Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 7.djvu/284

280 violated this very week, in this very city, by the slave-hunters bore, by the very officers of the State? What is the meaning of this? Every law which favours the accumulation of money, must be kept; but those which prohibit the unjust accumulation of money by certain classes—they need not be kept.

No doubt it would be a great pity to have the city government careful to keep the laws of the city,—to suppress rum-shops, and save the citizens from the almshouse, the gaol, and the gallows. Such laws may be executed at Truro and Wellfleet; but it is quite needless for the officers of "The Athens of America," to attend to the temperance laws. What a pity for the magistrates of Boston to heed the laws of the State! No; it is the Fugitive Slave Law that they must keep.

II. A great deal of pains has been taken to impress the people with their "moral duty to obey the Fugitive Slave Law." To carry it out, government needs base men; and that, my brothers, is a crop which never fails. Rye and wheat may get blasted many times in the course of years; the potato may rot; apples and peaches fail. But base men never fail. Put up your black pirate-flag in the