perpetual witness to the decemviral tyranny which ruled Rome. But Liberty is always priceless. There are other instances, less known, where kindred wrong has been done. Every case is a tragedy, under the forms of law. Worse than poisoned bowl or dagger was the certificate of a commissioner, allowed, without interruption, to continue his dreadful trade. Even since the Rebellion has raged in blood, the pretension of returning slaves to their masters is not abandoned. The piety of Abraham, who offered up Isaac as a sacrifice to Jehovah, is imitated, and the country continues to offer up fugitive bondmen as a sacrifice to Slavery. It is reported on good authority, that among slaves thus sacrificed was one who by communications to the Government had been the means of saving upwards of one hundred thousand dollars. Here in Washington, since the beneficent Act of Emancipation, even in sight of the flag floating from the National Capitol, the Fugitive Slave Act has been made a scourge and a terror to innocent men and women. If all these pains and sorrows had redounded in any respect to the honor of the country, or had contributed in any way to the strength of the Union, then we might confess, perhaps, that something at least had been gained. But, alas! there has been nothing but unmixed evil. The country has suffered in good name, while foreign nations have pointed with scorn to a republic which could legalize such indecencies. Not a case occurred which was not greedily chronicled in Europe, and circulated there by the enemies of liberal institutions. Even since the Rebellion began in the name of Slavery, the existence of this odious enactment unrepealed on our statute-book has been quoted abroad to show that the supporters of the Union are as little deserving of sympathy as Rebel Slavemongers. By the enforcement of this odious Act the Union has suffered from the beginning; for not a slave is thrust back into bondage without weakening those patriotic sympathies, North and South, which are its best support. The natural irritation of the North, as it beheld all safeguards of Freedom overthrown and Slavery triumphant in its very streets, was answered by savage exultation in the South, which seemed to dance about its victims. Each instance was the occasion of new exasperations on both sides, which were skilfully employed by wicked conspirators “to fire the Southern heart.” AUTHORS OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT. Such are some of the consequences of this ill-fated measure. But the duty of the Committee cannot be performed without glancing at its authors also. By an easy transition we pass from one to the other, for the two are in natural harmony. Each may be read in the light of the other. And who were the authors of this Fugitive Slave Act? The answer may be general or special.