Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

JUDGE LOWELL

AND THE

MASSACHUSETTS DECLARATION OF RIGHTS

A PAPER READ BEFORE THE

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY

APRIL 16, 1874

BY CHARLES DEANE

BOSTON

PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON

1874

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

JUDGE LOWELL AND THE MASSACHUSETTS

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.

There has been for some years a tradition in the family of Judge John Lowell (who was born in 1743 and died in 1802) that he, as a member of the Convention which framed the Constitution of Massachusetts in 1779-80, introduced the first article, or the first clause in the first article, of the Declaration of Rights; and that its insertion was proposed by him for the express purpose of abolishing slavery in this State. The statement has found its way into some of our biographical dictionaries; but it appears, perhaps in its most authentic form, in a letter from the Rev. Charles Lowell, D.D., a son of Judge Lowell,

written in 1856.

"My father," he writes, "introduced into the Bill of Rights the clause by which slavery was abolished in Massachusetts. You will find, by referring to the Proceedings of the Convention for framing the Constitution of our State, and to Eliot's New England Biographical Dictionary, that he was a member of the Convention and of the Committee for drafting the plan, &c., and that he suggested and urged on the Committee the introduction of the clause, taken from the Declaration of Independence a little varied, which virtually put an end to slavery here, as our courts decided, as the one from which it was taken ought to have put an end to slavery in the United States. This he repeatedly and fully stated to his family and friends. . . In regard to the clause in the Bill of Rights, my father advocated its adoption in the Convention, and when it was adopted exclaimed: Now there is no longer slavery in Massachusetts; it is abolished, and I will render my services as a lawyer gratis to any slave suing for his freedom, if it is withheld from him,' or words to that effect."*

* Letter to Charles E. Stevens, author of "Anthony Burns, A History," Boston, 1856, pp. 234, 235.

« PreviousContinue »