h to the
form of the Statute, and no more.

_Mr. Lunt_ here intervened and said it was the custom for the District
Attorney to swear to complaints on hearsay evidence.

_Mr. Dana_--But this is not stated as hearsay. It is sworn to as a fact.
Charles G. Davis "_did_ rescue," and the above named George Lunt made
oath to the _truth of the facts_. As a question of conscience, I leave
it with that officer to settle with himself. As a matter of law, as a
matter of vital importance to every citizen, as a great question of
constitutional law, I earnestly protest against the issuing of warrants
on the mere formal oaths of official persons, representing a party in
the proceedings, and utterly ignorant of the facts they swear to. If it
be a custom, it is more honored in the breach than in the observance.
But I deny that it is the custom. Complaints are sworn to by persons
knowing the facts always in the State Courts, and in my experience in
the Federal Courts. If the prosecuting officer is obliged to swear to
them, for want of other witnesses, he only swears to his information and
belief.

In closing my prolonged remarks, let me recapitulate our case. Mr. Davis
is not the man to urge others to acts he dares not commit himself. He
believes this dreadful statute unconstitutional, a violation of our
moral sense, a great breach upon the safeguards of freedom every where.
Yet he will oppose it legally, by speech, by the pen, and in Court. He
will not yield to it any voluntary obedience, but he will not use force,
or counsel citizens to use force to set aside the laws. He rejoices that
Shadrach is free. Every right minded man rejoices that he is free. Sober
second thought teaches him and all of us that violent counsels are weak
counsels. Better had it been for the cause of freedom, if, when the
Marshal called out to shoot the prisoner, some armed minister of the law
had shot dead the unarmed, unoffending man! Better had it been for him,
and the cause of those like him, if John H. Riley, instead of flying to
the window, had plunged that sword to the hilt in the heart of the
captive! Better if this temple of justice, which has already been turned
into a slave jail, and a slave market, had also been made the shambles
and the grave!

While we uphold the public peace and the dignity of all laws, let us
regard with tenderness and consideration that poor class of oppressed
men, our negro population, on whom the statute falls with the terro