, we could get in at Salem; but the Judge's
Charge shuts up the mouth of all New England, not a word against
man-hunting but is a "crime,"--the New Testament is full of
"misdemeanors." Andros only took away the Charter of Massachusetts;
Judge Curtis's "law" is a _quo warranto_ against Humanity itself.
"Perfidious General Gage" took away the arms of Boston; Judge Curtis
_charges_ upon our Soul; he would wring all religion out of you,--no
"Standard of Morality" above the fugitive slave bill; you must not,
even to God in your prayers, evince "an express liking" for the
deliverance of an innocent man whom his family seek to transform to a
beast of burthen and then sacrifice to the American Moloch.

Decide according to your own Conscience, Gentlemen, not after mine.

* * * * *

Gentlemen of the Jury, I must bring this defence to a close. Already
it is too long for your patience, though far too short for the mighty
interest at stake, for it is the Freedom of a Nation which you are to
decide upon. I have shown you the aim and purposes of the Slave
Power--to make this vast Continent one huge Despotism, a House of
Bondage for African Americans, a House of Bondage also for Saxon
Americans. I have pointed out the course of Despotism in Monarchic
England; you have seen how there the Tyrants directly made wicked
laws, or when that resource failed, how they reached indirectly after
their End, and appointed officers to pervert the law, to ruin the
people. You remember how the King appointed base men as Attorneys and
Judges, and how wickedly they used their position and their power,
scorning alike the law of God and the welfare of Man. "The Judges in
their itinerant Circuits," says an old historian,[226] "the more to
enslave the people to obedience, being to speak of the king, would
give him sacred titles as if their advancement to high places must
necessarily be laid upon the foundation of the People's debasement."
You have not forgotten Saunders, Kelyng, and Jeffreys and Scroggs;
Sibthorpe and Mainwaring you will remember for ever,--denouncing
"eternal damnation" on such as refused the illegal tax of Charles I.
or evinced an express disapprobation of his tyranny.

[Footnote 226: In 2 Kennett, 753.]

Gentlemen, you recollect how the rights of the jury were broken
down,--how jurors were threatened with trial for perjury, insulted,
fined, and imprisoned, because they would be faithful to the Law and