Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1845-03-22

4.
If were in the power Of Congress (which he thanked God
ii was mott to deny State the right to exert power vital
her security the moment Congress had proved TINS py m
action would have written the record OF our national ms
tory This Republic I" What the people OF STATE
entering the Union must relinqush right vital TO their safety
To PROFOUND the question was to it. They OF the
South had entrusted their rights to the control or GUARDIAN
ship Of the Congress of the United States Had they ever
asked of this Government guaranty their lights Oh properly
Their slaves much theirs their lands ana au
they ever asked Congress to guaranty their lands God OIL
his fathers Ask OF that Senae-ask OF Congress. W
they had asked guaranty and the Government han gwen
them They into the Union IN fuil possession
Of their rights they had asked and the people OF the Union
had gladly consented to give them nhabltng country
with their slaves right OF representation measured ny
fhs Of that property That agreement had been inscribed
the Constitution and yet what did gentlemen now tell ne
That laws which essenta. To the preservation OF te pro-
pertyof that very property they enjoying when they
Joined the Confederacy and which they gave the other States
right to contro might be nerered with ey pe acoh Oh
this Government Gentlemen insisted that the orhciq oas
might send TO the South emissaes who could there 70
DESTROY rights which those Northern States did not dare directly
to assa. The South denied any such right NO power haa
been given this Federal Government for the destruction OF
any right that essential TO the existence OF any oae q
the Union. IL the contrary doctrine were true, that oae
would enter the Union only for accommodation
Congress had the power to regulate commerce. but mat
right Cat least liz early mes was SO construed as 70 DC IN
consistency with the rights of the States The States had no
pass quarantine laws Suppose them vessel having
ern port with deadly infection board OF her the passport
of the permitted her to entsf hpt at the mouth OF
the harbor she by State quarantine law which for
babe her enter required her to pass Immediately 70 the
quarantine ground Here was State and Federal jurisdiction
in open conflict The Federal authority said to the captain
you may the habor Of Charleston and lay your vessel
alongside the wharves the Stats authority said TO him. APP
proach the wharves your peril but straight to the
quarantine ground The brought before the SUI
peme Court, and the Supreme Court decided that quarantine
laws laws OF domestic police and as such were not un
constitutional In the earlier days OF the Republic Congress
had thought their duty To conform their laws to the vital ne
cesses Of the States whose people those laws were to
operate and they therefore commanded their own officers In all
such cases support the State laws But gentlemen
contended that they had right to send into the ports and
among the population of the South not physical indeed,
but what infinitely worse moral plague that they had
right send under the garb of sailor coored insurec
onsts from St Domingo to raise up Southern slaves against
their and set them to cutting threats and burning
houses and that the Southern States had
law to protect themselves from that danger But the Senator
from Maine said hatthe South had this right that color
ed slave entered her ports with such purpose in his heart
they might and punish him. Ay, but they must rst
look his heart and when they had looked there and found
murder and ncendiarism then they might punish him but
that they had power pass preventive law, taking from
him the opportunity Of either burning numbering Did not
the Senator that the committed might be beyond
recall not only beyond punishment also Must the South
wait under that risk might she put forth her preventive
power U
On this subject Mr.. B. did not speak without personal
knowledge He had had few years ago his residence IN
Southern city, where of sudden, distressing conhagra
ton after another took place almost nightly In spite Of all
the vigilance of the police fire after fire continued to occur,
and they neither able them nor to detect the m
cendsry Night after night had Mr. b. been personally on
duty the endeavor ascertain the OF unpreceden
ed phenomenon and if possible to discover and arrest the
guilty authors These continued for more than fort
night until efforts Of description resoed to, They
had descriptive taken of all the inhabitants OF the
city The name, residence, and occupation of every md
vdua down when they length discovered agent
of one Of societies Of the North who had himself been
the horrors of St Domingo but who at the
moment of his arrest threw the fire the papers which
were on his person. and which would doubtless have furnished
the evidence of his guilt Mr.. b. prayed Northern Senators
frankly tell him whether they wished ncendiares of this
description to have free access to Southern slaves He
sumed they did The Southern States anxious to
keep persons of their territories not for the sake Of
preventing res but for guarding agansar evils They
desired prevent certain description of persons from Maine
and Massachusetts from exercising their vocation in the ports
of the Southern States Did spirit of Cancellation for
bid Northern gentlemen from preventing the South from thus
defending herself These laws from inhosptabe
spirit their ports open, their houses open their
hearts open to their brethren of the North All they
asked was that they would not insist bringing upon the
South class of persons among whom might be Of this
description, who came commissioned TO spread desoaon
through their land.
They had, in the Southern ports and board their own
vessels coored who slaves. II one OF these
vessels went into port of the State OF Massachusetts oil
those slaves instantly emancpated II this denied,
he could gentlemen Tia from
who had been permitted by his master to go board oil an
American vessel of The vessel entered ts harbar Of
Boston, the coloed taken from board the vessel
by the aboonis and the courts of Massachusetts, decided
that that voluntarily within the bounds of the State
of Massachusetts,, and they emancpated him. Now, the
State of Massachusetts might say the people of the South
if YOU send your coored ports they must be sub
ect to our laws, might the Southern States say the
same thing the State OF Massachusetts, What wouli JUS
tce, what would equity reply III
advanced by Senator from Name rested,
he understood that clause of the Constitution which
declared that the citizens of each State shall be entitled to
all privileges and immunes of citizens in the several States
The Senator said that these coored persons citizens Of
Maine and citizens of Massachusetts, Was il true Did
these coored men exercise all the rights of citizens those
States Did they sit Jurors Was marriage between white
and coored persons permitted by the laws Of the State of
Maine
Mr. EVANS understood to reply that paupes charge
able upon towns for their support might.
Mr. BERRIEN. Well, then, he would inquire whether
coored Of properly let him be wealthy the Senator
pleased might such marry white woman Might he
according to the laws Of Massachusetts, Did the Senator
from Massachusetts, assent
Mr. CHOATE said that if the Senator from Georgia wish
ed him tell him the point of law in Massachusetts, he
would that by late law of that State the prohibition
which formerly existed had been abolished and coored and
white persons liberty to intermary.
Mr.. BERRIEN said if the fact indeed so, he would
only express his unfegned regret The law il seemed had
repealed the former prohibition; but he trusted, for the
Donors sake of the State of Massachusetts, within whose
bounds many persons dear to his heart the law had
had any practical operation II seemed to be admitted
however, that Maine and Massachusetts, free coore
persons might not sit jurors They not them in the
penay of the term, citizens of those States Yet they
to be sheltered by Senators under the provisions of the