The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-07-20

and now,-yes here, where we fully recog-
nize the sacredness of the rights of private
property, (being foreign property through
all the seattle and waste Of war,--we who
have given to the nations, through the
whole course Of the Mexican war,--a thou
sand telling and glorious testimonies Of our
national appreciation and reverence for that
principle, vet the moment it is brought home
and applied to our property-lnterests with
one another-the moment it becomes the
basis CT debt between the North and South,
the authority Of all precedents is cast aside,
the principle is renounced, restitution is with
held, all payment refused, the aggressions
go on, the fugitives increase, and our rights
Of property, like our rights Of migration and
settlement and sovereignty in reference to
our Federal domains and distant sea-boards,
are subjected to the caprices and exactions
Of the law Of the strongest The Consfifu-
tion guarantees to the South projection and
security for her property rights, butth nature
of the Union forbids their enforcement Ac-
cording to this, the terms of the Constitution
give US all we can claim, while the action of
the Constitution takes ali Of them away
With the Constitution, reclamations are i'm
practicable and the aggressons must con-
tinue; without the Constitution, the recla-
nations could be made, and the aggressions
must cease Such seem the obvious deduc-
tons from the North's reasons why the South
should cling to the connection, and submit to
her expressions.
With aggregate losses in fugitive slaves
in the course Of the last 40 years amounting
to $22, 900 900, with progressive losses at
tie rate Of $500 per annum, the South
has come up to Congress at the present ses-
sion, and Gas every native son who loves
and honors her hopes) for the last time, and
offered to buy her peace and stabilitate the
Union through surrender to the North OF
Of her liabilities for the $22 ,OOO, 900, upon
the simple condition that she would give
prompt and faithful effect to the provisions Of
the Constitution, desist from all future ag-
grsssions in aiding the escape of fugitive
slaves, and remove all Instructions to their
lawful capture and recovery in the Free
States. In the early DAYS Of the session, the
matter was brought into debate; the 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
remedies ought to be applied. A bill was
introduced, but had made little progress,
before down came from the North an ava
lanche OF petitions and circumstances, casting
every impeachment in its way. Soon, the
Committee of Thirteen ree!ed under the
blight of the infection, and by some mystic
mutations Of positions, which remains a
sealed book to the uninitiated, behold the
South loses her place as Complainant be-
fore the Committee, and takes the attitude
of a Defendant to the North's complaints !:
Thus she emerged into day from the Com
mittee-room, and thus she stands now
There is the Committees report, and there
are the two sections relating to the reclama-
tons of fugitive slaves; and it is plain upon
their face that the whole aim of both is to
protect fugitives from spurious claims. Every
one can examine them for himself | do
not mean to enter at all into the subject here;
but no candid man can deny, but that these
sections impose additional burthens, expen-
ses and delays upon claimants; the one sec
ton cumulating the proofs without cumulat-
ing the remedies, and the other cloggng the
way by cumulating jury-trials upon the jury
trials provided by the States in peri mnteria.
Both sections therefore are distractions, not
helps to the reclamations of fugitive slaves,
and multiply the chances Of their ultimate
- h1,, ;
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 il urbe candies to the present
day, in which a fugitive had been claimed
as slave, who had net been proven to be
such. This sort Of legislation can deceive
nobody who will think for himself Without
a single fraudulent claim made in 60 years,
there was no mischief guoad hoe to remedy,
and he has more charity than have, who
thinks that these sections were devised to
advance the right and insure the reclamation.
But bad as these sections are, and even
should the South again give way as afore-
time, would they content the arrogant and
all-grasping North Not they A remedy
rather that strikes at the root of the right and
subverts it, pleases her taste and BELTS her
resolves, and nothing short Of it can. Ac-
cordingly a jury trial at The ricinage Of the
capture and not at the ricinags Of the flight
is the remedy devised, and with scarcely a
disguise, devised for the manumission of the
man and the confscaton of the property.
And who have the Free soilers found to lead
on this inglorious assault upon the national
jurisprudence and the constitutional rights Of
the SOUTH A statesman in front, among the
foremost an eminent jurist, one of the great
lights of the land, VINO has made the ancient
Black Letter and English Common Law, the
study of Lifetime, who has held with Sir
Edward Coke and all the Feudasts from
earliest manhood, through distinguished
career, up to mature old age, that in all
trials for life or for freedom, the ricindge Of
The fncfs must be the forum of the trial |