{368} In answer, so to speak, to these appeals, mass-meetings of white people were held in Lowell, Syracuse, and Boston, at which the law was denounced, its repeal demanded, and aid pledged to the negroes in the North in resisting the execution of the law. Ministers of the Gospel, such as Beecher, Storrs, Furness, Spear, and Cheever, rained down denunciations upon the law from their pulpits, declared it to be in direct contravention of the law of God, and counselled resistance to its execution. [Sidenote: Establishment of the "Underground."] In the midst of this excitement two Georgia slaves, named William and Ellen Crafts, had succeeded in reaching Boston, and were concealed by some of the most high-toned people of that city, the Hillards, Lorings, and Parkers, from their pursuers, and aided in a successful escape to England. The first branch of the "Underground," established after the passage of the law, ran through very respectable quarters. [Sidenote: The support of the law by the political leaders.] The lawyers, politicians, and statesmen now felt that it was high time for them to call the people back to the proper comprehension and observance of their constitutional duties. Clay, Webster, Cass, Douglas, Buchanan, Shields, Curtis, Choate, and many others, instructed the people, both in speeches and written articles, in regard to the constitutionality of the law, and their duty to obey its requirements. With this the tide of public opinion began to change, and the idea that it was the constitutional duty of the North to the South to secure the execution of the law began to prevail. Such was the state of feeling when the Congressional session of 1850-51 opened, on December 2nd. [Sidenote: The President's support of the law.] In his message to Congress President Fillmore proclaimed his adherence to the Compromise Measures, as a {369} final settlement of the subjects to which they related, said that he believed the great mass of the American people sympathized with him, indicated that he would veto any measure for the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, and declared that he would execute the laws to the utmost of his ability and to the extent of the power vested in him. This bold and determined language on the part of the President, who had been considered in the North as personally hostile to the Fugitive Slave Law, took the North somewhat by surprise, painfully so in some quarters, while it was highly approved at the South. It undoubtedly contributed, ultimately and in large degree, to the suppression of the resistance in the North to the execution of the law. At the moment, however, it drew out some of the bitterest denunciations of the law which were ever pronounced. [Sidenote: Joshua R. Giddings.]