county, city, or town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest shall be made, and upon proof to the satisfaction of such judge or magistrate, either by oral testimony or affidavit taken before and certified by a magistrate of any such State or Territory, that the person so seized or arrested, doth, under the laws of the State or Territory from which he or she fled, owe service or labor to the person claiming him or her, it shall be the duty of such Judge or Magistrate to give a certificate thereof to such claimant, his agent or attorney, which shall be sufficient warrant for removing the said fugitive from labor to the State or Territory from which he or she fled.

Sec. 4. That any person who shall knowingly and willingly obstruct or hinder such claimant, his agent or attorney, in so seizing or arresting such fugitive from labor, or shall rescue such fugitive from such claimant, his agent or attorney when so arrested pursuant to the authority herein given or declared, or shall harbor or conceal such person after notice, that he or she was a fugitive from labor, as aforesaid, shall, for either of the said offences, forfeit and pay the sum of Five Hundred Dollars, which penalty may be recovered by and for the benefit of such claimant, by action of debt, in any court proper to try the same; saving, moreover, to the person claiming such labor or service, his right of action for, or on account of the said injuries, or either of them.

For a series of years after its passage, this law was quietly executed, according to its spirit and letter: neither State Legislatures nor State Judiciaries throwing any obstructions in its way. On the exciting topic of domestic slavery, peace reigned within our borders. In such of the States as deemed this institution incompatible with their interest, or where it was repugnant to the popular feeling, it was abolished cautiously, prudently and progressively. But everywhere the solemn obligations of the Constitution, to surrender the absconding slave to his rightful claimant, was admitted, respected and complied with. Men had not then become wiser than the laws, nor had they learned to measure the plain and unambiguous letter of the Constitution by an artificial standard of their own creation; and to obey or disregard it according as it came up to, or fell beneath it A change, however, came over the spirit of a portion of the people of some of the States. This change of sentiment soon manifested itself in the enactments of State Legislatures, and in the decisions of State Judiciaries consequent upon them, which created such embarrassments and difficulties in the execution of the Act of 1793, as to render it, practically speaking, a dead letter in some of

1846, and in 1851 by his Honor, Judge KANE, who reviewed the whole law upon this subject, in a clear and conclusive opinion, which has been before the country since the 29th of September last.

The treason charged against the defendant is, that he wickedly devised and intended to disturb the peace and tranquility of the United States, by preventing the execution of the laws within the same, to wit: a law of the United States, entitled "An Act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters, approved February 12, 1793;" and also a law of the United States, entitled "An Act to amend, and supplementary to the Act entitled 'An act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters, approved February 12, 1793," which supplementary act was approved the 18th of September, 1850, generally known as the Fugitive Slave Law. The overt acts, which may be considered as the evidence or manifestation of the manner in which the treason was committed, are set forth in the indictment as follows:

First. That on the 11th of September, 1851, in the county of Lancaster, and within the jurisdiction of this Court, the defendant, with a great number of persons, armed and arrayed in a warlike manner, with guns, swords, and other weapons, assembled and traitorously combined to oppose and prevent by intimidation and violence, the execution of the laws of the United States already adverted to, and arrayed himself in a warlike manner against the said United States.

Second. That at the same time and place, the said Castner Hanway assembled with others, with the avowed intention by force and intimidation, to prevent the execution of the said laws to which I have alluded, and that in pursuance of this combination, he unlawfully and traitorously resisted and opposed Henry H. Kline, an officer duly appointed by Edward D. Ingraham, Esq., a Commissioner of the Circuit Court of the United States, from executing lawful process to him directed against certain persons charged before the Commissioner with being persons held to service or labor in the State of Maryland, owing such service and labor to a certain Edward Gorsuch, under the laws of the State of Maryland, who had escaped into the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Third. That in further execution of his wicked design, the defendant assembled with certain persons who were armed and arrayed with the design, by means of intimidation and violence, to pres

vent the execution of the laws already alluded to, and being so assembled, knowingly and willingly assaulted Henry H. Kline, the officer appointed by the Commissioner to execute his process, and then and there, against the will of the said Henry H. Kline, liberated and took out of his custody persons before that time arrested by him.

Fourth. That the defendant, in pursuance of his traitorous combination and conspiracy to oppose and prevent the said laws of the United States from being carried into execution, conspired and agreed with others to oppose and prevent by force and intimidation the execution of the said laws, and in the ways already described, did violently resist and oppose them.

Fifth. That the defendant in pursuance of his combination to oppose and resist the said laws of the United States, prepared and composed divers books and pamphlets, and maliciously and traitorously distributed them, which books and pamphlets contained incitements and encouragements to induce and persuade persons held to service in any of the United States by the laws thereof, who had escaped into this district, as well as other persons, citizens of this district, to resist and oppose by violence and intimidation the execution of the said laws, and also containing instructions how, and upon what occasions the traitorous purposes should and ought to be carried into effect.

The overt acts which I have now described embrace all the charges which the government presents against this defendant. I need not say to you that they are altogether of an extraordinary character, and such as, in this country, are seldom presented for the consideration of a court and jury. In monarchical governments, it is true, crimes of this description are of frequent occurrence; but in a government like ours they are but seldom committed. The tyranny to which the subjects of despotisms are exposed, may so burden and oppress them, that longer submission becomes intolerable, and they are driven to efforts to shake it off. The failure to succeed involves them in the guilt of treason, and trial and conviction for the offence follow as a consequence. In governments so constituted, the only hope for a change exists in revolution, and hence the attempt made is to overturn the whole fabric of government. Under such circumstances, treason may become patriotism, and the friends of liberty throughout the world may ardently wish for its success. No such excuse, however, exists with us; for our institutions are based upon

the inherent right of the people to change and modify their form of government. In the Constitution of the United States, as well as in those of the several States, modes are provided by which their provisions can be altered. If obnoxious acts of Congress are passed, they can be changed or repealed. Hence this defendant, if he has perpetrated the offence charged in the indictment, has raised his hand without excuse or palliation against the freest government on the face of the earth. He has not only set its laws at defiance, by seeking to overturn them, and to render them inoperative and void; but the conspiracy into which he entered, assumed a deeper and more malignant dye from the wanton manner in which it was actually consummated. I allude to the murder in which it resulted. An honorable and worthy citizen of a neighboring State, who entered our Commonwealth under the protection of the Constitution and Laws of the Union, for the purpose of claiming his property under due process of law, was mercilessly beaten and murdered, in consequence of the acts of the defendant and his associates. It is a disgrace upon our national escutcheon; a blot upon the fair fame of Pennsylvania; a reproach which nothing short of the conviction and punishment of the offenders can ever wipe out. It is for you, gentlemen of the jury, to judge of the evidence which the government will submit in this case; and I need not say to you, that if it proves the defendant to have been one of the actors in the bloody tragedy at Christiana, that you will find him guilty of the offence.

I do not desire in the course of my remarks, to say anything which may be calculated unnecessarily to inflame your minds against the defendant. I trust he may be able to convince you that he had no participation in the dreadful transactions of the 11th of September, and thus rescue his name from the obloquy and infamy which would otherwise attach to it. He has a right to demand a fair and impartial hearing at your hands, and a candid and dispassionate consideration of the testimony which he may produce. Nay, he is entitled to even more than this; for every reasonable doubt which may arise in the cause is to be resolved in his favor. He is not to be required to establish his innocence, but it is for the prosecution to make out and prove his guilt. The Government of the United States does not ask any man's conviction on testimony which is uncertain in its nature, and not adequate to establish the facts for which it is adduced. On the other hand, we have a right to expect from you a fair and impartial discharge of public duty. A

heavy responsibility rests upon you, and there is no way of evading its requirements. If it can be shown by competent and creditable testimony that the defendant is guilty of the offence which is charg ed in the indictment, it is essential to the peace of the country that you should say so by your verdict. Justice requires it, and the obligation of your oaths demand it.

I need hardly say to you that the outrage perpetrated at Christiana was, in my judgment, treason against the United States; and all who participated in it are guilty of that offence. It was a concerted and combined resistance of a statute of the United States by force, and was made with the declared intent, so far as the defendant Hanway was concerned, to render its provisions void, and to make the act altogether inoperative. The proof against him will be clear and convincing, and such as to satisfy every one of his guilt. The overt acts will be established by the testimony of more than two witnesses, in so pointed and distinct a manner that no question of their truth can exist.

In order that you may fully understand the character of the evidence which we propose to introduce, I will give you a brief narrative of the facts as they will be detailed by the witnesses.

On the 9th of September last, Edward D. Ingraham, Esq., a Commissioner of the United States, issued four warrants, directed to Henry H. Kline, an officer appointed by him under the authority of the Act of 13th September, 1850, commanding him to apprehend Noah Bailey, Nelson Ford, Joshua Hammond and George Hammond, who had been legally charged before the said Commissioner with being fugitives from labor, who had escaped from the State of Maryland into the State of Pennsylvania, and owed such service and labor to a certain Edward Gorsuch. The fact that the writs had been issued, became known to a colored man living in this city, named Samuel Williams, who preceded the officers to the neighborhood where the slaves resided, and where the arrests were to have been made, and gave notice that they were coming to execute them. On the 11th of September, Kline and his party, consisting of Edward Gorsuch, Dickerson Gorsuch, Joshua M. Gorsuch, Dr. Thomas Pearce, Nicholas Hutchings and Nathan Nelson, proceeded to Christiana, Lancaster County, and on arriving there, started for Parker's house, a place about three miles distant from the railroad depot on the Columbia road, which they reached about day-light in the morning. While proceeding along the road, and