Should the courts, hampered by previous decisions, and habituated to the spectacle and the support of a cruel institution, pronounce this law to be constitutional, such a judgment would give new force to every reason why the people should demand its modification or repeal.
Mann argues against the constitutionality of laws supporting slavery, emphasizing the need for public demand for change.
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A southern slave stands higher, politically, than a northern laborer, if the latter must vote as his employer dictates.
Better be debarred from the privilege of voting at all, than to be mocked with the form, while cheated of the substance.
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.
Why, fellow-citizens, the ballot is worse than useless, if it be not FREE!
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