Porter Broyles

“Wright rose to the challenge and defended himself and Ruggles against Morse’s attacks. In what would later be termed the “higher law” argument that justice and morality superseded the Constitution’s compromise over the return of runaways, Wright maintained that he would continue to call out Boudinot and other members of the New York Kidnapping Club. With God and Christian faith on his side, Wright declared, he would continue to speak out against the kidnapping of free Blacks as well as the return of runaways. “It was enough for me,” Wright responded to Morse, “to know that in the City of New York men, women and children had been arrested and thrown into miserable dungeons, for no offense—but merely because they were claimed as PROPERTY.” Wright reminded Morse and other conservatives that neither the Constitution nor Wall Street’s business ties with southern cotton would trump the immorality of slavery and kidnapping.”
― Jonathan Daniel Wells, The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War

“In 1804, through intelligence reports obtained by Salcedo, Charles IV, the king of Spain learned that the US government planned to acquire parts of Texas.113 Spanish spies in New Orleans reported that US agents proposed to gain permission to enter Texas under the pretense of capturing runaway slaves. Their actual plan was to convince Caddo and Comanche groups to form military alliances and attack Spanish settlements.”
― Martha Menchaca, The Mexican American Experience in Texas: Citizenship, Segregation, and the Struggle for Equality

“A court hearing held in the city of Monterey in 1820 illustrates what was required of escaped slaves hoping to stay in Mexico. To be emancipated and allowed to become immigrants, they had to demonstrate good character and convince a judge or audiencia that they had suffered intolerable cruelty at the hands of their masters. The Monterey hearing dealt with five emancipated African Americans who were given asylum in Texas but were later charged with being part of a band of thieves and stealing a horse. If found guilty, they were to be extradited to the United States.”
― Martha Menchaca, The Mexican American Experience in Texas: Citizenship, Segregation, and the Struggle for Equality

“Justice Josiah Hoffman wrote the opinion for the supreme court, an opinion that proved every bit as favorable to the South as Riker, Wells, and others had hoped. The court declared that the requirement of a jury trial violated the US Constitution because “the legal rights of the Southern Slaveholder are so clearly defined, as at once to mark him, who in any way impede their exercise, as a violator of the public space.”
― Jonathan Daniel Wells, The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War