Speech of John Hossack, Convicted of a Violation of the Fugitive Slave Law | Page 2

off for ever, and he becomes what God made him--a man. In
this far-off land, I heard of your free institutions, your prairie lands,
your projected canals, and your growing towns. Twenty-two years ago,
I landed in this city. I immediately engaged on the public works, on the
canal then building that connects this city with the great river of the
West. In the process of time, the State failed to procure money to carry
on the public works. I then opened a prairie farm to get bread for my
family, and I am one of the men who have made Chicago what it is
to-day, having shipped some of the first grain that was exported from
this city. I am, Sir, one of the pioneers of Illinois, who have gone
through the many hardships of the settlement of a new country. I have
spent upon it my best days, the strength of my manhood. I have eleven
children, who are natives of this my adopted country. No living man,
Sir, has greater interest in its welfare; and it is because I am opposed to
carrying out wicked and ungodly laws, and love the freedom of my
country, that I stand before you to-day.
Again, Sir, I ought not to be sentenced because, as has been argued by
the prosecution, I am an Abolitionist. I have no apologies to make for
being an Abolitionist. When I came to this country, like the mass from
beyond the sea, I was a Democrat; there was a charm in the name. But,
Sir, I soon found that I had to go beyond the name of a party in this
country, in order to know any thing of its principles or practice. I soon
found that however much the great parties of my adopted country
differed upon banks, tariffs and land questions, in one thing they agreed,
in trying which could stoop the lowest to gain the favor of the most
cursed system of slavery that ever swayed an iron rod over any nation,
the Moloch which they had set up, to which they offered as human
sacrifice millions of the children of toil. As a man who had fled from
the crushing aristocracy of my native land, how could I support a worse
aristocracy in this land? I was compelled to give my humble name and
influence to a party who proposed, at least, to embrace in its
sympathies all classes of men, from all quarters of the globe. In this
choice, I found myself in the company of Clarkson and Wilberforce in
my native land, and of Washington and Franklin, and many such, in
this boasted land of the free; and more than all these, the Redeemer in

whom I humbly trust for acceptance with my God, who came to heal
the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, to set at
liberty those who were bruised; yea, this very religion binds me to
those in bonds as bound with them. Tell me, Sir, with these views, can I
be any thing but an Abolitionist? Surely, for this I ought not to be
sentenced.
Again, Sir, I ought not to be sentenced, because the Fugitive Slave Law,
under which I am torn from my family and business by the supple tools
of the Slave Power, the slave-breeder and the slave-hunter, is at
variance with both the spirit and letter of the Constitution. Sir, I place
myself upon the Constitution, in the presence of a nation who have the
Declaration of Independence read to them every Fourth of July, and
profess to believe it. Yea, in the presence of civilized man, I hold up the
Constitution of my adopted country as clear from the blood of men, and
from a tyranny that would make crowned heads blush. The parties who
prostitute the Constitution to the support of slavery are traitors--traitors
not only to the liberties of millions of enslaved countrymen, but traitors
to the Constitution itself which they have sworn to support. A foreigner
upon your soil, I go not to the platforms of contending parties to find
truth. I go, Sir, to the Constitution of my country: the word slave is not
to be found. I read, "We, the people of the United States, in order to
form a more perfect Union, establish justice,"--yes, Sir, establish
justice--"to promote the general welfare, and to secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America." These were the men
who had proclaimed to the world that all men were created equal; that
they were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights---life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and contended even
unto death for seven long years. Can it be, Sir, that these