is doing."
"You have pointed out to a whole people the path of duty, have
convinced the understanding and touched the conscience of the nation."
"We desire, therefore, to express to you our entire concurrence in the
sentiments of your speech."

3. A little later, Mr. Webster returned to Boston, and was
"rapturously received" at the Revere House, April 29, 1850, by a
"great multitude," when Benjamin R. Curtis made a public address, and
expressed his "abounding gratitude for the ability and fidelity" which
Mr. Webster had "brought to the defence of the Constitution and of the
Union," and commended him as "_eminently vigilant, wise, and faithful
to his country, without a shadow of turning_."

4. Presently, after the passage of the fugitive slave bill, at a
dinner party, at the house of a distinguished counsellor of Boston,
Charles P. Curtis declared that he hoped the first fugitive slave who
should come to Boston would be seized and sent back!

5. Charles P. Curtis and his step-brother Edward G. Loring, and George
T. Curtis, defended the fugitive slave bill by writing articles in the
_Boston Daily Advertiser_.

6. In November, 1850, the slave-hunters, thus invited and encouraged,
came to Boston, seeking to kidnap William and Ellen Craft: but they in
vain applied to Commissioner Benj. F. Hallett, and to Judges Woodbury
and Sprague, for a warrant to arrest their prey. Finally, they betook
themselves to Commissioner George T. Curtis, who at once agreed to
grant a warrant; but, according to his own statement, in a letter to
Mr. Webster, Nov. 23, 1850, as he anticipated resistance, and
considered it very important that the Marshal should have more support
than it was in his power as a Commissioner to afford, he procured a
meeting of the Commissioners, four in number, and with their aid
succeeded in persuading the Circuit Court, then in session, to issue
the warrant.

Gentlemen, as that letter of Mr. George T. Curtis contains some
matters which are of great importance, you will thank me for
refreshing your memory with such pieces of history.

"An application [for a warrant to arrest Mr. Craft] had
already been made to the judges [Messrs. Woodbury and
Sprague] privately ... they could not grant a warrant on
account of the pendency of an important Patent Cause then on
trial before a jury." "To this I replied, that ... the
ordinary business of the Court ought to give way for a
sufficient