SPEECH AT A FREE-SOIL MEETING AT FANEUIL HALL, NOVEMBER 6,
1850.
This speech was made a few days before the annual election in
Massachusetts, and just after the passage of the Fugitive Slave
Bill. As the first open denunciation of this measure, it awakened
much feeling on both sides. All who felt strongly against Slavery
were grateful.
It is sometimes said to have made Mr. Sumner Senator. More than
anything else, it determined his selection by the Free-Soil party
shortly afterwards as their candidate. On the other hand, it was
often pronounced "treasonable," and in subsequent discussions at
Washington, sometimes in newspapers and repeatedly in the Senate,
it was employed to point the personalities of slave-masters and
their allies. It was called the "Mark Antony speech." It takes the
ground to which Mr. Sumner constantly adhered, that the "Fugitive
Slave Bill," as he always insisted upon calling it,--refusing to
call it Law,--was absolutely unconstitutional in all respects,--not
only, according to the old language of the law, "to a certain
intent in general," but also "to a certain intent in every
particular." Such an enactment could not be treated as law; and Mr.
Sumner insisted that good citizens should refuse to it all support,
as our fathers refused all support to the British Stamp Act. His
effort and hope were to create a public sentiment which would
render its enforcement impossible.
In all times there has been something in the human conscience which
forbade certain things, even though ordained by law. "A curse on
him who is not enough an honest man and enough a man of courage
to be capable of the crime of hospitality towards a proscribed
person!" Such is the exclamation of an eloquent historian of the
French Revolution, after reciting the proposition of Saint-Just,
kindred to the requirement of the Fugitive Slave Bill.[53] Guizot,
in his Memoirs, records an illustrative incident. Queen Hortense,
mother of Louis Napoleon, at a time when all of her family were
excluded from France, suddenly arrived in Paris, when, seeing
Casimir Périer, Prime-Minister of Louis Philippe, she began: "I
know, Sir, that I have violated a law; you have the right to arrest
me; that would be just." "_Legal_, Madame," said the Minister, "but
not _just_."[54]
[53] Louis Blanc, Histoire de la Révolution Française, Tom. X. p.
316.
[54] Guizot, Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de mon Temps, Tom.
II. p. 219.
At the pending election there was what was called a coalition
between the Free-Soilers and Democrats, in the choice of State
Senators and Representatives, with the understanding that the State
officers chosen by the Legislature should be Democrats, and the
United States Senator a Free-Soiler. But nothing was said at the
time about candidates.
The meeting at Faneuil Hall was large and enthusiastic. It
was organized by the choice of William B. Spooner, Esq.,
President,--Edward A. Raymond, William Washburn, Henry I.
Bowditch, William Bates, Ebenezer Atkins, William Dall, Caleb
Gill, Theodore D. Cook, Joseph Southwick, Ephraim Allen, Richard
Hildreth, and Robert E. Apthorp, Vice-Presidents,--William F.
Channing and Charles List, Secretaries. On taking the chair, Mr.
Spooner addressed the meeting. Dr. Luther Parks then read a series
of resolutions. Mr. Sumner followed, and was received with much
enthusiasm. His speech is printed with the interruptions reported
at the time.