"
* * * * *
TESTIMONIES AGAINST THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT.
The Hon. Josiah Quincy, senior, whose integrity, noble intellect,
and long experience in public life, give great weight to his
opinions, made a speech at a Whig Convention in Boston, 1854, from
which I extract the following:--"The circumstances in which the
people of Massachusetts are placed are undeniably insupportable.
What has been seen, what has been felt, by every man, woman and
child in this metropolis, and in this community? and virtually by
every man, woman and child in Massachusetts? We have seen our Court
House in chains, two battalions of dragoons, eight regiments of
artillery, twelve companies of infantry, the whole constabulary
force of the city police, the entire disposable marine of the United
States, with its artillery loaded for action, all marching in
support of a Praetorian Band, consisting of one hundred and twenty
friends and associates of the U.S. Marshal, with loaded pistols and
drawn swords, and in military costume and array; and for what
purpose? _To escort and conduct a poor trembling slave from a Boston
Court House to the fetters and lash of his master!_
"This scene, thus awful, thus detestable, every inhabitant of this
metropolis, nay, every inhabitant of this Commonwealth, may be
compelled again to witness, at any time, and every day in the year,
at the will or the whim of the meanest and basest slaveholder of the
South.
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