George Stillman Hillard Quotes
When it was all over, and I was left alone in my office, I put my face in my hands and wept. I could do nothing less.
The Federal Fugitive Slave Act required all in free states to assist owners of escaped slaves to return them to their owners. The reaction in the North to the Fugitive Slave Act was extensive and even violent. See related quotes.
George Stillman Hillard, Statement to a friend describing his rection over 1000 federal troops, under the Fugitive Slave Act, captured and marched a fugitive slave from Massachusetts to a ship returning him to slavery in the South, 1854
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The Federal Fugitive Slave Act required all in free states to assist owners of escaped slaves to return them to their owners. In 1854 a Missouri slave owner tracked his escaped slave to Wisconsin and the Federal officials incarcerated the slave pending his return. A Wisconsin mob broke the slave out of jail and helped him escape to Canada. Sherman M. Booth, Publisher & Editor of the Wisconsin Free Soil Democrat was convicted under the Fugitive Slave Act for aiding the escape. Smith’s opinion overturned the Fugitive Slave Act on the grounds that it had usurped state’s rights. The Supreme Court overturned Smith’s ruling, but Booth was pardoned. See {587926} & {587928}. The more “dread calamity” was civil war which of course came a few years later.
The Federal Fugitive Slave Act required all in free states to assist owners of escaped slaves to return them to their owners. See realted quotations.
George Stillman Hillard was an American lawyer and author. Besides developing his Boston legal practice (with Charles Sumner as a partner), he served in the Massachusetts legislature, edited several Boston journals, and wrote on literature, politics and travel.
