fugitive slave from the custody of the United States deputy Marshall. This judge caused the following question to be propounded to all the jurors separately; and those who answered unfavorably for- the purposes of government, were excluded from the panel. "Do you hold any opinions upon the subject of the Fugitive Slave Law, so called, which will induce you to refuse to convict a person indicted under it, if the facts set forth in the indictment, and contesting the offense, are proved against him, and the court direct you that the law is constitutional!" The reason of this question was, that "the Fugitive Slave Law, so called," was so obnoxious to a large portion of the people, as to render a conviction under it hopeless, if the jurors were taken indiscriminately from among the people. A similar was soon afterwards propounded to the persons drawn as jurors in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, by Benjamin R. Curtis, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, in impaneling a jury for the trial of the aforesaid Morris on the charge before mentioned; and those who did not answer the question favorably for the government were again excluded from the panel. It has also been an habitual practice with the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, in impaneling juries for the trial of capital offenses, to inquire of the persons drawn as jurors whether they had any conscientious scruples against finding verdicts of guilty in such cases; that is, whether they had any conscientious scruples against sustaining the law prescribing death as the punishment of the crime to be tried; and to exclude from the panel all who answered in the affirmative. The only principle upon which these questions arc asked, is this-that no man shall be allowed to serve as juror, unless he be ready to enforce any enactment of the government, however cruel or tyrannical it may be. What is such a jury good for, as a protection aga...
