propounded to all the jurors separately; and those who answered
unfavorably for the purposes of the 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
constituting the offence, 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 question was soon afterwards propounded to the persons
drawn as jurors in the United States Circuit Court for the District
of Massachusetts, by Benjamin R. Curtis, one of the Justices of the
Supreme Court of the United States, in empanelling 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 empanelling juries for the trial of capital
offences, to inquire of the persons drawn as jurors whether they
had any conscientious scruples against finding verdicts of guilty in
such eases; that is, whether they had any conscientious scruples
against sustaining the law prescribing death as the punishment of
the crime to be trick; and to exclude from the panel all who