The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-07-17
DAILY.

| Under some circumstances, 1t might even be
dishonest to decline sale, MS the purchase mo-
ney might furnish the only resource for the sat
isfaction of a just debt; but Mr.. Clays compro-
mise discountenances this sale; it refuses to suf-
fer it to be consummated in the District, and COM
Ipels the owner to encounter the expense and
Inconvenience of more distant and less eligible
market and ifhe should prove contumacious and
attempt a sale against the provisions ofthe law,
it becomes an offence against the law, which is
punished in manner forbidden by the spirit OF
our institutions punished by forfeiture of the
property in the slave. The Constitution of the
der of treason shall work corruption of blood, OF
forfeiture, except during the life of the person
attainted;" but this bill puspaecs perpetual for
fixture of the whole eststc in the slave, as well
for the life Of the offender rs Of the children OF
heirs; and that for an act in strict conformity
with the habits, principles and necessities Of thu
community where it is performed
We will pass to that branch of the subject
which refers to fugitive slaves. The Constitu.
ton of the United States provides that "No per.
son held to service or labor in one State, under
the laws Thereof escaping into another, shall, in
consequence OF any law or regulation therein, be
discharged from service or labor, but shall be
delivered up on claim of the party to whom such
service or labor may be DUE In 1893 an act
Of Congress was passed designed to give effect
to this provision of the Constitution, and which
in wholesome state of public sentiment, might
afford an adequate remedy; but it is already
known to you, by fatal experience, that this pro-
vision is openly disregarded and effectually de-
feated by combinations of individuals, and by
regular acts of Legislation in the Northern States
The wrongs which the South has suffered on
this subject have been acknowledged by many
Of the most enlightened Northern gentlemen
and Mr.. Gays compromise processes to offer a
remedy for these evils
1t is not my wish to dwell on this topic, for
| any of the purposes of excitement; and, per-
haps, may best elucidate the subject by i'm
agining a case as of actual occurrence. Let us
suppose slave to have runaway or escaped
from his owner in the county Of Brunswick.
What are the first incidents to that act? He
will have committed an offence against his
owner by depriving him of the possession of
his person, and the usufruct in his labor, to
which he is entitled under the laws of the State
| He will also have exposed him to the expense
of his re-capture. He will have offended
against the law of the State, for which she arms
society against him and require her citizens to
ARE st him, and restore him to his owner, or il
beyond the limits of his county, to commit
him to prison, there to remain until recovered by
the owner But let us suppose our fugitive to
have eluded the search of the owner, and vigi-
lance of the law, and to have escaped beyond
the limits of the State into some Northern
State. Let us now consider the incidents. Will
he, by his offences against his owner and his
State, incur the dispeasure of the Federal
government, or of the authorities of the State
in which he is found According to the Con-
sttution, it might seem that he had offended
and that he would be seized and delivered up on
claim of the party to whom his service was
due but, unfortunately, such is not the fact
. under the practical operation Of things-nor
will it be true, in contemplation of the bill
pending before the Senate Of the United States
on the contrary, by those very offences he will
have conciliated the favor of the Federal author
tiles, and established legal claim to their protec-
ton against the pursuit ofhs owner, who will moi
be allowed to arrest him at all, except under the
circumstances and on the conditions prescribed
| in that bill. What are those circumstances and
conditions? He must have instituted certain
non-descript legal proceedings at home, estab
lished his loss of a slave, and providing eyi
dence, identifying the individual claimed, in
manner to be satisfactory to the auhoritie,
| lchere the sLaDe MAY be arrested
| The difficulty of establishing, by written ties.
| timony, taken in Brunswick, Virginia, the iden-
tity of slave to be arrested in Boston, and of
establshingit to the satisfaction fthe Abolition
lists Of Massachusetts, must be too obvious for
comment; and the owner will have but small
| encouragement to incur the expense of convey
ing oral testimony to Boston, to cure the defects
of the depositions The difficulties presented
at the very threshold, will generally deter from
all effort at the recapture ola fugitive slave Sc
cure in the sympathy, and protected by the
power of Northern Abolitionism. But let us
suppose our fellow citizen of Brunswick, the
most learned lawyer in that county, furnished
with all the evidence necessary to prove the
identity Of his slave, and to prove it to the salts
faction of the Abolitionists of Boston Let us
suppose him to be armed to the teeth, to defend
his person against the rude and insulting as
saults of fanaticism; and supported by cour-
age to maintain his rights against the combined
influence, and scowling menace, of a multitude
of strangers-let us suppose him to stand there,
the very impersonation OF courage and learning,
with law and right and justice in his cause. Do
the Federal authorities yield him their sympa-
thies and afford him the assistance which he
has right to demand, under the Constitution
of the United States! Their sympathies are
with the slave, and after all which the owner
will have done, before he shall arrest that slave,
he shall come forward, and submit to specific
conditions, and execute his bond fora thousand
Misunderstanding himself to extend certain priv-
leges to his own slave, after he shall have reach
ed his own home, and passed under the jurisdic-
ton of his own State.
We will escort our friend farther on the path of
his enterprize--we will suppose that he has exc
cuted his bond-that the Abolitionists have allowed
his slave patiently to await his tedious prepare
tons, and to suffer himself to be arrested that the
legal proceedings have been closed; that he has
succeeded in proving one of his slaves to have
abscopded and the defendant to be the identical
slave; that all has been ndispuably established to
the entire satisfaction Of the Abolitionists them
selves; and that he has actually received the certi-
fcate necessary to enable him to remove his pro-
perty TO Virginia. Does the Federal authority
then deliver up the slave to the party to whom his
service is duei Does it extend to him friendly
assistance, in conveying his property to his homer
II has coldly pronounced his legal right, and as
coldy turned away, leaving him in land Of
strangers, surrounded by hostile mob, to strug-
gle with his slave as best he may. If he has
triumphed over the mob and entered upon his