violation of law, such a high-handed contempt of the authority of the
United States, should be perpetrated by a band of lawless confederates
at noonday in the city of Boston, and in the very temple of justice. I
regard this flagitious proceeding as being a surprise not unattended by
some degree of negligence; nor do I doubt that if any such act of
violence had been apprehended thousands of the good citizens of Boston
would have presented themselves voluntarily and promptly to prevent it.
But the danger does not seem to have been timely made known or duly
appreciated by those who were concerned in the execution of the process.
In a community distinguished for its love of order and respect for the
laws, among a people whose sentiment is liberty and law, and not liberty
without law nor above the law, such an outrage could only be the result
of sudden violence, unhappily too much unprepared for to be successfully
resisted. It would be melancholy indeed if we were obliged to regard
this outbreak against the constitutional and legal authority of the
Government as proceeding from the general feeling of the people in a
spot which is proverbially called "the Cradle of American Liberty."
Such, undoubtedly, is not the fact. It violates without question the
general sentiment of the people of Boston and of a vast majority of the
whole people of Massachusetts, as much as it violates the law, defies
the authority of the Government, and disgraces those concerned in it,
their aiders and abettors.

It is, nevertheless, my duty to lay before the Senate, in answer to its
resolution, some important facts and considerations connected with the
subject.

A resolution of Congress of September 23, 1789, declared:

That it be recommended to the legislatures of the several States to