The Port Gibson herald, and correspondent. (Port Gibson, Claiborne Co., Miss.) 1848-18??, 1850-08-30

VINO nave gwen 10 TIE naIionsI tnfOugu tno
whole course of the Mexican war,-a thousand
telling and glorious testimonies of our national
appfeciations and reverences, for that principle,
yet the moment il is brought home and applied
to our property-interests with one anothe--the
moment it becomes the basis of debt between
the North and South, the authority Of all prece-
dents is cast aside, the principle is renounceds
restitution is withheld, all payment refused, the
aggressions go on, the fugtives increase, and
our rights of property, like our rights OF mgra-.
tion and settlement and sovereignty in reference
to our Federal domains and distant sea.boards
are subjected to the caprices, repulsions, and
exactions of the law of the strongest! The
Constitution guarantees to the South protection
and security of her property.rights, but the nd-
lAre Of, the Union forbds their enforcement
According to this, the terms of the Constitution
give US all we can claim, while the action Of the
Constitution takes all of them away!-With the
Constitution, reclamations are impfacticaSle and
the aggressions muat continue; without the
Constitution, the reclarnationsc could be made, and
the aggressons must cease! Such seem the OBJ
vious; deductions from the North's reasons why
the South should cling to the connection, and
submit to her oppresoions!
With aggregate losses in fugitive slaves in
| the course Of the last 40 years amounting to
$22,000,000, with progressive losses at the rate
Of $550,000 per G,rnun, the South has come up
to Congress at the present session. and Gas every
native son who loves and honors her hopes) for
the ldst time, and offered to buy her peace and
stabate the Union through surrender to the
North of her liabilities for the $22000,000 upon
the simple condition that she would give prompt
and faithful effect to the provisions of the Con-
| stitution. desst from all future aggressions IN
aiding the escape Of fugitive slaves, and remove
all distractions to their lawful capture aud re-
coVery in the Free States. In the early days OF
the session. the matter was brought into debate;
| .he Southern members were kindly listened to,
and all candid Northern members admitted that
the complaints were just, that The grievances
were serious and weighty, and that effective rem.
edies ought to be applied. A bill was lntrodu-
ced, but had made little progress before down
| come from the North an avalanche OF petitions
and remonstrances, casting every impedlment
! in its way. Soon, the Committee of Thirteen,
reeled under the blight of infection, and by some
mystic mutations of positions, which remains,
a sealed book TO the uninitited, behold: the
South loses her place as a Complainant before
| the Committee, and takes the attitude OF a De-
| fendant to the North's complaints. Thus she
emerged into day from the Committee-room, and
thus she stands nnw.-There is the Committees
report, and there are the two sections relating 10
the reclamation of fugitive slaves; and It'll plain
upon their face that the whole aim Of both is to
protect fugitves from spurious claims. Every
one can examine them for himself. l do not
mean to enter at all into the subject here; but no
candid man can deny, but that these sections
impose additional burthens, expenses and delays
upon claimants; the one section cumhatng the
proofs without cumulsting the remedies, and the
other clogging the way by cumulatng jury.trials
upon tie iury-trals provided by the States in
mari anaferia Both sections therefore are OBJ
structons, not helps to the chances of their utI-
mate escape. But row came the sections there?
Most obviously, the South did not want them,
and the North had no need for them, for Mr..
Clay declared in the Senate that every member
of the Committee from the Free States had
stated. that they had never heard of an instance
alb arbe c0ndita to the present day, in which
fugitive had been claimed as a slave, who had
not been proven 10 be such. This sort Of legis-
lation can deceive nobody WHO will think for
himself. Without single fraudulent claim made
|, in so wears there was no mischief gtl0ad hCc to
remedy, and he has more acuteness than have
who thinks that these sections were adapted to
advance the right and insure the reclamation.
, Bat bad as these sections are, and even should
the South again give way as aforetime, would
! they content the arrogant and all.grasplng
North? Not they! A REMEDY rather that
strikes at the root Of the right and subverts it,
pleases her taste and befs her resolves, and no.
thing short OF it can. Accordingly jury trial
, at the ricinage of The capture and not at the
] ricinage of the flight is the remedy devised, and
; with scarcely disguise, devised for the manu-
r mission of the man and the confiscaton OF the
, D+o5ertv. And who have the Free Soers tound
to lead on their ng!orious assault upon the na-
to55al jurisprudence and the constitutional rights
of the South? A statesman In front among the
: foremost. an eminent jurist, one of the great
! lichts of the land, who has made the ancient
Black Letter and English Common Law, the
r study of lifetime; who has held with Sir Ed
{ ward Coke ana all the Feudalists from earliest
I manhood, through distinguished career, up to
mature old age, that in all trials for life or for
freedom, the ptscinage Of the facts must be the
forum of the trial. mean the scholar, the juris.
2 consult statesman Senator Webster OF Massa.
s chnsetss. What a contrast is here. 10 the lofty
t en,inence he stood on but few months ago,
when in the persence of the nation, he arraignPd
S the NortIl's aggressons, ,pIeadthe Souths wrongs
: and implored from the justice of Congress, the
enactment of effective PROVISIONS TO enforce the
{ plain guarantees of the Consultation for the pro.
It lection and security Of the property-rghts OF the
$ etizens! And what is devised as the, greai
{ healing measure Of remedial justice? reler-
ence OF all the cases TO fanatic juries inpannei
d led from the very sympathizcrs who have prompt
J, ed the injury and wroughtthe wrong, and whose
piighted principle of organized ellowship'it Is
i that man can have no lawful properly in nan
s. and the only issue to the Jury is, whether the
= captured fugitive is the slrre property of the
n person who claims him! WHY the whole thing
: is but mockery and an Insult; a mockery BE-
n cause the verdict would be but a legal fsrm
r for announcing foregone conclusion5 and an
S insult. because il aims at the extinction of the
: rigbt.it processes TO secure. Fhe only grievan
ees brought to the notice of Congress (and they
e of long standing aud rapidly on the increase)
+ were the practices of citizens from the fret
II States enticing slaves from their owners, pro
!! tectfng, conceafihg and succoring them, screen
:, ing them from arrest, Tescuing them from cap
d tuTe, and subecting the claimants in quest o
IS them to the harrassment and perils of mobs ant
e murders. These grievances are real. aal
acknowledged so TO be, and juries have no func
d tions appropriate to their prevention. They
could not be needed TO inspect the title papers
), claimants and to revise the decision of Judges
r or Commissioners ordering the delivery of fugi
| r - al