iment, rendering this Act practically inoperative, except as a
tremendous engine of horror. Sir, the sentiment is just. Even in the
lands of Slavery, the slave-trader is loathed as an ignoble character,
from whom the countenance is turned away; and can the Slave-Hunter be
more regarded, while pursuing his prey in a land of Freedom? In early
Europe, in barbarous days, while Slavery prevailed, a Hunting Master
was held in aversion. Nor was this all. The fugitive was welcomed in the
cities, and protected against pursuit. Sometimes vengeance awaited
the Hunter. Down to this day, at Revel, now a Russian city, a sword
is proudly preserved with which a hunting Baron was beheaded, who, in
violation of the municipal rights of the place, seized a fugitive slave.
Hostile to this Act as our public sentiment may be, it exhibits no
similar trophy. The State laws of Massachusetts have been violated in
the seizure of a fugitive slave; but no sword, like that of Revel, now
hangs at Boston.

And now, Sir, let us review the field over which we have passed. We
have seen that any compromise, finally closing the discussion of Slavery
under the Constitution, is tyrannical, absurd, and impotent; that, as
Slavery can exist only by virtue of positive law, and as it has no
such positive support in the Constitution, it cannot exist within the
national jurisdiction; that the Constitution nowhere recognizes property
in man, and that, according to its true interpretation, Freedom and not
Slavery is national, while Slavery and not Freedom is sectional;that
in this spirit the National Government was first organized under
Washington, himself an Abolitionist, surrounded by Abolitionists, while
the whole country, by its Church, its Colleges, its Literature, and all
its best voices, was united against Slavery, and the national flag at
that time nowhere within the National Territory covered a single slave;
still further, that the National Government is a government of delegated
powers, and, as among these there is no power to support Slavery, this
institution cannot be national, nor can Congress in any way legislate
in its behalf; and, finally, that the establishment of this principle is
the true way of peace and safety for the Republic. Considering next the
provision for the surrender of fugitives from service, we have seen that
it was not one of the original compromises of the Constitution; that
it was introduced tardily and with hesitation, and adopted wi