send for his free papers, and declared that they would not be admissable on such a hearing. In another instance, the person carried off was found by the claimant, as soon as he saw him, to be the wrong man, and was honestly allowed to regain his liberty. In still another, a woman who is ascertained to be of unmixed Caucasian blood, with her daughter and grandson, were saved by ransom, only, from the operation of a decision directing their rendition into slavery. And I may add that in at least one case in this Commonwealth, a man was sent out of our jurisdiction, as a slave, the warrant against whom did not appear on its face to have been issued by any magistrate authorized by the Act of Congress.

Suggestions are sometimes urged that great concessions should be made as matter of comity between States. But I do not understand that any State . demands, or that any State can consent to, the rendition of free persons into slavery. This whole matter, however, involves no question of comity, or inter-State politeness. It is a naked question of right between private persons, and of duty between the Commonwealth and its subjects. And all such rights can be protected by preserving a logical consistency, and not assigning to the certificate of a Commissioner a character to which it does not even pretend, viz. that of a record of a judgment settling the conflicting rights and titles of contending parties.

Supposing, however, that our legislation in this behalf is founded in mistake, the Legislature will only have endeavored to perform their duty towards the citizen, whom they were bound to shield from unlawful harm. The power to obtain the judgment of the Court affords ample redress to all claimants. Should a critical examination disclose embarrassment in raising and reserving questions of law for the appropriate tribunals, the Legislature will readily repair the error.

In dismissing this topic, I have only to add that, in regard not only to one, but to every subject bearing on her Federal relations, Massachusetts has always conformed to her honest understanding of all constitutional obligations—that she has always conformed to the Judicial decisions-has never threatened either to nullify or to disobey-and that the decision in one suit fully contested, constitutes a precedent for the future.

I submit these remarks and the subject, to the wisdom and candor of the Legislature.

Massachusetts and Virginia.

A suit is now pending in Virginia, arising out of an Act of her Legislature by means of which a citizen of Massachusetts was subjected to the forfeiture of his vessel while trading at the port of Norfolk a few years since. By that Act our coasters are annually large pecuniary sufferers. This Commonwealth has heretofore made the needful appropriations, for the defence

against the suit referred to. It was argued before the Court of Appeals nearly a year ago, but a decision there has not yet been reached. In the opinion of eminent counsel in Virginia, the Statute in question violates both the Constitution of the United States, and also that of Virginia herself. I recommend an appropriation to defray the expense of a writ of error, and an argument thereon before the Supreme Court of the United States, if the cause shall be decided against the defendant in the courts of Virginia.

The Condition of the Country.

The constitutional choice to the Presidency, of a citizen who adheres to the original principles of the Fathers of the Country, is the happy result of the recent National election. But by events which have since transpired in the Southern States it appears that a large, influential, and energetic body of men in that section of the country, who control the action of at least the State of South Carolina, desire to resist, if necessary, by force of arms, this peaceful and constitutional triumph of Republican principles, to which they ought in honor and loyalty to yield a generous acquiescence. Forgetful of the traditions of their ancestors, they seem determined to live in peace under no government which shall not concede to them the privilege not only of enslaving their fellow-beings within their own dominion, but also of transporting them at their pleasure into the National Territory, or

from State to State absolutely without restriction, and of retaining them as slaves wheresoever within the national limits they themselves may please to sojourn. It is the recommendation of President Buchanan in his recent annual message, that by means of constitutional amendments to be initiated by Congress or in a National Convention, concessions shall be made for the satisfaction of this extraordinary demand. This is a subject which I commend to your immediate but deliberate consideration, and I shall be happy to concur with what I hope will be the unanimous sentiment of the Legislature, in a declaration of the opinion of Massachusetts with reference to the state of the Union and the suggestions of the Federal Executive.

If Massachusetts, either by voice or vote, can properly do any thing to avert from those misguided men the miserable consequences which threaten to succeed their, violent action,—the pecuniary disturbances and the civil commotions which must necessarily occur within their own borders if they persist in their career, her voice and vote should not be withheld. Not the least deplorable result of the action of South Carolina I apprehend will be the insecurity to life and property which will result throughout the whole South from fear of servile insurrection. Wherever slavery exists, we have the authority of Jefferson for believing that, in his own words, "the hour of emancipation is advancing in the march of time; it will come; and whether brought

on by the generous energy of our own minds, or by the bloody process of St. Domingo, is a leaf of our history not turned over." The enslaved negro population of the South is not destitute of intelligence, nor devoid of that sentiment of resistance to tyranny which naturally inspires the oppressed to seek for freedom. If, as appears probable, it shall once conceive from the present march of events, that it has no hope of emancipation from any generous exertion of the minds of its masters, a resort to that process will be only the logical impulse of human nature. That God may be pleased to overrule the folly of man so as to avert so dreadful a calamity, must be the prayer of every American; but in my judgment it lies at the end of the road which South Carolina invites her sister States upon the Gulf of Mexico to enter.

I have searched the position of Massachusetts with all the disinterested patriotism which I could command for the performance of that duty, and I find nothing by which I can reproach her with responsibility for such results if they shall come to pass; but I invite you to a similar examination.

The truth of history compels me to declare that one chief source of the difficulty which we are called to encounter, lies in the incessant misrepresentation of the principles, purposes, and methods of the people who compose the majority in the free States, by superserviceable individuals, who undertake to monopolize friendship for the people of the slave-holding States; and can