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in 1793, our Congress enacted a law on purpose to carry out that part of the constitution, said to be intended for the recovery of fugitive slaves; and that the provisions of that bill were almost as obnoxious to our humanity, as those of the bill of 1850. What does all this prove? Taken in connection with the history of the last fifty seven years, it proves that such a law cannot, as it ought not to be enforced. The law of 1793, all know, had become a dead letter. The enactments of the several State Legislatures, and the decisions of the United States Court, conspired with public sentiment, to render it null and void; and fugitives from southern oppression dwelt in our borders, "where it liked them best," with none to molest or make them afraid.
Yes—the advocates of this Mason and Webster bill rejoin, "and because the statute of 1798, had become inoperative, it was necessary to make the law of 1850, with more stringent provisions; and this law must he obeyed, or the union will certainly he dissolved." We have heard this southern cry of 'treason,' 'anarchy,' 'dissolution,' so often that it has ceased to alarm us. So if this terrible evil is really at hand, it must be left to come upon the country; for we cannot do any more than we have done to pacify the alarmists, who, like the roguish boy in the fable, have so often deceived us. The harmony of the states was never very seriously disturbed by the general non-observance of the former law; and the latter one is so much worse than the former, that we shall have a still better justification for trampling it under our feet.
To urge that our Republic cannot be maintained, but upon principles diametrically opposite to those, upon which it was so solemnly based, is as much as to proclaim to the world, that our Declaration of Independence is found to be untrue; and thus rejoice the hearts of tyrants throughout the world, and cast down forever the hopes of the oppressed everywhere For this I trust few of us, and not many even of our southern brethren are prepared. If, indeed the union of these states cannot be preserved, but by our consenting to do the great unrighteousness, which this "Bill of abominations" requires, then it is plain, that its end has come; on such a condition it ought not to be, and cannot be continued. "Let justice be done, though the heavens fall", is an old maxim, often quoted as embodying a great principle of morality. Surely then we may say, without being very transcendental in our uprightness—"Let this great injustice not he done, though the union falls!"
