es, and recognize only
Judge Curtis's "Standard of Morality,"--no Higher Law. But even if you
thus dispose of the Question of Law, there will yet remain the last
part of your function.

III. _The Question of the Application of the Law to the Fact._ To
determine this Question you are to ask:--

1. Does the law itself, the act of 1790, apply to such acts, that is,
to such words, thoughts, wishes, feelings, consent, assent,
approbation, express liking, and punish them with fine and
imprisonment? If not, the consideration ends: but if it does, you will
next ask:--

2. Is it according to the Constitution of the United States--its
Purpose, its Means--thus to punish such acts? If not satisfied
thereof, you stop there; but if you accept Judge Curtis's opinion then
you will next inquire:--

3. Is it expedient in this particular case to apply this law, under
the circumstances, to this man, and punish him with fine and
imprisonment? If you say "yes" you will then proceed to the last part
of the whole investigation, and will ask:--

4. Is it just and right; that is according to the Natural Law of God,
the Constitution of the Universe? Here you will consider several
things.

(1.) What was the Marshal legally, constitutionally, and justly doing
at the time he was obstructed? He was stealing, kidnapping, and
detaining an innocent man, Anthony Burns, with the intention of
depriving him of what the Declaration of Independence calls his
natural and unalienable Right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Mr. Burns had done no wrong or injury to any one--but simply came to
Massachusetts, to possess and enjoy these natural rights. Marshal
Freeman had seized him on the false charge of burglary, had chained
him in a dungeon contrary to Massachusetts law,--there were irons on
his hands.

It is said he was a slave: now a slave is a person whom some one has
stolen from himself, and by force keeps from his natural rights. Mr.
Burns sought to rescue himself from the thieves who held him; Marshal
Freeman took the thieves' part.

(2.) Was there any effectual mode of securing to Mr. Burns his natural
and unalienable Right except the mode of forcible rescue? Gentlemen of
the Jury, it is very clear there was none at all. The laws of
Massachusetts were of no avail. Your own Supreme Court, which in 1832,
at the instigation of Mr. Charles P. Curtis, sent a little boy not
fourteen years old into Cuban Slavery to gratify a slave-hunting West