the soul, as well as the body, to hopeless and unresisting
bondage. The iniquity of our cherished institution is no longer a
MYSTERY. All Christendom is now made familiar with it, and is sending
forth a cry of indignant remonstrance and of taunting scorn. Such is
the suppression of anti-slavery agitation given to the slaveholders by
their northern friends--such the strength imparted by the fugitive
slave law to the system of human bondage. How applicable to the
inventors and supporters of that statute are the words of David, in
regard to some politician of his own day: "Behold he travaileth with
iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He
made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.
His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing
shall come down upon his own pate;" and then he adds, "I will praise
the Lord." So also let the Christian bless and magnify HIM, who by his
infinite wisdom brings good out of evil, and in the case of the
fugitive law, HATH CAUSED THE WRATH OF MAN TO PRAISE HIM.

But there is still a _remainder_ of wrath. The law is still on the
Statute Book, and hungry politicians are promising that there it
shall ever remain; and terrible threats come from the south, of the
ruin that shall overwhelm the free States, should the law be repealed
or rendered less abominable than at present. Yet, in spite of northern
promises, and professions of security, and in spite of the great
swelling words of the dealers in human flesh, the _practical_, like
the moral working of the law, has been very far from what its authors
anticipated. The law was passed the 18th September, 1850, and, in two
years and nine months, not fifty slaves have been recovered under
it--not an average of EIGHTEEN slaves a year! Poor compensation this
to the slaveholders for making themselves a bye-word, a proverb, and a
reproach to Christendom--for giving a new and mighty impulse to
abolition, and for deepening the detestation felt by the true friends
of liberty and humanity, for an institution asking and obtaining for
its protection a law so repugnant to the moral sense of mankind. But
while this artful and wicked law, with its army of ten-dollar judges,
and marshals, and constables, and office-seekers, and politicians,
with the President and his cabinet all striving to enforce it, "to the
fullest extent," has restored to their masters not _eighteen slaves_
a year; the escap