Soon after the passage of the fugitive slave law an indignation meeting was called in Springfield, Massachusetts. The proceedings of that meeting were of the most fiery nature. The law was furiously denounced, and the fugitive slaves in that region were secured that they should be protected by their friends if any efforts were made to reclaim them, even at the cost of blood. The proceedings of this meeting were republished in all the disunion papers to show the temper of the Northern people and to convince the people of the South that the fugitive slave law would not be and could not be executed in the free States.
Well, the issue invoked by the leaders in the indignation meeting referred to has occurred in Springfield. A few days since, a man arrived in that town and claimed a woman of color as his slave. She was married and with her husband and family resided in the town. She was taken before an officer and the claim to her was established according to the provisions of the law. As soon as she was given up, several of the citizens of Springfield clubbed together and raised a sum of money sufficient to purchase her and restored her to her husband and children.
There was no excitement on the occasion notwithstanding the hostility felt toward the law by the people of Springfield. The law was very properly suffered to take its course. We have felt certain from the beginning that but little open and violent hostility would be exhibited toward slaveholders claiming fugitives, after the people had had sufficient time to grow cool and to inform their minds on the subject.
How much better was it that the citizens of Springfield should raise money enough and purchase the woman than they should have taken the course advised by the getters up of the indignation meeting and offered violent resistance to the execution of the law! Such we hope and believe will be the conduct of the people in the free States generally in such cases. Where fugitive slaves who have conducted themselves in such a manner as to win the respect of the people among whom they live are reclaimed, they will be purchased from those who claim them rather than be permitted to be taken back into a condition of slavery. We do not anticipate one-tenth of these horrors which have so frightened some of our Southern friends. We have no doubt that as a general rule the provisions of the fugitive slave law will be quietly executed in the nonslaveholding States. In the course of a few months, those fugitives whom their owners design to reclaim will have been reclaimed, and occasions for agitation and excitement will become comparatively unfrequent. In conclusion, we congratulate the citizens of Springfield on the course they have pursued in the case we are considering. They have returned to their senses, and, having done so, they will find that the ultras of the South will also return to theirs after a season.
