t territory
between the Mississippi and the Pacific. But almost every
man in Massachusetts felt the Fugitive Slave Law as a personal
dishonor. I think no great public calamity, not the death
of Webster, not the death of Sumner, not the loss of great
battles during the War, brought such a sense of gloom over
the whole State as the surrender of Anthony Burns and of Sims.
Worcester, where I dwelt, was the centre and stronghold of
the anti-slavery feeling in Massachusetts. This odious statute
was, perhaps, the greatest single cause of the union of the
people of the North in opposition to the further encroachments
of slavery. Yet but two slaves were taken back into slavery
from Massachusetts by reason of its provisions. I will not
undertake to tell the story of those years which will form
an important chapter in the history of the country. But I
had a special knowledge of two occurrences which are alluded
to by Colonel Higginson in his charming essay entitled, "Cheerful
Yesterdays," in regard to which that most delightful writer
and admirable gentleman has fallen into some slight errors
of recollection.

The first person seized under the Fugitive Slave Law was a
slave named Shadrach. He was brought to trial before George
T. Curtis, United States Commissioner. One of the chief complaints
against the Fugitive Slave Law was that it did not give the
man claimed as a slave, where his liberty and that of his
posterity were at stake, the right to a jury trial which the
Constitution secured in all cases of property involving more
than twenty dollars, or in all cases where he was charged
with the slightest crime or offence. Further, the Commissioner
was to receive twice as much if the man were surrendered into
slavery as if he were discharged. Horace Mann, in one of
his speeches, commented on this feature of the law with terrible
severity. He also pointed out that the Commissioner was not
a judicial officer with an independent tenure, but only the
creature of the courts and removable at any time. He also
dwelt upon what he conceived to be the unfair dealing of the
Commissioners who had presided at the trial of the three
slaves who had been tried in Massachusetts, and added: "Pilate,
fellow-citizens, was at least a Judge, though he acted like
a Commissioner."

Elizur Wright, a well-known Abolitionist, editor of the _Chronotype,_
was indicted in the United States Court for aiding in the
rescue of Shadrach. While the