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but for the intemperance of Northern Fanatics, it would be effected.
In the house of them who felt so keenly their mission to call others to repentance, how fared it with the negro?
There no Federal compact could run athwart benevolent intent.
In the general laws of
Massachusetts (compiled in accordance with a resolution of February 22, 1822) it is provided: ‘That no person being an African or negro, other than subjects of the emperor of Morocco’—(and certified citizens of other States) ‘shall tarry within the Commonweolth for a longer time than two months.’
In case of such prolonged stay, if after warning and failure to depart, ‘it shall be made to appear that the said person has thus continued within the
Commonwealth, contrary to the tenor of this act, he or she shall be whipped, not exceeding ten stripes, and ordered to depart, and if he shall not so depart, the same process shall be had and inflicted, and so toties quoties.’
In March, 1788, this was one of the ‘perpetual laws of the
Commonwealth.’
It passed out of existence (subsilentio), in the general repealing section of an act of March 29, 1834.
When in his reply to
Hayne,
Webster said: ‘The past at least is secure;’ this was part of that past still under the lock and key of statute.
Among the kindly affectioned slaves of my first recollections, remmebered by me with a kind affection, I am satisfied there was not one who wouid have sought, or could have found solace, in the hospitable hand extended from 1788 to 1834.
They who bestowed this liberty of the lash became our angry judge.
Liberty to be whipped at each recurring sessions of the peace; ‘and so toties quoties!’
What a ‘door of opportunity’ for the African—‘not a subject of the emporor of Morocco.’
When war raged for freedom, how was it then?
In September, 1862,
General Dix proposed to remove a number of ‘contrabands’ from
Fortress Monroe to
Massachusetts.
To this
Governor Andrew replied: ‘I do not concur in any way, or to any degree in the plan proposed.’
For, he explained, thereby you will be deprived ‘of the strength of hundreds of stout arms, which would be nerved with the desperation of men fighting for liberty.’
But the negro, despite all invocations to do so, had never offered
