in your consciences
against injustice and oppression, regard its admonitions! It will
let none remain at ease in their sins. It will justify for well
doing; but to those who rebel against it, and disregard its
reproofs, it will become the 'worm that dieth not, and the fire
that is not quenched.'

"I am aware that complaints are often made, because obstacles are
thrown in the way of Southerners reclaiming their fugitive slaves.
But bring the matter home to yourselves. Suppose a white man
resided among you, who, for a series of years, had conducted with
sobriety, industry, and probity, and had given frequent evidence of
the kindness of his heart, by a disposition to oblige whenever
opportunity offered; suppose he had a wife and children dependent
upon him, and supported them comfortably and respectably; could you
see that man dragged from his bed, and from the bosom of his
family, in the dead time of night, manacled, and hurried away into
a distant part of the country, where his family could never see him
again, and where they knew he must linger out a miserable
existence, more intolerable than death, amid the horrors of
slavery? I ask whether you could witness all this, without the most
poignant grief? This is no picture of the fancy. It is a sober
reality. The only difference is, the men thus treated are black.
But in my view, this does not diminish the horrors of such cruel
deeds. Can it be expected then, that the citizens of this state, or
indeed of any other, would witness all this, without instituting
the severest scrutiny into the legality of the proceedings? More
especially, when it is known that the persons employed in this
nefarious business of hunting up fugitive slaves are men destitute
of principle, whose hearts are callous as flint, and who would send
a free man into bondage with as little compunction as they would a
slave, if they could do it with impunity.

"Of latter time, we hear much said about a dissolution of the
Union. Far better, in my view, that this should take place, if it
can be effected without violence, than to remain as we are; when a
peaceable citizen cannot enter your territory on his own lawful
business, without the risk of being murdered by a ruthless mob.

"With reverent thankfulness to Him, who numbers the hairs of our
heads, without whose notice not even a sparrow falls to the
ground, and to whose providenc