e grand-jury to indict
all who resisted the fugitive slave bill! You see, gentlemen, what an
admirable opportunity there would be to accomplish most manifold and
atrocious wickedness. This supposed case exactly describes what was
contemplated by the British authorities in the last century! Only,
Gentlemen, it was so unlucky as not to succeed; nay, Gentlemen, as to
fail--then! Such accidents will happen in the best of histories!

It was moved in Parliament to address the king "to bring to condign
punishment" such men as Otis and Adams and Hancock. Chief Justice
Hutchinson declared Samuel Adams "_the greatest incendiary in the
king's dominions_." Hutchinson was right for once. Samuel Adams lit a
fire which will burn on Boston Common on the Fourth day of next July,
Gentlemen, and on many other commons besides Boston. Aye, in the heart
of many million men--and keep on burning long after Hutchinson ceases
to be remembered with hate, and Adams with love. "The greatest
incendiary!" so he was. Hutchinson also thought there must be "an
Abridgment of what are called English Liberties," doubtless the
liberty of speaking in Faneuil Hall, and other meeting-houses was one
"of what are called English Liberties" that needed speedy abridgment.
He wished the law of treason to be extended so that it might catch all
the patriots of Boston by the neck. He thought it treasonable to deny
the authority of Parliament.[106] Men suspected of "misdemeanors" were
to be sent to England for trial! What a "trial" it would have
been--Hancock and Adams in Westminster Hall with a jury packed by the
government; Thurlow acting as Attorney-General, and another Thurlow
growling on the bench and expecting further office as pay for fresh
injustice! Truly there would have been an "abridgment of English
Liberties." Gentlemen of the Jury, Mr. Phillips and Mr. Higginson in
this case are charged with "obstructing an officer." Suppose they were
sent to South Carolina to be tried by a jury of Slaveholders, or
still worse, without change of place, to be tried by a court deadly
hostile to freedom,--wresting law and perverting justice and
"enlarging testimony," personally inimical to these gentlemen; suppose
that the Slave-hunter whose "process" was alleged to be resisted, was
kinsman to the court, and the judge had a near relation put on the
jury--what opportunity would there be for justice; what expectation of
it? Gentlemen of the Jury, that is the state of things whi