Any other
rule attributes infallibility to human laws, places them beyond
question, and degrades all men to an unthinking, passive obedience.
The mandates of an earthly power are to be discussed; those of
Heaven must at once be performed; nor can any agreement constrain us
against God. Such is the rule of morals. And now the rule is
commended to us. The good citizen, as he thinks of the shivering
fugitive, guilty of no crime, pursued, hunted down like a beast,
while praying for Christian help and deliverance, and as he reads
the requirements of this Act, is filled with horror. Here is a
despotic mandate, 'to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient
execution of this law.' Let me speak frankly. Not rashly would I set
myself against any provision of law. This grave responsibility I
would not lightly assume. But here the path of duty is clear. By the
Supreme Law, which commands me to do no injustice; by the
comprehensive Christian Law of Brotherhood; by the Constitution,
which I have sworn to support, I am bound to disobey this Act.
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