calculating fanaticism! It feeds on the souls and blood of men. Talk to me about fanaticism! May God preserve me from the fanaticism of slavery-from that fanaticism which forgets humanity and its rights, in the pursuit of an all-absorbing selfishness. Mr. Chairman, I have been led almost unconsciously into these protracted remarks. I contemplated but a few words when I arose. My object more particularly was to address myself to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. McClernand), and to repel the charge brought by him against the friends of freedom, of a desire to defeat the appropriation bills. They have never entertained such a thought. They are loyal to the Constitution and to the Government of their country, loyal, sir, and true. They desire action. on California-that great question, which, more than any other, engrosses the mind of the nation. It is a shame-a personal dishonor to northern men-that California is not yet admitted into the Union. Why this protracted delay? Why this continual postponement of a measure which they all profess to favor? Are gentlemen afraid to act? Are we cowards, that we dare not perform our constitutional duty? Do we fear to take hold of the work which we came here to do? Sir, let us have done with this timid, this cowardly policy. Let us act. There is honor and safety in action-dishonor and danger in further delay. The gentleman from Illinois is waiting the action of the Senate on the "omnibus bill." After eight months of the session is exhausted, he is for giving time for slavery to mature its plans. When slavery is in danger, the gentleman is ever ready and prompt in action. No measure of slavery was ever delayed an hour for want of the gentleman's aid. Freedom must stand back, and only enter these Halls in the manner and at the hour slavery shall dictate.

I wish that the vote of to-day should arrest the attention of the country. Let it be known throughout the length and breadth of the land, that the consideration of California was postponed to make way for an appropriation bill for the support of the Military Academy at West Point, a bill which there was no occasion for pressing upon our attention, and which could have been acted upon a fortnight or a month hence, without any detriment to the public service. This was done by the votes of the South, united with the great body of northern Whigs, and a few northern

Democrats. California postponed after eight months' delay, by the strong vote of ninety-three to sixty! Yet, in the face of this vote, men will go home and try to make their constituents believe that they were friendly to the early and unconditional admission of California.

V

JUDGE WILMOT'S CHARGE TO HIS FIRST GRAND JURY

THIS speech was delivered at the opening of the December term, 1851, in the thirteenth judicial district of the state of Pennsylvania. It was published contemporaneously in the press of the district at the request of the Grand Jurors:

In taking upon myself the responsible duties of President Judge of this Judicial District, I deem it an appropriate occasion to address you upon the subject of the criminal law of this Commonwealth; in the prompt and impartial execution of which the Grand Inquest acts an important part. I shall not enter upon a recital and description of the various crimes and offenses known to our laws. Such a course would be both tedious and unprofitable as it is impossible for the clearest understanding and most retentive memory, to treasure up on a single reading or hearing, the definitions-the nice and often subtle distinctions entering into them, together with the precise legal import of technical words employed in describing the numerous offenses comprehended in the penal code of a State far advanced in the knowledge of government and laws, and which enforces, by judicial sanctions, many of the duties of a refined, social and domestic life-the obligations growing out of a complexed political system, and the high claims of a morality and religion founded upon the statutes and revealed word of God. An accurate knowledge of the penal laws of such a State is attained only by laborious study, and cannot be intelligibly presented in the limited space marked out for myself in this charge. Any information you may desire, touching either your general powers and duties, or relating to a particular case before you, will be cheerfully given by the Court, or by the gentleman who prosecutes on behalf of the State, and upon either you should feel at liberty to call, as I trust you will, whenever your minds are embarrassed by questions of difficulty and doubt.

...

The great fountain and source of criminal as well as civil jurisprudence is to be found in what is known as the common law of England-a system founded upon ancient custom and usage, and handed down in an authentic and authoritative form in the records and adjudications of the English courts. The common law has been made the theme of extravagant eulogies by most writers who have entered upon the task of expounding its principles. While it contained much that was sound in reason, and just in application to the relations and business affairs of life, it was nevertheless, as a system grossly defective, at the time it was transplanted by the colonists to this Continent. In its doctrines and formulas, it habitually violated the plainest dictates of common sense and natural justice. Its procedure, and the details of its practice, was surrounded by an inextricable network of technicalities and unintelligible jargon, in which respect, there is yet ample room for improvement. When we consider the period of the world's history in which the common law had its origin and growth, the social and political condition of the country in which it obtained, we are only surprised that it was not so deformed by the false principles and manners of the times, as to be wholly unfitted to answer to the requirements of a highly enlightened, refined and commercial age such as that in which we now live. Yet upon this foundation, the common law, has been reared one of the grandest systems of jurisprudence ever devised by man-most rich and varied in its application to the diversified relations and affairs of life, giving security to the largest property interests of the world, and determining by its judgments the rights, relative duties, and obligations of more than fifty millions of human beings. This great work by which the crude maxims and principles of an early age were modified and enlarged, so as to meet the wants of the present improved conditions of communities and States, is the result of the enlightened and laborious efforts of the able and good men of modern times. In this work legislators and judges have united-to the latter especially, are we indebted for the boldness with which they have pruned from the old trunk of the common law, and ingrafted upon it new and equitable principles, adapted to the enlarged business and ameliorated conditions of men.

The sanctions of the common law were harsh and sanguinary;

the natural fruits of ignorance and of a comparatively rude and semibarbarous age. Crimes in general were defined with reasonable certainty, but the criminal was subjected to a trial under circumstances greatly adverse to his rights and safety, and if found guilty, often punished with cruel inhumanity. Under the name of "benefit of clergy" all who professed to a slight knowledge of letters were in most cases exempt from the extreme penalties of the law. To such was given a kind of impunity in crime, while upon the simple and uneducated mass, law dealt out its punishments of scourging and death. A code thus rigorous, and administered with such inequality and injustice, provokes no amazement, when we fully understand the political and social condition of the country and the times. The maxims and principles of that age, differed widely from the humane sentiments, the refined feelings and elevated morals that sway with such power the public opinion of the world at the present day. The mass of the people were but little educated above the condition of slaves. The pursuit of labor, especially the cultivation of the soil, was regarded as degrading and servile, the feats of arms in war and tournament were alone esteemed worthy of the noble and gentle. Indeed, it is but a brief period in the world's history, since the proud blood of the Anglo-Saxon coursed through the veins of the serf. Under the influence of principles and sentiments thus degrading to manhood, and in the midst of institutions not far removed from barbarism, did the common law have its origin and earlier growth. That it should be harsh, and even cruel in its punishments-oppressive and partial in its administration, is therefore no ground for wonderment. Man was held in low estimation-his humanity and the dignity of his intellectual and moral nature, little understood or respected. The great idea of the brotherhood of the race-of man's duties and obligations to his fellowman-of that strong sympathy which should bind together in mutual love and respect those having a common origin and a common destiny-these ennobling and humanizing sentiments had little or no influence over the minds or institutions of men, at the period to which I have referred. The criminal was regarded and treated as an outcast, worthy only of stripes, torture and death. His blood was attainted, rendered infamous, and his transgression visited upon the innocent in the ignominy which attached to his children and in the