l character and previous
conduct of the man; but I confess it did surprise me: it was foolish
as it was wicked and tyrannical. But it all came to nought.

For, alas! there was a grand-jury, and the Salmonean thunder of the
fugitive slave bill judge fell harmless--quenched, conquered,
disgraced, and brutal,--to the ground. Poor fugitive slave bill Court!
It can only gnash its teeth against freedom of speech in Faneuil Hall;
only bark and yelp against the unalienable rights of man, and howl
against the Higher Law of God! it cannot bite! Poor, imbecile,
malignant Court! What a pity that the fugitive slave bill judge was
not himself the grand-jury, to order the indictment! what a shame that
the attorney was not a petty jury to convict! Then New England, like
Old, might have had her "bloody assizes," and Boston streets might
have streamed with the heart's gore of noble men and women; and human
heads might have decked the pinnacles all round the town; and Judge
Curtis and Attorney Hallett might have had their place with Judge
Jeffreys and John Boilman of old. What a pity that we have a
grand-jury and a traverse jury to stand between the malignant arm of
the Slave-hunter and the heart of you and me![203]

[Footnote 203: 2 Parker's Additional, p. 281.]

The grand-jury found no bill and were discharged. In a Fourth of July
Sermon "Of the Dangers which Threaten the Rights of Man in America," I
said:--

"Perhaps the Court will try again, and find a more pliant
Grand-Jury, easier to intimidate. Let me suggest to the
Court that the next time it should pack its Jury from the
Marshal's 'Guard.' Then there will be Unity of Idea; of
action too,--the Court a figure of equilibrium."

The audacious Grand-Jury was discharged. A new one was summoned; this
time it was constructed out of the right material. Before that,
Gentlemen, we had had the Judge or his kinsmen writing for the
fugitive slave bill in the newspapers; getting up public meetings in
behalf of man-stealing in Boston; writing letters in support of the
same; procuring opinions in favor of the constitutionality of the
fugitive slave bill; nay, kidnapping men and sending them into eternal
bondage, and in the newspapers defending the act; but we had none of
them in the Jury box. On the new Grand-Jury appeared Mr. William W.
Greenough, the brother-in-law of Hon. Judge Curtis--each married a
daughter of Mr. Charles P. Curtis. Mr. Greenough "was very acti