Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1851-04-10
For the Freeman.

freeman of Nov. I4th, 1850, | suggested that
the clause in the Constitution lately applied to
Fugitive Slaves, was very APPLY applied to other
matters, and not to Fugitive Slaves. But for
bore at that time to press the point at all. What
| wrote was of sufficient length for one number
Of the paper. Rejecting upon the enactments
of the first session Of the last Congress, it seems
necessary for the perpetuity of the Union, form
cd by a Constitution, for us to look up that Con-
s%titution, and ascertain what it is,-whether 1t
was a written instrument, framed to be under
stood alike by all people, or whether 1t was an
unwritten one, to come by tradition and memory
only down to p%osterity also by whom it was
made,-whether by the people, orby the Judges
of the Supreme Court. 1t oppeors strange that
any men of reputable intellect, powers and aG-
%quirements, should even suspect, that the people
of the thirteen original States, in forming a Ma
tional compact, binding upon themselves and
each other, and Their %posterity, from generation
to generation, in all coming time,-shouid trust
any part of that compact to the frail memory OF
man, for it to pass down the current of time as
a matter of tradition of ancient times and ancient
transactions. SucR a supposition is dlshonora-
BILE to the iudgmcpS Ghd patriotism of the franz
ers of the Constitution. Who, or what officer
ever could, or ever did, take the oath of office,
to support any unwritten Constitution ? or who
ever became bound by his oath Of office to sup
port. the unwritten Constitution, otherwise than
according 10 the plain import of what the writ
ten instrument contains? No person, surely.
The first President, Washington, took the oath
to support the Constitution, when there was a
written one, and NJ person suspected there was
any other. President Taylor and President Fill
more, swole to support the same Constitution
The President that may be one hundred or one
thousand years hence, If our government stands
SO long, must swea- to support the same Consti-
tuition. Can it be supposed, that any President
ever did, or that any ever will, mentally qualify
that oath by a belief or a tradition of any fact
or circumstance, which might have been put in
to the written Constitution, if SO agreed, but
which was never thus inserted
The conclusion to which we necessarily ar
rive is, that all tha Constitution we have, is q
written or printed one that, to be a Constitu-
ton of binding force, it must have been, and
was, made by the people and that Constitution
means, and must De construed to mean, just
what it meant, and what the people had a right
to understand it to mean, from the sentiments
and the expression of those sentiments in the
instrument itself and without any reference tc
an out. door story which may have been true o.
false, and which some may have heard and 9th
ers not, and which may have been very differ
emily rehearsed to different persons among the
voters.
We know that mention is often made of mat
tiers talked among the members of the Conven
ton, who drafted the Constitution,-how they
talked about slavery, and what they meant, bu
what they could not, and did not, agree to pu
into the Constitution. The question is not, no
can we consent that it should be, otherwise thai
what they expressed in the instrument Itself
1t was the voting pf the people, after the Con
s%titutiOn was pres 'ed to thoh' that made 1t
Constitution. hd the true question is, an,
there can rightly be no other,-What did tn
people mean, wheA they voted for it and wha
had they a right u understand the instrument t
mean, when they sanctioned it by their votes?
And it is the duty of all courts, and the PEG
pie have a right to demand of them, to constru,
the written Constitution, by the we'll establishe,
rules for constituting written instruments. Yes
by the same rules by which they would constru'
this, if there were no slavery to be talked about
LIST. Where the language is plain and eXplic
it, treat it as meaning what it says, and nothing
more nor less.
I'd. If there is any rational doubt what the ex
p%ressions do mean, adopt such a construction
that the whole instrument can stand together
or, in other words, construe the doubtful expires
sions in a way consistent with those that hav
no uncertainty about them.
:. OF statutes, Blackstone says, " one part mus
be so construed by another, that the whole ma.
if p~ossible,) stand, that the whole may have eli
feet, rather than any fail, or be useless" o
covenant, it is said in Wheaton's Selwyr
that Covenants are to reconstruct according t
the obvious intent of the parties, as c~ollecte
from the whole context of the instrument, wha
proceeds and what follows, and according to tn
re asonable sense of the Words
Sd. Where the object of the instrument
expressed in the instrument itself, words or sen
fences, bearing a construction promotive of tina
object, should retain that construction, and tina
only.
4th. However various and multitudinous ma,
be the objects discussed in planning an instru
ment to be written, wherever it is written AM
executed, it speaks for itself; and nothing cal
be added to or taken from it, by construction, o
by reference to matters not inserted.
The above rules would be respected by an
common-ldw court in the United States, wer,
the institution Q slavery out of the question
Construed by they rules, what would become o
the Fugitive Slave Act? The clause in tn,
Constitution containing a prohibition upon Con
gross about emigration till 1903, then died b!
its own limits. The clause about representation
and taxation, if we pass over the a~bsurdity tina
goods and chattela, under the slave law, SHOULD
be persons in the constitution, five of whom are
equal to three heemen, still that has nothing It
do with Fugitive Slaves. The paragraph abou
persons held to service or labor, escaping, &c.
is the only one in the Constitution relied upon as
authority for the Fugitive Slave Act. Now,
, make no new assertion, nor was the idea frs
advanced by me, when l say, that the express
sions in that paragraph, of themselves, do not
and cannot mean slaves. Familiar as that par.
agraph is, it must here be inserted. "No person
II 1 .- 4 80: .,o Ctnto ,,lo, al,