More than three years afterwards, an occasion arose for their intervention. A fugitive from Virginia, who for some days had trod the streets of Boston as a freeman, was seized as a slave. The whole community was aroused, while Bunker Hill and Faneuil Hall quaked with responsive indignation. Then, sir, the President, anxious that no tittle of Slavery should suffer, was curiously eager in the enforcement of the statute. The dispatches between him and his agents in Boston attest his zeal. Here are some of them:

66 Boston, May 27, 1854. "TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

"In consequence of an attack upon the Court-house, last night, for the purpose of rescuing a fugitive slave, under arrest, and in which one of my own guards was killed, I have availed myself of the resources of the United States, placed under my control by letter from the War and Navy Department, in 1851, and now have two companies of Troops, from Fort Independence, stationed in the Courthouse. Every thing is now quiet. The attack was repulsed by my own guard. "WATSON FREEMAN,

"United States Marshal, Boston, Mass."

"To WATSON FREEMAN,

"Washington, May 27, 1854.

United States Marshal, Boston, Mass.:

"Your conduct is approved. The law must be executed.

"FRANKLIN PIERCE."

"Washington, May 30, 1854.

"To HON. B. F. HALLET, Boston, Mass.:

"What is the state of the case of Burns?

"SIDNEY WEBSTER."

[Private Secretary of the President.]

"To B. F. HALLET,

"Washington, May 31, 1854.

United States Attorney, Boston, Mass.:

"Incur any expense deemed necessary by the Marshal and yourself, for City Military, or otherwise, to insure the execution of the law.

"FRANKLIN PIERCE."

But the President was not content with such forces as were then on hand in the neighborhood. Other posts also were put under requisition. Two companies of National troops, stationed at New York, were kept under arms, ready at any moment to proceed to Boston; and the Adjutant-General of the Army was directed to repair to the scene, there to superintend the execution of the statute. All this was done for the sake of Slavery; but during long months of menace suspended over the Free Soil of Kansas, breaking forth in successive invasions, the President has folded his hands in complete listlessness, or if he has moved at all, it has been only to encourage the robber propagandists.

And now the intelligence of the country is insulted by the Apology, that the President had no power to interfere. Why, sir, to make this confession is to confess our Government to be a practical failure-which I will never do, except, indeed, as it is administered now. No, sir; the imbecility of the Chief Magistrate shall not be charged upon

our American Institutions. Where there is a will there is a way; and in his case, had the will existed, there would have been a way, easy and triumphant, to guard against the Crime we now. deplore. His powers were in every respect ample; and this I will prove by the statute-book. By the act of Congress of 28th February, 1795, it is enacted, "that whenever the laws of the United States shall be opposed, or the execution thereof obstructed, in any State, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals," the President may call forth the militia. By the supplementary act of 3d March, 1807, in all cases where he is authorized to call forth the militia "for the purpose of causing the laws to be duly executed," the President is further empowered, in any State or Territory, "to employ for the same purposes such part of the land or naval force of the United States as shall be judged necessary." There is the letter of the law; and you will please to mark the power conferred. In no case where the laws of the United States are opposed, or their execution obstructed, is the President constrained to wait for the requisition of a Governor, or even the petition of a citizen. Just so soon as he learns the fact, no matter by what channel, he is invested by law with full power to

counteract it. True it is, that when the laws of a State are obstructed, he can interfere only on the application of the Legislature of such State, or of the Executive, when the Legislature cannot be convened; but when the Federal laws are obstructed, no such preliminary application is necessary. It is his high duty, under his oath of office, to see that they are executed, and, if need be, by the Federal forces.

And, sir, this is the precise exigency that has arisen in Kansas,-precisely this, nor more, nor less. The act of Congress, constituting the very organic law of the Territory, which, in peculiar phrase, as if to avoid ambiguity, declares, as "its true intent and meaning," that the people thereof "shall be left perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way," has been from the beginning opposed and obstructed in its execution. If the President had power to employ the Federal forces in Boston, when he supposed the Fugitive Slave Bill was obstructed, and merely in anticipation of such obstruction, it is absurd to say that he had not power in Kansas, when, in the face of the whole country, the very organic law of the Territory was trampled under foot by successive invasions, and the freedom of the people there overthrown. To assert ignorance of this obstruction-premeditated, long-continued,

and stretching through months-attributes to him. not merely imbecility, but idiocy. And thus do 1 dispose of this Apology.

Next comes the Apology absurd, which is, indeed, in the nature of a pretext. It is alleged that a small printed pamphlet, containing the "Constitution and Ritual of the Grand Encampment and Regiments of the Kansas Legion," was taken from the person of one George F. Warren, who attempted to avoid detection by chewing it. The oaths and grandiose titles of the pretended Legion have all been set forth, and this poor mummery of a secret society, which existed only on paper, has been gravely introduced on this floor, in order to extenuate the Crime against Kansas. It has been paraded in more than one speech, and even stuffed into the report of the committee.

A part of the obligations assumed by the members of this Legion shows why it has been thus pursued, and also attests its innocence. It is as follows:

"I will never knowingly propose a person for membership in this order who is not in favor of making Kansas a free State, and whom I feel satisfied will exert his entire influence to bring about this result. I will support, maintain, and abide by, any honorable movement made by the organization to secure this great end, which will not conflict with the laws of the country and the Constitution of the United States."