[310] Pamphlet proposing a "Defensive League of Freedom," signed by Ellis Gray Loring and others, of Boston, pp. 5, 6. See Chapter IX, p. 275. [311] _Ibid._ [312] 5 McLean's United States Reports, p. 64 _et seq._; see also _The Firelands Pioneer_, July, 1888; account by Rush R. Sloane, pp. 47-49; account by H. F. Paden, pp. 21, 22; Chapter IX, pp. 276, 277. [313] _Commonwealth_, June 28, 1854; M. G. McDougall, _Fugitive Slaves_, pp. 45, 46; Wilson, _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power_, Vol. II, pp. 443, 444. See Chapter X, pp. 331-333. These and other similar cases arising from the attempted enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act in various parts of the country led to the proposal of a Defensive League of Freedom. A pamphlet, issued soon after the rendition of Burns, by Ellis Gray Loring, Samuel Cabot, Jr., Henry J. Prentiss, John A. Andrew and Samuel G. Howe, of Boston, and James Freeman Clarke, of Roxbury, Massachusetts, stated the object of the proposed league to be "to secure all persons claimed as fugitives from slavery, and to all persons accused of violating the Fugitive Slave Bill the fullest legal protection; and also indemnify all such persons against costs, fines, and expenses, whenever they shall seem to deserve such indemnification." The league was to act as a "society of mutual protection and every member was to assume his portion of such penalties as would otherwise fall with crushing weight on a few individuals." Subscriptions were to be made by the members of the organization, and five per cent of these subscriptions was to be called for any year when it was needed.[314] How much service this association actually performed, or whether, indeed, it got beyond the stage of being merely proposed is not known; in any event, the fact is worth noting that men of marked ability, distinction and social connection were forming societies, like the Defensive League of Freedom, and the various vigilance committees, for the purpose of defeating the Fugitive Slave Act. [314] Pamphlet proposing a "Defensive League of Freedom," pp. 1, 3, 11 and 12.