The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-09-05


and slave, springing from such source, in exist
ence, steps In, and not being able to restore him
to his natural rights of which he had been robbed
by the superior power of his master, endeavors
to regulate and restrain his conduct and miti-
gate, 80 far as may be- the evils Of the enslaved,
by prescribing rules for the government of the
new relation. Hence it will be seen that the le
gislative power does not create, IL only regulates
the relation between master and slave. For with
out municipal regulations by which the State
lends the weight and force of its strong arm to
the master, TO aid him in holding his slave in sub
lection and bondage his power over the slave
would exist no longer than his own superior phys
ical strength would enable him to maintain it.
The relation between them would be that of per-
petual war, and the only principle that would
govern it would, Of course be that by which might
makes right And this, in fact, is the natural
primitive and legitimate relation between master
and slave and it would always of necessity con-
tinue, but for the base prostitution Of the su-
preme power Of the State, to assist the stronger
in crushing the weaker party And ] may here
| observe, you can find no law establishing any
! other system of despotism, of outrage and yo-
lence, whereby man has suffered wrong from his
fellow-man, with which the pages of history
abound. These things do not depend upon legis
lation they happen in spite Of it, and wholly in
dependent Of its authority. From the day that
Chln went out huu Stew MS hDel, up 10
q Gs 900. 9s~isTSs sss.. sI@..s.<s t-...'.1 s@tGa
cry, the NeAlUan no1 nv ssass,. am
- e-,.;'l-~~ Do 'bis feet 5oAS ont chUnon TIE
character Of the wrongs perpe,rated, nor mitigate
the evils flowing from them IL tends rather to
aggravate than to diminish them.
Repeal the laws regulating the relation Of mas
ter and slave in thesaveholdng Ststes aud there
is end Of slavery, unless by superior force you
can hold them in servitude. Your title TO them
l. H..
buy and sell them, all depend on the locll or
State laws, that have no force or efficacy beyond
the limits Of the respective States Natural law
tolerates no such rights and recognises Go such
distinctions wherever they exist, they arise
from municipal regulations At common law
there is no such thing a slave, and as early as
the reign Of Queen Eliz beth It wss said the air
of England was too pure for aslaye TO breathe in
II is true the Court Of Common Pleas, in the 9Th
of William and Mary, decided that man might
have property in negro boy, because ntgroes are
heaibens-s kind Of reasoning that failed to be
satisfactory for the same court, in 9th of Will
lam and the 9Th of Anne, overrulsd the decision
and declared that no man can have property in
another while in England
! And might here refer TO the celebrated case
% yagnss Somerset decided at " later period. in
1872, by Lord Mansfield, in which the absurd
dictum of the Common Pleas, in the 9Th of Win.
Ism and Mary. is treated with merited contempt,
and the true principle vindicated which has since
been invariably followed by the Courts of West
minister Hall And in 1924, the Court of Kings
Bench denounced the law of slavery as an anti
christian law and which violates the rights Of
nature, and therefore ought not to be recognised
here, and declares slavery is local law and
therefore If a man wishes to preserve his slaves
let him attach them TO him by affection, or make
fast the bars of their prison, or rivet we'll their
chains for the instant they get beyond the limits
where slavery is recognised by the local law,
they have broken their chains they have escaped
from their prison, and are free"
The Supreme Court of the United States, in
1872 resolved that "by the general law of ma.
tons, nation is bound TO recognise the state of
slavery as to foreign slaves found within its terri
torial domiDions when it Is in opposition to its
own policy and institutions, in favor of the SUBJ
jects of other nations where slavery is reeog-
missed If it does, it is as matter of comfy and
not as a matter of international right. The state
of slavery is deemed to be a mere municipal reg
ulation, founded upon and limited to the range of
the territorial lawsn | have deemed IL proper to
fortify the positions which have sought to main
tain, by the highest judicial authority, and have
great confidence that it will be satisfactory to oil
candid minds.
The indirect recognition Of slavery, as a State
institution, in the Constitution of the United
fatal error. Ii was only secured, after an earnest
opposition, with the understanding that it would
soon cease to exist, and its great and acknowl.
edged evils would be of short duration The
foreign slave trade was to ia n few years
and the supply from abroad be cut off and all the
Territories were carefully protected from its in
| roads. But, since that time, it has increased to
such An extent that nine slave States have been
added TO the Union and five Of them formed out
| NJ nht nod frnp fnra rha
institution has always been fruitful source of
agitation and unkind feeling in this country And
80 long as the passions and prejudices of men, to
which it ministers continue unchanged it will
forever remain So The just expectations Of the
trainers Of the Constitution have been defeated
by the predOminance Of Southern counsels in the
administration of the Government More than
three hundred and fifty thousand square miles of
slave territory have been scquired and peopled
with slaves since the Constitution was adopted,
and still larger domains are required to satisfy
the demands of the South Slavery existed in
the Colonies before the Revolution IL was first
introduced into Virginia at an early day, and
finally extended into the other Colonies. At ev-
cry stage of its progress il met with firm and
vigorous opposition. But the power of the Brit
ish Government, influenced by Considerations Of
mercantile and individual interests, triumphed
over the wishes Of the COonists. "This infer
nal traffic. said Colonel Mason of Virginia, in
the Convention that formed the Constitution,
originated in the avarce of British merchants.
! The British Government constantly checked the
attempts of Virginia TO put stop to it. The
present question concerns not the importing
States alone but the whole Union The evil of
having slaves was experienced during the late
war. Had slaves been treated rs they might have
been by the enemy, they would have proved dam
gerous instruments in their hands" Slavery was
| M flv wit mi In
public meetings, in legislative bodies-every-
where and on all occasions-its existence was dep
recated as an unmtigated evil
Every page of our history before the Revolu-
ton fragrant as il is with the love Of liberty and
devotion to human rights, is filled with convincing
| proofs of the adherence with which il was viewed
| by the colonists. From the close of that strug-
gle to the adoption Of the Constitution, a con-
slant warfare was carried on against it, and the
leading minds Of the South and North harmo-
nized in opposition to the institution Aud 80
true is this, that Southern denuuciations against
slavery have supplied the vocabulary Of modern
| anti-slavery men with their choicest epithets
and they have needed and scarcely sought any
more effective and terrific bolts to hurl against
the institution than those forged by Southern
men.
Mr. Madison, in the constitutional Convention
of 1887, said he thought it wrong to admit in the
| constitution the mtd IN" mere eontd De properly w
man And In the same year, on the occasion of
the memorable trial of Warren Hastings, before
the Peers Of Great Britain, Mr. Sheridan, the
eminent statesman and orator, declared that ale
glance TO that Power which gives us the forms of
men commands us to maintain the rights of men.
And never yet was this truth dismissed from the
human heart never, in any time, in any age
never in any cline where rude man ever had
any social feelngs-never was this inextin-
daSt haar of
placed as il is in the core and centre of it by