The Trial of Theodore Parker: For the "Misdemeanor" of a Speech in Faneuil Hall against Kidnapping, before the Circuit Court of the United States, at Boston, April 3, 1855, with the DefenceParker, Theodore
Religion
The Trial of Theodore Parker: For the "Misdemeanor" of a Speech in Faneuil Hall against Kidnapping, before the Circuit Court of the United States, at Boston, April 3, 1855, with the Defence
Parker, Theodore
Antislavery movements -- Massachusetts -- Boston; United States -- Fugitive slave law (1850)
"Don't you remember the Union meeting held in this very hall? A man
stood on this platform,--he is a Judge of the Supreme Court now,--and
he said--When a certain 'Reverend gentleman' is indicted for perjury,
I should like to ask him how he will answer the charge? And when that
'Reverend gentleman' rose, and asked, 'Do you want an answer to your
question?' Faneuil Hall cried out,--'No,' 'no,'--'Throw him over!' Had
Faneuil Hall spoken then on the side of Truth and Freedom, we should
not now be the subjects of Virginia.
"Yes, we are the vassals of Virginia. She reaches her arm over the
graves of our mothers, and kidnaps men in the city of the Puritans;
over the graves of Samuel Adams and John Hancock. [Cries of 'Shame!']
'Shame!' so I say; but who is to blame? 'There is no north,' said Mr.
Webster. There is none. The South goes clear up to the Canada line.
No, gentlemen, there is no Boston to-day. There _was_ a Boston once.
Now, there is a North suburb to the city of Alexandria,--that is what
Boston is. [Laughter.] And you and I, fellow-subjects of the State of
Virginia--[Cries of 'no,' 'no.' 'Take that back again.']--I will take
it back when you show me the fact is not so.--Men and brothers,
(brothers, at any rate,) I am not a young man; I have heard hurrahs
and cheers for liberty many times; I have not seen a great many deeds
done for liberty. I ask you, are we to have deeds as well as words?
['Yes,' 'yes,' and loud cheers.]
"Now, brethren, you are brothers at any rate, whether citizens of
Massachusetts or subjects of Virginia--I am a minister--and,
fellow-citizens of Boston, there are two great laws in this country;
one of them is the LAW OF SLAVERY; that law is declared to be a
'finality.' Once the Constitution was formed 'to establish justice,
promote tranquillity, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves
and our posterity.' _Now_, the Constitution is not to secure liberty;
it is to extend slavery into Nebraska. And when slavery is established
there, in order to show what it is, there comes a sheriff from
Alexandria, to kidnap a man in the city of Boston, and he gets a Judge
of Probate, in the county of Suffolk, to issue a writ, and another
Boston man to execute that writ! [Cries of 'shame,' 'shame.']
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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