The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-11-16

neatu its lnspireu annunclatlop rom the lips OF
Peter, We ought 10 obey God rather than men
generation after generation sent up to heaven
It's offering OF martyrs choosing and rejoicing
to die rather than to sin The poor and oppressed
crowd at length caught the inspired maxim
In their lipsit Was proclaimed, @Disobedience 10
typants IS obedience 10 Cod God avert that
this sacred truth, the right of dsobedicnce, given
BY blood, and doubly sacred to us by the memo
ry OF our frthers, should by our age, at the beck
OF slavery, be trampled under foot
But is there no danger that men will peryert
this doctrine, and call that sin which they do
not happen to relish! Even so. In this respect
1t suffers the liability of peryerson incident to
all general principles But whatever danger
there may be in imagined cases, there is no dan
ger in that ease which absorbs public attention,
and originates this discussion. 1t is not in dis
pute in any school of ethics, nor in any religion,
nor IN any civilized community, whether it be a
sin and crime to violate the rights of man. To
make man slave, whether he has been one
or has not, is to commit against him every inju-
ry which being can suffer short of death. In
slavery man falls from every honor, every
privilege, every right, and from manhood itself,
since the law of the land has in so many words
decreed "a slave is one who is in the power of
a master, 10 ,choa he belongs. The master may
sell him, dispose of his person, his industry and
his labor; he can do nothing, possess nothing,
nor acquire anything, but what must belong to
his master. -LaiUs of Louisiana, Art. as
The Fugitive slaw law, is a law which upon
occasions, makes il the duty Of citizens 10 assist
in putting fellow being into the rank of ami
mails nay, il makes it duty to refuse the CON-
monest humanites of life to miserable wretch
striving to escape such degradation, and to secure
to himself those rights which every American
has been taught that God gave to every man
alike, and which crime only can ALLEVIATE. A law
to made citizens the infictors of wrong the most
fatal, which, once committed, no patience can
bring remedy, is such an insult to moral sense
and common sense that the christianity of land
which should tamely obey It, would be solemn
mockery. What are we asked to do? To keep
the compromise of the Constitution by violating
the Fundamental declaration oftheI3il Of Rights.
To stand by when wretch emerging from sla-
very begina to straighten up upon the level of
manhood, to plunge him under the slimy wave
again! sa ars, a.j1 -rl e.4a ,s.ga.gis' .rg "
We are asked to send men back to laws that
deny their manhood. We that are ministers of
the Gospel, are asked to teach our people the
duty of obeying a law that sends slave back
where it Is felony to teach him to read the Bible
to condition which Is almost universally with.
outthe Gospel: we are to send back women To
the lust of their masters and to convert man.
now of long time industrious citizens. into
chattels, to bo advertised as cattle. driven in
droyes like cattle, sold and fed and worked like
cattle, to die as a dog dietb. and to be covered
down as dog is buried The phrase to return
4 fl tive. Is yery harmless IN III sound Int in
It's sense il comprises every offence tbatt Il nos-
sible for one man to commit AGAINST another
This 81 the marrow Of thai bilI which churches
-
When we have ceased To nrav when we have
rooted ont the hnmanit;es which since onr con
nection with the Gos,eI bave been sgrow;no
within ms when we hive bnrned onr Ri5ies and
reDounced our God, then wc win io;n with those
whose patratism exbibits Itself in disrob;ng If
every natural right. and driving man from i;rbi
and RELIGION into gross ba,than;sm y ~ 20
ia Is notnr;ous, fbot from tbo ;rst sot,I.r,or,
of the colon;os The r.l;r;ous nannia ~ NM; iar,S
have been law abd;ng Amonlr them =, vi" ';P nn,,
wbere npr ,nstint;nns I,ra had r. f;r,na.t s,,y.
norters and Tia hast .,,d nrn,,,,J Sap
az obedience IN I,w Z WHAT shan :, nat M tha
nomn,ax;on az nnosn 70 u,b;.h havl .ho.o,,,,hl,,
nronsed Mem which has nxc;tad tbo' .obasas,
men. and broupbt hi most neacefni md ,nnder.
ate into ayowed and ners;stant nnnns;t;nn .,
jaw9 Let e he remem 1900 ibat fba ;nJi,,,a,
ton and resistance Of The nnbc mind has bagnn
among the most orderly obedient and RELIGIOUS
norton. u And altbouo6 bv NO means, confined
to these It has its STRENGTH and most significant
manifestations there. Religious newspapers al
most without exception :Icfnrchas op avery de.
nomination ministers the most unlikely to in
dulae in excitement: ecclesiastical meetings of
various denominations. one after anotber. in
almost unbroken succession, by nearly unani.
nous votes, are arrayed against this Law
What if this law BE substantially the same as
the law of 1893? That law was dead. This
law Is alive. THAT law was impracticable, Not
because it lacked stringency. but because It was
too stringent ANY law must be odious that
gives back the most unouestioued slave to bond,
age under forms the most sure and cautious
But a law that has not even the decenev of
pretending to be cautious, that threatens to in.
volve alike in its meshes freeman and fugitive,
will be more than odious. It will be infamous
and obedience will be infamy. , we >,
81. But what shall be done with the Constitution?
Which Constitution That which, our fathers
intended, the expression and guard of liberty
or that which construction has made, the supple