New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-12-04

palpabiy absurd than this. However. let
it wsg.
The Financial state Of the Poet-Olfice
Department, in view Of the late reduction
of the Rates of Postage, is subject of just
copgratulatien.
A cojifcation Of the statutes Of The Cai-
ted States is obviously desirable. So is the
creation of a Commission or some tribunal
other than Congress for the settlement Of
Claims sgainst the United States. We re-
gret the necessity OF believing that the con-
duet of some recent Claim commissions has
rendered the assent Of Congress to any such
action as is requisite very doubtful.
The erection of wings to the Capitol Of
the United States is scandalcus waste Of
Public Money. The Capitol is large enough,
while more convenient and better looking
than It will be after several Millions shall
have been expended in building wings to it.
But il is idle to waste breath on such sub
jects.
AS to Fugitives from Bondage one of
whom the President and Congress are about
to vie with each other in honoring-we can
lot so deeply regret as does the President
the difficulties experienced in hand cutting
and forcing them back into Slavery. That
difficulty has its origin in the nature of the
case-or rather, in the eternal laws of God
written on the hearts of humane and con-
scientious men and women. Every uncor-
rupted human soul is naturally an ally and
accomplice # the fugitive escaping from
Slavery, anxious that he may not be over
taken. and ready to speed and cheer him on
his way. Ten thousand prayers ascend
daily in behalf of the flying bondman. not
one for the success of his pursuers. There
is not even Doctor of Divinity 50 totally
depraycd as to be able heartily to pray that
the pursuer may triumph in the recapture
of the fugitive. Nor does the President,
though he roundly asserts it, produce one
palticle of proof that the Constitution re-
quires any such enactment as the Fugitive
Slave Law or any enactment at all on
the subject. The Constitution enjOlns
and prohibits many things, with regard to
which Congress has never thought proper
to take any action whatever. The Con-
stitutional provision respecting Fugi-
tives from labor or service appears to be
addressed to the States, and contains no
shadow of intimation that legislation by
Congress would be required to give it
efficacy. The Presidents assertions that
Congress must from necessity first act on
the subject" is disproved by the fact that
no action uas taken by Congress for some
wears after the Constitution went into ope-
ration. At length an act was passed which
covered the whole ground and was quite
stringent in its provisions No proof has
| been given that that law was inefllcaclOus ;
nobody potitioned for its repeal or modiGea-
ton when 10 the act of 1880 was con-
coeted to agitate and convulse the Nation
AN act tyrannical in it, spirit and afro
cious in several of its provisions.
The President deceives himself if he
supposes that the spirit Of opposition to this
law is diminishing. If the slave-catchcrs
viii allow it to fall into disuse, there can be
little difficulty III retaining it on the Statute
hooks. But wherever the People are per-
mittcd TO see its practical working, there
they are impelled to hold it in deeper and
deeper adherence and if One,half the
iuetiyes now living in the Free States
were subjected forthwith to its provisions,
its preservation would be morally impossi-
be. TO be hated it needs but to be seen.
And if our Liberty and our Union are
based on our alacri!y in depriving our fellow
men of their liberty and tearing them from
their wives and children, as Bolding and
others were torn without the privileges of
Habeas Corpus and Trial by Jury, then IS
cur Liberty fraud and our Union a
covenant with Death The President
will live long enough to learn that on these
POINTS he is grievousiy mistaken.
Further FROM BUENos AYREs.-A letter