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

""Si uhCJ ucColuS IGeuleh1 us well dS ptlsOuo'
But it is a barbarous use of language to call
them persons while under those laws, that de-
stroy their personality altogether. Just as prop
erly may cattle and horses be termed persons.
I'd. The slave is not held to service or labor
in a slave State, by the laws thereof, in any
proper sense whatever, any more than are cattle
and horses. They are alike under the power of
the owner, controlled by the whip and goad.-
Both alike are held, not by law, but by brute
force, to perform their labor. Such owner may
exercise such malicious cruelty either to his
slave or his horse, as to be indicted for it, and
fined, or in some way punished.
Sd. The person is to be delivered up OH the
claim of the person to whom such service or la
Dor may be due. Now, no service or labor can
be due from a slave to his owner, any more than
from a horse. There is no law that lays any
duty upon the slave TO work for his owner. The
slave code would be just as likely to contain a
section making it the duty Of a horse 10 labor
and do service for his owner as to make it the
duty of a slave. Thus he owes his owner moth
ing while he is a thing, and not a person nor
does he bring upon himselfa debt TO his pretend
ed owner, by breaking from his bondage and be-
coming a person, becoming a man,-becoming
a freeman in a land of freedom.
But, it may be asked, what is intended by this
paragraph of the Constitution, if slaves are not
the persons named? 1t might be a sufficient
answer to say, that it is no matter what it means,
or whether it means anything in existence fit
does not mean slaves for then 1t would author
ize no proceedings against slaves. But a
more satisfactory answer is at hand. In every
State are persons who do owe service, and who
not unfrequently escape. They are held to la
Dor or service under the laws Of the States.-
Such are all persons confined to labor in the
State prisons; minors bound to an apprentice.
ship, &c. For such, the provision is well adapt
ed. Moreover, if this paragraph be applied to
t the cruel purpose of keeping human beings in
bondage, deprived of all their natural rights,
t how can that be reconciled with other parts Of
the same Constitution? How, with the objects
t expressed in the preamble, to establish Justice,
to secure the blessings of Liberty? How, with
the following "The right Of the people
/, against unreasonable seizures shall not be VIC.
lated" No person shall be deprived of life, lib.
i erty Or property without due process of law"
Who ever would even pretend that the para,
t graph above recited necessarily includes slaves
t None, surely, when it is so much more appIica
s Bile to %convicts and apprentices. The construc
e ton, then, should be in favor of liberty. Woulc
0 a Judge, who is acquainted with the EnglisI
r language, and also acquainted with the slav,
laws, decide, upon the import Of the expression
: merely that the persons therein named, mean
e slaves? Probably not. A test has been furnish
ed. Judge Story, in the case of Prigg Us. Penn
t. %sylvanis, in the sixteenth volume of Peters
Reports, decides, that the clause in question in
y cludes slaves; but he does not intimate that hi
decision can stand on the expressions adopted i
1t said paragraph. lie branches out into the his
tory of the times, and talks, as others, about tn
II COMPROMISES u llG ulllGICIG liCClCoIo3 NIlCuJ v
the way, are not named in the Constitution
l. And when he calls to his aid the object of tn
a Constitution, he does not rest on the object
d named in the preamble, but rather rejects, @
e neglects them, and selects his object from Ii
II out door tradition of cotemporaneous events
10 should an amendment of the Constitution b
proposed to amend out of it what was never
ii, to shut out tradition, and adhere to what wa
e written. What a farce would that be! VIII
not adopt the reasoning and decision, whic
would be acceded to in every case where Their
was no concern with slavery? Say that who
t. was contended fol, but not inserted in the Cor
: %stitution, was not adopted, but yielded, and re
o jected altogether.
What a horrid business slavery must be, ths
& the trainers of the Constitution would not let
N contain a word that meant slavery or slave /
:; And how horrid, that the whole system sougl
by the slave interest, should be taken by trad
ton, and inserted by the Supreme Court, an
treated as a part of the Constitution itself. Ha
this amendment been inserted, in plain Language
y before the instrument was acted upon by til
people, probably they never would have given
their sanction.
If there should be no other beneficial resu
from the presentation of this view of the sui
ject, there is this, at least: 1t shows that tn
shareholders, from the beginning, by action
10 contamination, bt b,ooly 81 h., nrooly bor, o,ou,
thing, of any Importance, In their own way
is What they have obtained, by degrees, in the
uggressions upon freedom, has encouraged thel
to bring about the compromise system, intent
ing thereby, in one battle, to silence every at
vocate of human freedom.
TITUS HUTCHINSON.