Transcription

Hon. ANSON BURLINGAME, in Faneuil Hall, Oct. 13, 1852, on the rendition of Thomas Sims:-

"The conquering of our New England prejudices in favor of liberty 'does not pay.' It 'does not pay,' I submit, to put our fellow-citizens under practical martial law; to beat the drum in our streets; to clothe our temples of justice in chains, and to creep along, by the light of the morning star, over the ground wet the blood of CRISPUS ATTUCKS, the noble colored man, who fell in King street before the muskets of tyranny, away in the dawn of our Revolution; creep by Faneuil Hall, silent and dark; by the Green Dragon, where the noble mechanic, Paul Revere, once mustered the sons of liberty; within sight of Bunker Hill, where was first unfurled the glorious banner of our country; creep along, with funeral pace, bearing a brother, a man made in the image of God, not to the grave, - O, that was merciful, for in the grave there is no work and no device, and the voice of a master never comes,- but back to the degradation of a slavery which kills out of a living body an immortal soul. O, where is the man now, who took part in that mournful transaction, who would wish, looking back upon it, to avow it!"

"Thousands of agitated people came out to see the preacher [Burns] led off to slavery, over the spot where Hancock stood and ATTUCKS feel."*

"And at high 'change, over the spot where, on the 5th of March, 1770, fell the first victim in the Boston Massacre,- where the negro blood of CHRISTOPHER ATTUCKS stained the ground,- over that spot, Boston authorities carried a citizen of Massachusetts to Alexandria as a slave."†

  • Worcester Spy.

† THEODORE PARKER, June 4th.