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| Andrew G. Curtin. |
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down by a just and law-abiding people.”
1 There were some who demurred, and counseled a manly and energetic assertion of the sovereign authority of the National Government; but the prevailing sentiment was highly conservative, and even submissive.
The resolutions adopted by the meeting proposed the repeal of the Personal Liberty Act of Pennsylvania, and the recognition of the obligations of the people to assist in the full execution of the Fugitive Slave Law; pointed, with “pride and satisfaction, to the recent conviction and punishment, in Philadelphia,” of those who had attempted to rescue an alleged fugitive from bondage; recommended the passage of a law providing for the payment of full remuneration to the owner of a slave who might lose him by such rescue; declared that they recognized slaves as property, in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States; and also, “that all denunciations of Slavery, as existing in the United States, and of our fellow-citizens who maintain that institution, and who hold slaves under it, are inconsistent with the spirit of brotherhood and kindness which ought to animate all who live under and profess to support the Constitution of the American Union.”
The newly elected Governor of Pennsylvania; Andrew G. Curtin, was: inaugurated on the 15th of January, 1861, and his address on that occasion resounded with the ring of the true metal of loyalty and positiveness of character, which he displayed throughout the war that ensued.
He counseled forbearance, and kindness, and a conciliatory spirit; proposed the repeal of the Personal Liberty Act of that State, if it was in contravention of any law of Congress; and denounced the till wicked doings of the conspirators and their servants.
Two days afterward, the Legislature, by resolutions, approved of the conduct of Major Anderson in Charleston harbor, and of Governor Hicks, in Maryland.
In another series of resolutions, passed on the 24th, it severely rebuked the conduct of the South Carolinians; declared that the Constitution gave the Government full power to maintain its authority, and
pledged the “faith and power of Pennsylvania” to the support of all such measures as might be required to put down insurrection, saying:--“All plots, conspiracies, and warlike preparations against the United States, in any section of the country, are treasonable in their character,” and that all the powers of Government should be used, if necessary, to suppress them, “without hesitation or delay.”
How fully these pledges of Pennsylvania
1 Speech of Mayor Henry. Such was the alleged irritated state of public feeling in Philadelphia at that time (strenuously denied by many), that only three days before this meeting, the Mayor, in a note to the Chairman of a committee of the “People's literary Institute” of that city, deprecated, as “extremely unwise,” the appearance before them, as a lecturer on “The policy of honesty,” of George William Curtis, known to be an earnest lover of his country, and as earnest a foe to the Slave system. “If I possessed the lawful power,” said the Mayor, “I would not permit his presence on that occasion.” The proprietor of the hall in which Curtis was to lecture was officially informed that a riot might be expected if that gentleman should appear, and he refused its use.
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