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prisoned, and unless, when the vessel sails, the master of the vessel should reclaim them, and pay a pretty heavy reckoning for their maintenance in jail during the whole period of their detention, may be sold into slavery for life. Now, supposing that one of these free colored persons of the State of Massachusetts, or of any other State, having been seized, while on board of a vessel in which he was lawfully engaged, and having been imprisoned and sold into slavery in the manner and under the circumstances which I have stated, should make his escape, and should succeed in getting back to the port from whence he sailed, would there be any thing so very unreasonable in our calling for a trial by jury upon a question whether he should be remanded into slavery? Would it be altogether incumbent upon us, do you think, Sir, to take the mere oral testimony of the claimant, even though he might have purchased the negro bona fide, and at the same time to refuse to take the testimony of the fugitive himself, or of those who might have known him as a freeman before he went on the ill-starred voyage which terminated in his being seized and sold as a slave?

Here again, then, is a case, in which such an occurrence as that alluded to by the Senator from South Carolina, might happen. I do not say that it is very likely to happen; but I cannot help adding in this connection, that, in my judgment, there is no grievance, no complaint, which the Southern States have ever arrayed against the Northern States, which can be compared for a moment with the grievance which the Northern States have to complain of at the hands of the Southern States in the provisions of these laws,-laws by which the cooks and stewards engaged on board their vessels, and in the prosecution of their lawful employments, are thus liable to be seized and sold into slavery."

*It was proposed to include in this volume some passages of a debate on this subject, and particularly in regard to the laws of Louisiana, which occurred incidentally in the Senate soon after these remarks were made. But it was found impossible to detach what was said by Mr. Winthrop from its connection, and to insert it here in a separate form, without doing great injustice both to himself and others. The same consideration prevents the insertion of other remarks upon other subjects during Mr. Winthrop's Senatorial service. Meantime, while this volume is passing through the press, it is noticed with pleasure, that the Legislature of Louisiana have passed an act, which received the signature of the Governor of that State on the 18th of March, 1852, essentially modifying the law of 1842, and relieving it of many of its most obnoxious and oppressive features.

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Before taking my seat, Sir, I will venture to make one suggestion, a little more practical, perhaps, in regard to this summary process recommended by the amendment of the Senator from Virginia. Here is a case referred to in his own reportthe celebrated case of Prigg v. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. What were the circumstances of that case? It seems that a negro woman named Margaret Morgan had fled from service and escaped to Pennsylvania in the year 1832; and that the defendant, as the legally constituted agent of Margaret Ashmore, had caused the said Margaret Morgan to be apprehended in the year 1837. Now, here is an interval of five years from the time of the escape to the time of the arrest; and there might be an interval of ten years, or of twenty years even, so far as any provision of this bill is concerned. There is no statute of limitations here in regard to the rights or powers of the claimant. He may come into a free State after any lapse of time, however long, and upon his mere oral testimony, when his recollections of the fugitive himself may be ever so indistinct, and when the fugitive himself may be so much changed as to render liability to mistake ever so great, he may demand of one of these commissioners the certificate, which may settle forever against the party claimed the question of his right to freedom. Sir, if the trial by jury is not to be allowed in all cases, would it not be proper, would it not be just, to incorporate into this law something of the principle of "fresh pursuit;" giving to all persons the right of trial by jury, except in cases of such fresh pursuit; and giving to that fresh pursuit a limit of not exceeding one or two years at the furthest? When a longer time than this has elapsed since the alleged fugitive escaped, ought there not, I ask, to be ample opportunity afforded for investigation, on the spot where he is seized, in order that it may be ascertained, beyond all doubt, whether the party claimed be really the fugitive he is charged with being, and whether there may not be those in the neighborhood who have known him as one, born and brought up among themselves, and as now wrongfully seized as a runaway slave? I can only say that such a course would seem to me eminently just and proper.

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.

A SPEECH MADE AT THE PUBLIC DINNER GIVEN TO AMIN BEY BY THE MERCHANTS OF BOSTON, NOVEMBER 4, 1850.

I AM greatly honored, Mr. President, by the sentiment just proposed, and I beg my good friend, the Vice-President, (Hon. Benjamin Seaver,) to accept my hearty thanks for the kind and complimentary terms in which he has presented my name to the company. I am most grateful for the opportunity of meeting with so large a number of the intelligent and enterprising merchants of Boston, and of uniting with them in a tender of deserved hospitality, and in a tribute of just respect, to the Commissioner of his Imperial Majesty, the Sultan of Turkey.

And yet, I cannot but reflect, even as I pronounce these words, how strangely they would have sounded in the ears of our fathers not many generations back, or even in our own ears not many years ago. A deserved tender of hospitality, a just tribute of respect, to the Representative of the Grand Turk! Sir, the country from which your amiable and distinguished guest has come, was not altogether unknown to some of the early American discoverers and settlers. John Smith-do not smile too soon, Mr. President, for though the name has become proverbially generic in these latter days, it was once identified and individualized as the name of one of the most gallant navigators and captains which the world has ever known that John Smith who first gave the cherished name of New England to what the Pilgrims of the Mayflower called "these Northern parts of Virginia"-he, I say, was well acquainted with Turkey; and two centuries and a half ago, he gave the name of a Turkish lady to one of the Capes of our own Massachusetts

Bay. But he knew Turkey as a prison and a dungeon, and he called what is now Cape Ann, Cape Tragabigzanda, only to commemorate his affection for one who had soothed the rigors of a long and loathsome captivity.

Nor was Turkey an unknown land to at least one of those Winthrops of the olden time, with whom the Vice-President has so kindly connected me. In turning over some old family papers since my return home, I have stumbled on the original autograph of a note from John Winthrop, the younger, dated “December 26th, 1628, at the Castles of the Hellespont," whither he had gone, as is supposed, as the Secretary of Sir Peter Wich, the British Ambassador at Constantinople. The associations of that day, however, with those remote regions, were by no means of an agreeable character, and I should hardly dare to dwell longer upon them on this occasion and in this presence.

I rejoice that events have occurred to break the spell of that hereditary prejudice, which has so long prevailed in the minds of not a few of us, towards the Ottoman Empire. I rejoice that our associations with Turkey are no longer those only of the plague and the bowstring; that we are encouraged and authorized to look to her hereafter for something better than a little coarse wool for our blankets, or a few figs for our dessert, or even a little opium or rhubarb for our medicine chests; that, in a word, we are encouraged and warranted to look to her, under the auspices and administration of her young, gallant, and generous Sultan, for examples of reform, of toleration, of liberality, of a magnanimous and chivalrous humanity, which are worthy of the admiration and imitation of all mankind. I rejoice, especially, that an occasion has been afforded for testifying the deep sense which is entertained throughout our country, of the noble conduct of the Sublime Porte in regard to the unfortunate exiles of Hungary.

The influence which the Ottoman Empire seems destined to exert over the relations of Eastern and Western Europe, is of the most interesting and important character; and, while we all hold steadfastly to the great principle of neutrality which Washington established and enforced, we yet cannot suppress our satisfaction that this influence is now in the hands of one, who

seems determined to wield it fearlessly for the best interests of civilization and humanity.

And now, Sir, let us hope that our distinguished friend, Amin Bey, may return home with some not less favorable impressions of our own land. Of our enterprise, of our industry, of our immense material production, of our rapid progress in arts and improvements of every kind, of our vast territorial extent, he cannot fail to testify. Let us hope that he may be able to speak also of internal order, of domestic tranquillity, of wise and just laws, faithfully administered and promptly obeyed, of a happy, contented, and united people, commending by their practice and example, as well as by their principles and precepts, the institu tions under which they live.

The distinguished gentleman who preceded me, (Mr. Webster,) and whom I have been under the disadvantage of following in other scenes as well as here, has spoken of the Union of these States. There is no language so strong or so emphatic, which even he can use, as to the importance of preserving that Union, which does not meet with a prompt and cordial echo in my own bosom. To the eyes of Amin Bey, and to the eyes of all foreign nations, we are indeed but one country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. To them there is no Boston or New York, no Carolina or Louisiana. Our commerce goes forth under one and the same flag, whether from the Bay of Massachusetts or from the "golden gate" of California. Under that flag, it has been protected, prospered, and extended beyond example. Under that flag, new fields are opening to it, and new triumphs are before it. May our distinguished guest take home with him an assurance, founded upon all that he has seen and all that he has heard, of the resolution of us all, that the flag of our Union shall still and always remain one and the same, from ocean to ocean, untorn and untarnished, proof alike against every thing of foreign assault and every thing of domestic dissension!

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