State magistrates or

officers. They pertinently ask, 'Who, that knows the extreme jealousy of freedom, which was the characteristic of the times, can believe that the founders of our Constitution intended to hold the trial by jury "sacred" on every question of dollars and cents, however insignificant, and in relation to the slightest misdemeanors, and to deny it on the great question of PERSONAL LIBERTY? that they would yield it as a RIGHT to every man for the investigation of his title to an ox or a horse, and withhold it on a trial which involved the ownership of his own limbs and faculties-in one word, his ownership of HIMSELF?' Strange that this rational discovery was not made sooner; and passing strange that the colored citizens of this Commonwealth should, for almost fifty years, have been deprived of that protection for their liberty, which they and all others enjoy for the smallest items of personal property-The astounding fact is only another humiliating proof of the indifference with which the rights of that deeply injured class of our fellow-citizens have been regarded, even in this enlightened Commonwealth. But, thanks be to God! they are henceforth to be fully protected in their personal liberty, the whole system of legal kidnapping having been demolished at a blow. The unanimous decision of the Supreme Judicial Court of this State, that an owner of a slave in another State where slavery is warranted by law, voluntarily bringing such slave into this State, has no authority to detain him against his will, or to carry him out of the State against his consent, for the purpose of being held in slavery,' was highly important, but far less so than this restoration of a trial by jury.

It is the strength and glory of the anti-slavery cause, that its principles are so simple and elementary, and yet so vital to freedom, morality and religion, as to commend themselves to the understandings and consciences of men of every sect and party, every creed and persuasion, every caste and color. They are self-evident truths,-fixed stars in the moral firmament, blazing suns in the great universe of mind, dispensing light and heat over the whole surface of humanity, and around