May 2, 1851
“On Thursday of last week, Charles Sumner was elected U. S. Senator, having received 193 votes out of the 286 — the precise number necessary to a choice….Friday, at noon, a salute of 100 guns was fired on the Common, in honor of the Free Soil victory.”
May 2, 1851
An unnamed student, in an article from the N.H. Independent Democrat, writes to include a petition to the Mass. legislature asking that it take action to protect the personal liberty of those who are subject to the Fugitive Slave Law, and that it urge Congress to repeal the act. The petition includes the names of fifty-nine students who signed the petition, leaving only eleven of the student body who failed to do so.
May 2, 1851
From the Providence Mirror, comes a notice that “a number of fugitive slaves left this city on Monday for Canada.” The article cites one instance of “Mr. Booth”, who had been in the city for many years, and earned a home of his own. The article indicates that he is free, but his wife is a fugitive, and they have six children, all young. She and the children have gone to Canada, but he remains in the city for the moment …. he will probably sacrifice much of his property, in order to join his family in Victoria’s dominions.
April 25, 1951
In the Senate, March 24, the Joint Special Committee, cites arguments and the history of previous actions by the legislature, including references to the 1793 Fugitive Slave laws, and recently to actions in the 1843 ‘Latimer law’, all of which assert the right of the legislature to prohibit all actions of its officers under certain acts of Congress. The resolves are designed “for protecting the rights of our citizens against invasion, by persons acting under the authority of the Fugitive Slave Law.” The following resolutions are to be forwarded to the Congress.
Resolved: That Massachusetts affirms anew her hostility to slavery, and her devotion to the Union; that, inspired by these cherished sentiments, she longs for harmony among the different parts of our common country; but she cannot conceal the conviction, that this can be finally and permanently secured only by the overthrow of slavery, so far as the same can be constitutionally done, everywhere within the jurisdiction of the national government; that, the free States may be relieved from all responsibility therefore, so that freedom, instead of slavery, shall become national, and slavery, instead of freedom, become sectional.
Resolved: That Massachusetts protests against the Fugitive Slave Law as alien to the spirit of the Constitution, destructive of rights secured by that instrument, hostile to the sentiments of Christianity, and abhorrent to the feelings of the people of this Commonwealth; that such a law will naturally fail to secure that support in the heart and conscience of the community, without which, any law must sooner or later become a dead letter.”
A note by the editor reminds readers that this proposed action provides, among other things, “for a trial by jury in every instance in which a person is arrested in this Commonwealth as a fugitive from slavery — and makes it a duty of the district attorneys, whenever any such arrest is made, to use all lawful means to protect, defend, and procure to be discharged, every such person so arrested or claimed…etc., etc .” (Note by researcher: these resolutions were tabled; never passed.)
April 18, 1851
From the Boston Courier, under the title, Massachusetts Legislature, is notice that “Mr. Keyes” has presented a petition to the Senate, on behalf of Thomas Sims, and signed by his “mark”. The petition calls for the Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court to issue a writ of habeus corpus on his behalf, and calls upon the General Court to pass a law which will ascertain the right to a trial by jury, and that the petitioner “may not be surrendered , exiled, of delivered to bondage, until proved to be a slave by ‘due course of law’.”
Proceedings in Sims case
A lengthy article about the Court proceedings, concluding with the judgment that the Court has not found sufficient reason to discharge Sims, and he would be remanded to the custody of the Marshal…..then follows a “sketch of a scene never to be forgotten by those who witnessed, which we copy from the Commonwealth of Saturday”. This account tells of the conveyance of Sims, a few minutes before five o’clock in the morning, to Long Wharf, where he was placed on board the brig, Acorn, and to the steamboat Hornet. It indicates that Sims had been brought from the Court House by a guard of 15 men, and then by a “slave-guard” of men who had been “drilled for an hour and a half before the final move to the vessel”.
April 11, 1851
An account of Sim’s arrest, dated, April 4. He was arrested in Cooper Street; he gave “stout resistance”, was “at last overcome by a large posse of Watchmen (!), who were in readiness near by, and he was incarcerated in the Court-House about 9 o’clock…..About half-past 10 o’clock, as U. S. Deputy Marshal was passing through Court Square, he was accosted by Samuel E. Sewall, Esq., Rev. Theodore Parker, Elizur Wright, and two others. Mr. Sewall addressed Mr. Riley, and demanded “to be informed whether the alleged fugitive was to be examined last night.” The article indicates that Sims had come to Boston about March 7th, and had been stopping at a boarding house on Ann street. He is 23 and has a wife and children in Savannah.
Saturday, April 5, a notice says: “The Court House is still surrounded with chains, as it was yesterday … the gathering of people around the Court House has been large all morning.
Mass Meeting on the Common — a public meeting held on the Common, on Saturday,
in which Wendell Phillips indicates that Faneuil Hall has been denied them, and the “State House yard behind us” has also been refused as a place to meet. …on motion to adjourn, that gathering then assembled at Tremont Temple.
April 4, 1851
Under the title Let Massachusetts Speak! , it is noted that the State Convention to be held in opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law, previously scheduled for Worcester, will be held in Boston. “The change is a judicious one. ‘The heart of the Commonwealth’ is sound, on this subject, and needs no attention. But Boston is the headquarters of Mammon, Cottonocracy, and Pro-Slavery. Here, therefore, is the place for a popular moral demonstration , such as the State can make, and such as Boston will feel…. The Fugitive Slave Bill is unconstitutional , immoral, barbarous, and diabolical, and must not be obeyed, but resisted and thwarted in every feasible manner…..Called as the Convention is, in the most guarded manner, and for an object both legal and humane, and by a long list of names that challenge universal respect, still, the city authorities of Boston have audaciously refused to allow it to be held in FANEUIL Hall !! This is a low, dirty, dastardly piece of usurpation, an insult to the free spirit of the Commonwealth, and a gratuitous pandering to the Slave Power. …..The outside of Faneuil Hall is a good deal larger than the inside, and we think it will be much better adapted to accomodate the masses who will ere long assemble in this city to express their honest opinion of the employment of the army and navy to catch slaves in Massachusetts.”
March 28, 1851
Notice of an assembly to be held in Worcester, Tuesday, April 8, signed by people from twenty-one towns, “and a great many others whose names will be given in a future notice.”
March 28, 1851
Under the Refuge of Oppression, from the Syracuse Star, comes this assessment of Thompson’s appearance: “He is not without power as an orator, but at the same time offensively egotistical, and insufferably vulgar. They who attended the fandango with the expectation of hearing a high-toned English statesman, must have been woefully disappointed as they listened to the stale blackguardism of the Cockney Thompson.”
March 21, 1851
Under the title Something to Do, here is a list of sixteen essays, sermons, articles, letters, called to the attention of readers, urging them to read and distribute them.