PERSONAL LIBERTY LAWS. 



577 



host form of government that has ever been 

 devi-ed by the wisdom of man." 



In Ohio, Governor Dennison suggested the 

 repeal of the obnoxious features of the fugitive 

 slave la\v, and the repeal of any personal liber- 

 ty bills subversive of the fugitive law would 

 thus be secured ; at the same time he said, the 

 Southern States should repeal their laws in 

 contravention of the constitutional right of cit- 

 izens of Free States, who cannot be satisfied 

 with less, and who will insist upon their con- 

 stitutional rights in every State and Territory 

 of this Confederacy. These they cheerfully 

 accord to citizens of Southern States." 



Notwithstanding such a general expression 

 of sentiment, no repeal of these laws took place 

 in any States, except Rhode Island and Ver- 

 mont. In the latter, the subject was referred 

 to a committee in the Legislature, whose duty 

 it was to report at a subsequent day. The 

 report was made at the next session of the 

 Legislature, during the latter part of the year, 

 and the objectionable law was quietly got rid 

 of. The law of Rhode Island, which was thus 

 repealed, forbade the carrying away of any 

 person by force out of the State ; or any judge, 

 justice, magistrate, or court from officially aid- 

 ing in the arrest of a fugitive slave under the 

 fugitive slave law of 1793 or 1850. It also for- 

 bade any sheriff or other officer from arresting 

 or detaining any person claimed as a fugitive 

 slave, and provided a penalty of five hundred dol- 

 lars, or imprisonment not exceeding six months, 

 for violating the act. It denied the use of the 

 jails of the State to the United States for the 

 detention of fugitive slaves. 



The law of Vermont was a direct act of nul- 

 lification. It declared that every person who 

 might have been held as a slave, and who 

 should, in any way, come into the State, 

 should be free. By the several acts of 1843, 

 1850. and 1858, the State provided that no 

 court, justice of the peace, or magistrate should 

 take cognizance of any certificate, warrant, or 

 process under the fugitive slave lavv ; and that 

 no officer, or citizen of the State should arrest, 

 or aid, or assist in arresting any person for the 

 reason that he was claimed as a fugitive slave ; 

 and that no officer or citizen should aid or as- 

 sist in the removal from the State of any per- 

 son claimed as a fugitive slave, with a penalty 

 of one thousand dollars, or imprisonment five 

 years in State prison, for violating this act. 

 These provisions, however, should not be con- 

 strued to extend to any citizen of the State 

 acting as a Judge of the Circuit or District 

 Court of the United States, or as Marshal or 

 Deputy-Marshal of the District of Vermont, or 

 to any person acting under the command or 

 authority of said Courts or Marshal. The 

 State's attorneys were required to act as coun- 

 sel for alleged fugitives ; the act provided for 

 issuing habeas corpus, and the trial by jury of 

 all questions of fact in issue between the par- 

 ties, and ordained that every person who might 

 have been held as a slave, who should come, or 

 37 



be brought, or be in the State, with or without 

 the consent of his or her master or mistress, or 

 who should come, or be brought, or be invol- 

 untarily, or in any way, in the State, should be 

 free. It was also provided that every person 

 who should hold or attempt to hold, in the 

 State, in slavery, or as a slave, any person 

 mentioned as a slave in the section of the act 

 relating to fugitive slaves, or any free person, 

 in any form, or for any time, however short, 

 under the pretence that such person was or 

 had been a slave, should, on conviction thereof, 

 be imprisoned in the State prison for a term 

 not less than one year nor more than fifteen 

 years, and be fined not exceeding two thousand 

 dollars. 



The nature of these laws in other States may 

 be briefly stated. The laws of Maine provide 

 that no sheriff, deputy-sheriff, coroner, con- 

 stable, jailer, justice of the peace, or other offi- 

 cer of the State shall arrest or detain, or aid in 

 so doing, in any prison or building belonging 

 to this State, or to any county or town, any 

 person on account of a claim on him as a fugi- 

 tive slave, under a penalty not exceeding one 

 thousand dollars, and make it the duty of all 

 county attorneys to repair to the place where 

 such person is held in custody, and render him 

 all necessary and legal assistance in making his 

 defence against said claim. 



The law of New Hampshire declares that 

 slaves, coming or bnraght into the State, by or 

 with the consent of the master, shall be free ; 

 declares the attempt to hold any person as a 

 slave within the State a felony, with a penalty 

 of imprisonment not less than one nor more 

 than five years ; provided, that the provisions 

 of this section shall not apply to any act law- 

 fully done by any officer of the United States, 

 or other person, in the execution of any legal 

 process. 



The law of Connecticut provides that every 

 person who shall falsely and maliciously de- 

 clare, represent, or pretend that any free per- 

 son entitled to freedom is a slave, or owes ser- 

 vice or labor to any person or persons, with 

 intent to procure or to aid or assist in procur- 

 ing the forcible removal of such free person 

 from this State as a slave, shall pay a fine of 

 five thousand dollars and be imprisoned five 

 years in the Connecticut State prison ; requires 

 two witnesses to prove that any person is a 

 slave or owes labor ; denounces a penalty of 

 five thousand dollars against any person seizing 

 or causing to be seized any free person with 

 intent to reduce him to slavery ; depositions 

 not to be admitted as evidence ; witnesses tes- 

 tifying falsely, liable to five thousand dollars' 

 fine and five years' imprisonment. 



The first Personal Liberty Act of Massachu- 

 setts was passed in 1843. It was based upon 

 the decision of the Supreme Court of the 

 United States in the case of Prigg vs. The Com- 

 monwealth of Pennsylvania, pronounced in 

 1842 by Judge Story. In that case the Court 

 decided that the right to legislate on the sub- 



