The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-11-25

] GLdIe Us u bihNcI OOubIuTy W Wis -
before, shall thereupon Immediately cease to be
the property of the person or persons so import
ing or bringing such slave within this State, anc
shall be free"
Similar acts have from time to time been
passed in Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and
other States The Maryland and Virginia
statutes, including these acts were adopted by
Congress on the cession of this District, and
from that time were in force--the Virginia act
in the county of Alexandria, the Maryland act
in the county of Washington. We have be-
fore us Cranch's Reports, containing several
cases in which the Courts held these acts to
be valid, and decreed freedom to slaves peti-
tioning under them for their liberty. So strict
was the construction given them, that the acts
were held to be in force as between the two
counties, though constituting one District-so
that if trader brought from Alexandria into
Washington slave for sale, the slave was held
to be entitled to his freedom; or if citizen OF
Alexandria purchased a slave in Washington,
and carried him to the former place, he was
entitled to his freedom.
At one time the question of their constitu-
tionality was brought before the Supreme
Court, and they were pronounced constitu-
tiOnal*
But if slaves are property in the sense IN
which inanimate things or brutes are property ;
if they are property by the lar Of nature" If
the Constitution of the United States guaran-
ties the right in them as property, ON what
principle is this legislation justifable g! What
right has the Legislature of Maryland to de-
priye citizen of the United States of his prop
erty because in the exercise of his unques-
toned privilege as a citizen of the United States
he chooses to bring said property into Mary
land for sale Has the Union forgotten that
one part of the Compromise was an act tor the
abolition of the slave trade il the District-an
act for depriving the owners of slaves of their
property" so called, in certain cases. That
act provided that it should not 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 should be brought into the District by
its owner contrary to this provision, such
slave should " thereupon become liberated and
free
This act was supported by the Union ; and
the same paper has justified the conduct of
Franklin Pierce, in voting, when in Congress,
against proposition to suspend the law pro-
hbiting the introduction of slaves into the
District in the case of Edmund Brooke, who
petitioned for the privilege of bringing in two
slaves from the State of Virgnia-thus recog-
nising the validity of the law. But now it is
audaciously inconsistent enough, to raise an
cutlery against law of New York, Identical in
principle, denouncing it as an outrage on the
rights of the South!
Maryland will not permit a STAKEHOLDER to
import slave into that State for sale or resi-
dence: if he attempt it, the slave is liberated
and it is all right. Congress will not permit
a Shareholder to bring slave into this Dis
trct for sale or residence, or for the purpose
of placing him in depot, for sale in some other
section-this is all right. New York will not
permit stakeholder to bring slave into the
State, for sale for residence, for the purpose of
placing him in depot for transshipment for
any purpose whatever; and this is outrageous
fanatical, incendiary, unconstitutional! She
exercises the same power which is claimed and
exercised by Congress, and by the Legislatures
of the South; she exercises it on the same
principle, only extending its application; but
because she is free State, this central organ
of the Democracy can find no words to define
the enormity of its criminality
Still further New York must be execrated
because in the exercise of her sovereign power,
she refuses to allow slavery in any case within
her borders, liberating the slave who may be
brought by his master upon her soil while
Maryland, Florida Mississippi, Texas, and
other Southern States in the exercise of their
sovereign power, are sustained by this same
central organ, in prohibiting free citizens of the
North from entering their limits, making the
ultimate penalty of disobedence perpetual sla-
very 1t was but few months ago that GER
tain free colored citizens of the State of Mas
sachusetts were in this way reduced to slavery
by Texas, and the Union justified the act 1t
is no harm, it is perfectly constitutional, it is
all brotherly for Texas to make a slave of a
free citizen of Massachusetts, who goes within
its limits in violation of its laws; but it is a
wrong it is unconstitutional, it is foully fratri-
cidal. for New York to make freeman of a
slave, carried within her limits in violation OF
its laws
We do not expect to find much sense or de-
cency among the advocates Of Slavery, but
their extreme folly in raising an cutlery against
this opinion of Judge Paine and the law Of
New York, passes our conception familiar as
we have become with their absurdities and in.
constituencies
The Central Organ must change its tone and
its policy, or it will prove a more danger.
GUS enemy to Franklin Pierce than the Con.
queror of Mexico. The Democracy of the
| North will hesitate some time before they car
be prevailed upon by their Central Organ to
array themselves against the laws institutions
and sentiments of their own States.
Cranchs Reports, vol i, 3l6, 37oi vol ii, 26l, &c
THE CLEVELAND PLAINDEALER.
The Cleveland Piaindeaier, in an editorial
November 18th, says that DR.. Bailey, in tn