The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-05-06
sECTIoNAIIsM- STATE RIGHTs-NoE-NTER-
VENTI0N.

State Rights
We have never believed that the SoutherI
Press was the organ of the State Rights party
in the sense in which this party forms por
ton of the Democracy of the Union. Ii is a.
far out of the line of this party ut the South al
. the National Era il at the North Both presses
are essentially sectional, and neither of then
y can succeed without breaking up the nationa
# organization of parties. The one looks TO .
n Southern Confederacy, the other to the aboli
- ton of slavery in violation of the compacts o
o the Constitution. To suppose that either the
T one or the other can force their extreme views
on the Democratic party, is to say that thi'
e party contains within itself the element OF self
4 destruction
v If Slavery be national and Liberty see
a tonal, then the Era is sectional If Liberty
be national and Slavery sectional, the Unior
r is sectional
Liberty is the great interest of all the States
i of this Union; for its preservation and extern
o sion, the Union was founded and the Federal
Government organized. Slavery is an interest
cherished by not third of our population,
f nor was the Union formed or the Government
organized, for the purpose of perpetuating or
extending it, The National Era is devoted to
Liberty the Washington Union to Slavery
which is sectional!
One of the amendments to the Constitution
provides that the powers not delegated to
the United States by the Constitution. nor pro-
hbted by it to the States, are reserved to the
States respectively, or to the People" Our
state Rights doctrine is all embraced in this
provision nor can the Union, nor any of its
sectional allies point to a single opinion VIC
have ever uttered or measure advocated in
conflict with it, We charge that the Union
not only has advocated measures rcpugnant to
this provision, but that it is seeking to make
| one of these measures, the Fugitive Slave Law
the test of Democratic orthodoxy The power
to enact this law, or any one on the subject, is
not delegated by the Constitution to the Uni
ted States nor prohibited by it to the States"
1t il therefore reserved State power, and the
law is a violation of State Rights, the offspring
of Federal usurpation. The Era opposes it,
and demands its repeal the Union sus-
tains it, and insists that its maintenance shall
be made the test of Democracy-a law en-
acted by Federal power, without warrant,
in violation Of State Rights, the pillar and
ground of the Democratic party
No, it is the Union that advocates consplida-
ton doctrines the Era is State Rights pa
! per.
Our Federal ncighbor has the hardihood to
assert that the Era looks " to the abolition Of
Slavery, in violation of the compacts of the
Constitutions The assertion il false The
Union cannot produce in support of it, a
single opinion ever expressed by us II state
ment ever made, An act ever done The prac-
teal principle which dictates and defines the
national political action we advocate in rela-
ton TO Slavery, il Nom Intervention with Sia-
rery and The Eriradition Of Sidpes and this
is n logical sequence, first, of the great doctrine
held by Madison and distinctly announced by
Judge Mclean from the Supreme Bench with
in a few years-that the Federal Constitution
does not recognise the idea Of property IN man
, secondly of the doctrine Of State Rights.
The provision relating to the importation o
E immigration Of such persons as any Of tn
a States might think proper to admit. as origi
t nally introduced seemed to imply that human
l beings might be property. Mr. Madison op
r posed it. because he could not bear that tn,
: Constitution they were about forming shoulC
tolerate the idea that there could be property
in man. The Convention sympathzed Will
3 him, and the phraseology was modified, so a.
1 to preclude such an implication. This, taker
3 in connection with the language of the instru
r ment itself is authority enough for MS. Tn,
G Federal Constitution nowhere recognises tn,
idea of property in man--nowhcre, in the Ian
, guago of Judge Mclean, regards slaves a,
property Now, rs the essential element OF
slavehoding il the property relation, and rs
the relation cannot exist be regulated. be
maintained without lar, and az the Federal
Government cannot recognise or treat human
beings as property Slavery can have no legal
existence within exclusively Federal jurisdic.
ton Wherever the Federal Power is the sole
lawgiver, Slavery cannot exist except in viola.
ton of the Constitution. As a matter of fact
we find it existing in the District of Columbia
and how When the territory was ceded tC
the Federal Government the laws Of Maryland
and Virginia including those which recognise
human beings as property, were adopted or re
enacted by express statute of Congress. This
statute 10 far as it treats human beings a,
property we hold to be unconstitutional. Non
Intervention, which in our creed is the dut,
of the Federal Government in relation to Sla
very would therefore leave the system in Thu
District without the form of law The sam,
doctrine and principle applied to our Terrific
ries, would make Slavery in them legal inn
possibility.
But they are safe for the South for the,
completely exclude the idea of all interference
by Cougross with the institution, as existin.
under State authority. Non-Intervention b,
tho Federal Government with Slavery in tn,
7 States leaves it without the boundaries of ma
tional politics or national parties
. The other doctrine referred to-that of Stat,
Rights-iorbids legislation by Congress or an,
action by the Federal Government, in relation
to the extraditon of fugtiyes from service O
labor. The provision of the Constitution oil
this subject imposes an obligation on the States
not ON the Federal Government 1t may b.
efectuated by State legislation; il is certain
that it contains no grant Of power to Congress
10 legislate The right Of reclamation is sc
cured, but the power to prescribe the manne
in which the right shall be exercised not bein,
delegated to Congress not being necessary u
its use, and not being prohibited to tn
States, is reserved to the States in accordance