, ask New York, ask Boston. Look
at this bench. The Federal Courts were as ready to betray justice in
1850 as Kelyng and Jeffreys and Scroggs and the other pliant judges of
Charles II. or James II. to support his iniquities. I must speak of
this.

* * * * *

(II.) Of the conduct of the Federal Courts.

Gentlemen of the Jury, that you may understand the enormity of the
conduct of the federal courts and the peril they bring upon their
victims, I must refresh your memory with a few facts.

1. I shall begin with the cases in Pennsylvania. In that State four
officials of government have acquired great distinction by their zeal
in enslaving men, McAllister, Ingraham, Grier, and Kane; the two first
are "Commissioners," the latter two "Judges." In one year they had the
glory of kidnapping twenty-six Americans and delivering them over to
Slavery. Look at a few cases.

(1.) On the 10th of March, 1851, Hannah Dellam was brought before
Judge Kane charged with being a fugitive slave. She was far advanced
in pregnancy, hourly expecting to give birth to a child. If a
convicted murderess is in that condition, the law delays the execution
of its ghastly sentence till the baby is born, whom the gallows
orphans soon. The poor negro woman's counsel begged for delay that the
child might be born in Pennsylvania and so be free,--a poor boon, but
too great for a fugitive slave bill judge to grant. The judge who
inherits the name of the first murderer, disgraced the family of Cain;
he prolonged his court late into night, that he might send the child
into Slavery while in the bowels of its mother! Judge Kane held his
"court" and gave his decision in the very building where the
Declaration of Independence was signed and published to the world. The
memorable bell which summons his court, has for motto on its brazen
lips, "Proclaim Liberty throughout the Land, to all the inhabitants
thereof."

(2.) The same year Rachel Parker, a free colored girl, was seized in
the house of Joseph C. Miller of West-Nottingham, Chester County, by
Thomas McCreary of Elkton, Maryland. Mr. Miller pursued the kidnapper
and found the girl at Baltimore, and brought a charge of kidnapping
against McCreary. But before the matter was decided Mr. Miller was
decoyed away and murdered! The man-hunter was set free and the girl
kept as a slave, but after long confinement in jail was at last
pronounced free--not by the Pennsylvania "judge" bu