Who can wonder if, in his city residence, he starts as he turns the corner of every street; or, in his rural home, if he shudders at the rustle of every leaf, lest some kidnapper should spring from his ambush to seize him?
Mann illustrates the constant fear experienced by individuals living under the threat of kidnapping.
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A southern slave stands higher, politically, than a northern laborer, if the latter must vote as his employer dictates.
The liberty of voting includes all other liberties.
These are but specimens of what the Fugitive Slave law has already done, before the public mind has become familiarized with its brutalities, and while there is yet some sensibility to the claims of justice and mercy left among us.
The man of independent circumstances has this liberty; and no man’s circumstances, not even the poorest and the humblest, should be so dependent as to take it away.
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