The republic., 1851-08-13
THE REPUBLIC.
From the Boston Transcript.
The Peace and Dignity OF the COmmon-
weaIth.-No. xxxvii.


wealth.-No- xxxv1.
Many, reposing in peace at this present hour
under their vines and fg trees, have been, in
the course of their lives, tnlcoseiolisfy upon
the very verge of shipwreck. Ii is precisely
so with the Republic. 1t is difficult to say
how much more political kindling stuff was re-
quired, within a few months past, to set the
whole community on fire-how much more of
Mr.. Summers stamp act eloquence, how many
more Congreve rockets from the pulpits Of Par
ker < Co. With a little more assistance from
the New York independent and kindred presses,
with few more vigilance committees, and lib
erty bells, and fast day sermons, we might
have been plunged into all the horrors of civil
war
In full contemplation of this, it is the duty of
every citizen who would preserve the peace
and dignity of the State to frown promptly and
Indignantly upon every proposition to resist the
laws of his country by force, to drive all trea-
sonable takers from his presence, and to sup
port no preacher of perjury and treason-no
journal, religious or secular, which, for one
moment, encourages the anarchical delusion
that it is competent for the citizens to say,
every one for himself, whether he will obey
the laws Of his country or not. The warning
words of Horace to the republic, some eighteen
centuries ago, are just as applicable now
-''Tu nisi vents
Debes ludbrium, cave"
The fugitive slare la,c of 1850, after severe
deliberation and long debate, was enacted by
the highest Legislative authority, the Congress
Of the United States. Some of the most dis
tinguished constitutional lawyers in our country
were members of that Congress, and voted for
the passage Of that law. Their professional
IL. T.. a.
stitutionality of that law. 1t would be difficult
to conceive of any subject matter of professional
modification, keener or deeper, for those emf
nent civilians, than solemn judicial decision
that a law of such Importance so long and so
gravely considered by them, and SO solemnly
passed, to be enacted by the great national legis-
lature, was, after all, unconstitutional, and
therefore absolutely void.
Now, if were lawyer Of medium age and
respectable abilities, distinguished withal for
considerable attainments in bellies lettres and
classical lore, and by the force of friendly pa
tronage-IeucrO duce CT auspice Ieucro-
placed very pleasantly in the recollections Of
certain men of note in other lands, yet, with all
these notable qualities, should be very unwil-
ling so far to be forsaken by my better genius
as TO get up in Faneuil Hall and proclaim, with
consummate confidence, that "a law so gravely
and deliberately passed, under the sanction Of
so many legislative Gamalies, was uaconstitat-
ti0naL
Much, am aware, must be forgiven to the
ambition of candidate while upon the stump.
But | cannot forgive Mr.. Sumner for urging
his fellow citizens to perform small lmpossl-
Dility-to Initiate the example of the Sons Of
Liberty in l765-,cith0la Uiolence!
To some persons it may appear somewhat
remarkable that law, enacted to give effect to
provision Of the Constitution, should be dis
covered to be unconstltutiona at this late day;
for the objections offered to this law of 1850
have been judicially decided to be just as ap-
plicable to the act Of 1898. Let me here earn
estly commend to such as desire to comprehend
this subject clearly, the very learned and lu-
minous charge of Judge Sprague to the jury in
the trial of the rescuers of Shadrach. Judge
Sprague observes:
''Severnl objections made to the act of 1885,
"Eirst. That Congress has no power to lcgislate
upon the subject.
by jury, required by the seventh amendment of
the Constitution.
"Third That it gives TO commissioners judicial
power which, by the third article of the Constitu
ton, can be exercsedOnly by courts of the United
States held by judges appointed by the President
and Senate.
"rhese objections apply with equal force to the
statute of 1893, for
"First. That was legislation by Congress.
"Second Ii did not provide for trial by jury.
'sThird 1t not only authorized judges, when not
holding court and out of their district, to hear the
ause and grant certificate, but aso State magis
trates who were not appointed by the President
and Senate, and held no office under the United
States and the certificate of such magistrate is
made sufficient warrant for the removal, and
could be no more intercepted by habeas corpus or
thar han tha lfco 10 of fha
missioner under the act of 1850"
Judge Spragne then enters upon an elaborate
examination of the constitutionalty of the act
of 1893 Under that act, whose constitution
ality has been affirmed without single excep-
tion by the courts, fugitive slaves have been
returned to their masters in several instances
from, this Commonwealth. Of the constitution
ality of the law of 1893, Judge Sprague OBJ
serves:
'Indeed it has been acquesced in by the whole
people for fifty seven years, during all which time
not movement has been made in or out of Con-
grcss to repeal or impair its provisions 1t has
been carried into actual practical operation in
most If not all of the free States which origi
nal parties to the Constitution In this State, one
of the most remote from the slavehoding, it ap
pears, in I'd Pickering, page H. that both my ex-.
celent and able predecessors have had occasion TO
give construction to the act; and there those
who recollect that Judge Davis, so justly revered
for wisdom and benevoence, in several instances
delivered up slaves pursuant 10 its provisions"
And again:
owe have thus not only the decision of the h;gh-
est judicial tribunal in the United States, which
alone would be conclusive upon all subordinate
courts, but the opinions of all the members of the
court in 1912, and all its present members, in sup
port of the constituonaliy of the act. Against all
this not one decision of any court, State Nation
al, and not one opinion of any Judge of the United
States be produced.
"These questions must now be considered set
tied contemporaneous exposition by practice and
acquiescence, for than fifty years, by the opin
ions and decsions of courts and judges, State and
National, and especially by the Supreme Court of
the United States. To overturn the construction
of the Constitution SO established, would be most
dangerous violation of principle and duty If
court may do this, it may overurn established
rules of property. of personal rights, and Of evil
dence upon which the community have for long
time acted, and thus shake every mans title, put
in jeopardy every mans liberty, and render the
law so uncertain that no counsel could advise, and
uct with safety
Why then this violent opposition at the pre-
sent time? The solution appears tonne to be
on this wise: a Irreat discovery has been made