ANTI-SLAVERY TRACTS. No. 9. New Series. THE DUTY OF DISOBEDIENCE TO THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT: AN APPEAL TO THE LEGISLATORS OF MASSACHUSETTS, BY L. MARIA CHILD. "Thou shalt _not_ deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee."--DEUT. 23:15. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 1860. APPEAL TO THE LEGISLATORS OF MASSACHUSETTS. I feel there is no need of apologizing to the Legislature of Massachusetts because a woman addresses them. Sir Walter Scott says: "The truth of Heaven was never committed to a tongue, however feeble, but it gave a right to that tongue to announce mercy, while it declared judgment." And in view of all that women have done, and are doing, intellectually and morally, for the advancement of the world, I presume no enlightened legislator will be disposed to deny that the "truth of Heaven" _is_ often committed to them, and that they sometimes utter it with a degree of power that greatly influences the age in which they live. I therefore offer no excuses on that score. But I do feel as if it required some apology to attempt to convince men of ordinary humanity and common sense that the Fugitive Slave Bill is utterly wicked, and consequently ought never to be obeyed. Yet Massachusetts consents to that law! Some shadow of justice she grants, inasmuch as her Legislature have passed what is called a Personal Liberty Bill, securing trial by jury to those claimed as slaves. Certainly it is _something_ gained, especially for those who may get brown by working in the sunshine, to prevent our Southern masters from taking any of us, at a moment's notice, and dragging us off into perpetual bondage. It is _something_ gained to require legal proof that a man is a slave, before he is given up to arbitrary torture and unrecompensed toil. But is _that_ the measure of justice becoming the character of a free Commonwealth? "_Prove_ that the man is property, according _your_ laws, and I will drive him into your cattle-pen with sword and bayonet," is what Massachusetts practically says to Southern tyrants. "Show me a Bill of Sale from the Almighty!" is what she _ought_ to say. No other proof should be considered valid in a Christian country.