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

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

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Title: Speech of John Hossack, Convicted of a Violation of the Fugitive
Slave Law Before Judge Drummond, Of The United States District
Court, Chicago, Ill.
Author: John Hossack
Release Date: November 9, 2004 [EBook #13987]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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OF JOHN HOSSACK, ***

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SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK,
CONVICTED OF A
VIOLATION OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW,
BEFORE JUDGE DRUMMOND,
OF THE
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT, CHICAGO, ILL.
NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY
SOCIETY. 1860.

SPEECH OF JOHN HOSSACK.
[At the February term of the U.S. District Court for the Northern
District of Illinois, JOHN HOSSACK and JOSEPH STOUT, of Ottawa,
were convicted of having aided in rescuing a fugitive slave from the
custody of the U.S. Deputy Marshal at Ottawa, Oct. 20, 1859, and
sentenced by Judge Drummond to pay a fine of one hundred dollars,
and be imprisoned ten days. Mr. HOSSACK is a Scotchman by birth,
but spent many years of his life in Quebec, following the occupation of
a baker. About twenty years since, he removed to Ottawa, Illinois, and
assisted in the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. He has
been for some years past a prominent dealer in grain, has acquired a
competency by enterprise and industry, and is considered one of the
most upright and intelligent citizens in the community. The following
Plea, made by him before the Court, evinces true nobility of soul, the
highest moral integrity, the most generous humanity, and genuine
manly eloquence. Let it be read in every household, so that the
execution of the infamous Fugitive Slave Act, in every part of the

North, shall be rendered impracticable by a regenerated public
sentiment.]
MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT:
I have a few words to say why sentence should not be pronounced
against me. I am found guilty of a violation of the Fugitive Slave Law,
and it may appear strange to your Honor that I have no sense of guilt. I
came, Sir, from the tyranny of the Old World, when but a lad, and
landed upon the American shores, having left my kindred and native
land in pursuit of some place where men of toil would not be crushed
by the property-holding class. Commencing the struggle of life at the
tender age of twelve years, a stranger in a strange land, having to earn
my bread by the sweat of my brow, your Honor will bear with me.
Unaccustomed as I am to appear in Courts, much less to address them,
I have feared that I might fail in bearing myself on this occasion worthy
of the place and the position I occupy, and the great principles involved
in the case before you. I say to your Honor, therefore, if I fail in
observing the usual forms of the place, it will be from a want of
judgment and error of the head, and not of the heart. Therefore I do not
think I shall fare worse at the hands of your Honor, if I state plainly my
views and feelings on the great question of the age--the rights of man. I
feel that it is a case that will be referred to long after you and I have
gone to meet the great Judge of all the earth.
It has been argued by the prosecution that I, a foreigner, protected by
the laws of my adopted country, should be the last to disobey those
laws; but in this I find nothing that should destroy my sympathy for the
crushed, struggling children of toil in all lands.
Surely, I have been protected. The fish in the rivers, the quail in the
stubble, the deer in the forest, have been protected. Shall I join hands
with those who make wicked laws, in crushing out the poor black man,
for whom there is no protection but in the grave, where the wicked
cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest?
It is true, Sir--I am a foreigner. I first saw the light among the rugged
but free hills of Scotland; a land, Sir, that never was conquered, and

where a slave never breathed. Let a slave set foot on that shore, and his
chains fall