Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1849-02-12

disclosed itself in the North, by hostility to that
portion Of the Constitution which provides for the
delivering up of fugitive slaves. In its progress
it led TO the adoption ofhostile acts, intended tG
render it of non effect, and with 50 much success
that it may be regarded now as practically ex-
plunged from the Constitution.--How this has
been effected will be next explained
| After careful examination, truth constrains us
to say, that it has been by clear and palpable
evasion of the Constitution. 1t is impossible 70,
any provision to be more free from ambiguity OF
doubt. 1t is in the following words: ''No per
soa held to service or labor in one Sae under the
law thereof, escaping into another Safe, shall, in
consequence of any law or regulation therein be
discharged from such service OF labor, but shall be
delivered up on claim of the party to whom such
service or labor may be DUE" All is clear
There is not an uncertain or equivocal word
in the whole provision. What shall not be
done. and what shall be done, are fully and ex-
pliciily set forth. The former provides that the
fugitive slave shall not be discharged from his
Iseryitude by any law or regulation of the State
wherein he is tuund-and the latter, that he shall
be delivered up on claim OF his owner.
We do not deem it necessary to undertake to
refnte the sophistry and subtertuges by which SO
plain a provision of the Constitution has been
eyaded and, in effect annued. 1t constitutes an
essential part olthe constitutional compact, and Of
course of the supreme law of the land-As such,
it is binding on all the Federal and State govern
ments, the States and the individuals composing
them. The sacred obligation ofcompact, and the
s,lenn injunction of the supreme law, which legs-
lators and Judges, both Federal and State, are
bound by oath TO support, all unite to enforce its
fulfllment, according to its plain meaning and
true intent. What that meaning and intent are,
there no diversity of opinion in the betterda laws
Of the republic, prior to 1919. Congress, State
Legislatures, State and Federal judges and msgis-
trates, and people, all spontaneously placed the
same Interpretation on it. During that period
none interposed impedimcnts in the way Of the
owner, seeking to recover his fugitive slave-Ilor
did any deny his right to have every proper faci-
ty to enforce his claim to havo him delivered up.
1t was then nearly as easy to recover ore found
in Northern State, as one found in a naighboring
Southern State. But this has passed away, and
the provision is defunct, except in perhaps in two
States
When we take into consideration, the impor-
lance and clearness IF this provision, The evasion
by which it has been SCI, aside may fairly be re-
garded as one of the most fatal blows ever receiv-
led by the South and the Union This cannot be
more concisely and correctly stated than it has
been by two of the learned judges of the Supreme
Court of the United States. In one of the decis-
ions Judge Story said sc istoricaly it is we'll
known that the object of this clause was to Sc
cure to the citizens of the slaveholding States the
complete right and title of ownership in their
slaves, as property, in every State of the Union,
into which they might escape from The State
wherein they were held in servitude." The full
recognition OF this right and title of ownership
was indispensable to the security of this species Of
property in all the slaveholding States, and, in
deed was so vital to the preservation of their in
md ms IN at Mt no rcnb tod
that it constituted a fundamental article, without
the adoption Of which the Union would not have
been formed. Its truedesign was to guard against
the doctrines and principles prevalent in the non
saveholding States, by preventing them from in
termeddllng WITH or restricting, or abolishing the
rights of the owners of slaves"
Again. "Ihe clause was, therefore, oft last
importance to the safety and security of the South
ern States, and could not be surrendered by them
without endangering their whole property in
slaves The clause was accordingly adopted in
the Constitution by the unanimous consent of the
trainers. ofit-a proof at once of its intrinsic and
practical necessity"
Again. "Ihe clause manilestly contemplates
the existence of positive unqualified right on the
part of the owner of slave, which no State law
or regulation can in any way regulate, control,
qualify, or restraint
The opinion Of other learned judges was notices.
emphatic as to the importance of this provision
and the unquestionabe right Of the South under it.
Judge Baldwin, in charging the jury said # "Ii
there are any rights Of property which can be en-
forced if one citizen have any rights of property
which are inviolable under the protection of the
supreme law of the State, and the Union, they are
those which have been set at nought by some of
these defendants. AS the owner of property, which
he had perfect right to possess, protect and take
away-as citizen of sister State, entitled TO all
the privileges and immuniies of citizens of any
other State--N1r johnson stands before you on
ground which the government itself is based. II
tho defendants can be justified, we have longer
law or government" Again, after referring more
particularly to the provision for delivering up fugi
tive slaves, he said: s'Thus you see, that the
foundations of the government are laid, and rest on
the right of properly in slaves. The whole stuc
ture must fall by disturbing the corner stone"
These are grave, and solemn, and admonitory
wolds, from a high source. They confirm all for
which the South has ever commended, as to
the clearness, importance and fundamental charac
ter of this provision, and the disastrous consequent
ces which would inevitably follow from its viola
ton. But in spite of these solemn warnings, the
violation then commenced, and which they We're
intended to rebuke, has been fully and perfectly
consummaed. The citizens of the South, in their
W icVuVel SldVoS now meet, Instead
OF aid and co operation, resistance in every form
resistance from hostile acts of Legislation, intended
to battle and defeat their claims by all sorts of de-
vices. and by interposng every description of in
pedlment-reslstance from judges and magistrates
and finally, when all these fail, from nlobs,
composed ofwhites and blacks, which by threats
or force, rescue the fugitive slave from the posses
sion of his rightful owner The attempt to re-
cover Slave, in most of the northern States can
not now be made without the hazard of insult,
heavy pecuniary loss, Imprisonment, and even
life itself. Already has a worthy citizen of Mary
and9 lost his life in making an attempt 10 enforce
his claim to fugitive slave under this provision.
But provision Of the constitution may be VIC
lated indirectly as well as directly, by doing an
act in its nature inconsistent with that which is
enjoned to be done. Ofths form Of violation there
is a striking instance connected with the provision
under consideration. We allnde to secret comb
nations which are believed to exist in many of the
northern States, whose object is to entice, decoy
entrap, invegle, and seduce slaves to escape from
their owners and TO PASS them secretly and ra hid