Boston once, and you and I had
fathers--brave fathers; and mothers who stirred up those fathers to
manly deeds. Well, gentlemen, once it came to pass that the British
Parliament enacted a 'law'--_they_ called it law--issuing stamps here.
What did your fathers do on that occasion? They said, in the language
of Algernon Sydney, quoted in your resolutions, 'that which is not
just is not law, and that which is not law ought not to be
obeyed.'--[Cheers.] They did not obey the stamp act. They did not call
it law, and the man that did call it a law, here, eighty years ago,
would have had a very warm coat of tar and feathers on him. They
called it an 'act,' and they took the Commissioner who was here to
execute it, took him solemnly, manfully,--_they didn't hurt a hair of
his head_; they were non-resistants, of a very potent sort,
[Cheers,]--and made him take a solemn oath that he would not issue a
single stamp. He was brother-in-law of the Governor of the State, the
servant of a royal master, 'exceedingly respectable,' of great
wealth, and once very popular; but they took him, and made him swear
not to execute his commission; and he kept his oath, and the stamp act
went to its own place, and you know what that was. [Cheers.] That was
an instance of the people going behind a wicked law to enact Absolute
Justice into their statute, and making it Common Law. You know what
they did with the tea.

"Well, gentlemen, in the South there is a public opinion, it is a very
wicked public opinion, which is stronger than law. When a colored
seaman goes to Charleston from Boston, he is clapped instantly into
jail, and kept there until the vessel is ready to sail, and the Boston
merchant or master must pay the bill, and the Boston black man must
feel the smart. That is a wicked example, set by the State of South
Carolina. When Mr. Hoar, one of our most honored and respected
fellow-citizens, was sent to Charleston to test the legality of this
iniquitous law, the citizens of Charleston ordered him off the
premises, and he was glad to escape to save himself from further
outrage. There was no violence, no guns fired. That was an instance of
the strength of public opinion--of a most unjust and iniquitous public
opinion."

* * * * *

"Well, gentlemen, I say there is one law--slave law; it is everywhere.
There is another law, which also is a finality; and that law, it is in
your hands and your arms, and you can put