This meeting was one of a series, known as “Jerry Rescue
Celebration,” being on the anniversary of the rescue of the
fugitive slave Jerry from the hands of slave-hunters.
BOSTON, September 9, 1860.
MY DEAR SIR,--You know well how much I sympathize with you
personally, and also how much I detest the Fugitive Slave Bill,
as a flagrant violation of the Constitution, and of the most
cherished human rights,--shocking to Christian sentiments,
insulting to humanity, and impudent in all its pretensions. Of
course I agree with you that such an enactment, utterly without
support in Constitution, Christianity, or reason, should not
be allowed to remain on the statute-book; and so long as it is
there, I trust that the honorable, freedom-loving, peaceful,
good, and law-abiding citizens, acting in the name of a
violated Constitution, and for the sake of law, will see that
this infamous counterfeit is made _a dead letter_. I am happy
to believe that this can be accomplished by an aroused Public
Opinion, which, without violence of any kind, shall surround
every “person” who treads our soil with all safeguards of the
citizen, teaching the Slave-Hunter, whenever he shows himself,
that he can expect from Northern men no sympathy or support in
his barbarous pursuit.
At your proposed meeting, which it will not be in my power
to attend, I trust that just hatred of Slavery in all its
pretensions will be subjected to that temperate judgment which
knows how to keep a sacred animosity within the limits of
Constitution and Law.
Accept my thanks for the invitation with which you have honored
me, and believe me, with much personal regard and constant
sympathy,
Sincerely yours,