Such an officer, under either constitution, would be a monster; he would hold the same relation to their legitimate functionaries that Caliban does to the human race; and, if created for executing the Fugitive Slave law, that half devil and half beast would be the fitting prototype.
Mann critiques the concept of a judicial officer executing the Fugitive Slave law, comparing such an officer to a mythical creature.
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Cast it off, West Virginians, whilst yet you have the power; for if you let it descend unbroken to your children, it will have grown to a mountain of misery upon their heads.
The dearest and most precious of all human rights is the right of private judgment in matters of religion.
No man of common sense, who has observed this result, can doubt for a moment that the system of free labor promotes the growth and prosperity of states in a much higher degree than the system of slave labor.
Even cold, barren New England, though more than twice as thickly peopled, grew in population at a faster rate than these old slave states.
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