It declared in favor of the unconditional restoration of the prohibition of slavery under the Missouri compromise of 1820, for the admission of Kansas and Nebraska as free States, for the protection of actual settlers in the free and undisturbed exercise of the elective franchise; and it avowed that its authors could not conscientiously act with those who would not aid in correcting "these national wrongs." This address was signed by fifty-three members. Delegates from Pennsylvania and New Jersey prepared a separate address for their constituents. A committee of correspondence was appointed, and Godlove S. Orth of Indiana was chairman. A protest was laid before the Council on the 14th, signed by Governor Johnson of Pennsylvania and fourteen other delegates. Another protest, signed by Orth, Colfax, Cumback, and other members of the Indiana delegation, was presented, in which they declared that the Americans in Indiana had made the issue against the Kansas-Nebraska bill at the ballot-box; that the edicts of the Council would be powerless to reverse the actions, or to change the opinions of the people of that State. This delegation, too, expressed the deliberate conviction that, immediately upon the publication of the platform which had been adopted, the Order in Indiana would cease to acknowledge the authority of the National Council.

Of this action of the Council, the New York Times" said: "The Know-Nothings are entitled to the credit of having been the first to meet the aggressive proslavery spirit with bold and manly courage, and to refuse obedience to its behests. Their example, we trust, will not lack imitators in the other political parties. Their noble adherence to principle, we are sure, will be held in everlasting remembrance. Up to the present time a national convention has been equiva lent to a national surrender. The Know-Nothings have inaugu rated a new era." Of the action of the Northern delegates the New York "Tribune," in an article entitled "The Event of the Day," said: "We cannot withold our applause from the manly and gallant conduct of Massachusetts, Ohio, and the Northern States generally. There has never been a similar collection of delegates from all parts of the Union where so

cheering a spectacle could be witnessed." The tone of the Northern press, opposed to the repeal of the Missouri compromise, was well expressed by the Boston "Atlas," when it said of that convention, "The North has maintained the perpendicularity of its spinal column."

It

On the adoption of the Southern platform a conference was held between Mr. Wilson, Mr. Bowles of the Springfield "Republican," and Colonel E. Lincoln. Mr. Bowles had been an earnest and effective Whig; but he understood the purposes of those who had disrupted the American party, and was ready to unite with them in forming a party of freedom. Colonel Lincoln had been, too, one of the most earnest and sagacious leaders of the Whig party in Massachusetts. was his judgment that the time had arrived for the disbandment of that organization, and for the formation of a new party, not only in Massachusetts, but throughout the country, on the basis of the Republican platform. Fully according in the sentiment, as expressed by Mr. Wilson, that the time had come for combining the few thousand avowed Republicans, anti-Nebraska Democrats, and antislavery Americans, and that all that was necessary was for the Whigs to unite in the movement to control the policy of the State, they agreed that Mr. Winthrop was the man to take the lead in such an effort. Mr. Wilson urged these gentlemen to hasten home, see Mr. Winthrop, and urge upon him the necessity of prompt action. "Tell him," said Mr. Wilson, "that we antislavery men want him and his Whig friends to take the lead in forming a victorious Republican party in Massachusetts, that we are ready to make any sacrifices for the cause of freedom, that we will go into the ranks and work for victory, and that he and others may win and wear the honors of success." But, though pressed to do so, Mr. Winthrop declined to join the movement proposed.

After the disruption of the Order, those members who had forced the proslavery resolutions upon the Council dissolved and went to their homes, but they were disappointed at the result. Those who had left the Council made their appeal with more confidence, however, than the facts warranted, to

the people of the free States to unite on the basis of opposition to the further extension of slavery and the ulterior designs of the Slave Power. For broken as the party was, and crushed as were its hopes of national success, it was strong enough to so embarrass the Republican movement as to enable a Democratic administration to recover that year the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois, and itself to carry the States of New York, California, and Massachu

setts.

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.

Phillips, Parker, Swift.
attempt at rescue.
guage of Judge Loring.

Dana's plea.

Speeches of

- Unsuccessful

- Singular lan

Burns delivered up.

cession. Prayer of Mr. Foster. A secret association. Drills.

- Pro

- Indict

ments 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 corpus denied. Jane Johnson's testimony. 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, Jr., 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 Nebras ka, 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