Member of the Philadelphia bar

“ Truer views of the real origin and real ends of Government, have forever exploded amongst us the notion, that property can in any way with justice be made an element of representation; and that article in the Constitution stands now solely upon any merit which it may have acquired as a necessary concession to reconcile clashing interests; and it will probably hold its place as long as slavery exists, upon the simple ground so tersely laid down at the close of the discussion—that North Carolina would never have confederated without it. ”

“ If you should find that the defendant did not aid, abet or assist in the perpetration of the offence, you will return a verdict of not guilty, without regard to the grade of the offence, whether riot, murder or treason.
But if you should find that he has so aided and abetted, so as thereby to become a principal according to the rules of law, you will next have to inquire whether the offence, as proved, amounts to “Treason against the United States.”
This is defined by the Constitution itself. Congress has no power to enlarge, restrain, construe, or define the offence. ”

“ All early excitement had died away, a new generation had arisen in Congress, and new intellects were roaming about seeking the material for agitation and display. At this juncture Missouri applied for admission to the Union. A large majority of the Northern members at once decided that they would in all future legislation bind themselves irrevocably to the free principles of the ordinance of ’87. Missouri, it was true, had at the time a large number of slaves within her borders, but upon these vested rights as the South was pleased to call them, the North did not propose to encroach. ”

“ Why should property in one form go to Congress, and be shut out when it takes another and more human one? “The houses in Philadelphia alone,” said Gouverneur Morris, “are worth all the wretched slaves that cover the rice swamps of South Carolina.” ”

“ On the other side, it was argued that the Ordinance of ’87 was never intended by its framers to apply to any other territory than that which was actually in the possession of the United States at the time of its passage; that the established habits of the region which was now to be admitted, peremptorily called for the toleration of slavery; that the Constitution did not, and no power could restrain a sovereign State from establishing slavery, or any other institution she chose, in her midst; that any proviso like this, therefore, pretending to control that sovereignty, was an absurdity ”

“ This is as much the interest of South Carolina and Georgia as of any other States. Every addition they receive to the number of their slaves tends to weakness, and renders them incapable of self-defence. In case of hostilities with foreign nations, their slave population will be the means, not of repelling invasion, but of inviting attack. It is the duty of the general government to protect every part of the Union against danger as well internal as external. ”

“ This happy opportunity for forcing the House into a Compromise was eagerly seized, and an attempt made to saddle the bill with an extraordinary series of amendments providing for the unconditional admission of Missouri. The opponents of slavery in the Senate, though a minority, were, however, a most determined one. But in vain they represented the absurdity of calling this a Compromise, merely because two utterly incongruous measures were strangely crowded into a wholesale bill ”

“ At the time of the declaration of independence, when the colonies escaped from their long pupilage, and, with new rights and new responsibilities, set out to act an independent part among the nations of the earth, the taint of slavery was upon every one of them; in every one, the soil was tilled by negro bondmen. ”

“ The people of that county are men of peace and good order, and not easily led aside from the path of duty which the Constitution prescribes. They, and every Pennsylvanian, love the Constitution and the Union. They will detect, as they have done in this case, and arrest and punish all who violate the laws of the land. There is no warrant, depend upon it, for representing the men of Lancaster county as traitors, and participants in an “insurrectionary movement.” ”

“ The almost scurrilous terms in which it denounces the majority of the citizens of Philadelphia, the people of Pennsylvania, the officers of the Court in which the trials were held, the Judges who presided, and, in short, every one connected with the case, except counsel and the witnesses for the prosecution, are conclusive evidence of more anxiety to emit spleen and mortification, than to subserve the purposes of truth and justice. ”

“ With mingled modesty and confidence, it is left to more deliberate counsels to determine what may be and what ought to be done, the petitioners only imploring, for the sake of humanity, religion, and consistency, that all which could be done, should be done. If such was the spirit that offered it, that which received it was widely different. The debate of the previous day was renewed with additional violence—policy, interest, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, history, antiquity, justice, religion, and the Bible, were as usual confidently invoked to the support of both sides. ”

“ The only overt act he committed, consisted in giving insolent replies to Kline, and the evidence of this was wholly uncorroborated, depending entirely on Kline’s credibility. “A man morally and physically deaf, comes here and says he heard the defendant whisper to the colored men the words, ‘shoot at them.’ A perjured man who don’t hear and can’t hear, is brought into this court to convict an innocent man, whose hands are white—not red with the blood of his fellow man.” ”

“ The great acquisitions of new territory during this period were so many triumphs for the South, and the new free States which came into existence were erected in districts into which the slave system had never ventured. The spirit which had supported the friends of humanity in their labors seemed to be gradually decaying. The representatives of free principles in the southern States grew yearly less numerous, while an unaccountable apathy was creeping over the once vigorous and energetic societies of the North. ”

“ On the other hand, it was urged with great force, that if the Legislature of a State esteem a certain class of population dangerous to its existence, it must be entitled by the first principle of self-preservation—the foundation both of national and individual existence—to exclude them from its midst. The clause in the Constitution cannot mean that every citizen of each State is entitled to become such in every other State. ”

“ Next to Washington, no man was regarded in those days with more general veneration, than the sage and statesman, Franklin. As early as 1787, this great and good man had been chosen first President of a “Society for promoting the abolition of slavery, for the relief of free negroes unlawfully held in bondage, and for improving the condition of the African race”—a society which deserves especial mention here, as one of the latest acts of its useful and honorable career, has been to support the defence in the Treason trials, to a history of which this brief essay is intended as a preface. ”

“ I am very proud that the first steps to detect and arrest these offenders have been taken by Pennsylvania officers.
Permit me, gentlemen, having thus removed all just cause of anxiety from your minds, respectfully to suggest that the idea of rebellion, or “insurrectionary movement” in the county of Lancaster, or anywhere else in this Commonwealth, has no real foundation, and is an offensive imputation on a large body of our fellow citizens. ”

“ The region of historical research which we are about to explore, appears to be almost a terra incognita to the majority of the fiery debaters who now-a-days are prosecuting this wordy war; or if they occasionally plunge into it for a moment, it is only to hurry back in premature triumph, dragging captive some unhappy straggling passage of Jefferson or Jay, to serve as a bone of contention for a whole generation of self-constituted agitators in and out of Congress. ”

“ Those who had attentively watched the testimony, plainly saw that the attempt to sustain the charge of Treason was a failure. The counsel for the prosecution, if rumor is to be depended upon, had for several days abandoned all hopes of a conviction. There were many persons, however, who believed the jury would not be able to agree upon a verdict. Public excitement had subsided, and towards the close of the examination of witnesses, the court room comfortably seated all who chose to assemble to hear the proceedings. ”

“ For whatever pleasure it might give us to conceal the humiliating fact, candor will compel us to acknowledge, that even in those heroic times of our history, interest seldom gave way to any nobler feeling when a question like this was to be determined. The original claim set up by the South but abandoned upon the final vote—except by South Carolina, Georgia, and Delaware—was that the black population should be as largely represented in Congress, as the white. ”

“ It is proposed, then, to trace the slavery question at length, so far as it has been the source of national difficulties, embarrassments and legislation, with especial reference to its earlier history, and to the clause in the Constitution respecting fugitives, which has lately been made the subject of Congressional action.
It will not be necessary to extend our inquiries to any period anterior to the revolution, or in any way to examine the peculiar causes which first established and have long perpetuated slavery amongst us. ”

“ It consisted substantially in referring the subject to the National Judiciary, to whose province it undoubtedly belonged, and to whose solemn decision the North should, from the beginning, have been content to leave it. That it has never been settled by this high authority, and that we are still unable to answer the apparently simple question—“Who are citizens of the United States?”—is certainly a very singular predicament for a great people to be placed in, but one for which the South are in no way to blame. ”

“ The negro population was as essentially a producing power and as original an element of wealth as any body of free laborers could be, and therefore as fully entitled to have their interests consulted in the proceedings of a Government instituted for the express purpose of providing for the security of property. But in addition to this, they were entitled to make this claim not only as producers, but also as consumers of those foreign productions, the importation of which would form one great element of wealth in the Eastern States. ”

“ To review the famous debate which led to that Compromise, which swallowed up all other Compromises, on the broad platform of which all parties have learned to stand, though, perhaps, not very harmoniously, and in the universality of which all minor distinctions are forgotten, would be a lengthy, and is, happily, an unnecessary task. No one, who will read this paper, needs to be reminded of events so recent, and so widely interesting, that every school-boy in the land has thoroughly mastered them and is prepared with a long train of reasoning in their support or condemnation. ”

“ The cruel murder of a citizen of a neighboring State, accompanied by a gross outrage on the laws of the United States, in the resistance of its processes, has been committed; and you may be assured that so soon as the guilty agents are ascertained, they will be punished to its severest penalty by the law of Pennsylvania. ”

“ As to the inhumanity of extending what was acknowledged to be an evil and a curse, it must be remembered that the narrower the boundaries into which slavery was crowded, the more terrible these evils became, and that it was only by widely diffusing it that a hope could be entertained of ameliorating, and perhaps eradicating them. ”

“ Not more than two hours had elapsed from the time demand was first made at Parker’s house until the dead body of Edward Gorsuch was carried to Christiana. In that brief time the blood of strangers had been spilled in a sudden affray, an unfortunate man had been killed and two others badly wounded. How many of the negroes were wounded, has never been ascertained. All could not have escaped, but no one has been able to discover who were injured.
When rumor had spread abroad the result of this sad affray, the neighborhood was appalled. ”

“ Union was saved, and the newspapers said that everybody was overjoyed at the happy adjustment. Whether the slaves in Missouri joined in the general jubilee and offered up their thanksgivings for the salvation of the country, does not distinctly appear—possibly, because the slaves of Missouri were not in the habit of expressing their opinions, or offering their worship through the convenient medium of the public press. In substance, the Compromise admitted the new state without the restricting proviso, and prohibited slavery forever in the rest of the purchased territory north of 36° 30 ́. ”

“ He reviewed carefully the whole evidence, and by the circumstances proven, argued the absence of combination, which must be sustained by two witnesses. Every act of Hanway’s could be explained and was explained by attributing to him humane and philanthropic motives. Any other construction was forced and unsupported by testimony. “Instead of being guilty of treason, there is no reasonable ground for imputing even impropriety to him. ”

“ The Eastern and Middle States, though then comparatively poor, were clearly destined to be the commercial power of the Union, though the extent of that commerce and the enormous wealth of which it has been the source, was then little dreamed of. The great West was as yet a power unknown, and scarcely foreseen even by the most sagacious statesmen. ”