Download or read book Defence of Massachusetts (Classic Reprint) written by Charles Sumner and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-10 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Defence of Massachusetts [In Senate. - On the 22d June, Mr. Rockwell, of Massachusetts, presented the following Memorial, stating that it was signed by twenty-nine hundred persons, chiefly of Boston, and moved its reference to the Committee on the Judiciary: "To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress asembled: The undersigned, men of Massachusetts, ask for the repeal of the Act of Congress of 1850, known as the Fugitive Slave Bill." On June 26, a debate ensued, on the motion to refer the memorial, in which Mr. Jones of Tennessee, Mr. Rockwell of Massachusetts, and then again Mr. Jones, took part. At this stage, Mr. Sumner took the floor, and spoke as follows: ] Mr. President: I begin by answering the interrogatory propounded by the Senator from Tennessee, [Mr. Jones.] He asks, "Can any one suppose that, if the Fugitive Slave Act be repealed, this Union can exist?" To which I reply at once, that if the Union be in any way dependent on an act - I cannot call it a law - so revolting in every regard as that to which he refers, then it ought not to exist. To much else that has fallen from that Senator I do not desire to reply. He has discussed at length matters already handled again and again in the protracted debates of this session. Like the excited hero of Macedonia, he has renewed past conflicts, "And thrice ho routed all his foes, And thrice he slew the slain." Of what the Senator has said on the relations of Senators, North and South, of a particular party, it is not my province to speak. And yet I cannot turn from it without expressing, at least, a single aspiration, that men from the North, whether Whigs or Democrats, will neither be cajoled or driven by any temptation, or lash, from the support of those principles of freedom which are inseparable from the true honor and welfare of the country. At last, I trust, there will be a backbone in the North. My colleague has already remarked, that this memorial proceeds from persons of whom many were open supporters of the alleged Compromises of 1850, including even the odious Fugitive Slave Bill. I have looked over the long list, and, so far as I can judge, find this to be true. And, in my opinion, the change shown by these men is typical of the change in the community of which they constitute a prominent part. Once the positive upholders of the Fugitive Slave Bid, they now demand its unconditional repeal. There is another circumstance worthy of especial remark. This memorial proceeds mainly from persons connected with trade and commerce. Now, it is a fact too well known in the history of England, and of our own country, that these persons, while often justly distinguished by their individual charities and munificence, have been lukewarm in their opposition to slavery. Twice in English history the "mercantile interest" frowned upon the endeavors to suppress the atrocity of Algerine slavery; steadfastly in England it sought to baffle Wilberforce's great effort for the abolition of the African slave trade; and, at the formation of our own Constitution, it stipulated a sordid compromise, by which this same detested. Heaven-defying traffic, was saved for twenty years from American judgment. But now it is all changed - at least in Boston. The representatives of the "mercantile interest" place themselves in the front of the new movement against slavery, and, by their explicit memorial, call for the abatement of a grievance which they have recently bitterly felt in Boston. Mr. President, this memorial is interesting to me, first, as it asks a repeal of the Fugitive Slave Bill, and secondly, as it comes from Massachusetts. That repeal I shall be glad at any time, now and hereafter, as in times past, to sustain by vote and argument; and I trust never to fail in any just regard for the sentiments or interests of Massachusetts. With these few remarks, I would gladly close. But the