the safety of the State and the welfare of the citizens _may
we not_ prohibit their coming, or _send them back_ if they
come?" "_To deny this_ is to deny the right of
self-preservation to a State.... It ... _throws us back at
once into a condition below the most degraded savages who
have a semblance of government_." "You know that the great
duty of justice could not otherwise be performed, [that is
without the fugitive-from-labor clause in the Constitution];
that our peace at home and our safety from foreign
aggression could not otherwise be insured; and that only by
this means could we obtain 'the Blessings of Liberty' to the
people of Massachusetts and their posterity." "In no other
way could we become an example of, and security for, the
capacity of man, safely and peacefully and wisely to govern
himself under free and popular institutions."

So the fugitive slave bill is an argument against human depravity,
showing the capacity of man to govern himself "safely and peacefully
and wisely."

He adds, as early as 1643 the New England colonies found it necessary
"to insert an article substantially like this one," for the rendition
of fugitive servants, and in 1789 the Federal government demanded that
the Spaniards should surrender the fugitive slaves of Georgia.
Injustice, Gentlemen, has never lacked a precedent since Cain killed
Abel. Mr. Curtis continues:--

"When I look abroad over 100,000 happy homes in
Massachusetts and see a people, such as the blessed sun has
rarely shone upon, so intelligent and educated, moral,
religious, progressive, and free to do every thing but
wrong--I fear to say that I should not be in the wrong to
put all this at risk, because our _passionate will_ impels
us to break a promise our wise and good fathers made, not to
allow a _class of foreigners_ to come here, or to _send them
back if they came_."

So the refusal to kidnap Ellen and William Craft came of the
"_passionate will_" of the people, and is likely to ruin the happy
homes of a moral and religious people!

"_With the rights of these persons_ I firmly believe
_Massachusetts has nothing to do_. It is enough for us that
they have no right to be _here_. Whatever natural rights
they have--and I admit these natural rights to their fullest
extent--this is not the _soil_ on which to vindi