ive Slave
Act of 1850. All these provisions were odious and disgraceful in my
opinion, when applied in the interest of slavery, when the object was
to strike down the rights of man. But here the purpose is changed.
These provisions are in the interest of freemen and of freedom, and
what was odious in the one case becomes highly meritorious in the
other. It is an instance of poetic justice and of apt retribution that
God has caused the wrath of man to praise Him. I stand by every
provision of this bill, drawn as it is from that most iniquitous
fountain, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

"Then my colleague asks, Why do you invoke the power of the military
to enforce these laws? And he says that constables, and sheriffs, and
marshals, when they have process to serve, have a right to call upon
the _posse comitatus_, the body of the whole people, to enforce their
writs. Here is a justice of the peace in South Carolina or Georgia, or
a county court, or a circuit court, that is called upon to execute
this law. They appoint their own marshal, their deputy marshal, or
their constable, and he calls upon the _posse comitatus_. Neither the
judge, nor the jury, nor the officer, as we believe, is willing to
execute the law. He may call upon the people, the body of the whole
people, a body of rebels steeped in treason and rebellion to their
lips, and they are to execute it; and the gentleman seems wonderfully
astonished that we should call upon the military power. We should not
legislate at all if we believed the State courts could or would
honestly carry out the provisions of the constitutional amendment; but
because we believe they will not do that, we give the Federal officers
jurisdiction.

"But what harm is to result from it? Who is to be oppressed? What
white man fleeing, in the language of my colleague, pursued by these
harpies of the law, is in danger of having his rights stricken down?
What does the bill provide? It places all men upon an equality, and
unless the white man violates the law, he is in no danger. It takes no
rights from any white man. It simply places others on the same
platform upon which he stands; and if he would invoke the power of
local prejudice to override the laws of the country, this is no
Government unless the military may be called in to enforce the order
of the civil courts and obedience to the laws of the country."

Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, said, in answer to some objections to
the bill urge