Reader, is your patriotism of the kind which believes, with the
supporters of old monarchies, that the Sovereign Power can do no
wrong? Consider the long record which has been laid before you, and
say if your country has not enacted a most wicked, cruel, and
shameful law, which merits only the condemnation and abhorrence of
every heart. Consider that this law was aimed at the life, liberty,
and happiness of the poor and least-privileged portion of our
people--a class whom the laws should befriend, protect, and raise
up. What is the true character of a law, whose working, whose fruits
are such as this meagre outline of its history shows? Is it fit that
such deeds and such a law should have your sanction and support?
Will you remain in a moment's doubt whether to be a friend or a foe
to such a law? Will you countenance or support the man, in the
church or in the state, who is not its open and out-spoken opponent?
Will you not, rather, yourself trample it under foot, as alike the
disgrace of your country, the enemy of humanity, and the enemy of
God? And nobly join, with heart and hand, every honest man who seeks
to load with the opprobrium they deserve, the law itself and
everything that justifies and upholds it?
In this tract no mention is made of that great company of slaves
who, flying from their intolerable wrongs and burdens, are overtaken
before reaching the Free States--(alas, that we should mock
ourselves with this empty name of _free_!)--and carried back into a
more remote and hopeless slavery; nor of the thousands who, having
fled in former years, and established themselves in industry and
comfort in the Northern States, were compelled again to become
fugitives, leaving their little all behind them, into a still more
Northern land where, under British law, they find at last a
resting-place and protection; nor to any great extent of the
numerous cases of white citizens, prosecuted, fined, harassed in
every way, for the _crime_ of giving shelter and succor to the
hunted wanderers.
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