ward did not hesitate to publish similar
sentiments. "Christendom," he wrote, "might be searched in vain for a
parallel to the provisions which make escape from bondage a crime, and
which, under vigorous penalties, compel freemen to aid in the capture
of slaves."[406] The Albany _Evening Journal_ declared that "the
execution of the fugitive slave law violently convulses the
foundations of society. Fugitives who have lived among us for many
years cannot be seized and driven off as if they belonged to the brute
creation. The attempt to recover such fugitives will prove
abortive."[407]

[Footnote 405: J.E. Cabot, _Life of Emerson_, p. 578. Emerson's
address at Concord, May 3, 1851.]

[Footnote 406: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 163.]

[Footnote 407: Thurlow Weed Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p.
185.]

It is impossible to read these expressions without believing that they
were written under the inspiration of genuine emotion, and that so
long as such conditions continued men of sentiment could think of
little else. Danger to the Union, at least assumed danger, could not
in any way soften their hearts or change their purposes. Yet the state
conventions which met in Syracuse on September 10 and 11, 1851, talked
of other things. The Democrats nominated a ticket divided between
Hunkers and Barnburners; and, after condemning the Whig management of
the canals as lavish, reckless, and corrupt, readopted the slavery
resolutions of the previous year. The Whigs likewise performed their
duty by making up a ticket of Fillmore and inoffensive Seward men,
pledging the party to the enlargement of the Erie canal. Thus it was
publicly announced that slavery should be eliminated from the thought
and action of parties.

This policy of silence put the Whigs under painful restraint. The
rescue of a fugitive at Syracuse by a band of resolute men, led by
Gerrit Smith and Samuel J. May, and the killing of a slave-owner at
Christiana, Pennsylvania, while attempting to reclaim his property,
seriously disturbed the consciences of men who thought as did Emerson
and Seward; but not a word appeared in Whig papers about the great
underlying question which persistently forced itself on men's
thoughts. Greeley wrote of the tariff and the iron trade; Seward spent
the summer in Detroit on professional engagements; and Weed, whose
great skill had aided in successfully guiding the canal loan through a
legislative secession, co