e humanity of
Col. Clinch. He was reputed one of the bravest and most energetic
officers in the service. He possessed an indomitable perseverance, and
could probably have captured the Fort in one hour, had he desired to
do so.

[3] That is the number officially reported by the officer in command,
vide Executive doc. of the 13th Congress.

The Fugitive Slave Act.

Few laws have ever been passed better calculated than this to harden
the heart and benumb the conscience of every man who assists in its
execution. It pours contempt upon the dictates of justice and
humanity. It levels in the dust the barriers erected by the common law
for the protection of personal liberty. Its victims are native born
Americans, uncharged with crime. These men are seized, without notice,
and instantly carried before an officer, by whom they are generally
hurried off into a cruel bondage, for the remainder of their days, and
sometimes without time being allowed for a parting interview with
their families. Such treatment would be cruel toward criminals; but
these men are adjudged to toil, to stripes, to ignorance, to poverty,
to hopeless degradation, on the pretence that they "owe service."
This allegation all know to be utterly false, they having never
promised to serve, and being legally incapable of making any contract.
Every act of Christian kindness to these unhappy people, tending to
secure to them the rights which our declaration of independence
asserts belong _to all_ men, is made by this accursed law a penal
offence, to be punished with fine and imprisonment. Mock judges,
unknown to the constitution, and bribed by the promise of double fees
to re-enslave the fugitive, are commanded to decide, _summarily_, the
most momentous personal issue, with the single exception of life and
death, that could possibly engage the attention of a legal tribunal of
the most august character. Yet this tremendous issue of liberty or
bondage, is to be decided, not only in a hurry, but on such _prima
facie_ evidence as may satisfy the judge, and this judge, too,
_selected_ from a herd of similar creatures, by the claimant himself!!
An _ex parte_ affidavit, made by an absent and interested party, with
the certificate of an absent judge that he believes it to be true, is
to be received as CONCLUSIVE, in the face of any amount of oral and
documentary testimony to the contrary. "Can a man take fire into his
bosom and not be burned?" Can a man aid in e