The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-01-03

the constant habit OF using, as matter OF re-
cognized obligation, their power and agen-
cy in bringing about the delivery OF iug,'Ne
slave 10 his pursuing master. The right of the
owner to appreheRd. where the slave could be
identified .as fugitive, was not disputed, much
less impeded by State laws the violence OF IRE
sponsible mobs. The paramount authority OF the
Constitution and its active energy were acknow-
lodged by common consent. lt executed It's pro-
visions by the active cooperation of State author
ity, in the fufment of what they then recognized
as constitutional duty. The duty to deliver up,
seemed TO be regarded as equal to the right OF the
owner TO demand his escaping servant. The term
''deiirer up had meaning so pregnant and obvi-
Gus, that it carried with it all the obligations by
common consent, growing out OF its use; as II i'm
parted a conceded right, 1t was regarded as
containing a perfect obligation The dictate of
good faith found in the nonslavehoding States no
disposition to evade or deny its obligations The
trainers Of the Constitution were then the living
and honest expounders Of its meaning and active
operation. The jealousy of political interest was
not then strong enough for hostile and unconstilu
tional Legislation"
1t Mus appears, that for may years after the
adoption of the Constitution, the guarantee OF the
right fo~recapture fugitive slaves was held sacred
by the people of the North. And it is now pain
full to recur to the period, when under the influence
ofsectonal jealousy and political fanatIcsm, those
plighted engagements of public faith were ruth
iessly cast aide, and those dormant elements Of
mischief reused into action which now arrest the
fears of every patriot heart and even at that time
caused our ilIustrous Jefferson to express the
hope that he might not live to weep over their re-
suits. The period here alluded to is that when
the Territory of Missouri asked for admission as
an equal and sovereign member Of this conteder-
acy. The evil and pernicious passions TO which
that controversy gave rise; the elements of sec
tional strife and of unhoy discord which it de-
veloped, have cast, and still continue to cast their
deepening shadows over the fate OF this Union.
The results of that stormy and exciting session OF
Congress are familiar to us all Missouri was ad-
mitted as State free from any condition that inn
paired her equality and sovereignty MS member
Of this confederacy. To that extent the Consti-
tuition was saved from violence, and the Union
preserved from the perils that threatened to en-
gulf it. Yet from that day to the present, the feel
ing engendered in that sectional war OF ambition
against the South, has never slumbered. II may
be traced in the laws passed by their State legs-
atures-it may be seen in the judicial decisions OF
the courts and it may be observed in all the re-
suits Of their individual, social and political action.
Then it was that the non saveholding States COM
menced war of legislation against the owners OF
fugitive slaves, seeking to recapture them beyond
the frontiers of the slavehodng States A NOR
bid, and in some cases it may be feared, a fegned
philanthropy, carried out and kept IN advance of
the hostile enactmens of the State legislatures.
Fugitive slaves were harbored and protected; vex-
atous suits and prosecutions were instituted
against the owner or his agent, resulting some
times in imprisonment for want OF bail: lrrespon-
sible mobs, composed of fanatics, ruffians, and
fugitive slaves, who had already found an asylum
abroad, were permitted by the local authorities to
rescue recaptured slaves in the lawful custody of
their masters, and to imprison, beat, wound, and
even put to death citizens of the United States,
seeking enforce by lawful proceedings, the rights
guaranteed to them by the Constitution.
III In hrpa lbs Of violence
and ferocity were part only of the machinery
employed by the nonslaveholders of the North
against their brethren of the South Abolition
societies were formed for the avowed purpose
amongst others, Of protecting fugitive slaves
against recapture by their owners. Nor was the
activity Of these societies confined by geographic
cal limits. The fact is notorious and undeniabe
that their emissaries have penetrated into the very
hearts of the slaveholding States, and aided the
escape of slaves whom they had seduced from the
service of their owners .-
1t may well be believed, for it could not be 9th
erwse, that the tenure Of slave property is every
day becoming more and more precarious by
son Of these forays, and the impunity with which
they are accomplished. Their frequency and sue
cess have in effect, imposed heavy tax on the
frontier counties of the commonwealth, which is
just so much more oppressive than an ordinary
tax, as ruinous inequality can make it.
1t is not to be expected that the people of the
things. Unless some legal remedy be found for
this evil, an illegal one will inevitably be resorted
to. The territory of the Notwithstanding States
will be invaded in sudden and rapid incursons by
those who have been robbed OF their property by
the nefarious acts Of the Abolitonists, with the
view to its recapture by the strong hand Of power.
And thus shall see reacted in the nineteenth
century the forays and counter-forays Of the semi
barbarous English and Scottish borderers termi-
mated there, by the union under Que monarch, of
two hostile nations; but originating and growing
up, here, between brethren Of the same race, and
living under government which we boast of as
the best on EARTH the last and greatest effort of po
litical science. An edfying lesson it will, in TRUTH
be to the nations of Europe, now seeking to i'm
prove their condition by the establishment of re
publican institutions similar to own.
But the evil and disgrace ola petty border war
fare may not he the last or worst consequence of
the continued violation, by the non-saveholding
States Of The constitutional guarantees on the sub
ject of slavery. This glorious Union itself, which
for more than half II century has held out the
promise of liberty, peace, and happiness to the
white man, at least for indefinite series of ages,
in territory capable of sustaining in comfort, the
whole population of Europe, may be rent asunder
by the feuds which are becoming daily more en-
FILTERED on this exciting subject. The members
OF this committee are not in any degree emulous
of the character Of alarmsts. But they cannot
forget that in one of the fables which the wisdom
of antiquity has bequeathed us, the cry of " the
WOLF" "the wolf" was dsregarded by the
drowsy shepherd-once too often.
Nor does the note of alarm come first from
them. 1t was sounded by Alexander Hamilton,
Northern statesman, more than sixty years ago,
when he told the people Of New York. in conyen-
ton, that the Union could not have been formed
without the guarantees demanded by the South
on the subject of slave property. IL was sounded
by Fisher Ames, Mort. ern statesman, at the
period when he made similar statement to the
people of Massachusetts in convention assembled.
II was sounded by the supreme court Of the State
of Pennsylvania, when 1t announced through one
Of its most venerable oracles Of lawi That the
South would not have consented to have become
parties to the Constitution, unless their property
in slaves had been secured" Ii was sounded by
the Supreme Court Of the United States, when it
announced to the North, through the lips of
Northern Judge: "That the full recognition of this
right and title indispensable to the security
of this species of properly in all the slaveholding
States, and was vital to the preservation of their
domestic interests and institutions, that it consti-
tuted a fundamental article, without the adoption
of which the Union could not have been formed. -
Look well at these solemn warnings, and then
look at the actual state Of things in the sixtieth
wear OF the Constitution 1t Is sinoplv and unde-