Career
Loring served as the probate judge of Suffolk County, Massachusetts. He was also the U.S. commissioner of the Circuit Court in Massachusetts. As commissioner, he was responsible for issuing warrants for arrest and ruling in cases under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which widely opposed in Boston and the North. In 1851 an escaped slave named Thomas Sims was captured in Boston. When Loring ordered his return to slavery in the South, as required by the new law, Boston abolitionists were outraged. In 1854, Loring ordered another escaped slave, Anthony Burns, to be returned to slavery in Virginia. This case prompted an attack on the courthouse, in which a US Marshal was killed, and widespread protests after Loring ruled Burns had to be returned to slavery. President Franklin Pierce sent in US troops to ensure the ruling was carried out.
Following the Burns decision, abolitionists led by William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips agitated for Loring to be removed from his office as probate judge. Forming a Vigilance Committee to monitor judges' activities under the law, they circulated petitions and lobbied against Loring with the Massachusetts legislature. Although having assisted Burns in his court case, the attorney Richard Henry Dana, Jr. defended Loring before the legislature. Under pressure from an increasingly antislavery public, the legislature made two unsuccessful attempts to remove Loring from office by passing a Bill of Address in 1855 and 1856. Governor Henry J. Gardner, elected as a candidate of the Know-Nothing Party, declined to remove him.
In 1857, after the Republican Nathaniel Prentice Banks was elected governor of Massachusetts, the legislature passed another Bill of Address against Loring. The new governor complied and removed Loring from office.
In May 1858, President James Buchanan appointed Loring to the United States Court of Claims to replace the late John J. Gilchrist. The Senate approved the nomination by a vote of 27-13 on May 6, 1858. Judge Loring served until he retired December 14, 1877.
Read more about this topic: Edward G. Loring
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