CHAPTER XXXIII. THE ARBITRARY ENFORCEMENT OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT. Anthony Burns. - - Application to Judge Loring. Burns arrested. Hearing postponed. Meeting in Meionaon Hall. In Faneuil Hall. - Speeches of Phillips, Parker, Swift. Assault on the Court House. - Unsuccessful attempt at rescue. Batchelder killed. - Military called out. Singular language of Judge Loring. — Trial. Dana's plea. - Burns delivered up. - Procession. Prayer of Mr. Foster. - A secret association. Drills. - Indictments against Parker, Phillips, Higginson, Stowell, Morrison, Proudman, and Cluer. Quashed. Dissatisfaction at the course of Judge Loring. Rejected as professor. Removal as judge. - Case of John Glover. - Rescue. - Decision of Wisconsin courts. Not sustained. - Booth and others indicted and discharged. - Brutalities. — Judge Grier. — Case of Passmore Williamson. Judge Kane's harsh decisions. — Williamson's imprisonment. — Writ of habeas -Jane Johnson's testimony. corpus denied. Final discharge. - ON Tuesday morning, the 23d of May, 1854, intelligence was flashed over the country that the House of Representatives had passed, late in the hours of the preceding night, the bill for the repeal of the Missouri prohibition of slavery. At a time, then, when the country was profoundly agitated, and all hope of defeating that obnoxious measure had died, and the people, especially of New England, were sad and indignant, Charles F. Suttle, a Virginia slaveholder, applied to Edward G. Loring of Boston for a warrant, under the Fugitive Slave Act, for the seizure of Anthony Burns. A warrant was granted the next day by this judge of probate and United States commissioner. On the evening of that day, Burns was arrested on a false pretext, taken to the Court House, and kept by the marshal under an armed guard. On the morning of the 25th, he was brought before the commissioner. Seth J. Thomas and Edward G. Parker appeared for the claimant. Wendell Phillips and Theodore Parker, hearing of the arrest, procured admittance into the Court House with no little difficulty. Mr. Parker states that he spoke with Burns, who "sat in the dock, ironed, between two of the marshal's guards." Richard H. Dana, Jr., and Charles M. Ellis, interposed, -not as counsel, but simply as amici curiæ, friends of the court, protested against the unseemly haste of the proceedings, asked that counsel might be assigned to Burns, and begged for an adjournment of the examination. After repeated protests and requests, the commissioner adjourned the hearing until the morning of the 27th. The intelligence of this arrest created widespread and intense excitement. Application was made and readily granted for the use of Faneuil Hall, in which to give expression to the public feeling. On the afternoon of the 26th, a meeting was held in Meionaon Hall. Fiery and excited speeches and all sorts of motions were made. Many were in favor of a night attack upon the Court House, for the rescue of the alleged fugitive. Albert G. Browne, who had been one of the councillors in Governor Boutwell's administration, an earnest, honest, impulsive, and bold man, deprecated this mode of action, and proposed to be one of forty men to go, under the lead of Dr. S. G. Howe, to the marshal in broad daylight, demand the unconditional release of Burns, and, if the demand was not complied with, rescue him at all hazards; but no definite action was taken. On the evening of the 26th, an immense meeting was held in Faneuil Hall. It was called to order by Samuel E. Sewall, and presided over by George R. Russell, who said, on taking the chair: "We have made compromises until we find that compromise is concession and concession is degradation." Samuel G. Howe presented resolutions declaring that "God wills that all men should be free, and we will as God wills," and that "no man's freedom is safe unless all men are free." Wendell Phillips was "against squatter sovereignty in Nebraska, and kidnappers' sovereignty in Boston." He said that the question was whether or not Virginia should conquer Massachusetts. "If that man leaves Boston," he said, "Massachusetts is a conquered State." Francis W. Bird saw no remedy for the wrongs and outrages perpetrated upon them but fight"; and he bitterly denounced the tools of the Slave Power and the press of Boston. John L. Swift said that they had been called cowards and the sons of cowards, and they should prove themselves to be such if they allowed Anthony Burns to be taken back to bondage. "When we go," he said, "from this Cradle of Liberty, let us go to the Tomb of Liberty, the Court House. I hope to witness in his release the resurrection of liberty." Theodore Parker said that they were the "vassals of Virginia; she reaches her arms over the graves of our mothers, and kidnaps men in the city of the Puritans." "There was once a Boston," he said, "but now it is the Northern suburb of Alexandria." The slave law, he said, was declared to be a " finality"; but there was another law which was a finality, and that law "is in your hands and your arms.' He thought that if they resolutely declared that this man should not go out of Boston "without shooting a gun, then he won't go back." He proposed that they should meet at Court Square the next morning, put the vote, and declared it carried. But there were cries in favor of going that night to the Court House and the Revere House, and there was port that a crowd of colored men and others had gathered in Court Square, and were making demonstrations upon the building. Mr. Swift, who had been in consultation with Mr. Higginson, Seth Webb, Jr., and others that were in favor of an immediate attempt at rescue, or were apprehensive that it could not be prevented, hastened to Faneuil Hall for help. There were cries among those near the doors that the Court. House was attacked, and suggestive calls for an adjournment of the meeting to the scene of the apprehended assault. Mr. Phillips then made an impassioned appeal against the proposition to go to the Revere House, to attempt, he said, "the impossible feat of insulting a slave-hunter," or of assaulting the Court House that night. He eloquently pleaded for postponement till the morrow. The zeal, he said, which would not hold out till morning, "would never free a slave." Nevertheless, the meeting hastily adjourned, and some hastened to the Court House, and found that an assault had been made on the western door, which, though strongly guarded, had been battered in by a piece of heavy timber. Through the opening thus made, a negro gained for a few moments an entrance, though he was terribly beaten by those on guard. T. W. Higginson, Seth Webb, Jr., and Lewis Hayden, struggled to enter, but failed. James Batchelder, a Boston truckman who had been appointed one of the marshal's guard, was killed. The crowd fell back, and Higginson and others who were struggling at the entrance, finding themselves unsupported, besought that they should not be deserted. A. Bronson Alcott of Concord, the thoughtful student of Plato, the associate and friend of Emerson, entered the door of the Court House, and there stood for a few moments serenely amid the clubs, axes, pistols, and other implements of war. In explanation of the failure of this attempt to rescue Burns, it ought to be stated that at a private meeting, that afternoon, of Howe, Parker, Higginson, Phillips, and others, it had been deliberately decided that no attempt at rescue should be made that evening. With such a decision the meeting broke up about six o'clock; its members pledged to each other to prevent the Faneuil Hall meeting from being hurried into any abortive attempt at rescue. This explains the tenor of the speeches of Phillips and Parker. But during that Faneuil Hall meeting Mr. Higginson changed his mind, and obtained the promise of a few men, in the anteroom, to aid him in a rescue. Accordingly he started for the Court House, leaving a messenger to inform his friends on the platform and ask them to bring the meeting to the scene of action. This message was never delivered. Hence, when the cries were heard round the doors, they were supposed to be mere efforts to break up the meeting. Very few obeyed them; and these few, Dr. Howe among them, though making all haste, did not reach the Court House till after Mr. Higginson's attempt had ended. Indeed, of the score who had promised him their aid, very few made their appearance. The attempt at rescue was not only a failure in itself, but it seriously complicated subsequent efforts. "It was," wrote Edmund Quincy, "a gallant and generous attempt, but ill-advised and injudicious, under the circumstances"; for it afforded just what the slave-hunter and his obsequious servitors desired, a good excuse for summoning the military to their aid, which they at once proceeded to do, by calling the marines from the Navy Yard, soldiers from Fort Independence, and the militia of Boston. Arrests were made by the Boston police. Among those arrested was Albert G. Browne, Jr., afterward Secretary to Governor Andrew and Reporter of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. He was attempting to rescue Mr. Higginson, who had been wounded in the assault, and was in danger of falling into the hands of the officials. The excitement produced by these occurrences not only extended outside the limits of the city, so that large numbers flocked from the surrounding towns to witness the unwonted scenes that were transpiring in its streets, but it was largely increased by several public meetings that were held during those eventful days. The New England Antislavery Society held its annual meeting; the Free Soil State Convention also met, and, it being "anniversary week," there was a large number of clergymen in the city, at whose meetings frequent mention was made of the subject. On the day preceding the rendition there was a special meeting of ministers to take into consideration the general subject thus forcibly brought to their notice. A committee was appointed to confer with others, and stirring speeches were made by Lyman and Edward Beecher, Professor Stowe, Samuel Wolcott, and others. It was claimed that Burns, on the night of his arrest, had made fatal admissions. But he was kept closely guarded, and no one was allowed to see or speak with him. The next day, therefore, after the hearing had been postponed, Wendell Phillips went to the commissioner for an order directing the marshal to allow him to see the prisoner. After giving the order the commissioner, who had heard only one witness, said: “Mr. Phillips, the case is so clear that I do not think you will be justified in placing any obstacle in the way of this man's going, as he probably will"; and the result proved the correctness of his anticipation, premature and questionable as it may have been. At the trial, Burns was ably defended by Mr. Dana and Mr. Ellis. At the close of the trial, Mr. Danȧ congratulated the court, |