Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1851-10-04
The first section Of the law am considering, is

The first section Of the law am considering, is
as follows:
Be 1t enacted, de-, That from and after the
first day of January, eighteen hundred ard fifty
one, it shall be lawful to bring into the district
of Columbia any slave whatever, for the purpose
of being sold, or for the purpose of being placed
in depot to be subsequently, transferred TO any
other State, or place, to be sold as merchandise.
And if any slave shall be brought into the District
by its owner, or by the authority and consent Of
its owner, contrary to the provisions of this act,
such slave shall thereupon become liberated and
free. +"
The motion to strike out the first section Of the
bill above recited was lost yeas, l8 nays, 80
| voted with seventeen other Senator's from South.
ern States to strike it out my colleague voted
against striking it out l consider it gross usur-
patton of power, and odous discrimination "a
gainst slave property in the common territory, en-
phaticay the neutral ground of the States. By
the eighth section of the first article of the Con-
stitution, Congress has power to define and pun
ish piraeies and felonies committed on the high
seas, and offences against the law of nations. -
These Were the on y crimes which Congress was
authorized to define; but by the above section 1T
assumed to define crime hitherto unknown to Che
United States, and provide for it punishment
The crime was the act of bringing slave into the
District of Columbia with the intentioe to sell it
there to keep it there for time, to be transfer
red elsewhere, to be sold as merchandise. The
punishment was to deprive the owner of his prop
erty by declaring the Slave " liberated and free y
By the fifth article in the amendment of the Con-
stituton, it provided
Nor shall private property be taken for public
use without justcon1pensaton. "a
But by this law new crime was defined, not
belonging to the cases enumerated in the Constibu
ton; private property was to be taken, not for
public use, and without just compensation as a
penalty for the offence of violating anti.slayeIy
sentiment by exercising that right of ownership
over a slave in the District of CoInmbia which is
a necessary incident to the possession of that
as all other species of property which may be the
subject of commerce.
l considered it violation of the great principle
Of free-trade within the States, which lay at the
foundation of our Constitution and more than any
other cause, contributed to the formation of the
present Union of the States. If the right TO pass
freely with any species of property from State to
State across the territory of other States be- as has
been heretofore held, sacred by the Constitution,
how could Congress deny the enjoyment Of that
right in the District of Columbia /? But if citi-
zen of Maryland should choose to bring his slave
to the State of Mississippi, for sale here. this law
would prevent him from stopping in the District OF
Columbia, and would punish such act by the en-
ancipatien of his slave. The word :. depot . was
not defined, and the fact was there was 40 public
place for the confinement of slaves, no slave mar
ket to which the word could apply.
/ Z considered this law would be the triumph OF
Eabolitonism which had for so many years Aeeded
beth Houses of Congress with petitions and memo
rails against the slave trade in the District of Co
/ lumbia. | anticipated such shout as went up
from the abolition camp, when it was hailed as ga
most important measure in the sight of justice,
of which the newly elected Senator, Sumner, said:
/ ut practically afixes to the whole traffic,
wherever it exists, not merely in Washington,
! within the immediate sphere of the Legislature,
! but every where throughout the slave States,
whether Richmond or Charleston, or New Orleans,
the brand of Congressional reprobation. -
It was to assume the power to emancipate a
slave for one reason and | held that to admit
this would be to surrender the whole question tc
the discretion of Congress, which might for any
Eother reason, exercise the same power even to The
extontpf the total abolition of slavery in the Dis
trict of Columbia. Fhe Chairman of the e Com
promise. committee admitted the power, whilst
/ he denied the expediency of exercising it, and
Mr.. Chase of Ohio informed us that the slave
trade bill was the first STEP but not the last.
To these considerations, which were sufficient
to have decided my course, were added expires
sIons of popular will, evincing the most decidec
opposition to such a measure. At public meet
ing, held in Jackson, in May, 1849 Judge shar
oulcGi. llduC an GuuTeSS NDlct
received the most general commentator. In thai
address he referred to the resolutions of the leg
islature of Virginia, in 1847, and those of 1919
protesting against the action of Congress on The
slave trade and Slavery in the District of Colum
ba, and said
1--WE cannot but regard anylegislation by Con
gress, either past or to come, which in any degree
either directly remotely, may seem to give sane
ton the authority of that body overahe subject
as void for wantsof power, and IN its tendency de
fstructve of the principles of the Union which
should be held invioable in every feature. -
r The Legislature of Mississippi passed asseries o
resolutions, approved March 6fh., 1850, and a
violations of the constitutional and sovereign right
of the State, enumerated any law abolishipg sla
very in the District of Columbia 90 or the slave
trade between said District and any Of the States.
The Legislature must always be presumed to re
r fleet the popular win. In my own case, | neve
questioned their right to instruct me, as the Sena
tor of the State, nor did | require instructions
be formally given !; it was enough for me to know
the will of my constituents; it then remained fo
f me only to choose between serving them according
S to their will, returning to them the trust wit
which they had honored me-
: At the last session. of Congress, attempts wer
Y made to begin stupendous scheme of Colonial
: ton of Free Negroes the coast of Africa, b
e building and maintaining vessels at the pub
+ lie expense for that purpose. [ opposed it. be
t cause it was not Of the objects for which tn
: taxing power had been conferred upon the genei
q al government, and for many other reasons ,whic
e the limits Of this address, and the fact that til