Never, in any capacity, can I render voluntary aid in its execution.
Pains and penalties I will endure; but this great wrong I will not
do." * * * "For the sake of peace and tranquillity, cease to shock
the public conscience! For the sake of the Constitution, cease to
exercise a power which is nowhere granted, and which violates
inviolable rights expressly secured. Repeal this enactment! Let its
terrors no longer rage through the land. Mindful of the lowly, whom
it pursues; mindful of the good men perplexed by its requirements;
in the name of charity, in the name of the Constitution, repeal this
enactment, totally, and without delay! Be admonished by these words
of Oriental piety: 'Beware of the groans of the wounded souls.
Oppress not to the utmost a single heart; for a solitary sigh has
power to overset a whole world.'"
Robert Rantoul, Jr., whose large heart was so true to Democratic
_principles_, that the _party_ wanted to expel him from their ranks,
(as parties are prone to do with honest men,) opposed the Fugitive
Slave Bill with all the power of his strong intellect.
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