Congressman Horace Mann, July 1, 1850

WASHINGTON, July 1, 1850.

Webster said there were only two parts of the Constitution which had any bearing on the subject of the trial by jury; and that the Constitution, neither in its letter nor in its spirit, required the trial by jury for a fugitive slave.

I proved in my letter that the article in the Constitution about courts did have a bearing, and a most important one, on the subject of jury trial; because, on the strength of it, Congress provided jury trials for more than nine-tenths of all the cases that ever arise in the courts. I showed, that, under this article about courts, Congress had power to make provision for juries.

On the second point, I showed that the spirit of the Constitution did clearly require, that, in legislating on the subject of fugitive slaves, Congress should provide the jury trial.

Now, some one who has written an article in the "Christian Register," which no man at once honest and sensible could write, takes the second position of Mr. Webster, and applies my first answer to it; that is, when Mr. Webster says the trial by jury is not demanded, he applies my answer to the part of Mr. Webster's positions, that there was no clause having any bearing on the subject, or conferring any power.

The Compromise Bill drags along with various prophecies about its success. How I shall hallelujah if it is defeated in the Senate!

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 305-6