NO MORE SLAVE TRIALS The following is a form of Petition to be circulated for signatures throughout the length and breadth of the Commonwealth, and signed alike by men and women, either in separate columns or promiscuously as may be thought advisable. Let every one have a chance to sign it; and let there be a noble rivalry to see which shall be ‘THE BANNER TOWN’ in regard to the number of signatures procured.
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:
The undersigned, citizens of Massachusetts, respectfully ask you to enact that no person, who has been held as a slave, shall be delivered up, by any officer or court, State of Federal, within this Commonwealth, to any one claiming him on the ground that he owes ‘service or labor’ to such claimant, by the laws of one of the Slave States of this Union.
(Liberator, July 2, 1858, pg 2)