The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-08-27
From the Boston nanserip..
The Peace and Dignity OF the Common
weAIth.-No xI


made to enforce lao lchich comes directly into
conflict ,oiM the settled moral CONNECTIONS Of a
large portion Of our people," they seem to have
fallen into most unaccountable mistake.
have shown that several laws, which came
directly into conflict with the settled moral con
victions of large portion of the people, have
been enforced, and some Of those laws for more
than fifty years. But this very law of 1850,
as | have stated, is essentially the law of 1893.
The objections made to the law of 1850 by the
counsel upon the trial of the rescuers of Shad-
rach are said, by Judge Sprague, to be equally
applicable to the law of 1893. Yet the law Of
1893 ''has been acqlaeSced In by the tohoLe peo-
pie for fifty SeUep gears, during all achich time
not a movement has been made, irl-or Out of
Congress, 10 repeal or impair its provisions. II
has been carried into actual practical operation
in most, not all, ofthe free States ,0hich tcere
originally parties to tie Constitution" Such
is the statement of Judge Sprague in his charge
to the jury on that trial.
A curious question therefore arises-lghere
hare been The settled moral CONNECTIONS of q
large portion Of the people for JJty-seoen years2
Sleeping, no doubt They have certainly
awakened, in the words of Robert Treat Paine,
the poet
"Like giant refresh'd by the slumber Of ageS'-
to make up by the fury of their onset upon the
law of 1850 for the comparatively quiet sub
mission to its other self, the law of 1898, for
seven and fifty years. 1t is quite probable that
these settled moral convictions, in cases not a
few, like large portion of the old London
port, are of last years brewing. The Fugitive
Slave law of 1850 certainly presented the
stumpers of the Free-sol party with very
convenient "Siick 10 beat dog lcith." No
thing could have come more OPPORTUNITY to Mr..
Sumner and his conferees-the handle towards
their hand, the very instrument they were to
use.
The editors of the Christian Register OBJ
serve:
''It will not do to separate legislation and mo
rality, or attempt to make or enforce laws purely
on legal grounds, without any regard to the funda-
mental principles of natural justice. They who
would do this, and who treat with ridicule
tempt the existence OF higher law than even the
Constitution of the United States, the most
dangerous political disorganizers in the land"
Nothing can be truer in the abstract. Here
are two propostions-al laws should be just,
whoever denies the supremacy of the Almighty
is dangerous fellow. Most assuredly. But
the editors, if | misunderstood them not, at
tach particular, relative meaning, to each Of
these propositions. They mean to say that the
FugitiUe StaUe Ia,o is immoral, and opposed to
the fundamental principles of natural justice,
and ought not to have been enacted. They also
mean to say, if mistake them not, that men
who believe this law to be in opposition to the
law of God, as they understand it, are morally
discharged from all their civil obligations in re-
gard 10 it. | solemnly believe that both these
propositions, so understood, are utterly untena-
be-utterly untrue and absurd.
If the law of 1850 be immoral and opposed
to the fundamental principles of natural justice,
so was the law of 1898 We have seen that
all the objections offered by the combined host
of abolition lawyers to the law Of 1850 apply
equally to the law of 1898. Both these laws
have been decided to be constitutional. Indeed
IN a special manner, they are 50. They are, in
fact, nothing else than part Of the Constitu-
tion itself, presented in legislative formula
The life blood of these laws springs from the
very heart of the Constitution. The second
section of the fourth article of the Constitution
of the United States is brief and ineligible:
''No person held to service or labor in one
State, under the laws thereof, escaping into an
other, shall, in consequence of any law or reg
ulation therein be discharged from such SER
vice or labor; but shall be delivered up, on
claim of the party 10 whom such service or la
Dor may be due"
Thus we arrive at the fountain head--it is
The Constitution Of The United States achich is
immoral, and opposed to the fundamental pri',-
ciples Of natural justice. This is very much to
be regretted, for it was the very deliberate work
of our fathers, whose memories we have been
hitherto accustomed to honor.
am rather inclined to think they found
themselves very much in the same predlcament
with Moses, who was no advocate for slavery,
but promulgated laws for the regulation of that
which he had no power to abolish. 1t probably
occurred to those wise and good men who
framed the Constitution that an institution,
whose continuance, under specific regulations,
was tolerated upon the pages of the Holy Scrip
lures, by the Almighty, could not, very de-
Gently, be designated as immoral and opposed
to The fundamental principles Of natural JUS
tee; and have never been able to discover
any essential difference between our southern
slavery and that perpetual, hereditary slavery
which existed among the Notwithstanding
that in the latter the life of the slave was more
completely and irresponsibly in the power of
the master
However opposed to slavery, it is not diff
cult to perceive that those who levied war
against the State, from within or from without,
UtlHS puulSHdUlS Will utdllI, WtlC CltdIly
a fortiori punishable with the loss of liberty.
Such was, undoubtedly, the origin of perpetual
hereditary slavery among the Hebrews and
other ancient nations. 1t is not more difficult
to perceive that this consideration affords no
justification whatever for man stealing, which
was punished with death by the law of Moses,
which law, nevertheless, upheld and regulated
slavery. The gulf between Lazarus and Dives
was neither deeper nor broader than that be-
tween the ancient practice of leading into cap
tivity enemies taken in war, and the practice of
entering the territories of another nation for
the manifest purpose of making slaves of the
inhabitants.
It is true, the different tribes of Africa may
war among themseves-the stronger may en-
slave the weaker-they may also sell their cap
tives as the Hebrews sold their captves, in
which case the purchasers manifestly would
not come within the category of man steaIers
as that word is employed in the Mosaic law.
But, in all its forms and phases, slavery is an
evil--a curse-it is corruption and rottenness
and it is deeply to be depored that the char
atanism and quackery Of Garrison and his as
socates have perplexed the case, and rendered